Moe Lane's Blog, page 506
September 19, 2022
Item Seed: The Lancaster Grimoire.
I was going to go all spooky horror, but this is maybe more interesting. And maybe more subtly unsettling, in its way. I mean, what if the kid only smiles over the oddest things?
Lancaster-Grimoire-Google-DocsDownload
09/19/22 Snippet, BUZZ ON THE STREETS.
Conversations!
Patreon!The local landscape showed signs of what is usually delicately called a ‘disturbance:’ broken crates, scattered garbage from an overturned can, and one shop window sporting a spiderweb of cracks. That looked like it was going to be expensive to fix.
A skinny old guy half-filled the way in front of the window, grumpily sweeping up spilled sawdust and wood splinters from all the crates. From the way he kept smacking the sidewalk with his broom, he blamed it for his half-busted window. “Morning, Senor,” I said, tipping my hat. “You have a busy night?”
“What’s it to you?” the guy replied — and then he took a look at the Shamus suit, tie, and hat. “Oh, morning, Shamus. What’s it to you?” he said again, only this time with a bit more enthusiasm. “You on a case?”
“Geez, I hope not,” I replied, and his face fell slightly. It brightened up again when I went on, “But I’m looking for somebody, might have come through here last night. Guy by the name of Lucas? About so high, dark skin, curly hair, looks like he moonlights as a really good evil companion?”
“Depends. That elf a friend of yours?”
I carefully didn’t grin. “I’m asking about him, ain’t I?” I sighed, and handed him my card. “Look, lemme just cut to the chase. Give that to whoever you got fixing the window, and tell ‘em to send me the bill. I’ll make it go away.” Well, Sofie would. She said she’d be nice about expenses, and the cynical part of me was sure this would all end up being her fault anyway.
I had Thoughts about AI Art.
On Twitter.
I was morbidly curious enough to look up what Kate was talking about (https://t.co/C6aNZySlhB). My reaction? The cover may or may not have hurt an artist, but it probably hurt the writer. https://t.co/B6YSCoCTiF
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) September 19, 2022
Short version: somebody used an AI-generated picture for the cover of their free RPG supplement, which is… fine, it’s their life. Then they decided to turn everything up to 11, because Twitter. My own opinion is AI-generated art won’t generate me sales, so I won’t use it. Using human artists does, so I do.
Well, that’s one of my opinions. Some of the other ones are a little too unkind to state too clearly. I wasn’t actually looking to start fights today: I know, I know, how the mighty have fallen…
September 18, 2022
I clearly need to get into more things.
This happens, from time to time: I focus on stuff, and let everything else go, and suddenly I have less to talk about. So, what should I be getting into? What should my readers be getting into? That’s always a good topic of conversation.
09/18/22 Snippet, BUZZ ON THE STREETS.
A little less than my target wordcount today (I don’t post everything I write), but that’s all right. It was what I wanted to get written down.
Patreon!It turned out to be one of those complicated days.
That wasn’t even including trying to figure out how to let Lucas know Sofie paid me to babysit him. I figured I could find an angle that wouldn’t have him go right out and need a babysitter. I mean, worse case scenario? I’d cut him in on the expense account, and without a qualm of conscience. Sofia Hudson Redgrave had money the way fish have water. She wouldn’t notice us wasting some of her hard-inherited cash, and she absolutely wouldn’t care.
I would care, though. I mean, if I kept doing it for long. Mooching’s one thing, leeching’s another.
Nah, the first problem was going to be finding Lucas. He wasn’t at Garapenna’s, even though we had agreed on nine AM sharp.
“He wasn’t in earlier, either,” Garapenna not-told me as he handed me a coffee and a couple conchas. To go, I noted. “Haven’t seen him since yesterday, Shamus.”
“Anybody asking for him since then?”
“Yeah, one guy.” Garapenna drinks his own coffee with a straw, which is real weird to see the first time. “Real piece of work, too. Kept telling me to get the owner. Got sniffy when he found out I own this place.”
Review your favorite authors! :bangs pot with spoon: Review your favorite authors!
I just got back from putting up an Amazon review for somebody else’s book, because if I’m going to nag people about putting up reviews on Amazon (ahem) then I should dang well do the same. Everybody here knows the drill by now, sure: authors need the reviews for a good spot in the search algorithms*, so review their books. All authors, too. If you happen to loathe me and are just hate-reading this site for some** reason – there’s somebody you like out there who needs a review. So go review theirs.
Moe Lane
#commissionearned
*I was a little upset that it’s almost impossible to get a proper spell-check of the misspelled word ‘algorithm,’ until I remembered that I obviously couldn’t spell the word on the first try, either.
**I’ll be assuming that the reason for hate-reading is sad and possibly even pathetic, you understand.
Patreon Microfiction: Scrimshaw.
I didn’t realize before I did ‘Scrimshaw’ that punk dryads could be a thing. But they could be, right? It could be an entire look. Alas, I can’t draw worth a damn.
Patreon!September 17, 2022
Check out JJ Wood Sculpture!
He’s local, I’ve known Jim online for about a decade now, and the stuff’s pretty. Or, in the case of the Christmas present I’ve already acquired, pretty and useful. Worth a look, methinks.
Christmas is coming. The best gifts come from local artists.
— Ibuprofen Hippohttps://t.co/fPb82eu8je
(@JimJamitis) September 16, 2022
