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, Catherine Durkin Robinson’s Ladybug:
Abigail grabbed my hand. Clients did this all the time. Eventually, they let go. Their eyes would lose focus, and I’d wait patiently for their breathing to become irregular. Then I would gently fold their hands over their chest and gather everyone around us.
This day was no different. Or so I thought at the time.
How the story came about:
I’m a death doula, and several years ago, a self-described “clairvoyant” told me she saw my clients all around me. Angels. Spirits. They were protecting me. I didn’t take it seriously. Then I heard about all these bad things that were happening to people who had emotionally harmed me. Were these spirits to blame? I took this and turned it into a short story. Ladybug is the result.
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About Catherine Durkin Robinson: Catherine Durkin Robinson is a death doula and end-of-life educator. She was also a longtime hospice-trained volunteer and registered pre-need counselor in Florida before relocating to Chicago in July 2022. Her varied career includes 30 years as a progressive political organizer, 10 years teaching high school and college, and 10 years as a newspaper columnist. She teaches future doulas at the University of New England and is also an educator and board member at End-of-Life Psychedelic Care. Catherine also holds regular classes and workshops in Chicago at St. Joseph’s Hospital, assisted living facilities, DePaul University, and Northwestern University. A queer-informed death doula, Catherine also writes a popular death-positive column at Substack. You can find Catherine on her websites here and here, and on Substack. |
See all The Rabbit Hole 8: AI and Other Weirdness stories here.
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