💬 This quote from Thus Spoke Zarathustra seemed to land for me.

💬“I had in my mind to write three books about the world as it was, using concepts and images almost like characters. But I ended up making a long detour.” — Italian author, Roberto Calasso. (Source).

“Long detour” is an apt summary of a writing life, and fitting inspiration for my latest project.

closeup photo of waterlillies on a pond

Ironically, I just saw this message from 2013 on the same day I heard Microsoft has announced it’s retiring Skype.

I guess my superpower is Late Adoption.

Text on a blue background reads, "It's time to update Messenger to Skype!"

📷 It’s always amazing to be reminded we’re living on the surface of an exquisite marble. Thanks Firefly! (Also a comforting reminder we can just visit the moon - beautiful in a different way: ravaged and bleak.)

A view of Australia from space, with a dark background and a light flare on the right side.

A nice little book launch today for our anthology. Destinations & Detours. I guess it was also the launch of Detour Editions 😁.

It was great to see this many people and to have some deep conversations.

A woman is speaking to a seated outdoor audience in a garden setting.

💬“If something happened that struck me, I would write a note — sometimes just on a little scrap of paper — and would slip these pieces of paper into a folder… Especially if I got stuck, I would take another piece of paper and say, ‘You’re stuck on this damn paper, so write about why you got stuck.’” — Peter Elbow, author of Writing with Power, 1935-2025.

(HT: Chris Aldridge)

”Just as no one can be Charles Dickens these days, very soon, no one will be able to market anything that looks like what AI could produce.”

What comes after content?

I’ve found writing on Wordpress a bit of a chore. Plenty of features when all I wanted to do was post a little article. These days micro.blog suits me very well.
If you use Wordpress but would enjoy a simpler editing interface here are two newish options:

HT: John Jonston

What comes after content?

The decline of Hollywood has been attributed to the rise of AI-generated ‘content’, leading to a potential cultural shift towards more authentic human creativity. This article explores what comes next and points out the radically new may not be quite as new as it appears.

The Lost Medieval Library Found in a Romanian Church medievalists.net

Old news, but new to me. I’d love to find a lost medieval library in a tower somewhere, but I might be on the wrong continent for that kind of discovery.

HT: @glynmoody@mastodon.social
Image: Ropemaker’s Tower, Mediaș, Romania (Source. CCby SA4.0)