M.D. Boncher's Blog, page 10

Asbury Revival: The Wide Road to Deception & Disillusionment?

Author’s note: Please save your pitchfork and torch purchases for the end of the blog. Do not assume what I mean till you read all the way through. Thank you.

The events of this alleged revival movement, sparked in Asbury KY has me highly troubled. Not that I see the spreading of the faith as a bad thing, but because I don’t know WHAT faith is truly being spread. There are lots of movements and “denominations” that claim to be Christian and follow Jesus, but are not even close. I want to b...

Dualcon Roundup & Shoutouts

A little late in getting out this recap of our time at Dualcon, but here we are. Been pretty distracted by the launch week really. So without delay, here’s a bit of a rundown.

It was nice to sell books before we even got to the event. One of the ladies in town as we were finishing up prep to leave wanted to get a copy of all 4 books (Akiniwazisaga 1-3 and Tales From the Dream Nebula). So that was a nice way to kick things off. So we were off to a flying start. The drive to Charleston was qui...

Helping a Friend in Need at a Time of Loss

A quick personal note.

We’ve been informed by the Dragon’s Den family that Amber unexpectedly lost her mother last week, and is in need of assistance for funeral expenses. Amber is a big hearted and giving lady and this is a large hardship for her and she could use the help.

We felt motivated to give ourselves and help out our friend in this time of bereavement. If you feel moved to contribute, please do. It will be appreciated.

I don’t make a habit of putting this stuff out there so...

Adventures in AI Art… Again. New Toys, New Issues

I know I’ve been writing a lot about this stuff. It mostly has to do with the ton of self training I’ve had to embark on mixed with a ton of fun that it’s turned out to be. Well, outside of the conniption fits brought about by lacking time and getting stuff wrong.

To reiterate, I’d rather have someone else to do this so I can focus exclusively on writing, but I have too much darn fun! I started this so I could get a cover that was kinda what I wanted. Now six months later, I’m just astonished with what I can do with the software, and moreover, where this is going to lead I think.

Of course, I’ve written about the lawsuits, and the snowflake-pocalypse of artists melting down shrieking how this is theft. Well now writers are joining the chorus too over ChatGPT. It doesn’t matter that it’s so woke and broken and can fool law schools into passing the bar or getting the equivalent of a B- grade on SATs. It’s been discovered that it has strong socio-political biases AND has been caught lying, gaslighting and actually being threatening to people. So I’m not too scared yet, but I know these are first steps to a larger conclusion that unfortunately, I don’t see stopping.

A broken image I created that just turned out cool. If Alphonse Mucha did Cyberpunk.

People just don’t seem to understand that this is a tool. An incredibly sophisticated, Turing Test breaking tool. So far, I still see no ability for it to have the prime creative spark required to start all art. That is still strictly in the realm of God, and a subset given over to man.

There is no way these programs can replace the artist. The man or woman with their finger on the divine spark of “what if”? Their individually unique set of experiences that give us the vision to express our existence through a medium in which to share with others. Much like traveling for pleasure, art is best shared with others.

A select group of people keep telling me “that’s not real art!” I disrespectfully disagree with a healthy “bugger that”! If this isn’t real art, then word processing isn’t typing. Or even printing isn’t a method of producing writing because it uses a movable type press. It’s an advancement.

I’ve recently rediscovered Renderosity.com and noted it has an AI art section. If you’re into doing your own art, I highly recommend checking out Renderosity and joining up. Particularly if you’re going to want to do 3d modeling. The amount of free stuff and encouragement there is wonderful. I had an account back in the early 00’s but it’s long since lost. Oh well. That’s what happens when you ignore it for 15 years I guess. Acceptance is happening slowly. Artstation will let you post AI art as long as you are not copying other people’s work. Remember, a style is not copyrightable. On the other hand, drawing a picture of a trademarked character… is. Draw Grumpy from Snow White and see how fast Disney’s lawyers descend on you like Thor dropping by for a horn of mead on the rainbow bridge.

Unfortunately, this acceptance, because of the pushback by, >ahem< “GENNNuine AhhhrTEESTS!” has most comicons cowed in a way tables full of knockoff copies don’t. My problem isn’t in the fact that they refuse to allow it for possible legal reasons. Heck these cons have their right to do so. The same way they are free to tell people that they STILL must be masked and be fully jabbed before they’re allowed to enter their con. I won’t be attending those, and I won’t bring by any AI art prints to sell either. Essentially, there are two people their hurting: themselves and the public by denying them access to new and exciting product. AI artists will just go elsewhere (online) to sell (online) their (online) product and cut (online) out the inperson sales. On a positive note, that also hurts state sales tax collections… so… there is that. Silver linings!

What burns my cheese is the hypocrisy of that artist who’s made 30 digital render copies of the top 10 anime characters and is selling them and doing commissions for people of their favorite character… with no compensation to the owners of said copyrighted/trademarked works. I mean come on. At least AI art programs generally do transformative art rather than direct copies which they often are first in line to shriek about. These same artists who also use screencaps and photos that they did not take as references.

Now, there are those who will throw this back in my face and say “BUT WHAT ABOUT CHATGPT!!!!! It’s gonna take your job too!” as the big threat to putting all writers out of existence. There is a little point to this, the same way there is a point to artists being put out of work too. Not gonna lie. I’ve been considering this and there are some things about it all that bother the crap out of me.

I maintain that the biggest problem with this software is that these language models will destroy modern education, dumbing down the populace faster than CRT on Adderall and Meth. Kids being able to just prompt their way into a term paper? What could possibly go wrong, till the day where they have to prove they know these things in the real world. Talk about the utter devaluation of modern education.

Don’t forget that major software firms are talking about using programs like ChatGPT to take over the simple coding jobs. Yes, the program can write functional code faster than any human can dream. People used to say, “learn to code”. They better start saying “Learn to Farm” because you might need to in order to survive because there will be no entry level work left. (insert rant about the second dark age.)

What’s twice as irritating as that’s scary is the models are a bit of a cheatcode/life exploit in how public data is being scraped, stored and resold. I hate the fact that states sell your drivers license data to marketers, especially your telephone number. But that’s more of a direct invasion of privacy. Scraping data and the benefit of transformative works has become established law and acceptable in daily life. Could you imagine trying to use Amazon if you can’t see a picture of the product or read a small sample of the book? All the sales page has is a wall of text. How fast would you purchase that doodad from Shanghai without any idea really as to what it is? Let alone be able to leave/read reviews. Sadly, this type of data scraping is what gave us these monsters terrorizing art today. But it’s also not going away.

A testing image for a model I can’t use anymore. Stop it model makers. Don’t be like Microsoft and Google.
Creative Commons License

Quick side rant: Today I discovered the licenses for using models on SD have changed significantly. So many previously free to use and do whatever with your artwork models have tightened down. About 20-40 of them that I had downloaded, careful to only keep with creative common models that allowed you to sell your artwork have locked that down. Now I don’t mind for one moment a model maker deciding they want to make a premium product and charge for it. Go for it. BUT DON’T PUT IT OUT OPEN SOURCE THEN YANK BACK THE ABILITY TO USE THE ART MADE WITH IT! That’s like Microsoft Word claiming they own your book because you wrote it on their software. That’s not how open source is supposed to work! I learned from font foundries that you make it free, it stays free. You make it crippled, you don’t get customers. Don’t make something really cool free and cripple it or only to yank it back later. You just piss off people like me who might have decided to spend on your future cool stuff because you have a track record of cool stuff. Permafree should remain perma! Okay? On the same page here? Right. Back to my OTHER rant currently in progress.

Ultimately, I hope to start seeing the turn where this technology is harnessed and turned away from the destructive force so many seems to see it. Properly cultivated, this tech will become a friend to artists that increases productivity, provides new levels of expression, much like fire became a dear friend to mankind in cooking our food, warming our homes and helping us produce so much of the life we live. I wax rhapsodic, but the elemental theory is still there.

Why do I bring this up? I gots some new toys for Stable Diffusion that is starting to make it possible for me to have much more precise control of my pictures. I’ll be able to do more advanced things, and potentially create a lot better products. Ultimately, I could do some seriously auteur level of creations from graphic novels to gaming books and resources. If I decide to fry my brain I could always see about producing my own animated short films. Now not all these tools are there, but I’m seeing glimpses.

Brand new ControlNet and OpenPose allowing for fast Character Sheets. This one for a Tales From the Dream Nebula PC is broken. Read the book and figure out which one. So many things need to be in-painted. Like hair not matching, feet on backwards. Little things like that. And where are my darn guns and holsters?!?!

The worry about it all is that this technology, barring an emp-pocalypse brought to you by the fools who run our countries and globalist psychopaths organizing WW3 on us, this is a Guttenberg Press/Lightbulb/Steampower/Personal Computer level of transformation about to strike mankind. Upheaval will be intense, but now is definitely the time to start familiarizing yourself with the concepts so when they do break out into broad acceptance, you can at least weather the storm that will accompany it.

So consider this a little heads up to someone who grabbed on early in this new wave (for once). A long time ago I heard the expression if you really cared about people, you’d warn them of what you believe is coming. There you go. You’ve been warned. What you do with being for-armed is up to you. It’s going to be a time of horrors and wonders. Awe and tears.

The only two sure things in life are death and taxes. The only constant is change.

Our future brought to us by the WEF.
Was looking for something else, but found this cool thing instead.

Vaya con Dios all! Catch you next time.

Something’s Rotten…

Dirty pool, old man.

It has come to my attention there’s possibly something fishy happening down the Amazon way, and for those who may be visiting those pages, I want you to be aware of it as it might be affecting you too on other reviews you posted for other products.

To all those who have read my book and left a review on Amazon. For some reason they are reluctant/refusing/dragging their feet to post any reviews. Out of the 3 I directly know have been posted, a week later, one of them have shown up and it showed up within 30 minutes.

I’ve contacted Amazon and they have basically blown me off, twice. They claim “It take several days…” Well, it’s been a week for the ones that are missing. That’s no longer acceptable when you can post one in 30 minutes while I watch. If they’re attaching review speed to the amount of purchases a reviewer makes, that’s really dirty pool.

I mean, I’ve been advised by other writers to not concern yourself with those things. I know I know, I probably shouldn’t. Much like actors should avoid following their reviews too. But I’ve not hit that level yet. I still like hearing what youse guys have to say. And I know how much real, honest reviews matter to me when I’m looking at products, and want the same for what I put out there.

So, if you have left a review, or you were going to, put it anywhere but Amazon. Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Try Goodreads even, or post it on FB. Send me a link to your public post there I’ll re-link the quality ones, and start posting them in the reviewer comments on Amazon where I do have control.

I’ll have to try their customer service again, but I don’t have high hopes. The other option is for you to complain to their customer service about the status of your review. It seems that you can demand a reason why it’s not posted. (of course, if you’ve not bought $50 of goods through their site, they won’t let you review.) Starting Monday next week I’ll try again if they don’t show.

Ultimately, thank you all so much for your support and love of the story.

Next time, a recap of Dualcon and the good news from that.

Welcome to the Dream Nebula – Roadshow Edition

After playtesting, the GURP’s demo of “Tales From the Dream Nebula” is now on tour! That means if I’m at a show, and there’s gaming tables to be had, I’ll be looking to run this game demo after the event, usually after the vendor booths are closed.

For those who will be interested, this is a unique story set in the Dream Nebula where between 4-8 players get to choose from a selection of 9 possible pre-rolled characters. Each mix will result in quite a different outcome as the characters are designed to support the others, but not be interchangeable.

So what’s the plot of the game? How do I kick it off? Well let me tell you…

Welcome to Londinium! The city of London reborn on an archipelago of small skylands interconnected with bridges and tubes, the skies filled with gigantic dirigible airships and thousand car skytrains, flying tugs, drones, grav cars and people flitting about in ultralight aircraft or flying about with their “Bumblebee” flight rigs. The skies are often filled with glowing clouds and dark fogs that would make Old Blighty proud. Big Ben still chimes the hour, and the Old Bailey materializes and vanishes in the fog like the legendary town of Brigadoon.

You find yourself in Londinium Station in the Luxury Class boarding lounge, awaiting the arrival of your shuttle to the airliner, the Imperial Grandeur! An airship fit for Emperor Xiao himself. In fact, it is one of the few private vessels that has a mobile court for your supreme monarch. Of course, when the Eternal Emperor is not on board, it doubles as a private club for the members of his court and for very special events, like what is almost upon us.

Although you may not be one of the festive holiday revelers or the faithful pilgrims off to celebrate Xiaomas at the Shrine of Xiao in Aegibria, the end of the Imperial Grandeur’s line. The holiday cruise has two stops left before arrival in Istantinople, and Konongabo, floating continents unto themselves. How you managed to get ticket upgrades to such lofty heights, just below Nobility Class, is a mystery to you too and thank your lucky clouds that you will enjoy the comforts of one of the most celebrated airliners in the Dream.

Some of you will be staying in Aegibria to celebrate Xmas, others will travel on to their final destinations, but one thing’s for certain, this will be the trip of a lifetime!

Now here’s a question for you, dear reader. We are considering starting to write system neutral gaming modules set in the Dream Nebula, and starting on an RPG worldbook. Is this something you’d be interested in? Leave a reply and your opinions on the matter.

Oh, I almost forgot. There are plans to record the games for people to watch/listen to. Leave your opinions in the comments.

Otherwise, the book is on sale all over the place! Get your copy now! Oh and if you’re going to be at a show I’ll be at and you want it autographed, bring it by! I’m not shy nor do I bite.

But till next time with more updates and fun, behave yourselves if you can.

Four to Launch!

Today is Launch Day! It’s finally here!

If you’ve ever wondered about how you can let your thanks be known to an author, here’s the way to do it! Spread the word, leave a review. Even a rating (good or bad) helps teach the algorithms about the book. If you want to be involved and attach your name to a work, and share in it’s success, even a little, that’s how you do it.

Let people know what you thought about “Dreams Within Dreams”.  They actually want to know! Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Walmart, Smashwords, Kobo…. pick your favorite bookseller online because they’re now open to reviews, and I need your help spreading the word. Let people know about the book. Maybe it’s something they’d be interested in, but if you read it, let people know what you think. Tell them how you liked to hate or hated to like a character. Your opinion is desired!  

As for me, I’ll be at Dualcon in Charleston, WV today running the booth with my darling bride. We’ll be selling the new printed release as well as all the Akiniwazisaga and a lot of related merch. Postcards, refrigerator magnets, toy swords and shields and harpoons. We’ll even have the ever popular Morris boards there. At 6pm, I’ll be running my “Welcome to the Dream Nebula” TTRPG event for GURPS 4ed. There are still seats available, and will be first come first serve as of gametime. Drop by and say hi if you’re there.

As for spreading the word, websites where I could use help spreading the word:

Your personal blog (If you do a little article here, let me know so I can share/crosslink/repost it.)TwitterInstagramGoodreadsFacebook (any groups you may belong to that might like it)MindsYour Discord or Guilded channels

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll do what I can to help out. If you’re interested in doing an interview for your blog or vlog, let me know as well. Just don’t wait too long, the first week is the most important of them all!

Thank you!!!

P.S. Just in case you want some copy to put in your social media post, here’s some below you can use.

Now available on:

Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple Store, Barnes & Noble

or special order from your favorite Ingram Spark affiliated bookstore.

“Tales From the Dream Nebula”
Book 1: “Dreams Within Dreams“

A new retrofuturist pulp serial.

“Dreams Within Dreams” is the first novel in a rollicking retro-futuristic Sci-Fi serial merging cyberpunk and old school pulp adventure with a touch of neo-noir intrigue. It’s “Flash Gordon” meets “Smokey and the Bandit” meets “The Matrix” meets “Talespin”.

“An imaginative, action-packed tale that reads like a vision. If you like a bit of cyberthriller in your sci-fi, then I think you’ll enjoy this one.”

– Kerry Nietz. Award winning author of
“Amish Vampires From Outer Space” &
the cyberpunk “Dark Trench Saga”.

Short Description

A world with no stars… no sun… no moon… no Earth. Only “the Dream”….

Winston Harper is a sky trucker down on his luck. Years of numbing his past trauma has whittled away his reputation. Blacklisted and back to the wall, Winston’s only hope of survival is a no-questions-asked contract offering pay high enough to make him forget his own name. What could possibly go wrong? When the client changes the deal and imperial security crashes the party, he’s on the run caught between the empire and a rebellion. Hauling ten containers of contraband cargo, and guided by a mysterious femme fatale who holds all the cards, death may be the better way out…

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the lines between technology and biology have become blurred, humanity survives on the remains of the solar system scattered about in a sky of endless twilight, ruled by an alien entity. Follow Winston Harper as he becomes entangled in the struggle against the cosmic empire and potentially, the secrets of humanity’s lost past… and perhaps its future?

~~~~~

If you choose, I’ve attached the cover and series logo graphics you can include in your post.

Three to get Ready…

All the worry, stress and trepidation are over! The paperback copies of Dreams Within Dreams have arrived in time for their launch in 8 days!

Photo by the Darling Bride.

We also received the book cover magnets as well, so the merch is all in for the show! I’m so ecstatic!

The presale for the ebook is on Smashwords if you can’t wait for it. If you want the hard copy, you can preorder it on Amazon.

We will be handselling these at Dualcon in 10 days!

The excitement is growing!

All we have to hear about now is if I’m going to be running GURPs at the con for my “Welcome to the Dream Nebula” one-shot game.” Once that’s confirmed, everything will be in place. (except where load-in occurs).

We’ll figure it out. here’s some of the pictures of the pre-rolled characters. Let’s hear it for Stable Diffusion and a ton of new models!

Early Ebook Release!

So you’re excited for Tales From the Dream Nebula to launch? Well guess what?

It’s coming? No! It’s here!

A surprise pre-release sale is now available on Smashwords!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/presale/1328261

Click the link and get your copy before everyone else! Be the first to leave a review!

Incidentally, if you are a book reviewer and are interested enough that you want a copy to put on your blog, let me know and we can work something out!

Just say “Mother sent you”.

Who Wants To Play Some Tabletop Dream Nebula?

I’ve been a gamer since 1980 and can be considered an OG of the hobby. When you cut your teeth on the original red book BASIC D&D where elves and dwarves were classes not races. Not to mention remember when AD&D was brand new on the endcap shelves in the K-Mart toy section along side the classic box sets… You get to call yourself that. Ahhh… I can still smell the crayon that came with the cheap plastic dice. Back then you had to color in your own dice with a crayon to see the numbers. That’s how old school I am.

To that end, it’s long been my goal to turn Dream Nebula into a Tabletop RPG. The question has been what system? In the end, I do want to create my own that matches my tastes in RPGs out there, but I realized you know what? Some people might love other systems and my setting, so let’s see what game I could use to do a quick homebrew and test it out.

That means, I’m going to be running a one shot intro to the Dream Nebula for gamers based on the GURPs 4th Edition system and am in the process of entering the demo event at our next two cons.

But before that happens, We’re going to do a playtest at the Dragon’s Den in Beckley, WV on Feb 4th. I need a few players to help out. So if you’re in the area and are available that Saturday afternoon, sign up at the desk or if it’s full come on by to watch. We might need an alternate gamer if someone drops out.