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About This Author

Contact Me

🍬Candywyn🎶

, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.

La Bene Vita

I am a professional musician, teacher

, (former) worship leader

, small business owner

, songwriter

, aspiring author

and freelance nonfiction writer

with a chemical engineering degree

.

But that's just my resume. My eclectic profile of vocations is only one of the ways in which I am uniquely me.

Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the business I run, I am always a work in progress.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Amethyst Snow Angel

Nov 21, 2025 at 5:52am
In response to "I Asked Google Gemini For a More Current Metaphor"

Dying Airpods... Oh the horrors

Those little wireless earbuds always die at the best parts

with that little downbeat two note beep

2 Like

Jay O'Toole

Nov 20, 2025 at 9:34pm
In response to "I Asked Google Gemini For a More Current Metaphor"

I especially like the one about the Rubik's Cube

2 Like

Storm Machine

Nov 20, 2025 at 9:31pm
In response to "I Asked Google Gemini For a More Current Metaphor"

now we HAVE to find a rogue Furby.

3 Like

Storm Machine

Nov 19, 2025 at 9:51pm
In response to "Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?"

Agree with Jeff.

Will add that there are authors who are copyrighted? because they have published novels, at least on Amazon if not other places, where chunks or more have been written with AI.

I'm sure as some of those lawsuits are decided we will learn more about this whole thing.

Jeff

Nov 19, 2025 at 11:54am
In response to "Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?"

Generally speaking, using AI for research purposes is not considered copyright infringement. Using AI output in the creative work itself can be considered infringement, depending on the AI model used and the data it was trained on. Pretty much every major AI model is currently defending against multiple active, ongoing lawsuits over copyright infringement for training their model on other people's intellectual property without permission.

In your specific case (and with the caveat that this is not legal advice), I personally think it's relatively low risk because common phrasing is generally not copyrightable. In order for someone to have a legitimate claim of copyright infringement, they first have to demonstrate that they own the material in question... and I don't know that anyone can claim to own generic, nonspecific, widely-used slang or idioms.

2 Like

tj's-jingle-jingling; Ho Ho Ho

Nov 19, 2025 at 9:34am
In response to "Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?"

I say that if the information is there for public use, then it's not protected under copyright laws. My thoughts, not facts.

I saw Mommy kissing Dave Ryan

Nov 9, 2025 at 5:31am
In response to "Unreliable Narrators 2025: Foreshadowing"

A few years ago I read a novel - An Instance Of The Fingerpost

- which, on the surface, was a historical whodunnit told through the eyes of four unreliable narrators. It was in four sections, each written from the point of view of one of the narrators, and it was only when you got to the final section that you realised that, not only was the last narrator actually pretty damn reliable, but there had been something "other" going on the whole time and the murder that had appeared to be the central event was in fact a bit of a side-show.

I did not see it coming, and when I realised when it was all about, I was initially a bit annoyed by it. But, on reflection, it was very well done and didn't telegraph the ending it any way. So it can be done, but it'll take a lot of hard work to do it well, especially if you're making frequent POV switches.

1 Like

Soldier_Mike

Nov 8, 2025 at 10:16pm
In response to "Unreliable Narrators 2025: Foreshadowing"

I've never tried writing anything from more than two perspectives - and that only rarely. Your situation, though, reminds me of the 2008 political action thriller Vantage Point. Parts of the action are revealed from the vantage point of Forest Whitaker's character, who was videotaping the event with his hand-held camcorder. Interesting, to say the least.

1 Like

Storm Machine

Nov 2, 2025 at 6:37am
In response to "Dear Me 2018: Foreshadowing"

I recently revisited a Dear Me (2018) letter, and it made me glad I've come so far in my life. I'm really glad you have the proper diagnosis and that you're finding yourself doing the things that make you happy. Overachievers and scope creepers unite!

Waltz Invictus

Oct 27, 2025 at 10:06pm
In response to "Why I Never Finish Anything"

Or maybe it's that there's no such thing as a happy ending; there are only stories that you stop telling too early.

1 Like

November 20, 2025 at 9:16pm

#1102062

I Asked Google Gemini For a More Current Metaphor

I asked Google Gemini:
Are there any gadgets, tools or toys popular now that might be a more currently relevant metaphor than diving into a pool full of thumbtacks or razor blades

Here are the suggestions. They're so delightful that I just had to share. Feel free to use them (see previous post "Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?"

for more info.)

Diving into a pool of spam bots.

Hitting the 'Like' button on every cringe post from 2012.

Having your AirPods die right when the bass drops.

Swiping through your entire camera roll in reverse.

Stepping on a floor covered in Clickeez/Magna-Tiles.

Doing a collab with a rogue Furby.

Trying to solve a Rubik's Cube after someone switched the stickers.

I'm eagerly anticipating your 2025 "pool of tacks" updates.

Comment • View 3 comments

November 19, 2025 at 8:35am

#1101942

Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?

"This second Part of the Copyright Office’s Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) addresses the copyrightability of outputs generated by AI systems. It analyzes the type and level of human contribution sufficient to bring these outputs within the scope of copyright protection in the United States." - United States Copyright Office*

*full document linked at the bottom

I've been using ChatGPT and Google Gemini during the creation of my November novel this year. Examples of my prompts just within the last 24 hours include:

- Can you please propose a gen z / alpha way to say flip or flip out
- How about a Gen z / alpha way to say, that was uncool of her
- how about "preach" or "you're preaching to the choir"
- Does this sentence make sense: It jives with your natural affinity for animals.
- Do Gen z / alpha still use text abbreviations like y instead of why and u instead of you

(is my Gen X showing yet??)

The last two don't worry me at all, because the bot is answering a question, not offering text that I might incorporate into my book. But what about the first three? Are they perfectly fine, toeing the line, or are they clean over it? For example, if I asked Gemini:

Can you recommend a gen z / alpha way to say "I really blew it"

And Gemini responds:Click to see full response ▼

Recommendation:
The most common and effective phrases that capture "I really blew it" are:
"I took a massive L." (Concise and definitive.)
"I just fumbled that so hard." (Implies responsibility and a critical mistake.)

Does it render my work uncopyrightable if I use the exact phrase "I just fumbled that so hard" in my finished work? What if I just used the word "fumbled"?

I wanted to know, so I looked it up at the US Copyright Office website. Full disclosure: I skimmed the document to find relevant passages, so it's possible I missed something. However, my takeaway was that questions like this would be handled by courts on a case-by-case basis, and overall, the court will likely side in favor of the author. I based my finding on this passage:

“To be sure,” the Court further explained, “the requisite level of creativity is extremely low; even a slight amount will suffice. The vast majority of works make the grade quite easily, as they possess some creative spark, ‘no matter how crude, humble or obvious’ it might be.”

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 2 - Copyrightability Report

Literarily,
Michelle

MTMS, Music Lessons in Columbus, Ohio

Comment • View 3 comments

November 8, 2025 at 9:06pm

#1101182

Unreliable Narrators 2025: Foreshadowing

Mostly, I just wanted this title as a callback to my previous blog post, but I guess it could foreshadow the plot of my current novel project. If you're worried about spoilers, you could plug your ears and shout, "La, la, laaaaaaaa!" while you read this post. But the truth is, I don't even know what all is going to happen in this novel (see my Notebook for all the havoc my characters are causing), so I can't possibly be revealing too much, here. If I do, I'll be as surprised as you, not to mention, after having the ending ruined for myself, I might quit the project altogether out of sheer boredom.

I do wish there were a more efficient, less tedious way to pluck these ideas out of my head and get them in print. Sprinting via the "Sprint Writers Competition"

helps, but it also caused all of my unruly characters, and, inexplicably (j/k, it's entirely explicable: I'm typing faster than my brain can think), seems to reduce my vocabulary back to a toddler lever. Okay, maybe Kindergarten. I may have written [find a better phrase] or [OMG THIS SUCKS WHY AM I WRITING SO MUCH EXPOSITION] more than actual narrative and dialog.

But from a technical, structural perspective, I'm playing with unreliable narrators this year. It's definitely an experiment, because I have six - (points of view? perspectives? I've thought I had those straight for decades, but even Google can't agree with itself anymore, so now I'm questioning everything I ever thought I knew) - six characters whose heads my narrator is in (recounting in 3rd person) during various scenes throughout the story. And they're all unreliable. It's like Gone Girl on steroids: You never know whose truth is the unequivocal, impartial truth.

It's slowing down my word count, but it's fun crafting scenes such that I switch to another character's viewpoint just before possibly revealing something definitive to the reader. Must... leave... them... hanging!!!

Have you ever tried something like this? Do you think it's possible to pull off that many unreliable narrators?

I guess I'm not giving anything away, after all.

Comment • View 2 comments

November 2, 2025 at 6:02am

#1100701

Dear Me 2018: Foreshadowing

I just stumbled across my 2018 "Dear Me" letter, and this jumped out at me:

"Every year, you pledge to do better, to do more, to be more efficient, to stop wasting time, to complete more tasks on the never-ending list. Every year, you find yourself more and more exhausted."

Hindsight is 20/20 (although my vision isn't and wasn't; I started needing readers 3 years earlier when I turned 40 in 2015.)

Here's what I know now, that I didn't know then: I had Parkinson's Disease. My first symptoms appeared in 2015, and I was (mis)diagnosed with Essential Tremor later in 2018. It wasn't until March of 2022 that I finally got the correct diagnosis (PD) and the miracle medication (carbidopa/levodopa) that gave me my functionality and my give-a-shit back.

I've always been an overachiever. I think I may also be a closet people-pleaser, which you can see in the letter. I think we're all people-pleasers of one type or another. Even narcissists and sociopaths need to convince other people to validate them, whether that's through adoration, vilification or or just to get others doing things for them (see also: minions).

I needed to see this letter today. I started revisiting the database project in 2024, and the website project earlier this year in 2025, and it's been weighing me down that I can't finish either one. This letter reminds me that, it doesn't matter. And I'm doing much better on the things that do matter. My relationships have improved dramatically since 2018.

So, Go Me? But also, more importantly, don't be so hard on yourself. You don't have to please everybody; only the people that matter. And if you're exhausted, listen to your body. You may not have PD, but exhaustion means you need to slow down.

"Dear Me"

Comment • View 1 comment