Dr Meg Caddy
@megcaddy.bsky.social
Author of Waer (2016), Devil's Ballast (2019), Slipping the Noose (2022). DnD geek. Solo parent. Ace, nb. She/they.
Pinned
Dr Meg Caddy
@megcaddy.bsky.social
· Mar 13
It's been a long road, but I just signed a contract with UQP for the publication of my YA historical fiction, A Flash in the Dust!
Deep in Pendle Witch country for research. Days are long and beautiful. Pages and pages of notes, hundreds of photos. Pestering everyone in Lancashire for information. I can hardly believe I get to do this.
July 7, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Deep in Pendle Witch country for research. Days are long and beautiful. Pages and pages of notes, hundreds of photos. Pestering everyone in Lancashire for information. I can hardly believe I get to do this.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
REMEMBER: All the "Don't use em-dashes" "don't use rule of three" advice because it makes your writing "look like AI" is because they stole actual writers work, and their "predict the next thing" stuff just simulates what WE FUCKING DO. Keep writing well. Use every style and trick you have. Fuck AI.
July 3, 2025 at 7:43 PM
REMEMBER: All the "Don't use em-dashes" "don't use rule of three" advice because it makes your writing "look like AI" is because they stole actual writers work, and their "predict the next thing" stuff just simulates what WE FUCKING DO. Keep writing well. Use every style and trick you have. Fuck AI.
Oh no, the novel I'm writing got scary and now I can't sleep.
What a normal, sensible career I have.
What a normal, sensible career I have.
July 3, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Oh no, the novel I'm writing got scary and now I can't sleep.
What a normal, sensible career I have.
What a normal, sensible career I have.
Spent the day buried in the archives at the wonderful Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, Cornwall. So incredibly blessed to be able to do this sort of research.
June 29, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Spent the day buried in the archives at the wonderful Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, Cornwall. So incredibly blessed to be able to do this sort of research.
Yesterday I had to make the difficult decision to let my boy Captain cross the bar. He was my first cat - a menace who feared neither God nor man - and I loved him very much. He slipped away very peacefully, and did not suffer.
June 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Yesterday I had to make the difficult decision to let my boy Captain cross the bar. He was my first cat - a menace who feared neither God nor man - and I loved him very much. He slipped away very peacefully, and did not suffer.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
i'd rather ask ursula from the little mermaid for a favour and life advice than ask chatgpt anything
June 14, 2025 at 9:00 AM
i'd rather ask ursula from the little mermaid for a favour and life advice than ask chatgpt anything
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
Me: Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
My Editor: Please I’m just asking for a few small changes.
My Editor: Please I’m just asking for a few small changes.
June 9, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Me: Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
My Editor: Please I’m just asking for a few small changes.
My Editor: Please I’m just asking for a few small changes.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
Instead of using AI, I wrote a book simply by imagining things through the power of my entirely organic brain and writing them down, so now I guess I have to go edit it.
June 4, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Instead of using AI, I wrote a book simply by imagining things through the power of my entirely organic brain and writing them down, so now I guess I have to go edit it.
It's like UQP somehow knew I'd be caught in a downpour today, because look what was waiting for me when I got home! So excited to be working with this wonderful team to bring Flash into the world next year.
June 3, 2025 at 5:08 AM
It's like UQP somehow knew I'd be caught in a downpour today, because look what was waiting for me when I got home! So excited to be working with this wonderful team to bring Flash into the world next year.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
Alright, it's not his best work but Stephen King's newest, "Never Flinch," ends with a list of people who have been murdered for defending reproductive justice and I will never, ever quit this man. Constant reader, to the very last.
June 1, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Alright, it's not his best work but Stephen King's newest, "Never Flinch," ends with a list of people who have been murdered for defending reproductive justice and I will never, ever quit this man. Constant reader, to the very last.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
kind of obsessed with 2025 pride merch...I'm calling it cowardcore.
May 30, 2025 at 9:52 PM
kind of obsessed with 2025 pride merch...I'm calling it cowardcore.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
These feckers have already made off with my last almost-five-decades' worth of creative output to try to "teach" their hopped-up answering machine how to fake writing. If anyone ever *breathed* the suggestion to me that I should willingly use that soi-disant "tool"...it would not go well for them.
I'm not the only writer who doesn't use AI/LLMs for prompts, plots, outlines, synopses, writing, editing, images etc.
I don't use it at all, and I refuse to do so.
As @tiffaniangus.bsky.social points out - there are many of us. We are far from alone.
Everything I make is from my brainmeats.
I don't use it at all, and I refuse to do so.
As @tiffaniangus.bsky.social points out - there are many of us. We are far from alone.
Everything I make is from my brainmeats.
May 28, 2025 at 7:26 PM
These feckers have already made off with my last almost-five-decades' worth of creative output to try to "teach" their hopped-up answering machine how to fake writing. If anyone ever *breathed* the suggestion to me that I should willingly use that soi-disant "tool"...it would not go well for them.
Migraine be dammed, I now have a full itinerary for my research trip in June/July. Highlights include talks at a school in the UK, visiting a museum of witchcraft, ghost-hunting on a very haunted hill, and visiting the national archives to see arrest records for my witches.
May 28, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Migraine be dammed, I now have a full itinerary for my research trip in June/July. Highlights include talks at a school in the UK, visiting a museum of witchcraft, ghost-hunting on a very haunted hill, and visiting the national archives to see arrest records for my witches.
Yesterday I did a workshop for teenagers, and a participant asked me about my stance on using AI in creative writing. Here are my main points:
May 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Yesterday I did a workshop for teenagers, and a participant asked me about my stance on using AI in creative writing. Here are my main points:
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
The Cover is Here! What the Sea Brings is swimming to bookshops, August 12th, 2025 from @snowywingspublishing.com
Artwork by @scarvenartist.bsky.social and Typography by Miblart
Available for Pre-orders NOW! books2read.com/whattheseabrings
Artwork by @scarvenartist.bsky.social and Typography by Miblart
Available for Pre-orders NOW! books2read.com/whattheseabrings
May 14, 2025 at 11:40 AM
The Cover is Here! What the Sea Brings is swimming to bookshops, August 12th, 2025 from @snowywingspublishing.com
Artwork by @scarvenartist.bsky.social and Typography by Miblart
Available for Pre-orders NOW! books2read.com/whattheseabrings
Artwork by @scarvenartist.bsky.social and Typography by Miblart
Available for Pre-orders NOW! books2read.com/whattheseabrings
It is (finally finally finally) official!
May 12, 2025 at 8:15 AM
It is (finally finally finally) official!
I cannot tell you how hard I smashed the preorder button. My computer may never recover.
I have a secret.
What the Sea Brings is available for pre-order and eligible for Barnes and Noble 25% Off Sale!
There's still a lot of fun launch things to happen - including Official Cover Reveal on May 14th! But if you would like to be an early bird - here you go.
What the Sea Brings is available for pre-order and eligible for Barnes and Noble 25% Off Sale!
There's still a lot of fun launch things to happen - including Official Cover Reveal on May 14th! But if you would like to be an early bird - here you go.
April 23, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I cannot tell you how hard I smashed the preorder button. My computer may never recover.
My stack so far this year. I'm a little behind but I'll catch up!
April 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
My stack so far this year. I'm a little behind but I'll catch up!
It's gunslinging and asexual and nonbinary and crimes and Western Australia and everything 17 year old me thought they'd never see in a book. Get ready!
www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
April 2, 2025 at 10:56 AM
It's gunslinging and asexual and nonbinary and crimes and Western Australia and everything 17 year old me thought they'd never see in a book. Get ready!
www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
This made me cheer. It gets directly at a problem I’ve often noticed: people don’t fundamentally understand what a historian *does*.
March 22, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This made me cheer. It gets directly at a problem I’ve often noticed: people don’t fundamentally understand what a historian *does*.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
"if we can't train AI on copyrighted works, then it'll never get to the point where we can make tons of money off of it" ok? how is that anyone else's problem? If I can't rob a bank, then I won't have $20 million tomorrow. Should I be allowed to rob a bank then?
March 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
"if we can't train AI on copyrighted works, then it'll never get to the point where we can make tons of money off of it" ok? how is that anyone else's problem? If I can't rob a bank, then I won't have $20 million tomorrow. Should I be allowed to rob a bank then?
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
I think most of who have worked in writing or entertainment know that piracy is a fact of life, and has been for a long time now.
But there’s a difference between a broke student downloading a PDF of your book, and a multibillion dollar company stealing your work for its own bullshit purposes.
But there’s a difference between a broke student downloading a PDF of your book, and a multibillion dollar company stealing your work for its own bullshit purposes.
Search the LibGen database here, and peer inside a pirated library of millions of books and research papers used by Meta and others:
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
March 21, 2025 at 11:45 PM
I think most of who have worked in writing or entertainment know that piracy is a fact of life, and has been for a long time now.
But there’s a difference between a broke student downloading a PDF of your book, and a multibillion dollar company stealing your work for its own bullshit purposes.
But there’s a difference between a broke student downloading a PDF of your book, and a multibillion dollar company stealing your work for its own bullshit purposes.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
Finally found it. The average book thief makes between 60k and 99K USD.
The average author makes around 10k. Most pirates are stealing from people worse off than themselves. But they cosplay as poor or use poor people as a shield to justify their class warfare.
torrentfreak.com/wealthy-olde...
The average author makes around 10k. Most pirates are stealing from people worse off than themselves. But they cosplay as poor or use poor people as a shield to justify their class warfare.
torrentfreak.com/wealthy-olde...
March 21, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Finally found it. The average book thief makes between 60k and 99K USD.
The average author makes around 10k. Most pirates are stealing from people worse off than themselves. But they cosplay as poor or use poor people as a shield to justify their class warfare.
torrentfreak.com/wealthy-olde...
The average author makes around 10k. Most pirates are stealing from people worse off than themselves. But they cosplay as poor or use poor people as a shield to justify their class warfare.
torrentfreak.com/wealthy-olde...
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
If artists aren’t workers or laborers, then it’s easy to yell at them that it’s YOUR right to steal what they create.
March 21, 2025 at 8:27 PM
If artists aren’t workers or laborers, then it’s easy to yell at them that it’s YOUR right to steal what they create.
Reposted by Dr Meg Caddy
This fight over “should authors get paid for their work” debate boils down to this: many, MANY people do not see art as labor.
If art isn’t labor, then you don’t have to change your political views to justify piracy. Easy peasy!
If art isn’t labor, then you don’t have to change your political views to justify piracy. Easy peasy!
March 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
This fight over “should authors get paid for their work” debate boils down to this: many, MANY people do not see art as labor.
If art isn’t labor, then you don’t have to change your political views to justify piracy. Easy peasy!
If art isn’t labor, then you don’t have to change your political views to justify piracy. Easy peasy!