James Latimer

@jameslatimer.bsky.social

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Recovering writer. Weltschmerz enthusiast. He/him.

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James Latimer

Factoid doesn't mean little fact, it means erroneous fact that is repeated so often that it is believed to be true so the idea that factoid just means a little fact is itself a factoid

okay it's time for a prompt post: respond to this post with a correction to a common misconception about something you know a lot about. if you feel like it, boost your response. (please use a kindly tone about it, otherwise i, your prompt curator, will get anxious.)

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Hobgoblins!

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James Latimer

I will never forget the interview, shortly after Ozy Media Inc. was formed, where Carlos Watson said he named it after the poem, because "the lesson you take from [Ozymandias] is that you have to dream big." So that's why liberal arts education is important.

I should give an author the benefit of the doubt on research for a historical setting, especially one so specific, but when what's portrayed doesn't match my expectation or experience - especially in areas where I feel I gave some - nothing jolts me out of a story quicker.

I still say this would have been an excellent fit for the Ursula K LeGuin Prize for Fiction, but what do I know. Plenty of good books nominated, I'm sure...

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James Latimer

OK. Real talk time UK peeps. It's been a few days. I think we can assume the post-election hangovers have ended for the new government. So NOW is the time to be writing to your MP asking them to be progressive about Trans rights. 1/x

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James Latimer

Belated post to say I finally read Chandrasekera’s Saint of Bright Doors and loved it. V smart take on legacies of empire as filtered through a south Asian family saga / fantasy story that refuses the usual tropes. Recommended.

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James Latimer

In the UK, library memberships and check outs also lead to increased funding, and authors get paid for library checkouts, too! Libraries ROCK.

If you want access to free books, please get a library card. In the US, the more people there are with library cards, the more funding libraries have access to. Libraries provide more than books. They are a community resource. As an author and reader, I support libraries! #books #libraries

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James Latimer

eg: here are 6 US Kindle copies of @kbspangler.com's STONESKIN, which is one of my favorite books, and which I've given away more copies of than any other book. It is YA-suitable, and is extremely Andre Norton-esque, so read it, or find other people to read it. #KindleBookGiveaway

Also, many generous people give away ebooks for free using this tag!

I'm gonna leave the typo in because it adds authenticity.

"No wonder Britain has a housing problem if they're letting artists tear the facade's off perfectly good housing stock just for art!"

It's 2014; we're reading discourse about ebook piracy on Facebook It's 2017; we're reading discourse about ebook piracy on Reddit It's 2020: we're reading discourse about ebook piracy on Twitter It's 2024; we're reading discourse about ebook piracy on BlueSky

Oh great, the Tolkien lecture I was looking forward to has just popped up on YouTube...but I have no desire to watch it now for some reason.

I'm going to have to mute WorldCon posts, aren't I. 😥

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James Latimer

Back in 2016, I dealt with my stress over politics by writing my frothy feminist romantasy novella Snowspelled. From now until the end of tomorrow, in hopes that that kind of escape might help you, too, you can download Snowspelled for free at this link: bookhip.com/GHSMPAB

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James Latimer

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@gavreads

Afternoon Update: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka is worthy of the Booker Prize shortlisting. Maali’s ghost is both witness and reporter of humanity’s horrors. I am left haunted. A mix of ebook & audio (narrated superbly by Shivantha Wijesinha)

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James Latimer

The defenestrate counterpart!

Epiphanies you have while stoned when you're a boring nerd like me: i literally just realized that the "limin-" in "liminal" is the same as the "-limin-" in "eliminate". So "eliminate" literally glosses as "throw out of the door."

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James Latimer

Sharing, please also share if you can

since Pamela Paul has written *yet another* anti-trans NYTimes op-ed, time for me to re-up my uber-critique of this genre of articles – no paywall, please share widely! juliaserano.medium.com/gender-affir...

Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth Is Neither New nor Experimental: A Timeline and Compilation…juliaserano.medium.com NOTE: this essay is a 15 minute read. If it’s listed as longer than that, it’s because it contains a list of over 100 references at the…

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James Latimer

Reply to

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them)

The Los Nephilim series by T Frohock is set during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate lead-up to the Second World War featuring angels and demons. The main characters are gay men. The series rocks. www.tfrohock.com/los-nefilim-...

T. Frohock — Los Nefilim dark fantasy serieswww.tfrohock.com Welcome to the world of Los Nefilim—Spanish Nephilim that possess the power to harness music and light in the supernatural war between the angels and daimons. This is a series of stand-alone novella...

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James Latimer

“The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year [adding] about 7,000,000,000 tons of [CO2] to the atmosphere yearly [making] the air a more effective blanket for the earth & to raise its temperature. The effect may in a few centuries. be considerable.” - March 1912

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James Latimer

A genuinely interesting list, not at all the far too commonly recycled 'stale, pale and male' selections. This doesn't mean it ignores the history of the genre though. We will doubtless disagree with some rankings and spot omissions according to personal preference, but worth a look regardless.

Well, well, well... Nice to be recognised, and in such august company... www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

The 75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Timewww.esquire.com See if your favorites made our expanded list.

I wish we could all just talk about books but, you know, the many-headed apocalypse and all that...

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James Latimer

I found this to be a pretty compelling summary politicsdancingxyz.substack.com/p/manufactur...

Manufacturing consentpoliticsdancingxyz.substack.com Untangling the Neil Gaiman sexual assault allegations, and the Tortoise Media investigation that is both flawed and important

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James Latimer

I talked to someone a few weeks ago who insisted that AI was good because it allowed poor, uneducated, and disabled people "to tell their own stories!" And I was just like, they can already do that None of the barriers to inclusion marginalized people face are helped by AI We can already write

It particularly drives me mad when they claim AI allows disabled people into the industry...a large % of the arts industry (like me) ARE disabled, and work as freelance creatives in large part because we aren't accommodated in 'regular' work environments. AI is taking away our only available income.

It's RIGHT NOW and I didn't hear about it until RIGHT NOW.

REMINDER this is tomorrow! It contains an one (1) me, a large bugge, and an one (1) @mattfnwallace.bsky.social , who is tiny and dainty and wee. We will be discussing war, writing, publishing, and whatever else we can think of! Free, virtual, 12 pm MT/7 pm BST! www.crowdcast.io/c/nhd6hu6mb8ay

Why leave a suitcase or two at a tourist spot and local landmark? Presumably not because you don't want them found, and what's inside discovered. Very odd.

There's a perverse irony in a bunch of people living in climates inimical to human life where they can only survive by constantly using energy, and that energy use is making that environment even more hostile year by year. It's like reverse terraforming.

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James Latimer

Today at the blog, @sillysyntax.bsky.social sits down with @princejvstin.com to tell him about her Six Books/ www.nerds-feather.com/2024/07/6-bo...

6 Books with Susan Palumbowww.nerds-feather.com Suzan Palumbo is a Trinidadian - Canadian, dark speculative fiction writer and editor. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Aurora, W...

It may be "ability-ist" and discriminate against people unwilling to put in the work, but I'm okay with that. There are probably some areas where specific AI can help disabled people but shortcutting the artistic process through digital plagiarism ain't it.

Always love it, as a disabled artist, when ai evangelists try to tell me my objection to their planet-heating plagiarism machines is ableist.

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James Latimer

OMG.