January 2, 2023 • 52 mins
This month’s Smut Tea Stories topic is our Lord of Naughty, Krampus! We’ve got a lot to cover this episode so buckle up buttercups! This episode, not only are we covering our favorite Bad Santa, but we’ll also be touching on Copyright infringement and AI generated images! We’ll also be talking about a charity anthology we’ve been a part of, the books we read for the month on our theme, and what we’re up to in our bookish lives!
We hope your holiday season was full of naughty shenanigans, and if not, well, you can always listen to us crack jokes and provide TMI.
We are, without a doubt, three trash cats in a trench coat guzzling coffee next to a dumpster fire at the back of a Waffle House while our Executive Producer tosses candy at us to keep the chaos going. A Coven of Critters, if you will.
DECEMBER’S BOOKS:
Follow our manic asses!Website: https://smutteastories.carrd.coInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/smutteastoriesTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@smutteastories
THE AUTHORS
C.M. NascostaWebsite: https://linktr.ee/Monster_BaitInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmnascostaTwitter: https://twitter.com/cmnascostaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cmnascostaTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorcmnascosta
Honey PhillipsWebsite: https://www.honeyphillips.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeyphillipsauthor/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeyphillipsauthor/
L.E. EldridgeWebsite: https://linktr.ee/morallygrayreadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/morally.gray.reads/Twitter: https://twitter.com/morallygrayreadFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/morallygrayreads/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morallygrayreads
Katee RobertWebsite: https://linktr.ee/kateerobertInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/katee_robert/Twitter: https://twitter.com/katee_robertFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKateeRobert/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorkateerobert
THE HOSTS:
Carlotta Hughes (The Opossum)Website: https://www.authorcarlottahughes.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlottahughesTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorcarlottahughes
Jenifer Wood (The Skunk)Website: https://www.jenifereads.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenifereadsTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenifereads
Jersey Konlyn (The Raccoon)Website: https://linktr.ee/amazonian2017Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amazonian17Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theamazonian17
Smut Tea Stories is a monthly podcast with a focus on indie authors, their smutty books, monsters, aliens, tropes, and kinks! We’ll also cover various aspects of the book world, in education segments, including writing, editing, book cover design, readability, contracts, convention stuff, and more!
📅 Smut Tea Stories takes place at the end of each month and will launch as video on YouTube and as audio only on Spreaker, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Apple Podcast.
🎧 These episodes will be pre-recorded because we have ThE aNxIeTy that would make us play dead if we went Live. We also have small children we need to ke
We hope your holiday season was full of naughty shenanigans, and if not, well, you can always listen to us crack jokes and provide TMI.
We are, without a doubt, three trash cats in a trench coat guzzling coffee next to a dumpster fire at the back of a Waffle House while our Executive Producer tosses candy at us to keep the chaos going. A Coven of Critters, if you will.
DECEMBER’S BOOKS:
- There Arose Such A Clatter: Tales from the Naughty List by C.M. Nascosta: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09MMJ8L3B
- Krampus and the Crone by Honey Phillips:
- Snowed Inn With a Demon by L.E. Eldridge:
- A Very Krampus Holiday by Katee Robert:
Follow our manic asses!Website: https://smutteastories.carrd.coInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/smutteastoriesTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@smutteastories
THE AUTHORS
C.M. NascostaWebsite: https://linktr.ee/Monster_BaitInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmnascostaTwitter: https://twitter.com/cmnascostaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cmnascostaTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorcmnascosta
Honey PhillipsWebsite: https://www.honeyphillips.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeyphillipsauthor/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeyphillipsauthor/
L.E. EldridgeWebsite: https://linktr.ee/morallygrayreadsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/morally.gray.reads/Twitter: https://twitter.com/morallygrayreadFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/morallygrayreads/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morallygrayreads
Katee RobertWebsite: https://linktr.ee/kateerobertInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/katee_robert/Twitter: https://twitter.com/katee_robertFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKateeRobert/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorkateerobert
THE HOSTS:
Carlotta Hughes (The Opossum)Website: https://www.authorcarlottahughes.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlottahughesTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorcarlottahughes
Jenifer Wood (The Skunk)Website: https://www.jenifereads.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenifereadsTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenifereads
Jersey Konlyn (The Raccoon)Website: https://linktr.ee/amazonian2017Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amazonian17Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theamazonian17
Smut Tea Stories is a monthly podcast with a focus on indie authors, their smutty books, monsters, aliens, tropes, and kinks! We’ll also cover various aspects of the book world, in education segments, including writing, editing, book cover design, readability, contracts, convention stuff, and more!
📅 Smut Tea Stories takes place at the end of each month and will launch as video on YouTube and as audio only on Spreaker, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Apple Podcast.
🎧 These episodes will be pre-recorded because we have ThE aNxIeTy that would make us play dead if we went Live. We also have small children we need to ke
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Buckle up, Buttercup, there's fuckeryto discuss. A writer, an editor,
and a reader walk into an indiebookstore and start an unhinged indie monster
an alien smut podcast, because whythe fuck not? And this is our
third episode, and today you'll probablynotice something different. Hello, I moved
(00:22):
in with Carlotta. We are nowa lesbian couple, and we're going to
adopt a child from Jersey. No, we're kidding. I am on Christmas
break in true teacher format. Ileft the day after Christmas break and decided
to drive up to visit Carlotta,and so we get to meet in prison
for the first time. My parentsare very worried that I'm going to be
(00:42):
murdered by someone on the internet.So if I die, we have a
video of it. Is so funny. Her mom just won't shut up about
it, won't even leave before hodspitalone or the children. Children. She
seems like you're talking about he's thethird degree. Okay, So m yes,
(01:04):
the month three is Crampus. Andin true baby bird fashion, I
did not know what I was gettingmyself into because I knew nothing about crampus.
Yeah, and you know Crampus isfrom folklore and mythology from Germanic and
Nordic areas, So it's it's basicallythe naughty equivalent of Santa Claus and Crampus
(01:26):
usually carries a bundle of birch rodsto smack your ass with, just to
give you spankings. Some instances wouldinstead of just punishing the children, would
would take them and then eat them. So that is a thing. But
yes, definitely it's about punishment.He has a very long tongue, I've
(01:47):
learned, and he's goat like,which I did not know I was signing
up for a long time to goat. Thank you all for the morning.
So some of that is like wherethe basis of the devil, the devil's
looks comes from. And then alsohe's generally covered in fur. Yeah,
so think about me and you've signedme up for goat fucking with no warning.
(02:13):
You're welcome. Thank you. Also, there's there's a bunch of different
so in the books that we've readthis month, which we can get into
it just a second, there's abunch of new punishments and new things we
learned. But wanted to just saywe hope that everybody has been enjoying the
twelve Days of Smartness, and youdon't know what that is. We've been
(02:36):
posting videos and also Instagram posts aboutso every single day for the twelve days
leading up to Christmas has been anew post with new authors and series.
It has been a lot of booksand a lot of series to hunt down.
We've done our best to make surethat they are all in the authors,
(02:57):
that they're not problematic, and thatit is monster romance for you,
for you because we love you andwe're like here stuff you're kindle or like
here book works for friends. Sothe books that we're going to be covering,
um, that that we're gonna becovering for this episode is Crampus in
the Crone by Honey Phillips, aVery Crampus Holiday by Katie Robert, which
(03:22):
is a short, um, andthen Arose Such a Clatter which is a
selection of shorts by C. M. Nascosta, and then Snowdon with a
Demon by Ellie Eldridge. Um,And so that's what we're gonna be talking
about. Um. And I thinkwe all read a very Crampus Holiday by
Katie Robert this month, Yes,yeah, we did so, And that
one if it's that one's free onKu right now and is like you could
(03:44):
read it in twenty minutes, andit's I mean, it's Katie Robert,
so you can't really go wrong.We're gonna get into a couple of things
that have popped up in book world, um since our last episode that we
feel like we should just talk aboutfor a little bit um And I'm gonna
like, bro, yeah, I'mlike Krolotta kind of take the reins on
the first one because it really impactspeople that are published already. All right,
(04:05):
So copyright infringement is something that hasbeen It's been a longstanding issue,
but it's kind of blown up recentlyin the book world, predominantly because z
Library got taken down by the government. The z Library was a place where
everybody would pirate books, meaning thatthey would get them for free. It's
(04:29):
especially indie authors, so not evenlike big published authors, not just them,
but like people who independently publish anddon't make very much money. The
government took them down. It wasreally funny because the US Postal Service was
the replacement of a thing on thescreen when you actually put in z library
dot com and then they actually gotarrested by the FBI. So that is
(04:53):
a thing. Yeah, hold thatthought for a second now, but there's
blunder currently. Some things that arehappening is people are getting So the ass
hats that are doing this have beendownloading a bunch of books illegally and then
(05:13):
putting them on sites like Etsy thatyou pay for. You pay for a
chunk of books, right, sothey're profiting off of other authors work.
And to top it off, there'salso epub dot pub which in the beginning
of November, on my birthday,I found out that my book Thorn's Dove
(05:34):
was on there and there's a paywall. So someone taking money off of your
book. Yeah, so in orderto doubt, you could read it free,
but there's ads and shit, soin order to download it you had
to there was a paywall. AndI've worked out the number of downloads slash
views it got and it was overthree grand. I have only made like
(06:00):
one grand off off of the bookthis year, so that tells you three
times the amount. Now, toput this into perspective, I am disabled,
I have fiber mayaga, I haveother's demo syndrome lupus. I am
My body is a dumpster fire.It is. It is not a temple.
(06:20):
It is a burning dumpster in theback of a walk house. Okay.
Um, So the income that Iget from my book and soon to
be books is goes to help withmy healthcare, which is very important when
you're when you're out and about onthe internet, some other places other than
(06:41):
a pubbed up pub, all thetorrenting sites, you often can find books
there. There's also an issue withserialization apps, so like this happens with
like top Us and any Stories andthings like that, where people will take
books that exist that we're written byother people and post it as like it's
their own in serialization format, andthose have paywalls as well. Also,
(07:03):
there's an issue with recently people postingauthor's work on Apple, so that's been
a thing Apple Books and with Amazon. If your book is in ku and
they find out that your book iselsewhere on the internet, they will take
down your book and any of thesales. They freeze that because you have
(07:27):
a three month period before you getyour royalties, right, so that three
months chunk they just freeze and holdonto and you may never get that if
they decide not to reinstake your book. So, and this has happened with
authors that we have read for ourfirst Yeah, for our first month,
we read Jillian Graves and she hadone of her books got removed from KU
because Titan. Yeah, she gotTitan removed because they found it elsewhere and
(07:53):
they put the onus on the authorto prove that it is their book.
Which, when you're talking you're talkingabout indie authors. A lot of those
authors don't have the means to havea legal team to like go chase down,
Like the most you can do issend like a cease and desist notarized
letter. If you're like an India, you don't have a team of attorneys
fighting EPUB for you. As somebodywho hasn't published yet, This I find
(08:18):
stressful because I'm like, I don'twant to have to like fight the Internet
to keep what's mine. Well,it's it's such a common thing now.
It's almost a rite of passage inthe in the author community, which is
severely unfortunate. Yeah, there havebeen a lot of petitions to get Amazon
to change some of these rules,predominantly like the proving because essentially, if
(08:43):
the burden mun proof shouldn't be onthe indie author. No, it should
it shouldn't be because the KU isdesigned to help indie authors get their books
out there, and so you're makingthis indie author that's either doing this like
as a side job, or ismaybe not making very much money yet,
and then now they have to gofight a legal battle. Well, oftentimes
you can reach out to Amazon andcustomer service and if you screenshot things from
(09:09):
your computer, like hey, Ihave scriminer and this is you can see
this is from this chapter, thispage of my book I wrote it.
If you can find little ways likethat or to just screenshot and send them
to sort of prove that, hey, this is actually mine, that that
could be beneficial. I haven't gonethrough the process myself yet, so I'm
not exactly sure what I would needto send them as proof, but other
(09:33):
than like, hey, I candate in time when this was written.
Yeah, So two takeaways that wehave from this one what to do if
you see it published somewhere where itshouldn't be and buy your books. Yes,
So that's something that's very nice isif you ever find an author's book
(09:54):
somewhere and you know it's not supposedto be there and it wasn't posted by
the author. Guess what, youcan submit it too to the FBI because
it is fraud yay, And thatway we can get other websites like legsy
Library taken down for fraud and sothat that is the thing that can happen.
(10:16):
So as book talk, if weall work together, we can really
make a difference. So even ifyou're it's all anonymous, by the way,
so the tip web address, it'sall anonymous, and you could just
sit there and keep adding them fromthe same website. You're like, hey,
okay, so there's this author's bookand they got the whole series.
So I'm gonna put a tip infor each and everyone. Yeah, and
(10:39):
then also we assume you're good peopleand you're you're buying your books. But
if you didn't realize that authors don'tget credit if you take it from a
website like epub or whatever, like, don't don't do that. It harms
indie authors. It harms all authorson it programs, all authors, but
indie authors especially. Yeah, exactly. Okay, So this month I reads
(11:00):
and Crowned by Honey Phillips. Ienjoyed this one a lot. The premise
behind it is the main character themain male character is Crepissian. I am
not going to attempt his last name. I will screw that up way too
much. But his name is Crepissian. He is a commander or lieutenant in
(11:22):
his fleet, and he's trying toget to his next location very quickly in
order to bypass his competitor. Buthe crashes his ship into a mountain on
this planet, and it's very cold, and he's just trying to figure out
how to quickly get the fuck outof here without being seen, and in
(11:45):
order to keep an eye on thelocals while still taking care of his ship.
He sends out they're cameras, butthey're they're birds that he has modeled
them to make sure they look likethe local birds. Only he doesn't realize
the local birds have gone away,so his birds are weird. He's fascinated
(12:07):
and interested in the locals, like, Okay, these are weird people.
They're different. They're now I'll sithere, I'll watch my monitors, but
I'm gonna stay up here in mymountain. But a little bit weighs down
the mountain, there's another hermit.I guess you'll say this is the woman.
The main female character. Her nameis jail. She is a young
(12:30):
woman who she is basically the shaman, the local witch of the of the
village of the town. But nobodyrealizes just how young she is because she
puts on a bunch of makeup anda facade and she intentionally walks like she's
much older to avoid any issues ofanybody trying to attack her or assault her
(12:52):
or whatever. And she gets tojust be her loane myself up on her
mountain, and you don't we allwant that, right, And she's got
a cute little cottage just kind ofoff in the corner, and she she
talks to all the animals, andone of his birds becomes her friend,
who she talks to all the timeand is present while she's bathing. At
(13:15):
one point, I like that thereyou go. Yeah, And he is
unsure of how to deal with hismotions during that moment because his people have
completely done away with physical reproduction ofany sort. It's all done in a
(13:39):
lab and whatnot. There's no physicalcontact or nothing. So everything with her
is a first for him. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And
because of his his centuries, hisbirds that he's got going out, he
(14:01):
he realizes that there is a kidthat is being abused. He was like,
I can't. I can't just sithere. I can't. So and
he has heard the local legends ofCrampus, so he takes advantage of that
and in the middle of the nighthe takes the boy and goes back up
his fountain and then he, youknow, from the boy, he learns
(14:26):
this boy has a sister and theonly reason this kid was dealing with his
boss the way that he was wasbecause any money he got went to his
little sister. Oh, so hehas to go abduct her too, that's
fair. And the gail, whoknows these kids obviously, she's like,
(14:48):
okay, I have to find them. And then she gets attacked by wolves
and he has to nurse her backto health. Okay, so this is
this has got some beauty, andthe beast vibes just a little bit,
yes, a smidgeon yeah um,But the kids adore him and he's not
(15:11):
sure what to do about it.Oh, it's just why what you're You're
not supposed to enjoy being here thismuch. I technically brought the boy here
to get him away from his bossand maybe maybe get his boss to realize
(15:31):
I actually need this kid around.That didn't work, but I do.
I recommend this one. It's verycute. I think it's like a hundred
teen page or something like that.It's a it's a quick read. I
was able to get it knock itout in like an hour because I had
time. My kids were at school. I had time. But it's very
(15:56):
cute, it's very sweet. HoneyPhillips did a very good job. I
appreciated it. Oh good. Anyspecific tropes, triggers, etc. There
is abuse of the boy. Jaildoes have to make up a little an
elixir, a potion. I'm notsure exactly how it's described. I can't
(16:18):
remember to make sure. That kindof like a liquid birth control for the
women, okay, because a coupleof the men are very adamant that they
read as often as possible, andthe women don't want to do that because
they're tired and they've already got ninekids. That sounds like one of my
ancestors. He had twenty one kids. Oh no, the last one was
(16:42):
born after he died. Well done, sir, well done it already,
thank you? So waitum, arethey is anybody human in this situation?
Is everyone an alien? Are we? What planet? Are we on We're
not on Earth as far I cantell. Okay, So crampasarian he is
(17:03):
definitely alien obviously because he crashed landed. Uh. And the people don't The
village does not remember their history,okay, but the Crone Chail her her
lineage, they all remember their history. Okay, they've had to and it's
not local. Okay, Okay,I will leave it at that, and
(17:26):
then anybody who wants to read cango go with it from there. Good.
Yeah, so you're not having todeal with earthling men. I can
tell you that as someone who doesn'twant to deal with earthling men ever.
Um. Well, I mean mineis your husband. I do like my
husband. My husband, my husbandis has made this possible us filming in
(17:51):
this room. He sent me witha bag of tech that I was scared
of. Um, So, Idon't know how anything works. So I
read a rose such a Clatter Talesfrom the Naughty List by C. M.
Nascasta, and it is a seriesof shorts um that all feature Crampus
(18:12):
um. And so, like Isaid up top, I did not know
at all what Crampus was. Ijust knew he was like dark Santa,
that was like my kind of understandingof this. I'd seen some of the
old like Germanic drawings where he lookskind of devily with a really long tongue,
and so I anticipated some tongue situations. Um, and I got that
(18:38):
so um series of short stories.Um. And it's very because um,
Crampus is there to punish. Sothere's a lot of focus on punishment or
punishment whatever you would like to callit. Yeah. Yeah, so you're
welcome the things you learned from beingon the kinky side of right. So
(19:00):
yeah, So what I did likeis that the the beginning story, the
first short, and the last shortwhere a continuation where you kind of got,
um, happily ever after with oneof the stories. With the rest
of them, there is no happilyever after because Crampus does his his his
business and then he's out because he'sgot to go punish someone else. Okay,
(19:21):
he's a busy fellow. He's busy. Yeah, there there are like
for this one. I'm not evengoing to try and give you all the
trigger warnings. They are available onher on cmas Costa's website because there are
quite a few. Um. That'sit's like a whether you're viewing it as
a menu or a trigger warning list. You need to check them before you
read this book because it is onthe darker side. That being said,
(19:45):
I really enjoyed So I enjoyed someof the stories more than others. I
really enjoyed the one that where therewas a continuation and a happily ever after,
because I'm like, I'm a happilyever after person, and even if
he's like a Christmas demon, Istill want the to stay together. So
there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. No, not at all. So
(20:08):
for the first one, he Umhas arrived at her house and he's there
to punish her roommate and then decidesthat he is also going to punish her
because she's there, and um,there's a punishment in the form of spanking
with the birch rods, which Ididn't know it was a thing, but
it kept recurring, so I'm like, I'm guessing this is a thing that
crampus Up spanks with birch rods.Um, So there's some spanking with birch
(20:32):
rods. It's always with CM Disgusta. The spice is very good. Um.
But I also wasn't really anticipating likea goat situation. So that was
something parents like, we need towarn our baby bird a little bit more.
So I'm sorry to pull back thecurtain like we talk about like what
Jen can handle. And so likeI've already said, like there's some things
(20:55):
that I'm like, I'm gonna haveto like work up to that, like
tentacles, like tentacles and spiders,like we're not there, like I don't
know if I'll ever get there,Like goat legs was not something that I
needed to be like, um,how do I feel about goat legs?
Turns out fine? It turns outfine, but the fur was not something
(21:15):
I was expecting. So the otherthing was, as I knew Crampus had
a really long tongue, but inevery single one, the tongue is so
long that it can reach down thelow while they're having sex. And I
was like, that's a lot oftongue, but I mean, you know,
okay, uh it's handy. Soum yeah. So and so she
(21:40):
is like punished by him, andthen basically she goes looking for him because
she really kind of like awakens thisaside in her where she realized she likes
kind of that kind of sex andlike she can't find it in her other
relationships, and she goes looking forhim and so like she finds him.
And then in the one that endsthe set of short stories, you what
happens, which I'm not gonna thereis a happily ever after with Crampus,
(22:03):
which I've my little soft squishy heartwas happy about. One of the other
stories, um, which this one'skind of it was funny is um Crampus
comes to punish, but um,he doesn't realize that um, the woman
he's punishing is part of the BDSMcommunity, so like all of his normal
punishments aren't working on her, sohe has to like take everything up a
(22:23):
notch and he's like, well,why isn't this working? Like um,
so um, there is inappropriate useof peppermint sticks um, and which I
was like, oh, that's goingto mess up your pH but it's like,
oh, it's gonna become a littlegheesty down there. Yeah, yeah,
(22:44):
inappropriate summer's eve. Yeahstance would bea good idea, I don't.
Yeah. So, um, yourvagina is self cleaning usually, but if
you put a peppermint stick up there, you might me need to take some
steps. Yeah, it's it's it'swell, it's a well oiled machine.
Basically, it's self staining machine.And it shouldn't smell like a flower like
just lets put that out there,okay, but let it smell like itself.
(23:06):
It's fine. Yeah, okay,there's a little sex education for you.
Okay. Um, So, butwhat I did not know about,
which which Carlotta and Jersey were ableto inform me about after I read an
extensive amount of it is inappropriate orappropriate use of ginger. So if someone
wants to explain that one, whyis it spicy? Ginger is the fire
(23:32):
of you know this nature? UhSo figuring is comes from an old word
called figing f a g i ng um, which used to be an
old punishment where a ginger root ispeeled, so you know, the nice
(23:56):
woody outer the exterior is off andit's of course you know, ginger.
Ginger burns a little bit, sothen you take it and it's stuck up
the anus and that it causes aburning cessation and it's used as a punishment.
Well, it actually got adopted umby the BDS and community as a
(24:22):
form of punishment. So I'm notsure how how like common of a thing
practice that is, But I meanit's common enough that Crampus did it.
I mean it is ginger, andwe use a lot of ginger during the
holidays, right, so we've gotthe ginger, peppermint stick, birch frauds
all being used at the same time. So I didn't know about like the
(24:42):
ginger. I hope that using apeppermint stick is not normal behavior, or
if it is, you use appropriateAftercareum, but aftercare is important in any
connotation. Yes, yes, andso and so. Yeah, So it's
a it's chunk of your stories.That one particularly stuck out to me because
I liked that he was like,why aren't any of these punishments working?
(25:03):
And he has to like use whathe has on hand, which is ginger
and peppermint sticks. And then there'sanother one where he's there to punish this
kind of like high society lady.M To me, it felt like it
was supposed to take place in history, like a like like in the twenties
vibe but um, and she greatsme, Yeah, that's what I feel
like. She's having a ball andum, he punishes her. But then
(25:27):
also he like I think he killsher. Maybe we couldn't that. I
wasn't he put her in a bag. Is that a thing to put him
in a bag and he disappear?Yeah? That they take he takes them
with him. Okay, so heput her in a bag and she disappeared.
I this was also it's I thinkit's like a hundred pages total.
Each short story is like fifteen totwenty pages, um. And then you've
(25:48):
got the book end of them,the two that go together. Um.
And as somebody who didn't know atall what they were getting into with crampus,
um, I would read it againlike so, and I love see
him discuss So like anything that sheputs out, I'm going to give a
try, even if it's spiders.So yeah, so that is a row,
(26:10):
such a clarer a series of shortstories. Nice, very good.
Alrighty okay. So now we're goingto move into AI and how it is
affecting the art community in a similarway that copyright infringement is happening on book
talk, and as book people,you can do to assist the actual artists
(26:30):
in the world. Just so everybody'saware. I am an illustrator and I
have a background in art and arthistory. I've got an A and art
BA and art history and Digital artcertification. I've been creating artwork since two
thousands, so longer than some ofyou have been alive anyway, and two
thousand would have put you a freshmanyear of high school. We're same age,
(26:51):
Yeah, we're the same age.She's the baby bird when it comes
to age wise, I am thebaby. The issue at hand is on
the tech side of things. Thereare some companies within the industry who are
creating AI that can mimic and createartwork, and it's supposed to be used
(27:15):
as a tool, but it isbeing misused completely. And the biggest ethical
issue that is being discussed right nowthat at least like I wasn't aware of
as much of the stuff as isthat these tech companies took images from the
Internet from like Pinterest and dB andart and you know by hunts and all
(27:37):
these other places and use them asdata sets for their AI to train the
AI. But they did it withoutconsent, which in the book community we
know is a big no no.So that they illegally took artwork and even
from big illustrators like Lowish, Yeah, from her. There's actually some resources
(28:02):
in which you can look to seeif your artwork has been used in the
data sets. But the thing isthat there's no recompense for this for the
artists. There is also mid Journey, which is one of the AI software
the people have been using, andthey use it in discord basically says that
they can't be held accountable legally foranything that you create through mid Journey,
(28:27):
and if you know something happens,they will come after you for money,
They will come after you not notanyway, it's a big hot mess.
And there on Instagram there is awonderful illustrator Majorn Duty, who has more
information because they went and asked abunch of questions and even including like places
(28:51):
like Adobe. So that's another aspectis a lot of large companies are being
accepting of AI generated artwork. Now. The thing is is that people think,
oh, but AI, you trainit, and you can train a
person, yes, but also no, because a person can come up with
something new, AI cannot. Itcan only create artwork based on things that
(29:15):
already exist and it just smashes themtogether, that's it. So that is
another issue. And currently a lotof the art websites have been auto enrolling
all of their artists and the artworkinto the AI data sets, including dban
(29:36):
Arc, which there was such anoutcry that they had to backpedal and make
it so it's optional and they're nototto enrolled. Sorry that the consent thing
just really bothers me as an illustrator. Now Adobe is allowing it for the
Adobe Cloud and stock to sell,but the things is that the fun bit
is you basically have to own theAI and all the stuff that was like
(30:00):
I used to train in order tofor Adobe to be able to legally use
it. So technically all the midJourney stuff and all those other things that
were based off of AI data setsthat were taken illegally from artists, you
cannot upload that to Adobe. Sojust so you know, because then you
will be legally responsible. Now,what are we going to do going forward?
(30:21):
There has been a huge mood movement. I think its Akuga is one
of the artists that created a noAI symbol and that has spread like wildfire
on the art community and so peopleare even replacing their artwork on all these
art websites with that image and it'sbeen making a big difference in a big
(30:42):
call up because one of the biggestproblems with AI is that it can completely
replace human creators because it is takingstuff that is popular, with styles that
are popular, and then creating somethingnew but isn't new. It's it's bled
into the book community because you've gotpeople using like looking for illustrators for cover
(31:06):
art or for you know, likeartwork and so marketing. And one of
the things for like me is Ican't tell I'm not an artist, So
I'm like, well, what amI supposed to do? Now? Just
show everything to Carlotta and be likeis this good? Well, there are
some two There are things that arelike indicative, yeah, that it is
(31:29):
likely AI generated artwork. First ofall is if you've looked at art in
any capacity for any length of time, you know that there's usually delineation between
things, and with AI generated artwork, sometimes that delineation is gone. So
it is this weird like transition thatis does not work like mentally speaking,
like in terms of how our brainsfunction. And then also there are weird
(31:53):
little like spirals or weird little likedecorative things that an artist wouldn't actually put
in there. Um, it's unusualand it's unusual places too, and sometimes
there's like weird patterns added or sometimeseven you will see the remnants of the
(32:16):
signature. I saw that when Iwas reading about it, because Carlotta like
told us all about this, soI read some articles because I was like,
I don't know what this is.So they showed like what like an
AI a piece of art underneath thatyou could still see the artist signature,
which is just like, this issuch utter bullshit, Like it's clear like
it's obstructed, but it was yeah. Yeah. And the thing is is
(32:37):
that's another problem that's really coming upagain in the book community that has been
pissing me write the fuk off isyou've got artists speaking up about this,
and authors are like, well,I commission artists, but I'm gonna do
this AI art anyway. And thething is, it's like you do realize
that you, yes, you arecommissioning artists, which is fantastic, but
(33:00):
their artwork got stolen for you todo the AI It is not absolution,
Yeah it is not. So thatis one thing, um, but then
another is not tagging that it's AIart. Yeah, which so like when
I'm like looking around looking at graphics, like sometimes it'll say AI, and
I'm like, okay, I know, like at least I know like that,
(33:22):
like some of some of these peoplewho are posting are not saying that,
And even authors are doing this withno art background. Yeah uh,
and they're so Consequently, the personwho's looking at this will automatically think,
oh, they illustrated that, that'sso cool, and in fact, no,
they did not. And that's wherebecause I'm like, I can't tell
(33:44):
like if you're not telling me,you know, well, like another So
there's something that I I'm hoping we'llsort of pick up. People are calling
themselves AI artists. No, thatis not actually a thing. I want
to make that very clear, becauseyou're not creating the artwork. If you're
utilizing an AI, it's the AIis creating the artwork for you. Consequently,
(34:07):
you are what's called an operator.You were operating the AI to create
this. Okay, Okay, Ijust want to put that out there.
Hopefully people will understand that didn't differentiate. So like me, I can draw
stick figures, a butterfly, anda pumpkin. Those are my skill sets,
okay. And so if I wentand learned how to use AI,
and you learned how to press allof the buttons to make it come up
(34:30):
with something. It would look likelike this beautiful thing. But I didn't
make that. I told a computerto make that. So I am not
an artist. I'm not an illustrator. I am making a computer. Yeah.
Yeah, And so one thing,there are a lot of apps out
there now, like the Prequel appand everything else where it adds AI filters.
(34:51):
So initially I thought that that wasall in good faith. I thought
that when I downloaded the Prequel app, because I was like, this is
really cool, and I was lookingthrough and stuff season but I thought it
was all in good faith, likeeverything that they had garnered, and now
that I'm finding out none of itis. I stopped using the Prequel app
for funzies, but also like atthe beginning of my artistic process, because
(35:15):
it cuts like a like ten hoursout to get the same exact thing as
like just a shortcut as a hack, which artists use hacks. But I've
decided against using that because that isstupidly unethical. And yeah, because I
thought that, I thought that alltheir data sets were ethically acquired. Because
(35:39):
the thing is is that like ifyou go if you want fonts, if
you want anything like that, youget a license, you know, a
license agreement, and um, that'sfor anything like on like Creative Market or
Hungry japeg or anywhere. It wouldit would be one thing if they had
gone to like each artist like,hey, we want to utilize your stuff
(35:59):
for day a set. Here's whatwe're willing to do for you. Here's
a contract, YadA, YadA,YadA. That would have been totally fine
and that would have helped out alot of people. More people would have
been happy to join that. Theycould have openly done that as like an
art thing, Like they could havejust said, hey, fill out this
form and submit your art that youwould like to have included in this.
So it's not like their entire portfolio. Yeah, it just be what they're
(36:22):
willing to offer. But they'd alsoprobably get you a commission on it or
something. Yeah, there should besome paid for their ship that's being utilized.
Yeah. Well, the thing isis like things like mid Journey,
they're actually making money off of itout of a subscription, but that none
of that money goes back to theart ku. Yeah. Yeah, that
none of that money is going backto the creator of the original data set.
(36:45):
Yeah, and so that's a bigissue. There's no consent, they're
not getting paid for it. Andthat really brings to light something that is
big in any of the tech industries, including movies, TV and video games.
Yeah. Art, yeah, isit is. There's so much fucking
(37:06):
entitlement when it comes to art.Oh, people feel like it's like it's
theirs. If it's on the internet, I can take it, yeah,
you know, and like you shouldn'teven be like printing it and framing it
and putting in your house, Likeyou need to be paying the artist for
their work. And it's funny becauseCarlotta has been is going to be doing
some illustrating for me, and Ilike and like and I'm going to be
paying her in doing that illustrating andI'm so like, are you sure?
(37:30):
Are you sure you're okay to dothis? And that's the thing is it's
like that's why I use contracts.Yeah. But part of it also is
like, you know, I makesure that I ethnically source the tools that
I use, Like I make surethat it's got a it's got a commercial
license attached to it, so likefonts, brushes, a clip, studio
paint, so I've already got theyou know, the software is taken care
(37:52):
of like everything that I all thebrushes I use and stuff. It's just
a hot fucking mess. And sowhat can you do? Yes, what
you can do is boycott using anyAI whatsoever. So if you have a
mid Journey subscription or the equivalent,get rid of it. If you like
to play around with stuff like that. The more you use it, the
more the AI is advancing, whichmeans the more art it is using in
(38:15):
the data sets. And don't useit. That's the thing. Don't do.
Not use it. If you wantstuff for marketing, hire an illustrator,
an artist, you can even what'snice is find artists in your area
that you can locally boost the economywith. But also you can there's a
(38:37):
bunch of newbee artists out there,hire one of them, help boost them.
Would love to spend time on somethingnew and get paid for it and
get feedback on their art as well. So says say you say you're an
indie author or do you just likeartwork and you're looking to hire an artist,
(38:58):
what would you say? You're thebest websites? Well, with everything
going on right now, um,probably just Instagram or TikTok because um,
there's also there's a app that youcan use. It's called Artists Tree.
Okay, it's Artists and Tree smashedtogether. But that's where you can easily
(39:19):
commission and message with artists and everythingon there. Like Twitter used to be
like one of the big places youcould go talk to artists, um Devian
art and by Hans at C butlike and also with ets with AI.
Yeah, that's that's a thing.So artists are saying doing AI portraits and
(39:42):
they're charging like three hundred dollars andsomebody who's looked around Etsy can confirm,
yeah, it's they are charging thesame amount, if not more, for
what an artist will spend hours doingand they basically played with it for five
minutes and it's it's absurd. Sothat is, Yeah, you can find
artists on at sea. That isa decent place, except for the AI
(40:07):
stuff. Instagram because a lot ofartists will post what they're they're working on.
Well they're price list and they postwhat they're working on, so you
get to see sketches and everything,but they'll post their price list And that
is something I'm going to be doingsoon because I was starting to take commissions
again in twenty twenty three. Yeah, yea, so yeah, it's like
(40:32):
and I think eventually Adobe wants tointegrate AI into Adobe Photoshop and everything else,
which if it were ethically sourced anddone the right way, none of
this would be a problem. Theproblem is is that it's not. So
consequently, it's fucking over an entireindustry, not even just like a group.
(40:58):
Yeah, it's an industry. Yeahyeah, So anyway, that's a
that's what you can do. Umyeah, yeah, it's a hot mess.
So the next book that we didI read and it's Snowed In with
a Demon by Elie Eldridge. Nottechnically Crampus but Crampus vibes. It's a
(41:19):
little bit of Crampus vibes. Butalso Ellie Eldridge is morally gray reads and
is a part of the community,like helped with Iyem the Fire and has
done a lot and this is herfirst book, this is her debut book.
So I thought it would be reallycool for us to include it since
it like has the kind of crampusyes if it's the monk vibes. It
(41:40):
takes place in a place called Camden, Inn and it's in the mountains,
snowy. It's like very winter Wonderlandkind of hallmarky Christmas Eve vibes and the
small town and everything, and itis run by the female main character,
which and terrible at names, soplease give me. But she does not
(42:01):
believe in ghosts, and it evensays in the book that she researched to
see if anybody died in this place, although and it was built in like
eighteen ten, and I thought thatwas a really cool thing to include,
that she'd done her homework. Yeah, but the place is notorious for being
haunted, so there's lots of likeghost hunters that come in and people.
(42:24):
It's an attraction. But so thingsget moved, things go missing and everything,
and she's just annoyed by it all. And that would be me.
I don't believe in ghosts, soI'd be like, what the fuck is
this? The book itself is prettylow a so that's nice, so you'd
enjoy that low angs. And thedemon basically feeds off of fear, and
(42:47):
he's the one who's technically haunting theplace. He's just like taking her as
a challenge, like I want toI've got to scare her so he shows
up as a guest. Okay,yeah, he really likes the tape of
her fear, so they keep goingwith it. Um, there's nodding.
There's some tail play, like sortof a secluded area. So that's also
(43:08):
a thing. Forced proximity. Sothere's some of the tropes. Okay,
Um, the demon socially awkward.Yes, yeah, the nice thing,
the thing that I really appreciate beingevangelical. It's a non religious based demon.
(43:28):
Yeah, finally, sorry, we'llget into religious trauma on another episode.
We covered it a little bit,bitch. Yeah, yeah, so
I I really enjoyed it. There'sa cute cat that's just like it goes
play things. Um, but yeah, it's it's fun. Good, it's
(43:52):
cute. How long? About howlong is it? It's thirty thousand words,
about one hundred and twenty pages?Okay, so aquied. Okay,
thirty thousand words is one hundred andtwenty pages. It can't translate to that
much. Yeah, I got I'vewritten one hundred and twenty pages. You've
gone close to thirty thousand words.Miss, No, I'm over, I'm
at thirty four. Yeah. Yeah. It depends on your phone size,
(44:13):
really really small yeah, you're notgonna make it though, what the two
hundred and fifty five thousand worse thanI'm not done yet with Yeah, it's
been a winter. It's been awinter. It's only December, so um,
I recommend it. I recommend it, Okay, I'm also as a
side note, there have been therewas a huge influx of new Crampus stuff.
(44:36):
I know, after we decided itwas a rail Trampus. I don't
know who wrote that, but it'sgetting I could look that up, but
it's getting really good reviews. Butit was too late for us. We'd
already kind of so sad. Yeah. Yeah, so like there I saw
like five new ones. And afterlooking for all of the books for this
episodecause we did Carlotta dug for likeCrampus like deep already place. I mean
(45:01):
there was even one that was literallycalled what is it coming for Crampus?
Yeah, and I'm just like,oh no, I almost read that one,
just just for but like it canbe really difficult to find something that's
in day that's Crampus. That's yeah, that's and then suddenly it just became
(45:22):
the thing. Yeah, Yeah,we were the we were ahead of the
times. We were were slightly aheadof the curve, but we are going
to be making a post about allthe new ones coming out, so that
way you kind of have a runninglist of what you guys can go out
and read. And then there's alast one that we all read together,
which I am I'm coining a newterm of it's a sneeze novella because it's
(45:43):
like fifteen pages, but it isum. It is Katie Roberts, So
it's fifteen pages that are worth it. Okay, it's definitely worth it.
But you can read it in liketwenty minutes. Oh yeah, for sure,
just get it out there. UM. So this is UM a woman
(46:04):
who has basically committed, as she'splanned and committed a murder of an abusive
partner. And because of her familylife, um, she and she's kind
of like a high society and they'vesent her away to her father's visit as
hunting Ham and so she's just kindof up there, like really feeling guilty
(46:25):
for this crime that she committed,even though it's been explained like he was
abusive, but the fact that shepremeditated it was why she's like feeling in
her feelings about like I really havecommitted a murder and wasn't self defense.
Yeah, she keeps seeing blood onher hands and basically because of that,
she's still you know, she can'tstop seeing the blood on her hands.
So it's like her guilt and herself loathing of this act is more or
(46:50):
less what calls Crampus to her todeal out her punishment. He shows up.
She's like, finally, just makeit end, she thinks, and
he doesn't. Don't to do withthat at first. He's like, you
you're actually admit to your guilts.Yeah, you're a human that's admitting this,
(47:10):
and you want this over. Youactually want this to happen. But
she gets a punishment that she didn'trealize was coming. Didn't realize it was
an option, which if you thinkabout it, if you think about it,
the fact that it's a sex punishmentand she was abused. We don't
know the extent of the abuse,and that can be a healing journey,
(47:35):
especially in kink. Thank you crampasdaddy. Um. So, like I
said, it's Katy Roberts. Sothe spice is good. We've got we've
got some spanking with birch rods,and we've also got a really long tongue
play long to the point of liketentacle yep to the like quirksucker who folds
(47:59):
in on it and pulses and thenlike huh um, yeah, yea,
I said, no technacles. Howwere we to know it's cramps? It
doesn't was gonna be a thing wedidn't know. I knew there was a
long tongue. I didn't know wait, but at the same time we didn't
(48:19):
know it could do that. Butthen it was gonna be like technacle horn
um. But then also there's stuffingand stretching because he has he's much larger
than a big Yeah, m it'sgood. It's and then she's like,
I want you to come back.Oh I liked that, and he's like
no, and then she's like pleaseand he's like maybe, and he's like,
if you leave up, if youleave out the offering next year,
(48:42):
I will come back and she's likeI will and he's like, I am
not used to this. So um, then that was abnormal, like fifteen
pages it was. It was itwas definitely but yeah. But and it's
pret her free on her newsletter rightnow. Um. It's usually part of
her Patreon short stories. But itwill you sign up for her newsletter right
(49:06):
now it's free. And then alsoit's on ku so yeah, yes,
so um. So those are theones that we read this month, um,
which was another like exciting new experiencefor me since last month I'd never
read shifters and this month I gotgoats. Um. So next month we're
doing something I've never done before eitherhave are you? Uh? Yes,
(49:31):
the Big Fields anthology. So um, We're gonna be doing Yetti's. It
sounds very furry, it does,and it does, I'm sure it is.
I I also have not read aYetti story. I don't think.
Yes, it was Maddie Sins Short, which she expanded I believed full full
(49:52):
short. Okay, well, sowe want to all read Maddie Sins for
sure? Um, I don't.We can a there's other ones too,
we can all check it out.I will, I will, yeah,
and I will have a list umfor a lot is our list maker if
that wasn't clear. She makes allof our lists, um, and make
sure we have all of the content. And then our executive producer, who
(50:12):
is always in stealth mode is theone who puts it all in order.
Then and I don't know why heputs up with this because he doesn't even
like reading. Um, he lovesyou, He looks you, and he's
very excited to watch you succeed.And it's adorable. Yes, um yeah.
Also I Am the Fires. IAm the Fire did really well for
the first month of it being out, so if you don't know, I
(50:35):
Am the Fire is an anthology ofshort stories, which I have one in.
Jenna Jersey did editing in beta readingfor it. It was my first
credited edit. Yeah. It wasseeing my name in print. I was
very excited. So and we're veryit's all too raged raged. We are
(50:57):
raged. We're an in rage.Yes, because all of the funds are
going to the National Network of AbortionFunds. So in the first month we
raised twenty five dollars and it goesthrough December and through January, so you
can get it through the end ofJanuary. So you could buy it as
a present for someone who doesn't supportbody autonomy and give them a big fuck
(51:19):
you. I could get it formy dad yeah, um yeah, so,
or you could get it for awoman in your life that likes monster
fucking and does support body autonomy andnot be as spiteful as I am.
You know, it can be ahappy present, it can be aightful present
(51:40):
regardless, it could be a present. Yes, yes, and it's fine
ninety nine, so it's not breakingthe bank. No, no, no,
So um thank you for joining uson episode three. Um O,
our executive producer has told us wehave to get better at this every time,
so I hope we have lived upto your expectations. So I know
(52:00):
what messed up, raged, praised, we're gonna see. We don't know.
We don't know what ends up onthe cutting room floor. So we
don't know. No, no,not until it's done. Not until it
and sometimes Rob leaves in surprisingly awkwardand strange things. Yeah, yeah,
anyway, but we love you all. Happy holidays, all of them.
(52:24):
We're an inclusive bunch and we willsee you at the end of January four.
Yetties as Trash Cats Out Trash CatsOut
Buckle up, Buttercup, there's fuckeryto discuss. A writer, an editor,
and a reader walk into an indiebookstore and start an unhinged indie monster
an alien smut podcast, because whythe fuck not? And this is our
third episode, and today you'll probablynotice something different. Hello, I moved
(00:22):
in with Carlotta. We are nowa lesbian couple, and we're going to
adopt a child from Jersey. No, we're kidding. I am on Christmas
break in true teacher format. Ileft the day after Christmas break and decided
to drive up to visit Carlotta,and so we get to meet in prison
for the first time. My parentsare very worried that I'm going to be
(00:42):
murdered by someone on the internet.So if I die, we have a
video of it. Is so funny. Her mom just won't shut up about
it, won't even leave before hodspitalone or the children. Children. She
seems like you're talking about he's thethird degree. Okay, So m yes,
(01:04):
the month three is Crampus. Andin true baby bird fashion, I
did not know what I was gettingmyself into because I knew nothing about crampus.
Yeah, and you know Crampus isfrom folklore and mythology from Germanic and
Nordic areas, So it's it's basicallythe naughty equivalent of Santa Claus and Crampus
(01:26):
usually carries a bundle of birch rodsto smack your ass with, just to
give you spankings. Some instances wouldinstead of just punishing the children, would
would take them and then eat them. So that is a thing. But
yes, definitely it's about punishment.He has a very long tongue, I've
(01:47):
learned, and he's goat like,which I did not know I was signing
up for a long time to goat. Thank you all for the morning.
So some of that is like wherethe basis of the devil, the devil's
looks comes from. And then alsohe's generally covered in fur. Yeah,
so think about me and you've signedme up for goat fucking with no warning.
(02:13):
You're welcome. Thank you. Also, there's there's a bunch of different
so in the books that we've readthis month, which we can get into
it just a second, there's abunch of new punishments and new things we
learned. But wanted to just saywe hope that everybody has been enjoying the
twelve Days of Smartness, and youdon't know what that is. We've been
(02:36):
posting videos and also Instagram posts aboutso every single day for the twelve days
leading up to Christmas has been anew post with new authors and series.
It has been a lot of booksand a lot of series to hunt down.
We've done our best to make surethat they are all in the authors,
(02:57):
that they're not problematic, and thatit is monster romance for you,
for you because we love you andwe're like here stuff you're kindle or like
here book works for friends. Sothe books that we're going to be covering,
um, that that we're gonna becovering for this episode is Crampus in
the Crone by Honey Phillips, aVery Crampus Holiday by Katie Robert, which
(03:22):
is a short, um, andthen Arose Such a Clatter which is a
selection of shorts by C. M. Nascosta, and then Snowdon with a
Demon by Ellie Eldridge. Um,And so that's what we're gonna be talking
about. Um. And I thinkwe all read a very Crampus Holiday by
Katie Robert this month, Yes,yeah, we did so, And that
one if it's that one's free onKu right now and is like you could
(03:44):
read it in twenty minutes, andit's I mean, it's Katie Robert,
so you can't really go wrong.We're gonna get into a couple of things
that have popped up in book world, um since our last episode that we
feel like we should just talk aboutfor a little bit um And I'm gonna
like, bro, yeah, I'mlike Krolotta kind of take the reins on
the first one because it really impactspeople that are published already. All right,
(04:05):
So copyright infringement is something that hasbeen It's been a longstanding issue,
but it's kind of blown up recentlyin the book world, predominantly because z
Library got taken down by the government. The z Library was a place where
everybody would pirate books, meaning thatthey would get them for free. It's
(04:29):
especially indie authors, so not evenlike big published authors, not just them,
but like people who independently publish anddon't make very much money. The
government took them down. It wasreally funny because the US Postal Service was
the replacement of a thing on thescreen when you actually put in z library
dot com and then they actually gotarrested by the FBI. So that is
(04:53):
a thing. Yeah, hold thatthought for a second now, but there's
blunder currently. Some things that arehappening is people are getting So the ass
hats that are doing this have beendownloading a bunch of books illegally and then
(05:13):
putting them on sites like Etsy thatyou pay for. You pay for a
chunk of books, right, sothey're profiting off of other authors work.
And to top it off, there'salso epub dot pub which in the beginning
of November, on my birthday,I found out that my book Thorn's Dove
(05:34):
was on there and there's a paywall. So someone taking money off of your
book. Yeah, so in orderto doubt, you could read it free,
but there's ads and shit, soin order to download it you had
to there was a paywall. AndI've worked out the number of downloads slash
views it got and it was overthree grand. I have only made like
(06:00):
one grand off off of the bookthis year, so that tells you three
times the amount. Now, toput this into perspective, I am disabled,
I have fiber mayaga, I haveother's demo syndrome lupus. I am
My body is a dumpster fire.It is. It is not a temple.
(06:20):
It is a burning dumpster in theback of a walk house. Okay.
Um, So the income that Iget from my book and soon to
be books is goes to help withmy healthcare, which is very important when
you're when you're out and about onthe internet, some other places other than
(06:41):
a pubbed up pub, all thetorrenting sites, you often can find books
there. There's also an issue withserialization apps, so like this happens with
like top Us and any Stories andthings like that, where people will take
books that exist that we're written byother people and post it as like it's
their own in serialization format, andthose have paywalls as well. Also,
(07:03):
there's an issue with recently people postingauthor's work on Apple, so that's been
a thing Apple Books and with Amazon. If your book is in ku and
they find out that your book iselsewhere on the internet, they will take
down your book and any of thesales. They freeze that because you have
(07:27):
a three month period before you getyour royalties, right, so that three
months chunk they just freeze and holdonto and you may never get that if
they decide not to reinstake your book. So, and this has happened with
authors that we have read for ourfirst Yeah, for our first month,
we read Jillian Graves and she hadone of her books got removed from KU
because Titan. Yeah, she gotTitan removed because they found it elsewhere and
(07:53):
they put the onus on the authorto prove that it is their book.
Which, when you're talking you're talkingabout indie authors. A lot of those
authors don't have the means to havea legal team to like go chase down,
Like the most you can do issend like a cease and desist notarized
letter. If you're like an India, you don't have a team of attorneys
fighting EPUB for you. As somebodywho hasn't published yet, This I find
(08:18):
stressful because I'm like, I don'twant to have to like fight the Internet
to keep what's mine. Well,it's it's such a common thing now.
It's almost a rite of passage inthe in the author community, which is
severely unfortunate. Yeah, there havebeen a lot of petitions to get Amazon
to change some of these rules,predominantly like the proving because essentially, if
(08:43):
the burden mun proof shouldn't be onthe indie author. No, it should
it shouldn't be because the KU isdesigned to help indie authors get their books
out there, and so you're makingthis indie author that's either doing this like
as a side job, or ismaybe not making very much money yet,
and then now they have to gofight a legal battle. Well, oftentimes
you can reach out to Amazon andcustomer service and if you screenshot things from
(09:09):
your computer, like hey, Ihave scriminer and this is you can see
this is from this chapter, thispage of my book I wrote it.
If you can find little ways likethat or to just screenshot and send them
to sort of prove that, hey, this is actually mine, that that
could be beneficial. I haven't gonethrough the process myself yet, so I'm
not exactly sure what I would needto send them as proof, but other
(09:33):
than like, hey, I candate in time when this was written.
Yeah, So two takeaways that wehave from this one what to do if
you see it published somewhere where itshouldn't be and buy your books. Yes,
So that's something that's very nice isif you ever find an author's book
(09:54):
somewhere and you know it's not supposedto be there and it wasn't posted by
the author. Guess what, youcan submit it too to the FBI because
it is fraud yay, And thatway we can get other websites like legsy
Library taken down for fraud and sothat that is the thing that can happen.
(10:16):
So as book talk, if weall work together, we can really
make a difference. So even ifyou're it's all anonymous, by the way,
so the tip web address, it'sall anonymous, and you could just
sit there and keep adding them fromthe same website. You're like, hey,
okay, so there's this author's bookand they got the whole series.
So I'm gonna put a tip infor each and everyone. Yeah, and
(10:39):
then also we assume you're good peopleand you're you're buying your books. But
if you didn't realize that authors don'tget credit if you take it from a
website like epub or whatever, like, don't don't do that. It harms
indie authors. It harms all authorson it programs, all authors, but
indie authors especially. Yeah, exactly. Okay, So this month I reads
(11:00):
and Crowned by Honey Phillips. Ienjoyed this one a lot. The premise
behind it is the main character themain male character is Crepissian. I am
not going to attempt his last name. I will screw that up way too
much. But his name is Crepissian. He is a commander or lieutenant in
(11:22):
his fleet, and he's trying toget to his next location very quickly in
order to bypass his competitor. Buthe crashes his ship into a mountain on
this planet, and it's very cold, and he's just trying to figure out
how to quickly get the fuck outof here without being seen, and in
(11:45):
order to keep an eye on thelocals while still taking care of his ship.
He sends out they're cameras, butthey're they're birds that he has modeled
them to make sure they look likethe local birds. Only he doesn't realize
the local birds have gone away,so his birds are weird. He's fascinated
(12:07):
and interested in the locals, like, Okay, these are weird people.
They're different. They're now I'll sithere, I'll watch my monitors, but
I'm gonna stay up here in mymountain. But a little bit weighs down
the mountain, there's another hermit.I guess you'll say this is the woman.
The main female character. Her nameis jail. She is a young
(12:30):
woman who she is basically the shaman, the local witch of the of the
village of the town. But nobodyrealizes just how young she is because she
puts on a bunch of makeup anda facade and she intentionally walks like she's
much older to avoid any issues ofanybody trying to attack her or assault her
(12:52):
or whatever. And she gets tojust be her loane myself up on her
mountain, and you don't we allwant that, right, And she's got
a cute little cottage just kind ofoff in the corner, and she she
talks to all the animals, andone of his birds becomes her friend,
who she talks to all the timeand is present while she's bathing. At
(13:15):
one point, I like that thereyou go. Yeah, And he is
unsure of how to deal with hismotions during that moment because his people have
completely done away with physical reproduction ofany sort. It's all done in a
(13:39):
lab and whatnot. There's no physicalcontact or nothing. So everything with her
is a first for him. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And
because of his his centuries, hisbirds that he's got going out, he
(14:01):
he realizes that there is a kidthat is being abused. He was like,
I can't. I can't just sithere. I can't. So and
he has heard the local legends ofCrampus, so he takes advantage of that
and in the middle of the nighthe takes the boy and goes back up
his fountain and then he, youknow, from the boy, he learns
(14:26):
this boy has a sister and theonly reason this kid was dealing with his
boss the way that he was wasbecause any money he got went to his
little sister. Oh, so hehas to go abduct her too, that's
fair. And the gail, whoknows these kids obviously, she's like,
(14:48):
okay, I have to find them. And then she gets attacked by wolves
and he has to nurse her backto health. Okay, so this is
this has got some beauty, andthe beast vibes just a little bit,
yes, a smidgeon yeah um,But the kids adore him and he's not
(15:11):
sure what to do about it.Oh, it's just why what you're You're
not supposed to enjoy being here thismuch. I technically brought the boy here
to get him away from his bossand maybe maybe get his boss to realize
(15:31):
I actually need this kid around.That didn't work, but I do.
I recommend this one. It's verycute. I think it's like a hundred
teen page or something like that.It's a it's a quick read. I
was able to get it knock itout in like an hour because I had
time. My kids were at school. I had time. But it's very
(15:56):
cute, it's very sweet. HoneyPhillips did a very good job. I
appreciated it. Oh good. Anyspecific tropes, triggers, etc. There
is abuse of the boy. Jaildoes have to make up a little an
elixir, a potion. I'm notsure exactly how it's described. I can't
(16:18):
remember to make sure. That kindof like a liquid birth control for the
women, okay, because a coupleof the men are very adamant that they
read as often as possible, andthe women don't want to do that because
they're tired and they've already got ninekids. That sounds like one of my
ancestors. He had twenty one kids. Oh no, the last one was
(16:42):
born after he died. Well done, sir, well done it already,
thank you? So waitum, arethey is anybody human in this situation?
Is everyone an alien? Are we? What planet? Are we on We're
not on Earth as far I cantell. Okay, So crampasarian he is
(17:03):
definitely alien obviously because he crashed landed. Uh. And the people don't The
village does not remember their history,okay, but the Crone Chail her her
lineage, they all remember their history. Okay, they've had to and it's
not local. Okay, Okay,I will leave it at that, and
(17:26):
then anybody who wants to read cango go with it from there. Good.
Yeah, so you're not having todeal with earthling men. I can
tell you that as someone who doesn'twant to deal with earthling men ever.
Um. Well, I mean mineis your husband. I do like my
husband. My husband, my husbandis has made this possible us filming in
(17:51):
this room. He sent me witha bag of tech that I was scared
of. Um, So, Idon't know how anything works. So I
read a rose such a Clatter Talesfrom the Naughty List by C. M.
Nascasta, and it is a seriesof shorts um that all feature Crampus
(18:12):
um. And so, like Isaid up top, I did not know
at all what Crampus was. Ijust knew he was like dark Santa,
that was like my kind of understandingof this. I'd seen some of the
old like Germanic drawings where he lookskind of devily with a really long tongue,
and so I anticipated some tongue situations. Um, and I got that
(18:38):
so um series of short stories.Um. And it's very because um,
Crampus is there to punish. Sothere's a lot of focus on punishment or
punishment whatever you would like to callit. Yeah. Yeah, so you're
welcome the things you learned from beingon the kinky side of right. So
(19:00):
yeah, So what I did likeis that the the beginning story, the
first short, and the last shortwhere a continuation where you kind of got,
um, happily ever after with oneof the stories. With the rest
of them, there is no happilyever after because Crampus does his his his
business and then he's out because he'sgot to go punish someone else. Okay,
(19:21):
he's a busy fellow. He's busy. Yeah, there there are like
for this one. I'm not evengoing to try and give you all the
trigger warnings. They are available onher on cmas Costa's website because there are
quite a few. Um. That'sit's like a whether you're viewing it as
a menu or a trigger warning list. You need to check them before you
read this book because it is onthe darker side. That being said,
(19:45):
I really enjoyed So I enjoyed someof the stories more than others. I
really enjoyed the one that where therewas a continuation and a happily ever after,
because I'm like, I'm a happilyever after person, and even if
he's like a Christmas demon, Istill want the to stay together. So
there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. No, not at all. So
(20:08):
for the first one, he Umhas arrived at her house and he's there
to punish her roommate and then decidesthat he is also going to punish her
because she's there, and um,there's a punishment in the form of spanking
with the birch rods, which Ididn't know it was a thing, but
it kept recurring, so I'm like, I'm guessing this is a thing that
crampus Up spanks with birch rods.Um, So there's some spanking with birch
(20:32):
rods. It's always with CM Disgusta. The spice is very good. Um.
But I also wasn't really anticipating likea goat situation. So that was
something parents like, we need towarn our baby bird a little bit more.
So I'm sorry to pull back thecurtain like we talk about like what
Jen can handle. And so likeI've already said, like there's some things
(20:55):
that I'm like, I'm gonna haveto like work up to that, like
tentacles, like tentacles and spiders,like we're not there, like I don't
know if I'll ever get there,Like goat legs was not something that I
needed to be like, um,how do I feel about goat legs?
Turns out fine? It turns outfine, but the fur was not something
(21:15):
I was expecting. So the otherthing was, as I knew Crampus had
a really long tongue, but inevery single one, the tongue is so
long that it can reach down thelow while they're having sex. And I
was like, that's a lot oftongue, but I mean, you know,
okay, uh it's handy. Soum yeah. So and so she
(21:40):
is like punished by him, andthen basically she goes looking for him because
she really kind of like awakens thisaside in her where she realized she likes
kind of that kind of sex andlike she can't find it in her other
relationships, and she goes looking forhim and so like she finds him.
And then in the one that endsthe set of short stories, you what
happens, which I'm not gonna thereis a happily ever after with Crampus,
(22:03):
which I've my little soft squishy heartwas happy about. One of the other
stories, um, which this one'skind of it was funny is um Crampus
comes to punish, but um,he doesn't realize that um, the woman
he's punishing is part of the BDSMcommunity, so like all of his normal
punishments aren't working on her, sohe has to like take everything up a
(22:23):
notch and he's like, well,why isn't this working? Like um,
so um, there is inappropriate useof peppermint sticks um, and which I
was like, oh, that's goingto mess up your pH but it's like,
oh, it's gonna become a littlegheesty down there. Yeah, yeah,
(22:44):
inappropriate summer's eve. Yeahstance would bea good idea, I don't.
Yeah. So, um, yourvagina is self cleaning usually, but if
you put a peppermint stick up there, you might me need to take some
steps. Yeah, it's it's it'swell, it's a well oiled machine.
Basically, it's self staining machine.And it shouldn't smell like a flower like
just lets put that out there,okay, but let it smell like itself.
(23:06):
It's fine. Yeah, okay,there's a little sex education for you.
Okay. Um, So, butwhat I did not know about,
which which Carlotta and Jersey were ableto inform me about after I read an
extensive amount of it is inappropriate orappropriate use of ginger. So if someone
wants to explain that one, whyis it spicy? Ginger is the fire
(23:32):
of you know this nature? UhSo figuring is comes from an old word
called figing f a g i ng um, which used to be an
old punishment where a ginger root ispeeled, so you know, the nice
(23:56):
woody outer the exterior is off andit's of course you know, ginger.
Ginger burns a little bit, sothen you take it and it's stuck up
the anus and that it causes aburning cessation and it's used as a punishment.
Well, it actually got adopted umby the BDS and community as a
(24:22):
form of punishment. So I'm notsure how how like common of a thing
practice that is, But I meanit's common enough that Crampus did it.
I mean it is ginger, andwe use a lot of ginger during the
holidays, right, so we've gotthe ginger, peppermint stick, birch frauds
all being used at the same time. So I didn't know about like the
(24:42):
ginger. I hope that using apeppermint stick is not normal behavior, or
if it is, you use appropriateAftercareum, but aftercare is important in any
connotation. Yes, yes, andso and so. Yeah, So it's
a it's chunk of your stories.That one particularly stuck out to me because
I liked that he was like,why aren't any of these punishments working?
(25:03):
And he has to like use whathe has on hand, which is ginger
and peppermint sticks. And then there'sanother one where he's there to punish this
kind of like high society lady.M To me, it felt like it
was supposed to take place in history, like a like like in the twenties
vibe but um, and she greatsme, Yeah, that's what I feel
like. She's having a ball andum, he punishes her. But then
(25:27):
also he like I think he killsher. Maybe we couldn't that. I
wasn't he put her in a bag. Is that a thing to put him
in a bag and he disappear?Yeah? That they take he takes them
with him. Okay, so heput her in a bag and she disappeared.
I this was also it's I thinkit's like a hundred pages total.
Each short story is like fifteen totwenty pages, um. And then you've
(25:48):
got the book end of them,the two that go together. Um.
And as somebody who didn't know atall what they were getting into with crampus,
um, I would read it againlike so, and I love see
him discuss So like anything that sheputs out, I'm going to give a
try, even if it's spiders.So yeah, so that is a row,
(26:10):
such a clarer a series of shortstories. Nice, very good.
Alrighty okay. So now we're goingto move into AI and how it is
affecting the art community in a similarway that copyright infringement is happening on book
talk, and as book people,you can do to assist the actual artists
(26:30):
in the world. Just so everybody'saware. I am an illustrator and I
have a background in art and arthistory. I've got an A and art
BA and art history and Digital artcertification. I've been creating artwork since two
thousands, so longer than some ofyou have been alive anyway, and two
thousand would have put you a freshmanyear of high school. We're same age,
(26:51):
Yeah, we're the same age.She's the baby bird when it comes
to age wise, I am thebaby. The issue at hand is on
the tech side of things. Thereare some companies within the industry who are
creating AI that can mimic and createartwork, and it's supposed to be used
(27:15):
as a tool, but it isbeing misused completely. And the biggest ethical
issue that is being discussed right nowthat at least like I wasn't aware of
as much of the stuff as isthat these tech companies took images from the
Internet from like Pinterest and dB andart and you know by hunts and all
(27:37):
these other places and use them asdata sets for their AI to train the
AI. But they did it withoutconsent, which in the book community we
know is a big no no.So that they illegally took artwork and even
from big illustrators like Lowish, Yeah, from her. There's actually some resources
(28:02):
in which you can look to seeif your artwork has been used in the
data sets. But the thing isthat there's no recompense for this for the
artists. There is also mid Journey, which is one of the AI software
the people have been using, andthey use it in discord basically says that
they can't be held accountable legally foranything that you create through mid Journey,
(28:27):
and if you know something happens,they will come after you for money,
They will come after you not notanyway, it's a big hot mess.
And there on Instagram there is awonderful illustrator Majorn Duty, who has more
information because they went and asked abunch of questions and even including like places
(28:51):
like Adobe. So that's another aspectis a lot of large companies are being
accepting of AI generated artwork. Now. The thing is is that people think,
oh, but AI, you trainit, and you can train a
person, yes, but also no, because a person can come up with
something new, AI cannot. Itcan only create artwork based on things that
(29:15):
already exist and it just smashes themtogether, that's it. So that is
another issue. And currently a lotof the art websites have been auto enrolling
all of their artists and the artworkinto the AI data sets, including dban
(29:36):
Arc, which there was such anoutcry that they had to backpedal and make
it so it's optional and they're nototto enrolled. Sorry that the consent thing
just really bothers me as an illustrator. Now Adobe is allowing it for the
Adobe Cloud and stock to sell,but the things is that the fun bit
is you basically have to own theAI and all the stuff that was like
(30:00):
I used to train in order tofor Adobe to be able to legally use
it. So technically all the midJourney stuff and all those other things that
were based off of AI data setsthat were taken illegally from artists, you
cannot upload that to Adobe. Sojust so you know, because then you
will be legally responsible. Now,what are we going to do going forward?
(30:21):
There has been a huge mood movement. I think its Akuga is one
of the artists that created a noAI symbol and that has spread like wildfire
on the art community and so peopleare even replacing their artwork on all these
art websites with that image and it'sbeen making a big difference in a big
(30:42):
call up because one of the biggestproblems with AI is that it can completely
replace human creators because it is takingstuff that is popular, with styles that
are popular, and then creating somethingnew but isn't new. It's it's bled
into the book community because you've gotpeople using like looking for illustrators for cover
(31:06):
art or for you know, likeartwork and so marketing. And one of
the things for like me is Ican't tell I'm not an artist, So
I'm like, well, what amI supposed to do? Now? Just
show everything to Carlotta and be likeis this good? Well, there are
some two There are things that arelike indicative, yeah, that it is
(31:29):
likely AI generated artwork. First ofall is if you've looked at art in
any capacity for any length of time, you know that there's usually delineation between
things, and with AI generated artwork, sometimes that delineation is gone. So
it is this weird like transition thatis does not work like mentally speaking,
like in terms of how our brainsfunction. And then also there are weird
(31:53):
little like spirals or weird little likedecorative things that an artist wouldn't actually put
in there. Um, it's unusualand it's unusual places too, and sometimes
there's like weird patterns added or sometimeseven you will see the remnants of the
(32:16):
signature. I saw that when Iwas reading about it, because Carlotta like
told us all about this, soI read some articles because I was like,
I don't know what this is.So they showed like what like an
AI a piece of art underneath thatyou could still see the artist signature,
which is just like, this issuch utter bullshit, Like it's clear like
it's obstructed, but it was yeah. Yeah. And the thing is is
(32:37):
that's another problem that's really coming upagain in the book community that has been
pissing me write the fuk off isyou've got artists speaking up about this,
and authors are like, well,I commission artists, but I'm gonna do
this AI art anyway. And thething is, it's like you do realize
that you, yes, you arecommissioning artists, which is fantastic, but
(33:00):
their artwork got stolen for you todo the AI It is not absolution,
Yeah it is not. So thatis one thing, um, but then
another is not tagging that it's AIart. Yeah, which so like when
I'm like looking around looking at graphics, like sometimes it'll say AI, and
I'm like, okay, I know, like at least I know like that,
(33:22):
like some of some of these peoplewho are posting are not saying that,
And even authors are doing this withno art background. Yeah uh,
and they're so Consequently, the personwho's looking at this will automatically think,
oh, they illustrated that, that'sso cool, and in fact, no,
they did not. And that's wherebecause I'm like, I can't tell
(33:44):
like if you're not telling me,you know, well, like another So
there's something that I I'm hoping we'llsort of pick up. People are calling
themselves AI artists. No, thatis not actually a thing. I want
to make that very clear, becauseyou're not creating the artwork. If you're
utilizing an AI, it's the AIis creating the artwork for you. Consequently,
(34:07):
you are what's called an operator.You were operating the AI to create
this. Okay, Okay, Ijust want to put that out there.
Hopefully people will understand that didn't differentiate. So like me, I can draw
stick figures, a butterfly, anda pumpkin. Those are my skill sets,
okay. And so if I wentand learned how to use AI,
and you learned how to press allof the buttons to make it come up
(34:30):
with something. It would look likelike this beautiful thing. But I didn't
make that. I told a computerto make that. So I am not
an artist. I'm not an illustrator. I am making a computer. Yeah.
Yeah, And so one thing,there are a lot of apps out
there now, like the Prequel appand everything else where it adds AI filters.
(34:51):
So initially I thought that that wasall in good faith. I thought
that when I downloaded the Prequel app, because I was like, this is
really cool, and I was lookingthrough and stuff season but I thought it
was all in good faith, likeeverything that they had garnered, and now
that I'm finding out none of itis. I stopped using the Prequel app
for funzies, but also like atthe beginning of my artistic process, because
(35:15):
it cuts like a like ten hoursout to get the same exact thing as
like just a shortcut as a hack, which artists use hacks. But I've
decided against using that because that isstupidly unethical. And yeah, because I
thought that, I thought that alltheir data sets were ethically acquired. Because
(35:39):
the thing is is that like ifyou go if you want fonts, if
you want anything like that, youget a license, you know, a
license agreement, and um, that'sfor anything like on like Creative Market or
Hungry japeg or anywhere. It wouldit would be one thing if they had
gone to like each artist like,hey, we want to utilize your stuff
(35:59):
for day a set. Here's whatwe're willing to do for you. Here's
a contract, YadA, YadA,YadA. That would have been totally fine
and that would have helped out alot of people. More people would have
been happy to join that. Theycould have openly done that as like an
art thing, Like they could havejust said, hey, fill out this
form and submit your art that youwould like to have included in this.
So it's not like their entire portfolio. Yeah, it just be what they're
(36:22):
willing to offer. But they'd alsoprobably get you a commission on it or
something. Yeah, there should besome paid for their ship that's being utilized.
Yeah. Well, the thing isis like things like mid Journey,
they're actually making money off of itout of a subscription, but that none
of that money goes back to theart ku. Yeah. Yeah, that
none of that money is going backto the creator of the original data set.
(36:45):
Yeah, and so that's a bigissue. There's no consent, they're
not getting paid for it. Andthat really brings to light something that is
big in any of the tech industries, including movies, TV and video games.
Yeah. Art, yeah, isit is. There's so much fucking
(37:06):
entitlement when it comes to art.Oh, people feel like it's like it's
theirs. If it's on the internet, I can take it, yeah,
you know, and like you shouldn'teven be like printing it and framing it
and putting in your house, Likeyou need to be paying the artist for
their work. And it's funny becauseCarlotta has been is going to be doing
some illustrating for me, and Ilike and like and I'm going to be
paying her in doing that illustrating andI'm so like, are you sure?
(37:30):
Are you sure you're okay to dothis? And that's the thing is it's
like that's why I use contracts.Yeah. But part of it also is
like, you know, I makesure that I ethnically source the tools that
I use, Like I make surethat it's got a it's got a commercial
license attached to it, so likefonts, brushes, a clip, studio
paint, so I've already got theyou know, the software is taken care
(37:52):
of like everything that I all thebrushes I use and stuff. It's just
a hot fucking mess. And sowhat can you do? Yes, what
you can do is boycott using anyAI whatsoever. So if you have a
mid Journey subscription or the equivalent,get rid of it. If you like
to play around with stuff like that. The more you use it, the
more the AI is advancing, whichmeans the more art it is using in
(38:15):
the data sets. And don't useit. That's the thing. Don't do.
Not use it. If you wantstuff for marketing, hire an illustrator,
an artist, you can even what'snice is find artists in your area
that you can locally boost the economywith. But also you can there's a
(38:37):
bunch of newbee artists out there,hire one of them, help boost them.
Would love to spend time on somethingnew and get paid for it and
get feedback on their art as well. So says say you say you're an
indie author or do you just likeartwork and you're looking to hire an artist,
(38:58):
what would you say? You're thebest websites? Well, with everything
going on right now, um,probably just Instagram or TikTok because um,
there's also there's a app that youcan use. It's called Artists Tree.
Okay, it's Artists and Tree smashedtogether. But that's where you can easily
(39:19):
commission and message with artists and everythingon there. Like Twitter used to be
like one of the big places youcould go talk to artists, um Devian
art and by Hans at C butlike and also with ets with AI.
Yeah, that's that's a thing.So artists are saying doing AI portraits and
(39:42):
they're charging like three hundred dollars andsomebody who's looked around Etsy can confirm,
yeah, it's they are charging thesame amount, if not more, for
what an artist will spend hours doingand they basically played with it for five
minutes and it's it's absurd. Sothat is, Yeah, you can find
artists on at sea. That isa decent place, except for the AI
(40:07):
stuff. Instagram because a lot ofartists will post what they're they're working on.
Well they're price list and they postwhat they're working on, so you
get to see sketches and everything,but they'll post their price list And that
is something I'm going to be doingsoon because I was starting to take commissions
again in twenty twenty three. Yeah, yea, so yeah, it's like
(40:32):
and I think eventually Adobe wants tointegrate AI into Adobe Photoshop and everything else,
which if it were ethically sourced anddone the right way, none of
this would be a problem. Theproblem is is that it's not. So
consequently, it's fucking over an entireindustry, not even just like a group.
(40:58):
Yeah, it's an industry. Yeahyeah, So anyway, that's a
that's what you can do. Umyeah, yeah, it's a hot mess.
So the next book that we didI read and it's Snowed In with
a Demon by Elie Eldridge. Nottechnically Crampus but Crampus vibes. It's a
(41:19):
little bit of Crampus vibes. Butalso Ellie Eldridge is morally gray reads and
is a part of the community,like helped with Iyem the Fire and has
done a lot and this is herfirst book, this is her debut book.
So I thought it would be reallycool for us to include it since
it like has the kind of crampusyes if it's the monk vibes. It
(41:40):
takes place in a place called Camden, Inn and it's in the mountains,
snowy. It's like very winter Wonderlandkind of hallmarky Christmas Eve vibes and the
small town and everything, and itis run by the female main character,
which and terrible at names, soplease give me. But she does not
(42:01):
believe in ghosts, and it evensays in the book that she researched to
see if anybody died in this place, although and it was built in like
eighteen ten, and I thought thatwas a really cool thing to include,
that she'd done her homework. Yeah, but the place is notorious for being
haunted, so there's lots of likeghost hunters that come in and people.
(42:24):
It's an attraction. But so thingsget moved, things go missing and everything,
and she's just annoyed by it all. And that would be me.
I don't believe in ghosts, soI'd be like, what the fuck is
this? The book itself is prettylow a so that's nice, so you'd
enjoy that low angs. And thedemon basically feeds off of fear, and
(42:47):
he's the one who's technically haunting theplace. He's just like taking her as
a challenge, like I want toI've got to scare her so he shows
up as a guest. Okay,yeah, he really likes the tape of
her fear, so they keep goingwith it. Um, there's nodding.
There's some tail play, like sortof a secluded area. So that's also
(43:08):
a thing. Forced proximity. Sothere's some of the tropes. Okay,
Um, the demon socially awkward.Yes, yeah, the nice thing,
the thing that I really appreciate beingevangelical. It's a non religious based demon.
(43:28):
Yeah, finally, sorry, we'llget into religious trauma on another episode.
We covered it a little bit,bitch. Yeah, yeah, so
I I really enjoyed it. There'sa cute cat that's just like it goes
play things. Um, but yeah, it's it's fun. Good, it's
(43:52):
cute. How long? About howlong is it? It's thirty thousand words,
about one hundred and twenty pages?Okay, so aquied. Okay,
thirty thousand words is one hundred andtwenty pages. It can't translate to that
much. Yeah, I got I'vewritten one hundred and twenty pages. You've
gone close to thirty thousand words.Miss, No, I'm over, I'm
at thirty four. Yeah. Yeah. It depends on your phone size,
(44:13):
really really small yeah, you're notgonna make it though, what the two
hundred and fifty five thousand worse thanI'm not done yet with Yeah, it's
been a winter. It's been awinter. It's only December, so um,
I recommend it. I recommend it, Okay, I'm also as a
side note, there have been therewas a huge influx of new Crampus stuff.
(44:36):
I know, after we decided itwas a rail Trampus. I don't
know who wrote that, but it'sgetting I could look that up, but
it's getting really good reviews. Butit was too late for us. We'd
already kind of so sad. Yeah. Yeah, so like there I saw
like five new ones. And afterlooking for all of the books for this
episodecause we did Carlotta dug for likeCrampus like deep already place. I mean
(45:01):
there was even one that was literallycalled what is it coming for Crampus?
Yeah, and I'm just like,oh no, I almost read that one,
just just for but like it canbe really difficult to find something that's
in day that's Crampus. That's yeah, that's and then suddenly it just became
(45:22):
the thing. Yeah, Yeah,we were the we were ahead of the
times. We were were slightly aheadof the curve, but we are going
to be making a post about allthe new ones coming out, so that
way you kind of have a runninglist of what you guys can go out
and read. And then there's alast one that we all read together,
which I am I'm coining a newterm of it's a sneeze novella because it's
(45:43):
like fifteen pages, but it isum. It is Katie Roberts, So
it's fifteen pages that are worth it. Okay, it's definitely worth it.
But you can read it in liketwenty minutes. Oh yeah, for sure,
just get it out there. UM. So this is UM a woman
(46:04):
who has basically committed, as she'splanned and committed a murder of an abusive
partner. And because of her familylife, um, she and she's kind
of like a high society and they'vesent her away to her father's visit as
hunting Ham and so she's just kindof up there, like really feeling guilty
(46:25):
for this crime that she committed,even though it's been explained like he was
abusive, but the fact that shepremeditated it was why she's like feeling in
her feelings about like I really havecommitted a murder and wasn't self defense.
Yeah, she keeps seeing blood onher hands and basically because of that,
she's still you know, she can'tstop seeing the blood on her hands.
So it's like her guilt and herself loathing of this act is more or
(46:50):
less what calls Crampus to her todeal out her punishment. He shows up.
She's like, finally, just makeit end, she thinks, and
he doesn't. Don't to do withthat at first. He's like, you
you're actually admit to your guilts.Yeah, you're a human that's admitting this,
(47:10):
and you want this over. Youactually want this to happen. But
she gets a punishment that she didn'trealize was coming. Didn't realize it was
an option, which if you thinkabout it, if you think about it,
the fact that it's a sex punishmentand she was abused. We don't
know the extent of the abuse,and that can be a healing journey,
(47:35):
especially in kink. Thank you crampasdaddy. Um. So, like I
said, it's Katy Roberts. Sothe spice is good. We've got we've
got some spanking with birch rods,and we've also got a really long tongue
play long to the point of liketentacle yep to the like quirksucker who folds
(47:59):
in on it and pulses and thenlike huh um, yeah, yea,
I said, no technacles. Howwere we to know it's cramps? It
doesn't was gonna be a thing wedidn't know. I knew there was a
long tongue. I didn't know wait, but at the same time we didn't
(48:19):
know it could do that. Butthen it was gonna be like technacle horn
um. But then also there's stuffingand stretching because he has he's much larger
than a big Yeah, m it'sgood. It's and then she's like,
I want you to come back.Oh I liked that, and he's like
no, and then she's like pleaseand he's like maybe, and he's like,
if you leave up, if youleave out the offering next year,
(48:42):
I will come back and she's likeI will and he's like, I am
not used to this. So um, then that was abnormal, like fifteen
pages it was. It was itwas definitely but yeah. But and it's
pret her free on her newsletter rightnow. Um. It's usually part of
her Patreon short stories. But itwill you sign up for her newsletter right
(49:06):
now it's free. And then alsoit's on ku so yeah, yes,
so um. So those are theones that we read this month, um,
which was another like exciting new experiencefor me since last month I'd never
read shifters and this month I gotgoats. Um. So next month we're
doing something I've never done before eitherhave are you? Uh? Yes,
(49:31):
the Big Fields anthology. So um, We're gonna be doing Yetti's. It
sounds very furry, it does,and it does, I'm sure it is.
I I also have not read aYetti story. I don't think.
Yes, it was Maddie Sins Short, which she expanded I believed full full
(49:52):
short. Okay, well, sowe want to all read Maddie Sins for
sure? Um, I don't.We can a there's other ones too,
we can all check it out.I will, I will, yeah,
and I will have a list umfor a lot is our list maker if
that wasn't clear. She makes allof our lists, um, and make
sure we have all of the content. And then our executive producer, who
(50:12):
is always in stealth mode is theone who puts it all in order.
Then and I don't know why heputs up with this because he doesn't even
like reading. Um, he lovesyou, He looks you, and he's
very excited to watch you succeed.And it's adorable. Yes, um yeah.
Also I Am the Fires. IAm the Fire did really well for
the first month of it being out, so if you don't know, I
(50:35):
Am the Fire is an anthology ofshort stories, which I have one in.
Jenna Jersey did editing in beta readingfor it. It was my first
credited edit. Yeah. It wasseeing my name in print. I was
very excited. So and we're veryit's all too raged raged. We are
(50:57):
raged. We're an in rage.Yes, because all of the funds are
going to the National Network of AbortionFunds. So in the first month we
raised twenty five dollars and it goesthrough December and through January, so you
can get it through the end ofJanuary. So you could buy it as
a present for someone who doesn't supportbody autonomy and give them a big fuck
(51:19):
you. I could get it formy dad yeah, um yeah, so,
or you could get it for awoman in your life that likes monster
fucking and does support body autonomy andnot be as spiteful as I am.
You know, it can be ahappy present, it can be aightful present
(51:40):
regardless, it could be a present. Yes, yes, and it's fine
ninety nine, so it's not breakingthe bank. No, no, no,
So um thank you for joining uson episode three. Um O,
our executive producer has told us wehave to get better at this every time,
so I hope we have lived upto your expectations. So I know
(52:00):
what messed up, raged, praised, we're gonna see. We don't know.
We don't know what ends up onthe cutting room floor. So we
don't know. No, no,not until it's done. Not until it
and sometimes Rob leaves in surprisingly awkwardand strange things. Yeah, yeah,
anyway, but we love you all. Happy holidays, all of them.
(52:24):
We're an inclusive bunch and we willsee you at the end of January four.
Yetties as Trash Cats Out Trash CatsOut
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