Creating an historical fiction series empowered by AI & worldbuilding

An Adventurous Writer-Artist Duo Conspires To Share Hidden Stories About Explosive Cultural Change And Westward Expansion In The Decades Leading Up To The American Civil War.

Fuel this project on Patreon!

  • Get access to exclusive content and offers as the series develops.

  • Empower us to double and triple down on the time and energy it takes to create the series.

The Story

  • We start the series with a long lost friend of the Miller family, holed up in a dilapidated cabin, nestled high in the mountains of Colorado around 1885. Staving off the symptoms of a terminal sickness, thoughts become overwhelming and reality sets in that this story is going to die too, in that old cabin, which will probably rot into nothingness, the family’s secrets and hidden possessions along with it. Rummaging through crates and boxes of old artwork, journals, photographs and publications, it becomes clear how important this story is. There indeed still is a legacy to leave behind. These heroes (and a few villains) should not be relegated to the stodgy, mundane existence that the general populace insists they knew. What follows is an attempt to piece together the adventure this family shared, across the continent of America and around the world, witnessing unimaginable social and technological change, tied within a network of stunningly courageous and creative family and friends.

Characters

  • Aaron Miller

    The Cataylist

  • John Miller

    The Folly

  • Joseph "Joe" Miller

    The Artist

  • Anna Holt

    The Writer

  • Nicholas Picton

    The Protector

  • Abigail Picton

    The Wedge

Sharing the Journey

WHAT THIS PROJECT IS ABOUT

We all have a story to tell, and that fascinates me. What ideas, visions, sounds, or ways of living this life are in your mind that the rest of us might not ever experience? Creating things from scratch and discovering our individual motivations, perspectives and positions on the heavy happenings on this gargantuan spinning rock is HARD! the creator economy is HERE! So, with the uncertainty and abundant opportunity ahead for those of us who are willing to travel, sharing our journeys will undoubtedly be more fun. We are getting the Discord server set up now. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your stories.

Worldbuilding

MY FAVORITE PART

When I take a step back, look back, whatever, and recall the movies, video games, books (written or comic) and other mediums that I found most enjoyable over the years, the ones that really satisfied me were actuality based on worldbuilding. When a story’s world has a life of it’s own, there is room to breathe, feel, and explore beyond the constraints of the character or conditions immediately in front of us. With that realization I am approaching this storytelling journey as a multimedia project, to include the books themselves, scrapbook-style writing & art, supporting photos, graphics and video content.

Roadmap

FIVE BOOKS-FIVE DECADES

The RE÷Union roadmap includes five novels as cannon, spanning the 1830s, 40s, 50s, Civil War, and Reconstruction.

 

RE÷Union Book One: Who’s Eden? is about half finished at 300 pages and I plan to publish it as a free PDF in 2023. The remaining four novels are planned approximately one year apart, in paid form, based on publishing opportunities and development of the series. 

My Dear Creative Partner:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A year after click-clacking RE:Union’s scenarios and characters into my PC the old fashioned way, many visualizations had formed in my mind by way of deep concentration, frantic recoding of my dreams in the middle of the night, or staring at the clouds in the baking sun on the beach in Tulum, drunk on Mexican water. Then an unexpected development occurred. One that could only be know to those deep in the trenches of research papers, tech companies, or the uber-creator class:

AI image generation started becoming a thing in 2022. Yes, yes, I’m sure many were aware of this phenomenon before that. But, the “hey, this is happening and you can actually start using it, commoner” version of AI image generation started popping up everywhere.

And wouldn’t you know it? As I started to type prompts into the interfaces on Night Café and Midjourney, those visions I had only in my mind for at least a year started to form on the screen in front of me. Creaky, old steampunk versions of 1830s Manhattan and giant holes in the middle of the Georgia wilderness started to take shape, humble at first and now strikingly vivid and real, evolving in an incredibly short window of time.

I did try several AI text generators, sometimes layering in my own writing, to see what it would reply with, but I’m yet to be moved or inspired by the results. That’s speaking for myself personally and my process. I can see how ideas and alternative plot lines produced by AI text generators, with some heavy editing and personalization, could make for a powerful tool. AI generated images, on the other hand, have conspired with my dreams on an otherworldly level, driving me forward in the darkest hours along the candle-lit road of self expression.

At the time of this writing, all of my supporting visual content is initially generated through painstaking trial and error with text prompts via Midjourney, and then tuned up by my graphic design skills in Affinity Photo. The time it takes to generate and alter the characters and situations portrayed in these visuals is kinda’ crazy, but I find it extremely fascinating and rewarding, and plan to continue exploring the use of AI as a creative partner. As resources for this series open up, I would certainly love to collaborate with living, breathing humans as well, to expand the quality and variety of the ideas and merch the RE÷Union series includes. Furthermore, I would love to hear about your experience, appreciation, or hatred for AI generated art as we careen helplessly into this vibrant and frightening new future.

UNCONDITIONAL THANKS!


Whether or not you can or will support me with this project, I want to say a big THANK YOU for taking the time to learn about the project and my passion for it! Wherever this journey leads next, it’s often the people we shake hands with at the beginning who remain the most memorable.

See y’ out there on the trail, friend.