Story in Images: the Guild Dancer

HOOMANS, this is cat Zulejka here first to warn all you hoomans with kittehs out there who might not know this! I was playing with this long thin rope-string and my hooman left me unsupervised with it while she went into the other room and I SWALLOWED IT! It was almost a meter long and hooman came back and panicked trying to find it. Then she scooped me up and carted me to the vet, where they took me in as an acute case and gave me a strong sedative that made me barf up the string along with yummy chicken (not so yummy coming up). I was catatonic for hours after that. But the vet was happy because I was her first true emergency and they got the string out in time.

My hooman fortunately knew that strings can cause an obstruction in cat guts and maybe even cut through them and cause internal bleeding and IT IS SERIOUS! Don’t leave your kitteh alone with string or yarn even for a few seconds! My hooman learned that we swallow even long strings fast. If you to know we swallowed something, take us to the vet RIGHT AWAY, otherwise we might need surgery to get the string out before it kills us.

NOTE: AI images were used in this blog post, but I no longer support the use of AI, nor do I use it, because I don’t like the extractive direction big corporations are taking it and how they are trying to rob artists of work, and, also, people using AI only make generic things since they are derivative of what humans already created. And the data centers are terrible for the environment and anyone living nearby. AI is not at fault, but humans using it at the expense of other humans.

Now I permit hooman to share her story in images…

DUN DUN DUN…! Lol, OK, there are actually more images because I can’t help myself, so I’ll put them below–oh, also, the book is Heiress of Magic – on Amazon and other retailers).

ALSO! I think I’ve cemented my opinion on AI-generated images & writing (since it’s such an explosive topic, and I’ve had people semi-chastise me for using it [I think one person even implied that using it it was the beginning of someone’s great downfall]).

In short, I think it’s fine for personal use and enjoyment, that is, for things you would never have had another human do anyway, AND if you are yourself getting enjoyment out of it (like the images for my blog; I LOVE it when a pretty image comes out of the image generator, and I play around with the colors afterward to get them even prettier, but these images for my blog are not things I would ever pay anyone for; if not AI-generated, I would be using free stock images). BUT! AI should never be actively used by someone trying to cut out the human element. Like those trying to use it to write entire books–imo this is bad, lazy, and greedy (because they’re not writing them for fun; they just want ‘easy’ money). Or using AI to replace graphic designers, actors, etc.–that is, trying to use AI to get rid of human involvement. You lose the actual human relatability then. I mean, the whole reason humans create is for passion, to convey a story, a sentiment, a scene, a moral, to share something from one human to another, even if it’s just something entertaining that was enjoyable to write / draw. To reduce writing and art to something that can be mechanically generated and thrown out there reduces it to stuff empty of real emotion, just generated en masse as fodder to shove down people’s throats in exchange for money. I bet if you made all books free, all the people AI-generating novels would stop because there would be no monetary gain. The whole way the current world is set up is just to make more money, which completely warps the entire creative industry, because you don’t only get people who love creating in it; you also get people just trying to put out shit to weasel out cash from readers. It’s disgusting, but there it is. Even true authors are imposed upon to put out stuff quick-quick-quick, which is probably why I have to wade through a bunch of shallow, soulless books (or those that rehash the same story over and over) until I find the gems by authors who truly dive deep and drag me with them.

As to AI-generated art, I think it depends on the human element. If someone spends hours upon hours perfecting a generated image, nuancing it and adding beauty, to me it is still coming in at least part from the human (in a way similar to the way I often edit the AI images before I use them in my blog). It’s just a different medium–like instead of acrylic or oil, they’re using a digitized tool to make the images.

But if people are using AI stuff and throwing it out without any human touch, trying to cut corners, THAT, to me, is the true offense, and PEOPLE are doing this. (Jerks.)

Okay, so I went on longer than I meant to! And turned into a rant lol. If you’re curious what I use AI for, NEVER for any of my writing, and I only use AI-generated images in place of stock images (for my book trailers and these story image blog posts, etc.). My book covers all come from people like book-cover designers. And I proofread my books myself, put them through my writers’ group, or try to pay an editor to beta-read my books.

Thrice the shadow. Nope, I still do not know what that means. NEVERTHELESS!

Here are the rest of the images for the story in images…

DUN DUN DUN…! Again. [You can never get enough dun-dun-duns in books lol].

Okay, I am damn chatty today. That’s what happens when you’ve been malnourished for two years and the people at the blood donation place tell you to fix yourself cuz your blood is like bad, and you actually get money from a friend to start eating right 😀 Next step: get fricking financially stable enough myself to pay my own damn food. I love food, could eat it forever lol.

Aaaah, someone stop me! Not really, I don’t want to be stopped. Anyone want my new book trailer VIDS? They are all super-short!

IN TRUTH, YOUR ANSWER DOESN’T MATTER, MORTAL; you are getting them anyway. I love doing these things, but my tikTok has gotten no traction, so here they are for your enjoyment 😉 [you’d better enjoy them, OR ELSE…]

Okay, this one freaking got 79 views on youtube! Like, I put the videos up only to share with friends, so they usually only get a few views, but this one shot up for some reason. [Probably the music lol – can’t go wrong with this music]:

This next one only got 38 views but 3 likes, which seems a lot considering how few poeple watched it? Dunno. Anyway:

I like this next one, but seems like no one else does (my friend, and I quote, wrote “I find it pretty creepy” – as a side note, the trailer makes it seem a little fairytale-ish, but the book is firmly epic romantic fantasy):

I love the beginning of this one (I think I used the effects pretty well!), then the music goes all crazy-mad but WHATEVER! I still quite like it:

This one is the two-faced vid, starting with GOTHIC ZULEJKA and then going into upbeat-ness lol. Also it’s a lie now because I moved that first sentence to the next book (sorry not sorry?):

This next is my current favorite despite its lack of effects (the ‘arrogant king’ image just LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE A REALLY ARROGANT DUDE lol), probably again because of the music:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p6tMHcUkm_M

Okay, so this one I did a while back and somehow it ended last here. I guess you can call this the sexy, faintly dark one? Lol:

Anyway, all the love to you all 🙂 Be kind this week.

Aaaaand if you want to give me some love (or feed me 😀 since I’m always low on food [feeeed meeeeee]), you can ‘buy me a coffee’, that is, send $1 (or more) via buy me a coffee, or to support me regularly, you can join the patreon I’ve been seriously neglecting (but want to resume), or get daily snippets I have been failing to share on Facebook, check out my books I don’t want anyone to buy, or join the newsletter I haven’t been writing (but intend to). THANK YOU for any and all love!