‘Tom Clancy’s For Love and Honor’: A Scene from ‘Reunion: A Story’ as Retold by Bing AI in the Style of Tom Clancy

I have been having fun messing around with Microsoft’s Bing AI Chatbot lately. I’ve been asking it to take either the plot summary from the back cover of my novella, Reunion: A Story, or even one scene from the body of my first (self-published) work of fiction, and rewrite in the style of a well-known writer.

So far, I’ve asked Bing to rewrite my words in the style of William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. The result? Poetic renditions of either the plot summary or one scene from the main text of my novella.

“What, though, would my prose sound like if it was written by an author best known for his stories of military action, superpower Cold War tensions, and intelligence cloak-and-dagger intrigue? You know, like Tom Clancy (1947-2013)?” I wondered.

So, a few minutes ago, I went to Microsoft Edge, hit up Bing AI, and asked the chatbot to reimagine an excerpt from Reunion in the style of The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising.

So, to show you how I “sound” as in the style of Tom Clancy, here’s the opening scene from Reunion: A Story, as rewritten by Bing AI:

No Absolution: February 1998

The cemetery was quiet. It was supposed to be quiet. Even in the heart of the city, the silence of the graveyard swallowed up the sounds of the neighborhood. The barking dogs, laughing children, and traffic on the adjacent streets were all muted by the imposing redbrick walls and black iron fence that surrounded the perimeter.

I had been here for fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours. Twenty minutes earlier, I had driven into the parking lot and walked into the main office. I asked one of the dark-suited employees where Marty’s grave was located.

The employee – a Service Representative according to her desktop nameplate – tapped a few keys on her computer and squinted at her monitor before giving me a lot number and directions. “I could show you myself,” she offered.

“No, thank you,” I replied. I had a good sense of direction. Besides, the Service Representative looked too much like my ex-wife. Red hair, green eyes. Carrie was taller and didn’t work in a funeral home, but in the right light, Jennifer Something-or-Other was a dead ringer for the woman I had just divorced. Just my luck.

Of course, if you want to read the real deal, you can get it online at Amazon in paperback or in e-book format in a Kindle edition.