I’ve got nothing. I re-read a lot, which is lovely and comforting, but doesn’t give me any new books to recommend. Of the new (to me) books I tried, some got a red-stamped DNF. I’m beginning to suspect that some authors are inserting AI-generated text in to pad out their books or to write what the author considers a non-critical scene.
***Note from me: ALL scenes are critical or they shouldn’t be in your book!***
Or maybe I just had a hyper-critical month?
I have been listening to a few podcasts. The Red Line podcast is back with an indepth take on international affairs. Currently, I have its Middle Corridor (Central Asia) episode queued for listening.
Bloomberg’s Odd Lots episodes are financially focused, but very informative. There was an episode a while back on running a restaurant in New York. Fascinating. Still in the field of economics, Economics Explained is awesome.
Robin Ince has resigned from the BBC, so he and Brian Cox are no longer presenting the Infinite Monkey Cage. Old episodes are well worth a listen. Science and comedy. Wil Anderson (an Australian comedian) interviews comedians about life in Wilosophy (I listen depending on which comedian).
“Empty courtesy” is an old-fashioned term for an act of routine politeness, which is devoid of emotional investment. As the opposite of rudeness, it could be defined as caring. It’s not, though. It is, instead, a means of moving smoothly through the world. It could be as simple as a person saying, “I’m sorry”, when they’re not and they have no intention of altering their (mis)behavior.
In many circumstances, empty courtesy is sufficient to sustain superficial relationships and business and social dealings.
However, for people who want genuine relationships and genuine change, empty courtesy is a frustrating brick wall. They bounce off it, and, if they’re smart, they’ll go and look elsewhere to have their needs met.
AI-generated communications are the equivalent of empty courtesy. They meet the social requirements, but without engaging at a deeper level. For many people that is exactly what they want. I find this shocking, but I’m growing to accept that the emotional dullness of AI meets, even satisfies, many people’s fear of others and of change.
For those who want a deeper connection, I think we need to coin a term that signals that there is a person at the other end of a communication or creative endeavor who is also seeking connection. People are trying out human, genuine, non-AI, and other terms. I think the buzzword of a few years ago, authenticity, has fallen by the wayside.
Artisan became the descriptor for specialty or craft, rather than mass-produced, items.
I’m not keen on calling myself an artisanal (as in non-AI) author, but maybe “guilded” as in belonging to the collective or community that is authors and readers. I don’t think that’s quite the term either, but I am keen to see how we express this opposite of empty courtesy in the creative arts and communication more broadly.
Metrics are simplified expressions of complex concepts. For instance, it’s difficult to measure happiness. Is your neighbor happier than you? Well, which one of you went on vacation in the last six months? Obviously, that person is happier. No? Well, how would you measure happiness? Birth of a child? The start of a new relationship or the enduring of a relationship? Possessing the time, money, and energy to pursue a hobby?
Where you can’t directly measure and compare something, metrics become a substitute. An inadequate one, I’d argue, and one with the potential to distort your understanding of the world, and hence, your behaviour.
The problem is that metrics are easier to live with than the uncertainty of the complex concepts they mask, so people rely on them. The advertizing industry encourages you to do so. Think back a few decades to the cigarette brand Marlborough and their Marlborough Man. How did you measure, and hence, demonstrate your manliness? Why, you smoked Marlboroughs, and the more, the manlier (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating “the more the manlier”, but am I?).
Simplified metrics are applied and shared (how else to compare yourself to others) far readier than engaging in reflective discourse. This means that the person (politician, salesperson, religious leader, etc) who can produce and communicate a metric that simplifies and reassures (via its banishment of complexity and moral dilemmas) will dominate public understanding of a concept, and hence, direct the behaviour surrounding it.
As Mark Twain said, there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” What we measure shapes our society and our individual lives.
As an author, the metric that matters is the number of books I sell. This is not a metric that measures the quality of my books or my success. Other people would argue that sales do, indeed, define success. No. I choose to define success as whether my books resonate with readers, and I measure that (informally) by readers’ messages, their reviews, and by pre-orders for the next book (which, yes, is a percentage of sales), also by word of mouth recommendations (and my books, or my marketing of my books, falls down on this last point).
The reason I separate success from sales, but still call sales the metric that matters, is because sales determine whether I can continue as an author. It is a metric that decides my future (and unfortunately, it is influenced by Amazon’s algorithms and other mysteries as much as by my efforts). However, it does not define my success as an author or my happiness.
Enemies to lovers is a popular trope in romance and all its spin-offs, most notably romantasy. Who doesn’t enjoy a rival romance? But I think an underdeveloped aspect of it will be drawn out over the next few years, that of the vengeance or punishment element of a nemesis. People want retribution stories as well as a redemption arc.
So, we’ll have nemeses to lovers as a growing trope with the initial conflict, the bitter frustration, the resentment of their own feelings, and then, the decision to choose mercy and hope and move forward.
Justice is a complicated subject. Fiction has a powerful role to play in providing ways of seeing the world and emotional frameworks for processing it.
Nemeses to lovers is a trope that doesn’t require us to defeat our enemies with violence. I’m eagerly anticipating how authors will find a path from fury and grief to healing, hope, and love.
Finally, I finished Money. A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams. That it took me so long isn’t a reflection on the book. It’s an excellent overview of the history of money, of how currency facilitated trade, connection, and development. It also covers a bit about current and future issues (ahem, crypto).
Now, I’m reading Killing the Dead by John Blair. It’s all about vampires (and some other undead) across time and place. Different cultures, similar preoccupations. How do we handle fear, death, and otherness?
Speaking of (or to) the undead, I discovered Mercury Raine: Ghost Broker by Sarah M Eden and was beguiled by its ghostly premise. I need to read book 2!
I also enjoyed an older Mills & Boon romance, Hitched! by Jessica Hart with upper class characters, but genuine warmth and emotional growth. It felt more like a condensed chicklit novel than a category romance.
Occasionally, people ask me for writing advice. Over the years my response has changed. When I started off, oh my goodness, everything was amazing and I wanted to share the possibilities. They seemed endless and they were all so good. But the more you learn, the less you know! Now, my advice boils down to “everyone’s path is their own”.
I’m aware that it sounds like a cop out. It’s not. It means that where you’re starting from on your writing and publishing journey, your motivations, your goals, the ethical choices you’ll make (and the compromises), your definition of success, and for how long writing remains a priority will be unique to you and will change over time.
There are a lot of free and paid resources for writers. When you have a question, you can find an answer. Reflect not just on what you’re creating, but where it (and the process of creation) fits in your life. Choose what you give to writing and value what you receive from it.
All of that said, I’m not a meanie. If you’d like good writing advice and a vetted list of writing and publishing support services, I recommend Jane Friedman’s website as a starting point. I’m also happy to receive other recommendations, so if you have a book or course or whatever that has been helpful to you on your writing journey, feel free to mention it in the comments.
Welp. Readying a book for a paperback edition is as time and energy intensive as I thought it would be. I finally did it, though. Stars Die is now available in paperback! Paperback editions of Hexes Fly and Rogues Lie are underway.
After researching my options I chose the easiest path to getting my books into paperback, which turns out to be remaining in Amazon’s scary embrace. So, I have Amazon-supplied ISBNs and the process of Amazon linking the digital editions to the paperback editions ought to go smoothly. Ought.
I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little on what went on behind the scenes over the last couple of months. (I’ll spare you my muttering, squinting, and violent stabs at the keyboard and screen). Basically, I wanted to share the pricing screen with you.
The books in my current series, Caldryn Parliament, average around 90,000 words and I’ve priced the digital editions at $4.99 (all pricing in US dollars). When someone buys a digital copy, Amazon takes 30% of the list price, leaving me with roughly $3.50 per book. If the book is borrowed in Kindle Unlimited I get about $2 when it’s read from cover to cover. (If my math is right. I’m having doubts. But it’s close enough).
It might seem that I earn less from Kindle Unlimited borrowed copies, but that’s not true. People borrow far more readily than they buy (and I understand because that’s me as a reader, too), so volume more than makes up for the lower price. Kindle Unlimited is crucial to my survival as an indie author. Please, please keep borrowing and reading my books in Kindle Unlimited!
Now, to the paperback edition.
Remember, getting the formating right was a pain in the beep. And for all that effort, and by raising the price to $12.99 (slightly above Amazon’s minimum of $9.99 retail price), I get a whopping $3.06. Yup, that’s less than when someone buys the digital version. And if they buy from outside Amazon, via Expanded Distribution, I get … $0.46.
So, yes, I want paperback editions available in the interests of accessibility (which is the same reason I compromised and used Amazon’s virtual voice to provide text-to-speech editions since I can’t afford (money, time, energy) to produce professional audiobooks right now). However, financially, I’m better off writing the next book. It’s certainly far more enjoyable!
Okay. I’ll let the curtain fall back and hide the reality of publishing once more.
I love being an indie author. I’m incredibly grateful to be living this life. But it does include hard choices.
For now, I intend to release paperback editions of all eight Caldryn Parliament novels, probably a month or three after the digital editions. However, until I have a lot bigger breathing space, I won’t be bringing my backlist into paperback.
One of my problems with AI is how organisations are using it to avoid blame. This is an extension of how they’ve been using their systems for a while. It is HARD to find a person who’ll take responsibility for a problem. From blame to solving the problem, the organisational system is designed to shrug it off. AI is now the perfect excuse.
But in my focus on systems I’ve overlooked the individual experience of AI.
As a novelist I’m constantly analysing characters’ motivations. I forget that for a lot of people understanding and working on themselves is terrifying. And what’s the best thing to do when you’re scared? Run away! (I’m kidding).
But AI really is a tool for escaping the self.
Instead of writing a heartfelt best man’s speech, or a sympathy card, or finding the right words (from a place of love and respect) to end a relationship, people are avoiding confronting themselves, their situation, and their emotions. and simply prompting AI for a response.
We are obscuring ourselves from our own gaze by using AI.
Because I tend to frame my world verbally, I’ve used examples from verbal communication. But visual artists are furious at AI partly because they learn themselves and their world through visual art. Same with musicians. Our stories emerge from confronting our selves.
If we mask with AI we will be individually, as well as socially, poorer.
It felt like I had to wait for ages for Echoes of Insurrection by TA White. It wasn’t actually that long, but it felt like it because the Firebird Chronicles is such a great science fiction series (with magic!) and one I enjoy re-reading. It was wonderful catching up with the characters and encountering new mysteries and twists to the story. When’s Book 7? 😉
I also enjoyed Squib by Helen Harper which is a spin-off from her Cat Lady urban fantasy series. Really solid world-building and engaging characters. I liked the romance plot a lot, too.
Vanessa Nelson released the fifth book in her Fractured Conclave series. This is a fascinating world. The sense of the strangeness that creeps in with isolation weaves through the series. An Uneasy Peace (great title) was an excellent read.
Do you remember the idea of the Great Reset that swirled around in 2020? The World Economic Forum presented it, and a ton of conspiracy theories spawned.
I’m riffing off its name to claim another shift in the zeitgeist: the Great Retreat.
Everywhere I look I see people stepping back, hunkering down, and retiring. The causes are varied: anxiety, exhaustion, confusion, and even coercion.
Health crises, cost of living pressures, job insecurity, and a broader sense of uncertainty, nationally and internationally, politically and economically, are all contributing.
People are retreating from substantive engagement in public social media as governments (and contracted private companies) are mining social media as part of a broader surveillance agenda. What they’ll do with that data is open to conjecture.
People are retreating, often unwillingly and out of frustration, from engagement with government welfare programs. Dealing with bureaucracy (including private corporate sector bureaucracy) is increasingly frustrating. Some of this frustration is caused by legacy systems. Software is decades old and layered with inefficiencies. Regulations pile up. But it could be that there isn’t enough pie to go around and the more people who drop out, the longer the system can stagger on. In other words, pushing us into retreat could be a feature and not a bug.
People are retreating from public life as attacks against them increase. And I mean all people, not just celebrities. The use of AI to generate repulsive images is a new weapon of online violence.
The challenge is to determine where you draw the line. What will you surrender, where will you compromise, and when will you fight?
We don’t have the luxury of reserves anymore. Think of the human body. In good times, it adds a little fat. You grow comfortably pudgy. In hard times, the body draws on that reserve of energy. For many people, those reserves are gone. We drew on them hard in 2025, and now, we have to choose where we put our remaining energy.
I have a note on my computer. It says, “don’t step back”. I can’t resist everything. I can’t fight for all the social causes I support. But the core of my identity is where I can’t step back.
I’m an author. I write stories of hope. That is what I won’t compromise on.
Everything else, including supping with a long spoon with the devil that is Amazon, is negotiable.
Speaking of Amazon. I am still trying to decide what to do regarding audio editions of the Caldryn Parliament series. If Amazon allowed Australians to access ACX (which supports voice actors and authors working together) I’d be all over it. But it doesn’t, despite years of promising that it was “coming soon”. For the moment, in the interests of accessibility, I’ve allowed Amazon to shove my books down the Virtual Voice path. As I discussed in an earlier post, I don’t consider these text-to-speech products audiobooks, but they do read the text aloud. As a stopgap they’re better than nothing, and since 2026 shows signs of being every bit as overwhelming as 2025, a stopgap is necessary while I take a breath. So, if you’re looking for audio editions of the Caldryn Parliament series they’re in Audible and clearly labelled as AI (i.e. Virtual Voice narration).
I am working on paperback editions of Caldryn Parliament. A proof copy of Stars Die is in the works and should arrive in early February. If it looks good, I’ll click publish and move onto Hexes Fly and Rogues Lie. I’ve enabled “expanded distribution” for these paperbacks, which means that if any other distributors choose to pick them up (something I can’t influence) then you’ll be able to buy them outside of Amazon (which still takes a massive cut of the sale price via production costs).
Finally with good news, my books are now available in all major digital library services. So, if you can convince your local library to buy a copy, they’re available for everyone. I am thrilled!
