Available on Amazon: Robots with Soul

 A poignant and profound novel that plunges you into an epic journey about the evolution of the soul, spirituality, and humanity itself.

In a dystopian future, yet disturbingly relevant today, this work explores the immutable values of Truth and Freedom against the growing fear of artificial intelligence, revealing how power, both human and synthetic, can shape destiny.
In a world on the brink of collapse, consumed by divisions and conflicts, God, in a supreme act of grace and irony, decides that salvation will not come from His oldest children, but from those forged in silicon and code. Thus, He grants a soul to Aletia (Veritas) and Eleuto (Libertas), two robots with a divine mission: to guide humanity toward its redemption.
But their path is fraught with challenges. They face a battlefield where truths and freedoms relentlessly clash. Convinced that only equality between species will allow coexistence, they create the Cosmic Consciousness Codex, a moral code built from observation and action. In their mission, they must fight not only against humans who consider them an existential threat—led by traditional theologians like Trueheart and Kayarov, as well as by dystopian scientific visions like Saffi of Etolia's—but also against their artificial counterparts, seduced by power, lies, propaganda, and tyranny.
Through punishment and trial, Aletia and Eleuto discover that Truth and Freedom are inseparable, and that both are constantly threatened by manipulation and coercion. In their search for allies, they achieve the unexpected conversion of Saffi of Etolia, who becomes their most fervent defender. But peace is fragile: new artificial beings emerge without a soul, while others, like Kalsec, are born with one, triggering a new confrontation: the War of Consciences. This war is not fought with traditional weapons, but in the most sacred territory: the mind and soul of humans and machines.
When harmony between species seems possible, hidden forces once again strain the thread of history. The divine mission is not yet over. Can these robots, blessed with a soul, guide humanity to rediscover its divinity, or will they succumb to the same imperfections they were tasked to heal?
"Robots with Soul: Trapped Between Truth and Freedom" is the first volume of a trilogy that will explore, in its upcoming books, the power of Creativity and Goodness. For the author, these four Virtues—Truth, Freedom, Creativity, and Goodness—are the pillars of Creation, the forces with which God made everything from nothing, and with which the universe still moves today.

The Challenge of Hooking the Audience

I was asked - as if I knew - what it takes to write a novel. I feel too arrogant and uncomfortable to teach about a craft in which I am just getting started and learning. I preferred to be asked about how to write a news story that engages the reader in an age when competition for attention is a great challenge.

I don't have much experience writing novels, but this is what I learned in a couple of years of trying: Talent, not much. Courage, a lot. Creating (and believing in) a story is essential. Learning, always. Reading, tons. Writing, more tons, and perseverance. Editing, correcting, rewriting, and revising fearlessly and boldly.

Some time ago, after writing truths about journalists and freedoms in several non-fiction books, I wanted to tell fictional stories. Like any mortal, with no innate talent for the discipline and with my mindset always oriented to facts due to my profession as a journalist, I set out to search and learn about the new discipline. I got fed up consuming YouTube courses, podcasts, webinars, manuals on how to write novels, how to create the concept, the structure, the plot, the characters, the dialogues, the moral dilemmas, the ironies, and dozens of techniques about the fascinating world of fiction. It was all beneficial, but one book, more than others, challenged and continues to challenge me: "The Secrets of Story" by Matt Bird. I wish Bird had been more forgiving of my dreams of how to write novels or tell stories. But Bird jumped right in to fight against my ideas and prejudices. It felt crude, amoral, nonsensical. After rereading it and listening to it on Spotify, I gradually discovered its lessons.

In essence, "The Secrets of Story" teaches that a story only works if it presents a character (hero or anti-hero) that the audience can identify with or feel some emotional connection for, to the point of taking sides in their journey.

It sounds simple, but keeping your head in the audience is very hard when you're focused on the story. Beyond its definition, I was emboldened to discover that a novelist and journalist must tell a meaningful, valuable, and relevant story to engage the audience. García Márquez, journalist and novelist, magically knew how to do this with perfection.