deusexmagicalgirl

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Follow-Up

Just FYI, I was trying to get Bing Image Creator to show me some magical girls celebrating Thanksgiving, and this popped out. I like how it seems to have confused her Moon Stick with an orange on a fork, and I like that she apparently needs three glasses of champagne all to herself. I also like how her turkey is nestled in a fruit salad. The generator made several similar images, and in all of…

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[deusexmagicalgirl]

Happy Thanksgiving

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#holidays #Thanksgiving

[deusexmagicalgirl]

The Arrogance of the Librarian

I am a librarian. I like my job a lot. Unlike my previous career, it doesn’t require sixteen-hour shifts of hard labor plus homework, so I view it as my retirement. But sometimes I have to deal with other librarians, and then my job borders on intolerable. I have just returned from one of those self-congratulation sessions that librarians euphemistically call “conferences.” Because librarians’…

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#librarians #libraries

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Bing Image Creator Tries Drawing Magical Girl Pretty Dynamo

I think this will be my last post on this subject at least for a while, lest this simply turn into a blog of AI-generated art, but I want to report on what happened when I tried to get Bing to produce images of the protagonist from Jake and the Dynamo. I did this in two different sessions and got very different results each time, though I notice certain similarities running throughout. This isn’t…

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[deusexmagicalgirl]

'Rags and Muffin' According to Bing Image Creator

I see a lot of people playing around with Microsoft Bing’s new Image Creator, which uses Dall-E 3 as its engine. I’m toying around with AI because, like other people, I find it interesting and fun but also because I’m obliged to familiarize it for work reasons I won’t discuss on the blog. In any case, I decided to try to get Bing Image Creator to reproduce some scenes from my novel Rags and…

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#AI #art #Rags and Muffin

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Children's Book Update: Back from My Editor

I have the text of my children’s picture book back from my editor. She described it as “really sweet” and “a joy” and made minimal suggestions. I’ve been over the text one last time and think it’s ready to go. Since I’ve never done this kind of book before, I’m flying blind, but I think the next step will be to find an illustrator and, after the illustrations are done, to find someone to handle…

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#A.I. #children&039;s books #fairy tales #Grammarly #picture books

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Working on 'The Cup of Agamemnon'

Having finished the manuscript for a children’s picture book and sent it to my editor, I’m back to work on The Cup of Agamemnon, a sword-and-planet adventure that I suspect will take me some time to complete This book will be a challenge for me. It involves more large-scale, semi-realistic warfare than I am used to depicting, so I will need some research and assistance to make sure I don’t…

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[deusexmagicalgirl]

Picture Book Update

I will have to roll up my sleeves and format my new book in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign. This is something I wanted to avoid, but I don’t think I can hire someone for the formatting, mostly because I want to have the book in a  finalized draft before I hire the illustrator: I need to know the page count so I know how many illustrations will be necessary. I think I’ll place the text on the left…

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#fiction #Grammarly #picture books #publishing #updates #Vellum

[deusexmagicalgirl]

New Story Finished

I have finally finished one of the projects I’m working on, the text for a children’s picture book. I wrote it specifically for my first daughter, and it’s based on a story I made up for her one night when we didn’t have a storybook handy. It’s a fairy tale with a whimsical premise, some classic fairy-tale motifs, a climax that might surprise slightly by breaking convention, some action, and a…

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#children&039;s books #fairy tales #picture books

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Instead, Watch 'Masters of the Universe' (1987)

If you’re hankering to watch a live-action movie based on a Mattel toy franchise, in which the characters make an ill-advised trip to the “real world” that disappoints long-time fans, let me suggest an alternative to the film that opened this weekend. I recommend the 1987 box-office disaster Masters of the Universe, which is based on the hugely popular sword-and-planet toy line of the same name.…

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#Dolph Lundgren #Frank Langella #Gary Goddard #He-Man #Masters of the Universe

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Instead, Watch 'Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse'

So, the hotly anticipated Barbie movie has been released, and it is, from what I hear, a giant rug-pull on par with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, except less pleasing. This thing had a massive ad campaign, so enormous that everyone has been buzzing about it (though I am pleased to say that, Luddite that I am, I never so much as saw a single trailer). Its ad campaign promised that it would be a fun,…

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#animation #Barbie #Life in the Dreamhouse #Netflix

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Orlando Innamorato, Part 2

Happy Easter. Admittedly, I did not finish the Orlando Innamorato during Lent as planned. Although I’m enjoying the story, it’s still slow going for me, not only because of so much else going on but because … the poetry of the translation really isn’t good. Mind you, I still think I chose the better of the two alternatives, but there simply is not a good translation of this in English. I really…

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#A. S. Kline #Ariosto #Astolfo #Marfisa #Orlando Innamorato

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Orlando Innamorato, Part 1

I have finished the first eight cantos of Orlando Innamorato, which brings us up to almost one hundred pages of A. S. Kline’s translation. That should put us well on track to finish the book before Easter on April 9th, which is our goal. I think I made the right decision in buying this edition. Further checking has confirmed that Kline’s is one of only two complete translations of the Orlando…

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#A. S. Kline #Lent #Matteo Maria Boiardo #Orlando Innamorato

[deusexmagicalgirl]

It Is Imperative to Buy Physical Media

By now, readers are probably aware of the outrage over the soon-to-be published Bowdlerizations of the works of both Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming. Two very different authors, the first is the writer of several well-known children’s books, especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the second is the author of the James Bond novels. To make perfectly clear where I personally stand, I detest…

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#Bowdlerization #censorship #Ian Fleming #James Bond #Roald Dahl

[deusexmagicalgirl]

Lenten Reading: The Matter of France

Years ago, I had an annual practice in which I gave up watching or reading any fictional works for Lent in order to focus on some substantial nonfiction reading. These days, my ratio of nonfiction to fiction is much higher, so I’ve abandoned this particular Lenten practice. Nonetheless, I have decided (a little late, since Lent started a week ago) on my Lenten reading, and I invite anyone…

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[deusexmagicalgirl]

The Cup of Agamemnon

Yeesh, it’s been a while. So much has happened over here, and we’ve managed to clone the magical girl not once but twice now. I seriously need to get another novel out. Part of my problem is that I’ve had trouble buckling down on a single project I’ve been drifting back and forth between sequels to my existing work and other things, but I finally grit my teeth and decided to finish The Cup of…

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#books #novels #science fantasy #science fiction #teaser #The Cup of Agamemnon

[deusexmagicalgirl]

New Magical Girl Just Dropped

Had a new baby today, a healthy little girl. Mommy and baby both doing well. No pictures as of yet for the sake of internet security etc.

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