I recently got a request on my site’s contact form to help an author with a book. Something about the request seemed to not match up to my usual clients, so I asked the author,”What kind of book are you writing?” “The genre is adult fiction, erotica thriller and dark romance,” the client responded. “Sorry,…
I’ve been an avid reader of science fiction since childhood. My path to it was a little unusual. I loved science books, especially Isaac Asimov’s sparkling nonfiction. When I ran out of that, I found out Asimov wrote (science) fiction books. That turned me on Clarke, Heinlein, Pohl, Dick, and the rest of those hard…
I’m soliciting ideas. I’ve written short fiction about technology gone awry — in the style of Black Mirror. Like this. Or this. I want to write more. And I could use your help. I want to know in what ways the directions of current technology now scare you. This exercise is not all that different…
I asked ChatGPT “Who is Josh Bernoff?” The result is below. I count 11 lies in 142 words. How many can you find? (Blatant hint: my actual bio is on this site.) I look forward to reading your answers in the comments. Analysis tomorrow. Josh Bernoff is a well-known author, speaker, and strategic advisor on…
John Logan, the scriptwriter behind two of the latest James Bond movies, is worried that when Amazon buys MGM, it will ruin 007. But data and corporate control doesn’t necessarily ruin creativity. It all depends on who’s making the creative decisions. John Logan’s lament for 007 Here’s some of what John Logan, co-writer of “Skyfall”…
A character on the CBS program “The Good Fight” called Alan Dershowitz a shyster. Is that libel? Dershowitz says yes. The producers of the show say no. So let’s get into it. There are really two questions here. First, can a fictional character’s statements be a cause for libel? And second, is what the character…
This is the last horror story I’ll post, for a while — as some of you have suggested, it’s back to my day job of helping nonfiction writers and analyzing media. This story was disturbing enough that the sponsor rejected it, so I never published it on Twitter. There is graphic content here. If you…
I dedicate this horror story to all the copy editors I’ve ever worked with. I died on a grey Thursday morning in late October. On that day I awoke precisely at dawn, as I do every day. I took note that my lower back pain, a dull constant for the last few decades, was gone….
I think this is my favorite short from the whole horror story project. I could see expanding this into full length story, or even something longer. *269* Jeremy stared at the scale. He’d spent 29 years in this body, and it wasn’t getting any better. It was time for a change. He dug up an…