Tag Archives: Infinitas Publishing

Cover Reveal! — Glitch: Whispers in the Code

Guess what!

Today is the reveal for the cover of Glitch: Whispers in the Code!

*Squee!*

There’s several things that coincide with its release (new newsletter specifically for the Distant Horizon universe, updating the cover for Distant Horizon, and the new website for the Distant Horizon universe), so I’m trying to get everything organized. We’ve finished the read-aloud for Whispers in the Code, so all that’s left is formatting. Yay!

In the meantime, I’m proud to present the cover for the first book of the Glitch saga.

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

Upper YA/NA Sci-Fi with Horror Elements

SBibb - Glitch: Whispers in the Code Book Cover

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

Blurb:

A haunted airship made from living people…

 

Nineteen-year-old hacker Tim Zaytsev is a traitor, but he never expected his betrayal would earn him the highest honor among the international community—a place among the Camaraderie’s elite council.

 

Ushered into a glamorous lifestyle of fancy airships and a chance to use his programming skills to better the world, Tim is assigned the task of finishing their secret Legion Spore project—a living airship made from shapeshifters.

 

Inside the Legion Spore, dozens of humans have been forcibly hooked to the vessel’s computer, but fragments of their memories reside in the airship’s internal code as glitches. Their faces appear in the walls, and their whispers invade the code of the Camaraderie’s base. Tim’s ability to telepathically connect with computers means that he’s the only one who can make the ship fully functional.

 

But programming a computer is one thing. Dealing with a haunted, living airship will not only test Tim’s wit, but his sanity. If he can’t learn to trust himself and his abilities, his mind will be trapped in the Legion Spore as just another whisper in the code.

I don’t have store links yet, but in the meantime you can add it to your Goodreads shelf. 🙂

Add Glitch: Whispers in the Code to Goodreads

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for updates about the release date and upcoming newsletter. 😀

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New Cover For Distant Horizon!

I’ve mentioned in the past status reports that Isaac and I have been planning to change the cover for Distant Horizon, and now it’s finalized. Isaac and I haven’t switched the book cover in stores yet, and I’m not sure when the paperback version is going to change, but you can expect to see the updated cover on the ebooks sometime in the next few weeks.

Without further ado…

Here it is!

Distant Horizon - New Book Cover

As much as Isaac and I love the old cover, we’re hoping the new one will attract more readers from the genre.

What do you think? 🙂

For reference, here is the old cover:

Distant Horizon - Book Cover

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Infinitas Publishing Status Report – December 2017

It’s that time again! I think November might have been the more productive month for me, but I had anticipated that this month would be a little slower with the holidays coming up. Still, some progress and future plans have been made. 🙂

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Glitch: I’ve finished preparing the book cover for the first book in the Glitch mini-series, and I hope to be sharing that soon. Also, now that Isaac’s on break from school, we should be able to find some time to do the read-aloud to check for inconsistencies, and then all that’s left is formatting and proofreading. 😀

Fractured Skies: I finished reading through the revisions from the major overhaul, and now Fractured Skies is in the process of going through beta-reader feedback. This will probably take a little while, as I want to make edits between readers, but it’s moving along, and I’m excited to see what the beta-readers think of it.

Distant Horizon: The new cover is complete! Those who are subscribers to the Infinitas Publishing newsletter have now seen it, so I’ll be revealing the new cover on this blog soon. I’m making a few tweaks to the manuscript (uploading a smaller file size, switching back matter, and changing the title font… but no changes to the story, everything’s aesthetics), so I’m going to wait to upload the new cover onto sites until everything’s done. But that’s the next step. No date set yet for changing the paperback’s cover, though I’ll likely need to switch that once Fractured Skies is ready to release (since it should have a cover from the updated version).

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold.

Little One: I haven’t said much about this project yet, but I’m happy to say that I’ve finally done the first round of revisions to it, and it’s ready for Isaac to read. Yay! I’ve been wanting to revise this one for a while now. It’s set in 2012, several decades before the events of Distant Horizon, back in the heyday of heroes and villains. This is one of the novels where we get to see the beginnings of their world and learn more about characters who have previously only been mentioned in passing.

Book Three of The Wishing Blade Series: As of yet, still untitled. Isaac is now reading through it, so I’m starting to get his developmental feedback (and I expect that I’ll be making some major changes). Once I’ve made those edits, it’ll go out to beta-readers. It may be a while before we reach that stage, though, since Glitch is on the forefront of our projects.

Stone and String 2: I think I have a name for it! Hopefully I’ll be able to announce it soon, once I’m sure that’s the title I want. Anyway, I finished the last half of the story. It still needs revising, but the rough draft is finally complete!

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: This month, I have mostly focused on preparing for the holidays and finalizing two covers for my own projects, so not much new here. (Though next month I’ll have to step back into gear with other covers).

Game Development: On hold while Isaac is busy with his classes. That being said, I’ve recently learned of a genre known as LitRPG/GameLit… and I’m fascinated by the game mechanics playing a noticeable role as a major part of the story. (Probably doesn’t help that some of the fourthwaller characters in a few of my stories believe they’re characters inside a game). I’m hoping to read more books in this genre as time allows.

Marketing: Isaac and I have chosen a website name for the Distant Horizon book world, and we created a mockup for the main cover image on that page. Long story short, we’re working on getting that website up, and we’ll be launching a new newsletter to go with it. Hopefully we’ll have more on that in the coming month. (In the meantime, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, we still have our overarching Infinitas Publishing Newsletter).

Cyberpunk/Dystopian Snow White Story: I started doing a few revisions to the first couple chapters, but got side-tracked with getting stuff ready for the holidays and beta-reading. Still, this is on my to-do list.

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That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post! 😀

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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

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Infinitas Publishing Status Report – November 2017

All right, this time I’m actually going to get the status report done early in the month…

Does mid-month count?

Anyway, October was busy, and the beginning of November was even busier, so I’ve got a lot to cover. Either way, it’s that time again–time for a status report! 😀

The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl

Pre-Writing Workshop at the CCCAC: I mentioned in the last status report that I was teaching a set of classes at the Copper Country Community Arts Center. I think it went well. My students all had great ideas they were fleshing out. I just wanted to give a shout-out to them and say, “Good luck with your novels!” 🙂

Glitch: I’ve gotten feedback from my second beta-reader, and today I start the process of incorporating that feedback into the final version of the mini-series. Once those tweaks are complete, it’ll be time to do the read-aloud (where Isaac and I try to catch awkward sounding sentences and anything we might have missed in the previous read-throughs).

After that, all that’s left is to prepare Glitch for publication. Formatting, finalizing book covers and blurbs… It’s just about done. Yay!

Fractured Skies: The huge overhaul of this manuscript has a been completed, adding in a whopping 40,000 words. The novel was 114,000 words before, and now sits around 155,000 words. That’s not including the scenes that we outright cut because they weren’t adding what we wanted. I think this version sounds a whole lot better. It fleshes out characters and goes a bit more in-depth as to what’s going on, and it connects the various plot pieces better.

Once I finish edits to Glitch, I’ll be re-reading through the revisions I made to Fractured Skies to make sure I like the changes and to see if there’s anything I can cut before I send it to beta-readers.

Distant Horizon: Like I mentioned last time, there’s a new cover in the works. Not much to update here, since I’ve been focusing on revisions of other books. I intend to have the new cover up before publishing Glitch.

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. I’m hoping to edit the various episodes during breaks between projects. Progress is slow, but hasn’t come to a complete halt.

Book Three of The Wishing Blade Series: I still haven’t come up with a name for this one. However, I’ve finished tightening the manuscript, so it’s ready for Isaac to read  once he has a break from his classwork.

I still need to outline book four, but I’ve got a pretty good idea of where it’s going. I just need to work out the details of how it’s going to get there.

Stone and String 2: I haven’t named this short story yet, but a little while back I started writing a rough draft for the sequel of “Stone and String.” I had to put it aside to work on other projects, but I’m now in the process of making revisions to what I’d already written. Once that’s complete, I intend to outline the rest of the story and complete the rest of the rough draft by the end of the month.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: A book cover here… a book cover there…

Game Development: On hold while Isaac is busy with his classes.

Marketing: This is a new category for my reports, but I thought it warranted a mention. I’ve been reading up various marketing strategies that are intended to help authors promote their books, and I’m hoping to develop a different newsletter for each of the different genres I write in (I’m currently thinking of having one newsletter for fantasy works, such as The Wishing Blade Series, and one for dystopian science fiction, which would encompass the Distant Horizon series and Glitch, and possibly the latest project I’ve been working on). That’s a development that’s still in progress, though, and I haven’t solidified these plans yet. (Though if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, we still have our overarching Infinitas Publishing Newsletter.)

NaNoWriMo Project: I mentioned in my most recent blog post about the Magic’s Stealing promotion that I had an all-new project I was working on for NaNoWriMo. My goal was to achieve 50,000-65,000 words in 12 days, writing in a world I hadn’t written before. Well, that’s been completed! (I’m hoping to have a more detailed post on that challenge soon).

General info… the novel (50,300 words) is a cyberpunk/dystopian retelling of Snow White from the point of view of the huntress (instead of the huntsman). The accompanying short story (11,600 words) is a cyberpunk retelling of Red Riding Hood.

I had fun writing it, and I’m hoping to start edits in December (after I finish editing these other projects). I’m hoping to write at least one more novel-length story in that series before releasing them.

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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

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That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post! 😀

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Last Chance to Get Magic’s Stealing for only 99 cents!

Yep! The promotional sale is about to end for Magic’s Stealing. I’ll be starting the process of switching the price back to its regular price of $2.99 on November 1st or  November 2nd, and while it may take a few days for all the retailers to switch back, I can’t guarantee the lower price after October 31st.

SBibb - Magic's Stealing Cover

I’m not sure when I’m going to be putting Magic’s Stealing on sale again, so now your chance to get it for 99 cents if you haven’t gotten it already.

Get your copy today!

Amazon (US) * Amazon (UK) * BN.com * iTunes * Kobo * Smashwords

The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl

Magic's Stealing - Mountain Forge Quote

The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl

In the meantime, look for more updates about what’s in the works during the next Infinitas Publishing status report! I’ll have updates about the next book in The Wishing Blade series, Fractured Skies, Glitch, and an all-new project I’m doing for NaNoWriMo. 😉

See you next time!

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Infinitas Publishing Status Report

It’s that time again–time for a status report! I’ve been busy writing and revising, and in October I’ll be doing a pre-writing workshop with the local Community Arts Center. If you’re interested and you’re located in the Upper Peninsula, there’s still a few spots open, so you can still sign up if you call them by this Saturday (September 30th). Click here for more info.  We’ll develop a premise for your novel, focus on character creation, develop the plot, then do outline critique, focusing on each subject during one of the four classes. 🙂

Now… on to the progress!

DH Divider

Glitch: Our beta-reader confirmed that Glitch may work as a three-part serial, with a few tweaks. I’m in the process of finalizing those tweaks, and another beta-reader is currently taking a look at the first part of the story to make sure everything now reads smoothly where Isaac and I changed a few plot points. I’ve also been working on a blurb for part one, and I’ve got cover proofs created for all three parts.

Once all that is complete, I’ll need to read through the manuscript aloud to catch errors and strange sounding sentences, then format and proofread it. Hopefully I’ll be able to announce a release date soon!

Fractured Skies: Not much new progress on this one, except that I now have an idea of what needs to be done to fix the manuscript. That will be one of my next major projects after I finish the current tweaks to Glitch.

Distant Horizon: After checking the current cover with a group of Facebook authors, I determined that, while the cover for Distant Horizon conveys YA Sci-Fi or Dystopian, it isn’t as clear as it could be and not as “grabby” as might be necessary to catch reader’s interest. So, once I pick up the stock images for the Glitch covers, there’s a good chance I’ll be rebranding this series. I’ve got proofs created (for all planned books in this series), so all I need to do is finalize the covers. Look for more information on that coming soon!

The Multiverse Chronicles: Officially, on hold. Unofficially… I made the first round of edits on three of the episodes. It’s still a ways off from continuing the release of new episodes, but it hasn’t been forgotten.

Book Three of The Wishing Blade Series: After writing and polishing the rough draft, I realized that it needs to be split into two books in order to give a couple major plot points time to develop. (Plot points I originally intended to have in the second book… but that’s epic fantasy for you). As it stands, the first part of this book sits around 75,000 words, and I’m around 22,000 words into the next book.

Still not sure about the nametitles, and I need to do some more tightening to book three before I hand it over to Isaac for a developmental read. I’ve begun outlining book four to make sure it will be feasible as it’s own book. More information on this once I’ve worked out some of the wrinkles.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Working on a book cover… work as usual.

Game Development: Currently on hold. Since Isaac is the main developer, and he’s currently working on his PhD, game development will likely be in spurts, rather than continuous progress. However, we’ve been able to go to the local game/coffee shop’s game nights, and that’s given us a chance to play all sorts of tabletop games, which should help us when developing our own games (and provides us with a chance to socialize).

That’s all for the moment. I’ve got to get back to working on Glitch. 🙂

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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

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 I hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂

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Infinitas Publishing Status Report

Time for a status report! Now that the move to Michigan is mostly complete (and I’ve finally gotten my car back after a run-in with the local wildlife), we’re slowly getting back into the groove of things. Still got a few things to take care of before we’re all settled in, but things are finally getting back to normal. 🙂

DH Divider

Glitch: I’ve completed the major edits, handed the manuscript to Isaac to check over, and have been working on his changes. Due to the structure of the story, we’re actually considering breaking it into three individual stories, each around 35,000 to 45,000 words long. They’ll rely heavily on being read in order, but should each have their own beginning, middle, and end. I’ve sent the first part to a beta-reader to see what she thinks. If we do split the story into three parts, we’ll most likely release each part around two-three weeks apart, so readers won’t have to wait long to read each book. With luck, we’ll be moving forward with this project sooner rather than later.

Fractured Skies: I’ve made the second round of major edits based on Isaac’s feedback from a year or two ago, and now I’ve handed it back to him to look through. It needs a bit of work in order to match it to the style and tone of Distant Horizon. But this one is certainly in progress.

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold.

Book 3 of The Wishing Blade Series: Working on plotting. Once Fractured Skies is out to beta-readers, I plan to start editing what I already have written of this manuscript, then write the other half of the book.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Finished one formatting project, now working on book covers. Not much new here.

Game Development: Trying to work out the kinks in a fantasy-based civilization building game. We have a few ideas, but we’ll need to test-play them.

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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

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 I hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂

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Thoughts on Writing – Using Music for Plotting (The Wishing Blade series)

When writing and plotting stories, I like listening to music. (Not so much when editing… then I prefer to see how the story is speaking for itself). Listening to music helps me set the tone of the scene, and it provides inspiration while I’m plotting, whether I’m stuck in a scene, or just want something to help convey the tone. Another benefit I’ve found is that if I listen to music while plotting, then listen to the same song again later when writing, I can reintroduce that feeling, that mood I was in when I originally crafted the story. (For this, playlists are extremely helpful).

For example, I’ve used music constantly while writing and plotting The Wishing Blade series. There are certain songs I listen to when I want to be reminded of specific characters and their motives. For example, “The Other Side” by Blackmore’s Night is one I’ve recently found useful when I want to think of Shevanlagiy’s character arc (since there’s a particular character she’s trying to keep from dying again that drives her motives).

As for influences on the world of the story in general, “Shadows” by Gordon Lightfoot, and “Rainbow Connection” from the Muppet Movie (I must admit that I’m not a fan of the original recording; I heard a different version of it when I was taking singing lessons that I became a fan of), both influenced the world. “Shadows” inspired some of the longing of Daernan’s character in The Shadow War, who sees that the world is no longer what it appeared, and it influenced how he sees the war affecting Toranih. “Rainbow Connection” pushed me toward the original idea of the Wishing Blade and more importantly toward the idea of there being some unnatural call (in this case, Magic’s Lure) pulling characters in directions they hadn’t expected (though the call in the story is a bit more sinister than that of the song).

But not all of the songs that influence the story and character arcs are ones I listened to in the early stages of writing. Aside from “The Other Side,” which was a fairly recent discovery, I enjoy several versions of “Luna’s Future” that fans have covered from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV series. When I listen to the song, I enjoy picturing it as a dialogue between Madiya and Shevanlagiy (minus the names of the ponies involved, since neither characters would wish to be caught in a musical, or as their equine counterparts…). I also enjoy “Elf Glade” by Meg Davis, which I picture as a dialogue between young Lord Menchtoteale and Shevanlagiy… despite the fact that there are no elves in the story, and that I can’t go into too much detail about why I see this song with those characters without giving potential spoilers.

If you listen to music while plotting, consider the reasons for it. Does it inspire a certain mood for you? Help you picture scenarios between characters you hadn’t pictured before? If you’re stuck on a certain plot point, try putting together a list of songs that have influenced your story, or look for new ones in a similar vein to help inspire you. (Just don’t do like I do and discover that a couple hours have passed with nothing written, but with a host of new songs added to the playlist).

Another joy of plotting while listening to music is misinterpreting lyrics. The first time I heard “The Skye Boat Song,” I heard “Carry the lad that’s born to be king, over the sea to die” rather than “over the sea to Skye.” Though the plot arc that resulted hasn’t appeared in the current version of The Wishing Blade series, it led to a concept that played in the original draft, where a young boy who was stillborn was brought back to life by the high god so that he would later become king. There was no sea involved in the plot, but the character played a large role in the original story. (And who knows… he may later play a role in the world of Cirena, even if he doesn’t appear in The Wishing Blade series). Likewise, “Kingsword” by Heather Dale also makes me think of that particular story arc.

Have you found any songs to have given you story ideas because you didn’t quite hear what was being said? Or because there are variations on the song?

There were certainly other songs that influenced the world of The Wishing Blade and helped shape it into what it is today. Most of the stories I write have been influenced in one way or another by the songs I listen to (and the songs I listen to have been influenced by what I write).

If anyone’s interested, I’m considering looking at how music has influenced the other stories I’ve written and that I’m working on. But, for now, do you listen to music while you plot, and have you found any songs to be helpful in writing a particular story? 🙂

 

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Infinitas Publishing Status Report

Time for another status report! Also, Isaac and I have a bit of news–we’re moving to Michigan! Not the lower part of Michigan, either: the Upper Peninsula. Long story short, Isaac got accepted into a PhD program. 🙂

So… if there are periods of time where things are a bit slow for Infinitas Publishing, it’s probably because we’re in the middle of the long, slow process of packing. We expect to be moving in mid-to-late June.

However, that doesn’t mean you won’t still see new projects and updates. 🙂

DH Divider

Glitch: I finally finished the latest round of edits meant to put Glitch in continuity with Distant Horizon, and now I’ve got to go back and insert chapter breaks, fix minor errors, tighten the story (I already cut one character’s appearance), and make sure each scene is pulling its weight. Still a little ways to go before it’s complete, but progress has been made.

The Wishing Blade series Book 3 (Title To Be Determined): On hold until Glitch is complete. Parts of it have been written, but I have a big chunk of Shevanlagiy’s point of view to write, along with Siklana’s point of view. Yes… Siklana is intended to be a major character in this one. 🙂

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold. The problem with having two writers telling a story–especially a serialized story where you might not catch issues until later–is that both writers may have different ideas of how they want to tell that story, and what story they want to tell. It’s a learning point that we’ve discovered in the process of writing The Multiverse Chronicles. However, we’ve gotten a better sense of what we want this story to be (and where we should compromise on plot points), but we may need to do some revamping of the first part of the story to really make everything cohesive so The Multiverse Chronicles can be the best story it can be. We’ll likely need to review the story and make adjustments from beginning to end before we release any new episodes.

Webb City Library Summer Reading Kick-Off: Isaac and I went to the Webb City Public Library (Missouri) to help with their summer reading program kick-off. We set up a table with our books and games, as well as a lot of the “in progress” pieces to show how we go about making them. I had an early proof copy of Distant Horizon on display, and we had sketch art and concept pieces from all the games. We enjoyed talking about the process, and even sold a couple of books (Distant Horizon and The Shadow War), which was a bonus, since we weren’t specifically trying to sell anything. 🙂

Isaac at the Webb City Public Library Summer Reading Kick-Off

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I now offer formatting services in addition to book cover design. And I’ve finally gotten the FacebookDeviantArt, and Flickr pages updated with the book covers I’ve posted on this blog. 🙂

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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!

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 I hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂

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ConQuest 48 – Panels and Readings!

Hey guys, I’m excited to announce that I’m going to be sitting on a few panels at ConQuest 48 in Kansas City, Missouri! The convention runs from May 26th-28th (that’s this weekend), and it’s a great resource for fantasy and science fiction writers. Definitely an event to check out to gain all sorts of writing information.

If you’re going to be in the area, and you want to see me on a panel, these are the ones I’m scheduled to be on:

Saturday, May 27th

3:00 pm || How to over-think your way out of writing

5:00 pm || Fantasy and Science

Sunday, May 28th

10:00 am || Creating Languages (I’ll be moderating this one)

12:00 pm || Reading

Thus far I’ve been enjoying practicing a couple different selections I’m considering for the reading, and tomorrow I’ll be brushing up on the panel topics to remind myself of all the awesome things there are out there.

The times I’ve gone to watch the panels in the past have been really informative, and a lot of fun. Plus, there are several other authors and speakers there worth listening to. I hope to see you there! 😀

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