Charlestown, Rhode Island. July, 2026

This website is a first person narrative about past and present nonfiction writing projects. Some of them earned a living - some are 'hobbies.'

A graduate advisor warned against using the first person point of view. He called it 'self indulgent.' While I still agree many years later, in this context (an online creative portfolio), I hope this POV reads as authentic.

I choose to write nonfiction because 'truth is stranger than fiction.' I also hope this is the last cliche you will find here.

NOT USING LLM/AI FOR BIGGER WRITING JOBS

Many friends suggested I write my father's eulogy with large language models better known now as artificial intelligence.

I laughed at their well meaning.

A year later, I'm glad I didn't use AI. When I grieve my mother and father's absence, it helps to open the handmade wooden boxes where I keep their eulogies, dried flowers and prayer cards.

Photo Credit: Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, New York. Craig Ruchman

Since my father's death was more recent, I often re read the words I chose to draw his portrait.

It helps to remember emotions I used to describe Dad's unique life to family and friends. I still laugh at the idea that I would have left this job to an artificial intelligence. AI did not experience his love nor his unusual way of being.

What will happen to a society, much less a culture, that relies on AI to do its writing?

I am grateful that I can still think critically (and leave my phone at home on most days). I am tired of it listening to me, thinking of me as 'data' and pooping out information later that I do not want or need. If a day passes when I have not written from the recess of my heart and mind, it feels incomplete.

USING TOOLS

Can you imagine going to college without a word processor? We used typewriters and Liquid Paper for mistakes. Can you imagine working without the help of Google Search, and now, asking LLM/AI for answers (to small questions)?

Evaluating sources is a skill I still use every day. I learned how to do that in college when I had to write annotated bibliographies for term papers when we did not have Google Search.

In graduate school, my dog literally went into my backpack and chewed my writing stored on a floppy disc. Good thing it was backed up on a USB stick.

The Dog For Every Decade Lies Under My Writing Desk

Now most of my writing is stored in a digital vault known currently as the cloud.

Back then, Sam knew what was keeping him from the Great Outdoors. I love my dog under my writing desk who reminds me that I am not one with a computer. With her or his sighs, they remind me its time for a walk. My hips thank me.

Writers have always relied on tools - my favorite is EB White's seminal Elements of Style. A separate library of books on grammar, punctuation and writers' on writing are always within reach.

You can copy and paste writing/copy/content into AI/LLM tools and ask to put your writing into MLA (fiction) or Chicago Rules of Style (nonfiction) format.  Adhering to writing standards is important - and this tedious job is left to AI.

EB White's writing instruction is joyful, fun and essential.

Also, verifying nonfiction sources is critical. We all agree - there is too much information. Content pollution.

Recently a website developer told me about AEO (answer engine optimization): writing for how we speak to AI search in order to get information. Of course this is over a year old now. I'm excited to deploy "schema" on this website.

Writers need to know about SEO, AEO and GEO widgets as technology moves faster than the speed of light. Why? It is better if your reading has a chance at getting read.

A client recently said, "People don't read anymore." A colleague also asked, "Please don't send me 'walls of text.'"

I try not to listen to this type of discouragement. I edit well. I edit again. It is on them if they cannot read.