Cedar Sanderson Reviews The Jaiya Series! Yay!

I’ve known Cedar for a while on Discord, and she has very kindly offered feedback on some of my book covers, but I woke up this morning, sore from moving furniture and number crunching for a replacement computer, to find that she had written a very positive review of my first series on her substack: https://cedarlila.substack.com/p/book-review-the-jaiya-series?publication_id=1528321&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=3l7wwi&utm_medium=email

Thank you so much, Cedar! This really made my day! I am including your Tomato Wyrm in a post of capsule reviews coming soon to this blog.

🎬Hang On, A #JustStabMeNowMOVIE ??? 🎬

https://youtube.com/shorts/DR8SzQQWeg0?si=Co7AlP5vNLSDQVwP

Okay, I had to laugh when watching this video, because my fondness for El Cid, Horror Express, and The Texican told me exactly where this was going the moment Jill Bearup said “Spanish film company”. But I enjoyed the Just Stab Me videos when they came out, bought the ebook when that came out and the print book as a Christmas present for someone, so congratulations Jill!

In terms of fancasting, the only actresses I can think of who fit my idea of Rosamund are Morfydd Clark (slightly young at 37), Rosamund Pike (on the high end of the age range at 47), and Emily Blunt (right age at 43, but very aggressively botoxed when I last saw her in Fall Guy). My mental image of Captain Collins somewhat resembles Clive Owen or Lloyd Owen, both Welsh men in their sixties. Luke Evans is 47, and also maybe a good fit for Collins. He showed a certain dry humor as Aramis in Three Musketeers that would work for the more absurd situations Collins finds himself on. Rosamund’s childhood friend struck me as kind of a Tom Hiddleston/JJ Feild type, for what that’s worth.

I don’t have strong visual feeling about the mundane characters, but have the impression they were in their thirties or late twenties, so I don’t know how convincing any role doubling would be.

Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 27

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. Claude has the reputation of being good at writing climactic scenes and rather overwrought for everything else. This was the kind of scene at which it excels. I trimmed a little bombast before and after the duel itself, and Claude’s persistant and unlikely references to cold January weather in New Orleans.

The Duel

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Video Thursday: Caffeinated Horse Edition

Maxim is a man of discernment. So is his horse. 🐴☕ This is what happens when you don’t ask Midjourney nicely. 🎬 Created with Midjourney + Suno 📚 Maxim stars in the Hunter Healer King gaslamp fantasy trilogy by Mel Dunay — steampunk monster hunting, slow-burn romance, and apparently a horse with refined taste in caffeine. 🎬 Also in the outtakes universe: https://youtu.be/XKpsAwKlKyM 📚 READ THE TRILOGY: Book 1 – Wolf’s Trail: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR81P9QP Book 2 – Undead Flight: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNGWVPMH Book 3 – Dragon’s Teeth: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GB86H4N5 Complete series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR7ZL3S7 🌐 https://jaglionpress.com/blog/ #HunterHealerKing #AIArtFails #MidjourneyOuttakes #GaslampFantasy #AIArt #SteampunkRomance #IndieAuthor #HorseGirl #Espresso #CharactersWithAttitude

Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 26

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. Not much to report about the drafting process. Claude was surprisingly gung ho about outlining this, arguing that this particular handling of the leadup to the duel would be the most cathartic for Morin and the readers. This is the AI’s first draft, with the usual human streamlining.

The Challenge

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Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 25

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. Claude drafted this scene out of order, so I had to trim a fair amount to bring it into continuity with scenes that take place earlier but were written later. I did like Claude’s take on how Elise’s revelation affected Marianne. I also liked that it assigned Morin a rather skeptical opinion of Rousseau.

Marianne’s Recovery

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Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 24

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. Nothing exciting about this one, except that I had to shuffle things on wordpress a bit so that it came before tomorrow’s Marianne scene. First Claude draft below the cut; trimmed and tweaked.

The Proposal

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Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 23

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. This is a tricky scene because it deals with sensitive issues. What we have below is Claude’s first draft, with more tweaking than usual by me, especially surrounding Elise’s big reveal to Marianne.

The Revelation

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Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 22

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the “Sense and Sensibility and Placage” category. This final stretch of the book was very messy at an outline level, so I had to talk Claude through re-outlining these last 6-7 scenes. The first draft had Louis Palmiere (Mrs. Jennings’s son-in-law) and Lucie Acier in place where I did not want them to be. This is Claude’s second draft, with the usual trimmings and tweakings.

Edward’s Declaration

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Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 21

First off, happy tenth anniversary to my blog! For more information about this fanfic project, check out the earlier posts in the category “Sense and Sensibility and Placage.” This was a good example of why you can’t turn your back on the LLMs. Claude’s initial draft had the Villarreal-Mendoza wedding happening in March, and frost on the River Road. I haven’t been to South Louisiana in a long time, but I remembered enough of the climate to be pretty sure frost was not a routine occurrence, and I’m Catholic enough to know that Lent was not considered to be an optimal time for weddings. What is below is the draft that resulted from my polite discussion with Claude about these issues. I hand-fixed some logistics issues related to the carriage and as usual trimmed the more overwrought bits.

The Fever

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