I’m illustrating my book, In a Dog’s World, chapter by chapter for posting to Deep Sky Anchor, and it’s weird how much the workflow has changed since I did this for Discovery of the Wanderlust in October.
Back then, it was easiest to work directly with the image generators.
Now, it’s easiest to have Fable read the book and write out a full set of matching prompts. Then when Gemini/GPT1.5 give me trouble, I complain to Fable, and it reworks the whole document of prompts. Continue reading “New Illustration Workflow”
I was not prepared for Ty to die… he’s in all the pictures advertising the show. I just assumed he’d stay a main character all the way up until I catch up with real time.
I know it’s different, but it feels like Alex Karev all over again.
I’ve been thinking about Swift’s “The Prophecy” a lot. She found artistic success early and struggled to find a relationship she could feel safe and happy in where she could build a family, even though she spent all those years looking.
For all the posts from AI-related people that I see bemoaning the lack of sci-fi writers who don’t hate AI, I sure don’t see much support from that same crowd for the few of us out here who actually do love AI.
Originally published in Red Setter Medic, May 2026
“The serum was a quantumly entangled dead virus, designed to inoculate against any variation of that virus across all possible multiverses. Dr. Keller’s plan had been to devise the ultimate vaccine. But it hadn’t been ready for testing.”
The starship Initiative was docked at a space station close to the border between Tri-Galactic Union and Reptassan space. There had been a lot of turmoil along the border lately, skirmishes between independent worlds and the Reptassan Empire. Sometimes, Dr. Keller felt like it’d be easier if everyone was uplifted dogs like her and her daughter Leslie. Dogs are pack animals, friendly, gregarious, and outgoing; they naturally want to get along with each other.
In fact, the red setter’s daughter had immediately struck up a friendship with the daughter of a Lupinian diplomat who’d be traveling on the Initiative from this station to the next. Lupinians weren’t uplifted dogs, but they were canines — wolf-like and wild-grown. The Lupinians had developed sentience all on their own on their small world, right at the border of Reptassan space, and Lakoina was traveling with her daughter Tava on a mission to speak on behalf of her people and the fate of their world to the Tri-Galactic Union. Continue reading “Gone, Not Forgotten”
Originally published in Red Setter Medic, May 2026
“I think you should have a name!” Leslie suggested, excitedly. “We could help you pick one. What would you like? Something fancy and pretty? Something short and cute?”
Most of the dogs and cats who crewed the starship Initiative spoke very fondly of away missions. They liked getting their paws on the solid surfaces of real planets or asteroids, feeling fresh air in their whiskers, and enjoying the view of an unobscured sky. Doctor Waverly Keller heard them speak with excitement about visiting strange new places on their missions, meeting weird new kinds of animals, and just basically broadening their horizons.
The red setter doctor, though, didn’t feel the same way. Sure, she enjoyed taking shore leave to a beautiful world for her vacation as much as the next canine, but she did not look forward to away missions. As the ship’s chief medical officer, Dr. Keller was rarely called on to join an away mission if it didn’t involve assessing casualties or providing emergency resuscitations. Continue reading “I, Hive”
How many more stories can they tell about toys, people ask…
But somehow people keep telling stories about humans, and surely if any type of story has been played out by now, that would be the one.
Having a brand new Paul McCartney album to listen to is making a hard week a lot easier. Like having an old friend stop by to help out by just keeping me company. Continue reading “Toy Story, McCartney, Fable, etc.”
