What I’m about to share is scary and controversial: I couldn’t have done this without AI.

But wait—please, keep reading.

The faces of these characters have lived in my head for a long, long time. I drew them time and time again (and maybe the webpage of that old artwork will move from private to public someday), but I was never able to convey the realism I saw them as. But one day in 2022, I learned about Midjourney, and I said, “I want to try to make them.” The results were… less than ideal, to say the least.

Two years later, I tried again. Perhaps it was my prefrontal cortex—creativity-starved. Or perhaps I simply had some binary magic (or oft-argued theft) in my prompts. Eventually, I was able to create these characters in near-perfect likeness—to my vision, at least.

It was like a switch had flipped. There was relief in that, in the way that the inspiration filled me then. But also guilt, and shame, that still surfaces in my psyche from time to time.

The moment I saw Damien (and Erik, who swiftly followed) in a generative AI portrait kickstarted my power-writing. Those 1s and 0s rocketed me into a year of meticulous and detail-oriented worldbuilding and texture, and pages of notes so long, they could have been a book of its own—with more books on the way! Now I’m here, with more than 100,000 words, a website (that’s not too bad, if I say so myself), and the dream that people connect with these characters. It’s a creative bounty I’m so proud of and refuse to apologize for.

But I also understand that those two letters—AI—turn people off so severely, and I don’t blame you. This work isn’t for you. But if you choose to explore this novel further, I appreciate that, and hope that you can see into the world I’m trying to create. The human experience—all of its nuances, complexities, and idiosyncrasies—is the heart and core of this novel. And that is something that only I can bring to the pace, to life.

So on this page, meet them as I see them, in their own voices… in all of their uncanny glory.

If you want to create your own vision of the characters… I love that for you too. You deserve to see them in your own eyes as much as mine. Just don’t scroll down.