From Election Day Dread to AI Ink: A Writer’s Nonstop Week
It’s been a wild week, to say the least—full throttle to finish my new book, AI Ink, which is now available for presale at all major booksellers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, and more. If you’re a book lover, I’d love your support; snag a copy today and join the cause!
A surreal aside: while checking Walmart.com to confirm the listing, I stumbled across an unexpected item. Apparently, my name is now attached to some…let’s just say unofficial merchandise. While I’m not seeing any royalties, let’s hope the band is at least getting their due.
On another note...
One of the best perks of this writer’s life? Getting to interview some of my favorite authors. This week, I had the privilege to sit down with Dennis E. Taylor, the creator of the Bobiverse series. His latest installment shot to #1 on Audible—a testament to its blend of humor, geeky references, and mind-bending storytelling. I loved it so much that I dedicated one of my Trail-Gazette columns to it. Imagine my surprise when I saw my own face on Dennis’s Twitter feed; turns out, he enjoyed the article enough to share it himself. We had a great conversation about AI’s role in storytelling and his work on the XPRIZE board. I might even release the audio as a sneak peek to AI Ink. here on the Switchblade podcast if time allows—stay tuned.
I also on Monday joined Richard Chew on Chew’s Views on WCPT Chicago, where I gave my endorsement for Harris (not that anyone here had doubts). It was a rich conversation, and you can check it out here: WCPT Radio Spot.
This week’s media storm didn’t end there—I was also featured on the front page of Norway’s largest newspaper with an in-depth interview.
And as for Salon, I wrote a piece for their upcoming election anthology. Due to a last-minute editorial switch, it’s now set to evolve and appear shortly after Election Day, but I’m sharing my original version here as a teaser since it’s so in sync with my Edge of Insight column this week.
Election Day Blues: A Junkie’s Last Hit – for Salon
By Jason Van Tatenhove
With Election Day barreling down on us, I’m feeling like a junkie coming off a bad bender. I’m drained, worn thin, but still painfully aware of the stakes. I promised myself a break—swore off politics after this cycle. Just one more hit… But it’s an addiction I can’t seem to shake, and the country seems hooked too. We’re all jittery, hanging on this thin, fraying thread of possibility. It’s been a long, brutal season, and, if we’re honest, it feels like our democracy is teetering on the edge of something—like Schrödinger’s cat in a fog of probability, not knowing if it’s still alive or already dead.
How did we end up here? Death by a thousand paper cuts, really. Years of small erosions, each an “it can’t happen here” moment until we all forgot what “here” even meant. Ideals, facts, and fiction tangled into one strange haze, and now we’re left with this grand, messy experiment, tossed to an exhausted, bleary-eyed electorate. But it starts and ends with storytelling—our storytelling. Once this madness subsides, if we still have a functioning democracy, it’s time for a hard look at the narratives we’ve crafted and consumed. We need to rethink the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we’re going—because that’s the bedrock of any future worth fighting for.
My head says Harris should win—she has to, right? But my gut isn’t so sure; it’s gnawing with the same dread that’s been there these past few years. I’m finally feeling like a halfway respectable citizen of this country, and I’d rather not have to start fresh learning to be one in Canada. But make no mistake—this isn’t going to be pretty. If things really go off the rails, there’ll be a roundup list with my name on it, no doubt. And if we don’t all make it to the border, well, at least we’ll have good company at the camps.
So here’s my message to the American people: hold onto your hats, folks. Buckle up, grit your teeth, and get ready to get your hands dirty. Democracy isn’t a spectator sport. Vote, yes, but more than that, be prepared to listen, to have the hard conversations, to meet your neighbors where they are. Because once the ballots are counted and the dust starts to settle, we’ll have to pick up the pieces together, or not at all.
We’re all part of this strange, beautiful experiment—let’s do what we can to keep it going a little longer.
Back to the grind on AI Ink, but I wanted to catch you all up. Stay tuned, Switchbladers—I’ll aim to get the Dennis E. Taylor interview audio out to you next week!
~JVT
