Odd Week, That

So apparently, Anthropic's AI used my collection, Live Nude Aliens and Other Stories, to train itself. Granted, it falls among a lot of texts, but it's an odd sort of compliment and an affront. In an American lawsuit, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion in damages to authors whose books they scraped from pirating sites for the purpose of training their generative. The settlement only applies to American authors, but a Canadian lawsuit may follow. My sister Jo (whose book Just Gone was also among those scraped, along with one of her academic papers) and I have both filed our names, in the event of a Canadian settlement coming through within our lifetime.

The American settlement (which would amount, reportedly, to about $3,000.00 for each book used) has already encountered obstructions.

And then there was my passing encounter with "Canada's second-greatest rapper," my online entanglement with a celebrated best-selling

Hey, kids, let's check the calendar! It's getting closer to October and Halloween in the year 2025 -- or maybe 1936. In either case, it's a good time to talk about antifascist horror. 

Antifascism themes are common in fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. Try to find a fictional dystopia that doesn't code as fascist. But antifascist horror is much more rare. Science fiction and fantasy often feature brave heroes whose triumphant victories lead their worlds to freedom, justice,

Is there much going on in the world? Probably not. I haven't been paying attention. In lieu of any actual noteworthy events going on, I am going to review another YA book I found at a library book sale for 50 cents.

The book in question is "What Waits in the Water", a 2017 young adult mystery/horror novel written by Kieran Scott. The book is set in contemporary times and follows a group of teenagers stuck in a "cabin in the woods" style scenario, with some adolescent melodrama