iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

In a perfect world, I'd get my old band back together, but that's unlikely. So probably Shooglenifty or maybe Maeve MacKinnon.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Trying again! I am looking for a real human artist who works primarily in pen / ink / charcoal on paper and whose style is NOT based on animation, graphic novels, or video games. Fine art vibes. Low detail, bold lines. I need 3 character portraits for my book and can pay $50/each. Recommendations?

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Do the people championing rhis in Publishing really not understand they are in fact championing their own replacement?

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Reposted by Mathan Campbell

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I don't think anyone who knows me was surprised by this passage.

These caves had been Glic warrens once. When Humans from the islands first arrived at what would become Port Taig, the Glic took pity on the poor freezing settlers and invited them into their tunnels to shelter through that first bitter winter. In thanks, the settlers had murdered them, built a city on the surface above, and turned their homes into a sewer.
Knowing the history was one thing, but Scatha had seen the bones piled up in the caves. She avoided this place when she could, but Aloric had made the caves his hideout so she’d followed him down.
She crouched as she entered one of the lower tunnels, walking towards the ladder out of the sewers and into the city above. She emerged into sunlight on the uphill side of town. This was a wealthy neighborhood - tall houses built of white limestone instead of the brick walls that dominated the rest of the city. Many of the houses were as big as the buildings that might house a dozen families down the hill, and much of the wealth to build these big houses came from the rents that the poorer people paid. She’d lived in those tenements when she first arrived in the city and seen the way people lived, families working day and night to scrape by and giving most of what they made to the landlords at the end of every month.
She thought darkly that most of the city would be better off if they did to the people on the hill what those rich people’s grandparents had once done to the Glic.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ailith is still a child here, and her adopted Human parents are slowly realizing they cannot force her to be Human. When Sealgairean raiders steal most of their flock, they take it out on her.

It was her eighth birthday and she had spent it banished to her loft. She had been sent to bed without dinner again after refusing to eat their food. Sealgairean raiders had taken most of their flock and the woman who was not her mother had malice in her voice when she told the girl they could no longer give her meat at every meal. It might have been true, but she believed she was being punished for the actions of the raiders because they were Sealgairean like her.
Days passed, and she was hungry all the time. They tried feeding her beans - dull, lifeless beans. They were not enough. The food tied her stomach in knots and left her doubled over in agony. Her mother openly mocked her and told her to stop being so dramatic.
She did not yet know that she would die without meat, but she felt her body failing. Her father was concerned but did not dare contradict his wife. It had been four days since she had eaten meat and she was so hungry it felt like her stomach would digest itself. Her limbs ached, and she was dizzy more and more often.
As she howled her rage, her heart broke again. She had tried so hard for so long to make them love her, but their fear of her was greater than any love they might have once felt.
She retreated from the ladder, sitting on her bed and examining herself in a small mirror. Even aside from her face, no one could have mistaken her for Human. Her eyes went to thick-muscled arms and legs, so different from the dainty Human girls in the books they’d given her. Hands that ached where they had cut her claws short again.
She knew she was a monster. The woman who was not her mother said so openly. The man would not admit it, but more and more often the realization was there behind his eyes. If they could have tamed her and made her Human, they would have. They couldn’t. She could not be what they wanted her to be.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#artists: I am building a website for the book and would like to include portraits of the three main characters. I do not want to use AI slop. I can pay $50/each for a good pencil or charcoal-on-paper sketches based on the descriptions in the book. I don't want anything too fancy or finished.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A cool initiative for anyone in Southern California. Our native oaks are one of California's most important keystone species and more than a thousand other species rely on them. Mature oak forest can also sequester ~80 tons of carbon/acre. Replanting #nativeplants is critical. reoakcalifornia.com

reoakcalifornia.com

Home

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I guess I was ahead of the curve when I started hating Rowling in 2014 as she gave tons of money to the British Nationalist campaign against Scottish independence. It's ironic that an author who gained notoriety in the US when right wingers burned her books turned out to be a right winger herself.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In today's #WIPSnip, Ricarin & company have just delivered a group of settlers to the border town of Locnai, when the leader of the town council - an old friend - asks them to stay and help defend it. Doing so risks all their lives - and is outside the contracts they've signed.

Before she could interject, Ricarin did. “Let’s hear him out, Darin. What do you need, Kester? Speak plainly - we’re all friends here.”
“Well, a typical Sealgairean raiding party would be four or five warriors. That we could handle easily enough. But the Glic say there’s a full warband crossing the pass. Their scout didn’t get a good look, but maybe as many as ten. I don’t know that we can survive that.”
Lias was confused. “Only five or ten? With the new settlers, there are almost three hundred people here!”
Kester shook his head. “Have you ever seen Sealgairean? Their armor makes them very hard to kill, and they’re far bigger and stronger than any Human. Experienced warriors can hold their own, but we have precious few of those here. It could be they just steal sheep and go but…” He sighed. “I know this is a big thing to ask, but I need - we, all of us need - you to stay a few more days. We can pay you well for the delay, and you might not even need to fight.”
“And if they do come?”
“Then your swords might be the difference between everyone here living or dying. These are good people. They’re better off thanks to the training you’ve given the new folks, but I’m still whipping the Militia into shape and they aren’t warriors yet.” He clearly hated to beg but had no choice. “We need your help.”

After saying goodnight to Kester, they all retreated to the newly-built tavern and found a corner to talk.
When they were all gathered together, Darin started them off.
“Alright folks, if this was a normal decision it’d be up to the four of us who own a stake in the company to make it.” He nodded to Scatha and Lias. “But this isn’t a normal decision and the contracts you all signed to join us weren’t for this kind of risk, so we’ll vote on it. Any objections?”

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Just backed out of a crit swap because the other person's book was *painfully obviously* ChatGPT. I refuse to waste my time helping someone improve and humanize AI slop. If it wasn't worth their time to write, it's not work my time to critique. Frankly, it's insulting that they would even ask. /rant

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I've now just about finished A Thoughtful Kind of Monster and am preparing to start querying, but fighting the urge to procrastinate by working on the second book instead. I love everything about writing. I detest self promotion. This is a problem.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A public service announcement from every resident of #rural #NorthernCalifornia who is sick of tourists adding hours to the time it takes us to get anywhere: Use the turnouts & let people pass. It's not hard.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Just had my sixth beta reader finish the book. The revisions are getting smaller and smaller with the feedback from each pass. At this point several readers have told me that the ending moved them to tears and demanded that I get working on the second book. That's a good sign, right? #writer

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My least favorite reader is the one who comes to an original work and then gets upset when the work does not fit their preconceptions based on common tropes. I'm sorry Karin / Kevin, I'm not trying to write the same book we've all read 50 times. I'm doing something different. #fantasy #writer

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Reposted by Mathan Campbell

This Bear Eats Fascists @ursuscalifornica.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

It occurs to me that one of the most dangerous parts of any political or economic system based on inequality is that the people at the top inevitably end up surrounded by people who depend on them for their livelihoods. And those people can't say "no" without risking those livelihoods.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Reminder that the existence of LLM's (which are not actually AI in any meaningful sense), is predicated on massive theft against IP owners. I'm glad to see someone is attempting to hold them accountable. The bubble can't pop soon enough. www.wired.com/video/watch/...

wired.com

‘We’re Anti-Theft’: Why the New York Times Sued OpenAi and Microsoft

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Mirabelle is back in Port Taig trying to enjoy a beer at the Sailor's song when a group of men start getting loud with each other and Hanna asks her to intercede. (From 'A Thoughtful Kind of Monster'). #writer #booksky #WIPSnips

At one of the tables a group of people in conspicuously new road leathers was arguing and things were getting heated. Hanna glanced at her and then at them and Mirabelle sighed. She walked over and grabbed a chair, sitting down beside them at the table, to their immense and obvious surprise.
“Evening lads, what seems to be the trouble here?”
“Excuse me miss, this is a private conversation” The speaker was a sniffy little weasel of a man and she grinned at him, showing teeth.
“That may be. But you’re having it loudly in a public place. Hanna doesn’t like people shouting in her bar, so keep it down or have it someplace else.”
Another of them tried to get loud at her and she shut him down quickly. “I’m asking nicely this time. Next time I won’t.”
The sniffy man seemed shocked. “Are you threatening us? Seriously? There are ten of us here!”
“I know, hardly seems fair does it? You’d need at least another ten like you to have any chance at all.” There was mockery in her voice but not meanness and she held up empty hands. “Seriously though lads, this is your last friendly warning. Calm it down or take it somewhere else.”
She started to stand but one of the others said “Wait a moment, you might be exactly what we need.”

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

One of the things that's interesting to me about my book is that readers seem to have a mental gap between medieval and modern in the fantasy genre. I describe a world where people get around on horseback or by foot and they immediately think "medieval" and act surprised that my characters read.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Every time I think this book is done and I go to what I think is my final round of beta readers, I find new ways to make it better. Sometimes from their comments directly but just as often because they see it from new angles and that gives me ideas. That's a good thing, right? #writer #booksky

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Can I just come out and say that the trend toward writing all fiction in close third person limited or first person is lame? There are stories that it works for, but there are whole categories of stories where it simply doesn't.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Jury nullification - the right of juries to refuse to convict for something that should not be a crime - is the reason why the right to a jury trial is in the US constitution.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Americas biggest and worst crop needs to be abolished. youtu.be/KLYMjPNppRQ?...

youtu.be

America's Dumbest Crop

YouTube video by Climate Town

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

If you're a #writer and you're even tempted to use #AI in your work, this is your wakeup call. #JerryFalade just lost a $2million dollar book deal for using AI. This isn't a small thing, it is illegal to copyright AI-produced content. Just don't do it. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

theguardian.com

$2m crime novel deal collapses amid questions over AI use

Agents withdraw Jerry Falade’s hotly anticipated debut after saying they can no longer authenticate ‘how the manuscript evolved’

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I love it when I do a post that mentions AI and get multiple replies saying almost the exact same thing in almost the exact same way. At least Bluesky has a mute button. There are no words for how uninterested I am in talking to bots.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I've been struggling for a while to find good beta readers who aren't just scammers using AI. After trying a bunch of sites, Scribophile seems to be the best way to trade critiques with other #writers so I wanted to give them a plug and I just ponied up for a membership. Highly Recommended.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I have noticed this as well. It is pervasive and not subtle.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Nothing is inevitable. Keep resisting #AI slop!

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

In today's #WIPSnips, Richard is on a caravan to the Borders. While camping they get to discussing the threat of sealgairean raiders coming through the passes and Maol, one of his companions, tells a story that will already be familiar to readers of Ailith's story line. #fantasy #writer

“I’ve helped fight off raiders a few times. It’s part and parcel of growing up in the Borders. Sealgair ain’t people, they’re monsters - real monsters. You can reason with a human or a sihean, hell even a glic. We might not always get along but there’s a mind under there you can reach, even if they do look kind of funny.” He smiled at Bélan and added “No offense meant.”
Bélan quipped “None taken, humans do look funny” to general laughter from the group and Maol continued.
“A sealgair though, all you are to that thing is food.”
Richard interjected “They’re supposed to be fantastic metal smiths, that means they can think. They can’t just be animals. If we could find a way to talk to them…”
At this Maol practically snarled. “There was someone in the village where I grew up that tried that, and it cost him his life.”
“So a folk story from your village. That sounds reliable!” Mirabelle chuckled and Maol scowled at her before continuing.
“Not a folk story. I was ten when it happened and I saw the house, saw what that thing left in its wake.”
She raised an eyebrow skeptically and said “Well, go on then.”
“This fellow, well he and his wife couldn’t have kids and he found an ash-gray baby on the mountain and brought her home. A year later she’s growing fangs and claws and killing livestock for fun. His wife begged him to get the beast out of their house but of course he didn’t listen.”
“What happened?” Richard wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but asked anyway.

“At eight years old the little monster killed them both and then escaped into the mountains. They found the bodies days later with toothmarks in their flesh. You can’t reason with a thing that would do something like that.”
Mirabelle scoffed “You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right? An eight year old girl killed and ate two adults and then vanished into the mountains?”
“Not a little girl, a monster - don’t make the mistake he did and try to humanize something like that. And you don’t have to believe me but it happened.” Maol was upset about being challenged and got up to go refill his mug, leaving the rest of them at the fire.
Richard didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Hoping to defuse the conversation, he asked Bélan. “How do your people deal with the sealgairean? You’ve been in these lands for a long time.”
“They are actually relatively new, almost as new as humans. They first appeared when my grandparents were young, coming up from somewhere far off to the southeast and the deep desert beyond the Eacad mountains. Mostly we avoid them, they cannot attack what they cannot find. But it is in no one’s interest to have them stay on this side of the Eacad’s so we fight when we must, driving them back through the passes. Fortunately, sealgairean are mostly interested in fighting other sealgairean. If that ever changes, all of Talav will be at risk.”

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Updating my profile to use my pen name. I'm still me.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

New feature pitch for #bluesky devs: negative keywords that automatically screen all posts containing them *out* of your feed instead of adding them to your feed. Lots of people have stuff they just plain don't want to see. If this exists already & I just haven't found it, someone hook me up pls!

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Oliver @oliver48.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

As more evidence emerges of dirty-tricks Zionists infiltrating Labour, Green Party ... "Survivors of Spycops abuses fear Home Office ‘consultation’ is an attempt to shut down inquiry" www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2026...

thecanary.co

Survivors of Spycops abuses fear Home Office ‘consultation’ is an attempt to shut down inquiry

The timing of this consultation (in the middle of Inquiry hearings and at the start of the Summer break) will exclude many of those affected.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This is a slap on the wrist and a tiny fraction of what they should have had to pay if laws were enforced fairly in the US.

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Reposted by Mathan Campbell

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I took a hard look at the financial donors to ICE’s biggest supporters in Congress. These are people who want to significantly expand ICE’s power and have sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to do so. Here are the top 25 consumer brands bankrolling the biggest ICE supporters in Congress:

38568804395

Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Reminder to all would-be writers that it is illegal to copyright #AI generated content and trying to pass off AI generated content as your own so you can copyright and publish it is fraud. Just don't.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

My wife is convinced I should post snippets of my reading passages from my in-progress swords & sorcery / science fiction / dark fantasy epic to social media. Is anyone doing this? Would anyone want to listen if I did it? #writer #fantasy #scifi #wip

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

My latest research rabbit holes have been metallurgy & blacksmithing. I took a class years ago & have dabbled since, but one of my characters is a much better smith than me. I wanted her techniques / composition of alloys she creates to be accurate & possible with tech available. #FantasyIndiesJuly

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

In today's #WIPSnips, Ailith is scouting for materials in the deep desert of Fasak when she finds something that will change her world forever. #writer #fantasy #HeroesCreed

Far out in the desert she saw a reflection in the sand. She nearly dismissed it as the shimmer of heat, but the morning was still cool. Nor could it be water, all of the springs in this area were well known. It felt like something was drawing her eye to it, calling her. The sensation was eerie but soon gone and forgotten. Against her better judgement, she went to investigate.
In the countless centuries since the ancients fell, most of their works had been utterly erased by the passage of time. Only a few ruins remained, and in the deserts of Fasak the sealgairean and other scavengers had long since picked most of them clean. But there was steel here, half covered by sand and intact. It must have been unburied recently for there was no mark of rust upon it.
Working together, the women swept the dry sand away to reveal bare gray stone, pitted by time but intact, with a square steel door flat on the ground and inset directly into the stone. Amazingly, the dry sand had protected both stone and door from the countless years.
By now the day’s heat had come on in earnest and they were far from any shade or shelter. The other women were eager to return, but Ailith was unwilling to leave her prize. There was a thick place that might have concealed a lock but no visible keyhole, and their efforts to pry the door open were fruitless. Ailith carefully placed a small mound of precious aluminum shavings salvaged from other ruins on the door, adding powdered rust from another pouch and then striking her knife on flint to throw a spark into it. It caught and blazed brightly as she looked away, covering her eyes. The afterimage shattered her vision and it took several minutes for her to recover her sight. In the meantime, the fire burned through the steel and lock and Carag and Merris were able to lever the door open.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Passed 100,000 words on the second book in the Hero's Creed series tonight. The first draft is close to done now, four more chapters to go. I find myself both excited and dreading it because I know how much work will still be waiting for me on subsequent drafts. Still, big milestone. #writerlife

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Had to spend last night awake and sitting with a car (long story), but at least I brought my laptop. I got a bit over 3,500 words towards the first draft of my second book. 4.5 chapters left in my outline and I can pivot to rewrites and revisions! #writerlife

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

@sanders.senate.gov wants a sovereign wealth fund that takes 50% of the stock of #AI companies. I think that's a good start, but the other 50% of the stock should go to all the people whose work was stolen to train the models. All of the value in those companies comes from the things they stole.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Just finished binge-watching Galavant with my kids (10 and 8) and they are now officially fans. Still one of the best #fantasy shows ever. If you haven't seen it, you should.

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Mathan Campbell @mathancampbell.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I'm looking for good character-driven dark / morally complex #scifi & #fantasy with strong female POV characters published within the last 5 years that I can use as comps for my book. Current favorite authors in this genre are Ursula LeGuin (always), N.K. Jemisin, Max Gladstone, Octavia Butler.

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