Kit Walker's Blog, page 9

Runners

It’s the end of the fiscal year. Hunting season has begun.

Ultimately, it all kicked off with the invention of the “workplace transparency plan.” As ad revenue stagnated, social platforms instead offered corporate clients access to their employees’ private messages. For a small subscription fee, employers could learn who their workers were communicating with and retaliate as they saw fit.

Within months, an entire industry of talent recruiters found themselves stonewalled by a terrified workfor...

yeah, no fucking shit

And in September 2019, Amazon announced a deal with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who had just swept up six Emmys for the second season of Fleabag. The plan was for Waller-Bridge to collaborate with Donald Glover on a Mr. and Mrs. Smith series, based on the 2005 film. But within a few months, Waller-Bridge departed the show due to clashing creative styles.

This is, by far, the funniest thing to come out of The Hollywood Reporter's article on Amazon Studios. Even funnier than the revelation that their L...

how to prevent amazon from ruining your life

(a.k.a. how to sell ebooks on places that aren’t Kindle)

Let’s face it, Amazon has a history of screwing people over. Especially those people who depend on Amazon to make a living. If you sell ebooks on Kindle and you want to insulate yourself from whatever raw deal those maniacs come up with next, you should make sure your ebook is also being sold elsewhere. And by “elsewhere” I mean “everywhere.”

Please note: following this guide will make you ineligible for KDP Select. If you’re mostly depe...

Possession

In the dark of night, a small rowboat bobbed across the bay toward the merchant ship Dominion.

Found adrift that morning, the Dominion had been quarantined by Saintstown’s port authority and towed to a safe anchor point far from the city’s docks. To a certain element among the citizenry, this was just barely a deterrent. To others, it was practically an invitation.

The rowboat came to a stop alongside the ship, and two figures clambered up the side of the hull. First on deck was Eli, a reedy m...

Contactless

This story previously appeared in Volume I of the Capital City Press Anthology .

Drive to the corner of 104th and 104th. Enter the parking lot next to the arena.

Park next to the dumpsters. Behind them is a service door marked “NO ENTRY.” It’s unlocked; go through it.

Follow the hallway until you reach the door at the very end. Don’t look behind you.

Whisper your most dangerous secret. The door will open.

The room on the other side is dark. Don’t turn on the light—you won’t like what you see.

Take exac...

here we fucking go

Clarkesworld Magazine, for those unaware, is a publisher of short science fiction and fantasy that is usually open to unsolicited submissions year-round. As of yesterday, they've had to close submissions indefinitely due to a deluge of (allegedly) AI-generated spam.

This looks to be an automated riff on the ol' spam audiobook grift, as explained by Dan Olson here. By using AI, today's grifter can eliminate the (already low) cost of hiring a gig economy ghostwriter. And rather than spam Amazon and...