Of course, in the most private of places to think, but also in the shower. Another very productive thinking spot is at the kitchen sink as I am washing the dishes, or any place my mind can wander as I’m doing a mundane chore. Ideas tend to pop into my mind, not even when I am thinking about books. Suddenly, an aspect of a character will reveal itself, a new twist as to some situation, or an event that would have easily shaped the personality of a character.

One day back in late 2022, I was pondering a funny question. I had heard it said that if a cow gave birth to a pig embryo, according to Jewish law, that piglet would be kosher. Along those lines, I had happened to think about what would happen if there were such a thing as an artificial womb, and what if it were placed inside a robot. So, my theoretical question was, “If a non-human robot carried a human embryo and somehow gave birth to it, what would the baby’s status be?” Pondering this humorous yet unlikely scenario led over time to the creation of the entire Man-Made story from the end backwards, as I thought about such a situation. My imagination unfolded and took off, and the whole premise, the characters, all the various stories throughout came to me over time. I started writing it in early 2023, and was happy to be able to publish it a bit over a year later, roughly 2 years after its inception.

Science was always my favorite subject in school, and some of my first memories were watching "Lost in Space" at three years old. I even had an animated Robot toy at that time in the late 1960s. My love of the genre gradually developed as a fan of "Planet of the Apes" and later "Dr. Who". This was intermingled with a fascination of mystery and crime dramas starting at age seven on. I was an avid "Nancy Drew" reader growing up. Given Betty's unique abilities and Woodie's FBI background, I thought it would be great to combine the two genres eventually, once her whole story was revealed in the trilogy in "Man-Made - Three out of Four."

I believe graphic violence, language, nudity and the like has become so overused that it was just time for a change. Mainstream TV shows and movies have so much repeated foul language and graphic scenes that I just got tired of it. Why is it even necessary? It only makes people look less intelligent, like they can't come up with real, meaningful dialogue. Another of my pet peeves is, I simply got fed up with the idea of humans having "love bots" (as Dr. Kerring nicely terms it in "Man-Made - One of a Kind"). It just seems a bit perverse to me.

Back in the golden years of TV shows and movies, the writing was so good that these graphic "gimmicks" just weren't necessary. I endeavor to appeal to a like-minded audience. My goal is to create good, wholesome stories with relatable and lovable characters. As for graphicness, I believe that the way things are worded can be cloaked in such a way that it leaves such scenes to the imagination. Some of my subjects may be more suitable for an adult audience, like fertility and abuse, but they can be dealt with in a way that is not offensive. One’s imagination can often be a more powerful tool than all the graphic scenes that modern day shows and movies subject us to now.

Since some parts dealt with a fertility center, I felt the content might be considered more mature.
I have heard some authors going after the YA market simply because it is more lucrative. Even though there is nothing really graphic mentioned, I did not want to misrepresent the material. It may very well be suitable for some tweens through young adults, but I wanted to leave that call to the discretion of parents, teachers and librarians.

Yes!
1. Don’t ever give up!
2. Write whenever you can.
3. Let your imagination go wild.
4. Don’t ever try to force a story. It will come when it is ready, and once the ideas start to flow, there's no stopping them.
5. Have fun with it! If at some point it becomes "work" that you have to do, don’t continue and put it aside for later.

If I’m doing a long, involved story spanning over years or decades, I create a timeline of events for every character. I often referred to it for ages of certain characters in relation to other characters and situations. This was an immense help. Even though there is never a year mentioned in Man-Made, the timeline holds true throughout the story. In doing the trilogy, I wrote it all at once, then went back and forth between the three as I added and edited. It was rather like weaving the story together like a tapestry. The ideas kept coming, and I kept adding them in where they needed to go. Once all my ideas were implemented, I felt it was done.

Simple and for a very important reason‒Timelessness. I did not want to “date” the story. No matter what year I predict it could be, my predictions would surely be wrong. I wrote it under the premise that things do not change that drastically over time. People will always be people, and will continue to do the same brilliant or stupid things throughout history. All the technology I write about in Man-Made is being utilized currently. Perhaps not available yet commercially, but it is in existence, and I figured it was just a matter of time before the various technologies are available commercially.

As much as needed! If there’s something I’m not expert in, I continue to research until I find the answer. If I can’t find an answer, I drop that line I’m going on and do not even use it. I believe authenticity is a key part of a good story. Just because I may not know something, perhaps a reader could be in that field, and if they saw something that was way off or completely untrue, it could ruin the story for them. It has happened to me, if I have watched a show based on reality, and something happens that could never have happened in real life. It just ruins the whole moment! The only made-up item in Man-Made was Dr. Kerring’s beloved “Peppergrape” plants. They were still based on a genus of real plants that had similar medicinal qualities, but the particular species and its common name were made up; but I still did the research on it!

What was interesting about Man-Made in particular, is I would get an idea of some scientifically-based thing, like cultured human skin and an artificial womb. I nearly dismissed the idea as being totally my own imagination. I did research on it and found it was actually being done in real life, the science and technology, although still rather primitive and experimental was being done!

NO! All my stories I came up with in my own head and wrote them entirely on my own. I kind of look at AI-generated stories as “cheating”.
My sympathies do go out to Betty, who in "Man-Made - Three out of Four" complains that because she has AI, she is unable to own anything or get a copyright.
In all seriousness, I have heard of such things being done, but I do not condone it. It can take human authors years to refine and write the perfect story. It does not seem ethically correct to have an AI do the same thing within a matter of minutes, and then have a human put it out there as their own work.