Ancient Bishops, Epic Fantasy, and Artificial Intelligence (Oh My)
#44 | OCTOBER 2026
M.D. House Newsletter
September was a busy month on many fronts, and lots of good progress was made. The weather was also gorgeous here in the hinterlands of far northern Utah.
As hoped, Lance Buckley completed the cover design for the next book in the extended Barabbas saga, about a real Christian man named Polycarp who was the bishop of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir, Turkey) in the first half of the 2nd century AD, and who ended up becoming a martyr. You can see that cover below - another outstanding effort by Lance! Amazing.
Also, for just a couple more days, Slivers of Ancient Solace will be part of a giveaway on AXP. You can find it here: https://authorsxp.com/giveaway.
Progress Updates
Working through the ending of Whispers of Divine Reckoning has been a challenge, but I'm almost there. So close! I'm at 135K words now, and Draft 1 is going to be a bit longer than I intended, which is fine.
However, I need to dive into Draft 2 of Polycarp right away, so the two books are going to tag team me for a bit. It should be fun switching between early Christian historical fiction and epic fantasy. And I've done it before. :)
Of course, in the midst of this, I'm attending another three-day event: the annual Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, and the Arts conference in Orem, Utah, with the theme "Instruments in God's Hands" (FYI, it's not too late to sign up!). I'm coming up on two years of being this little 501c3's president, and I'll probably get to do a third. I continue to meet so many great people, and we're doing fun, creative things to achieve our vision of helping artists of faith flood the earth with Christ's light.
AI Hot Plate
Many of you probably saw AI prominently featured in news stories the last couple of weeks, some of which focused more on fear-mongering than actual facts (as usual to drive clicks/behaviors).
Unfortunately, there are definitely some things to be worried about. One of them has to do with comments Elon Musk made (and which he has made before) regarding Universal High Income (UHI). Note, this is NOT Universal Basic Income, or UBI, which politicians and academics have talked about for a long time. It's being driven by quantum leaps in the abilities of AI-enhanced robots to take over more and more difficult tasks, including in healthcare.
What would be the impact of something like that? Did the 2008 movie WALL-E paint a prescient picture? I have to admit it would be nice to live without the pressure of bringing in enough money to provide for personal and family needs. However ...
1) How much is truly, satisfactorily, enough?
2) Some people will still need to work (we don't all get to retire), but what will be their incentive? I recognize that many people will still strive to work hard at something to keep busy and make the world a better place, but will a UHI-based system naturally implode from an epidemic of laziness?
3) What will we do will our additional free time if we don't find a strong, positive purpose for it? I envision a lot more arguing with each other, as almost everyone will be free to engage in protests and contentions of various types. As we know, those can become quite ugly.
4) How will we deal with the fact that UHI will NOT eliminate evil in the world; that is, human nature won't magically be elevated by the eradication of scarcity regarding basic needs; in fact, it can be argued that it will get WORSE.
Sorry, not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic. My head's still spinning on this topic. What keeps me sane and upbeat is the clear recognition that God is aware of everything happening, and where it will lead, and he can guide EACH of us to make a positive difference toward good outcomes for ourselves, our families, and our societies.
What a time to be alive.
Mike
As always, feel free to reach out to me at inspire@mdhouselive.com. And check out my merch store here. :)
Thank you!
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