Recent content by The Dark One

You're muddying the water Skip. We're not debating whether AI has positive applications or whether it's all-pervading and here to stay. We (some of us) are simply saying it has no place in literature.

All of which is to trot out the old argument that there's nothing wrong with guns, it's the maniacs that misuse them which is the problem. AI is just a tool and of course it's how it is used which is potentially the problem, but in a way it's worse than guns because guns don't appropriate the...

And let's not forget that using AI is actually stealing from real authors whose works are being scraped for machine inspiration.

I used to have this fantasy (before I'd ever finished a ms) that I could just snap my fingers and a hard copy of my book would suddenly appear on the shelves. Then years later, once I'd actually finished a draft novel for the first time, I was exhilarated ... absolutely joyous that I had...

Yes that's exactly what I do.

I have numerous times sprayed wine or coffee over my keyboard when reading something amusing.

I do that to my wife all the time when I want to leave. It goes without saying that she either ignores or whacks me.

Purple prose doesn't have to be bad prose. Done well, in the right context, it can be fun and even quite literary but it requires the right voice and a lot of finesse. If you overreach you can stumble (and look a berk) but if you can achieve that voice and finesse, in the right context, you can...

For me the key defining characteristic of fantasy is that the supernatural is possible. That can happen in any setting - which is why urban fantasy is a thing and also sci-fi / fantasy blends (like Star Wars). All you have to do is build your world consistently (unlike Tolkien, who refers to...

Exactly. People in stories make choices that (most) people IRL wouldn't dare.

As a person who's had a few books published I get asked for advice all the time - which I'm happy to give - but I always draw the line when people ask me to read their stuff and give feedback. Partly, because I have agreed to read stuff in the past and it was pretty much crap across the board...

Way too much of a vague generalisation for me. Where's his evidence? I would have thought that we novelists (presumably with imagination) can only thrive in a world where the majority have less imagination and want access to our stories.

In real life, every second kid (in Australia at least) has a weird made-up name. Life imitates art once again.

You accept a talking sponge but draw the line at a submarine squirrel? Okay...

An error I didn't realise until after publication (pointed out by a reader) was that I had bluebells flowering in the wrong month. Pesky readers notice everything.