Jo Miles

An EXCELLENT reason never to use AI tools in your writing. It doesn't just change HOW you express yourself, it can prompt you to change what you mean in the first place.
What I'm suggesting is: you should not be using Grammarly.

Grammarly Is Offering ‘Expert’ AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.

“Instead of producing what looks like a generic critique from a nameless LLM,” Wired reported last week, Expert Review “lists a number of real academics and authors available to weigh in on your text. To be clear: Those people have nothing to do with this process.”🤬

Me: What a beautiful day!
My allergies: Sure is!

Author's hand holding a paperback of Tea & Treachery at the Infinite Pantry in front of a bookshelf

Loooooook what just arrived! It's a real book, you guys!!!

(ebooks are real books too, I love ebooks, but literally nothing beats holding the paper book in your hands)

Elizabeth Sampat @twoscooters Follow I don't wish we could abolish gender, I just wish it were less an identity and more of a hobby. So you'd get people who are like "Oh yeah, l'm a woman when I have the time," or "I'm a man but I'm not very good at it yet" along with the CrossFit gender types who are SUPER INTO IT

A friend just saw this in the wild and you know what? I stand by it

Stickers!!! Get em while they're hot!

A digital drawing of author Maia Kobabe, a white nonbinary person with short brown hair wearing a patterned blue shirt, who scowls while holding up a copy of eir book GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR. Maia is saying: H.R. 7661 is a national book banning bill which seeks to remove any book that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism" from all public schools in the US. This would ban my books, and any other book with trans themes, from public schools. PLEASE call your House Reps and say: NO ON H.R. 7661!

H.R. 7661 is a national book banning bill which seeks to remove any book that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism" from all public schools in the US. This would ban all my books, & any other book with trans themes, from public schools. PLEASE call your House Reps & say: NO ON H.R. 7661!

Gotcha. I hope you like it!

Compared to my other books: the Brennex and Infinite Pantry series (first book comes out in April!) have loads of openly queer characters and relationships that you could put labels on. Yeneh, not so much. Any queerness in it is subtler.

Though, Yeneh IS about nature, and nature is queer AF.

Good question, and... it's complicated? To me it is, but more in vibes than specifics, if that makes sense. It has a M/F nonromantic friendship, bucking family expectations, and weird alien plants, and I think queer readers will love it -- but it's not what you'd expect from a "lgbtq book".

There are a number of organizations already assisting trans folks leave hostile and dangerous parts of the U.S. for areas somewhat more welcoming/protective.

In Colorado there is the Trans Continental Pipeline.

tcpipeline.org

On the cozier side:

A House Between Sea and Sky by @bethcato.bsky.social - magic sourdough starter meets Russian folklore in California. Sweet queer friendship.

Witch You Would by @liaamador.bsky.social - fun contemporary fantasy, romance complicated by secret identities at a magic competition

Love this idea! Some of mine:

Skullrunner by @vyvre-argent.bsky.social - Dead gods, weird magic, rebel pirates, queer as in "fuck the system"

Sargassa by @sophieburnham.bsky.social - Historians as heroes, recovering lost ancient tech, Rome-inspired world, much pining and adventure

I talk more about the cover and the story, and share a little sneak peek, in my newsletter: jomiles.optin.com/newsletter/a...

The conflation of porn and LGBTQ (but specifically trans) issues is purposeful. It's part of the Project 2025 plan to criminalize LGBTQ+ ppl.

It starts with books. It moves to bathrooms. Then it moves to govt IDs. We're in it already.

You don't need to be an expert to see where this goes next.

Don't be fooled by this bill's name-- this is a book banning bill that will exclude LGBTQ books from all public schools NATIONWIDE.

Call your congresspeople and tell them to VOTE NO on this nakedly bigoted book banning bullshit.

www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

Did you try applying cheese to your problems? 10/10 recommend.

The Final Chronicle of Yeneh is an amazing, must-read novella— grippingly fast-paced and tense, yet filled with the bittersweet joys of remembered childhood magic. It will leave you wanting to hug your local native plants while gazing upward at the stars. -M. E. Garber, author

I'm so gratified by all the folks who've had wonderful things to say abt advance copies of The Final Chronicle of Yeneh. Here's one: M.E. Garber kindly beta read a draft, and immediately asked if she could read and blurb the final. 💜

Preorder it here! hornedlarkpress.com/product/the-...

Thank YOU, Kim! I love how it came out!

Shiny!

I've gotten to read an early copy of this and highly commend it. Do go and preorder it and help spread the world. It's boldly anticolonial and an interesting swirl of portal fantasy into a science fiction story.

Coming July 7. Preorder now! Book cover for The Final Chronicle of Yeneh by Jo Miles, a sci-fi adventure blended with a portal fantasy: A tree-like alien creature looks over its shoulder at the reader while running away, framed by thorny vines and metal barriers

Preorders are live for The Final Chronicle of Yeneh! Part portal fantasy, part sci-fi adventure, all heart.

Think Narnia in space. If you love Narnia but wonder why they needed four British children to rule them after deposing the evil queen, this one's for you.

hornedlarkpress.com/product/the-...

Thanks! Doesn't it just nail it?

Oh no! I have complicated feelings about that hotel -- lots of nostalgia and good times, also lots of freezing my butt off in those panel rooms! -- but I hope Balticon doesn't get disrupted in May.

And you can preorder it now, in ebook and hardcover!

You'll get a discount, plus a free sticker and other goodies, if you order the hardcover direct from the publisher @hornedlarkpress.com: hornedlarkpress.com/product/the-...

It's HEEEEERE!!! Look at this cover. Isn't it beautiful? @kiwifruitbird.bsky.social's art just brilliantly captures the yeheneh (the "fantasy" beings from the story-within-a-story books) and the whole vibe.

Thanks, Amanda! That's amazing company to be in

A birth announcement for a book! Including the book cover, the size of the book (14 by 12) and weight of book (567 grams). There are faint, blue starts surrounding the book which is displayed against a light blue, watercolour background.

A.D. Sui (caucasian person with short, brown hair) is wearing a grey top coat and jeans, pointing to The Iron Garden Sutra on a bookstore bookshelf and smiling.

and we're live, folks!

THE IRON GARDEN SUTRA is now out everywhere books are sold! if you pre-ordered a copy, you should be receiving it soon (or already have) and if not, it's not too late to purchase the yellowest book in all of history!

I don’t think people understand what’s this means: MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ARE BLOCKING ALL WHEELCHAIRS, WALKERS, CANES, INSULIN PUMPS, GLUCOSE MONITORS, CPAP MACHINES, NEBULIZERS, BEDS, CRUTCHES, COMODE CHAIRS, BED SORE PRESSURE PADS, CHAIR LIFTS, OXYGEN TANKS, BREATHING EQUIPMENT, to name a few.

Wow! So close, too.

you'll feel a lot better about splurging a hundred bucks at a craft fair knowing you're supporting the people you face who care about their product and make good stuff vs buying a bunch of junk at the mall or online