Independent Author Adventures

Photo of a famous Icelandic rock sculpture by Páll Guðmundsson that resembles a giant troll. Photo (c) 2023 Carol Van Natta.

Fabulous Iceland Adventure, Part 2 When my friend and part-time travel companion Nancy and her husband Harl said, “Let’s go to Iceland!”, I said “yes.” This post has lots of photos from my fabulous Iceland adventure Part 2. (Click the photos to see bigger versions.) See my other post, Fabulous Iceland Adventure Part 1, for […]

Ink and watercolor illustration of a rocketship launching from a stack of books, generated by MidJourney

AI Art Adventures for Autumn 2023 It’s been a while since I posted about generative A.I. art. Artificial intelligence, as in machine learning, has been around for decades. The comparatively small part that generative AI comprises — art, music, text — is drawing all the attention. I still think of it as a tool to […]

A sign with a handy map of the entire island of Iceland. Photo (c)2023 Carol Van Natta.

Fabulous Iceland Adventure, Part 1 Without actually planning it, this has apparently been my year to travel. Well, I definitely planned the trip to Australia because it’s on the other side of the planet and the flight is 15 hours(!) long. I’d heard good things about Iceland, but it wasn’t until my travel companion Nancy […]

Illustration of a woman wearing futuristic armor and a service dog seated next to her, generated by MidJourney.

Disabled Veterans, Service Dogs, and Spaceships What do disabled veterans, service dogs, and spaceships have in common? When I was invited to participate in the first of several Pets in Space® anthologies, and later took over as editor, my favorite thing about them was the charity focus. Of course, I love science fiction romance, but […]

Author Carol Van Natta standing in front of a shiny sculpture in the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art in Sydney, Australia

Great Aussie Adventure, Part 4 I recently visited the Land of Oz, otherwise known as Australia, and had a blast. I took so, so many shareable photos that I had to break this down into four posts. This the last post about my Great Aussie Adventure, Part 4. (Click the images to see larger versions.) […]

Illustration of a logo with two black cats in silhouette with a crown above and stars below, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for Summer 2023 It seems like every day brings the announcement of another A.I. art service and/or another A.I. writing service. And owing to my recent Great Aussie Adventure and busy summer, I was already weeks behind in keeping up with these and MidJourney changes. So many things to catch up on! This […]

Wide landscape photo of sunrise and Kata Tjuta in Australia. Taken as part of the great Aussie adventure.

Great Aussie Adventure, Part 3 I recently visited the Land of Oz, otherwise known as Australia. I took a gazillion photos on this trip of a lifetime, so I’m breaking them down into four parts. This is my Great Aussie Adventure, Part 3. (Click the images to see larger versions.) Melbourne (Part 1) • Cairns […]

watercolor and ink illustration of a cat with a background of stylized waves, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for April 2023 The big news is that the MidJourney A.I. art service recently released version 5 for user testing. Which promptly caused a bunch of idiots to make free accounts, then try to make rude and deep-fake images. MJ banned a bunch of users and suspended free accounts for the moment. And […]

illustration of a cute baby fantasy animal with wings, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for March 2023 I continue to dabble in A.I. art and enjoy the challenge. My MidJourney prompting skills are slowly improving, by which I mean that I get better results faster. And I’m learning when to abandon an approach and leave that concept for another day. To be honest, the results from the […]

fantasy illustration of a pretty Black woman with flowers in her hair, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for February 2023 Like most endeavors, learning to use A.I. tools takes time and practice. Plus, the tools are in active development, meaning we users are all shooting at a moving target. This is my A.I. art for February 2023. Click the images below to see bigger version. For people using smaller devices, […]

illustration of a diecut sticker with a rocketship and stars, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for January 2023 I’ve been spending more of my time at MidJourney, and less at the other services. I just don’t seem to be able to produce images that please me at NightCafe or DALL-E. Here are images created by A.I. art for January 2023, including prompts and commentary. To keep myself from […]

Photo of a cozy holiday scene at home, generated by MidJourney

A.I. Art for December I’m still having too much fun with A.I. art, so I’m sharing more of my adventures with you. (See previous posts here and here.) This is my A.I. art for December.  NOTE: I used MidJourney (MJ), DALL-E (D-E), and NightCafé (NC) for the images. “Prompts” are the description you input into […]

Art by NightCafe.studio, prompt by Carol Van Natta. Illustration of a spaceship.

Adventures in AI-Generated Art AI-generated art is a hot topic these days. Color me intrigued.😻 So, I went on a bit of a quest to see what’s happening. These are my adventures in AI-generated art in the last month. Yes, I should have been writing, but there it is. NOTE: This is a graphics-heavy post […]

paperback book options

Paperback Book Options My space opera romance novellas are in need of new paperback versions. While ebooks are delightfully convenient and easy to carry, some readers still love the kinesthetic feel of paperback books in their hands. If this is you, please look at the paperback book options below and take the tiny survey.  These […]

Work In Progress, with an image of a space-suited figure

Proof of Work in Progress In my Central Galactic Concordance space opera series, I’ve been working on the most feral manuscript ever. By that, I mean that I’ve fought for every word to get the characters and plot right. It’s a pivotal story  in the Big Damn Story Arc that’s going on and has a […]