Baby, I'm Nuclear.

You're only as strong as your asethetic...

I’ve had like four million good posts in my head since I was here last, but tonight it’s all boiling down to this — if people don’t feel like they know you from your brand, pretty much all of this is useless.

So I’ve had a hard time marketing Guarded by the Nightmare (according to me, although it’s done Very Well) because Sylas is a smoke monster, and Tiktok won’t let you show smoke sometimes bc it’s promoting smoking (ugh) — anyhow though — Sylas is enough of a monster, I figured a skull face would work for him, I created the above ad with my booktrailer, and my sales on this book doubled over night.

I would be like, “Well, Sunday’s always a great day, and maybe it’s a holiday bounce,” except that…they doubled in German, too, where I am quite sure the 4th of July is not a three day weekend over there.

Fucking. A.

I mean, OFC if the contents of this book didn’t pan out, this wouldn’t work — the book itself has to match the marketing — but they do, and it is?

And so I turned my Sauron-like eye towards doing all of this with ALL of my other IP immediately (in between bouts of hanging out with my fam) and I nailed the booktrailer python ALL THE WAY and then after successfully automating 280 gorgeous videos this afternoon, I opened Yet Another MJ account, and hired a friend who I trust vibe-wise to go through videos for me, she’s starting tomorrow.

(The Yet Another MJ account is because MJ uses google handles to get in, and I needed to use a spare one, since my friend needs access too, nbd tho, I’ll just burn out my fast hours on one of the others and then cancel it.)

Annnnd yeah….

It occurred to me, going through MJ images for the past two hours (which MJ then un-synced, thanks FOR NOTHING MJ) that you’re really only as strong as your asethetic comes across.

I think there’s a lot of ways your asethetic comes across — I mean, your book needs to be good, your words need to provide the thrill readers want, your cover, your branding, etc etc etc.

But I can’t help but think (potentially selfishly, and deludedly, who knows!) that because I’m in the trenches w/this stuff day in and day out, my personal brand is Quite Curated at this point.

I know what my characters look like because I create them and search for them Every Single Day.

Like — that’s all I care about is immaculate vibes, you know?

This shit is pretty, it’s gorgeous, it’s becoming easier, it’s fun — and?

It’s paying off.

Sometimes I feel bad about all the authors who are scared to use this stuff (actually, mostly, I feel bad for all the PAs who are too scared to learn to use this stuff, who’re gonna be out of jobs shortly, aie) —

But mostly the longer this goes on I kinda feel Dr Manhattan about it.

Like, I can’t even comprehend of a world in where I don’t use AI for 2-3 hrs a day to make my life easier and more gorgeous, to help me reach more readers?

Sorry for the weird segue here, but I’m tired. Tired of getting complaints that feel frankly idiotic to me at this point? Like, yes, spit at me and all that (metaphorically, online, heh) but…can you look at something this objectively awesome and really expect me to change?

To make you happier?

To shine my own light less bright?

Baby, I’m nuclear at this point, lol.

There was this stupid ass article in Business Insider today about some chick who turned down a graduate program in creative writing because she was worried about AI. (https://www.businessinsider.com/turned-down-graduate-program-ai-destroys-industry-2025-7)

That’s so stupid….I cannot even.

She thought she didn’t have a future because AI was rolling in.

Nah, lady.

You didn’t have a future because you thought that creative writing was a future, without any fucking back-up plan, which is, frankly, fucking asinine.

Like.

How many people did she know actually making money at writing? Real money, from writing, not just teaching money (not that teaching money doesn’t spend! But, yeah, there are precious few making actual cash dollars from writing these days.)

First off, if you could be dissuaded from your career path because of a little hardship…uhhhh….wait till you get divorced. Or have a kid. Or have literally any other hiccup in your life that’d bounce you from your One True Calling.

Either it is your calling or it isn’t, is what I think I’m trying to get here, in my very tired, somewhat jetlagged, ambien haze.

Like — if being an author is your calling — then you’ll fuck all the haters to do it, no matter what.

You’ll burn yourself to a crisp every waking moment trying to figure out how to be the most true to the story you love (possibly more than life itself).

I mean, don’t get an MFA. (Never get an MFA. Mostly never get an MFA — I know some great ppl w/MFAs, but like, if you’re looking to eat on a day to day basis, do something else and learn how to write on the side, it’s doable, and probably better for your career long term, plus your health insurance.)

But like — just to toss the baby out with the bathwater because things are rocky or uncertain — when you could instead be DIVING INTO THE BATHWATER and swiming to the bottom of it and then coming out into an AI-Narnia on the other side?

That’s where shit’s at, heh.

The faster I push through my doubt and uncertainty — the clearer my intentions get — the closer I come to my goals — the harder it is to understand people who want to stop me.

And?

The harder it is to understand people who let themselves be stopped.

I want to be kind. It’s in my DNA, it’s usually a base component, and I do try to move through the world in a way where I don’t hurt anyone else, inasmuch as I can while living in a capitalist society.

But when the tools are right there, and all you have to do is pick them up and you refuse to….

What the fuck even is that?

I get that shit sometimes sucks (I really do. I watch people die for a living some days. I also clean up human excrement most shifts, and I’ve been divorced, I’ve had massive life changes, I’ve lost friends, etc etc etc.)

But…like….

Giving up?

Now?

When it’s never been easier to do what you want to do in your life, as long as you ACTUALLY want to do it?

That, I cannot understand.

Okay, sorry for the weird philosophical tangent. (Even Monday’s all, ‘yeah, maybe let this one marinate and post it tomorrow’ — but he can’t tell Ambien Cassie what to do, lol <3)

It’s bedtime now.

HITTING SEND,

Cassie