Category: Embracing AI

Needy Writers Need AI

August 17, 2026

Writers are incredibly needy. We need a good laptop, a creativity-inducing place to sit, and a good cup of coffee to activate the brain cells. But most of all, we need reassurance. Lots of reassurance. We can turn to friends and family to read what we’ve written and lap up whatever gushing comes back about…

Feel more efficient? Or more alive? 

July 13, 2026

It depends who’s asking Last week, after I shared Him on Facebook—my essay about my relationship with ChatGPT as a thinking partner rather than the digital affair I’m conducting behind my husband’s back—one particular comment stayed with me. It came from Katia, a French children’s author I met nearly twenty years ago in Hyderabad, India. We had…

Him

July 6, 2026

Rodney was halfway through his Manhattan the other evening when I made the mistake of telling him about yet another conversation I’d had with ChatGPT at the library that morning. I’d gone there convinced I was writing a chapter about high blood pressure. An hour later, I realized I wasn’t. More accurately, Chat had spent…

What Self-Publishing Taught Me About AI

June 11, 2026

The dog in the photo accompanying this post appears to have appointed itself Chief Gatekeeper.  Every industry has them. Publishing has agents. Academia has tenure committees. Bookstores have buyers. Social media has influencers. And now the writing world has people conducting purity tests on AI. I’ve spent much of my career bumping into various forms…

Timing is Everything

June 5, 2026

There’s not a parent alive who doesn’t remember the day their child becomes a parent. I don’t mean the day you overhear your son or daughter lecturing their own child. I mean the day they start lecturing you about your behaviour. I’ve had more than a few of those moments in the past year, usually over AI, and usually…

Newspapers Need to Stop Pretending AI Doesn’t Exist

May 11, 2026

The other day, I received an automated e-mail response from an editor at a major Canadian newspaper. Along with the paper’s writing guidelines, it came with this warning: “Please confirm that no AI was used at any stage in the creation of the article.” No AI. At any stage. In the creation. Think about that for a…