Clearing the Kindle 6: – What did I just read? (Feels like AI?)

Posted on February 1, 2024 by CrissyMoss

Book read: Zombie 69 by Kitty Glitter
Pages: 20

Sometimes you read a book and you wonder… What did I just read?

That is how I felt after just a few pages of Zombie 69. This short twenty page book contains two short stories, the first about zombies and the second about a cat and dog that live with some humans. Neither story makes any sort of sense. They both feel meandering, and broken, almost as if it was written by a primitive AI generator, not a person.

I don’t remember the zombie story very well. It had to do with zombies going to high school (why?) and doing ordinary teen things, they are just zombies that have to pop their eye back into socket now and then.

The second story was…weird. The cat and dog can talk to each other, and they swear a lot. Some random person breaks into their house and kidnaps their child, then the dog goes a little savage and blames the cat. The cat, for it’s part, starts talking about time shifts, and the girl being pushed out of time. Then it just ends. The girl is still gone, there is no explanation of time shifts, there is no explanation of why the cat is able to drive an RC car, or who that guy that kidnapped the girl was. It just ends.

This clipped, piecemeal story telling gave both stories a generated feel. It felt almost like it was using some sort of madlib format. (I am not saying it is, of course, I can’t know that. But the feeling is there.)

This chaotic structure is often how people recognize AI generated art. The AI can combine aspects of different pictures, and even blend them together, but it often gets anatomy or structures wrong. It adds extra fingers, or one eye is much bigger than the other. It becomes incredibly obvious that whatever created the artwork, be it human or program, it has an uncanny valley feel. It seems like it should be art, or human, but it just feels… wrong. And sometimes we aren’t even able to tell what is wrong about it, just that there is something that doesn’t work.

In written work it’s much the same. Algorithms are pulling from sources all over the internet and smashing them together, but it’s a predictive text structure. Just like the predictive text on your phone doesn’t always suggest the right word for that sentence you’re writing, ChatGPT sometimes adds whole paragraphs that just restate what it already said, or breaks structure, or leaves out key details. When dealing with factual information it may even just be flat wrong as it pulls from the wrong information online. Remember, a predictive text formula is only as good as the information being fed into it, and a LOT of the information on-line is just wrong. How could a language model be expected to be right all of the time?

I don’t know if this particular story was written by an algorithm, or just some random stories built from the authors wildest dreams, but the feeling is the same. It doesn’t feel…cohesive, or right. And it makes zero sense.

How would you fix the very structure of your story telling? My suggestion is to have beta readers, or a writers workshop. Being part of a writers workshop and having honest feedback about my writing helped me get the words right faster than just spitting words into a void and hoping they made sense. And with the age of the internet with facebook, forums, meet-ups and more, finding a group of people dedicated to helping each other get better at writing is easier than ever. It can be on-line so that you don’t have to put faces to the criticism, or you can opt for in person where you can get better at people skills, too. Either way, having good feedback about your work is crucial to not just finding your voice, but refining it.

As for AI…There are arguments for and against AI generation. I tend to be of the opinion that it’s a tool just like any other random plot generator and that if you, as the writer, don’t take that generated idea and actually write it yourself than it will never be a great story. AI just simply rewrites what has already been written. Good for ideas, for plot summaries, or settings, but not good for a finished product. Not yet, at least. (That’s a little spooky to think about, really.)

There’s a lot more to go into about AI generated art as a whole, including copyright, stolen assets and more, but that’s a much bigger topic than I may cover in a blog post. So for now we’re just going to take from this short story that if you don’t have a cohesive story that makes sense people might think you’re a computer. And if you want to get better at writing you might try a writers workshop.

Next story: Immortals by Eva Fairwald.

Clearing the Kindle 4: – A name by any other name….

Posted on January 12, 2024 by CrissyMoss

Book read: Shadows Over Innocence by Lindsay Buroker
Pages: 17

This weeks story is a short, but sweet, tale of an assassin watching over a the young heir to a kingdom. There is no softness, no joy in this assassin. All emotion has been beat out of him by the emperor that rules with an iron fist. But still…there’s something about the innocence of this young buy that gives the hardened assassin pause.

Overall the story was an enjoyable peak into this world that the author created. It’s hard, and viscous. It is a land where might makes right. But even in this world of hardness and pain there is one small point of light flickering in the darkness.

But even in a lovely tale like this we, as writers, can learn something.

For this story it was the naming convention. Lindsay Buroker went with names that were unusual, each with three to four syllables, and each unique enough that they might give some readers pause. Still, in fantasy worlds that isn’t unusual.

However, the main character and the heir have names that are very similar to each other. Sicarius and Sespian. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, of course, but one naming convention for story telling is to give characters distinct names so that they don’t get confused, and specifically starting with a different first letter.

While reading this particular story you are first introduced to Sespian, the assassin. He happens across Sicarius within few paragraphs. It is clear they are two separate people, of course, but in my head I kept getting the names mixed up as I was reading it. I had to take a minute to actively separate the two so that I could tell which was which. On the other hand the other named characters, Hallowcrest and Raumesys, had distinct names that were easy to keep straight.

While reading many of us do not take in the words syllable by syllable. We take them in as a whole. Maybe you have seen this puzzle floating about the internet:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Most fluent English readers can decipher this fairly quickly. That is because we take in the words as a whole unit and our mind automatically translates it into the proper spelling. There is a little more to it, you can read more about that here, but in general if the first and last letters are correct than it is easy enough to get the gist of what is said.

Which brings us back to the two names with the same first letter. If you are taking in the name as a whole, not as individual syllables, it is easier to get them mixed up. Separating them with different beginning letters, especially when they appear quite close to each other in the text, helps to separate out the characters.

Such a simple thing, and yet it makes a big difference in writing.

Next up: Breath for Me by Edward Robertson.

Clearing the Kindle : Intro

Posted on December 28, 2023 by CrissyMoss

I, like most kindle owners, have accumulated a vast collection of ebooks. Most of which I’ve never read. They are books ranging in those I picked up because they were free, because the cover looked interesting, or even because I just wanted to support an author I found interesting on a podcast or youtube channel.

This massive collection of ebooks needs to be paired down. I thought I’d start with the shortest books, and move forward.

Now, I couldn’t just read books and take nothing from it. Goodreads gives a little insight into my reading habits, sharing most of my audio book and reading history. But I’m not only reading for fun (sure, most of it is for fun, but not ALL of it). I also like learning from my book choices because I am a writer as well. The best way to improve writing is to read books, and actively see what works, and what didn’t work for you. So I’m going to start with the shortest book in my kindle TBR, and move my way up. And along the way I’m going to share what I’ve learned from it.

A couple of things to note about kindle readers in general. I have a Paperwhite and a Fire. I prefer the Paperwhite to read, the e-ink is easy on the eyes, and good even in a dark room. The Fire is just too bright for me, and needs to be charged a lot more. It also has a lot of distractions since it is a tablet, even if it is a slower model.

I also have a kindle app on my phone which I often use when I am out of the house. Still, it’s a small screen, and also bright like the Fire, and it has the distractions of games and technology as well.

All kindles allow you to collect your books into collections so that you can easily find specific categories. They also allow you to sort by read, not-read, and downloaded. What it does not allow is the sharing of collections between devices, which I just found out today after putting a large part of my books into collections via the online website. That means you have to go through the process of adding books to a collection directly on the Paperwhite, and then again for the Fire, and again for the phone. When you are doing this as you add books that isn’t as bad, but when you have a huge collection and you just want to sort books…well…tough luck, I guess.

Also the kindle doesn’t allow you to sort by page count. This is partly because page counts on kindle aren’t always accurate, but I suspect they do not want to encourage you to read by page count, or deem it as unnecessary. There is a reason a lot of readers prefer to sort their books on Calibre. The features of the kindle haven’t changed in quite some time, and it shows.

In order to get book lengths I used Goodreads. Goodreads allows you to add your books directly from your amazon purchases. Then you can add them to a to-read list and sort them by length. I found that of the 900 books on my to-read list only a dozen of them didn’t have page lengths. The rest were comparable to the amazon page length count.

Goodreads did not import all of my books, and I know I’ve added random books from series I liked that I do not own, so this isn’t a perfect match, but it is helpful. Once I had this list I was able to go into my kindle and download the specific books that I was looking for.

Beyond the lack of collections across platforms, and sorting by length, the kindle is a useful tool. Having my books available on the go, on my phone, and on most devices, is incredibly useful. And using Goodreads, or Calibre, to augment the kindle helps to sort and find exactly what you’re looking for. So… on with the reading!

First up: The Miscellaneous Adventures of Princess Leona by V.C. Coll.

Looking for a new read?

Posted on September 22, 2023 by CrissyMoss

Three of my books are currently free. All first in series so you can see if you like the series before going on to the next book.

Two high fantasy, and one litRPG series.

Pick them up now so you can try them out.

My Favorite Reads of 2020

Posted on January 2, 2021 by CrissyMoss

According to goodreads I read 33 books in 2020. I was expecting to read more while in the hospital, but honestly I was too busy just sleeping. But I still read a great many good books last year, so here are some of my favorites.

Of the books I read five were comics, and six were short stories. Several of them were audio books, too. The vast majority of them were also litRPG since I’m still enjoying that genre quite a lot.

Polyglot() has got to be my favorite from last year. Told from the point of view of a girl dropped into a game world who doesn’t know who she is, or how she got there. Only she isn’t a girl at all. She’s an NPC, and not any ordinary NPC either.

The style of story telling, the world building, magic system, and character development of Polyglot() just stuck with me. I listened to it via audio book, and they chose a great narrator for the book. I will probably listen to this one again sometime.

The other books worth noting came from five different series that I have been reading.

Axe Druid – A band of brothers fighting mobs and magic on another world.
The Crafters Dungeon – A dungeon that likes crafting more than fighting.
Bone Dungeon – A ridiculously funny dungeon made of bones.
CivCEO – Civilization meets litRPG
Awaken Online – A litRPG that follows a necromancer.

I finished Bone Dungeon this year (as the trilogy was completed this year.) I also read through all of Awaken Online and The Crafters Dungeon that is currently out. I’ll be finishing CivCEO in 2021. I haven’t decided if I’m going to go back to Axe Druid yet. It’s definitely a fun one, but I prefer the audio books because they are well read. The other books I read the book instead of listening.

I would recommend all of these series. The crafters Dungeon is great because it focuses on the crafting more than the fighting. Bone dungeon has a good sense of humor, and a bit of intrigue behind the scenes. CivCEO is completely unlike anything else I have read focusing more on commerce and trade than any other book so far. And both Awaken Online and Axe Druid are just really fun adventures.

I was gifted a year of Kindle Unlimited for Christmas … seriously, if you have a reader on your Christmas list that’s a FANTASTIC gift to give them. I plan on using it to whittle down that TBR list of mine. (and all my books are on KU too.)

Till then… happy reading.

Summer sun shining…

Posted on May 2, 2020 by CrissyMoss

Today I have been working on several smaller projects, getting things set up for the rest of the month. That includes getting my bullet journal in order, setting goals for the month, and starting in on a new art challenge to get me warmed up in the morning.

I’ve also made a priority of taking care of my mental health this month. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is having trouble with staying indoors so much. I’ve been trying to just get out in the back yard and sit in the sun a bit more. Exercise every day by dancing. And eating something healthy (with the occasional unhealthy cookie now and then.) I’m in Texas so things are starting to open up again, but I won’t be able to go out just yet. But soon!

This weekend I have two free books, and anthology and a short story.

Twilight Tales: three unusual tales of creatures that go bump in the night.

Ghostly Intentions: A fantasy horror romp through a haunted house.

Review: Locke & Key season 1

Posted on March 23, 2020 by CrissyMoss

We just finished watching Locke & Key, the new netflix series and… I’m torn on what I think about it.

I have the complete series of Locke & Key graphic novels, though I have only read the first one. I found the whole idea of keys that magically unlock things to be fascinating. A key that you can unlock the mind and step inside the memories. A key that allows you to step through a doorway and separate soul from body. Each key a new experience and wonder.

So watching the new series was a must for me. And I have to say I do love the way they did most of the keys. You put them in a key hole, and unlock, or lock something. Except the fire key, that one is odd because all it does is light things on fire. No locks to go with it, just fire.

The story, itself, started interesting as well. It starts with three children and their mother moving to an old mansion left to them by their deceased father, but no one knows much about this house, or their fathers past. The father kept it all a secret. Then when the youngest starts finding keys with magical abilities they start to find a dark secret that they have to unravel before things go terribly, terribly wrong.

The secret of their fathers past is locked together with the traumatic way their father was murdered, and the emotional scars it left on each of the family members. Each of them blames themselves for different aspects of the death, and each of them have to come to terms with that perceived blame.

Where I think the story falls short for me is the lack of a cohesive plot. There is an ancient evil, a “bad guy” per-se, but the reason you are given for them to be at odds with the Lockes (the desire to get specific keys) falls apart in the end. They finally have access to the key they were searching for all this time, but they don’t take it for some reason. It left both my boyfriend and myself staring at the screen just wonder… but why? What was all of this for?

So, yes, I did enjoy it. I liked the mystery, and the magic. I didn’t like the ending. It was a bit too much of a cliff hanger with the family getting closer to one another, but the over all plot left hanging. And if you’ve read many of my reviews you probably already know I hate cliffhangers for the sake of cliffhangers.

Will I watch the next season? Probably. It wasn’t a bad series, and I would like to see what it does. However, I can say that if the second season doesn’t at least give the series a purpose, and some overarching plotline, then I probably wouldn’t go for a third season.

I will give them a little credit through, adapting a comic book series to TV can be challenging, especially with some of the visuals inside the graphic novels. They managed to do some interesting things with the mind key, letting us get a glimpse inside of several characters memories. They also simplified some of the plot between comic and tv series, so I will probably go back and read the comics now just to find those differences.

2019 Writing in Review

Posted on January 2, 2020 by CrissyMoss

It’s the new year, and it’s time to look back at what happened in 2019, and see where things will go in the future.

2019 was a year of change. First, I quite my job and we moved from Seattle to Houston. That was a huge change for Bjorn and I, but so far it was definitely been worth it. It was also the first year I have been writing full time. That’s taken some getting used to, and I am finally starting to get into the swing of making writing/editing/etc a priority, but I have a ways to go.

In 2019 I wrote 209k words. (Red line on graph is story writing, blue line includes newsletters, blog posts, and other projects.) This was double what I wrote in 2017 and 18, and a lot closer to what I was writing before that dip happened.

With all that writing I published three books. Steel Heart, and Steel Line which are the second and third books in my litRPG series, and an anthology of scifi short stories, Stars End. I also started working on Vertigo, which I have uploaded six chapters of for free. It’s available on RoyalRoad, Wattpad, and WebNovel.

I am disappointed that I didn’t keep up with the chapter a week on Vertigo. To be fair, the reason I stopped was because of NaNoWriMo, and getting the 50k done on my Half Blood Sorceress, and book four in the litRPG took up a large part of my time. Then December I spent most of my time hand making all of my Christmas gifts. I forgot how time consuming crocheting hats could be. And a final trip back home to Seattle rounded out the end of the year, so I didn’t get much writing done in December, but I did spend some quality time with family and friends.

Going forward for 2020 I told my family I would be looking to complete, and publish, four novels. That will include book two in my Half Blood Sorceress series, book four in my litRPG series, finishing up Vertigo and publishing that on amazon, and …. I’m not sure what the final book will be yet, but I have a few ideas.

I have been scheduling time to write, read, and edit for this year. Three things I need to do more of in order to get my goals. I’ve also been making some plans to do something more with my art because it makes me happy, and is a nice break from writing when I need it. It also gives me something to do while listening to podcasts.

We’ve also committed to taking better care of ourselves, Bjorn and I. We’ve been eating more salads, going on walks, and getting to the gym more. It’s making him feel better, I’m still struggling with the exercise part, but I can be pretty stubborn, so I haven’t given up yet. I would just like to get to the point where it doesn’t feel awful every time I go… Don’t treat your body badly for years on end, folks, fixing it sucks.

Overall I have high hoped for 2020 going forward. More writing, more art, and more creativity in general. Lets see how far I can go with this.

Kindle Unlimited for FREE for 3 months!

Posted on July 18, 2019 by CrissyMoss

Amazon Prime day was just last weekend, but they didn’t stop everything. I just found out today that they are giving away three months of Kindle Unlimited for absolutely free for three months. You have to cancel after the three months or get charged $10, but there is no obligation to keep your subscription after the three months.

If you have a phone, tablet, computer, or any other Android or Apple device, you can read kindle books wherever you are. And the authors still get paid, so it’s great for everyone involved.

Also, my books are in KU so if there is one you’ve been thinking about reading the next three months have you covered. From litRPG to fantasy, and all the short stories in between.

It doesn’t matter how much or how little you read, this is your chance to check out what is available in KU, and get your summer reading. Here are some suggestions:
The Hollow Series by Kim Harrison (A little like a female Dresden, but with her own twists.)
Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko is one of the best litRPG adventures I’ve ever read.
Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits where a player gets trapped playing a monster and the only way out is to get stronger.
T he Fallen Empire series by Lindsay Buroker. Think Firefly, cowboys in space, with a new flare.
The Baine Chronicals by Jasmine Walt. A young shifter in a world of mages. Fantasy with a touch of steam punk and political intrigue.

Happy Reading!

Crissy

Author Crissy Moss

The art of telling a good story.

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