June 2023

Hello! Here we are, almost at the longest day of the year. And we all ask in chorus, "Where does the time go??"

For Gregg and me, half of our May involved a visit to Ireland. This is the first vacation (besides a cruise) where we stayed in ONE place the whole trip. That means we slept in our bed, traveled, slept for 10 nights in our friends, Kim and Dixie's home, traveled, then slept in our own bed. GLORIOUS!!! Refreshing and relaxing. You can read how we enjoyed Trad Sessions at pubs, hikes, exploring graveyards and church ruins, daily walks into town, and great conversations with friends on our Travel Blog.

Speaking of time flying, life in general seems to be changing at wharp speed. I think about all the major changes my grandpa, born in 1899, experienced in his life. Radios, automobiles, TVs, airplanes, rockets to the moon, computers, and more. Now it is my turn to become baffled by new-fangled technology (at least, new to me.)

Today I tried out A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) via ChatGPT at www.chat.openai.com.

I've written a first draft of my next Aunt Kitten book in prose. The thought of converting it into rhyme feels overwhelming. Just for fun, my writing group suggested I see what AI would do with my story.

The result is both fascinating and unsettling. How, in less than thirty seconds, could a computer re-write my story, make it rhyme, and (mostly) follow my original story line? Yowsers! It was nowhere near publishable quality. Yet, it would take me days to get that far into a rough draft.

I voiced my disquiet with my computer savvy husband. He assured me that AI has no idea what it wrote. The technology is all about "word proximity" and it is nothing to be scared of.

The experiment did prove helpful. After I ran the story through AI half a dozen times, each returning a different manuscript, I had a vague idea of what it might sound like in rhyme. I decided that this story "wants" to be told in prose. Thank you, AI, for helping me come to that conclusion without spending hours of writing, only to return to the prose.

Last month I shared the direction I thought the book might take. After rewriting it from scratch about half a dozen times, the storyline has changed a bit. The working title is Tree Frog's Rainbow.

Building on my original mental image, different animals are introduced into the story, each having varying colored footprint tracks. The animals don't realize they are leaving colored tracks, but the reader does. The friends work together and search for the treasure at the end of the rainbow. In the end, they realize they made the rainbow-colored tracks and THEY are the treasure.

I've begun requesting peer reviews to help massage the story and begin editing. Though I am asking other writers to read it, I need feedback from moms, teachers, and anyone who likes picture books.

If you would like to read the working copy of Tree Frog's Rainbow and offer feedback and suggestions, hit reply and ask me for the GoogleDocs link. It is easy to share your thoughts by adding comments into the document.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the sky in search of rainbows.

Kristin Emily Friend, aka Aunt Kitten ​

​www.KristinEmilyF​riend.com​

"We're all unique! God made each of us new. I'm glad you're here 'cause there's only one you!"

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