G'day all,
On the good news front, I am starting to see some real recovery. It's very slow and very incremental, but after months of unpleasant stasis, things are (very gradually) starting to improve. My doctors have started to pull me off some of the drug regime and I am out and about a little bit more than previous, although I still spend mos of my time resting and sleeping.
I'm not yet to the point of writing, but I am so hungry to get back to it that I can almost taste it. I still can't put a date on anything, sadly, but I will keep you updated as things (hopefully) continue to improve.
On a less pleasant note, many of you will be aware of some discussion that took place in the comments of my last update around feeding my books into a long language model to try and create new chapters. Specifically requesting they be legally distinct enough to avoid copyright issues, which itself says a lot.
The poster in question expressed dissatisfaction at the lack of content over the last few months. I've previously discussed why I haven't shut down billing this time, but to quickly recap, the technical issues surrounding a pause in billing have repeatedly proven a mess. I made at the time that there would be no new content for a while, and that has sadly turned into a much longer while than any of us wanted.
I also expressed at the time that anyone who does not want to support the Patreon during this period should not feel obligated to do so. Let me reiterate this now. I have been overwhelmed with the support that I have gotten during this tough time, be it ongoing Patreon support or the amazing gifts and letters I've received. Thank you so much. But please feel no obligation to keep paying if you don't want to. The books are still selling and I'll do just fine with keeping the lights on.
Now to the issue of AI. To be absolutely clear, using my books for any AI related purpose is not permitted. Not by me and not by my publishers. No one has any permission to feed my books into an AI model. I realise that I am essentially powerless to stop anyone from doing exactly that, so all I can do is tell you that I don't appreciate it, even while recognising that someone who feels entitled to do this will not care. If you have to tell the AI to dodge copyright restrictions, then it is obvious that what you're doing is wrong.
I would also like to thank those in the comments who made clear that they share my views on this issue and are against taking my work unauthorised and using it to churn out AI slop. Time and again, this community has demonstrated that it is full to the brim with wonderful, caring people. Thank you all for being so outstanding.
-Shirt