Will's not Making it Up...

...but others are. 

Good afternoon, Stroock's Books people. 

A long piece about writers using AI to write magazine articles, faked interviews, quotes, and sources.  Do read when you have a moment. This elaborate AI article created scam is just one of the reasons why we think our career is doomed. One would think the value attached to articles written by actual writers with whom one already has a relationship would increase. But we doubt it. Most military history magazine articles are written by hobbyists, enthusiasts, professionals who want to have a cool thing to say about themselves, or academics building up their credentials.*

Devotees will recall we've written dozens of magazine articles over the last two decades. We're not even counting digital stuff. We often wondered just how much due diligence the editorial staff actually did. In only a few instances were we ever challenged. For the most part, our articles were taken as is. An editor can't know everything, can he? 

Who's to say the Battle of Route Blue or the Battle of Point Wilderness didn't happen? Of course these are battles in World War 1990: Polish Storm. There were a gazillion small unit skirmishes during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution. Waxhaws, Wetzell's Mill....see for example the heavily footnoted article we wrote on Colonel Otho Holland Williams for the Maryland Historical Society. What about the Battle of Thompson's Farm? Didn't happen. 

DOGE report: Okay, World War 1990: Thatcher's War, or whatever we're calling it, is read through. We're down to small fixes. Example, we need to describe an RUC Tangi. Example, we need to have characters say a few local phrases. People in Northern Ireland would call Tangi's 'meat wagons' since they often referred to the RUC as 'pigs'.

*Ahem, all these descriptions have described us at various times, sometimes all at the same time.