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AIFWAA Narrative Architecture Award medal Finalist & Winner · AIFWAA Narrative Architecture Award “Memorable characters, originality, and a deeply human portrayal of family, forgiveness, and belonging.”
Literary Titan · Four Stars “A tender, observant heart… a thoughtful blend of speculative fiction, magical realism, sibling story, and multigenerational family drama.”
Readers’ Favorite Five-Star Review seal Readers’ Favorite · Five Stars “A fantastic novel… Very highly recommended. This is so beautiful and creative.”

AI & Disclosure

A(I) Note from the Writer

❦

First-things-first, a heartfelt thank-you to you, reader, for finding your way here. If you’ve noticed the AI-Assisted notation on the cover — you have questions. This page is where I try to answer them honestly, before you decide whether this book is for you.

My name and the title of Author do not appear together in this book; this is because I don’t feel I have yet earned it. The term Writer or Creator I feel I have earned — though even that may push limits depending on who you, the reader, are.

This book is AI-Assisted, and before you invest any of your time in these pages, I want to be plain about what that means in this particular case, as the terminology for such things is in its infancy and not yet universally defined. Alongside the cadre of real people who helped this book along, and much of the book being made the way they have always been (written by me in an analogue way), I also used Claude as my writing and thinking partner in many parts. The story is mine — the characters, their arcs, the beats, the pacing, the events, the story, the narrative voice; every choice about what this book is. They are mine if you love them, and mine if they make you ill. Many of these chapters’ first versions were drafted by Claude after detailed planning, at my direction, and then kept, cut, reshaped, or replaced and expanded by me. Clay for the wheel, so to speak.

Another imperfect metaphor gets close to my position (at the time of writing). I am the creator of this book the way a baker is the creator of a cake. I knew what I wanted it to taste like — the texture, the smell, the feeling I wanted the eater left with, maybe even how I wanted them to see the world after. I baked it over and over, and I am proud of the way the last one turned out. It is my recipe.

In this metaphor an Author would be a baker too. And also a Farmer, and a Miller. They grow the grain from seed and tend it through the season; they mill it fine; they raise the chickens and the cows; the dirt is caked under their fingernails. They are Scholars and Mystics and a great many other things I am not. I bought my eggs and flour from the store, so to speak — from software with a supernatural ability to learn all the best things from all the most famous millers and farmers, and make it available to people like me. It would be easy to substitute the word LEARN, above, for the word STEAL.

I am not someone who invites attention or the spotlight, and often ask myself why I have chosen to attempt the publishing of a book that, by its nature, will attract double the amount of controversy for every sliver of success it may achieve, and the answer is always the same: this book has a soul.

I remain conflicted, but am proud of this cake book. I will leave you, the reader, to decide where the credit, or the blame, should fall. My only real hope, if you make it to the final crumbs, is that it tasted good to you — and that you might be inclined to recommend it to others with a sweet tooth.

— J. M. Woodward