Artificial intelligence is probably going to kill us all, and because of it, A.I. is a big theme in War of the Lords, the book I’m currently writing. Yes, like we need another novel warning us how bad sentient technology will be for humanity. How original! If that were the case, I would have published that story ten years ago with very little effort. My concern is what will happen after artificial intelligence takes its massive silicon dump on us, not give the public another reason to feel paranoid about the Big Brother world we are currently living in.
This story stems more from a gut-feeling that can’t seem to go away, whereas if I don’t publish it before the Singularity happens, my purpose in life will be lost forever. Pathetic, I know. It’s funny how we set our goals and how we program our minds to achieve them. We may think in extremes, which other people might find disturbing, but we don’t necessarily mean everything we say. It’s a form of masochistic motivation. Being hard on yourself can be good sometimes, if you know what you’re doing, unlike me.
The level of commitment I’ll have to employ to bring War of the Lords to life is beyond me. It’s bigger than anything else I’ve written or produced, and I’m willing to make this my final straw in life. If it doesn’t work, I don’t think anything else will. Originally, I had the idea for War of the Lords back in early 2015, and just like every other book I’ve published, I have started, stopped, tossed away, started again, hated myself, reworked characters, reconsidered settings—honestly, I don’t think I’ve had more issues with any other narrative I’ve wanted to tell than this one. Why? I won’t find out until I’m finished with it, but it’s leading me somewhere.
The journey hasn’t all been peaches and cream. Whenever I wanted to permanently abandon it, like that bitch ex-girlfriend you want to put in a capsule and launch her to the black hole so she disintegrates into the oblivion of the event horizon, for some reason War of the Lords doesn’t want to let go of me. It’s like a stalker who wants to lure me into bed and do whatever it pleases with my delicate figure. And what do we do when a stalker is so persistent you can’t get rid of it? Stockholm Syndrome. You submit to it and give it all the love and attention it needs.
This is day I-dunno-what writing War of the Lords. I started somewhere in December. I’m already in chapter two. This is probably the draft that will make it to publication, of course after giving it major editorial surgery. I’m not ready to share details of what the story’s about just yet, but I’ll say that it is a long as fuck sci-fi series I plan on publishing as a serial first, in novella-sized ebooks. When I have enough chapters to transform it into a paperback or hardcover, I’ll compile everything I have into a single installment. And then continue with the story if there is more to tell.
Don Luis Zavala 