“AI is the reason I can’t get discovered.” Sigh. Okay. I’m going to peeve a lot of people off with my take on this very popular complaint, but hear me out. Amazon is the reason you can’t get discovered. And by insisting on playing Amazon’s pay-to-play game, you are very complicit in this lack of… Continue reading THE LONG RIVER AND ITS CONSPIRACY OF LIES
BRIEF ADDENDUM TO A PREVIOUS ENTRY
For those who may not have read my post titled Weirdly Specific Spam (and really, why would you?), the TL;DR version is that spambots are funny. And in the age of AI, they are an example that my opposition likes to point to as to why AI is evil. (It’s not; the people using it… Continue reading BRIEF ADDENDUM TO A PREVIOUS ENTRY
VIOLATING MY OWN ETHICAL BELIEFS
So… It turns out, contrary to popular opinion, that I’m human after all. There is an author, whom I will not name in this post, who penned a 7-book series, a 2-part stage play, and at least three supplemental pieces for the world those characters inhabit. The empire built on this intellectual property is immense,… Continue reading VIOLATING MY OWN ETHICAL BELIEFS
ME… ONLY NOT
There is a contentious thing happening in the writing world here in 2026. I’ve touched on it a few times here. It’s all over publishing newsletters and podcasts. And if you happen to be a Draft2Digital user, you know it has caused them to introduce fees for the first time in their history. AI is… Continue reading ME… ONLY NOT
WEIRDLY SPECIFIC SPAM
Hello, hoopy froods of the internet! It is I, the Random Writer™… also from the internet, bringing you all the news that doesn’t actually exist. Yeah, I lead a boring life. Don’t tell anyone. For this month’s topic, I wanted to bring up a strange phenomenon that’s been happening lately. Apparently a spambot or twelve… Continue reading WEIRDLY SPECIFIC SPAM
NO NEWS IS NO NEWS
This has been a fairly calm and “nothing really going on” kind of month. And, since nothing has really managed to reach out and grab my face as a topic, I’m afraid I have to leave you with no main topic this month. Don’t worry, though! There’s still stuff to talk about. It’s just that… Continue reading NO NEWS IS NO NEWS
THE WRITING PROCESS
Happy… I guess by the time this posts it will be February, but (full disclosure) I’m writing this about two weeks ahead of that. I’m currently in the biweekly Gaming Groupies Writers’ Club session with the person I said I needed to pseudonym going forward. (He’s asked that I refer to him as Kalen in… Continue reading THE WRITING PROCESS
GOALS ARE BACK
Happy New Year, imaginary people of the internet! Last year, I did not make a 2025 goals post. I did not recap how badly I failed in my 2024 goals. (It was bad, actually. I failed NaNoWriMo for the first — and last — time ever due to waking up blind. And because I had… Continue reading GOALS ARE BACK
THE LONG ROAD TO RESTORING VISION
So it’s been another minute or two since we last had a chance to catch up. A few things have happened in that time. Some amazing. Some not so much. Here’s the short version: On October 21, 2025, I had surgery on my right eye. As late as November, I still had a little residual… Continue reading THE LONG ROAD TO RESTORING VISION
WE’RE BACK, GLITCHES!
Hey there. You may not remember me. My name is (not actually) Darren Blake. I’m a random writer from the internet who tries to entertain, inform, educate, and just make a general mockery of the writing life. And I’ve been gone. Like, for a while. As you may or may not remember, if you are… Continue reading WE’RE BACK, GLITCHES!