it's is time \o/ The second book in the "Otar's Universe" series is out now!
You should be able to get at all the major retailers (except the 'zon), itch, and through the library system (libby yes, hoopla is still processing).
Buy links: retailers | itch.io
Put on your TBR: GR | TSG
About:
Otar comes to on a dingy space station and discovers two things: First, he's missing a good chunk of his memories. Second, Andres, his lover, has disappeared. Before he can retrace his steps, a knock at the door demands a debt be repaidāone Otar can't remember.Ā
Captain Veil Dreamcatcher is in search of the dragons with only ruins to guide him. Otar agrees to help in exchange for a reduced debt and information about Andres. On their travels, Otar realizes Veil is as adrift in this world as he is. Both are on a quest for the impossible: finding the ones they have loved and lost.Ā
All the while, the shadows are watching with red glowing eyes.
nobody better say a goddamned word against Elizabeth Taylor in front of me, is all I can say. She fought this fight before it was popular, before it was acceptable, even before people knew it WAS a fight. She didnāt care if it made people think less of her. She fought it.
We are beyond thrilled to share the cover art that artist Jinx Inks has done for our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales.
This all-new collection, fourth in our Queer Fanworks Inspired Byā¦ series, features 23 stories, 23 art pieces, and a 10-page comic, all inspired by folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends with personal significance to the creator. Teasers, excerpts, and trims of the art pieces will be shared throughout our Kickstarter campaign. Check out the contributor list and read their biographies!
Weāre also offering some awesome merchandise, all featuring art by the anthology contributors. Weāll be sharing reveals for these pieces over the next couple weeks as we lead up to our upcoming campaign launch.
Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be among the first to hear when our campaign goes live on July 8th 2026!
We are beyond thrilled to share the cover art that artist Jinx Inks has done for our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales.
This all-new collection, fourth in our Queer Fanworks Inspired Byā¦ series, features 23 stories, 23 art pieces, and a 10-page comic, all inspired by folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends with personal significance to the creator. Teasers, excerpts, and trims of the art pieces will be shared throughout our Kickstarter campaign. Check out the contributor list and read their biographies!
Weāre also offering some awesome merchandise, all featuring art by the anthology contributors. Weāll be sharing reveals for these pieces over the next couple weeks as we lead up to our upcoming campaign launch.
Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be among the first to hear when our campaign goes live on July 8th 2026!
Patreons at the $7/month and higher are invited to join us this Saturday, June 20th, at 9 p.m. Eastern (converter) for our latest panel, about things our editors love to see and their pet peeves! Joining us for this panel are Alex Bauer, Shannon Lippert, MJ Kiwiana, and Shea Sullivan.
Description: What is grammatically correct and what we enjoy reading and editing are circles that make a Venn diagram with broad, but far from universal, overlap. The same can be said for what is incorrect and what we hate. For this panel, weāve got a group of four editors with whom weāll be discussing all four of these categories ā what is grammatically correct, what is grammatically incorrect, what we enjoy reading and editing, and what we hate reading and editing ā and discussing our perceptions of all of the them and how they interrelate and where they overlap (and where they donāt!). Weāll discuss our experiences and learning processes as editors, what makes us go !!! in the best possible way when we open a document to edit, our biggest pet peeves, and related topics.
Already a Patron? Not one yet? Either way, I hope youāll join us!
litfic. the MC's best friend (and friend's partner?) is probably ace-spec, though this is only mentioned like twice, by the MC, not her self-identifying as such. she doesn't seem to like the label, and refers to herself as straight in her single POV chapter. it's another one of those books that constrasts acespec-ness to aro vibes but without acknowledging the existence of aromanticism....... this at least didn't feel like one that did it in a harmful way. I do think that the themes could have been richer with more direct aromantic elements (not necessarily the characters Being aro, but,). Regardless, it is very heavily about amatonormativity and various forms of love and connection
Shake Out The Ghosts
paranormal-ish contemporary romance. The MC is ace/grey-ace - not entirely sure where on the spectrum. "I might feel some kind of diluted sexual attraction under certain circumstances. Iām still not sure about that. And sometimes kissing and touching and sex feels good, sometimes it feels like nothing. Might as well be a handshake." Reasonable amount of discussion/navigation of that in a new relationship, finding a balance etc. The other MC is very allo & doesn't know much but is respectful/willing to learn. While it's not entirely off the table, they don't sleep together during the book. Also he's trans, disabled (PTSD/facial scars), & 38 (higher than the average ace character age lmao). I liked how these things were explored, but not really a book for me.
Us
graphic memoir about the author's partner coming out as a trans woman, which also involves her realising she's bi & demisexual - just briefly touched on for a a couple pages.
The Divide That Binds Us
YA fantasy. a bit of a mess of a book, I ended up skimming most of it - and as far as I can tell the leads are word of god ace only, because the most I picked up on was the boy being uncomfortable when he was flirted with (and the fact that neither have a romance). I may have missed something because of the skimming ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ but I can only find a single review that mentions it in the first place.
To Ride a Rising Storm
Nampeshiweisit 2 - Anequs feels arospec coded, potentially?
I hesitate to say that it's 100% aro coding, because I think it equally could be read as cultural differences, her personal values and priorities, etc - I do think normalising alloromantic people not prioritising romance is also good!!! but also:
āI'm not at all experienced in love of the romantic kind. I've never really understood how characters in novels can gaze at each other across the room, and be instantly swept away and moved to take all sorts of mad actions - I've never understood the appeal. Maybe something's wrong with me, maybe most girls are capable of that sort of thing, the sort of frantic love that overcomes everything else, but I don't think I am. I can't help but approach things pragmatically. I know that I'm not madly in love with you, but I'm fond of you and comfortable with you. But I don't really know what I want yetā & āThere was something frightening in the kind of devotion he was suggestingā feels soo arospec to be. and i love this series!
The Summer Hikaru Died
I've been mildly interested in this for a while, and more recently saw that "hikaru" is aroace - which drove my interest up. Explicitly in the nonhuman way, but I do also think that's something interesting to explore! "hikaru" doesn't feel human desires, hungers, fears, etc - but does feel strongly towards yoshiki and is interested in doing those things even if he doesn't feel the attraction/desire/etc. Specific mentions in vol 2, and vol 6, I'm not up to date. The author has also discussed the aroace element being intentional, there's various screenshots around.
The Bloody and the Damned
YA dystopian fantasy, with a (bi, polyamorous) grey-aroace MC. only a very brief mention of this, pretty much the once: āI know enough about romantic love to recognize that I donāt feel it in quite the same way others seem to. I never got crushes like other kids my age or like Halle did when she got older. I never cared whether someone thought I was attractive or desired me in that particular, heated wayā "Except sometimesājust sometimesāI feel something different ... Not an all-consuming burn or a fiery passion. Just a tug, right behind my heart" The two love interests are people they have an established connection with, and beyond generally growing a bit closer to them (and brief kiss for each at the end) - romance takes a back seat to the main plot. Generally, wasn't really for me.
Cinder
MM dark fantasy cinderella retelling, in which the ālove interestā is aromantic (& pan). He's a bit of a playboy, but is being forced to marry by his parents. He & the MC meet and thereās instant attraction, their relationship develops as sex+friendship. SPOILERS: he has a curse where he cannot love (in any form, self inflicted due to his grief when his brother left), when this is lifted heās still aromantic, they end up as partners, nonromantic on his end. It's discussed a lot and plot relevant, and I thought was done well - though obviously explores some tropes that I can imagine some prefer to avoid.
Hot people support queer libraries. Itās true, we read a study about it. And every $300 your team raises in our Give Butter Pride Fundraiser just makes you hotter and hotter (plus puts your book choice on QLLās shelves).
Click to start levelling up immediately! https://xqa.onlypult.me/j7Qe
Since we started this tumblr in 2014, weāve brought you news of literally thousands of anti-fascist actions around the world. Ā Yet one of the most common questions we get asked is āwhat can I do?ā Ā To help celebrate our 4th anniversary month, everyday in June weāre posting at least one real-life example of anti-fascist action that weāve reported on in the last four years that you could replicate or take inspiration from!
30) Read And Share!Ā OK, every day in June weāve re-blogged an antifa action that we reported on at some point in our collectiveās four-year history. Ā We hope it inspired you & gave you some ideas for stuff you can pull off where you live. Ā Now, hereās a list of more resources to tap into (many of which you can download, print, and distribute!):
40 Ways To Fight Nazis - a downloadable/printable guide from Showing Up For Racial Justice, available in both a long version and a short version
Our guide to joining or starting an antifa crew: Ā + bonus tips Ā + more bonus tips
Our Antifa F.A.Q.Ā - downloadable & printable!
Anti Fascist Networkās guide to starting an antifa chapter
AFNās list of antifa resources
How to form an antifa group
The Anti-Fascist Network flyerAnti-immigration raid posters from the Anti-Raids Network
Destroying White Nationalism - a 12-page downloadable comic we put out!
Anti-fascist & anti-racist posters and images from 1000 Blackbirds
Common-sense security precautions when approaching other antifa crews
Anti-doxing guide for antifa
Computer Security Tips downloadable guide
How to set up an antifa neighbourhod watch
Downloadable International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund flyer Downloadable antifa flyer about Charlottesville
Anti-Fascism = Self-Defense: downloadable anarchist flyer from Crimethinc
Opposing fascism in the extreme metal scene: downloadable in English;
in Italian; and in French.
How to make a kick-ass antifa banner
How to fuck up an immigration raid (UK)
What to do when ICE comes knocking (in English & Spanish) (US)
Bust Cards for UK antifa
āTo The Charlottesville Anti-Fascistsā - amazing downloadable/printable pamphlet/statement (in English) from collectif mĆØres solidaires (set your printer to print double-sided, flip on short edge)
getting scambot messages from random accounts that clearly used to be normal active blogs is sad enough. you know that there used to be a real person on that blog until they were tricked into handing their password to the digital fae.
but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.
and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.
RIP to the blog that used to DM me to tell me they liked my new chapters. Their last known words spoken before being turned, 17 hours ago: "Ggs!" They were praising someone's deadlift.
the message they tried to get me with is probably the same message that got them, so for anybody who hasn't already been warned about the signs of a zombie account:
if you get something like this ā they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."
whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,
it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yesāit might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.
they got one of my treasured followers, and they can get you too. don't fall for their tricks. know the signs.
Get to know Shea Sullivan, a creator who has been working with Duck Prints Press since our first anthology! Shea is an author and artist, a member of the Press staff, an editor, and helps with guest blog posts and other similar projects.
Biography: Shea Sullivan is a middle-aged, life-long creative living in upstate New York. As a late-blooming queer person, she enjoys writing about complex characters coming into themselves and finding comfort in being exactly who they are.
Sheaās day jobs in computer programming and middle management have molded her into the patient, sarcastic, big-hearted, frustrated human she is today, but itās what she does outside the 9-5 that really excites her. When sheās not writing, she can be found painting, napping, making quilts, roller skating, supporting local businesses (especially allllll the coffee shops), or waxing philosophical with friends.
Link: Personal Website
Projects:
The Tangled Threads of Our Hearts (on Patreon and in our forthcoming anthology Duxxx in a Row)
Taken at Sea (on Patreon)
The Riddle (available as a postcard-sized and 8-by-10 art print)
Add Magic to Taste (contributing author)
Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumasās āThe Three Musketeersā (contributing author)
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austenās āPride and Prejudiceā (contributing author)
Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories (editor)
Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales (contributing artist and editor) (forthcoming)
Beyond the Galactic Tide (editor) (forthcoming)
An Interview with Shea Sullivan!
When and why did you begin creating?
I couldnāt say. Iāve written stories since I was tiny. There have been times away from it, but I always return to stories. They are a unique frustration, challenge, and reward.
Art is different. I drew a little bit when I was young but I found it very frustrating that I didnāt have natural talent: ie, I wasnāt perfect out of the gate. I came back to it in 2018 or so.
The more I create, the more I WANT to create, the more things I want to try out. I just created my first podfic. Iāve made quilts. I like to cook. Creation is a vital part of the human condition, and Iām embracing the hell out of that.
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How did you pick the name you create under?
My name has ties to my fandom name, which Iāve had for over 20 years, so itās an homage to that. The rest just sounded good. Sometimes that all it takes! At one point I thought I would separate out all my different creations: the T rated from the E rated, the art from the writing, all with different namesā¦ But it feels like a lot of effort. I think, in theory, itās good to have people out there who admit they donāt have a singular focus.
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What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?
I think Iām better at shorter, punchier writing, and I feel good about my ability to dig into a character and understand their motivations, so their choices feel like a natural extension of themselves. I also really enjoy studying and working on structure, so that thematically, a story works well and has a consistent thread. Iām getting better at editing with these things in mind, so my stories are always getting stronger.
As an artist, Iām still very āyoung.ā I think my real strength is that I love it, and I keep practicing, and I have a pretty good sense of where Iāve gone wrong.
Overall, Iām trying to be better at taking feedback, because I know it makes me better! And being on the editor side of things has really helped me understand where thatās coming from, so I think I get better at taking and integrating feedback with every submission.
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What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?
sweats
Well. On the one hand, everything, but on the other, I know that I canāt compare myself to my favorite creators and say that I fall short of them.
I think that struggling to take feedback and integrate it has been a weakness, and Iām working on that, now.
I find it hard to focus on any project or media type for a long period of time, and this is a real struggle because it means that my progress is very stop-and-go, and then, as I move from project to project, I lose time and progress because the iterations are interrupted. However, this is also a good thing, because every type of creation feeds every other type, and I learn a lot that I CAN transfer to the next project, even if I do have to take time to get back to speed. I mostly accept that this is how my brain works, but it can be very frustrating.
With writing, I think my lack of iteration holds me back. I get a decent first draft, but itās hard for me to rewrite it more than once, and so I find it hard to reach a fine polish.
With art, I need to work on composition and accurate figures, especially in more interesting poses. Iām always thinking about composition, contrast, interest, and while I have decent ideas on how to improve it, the technical ability isnāt there quite yet.
I recognize a lot of weaknesses in my work, but I also recognize that Iām getting better, and that my progress is always going to be slower than people who are able to concentrate on one form. Accepting where I am helps me work on the weaknesses without getting down on myself.
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What do the phrases āwriterās blockā or āart blockā mean to you?
I have, more with art than writing, a block on finishing pieces Iām excited about because I have a fear of ruining them, I think. I donāt want to close down the potential of what it COULD be by making it something inferior. Done is better than perfect, and my head knows it, but my heart is holding out for perfection. Or maybe the other way around.
Writerās block is so much about expectations, deadlines, getting into my own head about how something will be received before Iāve completed it. The more pressure is on, the harder it is to finish.
I think all blocks are just grasping, at their core. I kind of think all the things that hold us back are that: trying to control things that arenāt ours to control.
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Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? Whatās your process look like?
I could write about process forever, but Iāll try to summarize it, here.
Iām a planster. For short stories, I tend to have a good sense of where Iām going, but not necessarily how Iām going to get there. Once in a while Iāll just be stuck on a single moment or scene, but most of the time, itās a general sense of the arc of the story, and I have to fill it in to make the ending feel natural. I write the story based on the idea, and then, often, it turns out thatās not what the story was about. When I read it back, the core character change, or story arc, or fallout, is not what Iād intended at all. I love when that happens, it feels like I took a side road and came upon a beautiful pond with water lilies.
The rewrite is where I dial in on that new information, that new reason for the story. The first draft is where I usually, by the end, understand what the story really wants to be about.
I donāt always rewrite. Often, I just tweak. Iāll rewrite a scene or two, change transitions, and update awkward sentences.
For novelsā¦ well, if I ever figure it out, Iāll let you know. But I have used the snowflake method before, just for a bit of a sketch, and that has been the most helpful process so far.
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Which of your own creations is your favorite? Why?
I think anytime I have a favorite itās because I feel like I explored something in an interesting, engaging way. Iām thinking of a specific fanfic that used a crack premise to explore a characterās self-loathing, and to help them process it. It was heartfelt and it had a weight to it that I liked, and some moments that made me really emotional.
For Duck Prints, I wrote a story in the anthology, A Truth Universally Acknowledged. That story, A Constant, Fearful Longing, has a specific Austen-esque voice, and a specific and challenging character shift. I love the language use and the way the character changes in small increments throughout the story. It was very challenging to write, I scrapped another version that was too complicated and wrote this one. Making the story lighter on plot created a lot of space and allowed for a deeper exploration of each moment.
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Which of your own creations is your least favorite? Why?
There is a lot of writing (and art) that isnāt my favorite. Typically, theyāre the pieces where Iām learning. Iām trying to execute something Iām not completely sure how to do, yet, and I fail for a while. Thatās learning. Thatās growing. I mean, the result isnāt my favorite, but that doesnāt really matter. I have to practice to get good, there really is no other way. Talent means nothing to me. Practice is the only thing thatās gotten me anywhere, and it improves me as a person, soā¦ Yeah, the pieces arenāt my favorite, but theyāre just sort ofāthe proof that Iām doing the work on the way to a better creation.
Okay, well, actually, there is one piece I have that is published (I wonāt tell you which one!) that Iām unhappy with because it was tentative. I couldnāt sink into the characters because I was writing in an environment I wasnāt familiar with, and my research didnāt give me a comfort level that made any of it feel natural. I felt like I was one word away from showing my ignorance as every turn. And that piece is weak because I was afraid of showing my lack of skill and knowledge, and every sentence in that piece tells the reader that. They say write what you know, and I think this is what they mean. Know enough not to be tentative. If youāre not comfortable with the subject matter, you cannot fool your readers into thinking you are.
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Describe your ideal creation space.
Comfortable, cozy and ergonomic! I havenāt found it yet, but Iām on the hunt!
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What are your favorite tropes?
I love a two-person love triangle, a case of āI want you desperately but I must resistā, and mutual pining. Honestly, I love a million tropes, and there is basically nothing that canāt be done in a way I enjoy, even if I donāt typically like it. Iām easy for good writing, what can I say?
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If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?
Creating things is about two things, as far as I can tell: doing the thing, and living a life that feeds the thing. So, if you want to write, you need to write things down. Donāt think about them for years until theyāre perfect, donāt wait to watch the right tutorial: write it down. Do it again. When youāre tired and run down and have run out of ideas, go do something that feeds your brain with something new. Have a deep conversation with a friend, read a book (not a craft book on āhow-toā), watch a documentary, go down a weird wiki rabbithole, visit a new place, learn a new skill.
The spark comes from living. The skill comes from doing. Thereās a lot you can do to hone a craft, but those are the only things you need to actually create and get better.
Beyond that, from a writing perspective, nothing has leveled me up like reading a lot of other peoplesā first drafts, and then their second and third drafts, etc. Other peoplesā stories, their mistakes and blind spots, are much easier to see than your own. Through that lens, you can see where you can level up. A writerās group is invaluable in this way, and I highly recommend it.
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What motivates you to create?
I would love to say I create in a vacuum, that I create for myself and nothing else matters. But, even when I am creating something incredibly personal that is changing me (and this happensā¦ not infrequently, but not every time), Iām still making it to share.
I went to a retreat, once, and came out of it so full of peace and equinimity that I didnāt create anything for two months. I had no need to. I had nothing to prove, nothing to explore, I was just very happy, being.
Creating for me is often about expressing something personal, but itās creating something personal as a way of connecting with other people. Offering a shared experience. And sometimes, itās not so much the personal as it is meeting a challenge (writing to a prompt or a call for submission). Doing something hard just to work through the puzzle of it. Explore the way it all fits together, what works and what doesnāt. Finding satisfying ways to fit the pieces together. And then, yeah, showing it to other people. Hopefully getting some recognition that I did something good or clever or fitting.
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How do you maintain your work/life balance? How do you fit creating around your other responsibilities, time commitments, and challenges, such as job(s), family, and disabilities?
I have a chronic illness and it doesnāt affect me in ways that other people recognize, but it exhausts me fairly regularly. I can go months where Iām exhausted, messy, overwhelmed and experience brain fog. I have a full time job, and just getting through the day there is more than enough to keep me busy on most days. So, I fit in creation where I can. Just as my inability to focus on one project or type of work for too long causes problems with my creative process, so does my disease. Iāve had to just accept that it will happen, and I try to communicate about it clearly when there are deadlines coming up.
Balance is not about applying myself in equal percentages. At any point in life, something will require more of me than other things. Sometimes my health takes 80% of my energy, and the job takes the rest. And sometimes I donāt know if Iām in a place where I need to work harder to get through a block, or take it easy. Itās just testing it out, every time. Take a nap and see if itās any better. Work through it and see if itās any worse. Accept that my body wonāt always let me do all the things I want to do, and neither will my mind (that fickle beast), and so I just have to work with them both, challenge them from time to time, and apply myself where the largest percentage of me in that day or hour.
Last week I didnāt do a single dish. My sink piled up. Because that couldnāt be the priority. Balance is based on my priorities and responsibilities. Thatās different for everyone. I do what I have to for the marathon, not the sprint. I keep your body and mind as healthy as I can to support doing what I want to do for as long as I can. The time for creation comes and goes and comes again. It always comes again.
HAPPY PRIDE 2025! For Pride this year, weāre changing up our usual rec lists. Instead of doing books with specific identities or themes, weāre focused this time on cover color! Throughout the month of June, weāll be doing 8 rec lists, each with covers inspired by one of the colors of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. We drew a little additional inspiration from the meaning behind the color and why it was included in the original LGBTQIA+ flag (in this case, yellow = sunlight), but we prioritized color over meaning. The contributors to this list are: May Barros, Rascal Hartley, polls, Shadaras, Tris Lawrence, Shannon, Nina Waters, and Alex.
Golden Hue by May Barros
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
She Gets the Girl by Alyson Derrick & Rachael Lippincott
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
Given by Natsuki Kizu
The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
The Persian Boy by Mary Renault
Crumbs by Danie Stirling
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Exordia by Seth Dickinson
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
King Cheer by Molly Horton Booth & Stephanie Kate Strohm
The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer
Hitorijime My Hero by Memeko Arii
Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
Find these and many other queer books on our Goodreads book shelf or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.
Join Book Loverās Discord server to chat with us about books, fandom, and more!
Let's put authors in the panopticon and let all their haters invade their privacy!
Emboss touts itself as a sort of insurance against false accusations of AI usage. It's marketed to authors as "here, you can use this if anyone questions your writing!" and advertised to readers as a sort of "If your favorite author can't share their Emboss with you, you can definitely assume they used AI. ONLY accept books written in Ellipsus with the Emboss feature enabled! We PROMISE you our software is more reliable than any other at catching CHEATERS!"
Yeah, it comes across a bit like extortion!
It claims to track your keystrokes and use some (non-AI) algorithms to determine if you write like a "natural" and "normal" human.
Who decides what is natural? Who determined what the benchmark is for normal? None of that is explained in their documentation. But they promise you that their Emboss metrics can definitely tell you if someone used AI.
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These people then demand that the artist record their screens and themselves during the entire process. They want artists to be livestreaming--one camera focused on their screen, one on their body. Artists must expose everything about themselves or be deemed AI.
And some artists are keeping their privacy and saying, "Fuck you, I owe you nothing." But beginner artists? Who are just getting started? Who don't have a decade of proof on DeviantArt already? They are feeling coerced, even if they don't want to, into sharing their lives for fear that not doing so will ruin their ability to pay rent.
This Emboss feature? It's saying that not only is it right and fair that people demand this of artists, but it should be done to writers, too.
It should be done to nobody.
This is cop mentality. This is putting people in a panopticon; this is assuming people are liars until they can prove they aren't.
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A second feature of Emboss is the metrics and statistics it collects. If your metrics meet certain parameters, you can get a Human Authorship Badge. This feature tracks your keystrokes and uses some sort of algorithm to determine if your WPM (words per minute) are "Normal" and your typing flow is "Natural." It measures how often and how long you pause, it looks at how much a sentence changes between revisions, and calculates if you spent either too long or not long enough writing something.
Nowhere in Ellipsus' help documents can I find a source for how they determine what is a "natural" number of "thinking pauses" and what is "unnatural."
Nowhere can I find how they determined that 30 - 70 is a human WPM (especially when touch-typists, like myself, can easily and accurately do more than 120 words per minute, and when some people with mobility and join issues can struggle to do five words per minute unless they have adaptative technologies).
None of their metrics have sources for how they determined what is human and what is not.
But it is especially obvious that they never considered that people with disabilities write.
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... it's really kinda convenient that the marketing for Emboss kinda makes it seem like anyone who doesn't draft, revise, and edit in Ellipsus in a very mechanical way isn't really an author and shouldn't be trusted and probably is a devious monster using AI. Just when they come out with a paid plan.
...
...right now Ellipsus' marketing is positing itself as the only ethical writing software and I think that's gross. They aren't saying "Don't like us, don't use us." They are saying, "Don't like us? Enjoy your justly earned AI accusations."
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The Ellipsus Emboss feature accepts and is preparing for a future that techbros want: one where genAI is the default, it is the standard, it is what should be expected when opening a book. The Emboss feature and its stamp--as well as the Author Guilds badge--presuppose a future where humans are the marked category. We are what needs to be called out.
I refuse to accept this as the inevitable future. We humans should not be marking ourselves; we should not be accepting the premise that AI is the new standard just because billionaires might lose money otherwise.
found this article and this related thread, both by Dax Murray, really interesting. That doesn't mean I agree with everything in it, but I thought it worth sharing.
To me, the fundamental issue is trust. As frustrating, infuriating, upsetting, awful, garbage, and pervasive as genAI is, as much as we question everything we look at now, we have to find the bandwidth to trust that when people say they aren't using it, we believe them until we get evidence to the contrary. The "not trust" position cannot become the default without destroying us.
this makes me so happy as a fat hairy guy who likes skirts and dresses i never get to see guys like me in dresses itās always skinny twinks this makes me so happy š„ŗš„ŗ
There is a severe lack of trans masc representation in romance books
Im always on the hunt for a spicy or feel good romance book that has includes a trans masc or nonbinary mc! But i also donāt want to read about teenagers ya know? Im an adult i wanna read about adults falling in love. But also they are gay and trans! But also the whole plot isnt about transness or transphobia! Feels like there just isnāt enough of these kinds of books and it sucks!
may I offer you Alec J. Marsh's To Drive the Hundred Miles in these trying times? It's not exactly a romance in the "romance genre" sense but it is romantic and spicy and has a trans masc lead who is a whole adult.
Snow falls softly as dark descends early, and Will returns home to Serendipity, Washington, for t...
where good characters go to die @jd-rivers - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
