In the 1990s, I used to constantly construct domain names. My friend Rob was like that, too. We’d encourage each other when we’d come across a great blurb that would make a create domain name. Sometimes we’d buy the domain and see what we could make of it. None of them survived (although a few deserved to, like Rob’s The Fucking News).
These days I think in book titles. A phrase will come from somewhere, mostly my imagination, and I’ll think, “Wow, that’d be a great book title!” And then I’ll go through the outline of what that book could be about. Basically, building a book on a prompt.
So, why then am I struggling to title my third and final book in the Something About A.I. series? I’ve referred to it as B3, and The Swarm, or Our Swarm, Swarm v Collapse, and many others, but nothing is sticking. I don’t like any of them. They’re all awful. Grrrrrr
It’s frustrating because I’ve finished the first draft and now I’ve finished going through editing it for the first time. (Does that make it a second draft now?)
I’ve wondered if maybe I should ingest the book and let an AI agent provide some titles, but I hate the idea of doing that. I will not do that. How is it that someone who thinks in book title prompts so many times per day has not come up with a title?
But, hmm, I wonder. What if I head over to FearlessWorlds.com and ask Malcolm what he thinks a good name for the book would be? There’s an idea. But going over there and chatting with my characters always kind-of freaks me out.
So anyway, yeah, book 3 is done. That’s why I have posted little here. I’ve been busy there. Over there is the culmination of over three years of daily effort. The product that originated from a brainstorming session with my son after we’d watched Alan Thomson’s video summarizing AI progress (Inspired by Dr. Alan D. Thompson’s “Integrated A.I. — The sky is entrancing (mid-2023 A.I. retrospective)” YouTube video published June 26, 2023, and his “Leta, G.P.T. A.I. — Analyzing Leta with G.P.T. + Chat With Pdf plugin” posted July 8, 2023, on YouTube.). My son and I agreed that if any company had a super intelligent AI it would probably be IBM (having had a career there I’m a little biased). And they’d be stealthy about it, too. That led to a short story I wrote (AI Goes to Space) that was published in a Bay Area Writers League anthology titled, Space (2023). That story became the Something About AI, three book collection consists of more than one hundred and fifty thousand words (not really all that much for three novels but seems like a lot to me!).
The book categories are hard science, science fiction, speculative fiction, climate fiction (Cli-Fi), dystopian, and Fi-AI (fiction about A.I.). And more keywords than I can name here. I have learned about traditional publishing (there was the publisher who was interested in book 1 if I made changes, I did, but 9 months later when I followed up with my revision he ghosted me), self-publishing and all that entails including ISBNs and Copyrights. I’ve learned a lot from critiques; those from beta readers and writer groups, but also from AI (ProWritingAid). It’s been a journey I’ve enjoyed and have every intention to continue. But I’m finished with this series. It’s time for new stories, new focus.
I think the thing that’s been the most enjoyable has been improving. Refining my process, finding my style, learning from videos, books, and other writers. I’m getting comfortable with just enjoying creating. I mean, that’s all there is when you’re not making any money off it. But even that has its rewards. I don’t have to please anyone but myself. Just have fun.
But, lemme tell you, this thing about not coming up with a book title I love for this culmination of all my effort, ISN’T FUN! damnit
