Authors Electric

My reading has taken a slightly different path this autumn, thanks to the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence. Last month, Machines That Think (part of the New Scientist Expert series) rather blew my mind, despite being published 10 years ago. Since then, AIs have become more sophisticated and even more data hungry, resulting in a class action by authors against Anthropic in the US claiming their copyrights were violated. Similar questions are being asked by the music business, as highlighted in a recent Radio 3 programme The Artificial Composer . AI is also active in other creative industries, such as the art world and video games. It seems creative professionals the world over are in danger of being reduced to hobbyists, helping to train the very AI tools that will enable everyone else to become an instant author or composer, visual artist or video game creator. How did this happen without us noticing? Let me take you back to fiction's favourite prompt: What If? and a bo...

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo taken by me, Allison Symes, at the Hiltingbury Book Fair. It may be the season of mellow fruitfulness (which is a wonderful expression and for me conjures up autumn beautifully), but it is also the signal Book Buying Season is here again.  Now for me, every part of the year is book buying season but with a certain event only being two months away, and books are excellent gifts as everyone knows, you can’t blame the publishers for focusing so much on sales in the next few weeks or so.  Equally naturally when I put certain lists together, the first thing on mine will be the books I’d like to see under the tree this year. There would  be something seriously wrong with me not to request any! Of course with book buying season well underway by the time this blog goes out, it will be accompanied by Author Event season too. I think the biggest challenge to all writers is encouraging those who don’t r...

  Pinky and Perky We’ve had a pair of pigeons that made our garden their home. They were easy to identify, as one of them had particularly pink feathers, and was inseparable from another one with standard rock pigeon colouring. Pinky and Perky. I only realised that it was the pink one that was the male when he made overtures to another pigeon of exactly the same colouring as his mate, and was thoroughly duffed up as a consequence. He remedied his mistake later, by consummating his marriage very publicly on a neighbouring rooftop. Pigeons mate for life, although they may take another mate if one of them dies. And then Perky disappeared. Pinky seemed completely lost, spending a lot of time sitting in the water bowl and scanning the rooftops. We really felt for him, as he was off his food and couldn’t even be bothered to preen himself. This got me thinking about grief, and how bereavement has affected me over the years. And how well do writers describe it? Not very honestly on the who...

No, not that Caruso! In my crime WIP I thought of the other Caruso, the world's most famous male redhead not that long ago (to my way of thinking): the star of NYPD Blue for a single season in 1993 and CSI Miami from 2002-2012. David Caruso left Blue too soon for a film career that never took off. Some critics and fans never forgave him for abandoning the role they'd loved. But finally, nine years later, he came back and stayed on top for a decade. In my WIP I thought of Caruso while creating my redheaded villain, who's older but characterized by the same blend of gravitas and fire. Above all, I tried to help readers hear his spellbinding baritone voice. A form of shorthand, I admit, but not lazy writing. I allowed myself one reference to Caruso, then let his dialogue do the heavy work along with his actions and outbursts. That said, here we are at the heart of this post. My Aussie editor suggested deleting the reference because it's dated and may be unfamiliar to most ...