Dear Friend,
You’ve heard one of these, haven’t you? The air is so thick you can cut it with a knife. It’s like pea soup out there! Well, take your pick because that’s exactly what it was like this morning when I went to the store. There is so much moisture in the air that I’m sure Mother Nature could wring it out and get an ocean of water from it. Which is exactly why Oklahoma is under yet another red alert day through Tuesday. Storms. Hail. Wind. Possible tornadoes. I’ll be glad when May 2026 is over, that’s for sure.
Saturday was the CROW monthly meeting in Edmond, which is approximately 60 miles north of me. My two friends, who are also writers, that I go with each month, arrived at 9:30am, and we piled into EmBee (my car) for her maiden OKC voyage. We headed out on I44 and drove straight to The Icehouse Project for lunch, where we met several other members of this group. I shared the best pizza with AliciaDean. The group then drove over to CROW’s new meeting place, The Studio at PaperArts, which is 100% geared for the creative minds.
We had a full house with four new possible members to hear Mel Odom speak on dialogue and “AI: Enemy or Friend”. It was really interesting to hear everyone’s perspective on the use of AI. A few authors did say they use it for inspiration or research. Many were of the opinion that AI isn’t going away and has probably been around for a while if you think about it. A few things in a writer’s toolbox, like Grammarly and/or ProWritingAid, could be considered AI. But the thing is that even before there was this controversy about AI, authors used em-dashes, lists, semi-colons, all the things that some say are sure signs that an author used AI to write their story. Everyone has their own opinion of how and when to use AI for creating.
The NEST book/writing contest is winding down, and I’ll finally be able to get back to writing again. I’ve judged in two contests over the past several months, with reading 3 books for one and 6 for another. All good books, with a few being great stories.
If you are in the path of storms over the next week, stay safe.
That’s about it for the past week. I can never thank you enough for continuing to read these snippets into my life as an author. I hope I haven't bored you with them. 😊 After all, other people's lives are never as glamorous as we may think.
May your ereader or bookshelf overflow with delightful books to read!
Maxine
