The Life of an Author

There is a science to work-life balance, time management, and motivation. Those will be the posts you can expect in this area of the blog as well as general authorial updates.

Being a Panelist at Killer Nashville

Dreaded Topic of AI: Assistant, Not Author

Writing to Scientists

Efficiency Expert Heroes: The Gilbreths

Iterative Methodologies, Killer Nashville, and Yachts

Being a Panelist at Killer Nashville

It was another Killer year at Killer Nashville--a writing conference that takes place in my own back yard. This year I focused more on craft and building community than giving my work to editors and agents. I already know where a lot of my issues lie.

This year was also different in that I was a panelist for "Using AI Ethically to your Benefits." The topic was hot and juicy! We had a panelist who was a retired lawyer on the panel too. The best stories come from conflict and it was a bit spicy.

On the spectrum of "Never touch the evil that is AI" to "It's my best friend" I was definitely leaning toward friendship bracelets, but I was about the only one. There was another creative who encouraged the use of OpenAI since it so far has been shown to have sourced its training materials ethically.

On that topic, there is an ongoing lawsuit surrounding LibGen--a free online library focused on academic works that may or may not be obtained without the publisher's approval. Companies claim that Meta and others trained their AI using LibGen, and therefore used copyright works without the author/publisher's approval. It's a messy topic at the intersection of grassroots movements toward easy access to research, downright piracy, and the inevitable advancement of technology. Get yourself a cup of tea and read up on it.

I am interested with the rumor that some publishers and agents will auto-reject manuscripts that have even glanced at AI. The traditional publishing industry is already so gated, this will create an even greater gap between authors who wish to be traditionally published and the self-publishers who just don't care about more hoops to jump through. Most people I talked to at the conference had no idea how useful and helpful AI could be to their process and hadn't considered how it is embedded in some writing tools as software companies work to be cutting edge. I do think it's use will be inevitable and I also think there will be a core group of artists who will rally together to decry its use. They will talk about the heart of the craft of writing and that their creative spirit is pure, nevermind that they all use editors who tell them to change bits and pieces of their work.

As you can imagine, it was an entertaining panel, to say the least. For the record, AI will not train on your text if you turn that feature off. It does give you a set amount of memory for it to remember during your conversations so you can delete things you want it to remember. And if you publish something, people might steal it, that's just the way criminals work.

I hope that people stop living afraid of its capabilities and simply educate themselves. Then they can still sleep soundly at night, unafraid of AI even if they still simply choose "No, thank you."

Dreaded Topic of AI: Assistant, Not Author

I wonder if people thought photography would render painters useless. Why bother with hand created images when you could simply take a color photograph? But photography expanded "imagery" into a more versatile tool allowing for photo IDs to be quick and cheap and crime scene details to be simple to document. One could say photography became something separate from artistry. It did, however, also make a mark in the creative world becoming its own medium beside acrylic, charcoal, and other methods of art. It enhanced art without replacing art and was also a useful tool. I think of AI for authors in the same way.

My favorite AI is ChatGPT. It lays out its ideas cleanly and with basic empathy. I use it as a tool just like Microsoft Word, Wikipedia, Google or to bouncing ideas off, like I do with my Dad. In my opinion, nothing is better to help with research, brainstorming, and business advice. As far as using it to write prose or offer edit advice, we can save that for part III.

RESEARCH

In one story idea, I wanted a city in the clouds, but how would the weather work? Would everyone have sunburns? Would it rain, or would they have to dredge rain in big buckets underneath? ChatGPT told me it depends on the altitude I chose. It gave me options and broke down how each would affect weather patterns. It was fun because I'd just ask it questions instead of going through a thousand google pages. It's just conversational google at that point. If ever you worry about the veracity of the research, simply ask for citations. I don't think it can be beat for this kind of analysis for authors.

BRAINSTORMING

Sometimes I get stuck and I don't know who to talk to about it. No one knows my story like I do because no one has read it. Since I do science fiction, it's tough to get someone up to speed past all the sci fi giberish. Add onto that the evolving plot/characters/worldbuilding, and it's hard to follow my train of thought. But ChatGPT remembers. I can save the conversation and go back to it. "I want my character to get into a fight with her friend, what do you think?" It will then start spouting ideas, usually ones that don't quite work. But whatever muse I need will wake up and start arguing with it and voila! I become un-stuck.

I can ask it questions and it might go in a direction I don't like. I'll tell it to try again, or say, "No, that wouldn't work because she's secretly xyz. What do you think now?" It never gets frustrated at my ever changing opinion or the ebbs and flows of my mood. It just supports my ideas and tries to help. You can't ask for more than that.

BUSINESS ADVICE

Finally, leverage ChatGPT for business needs. "What publishing house would like this?" "What should I price my kindle book for?" "Where should I throw my launch party for minimal price?"

At one point I was debating direct kindle publishing or Ingram. What would my profit be for each? It did the math and broke it down. Then I'd ask, "What would be the reason to choose each, beyond financials?" If you ask it intelligent questions, you'll get what you need from it.

I like to treat ChatGPT like an intern or an enthusiastic fan for a book that isn't written yet. You want it to help, but you never quite let it drive on its own. You should try it yourself, see what you think.

Writing to Scientists

Science fiction has tricky rules. You're making up science or imagining what it could be capable of by pulling the information out of thin air. The audience understands that it is fiction. But if you don't explain enough then it doesn't sound like science.

So you do your research and understand the where the math ends and the make-believe begins. Now your editor is asking "how" and "why" the make believe does what it does and you just want to say, "You got me! It's all pretend! I made it up!" But science fiction isn't about proving your story is plausible to physicists who know it is not. Writing is ensuring that the underlying logic is consistent. But how deep does that logic need to go?

The Niagara Event taps into my electrical engineering education and postulates that there's more to electricity than just voltage, current, and resistance. Perhaps Tesla discovered another aspect that had incredible side effects like changing the nature of materials. What if it builds up like toxins in the body until it creates a reaction? Instead of red hives from an allergen or slowly going mad to mercury poisoning, what if it finally jolts your system into reacting in a transformative way? Growing wings? Curing baldness? That's a leap, though, right? That's pretty fiction of science fiction. But what if?

Science fiction is more than just science for nerds though. It also taps into the social ramifications of scientific advancement. You look no further than Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" for that. In the Niagara Event, that is where I wanted to live in the story. If some are special and some aren't, what do you do if you aren't? Or what do you do if you're EXTRA special? That story has been told many times, but seems to be with people who live in one world or the other. But what happens if puberty could dump you on the other side of the line...?

This is all to say that one of the reasons I have not been updating this site is due to the time spent devoted to editing science fiction. I had no idea the ripple effects small ideas would have in the fabric of the world building. Why would Lisa drink a coke? Aren't those irrelevant in the future? What about high rise buildings would make you want to sit on the veranda and sip coffee? Do you have any idea the kind of wind sheer you get at just forty stories? So on and so on.

Suffice it to say I have a superb editor who is ruthless in his quest for perfection which I love. Bear with me, readers, as I run quality check after quality check on the novel so that you will have a pristine and deeply fascinating story by the time I'm done. No, I do not have an ETA (as I've blown through the last few I've made). I do, however, have a promise. I will not quit and I will not stop until this is published. Thank you for your patience.

posted Feb 14 2025

Efficiency Expert Heroes: The Gilbreths

Sometimes I am discouraged and think, "How can I possibly add 'author' to my identity when it is already full with technology professional, mother, wife, and the small tasks and titles that draw on my attention like grocery shopping and remembering to call my mother?"

We only have a finite quantity of time and energy to spend, so how should we optimize it and keep all the plates spinning? The gold standard in this space isn't a blogger or influencer, but rather the husband and wife team of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.

You might have heard of them if you ever read the book or seen the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen" (no, not the Disney one--that doesn't count). It was written by Frank and Lillian's children about growing up in a family run by efficiency experts during the 1920's.

Frank and Lillian conducted time motions studies which analyzed tasks across various industries. They would film people performing an action (like stamping records) and then break down how to do the task better, faster, and more ergonomically. They impacted multiple industries such as bricklaying, clerical work, manufacturing, medicine, and a host of other industries. They pushed nurses to lay out their tools a certain way and for foremen to arrange raw goods closer to workers.

The Gilbreth's work laid the foundation for finding the best ergonomic way to do tasks and for continuous quality improvement. They looked for waste before "seven kinds of waste" was a thing. For anyone who has worked near manufacturing you'll be familiar with six sigma philosophies, lean manufacturing, and other methodologies to reduce waste, produce higher quality products, and increase the speed of production. Consider the behemoth Toyota and how they transformed the manufacturing world. All of that work was built on the foundations that Lillian and Frank developed.

The book, which I highly recommend, really highlights that Frank and Lillian simply thought about every task as something that could be improved and streamlined. How do you get thirteen people to shower quickly and efficiently? How do you run a household that involves so much coordination? Remember, credit is given not just to Frank, but Lillian as well. She continued their company when he died in 1924-- one hundred years ago. She was then a single mother running a business with her eldest child only 19 and her youngest only 2 years old.

If she could run a home with a dozen children and co-run a company before the invention of the microwave, somehow I should be able to write a book on the side while the laundry machine is running, my toaster oven is heating up pizza rolls, the dishwasher is cleaning up, and amazon is delivering disposable diapers overnight.

So as I look to get the most out of my own time, I'll leave you with one of Frank's most famous quotes (that Bill Gates later repeated), "I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."

Fun fact: Lillian is credited with the development of foot pedal trash cans.

posted Nov 2 2024

Killer Nashville

Iterative Methodologies, Killer Nashville, and Yachts

I spent this past weekend (and the tail end of last week) at a writing conference in Nashville, TN. Killer Nashville may lean towards murder mystery, thriller, and cozy genres, but at its core, the conference is about authors getting together and supporting each other. It also socializes and breaks down stigmas between authors, aspiring authors, editors, and agents. It was a great chance to get out of the normal 9-5 grind and focus on writing and its opportunities.

Every year they announce awards for the conference for writing and this year I was the equivalent to a semi-finalist in the fantasy category for my manuscript in progress, "When a Soul Unravels." I knew before the first day of the conference that I hadn't made it to the final round, but I still proudly wore a little banner on my lanyard telling everyone I was a "top pick."

The experience let me reorient on the importance of my website, newsletters, and the powerful capabilities of my own self and my own actions. Last year it felt like a whirlwind, brushing shoulders with real, live, professional published authors. But this year, the glamor had faded into something more realistic and grounded.

Even though famous, successful people are still just people, sometimes you wonder why you aren't. After all, there is a reason I don't own a yacht and sail the Mediterranean with my private chef. I don't know what that reason is exactly, but there is a reason.

This time, I think I might have an idea why I wasn't published: I hadn't quite chosen to do it.

The person most invested in my success and the person most to blame for constantly highlighting my faults is just me. There's a saying in the corporate world, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good," and as someone with a heavy background in mathematics, I still have to constantly remind myself that the answer is usually iteration.

Back in the day when software was published, the entire program had to work perfectly right out of the box or someone would have to ship more CD's to re-install onto a computer (an expensive and embarrassing prospect). Then the internet came and IT professionals changed how they dealt with project cycles.

No longer did something have to be perfect, it just had to work. They could always push updates later and thus "agile" methodology and the "minimal viable product" (MVP) concepts were born.

We are constantly surrounded by examples that are trying to train us to "just move forward" and to embrace the imperfections not because we don't want to be perfect, but because being imperfect is proof we're doing something difficult. Yes, I can reach for the dream of being a multi-millionaire, selling my stories to Hollywood, and having my children roll their eyes when strangers excitedly gasp, "That's your mom?!" But I can also reach for the dream of one day having my own website, my own blog, and my own published book. Then, I'll take a glass of champagne, raise a toast, and dream for the next milestone.

So here's to you, fellow human, wherever you are in your own dramatic story of life. That last milestone you hit was a doozy, wasn't it? But you made it, you did it. And now you're just iterating towards the next one. Maybe there's some ups and downs, but you're chugging towards success, aren't you? You're figuring it out. Look at you go. Just think of how amazing we will be tomorrow.

Learn more about Agile methodology, iterative philosophy, and yachts in the Mediterranean.

posted Aug 29, 2024

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