Vintage Vignettes: Sprites

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Saturday, July 27, 2024

So funny I had to keep it. I asked for 2 magical fairies. CGI didn’t quite understand.

Welcome, all.  Today I’m sharing a hilarious misadventure with computer generated images, but I’ll save that for the end. First some blog business.  I hope you enjoyed my Christmas in July blog hop/challenge. My last post for the event was on Thursday.  However, I’ve left it open to bloggers who want to continue to participate.  Watch for their posts, or links to them in comments here.

Teagan via Playground
Summertime Santa on Rt 66, Teagan via Playground

It’s funny… for my “real world job” I had no problem scheduling any task, including writing ones.  Now, I’m a fulltime author and I just can’t keep a writing schedule.  With my overburdened, groaning “shelves” filled with almost finished (or not even close) novels, it should be helpful for me to use a writing schedule.  Yet that never works out for me. I think it’s a kind of overwhelm, since I have so many unfinished stories, that I’d like to complete before I leave this world.

Teagan via Playground

I’m stubborn though, and l tried again last week.  One hour for each of: blogging tasks, writing non-fiction, and writing fiction, with 3 additional hours on whichever writing project was flowing well. That day went amazingly well… but my brilliant schedule only lasted one day. (Eye roll.)  Why do I tease myself this way?  (Update: I managed to do it again yesterday. Miraculous.)

I know this post is a ramble, so if you want some fun and related background music, click here for Jan & Dean

Drawn to one story, and then another… and another, my brain hops from world to world, unable to focus on a single story.  For a moment it paused in the world of my almost finished novel, The Guitar Mancer.  Well, technically, it actually was finished, and I even formally registered the copyright, but I’ve never been satisfied with the ending, so it remains unpublished.  Anyhow, the twists in my wrongly wired brain stayed in that world long enough that I wrote a vignette for it.

The following scene predates the 1970 setting of the novel.  Actually, it’s in 1926, shortly after the completion of Route 66.  That’s the “vintage” part of the vignette.  The tone of this vignette is also very different from that of the novel. I was just in a sort of muzzy, misty mood, and it showed up in what I wrote.

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Highway Sprites

Teagan via Playground: Crook and Mist

Dawn struggled to emerge from the night.  The new highway glistened moistly as vapors condensed, dewing wildflowers on the roadside.  The pavement dried as surface moisture coalesced.  In a moment the moisture took form as the sprite known as Mist.

As sprites go, Mist was young.  However, her wavy hair made a silver halo about her head.  She gazed curiously at the highway.  The mere concept of it fascinated her.

A road, built and paved, that stretches from one side of the nation to the other?  Humans have such strange ideas.

Only weeks before, Mist had looked on as The Mother secretly imbued the highway with her magic and also bound herself to it, along with the small group of sprites who served her.  Route 66, the humans named the roadway.

The Mother has something in mind that I don’t yet know how to understand, Mist pondered.  I can’t fathom her intent any more than I can comprehend the ways of humans.  But I know there is something important coming down this highway… even though I won’t see it for many decades.

Teagan via Playground
Teagan via Playground

Strange music filled her mind.  It was unlike anything Mist had ever heard.  Indeed, it had not yet been written.

Her reverie was interrupted as a shiny new delivery van came into view.  She had seen it before, always moving fast, carrying bottles of milk to humans.  A 1926 Stutz Pack-Age-Car, they called it.

The vehicle was traveling even faster than usual.  Mist looked toward the sharp curve ahead in the highway.

“Why isn’t the driver paying attention?” she muttered before shouting.  “Crook!  Help me!”

Another sprite swirled into being several yards away from Mist.  He was hairless, bowlegged, and wore loose clothing.  Together Mist and Crook blew a magic breath that dried the slick curve.

The sprites had little power, so could not do more to help the human avoid disaster.  The delivery van tilted onto two wheels as it rounded the curve.  It almost ran off the road, but the driver managed to bring it back into control.

Teagan via Playground
Teagan via Playground

Crook was older than Mist and she felt that he was the wisest of the Route 66 sprites.  Though he dismissed any suggestions that he had the ability, Mist believed that he sometimes saw the future.  She looked at him curiously before speaking.

“What is the strange feeling I get whenever I’m in this place?” she asked, and he nodded his bald head knowingly.

“The darkness against which The Mother works fights harder along this stretch of road,” Crook began and motioned toward the curve.  “This will be a bloody highway and that… that a dead man’s curve.”

She noted Crook’s vacant stare and suddenly grasped why he denied having any foresight — he didn’t understand the images and words that came to him.  So, Mist simply nodded in acknowledgement.

“C’mon, Mist,” he said with a grin, coming back to himself.  “Dip and Midnight are having a party at sunrise.  Bump and Sunshine are already there.”

The two sprites sashayed away into the woods on the side of the highway.

The end.

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Misadventures with CGI

Now about those comical misadventures with computer generated image (CGI) software.  CGI vocabulary is lacking. It didn’t understand “sprite,” so I had to say “fairy.”  My Route 66 sprites don’t have fairy wings, but I settled.  Then half the time it warned me that I was using “inappropriate content” — apparently thinking I meant another kind of fairy.    Another flaw in CGIs is that if you mention a hair color, it tends to give everyone and all their clothes that color of hair — even when specifically told who has what color hair, if any! (Crook is hairless.  Mist has frizzy silvery hair.)  Also. it rarely has any ability to count or understand numbering.  I ask for 2 ginger cats and get an entire litter.

My exploits in trying to create just two of my six sprites were so funny that I’ve made a gallery of them to entertain you.  (Assuming that you’re still here after this long post.)  My original prompt “2 magical sprites standing on Route 66,” which gave me a pair of normal teens in blue jeans (not shown). 

The tweaking began: I tweaked it to “2 magical fairies on Route 66,” and that resulted in the tutu image. Clearly the CGI needed “wings” to understand what kind of fairy… I also specified that one was bald — and it made both of them bald and increased the number to 4.  So, I specified that the female had silver hair and they all got silver hair, including the bald guy — plus it put him in a silver jumpsuit.  Despite all the misfires, somehow the quirky images fit the vibe of the sprites in my novel (if not the mood of this vignette).

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He looks more like Dip, who often forgets his pants
If not for the “666” (and the wings) this could be 4 of my sprites
This pair came closest to Crook and Mist
Can’t help wondering how Playground interpreted “Fairy”

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Thanks for joining me on this ramble.  Friendly comments are encouraged.  Hugs!

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I must include the obligatory shameless self-promotion, so here are links to Lulu’s new story.  It’s approximately a two-hour read

Hullaba Christmas: Lulu and the Snatched Santa

Hullaba Christmas cover

Universal Purchase Links

Series Link: 

Kindle: relinks.me/B0D33MN3NJ

Paperback: relinks.me/B0D8WR8T5B

Hullaba Lulu cover by Teagan R. Geneviene

Kindle:  relinks.me/B08JKP1RS4

Paperback:  relinks.me/B08JDYXPZM

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No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

All images are either the property of the author, or used with permission, or from free sources.

Copyright © 2024 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved.

80 thoughts on “Vintage Vignettes: Sprites”

    1. Thanks for your encouragement, Lavinia. I mean it when I say that book is dedicated to you.
      I have to fully “see” things before I can write them… but sometimes the seeing is triggered by unexpected little things. Maybe I need to immerse myself in Santana’s Black Magic Woman (which has always been my theme song for that story) and some of his other 70s songs… LOL, there are worse things! Big hugs.

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  2. Those were fun images. I’ve been on part of Route 66 too bad I didn’t see any Sprites.

    Best of luck with the writing schedule hopefully, you’ll relax into a nice rhythm. Just don’t beat yourself up when it doesn’t work out some days. 😊

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    1. Thanks Robbie. Route 66 was legendary here, although not so well known today. I made up my own mythology centered on it, and added it to the world I originally built for the Guitar Mancer in the 1990s. So that book has a double dose of the mythologies I created. I’m not familiar with a King story about the highway, but you’ve read more of him than I have. I’d like to read it if you think of which book (he has so many). Have a good new week. Hugs.

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        1. Ah, that sounds likely. I saw part of a TV miniseries based on that, but it was ages ago. I’ll look into it. A dose of Stephen King might be a good thing right now — something that chills the blood, to counteract the excessive heat. LOL.

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  5. Thank goodness the highway sprites were kind rather than mischievous in letting the van go off the road. And what a wild selection of CGI results from your efforts to get images for the story! Glad that one image worked out for showing Crook and Mist. You have such a great imagination 🙂 Best wishes on your writing schedule to wrangle those unfinished projects into shape. Who knows, maybe a couple sprites will appear and give you help 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much, Dave. LOL, these sprites do have a mischievous side, but they “ain’t got nothin’ on” The Mother. She’s was a fun psycho to write, particularly since I put her on the side of the good guys… mostly. LOL. Hugs.

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  7. Teagan,

    I enjoyed your story today. Thank you!

    I’ve never used CGI, but your adventure with it is quite amusing.

    At least you got a tutu and not a three three! (Attempt at humour)

    Okay, I finished The Delta Peal, and am onto the Geostrophic Pearl!

    Hugs

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  9. So fun! Guitar Mancer is still my very favorite story of yours! Good to see some more of it. Oh I was laughing at some of those images AI came up with. I really liked the girl in the blue tutu, and the guy in just the jeans. They look like a really interesting pair. 🙂

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    1. You remember Guitar Mancer! That made my day, Barbara. Unfortunately, it was a perfect example of a book that does not work well for making into a serial. I eventually wrote an ending for it, but never was satisfied with it. I STILL can’t see the ending I want for the story.
      Haha, those two really need their own story. Oh-oh — and there I go. So many story ideas, so little time. Thanks for reading and commenting. Hugs.

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  10. Good for you on setting up a writing schedule, Teagan. I seem to be in summer chaos mode. Everything we do is in preparation of the winter. Then, there’s the outside work! Next thing I know, the day is almost gone. I’ve enjoyed your Christmas in July posts. What a great idea. 💖

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    1. Sorry… My head was really in the world of Guitar Mancer, and I wasn’t thinking. “Strange music” would only make sense to someone reading the novel. It first began in the mid 1990s. Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” with the “Gypsy Queen” intro/prelude got in my head as a theme for the heroine. I restarted the novel again around 2000, and again around 2014, and that song STILL gets in my head whenever I think of the book — and it plays an important part in the entire novel. I’m delighted that you enjoyed the post, Liz. Hugs again.

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  14. A super post, Teagan. I enjoyed the vignette and the AI examples. I always wonder why AI has problems with human hands. Not on yours, but I have seen so many strange manifestations of hands from no thumbs to six fingers. Since I don’t use AI I guess it will remain a mystery.

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    1. Thanks, John. As Chris was commenting, they have gotten a lot better — but still have big problems including the fingers thing. They don’t generate as many with extra limbs as previous. But clothes and limbs still merge. These today were funny enough to distract from the errors. The two “hot fairies”– something is way off about the guy’s leg, and the girl has too many fingers. Many of them here have extra fingers.
      … It all seems to be a “counting” issue. More often than not, any thing that can be counted is off. It adds extra people or animals, or body parts… And any description gets applied to everything. Many of my attempts to put Santa in a Hawaiian shirt included palm trees wherever Santa was. I find the mistakes interesting. Enough of my blah de blah. Have a great weekend. Big hugs.

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    1. I forgot. I love Jan & Dean. I preferred them over the Beach Boys back in the day. We had a deadman’s curve in Corrales. It was straightened out a bit years ago, and that cut down on the accidents.

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      1. It seems like many places have a “deadman’s curve.” I know the one in the song is in California, but I thought of it for this post because there was an infamous one on Rt 66 that I included in the novel. I’d have to research to remember what state it’s in, and my Internet has been so bad that an hour’s worth of research has been taking me days, so I won’t include that info here. Anyhow that’s also where the phrase I used in the vignette about “bloody highway” came from. Have a restful weekend. 🙂

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          1. It really does depress me. In my situation, the Internet is my lifeline. My therapist even suggested that I’m one of those people whose energy naturally interferes with electronics, since I’ve been through every Internet company here, and my computers and cell phones don’t last long. LOL, personally I was wondering if my house was possessed, so I like her thought better.

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            1. Your therapist could be right. I’ve had staff that everything they use breaks. One evaluator went through six cameras in three months. The computer store where I bought cameras for evaluators revoked my free replacement warranty after I took the sixth camera in for replacement.

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  16. The vignette was good. Also, I would admit that I didn’t know Sprite meant a fairy. Until now, I only thought of Sprite as a drink by the Coca-Cola Company. So, thank you for expanding my vocabulary. Do you pay for creating images on Playground? I haven’t tried AI much for anything as of yet. I did use ChatGPT for content creation. Do you know my most favorite song video is picturized on Route 66? The song is Dekha Hai Aise Bhi by Lucky Ali. It was released in 1997 and it still sits on my playlist and will always remain. If you do get time and your internet speed is good, enjoy the video on YouTube. The video itself has a deeper meaning. Apart from this, Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins also has remained on my playlist forever.

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    1. Thanks very much, Sharukh. LOL, Sprite was my favorite soda as a young girl. When I grew up I liked Dr. Pepper. Now sodas don’t agree with my system, so I only have one occasionally as a treat.
      * AI: I’ve only used it for images. I’ve seen mixed reviews on it for people who have used it for writing fiction or factual essays.
      Playground: I use the free version. You can pay for one that generates images faster and lets you do more of them. Here’s a link to what I use. This is actually the page where it keeps the images I make for me. I haven’t tried to get followers, as you can see! Chris Graham has been encouraging me, and is my only follower. Anyhow, if you look in the upper right, there is a purple button for “CREATE”. Click that to get to the page where you can make images.
      https://playground.com/profile/clt38z3se1291s6010mnh67qw
      * SPRITES: I don’t think most people are familiar with the term “sprite,” unless they read a lot of fantasy books or they are very interested in English/Western European mythology.
      For the book with the Route 66 sprites, I chose them rather than fairies because most people tend to see fairies as “froufrou” Tinkerbell like things. Yes, sprites are associated with water, but I took artistic license. For the book I mentioned, the female sprites are named for weather similar (like Midnight) things. The male sprites are named for things you’d find in a road, like a dip in the road, a bump, or a crook. (Crook coming from my southern upbringing/dialect — something crooked has bends or curves. That’s also why I made Crook bowlegged.)
      * SONG: I would never have expected an Indian song about Rt 66. I’m absolutely intrigued. I’ll look for Dekha Hai Aise Bhi by Lucky Ali.
      Thanks for joining the conversation. Hugs.

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  17. I’ve only tried using CGI for images in the trailers promoting my books, and one short story. My results were dismal. I’m sorry you had to struggle, but I appreciate your sharing the results.

    I loved the story. Great musical accompaniment. I’m glad to hear your thinking about The Guitar Mancer – no pressure, but I loved that story. I hope you can find a schedule that works for you. The results of your writing are always interesting and always worth waiting for. I hope you have a great weekend. Take care of those kitty-girls.

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    1. Many thanks about the story and about The Guitar Mancer, Dan. Your encouragement is something I value greatly. I doubt that there is such a thing as a schedule that works for me, because I’m so changeable from day to day (especially with the PTSD garbage), but I’m going to keep trying. I’ve also been making a point of giving Daphne and Velma designated playtime. Now that they’re grown, they don’t demand play from the “Yummy Human” like they did as kittens. They’re having a great time. Thanks for mentioning them.
      The CGI pics weren’t a struggle. Over the months, I’ve gotten better at making it understand what I want (as much as it can anyway). It was mostly minor language tweaking. This time the errors were so fun that I actually enjoyed the goofs more than the (single) correct image.
      A great weekend to you and yours as well. Big hugs.

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        1. Ha! Trying to change the color of something in Photoshop does tend to go awry… I understand what you mean, although I don’t actually think of Photoshop as AI, but I guess it really is. In a way, every tool we use to write or illustrate, or publish books is AI. That’s a point that I’d really like to rub Amazon’s nose in. 😀

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          1. I made that comment in the Preface. I know Adobe is building AI into everything. So is Microsoft. And Amazon is using AI to check to see if what we write falls with their policies. As far as I know, I didn’t use AI, but…

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    1. Thanks so much about the story, GP. I thought you’d like that delivery truck. When I gave the app the exact year and model of the truck, I wasn’t sure what the results would be. To my surprise they were astonishingly accurate. Of course that was only asking for the vehicle, without any context for the rest of the image. CGI can give some weird results with vehicles too. Fortunately for me, I usually find the missteps funny. So I keep trying. Hugs.

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  20. I think I’ve deleted more renders than I’ve kept because all of the ai art generators I’ve tried seem not to be intelligent enough yet to understand what I want, however, sometimes they get scarily close, so they ARE learning 😱 🦍🤗❤️❤️🤗🦍😻😻

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  22. Love the vignette and the adventures with AI. I have only tried to use it for writing background when I was creating websites and Apps for my Google course, and I ended up doing it myself. Mind you, the results are very funny, Teagan. I understand what you mean about the schedule and projects. I’ve left aside my fiction writing for a while, and only go with a few fixed things I try to always do, but time goes quickly when they are so many things and stories vying for our attention.

    Big hugs, love to Daphne and Velma and good luck with your writing!

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    1. Time really does go quickly, Olga — I agree. I have not tried AI for anything writing related, so your feedback there was interesting. Daphne and Velma are having a fun “Caturday” and keeping me on my toes. Big hugs winging back to you. ❤

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  23. 😂 AI has some special moments with my given prompts. I get a good laugh when it goes off the rails.
    Like you I have so many unfinished projects, and my brain perhaps prefers hopping around. Unless I have a deadline, I tend to allow my creative energy to go wherever it wishes. Fun post..and loved the excerpt. Happy Saturday Teagan. 🙏

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    1. Hi, Nigel. Thanks for this encouraging comment. Ha! I can relate to that hopping around. There’s little point in me trying to control which way my writing energy flows. I’m happy you enjoyed the post. Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs.

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    1. Thanks, Carol. Haha! When the app turned out the bald “fairy” in a swimsuit — and then gave me a warning about trying to create “inappropriate content” I was afraid the next one would be naked! I thought to it “Hey, you’re the one who went there!” I’m still befuddled by the tutus… LOL Big hugs back to you.

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