Matt Weber's Blog, page 7

Another page written

This has been a long time coming.

Not sure what to do next. There’s obviously a huge edit in my future, but I think I may need to do a little foundational work on the next book and maybe review the previous one before I start on that. If I had a ready short story idea, I’d think about spending a couple of weeks on that, but I don’t (yet?).

Probably the right thing is to take the rest of the week off writing and have a look at the Trello board that has all the things that could use doing. We’ll see.

Currently reading: TALTOS, by Steven Brust.

Work week 2023-05-08

Maker: HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT; I truly believe this is the last week ha ha ha oh god

Manager: NA

Marketer: This week will be 3 months from WINDBURN WHIPLASH’s half-birthday; I should start drafting a promotion plan. Also maybe try an “inputs” post for a potential weekly thing.

Missed last week’s work week post due to the newsletter, which goes out tomorrow. If you’re not currently subscribed, here’s last month’s. Representative quote:

I’ve earned a few hours of massacring pixel art milk demons at the Dairy Plant. Right? That’s how this works? 

This week’s featured image is the kind of things friends send me over WhatsApp.

Currently reading: NIMONA, by N. D. Stevenson.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

More like a universal coupling

I’m a casual coder but the above is pretty straightforward.

Except the extract step. This is tedious. It’s a few days of writing fiddly code to catch all the different ways that guests might be listed, or how show notes might be written.

OR:

It occurred to me… why not just give this to OpenAI’s GPT-3?

So that’s what I did. It took 20 minutes to write the integration, then I left the code running overnight. It costs me pennies per inference so I’ve replaced a few days of boring graft with $30 on my credit card.

And this is interesting right?

I’ve been used to thinking about generative AI and LLMs (language models) as smart autocomplete.

But this is more like a universal coupling.

Matt Webb, via Robin Sloan

As someone whose day job is largely “the extract step,” this is pretty interesting to me. I can’t be throwing my raw data at any cloud-based OpenAI tool, though — a lot of it contains identifying information or free-text fields that could contain identifying information — and my employer isn’t going to be spinning up a local instance of ChatGPT, I don’t think. Maybe they should?

My less inspired use case for an LLM (huggingface’s new OpenAssistant) was summarizing intervention research on juvenile detention alternatives. Unlike Matt Webb, I got absolute garbage. Maybe the key insight here is that, despite my fashionable skepticism, I’ve been taken in by the sparkle of premium mediocre prose just as badly as any OpenAI stan; if I’m serious about actually making use of these things, I need to look for applications that are closer to the metal. Which is a weird thing to think about an algorithm that famously can’t do arithmetic; but 2023 is nothing if not weird.

… that link to “premium mediocre” is worth reading in its entirety, by the way. And arguably the colonization of the “premium mediocre” tier in Venkat’s “American Class System 2017” pyramid is a pretty good descriptor of what we’re worried about ChatGPT doing; humanity can no longer just settle for doing better than APIs, we also have to compete with the automation of soulless corporate American prose and bad, unfunny impressions (click to page 4 and check out ChatGPT’s attempt at “the style of J. R. R. Tolkien,” which proves beyond a doubt that the whiz kids at Booz Allen are way too busy Thought Leading to actually read Tolkien).

Currently listening: DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK, by Paul Tremblay, read by Erin Bennett.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.

Work week 2023-04-24

Maker: HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT, when will it end

Manager: Reset BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM to free on all Amazon storefronts (this is done, I’m just giving myself credit)

Marketer: Usual low-intensity blogging activity.

My PhD advisor’s memorial was this weekend; it was more affecting than I expected, and much less awkward, and there was some truly wonderful catching up with folks I haven’t seen in years. Selfishly, it’s also done, which is a load off. Hopefully I can put the extra bandwidth to good use?

This week’s image is a table setting from the memorial.

Currently reading: WITCH KING sneak preview, by Martha Wells.

Brust incoming

I think in like January I’d resolved to start a Vlad Taltos reread in maybe March to prepare for this. I’m not ready!

For the uninitiated: I picked up JHEREG, the first volume of the Vlad Taltos books, in probably 1992 from a used bookstore that used to be on Witherspoon Street in Princeton, whose existence I’d forgotten about until literally now. Steven Brust has been putting them out slowly but steadily for the last 40 years or so; I believe he’s on book 16 of a planned 19? They follow the assassin Vlad Taltos, a weak and short-lived Easterner in a world of powerful and long-lived Dragaerans, through various adventures within and eventually outside of the criminal underworld of Adrilankha, where he holds a bought title in the noble house that does all the organized crime. These are slim, witty, tricky books; they operate decently on their own, but together they build up into an immersive and fascinating world.

I won’t do anything as gauche as count the number of these that have come out since A DANCE WITH DRAGONS except who am I kidding, of course I will; TSALMOTH makes three.

I can’t in good conscience recommend you start with the sixteenth book in a four-decade-running fantasy series, but I would absolutely recommend you pick up Volume 1, JHEREG, from your retailer of choice. (The linked book is actually the first three Vlad Taltos books, JHEREG, YENDI, and TECKLA, bound together; that won’t steer you wrong either.)

Currently listening: DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK, by Paul Tremblay, read by Erin Bennett.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

Work week 2023-04-17

Maker: Continue conclusion of HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT.

Manager: NA

Marketer: Continue throwing up blog posts.

Going to be a light week because I’m co-organizing a memorial for my late Ph.D. advisor on Saturday. Also because the kids are back from California and still adjusting to Eastern time. Bedtime last night was very bad, but tonight they fell asleep pretty quickly… probably because they didn’t get enough sleep last night.

This week’s image is what happened when my local writing group heard stories about me medicating an anxious bird. Apparently one of the members has joined the beta of some new AI image generator, and they needed some prompts…

Currently listening: SURVIVE THE NIGHT, by Riley Sager, read by Savannah Gilmore.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.

Toil & trouble

Tor has released a free sneak peek of Martha Wells’ upcoming book, WITCH KING.

This is mostly interesting inasmuch as free samples are much more of an indie author thing than a traditional publishing thing. (I have many.) But Tor has made it work with the Locked Tomb trilogy and seems to be trying it again. I absolutely bought GIDEON THE NINTH on the strength of the two-chapter excerpt on tor.com. Martha Wells is different from Tamsyn Muir, of course — she’s got a deep fantasy backlist, but really broke with the Murderbot books, which are science fiction. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out. (I haven’t yet finished the preview of WITCH KING, but I will!)

Currently reading: THE NIGHT EATERS vol. 1: SHE EATS THE NIGHT, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

Two angles on resistance

Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business. When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.

THE WAR OF ART, by Steven Pressfield

… for me, working with the creative process is very much about acceptance and a two-way dynamic with you. And when resistance rises, it’s got something to share with you. Similarly, with cancer, that was the way I treated it, and that was what worked for me.

So, asking questions like, why is this here? What is it saying that I need to know? And working with it and not against it.

The Irish poet, Mary O’Malley, she has a great line, what’s in the way is the way. So, recognizing the resistance, recognizing that it’s there for a reason, and instead of trying to cut it away, listening to what it’s trying to tell you.

“The Seven Signs of Publishing Resistance,” Orna Ross

Currently reading: BIG HARD SEX CRIMINALS Vol. 1, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.

Work week 2023-04-10

Maker: Continue finishing draft of HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT.

Manager: NA

Marketer: I definitely have a few blog posts in the queue; this would be a good week to post them.

Between the newsletter and sending the spouse and kids off on spring break last week, I didn’t do a work week post. (Not that you missed it.) But it would have looked a lot like this one. I probably need to do some more detailed quarterly planning; whether it’s public or not is a different issue. But I really don’t want to put a lot of mental energy into anything until HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT has a draft.

This week’s featured image is from my rearguard duties; in exchange for a week and a half of the Bachelor Lifestyle I need to make sure certain especially important stuffies are well taken care of. This photo was my proof of life. (The stuffies’ life. My life is mainly important inasmuch as I am able to continue reading THE BFG to the younger kids over Faceytalk. Er, FaceTime.)

Currently reading: NOVELIST AS A VOCATION, by Haruki Murakami.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

The best fantasy novels that reimagine society

In my continued efforts to rediscover the Internet of the aughts, I bring you: A listicle.

“The best fantasy novels that reimagine society” is a thing I was approached to write by the folks at Shepherd, which I mentioned on Monday is a collection of themed book recommendations by authors. (I leave the categorization highlighted in the featured image as an exercise to the reader.) I think I expressed the basic idea for the list pretty well in my intro:

Science fiction is rightly famous for experimenting with new and strange social worlds, but fantasy tends to fall back on the usual feudal tropes: the whims of kings, the valor of knights, the always-temporary powerlessness of farm boys, the technicalities of succession. Which is a shame, because fantasy provides just as much opportunity to reimagine what society could look like.

The theme is of course meant to evoke BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, a link to which you’ll see before things get listicular in earnest.

Shepherd is a really interesting idea in book marketing for the post-social-media world, or at least for those of us trying to carve a post-social-media hidey-hole out of the world that is the case. It functions as a curator by borrowing the authority of authors, a marketing channel by lending those authors its own authority, and as a set of micro-recommendation engines by providing several “if you liked X then you’ll like Y” links with each post. And of course, since any given book might appear in multiple posts, you can think of the entire thing as inducing a network data structure that might power a much larger recommendation engine, which has to be part of the point. Whether deliberately proffered recommendations beat the preferences “revealed” from purchasing data exhaust is another interestingly turn-back-the-clock kind of confrontation, and I’ll be fascinated to see how it plays out.

… I got a little bit meta here because that’s how my brain works, and also because I’m bored of my own tastes; the books and authors appearing on my listicle are of course all at or near the pinnacle of literature in my weird estimation, which makes their inclusion almost painfully predictable if you’ve known me for five minutes. (Wolfe? Surely not Gene Wolfe?) But, of course, there are people on the Internet who haven’t known me for five minutes! So I will link to my listicle of fantasy books one more time and encourage those people to check it out. If you see anything you like, after all, you might like BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM.

Currently listening: JADE CITY, by Fonda Lee, read by Andrew Kishino.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.