Martyn Cruise, Author

I made a short video explaining how to use Stable Diffusion to create ebook and print covers I used Krita to edit the photos but pretty much any image editor would do, you just need to be able to make selections and erase. Here are the steps - Step One Go to  https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion or  https://stablediffusionweb.com/#demo and enter a prompt for the image you want. For this tutorial, I wanted a space scene so used the following prompts to create four separate images that I would edit together. "Lunar lander in space realistic" "Astronaut tabletop miniatures realistic" "Star field with galaxy realistic" (this gave me two images with prints hanging in a gallery, so maybe try different words) "Realistic lunar base with stars in background" Use the guidance scale at the bottom (if available) to tweak the settings. I normally try to keep it between one and nine but experiment and see what you come up with. After anyt...

 I made a short video explaining how to use Stable Diffusion to create simple 3d models for print books or anything else you might want to use them for. I used Krita to edit the photos but pretty much any image editor would do, you just need to be able to make selections and erase. Here are the steps - Step One Go to  https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion or  https://stablediffusionweb.com/#demo and enter a prompt for the image you want. For this tutorial, I put "robot tabletop miniatures" and "astronaut tabletop miniatures". I used "tabletop miniatures" as I knew this would give a 3d figure that would look reasonably close to whatever I wanted. Use the guidance scale at the bottom (if available) to tweak the settings. I normally try to keep it between one and nine but experiment and see what you come up with. After anything between 30 seconds and a minute, you should get your generated pictures. If you don't get anything you like,...

 I made a short video explaining how to use Stable Diffusion to create illustrations for print books. I used Krita to edit the photos but pretty much any image editor would do, you just need to be able to make selections and erase. Here are the steps - Step One Go to  https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion or  https://stablediffusionweb.com/#demo and enter a prompt for the image you want. For this tutorial, I put "monsters black and white hand drawn illustrations". Use the guidance scale at the bottom (if available) to tweak the settings. I normally try to keep it between one and nine but experiment and see what you come up with. After anything between 30 seconds and a minute, you should get your generated pictures. If you don't get anything you like, keep trying! Add more keywords and move the guidance scale until you get something you are happy with. When you are done just right click or hold the image to download it. It gave me a image filled with h...

My new book, Monstrous Manor has now been published and is available to buy from most online digital resellers (see links below!) Invited to spend the evening at an old country Manor House, you arrive to find your host is missing. Search for your host in the manor and grounds while facing danger at every turn in this exciting adventure gamebook. No dice or equipment required. Buy the paperback or ebook from Amazon Monstrous Manor at Amazon

My history with adventure gamebooks stretches back to the early 1980's when my parents bought me the Fighting Fantasy gamebook House of Hell. For a young boy already interested in games and horror it was pretty much the perfect gift. Other Fighting Fantasy books followed like Talisman of Death, Rebel Planet and Sword of the Samurai. From there I jumped to the Avenger (Ninjas were a bit of an obsession) and Falcon series (I bought five of the books but sadly just missed out on the very rare final one!). As I got older I lost interest in playing gamebooks and spent a good couple of decades experimenting with video and photography. The rigours of raising a family meant my focus changed again and web design, linux programming and hacking various games consoles for retrogaming took up a lot of my free time. But books and writing were always at the back of my mind. I still devoured many books and random snippets and ideas for stories would frequently pop into my head unbidden and I would...

 A warm welcome to my official blog where I will detail the creation of my books and give an insight into the writing process. I will also be giving an in depth look at the steps required to create an adventure gamebook and the different decisions and changes that happen along the way. Join me on my adventure ...