A mailing list tells you a lot. Ours tells us where readers who have signed up are from. Now you might think they are mostly USA or Canada, and that’s true, however, so many readers come from across the world, from many countries we forget are English readers and—writers take note—an added market for your books. If you have not yet joined our mailing list, I hope you will do so. An old list we had from a few years ago was corrupted and so we had to purge a lot of it, asking readers to resubscribe. If you believe you subscribed and have never received our monthly emails, do sign up again. You do not have to worry about a duplicate entry as our system weeds those out. Click the image above or click HERE. The MAY edition of Books & Pieces Magazine comes out in a few days. It includes stories, artwork, poetry, videos, cooking and more! Cheers, William G
It’s the question of the ages, at least the current age, whether or not the use of AI in any form is acceptable. I do not believe that AI should be used as a writing tool for a lot of reasons. Chief, among these, is the fact that it cannot reproduce the author’s voice, or style with any degree of accuracy. I have tested it out to see whether it can do things like generate a short story from a prompt, and, in that regard, it can do so in a minimalistic way, a very generic style, but not defeating the purpose of having an author at all. This is not to say I think it’s a bad tool, but that it needs to be used constructively and not as a cheat. Using AI to develop story ideas, to research, and to assist in all the pieces that go into writing is acceptable. I also don’t have any issues with using AI to generate imagery to use on a blog site or a magazine, so long as it’s identified as such. In the April edition of Books & Pieces magazine, we have used AI imagery, including the cover image. This was identified on the cover and also on the inside. Since I’m not attempting to sell any imagery, it seems a benign way to fulfill the purpose. The transformation of artificial intelligence over the last few years has been astounding. I do not doubt that even within the next year, the progress will be even more astounding. I believe at some point AI could represent the tone of an author accurately. I say this after finding an AI-generated musical group called the AI Beatles in which AI has generated Beatles songs that have not existed prior, and with somewhat similar stylistics of the band members themselves. Is this a bad thing? It depends. On the one hand, it’s nice to hear something fresh with a somewhat Beatle sound to it, yet on the other hand, it’s quite obviously a fake. I guess the ultimate question is whether at some point AI can replace a human being, both in looks, style, speech, and attitude, as well as actions. Will AI take away my job? That’s a bit like asking whether the automobile was going take away the employment of the horse industry at the return of the last century. Progress always inflicts damage and creates change. People must adapt. When I look at the level of our culture now and how computers and electronics have managed to take the most incompetent person and elevate them in their ability, whether in music or art—have you seen some of the things passed off as art, recently?— I realize that is the norm of today’s society and widely accepted by a demographic that has experienced nothing better. So maybe it is not about whether something is good or bad, but whether it fits into the existing world. At the end of the day, I will treat writing as an art form that requires skill, patience, research, and lots of practice. And maybe when AI writes the best-selling novel, and mine struggles to sell, I might think differently. But until then, I believe authors and artists should rely on their talents. What do you think? Let me know. ~ William G. [Note: All imagery in this post is AI-generated.] PS: Next week the May 2024 issue of Books & Pieces Magazine is released. Our flip-page magazine now includes VIDEO!
Books & Pieces Magazine now offers musicians, artists and actors access to be in the magazine. How, you ask? Our flip-page magazine allows us to embed videos, music, and more. This means your music can play right on the page. Your art can be seen. You can shoot a video from your phone and submit it. Include buy links and you’ve just garnered a whole new audience. If you have not yet read the APRIL issue, check it out below. You will see the video links in there. ADVERTISERS can also have a static ad on the PDF but a video ad on the flip page magazine. And WRITERS, POETS, think of videos of live readings, book signings and other events. The sky’s the limit. BTW, our MAY issue is out next week, loaded with videos and content you will enjoy. PS: Double-click while on a page to zoom in. Same for Zoom out. Use [ ] for full screen. And if you want the PDF downloaded, use the cloud with the down arrow (videos do not get downloaded). Enjoy and please let us know what you think.
While the country is embroiled in the nasty politics of an election year, and without commentary about any of the candidates, I thought it would be fun to see who was the best movie president. Here are the candidates: Kevin Kline: Dave 1993 Michael Douglas: The American President 1995 Jack Nicholson: Mars Attacks 1996 Bill Pullman: Independence Day 1996 Harrison Ford: Air Force One 1997 Morgan Freeman: Deep Impact 1998 John Travolta: Primary Colors 1998 Jeff Bridges: The Contender 2000 Billy Bob Thornton: Love Actually 2003 Geena Davis: Commander in Chief 2005 Jamie Foxx: White House Down 2013 To cast your vote click HERE. Your answers are anonymous. Please select only one answer. More than one selection will void your result. Results will be posted on this site 5/15/24. This poll will also appear in our May 2024 issue available 5/1/24.
Now that may sound like a silly headline, but these days, metaphysical constructs and ideas seem rife across social media, as well as in the real world (yes, I distinguish between the two.) We are programmed. Everything is programmed. From your earliest thoughts, you have been shaped to fit the world and the society in which you emerged. What to think. Manners. Codes of conduct. Rules. Regulations. Social mores, work ethic, goals, and aspirations, right down to the shirts you wear and the cars you choose to drive. We like to believe that these are our choices, but in reality, they are choices that have been presented from which you choose. “It’s a big club,” Carlin said, “and you ain’t in it.” The late comedian George Carlin used to joke that we have endless choices for the illusion of freedom: just look at the cereal aisle in any supermarket, endless flavors of anything you might think you want, much geared to psychologically manipulate you. But the really important choices, such as politics, come to two parties, variations on a theme, presented by what he called “The real owners of the world,” the elites and multi-billion dollar corporations like Blackrock that own most things in the world. “It’s a big club,” Carlin said, “and you ain’t in it.” Writers sit down and develop an idea, but the idea is not new or unique; so few things are unique, anymore. We present a spin on an older idea, updated to the current age, with a few twists here and there, and we have something new. Take a murder mystery—there are only so many ways to kill someone and most have been done before. Still, by redirecting focus to a compelling character, the illusion of freshness stands out. Reality. A word we blithely accept without too much thought. But what is reality? One of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, dealt heavily with the quest to understand reality. You’re like familiar with the movie ‘Blade Runner’ and the sequel ‘Blade Runner 2049’. The former came from Dick’s book ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,’ which posited the idea of a future where no real animals existed and people like Deckard, a variant of a policeman, saved his money to buy an electric version of one, treating it like a prized possession. Dick was fascinated by what was, and what was not real. In one story household objects disappeared, replaced by notes that read: Fridge. Couch etc. In another short story, the ice cream man would come in his truck to the terror of the neighborhood kids, because when parents had enough of misbehaving kids they would call the ice cream man to take them away. I use Dick as an example because we do not have a valid definition of reality. Subjectively believing that something is real is not a strong standard. How many of you have had a dream so realistic and so emotion-filled that upon awakening, it all carries with you for much of the day? Or is that the real world and this is the dream state? Can you prove either to me? Another of Dick’s works ‘Total Recall’ from a novel called ‘We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,’ where you could have false memories of expensive vacations implanted in your mind so you can enjoy the sensation of something you would otherwise be unable to experience, complete with postcards mailed from the destinations you were never at. And yet another story, ‘Minority Report’ made into a movie with Tom Cruise as the lead in a Pre-Crime Police force, arresting people because three telepaths have foreseen a crime before the crime occurred. If you did not commit the crime but got arrested for it, how can you prove that the crime would happen? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to witness it, does it make a sound? I add, ‘Does it fall? Is it really there? Does the forest even exist?’ Social media is rife with alien encounters, secret plots, and wild imaginings. Within those, there are many truthful elements, things that time changes from conspiracy theories to facts. How do we know what is real, anymore? Did you know that all media is owned by a handful of corporations and that most anchors parrot the same words? This has been proved. You are fed what they want you to know. Nothing more. Contrarians, or those who question the narrative are shamed and shut down. We saw this during the COVID hysteria, and still today, although the number of believers has drastically reduced. The point is not what they say, but the fact that you have to accept it because you have no other means to discern the truth short of traveling to the source yourself, hardly practical. Death is another reality question. Do we really die? Does our spirit continue on? Is this just a fraction of the real world, the red pill of ‘The Matrix,’ another movie series that questioned reality? Or, as my mother would tell me, ‘Does it really matter?’ When something is unprovable, what is the value? My answer to that is to cite religious belief and the reality or lack of that somehow does not deter those of faith, while rejected by those prone to questioning. As a writer, when you look at the sheer volume of written work dating back to the very first scribblings in cuneiform back in the time of the Sumerians some 6,000 plus years ago, you have to ask yourself how you fit in this giant tapestry of ideas and words, all written by passionate writers. And what does it all mean? And if we are programmed by our society, to believe that we have an element of freedom of choice, is it all a distraction to keep us from focusing squarely on the big question: What is real? “There are things known and there are things unknown, and MORE
• Deadline for the May 2024 issue is April 20.
• We’re accepting stories (including REPRINTS), non-fiction, music (including links), artwork (including links to sell), photography, and more.
• A brand new April 2024 issue of the magazine is available for you. Enjoy. CLICK HERE
William Gensburger is the bestselling author of Texas Dead, Angle of Death, American Dead, Homo Idiotus, and Distant Rumors: 10 Short Stories.
He is also the publisher of Books & Pieces Magazine since 2017 featuring short stories, interviews and articles. You can learn more and view his books at www.MisterWriter.com.
©2023 William Gensburger
