AJ Alanson Author

Toaster God

I’m writing. I am. Certainly not at 6 books/year pace I started with years ago, but that’s not because I’m not writing, it’s because every little story I release into the wild must be coddled, fostered, and protected until it no longer belongs to me. My hand on the seat, I run alongside as it wobbles, then rolls, then pulls away. Some tales I long after. Some I wave off as soon as I turn to leave. Some circle back and follow me home. “Ah, a sequel,” I mutter as I eye my stack of works-in-progress, secretly wishing my creation might find another home.

However, the endless fussing and feeding that is book marketing doesn’t entirely explain my stilted pace of late. I’ve truly been wrestling. In the current landscape of writing – agents, publishers, and millions of other authors – isn’t diminishing enough to keep me from my craft. But AI is. I needed to come to terms with this new reality. Hell, Amazon magnanimously changed its policy in response to AI written books. An “author” may only upload 3 manuscripts PER DAY! That’s so thoughtful of them.

I found this daunting, and more often than not this summer, found myself swinging my hoe at weeds, putting the “squash” in squash bugs, or stomping down vole tunnels in the lawn. Admittedly, I had to work out some aggression. It’s not enough that reentering the workforce in another profession is improbable, I’ve been replaced by a toaster! A machine built to “help humanity.” How does one fight a toaster that has become a god?

And that’s when it happened. I may or may not have been laughing maniacally whilst brutally thinning carrots when I came up with an evil plan. I’m not a toaster, and a toaster isn’t me, so be more un-toaster-like. Learn AI’s weaknesses and exploit them. So what if right now, AI can “write in the style of AJ Alanson,” paint with my brush strokes, sing with my tone, record audio books in my voice, and even appear as me in video. For a few more minutes, it does all those things pretty cringely…not sure that’s a word.

I realized what I’m fighting against here isn’t change, it’s my need to change. After all, I’m the human it’s stealing from. AI isn’t the second coming, it’s a pirate, a mimic, a thief while I am certifiably unique – something AI can never be. It needs me in order to make its bad copies, so I’ll raise my game, be more human, and go where it can’t follow – into the imagination. Speaking of “witch,” A Witch in the Mill, the 9th book in The Admiral Inn series is coming along nicely. Take that, you toaster!

P.S. Some carrots survived.