owilder

[owilder]

Please forgive me for ranting, but...I am so tired of AI. Just so tired. I don't want Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini, or Meta AI, or whatever other energy-sucking, water-wasting, mediocrity-spewing LLM is currently being thrust upon me. I just want to be left alone to create in peace.

[owilder]

Absolutely dumb 🤣

[owilder]

“Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter’s tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end.”

— The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie (b. 19 June 1947)

[owilder]

I just finished Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano, a heartbreaking story narrated to God by eleven-year-old Luz through her deck of Lotería cards piecing together her trauma over a violent family tragedy. It is a beautifully told story; Luz's voice is as vivid as a real child's. Although painful and tragic, it is not devoid of hope. Zambrano's debut novel is like La Rosa, a beautiful narrative blooming among the thorns.

[owilder]

Every book is a learning experience. What I learned from Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea is that Chelsea Handler is not funny. Now I need vodka....

[owilder]

A third of the way through my first June read: Humming Bridge by Jacqueline Cayer Nelson McDonald. I thoroughly enjoyed The Paper Route, and its sequel is so far so promising. Precocious Jackie and her ability to determine good from bad people by their auras is always a treat - even if murder does seem to follow her everywhere she goes.

[owilder]

“Jillian, get me the sun,” Cassie commanded. “I want it.” She leaned back and waited. When her demand was not met, she called out, “Joel! Get me the sun! Joel!” The sun remained in the sky. They were ignoring her again. Cassie began pounding her fists on the ground, crying, “Mummy! Daddy! Joel and Jillian won’t get me the sun! I want it! The sun! The sun! I want the sun!”

      What do you want it for? asked someone from somewhere.

      “I want to wear it in my hair,” answered Cassie dreamily, staring longingly into the sun, “because it’s the same colour.” The stars and the sun were vibrating, and their vibrations sounded the name CASSIE just for her. How do they know it’s my birthday? she marvelled.

      HAPPY BIRTHDAY! trumpeted a voice from above or below or maybe beside her, Cassie could not tell.

      Cassie knit her brows, confused. But it’s not my birthday. My birthday was two months ago. On the fourph. No, that sounded wrong. She mouthed the word “fourth,” but it came out the same way. The stars had stopped dancing and now swam around the sun, a school of fish in an ocean of sky, swimming around a blazing orb of coral. Then the stars were fish, and the sun was coral, and Cassie was peering at them through the clear glass of her mother’s aquarium at the old house. Cassie knew it was the old house because she could see her reflection in the glass – a small child of six or seven clutching a capless permanent marker in her little hand, several more markers littering the carpet by her bare feet. She was drawing a scrawling mosaic of herself and her family and a family of seals all riding a colossal ocean wave on surfboards on the glass of massive aquarium.

Today is indeed the "fourph," so Happy Birthday to Cassie, one of the protagonists of my upcoming fantasy series, The Crimson Realm! In honour of the occasion, here is an out of context excerpt featuring my golden-haired girl from Book the First: Chapter the Fifteenth: Old Demons. Happy Fourph!

[owilder]

A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch by Kashiwaba Hiro is a short series at only five volumes. This is certainly a shame since the manga's deepest issues lie in lack of development, an issue which could have found remedy in having twice as many volumes. The world-building, the magic system, the main conflict between heroes and villains, all are underdeveloped and, in the case of the latter, was not built up enough to build tension or leave an impact. That said, the characters at least are fun, the humour is enjoyable enough, and the art is delightful if not a bit generic. If you're not a heavy reader of isekai, as I'm not, or you are just really enamoured with the idea of a cat getting isekai-ed to a fantasy world where it's the size of a dragon, then it's a delightful waste of time. Otherwise, it may be a bit of a let down.

[owilder]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[owilder]

"this is DEFINITELY written by AI, I can tell because it uses the writing quirks that AI uses (because it was trained on real people who write with those quirks)"

c'mon dudes we have got to do better than this

[owilder]

BECAUSE I ALREADY WROTE IT BITCH.

WHY ARENT YOU WRITING BITCH

[owilder]

Blood on the Tracks by Shuzo Oshimi

Holy hell is this manga a dark and unsettling trip. Following fourteen-year-old Seiichi after he witnesses his mother shoving his cousin off a cliff, this manga spirals deeper and deeper into the true psychological horror of mental and emotional abuse at the hands of a parent. Blood on the Tracks is not for the faint of heart; but it is well-worth the read for those who don't mind the depressing and disturbing. There are seventeen volumes total, so it's not a particularly long series to devote your time and money (or library card) to.

[owilder]

In honour of my completion of The Crimson Realm's second draft and commencement of the third and final, I thought I'd share a snippet from the epilogue, entitled Family:

Chleo reached out her hand and touched her reflection in the mirror. She stood, watching her hair change style and colour over and over again; her skin darkening, lightening, and darkening again; her bone structure shifting; her eyes changing shape and size and colour; her ears shortening, lengthening, growing pointy; her breasts flattening against her chest only to sprout again in one size after another. Reflections of every conceivable race and gender stared back at her. Tears formed in every eye and streamed down every cheek. None of them could grant what she wanted most of all, and what she wanted more than anything in any world was not to want any more. A feral scream broke free of her ribcage, and, seizing a statue of Buddha’s triumph over Mara, hurled it at the mirror. With a thunderous crash, fragments of the mirror cascaded onto the carpet in a waterfall of glass, and Chleo fell wailing to her knees.

(All work related to The Crimson Realm are copyright O. Wilder and are timestamped to prove ownership. Do not repost.)

[owilder]

The second draft is officially finished, and the third and final draft commencing within the next few weeks. We're almost there, loves.

The Crimson Realm: Series the First: Chronicles of League the Second: Book the First: A New World

Synopsis: Nine children from eight countries find themselves transported to a strange new world. There, they are all contacted by an entity they dub, simply, Anonymous, instructing them to travel halfway across this new world to meet with him. The children follow the instructions in the hope that Anonymous can lead them home. Along the way, they try to solve the mystery surrounding their transportation and the newfound abilities each of them seems to have developed since landing on the Crimson Realm. But when a sinister figure announces himself as the children’s purpose on this world, there could be more to it all than any of them could have imagined.

Progress: 17 chapters complete - 6 or 7 chapters remaining

This novel (with its future sequels), without exaggeration, has been 21 years in progress. I developed the concept and the characters back when I was thirteen, and seeing it come closer and closer to fruition gives me life.

(All work related to The Crimson Realm are copyright O. Wilder and are timestamped to prove ownership. Do not repost.)

[owilder]

If you write with ai it's not writing and you're not a writer hope that helps

[owilder]

Got about halfway through Feral Creatures before realising it's a sequel. The sequel was so good, I ordered the first book straight away, my first book of May for a double dose of apocalyptic fiction led by a Cheeto-addicted crow.

[owilder]

Explaining to my Australian ex that ice cream trucks are in fact real and not made up for television.