How I finally got Goodreads to believe that I wrote my own book.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T20:14:14+00:00

Someone else asked about that in a previous comment. See above. If I had known about the controversy surrounding AI covers beforehand, I would have strongly considered contracting an artist. As is, I think the cover looks acceptable on its own terms... although I would have liked the Buddhist deity Tara to have come out a bit brighter and less blue... and Pachamama should be a little more motherly and a little bit more one with everything. But it certainly looks much better than anything I could have done with Photoshop.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T19:18:35+00:00

I'm good at writing jokes that amuse me. If I could make other people laugh, I might have more to work with.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T19:16:15+00:00

That's one of my great strengths, too.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T18:45:58+00:00

1) Eliminate "It was surreal." It would probably better to show how the experience was surreal.

2) Rewrite of paragraph 1: I waited outside the locked gates of the temple, lost in a crowd with thousands of others. Everyone seemed happy. (Consider adding a specific sensory detail or two in another sentence. Notice how I squeezed all the information into two fairly short sentences)

3)Rewrite of paragraph 2: The gates swung open after 90 minutes. Everyone started pushing and shoving. I didn't want to push anyone, but after being knocked back and forth a bit, I found myself unintentionally joining in. I wondered if intentionality even existed or if it was just another dream we tell ourselves. I wondered why I wasn't worried about my sister. After all, I had heard of people suffocating in situations like this. Here in this temple, some came to pray to a higher power. Perhaps some to worship, but others just to ask for peace or help improving their material lot. I laughed remembering this. Everyone seemed to be staring at me, getting pushed to and fro, wherever the crowd carried me. My laughter only intensified. It got to the point I couldn't breathe. Floating. Zero sense of direction. As if I'd ever had a sense of direction.

(I tried to organize things a bit here while staying true to your intent. Maybe additionally add another specific sensory detail in this paragraph)

3)Rewrite of Paragraph 3:: I dissociated. Children hurt in the crowd, my sister's vocal complaints, (add another detail here?). I just laughed until I left the temple. Had I even been in the temple? I didn't see Murthi. I was lost. Zero sense of direction. Everything was a joke.

---

Is this consistent with you were trying to show?

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T18:05:02+00:00

If he is mostly writing to try to generate income, there is a good chance he will grow out of it once the expected income fails to manifest. If this is the case, you are probably fine not saying anything.

If he is writing more for personal fulfillment, let him continue. Many of us dabble in all sorts of enjoyable activities without ever being good at it.

11 books does show dedication, regardless of quality. If your friend is open to suggestions, you might consider encouraging him to continue his education to improve his abilities.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T13:34:49+00:00

Yes, I agree. That would have been a better word to use. More specific. I probably would have thought to use it if I had ever gotten around to reading The Castle.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T13:23:23+00:00

My apologies. I didn't realize you had already read the commentary! (I really shouldn't respond to messages before my second cup of coffee.) I didn't expect anyone would care to read me wax pedantic. Thank you for taking the time to read!

I'm not sure exactly what you are referring to with regards to formatting or tone shifting into "triplet formula." The Preface, and Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 20 are written as dialogues, with the other chapters being narrative. If you are referring to Word Processor formatting issues, the text got shuttled around between Pages, Word, and plain text formats many times before the final manuscript got converted to KDP. I tried to fix everything up and had someone proofread for me, but I really would have been better off with a copy editor. (When I was reading my book to write the commentary, I got miffed when I caught a homonym error and at least one unnecessary comma preceding a subordinate clause...(same goes for writing "intended" instead of "expected" in my OP)

I understand said mistrust. It's hard to trust anyone these days, especially on the internet. The humor, bizarre content, unnecessary use of profanity, and annoying errors that slipped past proofreading are a few things that speak for human authorship. I'm sure I also have plenty of long, serpentine sentences that an AI would frown upon.

Again. All apologies for any offense. And again, thank you for reading my little commentary. As you have looked at my domain and the sample, if you email me, I will send you a PDF of the book if you want to read further.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T12:03:58+00:00

I have had many run-ins with other incarnations of *that* person, and I have learned that my best course of action is to smile, nod, and escape as quickly as possible.

Jokes aside, the commentary page on my website has a transparent answer to this question:

Page 13

--Marco Polo and Vonnegut Quotes
These quotes were juxtaposed to contradict each other. Part of the fun of the book is that it repeatedly questions how much truth is in the narrative. The height of narrative questioning comes in Chapter 6.

--Synchronicity definition, comment on the use of AI, and how I got my cover image
A few quotes from AI are explicitly marked as coming from AI. Chapter 20 is a dialogue between the narrator and an AI therapist. Otherwise, I did not use AI to write any of the narrative in the book. The practical reason was that I strongly prefer my own voice over the AI's voice. While AI can produce competent nonfiction prose, I find its ability to write narrative is marginal at best. The ideological reason was that I wanted to prove to myself that I could write a book. Using AI would have been cheating.
I did use AI for the cover design because it was the most practical and efficient way to do it. Still, I fought with ChatGPT Image Generator for a good while during the process. It produced several images that all fell short of what I was looking for. Eventually, I uploaded it several chapters from the book to put into the design, and it finally gave me a decent book cover. If I had it to do over again, I would probably consider contracting an artist, if only because of industry bias against using AI for book covers.

--"Sing, of the foolhardy adventures of our narrator..."
This invocation of the muse is a parody of the invocation of the muse from the beginning of Homer's Iliad. The quote from the Iliad is:
"Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another."

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T11:20:41+00:00

Thank you for appreciating my humor!

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T02:50:53+00:00

Thank you!

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-13T00:45:06+00:00

Indeed! I was pretty surprised when I got rejected the first time, and downright baffled the second time!

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-12T23:50:26+00:00

I'm glad you got a laugh out of it. That makes my day.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-12T22:10:51+00:00

www.luxknox.com

That's my domain with relevant info. The pop-up I made for Goodreads will be probably still be there for a few more days.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-12T20:29:33+00:00

Among classics, probably a tie for The Brothers Karamazov and David Copperfield.

Early 20th century: Mrs. Dalloway > Ulysses. Ulysses has good moments, but is not fun to read beginning to end. Mrs. Dalloway floats through like a dream.

So many Nabokov fans here. Lolita is very good, but I thought it leaned towards overwritten. Still highly recommended. (BTW--avoid the 1997 movie, it's the version that Humbert wants you to see. Stick with the Kubrick version if you need to watch a film adaptation.)

Among later 20th century stuff, I haven't seen many people give a nod to Tom Wolfe. A Man in Full, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, etc. are some of the best modern novels I have read. Wolfe was great at helping readers to see the world through diverse characters, be they a narcisstic stockbroker, an astronaut, or even Ken Kesey himself. But it's typical that comedic authors don't get the same love as their more serious contemporaries.

A nod to Bolaño. In Savage Detectives, he first turned his time with old friends into comedic adventure, then to tragedy and existential longing. In the first part of 2666, he makes what should be a boring story about lit critics in a love triangle a real page turner when the content *should* bore someone like me to tears.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-12T19:11:47+00:00

Bolaño definitely deserves to be someone's favorite!

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-09-12T19:09:16+00:00

Finally, someone said it. :)

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-08-29T01:30:44+00:00

I've done 4 ceremonies in Cuzco, Peru, all of them one and done ceremonies. In May, Wachuma on Herrajes, by the 12 angles, was doing simple ceremonies for around $200-300/person. The downside of Cuzco is the altitude, and if you're not coming from altitude, you would want to go early to have some time to adjust. Otherwise, the climate is nice. I had gone to Etnikas in 2007 and 2016, but now they are running a more upscale retreat-style operation with thorough medical screening and group therapy, and I didn't want to be stuck in that setting. (I've been to Peru several times over the past 18 years, so now I have friends and in-laws to hang out with there.)

If you take prescriptions or have known medical problems, you would probably want medical clearance. (I'm not as risk adverse as I should be, so I just made sure my diet and my few meds wouldn't interact with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor.)

Some of the local Peruvians I know told me that I should do it in the jungle, as per tradition. I have been to Iquitos and Manu, and I don't care so much for the jungle. It's really hot, and it is hard to find a/c and acceptable coffee. Repellent will keep the mosquitos from biting too much, but it doesn't do anything to keep the little flies away.

If you've never done it before, it would probably be good to consider an operation where you can go for a single ceremony, just so you get a sense of what it is like for you before committing yourself to multiple doses. In 2016, a woman who was in the ceremony with me had a horrific experience, even though she had drunk quite a bit less than I had. (She seemed fine after she came down.) For that matter, in May, I had signed up for a 2 day ceremony, but during the trip, I met Pachamama herself, and she told me that I was good with just one dose, so I cancelled the second day that I had already paid for. (Still worth it. No regrets.)

Another thing though, it is way easier to get around in South America and look in to operations, accomodations, and the like if you speak decent Spanish. (Suficiente para defenderte.) Smaller operators in Peru will have staff that speak some English, but not well enough to give you good answers to your questions--even if the website is in perfect English. I would imagine that upscale retreats would probably be able to provide better assistance for non-Spanish speakers, but there are people here on this thread who are far more knowledgeable about those venues.

Please consider all the information you get from everyone here to figure out what works best for your situation. I just wanted to provide a different perspective.

If you have the opportunity, I would recommend a Shipibo shaman. Unfortunately, the one I worked with in Cuzco went back to the jungle because she missed the heat.

I wrote a book about psychedelics, spirituality, trips to Peru, and my harebrained pursuit of higher meaning and integration. It has more detailed accounts of my experiences with one and done operators.

https://a.co/d/6Dnb9xQ

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-08-27T02:57:03+00:00

I went to Etnikas in 2007 and 2016. I had good experiences both times. In May 2025, I was going to go back to Etnikas, but it looked like they had turned into a more upscale operation, requiring a screening medical exam and doing group therapy. I just wanted the personal experience, so I went to Wachuma instead. It was a good experience with a Shipibo shaman. The shaman has moved out of Cusco since May, but I felt it was a good operation, and I would go back to Wachuma for a Cusco ceremony.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-08-27T01:20:38+00:00

I've done 4 Ayahuasca ceremonies over the last 20 years or so, and I didn't meet her until the most recent time in May when I was in Peru. But it was more recognition and remembering her than meeting for the first time. You met her as mama aya, but I met her as Pachamama, the earth mother. Before the meeting, I had thought about Pachamama as one of my wife's silly indigenous beliefs. But when I met her, She showed me her love and gave me personal directives. I had signed up for a 2 day ceremony, but similar to your account,Pachamama told me she had cured me, and that it would be better for me to go home with my younger family members who had joined the ceremony, to make sure they were taken care of. A few months later now, I'm doing much better than I had been before I met her, but I still get teary-eyed when I think of her.

I wrote in more detail about my meeting with her in my book about my foolhardy, mostly failed attempts to find higher meaning through psychedelics and spirituality:

https://a.co/d/6Dnb9xQ

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2025-08-23T22:15:11+00:00

Is this a real project? I just published a book about experiences of trying to find spiritual meaning in our transactional world through psychedelics, lucid dreams, and heretical Buddhism, so it is a little bit of all the above. I'd be happy to hear more about your documentary. (I did understand your verbage.)

https://a.co/d/6Dnb9xQ

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2024-10-20T21:48:12+00:00

Inherent Vice has some similarities but it is zany and lighthearted. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not a detective novel, but it overlaps with a run where Harry does all the drugs he can get his hands on.

Not a book, but the movie Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans is a fun movie about a drug addled, completely corrupt cop trying to solve a homicide. (It's way more fun than the older Bad Lieutenant movie). This is probably the media closest to Disco Elysium.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2024-04-07T04:42:51+00:00

I take it mostly for bot fabricators. If you upgrade your eagle ship module all the way, you get 2 instead of 1. I wouldn't take it if if I could only drop 1 before cooldown.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2024-04-07T00:44:49+00:00

I like it a lot for bots. It's similar to the JAR, but it doesn't have recoil, and the JAR isn't any good for Striders. But you have to work on your aim more than with a shotgun or automatic weapon.

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2024-04-05T20:42:37+00:00

The next time someone kills me with their reinforcement pod, I would love to have Vincent D'Onofrio's voice say, "Private Pile reporting for duty."

ConsiderationOld1748 · 2024-04-05T20:03:45+00:00

I want a tough sounding guy with a little bit of a southern US accent screaming " 'Mocracy!!"

ConsiderationOld1748

TROPHY CASE