Charles Heathcote

Is an English Cosy "cozy"? The debate around the new style of cozy coming out of the UK is explored here: cozymystery.com/is-this-cozy...

Book trailer for Mistakes Mean Murder, the second book in the Valentine and Featherstone series: shorturl.at/i0eYy

#books #mystery

Today's book. Book no 59. An Heir to murder by @cheathcote.bsky.social

Mistakes Mean Murder is a Hot New Release for Cozy Mystery.

www.amazon.co.uk/Mistakes-Mur...

Released a book today.

Wrote a chapter, but for whatever reason I’ve done this over four notebooks so now I’ve got to search for all the pieces and jigsaw them together.

Some book post. An Heir to Murder by @cheathcote.bsky.social

Image of a paperback book, Mistakes Mean Murder, on a dark background.

Mark your diaries because Mistakes Mean Murder is being released on Wednesday 12th February.

Five years since Alice Valentine and Marmaduke Featherstone teamed up to solve the mystery of who murdered a retired detective, they are back. (Although in bookish terms, only 18 months have passed.)

Dear Ms Stella Creasy, I am writing to voice my extreme concern at the direction taken by the UK government with regard to artificial intelligence in the creative industries. In particular I am alarmed by the plan, recently outlined in a public consultation, to allow AI companies to access copyright material for training as the default (and to make creatives 'opt-out' if they do not consent). As a writer, I took part in the public consultation - I have attached my response here, but I also wanted to get in touch with you as you are my local MP, and you have always been receptive to the problems and concerns of your constituents. Moreover, I believe Walthamstow has a relatively high number of people working in the creative industry, and I wanted to impress upon you just how poorly these plans have been received in your constituency specifically. To be blunt, I believe that giving tech companies the right to train their AI models with copyrighted material will be a terrible mistake which will decimate an already struggling creative industry. It is effectively giving tech companies carte blanche to do what they have done for many years previously - to steal copyrighted material - but this time with the government's blessing. Moreover, the "opt-out" model is woefully inadequate. On paper it makes sense - and I can see a world in which celebrity writers, artists and musicians use it to their advantage - but in practice, it would be merely a fig-leaf for the continued exploitation of the majority of creatives. This is already an industry where artists are frequently exploited by production companies and made to work well below an appropriate rate for the promise of future jobs or exposure - the reality of the industry means that production companies would fairly quickly pressure artists into abandoning their rights to any "opt-out" (with the threat of taking the job away if they refused). It is staggeringly naive to present this as a workable solution.

I also have to stress how dispiriting it was to read this consultation and to see just how little the government understands the concerns of the creative industry with regard to artificial intelligence. At every turn, this consultation assumed that we should be accommodating big tech companies and their desire to foist generative AI on us, without acknowledging either the massive copyright infringement they have already committed to build their models, or the devastating effect their product will have on the creative industry. What's more, the consultation assumed that writers and artists are excited about this tool, and they can work with tech companies to use artificial intelligence to enhance their art. I speak with artists and writers on a daily basis and I have found no-one who can see an actual artistic benefit to this technology. I am frequently told by those foisting AI upon us that using generative AI will improve me as a writer - it has been four years and I still have not had an adequate answer as to how. AI can write a script in thirty seconds, but that is not useful from a writing perspective, because it is poorly written nonsense with no understanding of structure, tone or language - it takes much longer to fix than starting from scratch. It is a product that creates bad, careless art quickly. That is not something that benefits artists - that is a tool that benefits people who don't care about art, who just want to flood the market with slop and denigrate the very concept of art. Generative AI is not a tool - it is a weapon, used by exploitative production companies who don't want to pay for artists an appropriate amount to write something good, but instead use a machine to write a bad version of it and then pay artists a fraction of the fee they should be paid to punch it up. Generative AI will never write anything a fraction as well as a human - but it doesn't need to, to destroy their livelihood.

I also must say how frustrating it is to see multiple government announcements extolling the virtues on AI while this public consultation is still active. The Prime Minister told a select committee a few weeks ago that "AI is going to be transformative for the better in art, culture, industry, government, public services", and just today the government has announced they are "unleashing" AI (whatever that actually means) in an attempt to "boost growth". This announcement had actually very little qualitative detail in it (apart from a mention of using AI to find potholes), and sadly reminded me a lot of the bluster and boosterism of the previous Tory governments - but it also seems to me that by announcing these things before the end of the consultation, the government has made up its mind already. Just last week the UK Labour Tik Tok account posted a video that used (truly ugly) AI art (and was later taken down not because of the AI art but because of an inappropriate music choice) - I was distressed by the complete lack of respect for UK artists and animators who could have made a much better video (for a fraction of the environmental cost, I should add), and it really doesn't inspire confidence that this government will actually listen to any criticism of generative AI that comes out of this consultation. I do hope that I am wrong, and that this government can be convinced of the folly of this specific plan. I hope that, given your constituency's high number of people involved in the creative industries, you could be a voice that warns against this - and to stop a policy which threatens to torpedo an already struggling creative industry. Thanks very much, Jack Bernhardt

I've sent this email to my MP after doing the public consultation on AI, not sure it will do much but I would encourage anyone else in a similar situation to do the same

I have received the best compliment ever given to a writer. At today's event, a returning reader told me that my book lives on her nightstand, and that she wasn't a reader prior to reading Our Doris. I'm rather pleased that the book and its characters have made such a connection.

This is a decidedly brilliant book that you ought to read.

YouTube video by Charles Heathcote Why Poetry?

Last year I released a poetry collection and people have begun to ask me why, so I recorded an entire video on the subject because I'm just that self-indulgent.

youtu.be/tXCaAUoaTFg

An image of Sally from a few months ago. Since I’ve no longer got a vehicle, I am missing our jaunts around Macclesfield Forest.

I actually ended up obsessing over a jigsaw. My mother chose it - Christmas in York - I can’t abide landscapes as jigsaws so it has been a struggle.

Having walked the dog, all obligations are done with for the day. Therefore, I will be spending the remainder of the day decomposing in a corner, reading books and supping tea.

Mistakes Mean Murder, the second book in my cosy crime series, will be released next year. Do you have an inkling of where I could take the book on tour? Or somewhere you think I should visit?

After the misfortune of releasing a book in February 2020, I’m keen for folk to discover the series.

20 minutes at work and I’m already on my second cup of coffee because lord knows I did not sleep last night.

Let us hope for sensible, kind customers with heavy wallets today please.

YouTube video by Charles Heathcote missing the countryside and reading books | Booktube Diaries

A new reading vlog is available on my YouTube channel. Here, I chat about my week. Also, the search for a car is ongoing and I moan about not being able to walk my dog - that's just who I am as a human being.

youtu.be/pXYzON17bB8

Writer's Surgery | Charles Heathcote Get more from Charles Heathcote on Patreon

I'm holding a bimonthly writer's surgery on Patreon. If you need any help with your prose, or there's something you're not quite happy with, then we can work together to come up with a solution.
www.patreon.com/posts/writer...

YouTube video by Charles Heathcote November TBR

Over on my YouTube channel, I'm sharing the books I plan to read in November. Where should I start?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oysL...

Currently 99p on Kindle.

t.co/FLHYiJCAzu

#kindledeals

Hard at work on the edits of Mistakes Mean Murder. Here are just some quotes from readers of the first book in this cosy crime series.