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It’s harder than you imagine

ChatGPT is an amazing image development tool.

And a lot of effort to use, particularly if the concept is original.

In this and other projects, I’ve had to draw, photo-edit, juggle reference images, refine page after page of prompts, try and try again, ad infinitum.

And learn what the reasoning engine can do, what it cannot do, what it will not do, and when to give up.

The robot did the above illustration on the basis of months of training, using a description straight out of a chapter.

This usually works. The robot KNOWS what my characters are supposed to look like.

But look at Francine’s hands.

The featured image didn’t happen until I scrapped a whole day’s worth of neck strain, and came at it from a different angle.

Read the chapter at https://marolitango.substack.com/p/160-day-trip

Don't say I didn't do this. I did.

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Rasslin’ with the Robot

I have been using ChatGPT almost exclusively for chapter illustrations. The machine almost always gets it right within two tries, but sometimes it doesn’t.

See the featured image. What a great composition, with the wrong actors.

Getting that straightened out consumed half of yesterday and most of this morning.

Finally, I asked for a style sheet.

The male figure has a tail. This is not canonical.

Not to complain. The chapter illustrations look great. See for yourself at https://marolitango.substack.com/s/read-the-book

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Let’s play ‘Stump the AI’

Let us create a series of canonical images for a space yacht, inspired by the first image. 

Ranger is 19 meters long, 6 meters wide, 6 meters tall, with 2 internal decks. The pilothouse is a cylindrical elevator, 7 meters tall, 4 meters diameter, glass wrapped, with opaque caps top and bottom, 0.5 meters each, with a 0.5 meter structural band separating 2 levels. The top deck is a pilot station. The bottom deck is a vista lounge. In spaceflight, the elevator pilothouse is centered flush with the hull, top and bottom. In atmospheric flight, the pilothouse may be raised as seen in the concept art, so the pilot can see where he is going through glass instead of display screens, or lowered below the bottom hull surface, exposing the vista lounge, for sightseeing.
So far, four AI engines have choked on it. Any ideas? Comments welcome.

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Busking at the Intersection of Merit and Mayhem

The Secretary of the Treasury lived in an exclusive gated community. If one were to consult the HOA charter, front-yard spacecraft landings would fall under the same category as helicopter traffic — requiring prior approval by the board of governance.

Carmen Benequista did not ask permission. Instead, she dropped a Fatboy troop shuttle right on top of her victim’s mailbox.

Her companion, an elevated size-two fighting maroli named Incredible, asked, “What’d this guy do to piss you off?”

She replied, “He disobeyed a lawful order to default on United States debt held by foreign actors.”

Incredible let himself out a cargo hatch. “Why do you want to default on debt?”

Continue reading “Busking at the Intersection of Merit and Mayhem” →
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Frog!

When the machinist was a boy, his grandfather told him about a tiny ceramic frog kept in a pocket at Dachau, the old man’s silent prayer to God that he not be forgotten.

Upon retirement, the machinist took up woodcarving, producing pocket-sized figures of frogs in remembrance of his grandfather’s ordeal.

One day, someone mentioned the frog was a symbol of liberation.

“Oy vey,” he said. “Is that what this is about?”

Thematically, my novels are about discipline, calling, stewardship, covenant, and moral formation over time.

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What Silken Thread is About

Destiny

Purpose

Loss

Discovery

Renewal

An uncommon spin on the coming-of-age theme, informed by the author’s upbringing in mid-century Asia. Mature content, Young Adult appropriate. Value-positive, about good character as a strategy for creating a successful life. An immersive journey to a time and place now gone forever.

Alter Systems says:

  • The Setting Feels Lived-In
    Dyer’s description of 1960s Asia — the humid streets of Manila, the smoky golf clubs, the charged diplomacy around embassies — feels meticulously authentic. He paints a world poised between Cold War espionage and emerging globalization. You can smell the scotch, the silk, the rain on warm pavement.
  • Complex Characters, Real Stakes
    Sixteen-year-old David Aarens isn’t the typical coming-of-age protagonist. His relationship with Barbara Schneider — a twenty-eight-year-old American Air Force officer turned CIA recruit — is written with startling candor and emotional nuance. It’s equal parts romantic idealism and the loss of it. Their story is tender, dangerous, and unafraid to confront human contradiction.
  • Maturity and Moral Texture
    What Dyer achieves here is literary realism rarely seen in modern fiction: everyone in Silken Thread carries both light and shadow. The father’s moral warnings, the lover’s forbidden affection, the diplomats’ coded games — every scene bleeds authenticity and restraint.
  • Historical Depth Without Pretension
    Beneath the personal drama is a larger commentary on Western presence in postwar Asia. The book hints at the cultural arrogance, the quiet racism, and the backroom dealings underpinning “soft power.” Yet it does so without preaching; the truths emerge in texture and subtext.

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Ready for Beta

This morning, I wrote a final draft of a final chapter, marking three-and-a-half years of the most labor I have ever invested in a novel.

I asked five reasoning engines how to describe the book to prospective readers. Claude AI says:

Readers will get:

  • A fully realized universe with 70,000 years of history
  • Characters who feel like real people making hard choices
  • Dialogue that crackles with wit and intelligence
  • Worldbuilding that rewards attention and rereading
  • Emotional payoffs earned through 256 chapters
  • The satisfaction of watching competent people solve complex problems
  • Hope tempered by realism—victory is possible but costly

The emotional experience: Like watching The West Wing in space, or reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish novels with more humor and romance. Smart, emotionally intelligent, occasionally devastating, frequently funny, always humane.

The robot is a competent writing craft analyzer, but all it can do is tabulate. Maroli Tango is, as far as I know, ready for publication, except nobody with a breathing apparatus has read the whole book.

I see you fidgeting. Well, let me just say — if you make the right choice, you’ll be able to tell your friends, “I knew about this guy before he was famous.”

Tomorrow, if you like. That’s how good a deal this is.

Drop a comment. Tell me you'll read the book. We'll make a big splash, I promise.

#wholesome #unwoke

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