The Week in Review – April 27, 2025

Yesterday ended up being far too weird and exhaustapating, so I simply didn't have the spoons for blogging. As I'm writing today, it once again feels somewhat like a warzone. The mountain is burning over at the Silvermine/Tokai side, so we have choppers and spotter planes, and emergency notifications about staying off the mountain. For the most, our air has been good but now the wind has shifted, so we're starting to smell smoke. The light outside has taken on a brassy quality that triggers some vague mammalian reflex to panic. But I have faith in our firefighters and disaster management, and the fire is far away enough that I'm not concerned. 

Ghosts from my past

I've been thinking about some of my older books that came out in the 2000s and early 2010s. Particularly Raven Kin and The Guardian's Wyrd, where there is occurrence of slavery in the story. And I describe societies where this is normalised. Raven Kin specifically was set in a faux-Roman Imperial setting, where the main character is the associate of a woman who is the daughter of a slave dealer who liberates a barbarian captive, thereby inadvertently hurrying up the fall of said empire. In The Guardian's Wyrd, the main character, Jaye, does a rescue mission where he meets slaves who aren't fussed with their situation because they'd bee zicked out of worse situations on earth. Now for The Guardian's Wyrd I really feel like I need to rework that book somewhat – so I don't really promote the story much. But I'm not sure if I should take it down quite yet either, since I'm working on the sequel in fits and starts, and am thinking that when I'm ready with part two, to take book one down and smoosh both together. Then take a stronger, less measured stance from the MC's point of view. Especially considering that he's descended from people who were initially brought to the Cape as slaves. 

I need to make it quite clear – I believe slavery is abhorrent. If I write about it in my fiction, it's to highlight the awfulness of these extreme power imbalances as something that needs to be fought against tooth and nail. So when I put these themes in my novels it's to explore ideas of why it's important we should resist authoritarian regimes that disregard people's freedom – the issue of freedom being one of the most important themes in my fiction.

But that hasn't stopped me from thinking about these two books of mine and wondering if I should perhaps take down The Guardian's Wyrd for now. It's not like it's selling enough copies to warrant keeping it available. Heck, it's not even being pirated, so um, yay? I'm not mortified by the book but by the same measure, it's not exactly one that I go out of my way to recommend to others as a read. 

A few years ago when I got the rights back for Camdeboo Nights, I made the decision to not republish it myself. I instead cannibalised it for parts, so we now have Stars Don't Glitter, which is sitting with my lovely agent. I think SDG is a far tighter story that packs even more wonder and will give me far more mileage than TGW. Camdeboo Nights wasn't bad – for a novel written by a relatively inexperienced writer back in the late-2000s. But it also wasn't particularly good, if you ask me. I put too much in there that I felt would add flavour, instead of focusing on good bones. If you know, you know.

Would love to know hear your ideas about what to do with these older books.

Generative AI – it needs to be said. Again.

This week one of my clients came to me wanting to rebrand all her books with AI covers. I respectfully told her that I cannot help her – not with something that I believe is damaging the very creative industry that I rely upon for my income. I get that hiring an illustrator is expensive, but goodness gracious, you can get premade covers for as little as $99. I've seen some advertised for less. And we're talking good, quality covers that will more than sell up your novel to the right audience. Made by human beings.

This notion that we need to cut out the pesky middlemen such as artists, editors, and writers, to get to the juicy product while making huge piles of profit is so damaging to the creative process. And I'm afraid I see a greater divide between those who are chasing those profit margins vs. those of us who believe in the humanity in every step of the path to making beautiful books.

 When I appreciate art – whether it is music, a painting, sculpture, or a book – I want to feel as if I'm connecting in some way with the intentionality of the creator. We don't have that with something that is pooped out by a machine.

The bottom line is a) generative AI is built on stolen datasets, b) it's genuinely bad for the environment, and c) it's making us dumber.

Look, this is a huge discussion, but if I have to lay out the argument in very small, simple words, these are the three points I make. The next person who tells me that generative AI is "democratising art" will get a swift klap upside the head with a pap snoek. (South Africans will get that last statement.)

Robert Mapplethorpe – a mini review

A few years ago, a friend in the US made me a little happy packet with goodies in, and this wonderful large book was tucked in among all the items. At the time, my husband was still busy doing quite a bit of fetish photography, so my friend had thought we'd appreciate the book. And we did, and although I did page through the book, it went to go live on my bookshelf in the study.

Now, to rewind a smidge – I majored in photography at university, so we did at some point touch on Robert Mapplethorpe's work, and I think if we did look at some examples, they were not quite the ones that we see in this volume (!!!).  As they say, IYKYK. My suggestion is to not page through this book with anyone who is a bit sensitive about nudity and sexual imagery. 

A few years down the line, I think I have better cultural context for Mapplethorpe's work. I'm currently on a bit of a deep dive hyperfixating on Patti Smith and the milieu in which she was active, so her profound relationship with Mapplethorpe also needs to be examined. If anything, this has gotten me thinking about visual communication again, especially in terms of black-and-white photography with regards to messaging and composition. 

I started out in the dark room, and while we're spoilt for choice with our digital cameras, I do feel that we've lost something about the art of making beautiful pictures. Even the ones that come out slightly wrong.

At any rate, the essays in this book, while thought-provoking, I feel are also a bit too ... I dunno. I get impatient with folks who get all high falutin' with jargon and esoteric with how they approach descriptions of image-making. I never really was much one who was of an academic bent. But the pictures are pretty, and they are worth a hundred words.

Writing advice...

And for those who're idly curious, here's a link to a writers' workshop I hosted about worldbuilding. Enjoy!