Assaph Mehr 📚⚔️🕵️👻🏺🏛️🤖

Silicon Valley's capture of our political institutions is all but complete The tech lobby kills off two key California AI bills, and why it matters. Plus: How Sam Altman played Hollywood with Sora 2, organized mass social media deletions, and more.

CA governor Gavin Newsom vetoed both of the major AI bills on his desk that Silicon Valley meaningfully opposed—one making it illegal for bosses to use AI to fire workers with no oversight, one requiring chatbot sellers to ensure their products do not harm children before marketing to them.

Lola sounds like fun 🙂 Will she be up for an interview?
(I run a blog dedicated to character interviews)

Title: You can only choose three potions: Row 1 (left to right): built-in mental thesaurus remember all of your worldbuilding banish imposter syndrome ability to finish your WIP Row 2: Marketable™ ideas never get tired of reading your own work infinite grammar skillz coherent first drafts Row 3: 2000 words every day guaranteed immune to distraction desire to actually write when you sit down eradicate typos permanently

Some I already have (I *like* reading my stories). Some do not actually exist (typos are as inescapable as death and taxes). Others are overlapping, but 2k word/day and immunity from distractions sound lovely 😁
#writerslife

Book Review: Autolycus the thief, by Michail Sidiropoulos A lesser known bronze-age character as a basis for mythical story – of course I jumped on the chance to read it. What to Expect An embellished telling of the life of the grandfather of Odysse…

#BookReview : An entertaining adventure tale based on a lesser known Greek 🏺 mythological character, and I’ll certainly be looking for future installments by Sidiropoulos in that world.
egretia.com/2025/10/15/b...

Indiana Jones and the Protracted Peer Review?

Indiana Jones replacing an object: "said" -> "words that no sane person would use in place of said"

I have no trouble with said 😁

Realistic Indiana Jones movies * Indiana Jones and tomb that had already been looted by robbers in the 19th century * Indiana Jones and pottery fragment #1478 * Indiana Jones and the site discovered under somebody's house so there was no way to actually dig it * Indiana Jones and the famous treasure that actually turned out to be an ancient chamber pot * Indiana Jones and the temple of maybe three damaged columns * Indiana Jones and the intro to archaeology class that didn't give a shit and just wanted to pass for the gen ed credit

Realistic Indiana Jones movies 🏺😁

It Takes A Village: a speculative anthology about the meaning of care. Edited by Eric Klein.

Can Care and Compassion be legislated? Utopia or Dystopia?

What do Care and Compassion mean in the age of Artificial Intelligence?

Is there space for care and compassion on interstellar travel? Penal Colony or war?

Last 24 hours to grab this amazing anthology on the cheap!
It Takes A Village: a speculative anthology about the meaning of care. Edited by Eric Klein.

On Special - Oct 3-11! ebook $0.99! Book Title: It Takes A Village Subtitle: An Optimistic Anthology Speculating about the Meaning of Care Editors: Alison-Maynard Gillbee, KC Eric Klein (Plus Past Precedent, Internationalist, Women's Faction - smaller text) Story Themes/Content: Utopian and Dystopian Futures Assorted Gods (old and new) A Criminal Trial Shadowy Government Agencies Colony Ships and Interstellar Travel Tangible Benefits of Compassion Fantasy Social Justice Artificial Intelligence (of various flavors) The meaning and merit of Care

One of my proudest side-projects: stories of care and compassion (and who doesn't need some these days?) On special this weekend, so grab your copy!

🚨🚨Sale Alert 🚨🚨
Offer open to all humans

It Takes A Village: ebook on $0.99 special Oct 3-11

It Takes A Village: a speculative anthology about the meaning of care, bringing some of the best indie #scifi and #fantasy voices to speculate about what it is to be human. On Promo this week! amzn.to/42pE2ww

Picture of a mountain

My latest newsletter: a short story. Can you guess which mountain?
egretia.substack.com/p/mountain-v...

1. Victor Hugo wrote naked. To meet deadlines, he locked away his clothes so he couldn't leave home. Naked at his desk, he forced himself to face the page. It worked: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was finished on time. [The image also shows a photograph of Victor Hugo and a title page of "Les Misérables"]

May not work if you like writing in cafés.

Writing Old Books A few weeks ago, the wife and I went to a used-books fair. We came back with a haul of some interesting finds from the “Old Books” tables. While there were too many others we had to lea…

A few weeks ago we came back from a book fair with a haul of some interesting finds from the “Old Books” tables. I’d like to draw your attention to those below, as I’ve bought them with the explicit intention of incorporating into my own future writing.
egretia.com/2025/10/01/w...

Dragon head: Trad books Dragon head: Indie books Stupid dragon head: AI books

As someone who deals with AI professionally, I know well their ability around creative writing 😜

Things that make writers nervous: 1. Writing 2. Not writing 3. Someone asking about the writing.

😅

Things to amuse the author #57 - naming your scenes: * Phallic surgery * NOT a road trip * Mission Impossible * Fight Club * Obligatory sewer trip * It's not over yet (All real scenes names! Some were the author inflicting misery on the characters, some were the characters fighting back 😈) In Victrix: A Story of Togas, Daggers, and Magiv

Harold Bergman (of The Wichita Chronicles, by H.B. Berlow) Dear readers, tonight with us is a Jewish private detective who is rather introspective after coming back from WWII. He is here to talk about his life as a policeman before becoming a private detec…

Tonight's protagonist interview: a Jewish private detective, talking about his life as a policeman after WW2, and about the dark underbelly of society where shadows dance with malicious intent and faith emerges as his sole weapon.
theprotagonistspeaks.com/2025/09/26/h...

Jasper Ashford (of Little Hamlin Chronicles, by Sarah Ashworth) Dear readers, tonight with us is a high-school student, juggling school, life, and magical training. He’s here to tell us about supernatural occurrences, a shipwrecked redhead, and a mysterio…

Tonight's protagonist interview 😃📚
theprotagonistspeaks.com/2025/09/19/j...

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do study history are doomed to run around screaming "AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY DON'T THESE FUCKING IDIOTS STUDY HISTORY!!!!!!!!!???

Too true 😅Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do study history are doomed to run around screaming "AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY DON'T THESE FUCKING IDIOTS STUDY HISTORY!!!!!!!!!???

Then you'd love this one - some sentences have two (and both in the middle, to ensure you have to read it multiple times)

Book Review: A Natural History of Ghosts, by Roger Clarke I came across this on The Rest Is History podcast, where the author featured as a guest and reviewed some of the history of ghosts in the UK. What to Expect An attempt to examine if England truly i…

Short version: It's an interesting read and all the footnotes and referenced contemporary manuscripts make a useful jumping board for those who like primary sources. Focuses on England ghosts. Recommend if you enjoy geeking out on footnotes.
egretia.com/2025/09/17/b...

Happy man: authors ready to publish their book Menacing psycho behind: Typos

I always imagined them as gremlins, but this works too 😅

The guilt will always call you back... THE WORLD-MAKER PARABLE AN ADJACENT MONSTERS NGHTMARE THE - WORLD-BREAKER REQUIEM INSTERS NIGHTMARE *AN ALL CONSUMING DREAMSCAPE THE LIKES OF POE OR MORPHEUS." - FANFIADDICT LUKE TARZIAN *GORGEOUSLY STARK AND DESOLATE." - OUT OF THIS WORLD SFF LUKE TARZIAN The ADJACENT MONSTERS duology

🎧 The World-Maker Parable

🎧 The World-Breaker Requiem

Coming soon as audiobooks.

😋

yknow it's a real shame that romans didn't have access to australia specifically for augury reasons. i really wish i could have seen a roman augur have to deal with australian birds. like imagine trying to properly interpret an omen from a fuckin. cassowary loving that the general consensus here is that "the omen when you see a cassowary is that you are about to die of cassowary"

From years of experience in both Roman practices and Australian wildlife, I can attest this is true 😂😂

I'd be a terrible superhero. I'd see the signal calling in the sky from home, and be like "I literally just sat down."

I'd get up (cranky, but still), and then get distracted by the kid asking about why one cat is humping the other and the dog barfing.

Ziggy wrote one of the best reviews I ever saw, which made me chuckle 😃
For anyone who wants to read it in full: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Ziggy Nixon's review of In Victrix (Stories of Togas, Daggers, and Magic Book 3) 4/5: I had enough enemies right now without antagonising the gods. So let's get in the right frame of mind, shall we? "When in Egretia, do as the Egretians do!" or if you prefer "Friends, Egretians, ...

Thank you for that wonderful review! Made me chuckle 😃
For anyone who wants to read it in full: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

An absolutely spell-binding urban fantasy mystery NOT set in ancient Rome! Um, yeah. Perfect for fans of @douglaslumsden.bsky.social's "Alexander Southerland P.I." series! Only with less dragons... maybe...

@assaph.bsky.social

#booksky #bookrecommendations 📕📚📚❔📚❓
💙📚
🩸📚

A longboat full of Vikings, promoting the new British Museum exhibition, was seen sailing past the Palace of Westminster yesterday (see page 16). Famously uncivilised, destructive and rapacious, with an almost insatiable appetite for rough sex and heavy drinking, the MPs nonetheless looked up for a bit to admire the vessel.

Pretty much true for politicians world-wide