Tag Archives: Daz renders

December 4, 2020 · 10:40 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Another month has passed, and so the author recounts the previous month’s accomplishments and her plans for the next month…

Time for another status report! 😀

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold for revisions while working on NaNoWriMo projects.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). Rough draft on hold at 50,000 words. Current plan is to revise Starless Night before returning to this, that way I can make sure the time line is on track.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I’m thinking of creating a print edition of the three books combined, possibly with a new cover. Might be a while before that happens, though.

Galina’s Saga (Deceived) – Part Two and Three(Distant Horizon spin-off series): So… last time I posted a report the plan was two write two novellas for NaNoWriMo, thus completing the main ARC of Galina’s story.

Does anyone even want to guess how that went?

Anyone?

*Sigh.*

I’m absolutely thrilled to say it went a lot better than expected, and here’s where it landed (off in “Stephanie writes more than she plans and Isaac keeps giving her more plot points” land):

Deceived #2 (Tentatively titled Exposed) – Rough draft complete at 50,000 words (my NaNo Rebel novella ending up actually being a novel).

Deceived #3 – Rough draft complete at 22,000 words. Ended up being a plot that was not in my outline because Isaac wanted to see them have a little more trouble getting back to the Community, and saw the perfect opportunity for cameos of side characters we see briefly in Distant Horizon. Sounded like fun and made a lot of sense for the story, so I ran with it, and dropped my original outline. I have a few more scenes I’d like to add to this during revisions.

Deceived #4 – Rough Draft complete at 25,000 words. It felt complete before I actually reached the end, though, so cue another book in the sequence

Deceived #5: NaNoWriMo rough draft ended at 3,000 words, incomplete. I’m still working on this one, and it’s currently at 6,200 words. I expect this one to be somewhere in the 20,000-word range.

I think #5 should wrap up Galina’s primary arc, though there may be a stand alone #6 because I really want to see how they handle helping the Community when Legion shows up.

So yeah… the next step is finishing the rough draft of #5 and then revising all the rough drafts.

Good news is that this project showed me just how helpful 20 minute and 40 minute sprints can be to my writing productivity.

That… and 100,000 words in a month! 😀

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written. Needs updated outline.

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

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over is still on hold. Waiting to finish current projects before I revise what’s already written, and then continue the next section.

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 story): Revisions on hold for NaNoWriMo. But as soon as I finish the rough draft for Deceived #5, this is next big project I want to focus on so I can get it out to beta-readers.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs formatting for print.

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. (Currently at 25,000 words) On hold.

Game Design: On hold. We need product shots of updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter.

Space Adventure Comic: I finally converted the “avian” aliens to Genesis 3 and 8 to make it easier for Isaac to work with them. Not a whole lot of new progress here (unless you count a brief flurry of reading web comics to start getting a feel for how they’re structured).

Emberverse (Working Title): Currently on hold while working on other projects. Still needs actual title. Next step will be revising what’s currently written so I know where to take “season two.”

Marketing: I’ve scheduled most paid promos for December and need to finish setting up the scheduled weekly book promo highlights. I still need to revise the Amazon Ads for the UK and Germany. I also need to check book categories and keywords, though Legends of Cirena and Whispers in the Code has had some updates in that regard. I also still need to cull the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter for inactive subscribers.

I’ve begun running paid newsletter promos for Whispers in the Code as well as The Wind Mage of Maijev.

Sent out copies of Distant Horizon to the contest winners of the YA Science Fiction and Fantasy BookSweeps giveaway. I also created a longer on-boarding sequence for the subscribers who signed up for my newsletter through that method. I did have a couple sales of the Distant Horizon books during that week, but I’m not sure if it was a result of the on-boarding sequence or of the paid newsletters.

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

Other Stories: I wrote a 5000 word short story (science fiction) and submitted it to an anthology. Got a rejection, but that’s okay, because I’ve got ideas of how I’d like to flesh out the story a bit more and try to improve the twists so it’s not so predictable. (YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy). Not sure if I’ll try submitting it to a couple other science fiction magazines I used to enjoy reading once I finish revisions or go ahead and self-publish it.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I still need to update the imagery on the blog (and I should probably update the images on the Infinitas Publishing web site banner, while I’m at it). I also want to weed through the side bar links.

In other news, this blog now has a new domain name! Since I mostly focus on books now, the domain is now stephanieflintbooks.com . You can still reach the blog through sbibb.wordpress.com , however. 🙂

Also, I finally updated the Contact page. It had, um, apparently been a while since I’d done so. I removed the links specifically for my book cover design business since I’m no longer actively advertising that, and I updated it with the various author links.

That said, I still have my original SBibbPhoto domain, and I’ve been debating if there might be something I could do with that for my Daz artwork.

Daz PA: I accidentally corrupted my document with notes and how much time I was spending on each project, but at least it’s not a huge loss and was for my own personal use.

Started a new one.

(Reminder… don’t forget back-ups or periodically saving under a new file name!)

No new releases since last time, but I did finish up the holiday freebie I wanted to submit, so that should show up eventually, and I made progress on another pose set.

😀

* * *

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

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book review ARCs, book series, book signing, BookSprout, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, Daz renders, deceived, Distant Horizon, emberverse, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, gaslamp fantasy, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serial fiction, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, sword and sorcery, The Scars of Her Past, The Wishing Blade, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

November 6, 2020 · 1:34 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s that time again! (And this time, the report’s on time). 😉

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). New cover (after several iterations), a blurb, and it’s now on pre-order!

Next step: Revisions. Lots of revisions…

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). The rough draft is currently 50,000 words. About 16,000 more words than last time. Not a huge change, and writing went a bit slowly (though I made sure to write at least a sentence each day… and that helped to get at least some progress in).

I’ve put this rough draft on hold during NaNoWriMo, and I’m focusing on writing a different project. I’m hoping to use November to finish a few rough drafts and revision projects that have been on hold for a while, and maybe start revising Starless Night depending on how those other projects go.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): The Glitch saga is out of Kindle Unlimited!

Which means you can now find it not only on Amazon, but also Apple Books, Kobo, BN.com, and Smashwords.

AND I’ve gotten it added to Google Play, too. 😀

(First series in Google Play. I plan to start uploading the others as I get time).

Last month I went through the process of updating the back matter, updating blurbs, fixing some early formatting issues that should make for a smoother table of contents, and re-uploading the books back to the various distributors. All three books (and the Glitch Saga: Complete Collection) are now available!

Side note… Whispers in the Code is free on all retailers. 😉

Galina’s Saga (Deceived) – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): This year’s NaNoWriMo project! 😀

I’m currently 14,000 words into the rough draft. I took the first day to discuss plot points with Isaac and get an outline made, and then started writing the rough draft.

Since these are novellas, my goal is to get books two and three complete for NaNoWriMo. Once I finish the rough draft for book two, I’ll outline and start drafting part three.

We might even have the title for book two… but we’ll see.

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written. Needs updated outline.

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

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over is still on hold. At this point in time I have removed links to the Facebook group from the Legends of Cirena stories. Ultimately I still want to finish the Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over there, if anyone is still interested, and I’ll make the Legends stories available for free to everyone who participated in the voting process for choosing characters and their decisions. Beyond that, though, I haven’t decided how to proceed.

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 story): This is still in the process of being revised, and then I need to go back and thread Nuaka’s point of view into the story.

Good news is that the book cover and blurb have been completed!

Better news?

The Wind Mage and the Wolf is up for pre-order! 😀

I’ve scheduled it for February 21st. I was hoping to release it in mid-November, but didn’t account for the amount of time it’d take to set up Starless Night for pre-order and get the Glitch saga back up and running wide.

Now that it’s NaNoWriMo and the holidays are coming up… I figured I’d play it safe and schedule it a bit further out.

Next step will be finishing revisions and sending it out to beta-readers.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs formatting for print.

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. I’m about halfway through. (25,000 words) On hold.

Game Design: On hold. We need product shots of updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter.

Space Adventure Comic: Isaac has been organizing our Daz assets, kitbashing character outfits, kitbashing ship designs, and figuring out general scene settings for the project. There’s a few alien characters (the “orcs” and “avians…” which are more like feathered bat people?) left to organize, which I need to move from the Michael 4 generation up to Genesis 3 or 8 for the convenience of using more poses and outfits with them.

But he’s gotten quite a bit done in terms of making sure all the “elf” characters are in place and have outfits/uniforms to fit their particular culture, along with the ships.

Emberverse (Working Title): I was thinking of writing season two for NaNoWriMo, but decided on Deceived #2 and #3 since that series has already been made live.

As for Emberverse, I still need to create outlines for each of the short stories, which may require revising the season one stories to know what needs to come next. (Though I’m hoping looking at the original outlines for the first season will serve as a good reminder of what had been going on, despite changes).

Also… I need a new working title/series title. Apparently Emberverse is already in use.

Marketing: November’s weekly promo highlight posts have been schedules. Amazon US ads have all been converted to low-cost drip ads. I still need to revise the Amazon Ads for the UK and Germany.

Eventually, I want to re-evaluate categories and keywords of the various series, but that will be later.

I have been running paid newsletter promos for “The Wind Mage of Maijev.” So far it hasn’t done particularly well for paying back the cost (though I’ve stuck with low cost promos), but it’s also early in the test run, so we’ll see.

Now that Whispers in the Code is also perma-free, I’ve started scheduling promos on that one as well.

I did go ahead and create a Story Origin account (free) so I can test their group promotions. Took me a bit to figure out their set-up, but over all I do like it, and it does have some advantages over Book Funnel (particularly in the form of newsletter swaps). But I still am quite fond of Book Funnel, so for now, I plan to use both.

I’ve set up a focused group newsletter builder promo (YA Sci-Fi with a Side of Powers) on BookFunnel to run in December. I’m hoping that the banner will interest readers of YA sci-fi and be more likely to get more clicks, particularly those of readers who would like the Distant Horizon Universe.

I also put out a call for ARC reviewers on my Wishing Blade newsletter list soon, and sometime soon I’ll probably start the process of culling inactive subscribers.

And I created an ARC giveaway on BookSprout for the Glitch saga.

Are you a reviewer who uses BookSprout to find ARCs? Do you enjoy YA Dystopian Sci-Fi with super powers? There are the ones I currently have available:

https://booksprout.co/arc/50493/whispers-in-the-code
https://booksprout.co/arc/50494/ghost-of-a-memory
https://booksprout.co/arc/50495/spirits-of-a-glitch

I also participated in a large BookSweeps giveaway. The goal was to bring in new subscribers to the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter, while still offering something of value to my own readers. That contest has ended, so now I’m waiting for the next step. (Sending out prizes to the winners and integrating new subscribers into the mailing list).

I also did a “medium launch” for relaunching the Glitch saga wide, combined with the pre-order of Starless Night. For this, I warned the subscribers they’d be seeing more emails from me in this period, and then I emailed each day with something different and focused (rather than long with multiple sections like my usual newsletters). I hinted about what was coming in the P.S. section so there would always be something to look forward to. Though it did take more work on my part, it seemed to go over well. Combining the relaunch with the Starless Night pre-order had the advantage of giving me more to talk about. I’ll probably consider doing something like this again for some of my future book launches.

Also… I finally snagged a WordPress paid plan for the blog. I was hoping to get a sale, but the ads were driving me nuts.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve removed the formatting and cover design pages from this blog. At this point, I’m only doing those services for previous clients, and that will depend on what other projects are currently happening.

I’m also considering overhauling the imagery on the blog, since I haven’t updated it since I first created it in college (2011). I also plan to start weeding through the side bar links as well.

Daz PA: Organized an older set that I hadn’t gotten around to completing and made quite a bit of progress on another pose set. Neither are finished yet, though.

However, I did recently release the SBibb Egyptian Ankh Makeup Set

https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-egyptian-ankh-makeup-set-for-genesis-8-female

It’s for Genesis 8 Females. I kind of had a heyday with emission and metal flakes options. My first version was initially rejected, but after getting feedback and making tweaks (and adding glowy arm makeup options), it made it’s way through. 🙂

Even has a displacement option on the forehead to give the forehead ankh a bit of an upraised look… (which might have been inspired by Stargate SG-1… one of my favorite shows in high school).

I’ve also made a little more progress in learning how to use Hexagon to model my own 3D object and clothes, and how to use Substance Painter more effectively.

😀

* * *

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

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Filed under Business Ventures, Daz 3D, Writing

Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book review ARCs, book series, book signing, BookSprout, Daz characters, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, Daz renders, Distant Horizon, emberverse, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, gaslamp fantasy, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serial fiction, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, sword and sorcery, The Dragons of the Mist, The Scars of Her Past, The Wishing Blade, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

October 1, 2020 · 4:19 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Wow, what a summer. The last time I did an Infinitas Publishing Status Report was… *checks blog* April?

O.o

Apparently I need to catch up on posting stuff.

The good news is, it’s that time again! I may have been scatter-shot active in posting on the blog, but things have been happening. 😀

Without further ado… the updates!

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Back in April I was only at 8,500 words. I managed 50,000 words by the end of April, through Camp NaNoWriMo, and then I slowed down again for a couple months. I made a point to at least write a sentence every night before bed to make sure I kept up with at least some progress.

I made another push in July’s Camp NaNo, and as of July 31, I completed the rough draft at 119,000 words. 😀

It will likely require extensive revisions (especially since I need to figure out the time frame to make sure I got the seasonal plants and weather correct), but it’s sitting aside while I work on the rough draft of book 4.

Also… I’m planning on listing a year-long pre-order soon, so there’s a semi-hard deadline of completing the book by mid-October of 2021. That said, I’m hoping to have it done sooner, but a year gives more time for unexpected delays.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). As soon as I completed the rough draft of Starless Night I moved straight into writing the rough draft of Changing Tides.

Originally I was going to make them into a single book, but realized I had enough material for two, and that Starless Night had a good ending point based on Jenna’s goal. So I went ahead and split them back into two books.

Writing for Changing Tides has been going in spurts and slow segments, but the rough draft is currently sitting at 34,000 words.

I have a rough storyboard pinned to a cork board, but some sections of the plot may still need to be ironed out before I get much further. (Isaac and I have the beginning and end, and here-and-theres of the middle).

My goal is to get the rough draft finished before moving on to other major projects.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): After going back and forth on cover design, and discovering the magic of Photoshop brushes, I finally made one more cover design choice and completely redid all three covers.

I’ll probably make a blog post showcasing all of the new covers, and I need to update them on the main Infinitas Publishing website, but you can see them now on Amazon. 🙂

On that note… The Glitch saga is coming out of Kindle Unlimited!

Once it’s three-month term ends in mid-October, I’ll be moving it wide across multiple retailers once again. It never really took to KU.

Expect to see it at most major online retailers in early November. 😀

Galina’s Saga – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Outline needs revision. (That said, once I finish the Distant Horizon drafts and revise them, I’ll want to work on this soon after to make sure everything coincides properly).

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised. Like Galina’s saga, this is one I’ll probably want to work on before releasing Distant Horizon 3 and/or 4, as there may be references to events that occur.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written. Possibly needs updated outline.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs revision and the rest of rough draft written. I’m itching to work on this because I’ve got ideas for it, but I want to finish the Distant Horizon draft (and the Legends of Cirena revisions) first.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over is on hold. I’ve stopped advertising the Facebook group since I haven’t had time to maintain it. I’m not sure if I’ll try to revive it once I get everything back on track or call it good after I finish the Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over.

That said, it was definitely fun while it lasted. 🙂

Since the last Infinitas Publishing Status Report I’ve published The Scars of Her Past and The Dragons of the Mist. That completes the single-character arcs. The next arc, currently in the process of being edited, will return to Livena with cross-over appearances from Nuaka.

Title and release date to be determined.

The Scars of Her Past (Alia’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Sent to beta-readers and published in late May.

If you like fantasy thrillers, check this out. Tone-wise, it’s similar to The Cursed Halls of Kalecen, with a bit darker of a story than most of the others in this series.

The Dragons of the Mist (Zynia’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Revised, sent out to beta-readers, and then published in mid-July.

This returns to a more light-hearted tone, with a look at the dragons of the Darden Isles.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs formatting for print.

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. I’m about halfway through. (25,000 words) On hold.

Game Design: On hold. We need product shots of updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter. On the bright side, thanks to doing some online Cirena role-play games with friends, we’ve been getting a few ideas for flavor tweaks to make to our Cirena board game we’ve been working on in the background.

Space Adventure Comic: We’ve been making slow progress on this, but there’s definitely been progress. We’ve created a loose storyboard for the first episode, and Isaac is in the process of organizing and updating the characters and ships we’ve decided on thus far.

We’re going to completely redo the first scenes, no longer worrying about the original renders I made. (We’ll call those concept art). But Isaac has a lot of plotting for where the story could go past the first episode (and even the first season, which he has an end for), so we know where it’s heading. We just need to start piecing the first panels together. In the meantime, I’ve been using a mix of Daz and Substance Painter to design the elves’ home planet.

Emberverse (Working Title): Sort-of on-hold? The first episode has been revised because, since the Writers of Warrensburg moved their critique group online, I was able to attend again. (Woot!) I’ve been bringing pieces of the story there for their feedback. With the first episode having finished being critiqued during the last meet, I now need to go back through the feedback and make revisions, none of which looks too difficult. 😀

That said, I now need to start revising the next episode, which might take a bit longer since I think it’s Jekk’s, and his is one of two that need major revisions.

This has been a side project, and I’m kind of hoping to write season two during NaNoWriMo this year, but it depends on how the other projects go.

Regardless, I don’t plan to start releasing any of these until the majority of it is finished, and I want to focus on finishing a few of the currently open series (Distant Horizon (two more novels), The Wishing Blade (two more novels?), Stone and String (one more novella?), Legends of Cirena (three more novellas), and Huntress (one more novel) before releasing a new series.

Marketing: Um… I finally remembered to post new weekly book promo highlight posts. I’ve got the next month already scheduled since I was proactive and actually scheduled newsletter promos in the middle of the month. If I can devote 30 minutes to an hour toward marketing each day, that ought to help a lot.

I’ve also been weeding out my Amazon ads, and I’m trying to focus on keywords that have gotten clicks before, with an emphasis on very low bids (maximum of 5 cents per click). “Drip” ads, rather than high-spending ads. At this point, all of the US ads have been revised, and my next step will be to update UK and other international territory ads.

Instead of ads, which I haven’t really been maintaining well and thus have been losing money on, I’m testing paid newsletter promos (ex. Fussy Librarian) on perma-free books. Right now, my only perma-free story is “The Wind Mage of Maijev,” but I’m planning on making Whispers in the Code perma-free once I pull it out of Kindle Unlimited.

I finally culled the Distant Horizon Universe mailing list of inactive subscribers, taking it down by almost half (but being quite happy that about 30 of the “inactive” subscribers opted to stay when I sent out the email asking who wanted to stick around–I know the past few months have been hectic and not all emails register as open). So it’s back to being around 900 subscribers but the open rate is looking decent again.

Soon I’ll need to cull the Wishing Blade Universe mailing list.

Eventually I should probably run another BookFunnel promo. I’ve done a couple GameLit/LitRPG themed ones in conjunction with another author over the past few months, but since I don’t have a GameLit story out at this point, I’d like to also do a promo focused on the genres/themes from my books.

I’m thinking about picking up a WordPress paid plan for this blog (no ads!), so I’m going to start watching for sales.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Both formatting projects complete. At the moment there are no new cover design or formatting projects. I will likely remove the cover design and formatting pages from this blog sometime over the next month.

Daz PA: Making progress in getting sets done. I had a nice burst of speed on these for the first couple months, but the last couple months slowed down a bit. I just finished revising and resubmitting a previously declined product, as well as making an adjustment to an earlier pose set now that I know more about how the poses work. I’ve recently started a new pose product, and then I have a character to revise and resubmit.

In the meantime, if you’re curious to see what I’ve released thus far:

Wonder and Curiosity Poses: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-wonder-and-curiosity-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8

Dreadful Pirate Captain Poses and Expressions: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-dreadful-pirate-captain-poses-and-expressions-for-genesis-8

Secret Reflections Poses and Expressions: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-secret-reflections-poses-and-expressions-for-daisy-8

Flower Family for Daisy 8: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-flower-family-for-daisy-8

Temple Brethren for Ashan 8: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-temple-brethren-for-ashan-8

Insulting the Dragon Poses: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-insulting-the-dragon-poses-for-angharad-8-and-dragon-3

Frog Prince Poses: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-frog-prince-poses-for-bullwarg-hd-and-genesis-8

Rukodzi for Celani 8: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-rukodzi-for-celani-8

Natilda for Honni 8: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-natilda-for-honni-8

Also, I’ve begun learning how to use Substance Painter. (Handy when trying to re-texture things or make my own textures).

😀

* * *

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

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Filed under Business Ventures, Writing

Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book series, book signing, Daz characters, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, Daz renders, Distant Horizon, emberverse, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, gaslamp fantasy, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serial fiction, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, sword and sorcery, The Dragons of the Mist, The Scars of Her Past, The Wishing Blade, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

April 10, 2020 · 7:00 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s that time again! 😀

Whew… March was interesting. Half the month was relatively normally, and the other half has been getting used to the new norm.

Anyway, here’s the updates!

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Storyboard complete in lieu of an outline! I’m about 8,500 words into a new rough draft.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I need to choose which cover design to go with for the series and then create the rest of the covers for it.

Galina’s Saga – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Outline needs revision.

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written. Possibly needs new, updated outline.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs revision and rest of rough draft written.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over in progress. It’s been going slower than the usual one episode a week that I usually aim for.

The Cursed Halls of Kalecen (Hahven’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Now available! 😀

The Scars of Her Past (Alia’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Read-aloud complete. I need to make a few minor edits and then send it out to beta-readers.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs formatted for print.

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed (about halfway through at the moment).

Game Design: On hold. We need product shots of updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter.

Space Adventure Comic: Isaac made several base scenes for the comic as a starting point, and finished a couple kit-bashed ship designs. We figured out how speech bubbles will look, and the base size for formatting. We’ve also started doing a few renders, though we haven’t gotten far with those yet.

Emberverse (Working Title): On hold. I had hoped to work on the part two rough draft for Camp NaNoWriMo in April, but needed to switch that to completing a rough draft for Distant Horizon, since I want to finish up a few of the active series before releasing this one.

That said, I’ve had a bit of fun with the Emberverse Instagram images.

SBibb - Instagram - Emberverse - Mallie Selfie

(For more fun Emberverse pictures, check out my Instagram account).

Marketing: Got a month’s worth of weekly promo highlights posted, and got the April ones scheduled.

I have yet to cull the Distant Horizon Universe mailing list for inactive subscribers, which I need to do soon since it’s getting close to it’s max size before costing extra.

I also plan to reset the Amazon ads I have, and to create a BookFunnel promo for May (I still need to decide the theme).

Debating picking up a cheap WordPress plan for this blog so I can remove ads, but not sure when or if that’s likely to happen.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Just about done with both formatting projects. One is complete except uploading, and the other needs the cover proof completed.

Daz PA: I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been accepted as a Daz Published Artist! 😀

Right now I’m working on pose sets and character morph presets, but I just submitted my first set through their system, so it may be a little while before I’ll have something to show in the store. More on that once the first set gets approved!

😀

* * *

Happy writing and reading! 🙂

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March 7, 2020 · 1:11 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s that time again! 😀

And wow… February was a busy month. Between Winter Carnival festivities, plumbing issues, various freelance projects, and a couple unexpected deadlines, I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done.

But progress did get made, just not where intended.

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Needs new outline and rough draft.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Testing another cover idea to see how it does before deciding which one to go with– whether to stick with the older design for now or update the series with one of the new designs.

Galina’s Saga – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Outline needs revision.

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs revision and rest of rough draft written.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold. Will likely remain on hold until The Wishing Blade series is complete, and possibly integrated with a storyline I have in mind that takes place after that series. (Alternatively, might get integrated as a prequel to Stone and String 3. Not sure yet).

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over in progress. The last two episodes have been delayed due to various outside slow-downs, but will resume once I’ve finally reorganized everything.

The Cursed Halls of Kalecen (Hahven’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Pre-orders are up! Releases March 22nd.

I’m currently in the process of reviewing beta-reader feedback and making revisions.

Alia’s Story (A Legends of Cirena short story): This has a title, and pre-orders are live!

*Drumroll…*

The Scars of Her Past

Still needs a few more chapters to go through the read-aloud process before going out to beta-readers, but that’s the next step.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs formatted for print.

Huntress 3: Now around 25,000 words into the rough draft. Good news is that I now mostly know where the plot’s going. Bad news is that I have to finish catching up on everything that threw me for a loop in February before I can return to the rough draft.

Game Design: Currently on hold due to Isaac’s classes. We realized we need to take new product shots for Phalanx so we can get the updated Game Crafter version back up for sale.

Space Adventure Comic: Isaac has kit-bashed a few more ships and a character design for this, but it’s mostly on hold while we finish other projects.

Emberverse (Working Title): Made a little progress on revisions for the first short story in this series, but had to put it on hold for other projects. Starting to get ideas for where the next part of the story will go, but probably won’t get to write those for a while yet. Hoping to write the rough draft for that in April for Camp NaNo, but that depends on how much progress I can make on the active series that are currently awaiting completed rough drafts.

SBibb - Emberverse - Mallorie and the Cub

(Meet Mallie and Spots… a character who can speak to the various “monsters” in Emberverse, and her stuffed animal who became a lot more real).

(To see more sneak peeks from Emberverse, check out my Instagram account).

Marketing: Weekly promo highlights have been put in place for March! (Having reminders to schedule this in my monthly calendar is proving super useful). I still need to cull the Distant Horizon Universe mailing list for inactive subscribers. I won’t know if it helped the Wishing Blade Universe list for a while yet, since that’s a monthly newsletter with the exception of new release announcements.

Also…

One of the unexpected projects for the month ended up being a new website design for our main Infinitas Publishing site.

Long story short, we had planned on revamping it for a while, but then I got wind that Google Chrome has been phasing out how people see sites without a security certificate. Our previous host required a paid plan to get the SSL certificate working, and to have what we wanted (quite a few pages), we would have been paying a lot more than I would have preferred–especially when WordPress is cheaper and, if I’m being completely honest, a lot more user-friendly. (I did try to stick with the old host, but ultimately it was time to say “thanks for the good times” and move on. Hopefully I can use the original free plan as a backup, but I’m not sure how long that free plan will remain.

Anyway, I spent the past couple weeks between the two hosts figuring out what I wanted to do and finally getting everything switched, as well as trying to streamline everything for a sleeker look.

Overall, I’m fairly happy with the change. There’s still a few updates that still need happening–eventually I’d like to create series-specific banners–but it’s mostly complete.

(And it has a shiny security certificate and no ads… sweet!)

Check it out!

Infinitas Publishing

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Received notes on a proof for one project (now in finalizing stage) and I’m in the process of compiling proofreading notes for the other project and creating a cover proof.

In other news, I’m thrilled to announce I got first place in the Storytelling Category of the It’s Raining Men contest over on the Daz art forums.

This one uses the Daz 3D studio program for 3D rendering and Daz assets, and the key requirements of the contest were that it needed to feature a man/men as the primary focus, and have a storytelling aspect.

Definitely made my day, and I wasn’t expecting it to place:

SBibb - Raining Men Contest - A Misstep in the Apple Grove

Story Concept for the image: The apple grove was technically open land, free for everybody’s use. But when a gnarly goblin made the grove his home, wandering travelers often found trouble if they took a juicy apple from the trees.

😀

* * *

Happy writing and reading! 🙂

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February 3, 2020 · 9:00 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Time for the monthly Infinitas Publishing Status Report! 😀

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Needs new outline and rough draft.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Debating trying one more cover design before switching out the covers on the rest of the series.

Galina’s Saga – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Outline needs revision.

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: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). Needs rough draft written.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): Needs revision and rest of rough draft written. On the bright side, some of the recent Legends of Cirena stories have given me a better idea of where this needs to go.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Hahven-Alia cross-over complete. We’re currently three episodes into the Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over.

The Restless Sands of Neel (Ro’nor’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Now available!

The Cursed Halls of Kalecen (Hahven’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): Scheduled for release on March 22nd. I’m currently getting feedback from beta-readers, and then I just need to make a few final touches before it’s complete.

Alia’s Story (A Legends of Cirena short story): Title to be announced. Book cover near-final complete. Most revisions are complete, though I need to do a preliminary read-aloud with Isaac for any plot holes before sending it to beta-readers. Expected publication is late May.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs to be formatted for print.

Huntress 3: Was hoping to have rough draft complete in January. That has been rescheduled for mid February. I’m currently 20,000 words into the rough draft. Realized I needed to combine two plot ideas into one, and now it’s been flowing a lot smoother.

Game Design: Currently on hold due to Isaac’s classes.

Space Adventure Comic: We’re in the brainstorming phase for individual story plots, with it on semi-hold while I try to finish some of the current lingering projects. That said, instead of starting with the larger arc, we’re debating trying to complete a smaller adventure first, to get a better feel for comic design and have a better chance of completing it.

Emberverse (Working Title): Somewhat on hold due to trying to prepare the Legends of Cirena stories for publication. I’ve input Isaac’s notes into the rough draft manuscripts. My next step will be to complete revisions to the already-written portions, make note of which pictures I want to illustrate for it in Daz, and then outline the next section to be drafted.

SBibb - Emberverse - Tea Time

(To see more sneak peeks from Emberverse, check out my Instagram account).

Marketing: I’ve gotten a routine set in place for BookFunnel promos and I’ve started to do the weekly promo highlight again. Also, I’ve culled inactive subscribers from my Wishing Blade Universe newsletter list. I plan on culling the Distant Horizon Universe list as well. (The goal is to lower cost of newsletter plans while improving open rates because the mail services see a higher rate of opens and are less likely to consider it as spam).

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Near completion of formatting for one project, and need to compile proofreading notes for the other project.

* * *

Happy writing and reading! 🙂

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January 6, 2020 · 1:05 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s that time again! (Actually, it’s technically two months time again… so I’ll summarize the past two months).

First of all, Happy New Year! 😀

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). After discussing the plot with Isaac, we ultimately decided to cut a couple of the planned sub-plots in order to focus more specifically on what should be the stronger plot. Thanks to holiday travel, we now have quite a few ideas for the updated outline. I’m scrapping the original rough draft I did for this one and starting fresh.

The Glitch Saga (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Still not enough data to know for sure if the new cover is doing better, but it does look like a possibility. Ultimately, I plan to update the other two covers and see how those do.

Galina’s Saga – Part Two (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Outline needs revision.

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). On the bright side, I’ve discovered that it might fit well into the gaslamp fantasy genre. I’ll be keeping that in mind once I return to revisions.

Little One: Needs Isaac’s notes added to manuscript, and then revised.

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). First few chapters need revisions, and then the rest of the rough draft needs to be written.

Runes and Ravens (Stone and String 3): First part of rough draft needs heavy revision, and then rest of rough draft needs written.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade) On hold.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Almost finished with the Hahven-Alia cross-over story. A new story will be starting soon.

The Restless Sands of Neel (Ro’nor’s Story / A Legends of Cirena short story): The cover for this story is complete, and the title is The Restless Sands of Neel. It will be a novella, around 23,000 words. I have notes back from the beta-readers, so I’ll be applying their suggestions, doing the read-aloud, and then proofreading it. Release date is scheduled for late January, and the pre-orders are in the process of uploading to the various sites.

Next up for revision is Hahven’s story. The plan is to release a Legends of Cirena short story or novella every two months starting with The Restless Sands of Neel. 🙂

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Needs to be formatted for print.

Huntress 3: I’m currently 8,000 words into the rough draft, and intend to finish it by the end of January.

Book four has a chosen fairy tale, but needs outlined.

Game Design: Currently on hold due to Isaac’s classes, though a bit of beta-testing occurred for one of the games during the holidays.

Space Adventure Comic: I had a little moment of productivity a couple months ago, which gave Isaac and me enough to work with in terms of ironing out a few more details regarding the presentation. I still need to apply those notes, though.

It’s quite a ways off from publication, but here’s another peek at one of the rough pages (still needs words added… and polishing for lighting…):

SBibb Space Comic Page Sneak Peek

Emberverse (Working Title): 71,000 words total complete for NaNoWriMo, for the first six short stories. Started as a for-fun project, but I’m really enjoying putting this one together. It’s a series of short stories, each one ranging between 8,000 to 15,000 words. I’m planning to release it as a serial, with each episode containing two of the short stories. They’ll also be illustrated using Daz renderings I’ve created:

SBibb - Emberverse - The Awakening

(To see more sneak peeks from Emberverse, check out my new Instagram account).

I’m pretty sure it’s going to be classified as gaslamp fantasy… sort of like steampunk, but with a heavier emphasis on the paranormal/magical.

It will likely be a while before it releases, since I want to get a few more of the short stories complete before beginning to release them.

Marketing: I’m planning to make a bit bigger push with the BookFunnel promos and tweaking my newsletters over the next few months. Probably not all at once, but I’m starting to look at how to improve those. In addition, I intend to return to doing the weekly book promo highlights on this blog.

I’ve also started an Instagram account which will primarily have short excerpts from work-in-progress projects and various renders I’ve been working on. At the moment, most of them are from the Emberverse project (so if you want to keep up with that project, definitely follow me there).

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Proofreading a manuscript, and working on formatting/cover design for two separate projects.

* * *

Happy writing and reading! 🙂

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