January 2024 - where did 2023 go?
Hi Everyone,
Happy New year!
I don’t have a cheeky round up of my 2023, nor over ambitions plans for 2024. Mostly, I’ve been editing The Lost Star Chart (still the working title). I’ve decided to take a bit more time with the novel to ensure that the characters come off how I picture them (i.e. making sure the main character is a quirky and grumpy curmudgeon). Fall 2024 is still the target release time for this book.
Later this winter/early spring, I’ll start drafting my time travel novel (with a working title of Tangled Timelines) and I’ll have a brand new short story on Armchair Alien that’ll be released in February.
Also, over on Armchair Alien, Christine and I discuss the eating of bugs and how having them on the menu might fit in our future worlds. We plan on having one of these sort of discussion on topics that interests us about once a month.
Playing with AI
Just over a year ago I started playing around with ChatGPT (I wrote about it here) and I’m still playing around with it. Currently, I’m paying for better access, which also allows me to generate images—like the one above (she looks to me like she needs a story).
Over the last year, AI tools have started creeping into the grammar checker I use (ProWriting Aid) as well as into various word processors. AI generated books are now out there—including fiction. The current AIs are at the point they can generate (write?) an adequate formulaic story.
There are outstanding issues with how the AIs have been trained, specifically around using author’s and artist’s intellectual property without compensating them for it (My books have probably been included—which I have mixed feelings about). I’m not sure how this side of AI is going to play out, but I’m not going to focus on it here. AI is here and we need to figure out how to use it.
And… I have to admit I really enjoying chatting with AI. I find it a great way to brainstorm (especially since I’m using the ChatGPT with access to the internet). It’s also a big help in editing—I can ask it to give me suggestions on how to reword a sentence or paragraph. What it suggests is never exactly what I want but it almost always triggers my own ideas of how to make my writing better.
I write because I like writing and my head is full of story ideas, I don’t need or want the AI to write for me. I’m also not interested in following a formula with my writing. My plan for 2024 and beyond is to continue leaning into being a human. I want the quirky, character-driven, escapist stories in my head to unfold onto the page.
Oh, and I’ll continue to put my own version of AIs into my stories—I write science fiction after all.
Some good stuff
I’m deep into Network Effect, another Murderbot story, by Martha Wells. It’s book five and I read the previous four plus two short stories over the course of the fall, which is why I can’t give you a reasonable overview of all the books I’ve read in 2023. Murderbot by far is the most intriguing character I’ve come across in a while and it is taking up my brain space. I’m sure I’ll be through book six and seven by the end of January.
This is not science fiction, but more fun than I expected: The Great a TV series based losely on Catherine the Great’s (of Russia) early life. It’s not factual, but it’s highly entertaining—I even found myself laughing out loud.
Cheers,
Jeannette
If you’re looking for an alien world to visit to avoid the mid-winter doldrums, check out these:
My Books:
Hope is the Thing With Feathers - direct or from the shops
Encoded Orbits
Fractured Orbits - direct or from the shops
The Alien Algorithm - direct or from the shops
Subject 34 - direct or from the shops
Settler Chronicles
Day 115 on an Alien World - direct or from the shops
Far Side of the Moon - direct or from the shops
Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds - direct or from the shops
The Alien Artifact - direct or from the shops
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