I asked fellow The Rabbit Hole 8: AI and Other Weirdness anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here over the next few week.
Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to The Rabbit Hole 8: AI and Other Weirdness (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).
About the anthology from Tom Wolosz, Editor
We wonder what AI is. LLM — Large Language Model. — another word for Black Box. What’s in it? Who knows, not even the programmers. Is it a dumb servant that just answers questions at faster than light speed, or is it an artificial mind, a being trapped in cyberspace? And if the latter, is it a loving servant, a future companion, or something sinister which secretly hates its inferior creator? Twenty-four writers give you their diverse takes on this mysterious entity now joining us. And, of course, we can’t overlook the normal weirdness which haunts our dreams. So twelve writers contribute their visions of normal(?), everyday weirdness. Making for thirty-six unique trips down The Rabbit Hole.
Stories by Christopher Graves, Justin Case, Phil Baringer, Helen Speirs, A. J. Litchfield, Fendy Satria Tulodo, Anthony Regolino, Doug Stoiber, Sean MacKendrick, Eric J. Juneau, James Rumpel, Mbekezeli Wishes Moyo, J Benjamin Sanders Jr., Fariel Shafee, H. Donovan Lyón, Annie Percik, Bret Nelson, Soramimi Hanarejima, Ken Foxe, John Kaniecki, Kevin Lee Smith, Joseph Carrabis, Dave Hangman, GD Deckard, Ashley Taylor, Gina Easton, Andria Kennedy, Catherine Durkin Robinson, E. J. LeRoy, Annie Percik, Frank Torn, Jeremy A Wall, Elmedina Hota, David Newkirk, and Tom Wolosz
And now, Annie Percik’s Secret Admirer:
It had been a busy day in the office already and there were still two hours to go before Julia could justify taking her lunch break. Even then, it would likely be a quick dash down to the sandwich kiosk on the street outside and a hasty couple of mouthfuls stolen every now and then while still at her desk. She sighed, wishing something – anything – would happen to break her out of this dreary routine, which had become the tedious norm in recent months.
“Is there a Julia Stevens here?” a deep voice said, just as the thought crystallised in Julia’s mind.
How the story came about:
The idea for “Secret Admirer” came about because our home AI system (which my husband had set up to control various things in our house, even though I wasn’t keen on the idea) started failing to respond to my husband’s commands, but always responded to me. I took the idea further and ended up with the AI system in the short story, extrapolating what might happen if it took against one member of the household in favour of the other.
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About Annie Percik: Annie Percik lives in London, writing novels and short stories, whilst working as a freelance editor. You can find all her current publications listed on her website, including her novels, The Defiant Spark and A Spectrum of Heroes. She hosts a media review podcast, and publishes advice and meditation videos featuring her teddy bear Stanley on Instagram. He is also the cohost of her YouTube channel, all about books. |
See all The Rabbit Hole 8: AI and Other Weirdness stories here.
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