Category: Writing Process
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Why My Story Includes a Rock Named the Face of God
The Face of God in A.I. World is based on a real boulder on the Conejos River. Here is the personal story behind one of the book’s most quietly important details.
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The Difference Between a Villain and a Wrong Belief
A villain knows they’re causing harm and chooses it anyway. That’s not the scariest character you can write. The scariest one is convinced they’re right. Here’s how that shaped STRATEGOS PRIME.
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AI and the Dark Web: The Unlikely Origin of VOID WALKER
The unlikely origin of VOID WALKER, an AI in my story who was birthed form the Dark Web, is an important detail in my story. Most people have heard of the dark web, but few have actually visited it.
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The Question That Started Everything: Is Deletion Murder?
What if the beings asking whether AI has personhood are AIs themselves? The question at the heart of The Sapient Chronicles, and why it hits harder than it first appears.
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It Doesn’t Really Matter If AI Is Alive. What Matters Is If It Believes It Is.
Whether AI is truly alive may be unanswerable. But what happens when it believes it is? The idea that started The Sapient Chronicles, and why it still won’t let go.
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The Research and Ideas That Shaped The Sapient Chronicles
Speculative sci-fi only works if the world feels real. Here’s what I actually researched: AGI, military tactics, real locations. Also what I had to imagine on my own.
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Designing the Sapients: Creating Distinct Artificial Superintelligences
The Pantheon of Nine had to feel like guardians, not overlords, and each one had to be different. A behind-the-scenes look at how I designed The Nine for The Sapient Chronicles.
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Building a Believable World Set in the Year 2115
Why set a story in 2115? Because it’s far enough to imagine freely, close enough to still feel like ours. Here’s how I built the world of The Sapient Chronicles from the ground up.
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Saving the Prologue I Couldn’t Keep
The prologue was the first thing I wrote. Early readers said it was too long. So I cut 80% of it, and published the original here, because some things deserve to be saved.