It’s spring and I’m in Manchester (the one in the UK). Tradition dictates that it should be cold and rainy. Instead, I have a fan blasting at me and sleeping last night sucked.
On the bright side, I got up at 3 a.m. and did some work because I wasn’t sleeping. I managed to clawed back a bit of sleep later when things had cooled a little. I thought it was enough, but it’s even warmer today than yesterday and I’m sagging like a wilting flower (not a very pretty flower, and you forgot to water it for the last month). Well, stuff it! It’s Friday afternoon, it’s hot, I need to plot out the final part of the next book. I am going to do random stuff until I come up with a clever way to hit all the plot points. It worked last time my brain turned to soup!
Oh, yeah, and the render is kind of hot too. After doing that last one with Nava, I kind of just wanted to do one with Nava and Suki, and the wrap model is new, and it took forever to get their hair to behave, but I think it turned out really well, so I thought I’d post it for you guys. Enjoy.
Witches and Ray-Guns 
I’ve been to Manchester New Hampshire a number of times. It is probably nothing like England’s version. Your city is about as well suited for heat as Vegas is for a blizzard.
I’ve heard you guys don’t use a sheet between the top blanket and yourself. It helps a lot. Do they have those small portable A/C units there?
The girls look like they are thinking, “No I will not turn to the left.”
I have also been to Manchester, NH, and no, it is nothing like the one here.
Actually, for reference, our Manchester has the same rainfall figures as Seattle, WA. And still it’s not the same: we get our rain in bursts while Seattle has continuous drizzle.
I sleep under a duvet, and I have a standalone A/C unit because I have a lot of computer gear in a small room, so it gets HOT in summer. I’m trying not to use it yet, however, because it uses way too much electricity and last year it was running all through the summer.
I forgot about the other Manchester I have visited. Manchester Vermont is not that far in distance but the roads are more like your English country roads but with mountains. It looks like a quaint village but it is a stealth version of Vegas. The locals try to get tourists to fork over as much money in the shortest possible time. My ex and I used to visit Vermont a lot but stayed away when the leaves changes. There were too many massive bus like RVs that couldn’t do more than a crawl up and down the countryside.
If you get the chance to explore Vermont you should. It is a very “different” state. Bucolic farm houses right next to McMansions. Oh..and cows. More cows than people. Tourist shops even sold chocolate candy that looked like cow poop.
I don’t think I ever got to Vermont.
With the exception of a holiday with my ex and one convention trip, all my travel in the US was for business, so I went where I had to go. And it was all before 9/11, when it didn’t take 3 hours to get through customs. After my last trip, I kind of vowed never to go back.
Vermont sounds like Wales, actually. Lots of tiny roads up and down mountainous valleys. And in the summer, you hope you don’t meet a bus or you could be reversing for miles. Gorgeous scenery, however. And they have lava (might be spelling that wrong) bread, which looks like edible cow pat (it’s actually fried seaweed; not sure if that’s better). And sheep. There are a lot of sheep.
So I really like your character descriptions in the books, and lately I have been playing with AI art generation, so I thought I’d re-recreate some of the scenes from the books using Seedream 5.
Oops, accidentally posted instead of continuing my comment…
One example, the scene at one of the university parties, where Aneka wore the swarm dress and Ella wore something that’s essentially 3 triangles of fabric.
I think I might be mashing up two different scenes… but I really like how the swarm dress came out.
https://www.magnific.com/pikaso/explore/vCceKa47ye
This seems like it might be a fun reader project, to post our interpretations of scenes from the books.
I am not big on AI stuff, to be honest, but I do admit you can get some good results.
I use 3D art software to make my pictures and they get posted on ArtStation when I release a book. Unfortunately, Aneka predates that and there are only a few images on DeviantArt. The cover for Hope is at https://www.deviantart.com/tharcion/art/Hope-Cover-Art-523746112. Aneka is in the back, Ella on the left. As you can see, Aneka has short hair and she’s a bit more handsome than beautiful.
I’m not thrilled about AI because it takes original work from artists and uses it without permission. 3d original art has improved by leaps and bounds as people became more familiar with the software. The figures I print up have gone from dull museum poses to life like action poses.
Frankly a better use for AI would be to regulate traffic lights in America. So many times driving down Vegas streets early in the morning you sit at intersections at red lights for 5 minutes and nobody comes through on the other street.