Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week’s entertainment news, including stories about Anthropic’s Claude, David Ellison, and authors selling straight to readers. Then, stick around for a chat with Alexandra Bracken!
Alexandra Bracken was born in Phoenix, Arizona. The daughter of a Star Wars collector, she grew up going to an endless string of Star Wars conventions and toy fairs, which helped spark her imagination and a deep love of reading. After graduating high school, she attended The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she double majored in English and History. She sold her first book, Brightly Woven, as a senior in college, and later moved to New York City to work in children’s book publishing, first as an editorial assistant, then in marketing. After six years, she took the plunge and decided to write full time. She now lives in Arizona with her tiny pup, Tennyson, in a house that’s constantly overflowing with books. Alex is a #1 New York Times, USA TODAY, and internationally bestselling author. Her work has been adapted for feature film and is available across the world in over 20 languages.
Check it out!
Alexandra Bracken: https://www.alexandrabracken.com/
Immortal Rose: https://www.alexandrabracken.com/immortal-rose
Authors Are Ditching The Algorithm And Selling Straight To Readers – https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/08/12/authors-are-ditching-the-algorithm-and-selling-straight-to-readers
Anthropic’s Claude Will Start Adding Invisible Watermarks to AI-Generated Text – https://gizmodo.com/anthropics-claude-will-start-adding-invisible-watermarks-to-ai-generated-text-2000797759
David Ellison Floats Hollywood Exit as States Threaten His Warner Bros. Deal – https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/business/media/david-ellison-hollywood-paramount-warner-bros.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5FA.fksl.vOJFEdnaxMOj&smid=url-share
Show Links:
Writers, Ink on YouTube! – https://www.youtube.com/@jdbarker_author/podcasts
J.D. Barker – https://jdbarker.com/
Christine Daigle – https://www.christinedaiglebooks.com/
Jena Brown – https://www.jenabrownwrites.com
Kevin Tumlinson – https://www.kevintumlinson.com/
JP Rindfleisch: https://shop.jprindfleischix.com/en-cad
BookTrib: https://booktrib.com/promote-your-book/#
TODAY’S SPONSOR:
AutoCrit – https://www.autocrit.com/jd (click this link to take advantage of our Writers, Ink special offer!!!)
Other Links
Best of BookTok – https://bestofbooktok.com/
Booktrib – https://booktrib.com/author/writers-ink/
Music by Nicorus – https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep
Voice Over by Rick Ganley and recorded at Mill Pond Studio
Website Design by Word & Pixel – http://wordandpixel.com/
Contact – https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/
Transcription: https://app.castmagic.io/share/2ffd7459-4a4c-440b-a4cd-32e0cface870?tab=transcript&ai_content=true&magic_chat=true
*NOTE: Some of the links are affiliate links.
Join hosts JD Barker, Christine Daigle, Jena Brown and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week’s entertainment news, including how the U.K.’s biggest publishers are using AI, Amazon adding Andrew Ng, and Amazon putting all three Claude AI models on Bedrock. Then, stick around for a chat with author CJ Tudor!
C. J. Tudor‘s love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert.
Over the years she has had a variety of jobs, including trainee reporter, radio scriptwriter, dog walker, voiceover artist, television presenter, copywriter and, now, author.
Her first novel, The Chalk Man, was a Sunday Times bestseller, has sold in over forty countries and will be developed into a six-part drama with BBC Studios Production. Her second novel, The Taking of Annie Thorne, was also a Sunday Times bestseller as was her third novel The Other People. Her fourth novel, The Burning Girls, was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection and is being adapted for Paramount+ by award-winning screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of The Bridge and Marcella.
She lives in Sussex, England with her family.
Check It Out!
The Gathering: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gathering-C-J-Tudor/dp/0241486262
While streaming giants slash budgets and users flock from X, the U.K.’s biggest publishers are using AI (with a little help from Prince Harry) to get us hooked back on books – https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/17/users-flock-elon-musk-x-u-k-s-publishers-pan-macmillan-penguin-hachette-using-ai/
Amazon adds Andrew Ng, a leading voice in artificial intelligence, to its board of directors – https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/amazon-adds-andrew-ng-leading-voice-artificial-intelligence-109131972
Amazon Puts All Three Claude AI Models on Bedrock – https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2024/amazon-puts-all-three-claude-ai-models-on-bedrock/
Maestro is now available on all Amazon Music tiers in beta to a subset of U.S. customers on iOS and Android – https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/amazon-music-maestro-ai-playlist-generator
Show Links:
Writers, Ink on YouTube! – https://www.youtube.com/@jdbarker_author/podcasts
J.D. Barker – https://jdbarker.com/
Christine Daigle – https://www.christinedaiglebooks.com/
Jena Brown – https://www.jenabrownwrites.com
Kevin Tumlinson – https://www.kevintumlinson.com/
CJ Tudor – https://www.cjtudor.com/
TODAY’S SPONSOR:
AutoCrit – https://www.autocrit.com/jd (click this link to take advantage of our Writers, Ink special offer!!!)
Other Links
Best of BookTok – https://bestofbooktok.com/
Booktrib – https://booktrib.com/author/writers-ink/
Music by Nicorus – https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep
Voice Over by Rick Ganley and recorded at Mill Pond Studio
Website Design by Word & Pixel – http://wordandpixel.com/
Contact – https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/
*NOTE: Some of the links are affiliate links.