Forgive me, Father Christmas. I have sinned. It has been several months since my last blog post. As penance, I will use five adverbs and a semi-colon.
While I basked in the glory of releasing my third novel, Vega Rising, last year, I need to look ahead to what's coming in 2025. Glad you asked. Well, I'm currently working on a science fiction novel called Proxi. Set in modern times, it tells the story of an alien race who come to earth in peace and how marvellously well that all goes. Especially as it's set in the USA against the current backdrop of division, intolerance, libertarianism and a love of guns. What could possibly go wrong?
I plan to complete the novel in 2025 and publish it at the end of the year or early in 2026. I never claimed to be prolific. I'll provide detailed updates here on my blog.
As a writer, I'm often asked about AI and if I would ever use it for writing. The answers are yes and no. I'll explain.
I have dysgraphia, a condition similar to dyslexia, which makes it very difficult for me to write. This means that my handwriting is illegible, and it also affects my spelling, grammar, and sentence composition. To mitigate these problems, I use an AI tool called Grammarly to help me. It corrects my spelling and grammar and also suggests better ways to phrase a sentence so it makes sense. It doesn't write the story for me; that still comes entirely from my warped imagination. I will never use AI to create a story, mainly because those are mine. I don't believe AI could ever dream up the kind of tales I have circulating in my noggin. I'm also not sure AI would use the term "noggin" or any other English colloquialisms I hold dear. I don't want writing to blend into some homogeneous blob of mediocrity.
Long live creativity. And, noggins!
That's all for now,
John Howes.
