In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Cyberpunk?
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.” Ingrid Bergman
“[I]f you use one of the AI writing services, you are taking other writer’s work … and secondly you don’t own the copyright.” Dean Wesley Smith
“[A]bsent a book’s creator admitting she/he used artificial intelligence to write a book, how is anyone going to know for certain whether the author used AI to assist in the creation of a book or parts of a book?” The Passive Guy
More on AI in “Of Interest”
Cyberpunk?
For those of you who grew up with or enjoy “cyberpunk,” Matt Perryman posted an excellent retrospective yesterday. See “On the 40th anniversary of Cyberpunk”.
Notably, to me, Matt mentions Bruce Bethke, who coined the term “cyberpunk” in his short story of the same name around 40 years ago. From his bio, “Bruce Bethke is best known either for his 1980 short story, ‘Cyberpunk,’ his Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Headcrash, or as the editor and publisher of Stupefying Stories.” Here’s Bruce’s article.
Now Bruce is “putting together a special anniversary issue of Stupefying Stories for the 40th anniversary of his short-story. And he’s seeking submissions for a few issues of the magazine. Visit https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/p/late-summer-fall-2023-open-submissions.html.
Of particular interest to me in Bruce’s article, he mentioned Rocketbook. When I first found Rocketbook, it was the earliest e-reader, a bulky precursor to the Kindle and other dedicated e-readers.
In fact, my book-length poetry collection, Lessons for a Barren Population—which was also the first-ever book length poetry collection published as an ebook (HardShell Word Factory, 1996)—was available to read in Rocketbook. I still have that old machine around somewhere.
Today, Rocketbook is not bulky. It has morphed into a slim note-taking application. Per the description, today it’s “an ultramodern, tech-savvy reusable notebook built for the professional who likes to stay organized and on-trend.”
Per the description of one of the alternatives, Notebook OS, it’s a “powerful and aesthetic notetaking system that centralizes all your notes into your digital workspace.” You probably get the gist.
I thought that might interest some of you. The Rocketbook is available for around $55 to $60 directly from the company or via Amazon.
The first link in “Of Interest” lists alternatives. So if you’re one who might find a note-taking application of use, check it out.
For a great deal more information, key “Rocketbook Pro” into your search engine. It’s a sizeable rabbit hole, but one that will be worthwhile if you’re interested.
And if you have or want to write an appropriate story for Stupefying Stories, by all means read the submission guidelines at https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/p/late-summer-fall-2023-open-submissions.html and submit something already.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Best Rocketbook Alternatives – 2023” at https://www.producthunt.com/products/rocketbook/alternatives.
See “Stories We Buy At WMG” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/stories-we-buy-at-wmg/. No AI.
See “‘AI Will Never Be Good Enough to Replace Real Authors’ Is the Wrong Conversation” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/ai-will-never-be-good-enough-to-replace-real-authors-is-the-wrong-conversation/. See PG’s take.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 490
Writing of Blackwell Ops 9: Cameron Stance
Brought forward………………………… 4087
Day 1…… 1595 words. To date…… 5682
Day 2…… 2101 words. To date…… 7783
Day 3…… 2573 words. To date…… 10356
Day 4…… 1588 words. To date…… 11944
Day 5…… 2135 words. To date…… 14079
Day 6…… 2019 words. To date…… 16098
Day 7…… 3067 words. To date…… 19165
Day 8…… 1562 words. To date…… 20727
Day 9…… 2616 words. To date…… 23343
Fiction for August……………………… 29859
Fiction for 2023………………………… 144406
Fiction since August 1………………… 27243
Nonfiction for August…………………… 22930
Nonfiction for the year……………… 172830
Annual consumable words………… 317236
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 2
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 232
Short story collections…………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.