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The Third and final part of the Histroy of the Dragans is out, 22nd July 2024.
Third part of the ‘History of the Dragans’ series, a continuation of the ‘Vampire Formula’ series.
Thorn sat at a computer in the basement of her house. Her
raven tousled hair tied back to keep it off her face while she typed. On her
nose, she had perched a pair of glasses with no lenses. Somehow, wearing the
frames set her in the mood, like putting on the alter ego of a writer.
She kept cool by wearing a white vest top and shorts.
Normally, she never wore white against her snowy pale skin, as it made her
looked washed out. But now her skin had some colour, it created a contrast,
which she liked.
The basement was bare brick walls, exposed wooden beam
ceilings and an array of metal pipes for water and heating. She pretended it
was on purpose, post-urban chic. The foundations of the urban setting on full
display. The truth of the house exposed; just as she exposed the truth of her
life onto paper. It seemed poetic to write in such surroundings. A constant
reminder of her literary mission to expose all.
Really, she had wanted the basement fully decorated,
the walls and ceilings plastered and painted, but there hadn’t been time. She
needed the shelter it offered for visitors on the sunniest days.
However, they had time to put down a thick grey carpet
to allow Rose to crawl upon. A double bed in the centre of the room, TV on the
cupboards, fridge to the side, a small en-suite toilet, and her computer desk
on wheels. The small windows had been painted black to block out the sun, and
bare wooden stairs led up to the kitchen. The room unheated to suit a dragan’s
high body heat. A perfect hide away from the sunlight and a quiet space to
work.
She pressed save on the document file and took a sip
of red wine. She enjoyed writing about her history. It was therapy to get it
all down and recorded somewhere. The act of retelling her history had helped
make sense of it all. Even writing her mistakes felt good. It was a purge of
her sins and part of her redemption. A chance to tell it in her own words
without interference. To recognise her past mistakes and moments of glory.
Hopefully, others would understand upon reading it.
Why she did; what she did. The full history and explanation of her actions.
There was too much to retell verbally, as too much that could be missed. By
setting it to paper, she ensured nothing was left out, and the reader wouldn’t
miss anything when they read the words and brought them to life in their
imagination.
In her extended lifetime, she had met many writers. Most
notably, Bram Stoker. She wasn’t claiming any inspiration over their writing.
She had gone to visit them after they had written their famous stories. Upon
her visit, she gave them a little surprise of a Dragan's features and told them
of Dragans, vampires, and werewolves, but wiped their memory afterwards. She
had tried to learn from them, as she always had it in mind to scribe her own
story one day. She knew her story would not meet the same standard, but she
hoped at least to educate.
The door at the top of the basement creaked open and
feet stamped down the wooden stairs. Thorn span around in her chair and stood
up to greet her visitors. “Hi, Annabel. Hi, Rose.”
Annabel stepped off the bottom step and around the
concealing wall. She held a baby dressed in a white grow in her arms. The baby
reached out to Thorn and struggled to be set free. Annabel put the Rose on the
floor, and she crawled across the grey carpet, past the double bed and up to Thorn.
“Sorry, I know you were working, but she was looking
for you,” Annabel said and pulled her hoodie tight, flicking the hood over her
long blonde hair, tucking her hair inside, and then wrapped her arms around
herself.
“I know. I sensed her thoughts and heard the basement
door rattling.”
“She knew where you were. I took her away and tried to
distract her, but she kept crawling back to the door, trying to open it.”
Thorn leaned down and scooped the baby into her arms.
“It’s fine. I have just finished the first part.”
“Excellent. I would love to read it.”
“Of course, I need someone to check it. And it would
be useful for you to understand our history while helping us settle in
America.”
“Send it over and I will read it. I would love to
understand more about the Dragans,” Annabel said, and stroked Rose's hair while
the baby pulled at Thorn’s vest top straps.
“That is a good idea. It will be useful for you to
understand our history and therefore our future. This first part covers the
creation and rise of the Dragans. My parents used to tell me their history as a
bed-time story. I want it documented for Rose,” Thorn said, and looked down at
her baby. Rose looked up with her ice-blue eyes, and Thorn stroked her thin
curly raven hair. Rose smiled, her eyes crinkling in delight. Thorn saw V’s
face, Rose’s father, in that smile and red tears welled up.
“Do you still want a copy sent to V?”
Thorn nodded, not taking her eyes off her baby and the
smile of V beaming back. “He needs to understand his history. I planned to tell
him everything after the battle and then at the Chateau after his escape from
MI5, but it wasn’t meant to be. I must find another way now in America, but I
have to keep our location a secret. We can’t afford direct contact with him
else MI5 will find out I am still alive. I will have to settle for sending him
these histories instead.”
I won a Silver Book Award with Literary Titan for
https://literarytitan.com/2023/08/04/literary-titan-book-awards-august-2023/
As an experiment, I took the description of a character from my book and ran it through a few AI art portals. The results were varied and I was surprised about the differences.
Here is the book descriptions for one of the main characters - a scene from "The Birth of Vengeance", which is currently FREE.
A young woman in her late twenties walked back and forth across the room, dropping her eyes to the floor and passing either side of a bare wooden chair positioned in front of the mirror. As she walked, her boot heels tapped across the exposed wooden floorboards, and her long tousled raven hair bounced up and down on the shoulder straps of her figure-hugging white vest top. The light reflected off her tight, black, shiny combat trousers as she paced up and down like a captive animal wearing a groove in the floor. Her body, hugged by the tight-fitting clothes, held the perfect balance of curves across her tall, athletic frame. I stood frozen to the spot as I looked at my fantasy woman, and an instant blaze of desire swept through me.I realized I couldn't run this all through the AI. The description happens within the action of the scene, so I took the main character points.
Woman with tousled raven hair. Sad pale face. Sky blue eyes. Blood red lips. Athletic frame but curvy. She wore shiny black combat trousers and white vest top. Black high heel boots.Swirling mist. In a bright white room.
However, I discovered the description need to be more direct. I changed out certain words. I went from blood red lips to just red lips as I got blood marks over the character. Raven hair to dark hair.
Woman with tousled dark hair. Sad pale face. Sky blue eyes. Red lips. Athletic frame but curvy. She wore shiny black combat trousers and white vest top. Black high heel boots.Swirling mist. In a bright white room.
The word curvy got difference results from each platform.
The best two platforms were AI Art Generator and Gencraft
But here are the results:-
Swapped around the colour of the trousers and vest
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