Video Thursday: Sneezing Mecha Edition

Even legendary war machines have bad days. 🤧 The Armor of Arent has waited centuries for a worthy pilot, survived countless battles, and intimidated monsters across three books. It was not, however, prepared for that sneeze. (The pauldrons came back. They always come back.)

https://youtube.com/shorts/eq4rsXCFqkI?feature=share

šŸŽ¬ Created with Midjourney + Suno

šŸ“š The Armor of Arent guest stars in the Hunter Healer King gaslamp fantasy trilogy by Mel Dunay: steampunk monster hunting, slow-burn romance, and a little dry humor that does not actually involve sneezing robots.

šŸŽ¬ More chaos in the outtakes: Maxim blames a bee and Maxim’s horse Scrimshaw orders an espresso

šŸ“š READ THE TRILOGY:

Book 1 – Wolf’s Trail

Book 2 – Undead Flight

Book 3 – Dragon’s Teeth

AI as Writer’s Assistant: Marketing with AIĀ 

To the extent that I have a philosophy of AI use, it comes to this: I want AI to handle the tasks I don’t enjoy. Falling in love with a set of characters, following them through their adventures, figuring out how the world around them works…to me, those are the fun parts. If I care enough about a story to want to see it on Amazon with a proper cover and a nonzero chance of someone besides me reading it and caring about it, I want to draft it myself. Hunting for typos and logic fails and things I did wrong? Not the fun parts, which is why I have been using AI more in the revision process. Writing a fanfic nobody but me wants to read? Fun but not as fun as it might be, plus it takes mental energy away from writing things that I might be able to sell. Hence, the Fanficcing with Claude label that turns up in this blog. And then there’s marketing. 

Marketing does not come easily to some writers, and I am one of them. When I’m happy with my writing, my opinion of it sounds too egotistical to share. When I’m unhappy with it, my opinion is too depressing for words. As for keywords, blurbs, covers, search engine optimization, noun phrase optimization, my brain tends to lock up or go down unhelpful rabbit holes. So, I turned to AI, first for cover art and blurb help and then for other marketing tasks.  So, a quick rundown on what I’ve done: 

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AI as Writer’s Assistant:Ā Revising with AIĀ 

So, having gotten Pride & Planetoids revised, formatted, and up for preorder, I thoughtĀ I’dĀ share a fewĀ thoughts on the use of AI in theĀ revisionĀ process, both the automationsĀ (see here for the original post on this topic)Ā and the chatbot(s).Ā 

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Capsule Reviews

I figured I’d better update you on things I’ve been reading lately. If the emojis are throwing you, they are addressed to authors who’ve commented here in the past. 

Tomato Wyrm by Cedar Sanderson:Ā This is a very sweet cozyĀ fantasy with a gardening angle, as the title implies.Ā The heroine inherits a Stately home of England, and its guardian critter, and find love along the way, liberating her future husband from a dreary life in the city along the way. I read thisĀ whenĀ she serialized itĀ on herĀ substack, andĀ bought the expanded version when that released.Ā This is a great comfort read, Cedar! ā¤

Vanished Pearls of Orlov by Odessa Moon: Coming of age sci-fi set on a terraformed Mars with a culture that’s a little bit Napoleonic era Russia and a little bit Wild West. The lead characters are pretty nuanced but the setting steals the show. It’s a fascinating place, Odessa/Teresa. šŸ™‚ 

Theophany by Caroline Furlong: I would say the giant combat medic robot steals the show, except that’s his name in the title and his imposing form on the cover. I loved Theo, Caroline. šŸ˜‰ 

Advance Guards by Frank Hood: I hesitate to call this one post-apocalyptic, but it’s definitely post-civilization as we know it. A warm family saga built of interconnected stories about picking up the pieces. Well-done, Frank. šŸ™‚ 

Pearl of Fire by C. Chancy: This reminded me a bit of the Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara, in the sense that it starts as kind of a police/peacekeeper procedural in a fantasy city and escalates from there. I liked these characters better than the cast of Elantra though! 

Fanficcing with Claude: Sense and Sensibility and Placage, Scene 28 (Finale)

For more information about this project, please see past posts under the ā€œSense and Sensibility and Placageā€ category.Ā Claude managed to leave Marianne – Mari. Fricking. Anne – out of the first draft of this scene. This is the second. I cut a whole two paragraphs of blah blah at the beginning and trimmed other bits throughout. My main takeaway from this particular ai fanfic has been that I do not remotely have the patience to ride herd on a book length ai first draft and make it good enough for publication. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this fanfic. Stay tuned for The Rector’s Other Business, coming sometime in May.

Departure

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šŸŽ¬Hang On, A #JustStabMeNowMOVIE ??? šŸŽ¬

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 ā€œSense and Sensibility and Placageā€ 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. šŸ“ā˜• This is what happens when you don’t ask Midjourney nicely. šŸŽ¬ Created with Midjourney + Suno šŸ“š 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. šŸŽ¬ Also in the outtakes universe: https://youtu.be/XKpsAwKlKyM šŸ“š 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 ā€œSense and Sensibility and Placageā€ category.Ā 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 ā€œSense and Sensibility and Placageā€ 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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