It's funny. Sometimes people tell me about something they liked in one of my books, but I won't remember it. I can usually be goaded into some degree of recall, but not always.

And then people will say, "How can you not remember your own books?"

Okay. So, first of all, I totally understand why people wonder. I understand why people don't understand it at all. There are two answers to this particular weird question, and they are:

1. I write a lot of books, and the cognitive load of keeping them all straight is a little like reading a lot of books. Maybe you're one of those rare readers with perfect recall of everything, but most people forget or confuse details between books if they read a lot of them. It's the same with writing. Just because I'm the one inventing the story, that doesn't make me immune to jumbling all those details together ... or forgetting them entirely.
2. I'm not actually inventing the story. Instead, I'm clearly just excavating it from some other place where the story already exists. (We've talked about this, remember?)

This has always been an issue, but I hit it face-first recently with the third and final book in the Gore Point trilogy, called Plague of Demons. I mean, shit ... I couldn't remember that book AT ALL.

See, I wrote this trilogy like two full years ago, so it wasn't exactly fresh in my mind. I remembered the premise ... vaguely. I remembered a few key scenes, but not how they fit into the whole. I remember a few chats Sean and I had about it. Beyond that, though, I was completely lost.

Which put me in a bind. As I mentioned, I'm planning to launch the Plague of Demons Kickstarter campaign (in which backers who missed the first two campaigns can "catch up" and get all three books in the series as special editions) in just over a week from now. And that created a problem.

See, I needed to commission the book cover before I could launch the campaign.

And before I could get the cover made, I needed a title (it was just "Gore Point 3" until recently). What's more, for the paperback and hardback covers, I'd also need the description. You know ... the teaser copy that goes on the back of the book? But how the hell was I supposed to come up with a title or description until I read the entire book again? And how the hell was I supposed to read the book in time to launch the campaign, seeing as my docket was already super full?

That's when AI came to the rescue.

Now, I don't ever use AI to write for me, though other authors do. I prefer to write my books the old-fashioned way, because that feels more "artful" to me and because it's something I enjoy. Summarizing, on the other hand? I thought AI could help me with that.

A friend recently told me about Microsoft's "Notebook LM" AI, which was built for research and note-taking, so I thought I might give that a go. Notebook LM is different from the likes of ChatGPT in that it only uses the reference materials you give it, rather than the entire internet. What's more, it'll take any story/article/whatever and make a summary podcast out of it. A PODCAST invented from nothing. Oh man, the future is here.

So I uploaded the entire Plague of Demons book and clicked a button. Two minutes later, I was listening to an audio file featuring two AI voices (who sounded like a real pair of "Morning Zoo" type radio hosts) talking to each other about my plot.

It started like this:

Assholes. Even unreal people mock my inability to remember.

The "podcast" was about 20 minutes long. After listening to it, I remembered exactly what happened in the story. The hosts even gave meta-analysis of the themes. Oh, and they also praised me, which I liked. Our forthcoming AI overlords approve of my stories ... and please don't tell me they say that to everyone.

I think I might start using AI more to refresh my book-memory in the future, seeing as I won't let it write anything for me. Sean and I are going to write a new book in the Unicorn Western series this year, and I kind of like the idea of revisiting it via podcasts rather than reading through the enormous Full Saga. It's even got this cool feature wherein you can interrupt the hosts to ask questions, like you're a caller on a radio show.

So I'll be like: "Hey, what was the name of Dharma Kold's evil black unicorn, again?"

And they'll be like, "Good question. That's Cerberus, and he and Edward have some serious unicorn beef."

NOTE: "Unicorn beef" in this case does not refer to the meat of unicorns. It's more like a unicorn grudge. Unicorn meat would taste totally magical, though.

Fortunately, that little Notebook trick got me back on track for my forthcoming Kickstarter campaign. As you can see, Plague of Demons now has a name and a pretty book cover:

It's got a description too, but I won't post it here because spoilers ... seeing as some of you haven't read the first two books yet. (Although you can rectify that and begin your Gore Point reading journey right here.)

I've gotta say: Revisiting a book that I'd almost entirely forgotten was a real kick. Now that I remember what happens, I can't wait to re-read it for real. (I need to do that to record the author's commentary, which you can also get from the Kickstarter.) It's a banger of a story. Ironically, I might describe it as "fire," which I'm told is something kids say these days.

I know you'll love it. Just over a week left before it launches!

Until then,
JT

P.S: If you aren't into Kickstarter, you can pre-order Plague of Demons from normal bookstores here. Launch day is April 22. If you get it from Kickstarter, though, you'll get it two months sooner.