Genre Writing Challenge Round 01 — Perry Broxson

As mentioned, we’re starting a new challenge — the Genre Writing Challenge. Each round, the three writers — Perry, Gary, and me — will write a story on a given genre. The Twins decided the first genre is Mystery/Crime.

For the record, I would have split those into separate genres, but that’s fine.

We’re also doing something different as far as posting the stories. Dropping three stories that can total anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 words is an imposition on readers, so we’re going to stagger the posts. First up is Perry’s story. It will be followed by Gary’s story in two days, and finally, my story two days after that.

Our usual disclaimer:

The writing challenge has no restrictions, and the stories span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG range, with a few perhaps pushing into the R range. Those ratings are guidelines, but they are subjective. If you find a story disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, stop reading and move on to the next one. The same goes if you are not interested in finishing a story. It may seem like obvious advice, but these days many people go out of their way to experience outrage (and then complain about it).

So, without further ado, here’s Perry’s contribution to the Mystery/Crime genre.

Wait . . . first, the blurb:
Who killed the Black Dahlia? Who would know better than the lady herself? All is revealed in this perfect storm of murder, mystery, and magic.

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SmugMug Appreciation Sunday — No. 055

In brief, these posts serve to introduce new readers — and reintroduce regular readers — to photos from the early days of this blog and, occasionally, to photos from days before this blog came into existence.

Today’s stroll on memory lane is another quick one . . .

The original post for these photos is HERE, and the photos are from THIS Gallery.

These photos are from ten years ago, so some of the items might not currently be on display.

I’m referring to photos from the National Air & Space Museum, A. K. A. the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Note: I just found out that all the links in the Smithsonian catalog changed. That means that — in the original posts and the previous Sunday posts about the museum — any link referencing the museum’s database will return a dead link error (error 404). I’m not going back through the original or recent Sunday posts to update the links. One, because it’s a lot of work, and two, because no one mentioned it. If you’re looking for the Smithsonian’s entry for a plane, just search under the name.

Sikorsky YH19A

That is the Sikorsky YH-19A.  Introduced in 1950, it has many variants, and a later model was already showcased in my post documenting the Weisbrod Museum in Pueblo, Colorado.

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ChatGPT Part II — ChatGPT For Creative Endeavors

Readers are advised: this is fairly long because I include examples of my “conversations” with ChatGPT (about 4,800 words). Prior posts about ChatGPT are HERE and HERE and HERE.

  1. Introduction
  2. AIs as creative tools.
    1. But isn’t ChatGPT just a tool?
    2. How about using ChatGPT to originate ideas?
      1. Chat GPT Plot Request 1
      2. Chat GPT Plot Request 2
      3. Chat GPT Plot Request 3
      4. ChatGPT’s Expanded Story
    3. ChatGPT as an aid to learning to write
      1. Bonus No. 1: A story written by ChatGPT
      2. ChatGPT example 4
  3. Conclusion

Introduction

In the last ChatGPT post, I addressed ChatGPT’s function as a source of information. In this post, I’ll address the creative aspects of ChatGPT.

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SmugMug Appreciation Sunday — No. 054

In brief, these posts serve to introduce new readers — and reintroduce regular readers — to photos from the early days of this blog and, occasionally, to photos from days before this blog came into existence.

Today’s stroll on memory lane is another quick one . . .

The original post for these photos is HERE, and the photos are from THIS Gallery.

These photos are from ten years ago, so some of the items might not currently be on display.

I’m referring to photos from the National Air & Space Museum, A. K. A. the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Note: I just found out that all the links in the Smithsonian catalog changed. That means that — in the original posts and the previous Sunday posts about the museum — any link referencing the museum’s database will return a dead link error (error 404). I’m not going back through the original or recent Sunday posts to update the links. One, because it’s a lot of work, and two, because no one mentioned it. If you’re looking for the Smithsonian’s entry for a plane, just search under the name.

Junkers Ju 52

The Junkers Ju 52 was primarily a European airliner (one of the most successful European airliners ever made), but also served briefly as a bomber.  Its main job was to carry people around.  Sometimes it carried people to places where they could kill others or be killed themselves.

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ChatGPT Part I — ChatGPT As The Information Path

Readers be advised: this is fairly long because I include examples of my “conversations” with ChatGPT (about 5,500 words). Prior posts about ChatGPT are HERE and HERE.

Introduction

In this first of two posts, I address ChatGPT’s function as a source of information. In the second post, I’ll address the creative aspects of ChatGPT. I purposefully structured my interactions with ChatGPT as conversations since the tool is geared toward a conversational interface with users.

  1. Introduction
  2. General Background
  3. Discussion About ChatGPT as a Search Engine and More
    1. ChatGPT Example 1
    2. ChatGPT Example 2
    3. ChatGPT Example 3
    4. ChatGPT Example 4
    5. ChatGPT Example 5
  4. Conclusion
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SmugMug Appreciation Sunday — No. 053

In brief, these posts serve to introduce new readers — and reintroduce regular readers — to photos from the early days of this blog and, occasionally, to photos from days before this blog came into existence.

Today’s stroll on memory lane is another quick one . . .

The original post for these photos is HERE, and the photos are from THIS Gallery.

These photos are from ten years ago, so some of the items might not currently be on display.

I’m referring to photos from the National Air & Space Museum, A. K. A. the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Note: I just found out that all the links in the Smithsonian catalog changed. That means that — in the original posts and the previous Sunday posts about the museum — any link referencing the museum’s database will return a dead link error (error 404). I’m not going back through the original or recent Sunday posts to update the links. One, because it’s a lot of work, and two, because no one mentioned it. If you’re looking for the Smithsonian’s entry for a plane, just search under the name.

Dash 80

The Dash 80 was the prototype for both the Boeing 707, and the KC-135 Stratotanker. The Seven-Oh-Seven is “generally credited with ushering in the Jet Age”

Under the wing of the Dash 80 we see Nemesis, or more precisely, the Sharp DR 90 Nemesis.

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Blue Jays and a few more

Northern Mockingbird

Note: WP occasionally shows you the post without pulling all the images. If you’re reading and it sounds like there’s an image missing, just refresh the window.

Let me start by saying these are not great photos. There are two reasons; well, two main reasons. One, the days was gloomy and rainy. That prompted me to shoot at a high ISO (1000 to as high as 5000). The high ISO was also driven by the high shutter speed, which was set at 1/1250-sec. Lastly, most of these photos (all, in fact) are crops of larger photos.

“Why shoot with those settings?”

Well, Bob, let me tell you.

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