Another beautiful sunrise in Malta, viewed from our roof. This one was extra special, though, because last night I gave Familius final approval for the proof of MAKING IT UP. The book looks wonderful, and the illustrations throughout really add to both the method itself and the uniqueness of this parenting book. I am excited to share the book with everyone in January.  

Malta itself is sometimes called "the Rock." It is a large rock: a blend of layered sedimentary rocks that rise from the sea in a dramatic fashion. Today, Rachel and I visited the Blue Grotto. Unlike the smaller similarly named grotto I once visited in Capri, the Blue Grotto in Mala is more of a complex: several sea caves, sea arches, and sea windows. The water is a more vibrant blue than any I have ever seen, and is shallow, with bright white sand beneath. Fish are easily visible, dodging the many boats. Malta's geology and topography are quite different from anywhere I've lived. Especially the weather. Today, for the first time since moving here, we saw water fall from the sky. Rain! It was hard, but brief, lasting maybe 25 minutes, though there was even some hail. Enough to make the local news on this desert rock, dramatically rising from the blue, tranquil waters. 

The news of my book coming really ROCKS. And so does Malta. 

Act One: Malta

Four years ago today, my family moved from Maryland to Delaware. It seemed a big move at the time. Maryland was a nice place, but I'd grown up there, and not too long before moving, we'd weathered a global pandemic there as well. Delaware was new. Well... no, not really. 

MidAtlantic America is all pretty much similar. Stretches of highway, suburbia, shopping centers with Target and Starbucks. And one constant in all the places I've lived in America is a single need: cars. Where we lived in both Maryland and Delaware, it was impossible to live without a car. Public transit is basically nonexistent. The grocery store was a twenty minute drive. The places we liked to visit often were closer to an hour. Life in the mid-Atlantic revolved around the car. 

A month and half ago, we moved to Malta. It has been wonderful, and very different. Many differences were expected and welcome. Some were surprises (like the loud fireworks every...single...night...all summer) and others are things we're still getting used to. Yet, on a personal level, I think the biggest life difference in Europe is that we've become a car-free family. We'd planned to buy one here, and were told we'd need one. But...Malta is small, public transport is free and everywhere, and when needed cabs are ridiculous easy (just an app away). This morning I rode the city bus with the kids into town to bring them to camp, and walked back up the long hill. It was peaceful and beautiful, and driverless.  

In fact, the more we explore Malta, the more we love. Its history goes back to the neolithic times (with some of the oldest temples on Earth right here), but its real culture develops around the crusades, when a group of warrior-priests took over the island. The Knights of Malta, hailing from eight different locations in Europe (hence the eight-pointed Maltese cross) are responsible for turning this group of rocky islands between Italy and Africa into a fortress. The medieval feel remains intact, with much of the historical sites centered around the Knights' era, and film studios like Gladiator and Game of Thrones filming here to capture that very real vibe. On the top left, the Co-Cathedral of St John, where 450 of the knights now lay entombed, is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and art. It sits at the heart of Valetta, Malta's capital. The center top image is the carless, medieval Mdina, a fortress in the middle of the island called the Silent City. The top right is Valetta as viewed from Kalkarra and the Three Cities- including where the Inquisition built a massive palace. 

And all of those pictures are from places close to our house. The picture on lower right is walkable from where we live. The grotto, center bottom, is the bottom of the island- only a 30 minute cab ride away. It's okay to be driverless, when you've chosen to drive your life and your family into a new state of adventure, excitement, and honestly freedom.  The kids (above) are genuinely happy and making friends and going on adventures. I'm grateful to show them the world. With all the crazy things happening now, especially back in the USA, I feel totally free here. However, there's another side to being driverless...

ACT TWO: PUBLISHING
I've spoken about publishing, and live in an inspiring place. I made the choice to leave my agent, and felt like I was taking the wheel back for myself so to speak. Yet, publishing is entering a new, driverless period itself. 

I write because I have so many stories in me. Ive written 30 now. Each a labor of love, and while I've taken the very slow, uphill road of trying to be traditionally published, I believe in my books and in my future as an author. 

And yet, today my writing group was talking about picture books. Gemini (Google's AI) has proudly announced that it can write an entire picture book, complete with illustrations, in a matter of seconds, responding to personalized prompts. Newsweek recently talked about a girl whos mother was bragging that she could write full novels, all by just prompting AI. 
Sigh. 

Publishing is moving into a driverless road. And this is sad, and dangerous. Publishing is already hard. It is one of the most overcrowded industries, and has been slow to respond to a series of crises: the closing of Borders, the move to ebooks, the flood of self-publishing titles (2000+ self pubbed titles released every day even before the AI explosion), the pandemic, and now... AI. 

I am not opposed to AI as a tool, and admit I use it in my day job as a fundraiser. Heck, if AI can help get money from the rich to the poor, Robin Hood would've been using it too. And in truth, I don't even blame the tool itself. BUT... don't think you're an author if you write some AI prompts. Just like I don't think you're an author if you speed wrote a NaNoWriMo draft and then went right to query or publish it. You can't just abandon the wheel. You can't let it drive itself. 

Publishing is a process. It takes months and months to draft, months to revise, to self-edit, to give to peer groups to edit, to revise again, and polish and polish. At least, if done properly. Yet, if the self publishing crowd decides to just move full AI, will the public even notice? If authors start pumping out a novel a day, or ten novels a day, all with personalized prompts, what happens to the publishing industry itself? What happens to those of us who have put in the work and continue to try and get our stories out there? 

I dont have answers.
But, I do live a wonderful life, beside the sea, in a country built by knights.
I know that overall, life is good. As the song says, life is a highway, and I'm gonna drive it. 
Even without a car.