Don’t forget that the songs are available, too! Listen to them, and maybe you’ll want to add them to your playlists!
I’m continuing to make progress on the final book in the trilogy. And a few other projects have wheels turning. For one, a story that I shared an open mic reading of last year, I am now working with an illustrator to turn it into a children’s book. I never thought I would be exploring that world, but I am. Liz Gauffreau, thank you for the suggestion!
Also, it’s been suggested I compile all my short works, published and unpublished, into a collection. My only reservation on that is how varied they are (it’d be a big mishmash). For anyone who’s seen the anthologies I’m in, it’d be a combination of holiday, scary, fantasy, and so forth. Another writer suggested making eBook-only editions of the stories and essays. So I ask you, would you read a mishmash collection of poetry, short stories, and essays of mine?
If you are looking for podcasts to listen to, be sure to check out The Merry Writer Podcast, which Ari co-hosts with author Rachel Poli. I have been featured on it twice!
Don’t forget that a new edition of Mystical Greenwood will soon be available! A new edition of Beneath the Deep Wave will follow.
I am grateful for Fae Corps Publishing for allowing me to have my books copyedited and re-launched. And I am especially grateful to Liza Achilles, whom I met at the Maryland Writers’ Conference last October, for agreeing to copyedit my books. If you are looking for a copy editor, I highly recommend Liza.
And I must also thank the conference’s keynote speaker, Reed Farrell-Coleman, for telling me that it’s never too late to hire a copyeditor.
Many people are talking about advancements and dangers in A. I. these days, so I felt I ought to express my own thoughts. Well, to start, perhaps like me, a lot of people imagine A. I. as depicted in the movies when they first hear it. Certainly, I’ve always hoped that’s something we will never see. There are some things, I feel, that ought to never be discovered. Like Dr. Malcolm in the film Jurassic Park pointed out, humanity should not be so focused on whether they could that they forget to think if they should.
That being said, a difference has been pointed out between creative and editorial A. I. And certainly, I am not a supporter of the former. It devalues the hard work and effort real people put into the words they type and the stories they create entirely out of their own imagination. I watch a lot of documentaries about lives of writers, in which I learn of the trials and tribulations they went through, because it not only fascinates me how they came up with their stories, but also gives me comfort to know that I am not alone in what I have gone through.
As for editorial A. I., as a tool, it potentially can be helpful. I’ve seen how MS Word’s editorial features, and it has helped me fix a lot of things. But it’s best to remember that it is a tool, not a guideline to follow to the letter. I’ve noticed that not everything highlighted as a mistake is an actual mistake, and just because it is highlighted doesn’t mean that a writer has to change it. And certainly not all features have to be used. Humans can choose not to. For one, I do not use Copilot.
Sometimes one editorial program will highlight something as an error or a potential error that another won’t. Plus, human eyes can detect things about a story that machines are incapable of noticing. My own judgment is still important, as is a real editor’s. Editorial A. I. would have a field day with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, yet the way language is used is one of the things that makes it special.
Technology can certainly be beneficial for writing. I remember writing long hand, and I am grateful for computers and how they make editing easier than by hand or with a typewriter (though at times I have wondered it would be like to type on one). But it is a double-edged sword. It was shameful to hear about how A. I. has pirated authors’ works to improve itself.
I certainly hope we don’t see machines replacing people, nor churning out books like in Nineteen Eighty-Four. While it seems advancements in A. I. are here to stay and will continue to come, let us not forget that it should be a tool and not a replacement for human ingenuity or choice.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to do a book signing at my old middle school (2001-2004), which was hosting an outdoor community event, a movie night, for the kids. I got to sell some books and, for the first time, accept credit card payments. It was the first time, technically, that I was selling books as an individual vendor rather than on consignment.
I even got to talk to some kids who were aspiring writers and refer them to the MWA’s teen writing program. It is my hope that some of them will join.
The school looked a little different from my day (mainly in a front extension), but that night, and when I knew I’d be there, brought back a lot of memories. There were two major highlights from 6th grade there. One was that was when I first showed an interest in writing, though it had not yet grown to be a commitment. But my Language Arts teacher recognized it, and she wrote about it in my yearbook. She was one of the three teachers I dedicated Mystical Greenwood too (the others were teachers from high school).
The other was 9/11. The day started off at school like any other. language arts went normal, but during social studies, early dismissal calls over the intercom began, and there were abnormally high, I remember. It continued into tech ed. It was during that class when we were told school was out early. I had to rush to get to my locker before rushing to the bus. Science and math never happened that day. There were rumors on the bus, and the driver said there’d be no school the next day as we got off, but it wasn’t until I got home that I learned what had really happened.
The major highlight in 7th grade was the science project I did that year on color-blindness in dogs. I used my own dog, whom I mentioned before, and jars with different-colored paper. The conclusions were that red and green were hard for her to distinguish, but blue and yellow weren’t. It went all the way to the county level and a few other places. Funny enough, at Balticon this year I listened in on a scientific presentation that involved apes, I believe, which mentioned the same sets of colors, or at least blue and yellow.
As for 8th grade, my algebra teacher would let students stay after once a week to do homework (last class of the day), and my mother, with some effort, finally got me to do it. I didn’t want to stay after. But I did, and in the end, not only did my grades get better, but my teacher said I was the most improved student in the class. Who knows whether I would’ve felt comfortable in high school with afterschool clubs had I not done that.
It was also this weekend that I learned I’ve been approved to sell and autograph books at the Arundel Craft Fair in two months, which will take place at my old high school! I imagine more memories will resurface by then. The event is also on Facebook. In the meantime, I’ve got the Maryland Writers’ Conference this weekend, where I plan to have books on consignment with The Last Word bookstore. The event is also on Facebook. Hope to see you at either or both if you can make it!
I can remember attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival many times as a kid. In fact, the hat (minus the feathers) and the pendant in my costume were both souvenirs from different visits. Nice to tie this author signing back to the past. And, of course, Page After Page is a place where I was always guaranteed to look for a souvenir. I’ve certainly gotten many memorable books from the festival over the years, including a collection of Irish myths and an internet-based world history reference book. But perhaps the most memorable was when, as a little child, I got Gail Gibbons’s Knights in Shining Armor, which my parents had inscribed for me as “Sir Andrew McDowell”–it certainly made me feel like a knight.
The last time I attended the Ren Fest as a guest was with the Tolkien Society, a fantasy and sci-fi fan club at St. Mary’s College, fourteen years ago. I did buy books then, and the most memorable part was having my palm read. After that, the last two times I was there was with my Masonic brothers volunteering our time to earn money for our Lodge. The second time was when I made the connection that led to me doing this author signing.
Well, I shall definitely have to do this again (as soon as some new books come out).
Andrew McDowell 