Carol Van Natta's Blog, page 3
February 7, 2024
AI Art for Winter 2024
AI Art for Winter 2024 Several highly popular generative AI art services continue to roll out new versions. I primarily use MidJourney, but dabble in others, notably NightCafé. I've seen impressive results by others from DALL-E v. 3, but I haven't played with it myself for over a year. The nuances of prompting — describing […]
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January 18, 2024
How to Kickstarter a Project
How to Kickstart(er) a Project Kickstarter is an online all-or-nothing crowdfunding platform that helps people find creative projects to support. Artists offer special benefits to people who pledge support for a creative project. If the project meets its funding goal, the artist gets the funds, and the backers get the rewards. If the project doesn't […]
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December 31, 2023
Plans for 2024
Plans for 2024 Most years, but not all (looking at you, horrible COVID year!), it's fun to look ahead. I come from a long line of folks who are rather bad at looking back, so that section will be brief. The more interesting sections — to me, at any rate — are plans for 2024. […]
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December 14, 2023
Coloring Pages Just For Fun
Coloring Pages For Fun Sometimes when I need a break so my brain can have time to think, but I can't go for a walk, I get generative AI art services to make some coloring pages just for fun. As is always the way with A.I. anything, some attempts are more successful than others. Fair […]
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December 4, 2023
Fabulous Iceland Adventure Part 2
Fabulous Iceland Adventure, Part 2 When my friend and part-time travel companion Nancy and her husband Harl said, “Let's go to Iceland!”, I said “yes.” This post has lots of photos from my fabulous Iceland adventure Part 2. (Click the photos to see bigger versions.) See my other post, Fabulous Iceland Adventure Part 1, for […]
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November 13, 2023
AI Art Adventures for Autumn 2023
AI Art Adventures for Autumn 2023 It's been a while since I posted about generative A.I. art. Artificial intelligence, as in machine learning, has been around for decades. The comparatively small part that generative AI comprises — art, music, text — is drawing all the attention. I still think of it as a tool to […]
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October 29, 2023
Fabulous Iceland Adventure Part 1
Fabulous Iceland Adventure, Part 1 Without actually planning it, this has apparently been my year to travel. Well, I definitely planned the trip to Australia because it's on the other side of the planet and the flight is 15 hours(!) long. I'd heard good things about Iceland, but it wasn't until my travel companion Nancy […]
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October 18, 2023
Meet the Heroes of Stellar Drift
Meet the Heroes of Stellar Drift In “Stellar Drift,” my story in Pets in Space 8, determined forest ranger Houyen convinces mysterious pilot Sairy and her pet to help him track the source of a deadly disease before a greedy crime lord gets there first. My story ideas usually start with characters and the trouble […]
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October 17, 2023
Disabled Veterans, Service Dogs, and Spaceships
Disabled Veterans, Service Dogs, and Spaceships What do disabled veterans, service dogs, and spaceships have in common? When I was invited to participate in the first of several Pets in Space® anthologies, and later took over as editor, my favorite thing about them was the charity focus. Of course, I love science fiction romance, but […]
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September 17, 2023
A Pilot and Her Pet
A Pilot and Her Pet Gargoyle In “Stellar Drift,” my novella in the Pets in Space 8 science fiction romance anthology, the heroine Sairy has a pet gargoyle named Kyala. A pilot and her pet… what? A gargoyle, you say? Yes. In the worlds of the Central Galactic Concordance, it’s all kinds of illegal to […]
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