The Next Chapter Books and Art

AI is candy and it’s going to give you a stomachache.

So much to say and I don’t think I’m nearly smart enough to say it, but I’m not sure if I keep quiet I will be able to respect myself.

Please. Stop thinking AI is harmless. It isn’t.

I’ve found myself in the regrettable position of turning down AI-assisted art more than once now. I don’t want it in my store.

But…it’s already in here.

Authors are using AI for illustrations, editing, cover art. And the public is buying it. I’ve seen it so many times. They reach for the book that has AI-assisted cover art over the book that was created by an actual artist.

And the scary thing is, I can see why.

AI artwork is bright, clean, with appealing colors. It’s eye-catching. But it’s also flat and hard in a way I can’t fully describe. There’s no real depth. No soul. No one spent hours taking, selecting and editing a perfect photo or painting a picture or even selecting the perfect typeface.

Imagine AI book covers as candy and non-AI covers as a well-designed salad. Now imagine you have a sweet tooth. (And we all have a sweet tooth! Don’t deny it.) Which one are you going to reach for?

I’ve allowed AI book covers into the store in spite of my qualms. I’ve allowed books edited using AI in spite of the fact that I am an editor because, damn it, it’s better to be edited in some way than not edited at all.

I don’t like it. I don’t like that authors think it’s okay or that the public is reaching for those books with the shiny AI covers instead of mine that I created myself using my own photos, illustrations or stock images. And some covers I paid for using a reputable cover artist.

I figure it’s a fad that’s going to run its course, though. As AI candy covers become more and more prevalent, my salad covers and those of authors who refuse the draw of AI will be the ones that are the unique ones.

Sadly, we have to wait for the public to get a stomachache from a consistent diet of sweet, hard AI.

Cover art *not* created with AI. (Salad cover art.) Photo and post copyright 2026 Michelle Garren-Flye

AI: Our Next Obstacle

I’ve been—reluctantly—educating myself on the use and misuse and theoretical benefits and risks of Artificial Intelligence.

It feels like we’re being forced into this age where everything will be done for us. No need to think anymore. Look something up on Google and AI summarizes the information with everything you “need” to know. If you receive an email, AI will write your reply to it. There are ways to use AI to search the internet for you. AI will build you everything from a playlist to a workout routine.

(As a side note, I’d like to encourage everyone to ask themselves: Why is AI being pushed on us? Is it possible corporations feel like the less we think, the better?)

But my reasons for looking closely at AI were more focused. I needed to know how AI was already influencing both the creation and sale of artworks. I pride myself on providing local art and literature. I want real creators to know someone values their work. As a creator myself, I know how valuable that is.

My research led me to one conclusion. AI is a slippery slope that you’ll tumble headlong down if you don’t put on the brakes somewhere. Writers already use AI, sometimes without even knowing it, for editing. Sometimes for research. Where it really gets concerning is in the field of generative AI. Because generative AI is getting better.

AI can now write for you. Term papers, articles, poems, songs, children’s books, chapters in novels—and whole books. AI can create artwork and graphics that can be used in books and on book covers. Sometimes you can see it. Sometimes you can’t.

Taking all this into consideration, I am asking all current authors and artists whose work I have at the store to reveal how much they used AI in their creations, and I will ask the same question of future authors and artists. Customers may ask for information about the use of AI in the creation of any item from a local creator that I have in the store.

AI’s ability to create art will be debated for the rest of my life. Is it as good as human art? Does it have the heart and feeling that is intrinsically necessary to call a creation “art”? Is AI capable of learning to the point that it has actually has the equivalent of a human soul?

I don’t have the answers to this. And I cannot guarantee you that what I have on the shelves of my store is not partially created using AI. However, I do not support the use of AI in the creation of any artwork. I do not believe we need to give the machine a soul.

Photo and article copyright 2026 Michelle Garren-Flye

The next Next Chapter Literary Magazine: Silence

It’s past time for me to announce our literary magazine for January, but to be honest, I had been struggling to come up with the right theme. It wasn’t until the events of this past week that I finally realized, it had been whispering to me for some time.

The only reason I couldn’t hear it was because it was so quiet…until it wasn’t.

Of course, the reason this theme came to me this week is concern for the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech. Everything I do hinges on free speech. I write. I publish. I sell books. Without freedom of speech, I can’t do any of those things to the degree that I can now. And I have never felt that free speech was seriously threatened in this country until this past week.

With all that said, I do not expect every submission to have to do with a lack of free speech. In fact, please don’t! Silence can be anything. Simple, relaxing, seductive, passive, ominous, angry, joyful…

What I want to know is, what does “Silence” mean to you? Guidelines for Submission

Celebrating success!

Beach Read Author Invitational: Authors Joni Dennis, Lynne Brazie, and Adrienne Palma.

“If you don’t celebrate your successes, who will?”

I’m celebrating the success of my first ever author “invitational” yesterday. It meant so much that these three ladies chose to join me for three hours to promote their books. And it meant even more that so many from the community showed up to support them! Our Beach Read Author Invitational was a huge success, and lots of readers left with a book by their new favorite author(s).

I’ve said it before, but I don’t do this to make a profit. I do it because I love it. I love creating a space for creative people to share their work. I love meeting readers who want to find something new and different. And I absolutely love it when I come across a way to help readers and authors meet. As an author myself, I know how much that connection means!

And so I say thank you to the authors who joined me yesterday, to the regulars who stopped in to meet them, to the neighbors who came in for the first time, and to the visitors who came in on a whim and stayed to meet the authors. All of you help make this bookstore a success. Let’s celebrate!

P.S. If you didn’t make it in, no worries! I have all these books and more in the store! And stay tuned for information on my NEXT author invitational. Coming soon!

I’d like to do this when I retire.

I hear this about both writing and owning a bookstore. I’ve never thought of either vocation that way, so it’s interesting to me that some do. It makes me smile and think, “Good luck.”

Owning a bookstore is much more than a hobby. Writing a book is more than something you do when you retire. Writers need to write. Bookstore owners live for their store. That makes work/life balance all the more difficult. For a while after acquiring my bookstore, I wanted to be here almost as much as I wanted to be at home.

Even now, it’s my second home, and I don’t feel right when I’m not there for more than a few days. Vacations are great, spending time with my children is incredibly important to me, I’d love to be able to travel more—but this store is my life’s work.

It’s not a hobby, and it’s definitely not a retirement plan. Maybe I’ll do this until I die, or maybe, eventually, I will decide it’s time to give it up and move on to a life of leisure. Until then, though, if you come in my store, you’re coming into my life.

Sometimes you get things wrong

In any industry that requires you to deal with the public, you can sometimes get things wrong. Maybe you are a little too irritable on a particular day. Maybe you’ve already dealt with unreasonable people too often. Maybe you just snap back a little too hard when someone snaps at you.

No matter the reason, it’s not good business and worse, it’s not good human relations. Whenever it happens to me, I always feel badly. I want to turn back the clock, attempt to make it right.

Apologize.

Public relations is not an easy thing, but human relations are even tougher. Today I’m taking a deep breath. I’m sending an apology out into the universe. I’m going to strive to be better, more patient, more forgiving and understanding.

More than being a good bookseller, I want to be a good human. I’ll keep working on it.

Derby is much better at human relations than I am. 😉

Thank you for being here.

I’ve heard that so many times since taking over this little bookstore. At first it didn’t make any sense. “Thank you”? Why should you thank me? This is my dream. Owning a little bookstore and seeing people’s happiness when they come to visit. Hearing parents tell their children “This is what bookstores are like.” Because it’s their first time in one!

I was puzzled by the gratitude until the other day. I read an article, I think in The New York Times. The author said something to the effect of if you feel passionately about something, you need to be ready to live your life for it or it will go away. For instance, streaming services are taking away our family television watching experience. Everyone in the same room gathered around whatever happened to be on at the time, laughing or discussing what they’re watching—that’s been replaced by everybody on their own devices watching whatever they want, sometimes in the same room, but often alone.

After I read that article, I realized, I’ve never been to war, never fought for my country, have gone to too few demonstrations, and don’t really participate in local politics. But I have always been passionate about both reading and writing. And if it takes me putting heart and soul into this little store to help keep the written word alive for others, I’m up for that fight.

So, to my customers, I also say “Thank you.” Thank you for continuing to fight the good fight to keep words in print as well as online, for supporting local indie authors who might have something different to say from the traditionally published authors, and for supporting this bookstore so that it is more than just a dream.

First (Official) Blog Post

From time to time I think of something that might be kind of neat to mention in a blog post that’s about my bookstore, but I’ve never had the ambition to start one before. (I accidentally made two other posts at some point. One was the hours of the store, and the other was a blog post I meant to put on my personal blog but instead put on here by mistake. It did surprisingly well lol.)

Anyway, as a bookmaker and a bookseller, I figured a great way to officially incorporate a blog into my website would be to tell you why I do the things I do. And I will say, it was never to make money.

For the most part, writers write not to make money but to make noise. To get a message out there. And, like it or not, booksellers sell for much the same reason. It gives me great joy to help local authors, for instance, get their words out to the public. It also gives me joy to help a reader find the perfect book, whether it’s a local author or a used book.

So, take it from me, a bookseller, a bookmaker, a writer, a former journalist and librarian, and a lifelong reader: Books are not meant for profit. Maybe you’ll get lucky and make money (it happens), but probably you’ll just scrape by, whether it’s as a bookmaker or a bookseller.

If you’re doing it for the right reasons, you won’t care.