The Root of Infinity: Advanced Reader's Copies Available... [and a Brief Rant on Creating Novels with AI]
Hooray!
The Boundless has been passed off to my editor, Oren Eades. I have to admit that for a bit there, I was worried that he might be too busy to work with me this go around. The thought of having to work with an editor who was unfamiliar with my work was nerve-wracking. I like Oren. He’s the type of editor who doesn’t let you get away with anything, and believe me, I’ve tried. Plus, he pushes me to be a better writer, to strive for excellence. He has the right combination of kindness, encouragement, and firm feedback that I need. Now that his services are secure, I can feel confident that my work is in good hands.
The result is that I may be able to get the Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of book two out the door at some point in September.
Which brings me to my offer: I have some ARCs to hand out. You can find out what the books are about at: Lincoln Shand Author. Please reach out to me at lincolnshandauthor@gmail.com, and I will send these to you once they are ready.
Conjunction Born: Digital Copies = 20
Conjunction Born: Paper Book = 6 (4 paper copies are already spoken for)
The Boundless: Digital Copies = 20
The Boundless: Paper Copy = 10
All I’d ask from you is your honest feedback when the books finally get published*.
*A note on publishing: unless I can land a publishing deal within the next 5 months (by the end of 2025), I will self-publish Conjunction Born in Jan 2026 and The Boundless in July 2026. Either way, it’s time to hand these off to you, the reader. So, agents, publishers…I’ll be sending my queries your way.
[And...I’m interrupting this blog for a not-so-brief rant… You can skip past the text in the square parentheses to the final paragraph if you’d prefer. It’s more of an acknowledgement of where we are with AI and story writing than a rant.
Publishers, yes, I know that you have a lot of novels to weed through. Only less than 2% of books get published. Added to that, we are starting to encounter some AI-generated books that are crowding the market. If you've read my blogs, you’ll know that my day job involves working in the AI field, focusing on the integration of AI and human capability.
If you're using an AI to create a book for you in one click… why?
I’d argue that the best novelty, unexpected twists, and creative surprises are still in the realm of humans. Do yourself a favour and read what these AI bots are producing. There are patterns to their work that, as of this writing (yes, things are still changing super quickly), if you look closely enough, are repetitive and safe. LLMs' sentence structures are overly symmetrical in their composition and don't take risks. A human storyteller would have the unpredictability, originality, depth, and creative twists that an LLMs are trained to avoid, as that would jar the reader. Do yourself a favour and don’t trade the intricacy of your personal style for the shallow, predictable convenience that an LLM would bring.
At the very least, I’d recommend this approach…Write the initial story yourself, and then use AI (as you would a spell or grammar checker) to go over your work. The creative suggestions should be ones that you fully decide on so that the story remains in your voice.
I still fully enjoy creating stories on my own. Yes, I can see how an LLM can be helpful for research and for working through concepts. But I’d argue that, as of this writing, unless you’re doing most of the heavy lifting yourself, your use of an LLM is not only identifiable as LLM-generated content, but it is weakening your creative muscle. There is mounting evidence out there that AI is changing the way we think, including sapping our thought processes and ability to conceive of unexplored and unique concepts.
By the way, if you’re a writer who is using AI to write your novel, I’d love to discuss this with you.
Okay… rant over.]
I’ll leave you with this good news from my end. I’ve started writing book three of my four-story arc, and it’s titled… drum roll please … The Root of Infinity: Pillars of Time. Pillars of Time is expected to be available in 2026.
Thanks for reading, and please...lead with kindness.
The Boundless has been passed off to my editor, Oren Eades. I have to admit that for a bit there, I was worried that he might be too busy to work with me this go around. The thought of having to work with an editor who was unfamiliar with my work was nerve-wracking. I like Oren. He’s the type of editor who doesn’t let you get away with anything, and believe me, I’ve tried. Plus, he pushes me to be a better writer, to strive for excellence. He has the right combination of kindness, encouragement, and firm feedback that I need. Now that his services are secure, I can feel confident that my work is in good hands.
The result is that I may be able to get the Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of book two out the door at some point in September.
Which brings me to my offer: I have some ARCs to hand out. You can find out what the books are about at: Lincoln Shand Author. Please reach out to me at lincolnshandauthor@gmail.com, and I will send these to you once they are ready.
Conjunction Born: Digital Copies = 20
Conjunction Born: Paper Book = 6 (4 paper copies are already spoken for)
The Boundless: Digital Copies = 20
The Boundless: Paper Copy = 10
All I’d ask from you is your honest feedback when the books finally get published*.
*A note on publishing: unless I can land a publishing deal within the next 5 months (by the end of 2025), I will self-publish Conjunction Born in Jan 2026 and The Boundless in July 2026. Either way, it’s time to hand these off to you, the reader. So, agents, publishers…I’ll be sending my queries your way.
[And...I’m interrupting this blog for a not-so-brief rant… You can skip past the text in the square parentheses to the final paragraph if you’d prefer. It’s more of an acknowledgement of where we are with AI and story writing than a rant.
Publishers, yes, I know that you have a lot of novels to weed through. Only less than 2% of books get published. Added to that, we are starting to encounter some AI-generated books that are crowding the market. If you've read my blogs, you’ll know that my day job involves working in the AI field, focusing on the integration of AI and human capability.
If you're using an AI to create a book for you in one click… why?
I’d argue that the best novelty, unexpected twists, and creative surprises are still in the realm of humans. Do yourself a favour and read what these AI bots are producing. There are patterns to their work that, as of this writing (yes, things are still changing super quickly), if you look closely enough, are repetitive and safe. LLMs' sentence structures are overly symmetrical in their composition and don't take risks. A human storyteller would have the unpredictability, originality, depth, and creative twists that an LLMs are trained to avoid, as that would jar the reader. Do yourself a favour and don’t trade the intricacy of your personal style for the shallow, predictable convenience that an LLM would bring.
At the very least, I’d recommend this approach…Write the initial story yourself, and then use AI (as you would a spell or grammar checker) to go over your work. The creative suggestions should be ones that you fully decide on so that the story remains in your voice.
I still fully enjoy creating stories on my own. Yes, I can see how an LLM can be helpful for research and for working through concepts. But I’d argue that, as of this writing, unless you’re doing most of the heavy lifting yourself, your use of an LLM is not only identifiable as LLM-generated content, but it is weakening your creative muscle. There is mounting evidence out there that AI is changing the way we think, including sapping our thought processes and ability to conceive of unexplored and unique concepts.
By the way, if you’re a writer who is using AI to write your novel, I’d love to discuss this with you.
Okay… rant over.]
I’ll leave you with this good news from my end. I’ve started writing book three of my four-story arc, and it’s titled… drum roll please … The Root of Infinity: Pillars of Time. Pillars of Time is expected to be available in 2026.
Thanks for reading, and please...lead with kindness.
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