Elves in Detroit sequel

 If anyone actually read the 4th book in the Elves in Detroit series, you will know that that book just didn't turn out the way it was supposed to.  I intended for Laurielle to marry Smash, but that didn't happen at all -- and I still don't know what the ending will be for the story -- if there is one.  When I published it, I said it was a draft.

But I had this idea that I would write a short story sequel about one character -- one goblin -- and maybe try to get it on some website where they have free short stories and maybe that website would get my name better known.  

This short story is going incredibly slowly. Tho I knew the ending all along, I just couldn't get there.  I'm not sure I still have, tho I'm getting closer.

I've been using AI -- bing image creator and Grok -- to generate some pictures of goblins.  Bing image creator was super frustrating as it kept cutting off the top of the goblin's head and her feet.  Grok was somewhat better in that respect.  The images from Grok looked more realistic, while the ones from Bing image creator looked cartoonish.  Anyway, here are some images -- tho I haven't one hundred percent decided which one I want.

These are the ones from Bing image creator

I did sort of want her to look like a stick figure,

but not like she was starving.  Not sure how that 

would pan out with the right drawing.

Leaning towards this one

Altho it's got more flesh than I imagine her having

These are the ones from Grok

Leaning towards this one:

This was the description that I eventually developed for this character

A standing female goblin. She is wearing a ragged one shoulder sleeveless dress. She is unnaturally scrawny, with little flesh between her skin and her bones — almost like a stick figure. She has reddish brown hair that sticks straight out of her head. Her enormous nose has wide nostrils so that the nasal base extends across half the width of her face. The nasal ridge is very straight, not aquiline, so that the perpetual snarl of her upper lip and her sinister, pointed teeth are clearly visible. Her eyes are red. Her ears are enormous and bat like. Her hands and feet are oversized. The top of her head and the ground under her feet are clearly visible. Her skin is very pale white, but dirty. Her fingers and toes have large steel claws sprouting naturally from her flesh. Her head is large in proportion to the rest of her body.  There are blood stains on her face, hands, and dress. 

None of the results were exactly what I wanted.  The one that I decided I liked best was from Bing image creator, but lacked feet and top of head.  I have been editing this image on Gimp with the following result:

I added feet & top of head from other goblin images and changed the color scheme.  I also enlarged her head.  I'm trying to decide about sinister/menacing, which a goblin is supposed to be, and nonplussed, which this character actually is.  Making the image darker and yellower seems to make her more menacing, I think.  The original image is tagged above, under the Bing image creator list.

I really wanted her to have a straight nose.  I'm mindful of the criticisms that goblin images are often designed to look Jewish.  Still I chose one who had an aquiline nose.  If you read even Book 4 of the Elves in Detroit series, you may note that the chief of a horde gets a much larger nose as part of becoming chief -- magically.