Today I saw a commercial for a tool that would auto-generate complete books. Including all chapters, text, graphics, layout, everything.
It was tailored to non-fiction, but it's rather scary - at least to writers. What will be the next step? Will there be 100% written - and readable - novels in our future?
Will there be any writers left? Probably. But - to level the playing field - I think we should be honest about WHO is creating the work...
I would never let an AI write any of my stories. And - had I been a musician - I would never use AI to compose or sing or perform.
Still, even I have to admit AI is getting impressive, though it isn't perfect.
I wrote the lyrics to this song myself, then build a prompt and had an AI generate it. (Frankly, I cannot even remember which one I used, sorry.)
J-Lo and Netlifx at it again. After the by-the-numbers (but still watchable) The Mother here's another Lopez flick, and this time she's venturing into Science Fiction territories.
In a nutshell: young girl watches her mother and half the world killed by an AI developed by that same mother, and returns to the fight 28 years later, having to overcome her fear of AI.
I'm trying my best to stay positive, but sometimes I wonder if this is the moment we see Fermi's Paradox in full action. Why? Well, we're facing global warming, Russia plays the robber baron, China threatens Taiwan, the US has become the most unreliable superpower ever. And now Pakistan and India are going beyond rattling their sabers and have started to bombard one another.
Warning: 18+, not suitable for work and the faint of heart.
So, I grabbed a few book covers from the Internet, trying to find a few good and bad examples... Some are fake. Some are funny. Some are exemplary cases of bad taste.
Ready? Hold on to your socks, keep the vinegar at hand to wash your eyeballs, because here are twenty-five... interesting book covers...
Once you have a Rakuten Kobo Plus subscription you're going to try to maximize its usage. Let's read / listen to tons of free books - as long as the subscription lasts - right? On top of that, I was investigating the typical romantasy concepts. Free and with a purpose, right?
Well... yeah. Right. Unfortunately, lots of the better stuff isn't free, and lots of the stuff included in Kobo Plus isn't very good... Will Viola Grace change my opinion?
March 21, and life still sucks. Even more so than usual.
Somehow I just don't feel like writing much lately. It's a kind of general slump, partially filled with the inability to get my sorry ass into gear and publish, partially by all the doom and gloom from the orange menace's corner, and there are some private things distracting me and mine.
On https://myindiebookshelf.com/ I ran into Lawrence Nault. Who is... real? Or not? When I see an AI generated or otherwise modified face, I start to doubt. So, just for fun, I looked a little deeper.
Sleuthing on the 'net may also help you to figure out how to present yourself as an author. Learn from the best and the worst, as they say.
(I have some mixed feelings on 5e5 AKA 5e24, the 2024 incarnation of the ruleset. Note that these Basic Rules are based on the 2014 set of rules.)
Can AI save us from aliens, or can aliens save us from AI?
(One day someone is going to make a remake of 'V' that actually becomes a smash hit...)
I understand the worry and need for 'sensitivity readers' but I'd also worry about 'giving in' too much. You see, you can't care about each and every opinion, and you're bound to step on some toes, no matter what. So, the question is: are you looking to 'remove' sensitive matters from your work entirely (for example because you're afraid to insult someone), or are you looking for expertise on specific subjects?
In my opinion, there's a lot of difference between the two.
RPG Book Review + Books + Dutch
Na al het uitzoeken en voorbereiden is het tijd om het resultaat te laten zien: The Lazy Anthology. Oftewel... drie de boeken tesamen in een enkele, full color hardcover.
In modern day 3D printers you have a lot of choice in build plates, filaments, temperatures, speeds, making it almost impossible to compare the actual adhesion of the different combinations.
When fooling around with buildplates (see PlateLab) I tried to come up with a way to properly (and objectively) test material / plate adhesion.
As Dungeon Master / Game Master, you're the heart of any role playing game. As DM / GM you run the world, play all the NPCs, and you decide which rules apply when.
That's a lot of work... sometimes a bit too much. This book tries to address that potential problem, by helping you to only prepare what is necessary.
Mijn test case is The Return of the Lazy Dungeonmaster. Het basis boek is 96 paginas, en de beide aanvullingen zijn 64 en 48 bladzijden. Kant en klaar afgedrukt en verstuurd komen de drie boeken (totaal 208 bladzijden) uit op ca. 75 euro.
Mijn plan is er een enkele, dikke hardcover van te maken.
An accidental find, but I like it. This is hard SF, involving a world past the brink of ecological disaster (with many people unaware or actively ignoring it), the US and China in a kind of military impasse, and Canada hiring itself out as the mercenary pool for the whole world.
The preceding show Ms Marvel isn’t that bad, except for an overly short season. This one though… yeah, this one didn’t work. It’s a pity because it had some promising elements, but the end result is a hasty mess.
The verdict? Skip it.
I'll be damned. They did it again. (Or before. Time is relative.) The Aurora Cycle was great (still have to add the reviews for books 2 and 3) and this book, by the same authors, does it again. Although, in this case, it's... different.
