Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: she precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Re-enter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Am, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender affirming surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something… illegal. So now Kelli has to decide: will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about forbidden love, growing up, and fighting against censorship.

Ada Hoffmann is a queer and genderfluid author and an adjunct professor of computer science at a major Canadian university, Hoffmann now researches the social effects of generative AI on professional fiction writers. Their 2018 PhD thesis was on computer-generated poetry. Under their legal name, they have published over a dozen papers and presented their work at conferences around the world.

Hoffmann was diagnosed with autism at the age of thirteen. Their Autistic Book Party review series (2010–2023) was devoted to in-depth discussions of autism representation in speculative fiction. Much of their own work also features characters who are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. They are a former semi-professional soprano, tabletop gaming enthusiast, and LARPer.

Hoffman teaches and lives in eastern Ontario with a curious black cat.