Generative AI Art of My Book Characters, Entertainment Only

I'm not using any of this for commercial purposes, but you might enjoy some of these pics

Let the record state I’m not a fan of generative AI, which I view as a glorified plagiarism machine. It basically sucks up content generated by humans (and increasingly by other AIs) and spits it back out again. If it’s used as a cheap or free alternative to human work, it risks replacing actual creativity with copies of copies ad infinitum. I supported the 2023 writers and actors strike, which was intended to prevent replacement of actors and writers by AI.

That said, although you have my word that book covers, premium content, and writing will be human-generated, generative AI can be a fun toy. Over the summer I found Magic Studio AI Art Generator, which allows you to type in text and it will create images for you, and plugged in descriptions of characters from my fiction. Some of the resulting images had pretty obvious origins — one looks like it was drawn by Frank Frazetta and another looks like the character Rose Tyler from the longtime British science fiction program Doctor Who. I could see the usefulness of this as a creative aid — plug in a short description of a character, create the image, and type up a more elaborate description based on said image like you were using it as a model.

So here’s some AI art based on characters from my existing works for your entertainment. If you envisioned the characters differently, don’t freak out. Remember, this is all some computer’s interpretation, the same if a human artist depicted a character differently than you imagined.

Amber Webb, The Thing in the Woods, The Atlanta Incursion, and The Walking Worm (Forthcoming)

I can’t remember the exact text I plugged in for this one, but I do remember her age (17, how old she is in Thing), the fact she’s using a Mossberg shotgun (which none of these images included), and that she kind of looks like Taylor Swift. The bottom image is probably the best in terms of her actual appearance, but there’s that weird thing with a third hand on the trigger. The middle image looks like it ate Rose Tyler from Doctor Who to produce, and although the upper image is better than the middle one, her face is a bit too wide and cheekbones too prominent.

(I did include one of these images in my Walking Worm Kickstarter, but that was recommended to me by another author to break up text-walls.)

Alonzo Merrill, Battle for the Wastelands and Serpent Sword

I created the two images of the rebel chieftain Alonzo Merrill with the Battle text below, which is when protagonist Andrew Sutter first meets him:

"He was tall, at least six feet, and wore a shabby duster that looked a little too large. Brown hair peeked out from under a slouched hat whose crown was encircled by tattered gold braid. Two long ponytails hung over his right shoulder down to his chest. White bandages spotted red emerged from his left sleeve. Three fingers on his left hand were made of metal."

This gives him a bit of a raffish look (two young soldiers fangirl over him in Serpent Sword, which makes him uncomfortable, and a family member described him as “handsome”), but he’s dressed a little too nicely for someone who’s been waging a guerrilla war from the sticks for several years. Good thing he didn’t open his mouth, since his teeth are explicitly described as yellowed.

In an earlier email I’d imagined a younger Karl Urban could play Alonzo and this image, generated using notes from a sketch I’d sent out in one of my premium emails awhile ago, seems to match that. Most of the images were of someone whom I’d described as “Native American Keanu Reeves.” Both Alonzo and his sister Catalina have thinner faces, higher cheekbones, and hazel eyes, but since they’re full siblings they can’t look too different. The fact he’s dark-haired and Catalina is a redhead into her adult years seems a bit funny, although one could always explain this away with recessive genes.

Catalina Merrill, Battle for the Wastelands and Serpent Sword

I didn’t expect Catalina to come out looking so schoolmarm-ish, but it fits her bookish character.

Havarth Grendelsson (Hayes Merrill), Battle for the Wastelands and Serpent Sword

The captive Catalina’s son with the tyrant Grendel, the Wastelands series’ overall villain. Like all of Grendel’s children he has his gray eyes (I knew a woman from the town where I had my first newspaper job who had six kids who all had her eyes), but otherwise he’s Catalina’s boy Mini-Me. A woman from my writing group described him as “really cute.”

(Given how the planned third book features little dude appearing at two formal occasions, I’ve got these pics saved to model for how he’d be dressed.)

The email’s getting a bit too long so I’ll stop now, but since Magic AI doesn’t require a login and it’s free to use, I can definitely use it to generate images to entertain you all (and help me elaborate my descriptions) in the future.

The Walking Worm Pre-Order For 2/5/25

I mentioned this in my last email, but in case you didn’t see it, The Walking Worm e-book is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and other outlets. The actual release date is 2/5/25, since I promised Kickstarter backers they’d have it two months ahead of everybody else.

TWW is also on Goodreads here.