I've revolutionized character development by using AI to vividly imagine my characters in the real world. As a "faction" writer—part fiction (wild imagination) and part fact (traditionally published)—I'm re-imagining how authors build characters.
In my upmarket psychological eco-thriller Run From Sunday, set in modern-day Texas against Big Oil, I craft what I call "a hacktivist's battle for love, morality, and the planet's future." While Run From Sunday is fiction, its "upmarket" classification reflects deeper themes: my novel explores society's inescapable reliance on fossil fuels, now extending into the explosive growth of powering data centers that process artificial intelligence. This represents another "greenwashing" opportunity for the oil and gas industry—maximizing profits while exploiting the disenfranchised, as they've always done.
The economic disparities are stark. ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods earned a total compensation of $44.1 million for 2024, according to the company's regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, while workers like me—recently laid off from Booz Allen Hamilton—face unemployment benefits capped at $11,544 a year through the District of Columbia.
This personal experience of economic displacement adds authenticity to my exploration of corporate power dynamics and environmental justice, informing characters who navigate similar contradictions between technological progress and its human costs.
