Notices by Juliet E McKenna (julietemckenna@wandering.shop)

UK readers! There's a special offer on pre-orders of a selection of Angry Robot titles - including The Riven Kingdom - all this month over at https://Bookshop.org

Use the code LOVEBOOKSHOPS and get 10% off at the checkout

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-riven-kingdom-juliet-e-mckenna/d9492e2ce02a7039

#books #SFF #SF #Fantasy

I am one of the nearly 10,000 authors contributing our names to Don't Steal This Book; a protest launched today at the London Book Fair.

If AI developers wish to use our work in their software they can ask us for permission. If we agree, they can pay us to license it on clearly defined terms.

This is how copyright operates.

Tech companies ignoring copyright is theft. For the UK government to even consider allowing this to continue is a disgrace.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/10/thousands-authors-publish-empty-book-protest-ai-work-copyright

#books #writing

Tabletop game playing pals. Can you recommend a four player game that's focused on cooperation towards a common aim rather than doing down the other people around the table? Please and thank you.

An update from the Society of Authors on licensing deals for AI training rights currently being offered by a couple of big trad publishers.

You will be unsurprised to learn these deals are wholly inadequate on many levels, including the fact the publisher gets far too much of the cash.

https://societyofauthors.org/2025/08/07/bloomsbury-ai-deal/

#writing #books

"If generative AI could REALLY make the next GTA in 6 months with 10 staff, or write the next bestseller, or produce 10 blockbusters a day? They wouldn't be trying to sell it to YOU. They would keep it for themselves and guard it from you ferociously."

I've seen this quote without attribution a couple of times. Whoever said it, they're spot on.

A thread of book introductions, day by day. My current contemporary fantasy series is inspired by British myth & folklore. Dan Mackmain is mostly human, but he's a dryad's son, so the Green Man sends him to solve problems when the mundane and the uncanny collide. The Green Man's Heir is the first book.

#Books #Writing #SFF #SF&F #Fantasy

Every feminist I know supports their sisters, cis and trans, and their non-binary siblings, concerned with domestic violence, public safety, equal pay, employment protection, access to healthcare, and other discrimination issues. Obsessing over who uses which loo isn't feminism. It's bigotry.

Checking a reference for something, I've had occasion to reread Ursula K Le Guin's Foreword to 'Tales from Earthsea'. The following passage struck me forcefully in the light of current international events.

"Past events exist, after all, only in memory, which is a form of imagination. The event is real now, but once it's then, its continuing reality is entirely up to us, dependent on our energy and honesty.

(continues)

No bookshop can stock all titles. No bookseller can keep current with everything that's coming out. If an Amazon discount and next day delivery aren't crucial factors for you, ordering from your local bookshop helps alert staff to new publications.

I ordered this, Compendium of the Occult by Liz Williams. One of the booksellers took a look when it came in and promptly bought their own. Sometimes they've added a copy of titles I've ordered to the shop's stock.

#books

@cstross @murphyslawyer
Ooh, I'll find that web page, thanks.

On balance, I don't think HMRC would ring me to play an artificial American voice claiming I sent an official letter back unopened and legal action will follow unless I press 1 to speak to an advisor. Tax season scam.

The government apparently sees the British Library as a source of leasable data. It's a copyright deposit library. If this means wholesale redefining books, art, movies etc as 'data' handed to techbros, the creative industries and all of us working in them are screwed.

If you have not yet responded to this consultation, you have until 25th February. It's long and in many cases unclear but you can answer n/a to complex, obscure questions. Make your voice heard.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/copyright-and-artificial-intelligence

Dear romance, historical, and other novelists - people writing their own vows simply does not happen in Church of England weddings. The wording is set and it's a legal requirement.
https://www.churchofengland.org/life-events/your-church-wedding/planning-your-ceremony/wedding-vows

Now it is actually Wednesday, my apologies to anyone whom I confused yesterday with my #bookqw post. Yes, this is absolutely indicative of the way my week is going as I try to clear the work To Do list and deal with Xmas stuff.

@Dewines @GrahamDowns
In the UK, all a predatory man needs to get access to a Ladies loo is overalls, a bucket and mop.

This whole panic is as artificial and cynical as the 'predatory lesbians in changing rooms' scare of the 1980s - which I remember clearly enough to see the hate rhetoric about trans people is often word for word the same.

It's a divisive distraction being whipped up for political gain.

Your reminder that legislation to curb the rights of trans people to use restrooms or do anything else means everyone's behaviour, clothing etc will be opened up to intrusive and unwanted scrutiny and potential challenge in our daily lives.

This is not a 'them' issue. Trans rights are human rights.

This is completely brilliant.

"When you think of the English tradition of Morris dancing, you might not picture a group of young, gender non-conforming, drag kings who dress like "chimney sweeps" - but that will be because you've not seen Molly No-Mates"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c245nq3r29qo

NB a local Cotswold Morris side of breast cancer survivors perform wearing pink* and raise funds for cancer research.

(*I'm aware there's debate over campaigns using that colour - that's a separate conversation.)

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.”

You can add your name to this straightforward statement here:
https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/

Why yes, Microbloodysoft, I'm naturally delighted to spend a chunk of my busy afternoon scouring the Internet for the arcane solution to the unexpected horlicks which one of your updates has made of my printer's hitherto straightforward ability to scan documents I need for something important NOT!

I find people's 'my favourite whatever' lists interesting, but I find making these choices impossible personally.

My favourite book? Right now? Last year? Five years ago? As a kid? For plot? For character? For relaxation? For a mental challenge? OK, I've got ten titles for each category, now what?

Oh, and I've just remembered...

This does at least guarantee I'll never use these things as answers to security questions.