Local author Lori Gold has written a new book about the life of an almost has-been, somebody who’s been incredibly successful at what she does. But something happens when that person has a chance encounter with a younger, newer person who’s being billed as the next big thing. But this new person is copying what the old person does. This is the setting for the book “Romantic Friction” written by Lori Gold. She joins GBH’s Henry Santoro to discuss her newest book.
The transcript below has been slightly edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Before we jump into “Romantic Friction”, the last time you were here and with all your other books, you were ‘Laurie Goldstein’. This book has ‘Lori Gold’ on the cover. Where’d the 'stein’ go?
Lori Gold: My first four novels were young adult novels. And when I switched to writing adult fiction, we wanted to differentiate. So, we added my middle name to “Love, Theodosia”, my historical fiction. And ‘Lori Anne Goldstein’ takes up a lot of real estate on a book cover. So, we landed on just a truncation of Gold. And the fortunate thing is that it can be pretty big on a book cover.
Henry: Tell us about [the main character] Sophie Wilde. She’s an author. Tell us what type of author she is and what did she get herself into?
Lori: The character Sophie Wilde is a best-selling romanticist author, and she’s at the height of her career when she learns that another author has used artificial intelligence, AI, to write in her style. So, Sophie is livid, and the book begins with her going on this viral rant about publishing, which does get her in trouble. Then she arrives at the same romance readers convention where the author who wrote the book using AI is also invited to. And Sophie bands together with her fellow authors to take that AI author down any way they can, which will include committing a felony.
Henry: And this other author is Hartley West?
Lori: Yes, Hartley is an author or a writer who has wanted to become a published author for many years. It’s a tough industry. It’s a hard competitive place. And Hartley represents many writers who have tried for years to get an agent and get a publisher and hasn’t had success. So, she turns to what she thinks may help her write with AI.
Henry: Shortly after AI became what it is today, somebody sent me a newscast. They said they asked ChatGPT to write a news cast in the style of Henry Santoro. And it did.
Lori: The first time we played around with it, it was my husband who played around with it, and he asked it to write a poem in the style of “Game of Thrones”. And it did. And, you know, that kind of got me thinking about where is this going? And especially when you’re in the arts and you’re in this industry of writing, are we all going to be replaced one day? And it’s scary for a lot of us. And that’s where you also get this moral and ethical issue with it.
Henry: You are not just an author. You work with writers. You teach classes. You hold writing retreats and workshops. You work for publishers. You’re really immersed in the world of words. And what were your thoughts when AI started creeping in? I mean, they clearly come through in this book, but that had to have been the catalyst, right?
Lori: It was a mix of it. I had published five previous novels, and I was at a point in my career where I knew I wanted to switch genres. And I was frankly in a place where I was a little disillusioned with the world of publishing. As you said, I’ve been in it for a long time. My first book came out in 2015, and I’ve learned a lot about how the industry works. Some things that are fair, some things that aren’t so fair. And that was rolling around in my head. And then came Chat GPT and I thought about what would happen if they didn’t need us anymore, they didn’t have to pay an advance, or if they didn’t have to put us on a book tour. What would happen if AI just wrote all the books? So those two things merged together, and they became romantic friction.
Henry: Writing is very hard. I don’t need to tell you. It’s lonely, it’s immensely time-consuming, it’s draft after draft. Why do you write?
Lori: That’s a really great question. And I keep coming back to the friends I’ve made over writing. So, you know, we have these long conversations about the most minutiae parts of our books. And everybody else would be like, what are you guys doing, talking about these tiny details? But they matter to us. And what makes it matter to me is being able to talk to my friends about the work that we’re doing. It’s a real supportive community. I’ve made some of my best friends in the world of writing, and any time I get that disillusioned, they’re the ones who say, “nope, keep going and keep writing.”
Henry: With your latest book, “Romantic Friction”, do you share what is happening as you’re trying to flesh out these characters?
Lori: Yes, and my approach to writing and the retreats I lead — anybody who takes a class with me knows I’m a very practical and transparent writer and instructor — so I talk about what I’m working on. I talk about successes, I talk about failures. I want people to have their eyes open if they’re going to go into this field because I didn’t, and there were disappointments that came around.
Henry: You crank out a lot of books. This is your sixth book, and you’ve been writing since 2015. What were you doing before?
Lori : I was a journalism major in college, and I landed up here in the Boston area, and all the jobs that were available were in tech editing, and that’s where I found myself. It wasn’t where I wanted to be and after doing that for a number of years, I changed jobs.
Henry: Comedy is serious business, and any comedian will tell you that. And so much of “Romantic Friction” is laugh-out-loud funny. And I’m wondering, do any of your other books have those humor angles to them?
Lori: I’m glad you said you’d laugh because you never know when I’m cackling all by myself in my room or other people are going to laugh.
Henry: Writing comedy, writing jokes and comedy is very, very difficult.
Lori: I always feel like I have a little bit of humor in my books. My YA books, the characters are a little snarky, they are younger, they’re teenagers, they can get away with that to some extent. “Love, Theodosia”, my historical fiction, not quite as much, although I still think she has a slight humorous attitude. Exactly. This one, I really went for it.
Henry: Can you tell a good joke?
Lori: No. If I have time to think about it and write it down, but no.
Henry: I always tell people never ever tell a joke before until you’ve mastered it especially on the radio. Has this book been optioned yet, because this will make for a beautiful, a tremendous film?
Lori: I wish it were. It hasn’t yet. I was just talking to a producer yesterday. So, like, we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Lori Gold is the author of “Romantic Friction”. It’s her sixth book. She can be found at LoriGoldsteinbooks.com
