I'm F**king Depressed

I got an e-mail last week from the owner of the yoga studio I go to. They're closing at the end of the month.

 @*$@(*@*#)!&#$#&*@(*!!!

I've got my meds balanced, I'm eating better, and I've been exercising regularly between walking dogs and this class. Should I be taking the closing of the studio personally? No, I should not. The owner's in the same boat as everyone else, including me. Food prices and gas have doubled, and there's no end to the bullshit in sight.

It's still disappointing as fuck. I'm one of those people who needs a push to reach my exercise goals. Even the gentle nudge of the instructors of this particular studio helped me tremendously.

Why? Frankly, I'd prefer to sit all day and write, but that's not healthy for your body in the long run. The Public Service Announcements that sitting for long periods being as bad for humans as smoking aren't joking. My back and hips are aching just from the writing I've done over the last two weeks.

So I need to find a way, and the emotional push, to continue practicing yoga at home.

*sigh*

This totally sucks! 

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Could anyone beat the soundtrack music Queen did for the original Highlander?

Throwing Away the Joy of Writing

I don't read too many other blogs these days. Simply because so few people write them.

But the subject of AI-written books has come up repeatedly in the handful of blogs I still read from people in the publishing industry. The problem with AI-generated things is they have no soul. No creativity. Nothing new. AI follows a trope outline so everything sounds exactly the same.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a trope. Genres are based on tropes. You read a romance for a happy ending. You read fantasy for an exciting adventure with imaginary beings. You read a mystery, knowing justice will be served in the end.

But AI takes the trope and dulls it down to the basic elements. There are no surprises. No revelations. Basically, there's no fun.

 But there's so many new writers out there who think AI is the end-all, be-all to writing books. And that's their big mistake. Because those writers think that book is their "creation". It's not. A machine created it. And guess what? You can't copyright something YOU did not create.

Which is why Ingram rejected 4.5 million (yes, 4,5000,000) books from their system over the last five and a half years. Why? Because the legal copyright owner or licensee did not give them permission.

You may tell a machine or even a person what to do, but that doesn't mean it's your creation.

Want some examples?

1) I go to a bakery and order a cake. I tell the baker I want a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Now, do I own the recipes for the cake and the frosting? Hell, no!

2) Meryl Streep is heading to the Oscars and gets a custom-made dress from Designer X. Meryl might make some suggestions like wanting full-length sleeves and lots of sequins. Does Meryl own the copyright to the dress? Nope, Designer X does.

So if I tell ChatGPT to write a romance with two characters named Ginger and Fred, do I own the copyright? Nope! I didn't create the story itself.

And that's not even getting into the legal peccadillo about creation by a non-human! (Go look up Naruto v. David Slater, et al., also known as the Monkey Selfie Case)

And most of all, here's my part of my thought I left on another writer's comment section after he was blasted for being anti-AI:

AI robs people of the joy of storytelling. And I love being in the "Zone" as my Hubby calls it--when you're so deep in the story you're living your main character's experience and the words flow from your fingertips. 

What Happened to Monday Movie Mania?

DH and I haven't been going to the movies for the last several months.

The firs part of it is that money has been tight due to the 2022-2025 life rolls.

The second part of it is the movies we want to see are on the paid streaming services a month or two after they're released in the cinemas. And then they end up on the free services with ads about a year later.

The third part is we've been re-watching our favorite TV shows that came out twenty-thirty years ago. Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Farscape, The Dresden Files, Highlander, etc.

The fourth part is we've been busy. While I've been writing or editing in the evenings, DH has been getting certified in an accounting software package. With the current economic situation, we're trying to find little ways to improve our income. I mean I'm spending twice as much in groceries right now than I did when Genius Kid was a teenager! We don't drive much because gasoline is roughly two times what we were paying before Tribblehead attacked Iran for no real reason after promising no new wars.

Liar, liar. Pants on fire!

Anyway, I need something a little positive in my day. I think I'll go rewatch the newest Superman. David Corenswet is a cutie! 

Someone's Temper Tantrum

I had my head down all of last week, working on Death Goddess Redeeming (Book 3 of The Books of Apep) and A Sprout of Wild (Book 12 of Justice). If I react to every single thing in the chaotic news cycle, no books would ever be written so I'm learning to be selective.

However, I am truly glad we stayed home this weekend. For an introduction, DH loves a show on the REELZ channel called On Patrol Live ("OPL"). It's the successor to A&E's very popular Live PD. About the time we clipped the cable cord, REELZ introduced their own streaming service, so a subscription to REELSZ+ was DH's joint birthday/Christmas present.

Last season, the Toledo Police Department ("TPD") joined the series. Unfortunately, nearly every case on with TPD starts with the call "shots fired".

*facepalm*

Northwest Ohio is actually a fairly quiet region. Yes, we have our problems like a sinking economy and opioid addiction. And there was one case on the show where a drunk woman climbed a tree and peed on the officer trying to get her down, which sad to say is more typical. Part of me wondered if things on the show were overblown.

Until Saturday.

There was a mass shooting at the Old West End street festival. Twelve people were injured, but thankfully, there were no fatalities. But TPD is still looking for the perpetrators.

I have to wonder about people like this. What the hell goes through their brains to make them hurt innocent people on this scale? 

This morning, I breached briefly to check headlines to see if there were any updates. There wasn't to the Toledo shooting, but apparently, Tribblehead had a major meltdown on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday.

So, two temper tantrums in two days because some yahoos aren't getting their way. And they don't fucking care who they hurt in the process.

*sigh*

I'm hunkering down, disconnecting my wifi, and focusing on my stories. Because there, kickass women protect the people being shit on, and they don't put up with temper tantrums.

Music I Love

Here's a little encouragement from Queen!

Happy Pride Month!

Yesterday got away from me between writing and working on next month's Kickstarter. But to everyone out there, live your authentic life to its fullest! And have a wonderful Pride Month! 

Movie Music I Love

Ready for that summer family vacation?

Summer's Unofficially Here! And a Little Summer Terror...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the Summer Solstice is three and a half weeks away, but people in the U.S. considered Memorial Day weekend the start of our summer. The weather has warmed up to the point where we no longer need jackets during the day in most of the states.

Ironically, it's the first truly insane holiday for the Ohio State Troopers since New Year's Eve. I can hear my readers outside of the U.S. asking, "Why?"

It's because people who drink in the U.S. often drive while intoxicated. If that drunk person is lucky, they make it home without killing some living creature. However, they can't trust luck. Eventually, someone will die.

I've got too many stories of drunk drivers. Two of my cousins were hit by drunk driver. Both ended up with spinal and vertebrae injuries they still suffer with decades later. My brother was hit by a drunk driver who was racing another driver. Somehow, his only injuries were bruises from the seatbelt. The kid riding with his drunk brother wasn't so lucky. No seatbelt on and he went right through the windshield.

Another cousin was a police officer in D.C. She's been to far too many accident scenes where innocent people have been disabled or died because of drunk drivers.

Then there were my own parents. With three teenagers in the house, I understand they wanted and needed some privacy. However, their bright idea was to get a 12-pack of Busch and drive through the back country roads while drinking. In their cases, they were lucky.

But it didn't alleviate mine and my siblings' worry. I doubt if Mom and Dad ever realized the three of us would lay awake in our beds until we heard Dad's pickup pull into our drive. And there were a few nights when my brother and sister would enter my room, and we'd sit there discussing whether we needed to call the sheriff to look for them. Like I said, our parents got lucky. We'd eventually hear the truck pull into the drive, and my siblings would scramble back to their rooms.

However, the Ohio State Patrol announced that the 2026 Memorial Day holiday weekend had the fewest fatalities in years. Most of it was due to the doubling or tripling of gas prices depending on where you live. But it means someone, somewhere, isn't crying their eyes out over the loss of a loved one to a drunk driving accident.

I'm not against drinking. I just ask that you please do it at home or have a designated driver when you go out and drink. And make sure you wear your seatbelts. Be safe this summer! Because you all have someone sitting at home in the dark, waiting for your safe return.

Movie Music I Love

Sometimes, you gotta cut loose!