When I was a kid, I thought “The Game” was such a silly episode of Star Trek; as I got older, it started to seem more like a really prescient satire.
My feelings about my story, “Viewers Like You,” has gone through a similar evolution, just since last summer.
With the advent of AI art programs and the way Candy Crush pays you, ad by ad, with in-game boosts, “Viewers Like You” no longer feels so silly.
It’s the sixth story I wrote after I started writing full time, and looking back, I’m amazed I wrote something so tight and sharply pointed so early on.