Using AI to generate photos and book covers

AI and authors may seem as though they would not get along, with people using AI to generate content that authors such as I would be toiling over in some dusty, dark room, clacking away on a typewriter… years ago. But I enjoy using AI to help me generate characters, and even working book covers. Whether any of my working book covers ever see the light of day or not, I like to have a “cover” that I am working under, something that inspires me for the long journey ahead.

There are no shortage of AI image generators, of course, but recently I happened upon LimeWire. Some may remember the name LimeWire from the early 2000s when it was a file-sharing app used quite a bit for downloading pirated content. Fast forward to today and LimeWire has relaunched as an AI platform. LimeWire now allows users to generate and publish their content with LimeWire Studio. The basic membership allows the user to create 2,000 images per month. I might not have a use for that many, but it is very affordable and it never hurts to have more capability than I think I might need. After all, the cold, dark days of winter are headed my way, and it is fun to curl up on the couch with the laptop and create – whether that is written or graphical creating.

I have enjoyed using LimeWire for the last week or so. It is super intuitive and easy to figure out. Even the free plan allows a user to create up to 20 images per day. Images I have created were generated quickly and I have always been super satisfied with the results. I have only used the audio generator once, but I love the idea of it and may also find that useful when creating video content.

I would recommend creators at least give LimeWire a look. I feel as though, with the features it offers, it will be my go-to AI image generator for the foreseeable future. It is a great platform, and I am glad I ran across it!

What if?

It’s the greatest, biggest question, isn’t it? What if? For authors, I would venture to guess most of our work starts with that very question. All four of my books in the Laura Weber Series started that way. What if I was fishing and saw a car on the bottom of the lake? This is exactly what happened to Laura Weber in Secrets on the Bottom. What if she decided to dive the car, just to check it out? When she dove, what if she finds a person behind the wheel of the car? A million things run through her mind as she surges back to the surface of the lake, of course. A horrible accident, she fears. But then, what if later she learns the person in the car was actually handcuffed to the steering wheel?

That “What if?” leads to some secrets a small town may never want uncovered? The simple life Laura was enjoying is quickly turned upside down as she looks for answers, against the better judgement of her elderly best friend and favorite bait shop owner Jed Thomas. He tells her she needs to leave it alone and let the police investigate. But that is not in Laura’s DNA. Jed knows this, and worries for his friend’s safety, but when Laura gets an idea in her head, there is no stopping her.

The Laura Weber series follows Laura through all four seasons, with a new mystery evolving with each installment. All small towns have secrets. Schmitzville is no different.

Outdoor mentors

In the world of the outdoors, there are so many people to look up to, pioneers in their fields, those who taught us to hunt and fish, and those from whom we learned a love of the outdoors in general. I do not think that I am alone that a parent was my first influence into the outdoors. My Dad was hunting and fishing long before I came along. I grew up in the country, and would much rather spend time outside than inside. Unfortunately, I was horribly allergic to mosquito bites, which forced my Mom to keep me inside sometimes in the summer for many more days than I care to remember. But, with large red welts on various places of my body and a fever, even I understood there were times I would be stuck inside, likely reading.

There are so many people to whom I look up to in the outdoor space. There are people like Ray Scott, who truly created tournament bass fishing and brought it to where it is now. There are people like my Dad, who first taught me to bait a hook. There are people like Jerry Apps, an author from Wisconsin and a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association. In reality, he was what brought me to the Association, where I now serve on the membership committee.

As I write this, I am watching a series on Apple TV+ called, “Dear…” It is about just the things I am talking about. It is about those who have inspired others to follow their own example, those who have not allowed the barriers the world has set in place to stop them. This theme, “barriers,” carried over from my last post. But I felt it important to reiterate. If we do not see barriers, but love of what we do, I do not believe those barriers exist. Once we get to the other side, I think we can look back and realize what we overcame to get where we are, but not seeing those things as we bull our way through them, I think, is a benefit.

Looking at people like Ray Scott, Al and Ron Lindner, Gregg Bohn (Mr. Slip Bobber) and others, I can see they did not see any barriers, either. They had a passion and they simply followed that passion. I had the honor of not only attending Greg Bohn’s induction into the Fishing Hall of Fame, but also to interview him for a newspaper for which I was working. He was such a class act. He had no bad word to say about anyone he had ever met. He was full of stories. He was full of fun. While I am sure he deeply understands the contribution he made to the fishing industry, he was so humble regarding how the idea came about.

“I just wanted people to catch fish,” he said about creating the slip bobbering method of fishing. My first thought was – who knew that did not always exist? But, of course, it didn’t. It needed to be invented, just like everything. And here I was, some fairly new journalist, sitting at a table with the man who invented the technique and sold it to the Linders. Incredible!

It is great to look at those who come before me, as anyone in any field can look at those who have come before them. It is fascinating to me to think about how these people came up with their ideas and how those ideas caught on and blossomed to become some of the biggest things in the outdoors. I owe a lot to them, and to their dedication to their visions. It has allowed me to be dedicated to my vision and to believe in myself as well.

How did I get here?

It is interesting that the field of outdoor writing is male dominated, but that I have found a home in that field. I have always enjoyed the outdoors since I was able to get out of the house on my own and explore the yard, woods, and swamp near my childhood home. I remember fishing from an early age also. Hunting came later, but I will never forget the Christmas I got my first BB gun. My Dad was stoked that I would have my own gun. His parents, I remember, were not as pleased. They felt I was too young and they felt, perhaps because I was a girl, that I simply should not have a gun at all. But Dad and I spent a lot of time target practicing outside and eventually getting rid of some of the never-ending supply of chipmunks we found in our back yard.

In recent years, that love of the outdoors has brought me to environmental writing as well. It seemed to come as a natural progression. On the surface, it may seem that harvesting fish and animals would be the antithesis of being environmentally conscious, and I know some people think that way.

But when you think about harvesting an animal. Part of that satisfaction is in providing your own food for yourself. In light of that, overharvest of any species would not be in a hunter or angler’s best interest, would it? Yes, there are plenty of people who harvest far too many fish. There are people who would be in serious trouble if a DNR warden came by and opened their freezer (there are probably more of these people than I would like to think there are). There are people who poach animals. But by and large, the true sportsman is conservation minded. Yes, I say sportsman. I refer to myself as a sportsman because I don’t get caught up in all of that “politically correct” sportsmen and women or fisherman and fisherwoman stuff. That has just gone a bit too far for me, and I’m not easily offended by that kind of thing, so that is one thing you will learn about me fairly quickly as we go along this blogging journey.

When I started in the outdoor realm, I was quickly asked to move outside of my comfort zone. Clients wanted stories about species I had never targeted. That was the beginning of my learning and part of this job and lifestyle that I enjoy the most. When you spend time outdoors, you are always learning.

Once I started with a local newspaper, I started to meet various people through county agencies and non-profit groups who invited me to their meetings and events. I quickly developed a love of pollinators and I learned a ton about invasive species. And those are just two areas where my knowledge expanded. I learned about permaculture and got back into gardening.

I also quickly figured out the politics of all of these things in which I was starting to get involved. Yes, politics is in everything, isn’t it, unfortunately? I tend to not get too political, though. I have my beliefs and I am sure everyone reading this has theirs as well. I am likely not going to change your mind (nor do I want to, really – diversity in all things is key), and you are not likely to change mine. That is not to say that we cannot learn from each other, however, and I think that is something that has been lost by some margin in today’s world.

When I first started outdoor writing, I did not give it any thought that I was one of the only outdoor journalists in the state who is a woman. Yes, there are others who wind up writing in that space, simply due to their rural location or what have you. But there are not many of us who live and work in this field full time. I suppose I don’t think much about those kinds of things because my Dad raised me to not see those lines. He got me into the outdoors early, I spent time building things with him (including an addition on our house and a new garage), reloading shells in the basement, and working on a variety of cars, truck, lawn mowers, and anything else that happened to break down. So writing about something I really enjoy – I simply did not understand there was a barrier there.

That leads me to wonder – if a person does not realize a barrier exists, I mean honestly does not realize it, does that make the barrier less effective? Are they able to more easily get through, around, or over that barrier? I believe that might be the case. I just thought – hey, this is what I want to do and I think it will be fun. And I went out and did it. It was not until year later, after people gave me accolades for getting over that barrier, that I even realized it existed.

And now here I am, with a media company, a soft plastic bait company and a bass fishing tournament series. None of those, of course, are “traditional” female roles. Being a business owner in general is not a traditional female role, I would suppose. But I never gave it a thought. Maybe that is the best policy in life – just don’t overthink things. Find something you love, and get after it with everything you have. What’s the worst that can happen?

Blend Jet

From time to time, I do like to talk about certain products or companies I have run across that I would recommend. The most recent of those is Blend Jet. This photo is of the Blend Jet 2 and the variety pack of protein smoothies. I like a good smoothie now and then, and these packs make it super easy. You just blend them with some milk (or water, even), and ice and you’re ready for breakfast, or a quick lunch. The cool thing about the Blend Jet 2 is that it is a blender and drink glass all in one.

It is rechargeable with a USB, so even at work, i can just plug it in to my laptop and let it charge back up. The box said it can go 15 uses before needing to be recharged, and I have found that to be true time and again. So I charge it up about once per week.

Now for the smoothie packs. Each one I tried meant I had a “new favorite.” Honestly, there are no bad flavors here. If I had to pick one of them, though, I would say the Chocolate peanut butter banana is a strong favorite. But really, they are all very good.

Clean up with the Blend Jet is super easy. Just fill it about halfway full with water, add a drop of dishwashing liquid, put the cap on and hit the button to start it. It really is that easy. I would point out, however, that the rubber seal inside the cap should be taken out and washed as well, which it does not say in the instructions, but I guess it should kind of go without saying. At any rate, the rest of the clean up is taken care of by the Blend Jet for you. Pretty sweet.

So, if you happen to be in the market for a handheld blender, I would recommend checking out the Blend Jet 2. Make your own smoothies or take the easy route and use some of their products. Either way is a win, if you ask me (although I do like the shortcut of just opening the pack and pressing the button to create my quick breakfast). Did I mention this little gem makes great margaritas, too?

The things you will find here

Welcome to my newest blog! You will find a great many things in the blog as time goes along. I am a freelance writer. I write in the spaces of the outdoors and the environment. I am not what a person would call a “tree hugger, necessarily, but I do understand we are taking undo advantage of the planet and eventually it could be our undoing.

I also enjoy bass fishing and fish many tournaments each year. I run a bass team tournament trail with my boyfriend, Chet, and we also run our own soft plastic bait making company. As you may already see, some of these things do not seem to fit with one another. I am a bit of a conundrum in that respect.

I am a learning gardener. I hope to always be learning in that area of my life. We recently bought a house and I am working at getting some gardens going here. The photo attached to this post is the home we bought. Several changes have already been made. In the same vein, I am also very interested in self-sufficiency and shortening personal supply chains. Once my gardens are established next year, I will be looking to preserve the herbs and vegetables I am able to grow to help feed the two of us over the winter.

My gardening endeavors are also bird and pollinator driven. I have planted many native plants in the front flower beds and have taken out all but one chunk of the trailing nightshade that was taking over both beds when we moved in. I have kept a piece of it for food for the birds this winter. I will monitor that and see if it is worth keeping for next year.

I am also starting to get interested in permaculture, and you will likely find information about that here as well. Permaculture is not simply the shortening of a supply chain, but building back an ecosystem that works with the land, rather than against it, and that provides for the people on that land as well.

Citizen science is another area of interest for me. It started as being a weather spotter for NOAA. From there I moved to the Clean Boats Clean Waters program. I am now also involved in the Water Action Volunteers (WAV) stream monitoring program, the Wisconsin Frog and Toad Program, the Wisconsin Mussel Program and birding/phenology projects such as Feeder Watch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. I have also been involved in the wolf tracking program in Wisconsin and may look at getting back into that program again, time permitting.

I have my own podcast, which can be found most anywhere you listen to podcasts. It is called Fish Like a Girl, which is my personal brand I have been working under for many years now. I have a YouTube Channel @fishlikeagirlus as well.

I am looking into getting into more videography and film making. I am sure my successes and failures in that area will be chronicled in this blog as well.

So, welcome to my world – our world – and everything in it. For those interested in the outdoors and keeping wild spaces wild, or combining humans and nature in the best ways possible, I hope you will stop back often to read new posts and leave comments as you see fit.