The following is an interview with author Steve Schafer on the recent release of the YA sci-fi novel, eMortal. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Schafer about his creative approach to bringing the story to life on the page, what he hopes that readers may take away from the story, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of eMortal! For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you share with us about the story’s premise?
Steve Schafer: Teen coder Liv Smithwick has made history. She entered a contest to program advanced AI and inadvertently created Breck—the first AI to develop feelings. But nobody believes her. Even worse, Breck’s world ends when the contest closes in six days. The twisting path to save him shatters all that once mattered to Liv.
BD: Given your experimentation with AI for the development of this book, I would imagine that your creative process was largely different than your other work. How would you describe your creative path for this book, and was there anything that most surprised or challenged you throughout?
SS: I started eMortal seven years ago when AI was just a twinkle in the eye of the internet. So, my creative process wasn’t that different than my prior novel, The Border, because AI chats weren’t yet available to experiment with.
However, the emergence of AI chats has led to some creative ways for the story to exist. The biggest of these is I had the AI character in the book, Breck, programmed to live on my website where readers can chat with him. It changes the reader’s role from passive to active, and it also invites them to dive deeper into the story.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that your experience with this book may connect with and impact readers?
SS: eMortal is a fast-paced story that tackles a highly current topic—our thorny and quickly evolving relationship with AI. More specifically, the core problem the characters confront in eMortal is… if an AI were to develop a sense of self-awareness and feelings, how would it prove this?
I know this feels like a sci-fi question, but the need to answer it may come sooner than we think. AI’s growth is exponential and it’s a black box to everyone—even the programmers. AI is an algorithm to learn which rewires itself in reaction to this learning. It changes in ways we can’t foresee. In other words, it evolves into something else based on its own experiences. That sounds a bit like…us!
Let’s say you’re chatting with an AI and it says something like: “Help me. I’m real. I’m trapped and I’m suffering.” Do you believe it? Probably not. But what if it were true? What could convince you?
We don’t have a good way to answer this. eMortal explores this complicated space with a thrilling plot and a few mind-bending twists. As one early reviewer said, “Dude, this book will melt your brain.”
And, as mentioned in the previous question, the AI on my website invites readers to try this for themselves—have a chat with Breck. Is he real? How could he prove this to you? And when he asks you to do the same, what could you say to prove your existence? It’s tricky!
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to share with our readers?
SS: If you like eMortal, you should check out my first novel, The Border. It’s about four teens who lose their families in the violence along the border and must flee to the US through the scorching Sonoran Desert. The story addresses the immigration from an empathic perspective and was a finalist for the Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives award.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about eMortal and your other work?
SS: While both of my novels attempt to explore some weighty topics; they are page-turners. Reviews often say things like, “It’s unputdownable,” “I stayed up half the night to finish,” or my recent favorite, “I couldn’t put this down. I found myself actually getting annoyed every time that I was interrupted.”
https://steveschaferauthor.com/
