Dusting off the 'ole Damn Boots

It’s s stupid metaphor for getting back into writing.

“Dusting off boots”

Makes ya think of these, doesn’t it?

…maybe more dust and less snow.

Like I said, a stupid metaphor, and a stock photo.

I stopped writing back in January of ‘22—maybe longer than that.

Sometime back before then my Editor gave back my edited 2nd Novel. The experience was humbling. Truth be told it was a slow-burning reality-check, punch to the fucking gut. The thing is, I know I’m a good writer. But only I know this. Maybe a few other people do to—maybe. But a few hundred people don’t know this—certainly not a few thousand. And I’m untested. Getting my incomplete 2nd Novel edited was a test. And I wouldn’t say I failed. I had to fucking regroup—get my shit together and do a lot of thinking.

I took some time off. I didn’t write. I let me creativity out in other ways. I started a YouTube Channel building Legos. I had another kid.

ChatGPT and MidJourney came out during this time away from writing. I started prompting AI Generated art that you can buy here in my store. Some of it is based on the world I am writing into existence and some of it is quirky pop-art—shit I find interesting.

DJ Stark

Back to those dusty boots…

I’m plotting out my story again. I’m not writing—not just yet. I’m laying the foundation. I’m doing several somethings that I’ve never done before:

1. I’m writing on a Mac. Yeah I know. What the fuck, right? But hear me out! David Bowie—yes I’m comparing myself to David Bowie—went through all these phases in his career. He was Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke and the Blind Prophet. Up until now I’ve been the Windows Guy. Now I’m entering my Mac Guy Persona. It’s kinda groovy actually. The software I’m using, Scrivener and Aeon Timeline were sorta built for this type of hardware. The ease in which I can switch between the two apps is nothing short of amazing. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll evolve into my next persona before too long, or become some kind of weird pan-technical chimera.

2. I’m making an outline. I’m not going to use the dumb writing terms involving “pants” and “plans” but I was always of the “pants” variety. It was physically jarring to try and outline—to plan out a story, which has always been something of an organic process for me. But the reality of this story is, it’s been swimming around between my synapses now for years. I know all the beats, all the scenes, and all the not yet conceived scenes that will come into being based on the ideas and rules of the story that I’ve already established. So it’s time for me to stop spinning my fucking wheels and literarily jerking-off with writes and rewrites. Time to get my shit in order. I’m not writing right now. I’m outlining, plotting, and carving a fucking map—a story bible to follow when I actually start writing. I’m doing everything short of etching this motherfucker in stone and then I’m going to look at it, pick a section, and start writing out the pros, start check off the boxes and getting it done, once and for all.

3. I’m not putting any time limits or pressure on the Hows and the Whens. It will be ready when it’s ready. It will also be ready when I don’t have a steaming pile of shit for my Editor.

4. Lastly, I’ve given up Coffee thanks to the-virus-that-shan’t-be-named. After that little nuisance coffee makes me anxious to the point of panic attacks—another something I’ve never ever done before.

I think that covers my year-plus off of writing, thinking of writing, and doing anything having to do with fiction.

Oh, and I’ve started reading fiction again.

So what have I been reading? Glad you asked:

1. The Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas—Pretty good but the antagonist was about as 2D as one could get before being 1D, very lame. Hated the bad-guy for all the wrong reasons.

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino—Just started this. Loving it like I loved the movie. Add a lot more depth to the characters that cinema just doesn’t have time to convey. Gonna rewatch the 3-Hour movie again afterwards.

3. In the queue I have Dan O’Malley’s Blitz, Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman, David Wong’s If this Book Exists, You’re in the Wong Universe, and some James Axler pulp-apocalyptic sci-fi for when I feel like taking this whole literary thing seriously.

Cheers!

The Presumption of AI Artists

This blog post was not written by AI…

But it could have been. You can now pay a company to write blog posts for you. With a few simple ‘prompts’ to help capture the theme and the feel of your post, you can completely automate the writing process. Think of all the content I could ‘create’ if I could type less words than what I’ve just typed here, and had the AI spit out screed after screed of content on the daily!

Another productive Facebook thread.

The same thing is currently all the rage in the realm of visual art. Legit artists are feeling disenfranchised because the AI is doing in seconds what it would take hours or days to produce. Folks like me, who can’t draw worth a damn are creating content like this for mostly fun and possible profit:

Library II

from $45.00

The Library stands formidably in the center of the Fields of White to the north of Coravan City. The books held within are numerous. Some titles are familiar, while others more obscure. Some of the books are stories their authors never intended to write. Yet they all reside within the ancient walls of the Library...

• Acid-free, PH-neutral, poly-cotton base
• 20.5 mil (0.5 mm) thick poly-cotton blend canvas
• Canvas fabric weight: 13.9 oz/yd2(470 g/m²)
• Fade-resistant
• Hand-stretched over solid wood stretcher bars
• Matte finish coating
• 1.5″ (3.81 cm) deep
• Mounting brackets included
• Blank product in the EU sourced from Latvia
• Blank product in the US sourced from the US

I am no artist, nor do I pretend to be one. Where I worked hard to string sentences together in a somewhat coherent fashion, I did little to do the same with pen, pencil, cray-paws and paper. My interest in comic books was equal parts story and visual appeal—sometimes the visuals outweighing the story. Don’t judge a comic by it’s…content? I knew what appealed to me both in the artist as well as the writer. I’m embarrassed to say that it took me well into my late 20s before I was able to fully appreciate Neil Gaiman’s, The Sandman, because as a teenager I was too hung up on how it looked. My tastes matured. I developed—I’d like to think for the better.

I view this AI generated art similar to asking an artist for a commission. In my own experience this involves telling the artist my idea over 1-2 emails, paying them, and getting something in the mail. The artwork is that artist’s interpretation of my idea. Was my description too vague, too literal? How did the artist interpret my description? If I sent along an image and said “…in this style” it is up to the artist I’m commissioning to make a judgement call as to what the hell I mean. Does he follow the sample image to the letter or use is as a vague point of reference?

Sometimes the artiest gets it right. Other times it’s way off the mark and I’m left with paying for something I really didn’t want.

AI is the same way. You feed it a prompt and get a result. Nothing more. Only with AI you can tweak your prompt to get something closer to what you desire…or not.

If I had the capital to keep an artist on retainer, or if I were a company with an entire art department, I could achieve the same results through regular meetings, a plethora of visual aides, mood boards, etc.

And ultimately, through the human artist, I would get exactly what I’m looking for.

With the AI, in this current state, it’s a gamble. I may gut lucky from time to time with something that is visually compelling, but it won’t be exact. Which is why AI generated art is great for joe-consumer but not for anything professional in it’s current state.

Maybe one day it will be, or maybe one day I will learn how to manipulate the prompts just enough to reproduce what is in my minds eyes.

So what am I, if not an artist?

The cynic would say that I’m a master manipulator.

But I like to think myself more as a curator. I’m feeding the AI an idea and I’m assessing what it gives me based on my own unique tastes. What I find visually appealing is different from what you find visually appealing—in fact, depending on who ‘you’ happen to be, I might find it appalling! That’s how art—like writing, works—not everything is everyone’s cup o’ tea.

And that, my friends, is what ultimately makes art…art, whether it’s crafted by a human, AI, or a goat.

If you found value from this post, please consider contributing financially. You may have noticed that I’ve not written here in a while. This is in part due to life being busy. But money is always a great incentive and motivation in writing for reals instead of letting the AI do it. Consider becoming a Patron or even giving a one-time donation.

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I’m going to keep writing and posting from time to time. But I’ll do it a lot more if I feel that someone out there is receiving some value from it. Thank you and good day.

Aeon Timeline and Scrivener

Real quick, guys.

I’ve been using Aeon Timeline 3 in conjunction with Scrivener [the Third] . After something of a learning curve when it comes to syncing data between the two programs, I think I’m at a point where I can actually start working with both programs creatively.

A brief note on the setup:

I’ll probably post a more in-depth video on this at some point but there’s a great deal of customisation that can go into making your timelines specific to your story. If you put in the work, you’ll get a lot out of it. It’s important to spend as little time on this as possible, so that it doesn’t take away from your creative time. I have the luxury of having children, which affords me very little creative time, but quite a lot of time where they might be running around, watching TV and being distracting enough where I can setup these two apps without having to use a lot of creative brain-power.

I say all this to say that I don’t feel as if I was avoiding the creative process, but merely using the time I had to do what I was mentally capable of doing. Now that I’ve gotten these technical aspects put to bed, I can shift into a more creative mindset and hopefully carve out some time to throw on the headphones and make some magic!

A Note on the Magic:

My story is in two parts. Part 2 was edited and I have copious notes from my awesome editor. Part 1 needs to be expanded. So what I’m doing with Timeline, is restructuring the content I already have, and inserting new scenes and chapters, in order to tell a better story. I have a lot of this up in my head, based on the Editor feedback, etc. But it’s important to get this all nailed down and codified.

Timeline is going to help me do this.

I’m going to work almost exclusively in Timeline in order to get the structure set. All of this will sync with Scrivener. Once I’m happy with the bones of my story, I will transition over to Scrivener and start writing the scenes, and getting the book ready for another pass from The Editor.

It’s all a huge process, but it now feels like building something sharp, tight and tangible, instead of looking at it through cloudy glasses.

It should go without saying but, no I am not getting paid to endorse these two products. I legit love both Aeon Timeline and Scrivener. I’ve been using them for years and they seem to be getting better and better with each version—Timeline especially.

Speaking of Getting Paid:

This past year I realised that both my time and writing is valuable, and not without a sacrifice to my family and personal life. I will never charge for this content, however if you received any value from the above post, please consider donating an amount equal to the value you received. This is the Value for Value model and it’s how I plan to do business going forward. If this post was worth a cup of coffee, consider donating to my coffee fund. If it’s worth more, that’s cool too.

A link to the Donation Page can be found Here.

There is also my Patreon if you’d like to do more than a one-time donation. You can find the link to my Patreon below. Thank you and Goodnight.

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How about I give you the finger...

...and you give me my phone call.

Apple released new emoji's today. Now you can give your friends the finger. Ladies, that jerk from college who to this day manages to drunk-dial you, can now be met with a close-to-real-life retort.

I watched that fanedit of the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies mentioned in my last post. I liked it. I feel it addressed some of the main complaints Samson and I had about those films. It certainly isn't perfect, but it may be my go-to when the Marathon Matrix bug hits me. For me the only way to watch The Matrix series (not the movie but the entire franchise as a whole) is to watch in this order:

1. The Second Renaissance

2. A Detective Story

3. The Matrix

4. Kid's Story (Optional)

5. Final Flight of the Osiris

6. The Matrix Revolutions: The Epic Edition by GeminiGod

Note: I have another fanedit that incorporates the the live action scenes from the Enter the Matrix video game into the 2nd and 3rd movies. I haven't watched it yet, though the gist of it is similar to the above fanedit. It's possible this version may be better and take the Number 6 spot. Only time will tell, though you should expect a rebuttal to this post either way.

The Editor will have my manuscript for Hidden Mountain by this time tomorrow. It goes without saying that I hope she likes it. But moreover, I hope she beats the hell out of it. I know it needs work. I've done all I can for it. It needs a fresh set of eyes and a head full of ideas.

I started reading, Gail Simone's Batgirl. It's dark and fits in well with Scott Snyder's Batman. Yeah, I know I'm a little late to the party. Sue me.

I'm not proud to admit this, but I never read V for Vendetta. This also goes without saying but it's so much better than the movie.

Current Enjoyment

What I enjoy:

1. The first cup of morning coffee

2. "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

3. The Fratellis latest album, "Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied"

4. My office

5. Bubba Burgers

Less Superficial Enjoyments:

1. The Wife. Because.

I read Cat's Cradle again. It's a good book but you have to be into Vonnegut or else you're not going to get it. There was a lot more happening after the big thing that happens than I remembered. The audio version even had a nice interview with the late KV, which was also good. Totally different generation of writer. Very refreshing.

I have an Editor for the novella. I met her at the Author's Expo last month. Full disclosure: I saw her name on the list of editors at the expo and researched her with the All-Mighty Google to see if she was legit. Turns out, she is. So when the expo finally came around, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Tanya -her name is Tanya- seems really enthusiastic about the novella -a trait I associate more with agents than editors. I suspect this is a good thing though. Up until now, I and a select few were the only people who gave a damn about what the hell I've been doing with my meager free time. So it's really cool to have a professional editor get into it as much as I do.

I have some time before turning over the manuscript. I'm going over the notes from my beta-readers and putting together notes on the series, characters, plot -stuff she's going to need. This is more than just copy editing. When all is said and done I hope to see exactly what works and what doesn't.

Inside Baseball

I made a small outline of the series in its entirety. I don't have all the details. A lot of what I have planned in my head is subject to change as the characters develop. I'm not going to force my initial outcome if a particular character no longer feels or acts the way they did when I first came up with it.

That being said:

Anthology#1: 5 Novella's. By the end, all the main characters will be introduced and the reader should have a fairly good idea of the universe, its rules, etc.

The Novels: 3 Novels. The first one picks up right where the last novella ends. These 3 books will cover a specific story I've been wanting to tell for several years now. 

Anthology#2: The jury is still out on this one. I've got a great big world here and I want to be able to explore other areas that perhaps branch away from the main story. This 2nd collection will probably take place between the events of the novels, but again, nothing is set in stone just yet.

A lot of this probably sounds like something only I'd be interested in. But hey, this is the process, my process anyway.

Not since April

I'm still here.

The last post had some announcements. But I sorta jumped the gun.

I did some soul searching and decided to throw my hat into the ring of more 'traditional' publishing. I thought about self-pub. Self-pub may very well be in my future. But I want to explore all possible options. I think my work is good enough to be mainstream and the worst thing I can do is not make the attempt.

I'm going to be at the NE Authors Expo this week. It's a great community. I have no 'wears' to sell, but the goal is to support a friend and make some connections.

Finished my first novella while vacationing on the Cape. "Hidden Mountain" is the tale of a submarine captain and her first mate. It's the first story in a series of 5. All 5 tales make up the Ice Bible Anthology.

I've received some feedback from beta-readers on Hidden Mountain. Much of it has been positive. I have to make some of the concepts of the story more clear, and adjust the pacing. Several of the readers haven't had me talk to death the intricacies of the universe I've created. So it's been great to have an outsiders perspective on what the hell I'm trying to make here.

I've also begun work on the second novella, "Of Black and White Doors". It's still in 1st Draft form, so the overall story hasn't been completely fleshed out just yet.

Look for me at the New England Authors Expo. I'll be sharing a booth with Chris Samson.

Welcome to my lair...not that I'm some sort of animal...

...Or maybe I am...

Breaking the format for this entry as it's been a while and I need to get back into the swing of things. 

Books worth reading:

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Skip the audio version. All things nerd-culture have a raging hard-on for Wil Wheaton. I, thankfully, do not. Tips for reading a non-fiction book: No, it's not OK to put on a British accent when quoting something from the Guardian. Yes, I realize it's a British newspaper. It doesn't matter. Would you put on a stereotypical Japanese accent when quoting something out of Yomiuri Shimbun? No, no you wouldn't. Also, don't put on a Joseph Lieberman or Bill Clinton voice when quoting them either. It might also help not to sound like such a damn fanboy when reading the rest of the pros. Just few tips from me to you.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

It was on sale so I picked it up cheap. I'm a fan of the Dark Tower series, especially the first 4 books. King went back and updated the Gunslinger in 2003 and the end result was a really polished piece of work. I read an interview with him not long ago. Turns out the Dark Tower books were never edited. O.o I know, right! If you're looking for something from King that isn't hard horror, and more dark fantasy/sci-fi, then give this one a solid read.

3 books by JD Robb

Ok, so the Wife got me into this. I didn't think I'd like them, but they're pretty damn good. For those of you who don't know, JD Robb and Nora Roberts are the same person. No, I haven't started reading romance books, at least, not yet. The "In Death" series takes place in a Blade Runner-esk future New York City where drugs and prostitution are both legal and corporations buy planets and build fancy space station resorts. The main character is a detective. The books are mysteries. Since the author got her success in romance, the sex scenes are well done and pull no punches. Where some authors might 'fade to black' or gloss over the sex, Robb/Roberts dives right in, and it makes for both good storytelling and something different in what can be a formulaic genre.

What else is going on:

Got one of the main characters from my novel preserved for posterity. Here's another great piece drawn by Ben Dunn. He did a great job! I really like how the pic came out. He'll have my business for quite a while and if he's up for it, there are 10-plus characters in the novel who would look great next to this one, in my office.

And speaking of my office

Here's mine!

My Father-In-Law is the best. He realizes that sometime I just need to get away from the Wife, and now I can! (However, what you don't see in the picture is that the wall behind me is only half-finished, so I won't be doing much hiding).

Seriously though, it's good to have my own space, for writing, for gaming, to just chill. When the computer was in the living room, it was easy for both me and the Wife to zone out on the computer/tv. With the office, it helps us appreciate the time we spend together, in-part, because there's a clearly defined border for the time spent apart. I don't know if I'm making much sense, but, bottom line: it's a good thing.

Look alive, Sunshine.

The editing and revision process of the "Dream" story is going very well. Considering the sheer amount of work that is need to turn the 1st Draft into something ready for prime time, my awesome beta readers are more like alpha readers with what they've had to deal with.

They've been kicking my ass though and that's a good thing. When this is all over I think I'm going to have to 'make [them] a cake or something'. Perhaps subscribe them all to Omaha Steaks.

Since I discover while I write the 1st Draft, I basically told myself the story. The  plot comes out in an out-of-order way, characters are either really well thought out or cardboard cutouts, and settings are either over or under developed. But by the end I have a better idea of the story then I did before this all began.

I kinda feel that the revision process is where the most grueling work begins. Writing a story is easy, presenting it in a way that doesn't sound like the ramblings of a lunatic is hard.

To give you an idea of how it's going. In the 1st Draft, Chapter 1 was 2,803 words. In the revision it is just under 4000 words. That was the result of listening to my beta readers and establishing plot points right at the beginning that weren't fully realized until much later in the writing of the 1st Draft.

I always knew this story would be a series. By this point I know that it will probably end up being 3 books. Together the series will resemble a 3 Act play...or the original Star Wars movies. 

Finally, I resubscribed to Audible. I've never been a fast reader but I greatly enjoy books. Might as well listen to them. With my 1st two credits I got "Ready Player One" and "Snow Crash".

RP1 got good about halfway through, after the author stopped 'telling' me what his story is about, instead of showing me scenes and character interactions.

And maybe casting Wil Wheaton as the voice of the novel was ultimately not the best choice. I'd like to think he'd be a pretty cool guy to hang out with, but he's typecast as somewhat of a conceited prick. Again, he's probably cool in real life, but seriously, he 'sounds' like a high and mighty douche-bag. So when he, as the voice of the narrator-protagonist bestows upon me the virtues of the nihilistic mindset of Internet subcultures, popular in the comment section of Gawker, and splattered across the walls of Reddit, it comes across as sounding preachy. And, staying true to form, any opposing viewpoint is instantly dismissed by the hive-mind by labeling it: Bullshit.

To me this flaw in the book relates back to 'show' vs 'tell'. I, the reader was being told how it is. Period. Were I shown the culture of this polluted dystopian society on the edge of annihilation, where a 3D graphically intensive virtual reality version of the Internet is somehow able to run on solar energy, maybe just maybe I wouldn't have felt as though the author had an agenda. (On a side note, I wonder how much electricity is required to run just one of Google's data-centers, and could it run consistently on solar power?).

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Again, it wasn't a lousy book. The story, once it got going was good. By the end I really felt for the characters. Setting the scene needed work. And I feel that I can say this because it's what needs the most work in my owe story.

Snow Crash, on the other hand was awesome for 99% of the book. I felt the ending was too sudden. Where the ending worked was that it was very open-ended. I, the reader had the responsibility to determine what happened next, who lived and who died. This was fine. I don't know how I'd have ended it. But it felt incomplete to me, from the final line of the story to the sound of a different narrator informing me that, "This has been an Audible Production of, Snow Crash, but Neil Stephenson..." I was like, "That's it!" and then after a moment I thought, "well, OK, it works."

And today I began 1Q84 which is over 40 hours long! You would do well to expect another book review from me, 40+ hours from now, staggered between commutes to and from work.