"I wasn’t kidding; you can see more with your eyes closed than you can when they are open. But you can’t, can you?” Not waiting for a reply, she answered her own question. “You can’t, but you can see through the dark when you close your eyes. Maybe not at first because you don’t expect to. Trust that you will, and you’ll soon be able to. Try it. You will see all you need to see.”

The above is an excerpt from a conversation Raymond had with a girl he didn't know while sitting on a University of Washington campus lawn on a late spring day. Or at least he thought he was. Raymond has many experiences he later questioned.

Having put Raymond there with her, he attempting to 'see through the dark', I thought I would give it try. Initially, and many times since, all I saw was 'dark'. But she did say, 'Maybe not at first because you don’t expect to. Trust that you will, and you’ll soon be able to.'

There's a lot of truth in that. We often close our minds to things we don't understand. Like the reaction I get from many people, explaining the Unlived Lives concept.

Next time you are confronted with something that seems completely without reason, close your eyes and trust that you will ultimately see through the darkness. You may find you will see all you need to see.

As for me...I'm still looking, still dark.

Only the closest followers of the Unlived series will notice what is wrong with some of the above AI-generated Unlived ads.

I've been auditioning apps that use AI to create my own fixed image and video Unlived ads. As of today, I've tried four of them with similar results. 

Very simple to use, I uploaded summaries of The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn and The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett, along with copies of the book covers. I created both fixed image and video ads in separate tests, hit 'Enter', and with one exception, I had a result less than two minutes later. The one exception was a half hour of video processing time.

The video results were laughably bad. Cartoonish, appearing to have paid little attention to the book summaries. In one case, AI actually changed the images in my book covers to something it thought would be better. (Look for it in the above image.) Some, but not all, of the fixed image ads were reasonable, but nothing as good as an experienced creative person would produce.

It's possible that some AI apps can accommodate active URL links, taking the person who clicks the link to more information about the product. If so, I didn't find them. I can include a static URL link, but that would have to be copied/pasted/clicked in a search window by the person viewing the ad. That's too big an 'ask' for most. 

The examples I saw in the ads for AI ad generation apps looked great. But most, if not all, of those products were commodities, none for books, music, or movies.

Conclusion: Hands down, AI wins on a budget basis, while human creativity is best suited for representing the product most effectively. AI ad generation is more effective for commodities than for creative products. Hopefully, that will improve quickly.

Like most everything with new technology, currently, when it comes to creative products, AI marketing writes 'checks' AI ads can't 'cash'.

My book page posts are evolving to include both The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn and now The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett. Along with that, the comments about these posts are changing as well.

The biggest difference is a significant increase in the number of people who answer the question, "Where would you be today had you made different choices in the past?"

I appreciate it, please keep it up. It helps me come up with story lines for future books.

There is also more about individual characters, Shelly in particular. Some like her, some don't. I intentionally wrote Shelly, hoping that would be the case. Part of making the book a 'word maze' is creating characters readers see differently.

For continuity's sake, read Raymond's story first, followed by Shelly; you will meet several characters throughout both. Comment on them, what you like about them, what you don't.

What you say impacts what I write about them and others in future, unlived books.

In the meantime, where would you be today had you made different choices in the past?

​#psychologicalthriller #multiverse #paralleluniverse #fictionbooks

The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett is now available as an ebook, with print coming in the next few days.

Shelly's audiobook is in production as well. I reviewed the first 37 chapters today. I will complete another 25 to 30 chapters tomorrow, and depending on JT Farrell, the narrator, the balance will be finished early next week.

After that, it's in the hands of Audible. Some of you may recall that it took 14 days to publish Raymond's audiobook, which was longer than anticipated. Hopefully, that will not be the case with Shelly.

Thanks to all who have read or listened to Raymond's story. For those of you who haven't, if you plan to read or listen to Shelly's, I strongly suggest you first read/listen to Raymond's. It sets the stage for Shelly, and for The Unlived Lives: Reckoning due out in early spring 2026.