#21 California
I went to California which was a discombobulating combination of wonderful time with old friends discussing tough decisions, amazing swims in the huge Pacific surf, and houses decorated with either the most enormous American flags or the most elaborate Hallowe’en decorations ever seen. I was in Orange County and yet I didn’t eat a single orange. So disappointing. But we did go see One Battle After Another which has got to be the most enjoyable movie I’ve seen since… well… since ages. Best line? ‘Why is your t-shirt so tight?’ Sums up so much about life today.
In other news, I’m currently waiting. For my lovely editor Melanie Tutino at Doubleday in Toronto to finish her second round of edits on my new novel, The Recent Dead. For my children’s book, The Park Next Door, which will be published in 2027 by Tradewind Books out of Vancouver - I’m waiting to have a first look at the illustrations next month. At the uni I’m waiting for two of my PhD students to finish their PhDs, and I’m waiting for the research councils to announce their next rounds of creative industries funding. Luckily, I’m very good at waiting. It’s my special skill.
On tech: it seems like we are going to have to adopt the hideous portmanteau word, ‘createch’ instead of stumbling over and mispronouncing ‘creative technologies’. Brrr. On the AI front, the company Anthropic was forced to disclose the titles of all the copyright-protected books they had ‘injested’ into their LLM. It includes two of my novels, and three editions of each of those books, i.e. UK, US, or Canada, paperback, hardcover, etc. I’ve registered my … outrage? … lack of surprise? … sense of impending doom? … with the appropriate authorities and have added the outcome of the settlement to the list of things for which I am waiting. If you are a writer take a look here to see if your books have also been injested.
Personally, while travelling I injested David Szalay’s Flesh which is a remarkable book, a whole-life novel about a man buffeted by life and women which reminded me of my own novel, Forest Green, which very few people read but I maintain is worth injesting. Szalay’s book is on the Booker Prize shortlist. I also read Liane Moriarity’s hugely entertaining Here One Moment which is a cheery book about death, also worth injesting.
Thanks for reading. Happy October!