Independent Author Adventures

A.I. Art for February 2023

A.I. Art for February 2023

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,…

A.I. Art for January 2023

A.I. Art for January 2023

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…

A.I. Art for December

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…

Adventures in AI-Generated Art

Adventures in AI-Generated Art

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

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…

Proof of Work in Progress

Proof of Work in Progress

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…

Travel Bucket List, Updated

Travel Bucket List, Updated

Travel Bucket List, Updated Oh, my, but I had such thrilling plans at the start of 2020. The places I’d go, the people I’d meet, the things I’d see! Regrettably, the Calamity Fairies so enjoyed causing worldwide havoc that year that they decided to stick around for the next year, too. But I’m a forward-looking,…

Plans for 2022

Plans for 2022

Plans for 2022 This is my annual post about futuristic thinking. That’s the fun way of saying “my plans for 2022.”  Do I actually follow these plans? Yes… ish. They’re high-level enough to allow wiggle room. More importantly, they’re not etched on titanium. I can adjust them based on unexpected detours and opportunities. Not to…

Which Audiobooks in 2022?

Which Audiobooks in 2022?

Which Audiobooks in 2022? My space opera series, the Central Galactic Concordance, has 4 novels that are also available in audiobook format. These are published by Tantor Media, and available at most major audiobook retailers. Since more and more people are listening to audiobooks these days, I thought I’d start on producing more of them…

SF Pets, Podcast, and More

SF Pets, Podcast, and More

SF Pets, Podcast, and More Occasionally I escape from the writing cave, or as I think of it, my own little pocket universe, and visit the world at large. Recently, I wrote a guest post on SF pets, appeared on a podcast, and more. Pets in Science Fiction The folks over at Shepherd were kind…

A Look Ahead to 2021

A Look Ahead to 2021

A Look Ahead to 2021 In retrospect, my plans for 2020 seem so quaintly innocent. Write a few stories, travel to writer and book conventions to teach and learn things, plus meet new friends and readers, and get my author business back on track after the previous summer of calamitous life events. Little did I…

Hope for the Holidays

Hope for the Holidays

Hope for the Holidays I love the spirit of the holidays. The music, the food, festive lights, and all the good will. Okay, maybe not the thundersnow. And this year, even though we still have more dark days ahead of us, we have hope for the holidays. Not one, but two vaccines are already winging…

New Captain at Pets in Space

New Captain at Pets in Space

New Captain at Pets in Space You may have noticed that I’ve absolutely adored Pets in Space® concept and the charity it supports, Hero-Dogs.org. Enough so that I’ve contributed stories to three of the five anthologies since it started, including this year’s Pets in Space 5. Today, I’m announcing that starting in 2021, I’ll be…

AI Fails at Photo Captions

AI Fails at Photo Captions

Hilarious AI Fails at Photo Captions Part of my job as an indie author is to market my books. The need for background images for ads and promotions periodically sends me to various stock photo sites. The latest trend in these sites is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create photo captions. Often, they miss…