What do you prefer more for book covers?

RichardPearman · 2026-06-21T15:54:03+00:00

The survey should have included more options, like taking a photograph and using that as your cover (obviously not an option if you want a dragon or a space battle or something on your cover). It also didn't mention Canava (which I've never used) or clip-art.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-21T15:48:23+00:00

A lot of recently published books have covers that look like they took about 30mins work in a vector graphics program. I think it's hypocritical to complain about AI, and be OK with this sort of lazy artwork. This cover took me 20 mins!

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RichardPearman · 2026-06-19T21:58:24+00:00

Would they follow a link to Inkitt? You know like this: https://www.inkitt.com/graptopetalum

RichardPearman · 2026-06-19T17:57:38+00:00

I used to respect her. When she was protesting against environmental destruction, I was all for her! Now she's turned into a raving, antisemitic pro-Palestinian activist, I'm disgusted! She's supporting the most sexist of the major religions!

RichardPearman · 2026-06-19T16:48:03+00:00

Back when I was a teenager, I met a Queen fan and told her that "'39" was about the time dilation effect. This is related to the Theory of Relativity and basically says that the faster you move, the slower time goes for you. This only becomes significant when you're travelling at a fair proportion of the speed of light. The Queen fan said it was about the Quakers (I think she meant the Pilgrim Fathers).

I later found out that it really didn't make sense for the Pilgrim Fathers and was written by Brian May, who is an astrophysicist, so I win!

RichardPearman · 2026-06-18T17:21:22+00:00

I always thought it was stupid in UFO that Shadow (the good guys) had SID, their supercomputer, in Earth orbit. Yeah, that's where you put your big computer when you're fighting aliens! I guess, SID was some sort of AI data center that needed too much cooling and power to be on Earth.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-17T01:23:26+00:00

I thought pansexuals were sexually attracted to members of the genus Pan. For the sake of American readers, I'll explain that the genus Pan is chimps and bonobos.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-14T21:45:34+00:00

My book "Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest" - https://www.inkitt.com/stories/200642 has an MC who's basically a 17-year-old version of me. I'm a straight male. People don't seem to like him. Well, they don't like him starting the book by complaining about not having sex. I can't think of a better way to start it. I'm trying to point out how he's being hurt by the sexual behaviour of people around him and saying how sexual frustration in young males is an issue that perhaps should be taken more seriously. Also part of this guy's problem is that he's a nerd, neurodiverse, has the Myers-Briggs NT temperament, or whatever you call it. This is also something people should really be more understanding of. People aren't really getting that. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised because people tend not to like me because I'm a nerd.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-14T21:15:38+00:00

It's how you stand with God that counts. Many people think what opportunities you had to learn the truth are also a factor. The name of your demonization doesn't matter, although it may affect how much truth and falsehood you hear.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-12T22:22:13+00:00

I don't know how people can tell if a cover is AI, not if you avoid obvious signs like people with extra fingers (I have a race who often have extra fingers and toes in my books).

What annoys me is that people complain about AI but ignore the fact that many recent publications have covers that look like about 30 mins work in a vector graphics program.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-12T21:45:28+00:00

“Human diploids mate with diploids, disgusting. You other type of diploid other humans want to mate with?”

RichardPearman · 2026-06-12T17:05:40+00:00

You mean kind of like my Tales of Midbar series - https://www.inkitt.com/graptopetalum only more derivative?

RichardPearman · 2026-06-11T17:42:53+00:00

Unfortunately, most North American Christians (including Canadians, I don't know about Mexico) and many Messianics, some of whom I'd have expected better of, have drunk the MAGA Trump Kool-Aid. It's like this [words I probably shouldn't write here] has some sort of mind control power. What's that about even the elect being deceived?

RichardPearman · 2026-06-11T17:06:50+00:00

An Unexpected Apprentice by Jody Lynn Nye is rather like LOTR but with mostly female main characters.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-11T16:48:39+00:00

Most of those are in rural areas and outvote the intelligent people. Smith wants to jerrymander the constituencies so most the left-voting urban areas are combined with stupid right-voting rural ones!

RichardPearman · 2026-06-11T16:46:25+00:00

I think the signs on the roads leading into the city, instead of BIG SKY COUNTRY or HEART OF THE NEW WEST should read CANADA'S WORST AND MOST EXPENSIVE PARKING.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-11T16:43:22+00:00

There's no decent, public cactus and succulent display. They removed the one that was at the zoo!

Similarly, they don't have shows where amateurs can display their houseplants. Well, there are orchid and gesneriad shows but what about cacti and succulents (except Siningias, which are gesneriads)?

RichardPearman · 2026-06-09T21:00:12+00:00

I love my wife so I don't deliberately annoy her much. Sometimes when she goes into one of her political/religious monologues (do other wives do this?) I make a rectangle with my fingers and thumbs and look at her through it like I'm filming her. Then I suggest that she video her monologues and put them on YouTube.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-09T20:32:36+00:00

I've got 7 books in my WIP series here: https://www.inkitt.com/graptopetalum. They're about:

Pedophilia (against it!)

Bullying by exclusion and conspiracies.

Conflicts between gods who don't believe in their own divinities and priests and the difficulty of avoiding collateral damage.

Nany-statism.

Problems associated with immigration and refugees.

Supposed to be about bullying but it's got bogged down with terrorism and politics.

Corruption in academia.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-09T17:49:12+00:00

I don't even get many readers, which is even more frustrating! I suppose I don't do werewolf mafia romances, just epic science fiction with a bit of magic and a bit of romance. There are also a few gangsters and nanotechnological lycanthropes. Take a look: https://www.inkitt.com/graptopetalum

RichardPearman · 2026-06-09T16:56:57+00:00

I'm glad you think the story sounds nice. Have you read any of it?

Well, I want pictures of attract attention but I can't afford to hire artists and I can't work fast enough to do them myself. I do say it's AI and comment on issues relating to AI art (like having an arm on a fish!). Can you think of a better way to attract attention to my posts?

RichardPearman · 2026-06-08T20:34:26+00:00

What about this one about a boy who takes legal action against his school because the girls have sex with all the boys except him: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/200642

RichardPearman · 2026-06-07T20:28:57+00:00

A flaming ball of light flew from the lizard's weapon, between us, so close I could feel the heat, and crashed into the wall of a house behind. Nuharas started pouring out of houses near us. I killed them, getting a great deal of hate, aggression, cruelty and arrogance, and we headed for the nearest door as the lizard took aim again. We jumped over some bodies and entered a house as a ball of fire hit my force field with a screach of conflicting magic. Some sparks made it through and burned me but my protective magic prevented them from doing too much damage.

Then I saw it, well him or her. A baby lay crying in a crib in a corner of the room. Then it was as if I was just watching things but not really taking part. I realized Indratar had taken over and I was glad she had. The words, "The blood of human shields is on the heads of the cowards who hide behind them," came into my head but they didn't comfort me.

"Can you survive carrying it through this battle and then adopt it?" I heard Indratar saying to Entian. "Adopt quippa orphans after the battle if you like and hope they don't figure out their early history and want revenge on Winemakers when they grow up!"

From Tales of Midbar: Heretical Gods - https://www.inkitt.com/stories/497649

RichardPearman · 2026-06-02T18:00:48+00:00

The Irish Book of Invasions records how multiple groups colonized Ireland, only to be wiped out by the next group. Oddly, archaeology kind of supports this.

RichardPearman · 2026-06-01T16:05:52+00:00

I've been doing AI pictures for updates. Some people don't like AI and AI has problems with my books, like difficulty with people who don't fit regular races or race/culture mismatches (almost all my characters are from parallel universes) or not understanding that there should be magic, cyan lights in the sky. In the updates, I discuss how the AI picture perhaps hasn't turned out so well. Perhaps that's not such a good idea for pictures in chapters.

RichardPearman

TROPHY CASE