If May was a portal month, then June was a hurricane. Summer with toddlers meant slower days at the pool or the park, reading a book while my children played. Now, summer kicks off with baseball, basketball, volleyball, driver’s ed, and many requests from the tweens and teens to try new things and learn new skills. We’ve already gone on one camping trip, and as I write this, I’m on a deck overlooking Lake Couer d’Alene watching my Greater Swiss Mountain Dog try to catch swallows. He runs along the dock, eyes fixed so intently on his prize that he frequently falls off the deck into the water. He is on his third day of swallow-hunting with nary a glimpse of success, but he’s also ignoring my reminder that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, so he has only himself to blame.

What I’m Working On:

In case you missed my early-June announcement, I have a new book coming out next year! In early May, my editor sent me the first round of big-picture, developmental edits. It was not a particularly long letter (seven pages, much better than I was expecting), but I spent a few days pondering how I would make the changes, and then I wrote feverishly for two weeks before school let out. After that, I sent it off to beta readers and waited for their feedback. While I waited, I turned my attention to preparing for Camperdown MFA week which takes place in early June.

The June residency is bittersweet as we say goodbye to our second-year students but also congratulate them on crossing the finish line on the first-draft of their novels. We’re also helping the first-year students get ready to start their first drafts, which is always exciting. Ah, the eternal optimism that comes when you’re just setting pen to paper!

After residency week wrapped up, I took the feedback from my beta readers and made a few more changes to The Second Greatest Thief before sending it back to my editor. Now, I’m waiting to hear what she thinks of it! I am ridiculously pleased with the results; the whole story feels much tighter, more coherent, and I had a chance to dig deeper into the world building which is one of my favorite parts of writing.

While I wait on Jenny, I’m rereading Pride and Prejudice. Joe Rigney and I had so much fun doing the Till We Have Faces episodes for Canon+ that we’ve decided to film another one. I haven’t read P&P in many years, and I’m enjoying it much more this time around. So look for that coming out on Canon + in the next few months!

What I’m Reading:

(Usual disclaimer: some of these may have content unsuitable for kids!)

Here is my confession: I only finished two books in June. One was Economical Writing by McCloskey which was not what I was expecting (it’s geared toward technical writers, a fact I could have deduced if I’d bothered to do any research). The other was The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman which was a fun retirement village murder mystery.

In my defense, I am close to finishing several other books, and I did read two student’s first drafts of their novels. Also, have you ever tried reading while riding a hurricane?

A Writing Tip:

I may have to rescue my dog from drowning in pursuit of swallows, so this will have to be brief, and it’s less a tip and more of a thought on AI, the topic all creatives are forced to reckon with right now.

One of the reasons I don’t believe AI will ever fully replace humans in the arts stems from one of the main reasons we enjoy art. How often have you looked at a painting or listened to a symphony or read a book and thought, “I can’t believe a human did that?” Art is never enjoyed in a vacuum; it always relates back to the artist, and it’s a reflection not just of their skill but of the God who gave them that skill.

This is one of the reasons why I caution writers against using AI. There might come a point where you rely so heavily on it that the result no longer reflects your skills and abilities. Perhaps it reflects your ability to give a machine a command, but is that truly an act of sub-creation that you can take credit for anymore? When someone compliments your book, would you feel the need to add a caveat? If a machine supplied an answer to a plot or character problem so that you didn’t have to work for it, would it rob you of some of the joy of accomplishment? A novel is more than a finished product. It’s the struggle, the trials and triumphs, the story you have to tell later of the countless hours you toiled at something before you emerged triumphant with a finished draft. Why are you a writer in the first place, if not for that journey?

That’s all for now, see you in July!

Christine