rlfj: Blog

Some interesting comments on adding illustrations to Wedding.

“Story was great - illustrations out of this world.”

An interesting exchange was: “You've done well. Too bad AI images look so artificial ;-)” To which I responded: “It is what it is. I can't even do stick figures. The tech is getting better and more realistic, so give it a few more years…A lot of that is cost related. The free systems are a lot less capable than the expensive corporate programs used by networks and ad agencies. They can be extremely lifelike.”

It’s mostly been very positive, but I did get a negative comment: “Just a quick note to mention that, while I've enjoyed your work in the past, your choice to use generative AI forces me to wish you well and stop reading your works.”

For right or wrong, the future is here. Costs for AI imagery are dropping even as capabilities are increasing. We will be seeing more illustrations, not fewer.

How do you feel?

I am happy to inform everybody that Wedding has been revised with illustrations on all six chapters. I also updated the codes to reflect this. I really want to thank svtin for his work. It has been fantastic, and I can't thank him enough! I am not sure yet whether I will update the ZBS book.

I’ve uploaded the new Chapter 2 and a new Cover Page. Please note, I didn’t rewrite the story. We (svtin and myself) simply tried to create pics to match the action. We think it mostly worked, but in case you find a discrepancy, well, oops! We did the best we could.

Part of the delay in loading the story is making sure the formatting is right. Once we know that is right, I’ll post some more chapters.

I am reposting Wedding with a major change – illustrations! Out of the blue, svtin sent me a note saying "I've read several of your stories and really enjoyed them. I have an interesting idea: I can generate beautiful AI images to go with your stories (currently sensual and artistic, not fully NSFW, but very aesthetic and erotic). If you're interested, feel free to drop me an email and I’ll send you some samples of my work!" Well, that just sounded fascinating! We worked several weeks on this, and I think the results are great! I hope you enjoy it. All six chapters should be up over the next week or two. Special thanks to svtin for his massive contribution with pictures.

Further, I am in the final editing process for a story I have been fiddling with for a bit. I should begin posting in a couple of weeks. I haven’t died yet.

I have put the final edited version of Martian Balance on the ZBookStore site. This has had all the typos and fixes sent to me put into the book. If you purchased the story, you can go to the site and download an updated version.

I had a fun email this afternoon. Soronel wrote about Chapter 7: In this chapter is the following: “Gastronomie Marvel didn’t [undock], however, since they had just docked and the crew was all in Triad getting drunk and laid.” Okay, easy enough to understand why the EastHem crew would want to, but how could they possibly pay? Any relaxation of the no-money rule is eventually going to lead to ruin, the Martians can't let up on that one even a little. I suppose maybe direct barter, simply steal something good out of the luxuries cargo that is part of Martian-EastHem trade.

My response: It's been my experience that when men and women get together somebody is going to figure out how to 'get together.' Barter is something to consider. Maybe trading blowjobs for lobsters. It'd be hilarious to see a bunch of guys going through the port carrying bushels of lobsters.