Hi everyone! It's been a minute; sorry for that! I wanted to post something up to let everyone know that the oft-times alluded to Hearth, Home and Magic Podcast is finally coming to be, and to explain a bit about WHY it's coming to be. I'm somewhere between excited...nervous (it's a really public, forward-facing thing for an introvert to do, lol)...and if I was nervous initially about publishing a book? Well, this is THAT, but on steroids. If I think about it too hard, (TMI warning) I might barf.
There is now a 'bonus' podcast up, if you navigate to the PODCAST button on the menu bar above. It's also on Spotify, and my YouTube channel as a podcast. It's a little surreal to even say ANY of that. Think of it as a placeholder, for now. It's about my book TechnoWitch, published in 2021. If you've read it (or my blog), or you know me...you know I'm one of those early tech adopters. I love tech, I love my devices, and I love seeing what I can do, and see if I can find new uses for them. That's just...me.
I was on YouTube earlier in the week, watching some of the stuff I follow (The Why Files, The Witches' Cookery, Marie Coveley, Mama Eve, Linus Tech Tips, Skill Tree, and Nerdforge) when I ran across a random video on a new AI system I'd never heard of: Notebook LM. I like tech, and I'm not afraid of AI. As total transparency, I have no problem taking my own research, and feeding it into an AI system like ChatGPT and asking it if it thinks I've missed anything. Asking for suggestions, that is; not asking it to DO the work. Then I take what I find, and see if it resonates. If it does, I do more research...my own. What I don't do, and could never agree with are creators who use AI to do all the end-to-end creation of their products, with little creativity on their own ends. I see that as completely disengenuous. I'm a writer, and I was an artist for over 30 years. I did (and still do) take pride in what I can do and create. There's not much creativity in asking a bot to create everything for you, so you can generate a ton of content, cheap. Blech. But that's my opinion, and I digress.
Here I was, minding my own business watching videos on YouTube, and one of the suggestions that came up discussed the various uses for Notebook LM, by Google. It said you could feed your research into it as pdf files - multiple, multiple sources - and it could aggregate it for you. Do I really want a bot doing all my research? No. Am I for anything that will save me some time and point me in the right directions, and help me see if I've forgotten something? Uh...yes. Why yes, I am.
So imagine my complete and utter shock when I uploaded the pdf file of my book TechnoWitch into Notebook LM to 'kick the tires' and start looking for research directions for TechnoWitch 2.0, and it offered to create a podcast discussion for me about the book. Curious, I hit the button, Notebook LM chugged for a minute, and gave me a play button. I was astounded to discover two AI people, having a DISCUSSION about my book.
It blew my mind.
I listened with glee...I mean, they were talking about what I worked really hard to create, right? Simultaneously, I was also a little horrified. These aren't real people. If you aren't completely aware that this kind of technology exists, you might be fooled into thinking they're real, much like how you can't trust video or photos you see anymore (lol, ALWAYS count the fingers; it's the first thing that messes up!) I was somewhere between chair dancing on my sofa, and crying, because it sounded so amazing. I even called my husband to come from the back of the house into our living room, and made him listen to it, poor thing. All he wanted to do was get a little rest after his rehearsal earlier!
Why was the moment so emotional for me?
It was simple: I'd had two offers to appear on podcasts right after TechnoWitch came out, and despite the fact that it could've helped me get the book more visible, and be helpful with marketing - - I was too petrified to appear on either of them. Even a couple of years down the road, I've been inching slowly toward having a podcast - teasing it, even as I tried to summon up the courage to DO it...
...and here one was.
What it did was illustrate to me the power of the medium. So let me tell you straight up. The "Bonus Podcast" that's currently sitting on my Podcast pages, wherever you listen to them - are two AI characters, talking about my book, based on the text of the book I wrote. I couldn't be prouder of it. I hope you listen to it; enjoy it, even. Know that it's not real - but the work that went into it very much was.
And know this, too. It made enough of a difference in how I viewed my OWN material that my sister and I are going to do it for real...real voices, real people, and real research as it's needed...
...all because an AI bot showed me what it could look like...and the inherent power in it.
I think there's a little bit of magic in there.
P.S. If you have ideas for or about TechnoWitch 2.0 - opinions, novel ways you use technology in your practices...or topics you'd like to see covered in the next book, email me at technowitch.book@gmail.com, or leave a comment. Several people told me back then that they really hoped for a 'grimoire.' If you want to know more about the topic, I recommend that you check out my friend Amy Blackthorn, and her friend Natalie Zaman's book, called Social Media Spellbook: 366 Ways to Get Witchy on the Web, available on Amazon! TechnoWitch is also available on Amazon, in print, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited! Links to both books are below. Thanks again!
TechnoWitch: Ancient Wisdom, Digital Tools
Social Media Spellbook:
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