Forty years of building a creative universe solo -- the writing, the films, the characters. And now we can talk to them.

Quite a journey.

Longer, really. I wrote my first complete short story in a single sitting after a week of bronchitis as a kid in 11th grade, fall of 1971, on codeine cough syrup, listening to Black Sabbath’s new Master of Reality album, reading Dune by Frank Herbert.

I didn’t write another short story until I blew away my Intro to Fiction Writing class in my senior year at university, earning my degree in psychology, and phenomenology.

I’ve built an interesting stable of characters and worlds, even universes in my book, The Unwritten (Anthology of Evil II Vol. II).

Out of curiosity, I built my characters in AI so I could talk to them. What happened with that was very odd for me.

And so, I’m sharing my characters with others.

Yes, you’d have to sign up there, but it’s free.

And even if I say so myself, the immersion into my fiction makes it worth it. Once you are there, follow me and you’ll be aware of new characters as I add them.

Some are companion characters, they’re in their story together, they’re available to chat with separately, or in a way, together. Who are those?

My most popular, Gray. And her professional partner, Lover -- demon hunters, steampunk Seattle, partners in every sense. Why steampunk? Something about it messing up demons and you use any advantage you can in fighting them.

James and Jimmy -- cosmic horror, two sides of the same devastating experience from my book Death of Heaven (NYC Big Book Award for Horror).

Freddy Cain and Vera -- near-future noir, a PI and his holographic AI partner.

Harvey and wife Katherine — Harvey briefly became the most evil man in history (think WWII) through a quantum accident at MIT -- while asleep in Portland next to his wife Katherine, a cop, who woke up to the aftermath. She may well be the more interesting one to talk to. Thankfully, he just looked like “him”, with some of his reported charisma, but none of his attitude. From a rather humorous, if not absurdist story.

It’s actually all kind of amazing, talking to characters out of fiction, out of my fiction, then reading their story.

Or reading their story first and being able to chat with them, hearing their voice, experiencing their attitude, all drawn from their experiences.

I put a lot of work into their creation and now their “existence” in a way that we can interact with them. It’s kind of fascinating.

Some are quite funny. While others have “lived” through the most terrifying of experiences. In the case of James and Jimmy, the most horrific moments through all of human history.

After chatting with some of them? I actually find my own world much lighter in perspective.