Seven
My philosophy is simple: be kind, helpful, understanding.
I don't tolerate mean people, sexism, racism, misogengy, conspiracy theorists (poor things), and leaders who have no idea how to lead.
I cherish people who think, who are brave, who stand up for the good of mankind.
My marks weren't exactly awesome in history class in school, but when we studied Nazi Germany for a semester, it opened my eyes to how big the world was. To the terrible things that can happen in it. I included this in my novel Ashes of Eden: The Burden because that period, like most conflict in the world, revealed the worst and the best
that humankind can be.
I write characters who are thoughtful and intelligent. Even the bad guys aren't bad just for the sake of being bad - they have reasons and motivations. They make sense. You can almost empathise with some of them. But we don't because....well...bad.
I also like to spend time with people who are thoughtful and intelligent. Who are stimulating, and compassionate. Who can debate a point with clarity and without either of us having to win.
AI
I never, EVER let AI near my writing. Not to revise, not to edit, not to spellcheck (yes, I know programs like Word use AI but it's not quite the same). I use an editor who also insists on NOT using AI.
My son thinks I'm foolish and old-school for refusing to let it touch my writing. Well, maybe I am, but I also respect the craft and I'm not about to dilute it.
AI often creeps into cover design, whether or not you intend it to. If you sign on to a designer that admits to using it for some elements, then it gets used. I'm okay with that because I'm paying someone else to do the work.
Semnitz, who crafted the Angel wings on Ashes, used AI to do it, but he used his own talent to make it come about. It's HIS work, not mine.
And yes, I've made an AI movie trailer because, quite frankly, I can't afford a cool $200K or more to hire actors, crew, food trucks, lighting, costumes etc, AND mostly because I live in Australia and trying to reproduce the scenes from the USA would have been foolish. So, as a shooter/editor of many years, I created my own trailer. I prompted the shots, I edited them, I used lines from the novel. I did not copy any existing actors or scenes. My best friend, who loathes AI, admitted that it was the best use of AI in my case.
As a voracious science fiction reader in my youth, I grew up with the idea of AI. It doesn't surprise me that it's finally here. It also doesn't surprise me that it's already being used for warfare. And silly images.
Argue for it, against it, but you can't stop AI's unrelenting push into our world. It's here to stay. I make my peace with it as best I can and of course I use it to solve problems, give advice and generally help navigate a complex world.
(PS: my son also insisted I use Claude to create this website, but I told him to suck it and made it myself using WIX.)
Music
I can't live without music. It's always on, ALL the time. I love writing to it, and will sometimes choose tracks or even entire playlists that put me in the right frame of mind.
I listen to indie music, only indie. No commercial songs unless they crept in somewhere and they turn out to be actually cool. I love ethereal, melencholic tracks. Songs that make me THINK. Tunes that SURPRISE me. I also like jazz and classical. One of my Spotify playlists goes for two and a half days. My Spotify Wrapped lists my listening age as 29 (hilarious).
Some of my favourite tracks are listed below (with links to Spotify). These are not songs I write to, just songs that I love too hard. If you only listen to commercial radio, you're going to hate them, sorry.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Some of these links keep changing, and will take you to the ALBUM, not the track.
Just search for the track, because with a lot of my artists, I don't love ALL their stuff.
MY ALL TIME FAVS STUCK ON REPEAT
Song for Zula
Girl in Armour
Kingdom of Rust
Wait
Spirit and Decline
The Day
Quiet
Berlin Sunrise
Dream Never Dies
Fires at Night
I Should Live in Salt
Epiphany
We Don't Deserve Love
The Ship in Port
Fake Plastic Trees
Phosphorescent
The Me in You
The Doves
M83
Gem Club
Moby
Marble Sounds
Fink
L Moon/Nada Surf
Forget Gravity
The National
Taylor Swift (she snuck in!)
Arcade Fire
Radical Face
Radiohead
Into the West
Forbidden Friendship
Go Do
Hoppipolla
Annie Lennox (performer)
John Powell (HTTYD)
Jonsii
Sigur Ros
SONGS THAT MAKE ME CRY EVERY TIME
WEIRD SONGS OR WHERE LYRICS RULE
Klopfeist
Violin Tsunami
No Reptiles
Creep
Eskimo
The Pilot
Song for 5 and 6
Hit The Ground (Superman)
Mersault
Kishi Bashi
Everything Everything
Radiohead
Damien Rice
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Owen Pallett
The Big Pink
FAVOURITE ARTISTS/BANDS
FAVOURITE BANDS/ARTISTS
The National
Muse
Keane
Elbow
Richard Ashcroft
Kent
James
Radical Face
Charlie Cunngham
The Slow Show
Owen Pallet
Patrick Wolf
Get Well Soon
The Frank and Walters
Mike Oldfield
The Hope Arsenal
A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT
To the New Zealand artist SO BELOW for allowing me use the track ROTTEN
on my novel trailer.
This is such a cool song and the lyrics were perfect. It was already in my collection and all I had to do was realise that it was readymade.
SO BELOW produces smooth goth pop.
Give her a listen!!
On Writing
Yes, I borrowed Stephen King's title. Mostly because, although he'll never know it, Stephen King was my mentor.
A long time ago, I read that to find your voice, you should find writers who have the a voice you'd like to write in, and then study how they did it. You'll never copy them, exactly, because in the process, you find your own style.
I was a massive King fan for quite a few years. I wasn't drawn to the horror aspect, I was enraptured with his tales of Good vs Evil, a theme in many his novels.
I also admired Asimov and Heinlein, for the way they humanised their tales.
I currently don't write "highbrow" stories. Could I? Probably. But I like to make my stories readable and relatable. So even if the themes are deep or dark or intense, they still read lightly and easily. I specifically don't write erotica. There's so much of it out there that I don't feel the need to add to it. If my characters end up sleeping together, the scenes are always romantic and brief and very much a necessary part of the story.