Caldryn Parliament

News

  • Agency, Its Loss, & a Dystopian Future

    a Cubist painting of a jack o'lantern pumpkin coach and Cinderella in a dystopian landscape

    I was thinking about how agency—the ability to change our lives in small and big ways—is a theme in my novels, and then, I realised it’s the basis for most stories. Whether it’s Cinderella or Spiderman or Bluey, characters face challenges, make choices, and change their worlds.

    Stories remind us that we’re not powerless.

    One of the problems I have with how AI is being pushed into our lives is that it suffocates agency.

    We’re being shown ads in which people ask AI for solutions to everyday problems. What is wrong with this pasta sauce? How do I wash this dress? And by ask for solutions, I mean the actor in the ad chats to the AI in their phone as if talking to a friend.

    This is diabolically clever because who hasn’t, when faced with a problem, phoned a friend? The AI is being presented as standing in for a friend.

    But these are the innocuous questions. They are helpful tips and handy hints. They don’t shape our lives. I get why advertisers are starting with these lulling examples of incorporating AI in our lives.

    The problem is that humans are lazy and emotional labour is hard work. Thinking about the future is challenging. Making decisions, and bearing the costs of those decisions, is a burden that we flinch from.

    AI provides the path out of these difficulties.

    We begin by relying on it for answers, and end by trusting it to decide for us.

    “My AI told me to…” will become people’s excuse for everything.

    And once we relinquish agency, we shrink ourselves. We shrink our futures.

    If we let an AI life coach (for lack of a better term) decide our lives, then we’re no longer telling our own stories. In fact, we’ll be living lives designed by those who own the AIs.

  • Butterflies

    picture of butterflies

    The ideas that arrive to torment an author are called plot bunnies. They frisk around and try to lead us down strange paths.

    How do you handle them?

    Well, you never want to squander inspiration, so you must record your ideas. You will NOT remember them. Trust me on this. But, beware.

    (Maybe what I’m about to say applies more to pantsters than to plotters, but here goes.)

    Think of butterflies pinned down in museum collections. They are still brightly coloured and perfect for studying, but they’re dead. They no longer fly, sip nectar, or create the next generation. They’re beautiful corpses.

    This is what happens if you strip a plot bunny, examining every detail of it, and nailing down your thoughts. You’ll be tempted. But don’t.

    Instead, write down fragments of ideas, description, dialogue, and theme. Sketch the pictures that swim in your head.

    Concentrate on recording what you need to tantalise future you.

    The aim is that when you open your notebook you’re greeted by a cloud of butterflies rather than beautifully described, dead ideas.

  • Nurturing AI

    a toddler feeding a robot

    Do we have a responsibility to feed the current generation of AIs so that they’re formed by more than troll-farm slop?

    Everything I write on my website or publish on my Facebook page is available for scraping. Yes, I own the copyright to that work, but I’m okay with AI ventures feeding that data to their monsters. If we want AI to be less monstrous we have to shape it. These incipient AIs are a very clear demonstration of what’s always been true; namely, that what we communicate (in words, music, painting, dancing, etc.) shapes our society.

    If we want “nice” AIs we have to feed them decency.

    And yes, I know it’s more complicated than that. AI ethicists are clear that the rules written into AIs must adhere to our social values. What’s under dispute are the nature of those values and how to resolve conflict between them. What is protected under freedom of speech? What should be forever silenced?

    Maybe as the current adults in a world where a new sapience may emerge we should all communicate our best thoughts and hopes and be the people we hope the AIs will respect and imitate.

    I’ve been binge-reading The Legend of the Arch Magus series by Michael Sisa. If you like overpowered heroes and can tolerate some violence in your fantasy novels, it’s good. I preferred the earlier books with the town building and discovering the world, but I’ll keep reading. Thankfully it’s in Kindle Unlimited so my book budget can survive the hit. The series is 14 books so far.

  • Recent Reads – May 2025

    art deco painting of a reading nook

    What have you been reading in May?

    I picked up Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age by Ada Palmer. It’s a big book. I’ll be able to lose myself in it for a while.

    I tried a couple of much-recommended fantasy and paranormal romance novels and … I did not enjoy them. Sigh. I won’t name names—and they weren’t new releases, so you won’t be able to guess—but they were disappointing. I think people fell in love with them for what they promised, but for me, after reading the rave reviews, I expected those promises to be met. Instead, the endings fell short.

    A few years ago I read that we pick up the next book from an author when the previous book left us with a peak experience, some emotion that moved us and satisfied our expectations.

    As a reader I agree with that. Disappointment is discouraging.

    As an author, I try to honour the expectations I’ve set up throughout the story. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver!

    In better news, I enjoyed Judith Tarr’s Dragons in the Earth. It was both beautiful and wyrd.

    I’ve been reading Alice Coldbreath’s Karadock series, a medieval historical romance series set in a fictional kingdom. They are hot ::fans self:: They’re also a delight with banter, strong relationships, and an engaging writing style. I recommend starting with Book 2, His Forsaken Bride. Book 1 didn’t hook me anywhere near as much and it took me ages to try Book 2. I think my favourite is, appropriately enough, The Favourite, Book 6.

    I’ve been waiting impatiently for The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott and it is finally out next month (June 10) with the sequel out in November.

  • Island Authorities

    slightly surreal painting of many islands

    I’ve been reading and listening to marketing gurus’ best guesses on the impact of AI on communicating with and engaging people. One of their biggest concerns, naturally enough, is how to ensure that there is still a job for them. If the AI can do almost everything (if you’re curious Forbes has a good article on this automated vibe marketing), then what remains for a marketer?

    Since once of the hats an indie author wears is that of a marketing manager it’s a question that concerns me.

    The answer seems to be to step back from basic content creation and, instead, invite people to share your experience; that is, do something and communicate what you’re doing as you do it. This is what TikTokkers and Youtubers have been doing for years, so it’s not really a radical idea. I’m not even convinced it’s the right answer regarding how to assert our humanity against the rise of AI controlled communications.

    Perhaps, though, the marketing gurus are on the right path. Sharing their experience is a means by which someone who is an authority on a subject demonstrates that authority. We judge them, respect them, and follow them because we see what they can do.

    I actually think that authority (in the sense of being respected for one’s knowledge and experience) may be what causes some communications and communicators to stand out as islands in the sea of AI-generated garbage. These islands (authorities) can’t be moved by the latest fad, won’t wash away with the tide, and can’t be swamped. They endure because people trust them, and because they honor that trust.

    And now for an apology.

    I’ve had to delay the release of Hexes Fly. Originally, I scheduled it to come out June 26. I’ve pushed that back a month, and it will now release on Saturday July 26.

    Similarly, Rogues Lie will now release a month later than planned on Saturday November 29.

    2025 has been far more chaotic than I ever imagined it could be and I need to add some breathing space to my publishing schedule. I hate doing it (so much!) but if I’m advising other people to be kind to themselves I need to follow that advice, too. I’m so very sorry, though, that you’ll have to wait an extra month.

  • What a Beautiful World!

    a globe of the world and a red rose

    For me, writing my novels is a conversation with the world. I know that sounds weird. But it means that I “listen” to the world (read the news and commentary, and generally indulge my curiosity), think on what the world has said, and then, respond.

    Perhaps it’s different for people who fully plot out their books, but I’m a pantster. No matter how many notes I have to keep me “on track” I go wandering off as I write. The world is talking and it affects how my fictional world develops.

    This is why the same book (i.e. one with the same starting point and premise) written again ten years later would be very different.

    A few authors have done this.

    Robin McKinley wrote Beauty in 1978. In 1997 she wrote Rose Daughter. Both are retellings of Beauty and the Beast. The books are very different. (Beauty is my favorite.)

    On a sidenote, I enjoy Beauty and the Beast retellings. I haven’t read the old British romance The Mettlesome Piece by Anne Hepple in years, but I adored it. It’s not quite the traditional Beauty and the Beast in that the Beast rescues himself, and then, rescues Beauty, but it definitely has the theme of being trapped until love finds you.

    I even wrote a sweet fairy tale retelling novella myself, Beauty Conquers the Beast.

    Sometimes the world is simply telling us to believe in magic.

  • Card Decks – Beyond Fortune-telling

    painting of many fortune cards featuring flowers and planets

    I had no idea that card decks had become a thing beyond fortune-telling, but Jane Friedman reported on them being a new product market in publishing.

    I have no time, and therefore, no plans, to create a card deck, but I can imagine how simple it would be to feed something like The Lord of the Rings series into an AI, set specific prompts, and have it spit out quotations for themed cards.

    A little bit of me is wistful. I’d love to have the time and energy to create fortune cards for the website and some sort of widget that randomly gifted you all a fortune cookie when you clicked Giddy’s paw.

    Yes, authors’ dreams of what they’d do if they won the lottery are a bit different to other people’s. More time to write! Yay! But also more time to do side projects. Yay!!

    Side projects like finally—finally!—getting my ebooks into paperback and maybe even hardback.

    I was fascinated to read about the success of book subscription services where they curate the box of books they send their customers. And now, that curation is going to expand to include publishing.

    The wheel goes round and reinvents itself.

    Short stories for raconteurs are another example of the old being reinvented.

    I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that if you want to learn pacing and how to tell a story, practice retelling jokes and anecdotes. I know, it’ll probably bore your cat silly listening to you recount Joe Bloggs from the watercooler’s fish-that-got-away story, but you’ll become familiar with the rhythm of a story; its high points, tension, what you can leave out (oh yeah, a large part of story telling is removing the deadweight).

    Ratika Deshpande has some suggestions at Reactor for short stories suited to retelling around a campfire. I’d never considered choosing the short stories I read for their retelling value, but I guess it’s a natural extension of relating news and gossip from social media.

    We’re all storytellers.

    In what I’ve been reading news…

    Mariana Zapata has a new book out, The Things We Water. Although she started out as a contemporary romance author, The Things We Water is a paranormal romance. What I love about her style is that she takes her time to tell a story and while she doesn’t wallow in emotion, she doesn’t shy away from it either. Her heroines are often Cinderellas. They struggle, but they are always kind.

  • It’s May!

    cubist painting of a mirror

    ::looks in mirror:: Oh, that’s the silly person who thought April would be less busy than March. So much for grand plans. I only have a small update to the website this month; the addition of Major Fallon Tran’s bio.

    In better news, I read and loved The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton. It’s a wonderful, witty, and imaginative romp. I’ve picked up the sequel, The Geographer’s Map to Romance.

    Hopefully next week I’ll have a longer post. Till then, happy reading!

  • Recommended!

    a painting of a fairy holding a golden heart

    Despite all the algorithmic nonsense that rules our online lives, the best marketing tool remains word-of-mouth recommendations.

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot because my books aren’t in bricks and mortar bookstores or libraries. Yes, I want to get paperback editions out, but that’s a 2026 goal and, even then, there’s a heap of hurdles before my paperbacks appear in-person (so to speak).

    You see, in bookstores and libraries the booksellers and librarians advocate for books. They stock them and they promote them.

    But when you’re online, your advocate is an uncaring bunch of algorithms and—vitally—real people.

    Reviews from real people (as opposed to those from Scammer-McScammer-Mucky-Faces) teach the algorithms and make them unbelievably more effective at putting an author’s books in front of the right readers. Consequently, reviews are angel feathers from heaven for authors, especially for indie authors.

    But even better than reviews are recommendations. When someone mentions my books to a new reader I swear, an angel gets their wings!

    Looking at what I’ve recommended recently—not just books—reveals something fascinating. It took a bit of digging and self-reflection, but I persisted with the question of why I recommend so few things.

    Recommendations require you to share part of yourself. A recommendation reveals what you value. If something left you happier, healthier, braver, or whatever the experience was, recommending it to someone permits them a peek into your life and soul. You’re inviting them to know you.

    For some people being known is a thrill. Chasing intimacy is a joy in their life. However, for others of us, being known is scary. The truth is, though, that being known is the only way to build genuine, enduring connections. So, take a leap occasionally and share something you value with someone you value. A recommendation is a gift.

  • The Blue Castle & Hope

    Recently I read Rachel Taylor Thompson’s Sasha vs the Whole Wide World (and Dragons) and was delighted to discover references to The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery. As much as I read and re-read the Anne stories as a girl, The Blue Castle is my favourite LMM novel as an adult. It has so much in it. The challenge is to discuss it without spoilers!

    I don’t think I can. ::wails::

    Okay, so I’ll share one thought I have about The Blue Castle and current world events. I think that one of the themes in the novel that will be brought out and explored in books and movies for the next few years is the question: when someone has nothing left to lose, what do they choose?

    This isn’t a bleak question. It’s a question that acknowledges the metaphorical deaths in our lives. When we lose, or feel as if we’ve lost, something vital, it’s like dying. Who we were before that point no longer defines who we will become. The starting point for these stories might be painful, but they are celebrations of rebirth. Who do we choose to become?

    One of the greatest gifts of a novel is that it reinforces our agency. As we identify with the protagonist we explore issues and environments which could be crushing, but which we (the combined protagonist and reader) have the agency to navigate and affect.

    The Blue Castle resonates with so many of us because Valancy is a courageous protagonist who dies to her old life to embrace a world of possibilities and love. And, I promise, it has a happy ever after.