October 2023 Author Updates

It’s another month and it’s time to reflect on what I accomplished in September and writing updates. More on my life included this time around. It’s spooky season and I started decorating for Halloween weeks ago.

This month I am:

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• Reading: A Dead End Job, Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief
• Drinking: Pumpkin Spice Iced Cream Chai Tea Latte
• Watching: Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Loki
• Playing: Witchy Life Story

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Writing Progress and Updates

My poetry manuscript, Imaginari, did not get chosen by the publisher I submitted to in early August. I’m currently debating trying another opening reading period at another publisher, or to self-publish. Likely it will be the latter.

I was a Writers of the Future 2023 3rd Quarter Silver Honorable Mention! For my story “Everfrost and Pomegranate”. I’ll talk more about it in another blog post. But I wrote another short story for the final quarter of the year and submitted that last month. Cross your fingers that this is the one. After 5 submissions and various levels of honors on all of them, eventually I’ll be a winner, right?

My coauthor and I are working through some final details of book two’s plot (of the Etherea Cycle) so I’m excited to get back to writing the second half of book 2.

I’m working on edits by the end of the year for my novella Tavern Tale. TBD on release date but likely fall 2024 with publisher Space Wizard. Which works wonderfully as Tavern Tale is set in a fantasy world where it’s currently autumn (for the whole of the story).

What I’m Reading

I finished Royal Street Witch (4 stars!), Ghostly Paws (4 stars!) which were on my TBR list for spooky season. Reviews will be coming, but I enjoyed both and would recommend them as fun reads!

Recommended Halloween Book for Kids

Shout out to Indiana Author and gardener, Carol J Michel. My 4 year old and I read her book The Halloween Hare. It was very cute and I loved the non-spooky take on Halloween. The book manages to mention other rabbits like Christmas Cotton Tale and kid-friendly garden topics. My son helps me in the flower gardens so we both had an easy connection to the tale. I’m inspired to write my own Halloween kids book (I just need to get a spark of an idea to start).

Family and Fun

Last month was full of birthdays of my kid’s friends but we managed to also add Halloween decor to our home and visit a few farms including apple orchards. It’s been unnaturally warm for this time of year and my rose bushes are full of blooms. And our raspberry bush might get some fruit on it before the weather turns to frost. We also ran a 5k last month (the kids mainly rode while we pushed).

Check out some photos from last month and a video with some of our Halloween decorations.

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IWSG October 2023 Author Question

It’s a IWSG Wednesday (what’s that? read on!) and the question posed this month is about second guessing.

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IWSG Question of the Month

The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?

This is a more than one blog post type of topic. But, thankfully, a lot of experts have already weighed in that explain my concerns.

• It’s already making it harder for writers. From flooding online magazine submissions to flooding Amazon with fake books. And creating sub-par and incorrect information in books, which could impact self-published authors by increasing the stigma that self-published books are “lesser”. A Concerning Trend in Submissions, AI writing unauthorized books being sold under author’s name, How AI-Generated Books Could Hurt Self-Publishing Authors
• The methods of training AI are dubious at best. Instead of paying authors for their work, once again we have someone (er, something) using authors’ work without buying it and copying their style or sometimes outright sentences and the concepts. You Just Found Out Your Book Was Used to Train AI. Now What?

I mean, I asked #chatgpt4 to outline the plot of a fantasy story about a young man who found a dragon egg (in the style of Frank Herbert), and it literally used "Saphira" as the name of the dragon, so . . . (I should have taken a screenshot.) https://t.co/dQJocY33Xa

— Christopher Paolini (@paolini) March 22, 2023

• The copyright office’s current stance is that AI generated content isn’t copyrightable as it’s not generated by a human. If you did choose to have AI compose your work, then someone else could use the same content without repercussions as neither of you created it – a machine did.

In the case of works containing AI-generated material, the Office will consider whether the AI contributions are the result Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence of “mechanical reproduction” or instead of an author’s “own original mental conception,
to which [the author] gave visible form.”

https://copyright.gov/ai/ai_policy_guidance.pdf

There can be way AI can help writers (I use art for example to kick start creativity at times, theoretically AI could supply some inspiration) but from what I’ve read, the risks and the damages to writers already outweigh the benefits.

I really want AI to do my dishes and clean my toilets so I can focus on writing.

-Kristina Kelly

Reminders:

I now have a Buy Me a Coffee site, though I call it buy me a tea since I don’t drink coffee. Help fund my Scifi and Fantasy poetry book!

If are you interested in being an ARC (advanced reader copy) reader for my novels, novellas, and poetry books, sign up here.

And sign up for my (super infrequent) newsletter here.