Cape Split Press

27/10/2024

Unexpected Consequences, a collection of short science fiction and fantasy tales from David A. Wimsett and published by Cape Split Press, was a triple winner at The BookFest Awards in Los Angeles this week. Something on My Mind, which explores a world where AI has no controls won a gold medal for Sci-Fi Robots, Computers & AI and a silver medal for Sci-Fi Crime & Mystery. The collection also won a gold medal for Sci-Fi Space Exploration for the short story The Old Country that considers the ethics of bringing unborn children to colonize a planet they didn’t ask to go to. The URL below leads to the official announcement.

Join in the quest for new stories at your soon-to-be favorite book festival. Black Chateau Enterprise and Books That Make You bring you The BookFest.

08/10/2024

The Swiss Chalet restaurant chain in Canada has moved from plastic to compostable cardboard take-put containers. Kudos to them for helping to reduce plastic waste and still deliver a quality product.

01/10/2024

Cape Split Press author David A. Wimsett’s TV pilot, The Connection Trap, won Best SciFi Screenplay at the Cambridge Script Festival for the Summer of 2024. It takes place in a world where every person is linked to a vast network called The Connection by devices implanted in their brains. Artificial intelligence robots produce and deliver all goods and services directly to apartments. The robots have done so for so long humans have forgotten how to provide for themselves, even to grow food. The robots create virtual reality meeting places where people's brain links override their senses so they experience the digital world as physical. Robots write and produce all entertainment, including cerbdramas where people are immersed in the stories. No one leaves their homes or meets in person. They use the connection. But they guard everything they think and say because Central Control is always listening. No one wants to be branded a subversive. A police detective discovers a conspiracy, but not the one he expected. The pilot is based on his 2017 novelette Something on My mind published by Cape Split Press.

29/09/2024

Cape Split Author David A. Wismett’s latest newsletter is available online at https://tinyurl.com/dwnl2409. In this issue: Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 – My latest book: Unexpected Consequences – Find your writing process – Review of E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops.

25/09/2024

Cape Split Press author David A. Wimsett's latest book, Unintended Consequences, is a collection of science fiction and fantasy tales that examine possible consequences of human actions in a collection of five speculative fiction stories.

—Children of a space colony question the home their parents chose for them before they were born.

—A powerful executive wakes up in hell to find fire and brimstone replaced with modern cities and unending opportunities, or so it seems.

—A scientist discovers the secret of time travel and its challenges.

—In a future world where AI robots provide all goods and services and people can meet anyone instantly through virtual spaces with no need for physical contact, a police detective uncovers a conspiracy, but not the one he expected.

—A young man’s quest for a magical dagger takes on new meaning when he meets an aged wizard.

Each tale follows characters as they reach crises in their lives that can change their futures for good or ill.

Amazon - tinyurl.com/ucamus2
Canada - tinyurl.com/ucamca
GB - tinyurl.com/ucamgb
Australia - tinyurl.com/ucamau

24/09/2024

Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy role playing game, turns 50 this year. My high school friend, Jeff, introduced me to the game and I was hooked. A group of us would get together and play for hours. For those unfamiliar with the game, one person is the dungeon master who crates the world and challenges players will face. Based largely on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, players choose a character such as a wizard, elf, warrior, dwarf, hobbit or other imaginary being. They create their background stories and personal goals, then join with the other players as adventurers.

The dungeon master presents them with challenges, such as being attacked by a band of orcs when searching for a magical amulet. Each player, in turn, says what their character does. Wizards may throw fireballs. Warriors may charge with swords. Elfs might shoot arrows. Dungeon masters control the opposing creatures. They role multi-sided dice and consult charts to determine success or failure.

It’s a unique game. There is no competition among players. Everyone must work together to achieve the goals of finding treasure, learning magic and winning battles. Ultimate success comes from the players working together as a team, a life lesson people in the real world could benefit from.

My first fantasy novel, Dragons Unremembered, began as a scenario when I acted as a dungeon master in one campaign. The group of adventurers are in a tavern when an old man tells them about a treasure in a cave guarded by a dragon. I could have left it there and let the players create the story as they fought the dragon. Something inside me pushed to embellish the story, add new traps, create secondary characters for the players to interact with and develop twists.

Eventually, I realized this could be a book, so I wrote one. It was terrible. I had no idea how to write a novel. After years of study under a bestselling novelist and volumes of books about writing, I developed the skills, craft and my own voice. I abandoned the fantasy book and wrote Beyond the Shallow Bank, historical fiction with elements of Celtic mythology. When I finished that book, I looked back at the original fantasy, saw it had exciting elements, thew out most of the material, and rewrote it from scratch to become the first book in The Carandir Saga trilogy.

Unlike video games that present pre-programmed stimulation, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons engage the imagination of players who form the worlds in their minds and make completely free choices outside of any machine control. Players, not computer programmers, decide what actions are possible. I’m certain other writers of fantasy literature were inspired by the game as well. For those who don’t go on to write books, the experience of cooperation and comradeship gives a sense of community people can take back into the real world.

20/09/2024

Tomorrow, September 21st, is the last day of summer. Come on out to Book Fair at the Market, sponsored by the Wolfville Farmers’ Market, and pick up some good reading to curl up with in Autumn.

11/09/2024

I've just donated to the We Are Stronger Than Censorship program to purchase and distribute banned books across the United States. The We Are Stronger Than Censorship program will buy 2,000 (or more) books to be donated through multiple regional partners, including the Florida Freedom to Read Project, Texas Freedom to Read Project, and Wisconsin Freedom to Read Project. See https://www.wearestrongerthancensorship.org/ for details.

Join the campaign to fight against Censorship

05/09/2024

Author David A. Wimsett’s latest newsletter is available at https://tinyurl.com/nljuaug. In this issue: Should AI Be Writing Stories? - Foreshadowing - What's Happened to Politics by Bon Rae.

04/09/2024

Since 1999, many people have participated in the National Novel Writing Month, known more commonly as NaNoWriMo, to write the first draft of a 50,000 word novel or the beginning of a novel between November 1str and 30th. I’ve never personally participated. It takes me several months to complete a first draft as I explore the subjects, characters, plot and themes of a book. Still, many people find the time constraint of NaNoWriMo just the push they need to finish and have a great time. Up to now, everything submitted has been created by humans.

The Washington Post reported the organization behind NaNoWriMo posted a statement on its website saying it, “does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI.”

A great backlash has come from writers, editors and even people on the NaNoWriMo board of directors who have resigned. I am appalled by this decision. If someone can use an AI robot to write a story, what worth is the exercise? It’s not the user of AI who created anything. Having AI submissions makes the whole concepts of NaNoWriMo worthless.

It is in the act of writing where we consider what we want to say and sometimes change our positions in the process as we better understand the materiel and characters while we uncover new ideas and perspectives.

When I write, I carefully consider the words I use and the structure I implore. This hones my mind to truly see what I want to achieve. I never use AI to write stories or even tools like Grammarly to suggest words, structure or plot points. The knowledge of these things as a writer is what allows people to create stories where the craft becomes second nature, like riding a bike or driving, and we can concentrate of the stories and characters. Such tools like Grammarly can be a learning experience, yet when people continue to rely on these supports and don’t train themselves to write effectively, they fail to communicate their own ideas.

I spent years learning how to write; how to put sentences together, how to form pacing, how to create fully formed, engaging characters, how to build stories that immerse readers in the world, and perhaps most importantly, how to consider the messages I want to share as I preset my themes. For inspiration, I draw not from computer generated suggestions, but from my own experiences, my own options (which sometimes change as I see things during the writing process that I didn’t before), article from reputable news outlets and conversations with others to learn about their views and experiences.

Writing is an art, not a mechanical process. Art is one of the important aspects of humanity that binds people and societies together. When we create and tell each other stories, we share a parts of ourselves. When a machine builds a story, there is no human connection. Artificial intelligence tools never be used to write stories because machines have no emotions or perspectives. They simply manipulate vast amounts of material written by millions of humans and organize it through a pseudo-nueronetwork feedback loop to mash the martial together. It is, in a reals sense. plagiarism and those who train the AI models have taken copyrighted material from writers without permission or payment.

The term artificial intelligence is itself a misnomer, taken from an age old desire of humans to create life. There is no intelligence involved. There is no sentience. There are no emotions. There is no compassion. There are just computer programs created by humans in which the programs follows rules laid out that are colored by the views, prejudices and agendas of the programmers. This is unreliable and often leads to misinformation and lies. To this day, AI facial recognition misidentifies black faces because the programmer are almost all young, Caucasian or Asian males living on the west coat of the United States.

Write your stories in your voice. It takes time and effort. Then again, so does living a full and socially engaging live.

03/09/2024

Mark your calendars! The Wolfville Farmers' Market in Nova Scotia is having a Book Festival on Saturday, September 21st. There will be 11 local authors and publishers with mysteries, children’s books, middle grade books, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, cultural heritage, romance, graphic novels, poetry, nature, science, communication, and more.

11/08/2024

On Sunday, August 11th, and Monday, August the 12th, the Amazon Kindle edition of David A. Wimsett’s latest book, Unintended Consequences, will be FREE. It is a collection of five speculative fiction tales that examine the outcomes of human actions that is also available in paperback from Amazon and Barns & Noble. Please take the time to download the book, read it (124 pages), write an honest review and talk about it with friends, relatives and on social media. Your word of mouth is important to authors because people who know you trust your judgment.

• A powerful executive wakes up in hell to find fire and brimstone replaced with modern cities and unending opportunities, or so it seems.
• Children of a space colony question the home their parents chose for them before they were born.
• A scientist discovers the secret of time travel and its challenges.
• In a future world where AI robots provide all goods and services and people can meet anyone instantly through virtual spaces with no need for physical contact, a police detective uncovers a conspiracy, but not the one he expected.
• A young man’s quest for a magical dagger takes on new meaning when he meets an aged wizard.

Each tale follows characters as they reach crises in their lives that can change their futures for good or ill.

Amazon U.S. - https://tinyurl.com/ucamus2
Amazon Canada - https://tinyurl.com/ucamca
Amazon Great Britain - https://tinyurl.com/ucamgb
Amazon Australia - https://tinyurl.com/ucamau
Barnes & Noble - https://tinyurl.com/ucbnus

08/08/2024

Cape Split Author David A. Wimsett received an email today informing me my TV pilot script for The Connection Trap is currently a quarter-finalist in the Table Read my Screenplay – Hollywood 2024 competition. The semifinalists will be announced in August. This is the fifth accolade for the teleplay.

The connection Trap is set in a future where AI robots produce all goods, services and food to the extent people have forgotten how to do any of this. People send message through a vast, world-wide network called The Connection via links embedded in their brains in infancy. AI robots build virtual meeting paces that override the senses so people feel they’re physically in them. The robots write and produce cerbdramas that place people in the action as if the are a part of the story. No one leaves their homes. Everyone communicates through the connection. Yet people guards their thoughts because Central Control is always listening and never expresses strong emotions less they be branded a subversive.

Police Detective George Chen is sent on a mission to arrest a man who broke his link. He discovers a conspiracy, but not the one he expected. The screenplay is registered with The Writers’ Guild of America. Its available for consideration on the International Screenwriters Association website and Coverfly. The series is based on Mr. Wimsett’s latest unpublished novel of the same He’s currenlty submitting to literary agents.

He'll be appearing at the Wolfville Farmers' Market on Saturday with his books of fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction.

27/07/2024

I was at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market today with my book. When I make appearances, I’m constantly smiling. It’s a joy to be out with people and have the opportunity to speak with them on a wide range of subjects, whether they buy a book or not. It’s also joy just to engage without conversion. People will pass by in a hurry with neutral or even grumpy expressions. When I smile at them, they almost always smile back. When I give a sincere “Hello” almost everyone says “Hello” back. For that instant we make eye contact and share our humanities. It’s wonderful. Smile. Small connections help build and bind our societies.

18/07/2024

Author David A. Wimsett’s latest newsletter is online at https://tinyurl.com/nl240506. In this issue: Slow May, exciting June — Plot and Story — Review of The Phoenix Guard by Steven Brust.

13/07/2024

I speak with many people when I’m selling my books at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market on Saturday’s. Today, several families with children stopped by. Three of these young people, ages 9 to 10, excitedly shared how they like to write stories and told me their plots. I talked about how rewarding writing is for me and how happy I was that they enjoy telling stories as well. All three smiled broadly. Words are the most powerful thing humans possess. For all I know, the words I spoke today may have inspired a future winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature. We can never tell for certain how our small acts of encouragement can change the universe.

04/07/2024

A review of David A. Wimsett’s women’s historical novel Beyond the Shallow Bank is now available on . The review begins, “David A. Wimsett is an artist who paints with words. Beyond the Shallow Bank is not a book you should read quickly, though perhaps you will, and then you’ll want to read it again.” You can read the full review at https://tinyurl.com/btsbreedsy. Please take a look and upvote the book for others to discover and enjoy.