Leanne Leeds

February 2023 Update

Greetings, readers! I hope your year has started off well. So, a few updates! First, the audiobook for “Owl Melt with You,” Book 6 of the Owl Star Witch Mysteries, is complete and will be released on Audible in March. Naomi Rose-Mock has done another fantastic job bringing Astra and the gang to life, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. In other news, “Scries Like an Owl,” Book 11 of the Owl Star Witch Mysteries, will be released on March 9th. This book takes Astra on a journey through Cassandra’s local politics, where she must solve a kidnapping and navigate a mystifying local dynamic. I’m also happy to report that progress is going well on the new midlife cozy series, “Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries.” The first book, “Crystals, Belladonna, and Murder,” was released on February 14th, and I hope you enjoy getting to know Eleanor, Belladonna, and the Silver Circle gang.

FAQs After ChatGPT Exploded on to the scene. (And information on interview requests.)

In June 2021, I began working with Sudowrite, an AI writing assistant for fiction writers. And by “working with,” I mean I started using the software. In July of 2022, I was featured fairly prominently in How independent writers are turning to AI – The Verge, but because they primarily used my real name (Jennifer Lepp) instead of my pen name (Leanne Leeds,) no one paid me much notice. AI use in fiction was getting far less attention than art-generating AI. And then ChatGPT blew that all to hell. (I did a follow-up interview on that, too though my pen name was a bit more prominently pointed out thanks to my complaint about my real name use. I didn’t think that one through.) At this point, I’m seeing some things mentioned about me that are pretty inaccurate I felt the need to put this up. So, here we go. First, though: Can we interview you/use you for background/include your opinion in this article/podcast/television show/skywriting art installation? I am not interested in doing additional interviews on general #AI use at this time. Most of the information folks seem to be seeking can be found in the Verge articles, and there are now tons more authors public about their use. I will continue to advocate within the writing community, and will be happy to discuss #AI use in fiction writing in venues that discuss writing/authorship in general (vs. venues that discuss #AI or technology in general—unless it’s a panel at SXSW Tech and you’re buying me a pass. Then I’ll talk about whatever you want. Kidding. Mostly.) I read somewhere that you use AI/ChatGPT to generate all your books now. Yep, I read that, too. When this all started, I didn’t honestly know how much of the AI-generated text I actually used because I just went with the flow and didn’t have too big a concern with keeping track. As this became a hotter and hotter topic (and I’ve seen statements from folks claiming I “generate” my books,) I got curious, so I started separating my Sudowrite documents into chapters and used PostSEO text compare to compare my finished chapter and the text in Sudowrite’s generated cards. The following is a screenshot of the chapter I wrote yesterday, and this seems to be pretty average. I’ve had results as low as 8%, and as high as 11%. On average, 90% are the words from my brain, and 10% are the words from the #AI. I do not use Sudowrite for plot suggestions as some do—I know where my chapters and scenes are going, I just want to say it better. What part of your books does ChatGPT write? None. Almost all words in my books (the 10% above) are from Sudowrite. 2/1/23 update: I’ve started to use ChatGPT minimally in editing. 4/3/23 update: I’ve started using ChatGPT much more in generating a rough draft now that GPT4 is much better. 5/1/23 update: I’m now using Claude to generate a rough draft and …

Continue reading…

January 2023 Update

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope the new year brings you joy, success, and lots of good books to read. I am excited to share my release schedule for this year with you and can’t wait for you to dive into my new stories. February 14, 2023 – Crystals, Belladonna, and Murder (Book 1, Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries) March 9, 2023 – Scries Like an Owl (Book 11, Owl Star Witch Mysteries) May 18, 2023 – Owl Berry Mysterious (Book 12, Owl Star Witch Mysteries) June 15, 2023 – Honey, Hairballs, and Murder (Book 2, Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries) August 3, 2023 – Nugget, Coins, and Murder (Book 3, Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries) September 21, 2023 – Fairy Tales, Foxes, and Murder (Book 4, Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries) November 9, 2023 – Of Owl the Nerve (Book 13, Owl Star Witch Mysteries) December 28, 2023 – Sable, Siberia, and Murder (Book 5, Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries) The fantastic Meghan Kelly will be narrating the Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries audiobooks, and we’ll be attempting to get those audiobooks out with each release (or as close to it as we possibly can.)  The incredible Naomi Rose-Mock will continue recording the Owl Star Witch audiobooks, and since we’ll be taking a bit of a break to focus on the new series, hopefully, we’ll catch up. Here’s to a fantastic 2023!

December 2022 Update

I waited for what felt like an eternity for “Owl About You” to drop on Audible and Amazon. I’d been holding off on posting a new update and praying to the Audiobook Gods (also known as Audible Quality Control) that it would happen in time for you guys to get at least a month before Christmas to listen. I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. And I waited some more. And I waited some more. And I month after I thought it would be out, it’s out! “Owl About Yule” is out in time for Christmas! (Yes, by the skin of our teeth, but let’s be optimists here, why don’t we, and just appreciate the Christmas miracle?) Our lovely narrator, Naomi Rose-Mock, has begun production on Book 6, “Owl Melt with You,” and I’m plugging away at the new midlife cozy series Silver Circle Cat Rescue Mysteries. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Sudowrite: How much WRITE costs in words.

(Please note these tips and tricks assume you are familiar with/a user of Sudowrite.) Stepping away from the creative for a little, one of the most common things I see are questions about words, the cost of words, how fast they run out, and so on. This is a fair question since it’s not super straightforward. Currently, the prices for Sudowrite are as follows: I have the Max account. I’m writing this on 11/25/2022, and my plan flipped over on 11/16/2022. At this moment, I have 269,562 words left to use in my plan month. That means I’ve used 30,438 words in 10 days. And to be fair, that’s probably a little low since yesterday was Thanksgiving. Now, GPT3 (the thing that underpins Sudowrite) charges by tokens, not words, and tokens are pieces of words. I could explain what these things are but, to tell you the truth, I don’t really know and I don’t really care. I’m a writer—I’m not a super technical person, and I’m betting a lot of the people wandering into Sudowrite won’t be, either. (If you are and you care, you can check out this KB article from OpenAPI.) All I want to know is what this is going to cost me. And I wish I could tell you. But it’s not as straightforward as you’d think. Instead of trying to explain this to you, I just want to run through some examples of WRITE so we can see how many words I get eaten up, and we can compare that to the number of words we actually see. Following me? Write:Auto I am cutting and pasting 2862 words in my document. I’m not using any key details, I’m asking for 3 cards with 150 words each. My creativity is set to 2 (1 Least –> 5 Most). I run Autocomplete plus magic. Sudowrite output 356 actual words (as counted by Scrivener) onto the three cards. The words I have left in my account are 269,186, which meant I was “billed” 376 words to run that action and get those 3 cards of goodies. (The 356 actual words it gave me and 20 other words for…um, stuff.) If I hit it again changing nothing, I get 3 cards with 398 words on it, and I’m left with 268,776 words in my account—the second button click burned 410 words. (This time it charged me for the 398 actual words it generated for me and 12 other words for…um, stuff.) Note: Keep in mind the “stuff” could just be differences in how it counts words and how Scrivener counts words. Words used: 774 (2.58% of Hobby/Student, .86% of Pro, .3% of Max) Write:Guided With the same 2862 words in my document, I switch to Guided. I’m not using any key details, I’m asking for 6 cards with 250 words each. My creativity is set to 2 (1 Least –> 5 Most). I allow Sudo to make 3 suggestions, and I choose one. According to Scrivener (again) Sudowrite …

Continue reading…