Close to the Wind

“Close to the Wind” is the sequel to the first story I’d ever had professionally published, “Any Port in a Storm” (Parsec, 1999). They both concern an artificial intelligence struggle to understand its own emergent consciousness.

Written just a few years later, it’s a much tighter and with better pacing and that’s the reason it made it into the collection, not the earlier piece. (Though I should note that Any Port was nominated for an Aurora award, and Close wasn’t.) But there’s at least four years between the two stories, and I believe my writing improved considerably in those years. At least I HOPE they did.

Improving as a writer

One of the things that is great about writing is that theoretically, you should be able to get better and better. There’s always things to learn. You can play with new forms and ideas. Many writers don’t do that as they age. They fall into a well-grooved trail, recycling plots and settings. But that isn’t inevitable. We can always choose to challenge ourselves, no matter our age!

Leonard Cohen is a particular inspiration when it comes to this topic. Have you listened to You Want It Darker? It was released just a couple of weeks before his death in 2016. He was 82.

I mean, holy shit:

If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I’m ready, my Lord

Photo by Luis Arroyave

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