Tag Archives: Daz 3D

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

This status report will be for the last two months (February and March) since I got a bit caught up in other things and didn’t get the March version posted.

But, seeing as it’s April… time for another Infinitas Publishing status report! 😁

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

* * *

Distant Horizon: (Book 1 of the Distant Horizon series): I revisited this to start preparing a paperback version of this in Atticus, which can be used on Draft2Digital in order to release a paperback version wide across multiple retailers, rather than only on Amazon. I intend to revisit the blurb before finalizing this.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I got a basic round of formatting done for the print edition, and I’ve started the polishing process. I still need to update the blurb, and create the wrap-around cover once I have the final page count.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Legends of Cirena #9. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Completed posting Deceived on Wattpad. It can now be read in its entirety.

SBibb - Betrayed CoverBetrayed (Deceived #2): Cover complete!

I’m working on one more round of revisions and edits to the manuscript, and I’ve started posting the WIP version on Wattpad! I plan to post a chapter a week until it’s complete, at which point I’ll see about finalizing it for publication (it will go out to beta-readers as soon as we’ve gone through the read-aloud stage for the entire manuscript). Before each chapter is posted, Isaac and I listen to it being read aloud via a text-to-speech app, so that we can make any final changes.

Depending on how releasing on Wattpad goes, we’ll see if we also want to release Deceived #3 this way or return to only releasing it in its final, polished form.

The next step is to continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add 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.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I’ve made considerable progress here, with more revisions to specific scenes I was having problems with. Turns out there was a tone shift I hadn’t noticed in Ro’nor’s character, and an earlier plot point that needed adjusted. Additionally, I’ve added in several new scenes, and made plot adjustments to the earlier story, and started writing the poem/song I plan to have running along concurrently with the main plot.

Goals: Finish rough draft now that I have the main story back on track. Complete the book cover render setup.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: On hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Isaac’s Short Stories: – School’s back in session, so these projects are on hold while he writes his dissertation.

Isaac’s Untitled Sci-Fi Story: Isaac has been writing the rough draft to a quirky, episodic sci-fi fantasy story somewhat in the vein of Doctor Who and sweetweird stories. He’s currently at 32,000 words. Lots of sense-of-wonder universe-hopping, clever puns and references (he has an entire episode that’s referencing magic girl stories), and a cute romance between the polyamorous triad crew. We’re expecting that he will the the only author listed for this, whereas I’ll be acting as editor.

Marketing: I got business taxes mailed out a week early this time. Woot! I also did the usual Amazon drip ads and a couple of BookFunnel promos this last month, but didn’t do as much promotion for them as I usually prefer. That kind of fell by the wayside due to also trying to prepare for moving. The next couple months will likely be a little sporadic at times for that same reason, and I haven’t scheduled any BookFunnel promos for this month. Newsletters have also been a tad sporadic for the same reason.

I did, however, teach a free, two-hour workshop at the Copper Country Community Arts Center at the beginning of April, a presentation on “Crafting Your Fictional World.” I had a lot of fun with this one, especially since I could have dived in a lot deeper on the subject if I’d had more time, so I’m thinking I’ll try offering this class again in the future, and maybe branch out for how to take those details and embed them into your story without info dumping.

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger on a regular basis. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Other Stories: On hold. Includes a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions, and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

Unofficial Minecraft FanFic: So… this one is largely me having fun (Though Microsoft and Mojang do have a really generous license when it comes to commercializing fanfic, so who knows?) Including notes, the rough draft is currently 15,000 words long. Long story short, I’m enjoying the concept of writing the adventures of a character who has been dropped into a Minecraft world, has no idea why they’re there, and is currently trying to figure out the rules of the world. To do that, I started up a new game in survival mode and I’m attempting to not god-mode it by making sure the character only “figures things out” as they discover them in-game. My favorite moments so far probably involve how many close run-ins they’ve had with Endermen that they just don’t realize. That, and realizing the bed is their respawn point. It’s… just a lot of fun and a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve completed the book cover and formatting for the small press book I’ve been working on. The Forget-Me-Knot by Richard F. McGonegal is now available

I’ve also been working on creating an updated wrap-around cover for a book that has changed hands from its independent publisher back to its author.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlintArt: No new updates. (Find our Redbubble shop here).

Daz PA: Two new releases! In the meantime, I’m close to submitting a limestone cave themed environment set. Modelling and texturing that set took most of my previous month, though it sped up considerably after I picked up RizomUV Virtual Spaces for UV mapping.

Long story short, what was taking me hours (or days) to UV map could suddenly be mapped in a matter of fifteen to thirty minutes. (Talk about a very, very happy Stephanie).

Meanwhile, the joint PA project is still on pause, though it looks like it may resume soon, the winged-themed pose set is still on hold due to clipping issues, and my morph/outfit set, the pose set Isaac helped my work on, and the Daz Crow pose set is on pause. I’ve also started a Daz Horse 3 morph set, but we’ll see how that goes.

SBibb Regal Elf Poses for Genesis 9, 8, and 8.1 Females

SBibb Regal Elf Poses

This was a quick, fantasy-themed pose set I had fun making, partially inspired by watching the original Sailor Moon anime.

 

SBibb Pride Nails for Genesis 9

SBibb Pride Nails for Genesis 9

Again inspired by watching the Sailor Moon anime for its transformation sequence involving shiny nails, but also by one of the characters on The Owl House, I wanted to put together a set of Pride-themed nail colors. While I might not like wearing nail polish myself (have you ever seen a cat with a string around its paw? I have the same reaction.) it can look pretty cool.

* * *

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

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Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Now that we’re in February, time for another Infinitas Publishing status report! 😃

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Paperback formatting on hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve finished the first round of revisions on the rough draft part two, for roughly 35,000 words of revisions.

Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived #2(Distant Horizon spin-off series): So far there are six chapters of Deceived on Wattpad.

The next step for Deceived #2 is to hand it to Isaac for a final round of developmental edits, then create a book cover for Deceived #2 and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add 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.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I’ve started re-reading the chapters with light revisions and making notes about what might need adjusted in order to get the story back on track for finishing the draft.

Goals: Rough draft needs completed, and there are a couple scenes I’d like to add earlier in the story. I already have a book cover concept, which needs to be completed.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : Joran’s short story is on hold. Still needs a couple scenes smoothed out, and I need to cross-reference the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: On hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Isaac’s Short Stories: – School’s back in session, so these projects are on hold while he writes his dissertation.

Marketing: I had both a Best Book Monkey newsletter promo and a Geektastic newsletter promo to help spread awareness of Distant Horizon and Magic’s Stealing being free during the month. They’re now back to full price, but I had them free from December to the end of January. I also had the usual Amazon drip ads and BookFunnel promos.

I still need to schedule this month’s weekly promo highlight, but I have them chosen, and last month they went out as planned.

Additionally, I’ve made progress on finalizing last year’s business ledger. I’ve also been doing a bit of extra non-fiction reading related to both writing craft and marketing.

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Test Draft2Digital for wide print distribution, revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Other Stories: On hold. Includes a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story rough draft, YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions, and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Made some progress on the book cover polishing and print formatting of the small press’s book.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlintArt: No new updates. (Find our Redbubble shop here).

Daz PA: Finally got a couple products submitted! 😀

The slush and snow shaders project is complete and has now been released. I also have a fantasy-themed pose set expected to release soon. Additionally, I’ve been working on a winged-themed pose set, but ran into some clipping issues that I noticed while making more promos, so I temporarily put that on hold for a completely different makeup set. That one is proceeding well, so I hope to finish and submit it soon.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting to hear back on the joint PA project, and I’ve made no new progress on my morph/outfit set. I also plan to work on finishing the pose set Isaac helped my work on (currently in polishing stages), as well as a pose set I’ve started for the Daz Crow.

SBibb Slush and Snow Shaders for Iray and Merchant Resource

SBibb Slush and Snow Shaders for Iray

This set was especially fun to make since I took all the photos using my macro lens… finally got to make use of my love of texture photography!

* * *

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

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Revisiting 2022 Accomplishments and 2023 Goals

Today I thought we’d take a look back at 2022 to see what all we accomplished. 😊

I didn’t write a goal post last year, so we’ll just do an overview instead of looking at what we had planned.

 

Looking back, I’m realizing that it was largely a year of setup/prep work and behind the scenes work: getting things organized that I can largely “set and forget” and preparing for larger projects.

We still did see a few tangible things: the release of Initiated to newletter subscribers, Changeling in paperback, and “Red Light, Green Light” published in the Writers of Warrensburg’s Hawthorn Creek anthology.

 

Here’s to hoping that pays off in 2023 with more releases. 🙂

 

Last year I planned on trying a calendar with deadlines for when I’d like to have things done/monthly goals, and an idea of getting 50k words written or edited each month.

That… didn’t keep me on track with my goals the way I had hoped.

This year, I’m trying something a bit older… in high school, I had a paper planner that worked really well. This upcoming year I’m trying a print planner with a baseline set of goals (word count and time spent on Daz) – and anytime I successfully complete the baseline goals, I can add a sticker to that day! Silly, I know, but if it works, I’m totally doing this. (I ordered horse-themed stickers! 🐎)

 

🌿 Distant Horizon Universe 🌊

 

  • I had hoped to have the Starless Night paperback complete, but I’m still working on formatting it. (Finished a second proofreading, ebook ready to be reuploaded).
  • Created a new automated onboarding sequence for the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter. Added in a themed image component.
  • Wrote rough draft of Changing Tides and started revisions.
  • Wrote Initiated (Deceived prequel) and released exclusively to newsletter.
  • Placed Multiverse Chronicles into Scrivener

 

2023’s Goals:

  • Finish revising Changing Tides. Polish and publish (Midyear?)
  • Serialize Deceived (completed) via Wattpad and newsletter. (First quarter)
  • Serialize Deceived #2 (near-final) via Wattpad and newsletter. (Second quarter)
  • Polish Deceived #2
  • Revise and polish Deceived #3 (needs further revisions).
  • Evaluate how serialization is going after Deceived #2
  • Publish Starless Night paperback (Midyear?)

*

 

🗡️ Wishing Blade Universe 🔮

 

  • Started rough draft of Magic’s Stealing prequel.
  • Created base for Litkanston map
  • Wishing Blade Universe onboarding sequence complete.
  • Still working on Legends of Cirena #9
  • Started making notes for Legends of Cirena epic story and inputting them into Scrivener
  • Joran Short Story – Revised current draft

 

2023’s Goals:

  • Finish drafting Legends of Cirena #9, polish, publish. (Second or third quarter?)
  • Finish drafting Joran’s spin-off short story. Polish. Release to newsletter. (Midyear?)
  • Finish outlining The Wishing Blade #4. Write rough draft. (Fourth quarter?)

 

*

 

👁️ Huntress Universe 🍎

 

  • Wrote partial draft of a Huntress prequel.
  • Released Changeling in paperback.
  • Tried to revise Huntress 3… didn’t get very far. Thinking I might scrap this draft entirely, reread first two books, and start a new draft fresh.

 

2023’s Goals:

  • New outline for Huntress 3. Write rough draft. (Third quarter?)
  • Continue rough draft for Huntress prequel

 

*

 

🌇 Comics 🦴

 

  • I wrote “If I Had Asked” and submitted it to anthology. Didn’t get in, but was a good experience.
  • Rendered a few more panels of Villain Problems.
  • Other comic projects on hold

 

2023’s Goals:

  • Nothing currently planned

 

*

 

📚 Unplanned Additions 📚

 

  • RedBubble – We’ve been wanting to offer merch and have a way to sell our art prints online, but hadn’t really had a feasible option. We finally settled on RedBubble as a print-on-demand store, and have started uploading our work there a little at a time, with the hope to eventually build it into a larger portfolio.
  • Hawthorn Creek Anthology (Writers of Warrensburg) – I published “Red Light, Green Light,” a queer sci-fi short story, in the Hawthorn Creek Anthology. This took more time than I was expecting to write and edit, but it was fun seeing how the entire anthology threaded together with each story supporting each other in small ways despite the variety of genres at play.
  • Geek UP and Poor Artists Sale – Both of these in-person events went really well for us, and in both cases we tried to improve our interactions. For Geek UP, we added an interactive play element to the booth (the “power scanner”) which helped start conversations and gave us a natural segque into talking about our books. For the Poor Artists Sale we focused more on themed decoration for our table and approaching passersby with open-ended questions (“What do you like to read?/What genre do you enjoy reading?” or “Who are you looking to buy something(gifts) for?”) In both cases, we were able to have a lot more person-to-person interaction that was quite enjoyable and, in some cases, led to more sales (both at the convention and at the local bookstore).
  • Untitled Fantasy Story – Isaac and I outlined two novels in an epic fantasy series (the outlines are 14,000 words for the first book, and 12,000 words for the second book) that we’d eventually like to write.
  • Isaac wrote a couple of short stories, now ready for editing.
  • Short story: “Of Garlic and Glitter Bombs”

 

*

 

🎨 SBibb’s Photographic Illustration 🎨

 

  • Finished the formatting and cover design for Ghoul Duty by Richard F. McGonegal
  • Started work on a new book for an indie press: cover proof made, print formatting started, and ebook formatting complete
  • Updated the banner for the Infinitas Publishing website

 

2023 Goal’s

  • Finish the formatting and cover design for the book I’m currently working on
  • Update design of Stephanie Flint Books blog

 

*

 

🎲 Game Design 🎲

 

  • Updates to Legends of Cirena role-play guide, (still very much in testing and a backburner project)
  • Elemental Card Game – Small Tweaks made

 

2023 Goals

  • Nothing specific planned at this point

 

*

 

✨ Daz PA ✨

 

I had hoped to have one project out each month, but had some learning-curve slowdowns earlier in the year. The back catalogue performed really well in the later half of the year, though, so I was happy with how that turned out.

 

May – SBibb Magic at Their Fingertips Props and Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1

July – SBibb Surprise and Fear Poses and Expressions for Genesis 8 and 8.1, and SBibb Bullish Behavior for Classical Minotaur for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Male

August – SBibb Tender Affection Poses and Expressions for Genesis 8 and 8.1

September – SBibb Loyal Companion Poses for Daz Dog 8 and Genesis 8 and 8.1

October – SBibb Skyward Gaze Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1

 

2023’s Goals:

  • Release equivalent of two products per month

 

* * *

 

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

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Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

For today’s Infinitas Publishing Status Report, I’m covering the last two months (November and December). It’s also time for the end of the year report… wow! That will be coming soon.

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Paperback formatting on hold while working on Changing Tides draft.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). I concluded the NaNoWriMo month with 70,000 words (59k since the previous update). While not 100k, this put me in a really good spot for finishing the Changing Tides draft. (I even hit my goal of reaching at least 1667 words daily during the month! Woot!)

There are still a few scenes that have missing chunks, and some scenes that need a better transition, but the majority of the book has now been written.

My current goal is to complete the first round of revisions to part two of the Changing Tides draft and start piecing together the two sections. I’d hoped to hand this over to Isaac during break. That hasn’t happened, unfortunately, but I am at 40,000 words revised of the 74,000 words in the second section.

I’ve also restructured my calendar for this project, since the original set of deadlines wasn’t going to work. (Surprisingly enough, the new structure might actually give me more leeway without shifting my final release day goal).

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived #2(Distant Horizon spin-off series): I’ve decided to serialize the near-final version of Deceived #2 as a way to continue providing content for readers while working on getting the various projects finalized for publication.

That said, I realized that it would be helpful for serial readers to have access to Deceived, first, so I’m going to start by offering Deceived as a weekly chapter on Wattpad, starting Monday, January 9th. I’ll also offer a weekly email where you can sign up to get chapters of Deceived straight to your inbox (and a day earlier than Wattpad). I’m thinking I might include a weekly blog post reminder as well with a link directly to the newest chapter.

Meanwhile, once Isaac has some spare time, I plan to hand this to Isaac for a final round of developmental edits. Next step is to create a book cover for Deceived #2, and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add 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.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: I started entering the episodes into Scrivener for better organization. Otherwise, this is still on hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): On hold.

Goals: Rough draft needs completed via the Collaborative Adventure Facebook group, and there are a couple scenes I’d like to add earlier in the story. I already have a book cover concept, which still needs to be completed.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : I’ve revisited the Joran short story project and revised the current draft. There are a couple spots I still want to smooth out, and there’s a final section that I need to write based on cross-referencing the same scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf (except from Joran’s point of view). After that, it’ll be ready for a read-aloud and proofreading.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: Minor update. After doing a bit of thinking about the story and why it’s been stalling for me in revisions, I’m very tempted to drop the current draft altogether, reread the first two books, and then create a new outline from that reading. We’ll see about that as a potential change once I’m done with the Changing Tides draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Isaac’s Short Stories: – Isaac drafted two short stories: one sci-fi (this has had one round of revisions – ready for me to make editing notes), and one leaning toward sweet-weird sci-fi (I’m not sure if he wants to do another revision pass on this before handing it to me for edits or not). These will likely be on hold now that school is starting back up for him, but I look forward to seeing these polished.

Marketing: No paid ads this month except for Amazon drip ads and a few BookFunnel Promos. I ended up doing a monthly roundup of the promos on the blog for December since I didn’t get them posted weekly, and I ended up delaying the newsletters during November. Partly because we did a lot of traveling that month–went down to Missouri for the Hawthorn Creek Anthology release party, and then visited family. Good times. 🙂

I started up the newsletters again in December, and even got the automated onboarding sequence running for The Wishing Blade Universe newsletter. Woot!

I also did a little more experimenting with Atticus, since I’m hoping to use that for book formatting in the future.

PoorArtistsSale_2022

Our booth at the Poor Artists Sale in Calumet

Poor Artist Sale – Isaac and I shared a booth with our artist friend, Gray, at the Poor Artist Sale in Calumet, Michigan. We’ve gone there in previous years to browse, but this is our first time having a booth there. We had a great time, and I hope to do more in-person events in the future. 😀

Next up: Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website, and update my author bio across the different websites.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Test Draft2Digital for wide print distribution, revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories and keywords. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while. Start overhauling book blurbs.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Other Stories: Isaac and I headed down to Missouri for a surprise visit to the Hawthorn Creek Anthology release party with the Writers of Warrensburg. We had a blast, and it was great getting to see everybody in person again for the first time in several years (most of our communication with them has been via Zoom).

HawthornCreekAnthologySigning - Photo by TrishSmith

Hawthorn Creek Anthology Signing – Photo by Trish Smith

Additionally, I’ve started writing a “for-fun” space/portal fantasy story during my free time that’s about 7700 words currently. I don’t know if this one will get finished or not, since it’s mostly for my enjoyment, but it’s writing, so I’m tossing this one in here.

The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft are on hold. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’m still working on the book cover polishing and print formatting of the small press’s book. I’ve started specifically scheduling time in my new planner for this to make sure this gets done.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

SIFlint Art: Isaac and I started a Redbubble shop! This features art from both our Distant Horizon and Wishing Blade universes, as well as other miscellaneous art we’ve made.

The cool thing is that we’re able to use Redbubble to make mugs, jigsaw puzzles, stickers… a lot of merch we normally wouldn’t have access to. (Since it’s print-on-demand, no need to figure out where we’re actually going to store it!).

Daz PA: No new releases in the last two months, though I’m close to finished on several projects. Had a bit of a slow-down on the holiday freebie, had to switch to a whole new project, which unfortunately didn’t get it turned in on time. Oh well. I’m expanding the newer project into a full-sized shader product (snow… so much snow!), which I hope to turn in early next week. I’ve also got a pose set that I’m making promos for and checking for a potential issue that I saw in the promo renders, but that one’s just about done.

Still waiting on the joint PA project, and no new progress on my morph/outfit set. Once my current projects are done, I plan to finish up an adjacent pose set to the one I’m almost finished with, and then finish the set Isaac helped me with, as well another partially complete pose set.

(Needless to say, I’m hoping to see a spurt of project releases sometime around the beginning of February, if all goes well).

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Happy New Year!

😀

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

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Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

With October over, it’s time for another Infinitas Publishing status report!

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

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Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve finished with the proofreading note comments, so the ebook updates are ready to go, and I’ve started formatting the paperback edition.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). Revisions of the first chunk of draft is complete at 56,000 words! (Meaning I revised about 37,000 words and cut a couple thousand words since the last report).

Isaac and I have been discussing the revisions as he gets a chance to read them (though him reading them is on hold while finishing his dissertation), as well as possible scenes throughout the rest of the book.

Now I’m focused on my plan of writing 100k words during NaNoWriMo to finish the draft!

This… might be a bit ambitious, admittedly. But if I can finish the draft by the end of the month, I might still be able to have everything completed on time for the release date we’ve tentatively marked.

Having learned from last time, we’re not announcing that release date until we’re actually closer to being finished.

Currently I’m at 11,000 words of my 100,000 word NaNoWriMo goal. You can follow along with my progress here. 🙂

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Goal is to create a new cover and print edition for the complete collection edition. (On hold).

Deceived #2 – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I have a couple scenes to revise, and then I can hand this to Isaac for developmental edits. Next step is to create a book cover for Deceived #2, and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

Future Goals: Add 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.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off/prequel novel) On hold. (Has outline).

Sky Runner: (Multiverse novel). On hold. (Has outline)

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. (Needs edits).

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs outlining and revision. On hold.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Needs the rest of Isaac’s notes input into the manuscript.

Wishing Blade Prequel (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade): On hold. My next step is to write the rough draft of the new scenes and begin revising the original scenes to match the updated outline.

Once complete, this is intended to be a newsletter-exclusive story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: On hiatus.

The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): On hold.

Goals: Rough draft needs completed via the Collaborative Adventure Facebook group, and there are a couple scenes I’d like to add earlier in the story. I already have a book cover concept, which still needs to be completed.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf (“Livena (The Wind Mage of Maijev”) & Nuaka (“The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel) : The Joran short story project is on hold.

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Not sure yet if it will be a series of shorts and novellas, or a novel. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Huntress 3: Needs updated outline, revised draft, and continued rough draft.

Huntress Prequel: On hold at 18,000 words. Needs rough draft completed.

Game Design: On hold.

Future plans in game design involve: possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks, polishing the elemental game card art and testing mechanics, and looking into options for feasibly producing Phalanx.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). On hold.

Emberverse (Working Title):  Revisions on hold. Needs title. Needs outline for “Season 2.”

Marketing: No paid ads this month except for Amazon drip ads and the usual BookFunnel Promos. I continued posting on Twitter, though not always daily. I still need to schedule this month’s Weekly Blog Promo Highlights.

The big step for this month was finally polishing the onboarding sequence for the Distant Horizon newsletter and getting that running. 😁

Additionally, since I needed an updated author bio for the Writers of Warrensburg Hawthorn Creek anthology, I also have a new author bio!

Stephanie Flint (she/her) loves reading and writing stories about sprawling worlds, uprooting oppressive societies, and awesome queer characters. When not writing, she creates digital 3D art, builds skybridges in Minecraft, and plays table-top games with her husband (who makes sure she doesn’t break their story universes with one-too-many shiny new magic systems). Originally from Missouri, she graduated college with a degree in photography and creative writing before moving to the snowy, Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I still need to update the bio on various websites (including this blog), but it’s now written and on Amazon. 🙂

Also… our Infinitas Publishing website now has a new header image, this one focused a little more on the world-building aspect than the characters. As much as I liked the idea of the previous image, it wasn’t quite as professional as I would have liked, and I’d always intended to do more updates to it, but never got to doing those polishes.

Original Banner:

Original Infinitas Publishing Banner

New Banner:

New Infinitas Publishing Banner

Also, I finally added our Pinterest link to the Infinitas Publishing website contact page.

Next up: Start working on the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter onboarding sequence, and continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website.

Other future marketing goals: Update the business ledger. Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Test Draft2Digital for wide print distribution, revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories and keywords. Create a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while. Start overhauling book blurbs.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. (Needs revisions and restructuring).

Hawthorn Creek A Collection of Secrets Anthology CoverOther Stories: I finished proofreading my story for the Writers of Warrensburg anthology, and I’m happy to report that Hawthorn Creek: A Collection of Secrets has been published!

My short story, “Red Light, Green Light” is a sci-fi short story set in the future of the fictional town of Hawthorn Creek, Missouri. 🙂

I also wrote a Halloween-themed short story. You can read “Of Garlic and Glitter Bombs” on this blog by clicking here.

The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions and Mermaid/Siren Sci-Fi short story draft are on hold. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

Untitled Fantasy Story: On hold. Next step is to review and adjust the first book’s outline, and then adjust book two’s outline.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve created a book cover proof and started work on blending stock photos in the cover for the independent small press’s project. Print formatting is still in progress.

Future Goals: Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work, and fix the SEO information.

Daz PA: This month saw the release of my Skyward Gaze pose set! 😀

SBibb Skyward Gaze Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1

sbibbskywardgazeposesforgenesis8and8100maindaz3d

This is a pose set Isaac helped me create. 🙂

In the meantime, I’ve created the base poses for the joint PA project I’m working on, and I’m currently waiting for them to finalize something on their end before I move forward on mine. I also did a little more work toward finalizing the remaining pose set Isaac helped create.

Additionally, I’ve finally started polishing a really old pose set that I had started on as part of my PA application, but got sidetracked with other projects to complete. A new opportunity popped up that made this one more feasible, and I’m looking forward to completing it. Plus, there’s another set I’ve got in mind to work on (dials made, now need to make the poses).

And I continued my morph idea and accompanying outfit test. Not sure how long that one will take to release, but it’s one I’ve been having fun working on during weekends. 🙂

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😀

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

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I’m now a Daz PA! :-D

I’m now a Daz PA! 😀

Quick explanation: Daz Studio is a 3D rendering program that allows you to set up 3D images and animation. I use it mostly for art, and it’s becoming more frequently used on book covers.

As a PA (published artist), I do freelance work for Daz 3D… right now I’m focusing on creating premade pose sets and character morphs.

My first set just released last Saturday:

SBibb Wonder and Curiosity

Poses and Expressions for Genesis 8

SBibb Wonder and Curiosity Poses and Expressions

I’ve been working toward becoming a PA (published artist) since around August, and I first started submitting a set to them in October. They showed interest, but what I had wasn’t quite ready for them.

So I ended up creating this set… poses and expressions to evoke wonder, curiosity, and joy.

A couple months ago, I found out they were interested in having me be a PA, and we began the process of formalizing it.

Last week, I finally saw that come to fruition. 😀

(I was also super thrilled because one of my images for the set got used on the site banner for that day’s sale. *SQUEE!*)

Here’s a few more images from that set…

sbibb-wonder-and-curiosity-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8-14-daz3d

SBibb Wonder and Curiosity Promo Image

SBibb Wonder and Curiosity Promo Imagesbibb-wonder-and-curiosity-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8-16-daz3d

Anyway, expect to see more announcements of new Daz products from me in the future. 😀

Side note… The spelling of “curiosity” trips me up almost every time. I had to double and triple check that I was spelling it right for this.

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Are you an artist who uses Daz Studio? Click here to get a better look at my new pose set! 😀

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Meet Siklana – The Wishing Blade Series

I’ve been having a bit of fun learning Daz, a 3D modeling program. Long story short, the base program is free, but you can buy additional assets–clothes, hair, facial morphs, etc–that allow you to customize your characters.

It’s fun, because it’s been giving me freedom to create characters from my stories that I can pose and light without searching through endless stock photos. (There are other limitations compared to photomanipulation, and avoiding the uncanny valley is tricky, but each type of art has its trade-off).

A few weeks ago I grabbed a bundle on sale for face and body morphs, and it’s been giving me a lot of room to tweak characters how I picture them.

The first character I completed (face, anyway), is Siklana Covonilayno from The Wishing Blade series.

Siklana Covonilayno

SBibbPhoto - Siklana from The Wishing Blade Series

Siklana is Toranih’s sister. While Siklana plays a fairly minor role in the first two books (Magic’s Stealing and The Shadow War), she has her own point of view and plays a major role in book three… Magebane.

Excerpt from Magebane:

After Shalant paid for a room at the nearest inn, Siklana and Daernan left their horses with the local stable girl and went upstairs to a small, square bedroom that offered little privacy. Mid-afternoon sunlight filtered through a window’s canvas covering. Shalant ordered them to unpack anything important from their saddlebags into the room so he could ward the area for protection.

“Perhaps we could ward the stable instead?” Siklana suggested. The cramped room hardly had enough space for all the books and scrolls stashed in her mare’s saddlebags.

Shalant glanced up from tucking a bag of dry goods into the corner beside his bed. “The stable hand wouldn’t be able to tend to the horses.” He pushed the bag aside, stood, and then dusted his knees of dirt. The smoke from Ashan had brought a thin layer of soot to everything in town.

Siklana shared a nervous glance with Daernan. The mage would find out about the books eventually. “I doubt we can fit all your word magic scrolls.”

Shalant turned around, puzzled. “Word magic scrolls? What are you…” His sentence trailed, and from the flicker of his eyes to the door, Siklana suspected he was using scrying ribbons to see what was in those bags. He gave her an incredulous glare. “You brought my library?

She smiled sheepishly. “The books might help us find a way to bring Toranih back from the shadow realm. Besides, if Ashan has been overrun by Lord Menchtoteale, do you really want him finding your books? Imagine what Isahna could do with them.”

“You brought my library,” Shalant repeated, as if the notion couldn’t register in his brain.

She nodded. “Obviously I couldn’t take everything, but I tried to grab the ones that looked useful. There are still a few things left in your attic.”

SBibbPhoto - Siklana Full Body Render

 

This is a full-body render using only image-based lighting (IBL).

It’s the first test run of Siklana’s 3D model with her new outfit (trying to find something that reasonably fit her character, which I didn’t initially have). I need to find and fit shoes for her, too, but this is a start.

I’m still learning Daz, so more work needs to be done, but it should give an idea of her character. 🙂

Interested in seeing the development process? Let me know. I have some notes on the process, and I’d be happy to go more into it if anyone is curious.

TWB - Magic Swirl Glyph

In the meantime, keep an eye on this blog for more news about Magebane, which is coming soon.

Let me know if you’d like to see more characters rendered in the future! 😀

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