Coming Together
It’s been a busy week or so, filled with so many things I could put in a blog. My adventures with the Sarasota Writer’s group have continued, with this past Wednesday being my third meeting. I read the first few pages of “Lucifer’s Love” and received stark, constructive, and appreciated feedback from the group. “Readers might adopt a physiological symbiont with a loosely defined character in this piece,” was part of Rod DiGruttolo’s observation in the group’s blog. In reading with them I’ve learned my writing styles are unconventional and that I have a lot to learn about writing. Next time should be intersting as well.
Glen Blame generating writers. (I use Meta to generate this image - I has a watermark. Never seen that before.)
I also purchased some new hardware capable of running a (little) LLM locally, and now have LLaMa 3 running on my system and others coming soon. I’m primarily using python and the ollama packages to leverage the model and building some pretty fun tools and capability. My family is already exhausted by me hyping the greatness of AI. As an example, with C^ a few prompts and commands I created a bot interface for Glen Blame LLaMa. It was less than 15 minutes start to finish and I’ve never written a GUI in python.
AI is currently changing the world, now is the time to catch the wave.
As it turns out Glen Blame LLaMa identifies as female.
The fact remains that I still do not know how to program a GUI in python. I did not really look at the code I just followed the instructions and implemented the code C^ gave in response to my engineered prompts. So while I am more capable empowered by AI, the jury is still out on weather making things easier will make us smarter. We had a great family discussion in my house this weekend about the mixed blessing of AI that I can already hear echoing in homes around the world for decades to come.
I don’t really like that Meta marks my images, but I am proud to say I used this incredible, emerging, enabling tech.
One More Written
This week I completed a full draft of “Uno Mas”, my technology, socio-economics, and philosophy-filled sci-fi, spy adventure and sister story to “Sol Days.” The pair of tales wind their way through a common set of events and among familiar characters, however with very different perspectives and objectives. I look forward to getting them edited, published, and into your hands and heads, where the characters and ideas inside can be shared.
“Uno Mas” in all it’s glory.
I also completed the setup needed to make a paperback version of “Lucifer’s Love” available on Amazon. It will probably be a few days before it’s available, but it will be satisfying to have a printed copy in hand soon.
Thank you very much to Ayva Mae for the not-AI-generated cover art.
“Lucifer’s Love” cover art. Credit: Ayva Culp
Setting the Pace
Tonight I finished one of the few remaining chapters in “Uno Mas.” I am thoroughly enjoying bringing the character’s twisted tales to their happily ever after, or whatever comes in the next “Sol Days” book. Every day I write and see news feeds of prompt engineering and agent automation I feel like I falling further behind, yet I recall most of the world still has no concept of these terms at all. A bit more time to get my latest masterpiece done and then I think I’ll automate a few agents of my own.
Finding the Groove
I've been working through a particularly challenging chapter of “Uno Mas.” It’s a highly critical section for the development of the story and completion of Dillon’s major character arch that starts almost two books back, in the opening pages of Sol Days. It’s a culmination I would like to get right, and I’ve been letting that intimidate me. Today I was determined not to let my fear a frustration stand in my way. Today I wrote and Dillon wrote, and together we found a groove.
AI imagining of an author in a literal groove, and an author in a literary groove. I find myself somewhere in between.
The More I Learn, the Less I Know
Each morning I wake up and have a multitude of paths I could take on that day. Depending on who, or what part of me, you ask, various paths and destinations might be more critical in my journey than others. My affinity for a “critical” task is inversely proportional to my procrastination and the likelihood of finding frustration on the project. While creative writing is my constant, currently my affinity lies in exploring Multi-Agent frameworks and automated workflows.
All paths lead to the future, some are just more scenic than the others.
I am amazed by the wild inconsistencies in functional quality when it comes to ChatGPT. When I asked it to help me lay out an automatic multi-agent GPT prompt generator, I was pretty pleased with the results as a place to start my development. See C^Guote below.
“ ChatGPT
To create prompts for each agent within the Evolutionary Algorithm-Based Framework for use in AutoGen Studio, it's crucial to incorporate the defined KPIs directly into the prompts to ensure consistency and alignment with the objectives. Here's how the prompts can be structured for each agent:
1. Initialization Agent
Prompt: "Generate a diverse set of initial prompts based on the user's description: '[User Description]'. Aim for a high diversity score by producing a wide range of unique prompts. Evaluate the initial performance score of each generated prompt based on relevancy and coherence, setting a benchmark for subsequent optimization."
KPIs Embedded:
Diversity of Prompts
Initial Performance Score
2. Evaluation Agent
Prompt: "Assess the effectiveness of the following set of prompts: '[List of Prompts]'. Evaluate each prompt for relevancy, coherence, and potential user engagement. Ensure accuracy and consistency in your evaluations, aligning them with real-world feedback metrics where possible."
KPIs Embedded:
Accuracy of Evaluation
Consistency
3. Evolution Agent
Prompt: "Evolve the provided set of prompts to enhance their performance based on the following KPIs: relevancy, coherence, and user engagement. Use genetic algorithms to select, crossover, and mutate the best-performing prompts, aiming to increase the improvement rate and reduce the convergence time."
KPIs Embedded:
Improvement Rate
Convergence Time
4. Optimization Agent
Prompt: "Optimize the following set of prompts: '[List of Prompts]'. Apply reinforcement learning to iteratively refine each prompt, with the goal of maximizing the optimization success rate and the cumulative reward. Focus on significant improvements in relevancy, coherence, and user engagement."
KPIs Embedded:
Optimization Success Rate
Reward Maximization
In these prompts, the KPIs are directly tied to the tasks each agent is responsible for, ensuring that the evaluation of their performance is consistent and aligned with the overarching goals of the framework. Additionally, the prompts are structured to guide each agent toward specific actions and outcomes, facilitating a cohesive and targeted approach to prompt optimization within the AutoGen Studio environment.”
Then I asked GPT4 (Using DALL-E) to generate a flowchart of the process it had described in the conversation, and I received typical cartoon nonsense, instead of a useful diagram.
Which way did he go, Doc?
Prompting Agents
The dawn of multi-agent AI workflows
Today I spent some quality time learning about the tools and methods available for creating AI agents and connecting them into adaptable workflows that can do much more than GPTs alone. There is a vast amount of information in this video (featuring Maya Akim) and other Youtube content by David Ondrej. I’m excited to continue my AI education and use one of the suggested tools, CrewAI or AutoGen Studio, to build my first AI Agent soon.
Walking the writer’s tightrope while writing a resume net for family safety.
One application of AI agents I thought of creating is an assistant for auto-tailoring my resume and application for each job I apply for, if authorship and self-guided AI development don’t work out. I’m looking forward to content from other AI agents appearing elsewhere on GlenBlameCreatives soon.
Strictly Business
Today I woke up with a few things I wanted to accomplish and found myself working on trying to make GPT tools that could help me generate the documents that I wanted to get accomplished. One thing I continue to learn is that I need to learn prompt engineering. I think DALL-E has about as good of a grasp on it as I do right now.
Engineered prompt for my prompt engineering assistant.
The whole struggle of writing prompts to save myself writing had me thinking of chickens and eggs all day. Taking the time to study Prompt Engineering methods is high on my to-do list.
A day of Chickens and Eggs. (I type while cringing at the powers of AI.)
Incidentally
I find the delicacy of life is in the synchronicities, in the events where stars just seem to align. This week I refined the Prelude to Sol Days at the suggestion of The Writer’s Group and worked to condense the whole thick novel into a concise synopsis. Today I made progress on writing Uno Mas: A Sol Days Story for the first time in a while. I resumed my writing at a point where Captain Dillon Kinney, who is the narrator in part of the story in Sol Days, is putting pen to paper to write Sol Days Prelude. Writing to pitch Sol Days immediately helping me write a better draft of Uno Mas is the kind of synchronicity I like.
A Saturday with the family trying to put down a paragraph of new and worthy text.
My daughter and I were debating if driving her back and forth to work was worthy of making a blog. I’m confident we can both agree that the weird and distorted hands and appendages that GPTs put on people warrant inclusion.
My contribution to the community garage sale today
Little Successes!
Today I submitted my first query letter to an agent. Going through the process of being happy with what I sent was invigorating and exhausting. Perhaps “Sol Days” is a little overweight and tough to describe, and yet I fall more in love with the characters and world inside, the more I think of them and write about their plight.
First test of the product.
My son played in a flag football game this evening. It was a beautiful Floridian night great to see my son’s grins.
What people thought I looked like shaking a week’s worth of writers crick out of my neck.
I took this picture of my son’s winning touchdown.
Rewriting is writing, right?
The pen is the sword!
I love the idea of a pen as a scalpel. It’s a perfect image of my day working on Sol Days, refining the Prelude, and writing a synopsis.
The writer’s wife: Thursday night and the kids in bed.
Making Headway?
Today I spent most of my keystrokes writing about my writing. Drafting an agent query letter that I can’t seem to get down to a single page. A synopsis, but still not my novel for several days. The theme of today’s AI imagery is writing to sell my dreams while dreaming about writing what I’m selling.
Writing bureaucracy with old-fashioned tools & dreaming about writing’s future.
The hunt for a literary agent - Query letters and submission guidelines
I went to the Sarasota Writer’s Group’s bi-monthly meeting and had a great time. I read some of my work, “Sol Days” out loud for the public. A first for me and not a small personal step. I got some great feedback, critical though most of it was, although I wasn’t exactly sure how to take it, because the author of the book I was reading was Dillon Kit Kinney and he won’t be born for at least another 25 years. Thanks to all of them; I had a great time and will be going back. https://fwasarasota.blogspot.com/
How do you like this rodeo?
Sol Days: Dillon and Mrs. Garcia
What’s Important
Chapter 2:
Finding Bearings
This morning as the winds and currents of keystrokes ebb in my sails and surge beneath my literary ship, my most important and critical destination glitters brightly just beyond far horizon. It is a beacon to me and yet I find myself spending my precious coin of key clicks, on things not in the direction of my goal. Key clicks spent satisfying bureaucracy sometimes have to be balanced against those given to creativity and connections.
Sol Days: Sinnep’s view on the apocalypses.
Sol Days: Sinnep’s Grief and Madness
Blank Slade
Navigating AI seas on the winds of keyboard clicks.
Chapter 1:
Setting Sail
Today, it feels official. I signed the papers, sealed, and sent the packages needed to once again diverge my path from my Carrier and UTRC family, only this time to dive headlong into a life spent writing for a living. Now, after a morning of obligations upon the shore, I find myself in the sunbaked sea, pondering my first destination. Should I get a feel for the new language-powered AI ship I pilot in the safe waters of refined Prompt Engineering, or perhaps venture straight into a GPT-guided search for just the perfect Literary Agent thriving among the sharks lurking in deeper seas? Should I count my keystrokes, like little gusts billowing my sails, better spent completing and publishing my nearly finished novels: 'Sol Days' and 'Uno Mas'? It's in those sister sci-fi stories that my heart lies, and my true dreams, hopes, and desires are laid bare. Those electronic pages hold loved characters and the worlds those eclectic beings live within, where I am free to reveal the theories, emotions, and philosophies that I have otherwise found difficult to share. Yet, as I begin my long and unknown journey, with a slow drift away from safety, the clicking currency of my keys is happily spent sending a message in a bottle that invites each and every one of you to come along.
The image above was generated using the following prompt in C^GPT-4: “generate an image of the quoted text” above.
* I had planned to embed a link to the GPT session in the image but it seems I am not yet aware of OpenAI’s limits.
Dash the cat wonders if you think he is a GPT enhanced?
Generating a Bottle:
Now that I've written the message, I need to find a bottle to put it in. A blog is just notes on a computer until you find a place to share it, so I had a conversation with BUBuilder, a custom GPT I created on OpenAI, which can be read here: (but probably only with an OpenAI account - I’ll work on that.)
https://chat.openai.com/g/g-eGyU84fcD-bubuilder/c/e38a92f9-3d22-4a37-917e-17041d8df71f
Generate an image of Squarespace being the domain registrar and website host that becomes the bottle for an AI message.
Staking Domains
While I don’t expect to publish my great American novel or figure out all of the possibilities of AI today, I did set the goal of sending my message to you and for a bottle, so I made a decision based on the information C^GPT gave me. Google Domains was my first option and subsequent web search, which showed a limitation of the tool, the service having long ago been consumed by SquareSpace.
I tried BlueHost first based on mild delusions from C^ and a web search confirming them as a good choice, but a clunky checkout interface and difficulty interacting with their chat agents bot human and otherwise, I took staked my claims Squarespace. The interface was simple and intuitive to the point that I could work it out with C^.
Creating a Presence
Generations of Glen Blame.
Glen Blame Creatives has set sail. Website and blog day one, check.
I am AI intrigued, gaining an AI education, and empowered by my keystrokes. I hope you all come along.