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, Maryanne Chappell, Frank Torn, Jeremy A Wall, Elmedina Hota, David Newkirk, and Tom Wolosz
And now, J Benjamin Sanders Jr’s THE GIRL WITH SILVER EYES:
I leaned back and plopped my feet on the corner of my battered desk, a fan resting on the cabinet in the corner filled the room with a pleasant hum but barely stirred the air. My eyes were locked on the glass-paneled door to my office to study the painted letters. ARCHIE WOLF PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, except from the inside the letters appeared backward. But seeing it still made me feel warm and tingly inside. I was what you could call a one-of-a-kind anachronism, a twentieth-century shamus in a twenty-third-century world. My office was mostly fake, plastine instead of wood, holo-screens instead of windows.
How the story came about:
Being a big fan of classic noir, I tried to imagine what it would be like in a future world where private detectives no longer existed, except for one, A novice whose imagination was bigger than his life experience, and because of that he gets in over his head, I was thinking along the lines of The Maltese Falcon. Detective, grizzled cop, and a two-timing broad, but there’s only so much you can put into a short story.
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About J Benjamin Sanders Jr: J Benjamin Sanders Jr is a freelance writer in Richardson, Texas and a Marine Corps Vet and a compulsive story teller. He lives with his wife, Rosemary, a pair of loving Airedales called Fiona and Angus Og, as well as a pair of rescued feral cat called Loki and Thor. He’s a longtime member of the Dallas Fort Worth Writer’s Workshop where he rubs elbows with several noted authors. An eclectic reader since the age of six, with a special life-long love of pulp fiction and thirties noir. His Short stories have appeared in such anthologies as M is for Medical, L is for Lycans, K is for kidnap, Night in New Orleans, Enter the aftermath, Nigtmare whispers, Terrors in the Toybox, Goblin Souk, Eights, Aces, and Unmarked Graves, and many other. His Texas Noir novel, Mexicanos Hustle was released July of 2024 by Fawkes Press and won the Judges top pick at the Killer Nashville Conference. I can be found on Instagram at Johnsanders943. |
See all The Rabbit Hole 8: AI and Other Weirdness stories here.
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