Jess Popplewell

Reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40%, study finds Cognitive health in later life is ‘strongly influenced’ by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, say researchers

The study points to using libraries and visiting museums as bringing these enormous brain health benefits ... who would have thought? Well, librarians and museum folk for a start ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Name them
shame them

This is beautiful and awful and really well written.

“…they are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms, right or wrong, than on governing well those they possess.”

Thomas More wrote that about monarchies in approximately 1515. We’ve been singing this song about politics way over 500 years, and this is still the world we live in.

Happy PLR day to all who celebrate (it’s me, I’m celebrating my first ever PLR payment, and also everyone who uses libraries ❤️❤️❤️❤️)

I think the last paragraph of it is important enough that it needs inclusion.

I do understand: you want permission. There’s a machine in the corner wrapped in human skin that makes things out of shit and blood to look like whatever you want (as long as you don’t look too closely). You gave one to your teacher and they didn’t notice. Your boss told you to use it after they laid off half the team and it was fine. You fed one to your kids and they liked it. You want to know you can use it sometimes without me thinking less of you. You don’t need me to believe it’s useful, you just want me to be polite about it.

Great post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

They are absolutely my type of vampires.

A copy of THE DARK WITHIN US which is a red book with an illustration of two people on the front, on a black velvet tablecloth and some other bits and bobs like dry leaves, a candle in a lantern etc. There’s also some text that says “people say nice things about my book: Boxing Day edition”

Screenshot of Amazon review: this book is phenomenal! Jess takes us back to being teenagers, her writing of Jenny is brilliant and really makes you bond with the character and feel those teenage emotions once again. The classic use of early 00s music references and the balls of Jenny reminded me so much of my teens. I was gripped in parts and couldn’t put it down, this book has everything included all of hell! Well done Jess can’t wait to see what you write next PS can you do a second book I definitely need more Jenny and Luc in my life!

Screenshot of Amazon review: This book has absolutely lovely central concepts and themes, brilliantly executed. Jenny’s quest to fill the soul-shaped void inside her is one that I’m sure will resonate with many teens. Just the right amount of thrills, scares and celestial bureaucracy. Wicked, funny, full of feeling. I needed this book when I was a teen and I’m so glad it’s here now. Popplewell is going to be well popular! (Author’s note: don’t know about that last bit!)

A poster showing quotes from 3 lots of 5 star Goodreads reviews: “I enjoyed every minute of this book”, “my most anticipated read of 2024 and it didn’t disappoint at all”, and finally “I feel like I want to read it again in the winter with a candle burning, a blanket and copious amounts of tea.”

Periodic reminder that I wrote a book, am v proud of it, and other people seem to quite like it. I dunno, maybe you will too?

That only makes me feel *more* Christmassy about the timing, frankly.

Don’t even need to click the link to know I agree with you. Is anyone surprised??

Oh wow, suddenly you have a desperate need for social and artistic skill sets? Amazing. Anyway, eat a cold loaf of Satan's ass cheese, fellas.

🚨 The UK government just published a breakdown of the responses to its consultation on AI & copyright:

- 95% of respondents want AI companies to pay for their training data (made up of 88% saying strengthen copyright law, & 7% saying leave it as is)

🧵 1/2

Like, I don’t WANT everyone to sound the same, and LLMs are homogenising our communication, our art. I know this isn’t a new thought, but as someone who has ALWAYS been on the side of the weirdo, the outsider, I can’t help thinking that’s really, really sad. (4/4)

And does it matter? If most people can’t tell, does that mean LLMs have won already?

Even if that’s the case it won’t stop me writing, but it is sending me into a spiral about authenticity and the writer’s voice. (3)

- found a really interesting and important Instagram page… that clearly used ChatGPT to write all its text.

And it seems like most people DON’T see what I see. They think those posts have been written by a person. They think that BOOK has been written by someone real… (2)

I’m full of cold, and I’m also ✨hormonal✨ so, maybe I’m taking this differently than I would normally, but within the last few days I have:

- got 2 chapters into a book recommended to me before realising it was either written ENTIRELY with ChatGPT or at least relied heavily on it… (1)

Editing Advent is on HOLD

Because I’m ill! I have brought PESTILENCE into the house! (Probably from the tube).

But I’ve got until the new year to get finished so I reckon it’s fine. Anyway, I’m going for a nap.

Mine is just that I really like my colleagues and my students and I’ve enjoyed my interactions with them especially this week.

Editing advent day 10:

Halfway mark!!!!

(Don’t know what happened to Day 8 - I definitely did some editing yesterday)

Editing advent day 9:

I’m back making pen notes on my manuscript again, and it’s nice to have that switch between the two modes of working.

I’ve got to a section about my favourite character now - he’s a lot of fun to write.

Editing Advent Day 7:

I’d say I’m about 1/3 through this edit now - I start by making handwritten notes on the manuscript to figure out WHERE I should be making the edits, and then I transpose those into the actual document.

Editing advent day six:

Very boring task of changing a character’s name today.

I COULD use find and replace, but for plot reasons the more laborious version of that is required.

Watching YouTube vids I missed on holiday to get me through.

Editing Advent Day 5:

Lots of travel time today, but I’m now 80/190 pages edited.

Observations: I’ve found lots of places I need to give a little bit of “breathing room” to the action - I guess that happens when a story just BURSTS out of you like this one did…

Editing Advent Day 4:

I’m actually ahead of myself, so I gave myself a night off (it’s the last night of my holiday anyway).

Tomorrow I have 5 hours on a train to do plenty more!

Editing Advent Day 3:

I’ve made notes on 55 pages out of 191, which feels like good going!

Day 2 of Editing Advent:

Didn’t achieve loads today because I had windmills to look at, but I made some notes on 2 early chapters to address a couple of editing points (introducing backstory, that kind of thing).

Now celebrating with a hot chocolate. The Dutch are VERY good at hot chocolate.

As a sort of advent calendar for me this year, I’ve split my edits for my current WIP (I call it “the vampire book”) into 24.

Today I:

- changed a character’s name
- changed a different character’s age, which has subtly changed that character and her relationships with the main storyline.

Correct attitude when the days are this cold and the nights this dark!