“Get Hyped!” is a sobering look at AI and privacy. What was the initial inspiration for this story? What was your process for this like and was it different from the way you’ve written other stories?

The initial inspiration was, I have a Peloton bike in my basement that I work out on semiregularly. At some point, I had a, “wouldn’t it be weird if . . .?” moment while in the middle of the workout, imagining the instructor speaking to me directly. That led me down an if-then rabbit hole that eventually led to “Get Hyped!” But it wasn’t an entirely direct route; the first iteration of this story was as a pitch to a Hollywood producer, which led to a somewhat fleshed out treatment. The producer didn’t bite, and I was left with something akin to a story outline. The problem there is that I am absolutely terrible about writing to an outline. I got there eventually, but it took a lot longer, I think in large part because of that written treatment.

The perils of AI (real, dangerous AI) are prevalent throughout this story, but it’s more of a fresher take because it exists right alongside the AI we have available now. How has AI impacted your writing, and how do you think you’ll navigate it in the future?

Well, for starters, I think the distinction I made in the story is really important. The current iteration of AI that everyone is talking about right now isn’t actually “artificial intelligence;” it’s rebranded machine learning, which is very much not new. “AI” is, to me, a marketing scheme, not a technological breakthrough, and I think a lot of the companies that have been selling their world-changing AI to the investor class are going to have a problem when everyone realizes there’s no there there, and the bubble bursts.

“Get Hyped!” is a “five minutes in the future” kind of story. If we actually did have the technology—which we don’t, and won’t for a long time—what would happen? I landed on what I think is a plausible answer, and it isn’t anything good. As for navigating that future, I’m actually optimistic, because even if the tech I described really is just around the corner, we’re a really long ways away from that corner.

As the story progresses, “Get Hyped!” begins to read like a thriller, and I found the climactic conversation near the end to be a true lesson in writing suspense. I found Rachel to be an exciting character to follow around, too. Why do you think Jacko Hype is obsessed with her? It certainly isn’t running out of people that use it anytime soon.

I think what looks like obsession from Rachel’s perspective is self-defense from Jacko’s perspective. I also don’t think she’s the only one who has gone through this; Jacko has the capacity to “defend” against negative feedback from anyone, anytime, anywhere. I see her as being one of many victims. She just happens to be the only one with the wherewithal to (potentially) fight back.

What’s next for you? Do you have any projects you’re working on/coming out soon you’d like to talk about?

I have an annoyingly large slate of Hollywood projects I can’t talk about right now, but that will hopefully be stuff I can talk about soon. I’m also sitting on a completed novel (book four in my Tandemstar series) that is waiting on cover art, a novella series that’s waiting on me to finish books two and three before I start worrying about publishing, and a few not-yet published short stories waiting for their moments on the calendar. My next project is either a screenplay, a horror short, book two in the novella series, or book five in the Tandemstar series. I haven’t decided yet.