SHORT STORY: At the bottom of the sea, a trawler crawls across an abyssal plain, carefully cleaning microplastics off the ancient mineral-rich nodules, when the crew finds something that shouldn’t be possible. Slimy Things Did Crawl is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection. If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.
A Diary of Despair by Rosamund McCullain Published: 2006 Pages: 88 Description This book tells Rosamund's story as she journeys through experiences of mental distress and bad treatment at the hands of the mental health system. The book ends on a note of hope and survivor solidarity. A whole range of issues are covered, from conditions in in-patient facilities, drug treatment, stigma and discrimination, the impact of suicide and self-harm, the quality of community mental healthcare to the eventual partial recovery of the Rosamund's condition and how she has managed to achieve this. About the Author Rosamund McCullain was born and grew up in Bradford, West Yorkshire in July 1964. Upon leaving school she moved to the Mid-Wales area to study English at Aberystwyth University, and currently lives in Newtown, Powys. When she first became a mental health service user survivor, Ros was appalled at the state of the mental health system and the treatment she received, and felt the public should be told what was being done with their money and in their name. To achieve this, she started writing 'The Dispossessed' in 1993, and finally completed it in 2002. Ros has a keen interest in creative writing, for her it has been a lifelong survival mechanism. She is an animal lover, and has two dogs, two cats and a horse. She works as a self-employed mental health trainer and consultant, writer and creative writing tutor. She is also involved in voluntary work as a survivor activist. Book Extract They have released me from the bowels of the Machine into "Care in the Community." They said they could do nothing to help me, having virtually forced me into the bowels of the Machine in the first place. I did have some choice in the matter. I could enter the bowels of my own free will, or I could enter the bowels under a Section of the Mental Health Act, but either way it was the bowels for me. So I chose to go "voluntarily."
SHORT STORY: A sister in the far future, when we no longer burn things for fuel, finds a forbidden thing that would make the perfect gift. The Day We Stopped Burning is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection. If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.
The thing the machines consume is us. Ready to lease out your mind? Or pay for your next meal with involuntary ads? The Closet Full of Time collection contains five short stories that speak to that sinking feeling that we're serving the machines instead of the other way around. That our inventions are taking things we can’t afford to lose. 1 - Welcome to the Mindshare Program 2 - How to Treat Your Algorithm 3 - Indexed 4 - The Everything Machine 5 - Closet Full of Time If you think AI should liberate us from folding laundry, not make our art, these stories are for you. Keywords Artificial intelligence, AI, chatGPT, cyberpunk, dystopian science fiction, Black Mirror
