Juliet E McKenna

I write epic and contemporary fantasy novels along with all sorts of varied shorter fiction - SF, Steampunk, Dark Fantasy. She/her. All opinions I post here are absolutely my own. You can find out a whole lot more at julietemckenna.com

Last Notes

2026-08-29 13:15:12 CEST

"Sharp rise in incidents of AI escaping users’ control" says the newspaper article?
Journalists really need to stop describing these incidents in terms implying software has agency and intent. It does not. The people who created a faulty and dangerous product are the ones responsible for whatever happens, and must be held to account, with punitive financial penalties for damage done.
This framing also offers plausible deniability to those with deliberate malicious intent.

2026-08-26 13:14:40 CEST

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'question' #BookQW #BookSky
Dan Mackmain wants to know why he's been sent to Ireland. He's careful not to give anything away while he searches for answers.
Visit Wizard's Tower Press for UK and international retailer buying links.
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-juliet-e-mckenna/the-green-mans-debt/
#Books #SFF #Fantasy #UrbanFantasy
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/117/161/514/042/050/808/original/03c13bdfa3130955.jpg

2026-01-03 11:45:59 CET

UK folk might like to watch Michael Palin's Venezuela travelogue on Channel 5's catch up service for some background round about now, or read his accompanying book - which is rather startlingly a Kindle ebook 99p deal at the moment. I have no idea when that price was set.

2025-07-22 14:29:19 CEST

So Google AI is no longer telling us Mary Shelley and Jane Austen were sisters*. That doesn't mean it's now 'right' or 'better'. It's just different, and there's no way to know why.
Has some new stolen material been uploaded? Given how widely this nonsense was shared and mocked, was there some manual intervention?
Whatever has happened, a source that cannot be verified or or relied on to remain consistent is useless.
1/2

2025-01-25 15:45:02 CET

Fascinating article.
Basement adventures showed me why ChatGPT can only ever be garbage.
https://buttondown.com/surekhadavies/archive/basement-adventures-showed-me-why-chatgpt-can/
"I revised and re-wrote chapters MANY times. I consulted a lot of materials that weren’t maps, compared books and prints to the maps, and only then figured out what the maps meant. There were lots of rabbit-holes, many of them with cool treasure at the end ... If you ask gen AI to give you a draft, or “inspiration” (seriously?), or content, this is not what you get. "
#writing

2024-11-21 10:30:44 CET

Your reminder that legislation to curb the rights of trans people to use restrooms or do anything else means everyone's behaviour, clothing etc will be opened up to intrusive and unwanted scrutiny and potential challenge in our daily lives.
This is not a 'them' issue. Trans rights are human rights.

2024-08-28 10:52:08 CEST

On Bluesky, author Hal Duncan writes "the non-gendered term Author's Pet is perfectly fine for a protagonist who has the entire reality of the novel warped around them to lavish this vehicle of vicarious gratification with unearned adoration at the expense of credibility and any consideration, on the author's part, of other characters."
Decoupling the self-insert issues around Author's Pet writing from the sexist subtext of the original term 'Mary Sue' is an excellent idea.
#writing