ellatholmes

[ellatholmes]

Artifice & Access: a disability in fantasy anthology.

It’s long been acknowledged that disability representation is lacking in the fantasy genre landscape, so in this cozy anthology, fourteen writers from around the globe come together to bring you wonderful fantasy stories centering disabled and chronically ill characters.

Teeming with magic, otherworldly creatures, discoveries, and journeys, every story is as thrilling and fascinating as it is passionate and meaningful. Worlds are discovered, lives are changed, and swords are drawn.

Disabled and chronically ill characters go questing, fighting dragons, healing, and enacting strange magics. Familiar fairy tales are reimagined, and new fairytales are forged, with each story shattering stereotypes and challenging traditional narratives. Come see yourself reflected—or discover something new.

ARTIFICE & ACCESS is an anthology, a collection of 14 short stories from 14 authors around the world, writing from different disability and chronic illness perspectives. This project started as a way to try and contribute to closing the VAST gap of representation in fiction and authorship in publishing, as well as combat some of the harmful narratives and stereoypes disabled people are often written into; It became a collective effort that has connected new friends, encouraged people to see themselves as worthy of being main characters, and more.

100% of the proceeds from this book go towards continueing the uplifting and promotion of disabled and chronically ill writers.

🎉 We had orange Top New Release banners for a WEEK, and are still ranking in the top 50 releases for YA fantasy short stories. 👉🏼 You can buy this book at major retailers and indie book stores -- you just need to ask them to order it in! 📖 If you have a library card, please consider requesting this book so kids who need it (like I did!) can access it more easily. 💖Please leave us a review on Goodreads and Amazon to help continue the project!

[ellatholmes]

your writing isn't cringe actually because I built myself up through cringe stocks and literally bought cringe mountain and you're not allowed to go there.

[ellatholmes]

:( :( i hope your crunchy knees uncrunch soon <3

ohhhh the knees are just so crunchy right now. i am not a fan

[ellatholmes]

As we head into multiple viral outbreaks including potentially H5N1, I am begging people to think carefully about how they talk about these viruses. It has been exhausting since the start of COVID hearing people talk about "only people with pre existing conditions" as if that makes everything okay. I am worth something, we are worth something, our lives matter.

[ellatholmes]

but when they crunch... do they.... glow

ohhhh the knees are just so crunchy right now. i am not a fan

[ellatholmes]

Why are so many romantasy dudes just "hi my name is Elias Dark’ness Demon Raven Brave and I have short ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches the hilt of the sword on my back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like rhysand (if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to rhysand but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a shadow master, and I learned magic in The Shadow Court where I’m in the seventh in line for the throne (I’m one-hundred-and-seventeen). I’m traumatised (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black tunic with matching lace around it and black leather pants, no girly pink fishnets but yes black combat boots. I was not wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow, i just look like that. I was walking outside the castle. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of females stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them."

[ellatholmes]

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

[ellatholmes]

that really rumples my stiltskins and brothers my grimms and cinders my ellas

[ellatholmes]

i find it so interesting how people act like "critically examining a piece of media" is the opposite of "enjoying that piece of media." rip to you but i actually find it really enjoyable and compelling to dissect and think through the art i engage with

[ellatholmes]

the author's barely disguised lack of socialisation and profound sense of alienation from all other human life

[ellatholmes]

Senators are going to vote on whether or not we should continue to send aid to Israel on Wednesday, November 13th. Call them, bombard their phone lines with calls. Every fucking day. We have a chance of doing something about this.

[ellatholmes]

i was in the bathroom with a pair of scissors and managed to only cut my fringe and give myself a trim, something all experts in everything ever will be calling "the greatest show of self control in the history of anyone suddenly wanting a bob cut, like, ever" for years

[ellatholmes]

Another year, another Devious December... 👀

Welcome to Devious December! 🔥

The objective? Use the writing prompt for each week(ish) as inspiration for a scene, flash fiction, short story, chapter, poem, or any other writing thing you can think of.

Each prompt runs for a couple of days, giving you more time to think and get those dastardly plots down. Write your heart out. Write something every day of the prompt, or one thing for each. It's completely up to you!

Devious December prompts:

Dec 03 - 06: Fire

Dec 07 - 11: Spy

Dec 12 - 18: Tricks

Dec 19 - 23: Rumours

In the spirit of community, share your dastardly writings this month using the hashtag #deviousdecember ❤️‍🔥 I'll be reblogging pieces and sharing the love, and I hope others will join me!

Tag your writerblr friends, take up the challenge, and have fun!

[ellatholmes]

esims are low again. check out connecting humanity for more information on directly sending esims or for a linked to crips for esims for gaza's fundraising. you can also set up a recurring donation on chuffed for esims. i have a weekly donation here because being able to keep as many people as possible connected to the rest of the world is critical for documenting the situation and allowing individuals to continue their own grassroots fundraising/organizing

[ellatholmes]

has anybody else been struggling with thoughts

[ellatholmes]

AI is built on stolen work and resources and it is contributing massively to the creation of harmful emissions and climate change. What you put into AI systems is stored and shared with others, so the tips and tricks and stories you're "plotting" are built on exploitation and theft, and your input is being exploited too.

TLDR: If you value art and, ya know, life, please find other ways of plotting your stories!

https://www.wired.com/story/fanfiction-omegaverse-sex-trope-artificial-intelligence-knotting/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ai-boom-could-use-a-shocking-amount-of-electricity/

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/g-s1-9545/ai-brings-soaring-emissions-for-google-and-microsoft-a-major-contributor-to-climate-change

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/23/1092777/ai-is-an-energy-hog-this-is-what-it-means-for-climate-change/amp/

Jennifer, I'm hearing from creators that some publishers either are or will require authors to disclose if they used AI in any way to write their book. Even brainstorming. Is there any truth to this?

I use AI to help me plot out my stories (I'm Horrible at plotting, honestly) and to help me battle writers block. Not to generate my stories!

will people look down on me for this? I'm definitely not going to lie, but some part of me wonders why it's their business if I'm not using AI to generate text. I feel so conflicted.

Well, yes and no?

Short answer: Just don't use AI to write your book. You will probably have to sign a contract that says you didn't use AI to write your book, and you shouldn't anyway, for lots of reasons. However, using AI tools is not the same thing as AI writing your book, so relax.

Long answer:

There are two (main) ways AI might come up in a contract. One is in the Warranties clause** (which I'll explain in the footnote be), and the other is in an AI clause -- not all publishers have them (yet?) but generally the AI clause has some wording like, neither the publisher or author can sell or license or give permission for the text to be "Scraped" by AI technology -- additionally, something like either the publisher or author may use AI tools in the course of normal business, but nothing in the text was generated by AI, the editor will be human, not AI, etc.

You'll notice here that both the author AND the publisher are held to the same standard -- that's important. And you'll also notice that it acknowledges that AI is a tool that MAY be used in the normal course of business. Zoom, google/gmail, adobe photoshop/acrobat, microsoft outlook/office-- all programs that publishers and authors use every day, any of which might have AI things woven into them. Autocorrect? Spellcheck? Grammarly? The thing on my tumblr RIGHT NOW that is highlighting words I should have capitalized in the sentence above? That's all AI technology. Obviously you don't have to "disclose" that you use normal tools of doing business.

If that includes "give me a list of girls names popular in the 1970s" or "what are some accidents that could happen at a skating rink" or "give me an example of plot beats in a mystery" -- OK. I still consider that a TOOL.

As long as you, a human, understand that generative AI technology uses other people's words to "create" -- so for fiction, OK if you want to brainstorm names or beats or whatever as above, as long as you are NOT USING IT TO WRITE THE BOOK -- YOU MUST WRITE THE STORY AND THE WORDS IN THE STORY.

And for nonfiction, AI makes up answers to questions that SOUND good but are actually just lies -- so PLEASE don't use AI technology to do actual research -- do your due diligence, make sure that any research you do online in any capacity (including Google) is factual, has primary sources to back it up, etc, etc. It's not actually a useful shortcut if all the info it gives you is straight up bad.

--

** In all publisher contracts there's a clause called Warranties and Indemnities. In that clause, you are warranting (swearing) that you have not plagiarized your book, that you personally created and own the rights to the book so you have the ability to sell/license them, that you have full permission for anyone else's work that you have quoted in the book, that nothing in the book breaches the law, yadda yadda.

IF ALL OF THAT IS THE TRUTH, and somebody sues you for plagiarism or copyright infringement or whatever, and you really didn't do it, the publisher will defend you and you won't have a problem. If, in fact, you lied in the Warranties section, then the publisher will not defend you and will cancel the contract and you'll be liable for whatever happens and can twist in the wind as far as they are concerned.

Some publishers are adding / have added / will add something in the Warranties clause where you also attest that the text is not generated by AI. (This is for several reasons aside from the fact that AI generated stories are crapola -- 1. AFAIK, AI generated text cannot be copyrighted, and 2. AI generated text may be plagiarized, soooo you'd be in danger of being in breach of your warranty even if it DIDN'T specifically call out AI!)

[ellatholmes]

“your characters need to be likeable” allow me to introduce you to the very worst guy who ever lived