Things my Oddness readers or any reader might like to know
My primary antagonist started with the name of Simon Hewes. (Partly a pun on his cost-cutting ways.) I changed it to Hughes a few years ago. I admire Howard Hughes and feared that recent sequel plot changes might offend Hughesnet or the Hughes family. So it's Hewes again.
I have just entered Diary of a Robot, my Lit-Fic clash-of-worlds Sci-Fi mystery, in the 2025 Writer's Digest Self-published Book Contest. The contest allows no AI-generated text, and my novel has none, but I re-published it to include that disclaimer on the Copyright page.
One recent change, published on 2025.03.28, modifies a few pronouns and a reference in A Clever Plan. And on 2025.03.29 I revised the Clever Plan Notes page.
Michael Woodson, content editor at Writer's Digest, says each genre in fiction has rules which its readers expect the stories to follow. But he says literary fiction can break any rule. He also says literary fiction focuses on style, character, and theme over plot. Okay. But because lit-fic is allowed to break any rule, my stories break that rule of his about focus. Their style and plot are most crucial, but are entirely driven by the personalities of the characters, including the robots.
Jeff Beal did the incidental music for 122 of the Monk TV show's 124 series episodes, but Beal’s and Randy Newman’s title theme songs for the show each won the Emmy Award. Newman's song replaced Beal's after the first season, and there was a brouhaha about which one is better. I have heard both, and each is worthy of its honors, but.....
The most recent essay updates appeared on Dec 2, 2024 to Perfectly Interesting (a few tweaks) and Families and Democracy (more about oligarchies).
The most recent personal item on this website appeared on Oct 25, 2024. It's a personal and confessional testimony: Born Empty.
George Armstrong Custer was a General when the Civil War ended, but Army policy reduced his rank. At the time of the Little Bighorn battle in 1876, he was a Lieutenant Colonel. I've made that change to the Crow scout story on my Home page.
July 4, 2024: My dad was born on 4 July 1915, so I added my essay on Families and Democracy in his honor.
June 29, 2024: Again, I revised my Author About on this website and on the back cover of Maynard and the Bullies. Although parts of the book are historical, and it includes a fight scene based on one of the author's own with a bully, Maynard’s story became a bully itself. It forced me to accept that most human history is about families, inventing, and bullying.
June 13, 2024: My downloadable Programming Stories in English article got a significant edit.
June 11, 2024: Tweaked Perfectly Interesting to pair better with Content, Presentation, and Realism.
June 8, 2024: Changed my essay about Content, Presentation, and Realism to help authors identify their niche markets in fiction.
May 9, 2024: Diary of a Robot earned Finalist honors again in the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award contest and is listed in the U.S. Review of Books.
April 20, 2024: I covered the topic in an earlier and shorter post on this site, but use the following link to view more detail in an important AI post on Writer's Digest by Mike Trigg: Think AI is Bad for Authors? The Worst Is Yet to Come.
April 15, 2024: I made changes to prepare my essay about Frontier Violations for submission to Writer's Digest Magazine.
April 13, 2024: I pulled Maynard and the Bullies from Amazon because pix on their Preview are waaay too dark and if I make their Preview pix look good, their print book pix are waaay too light. I'm trying to find a solution, but the good news is that Lulu.com's print books are fine (as usual), and the Internet paperback book price on Lulu.com drops from $14.95 to $7.95, and my revenue per book goes up by about 60 cents.
March 30, 2024: You can go to Paula Rizzo's website and download a very useful list for any author who might be asked to do an interview: Ten Interview Questions - https://paularizzo.com/10q/ I use it to help me focus on what my books are about. Or you can see the list here.
November 5, 2023: The best definition of Lit-Fic I know is by Michael Woodson, Content Editor at Writer's Digest magazine. Here is the link: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/what-is-literary-fiction
November 3, 2023: Added a blurb to my Books page about the differences T.K. Marnell noted between Western and Eastern storytelling. Here is the link to her full article: https://blog.tkmarnell.com/east-asian-storytelling/
April 20, 2024: I covered the topic in an earlier and shorter post in this site, but use the following link to view more detail in this important AI post on Writer's Digest by Mike Trigg: Think AI is Bad for Authors? The Worst Is Yet to Come.
March 23, 2024: I've edited the Frontier Violations essay to include AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) since that is what my robot Thinking Machines (and most Sci-Fi robots) need in order to be interesting. ...So, the real world has finally given a better acronym to what Sci-Fi has been showing us for nearly a century.
February, 2024: The next step after AI is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which my robots use to cause and solve fiascos. In the real world, some people working on it say it will happen by 2029. Fulfilling a contract issued by the U.S. State Department in October, 2022, Gladstone AI completed a report on proliferation and security risk from misaligned and weaponized AI. Here is a link: https://www.gladstone.ai/action-plan. The State Department has yet to comment on it.
October 25, 2023: AI in writing is like holding a wolf by the ears. I clarified my use of it. See the I Promise essay on the Books page.
August 24, 2023: I listened to a great interview with Jane Friedman. Here is the link:
https://www.writersdigest.com/resources/ai-stole-my-name-a-chat-with-jane-friedman.
For an AI robot's perspective, consult TM2's memoir, Diary of a Robot.
September 22, 23, and 24, 2023: AI for Authors by Scrivener master Joseph Michaels is a fascinating course whose fascinating introductory webinar I watched and wrote a review of it on September 21. Here is my article.
May 9, 2024: We entered both Maynard and the Bullies and Diary of a Robot in the 2024 Writers Digest Self-Published Book contest. Results won't be posted until the Fall. (We had entered both books in the 2024 Eric Hoffer Award contest as well, and Diary of a Robot again earned Finalist honors.)
March 22, 2024: I created this Significant Updates page and moved the long list of significant updates from my Home Page to here. I saw the need for it after watching a free video presentation from Leverage Brands. Like many websites, they barter a free .pdf for your email address. I'm on their list now.
December 5, 2023: Cherokee beta-reader feedback of Maynard and the Bullies is positive and included suggestions as well. Research led me to expand the topic of "the middle way" and add several pages to the story.
September 27, 2023: New book release for children: Maynard and the Bullies, a chap-book about Dr. Maynard Little as a boy inventor. It has 42 pages with 32 illustrations, photos, and maps.
August 12, 2023: Advance Review Copies of the prequel Maynard and the Bullies are going out.
June 6, 2023: Diary of a Robot earns RECOMMENDED status from the U.S. Review of Books.
Apr 29, 2023: The updated version of Diary of a Robot has been named a category finalist in the 2023 Eric Hoffer Award contest.
May 11, 2023: Updated the Dogs page to show Mikey as waiting at the bridge, and then give Tux his proper place beside Malachi. My dear friend Mikey was a smart and funny dog--and still is, because all dogs go to heaven where conditions and vet care are the best.
Apr 29, 2022: Diary of a Robot has been named a category finalist in the 2022 Eric Hoffer Award contest.
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