I’ve been spending some time inside AI Pro Writers Studio learning about things like story development, plotting, world building, editing, KDP, marketing and ways to go back and breathe some life into manuscripts that have been sitting on my computer way too long. One of the biggest things I’m learning is that AI doesn’t have to write the book FOR you. It can help you organize your thoughts, find problems, develop ideas and work through the parts where you get stuck while the story and your voice still belong to you. And considering I have one published book that needs some attention and several manuscripts collecting digital dust, I’ve got plenty to practice on. 😂📚 I’m still learning, but I’m excited to start putting some of this into practice instead of just letting those stories sit there. ❤️🦋 P.S. I’m also learning a TON for free inside the Pay It Forward Learning Center classroom, including how to train my “Sassy” (yes, that’s what I call ChatGPT 😂) to sound more like Stacey and less like a robot. Between these communities and all the free tools and training available, I’m learning that you don’t always need a huge budget to grow. Sometimes you just need to actually USE the free resources sitting in front of you and take them to the next level. ❤️🦋 Have a blessed and glorious Tuesday brothers and sisters. Big hugssssssss, Stacey

Monday, September 28, 2026 🌻🙏🦋 Psalm 7:10-12 NIV “My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day. If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow.” Heavenly Father, Thank You, Jesus, for another beautiful morning. Here we are at the beginning of another week, and before we get caught up in everything waiting for us, we want to spend a little time with You. Lord, Your Word reminds us that You are our shield. And goodness, there are days when we certainly need one! Some of us are heading into work already exhausted. Some are dealing with problems at home, financial worries, difficult relationships, or situations that have been weighing on our hearts for far too long. Others are facing things they haven't told anybody about. Father, whatever we're walking into today, please go with us.Protect our families, our homes, and the people we love. Give us wisdom when decisions need to be made, patience when things don't go our way, and courage when we need to stand up for what's right. Lord, You are a righteous judge. You see the things people do when nobody else is watching. But You also see our hearts. So before we spend this Monday worrying about what everybody else is doing, help us take an honest look at ourselves. If we're holding on to anger, help us deal with it. If we've hurt somebody, give us the humility to make things right. And if we're facing unfair treatment, help us respond with wisdom instead of allowing bitterness to take over. Thank You for being our protector. We don't know what this week holds, but we know we can come to You through every step. In Jesus’ most holy and exalted name I pray, amen. 🙏💛🦋 Brothers and Sisters, it's MONDAY once again! 😂 Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes Monday shows up before I'm even finished recovering from last week! And when we open our Bibles to Psalm 7:10-12, and David reminds us that God is our shield.

Monday, September 14, 2026 ❤️🙏🦋 Psalm 1:1-2 NIV “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.” Heavenly Father, Thank You, Jesus, for another beautiful day! Thank You for waking us up this morning, giving us another breath, and allowing us to begin another week with You. Before we rush into everything Monday has waiting for us, help us stop, turn our hearts toward You, and remember just how blessed we already are. Lord, as we begin spending some time in Psalms, let Psalm 1 remind us how important it is to choose carefully where we walk, where we stand, where we sit, and who we allow to influence our lives. Give us wisdom to recognize people, places, habits, and ideas that could slowly pull our hearts away from You. Help us choose the right people and the right path. Give us courage to walk away from anything that does not honor You, even when everyone around us seems to be going in that direction. Keep us from following the crowd simply because the crowd is loud. Father, give us a genuine hunger for Your Word. Don't let reading Scripture become something we simply check off our list. Help us delight in it, think about it throughout our day, apply it to our decisions, and allow Your truth to change the way we live. As we step into this Monday, guide our thoughts, words, choices, and attitudes. Give us patience when people test it, wisdom when decisions come quickly, and enough grace to handle whatever surprises Monday decides to throw our way. 😂 Thank You for another beautiful day, another new week, and another opportunity to walk the path You have prepared for us. May everything we do today bring glory to You. In Jesus’ most holy and exalted name I pray, amen. ❤️🙏🦋 STOP RIGHT THERE! 🐿️✋ Before Monday gets moving too fast, say it with me: Thank You, Jesus, for another beautiful day!

How has your summer been? I was away for about fifteen days. I travelled around Italy, partly to visit my family and partly to explore new landscapes. That time gave me the chance to reflect and to disconnect from my computer as well, although I did mess around on my phone. I stayed active only on Substack, which I use as a laboratory for stories and thoughts. So, if any of you are on Substack, feel free to leave your link in the comments, or look me up — I’m Marcello Iori. Thank you, @Stacey Brooks, for your continued prayers. It’s a positive energy that we all appreciate, and it does us good. Welcome to all the newcomers. Last time we were at 60, but now we’re only one or two people away from 80. Over the last 10 days I must have declined at least 8-9 requests to join the Skool group. The reasons? Skool flagged them as being at high risk of spam, and we don’t want anything like that here. There are sections where you can write and promote yourself if you want to, without flooding the chat. And the second reason is that they didn’t answer my question: what are the 3 most important things? I know it sounds trivial, but for me, that’s a way of getting to know you without ever having seen you. One of the last people wrote to me: “I don’t know.” So, you understand, with that kind of energy I certainly can’t let them in. This is a slow group, one that still has to blossom. It has potential, and I hope to bring you more content soon. I know Skool in general tends to favour groups where people learn how to make money or how to use AI. Here, I thought we could learn the old-fashioned way: first you study, and then you apply. And when you apply, if you have genuinely studied, you get the results you were looking for. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many people pay internet gurus and get no results. There’s a saying: theory without practice is an end in itself. Practice without theory can be harmful. I write with a pen and a computer, so I won’t talk about AI in relation to writing. There are other groups for that.

I know I’ve been a little absent. I’ve been travelling quite a bit recently, and I’ve barely opened my computer. Sometimes I tried, but often I didn’t even have it with me. I wrote various notes on my phone, but I’m not the kind of writer who can actually write on a phone. I prefer voice notes. Yes, I love voice notes. I even like the pauses in my voice notes. Or the voice notes of anyone who leaves something worthwhile behind, like a thought or an idea. There are often those silences when a sentence breaks off before another one begins, and in that fragment, in that uncertainty, there is something fascinating. There’s something beautiful about it. Anyway... Being a writer is a challenge. Perhaps it always has been. Many writers who became classics were already wealthy or were supported by wealthy families. They wrote. They published. And now they are classics. Many others, however, suffered. They wrote through illness, deception, hatred, pain, and even desperation. Sometimes the personal stories of writers are more interesting than their actual writing. But a question has come to me recently: What does it mean to be a writer today? In 2022, I published my first novel in English. I knew nothing about AI, and I had no idea how internet tools would change the meaning of writing. Because yes, there is a meaning to it. Am I wrong? Or at least, there used to be. Art is an effort. Not just a physical effort. It is an intellectual effort. It is a war with yourself and with society. Not one of those brutal wars with weapons. More like a struggle, the same kind of struggle our characters go through, or the struggle we face when we try to find the right words, or the struggle derived from the challenges we face in our everyday lives. Now AI can find those words for you, if you want it to. So what does it mean to be a writer today? And what will it mean tomorrow? I always thought I would become a writer when I grew up. And in a way, it happened. Not in the way I wanted, but I write for a living.