Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
@mbaileywriter.bsky.social
Independent author (superhero, fantasy, urban fantasy), stage combat director/instructor in the central MA area. Native Cape Codder. Shares a bed with one wife, two dogs, and three cats. He/him/his.
https://innsmouthlook.com
https://innsmouthlook.com
Pinned
Updated pinned post for anyone who wants to check out my work or maybe even buy some books.
WEBSITE: innsmouthlook.com
BOOKSHOP: bookshop.org/beta-search?...
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL: www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/a...
FYI, you can order print editions through my website.
WEBSITE: innsmouthlook.com
BOOKSHOP: bookshop.org/beta-search?...
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL: www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/a...
FYI, you can order print editions through my website.
This show absolutely kicked ass.
February 19, 2026 at 2:08 AM
This show absolutely kicked ass.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
TODAY'S COMIC: Naming Types of Barks (Part 2)
—
( I *DOUBLE DOG DARE* you to join us for my new dog book! Kickstarting now! —>
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sma... )
—
( I *DOUBLE DOG DARE* you to join us for my new dog book! Kickstarting now! —>
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sma... )
February 18, 2026 at 6:03 PM
TODAY'S COMIC: Naming Types of Barks (Part 2)
—
( I *DOUBLE DOG DARE* you to join us for my new dog book! Kickstarting now! —>
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sma... )
—
( I *DOUBLE DOG DARE* you to join us for my new dog book! Kickstarting now! —>
www.kickstarter.com/projects/sma... )
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.
February 18, 2026 at 4:25 AM
When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.
I'm not saying I'm a futurist or anything, but 13 years ago my debut #novel featured an AI that gained sentience, turned out to be an amoral bastard, and ended up weaponized by a secretive cabal bent on conquering America.
Cover art by @patricialupien.bsky.social
bookshop.org/p/books/acti...
Cover art by @patricialupien.bsky.social
bookshop.org/p/books/acti...
Action Figures - Issue One: Secret Origins
Secret Origins
bookshop.org
February 18, 2026 at 12:28 PM
I'm not saying I'm a futurist or anything, but 13 years ago my debut #novel featured an AI that gained sentience, turned out to be an amoral bastard, and ended up weaponized by a secretive cabal bent on conquering America.
Cover art by @patricialupien.bsky.social
bookshop.org/p/books/acti...
Cover art by @patricialupien.bsky.social
bookshop.org/p/books/acti...
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.
February 18, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
The constant condescension about ai is another aspect of it that makes me hate it more. The assumption is you can only be against it because you don't understand it like I do. No man. I don't like voluntarily making every human enterprise dependent on a tech run by a tiny group of financial maniacs
February 18, 2026 at 5:08 AM
The constant condescension about ai is another aspect of it that makes me hate it more. The assumption is you can only be against it because you don't understand it like I do. No man. I don't like voluntarily making every human enterprise dependent on a tech run by a tiny group of financial maniacs
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
The AI bubble RAM crisis is caused for non-existent problems by non-existent money for a non-existent infrastructure to meet non-existent demand to make non-existent business and will utterly destroy real business based on real demand and real infrastructure built with real money for real problems.
I understand framing the AI bubble RAM supply crisis in terms of stuff like video game consoles because nerds can conceptualize that but the framing does really undersell the sheer magnitude of how it's going to fuck up everything that even touches a computer.
February 16, 2026 at 9:54 PM
The AI bubble RAM crisis is caused for non-existent problems by non-existent money for a non-existent infrastructure to meet non-existent demand to make non-existent business and will utterly destroy real business based on real demand and real infrastructure built with real money for real problems.
Exactly this. Renewable energy isn't sexy like gAI, and its growth would mean old-school coal and oil barons would be rendered obsolete (as they should be).
The left tried for decades to pass green energy subsidies, passed them, the subsidies worked, and now literally the entire planet's electricity grid is going to convert to solar+battery. It just doesn't feel like "tech" because it mostly produces kinda boring blue collar jobs instead of billionaires
is there a technology that "the left" is excited about?
www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
February 18, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Exactly this. Renewable energy isn't sexy like gAI, and its growth would mean old-school coal and oil barons would be rendered obsolete (as they should be).
Fuck no. Never. I can write a great, watchable movie on my own because I'm not an untalented hack that needs the plagiarism robot to shit out mediocre garbage on my behalf.
Writers if you could drop your novel or short story into an AI and have it make a great and watchable movie out of your story, and you could sell that movie, would you do it? #writers #WritingCommunity
February 18, 2026 at 12:53 AM
Fuck no. Never. I can write a great, watchable movie on my own because I'm not an untalented hack that needs the plagiarism robot to shit out mediocre garbage on my behalf.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Read this sentence slowly:
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
As Bernie Sanders Comes to California, Wealth Tax Opponents Intensify Efforts
www.nytimes.com
February 17, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Read this sentence slowly:
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
One thing AI has revealed is that there are a whole lot of people who have neither interesting ideas nor the talent to express them, and apparently not even any real will or desire to cultvate either of these things… but still for some reason desperately want to be regarded as artists.
AI filmmaking is completely unserious.
You've got people with $30k begging the internet for ideas by next week because they have nothing of their own to say, it's just slop for the sake of slop. Embarrassing state of affairs.
You've got people with $30k begging the internet for ideas by next week because they have nothing of their own to say, it's just slop for the sake of slop. Embarrassing state of affairs.
February 17, 2026 at 11:55 PM
One thing AI has revealed is that there are a whole lot of people who have neither interesting ideas nor the talent to express them, and apparently not even any real will or desire to cultvate either of these things… but still for some reason desperately want to be regarded as artists.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
an editor at Cleveland.com announces that they're "removing writing from reporters' workloads"
(in the midst of a column criticizing a graduating student not understanding this is how the world works now: god forbid a student is looking to actually write) www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
(in the midst of a column criticizing a graduating student not understanding this is how the world works now: god forbid a student is looking to actually write) www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 17, 2026 at 3:59 PM
an editor at Cleveland.com announces that they're "removing writing from reporters' workloads"
(in the midst of a column criticizing a graduating student not understanding this is how the world works now: god forbid a student is looking to actually write) www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
(in the midst of a column criticizing a graduating student not understanding this is how the world works now: god forbid a student is looking to actually write) www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
That would be this account, I assume. Also blocked.
February 17, 2026 at 5:19 PM
That would be this account, I assume. Also blocked.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
This makes me sick to my stomach.
(5/11) Walmart, Whole Foods, and Kohls are switching to electronic shelf labels that can display dynamic prices. Kroger deployed them with Microsoft AI—a setup a 2024 Senate inquiry warned could enable “surge pricing” via facial recognition. (Kroger claims it will only lower prices.)
February 17, 2026 at 5:09 PM
This makes me sick to my stomach.
Porting that is over from FB. I'll be returning to work with the fine folks from Studio Theatre Worcester as fight director for this show. Further details, including audition info, in the alt text.
#theater #centralMA #WorcesterMA
#theater #centralMA #WorcesterMA
February 17, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Porting that is over from FB. I'll be returning to work with the fine folks from Studio Theatre Worcester as fight director for this show. Further details, including audition info, in the alt text.
#theater #centralMA #WorcesterMA
#theater #centralMA #WorcesterMA
Weekly Update – February 17, 2026
If you run in writer/author circles online, particularly on Bluesky, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an author operating under the pseudonym "Coral Hart" and a pandering article in the New York Times about her use of generative AI to churn out…
If you run in writer/author circles online, particularly on Bluesky, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an author operating under the pseudonym "Coral Hart" and a pandering article in the New York Times about her use of generative AI to churn out…
Weekly Update – February 17, 2026
If you run in writer/author circles online, particularly on Bluesky, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an author operating under the pseudonym "Coral Hart" and a pandering article in the New York Times about her use of generative AI to churn out dozens of quickie romance novels and, allegedly, make big money doing so. If you haven't? Well, I just summarized the situation for you.
innsmouthlook.com
February 17, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Weekly Update – February 17, 2026
If you run in writer/author circles online, particularly on Bluesky, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an author operating under the pseudonym "Coral Hart" and a pandering article in the New York Times about her use of generative AI to churn out…
If you run in writer/author circles online, particularly on Bluesky, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an author operating under the pseudonym "Coral Hart" and a pandering article in the New York Times about her use of generative AI to churn out…
Need to remember this one.
Decussate [dih-KUS-ayt]
(v.) To cross or intersect each other to form an ‘X’.
(adj.) Shaped like an ‘X’.
Used in a sentence:
“It was that distinctively decussate scar, pale and merciless in its symmetry, that refused to fade with time and, in the end, led unerringly to his apprehension.”
(v.) To cross or intersect each other to form an ‘X’.
(adj.) Shaped like an ‘X’.
Used in a sentence:
“It was that distinctively decussate scar, pale and merciless in its symmetry, that refused to fade with time and, in the end, led unerringly to his apprehension.”
![Vintage parchment-style graphic titled “Grandiloquent Word of the Day” featuring the word “Decussate” with pronunciation guide “[dih-KUS-ayt].” Definitions read: “(v.) To cross or intersect each other to form an X. (adj.) Shaped like an X.” Below is an example sentence in serif type: “It was that distinctively decussate scar, pale and merciless in its symmetry, that refused to fade with time and, in the end, led unerringly to his apprehension.” On the right side, an antique ink illustration shows two ornate swords crossing diagonally to form an X shape, visually reinforcing the word’s meaning. The overall design has an aged, Victorian lexicographic aesthetic with decorative typography and sepia tones.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uzkqphsznycugmyz7hqvna3f/bafkreig7l2t5hbfzxljlmtkutsin3nkwftas2vfuvw24jrvauy3jvb4w24@jpeg)
February 17, 2026 at 1:13 PM
Need to remember this one.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Every time you speak up - and every time you don't - there are people watching and learning about you and the world you help create.
The drunk uncle theory.
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there
agree with this (hah) but also think a particular mistake the left made for a long time online, and still makes to an extent, is failing to understand that the person whose mind you may actually change is the one reading the argument you're having, not the one you're arguing with
February 17, 2026 at 3:52 AM
Every time you speak up - and every time you don't - there are people watching and learning about you and the world you help create.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…
February 16, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…
In today's ebook newsletter, a sci-fi novel written with the help of gAI (but he didn't use it to write the actual book, it was all him, really!), sporting a gAI slop cover, and promotional images that don't even have a consistent style.
February 17, 2026 at 12:49 PM
In today's ebook newsletter, a sci-fi novel written with the help of gAI (but he didn't use it to write the actual book, it was all him, really!), sporting a gAI slop cover, and promotional images that don't even have a consistent style.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
"Why are ADHD and Autism suddenly such a big fucking deal"
I dunno, how much louder and brighter and constant did everything get in the last 50 years
Do you not think that has overwhelmed people who are easily distracted or prone to sensory overload
I dunno, how much louder and brighter and constant did everything get in the last 50 years
Do you not think that has overwhelmed people who are easily distracted or prone to sensory overload
February 17, 2026 at 7:24 AM
"Why are ADHD and Autism suddenly such a big fucking deal"
I dunno, how much louder and brighter and constant did everything get in the last 50 years
Do you not think that has overwhelmed people who are easily distracted or prone to sensory overload
I dunno, how much louder and brighter and constant did everything get in the last 50 years
Do you not think that has overwhelmed people who are easily distracted or prone to sensory overload
I have a few WIPs (WsIP?) going on, and this morning I banged this out after a flash of inspiration, and I'm pretty pleased with it. Captures the tone of the story as a whole rather nicely.
February 17, 2026 at 12:40 PM
I have a few WIPs (WsIP?) going on, and this morning I banged this out after a flash of inspiration, and I'm pretty pleased with it. Captures the tone of the story as a whole rather nicely.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
Give trans kids a chance to be kids.
February 16, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Give trans kids a chance to be kids.
Reposted by Michael C. Bailey - Indie Author, Stage Combat Guy
U.S. Marshal Asa O. Butman arrived on a Saturday night in 1854 and left, according to abolitionist newspaper the Worcester Daily Spy, “abject, debased, degraded, and trembling," the following Monday morning.
Remembering the time Worcester ran a slave catcher out of town ...
U.S. Marshal Asa O. Butman arrived on a Saturday night in 1854 and left, according to abolitionist newspaper the Worcester Daily Spy, “abject, debased, degraded, and trembling," the following Monday morning.
bit.ly
February 17, 2026 at 11:00 AM
U.S. Marshal Asa O. Butman arrived on a Saturday night in 1854 and left, according to abolitionist newspaper the Worcester Daily Spy, “abject, debased, degraded, and trembling," the following Monday morning.