Since we’ve been looking at a lot of my early Daz renders, let’s now take a look at the renders I have of Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale, one of my characters from the Wishing Blade series. (He starts as an antagonist… then kind of ends up in as the questionable mentor… whether he wants to be a mentor or not).
So a long, long time ago when I was playing around with Daz, I rendered Cafrash, the creator of the Wishing Blade (the series’ namesake). I rendered this image a couple times, since I apparently designed it on my older laptop, whose graphics card that would have made rendering nice went caput before I found Daz. Then I rendered it again once I got my then-new laptop (which now mostly lays in rest because I used it a lot for rendering and that’s… very intensive on a laptop, unfortunately. Renders now happen on a desktop with much better fans and airflow.
That first render took 7 hours, and didn’t have nearly as good as the results of this 2-hour render.
Needless to say, I was quite happy with the capabilities of the then-new laptop. (And I suspect the new desktop would render this much faster… though we’re on a new version of Daz now so the lighting system would probably have to be readjusted).
Anyway, enough about laptop capabilities. Lord Menchtoteale was a blacksmith before getting involved with the trickster god. Long story short, he forges the Wishing Blade, the weapon used to steal magic from Cirena in Magic’s Stealing.
Here’s a render that Isaac put together from a later version of Cafrash’s character design, which I then polished:
But did Cafrash actually want to forge the sword?
Is he really the warlord everyone thinks he is?
Or is there more going on behind the Trickster’s plans than meets the eye?
Cafrash’s backstory is one part of the story I’m having a lot of fun working with, and first started showing up in The Shadow War, and has a much larger role in Magebane.
* * *
Meet Lord Menchtoteale in all his grumpy “I’m going to give you advice whether either of us want to deal with this,” in The Wishing Blade series…
Decided to make a for-fun render in Daz Studio yesterday with some new assets I picked up during a sale. (Finally got that mermaid setup I’d been wanting!)
So there isn’t a particularly story behind this one, other than me picturing a mermaid seeing the sun (or moon) shining above the water and reaching out for it. Kind of feels like it might work well for flash fiction inspiration, though, or one of my 1000 word stories.
Sometimes we authors like to test different book covers to see if one might resonate better with readers. And Whispers in the Code, being a spin-off from the Distant Horizon series, has been through several iterations in my attempt to signal just what kind of book it is. (Genre-mashup. It’s very much a mashup with a lot going on… though horror underlies the entire trilogy).
Part of the job of being an indie author is figuring out which cover attracts the right readers (or rather, which cover is conveying the genre that best fits your book). It’s something I’ve struggled with for the Glitch saga, because it’s a genre mashup.
While I really like the original cover, I think it might convey more of a space military vibe… which it isn’t. Someone who goes in looking for the tropes of a space military story probably isn’t going to find what they’re looking for.
So, around October of 2019, I got the inspiration to test a new cover for Whispers in the Code.
My thought was, depending on how it goes, I’d either change the rest of the series to match it, or switch it back to the original.
Original Cover (February 2018)
Version 2 (October 2019)
While I still really like the newer cover, which I redid in hopes of hitting a more cyberpunk/dystopian vibe, and it did pick up a few more readers in KU (Kindle Unlimited)… it seems that those readers didn’t get very far before they stopped reading (in contrast to Huntress, where they typically finished in a day or two and moved on to Changeling).
Though I didn’t have a whole lot of data to back that up, since Whispers in the Code wasn’t getting many readers, I did wonder if it’s possible that either A: Something was wrong with the book, or B) Readers were picking up the book expecting one thing, and finding something else (such as getting a lot more “magic” or a style of writing that’s more similar to what I’ve seen in YA and urban fantasy than solid cyberpunk).
So…
In February of 2020, I decided to try giving another cover a trial run for Whispers in the Code.
I put it together fairly quickly, and there’s a few things I wanted to change if I switched to this cover style for the series. But I hoped to convey more of the horror elements and more of the “magic” sense of things, while still hinting at the fact that technology is present (since it is set in the future).
Version 3 (February 2020)
I left the new cover up for a few months to see if it would get a better response from readers, though I knew I also needed to consider how to drive traffic toward it. I had hoped putting it in Kindle Unlimited would give more people to take a chance on it, but that wasn’t going to help if I’m not targeting the right readers.
In August of 2020, I did one more revamp to the Glitch series ebook covers. While I really enjoyed writing the series, it still hadn’t gotten much attention from readers.
At this point, I attributed that to a few factors:
Wrong cover for the audience
Very cross-genre, hard to market
Jumps right into the action without a lot of explanation
And so the August 2020 cover marked the fourth version for Whispers in the Code. For this version, I drew in part from the style of Distant Horizon, but tried to play up the paranormal aspect a bit more.
I also redid the blurbs.
Though I’m still iffy on the blurbs (and which one is really better might be a blog post for another day), these covers are the most true-to-the-book representations, I think.
(And while I haven’t analyzed the data on the different downloads, especially since for a time they were in Kindle Unlimited before I launched them wide and made Whispers in the Code permafree, I do see a handful of downloads of Whispers in the Code without extra marketing.)
Version 4 (August 2020)
I’m hoping these covers will attract readers interested in science fiction, thrillers, and stories with paranormal elements.
And one of the things about the Distant Horizon universe is that it has a lot of different elements to it. The issue that creates is knowing which readers to target when marketing.
For example:
It’s science fiction… with a lot of technobabble jargon and what-if world building, set in the future of a world similar to this one except that super powers started showing up sometime in the ’50s and an organization of super villains took over around 2012 to 2016.
It’s paranormal… because there are both the technical equivalent of ghosts (the Legion Spore’s glitches haunting the airship), and very literal ghosts (the spirits like Benjamin… a mad scientist who attached himself to an enchanted artifact).
It’s steampunk (actually gaslamp)… because there’s a lot of clockwork type references and aesthetics pointing that Victorian/Edwardian direction–though now that I’m more familiar with gaslamp fantasy, I’d say it’s gaslamp because of the heavier focus on “magic” and secret societies with a mysterious agenda (the Camaraderie of Evil).
It’s fantasy… because there’s a lot of epic type world building, enchanted artifacts, “magic,” lords and ladies, ballroom dances…
It’s a psychological thriller… because of the page-turning, high stakes element and mental games the main character faces…
An important part of marketing is knowing who to target and how to let them know this is the kind of book they’ll want to read. But with so many elements, it can be hard to pinpoint which genre is the best fit to work with (and some authors will switch marketing focus over time to bring in different readers).
This time around, I’m trying to lean into that gaslamp, paranormal sci-fi route… though I’m still not sure I’ve quite nailed that yet.
From a technical standpoint, an issue with the book itself is that it jumps right into the action and doesn’t take time to explain what’s happening, unlike Distant Horizon or Deceived. With that in mind, it may be that this series is better for readers who have already read the other series, rather than starting with this one. It’s a spin-off, and that may be hurting its chances of being read on its own.
*
So there you have it… four versions of the Glitch series covers. Eventually, I want to redo the box set cover. I’ve got ideas… I just need to set aside the time to revamp it.
* * *
Read the books whose covers keep changing…but at least now they match the mood!
📋 And here’s the May report! Going to try to keep these updated on a monthly basis, but we’ll see.
Got a lot done, but that said, this last month through me for a curveball with my cat, BG Neelix, passing away unexpectedly. (If you want to know the details about what happened, click here).
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): The epilogue has been sent, along with an additional wrap-up scene. I even got a chance to do a read-aloud with Isaac on these chapters. Yay!
Next up is to add missing scenes, do a complete read-through to check for revision smudge, and then do a read-aloud with Isaac to make sure the story still fits his vision. Then it’s off to beta-readers! I’m hoping to start revision work on this project in July.
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’ve been slowly inputting my notes from my Kindle Paperwhite revision round into the manuscript, though this is on the backburner while I work on Fae. Next step will be to read through those revisions and see if it’s ready for beta-readers.
Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
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): Last time I was at chapter twenty-three and around 51,500 words. Now I’m at Twenty-Six around 58,000 words, and I have a pretty good idea of the remaining scenes that still need written.
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.
The Wind Mage and the WolfSpin-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):Placeholder page made! Got Fae back from beta-readers, made adjustments, and put it onto my ancient Kindle Paperwhite so I can give it one more pass before the read-aloud with Isaac. Then I had Claude Code create a timeline of the Huntress series (after several iterations to correct for incorrect entries) so I could make sure the passage of time was clear in Fae. I also used Claude to do a basic formatting pass on the manuscript based on my previous ebooks to make it easier to finalize later.
I did a couple more tests with the cover, and finally found the right stock images to make it work. Base of the cover is complete, and now I need to do the polishing “painterly” touches.
I’ve also drafted a blurb and will need to review it soon to see what I might want to change. I gave Claude a set of questions to ask me with a prompt to include feedback, and used that to go through the process though I did the actual writing to the blurb myself.
I updated the backmatter in Huntress and Changeling, which I’ll upload once I finalize the cover for Fae.
Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.
Dark Romantasy Idea: On hold. The idea is still pinging at me, but I need to finish writing the synopsis (currently 4,000 words).
Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – Story has been drafted (and is surprisingly short for me), edited, and read at one of the Writers of Warrensburg meetings! Next step is to review the feedback I got and make edits. I also still have a couple more meeting to watch the recordings of and submit feedback on.
Other Stories: The YA Alien Invastion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
Poetry (?!): I wrote another poem called “Glittering Moments” but I’m not quite happy with my revisions yet, so I haven’t posted it. You might see it in the future, though.
Game Design: Progress! Isaac and I made a trip to Marquette to pick up supplies for finalizing Phalanx and Anchor.
Phalanx: Mousepad edition of Phalanx complete, and debuted at Flower Moon Spring Market!
Additionally, I worked with Claude to create the web-based browser edition that works both on mobile and desktop. Beta-version is now complete, and the current version of the game includes a link to a form for testing. Deployed via Netlify, and I’m giving the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter subscribers the first go at it, and then I’m planning to release the beta on the main Infinitas Publishing website. (I’ll probably also include a post about it here as well as on our Facebook page.)
Battle Decks: I did the first review of what Claude was able to code based on the trial version of the card game, then did further testing to refine the user interface and fix rules that didn’t quite translate into the programming. Currently it needs me to do some testing to make sure everything is playing correctly, then see if we can’t get a mobile version functioning properly.
New game — Anchor!
Anchor: Isaac completed his physical prototype and created the art for this game (I tried inking his original sketch and it came out too cartoony, so he turned to Daz Studio instead). We used Claude to double-check dice probabilities to make sure his scoring made sense, I proofread Isaac’s rules booklet and did the formatting polish, and we put together five first edition box sets. We got this done in time to debut at the Flower Moon Spring Market!
Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold until Isaac has a chance to review it.
Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim– I cleaned up the art for the juvenile creature in the game and worked with Claude to trouble-shoot some issues with how the graphics were presenting. I still need to clean up the adult creature art and make a few more adjustments to the juvenile creature that I missed in my previous pass.
I also had Claude create a table for me that lists all the different items and shops so that I can make sure to update everything with my own flavor text, and had it review the code for areas to streamline.
I also finally set up Claude Code on my computer because the game got too hefty to edit in a regular chat.
AI Usage and Policy: I decided to keep the Pro Plan of Claude, at least for now. It’s been really helpful for keeping me on track with business stuff, so I’m going to hold onto it a bit longer. I did update the Infinitas Publishing AI usage policy to include our usage of Claude AI for coding.
I still want to do a presentation on AI Literacy, but haven’t made any further progress with setup. (I have, however, been reading several more books and articles on the topic).
Marketing/Admin:
Created a project file in Claude for Infinitas Publishing. Using that for analyzing past reports and keeping up to date with admin processes. I’m continuing to do a check-in every week or two to make sure I’m staying on track with my goals.
Continued sending out Distant Horizon Universe and Wishing Blade Universe newsletters.
Did a couple more BookFunnel group promos, and created a promo for June (but no one signed up for it so I cancelled that one). I signed up for the next round of promos and pre-scheduled the blog-post/newsletter email.
Updated retailer links for my books on BookBub (just need to double-check now that I got them all updated)
Finally updated my author bio on the blog and most retailers.
Updated the series pages on the main Infinitas Publishing website.
Worked with Claude to create the bones of the Huntress KROWN Assessment quiz based on the interactive personality test Isaac and I did at last year’s Geek UP. Needs some interface work and further beta-testing.
I’ve continued using Claude to help keep my priorities organized, review accounting and event results, and review stats I’ve been tracking.
Attempted to have Claude Design work on A+ content for Distant Horizon using my own images. It’s got some interesting ideas… but it isn’t there yet.
Printed and cut out new Infinitas Publishing Business Cards for events.
I’ve been trying to make Facebook posts on the Infinitas Publishing page to help promo some of our upcoming products and events.
I finally paused all Amazon ads, and have had Claude help make suggestions for how to maybe make adjustments for new ads. So far not much luck with getting those going.
So far I’ve been managing to keep up with accounting. Yay!
I had Claude make me a personalized event checklist that I’ll be able to repurpose for future events. Hopefully, once I finish organizing it, it’ll make it easier for me to keep track of what I need to get done ahead of time.
I still need to update Infinitas Publishing book pages with buttons for retailers. I also need to continue adding metadata information.
Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On Hold.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
Still going strong with the blog posts here. Scheduled May ahead of time, which helped. I need to do the same for June, especially considering the various events going on. But it has been helpful with rekindling some of that exciting “new publishing” energy I remember from when we first started Infinitas Publishing.
Events: We went to the Flower Moon Spring Market in Hancock at the end of May.
Meanwhile, we’re planning to be at UP Rainbow Pride in Marquette, and we’ve applied for the Hancock Pride Market that happens at the end of June. I also still have a Crafting Your Fictional World presentation planned for later in the year.
Flower Moon Spring Market (May 24th)
We had a booth inside at the Flower Moon Spring Market, and we debuted not only the mousepad edition of Phalanx (the first time we’ve had Phalanx available to purchase in several years), and we also debuted an all new game–Anchor!
Admittedly, neither of us were at full energy due to having recently learned that BG Neelix had cancer, but the event was still fun and Isaac was able to demo the games to a lot of passersby.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Still working on formatting an ebook for an indie press.
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: On hold. I’m watching for a sale at my sticker printer so I can order more stickers (and get bag hoarding dragon stickers!)
Daz PA: The new Daz store promotions seem to be working! I’ve seen a strong uptick in sales, so I’ve continued submitting products for the Quick Grab option and plan to try for the Outlet Store again as well. I’m hoping these sales continue to have luck. If so, it’ll make for a nice revival of the backlist.
I’ve also started playing with some character shaping as a possible upcoming product. Haven’t gotten far yet, so we’ll see if I continue working on this.
* * *
Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
(Note: The giveaways above are hosted through BookFunnel. Authors will usually ask for your email address, and in many cases, the author will collect these addresses for their newsletters.)
At some point in 2019, I took to learning how to use Daz Studio in my spare time. Daz is a 3D modeling program that lets you purchase assets (poses, characters, clothing, backgrounds, etc) for your own use and then position those assets to create scenes.
There is also the ability to “morph” the basic models so they match how you envision your own characters.
The first character I customized was Siklana Covonilayno, Toranih’s sister from The Wishing Blade series:
Her hair’s a bit too long here, but this was a quick render to test the outfit and general background.
Here’s a closer look at her facial structure (customized from the Victoria 4 base model — which I’m still impressed I succeeded with since shortly after, I started working primarily with Genesis 8 models).
(At some point I needed a Daz PA (Published Artist) profile image, and this was one of my early renders I was happy with, so I used that. Later on I realized that she looks a little like me when the image is in tiny thumbnail size. Not intentional.)
At some point I might make some adjustments to Siklana’s design, mostly in redoing the character on a later model to take into account some issues and limitations I didn’t know about when first starting.
I continued to work with learning the program, and eventually put together a full scene with her.
In this case, she’s with her horse, Esara.
(The horse’s coat and mane ended up a bit darker than I was initially picturing for Esara, so I may need to do some tweaking if I do further images with her).
The idea behind this image, though only mentioned in The Wishing Blade series rather than actually seen, is that Siklana used to go outside of Cirena City to practice her knife-throwing skills in peace.
She would ride out to the forested region behind the city walls to a small, abandoned ruin. (This region was once Aneth, home to those who would eventually spread throughout Cirena. At the time, they faced attacks by the immortals, and many of their buildings ended up in ruin once they fled). This particular building would likely have been fairly recent in their history, though still abandoned. But now this side of the forest is relatively safe. The perfect place to go when someone wants time to themselves to study and throw knives.
Are there any characters from the Wishing Blade universe (any of the stories) that you would be interested in seeing?
* * *
Though Siklana starts as a side character, by Magebane she has a major character arc…
Oof. Last week was… kind of terrible, to be honest.
Not all of it. The visit to the dentist to get the mold for the crown done went well. Made my tooth look a bit like a shark tooth before putting the temporary on. The Flower Moon Spring Market was fun and Isaac even finished his new dice game.
Not so great… turns out Isaac’s new used car has a coolant intrusion.
And worse, we found out last Friday that Baby Girl Neelix (aka BG Neelix) had cancer.
A few days later, she passed away in the wee hours of Monday morning.
She loved sitting on the shelf above my desk. I had to put books there so she wouldn’t get her paws stuck in the wire rungs.
About a week and a half before her vet appointment, she hadn’t been playing quite as much or eating quite as much, but she was still active and attentive, and she’d often gotten colds, so it didn’t seem too concerning until she stopped coming out to greet us when we got home, and then it was really concerning on Thursday when she wouldn’t touch her food (except whipped cream and a little oat milk since I was trying to get her to eat something).
On Friday morning I called the vet as soon as they opened, and got her in that morning due to someone having a cancellation (almost didn’t get that, but a bunch of dogs started barking, and no one could hear anything, and when the person on the other end of the line was able to hear me again, someone had apparently just made a cancellation.)
Took the kitty in, and she tested negative for FIV and feline leukemia, so we thought maybe it was a different but treatable virus causing her issues and the abnormal amount of fluid in her abdomen. But, to be certain, we had extra tests run.
And that’s how we found out she had a tumor in her abdomen, with a lot of unfortunate signs pointing toward a lymphoma.
We put her on antibiotics and a steroid in hopes she might start feeling better, and scheduled a follow-up appointment for the next week. But the medicine didn’t take, and she didn’t give us the chance to have exploratory tests done to see if the tumor could be removed.
What she did do, however, was give me extra cuddles. Between bouts of hiding in the closet, if I put her on the bed, she let me cuddle her for longer than usual. An hour, hour and a half, two… We both fell asleep. A couple times I heard her purr.
I really, really appreciate that she gave me that extra time. That’s been helping a lot with the grieving, I think.
Looking back, it helps knowing we were able to give her what we think was a good life. Thanks to Isaac deciding to claim her as our next kitty after Skynyrd (she ended up becoming my kitty), she got a chance to have surgery on her leg when it popped out of the joint, and if you’ve heard any of my tales of her going places she definitely shouldn’t have been, you wouldn’t have known she’d almost had her leg amputated.
She was definitely not supposed to be on the top of the fridge.
She was smart, too, and when chasing her little dangling chick toy, she would run through the second door of the bedroom in order to meet me halfway in ambush.
Her method of waking me up in the morning when she wanted fed or groomed was to hop on the bed… then off the bed… then on the bed… then off the bed… until I finally straggled out from under the covers.
And she’d come running the moment she heard me turn on the water kettle because she knew that meant I was making coffee, and I put whipped cream in my coffee, and that meant I’d let her have the little bit of whipped cream I wiped off the tip of the can.
So I think she was a happy kitty, and got all that happy kittiness condensed into what was a little less than a year with us. But I’m glad for the time she spent here. I wish she could have had longer with us. I had thought, had expected, I would have gotten to spoil her for years to come. (She was only a few years old… her having cancer was not on my list of expectations).
But I’m glad for the time I had with her.
I love you, Baby Girl Neelix. I miss you.
Anyway, have a dollop of whipped cream in honor of BG Neelix, my adorable orange gremlin.
Since I didn’t have marshmallows for her to steal from my coffee, whipped cream was the next best thing.
Sometimes it’s really obvious and you just point at that one and say “That one!”
For all the other times… We’re scratching our heads, trying to think if anything stood out while making revisions.
So when it came to figuring out the title for Galina’s story, we turned to the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter!
We proposed six ideas:
1. The Deception 2. Deceived 3. Quarantined 4. The Warning 5. The Outbreak 6. The Secret
But we weren’t 100% sold on any of them at that point.
So we asked readers:
Knowing that Galina’s story will be a young adult dystopian thriller in the same vein as Distant Horizon and Glitch, and having read the three sneak peeks from these newsletters, do any of those titles stand out to you?
Do you have an idea for a better title?
And we did get a few responses! (Which we very much appreciated).
Ultimately, we ended up settling on “Deceived,” which became part one of Galina’s Saga (which we later just called the “Deceived” series). Because, of course, we ended up having plenty more plot fodder itching to be written.
Which is why we now also have its newsletter-exclusive prequel, Initiated, and its sequel, Betrayed!
And yes. Figuring out those titles was also a pain. But at least we had the convention of the title to work with.
* * *
Now I just have to hope I can remember what I planned to title the next book in the series…
Today I thought I’d do a behind-the-scenes snippet for one of the Cirenan-Cantingen goddesses: Meshon.
Meshon is one of the older goddesses, and she has a strong presence in both Cirenan and Cantingen pantheons.
Though not considered a primary goddess in the Cantingen pantheon (who only recognize a small handful of deities in addition to Madia), Meshon is revered as Madia’s trusted messenger.
Meshon is often referred to as the Oracle, capable of seeing visions of the future and walking between realms–though her ability to cross realms means it’s not always clear which world her visions refer to, and that issue has landed many of her followers into trouble for trying to interpret her dreams.
Shevanlagiy/Ralendacin has held a grudge with the goddess for this very reason, and that grudge is clear in Magebane.
Meshon currently has a role in both The Wishing Blade series and Stone and String, and even plays small roles in some of the Legends of Cirena short stories, such as The Scars of Her Past… though she plays a much larger role in the upcoming Legends of Cirena novel, The Dark Forest of Aneth. (Yes, novel. It was supposed to be a novella but it has well surpassed that word count at this point).
Below is one of the test images I created for Meshon using Daz 3D Studio. Her design is still in progress, but this is fairly close to how I see her. 🙂
Meshon’s prophecies will eventually have a strong role in the next Stone and String story, and it’s her prophecy that references the coming of Ralendacin, the “Destroyer of Worlds” (Shevanlagiy in The Wishing Blade series).
I’d been sitting on the outline for Starless Night for a while… partially because I was cycling through projects, but also, because the prospect of the third Distant Horizon book was daunting.
I had a partial rough draft and an outline already written. (See the post from two weeks ago). But that outline was written before Isaac and I made major edits to Fractured Skies, thus changing the shape of where the story was headed.
Characters I thought were going to be dead were now still alive, and characters who lived in the role-play campaign ended up dead. (Still can’t quite believe Isaac convinced me to kill off that character… though it really did make sense for the story). And important plot points were revealed way earlier than we expected, rendering certain scenes in the third book no longer necessary.
Between all the character relationships and faction issues, I wasn’t sure where to start. Originally, I hoped to salvage bits and pieces of the previous draft to work into the revised version. But that seemed likely to cause more problems than help.
I stalled, hoping that writing Deceived would get me back in the swing of writing for the Distant Horizon universe. It did (and accidentally spawned a new series). I now wanted to return to Jenna’s story.
But it didn’t solve the wall I had been running into.
Then Isaac brought up the idea of cutting two very major plots that we had planned for the third book, and condensing the last two books back into one.
At first, I was resistant to the whole thing. I loved some of the scenes he was suggesting cutting, scenes we had discussed and honed a while back.
But…
There’s a saying that writers have to “kill their darlings.” (I kind of despise that saying, by the way). It doesn’t always hold true. But sometimes, eliminating a plot or a scene, or merging two characters, end up making for a better story. Or solves your problems.
I started thinking about Isaac’s suggestions. About eliminating those two major plot points and how it would affect the story.
And… um…
It worked a lot better.
Instead of taking a longer route to get to the climax by looking at various outside forces and their impact on Jenna’s brainseed, the focus is much more strongly related to the issues of Legion’s rise and the downfall of the Community.
Suddenly a lot of foreshadowing in Fractured Skies regarding artifacts, alchemist-enchanters, and the Elizabeth pendants had a direct tie back into the story. And the trimmed version made some of the future plans for this universe tie in more clearly, too.
I really liked the beginnings of the new outline and where it was going.
So I presented some of my new notes to Isaac and we began bouncing ideas off each other again, rather than coming to a stalemate about where the story should go.
So I decided to scrap the entirety of the previous rough draft. It exists as writing practice and helped to flesh out the world, but it was going to be simpler to start book three from scratch.
And that’s okay.
My hope was that my writing skills would have improved since I wrote the original draft, and starting from scratch helped reduce the amount of “revision smudge” likely to sneak in if we weren’t careful.
Best of all, we were having fun with the story again, and I looked forward to seeing how the pieces that we decided should stay would weave themselves together.
There were a couple directions we could take the end of Jenna’s arc, so we still had to figure out which one was the most satisfying and would make the most sense, especially since there was still going to be one more book after Starless Night, but it was now planned to be a four-book series instead of a five-book one.
((*Insert defeated laughter/crying here.* A note from present-day me who is in the process of revising this ancient newsletter email into a blog post… “Just four books? Sure… If I can figure out how to condense Changing Tides. Because last I checked, there’s still a whole missing middle section, and it’s already well over full-length. Either something major needs cut, or the book needs to be split into two.”))
So… what was one of those major changes?
Warning! Spoilers for Fractured Skies ahead!
It involved a return to the Community after Legion strikes.
The thing is, Legion isn’t entirely destructive. Though a lot of people end up with their life force drained to feed Legion’s ghostly legionnaires (hence sending teams to evacuate the area when it gets attacked), others choose to join Legion’s call to “control the chaos,” forming a cult that sees Legion as more efficient than the Community under Camaraderie rule.
Originally, we planned a sequence in St. Petersburg involving the destruction of the city, and after that, we didn’t see much of the cult (though Jenna did try to help with evacuations in other parts of the Community).
This time, we decided to explore what happens when Legion gets into the Community. The destruction-versus-life going on sort-of normally… while a certain prior (second-in-commands for Legion) becomes a primary antagonist, rather than being defeated early on. Which means this prior will return in Changing Tides.
And the HUGE thing we considered that we hadn’t before is how Jenna’s brain seed handles dealing with Legion.
After all, the brain seed’s creator also had a hand in creating Legion (well, the Legion Spore… since the creator didn’t expect it to be “killed”), and thus has a particular interest in Legion’s powers…
And acquiring said powers.
Normally, Jenna wants nothing to do with Legion. But while Jenna is under the brain seed’s influence, she has far more interest in Legion’s power than she should…
AND IT DOES NOT END WELL FOR THE RESCUE MISSION.
(Remember how I said there was a character who survived in the campaign but not in Starless Night?)
Anyway, that scene allowed us to really explore Legion’s influence, the Community, and the brain seed, in ways we had never expected…
And even ended up influencing the book cover design for Starless Night, as well.
I’m much happier with that book now. (And ugh… having a tooth pulled was literally easier than writing that particular book). But I really like how Starless Night wraps up. Redoing the outline was the right call.
So yeah. Ever completely scrapped an outline and tried again?
* * *
This series has undergone so many changes since we first started Jenna’s journey with a role-play game…
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 