Q & A

ALL YOUR CURIOUS QUESTIONS

ANSWERED IN ONE PLACE

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Are you AI ?

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No.

Since when have language models rolled up their sleeves to craft cozy furniture or cook a steaming meal?

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But you sound like AI.

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Is that a question?

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Let me ask another way:  How can we be sure you are not a moneymaking bot ?

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I wish I knew.  Do we have an established test?

Look:

People have grappled with fundamental doubts at various points throughout history.  Take ancient messages engraved in clay or stone.  Were they reliable records or biased accounts?  And photographs?  We know they can be manipulated, sometimes so convincingly that their evidentiary value becomes questionable.  Movies have been delighting audiences with impressive visual tricks long before AI came along.  And when microscopy was making its way into science, researchers had to learn to distinguish genuine observations from artifacts produced by their instruments.

I presume cybernetic brains will follow a similar path:  The hype and novelty will fade, while their presence becomes an ordinary part of everyday life.  Sooner or later, we may well have AI influencers, celebrities, and bestselling authors.  Why not?

How much the certainty of origin will matter in art and craftsmanship remains to be seen.  Until then, please don't ask me to solve any CAPTCHAs for you.

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Which school or genre do you represent ?

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Whew, you've got me there!

Maybe it has a name.  I just never cared enough to look it up.

😱  🙈  😇

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At least, give us its guiding principle.

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I simply like imagination best when it can shake hands with ideals and reality.  The rest somehow crystallizes on its own — no manifestos or committee recommendations required on my part.

Perhaps you can help me find the right label?

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If you had to choose a single keyword for your website, which one would win ?

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Romantism.

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Why not its more common synonym, Romanticism ?

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Romantism is shorter and looks better in graphic designs.  More importantly, it echoes the French "romantisme", with its broad and inclusive range of meanings.  My work builds on that wider scope — embracing courage, ideals, adventure, progress, love, passion, natural beauty, harmony, cozy homes, and much more...

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What's your advice for aspiring digital creators who want to leverage powerful AI models and cloud services ?

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Always keep a scrap of good old paper handy for when inspiration strikes halfway through an unauthorized operating system update.

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Does your website show products, or just virtual concepts ?

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Both.

And everything in between.

The Gallery, in particular, is designed as a production-grade exhibit of blueprints, prototypes, and finished pieces.  Sometimes the spotlight shines on a polished result, while the next turn may lead to a walkway through the joys and pitfalls of creative toils.

Collectively, this site presents one creativist's repertoire of ideas, embodied in digital collectibles, evocative decorations, or practical tools.

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All real ?

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As for the author, flesh and bones.  My book illustrations?  I wish you could smell the pencils, charcoal, and the waxy crayon shavings.  The stories behind them?  Perhaps I'd better not show anyone my thinning keyboards — with their plastic polished to a shine, and their letters worn almost to invisibility.  And the home decor showcased here?  Maybe the dust in the nearby electrical outlets would convince you more effectively than any online photos.  😉

When I do use AI for rendering or enhancements, my web assets carry a special watermarked pictogram with a provenance inscription.

So, are you joining the ranks of my readers, or enjoying my atmospheric challenges?  Sit tight:  The most loyal fans receive little tangible presents, delivered by actual posties straight into their hands or mailboxes!

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Where should I start ?

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Wherever your curiosity takes you.

There is no entrance exam, prescribed route, or secret handshake.  Begin literally anywhere, and follow any story that catches your eye or captures your heart.  For example, feel free to wander through the general Gallery, peek into some of its thematic showrooms where related items are grouped together, and explore any detail that sparks your imagination.

One thing may lead to another — and sometimes the most interesting discoveries happen when we just aimlessly ramble.

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Are you inviting visitors to a random promenade through fiction, furniture, cooking, and all those other things?  Or do your displays have anything in common ?

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They all grow from a deep desire to bring harmony within reach.

What happens next depends on what each idea needs to thrive beyond a passing impulse: an inspiriting story, a formative sketch, a useful object, a new flavor, or perhaps a little experiment in making everyday life more delightful.

I don't see much reason to keep imagination confined to a single department.  Do you?

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Do I need to be a professional artist, an accomplished craftsperson, or a bookworm to feel at home here ?

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Not at all.  Curiosity is quite enough to get you through the door.

You might come for the stories, stay for a curious invention, and leave with an idea of your own.  Or simply enjoy looking around.  There is no minimum level of expertise, and no obligation to turn every fleeting interest into a lifelong pursuit.

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Your site is all idyllic romantic, and suddenly — thrillers ?

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It's like baking cookies:  For the tastiest ones, you add a pinch of salt to the sweet dough, don't you?

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Do you write supernatural phenomena ?

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Nope.

As a scientific-minded sleuth of the inexplicable, I don't need artificial flavorings.  Our world is mysterious enough as it is — no tongue-numbing spices required.  But don't worry, you will never be short of shivers.  My mysteries often begin with puzzles that seem supernatural, eerie, or downright impossible.  The real fun comes afterward:  Uncovering the hidden chain of secrets behind them lets you experience the connected thrill all over again — and sometimes more than once...

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Are your heroes detectives ?

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Not in the usual sense of cops or private eyes.  Take the taciturn Hubert:  He is an undercover agent operating closer to the world of intelligence than to ordinary police work.  Doctor Barton, meanwhile, positively detests crime.  His investigations target a far more personal mystery — the unexplained disappearance of his parents, who once embarked on a rather questionable expedition.

Still, my protagonists have a knack for stepping into trouble — or being drawn into it.  Malicious plots, political machinations, secret research, ruthless criminals wearing respectable faces...  There's no shortage of things that were never meant to see the light of day.  And it's often Bruno, an innocently nosy schoolboy, who unwittingly stumbles upon them.

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So, is that enough sleuthing and detecting to satisfy your curiosity?

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Then, is your series a forensic reality show ?

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Based on real cases?  Yes, sometimes.

Labs and stuff?  Sure, now and then.

Dry science?  Rarely — chiefly in passages when enthusiastic geeks flood us with brilliant ideas, and their friends must remind them to slow down.

Otherwise, expect eventful stories set in cozy old-town neighborhoods and scenic landscapes.  Science fiction and informed speculation make appearances, too — especially when the cases are so peculiar that nobody is quite sure what, exactly, they are dealing with.

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How do you decide which ideas make it into your growing mosaic ?

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Ha ha, it's seldom I who stays in control!  And that's half the fun.

An innocent little “What if?” drifting off to sleep on my pillow at midnight can wake up the very next morning as a mischievous intruder in my sunlit sketchbook.  Or, a funny twist I try out for a new story may turn into a practical solution nobody thought to look for.  And an attempt at a pragmatic improvement can produce an utterly impractical contraption — sometimes so gloriously misguided that family and friends never let me forget it.

For an author, even such slips and serendipities can sow the seeds of future chapters.

But believe it or not, some thoughts do behave themselves and stay on topic.

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I wouldn't count on that, though...

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Why would supernatural elements spoil your stories, yet you admit borrowing from sci-fi ?

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Oh, some branches of science fiction could derail my page-turner ambitions just as readily as paranormal powers or flying superheroes!  Imagine time-travel ticket offices on every corner of Medoplava's historic downtown, Grandma Estela putting down her knitting needles to choose which parallel universe to dine in tonight, or agent Hubert teleporting straight into an ancient secret library instead of discovering it through an underground expedition.  At their core, how different would such scenes be from magical or otherwise supranatural occurrences?

All such fantasies are perfectly at home in several respectable genres.  But would they keep Dr· Barton's inquisitive mind restless, night after night?  Well, knowing him, nothing less than unfathomable oddities demanding urgent answers could drive Grandma Estela to crush her scarce sleeping pills into his evening mug of hot chocolate.

Finding plausible explanations for how the seemingly inconceivable could have shaped our world is an adventure in itself.  Multiply that by intriguing encounters in remote woodlands shrouded in legend, and you may begin to imagine what the expeditioners from 5 Misty Road experience during their repeated forays into Cursed Forest.

It would take ages to recount everything they uncover in other arcane destinations:  ancient graveyards, forgotten tunnels, hidden chambers, and secret archives (and giving details would spoil the surprises).  Suffice it to say that their startling discoveries intersect with present-day science in a fictional exploration of our not-so-distant future.  This is just a taste of a much larger story arc, connecting seemingly unrelated adventures unfolding across individual books.

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How come you call such search-and-science plots romantic ?

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Er...  It's not necessarily a label for all subplots themselves, taken in isolation.  Call it an umbrella term for the idyllic thrillers they collectively underpin.

And whether you will agree depends, of course, on what YOU call romantic.

Love?  Then stay tuned to discover how many different kinds of utterly unbelievable developments can be driven by love, inspired by it, pursued in its name, or set in motion to deny it.  And that's before we get to the countless forms and vast dimensions of love beyond the narrow confines of courtship and weddings.  Those await you, too.

Or does the romance of mountains or romance of childhood belong to your vocabulary?  If so, I invite you to apply for permanent residence in my storyworld.

And what about the aspirations that once bubbled through the era of Romanticism?  Do you still harbor a desire to live long enough to see some of them brought to life through knowledge, passion, and tolerance?  Then consider yourself a candidate for full citizenship — although the ways to get there have yet to be devised...

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Would you be game?

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What would you like visitors to take away ?

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Primarily? 

A little more wonder about everything within, between, around, and beyond us.

Ideally? 

Add a fresh perspective, or the urge to make something better.

Sometimes that means seeing the familiar differently.  Sometimes it means realizing that a stubborn problem already has a textbook solution — or that an apparently impossible one deserves another closer look, possibly switching to a completely different optics.

And if all you take along is a smile, a brighter mood, or a thought worth carrying home, that's a pretty satisfying reward for my effort put into making your visit worthwhile, too!

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