Stephanie Flint – Author and Artist

Today we have the September report! 📋

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

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Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.

Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.

Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): On hold. Next up is adding the missing scenes, do a read-through for revision smudge, and then a read-aloud with Isaac. Then it’s off to beta-readers!

Little One (Distant Horizon Prequel): Last time, chapter six had been sent. Now the newsletter is up to chapter eight. (ProWritingAid edits included).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (A Legends of Cirena short novel): I did the read-aloud with Isaac using ElevenReader. Isaac made a few minor change suggestions, which I’ve input. After inputting the changes, I started the final proofread of The Dark Forest of Aneth (and finished in early October).

This is on schedule to release in mid-to-late October. (Update: October 23rd is the day I’m aiming for!)

Meanwhile, I had Claude AI help me brainstorm possible blog and newsletter topics for the upcoming launch of The Dark Forest of Aneth, based on the manuscript and what it analyzed worked well in previous newsletters. I’ve now got several ideas I’m excited to write, which will be the focus of the October blog posts.

Legends of Cirena Volume 2: September saw a lot of forward progress on the artwork for volume two.

I’ve got an in-progress scene of Livena and Joran in Ashan (The Wind Mage and the Wolf) designed in Daz. Had Claude review the scene and make some suggestions for improvements based on my concerns. I didn’t take all the suggestions, but I did make revisions and now need to review my test render.

I designed a portrait of Naleni (The Dark Forest of Aneth) in Daz and rendered it. Still debating if I like a different camera angle better, but if I keep the current render, it’s ready to take into Photoshop.

While listening to the Dark Forest read-aloud, I sketched the chapter background art for The Wind Mage and the Wolf and The Dark Forest of Aneth. I’ve started inking the lines for The Dark Forest of Aneth.

I started a character design of Tndrec in Daz. Not yet complete, but once done, I’d like to do a portrait style render of him and I’d like to update the original version of the Dark Forest cover that I dropped to have Tndrec instead, and use it as an illustration for the compilation.

The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.

Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.

Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.

Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.

Untitled LoC Novel (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): Major progress here! Previously I was at chapter thirty-one sent to the newsletter and 73,000 words. In September I reached chapter thirty-three sent to the newsletter, and we’re now at around 91,000 words!

I got ideas for upcoming chapters and drafted several scenes, including buffering one chapter for the October emails. Additionally, I had Claude (Opus 5) review the manuscript and provide me a detailed list of what each of the point-of-view characters knew at the last sent chapter and what they were still seeking, so that I’d be more easily able to bring them all together. There was a lot of brainstorming happening this month.

I also had Claude do some quick research on the senses of snow leopards, which gave me a summary and a list of handy articles to review. (One of the characters can shapechange into a snow leopard, and I wanted an idea of what I could play with when in his point-of-view). Wasn’t perfect, but did give me some ideas to work with.

Also had Claude (Opus 5 in Code) do a chronology review of my Legends of Cirena series based on seasons so I could visually see where each of the stand-alones stood next to each other.

Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf Spin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold. Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.

Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.

Fae (Huntress 3): I’ve continued work on print formatting, but put it temporarily on hold for other deadlines once it became clear it wouldn’t arrive on time for the Harvest Moon Night Market, after a different restock order was estimated to arrive after. (Previously I’ve thought three weeks was plenty for ordering author copies from Amazon KDP. This no longer appears to be the case).

The basic formatting Claude set up for me worked well, so the part I’m working on is correcting widows/orphans, adjusting rivers, that kind of thing. About halfway through. I also got the interior title page images updated.

Goal is to have this in time for the Poor Artists Sale in December, if accepted into the event.

Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.

Dark Romantasy Idea: On hold. I need to finish reviewing the outline to see what’s missing.

Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – I input the editing feedback on my story and proofread it, then sent it in. Later in the month, the complete book came back with edits input. This goal was to at least proofread my own story and two others; bonus goal was to read entire anthology. I started the proofread in September and finished the complete anthology a couple days into October. (Next step is updating my author bio to send in).

Other Stories: So… my brain decided to throw an idea at me while in the shower… as writer brains often do, and now I’ve got 1000 words of a “pioneers-in-space on another planet with minotaurs” in a closed-door/sweet romance. A very fun 1000 words to write. And the basis of a cover that I designed in Daz. I had Claude review the idea for if there’s any market for this. (Answer… well… we still don’t know. We couldn’t find that particular combination, and most of the minotaur monster romance Claude found leans spicy). But yeah. If this sticks around in my head by the next report I’ll give it its own entry.

(Why do I do this to myself?)

The YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian short story is on hold.

Poetry (?!): No updates.

Game Design:

Phalanx: I need to get a photo showing all of the pieces for the mousepad edition.

Elemental Card Game: On hold. Needs a lot of playtesting because the rules weren’t finalized before I started tinkering with a digital edition.

Legends of Cirena Tabletop Game: I had Claude (Opus 5 on Max) add in the final expansion. I haven’t had a chance to playtest any of the updates, however.

Battle Decks: I had Claude (Opus 5.5) do a review of Battle Decks and update missing rules and functionalities. Still needs play-testing.

Anchor: I need to get a landing page for it set up on the Infinitas Publishing website.

Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold.

Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim: On hold. Adult creature lineart needs cleaned up and added to game, and juvenile creature art needs adjustments. I still need to add my own flavor text as well.

KROWN Assessment: Personality quiz for the Huntress universe. On hold. Needs testing, but it should be about ready.

AI Usage and Policy: No new updates. Detailed usage is in this report.

Marketing and Admin:

• Continued having Claude do the Amazon Price Check for my permafree books. This has definitely been helpful in catching when they switch and having Claude edit my template so I can fire off the request for a price-match without having to fiddle as much with it. However, many authors are currently reporting issues with getting Amazon to price-match their books to free right now. I’m having mixed luck. Whispers in the Code doesn’t seem to be getting matched correctly, whereas The Wind Mage of Maijev has been hopping on and off free. Good news is that the other retailers are far more stable (and actually let us *choose* to make the book free).
• Updated accounting, so we’re still up-to-date with financials!
• I continued sending out the Distant Horizon and Wishing Blade universe newsletters on time. Now testing doing resends of the emails to subscribers who weren’t recorded as having opened the first email.
• Had Claude review the series catalogue and help me find areas in my notes that needed updating.
• Using Claude, I brainstormed ways to help make my books more visible. That surfaced the painfully-out-of-date categories on Amazon that I’d mostly been ignoring but, on looking at them again, realized they were incorrect and in dire need of a quick fix. After doing a temporary fix, I then had Claude pull all the current categories and keywords from KDP into a spreadsheet and review the notes I had it create on my books a while back to suggest new categories and keywords based on what might increase visibility in Amazon searches. I made the final call on which to include and which sounded definitely not right, but most were better than my scattershot approach. Ultimately I’ll want to compare the suggested keywords to Publisher Rocket’s information, which I’ve had Claude start reviewing but not complete. The books that have been updated so far: the Glitch saga books, Legends of Cirena books, Wishing Blade books, and Deceived books. (Some of those might have been updated October 1st instead of September). I had Claude build a skill for selecting keywords/categories on future books.
• Got October BookFunnel promos submitted to and scheduled through the newsletter and blog. Started narrowing down choices for November but haven’t yet made the final selections.
• Did a hefty review of my newsletters using Claude (both Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5). I downloaded all the PDF previews from both my Distant Horizon and Wishing Blade newsletter, then had Claude review them for content, tone, and how that matched with opens and clicks over time. This is why I’m trying a later send time and trying the resend test.
• Used Claude to update my production schedule/calendar to help me see how different projects are moving, and continued doing weekly check-ins and priority lists.
• Still need to finish updating the book page here on this blog.

Next up: Continue overhauling book categories, keywords, and blurbs (aside from blurbs, four series are complete now). Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs, review a social media and newsletter email PDF I bought. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages and adding metadata. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Add alt text to images in earlier ebook files.

Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:

Only one post included re-purposed content this month:

• When the Gods Get Involved – Meddling Deities in the Wishing Blade and Distant Horizon Universes (DHU/WBU) – *new*
• Two Versions of Telepathy – Magic versus Superpower in the Wishing Blade and Distant Horizon Universes (DHU/WBU) – *new*
• Complex Villains – “Evil” isn’t their one defining trait (HNT/WBU/DHU) – *new*
• The Cover Design Process for Starless Night (DHU) – *repurposed*

Events: No events in September, however, I submitted the application for the Harvest Moon Night Market (October 11th in Calumet, MI).

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I have a new project I’m working on for another publisher; this one includes book cover, print, and ebook formatting. I’m doing the cover in Daz, and the front image has almost reached approval stage. Next up will be ebook formatting. Goal is to have the ebook ready for them by November.

Meanwhile, I still need to upload a minor revision to the formatting project that includes the ASIN, as well as the age categories that KDP is asking for.

Future Goals: Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work and fix the SEO information. Finish designing cute mascot for a local store. Finish editing photos for a local Aikido group.

SIFlint Art: Five keychain designs and the plant dragon lanyard were ordered through Vograce, plus a rainbow planet pencil bag that I had designed but not previously ordered. I restocked a few other items. Wasn’t sure if they would arrive on time for the Harvest Moon Night Market, but the friend who I ordered them with said they have arrived! (The arrival is technically for the October report).

I made edits to my Daz character design of Edea for the Legends of Cirena stories. Doesn’t have a scene in volume two so I’m including it here, instead.

Daz PA: Back catalogue still doing decent, likely due to the month-long sales on Daz focused on PAs. Probably spent more than I should have investing in more assets during those sales, but I am now well-set on the pieces I needed to complete several upcoming projects.

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Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂

Today we have the August report! 📋

(Are we really already in September? Really?)

I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.

* * *

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.

Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.

Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.

Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): On hold. Next up is adding the missing scenes, do a read-through for revision smudge, and then a read-aloud with Isaac. Then it’s off to beta-readers!

Little One (Distant Horizon Prequel): Last time we had sent chapter three out to the newsletter, with the fourth scheduled to send, and now we’re up to chapter six! Chapter seven has been through a revision pass and ProWritingAid edits.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (A Legends of Cirena short novel): Major progress! I’ve input the notes from the Claude edit, did one more quick revision pass, fully formatted it for ebook (!!!), and sent it out to beta-readers! The feedback has returned, and the next step is the read-aloud! Woot!

I even finished editing the poem/ballad so that could be included. Also got the glossary fully prepped. (Here, having Claude was extra handy because I had it review what I’d already included then check the manuscript for anything I might have missed. My beta-reader did say the glossary was helpful, so it seems to have done its job).

Plus, I revisited the book cover concept using Claude to review what hadn’t been working for me with the previous version, and together we figured out something that was not only more true to the story, but also worked a lot better as a book cover. I had Claude design a reference sheet for me based on that, and then I redesigned the new concept in Daz (yay for having the characters and part of the scene already done), rendered the new scene, polished the render in Photoshop CS6, and the cover is now ready!

I want to do a cover reveal for my newsletter first, but I’ll be able to share it publicly soon. 😁

Plus, I got the blurb done! I wrote my attempt at the blurb first, then had Claude make a separate attempt based on the manuscript and a set of instructions I have for blurb design. While I didn’t use Claude’s result directly, after I had both versions, I shared my attempt with Claude so that we could merge the key concepts, which allowed me to finish the blurb into something I’m relatively happy with. The blurb might still need a bit more polish, but it’s currently workable.

Legends of Cirena Volume 2: Now that The Dark Forest of Aneth is almost done, I’m starting to work on volume two of the Legends of Cirena series collection. I searched through my art files and found two pieces I intend to include. They still need a bit of clean-up, but are otherwise complete. I also brainstormed ideas with Claude about possible core scenes or story locales I might want to illustrate.

The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.

Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.

Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.

Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.

Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): This is moving along, chapter-by-chapter. Last time I was at chapter chapter twenty-nine sent to the newsletter and roughly 66,500 words. Now we’re at chapter thirty-one and 73,000 words!

I continued developing Nomca’s backstory, which may or may not see its own story sometime, but will help in writing the Ferta story. I also had Claude review the current manuscript and organize a timeline for me so I could see what pieces were still missing and need organized, and I continued using Claude to help me organize my thoughts while brainstorming story’s direction.

Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf Spin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold. Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.

Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.

Fae (Huntress 3): With the ebook out in the world, my next step is print formatting.

Since I already had the basic formatting structure I’d designed in Word 2007 for the previous books, I decided to test having Claude Sonnet 5 review those files and set up the basic formatting for Fae based on my earlier files. I haven’t had a chance to review those adjustments in detail, but a precursory review suggests this might have sped up that part of the print formatting setup considerably.

Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.

Dark Romantasy Idea: Starting to see movement again. I did some brainstorming with Claude about the titles and book cover design. Still not decided on a title yet. Currently I’m reading related books. I also had Claude update the outline based on my notes, and I need to review that to see what other edits I want to make and what’s still missing plot-wise. I also still need to finish writing the synopsis (currently 4,000 words), which should help speed up the drafting side. Tentatively eyeing this as a November project. (I kind of want to start sooner, but Multiverse is up next after Dark Forest.)

Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – I completed edits on my story based on the feedback I’d received and got it submitted! Proofreading notes are in, so my next step is making corrections.

Other Stories: The YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian short story is on hold.

Poetry (?!): Nothing new this month

Game Design:

Phalanx: I need to get a photo showing all of the pieces for the mousepad edition.

Elemental Card Game: On hold. Needs a lot of playtesting because the rules weren’t finalized before I started tinkering with a digital edition.

Legends of Cirena Tabletop Game: On hold. There’s one more expansion to add, and then playtesting. (And I need to see if those expansions have art already or if that still needs to be drawn).

Battle Decks: On hold. Needs playtesting, and then once the base mechanics are working I’ll look into trying to get a mobile version functioning properly.

Anchor: I need to get a landing page for it set up on the Infinitas Publishing website.

Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold.

Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim: On hold. Adult creature lineart needs cleaned up and added to game, and juvenile creature art needs adjustments. I still need to add my own flavor text as well.

KROWN Assessment: Personality quiz for the Huntress universe. On hold. Needs testing, but it should be about ready.

AI Usage and Policy: No new updates. Detailed usage is in this report.

Marketing and Admin:

• Got the IP Status Report out on time again! Yay! Hoping to keep releasing these monthly. I also continued the process of having Claude review the report for patterns and things to watch for.
• I had Claude Sonnet pull reviews from my books to analyze for an overview of what readers like and don’t like across each of the different series.
• I’m still keeping up with the accounting. Yay!
• With Fae now complete, I had Claude Sonnet 5 review the finished manuscript and update the author/series analysis of my published books.
• Had Claude Cowork (Sonnet) research author blog book pages and provide suggestions for how I might restructure the book page on this blog. (It was in dire need of updates). Though not quite finished, you can see the work in progress here! Some books have been organized into the collapsible series headers, some haven’t.
• I continued sending out the Distant Horizon and Wishing Blade universe newsletters on time.
• I had Claude Code (Sonnet) review all of my finished books for a master list of themes. Afterward, I had Claude Code (Fable) run an analysis across the full sweep of notes. (I had to have Sonnet help create a suitable prompt. My first attempt tripped the guardrails and Fable refused to do the analysis). After the analysis, I had it create a “map” so that I could see which themes commonly repeated across different series, where they were absent, and to give me a better idea of how to position my books. I then used those insights to have Claude suggest niche sub-genres suited to themes I already enjoy writing, as something to consider for future series. Additionally, based on the theme map, I realized my current reader magnet books might not be working the way I’d hoped, so I’ll be reviewing those and possibly testing different magnets in the near future.
• I continued having Claude help me review my weekly priorities based on my production schedule goals, and so far it’s been helping me stay on track, at least better than before I started doing this.
• I continued testing sending my monthly BookFunnel promo highlights to both newsletters, not just one of them per month. I also had Claude help narrow down potential promos to join, as well as review which ones seem to garner more interest from my readers. October promos have been selected, and now I need to join them and get the blog post and newsletters scheduled.
• I continued having Claude help me check which of my permafree books have gone not-free on Amazon. I have it draft a letter based on a template I provided, which I can then send to customer support to ask for the prices to be matched again. Claude also found the UK territory link from Apple that I hadn’t previously been able to find, that I’m hoping will help get those price-matched again.
• I ran Huntress at 99 cents as a promotion for Fae. I also did a few more book promos: AuthorXP, GeekTastic, and Best Book Monkey. I’ll wait a couple weeks, then review the retailers to see which sales, if any, can be attributed to a particular promo. (I set each of them at least a week apart).
• I reviewed my intended production schedule using Claude, made updates, then had Claude create a calendar of that schedule so I could better visualize my plan. I think having the visualization definitely helped me to see where there were potentially overloaded weeks so I could adjust those ahead of time.
• I did lite updates to the individual book pages on the Infinitas Publishing website, mostly updating the structure for an upcoming format change, and adding the review site links to each book.

Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs, review a social media and newsletter email PDF I bought. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages and adding metadata. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs. Add alt text to images in earlier ebook files.

Crafting Your Fictional World: Presented online for the UP Poet Laureate: Engage With Words series on August 27th! I restructured it as a presentation instead of a workshop, watched the previous events from that series, and practiced it a few times to make sure the topics were fresh on my mind.

If you’d like to watch the recording, you can find that here!

Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:

I finished scheduling the remaining four blog posts early in August. So far I’ve written three entirely new blog posts that I plan to run in September, which will go out in place of the repurposed content (though I do still plan to continue doing those long term, as well).

• Of Villainy and Tragedy (DHU)
• The Cover Design Process for The Trial of Bells and Blood (WBU)
• Jenna and Tim give an interview in the alternate timeline Lobby (DHU)
• Differing character POVs in The Trial of Bells and Blood (WBU)
• Why are there breakfast burritos in Distant Horizon? (DHU)

Events: See the “Crafting Your Fictional World” section, above. No other events in August.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Still need to upload a minor revision to the formatting project that includes the ASIN, as well as the age categories that KDP is asking for.

Future Goals: Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work and fix the SEO information. Finish designing cute mascot for a local store. Finish editing photos for a local Aikido group.

SIFlint Art: Ended up creating a sketch for a PolyAm themed sword/knife hoarding dragon that might eventually become a sticker. Also created the lineart for the little extras that go with the Plushie Hoarding Dragon and Shark Hoarding Dragon so I can eventually make tote bags for them. Didn’t get a chance to finish those for the upcoming Vograce order, but I did complete the design for a lanyard of the Plant Hoarding Dragon, and I plan to test keychains!

Daz PA: Had another good round of back catalogue sales, I think this time mainly due to the Quick Grab and Outlet Store slots (though I’m pretty sure I re-invested any money from that back into Daz assets for upcoming projects). I plan to continue submitting to those promotions.

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Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂