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It’s Not You, It’s Me: Timing and Context

As a reader, I’ve been obsessed with Gillian Flynn this year. It started when I read The Grownup as a “suggested” book when I was looking for alternative gothic stories. I wanted haunted house stories that didn’t feel like haunted house stories, and The Grownup seemed to fit. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like it, even though I desperately wanted to. The opening of the novella was unbeatable. The honest, raw voice of a sex worker turned psychic was witty and relatable. And I wanted more ballsy, unapologetic sex workers! But as the story went on, I was less interested in the child and family. Perhaps that was because of my…

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AI and Human Connection

I am fairly anti generative AI. Beyond its environmental impact, there’s social harm as well. Which angle? Take your pick. Spreading misinformation. Harming reputations. Inciting hate or violence. Impacting political campaigns. Perpetuating bias. The list goes on. In the writing community, there are also concerns of copyright infringement, the continued societal disrespect and commodification of creative pursuit, and already stressed systems being flooded with AI content. But lately I’ve been pondering the way generative AI promoters seem to aim at stripping human interaction from society. Setting the Scene: Her Let me start with an example. In the 2012 movie Her Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with an AI program. On…

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BulgaCon 2024: First Timers’ Jitters and Anticipation in Sofia

BulgaCon 2024 will take place in Sofia this weekend. It’s the first lit conference I’ll be attending, and while I’m super excited to meet new people in the world of speculative fiction, I’m also nervous. I have very little idea of what to expect — partly because I’ve never attended a con, but also because there is so little information about the event. The official website was finally updated this past week, but I have no clue what to expect in terms of crowds or number of people (something super important for someone with social anxiety). But, the people I’ve talked to through email have been nice so far, and…

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