Mar25

Where my mojo at? And some book stuff.

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Where my mojo at? And some book stuff.

I’ve been back at Jiu-Jitsu for three months but am still discouraged by the slow climb to where I was before my foot broke.

Sometimes I wonder if I should stay home, watch TV, and eat garbage with Hubby instead of go to class.

Sometimes I’m just tired and not feeling it.

Sometimes I go anyway.

Then I find myself smiling and fist bumping the friendly students who greet me and ask how I’m doing.

Class begins and Her Royal Highness and I get the giggles over our inability to properly execute the moves. I’m grateful that, rather than be annoyed, Instructor laughs with us. I consider whether he’d be so amiable if it had been me with someone other than his wife.

I had somehow managed to throw her on her back while flipping myself over on my head rather than over my shoulder. It’s a wonder I didn’t hurt my neck, but since that’s not a lower extremity, it was fine. Later squashing my toe and needing to ice it after class is par for the course, however.

Bruises on upper extremities are still fair game.

At another class, HRH, The Nurse, and I partnered together. For whatever reason, neither of them could remember the instructions well when it came time to practice. Even more befuddling, I had managed to focus and therefore, I could help them out.

Did you catch that? I achieved one small goal of being able to help again. Once earlier, a guy nearby was trying to remember the arm position for a post-throw armbar, so I trotted over and said, “What helps me remember is to put his hand in my armpit.”

Say it with me: “Only in Jiu-Jitsu.”

We were supposed to throw fake elbows at the person on the ground under us. I accidentally made contact, though lightly, with HRH’s head.

While her husband watched.

“Whoa. I didn’t think I’d have to give a lecture on being nice to our training partners because of Ilsa, of all people, but I guess you never know,” he said in a light-hearted way. Of course I apologized. HRH called it a “love tap.”

Later that night she thanked me for a fun class and for making fun of her.

Our friendship is strange.

At one point, while I stood to watch HRH and The Nurse have their turn together, Pirate walked over and fist bumped me. My immediate thought was, “Oh no. Is he about to ask me to try this move on him?”

We’ve established this guy is big, right? But he just wanted to ask how I was feeling, in general, with all the injuries and such I’ve sustained. I told him I was doing fine, really. The ankle brace helps.

“You’re strong,” he told me once again.

I regarded my flexed arm. “Really?”

“I meant the way you carry yourself. You don’t act injured.”

“Oh. Well, yeah. I’m okay. Thanks.”

Now I understand that by strong he means tough. And so, despite my internal struggles, I need to tough my steep re-learning curve out.

But not quite yet. I tried and failed, as usual, to sneak out at the end of class before the optional sparring sessions because I don’t relish the idea of most certainly being crushed.

Instructor and two others saw me slink away and, as though coordinated, waved and called, “Bye, Ilsa!” loud enough for me to hear through the window.

I later messaged Her Royal Highness:

Curious that HRH was not amused by my observation.

Book News: AI analyzed my sequel

My publisher ran my manuscript through AI, which brought back some pros and cons, but mostly my feeling of, “This is scary.”

It was helpful, thorough, and mostly accurate.

Shudder.

Maybe I should stick with my day job because…

One thing AI told me was there were too many car theft scenes.

How can there be too many car theft scenes?!

It also suggested I didn’t need one of my favorite scenes, to which I said, inside my head for fear of retribution, “Oh, H no!”

To make up for that, I’ll note that AI did a good job noticing my comic-relief character’s brilliance. (There, are we even now, Robot?)

I took all this to my first line of “Is what I’m writing stupid?” defense, Mark Petruska. He said:

I didn’t personally think the car theft scenes were excessive; how would AI even determine that? I’m telling you, it just can’t replace a human reader. Too many of these suggestions feel ambiguous to me. You’re going to end up second-guessing yourself to death and will never be satisfied with your finished work if you rely too much on a robot. (This would make a great blog post BTW).

As you can see, I always do what Mark says.

Words to live by.

An unexpected issue I’m having is the authors I’ve tasked with pre-reads to give back-cover blurbs are confused by my titles, not realizing Wish I Was Here (book 1) is different from Wish You Were Here (book 2).

I could solve that with You in italics, so it stands out, but also including subtitles. For book one it’s aptly: “Even when invisible, there’s no place to hide.” I had a plan for book 2’s subtitle, too, but then friggin’ AI wrote something that I grudgingly admit would also make a great subtitle.

I’d love your input. These are the two options. I won’t tell you which is which so as not to taint anyone’s opinion.

We have:

A. Who are you when everything that defined you is stripped away? 

or

B. The adventure she never wanted might be the one she needs.

Please let me know your vote in the comments.

Old Q: The only state with a non-rectangular flag is Ohio.

New Q: JK! Scroll back up a smidge and vote A or B for the subtitle to Wish You Were Here. Thanks!

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75 responses »

  1. Do what Mark says? Oh my goodness! This is really going to go to his head now. Ha ha, but I can’t disagree with him. At the risk of really screwing up my algorithm and getting myself into trouble, phooey on AI. Too many car theft scenes? C’mon AI. Do you even get me? There’s never enough car theft and car chase scenes. Ever! You go Ilsa! And oh yea, keep at with the Jiu-Jitsu. For the record, AI or you on the Jiu-Jitsu mat? My money is on you. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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  3. B

    and, I’m with your husband, sitting at home and eating garbage while reading about your Jiu-Jitsu adventures. I’m just happy it’s not me needed the braces …

    and yes, you can never just sneak out when everyone is watching. You need to get better at creating diversions … a smoke bomb on a timer always works, most of the time — until the police get involved and they trace your fingerprints or DNA.

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    • Thank you for voting!
      And most nights I’m home with the hubs consuming the garbage, so there’s that. 🙂
      Hmm… smoke bombs… [stroking short-cropped pointy black evil beard] Innnntteeressstiiiing…

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  7. I hate to say it, but for most regular fiction, AI is going to be able to do an “adequate” job, good enough that most casual readers won’t be able to tell. AI will never write a classic novel, but most indie authors can’t either :-/ So yeah, don’t give up that day job 😦

    As for the title, yeah, it took me 2 readings to spot the difference 😀 I’d choose B, mainly because A is too wordy and doesn’t flow. I always delete the subtitles off of my books, so it wouldn’t affect me long term.

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      • I’m currently reading an SF series that I’m pretty sure had AI “assist”, because the writer has put out 2 books a year, for 10+ years and almost all of them are over the 600page mark.
        It’s fine for that genre, as it’s military science fiction, but it does concern me that people will sink to that level as the new normal instead of challenging themselves.
        I very rarely wish I hadn’t read a book, even when I hate it passionately. Those books help define me as much as the fantastic books. But ai pablum will simply please the reader like baby formula.

        Can I vote often and early?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Usually when books are put out that often by the “same” author, it’s actually a team of ghost writers and/or a hodgepodge of writers all using that pen name. For one series, which I forget now, you know who the true author is because it’s the first person thanked in the acknowledgements. So, that’s another option for what’s going on there.

        Just one vote per person please and thank you. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yeah, ghost writers for a long running series is an option, but that usually is exposed by the variety of abilities of the “writer” from book to book.

        Bummer. I was all set to camp out at the voting station and vote 8-900 times 😉

        Liked by 1 person

  9. So fascinating to think that you used AI to analyze your manuscript and to receive that level of feedback.

    I think Option A is AI as Option B is similar to the subtitle you had for Book 1. Good luck with whichever you decide to use! I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

    I could see how the two titles’ similarities could cause confusion, so good call to think through how to differentiate them.

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  11. Car theft scenes, hmmm? I wouldn’t trust AI much further than I could throw a data center but I think it could be useful if you think of it as a not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer distant cousin that has never read a book before. It might be good at catching “mechanical” issues like commas and semi-colons, but without a real human with real emotions to read a story? There’s no connection. Oh, and I think either A or B is good with a leaning toward B, which sounds more like you.

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  13. Your friendship isn’t really strange until you stick HRH’s hand in your armpit. But maybe that’s already happened?

    I am the master of the Irish Goodbye. Happy to lend you some tips on sneaking out without being spotted!

    My final vote is B.

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. Wow. Black Rose is using AI now? I really can’t keep up with this world. I like A but B isn’t bad. I love your resilience, you keep going back, looking “tough,” never giving up. Damn, that a new take on strength. Hugs, C

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