Tarot Reading for Alpha, the Robot in Love’s Reflection

Master tarot reader Arwen (http://tarotbyarwen.com) did a tarot reading for Alpha, the heroine in my book, Love’s Reflection. Alpha isn’t the typical romantic heroine, she’s a robot created in the image of a film superstar. Following are the questions asked and the responses by the tarot and by Alpha.

1. How do you see the people around you?

Tarot says: The Hermit card tells me you see people as needing to be guided. It’s not that you see yourself as better but that you have a role to fulfill. You also know that you have to come down from your own personal mountain/retreat to interact with them. There is something that scares you or worries you about that. Remember that the Hermit carries her own lantern.

Alpha says: You are correct in your analysis. My creator, Dr. Cort Hirsch, made me to prove robots can intelligently interact with and be indistinguishable from human beings. I am made in the image of Zoe Parker, who is said to be the most beautiful film star in the world. That’s why the title of my book is Love’s Reflection. Miss Parker is his love. I am her reflection.

Cort and I live within the California hill housing his laboratory.

I am the only one of my kind. I have no past, no family. With proper maintenance, I can be immortal. My emotional memory response has evolved to be able to feel loneliness. I worry that I will spend eons alone with no emotional interaction or human touch, except for those brief periods during which I am being maintained. This scares me because I want to interact with humans and fear I might not be able to do so.

2. How are you seen by the people around you?

Tarot says: This is the Knight of Cups who is the emotional seeker. Your community sees you as being on a hunt for something you can’t have–or at least they think you can’t. But like the knight of the Round Table, you know your quest will eventually be fulfilled. All you have to do is follow your dream. But first you have to convince the people around you that your dream is valid.

Alpha says: My creator has said I must pass the Turing Test that sets forth the condition to prove artificial intelligence. The great Alan Turing said, “If the machine could successfully pretend to be human to a knowledgeable observer, then you certainly should consider it intelligent.”

If I pass, I will be the first to do so. Many say it is an impossible dream. Others say it will take another half-century before advances in technology make it possible. My creator is teaching me strange, human ways so I may pass the test. I am learning to dance, clean his toilet, massage his back in the shower, and I am going to star in a film. I have also learned how to make him buy me clothes and other things, like my signature scent, Chanel No. 5. I understand convincing a man to do what you want is another human female skill.

3. What is your most important goal?

Tarot says:The Fool is a babe in the woods on one level. On another, the Fool is the eternal learner. Your goal is to always learn, to always seek opportunities. You know that optimism can lead you where you need to go. Like the Fool, you have to learn all there is so you can know who you are.

Alpha says:  Yes, I am a fool, a fool who aspires to the greatest gift a human can achieve–love. I am a robotic being, a mechanical fool whose emotional memory responses and nerve endings all hunger to give and receive love, the love between a male and a female. It can never be. My creator does not want my robot hands to touch him in such a manner. Yet, my database continues to search for the way in which to achieve my goal. I watch love stories on my internal wireless. I am learning how human females make human males fall in love.

4. Where do you get your strength from?

Tarot says: The Moon is an intriguing card for strength. It is the card of self-illusion. It is almost as though your strength comes from what you don’t know about yourself. There may be some secret even you aren’t aware of yet. This is a card that also talks about a tame side vs. a much darker side. There is a strength you gain from that struggle to keep the dark side in check.

Alpha says:  I have the strength of 10 men. I run fast enough to keep pace with a race car. My head can revolve on my neck a full 360 degrees. My creator said human females cannot do the same so he programmed limits into my system. I do not know all that I am capable of because of the limits.

Cort programmed moral values into my system. I cannot accidentally or intentionally harm a human being either directly or indirectly. I would sacrifice myself to save a human being, if such an action was necessary. If the wrong person took control of me, I could become a war machine.    

5. Why do you want to be remembered?

Tarot says: The Star is the card of enlightenment. In many ways it is the Hermit fully realized. The lantern no longer must be carried. Now it hangs in the sky for all to learn from. It is a mass sharing of self that you want. Almost as though you want to leave a piece of yourself in everyone. This is the card of higher learning as well so the Hermit’s teachings are shared on a more wider scale.

Alpha says: I want humans to realize robots are a life-form. When life is given, there is a responsibility to respect and care for that life-form. Robots should be paid for the work they do. They should receive driver’s licenses, if they can pass the test. They should be allowed to experience love and sex.

6. So Alpha, tell us a bit about your book. Perhaps you can link us to an excerpt.

Alpha says: My creator, Dr. Cort Hirsch, hungers after Zoe Parker, a film superstar. She publically rejects him. In revenge, Cort creates me in her image. It saddens me to think I am conceived as the object of his revenge.

My birth is a boon to my creator’s life. He used to work long hours in his laboratory and had few friends except his assistant, Robert. After I am activated, his life becomes exciting. Tourists chase us. Bad men plot against us. Zoe Parker seduces him. I annoy him.

There are sexual encounters in my book. If you blush easily, read fast over those parts. If you are sad, read my book because it will make you smile and laugh.

You can read a one-scene excerpt and a three-chapter excerpt on my book page on the Awe-Struck E-Books site: http://tinyurl.com/9hc7el .

Or you can download an adults-only excerpt at http://carolnorth.com/books.htm.

Thank you for the reading. It is amazingly accurate.

Alpha

Note: If you’re interested in a tarot reading, visit Arwen at http://tarotbyarwen.com.

Life Imitates Art

Recently, a scientist announced he created a fembot (female robot). It’s obvious Trung Le took his idea and the design for Aiko from my book, Love’s Reflection, which was published in 2008. My robot, Alpha, is far more intelligent and talented than Aiko, and a lot better looking. She, Alpha, is fully capable of passing the Turing Test, which requires the robot to be undistinguishable from a human being.

 

Yes, Trung Le’s invention is a primitive imitation of my character, Alpha, in Love’s Reflection. And Trung Le, poor guy, isn’t up to the physical standards of my hunky scientist character Cort Hirsch. All in all, however, Trung Le did a good job at making life imitate art.

 

I suggest Trung Le read Love’s Reflection to learn how to care for a fembot who is undistinguishable from a human female. Alpha is all we women are and she’s not afraid to speak her robot mind. Cort can never win an argument with Alpha, and it usually ends up costing him big bucks.

 

My advice to Trung Le is “Hold onto your breeches. You’re in for quite a ride as Aiko develops into half the robot Alpha is. By the way, I may have to sue you for infringing my copyright.”

 

Carol North

 

To learn more about Aiko, watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4UPcv7Y1AE

Join the E-Publishing Revolution

I went straight to an electronic-publisher (e-publisher). Never even submitted my first two novels to a print publisher. Both were quickly accepted. I am currently completing a third novel that will also go to an e-publisher.

 

Submissions

You save time by submitting to e-publishers. They accept electronic submissions, thereby, reducing the time to present the submission and receive the answer to just seconds in cyberspace. Of course, you need to add the amount of time it takes for the e-publisher to read your submission and decide if the house wants or doesn’t want to present an offer to publish. It can take a print publisher or agent a year or more to decide whether to publish or represent you. In that same period of time, your e-book can be accepted, published, and for sale all over the worldwide Internet.

 

You save money by submitting to e-publishers. It’s all electronic–no paper, no postage, no self-addressed, stamped envelopes (SASEs).

 

Royalties and Advances

Print publishers pay an advance against earned royalties, although they seem to be moving toward no advance or smaller advances. For instance, selling a first novel to a category romance publisher will get you a $500 advance, according to “first sales” figures published in the Romance Writers of America magazine. Print publishers typically don’t pay royalties until they know the number of returns on your book. They then subtract the advance paid from the royalties earned and pay you the balance, if any. It can easily take 18-24 months after the release of your book to receive the first royalty statement, which may or may not show a profit and a payment to you.

 

The royalty you receive from the e-publisher ranges from 35 to 50 percent of the selling price of the book or of the e-publisher’s net earnings when distributors are involved.

 

According to WritersServices.com, royalties paid by print publishers range from

• 10 to 12.5 percent for hardcover books.
• Up to 15 percent for hardcover books by bestselling authors.
• 7.5 to 10 percent for softbound books.
• Up to 12.5 percent for softbound books by bestselling authors.

 

Print royalties are based on either the price for which the book sells or on the net amount the publisher receives after providing discounts to bookstores and distributors or some combination of both.

 

E-publishers pay royalties monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually. Most often payments are made quarterly or monthly. So the speed with which the e-publisher pays its authors tends to cancel out the benefits of the print publisher paying an advance against your royalties.

 

Many e-publishers post copies of their contracts on their websites for the world to see. The contracts are written in conversational English, not legalese. The Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC) posts a sample contract on its site: http://epicauthors.com.

 

Creative Freedom

A print publisher has “rules” for each genre and line it publishes. For example, one print publisher wants 80,000-100,000-word horror genre novels with dark atmosphere, chilling plots, contemporary settings, and supernatural horrors. No science fiction, fantasy, or mystery elements are allowed. The house’s rigid rules preclude horror novels with sci-fi elements like Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers.

 

E-publishers typically don’t have hard and fast rules. They’re open to mixed genre novellas and novels from 20,000 to 100,000 words and more. Some even publish short stories of about 10,000 words. E-publishers are also less strict about point of view (from whose viewpoint the story is told) and person (first–the story is told by a character, or third–it is told by an unidentified narrator).

 

You are also allowed to write outside your original genre, even if your earlier books sold well. Print publishers like to see you crank out more and more books that are similar to your bestselling books. With e-publishers, you can write for new markets like the up and coming “urban fantasy” market.

 

All genres are accepted for e-publication, including fiction, business, technical, self-help, reference, inspirational, and general nonfiction. To see the genre opportunities provided by e-publication, peruse ebookwise.com.

 

Marketing Support

If you think your print publisher will provide marketing support–dream on. Only authors of proven or anticipated bestselling success are provided significant help with the marketing.

 

My e-publisher has an internet “loop” devoted to its authors. We send emails to the loop for group feedback and support. The owners of our e-publishing company participate and mentor. It feels like a family. Some e-publishers also provide marketing support. Mine sends out advance review copies (ARCs) of my book and provides other support and information.

 

E-book authors can become members of Internet loops devoted to helping them develop marketing campaigns and web sites. I have two web sites: carolnorth.com and carol-north.com.

 

Distribution

Typically, distribution is worldwide in the English language. In addition, your e-publisher might want to negotiate foreign language rights. My e-books are available on Awe-Struck E-Books, Amazon, e-reader, efictionwise, ebookwise, and other distributors. They are available in multiple formats, including HTML, PDF, Kindle, Sony, RocketBook, and MS-reader with audio functionality.

 

Creditability

Being published by an established e-publisher is a valid writing credit and can prove your marketability to other e-publishers, print publishers, and literary agents. Self-publication is not considered a valid credit.

 

Print

E-publishers also produce books in print, audio, and on compact disk. Many e-book authors are also published by the major New York houses.

 

E-Books are Hot

According to International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), trade e-book sales for June 2008 are up 87 percent as compared to June 2007. During this same period, print book sales experienced a single digit increase. E-book sales for the entire second quarter of 2008 are up 47 percent compared to Q2 of 2007.

The big publishing houses are jumping on the e-book bandwagon. Most, if not all, are offering electronic editions of their new releases and of many backlist titles.

 

It’s Love

My last reason for going electronic is emotional–I love my e-reader. It’s about the size and weight of a small hardbound book, yet it holds 100 e-books. I read from it at the beach, at home, and while waiting for my turn at the doctor’s or dentist’s office.

 

I highly recommend you join the e-publishing revolution. See you in cyberspace.

 

Note: This article was published under my byline in The Savannah Business Report & Journal on September 15-21, 2008.