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Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/11/the-big-idea-cynthia-pelayo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61078

To be whisked away to Neverland was certainly the dream of many a child, but for Wendy Darling it was always a trap, rather than a paradise. Author Cynthia Pelayo discusses in her Big Idea how Wendy was a servant, not an equal to the Lost Boys, and takes us to revisit Wendy in her newest novel, It Came From Neverland.

CYNTHIA PELAYO:

Wendy Darling is the reason any of us even know about Neverland. We think this is Peter Pan’s story, but it’s not, not really. The only reason any of us even know about Neverland is because of Wendy Darling. 

Let’s strip away the fairy dust and the pirates and the flying and the crocodile, and what do we have? A girl. A girl who was told that something magical was waiting for her on the other side. A girl who believed what she was being told. A girl who later learned she was lured with the promise of magic, yet found herself inside a trap instead. 

J.M. Barrie introduced us to Peter Pan through The Little White Bird in 1902, and that little boy would go on to pique the public’s curiosity so much that Barrie revisited his story. Then came the play in 1904 and the novel in 1911. However, the reason the story works and the reason it continues to survive over a century later is because of Wendy. Without Wendy there would be no Neverland. No Tinkerbell. No Hook. No Lost Boys. Peter Pan without Wendy Darling is just a boy screaming into the dark. Wendy is the story, and Peter’s promise to her is the lie. 

Peter tells her to come away with him, that she will never grow up, but what he means is something entirely different. What he wants is a mother, for the Lost Boys, and selfishly for himself. He wants someone to read to them, to mend their socks, to take care of them. Someone who will stay in that role, forever. 

Yes, Wendy goes, because she is sweet and brave and kind and beautiful, and she is made up of stories. And perhaps it’s because of her kindness that she allows herself to trust, to trust in the possibility that maybe this is all real. Perhaps she even catches the hint that there is something wrong in this request to run away, but she overrides her own intuition for the possibility of magic and friendship. Quickly Wendy learns that the promise of eternal youth was just manipulation. It was all a story, and not a happily-ever-after kind. She was not brought to Neverland to take part in adventure, to be treated as a partner, or even as an equal. She was brought to Neverland to be a caretaker in a prison with no walls. 

Wendy is every woman who has ever been told one thing and expected to be something else. That is the story that I needed to tell: The Girl Who Bravely and Beautifully Grew Up, Wendy. 

I wanted to write a version of this story where we are provided with the accounts of Neverland directly from Wendy’s perspective, as an adult, after she has had time to process it all. I wanted her to be able to clearly name what happened to her, to accept that she was lied to, and then made out to be foolish and called unstable for the wounds inflicted on her by others. I wanted to tell the story where she lives with that trauma and learns that she is not defined by what happened to her. 

In It Came From Neverland, Wendy is in her early 20s and she is working as a schoolteacher at an orphanage at the start of WWI in 1914. She also volunteers in the afternoon, reading to soldiers who have returned from the war. When one of her students goes missing, and a solider in a comma utters the words “Peter Pan,” she knows Peter has returned and she and her brothers must reunite to finally stop him from kidnapping more children. 

This book is for every woman who was told she was special by someone who really meant that she was useful to them. For every woman who followed a beautiful story, later to learn it was only a cage. 

And, for every single woman who told the truth about what happened to her, but was not believed, and she realized that no one was coming to save her, so she learned to save herself. 

The only story that has ever truly mattered is Wendy’s. 

It Came From Neverland: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop

Author socials: Website|Bluesky|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/11/the-big-idea-cynthia-pelayo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61078

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/11/please-i-beg-of-you-do-not-use-ai-in-your-business-communications/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61067

The other morning I was clearing out the multiple daily emails I get from scammers who have used “AI” to praise one of my books in order to get me to use their “marketing” services and/or be on their “podcast” and/or show up for their “book club” and/or use them to become big in Hollywood, all of which is cover to grift money from me, one “Ai”-written email in particular caught my eye. This was not because it was any more authentic than the rest of them, but because the domain it came from was a specific and legit business domain, and not just Gmail or Hotmail or even (oh lord) AOL.com. In a burst of concern, I sought out the email of the company head and their management contact to let them know I suspected their domain had been hacked by scammers.

I got a reply back that, no, actually, the email, which to me had clearly been written using “AI,” was legitimate.

Folks: Don’t do this. Don’t use “AI” for your business correspondence, especially to creatives. Ever.

Let me put this in perspective: I get literally dozens of spam and scam emails every day, all of which use “AI” to fart out canned flattery about my work in an attempt to bamboozle cash out of me. I get so many of them, in fact, that I can tell at a glance not only that the text has been written with “AI,” but also, at this point, which of the “big four” LLMs was used to fart it out. Hell, I literally just now got a scam email in Spanish, and I could tell what it was going to say even before I pressed the “translate” button.

This is how predictable “AI” writing is, and how frequently it is used for fraudulent purposes. At this point, my brain immediately and directly associates “AI” text in email with “scam.” That is its only purpose.

The thing is: I’m not special. Every writer and creative person, from the most successful down to the very newest, is inundated with these scam spam emails. Lots of them, every single day. Pretty much every one of us, I assure you, now associates “AI”-generated text with attempted fraud.

When you, a legitimate business, use “AI” to communicate with me, I do not think “wow, that was a really well-composed email that makes me want to engage with the sender in a mutually co-operative way.” I makes me think “This is a fucking scam,” or, in the most charitable scenario, “This company has been hacked and a scammer is using their domain to fleece people.” Maybe you don’t know this, because you’re not the recipient of endless attempts at scammage via “AI.” But I know this, and it’s why I am telling you now: When you use “AI” in your professional communications, you do not look like a professional. You look like a fucking scammer.

There is a solution! Just don’t use “AI” to write your professional correspondence! Remember the day, like, just four years ago, when you pretty much wrote all your emails by hand? Do that again! It’s not difficult, you won’t look like a scammer, and your email has a better chance of being read and treated as if it came from an actual human, because it doesn’t look like every other awful scam email out there. It just makes good business sense.

Also, aside from the “you look like a scammer” angle: Why would I want to do business with someone who can’t even write a single fucking email on their own? This is a “basic competence” issue, folks. If you can’t get it together to write a simple business communication by yourself, what confidence should I have about any other aspect of your business? What value do you have for me? I mean, I also have access to “AI,” so if that’s what you’re bringing to the table, what do I need you for? As the saying goes, you have only one chance to make a first impression. If my first impression of you is that you’re letting “AI” do the talking for you, then my impression is that you’re not offering me anything at all.

So, yeah. “AI”? Don’t use it in your business emails. It does nothing positive for you, and does a lot that is negative. Just write the email yourself, or, if you’re a boss, pay someone to do it for you. It’s going to make a difference, and at the very least, your chances of being immediately and forever sorted into the spam folder will be a lot lower.

By the way, from the time I started writing this to right now, which is roughly a half of an hour later, I have received eight “AI”-written scam emails, including the one in Spanish mentioned above. This is what you’re up against when you send something to my email. If you’re using “AI” to write your business email, this is also what you’re sorting yourself into. Think about it, maybe.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/11/please-i-beg-of-you-do-not-use-ai-in-your-business-communications/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=61067