A couple of weeks ago, author Jane Ward and I celebrated the launch of her new novel, Should Have Told You Sooner, at Jabberwocky Bookshop. One of the questions from an audience member was about AI and whether either of us had ever used it.
There has been a lot of hand-wringing speculation lately about the death of reading and the demise of good writing. Who will need caffeine-fueled writers to create content anymore, now that AI can generate prose that fools even the most avid readers into thinking an actual human penned it? In fact, according to a recent quiz in The New York Times, a majority of people prefer the writing samples generated by AI in the style of famous authors like Cormac McCarthy and Carl Sagan.
In September 2025, the AI company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.B to settle the class-action lawsuit brought by authors (including me) whose work was used without permission to train Anthropic’s chatbot. Yet, most writers use AI, just like the rest of us.
I now employ AI tools for everything from brainstorming chapter titles to summarizing entire novels when I’m struggling to write a synopsis. While writing my last book proposal, I also used AI to help me research comparable titles in record time, a chore that used to take many tedious hours. I’ve even used AI to generate a podcast with two AI-generated “hosts” discussing the themes of a novel I’m working on. Among other surprises, the hosts asked decent questions about plot holes that led me to revise the novel. Whether we like it or not, AI has infiltrated our lives to the point where most of us probably wouldn’t work as efficiently without it.
As Jane and I answered questions from the audience at her book launch, the conversation touched on fictional techniques, politics, pets, first love, travel, and even our favorite recipes. Afterward, we browsed Jabberwocky’s impressive shelves to find books other people had recommended and stood around chatting while we waited for Jane to sign books. Reading and talking about books created a community that evening out of a roomful of strangers–something that AI won’t ever be able to do for us.
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