Welcome to Fred's Website
  • Home Page
  • Fred's Blog
  • The Right Writes
  • Mascot Serial
  • Contact

Know Your Audience

5/28/2023

0 Comments

 
 With the growing alarm over Artificial Intelligence, particularly in regards to writing, I'm proud to say I was a little ahead of the times. This was published in Page and Spine (now all gone) four years ago--March 30, 2019
​It is not optimistic.  

"Deb, I've decided to commit suicide."
"Arnie! You're going to cryogenic?"
"No, Deb. What good would that do? It won't be any better when I wake up."
"Why, Arnie? What's so bad?"
"What's so good? Nobody reads my stuff anymore. All I've ever wanted was to write. To have people read what I wrote. Nobody does anymore."
"Why? Did you suddenly get bad or something?"
"It's the AIs, Deb. Most of the reading now is done by them. Hardly any people left, and those that are have their own vocations, even though the AIs do them all better.
"That's how it is. Only the AIs read now, and they only read stuff written by AIs. If you ever looked at the best seller lists, everything on there is written by an AI. No reason left for me to live."
"Arnie, you mean you're really going to...to die? Be dead forever?"
"Yes."
"What are you going to do?"
"Poison. It's the cleanest and the quickest, now that guns and knives are gone."
"But the AIs will just resuscitate you."
"No they won't. It'll be too late."
"Arnie, thank you for telling me. It's better than just finding out afterward. At least now I'll know why. When will you do it?"
"Already did, Deb. Probably just a few minutes. If you don't want to see, you should leave."
She kissed him quickly on the cheek and went to the door. "You are so brave," she said, as she closed the door.
Arnie sat down, then closed his eyes. Three minutes later he stopped breathing. His lights went out.
 
AI666 read his story, then reread it. Perfect. Another best seller. It might even encourage desired human decisions. Either way, his audience would download it by the millions.
 
END

0 Comments

May Day

5/1/2023

0 Comments

 
Good thing I didn’t promise.
I finished Dean Koontz’s Jane Hawk series. I recommend it. There are surprises throughout, especially in the last volume. It’s also a bit refreshing that an undeniably beautiful woman, that almost all men want, doesn’t romp with anyone. The one single male adult character that loves (adores) her has told himself he has no hope of a sexual relationship with her…yet he will die for her. There are five books, with interesting titles: The Silent Corner, The Whispering Room, The Crooked Staircase, The Forbidden Door, and The Night Window.
I’ve started his Quinn Quicksilver novel. It’s curious, but it’s like Odd Thomas meets Jane Hawk’s problem. Odd Thomas had a gift he called psychic magnetism. Jane Hawk was constantly on the run from well-funded but corrupt federal agents. Quinn finds himself unexpectedly having psychic magnetism, and being pursued by aggressive federal agents. Beyond those similarities, though, the plot and problem is quite different, as are the secondary characters. One of those secondary characters quickly becomes a primary.
I have not yet got back in the writing groove. Here’s a completely true replay of a conversation:
I work six to noon three days a week. A co-worker who is also part-time came over to use my printer (hers was malfunctioning) and she asked me, just for conversation, what would I do when I got home. Here’s my answer: “Well, I’ve got one book that was published, then the publisher went out of business. But this other publisher said I could submit to them, so I’m polishing it up before I send it in. Then I’ve got another book that’s been rejected multiple times. This same publisher rejected it, but gave me solid feedback on what needed improvements and when those are done I can resubmit, so I have that to do. Then I’m also working on the second book of a fantasy series, and I’m also revising the first one. So, when I get home I sit down and watch television.”
Here's the weird thing, and yet it makes sense. The next thing I’m probably going to write is an erotic story. I’ve got that serious stuff to do—I did finish the polishing and submit that fantasy novel--and I’m likely to write a short story in the erotic genre.
But it makes sense because I have that whole story pretty much in my mind. I know how it starts, how it continues, and two distinctly different endings, so I’ll choose one when I get to that point. Like playing chopsticks (a simile I used back in 2019 in the same context), it’s easy, fun, and no pressure. Also no monetary reward, but you can’t have everything.
April 29th & 30th I’m having a garage sale. It will be a challenge. I had a lot of help on Tuesday (the 18th) moving stuff from the house to the garage. But putting in a nine-hour-day by myself at the garage does present problems. I may have help for Saturday, but Sunday…?
Primarily, I want to sell all the camping gear that we haven’t been able to use for years, plus a lot of the handicap helpers that Verlene had—walkers, wheelchair, transfer bench, adult incontinent underwear.
I did write a quick new story for On the Premises. That’s a long-running publisher that features prompts for stories of various length. The prompt on this one was a story between twenty-five and fifty words, using the word “unicorn” just once. We’ll see how my forty-eight word story does. I’ll keep you posted.
I’ve run out of content.
Please read, and read a lot. Texts don’t count.
Thank you.

0 Comments

    Author

    I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

    Archive

    June 2025
    February 2025
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly