I’ve told before of how I used Google’s AI, then called Bard, to brainstorm a blurb for Wolf’s Trail, so it seems only fitting to talk about my use of AI for the blurb to Undead Flight, the upcoming sequel to Wolf’s Trail

It all started with me downloading LM Studio some weeks back. This is a software which allows you to run LLM (aka AI) models offline on your own computer. The options available for download mostly other people’s “forks” of open source AIs like Gemma (Google), Qwen (Chinese), Llama (Facebook/Meta), and Mistral (French, relatively uncensored). I used LM Studio (with a Llama fork called Dark Planet Spinfire).

I didn’t have enough distance from the story to do the kind of basic first draft blurb (originally written for the serialized Vella release) that I started out with for Wolf’s Trail, and I used the offline AI model basically because I could feed nearly a third of my manuscript to it, which I couldn’t do with my freebie access to Claude AI.

The result, after several iterations of increasingly specific prompting, was this:

My world has always been one of polished perfection – riding graceful circles or executing flawless roping maneuvers under the spotlights. But when Maxim asks me to ride into the shadows and help him hunt for dark creatures that threaten our realm, I find myself leaping from one perilous mission to the next, with no time for doubt or fear. His keen mind is a perfect match for my daring spirit, and together we unravel mysteries shrouded in blood and magic. Each night’s quest adds another layer of intrigue – and intimacy – as we navigate the unknown and discover secrets that could change the course of history.

The journey to kingship has thrust me into a world of secrets and sorcery, one where I must unravel ancient mysteries before they can harm our people. Chloe’s unyielding courage is my beacon in this dark realm – her riding skills proving equally valuable when confronting monstrous foes. Together, we embark on harrowing escapades that leave us bound together by threads of trust and desire. But as coronation day draws nearer, so do the shadows that threaten to tear our alliance apart; I can only hope Chloe will realize the depth of my devotion before it’s too late.

Once Undead Flight is out, you will be able to see that Spinfire got alot of things wrong about the characters and setting, but its take on the mood is not bad.

I then built blurb templates consisting of the introductory sentences from the Wolf’s Trail blurb, plus some bits I liked from the Spinfire blurb for Undead Flight, added brackets with empty spaces between them, and fed the result to Claude, with instructions to fill in the brackets. This again led to several rounds of me trying to correct Claude’s ignorance of the source material, with this as a final result. Spinfire’s contributions are italicized below, Claude’s are bracketed and bolded, Bard’s older contributions from the Wolf’s Trail blurb are bolded and italicized. My contributions are in basic text.

The name’s Chloe Fortebat, and I am in trouble. [The brass corridors of the Azure Empress airship feel more like a cage with each passing hour. I never meant to call his inventions “clockwork follies” right after that kiss in the engine room, but now there’s no time for apologies – not with passengers disappearing and strange scratching sounds echoing through the ventilation shafts.] Maxim’s keen mind is a perfect match for my sense of adventure. [Even as he prepares for his coronation as King of the Stormcrows, we find ourselves trading theories in whispered conversations, our earlier tension melting away as we piece together the clues about whatever shadowy force is pulling the strings of that horrific creature in the cargo hold.]

My name is Dr. Maxim os Storm, and I hunt the beasts that haunt the night. [The clockwork mechanisms in my laboratory may have earned me her scorn, but they’ve helped me track countless supernatural threats across the aetheric winds. Now, aboard the Azure Empress, with my coronation mere hours away, something stalks the shadows of this vessel – something that leaves frost on brass and makes the steam pipes keen like mourning widows.] Chloe’s unyielding courage and loyalty are my greatest supports as I pursue our monstrous foes and brace myself for the dreadful pomp and circumstance of my own coronation. [Despite our recent… complications, the way she instinctively reached for my hand when we discovered those ethereal claw marks in the boiler room reminded me why I’ve always trusted her above all others. The crown of the Stormcrows may await me, but first, we have a mystery to solve – together.]

Here’s me trying to put it all together, same notation format as in the previous quote. Without doing a full word count breakdown, my best guess is that the three AIs contributed around half of this blurb; but note that their contributions consist of one full sentence, three half sentences, and a couple of shorter phrases and paraphrases.

The name’s Chloe Fortebat, and I am in trouble. First I helped Maxim kill a werewolf, then I kissed him, and then I insulted him when I found out that he was roughly twice as old as he looked. Now Maxim is about to be crowned King of the Stormcrows aboard a luxury airship, and he has invited me to attend. But this ship feels more like a cage with each passing hour: a crewman has turned up dead, a passenger’s horse has turned up missing, and before it all started, I heard noises in the cargo hold. But Maxim has a mind as sharp as my banishing dagger, and between us, we aim to put an end to whatever monster lurks aboard the ship, no matter how awkward we feel around each other right now…

My name is Maxim os Storm, and I hunt the beasts that haunt the night. [With my coronation mere hours away, something stalks the shadows of this vessel:] a monster that answers to a human being..but who? And for what purpose? [Despite our recent…complications,] Chloe’s courage and loyalty make her my strongest ally as I pursue our enemies, and brace for the dreadful pomp and circumstance of my own coronation. [The crown of the Stormcrows may await me, but first, we have a mystery to solve – together.]

If you have any opinions about this blurbing process or its results, feel free to let me know in the comments.