Anna Fleming

Happy publication day Nic! Congratulations xx

It’s book publication day for #GhostsoftheFarm! It’s been a lifetime’s companionable & instructional haunting, & I’m thrilled to bring these women from out the shadows, honour them & raise & address my own rural ghosts. Love & thanks to @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social & my early readers too x

German Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier dies after mountaineering accident in Pakistan The German double biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier has died after she was seriously injured by a rockfall on a mountain in northern Pakistan

“It was Laura Dahlmeier’s express and written will that in a case like this, no one should risk their life to recover her,” they said. “It was her wish to leave her body behind on the mountain in this case. This is also in line with the wishes of her relatives.”
www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...

Meta wins artificial intelligence copyright case in blow to authors Court finds using online books to train AI without writers’ consent is ‘fair use’

How is taking books without authors' consent or payment "fair use"?
www.ft.com/content/6f28...

Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries Exclusive: The climate cost is more than than the combined 2023 emissions of Costa Rica and Estonia, study finds

The existential cost of Israel's war on Gaza is staggering. Not just all the souls lost in Gaza, but plants, animals, people, glaciers and livelihoods around the world. It must end now.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

💰In 2006, average author earnings were £12,330. In 2022, that had fallen to £7,000, a drop of 60% when adjusted for inflation.

💪🏼 Joining the Society of Authors is one way you can push for change to ensure being an author is open to all, not just a privileged few. [2]

The swallows are back & today heard the first cuckoo singing among the skylarks on the commons of mid Wales. Happy easter!

Congratulations Nicola! Looks fabulous, gorgeous cover!

SoA day of action following allegations of Meta’s mass theft of authors’ work  – The Society of Authors On Thursday 20 March, The Atlantic broke the story of how Meta has used the Library Genesis (LIbGen) dataset, which is full of pirated material, to develop their AI systems.

On the 3 April we’re organising a day of protest against Meta following revelations of pirated books being used to train their large language models. More information on how to get involved 👇

societyofauthors.org/2025/04/01/s...

Yes. It felt v useful & positive in that sense. Affirming our craft and practice, while also starting to think how the impacts, how we might resist & support one another where necessary.

Thanks Nicola. Was a great coming together, thinking & organising. The other notion was that AI is the new millenium bug... a lot of chat & invested tech companies desperate to see it fly but perhaps it will end up with little use or relevance.

With an infinite sea of average, non-challenging 'art'. There will be less story, intention, real world meaning and impact behind the art works produced with AI. While the proles make content for the billionaires entertaining us to death.

Job loss and environmental impacts. The footprint of AI is colossal. What emerged for me was a sense that tech media wants every person to be able to produce cheap replica art. Then their internet platforms will be flooded with content, keeping us hooked, attention stolen...

What resulted was a brilliant collective action. 20+ artists getting together and exploring the implications of AI for our work, how we see the future, and what action we can take. Unions, collective action and licensing were discussed. Along with concerns raised about ethics...

Wow! I went to a great session on AI for artists at Ed Uni yesterday. It was mis-advertised as workshop for freelance creatives. We thought it would be training. In fact it was funded by Adobe and we were there as a focus to help them learn how to land AI with creative professionals...

I just sent a letter telling AI companies they do not not have the right to use my work. Use the @authorsguild.bsky.social letter template to send your own: actionnetwork.org/letters/auth...

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.

So, all three of my books for adults (plus translations) have been illegally pirated on LibGen, and then stolen again by Meta to train their AI

Copyright law is being utterly trampled on, over and over. I hate it.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Hallucinatory AI... 21st century De Quincey dreaming up new literary scholars...

I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky

I'm a firm believer that writing can change lives. Do take the time to read this piece - it's an eye-opener. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

A beautiful day on the Cairngorm plateau.

My book - lovingly crafted over 2 years - is one of the stolen millions, taken by Meta to train their AI model. Did they ask my permission? No. Have they paid me? No.
Can anyone advise how you can recall, reclaim and protect your work from the pirated database?

Cover of Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race & Indigeneity in the Arctic. The cover features an abstract art piece by Darcie Bernhardt. The piece is titled Beluga Hunting and depicts a light pink, green, and blue marbled pattern. Forked green and white lines within the pattern evoke topographic striations.

"Ice Geographies" by Jen Rose Smith @sprucehen.bsky.social centers ice to critically study racialization, land dispossession, and Indigenous knowledge production about icy places, both historically and in the modern moment of climate change. Read the intro for free now! #Environment
buff.ly/f7H5UuR

Ben Venue and Loch Katrine at the weekend.
Cold and bright with signs of spring ✨️

Contemplating the lake, saying goodbye to Pokhara after an eventful month of field research with Nepali mountain women. So much to reflect on, many astonishing insights and nature-rich experiences in the Himalaya. Soon to turn the pen & capture this world for its brief brilliant moment

Oh now I shall have to read Hagstone & sorry I haven't done so until now. Another offering - have you read Karitas, Untitled? A gorgeous icelandic novel

Fabulous! Swordy well for the children & newts. Will you line with plastic to hold the water in, or is the soil clay-ey enough?

Beautiful words Sinéad. Also makes me think of Marina Abramovic and her durational performance work with body & pain

I'm here for a spell researching women's connections with mountains. I'm finding stories of resilience, community, leadership and empowerment. There are many flowers in this beautiful country

Meanwhile here in Nepal, the rhodedenron is coming into bloom. Red flowers are scattered like kisses along the Himalayan forest path

"How can we make a world? If it is ours to dismantle, it is ours to make."
Kathleen Jamie, Cairn.
Haunted by these meditations on who we are and where we've got to and what the way ahead might be