Steve Toltz

Tell me about the world you've created for this book.

What kind of tech exists in the world of our narrator, Russell?

Yeah, and it's certainly not, you know, you're not writing dystopian future here, Steve Tots.

What are your concerns when it comes to your job as an author?

What are your concerns about AI?

That's so depressing, Steve.

I don't know.

I have to believe that you novelists, you're doing something novel.

You are doing something.

You're tapping into a sense of humanity that surely an algorithm cannot understand.

It's fine.

You know, our narrator, Russell, in this novel, he gets a gig for a while as a school guidance counsellor, which is pretty funny.

He's talking to all these kids who are

pretty zombified from all the time on their phones, saying to them, oh, don't aspire to that.

You're not going to have any future.

You know, there's no jobs for you kids.

I mean, what would you be telling a young Steve Toltz now?

Would you be saying, yep, stick with the novel writing or maybe go for something else?

Is writing fun for you, Steve?

Steve Toltz, your book is A Rising of the Lights.