Blending Sex, Tech & Sorcery in Dot Slash Magic
The simple answer to the question “Why did you decide to combine AI with fantasy romance?” is that I used to be a software engineer, and now I write speculative fiction. The more complicated answer has to do with my goals as a writer, my opinions about tech and social media, the publishing market, and, to be frank, my own shortcomings.
My conflicting perspectives on the subject of AI have been banging around my head for a while now – first as someone who was curious about the technical side (I never worked with AI, but I kept up with news about it), and then as someone who watched online artist communities begin to push back against the technology.
Before I was a software engineer, I was a musician, so I grew up firmly entrenched in art and performance. I find the intersection of art and tech, and the ethical questions surrounding that intersection, fascinating. I wanted to write something that addressed those questions in a way that felt fun and accessible.
I Wanted to Write Something Topical
When I first started writing Dot Slash Magic, I initially planned for it to be pro AI – not because I was necessarily pro AI, but because I love to play devil’s advocate (see: all my romantasy shitpost videos.) I can’t help it: I am, at heart, a bit of a dick.
But through the process of researching and writing the book, that changed. I learned more about the extractive nature of AI, the empire-building and colonialist parallels, and the ways in which its development furthers a “progress for progress’ sake” mentality that I’ve just never been a fan of. Writing something “pro AI” just to be contrarian didn’t feel so fun anymore.
I think by now we’re all aware of the problems. Karen Hao just released an excellent book called Empire of AI that I highly recommend for anyone who wants to dig deeper. But at the time I was writing (2023 through early 2024) this narrative wasn’t quite so culturally present. I wanted to present these themes in a way that was digestible to an audience that may not otherwise digest them.
As I was finishing the book in the summer of 2024, the US election loomed on the horizon, and it became apparent that if Trump, Musk, et al won, it would open up a whole new can of worms, re: the broligarchy and tech fascism. I wanted to touch on that, too.
So I suppose that explains the “Why AI?” part of the question. What about the fantasy part?
I Wanted it to be Fun and Sexy
First and foremost, I wanted this book to be a good time. Because honestly, if you’re not doing
that, then why even bother with the rest?
When you have things you want to say about a topic as potentially mind-numbing as AI, and you want people to actually read those things, I think it helps to lure them in with the promise of sex and magic. No one is going to read your Philosophical MeanderingsTM if they aren’t having a good time doing it.
Also: I’m not a very serious person. I don’t have the chops to write this from a very serious angle. What I can do is write the hell out of some snappy banter, throw some fun comedic action sequences at you, and tie it all together with a magic system that touches on themes of humanity and AI’s impact on it.
So it’s like, “Yes, we are going to talk about AI. But also, you’re going to get to watch a girl fight a kraken with her magic chainsaw arm, and later, she’ll hook up with a dude who has a magic penis.”
I Wanted to Poke at Romantasy Tropes
Folks who follow me on social media know me mostly for my videos making fun of “fictional men” and fantasy romance tropes. Those videos were partly motivated by frustration at my own writing (why couldn’t I stop writing about men growling and narrowing their eyes?) and partly by frustration at the way books are frequently reduced to tropes in order to be marketed on platforms like TikTok.
I’d never actually written a fantasy before Dot Slash Magic – my series prior to this was pretty squarely dystopian sci-fi. So I saw this as my chance to tap into the romantasy market…but to do it on my terms.
I wanted to subvert romantasy tropes, and I wanted to do so specifically in the context of a book about artificial intelligence, because I like my work to be a bit meta. Bias is a major concern in training generative AI models – namely, that feeding them biased material will result in a perpetuation of that bias by the model. In my eyes, tropes are a form of bias.
Yes, it can be argued that there is some inherent truth in tropes. Romance tropes are compelling because many people feel some connection to them. But they can also be alienating, flattening, racist, sexist, heteronormative, and otherwise problematic. I feel as though I often see these tropes being presented in uninterrogated and unsubverted ways on Booktok, which makes me wonder how many of them we might also be feeding in an uninterrogated way to AI models.
So I attempted to engage with some of these tropes in ways that I hope are meaningful and maybe a bit subversive.
I Wanted to Put Bawdy Sex in a “Serious Book”
On the flip side of that was my love of the Booktok community, who have embraced my snarky videos throwing shade at their favorite tropes with nothing but good humor and open-armed enthusiasm. The people who like my videos aren’t mean-spirited assholes who hate romance. They are mostly women who love it.
This is something I hugely appreciate about that community: they don’t take themselves too seriously, and they know how to have a good time. In the face of people (usually men, but sometimes me) telling them, “Your favorite genre is silly” they shrug and say, “So?” They are unabashed about their love of sexy fairy books, and perfectly aware (thank you very much) of how silly those books can be.
I wanted to bring that silliness to the “serious” and “masculine” world of tech. To be honest, I think much of what I write might be motivated by the secret wish that one day Musk or Trump gets his hands on it, and really really hates it.
At the end of the day, I think this book mostly came from a place of: why can’t a book about the ethics of artificial intelligence have a dragon in it? Why can’t the love interest have a magically inflating penis? Who said the main character can’t be a new adult heroine with a bad haircut and a worse attitude?
No one. No one said that. So I did it.
About the Author
Hi! I’m Liz. I’m a writer and full-time, off-grid, live-aboard sailor. I’m currently sailing around the world with my partner and my dog, turning my real-life adventures into speculative fiction.
I’m extremely grateful to be able to explore the world as I do, and I love incorporating my travel experiences into my work.
I also use my books as a means to explore themes of mental health, addiction, technology creep, climate change, and the looming collapse of society (but, like…in a fun way.)
When I’m not penning novels about the impending apocalypse, I work as a freelance writer in the tech and off-grid living niches. On the rare occasion I’m not writing, you can find me swimming, complaining about the weather, telling my dog I love her for the bazillionth time today, or watching Taskmaster.
For professional inquiries, please reach out to liz@lizshipton.com, or contact my agent Amy Collins at acollins@talcottnotch.net
Blurb
“A spicy romantic dystopian fantasy mindfuck of an epic read.”
– SR Breaker, USA Today Bestselling author
If a computer could help you wield your own magic… would you use it?
When Seven Jones enrolls at a San Diego community college to appease her parents, the last thing she wants to do is join some stupid club. And she certainly doesn’t expect to walk into an underground magic club. Like, actual freaking wizards.
Seven reluctantly joins the motley crew of magic weirdos and discovers her own power. But she struggles to wield it… until she figures out how to channel her magic through an artificially intelligent computer program she designed.
Unfortunately, there is nothing Seven’s new friends hate more than AI, and when a student mysteriously turns up dead, blame falls on Seven.
With only one person on her side – cute ex-Navy Seal, Logan – Seven fights mythological monsters (Dragon? Check. Kraken? Check) while struggling to convince everyone that her AI has nothing to do with it. But how can she convince her peers when she isn’t totally convinced herself?
Including magic, AI and punk culture, Dot Slash Magic is a new, spicy urban fantasy from TikToker Liz Shipton, perfect for fans of I am Number Fourand Zodiac Academy.
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