Claire Humphrey
@clairehumphrey.bsky.social
Writer of fiction. Career in books. Spare time in sports, pickling and historic homes.
A debut author I was supporting in my day job received one of these and asked me if it was real. I was so impressed they had the insight to sense something was off, and ask a trusted person in the industry. And also so sad for all the authors who don't have someone to ask.
Using ai to put personal details in the scam emails, "you've done THIS and THIS and THIS," and honestly I was momentarily touched before I realized no human soul sent the email.
Writing can be a lonely pursuit. I hate that they're exploiting our very human vulnerabilities for minor gain.
Writing can be a lonely pursuit. I hate that they're exploiting our very human vulnerabilities for minor gain.
Writers: Bots are sweeping through Amazon's reviews and emailing authors with gushing scams like "Only 2 reviews for a thrilling work like this?! Jesus wept! I can get your brilliant words in front of yadda yadda yadda..."
Please do not fall for the okey doke.
Please do not fall for the okey doke.
November 4, 2025 at 2:33 PM
A debut author I was supporting in my day job received one of these and asked me if it was real. I was so impressed they had the insight to sense something was off, and ask a trusted person in the industry. And also so sad for all the authors who don't have someone to ask.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
My latest column features novels, novellas, and short fiction! Featured writers include Del Sandeen, @joshmalerman.bsky.social @erikatwurth.bsky.social @casskhaw.bsky.social @clairehumphrey.bsky.social and more!
Who needs some haunting reads to top off their spooky season TBR?
@mariahaskins.com's got 10 books & a boo-quet of short stories to keep you in thrills, chills, & kills this Halloween & beyond.
links.ruadanbooks.com/haunted
What's your favorite ghost or haunted house story?
#BookSky #HorrorSky
@mariahaskins.com's got 10 books & a boo-quet of short stories to keep you in thrills, chills, & kills this Halloween & beyond.
links.ruadanbooks.com/haunted
What's your favorite ghost or haunted house story?
#BookSky #HorrorSky
October 31, 2025 at 2:06 PM
My latest column features novels, novellas, and short fiction! Featured writers include Del Sandeen, @joshmalerman.bsky.social @erikatwurth.bsky.social @casskhaw.bsky.social @clairehumphrey.bsky.social and more!
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
August 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Congratulations to this year's Hugo winners, and to the Lodestar and Astounding winners, too!
locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo...
locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo...
Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Winners
The winners of the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced on August 16, 2025 by Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World…
locusmag.com
August 17, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Congratulations to this year's Hugo winners, and to the Lodestar and Astounding winners, too!
locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo...
locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo...
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Montréal in 2027 Worldcon Bid Wins Site Selection Vote
file770.com/montreal-in-...
file770.com/montreal-in-...
Montréal in 2027 Worldcon Bid Wins Site Selection Vote
The Montréal in 2027 Worldcon bid has officially won the site selection vote, after running unopposed. The convention’s name will be Montréal Worldcon 2027. Bruce Farr and Darin Briskman&…
file770.com
August 16, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Montréal in 2027 Worldcon Bid Wins Site Selection Vote
file770.com/montreal-in-...
file770.com/montreal-in-...
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Knock knock.
Who's there?
On.
On who?
ONLINE BID PARTY!
(I'm sorry, I'm really tired. Anyway the party starts soon. Details below)
www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
Who's there?
On.
On who?
ONLINE BID PARTY!
(I'm sorry, I'm really tired. Anyway the party starts soon. Details below)
www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
August 16, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Knock knock.
Who's there?
On.
On who?
ONLINE BID PARTY!
(I'm sorry, I'm really tired. Anyway the party starts soon. Details below)
www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
Who's there?
On.
On who?
ONLINE BID PARTY!
(I'm sorry, I'm really tired. Anyway the party starts soon. Details below)
www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
Worldcon! Get to know what Canada has to offer including a reading from me today: www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
Events | Join the Bid — Bidding To Host Worldcon in 2030
Discover the Worldcon 2030 bid events in Edmonton and explore the city's vibrant culture and community. Get involved and join the celebration.
www.edmontonin2030.org
August 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Worldcon! Get to know what Canada has to offer including a reading from me today: www.edmontonin2030.org/bidparty
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
I need people to understand the difference between an [identity] character and an [identity] story & stop getting so pressed when people make the distinction.
If the MC is trans, but that does not inform any other element of the story, that is a trans character, not a trans story.
If the MC is trans, but that does not inform any other element of the story, that is a trans character, not a trans story.
August 11, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I need people to understand the difference between an [identity] character and an [identity] story & stop getting so pressed when people make the distinction.
If the MC is trans, but that does not inform any other element of the story, that is a trans character, not a trans story.
If the MC is trans, but that does not inform any other element of the story, that is a trans character, not a trans story.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Let's talk about the #GenCon panel on AI I I did with @bradymcagent.bsky.social @jasonsanford.bsky.social and @johannah.bsky.social who moderated. This was a difficult conversation b/c we realized a # of people came looking for HOW to use AI in their creative writing. That's not what they got.
August 11, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Let's talk about the #GenCon panel on AI I I did with @bradymcagent.bsky.social @jasonsanford.bsky.social and @johannah.bsky.social who moderated. This was a difficult conversation b/c we realized a # of people came looking for HOW to use AI in their creative writing. That's not what they got.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Hit the backlist hard this month and found a ton of amazing stuff! Check it out, or stick around for the thread of favorites 🧵
My July 2025 round-up has links to last month's book reviews, all of my final round #SPSFC4 reviews (including the ultimate winner!), and a backlist-heavy short fiction section. Turns out stories still getting recommended years later are disproportionately great! www.tarvolon.com/2025/08/07/j...
July 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
Round-up of sci-fi fantasy book reviews from July 2025, plus an SPSFC update, Hugo Awards commentary, and short fiction favorites from Kij Johnson and others.
www.tarvolon.com
August 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Hit the backlist hard this month and found a ton of amazing stuff! Check it out, or stick around for the thread of favorites 🧵
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
“Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves” by @clairehumphrey.bsky.social is not as grotesque as the title sounds but twists the interpersonal knife www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/wood...
Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves by Claire Humphrey
We dry the tongues on butcher's paper beside the stove. Once desiccated, they barely have a scent. Uncle Sholert has shown me how to arrange them like tiny shingles or scales, overlapping. We fix them...
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com
August 7, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves” by @clairehumphrey.bsky.social is not as grotesque as the title sounds but twists the interpersonal knife www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/wood...
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
📢 It's here! The Strange Horizons Fund Drive 2026 has begun! 📢
Help us raise the $20,000 we need to fund our fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for next year! Beyond that are our stretch goals including some compelling special issues!
Donate at the link ⬇️
Help us raise the $20,000 we need to fund our fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for next year! Beyond that are our stretch goals including some compelling special issues!
Donate at the link ⬇️
Strange Horizons 2026
A free weekly speculative fiction magazine with a global perspective.
www.kickstarter.com
June 8, 2025 at 9:03 PM
📢 It's here! The Strange Horizons Fund Drive 2026 has begun! 📢
Help us raise the $20,000 we need to fund our fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for next year! Beyond that are our stretch goals including some compelling special issues!
Donate at the link ⬇️
Help us raise the $20,000 we need to fund our fiction, poetry, and non-fiction for next year! Beyond that are our stretch goals including some compelling special issues!
Donate at the link ⬇️
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
2025 has been a hard year so far for Apex.
In the interest of transparency, we want to share what happened, the current state of things, and how you can help. We're determined to keep publishing great stories for many years to come, and your support is what will make that possible. 🖤👽
In the interest of transparency, we want to share what happened, the current state of things, and how you can help. We're determined to keep publishing great stories for many years to come, and your support is what will make that possible. 🖤👽
Looking into the Future
This year has not gone as planned. On January 14th, 2025, Diamond Comics filed for reorganization under Chapter 11. Years of bad business practices had caught up with Diamond Comics as they owed milli...
www.apexbookcompany.com
June 3, 2025 at 3:47 PM
2025 has been a hard year so far for Apex.
In the interest of transparency, we want to share what happened, the current state of things, and how you can help. We're determined to keep publishing great stories for many years to come, and your support is what will make that possible. 🖤👽
In the interest of transparency, we want to share what happened, the current state of things, and how you can help. We're determined to keep publishing great stories for many years to come, and your support is what will make that possible. 🖤👽
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
10/10, which is good cuz my self respect was on the line.
I would like to discuss some of what tipped me off as it is several times, not what they emphasized.
I would like to discuss some of what tipped me off as it is several times, not what they emphasized.
Only 8 out of 10.
"Real or AI Quiz: Can You Tell the Difference?"
britannicaeducation.com/blog/quiz-re...
"Real or AI Quiz: Can You Tell the Difference?"
britannicaeducation.com/blog/quiz-re...
Real or AI Quiz: Can You Tell the Difference? » Britannica
Investigate strategies for detecting real versus fake images. Test your students' image evaluation skills with our interactive challenge!
britannicaeducation.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
10/10, which is good cuz my self respect was on the line.
I would like to discuss some of what tipped me off as it is several times, not what they emphasized.
I would like to discuss some of what tipped me off as it is several times, not what they emphasized.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
ok so an important thing i really think people on bluesky need to hear about the anti-trans megabill
the tl;dr is that you could actually turn the tide of trans rights in america right now
but if you don’t act now, then we’re all cooked indefinitely
please read on
🧵
the tl;dr is that you could actually turn the tide of trans rights in america right now
but if you don’t act now, then we’re all cooked indefinitely
please read on
🧵
May 23, 2025 at 1:43 AM
ok so an important thing i really think people on bluesky need to hear about the anti-trans megabill
the tl;dr is that you could actually turn the tide of trans rights in america right now
but if you don’t act now, then we’re all cooked indefinitely
please read on
🧵
the tl;dr is that you could actually turn the tide of trans rights in america right now
but if you don’t act now, then we’re all cooked indefinitely
please read on
🧵
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
"It just really comes as a shock that such accomplished intellectuals, who’ve spent their entire careers pushing the upper bounds of human achievement, could be judgy about a machine that runs the entirety of human imagination through a shredder and glues together what comes out."
A Company Reminder for Everyone to Talk Nicely About the Giant Plagiarism Machine
Hey team. It’s your CEO. I know your time is valuable, so I’ll cut right to the chase: It’s come to my attention that some of you have been bad-mou...
buff.ly
May 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
"It just really comes as a shock that such accomplished intellectuals, who’ve spent their entire careers pushing the upper bounds of human achievement, could be judgy about a machine that runs the entirety of human imagination through a shredder and glues together what comes out."
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
I see once again I’m going to have to beg pundits who haven’t lived outside of Toronto in decades to stop opining on how useful Canada Post is.
I don’t care how little you personally get or send mail. A public postal service with a mandate to get mail to every address in Canada is a public good.
I don’t care how little you personally get or send mail. A public postal service with a mandate to get mail to every address in Canada is a public good.
May 20, 2025 at 10:23 AM
I see once again I’m going to have to beg pundits who haven’t lived outside of Toronto in decades to stop opining on how useful Canada Post is.
I don’t care how little you personally get or send mail. A public postal service with a mandate to get mail to every address in Canada is a public good.
I don’t care how little you personally get or send mail. A public postal service with a mandate to get mail to every address in Canada is a public good.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
I've said this before, but the problem is that the acceptable rate of wrong answers depends *heavily* on the task in question.
Counterintuitively, the simpler and less important the task, the *lower* the acceptable failure rate!
Counterintuitively, the simpler and less important the task, the *lower* the acceptable failure rate!
Bluesky lives in a fantasy world were LLMs are useless plagiarism machines. When the reality is they generally work. Just not well enough for the way the masses are using them. Most people can’t handle something that is sometimes wrong.
I encounter more and more people in real life lately who think AI genuinely is some kind of truth machine and it feels like they are living on a different planet in a way that is just incredibly distressing
May 20, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I've said this before, but the problem is that the acceptable rate of wrong answers depends *heavily* on the task in question.
Counterintuitively, the simpler and less important the task, the *lower* the acceptable failure rate!
Counterintuitively, the simpler and less important the task, the *lower* the acceptable failure rate!
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
I spoke to the person who AI-generated the Chicago Sun-Times reading list. Says he's very embarrassed. This was part of a generic package inserted into newspapers and other publications, so likely to run elsewhere. He didn't know it'd be in Chicago Sun-Times
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist
"I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses," the writer said. "I'm completely embarrassed."
www.404media.co
May 20, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I spoke to the person who AI-generated the Chicago Sun-Times reading list. Says he's very embarrassed. This was part of a generic package inserted into newspapers and other publications, so likely to run elsewhere. He didn't know it'd be in Chicago Sun-Times
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Ugh, the Chicago Sun-Times AI-generated Summer Reading List of 90% totally fictional hot new fiction is so disheartening and disturbing on many levels.
As a novelist, being included in this kind of round-up in a major publication means the world, for sales, for your career, for finding readers.
As a novelist, being included in this kind of round-up in a major publication means the world, for sales, for your career, for finding readers.
May 20, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Ugh, the Chicago Sun-Times AI-generated Summer Reading List of 90% totally fictional hot new fiction is so disheartening and disturbing on many levels.
As a novelist, being included in this kind of round-up in a major publication means the world, for sales, for your career, for finding readers.
As a novelist, being included in this kind of round-up in a major publication means the world, for sales, for your career, for finding readers.
Another example of people using AI as if it's a combination of research assistant and writer. It isn't. It does something that *looks like* research and writing, but isn't either one. It's not even lying, because to lie one must know the truth. AI does not know, or think. It can't help you.
I went into my library's database of Chicago area newspapers to confirm this isn't fake, and it's not.
@chicago.suntimes.com Why the hell are you using ChatGPT to make up book titles? You used to have a books staff. Absolutely no fact checking?
@chicago.suntimes.com Why the hell are you using ChatGPT to make up book titles? You used to have a books staff. Absolutely no fact checking?
May 20, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Another example of people using AI as if it's a combination of research assistant and writer. It isn't. It does something that *looks like* research and writing, but isn't either one. It's not even lying, because to lie one must know the truth. AI does not know, or think. It can't help you.
Reposted by Claire Humphrey
Now that I have finished the very rough semester, and while I am still semi-away catching up on stuff:
📚 Please tell me about 2025 queer speculative fiction anthologies and short story collections! (I want to read them) 📚
Advertise yourselves too! Your friends! Everyone!
📚 Please tell me about 2025 queer speculative fiction anthologies and short story collections! (I want to read them) 📚
Advertise yourselves too! Your friends! Everyone!
May 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Now that I have finished the very rough semester, and while I am still semi-away catching up on stuff:
📚 Please tell me about 2025 queer speculative fiction anthologies and short story collections! (I want to read them) 📚
Advertise yourselves too! Your friends! Everyone!
📚 Please tell me about 2025 queer speculative fiction anthologies and short story collections! (I want to read them) 📚
Advertise yourselves too! Your friends! Everyone!
So the reward for beating a Tkachuk is another Tkachuk
May 2, 2025 at 4:49 AM
So the reward for beating a Tkachuk is another Tkachuk
Going to bed in the Canada I recognize: priceless.
April 29, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Going to bed in the Canada I recognize: priceless.