Ancient Egypt, I’ve found, is so fascinating on its own that for fantasy writers and worldbuilders there isn’t a lot that needs to be created from scratch. The amulets above, for example, were created in about an hour using text prompts and various AI art generators. And ancient Egyptians did love their amulets. Any significant …
The civilization of Ancient Egypt has enthralled the Western world ever since Napoleon’s forays down the Nile brought it to the attention of European scholars. Part of that was the indecipherable hieroglyphics that covered its temples, tombs, and monuments. Not until the 1850s were these translated into English, using cross-translations from the Rosetta Stone. In …
A few months ago, back in August 2022, the ARCs (advanced reader’s copies) of a YA fantasy novel, Lightlark, were released to selected readers and reviewers to generate some buzz. The author, Alex Aster, had generated plenty already. Already active on BookTok — the TikTok community centered around reading and authors — she’d been talking …
Now that Halloween is coming around, let’s talk about a perennial costume: Harry Potter. Either Harry himself, in a black robe (a polyester one used for graduations is available at most thrift stores), scarf, round eyeglasses, and eye-penciled scarf, or one of the other characters such as Snape, Hermione, or a Death Eater. All have …
The letter D is dandy, dignified, dauntless, darling. Though it looks pregnant, I’d say its gender is masculine. It has a Medieval vibe; J. R. R. Tolkien was fond of using it in the dh combination, meant to be pronounced as a hard th as is found in the word clothing. Dragon starts with D, …
An AI can generate recipes, stories, Halloween costumes… but how about haircuts? A silly list for you to laugh at, though some of these may be plausible in some future setting. Haircuts that don’t, and shouldn’t, exist Aseptic: The haircut is done by cutting short, curly ends of the hair. When the hair is …
The world of boating has its own set of slang: starboard, port, bow, stern, limey, crow’s nest. But there’s always room for more. In some other world, it might be these terms. Newfangled Nautical Slang Ammunition-in: It’s time for a drink because it’s 5 o’clock somewhere Allee: A nearby room or place where one …
Sometimes I randomgen a spell or magic item that is so complicated to describe I know it won’t fit on a twitter post. So I’ve saved them for here. Complicated Magic Book of Dragon Coloring: Contrary to popular belief, most dragons lead dull existences. When they’ve gotten to an age where there are few …
Like imaginary galaxies, imaginary nebulas are also simple to create. These three were done in Wombo, which is designed specifically to make trading card NFTs. But it’s also fine for other stuff. These randomgens were tweaked in Write With Transformer, so if some of them don’t make sense, that’s why. WWT is part of the …
The very first story I had published professionally (which means, by my definition, I got paid for, and I could hold the book in my hot little hands) was about a woman who turns, or is turned into, an espresso machine, and all the various sensations she experiences as coffee and creamer emerge from her …