Random thought: (Asking for a friend)Can I finally stop pretending I’m obsessed with soccer?
Welcome back, kids. It’s Thursday, so you know what that means. It’s time for me to make someone’s day and thank them for sharing a prompt that I eventually got around to using as inspiration for one of my little stories. Since I like to keep my donors anonymous, I’ll just thank R.R. for his contribution. Besides, it’s much safer this way since I’m not sure how to spell Richard Riehle’s last name. This way I won’t blow it.
Here’s the story. Please stick around after you rate it because I also want to share an amusing tale about my adventure with AI when I worked on the accompanying illustration.
Rough Day at the Office
Freddy and Teddy were dim-witted siblings known as “The FEMA Brothers,” since the human vultures profited from natural disasters. They ripped off victims, charities, and widows. No scam was beneath them. In short, they were scum.
When a family evacuated as the hurricane approached, the brothers entered and cleaned out the place. Before the windows blew in, Teddy bolted, unable to convince Freddy to leave.
Seconds later, a wall of water surged through, drowning Freddy.
Two blocks away, Teddy sprinted to safety—until a downed power line lit him up.
So … as both of my blog readers know, when I run these stories, I always have an accompanying photo. I typically use Gemini or Meta. This week, I ran into an issue with Gemini. Here’s the conversation I had with the evil overlord. You’ll see what hoops I had to jump through to get the image I wanted.
Me: Can I get a photo of two brothers, probably in their 20s who are loading up a pickup truck with items they’ve looted from houses evacuated in a hurricane disaster. Possibly have a FEMA trailer or at least other FEMA vehicles in the shot. Needless to say, the brothers are shady characters, so no reason to depict them as upstanding citizens acting as good samaritans (because they’re not!)
Gemini: I can’t generate an image of people looting houses.
Me: I’m sorry. Let me clarify. I need them to have a truckload of household items. No need to show them actually committing a crime. Does that help?
Gemini: I can’t generate an image of two men with a truckload of items they’ve looted.
Me: Let me try again. Can I get a photo of two brothers, probably in their 20s who are loading up a pickup truck with items. They are at the scene of a disaster such as a hurricane. There is a FEMA trailer or other FEMA vehicles in the area. This could be their house or they could be helping friends evacuate their home (although the friends are not in the picture)
Gemini: I’ve created this image of the two brothers loading their truck as you described. Please note that I have kept the details of the environment focused on the recovery effort, including emergency vehicles and a FEMA trailer in the background.
Me: thanks. This looks good. Is it possible to remove the “kitchen” label from the box they’re loading?
Note: While I’m sure the FEMA Brothers were organized looters, I didn’t think they’d take the time to label their loot.
Me: Great job, thanks, Gemini!
Gemini: You’re very welcome! I’m glad I could help. Please let me know if you have any other requests!
Me: Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
OK, I didn’t really say this one. I would have but AI is too young for that reference.
Moving on, here’s one more peek under the curtain. After writing this week’s story, I ran through a few possible titles before landing on the one I went with. Here were the others I considered:
Brothers to the End
When Disaster Strikes, Strike Back
Making Lemons
Disaster Day
I’m really curious what you think. If you like any of them (or you have a better idea—always a good possibility), feel free to write me with your vote/suggestions. If you haven’t rated the story yet, you can include your thoughts in the Google rating form, or send me a separate email. If you comment in the rating form, it will be anonymous—unless you tell me who you are. That way, I can thank you in person!
NOVEL NEWS & NOTES…
Now that the latest draft of Questionable Characters is in the hands of my trusty editor, I have time to work on other writing projects. I recently revisited a short story I wrote that reads like a classic P.I. noir tale. I wrote it in the first person, present tense—something I’d never done before, but I really enjoyed writing in that voice, and had a lot of fun with my two main characters (the P.I. and his sometimes-antagonist, a defense attorney the P.I. works for). It’s a love-hate relationship. The P.I. sometimes hates what he has to do, but he pretty much loves the compensation. Right now, this one is also in the capable hands of a different editor. She’s someone I met at the Left Coast Crime conference, and she generously offered to read/edit my nine-page story. After she read the original draft and sent back some excellent notes, I made the revisions and returned it to her. She said she’ll get to it this weekend, so I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say. I think it’s something I’ll try to get published in a crime/mystery magazine or journal.
I’m also starting to think about what the sequel to Questionable Characters might look like. I haven’t put anything down on paper yet—not even the electronic kind that I use for all my writing. Well, I do have a waterproof pad of paper I keep in the shower for when inspiration strikes, but that’s another story.
Thanks for listening.
Scotty out
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