Greetings, fellow humans and all who identify as same. It is time once again for a McSciFi newsletter to tickle your tiny bits. Yeah, Mac Daddy and Cheese Mommy, I’ve got some Zippity Boo-Yah for you today. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes, but I can now pull back the shower curtain (EEEEEK) and give you a peek at some of it.
While we have been using our highly trained tabby cats to get all our ducks in a row, and that’s been going about as well as you might expect, we have also been busting out the Weimann 332 and polishing all our shiny parts so the public, that’s you, can enjoy them. Basically, it came down to two things.
First and foremost, we had to change the Azoth Khem website from a cool, kind of artsy, one into a business juggernaut. Now, when cool people like you click the link, you are immediately greeted by useful information. Here are the authors, here is an open project for you to submit your incredible original literature to and then link after link leading you to the hallowed spaces where your credit card is welcomed.
Did I say, “welcomed”? I meant “loved like the sight of a newborn child snuggled in its mother’s arms.” I’m talking “loved like a taco when no one else cares.” “Loved like a first kiss returned enthusiastically.” I’m talking some serious love here.
Speaking of love, as I was typing this I got notifeid that The Brittle Riders had a new review on Amazon. Since I’m more fun than ebola, I’d like to share.
The Brittle Riders is a wild, funny, and creative sci-fi story set in a strange future where humans are gone and smart creatures rule the world. It’s full of action, weird humor, and great world-building. The mix of sci-fi and fantasy works really well, and the story keeps you hooked. If you’re looking for something different and exciting, give this series a try. I definitely want to know what happens in the next book! – Ana25
Next up came the gutting of the Bill McSciFi website. You may recognize the frame used for each page. It is the old one. According to my late pal Judy Tenuta, we live in a finite universe so time and budget are real-world issues we needed to embrace. That said, I deleted over fifty pages of crap that were linked throughout the site. No one gave a fig’s skin about my history in anthologies. The titles are listed on the short stories’ page, and that’s all anyone seemed to care about. The site suffered from TMI syndrome.
After the herd was culled and the remaining useful flesh consumed, it was time to add pretty things to make those special visitors who live on the bleeding edge of awesome, also like you, say “OOOOH” and “AAHHH” a lot. Judging by the resopnses of the beta testers we let out of the dungeon, mission accomplished. Now, when you go to Bill McSciFi, you will be greeted by clear links for videos and, this seems to be the one peeps wanted, chimeras. That’s right, there is now an image carousel featuring likenesses of over fifty chimeras that live, laugh, and love in The Brittle Riders and Goptri of the Mists.
The number of people who helped me craft prompts so these beings could leap from my imagination into your computer is large and appreciated. The nice people at Deep AI have been helping me create frameworks that will allow easier creation of the things that live in my squishy brain. A few models who orbit the McSciFi multiverse were kind enough to allow me to use pics of their bodies as forms for my humanoid chimeras. AI has real problems with height. So, being able to place a tall model in the same image as a shorter one and say “image one fits model one,” and so on, made my life easier. Ratios were predetermined this way.
One thing all this has taught me is that the internet is a sad and lonely place. There are sites where you can learn how to create cartoons of Superman banging a Disney princess. That’s why there is a lawsuit with an escalating number of plaintiffs trying to stop that. But if you want to use AI like a tool and create something new, that’s when things get tricky.
A quick heads up. While I have been spacing my newsletters out I will be sending you one next week since, by then, there will be a theme song for The Brittle Riders created by sheep farmers in Tennessee.
Not even I could make that up. See you mext week.
