iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

"You're In Love" by Wilson Phillips is savage. She's all like 'oh I'm so happy you're in love with this other chick oh yeah yeah' but then two verses in she's all like 'oh you're not in love with me' and she's yearning like Charles Durning and the whole opening was BOGUS. Total decepticon shit.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

And even this is an inexact analogy. AI lets me do things that would otherwise be impossible for me to do. Should I give up my car so more people can get work driving a bus or an Uber? If someone gifted me a working jet pack, should I give up flight? You people make no sense.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If I have to plow a field, I'll use a tractor. I mean, I know, it's terrible I'm putting perfectly good oxen out of work, and the tractor's fumes are a pollutant, but still. It's much much much more efficient, I can get more done faster.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

AI improves my product. If my covers look more professional, I will reach more people. This is a good thing. I would never let a computer write my stories for me. But I'll let one help me put a cover together. Sure I will. Just as I will let one italicize the words I want italicized.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

shocking & horrible. I asked what words I'd chosen to make them laugh. The page vanished. A lot of people in the world just love to throw shit. The internet makes that really easy. Virtually nothing in this world that's easy is any good or remotely worthwhile.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

where the blogger pulled a passage from HARVEST NIGHT about a poor girl who had been mind controlled to be a sex slave. HN is all about MKULTRA. The blogger thought this passage was hilarious. I left a comment owning that maybe I'd written it badly, it wasn't meant to be funny, but tragic and

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If you want to actually read something of mine I'm always happy to send free files. And then we can talk, if you want to do that. I am absolutely certain, however, that you have no interest in putting in that kind of effort. Cheap shots are so much easier. There used to be a blog page somewhere

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

...from those who actually read my work and seem to know anything about what they're talking about. Saying 'the free sample is subpar' is probably fun to type... taking a good shit is a primal pleasure... but there really isn't any actual meaning in that particular pixel arrangement.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Not every piece is going to rock on out. KING OF GOLD is also pretty weak, I think. But I think THE PUMPKIN PATCH MAN is a solidly good story. GAMES PEOPLE PLAY works well. The four novellas in MISSIONS TO THE MULTIVERSE are all good work, IMHO. I am happy to accept criticism...

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If you're not a SERIOUS superhero comics fan, you're not going to understand much in it, or care about it. But I enjoyed writing it and I suspect there are probably maybe 10,000 other people in the world who would enjoy reading it, if they could find it. I write fast.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

DA GURLZ has a troubled past. The first draft I put up was the wrong one, I loaded an incorrect file. It was... unpolished. And some names were changed, while others weren't. And I have never been able to come up with a good cover for it. And the story is very fannish.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

There's simply no moral component there, any more than using a word processor instead of parchment and quill.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

These are just tools. AI is also just a tool. If I produced something with AI and tried to pass it off as something else -- something I actually painted, or a real photo instead of a fake -- that's fraud, absolutely. But rearranging pixels into a pleasing array so people will check out my book?

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

period covers intensely and I do write my own ad copy and place each element very precisely and I'm very fussy. Generally I'm going for a 60s or 70s look. My wife can't draw either. Is using AI worse than Photoshop? I used Microsoft Paint to assemble my covers because it's what I'm used to.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It is very important, if you want to connect with an audience, to look professional. Only friends & family read something with a bad cover. (And they don't buy it, they expect a free pdf, and then they don't read it.) I don't claim my covers as my own creative product, although I have studied

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

graphics tools to set up my covers. Never heard a word about it. AI comes along and I happily start using it and suddenly it's all 'well if you use AI for your covers you obviously use it for your writing, too'. Nope. I do my own creative work, AI is for advertising graphics, i.e, cover art.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

WARREN'S WORLD and ZOMBIE RAY FROM OUTER SPACE are also hers. It's funny how nobody ever gave me shit for Photoshop covers but now everyone is up my ass about AI. Oh, she did IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN's cover, too. Before AI, after she stopped doing covers for me, I would use various online

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

My wife did wonderful covers for me. She's great with Photoshop. I think you can see her stuff on ENDGAME, EARTHQUEST, and EARTHGAME. TIME WATCH. FEAR MASTERS. UNIVERSAL MAINTENANCE. WILD BLUE YONDER. Ooh, DAMNATION STATION and THIS SLAUGHTERHOUSE EARTH she worked hard on. DINOSAUR STATION.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

AI will let me transcend that. I won't need Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko or John Buscema to tell my stories in comic book form, and I won't have to put up with, for example, Ditko trying to turn everything I script into a Randian tract. AI will give me the keys to the kingdom.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Well I have an imagination and I want to communicate the ideas in my head in many medias, not just the one I have a talent for. AI will let me do this. I know it makes you crazy, but AI will let me get my images out where others can see them. I was born with a mediocre talent for drawing.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

you talk about 'creating slop without putting the work in'. Okay, let's build pyramids without modern machinery, just slave labor. How's that? You are gatekeeping. It's not a question of me doing the work, it's me not being born with visual artistic talent and you wanting to keep me locked out.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

But you won't need a studio, an agent, a publisher, a tech crew, any sort of collaborator or producer. You'll just be able to do it. Like right now, everyone can read and everyone has books. The Church didn't want that. We hate the Church. In the future they will roll their eyes at the anti AIs.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The goal is a world where everyone has some kind of basic income that keeps them comfortable and they can do whatever they want with their finite life spans. You want to paint, draw, sculpt, write poems, whatever, you can. And if you are talented you will do it better than AI.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

See, no, you're all wrong there. A few displaced monks and a lot of church elders hated Gutenberg's printing press but most of the world embraced it and sees him as a hero. Future generations will take AI for granted. The goal is not a class of commercial artists who make fabulous livings.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

No, my fine fine friend, the solution is to use the tech. AI will someday let me make movies from my keyboard. It will let me do comic books without an artist. It will let me create art in media barred to me now through no fault of my own. That includes self publishing professional looking work.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I eventually pieced that together. In my homebrew RPG there is a Negative Attribute called Slow Thinker and I have it at at least one level. But eventually my plodding mind connected the dots. I was excited to find a new market but then discovered, no electronic submissions? Oh God!

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Oh, wait. I think I understand. Maybe? Never mind.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Does Reactor accept unsolicited fiction subs? If not, congrtulations! (I ask because under 'submissions' i can only find instructions for non-fiction pitches with no mention of fiction subs).

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

But declaring 'well if you'll use AI slop in one place you're just as guilty, FIND THE $1000 YOU NEED TO HIRE AN ARTIST' is obtuse, foolish, and stupid. I use tech to make my product look professional. Things are not as simple as the morons want them to be.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Morons who can't tell the difference between using AI for cover graphics, which are not art but advertising, and using AI to do actual writing, which is indeed creative art and the product I produce and sell, tire me out. These are very different things. I don't claim my cover art as my own.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In my latest novel I knew where the weak spot was -- when my witch villain shows up to speak with my demon goddess protagonist. They had serious history, they had both appeared in the previous volume, and I just could not get it right. I think I needed 7 drafts to nail that down.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Or maybe use technology to produce a professional looking product? OH NOES DON'T DO THAT! People who think using AI for ad graphics is the same as using ai to produce creative writing tire me out. Your oversimplifications are trite and tiresome. Life is not as simple as you want it to be.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Got books in your house? Thank Gutenberg, although he put a lot of monk illustrators and calligraphers out of work. Book covers are advertising, not art. I have absolutely no qualms about using AI for ad graphics. I don't claim it as mine. But you do you, boo boo.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Moore's ST sadly went badly off the rails with "The Nuke Papers" and never really recovered, other than a two part story where Swampy went to Rann and teamed up with Adam Strange, which was da bomb. Other than that, though, from "Nuke" on, Moore's run was mostly pretentious nonsense.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

...but the single night construct of the film required that. I do believe, though, that more time spent on the Klan opponents, and background like the 'wooden nickels', would have really made the original film idea work wonderfully. It would have been lovely to flesh out some of the relationships.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So they got rid of most of the KKK stuff and layered in vampires. The vamps were done well but the initial insertion always seems sloppy and incomplete to me, and jarring in comparison to what we've already seen of the film. I did not care for how quickly vamp conversion happened...

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My feeling on SINNERS isthat its first draft was just a 'cool jazz Negroes vs the Klan' story in 30s Alabama. I could see that entire film introducing a lot of mundane white male characters that would turn out to be KKK. But given the contemporary vibe no one wanted to back that movie.

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Dark Side Is Coming Now Nothing Is Real @docnebula.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Me, I'm just proud I've never seen an Austin Powers movie.

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