The Time Capsule

There's a lot of buzz about all the possibilities AI is bringing to the table. From planning a vacation to writing HTML code, the sky appears to be the limit in what we humans might use it for. As with all technology advancements, though, there are upsides and downsides. Many writers out there have valid concerns about the ability to use AI to write books. In fact, this is already happening, with many AI books being published. What's concerning is more than the livelihood possibly being taken from authors. The humanity  of said books is being stripped away; the blood, sweat, and tears that go into writing a novel. For the reader, the pleasure of knowing that a human somewhere conjured up the ideas, characters, plot, and more from their brain, experiences, and, yes, even partialities to create a story for others to enjoy is in danger of being unknown and unappreciated. As the book landscape changes, it might become difficult for readers to discern what is a human-written book an

I'm pleased to announce plans to send print advanced retail copies to those interested for Watermeloned: A Mystery Sci-Fi Novel releasing on June 27, 2023. The plan is to send these out sometime in early May or sooner if they are available. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please fill out the form below. And remember, until then: Don't. Get. WATERMELONED! Loading…

Photo by Geri Forsaith on Unsplash This past weekend, I experienced a terrifying moment. My writing process for my next novel, Watermeloned: A Mystery Sci-Fi Novel , is to use Scrivener on multiple devices. Using Google Drive as a conduit to a common file, I can hop from device to device, picking up where I left off with all my pretty words and wordy notes for the book. Well, I hopped to my Windows tablet to continue writing this past weekend, and suddenly around 3,000 to 4,000 words had gone missing. One was an entire chapter! Calm down,  I thought.  It's going to be OK. But really, I did panic some. Sure, 3K to 4K of words is pretty decent. But imagine if I lost the entire book of 40K at that point? Yeah, that be bad, fer sure. Even with that much lost, there are still little things you might not get back when rewriting. Nuance to the wording. Ideas that popped into the stream of consciousness that were added or even removed from the original story outline. OK. I have Scrivener

Photo by Charlie Read on Unsplash Part of self-publishing's joy is the author's complete control over every aspect of their novel's publication: Content. Title. Cover Design. Etc. Part of self-publishing's frustration is also the complete control an author has over every aspect of their novel's publication. There's a lot to do and learn. One essential item is the book description (or book blurb). This information is listed on Amazon or other retailers, giving potential readers an idea of whether a book will interest them. As self-published authors, it can be challenging to write this effectively because we either want to hold back as much information as possible, so we don't spoil the story, or we enter too much information into it because otherwise, we feel the description will not make sense. For over a decade of self-publishing, I've had some bad and good descriptions. What I've learned reads best is to follow some of these simple rules: Keep th