Category: fiction
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Baron Edward John Moreton Draw Plunkett Lord Dunsany
There are sometimes where I wonder if my titles are good enoughand then I come across yet again the title The Book of Wonder by Baron Edward John Moreton Draw Plunkett Lord Dunsany. Then I realize no, nothe problem is not my titles, the problem is my byline. I don’t have a name like Winthrop…
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The Road — Cormac McCarthy’s Inferno
I have avoided reading McCarthy’s The Road since it came out in college predominately because, after reading All The Pretty Horses, I didn’t think I needed that kind of bleak post apocalypse in my mind. You remember what you want to forget and forget what you want to remember, after all. And frankly, knowing what…
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Detective Writer Podcast
Sally at the Detective Writer podcast had me on to talk about the inspiration behind the sequel to Bell Hammers as well as my character Snatch who shows up in several short stories. We talked while a massive harvest moon loomed over the 46th street hill and our conversation spanned all manner of inspiration, praxis,…
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Alice’s Prayers
After she was cast back to Umbravia by the evil Duke Cattivo-Piede, for false entry into Leoht, Alice could never forget her first-and-always love Aldun. Since her return to her homeland, her only wish was to return to that land of silver flowers and sapphire moons. And the crystal blue eyes of Aldun. Every night…
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Chat GPT Ethics, Uses, and Other Ai Ethics — Heliosphere
We gathered at Heliosphere this year for several panels and one included a talk on Chat GPT Ethics, Uses, and Other Ai Ethics. The talk featured Chris Kreuter, Renee Ritchie, and Elektra Hammond — so of course, I was out of my league trying to keep my head above water. We talked through all manner ethical…
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Zuk and Zub – A Fable
At the dawn of time, an enterprising caveman, known as Swarthy Zub, lived at the far end of the cave village. Swarthy Zub might have thought himself an “entrepreneur,” and his old friend, Not-tall Zuk, a “mentor.” But, as neither word yet existed, Zub had not articulated this belief. Zub was a simple fur trader…
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Writers Group Near You — House Points
Starlings NYC has met since 2016 which is, as of 2023, seven years ago. I figured we would start keeping track of “house points.” As in 10 points for Griffyndor. There’s a writers group near you — what if they kept track of group points? Only in this case, it’s sales. And we’ll do it in…
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Story Inspiration from Breaking Science
The wonderful folks who run Heliosphere invited me to moderate and participate in several panels for their conference. One of the panels was Story Inspiration from Breaking Science. The panel included Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Dr. James Prego, and Sarena Strauss. We started out hypothesizing from various abstracts we’d come across. We — mostly me — got a bit…
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Ibex Brief
“Park & Main?” I asked Daryl the other day. “What?” Daryl asked back in a “what” kind of way. “I saw an advertisement on the television for Park & Main clothing and underwear. “I know all about Park & Main. An Amish family started it in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Their top-selling item [and here Daryl made…
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Heliosphere Convention Schedule 2023
Hey gang, just got my Heliosphere convention schedule this last week, so I wanted to toss it in here in case anyone’s coming. We’re bringing several writers and creative types down to New Jersey from NYC: FRIDAY 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm – Salon CExploring the Uses and Ethics of ChatGPT and Other AI Models…
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Clarkesworld Ai — Response to Spam
The short of that story: a sci fi magazine tossed in the towel after dealing with a logrithmic increase of submissions/rejections — Clarkesworld Ai may become a byword for the problem. The only solution I can think of in regards to something like chat gtp, is trust and some form of in person session write to…
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Fetch — Tap and Die 022
The main attendant scrolled through. And scrolled through. “No Dawes other than a young girl.” Jack’s daughter. And his wife?