Tag Archives: Isaac Flint

October 11, 2025 · 8:03 am

A Focus on the Telepathy Power

There are a bunch of powers in the Distant Horizon universe, from Tim’s techno sight ability to mentally connect with computers to Jenna’s elemental ability to manipulate plant growth and use super speed. Previously, I’ve talked about the life-spirit power and it’s ability to save or suspend lives.

Today, let’s talk about telepathy.

There are several uses for telepathy, including the common ability to read minds and broadcast thoughts for communication, to the more obscure abilities of possession, and even more skilled (albeit nefarious) trick of planting specific memories in a target’s thoughts.

It’s the latter I want to focus on today. Tim got a taste of this in The Glitch Saga.

But Jenna… she deals a lot with the finer troubles of telepathy.  While she’s not a telepath herself, a certain notorious Lady Winters leaves a set of memory seeds in Jenna’s head—seeds which, over time, attack her mind with false memories and nightmares meant to leave her more susceptible to future telepathic attacks. The primary seed she has to deal with in Distant Horizon is of beastie transformation, which proves burdensome while she’s trying to search a beastie plant.

Here’s an excerpt from Distant Horizon:

The winding corridor opened to rows upon rows of floor-to-ceiling tanks, each filled with thick, greenish fluid. Bubbles traveled up the tubes, passing over occupants who had been stripped of everything but a breath mask. A helpless, sickening sensation spread through me. I stared at the liquid, petrified.

Lady Winters dragged me into a tube and shoved me inside, the numbing liquid surrounding me, slick against my skin. Burning.

I needed to escape, to breathe, to run—

“Let’s not open these doors, ‘kay?” Jack said, jarring me from my nightmare. I glared at him, but for once, I didn’t mind his sarcasm. Lady Winters had taken joy in giving me that memory. Her identity charm rustled against the fabric of my shirt.

“Isn’t there some way we can help them?” I asked.

“By the time they’re here, it’s too late.” Inese motioned to the tanks around us.

I closed my hands into fists. Lance pushed me forward, and as we passed the tanks, one of the occupants woke. Bubbles erupted around her mask. Her eyes bulged, terrified. She pounded her fists on the glass.

Lance stepped back, despite all his show for strength, but I saw my reflection. It placed me in that tube—in that thick, unknown liquid with its sense of helplessness…

I flinched and turned away. I was betraying the people who were imprisoned here, but every time I looked at them, I was the prisoner.

A memory seed tends to use some sort of outside world trigger (in this case, the beastie tanks), to activate a pre-planted memory. In some cases, the victim will be aware they’re the target of an attack, and in some cases they’ll simply react without knowing why. In other cases, the victim is trapped in the memory, only aware of of what the memory is showing them.

The more skilled the telepath, the harder it is to remove these seeds. Unfortunately for Jenna, Lady Winters is one of the most skilled telepaths within the Camaraderie. And, unfortunately, the memory seeds makes it a tad difficult for her to do research that the rebels need in order to combat the Camaraderie.

Here’s a look at one such scene in Fractured Skies.

I huddled under a mass of vines, Tim’s tablet in my lap. All the lights were on, and I’d made sure the flower charm was nestled firmly against my skin. There was a good chance the charm was the only thing that was going to keep me from having a memory attack. I pressed the icon on the tablet for the Legion Spore folder. A list of files popped up. Some of the documents contained lines of code—gibberish I had no hope of understanding. But some of the documents looked promising, more like a research paper.
 
Biology—a science I understood.
 
My heart pulsed in my wrists, warning me this was a bad idea. But if I wanted control of my memories, I had to understand what the Legion Spore was and what it could do.
 
I opened the first document:
 
The Legion Spore is an experimental project requiring beasts and power users to be merged with a computer AI to form a single entity of enormous capability and power. To do this, the Legion Spore utilizes a hub system. This system consists of both beasts and power users, each assigned to use their powers for specific tasks while being linked to a single mainframe.
 
That must have been why I heard multiple voices when the Legion Spore spoke, why it sounded like a discordant chorus. If everyone was trying to think at once, with so many voices crying in pain…
 
The tablet shook in my fingers.
 
I could do this. I could read a simple research paper without freaking out because of some stupid thoughts in my head.
 
For mobility, the Legion Spore flies by utilizing a combination of air and fire elementals who provide the upper membrane with hot gas. In order to conserve space, the air sacs may be deflated while inside a hangar. The hull of the ship, including the membrane, is formed from the bodies of shapeshifters.
 
I stared at the words. I’d seen all of this before. Not personally, but I’d seen what Lady Winters showed me in the memory attacks. The shapeshifters had been tied to the outer steel frame, a grid of interlinked metal that created the skeleton of the hull. The other beasties and humans were forced to kneel inside a tower of cages. Though the structure was metal, it was mostly empty space and not much bigger than a cargo-hold. Wires ran around their skulls and across their bodies, and into glass tubes between them…
 
Cold sweat poured down my back.
 
Dear Community, how could anyone have supported this project?
 
The vessel is mostly organic, and entirely self-sustaining. Like the Portuguese Man O’ War that it was designed to resemble, the Legion Spore ensnares its prey with long tentacles, targeting organic matter and devouring it through the use of various acidic agents. This may prove doubly useful in battle, as the Legion Spore can feed itself while targeting enemy combatants.
 
The Legion Spore ate people?
 
The room wavered in the corners of my vision. My stomach revolted. I closed my eyes and took quick, shallow breaths. I needed a drink of water—
 
I needed to get through this document first. This was a short one. The more I understood, the better off I’d be against the Legion Spore next time.
 
Even if the ship did eat its enemies.
 
Once its prey is devoured, the nutrients go to the Legion Spore’s nutrient tanks. These tanks feed into the hull of the ship, which mimics the flesh and muscle of various warm-blooded creatures—
 
The fleshy hull stretched out before me, veins pulsing underneath its skin. A sour odor drifted to my nose, but when I tried to wipe it away, a thin tentacle caught my hand.
 
Thud-thump.
 
A heart was beating.
 
Thud-thump. Thud-thump. Thud-thump.
 
My heart pounded, each thump growing louder as other beating hearts joined in.
 
A column of thinly covered muscle rose above me as the tentacle dragged me toward a seething, bleeding organ. I couldn’t let it take me! I yanked my hand from the tentacle and fled to a small door at the end of the vessel. A sticky hand grabbed my ankle. I careened to the ground. Airy whispers filled my head, vying for attention. My eyes were dry from the heat of the ship. I was on the top level, next to the air sac. Hot air swirled above me. Their murmurs tickled my ear.
 
We are legion…
 
No—I couldn’t let it catch me—couldn’t let it trick me into revealing the location of the Coalition. I pounded on its walls. I had to get out—

Needless to say, Jenna is ready to put a stop to the memory seeds’ attacks, and much of Fractured Skies revolves around her searching for a solution to the problem of those seeds.

Eventually we get to Starless Night, where, without giving too many spoiler, Jenna discovers that the memory seed is a lot more involved than she first thought, and considerably more dangerous. Because, what might happen if a telepath leaves more of themselves in a seed than anyone realizes?

* * *

Join Jenna’s fight with memory seeds in the Distant Horizon series!

Book Cover for Distant Horizon, with a gold title. A young woman faces a sterile white hallway with faces in the doors. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Fractured Skies with gold text. A young woman in a coat faces a wintery, pink-tinted forest. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Starless Night. A young woman in a black combat suit with thorny vines around her arms faces ghostly spirits in a wintery city street at night.

* * *

Happy reading and writing!

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October 4, 2025 · 8:57 am

How to make an author happy – Tips for Writing a Quick Book Review

So… you read a book you really enjoyed. You tell all your friends (yay!) and if you’re a librarian, eagerly await a patron asking for book recommendations because now you can tell them about this underrated book (have I done this? Yes. Now go read City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer. It’s a city where you don’t want to go to sleep because if you do, you might turn into your worst nightmare. Art deco vibes. A man-eating pterodactyl. And a main character who’s a coward, but there’s a very important plot reason for that and she’s a fun coward, okay? Go read it.)

But do you want to make an author even happier?

Leave us a quick book review!

Here’s why!

  • Social proof. Long story short, when other readers see people commenting on a book, they get curious. And those readers might see if those reviews mention anything that catches their interest (or makes them give a big old “NOPE” and bypass the book completely. This is why even negative reviews are important. You might not like that the big twist is that the main character is actually an alien, but I do and now that I know that twist is there, I’m going to snatch up the book because I want to see how well it was foreshadowed. For the record, I thought the author did well. (Click here if you want to know which book I’m referring to. Not naming it directly because yeah… spoilers.)
  • Stoke the author’s ego and let them know someone connected with their writing. Not even going to hide this one. I love reading reviews because I want to see what you got of the story. It’s awesome when you see something I hoped you would, and also awesome when you make connections that I didn’t realize I’d put in there. Granted, if it’s a negative review, it’s not so awesome… but it means you did take the time to read my book, so that’s cool. And also, see “Social proof” above.
  • Encourages the author to write more in the series. Or finish it faster. Nothing says “I should prioritize finishing this series” than a lot of book reviews. Especially because book reviews tend to be considerably more rare than sales or downloads. AND if you say what you enjoyed or wanted to see, there’s a chance the author is going to keep that in mind for future books.

Okay, so now you know why authors want you to leave a book review, let’s do a quick how.

There’s no one way to write a review. Some are really long and super detailed. Others are only a couple sentences. Either is great! Don’t sweat it. This isn’t supposed to be a chore.

But, things to keep in mind…

  • Please don’t list major spoilers without a spoiler warning! Give other readers a chance to be surprised.
  • Do say what you enjoyed! While this can be an essay (I’m certainly not going to protest), even a couple sentences is super helpful. Who was your favorite character? Why? Did you like the world-building? Was the prose fun to read? Was it a page-turner? Did you want to scream and throw the book across the room because the author ended it on a major cliffhanger and you wanted to know what happens next as of yesterday? Choose at least one, write a sentence or two, and you have the basics of a review!
  • Feel free to say what you didn’t like. These reviews need to be honest, after all, and as I mentioned earlier, what might not be your cup of tea might be someone else’s, so this is still really helpful. Though… if you want to be nice to the author, maybe sandwich this with something the author did well?

Now… where should you share your review?

Some of the most popular places are going to be directly with the online retailer. Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play… those are all really helpful for the author, because you’re going right to where readers are looking to buy more books.

Goodreads is another good one, since it’s meant for book reviews, as are apps like StoryGraph.

But you can also share your review on your own blog or social media.

You don’t have to overthink this. Now, get out there and write a review!

* * *

Want to leave a review on one of my books?
Here’s a couple free first-in-series you could start with…

The Wind Mage of Maijev - Book Cover
SBibb - Whispers in the Code Cover

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Happy reading and writing!

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September 27, 2025 · 8:22 am

A Focus on the Life-Spirit Power

There are a bunch of powers in the Distant Horizon Universe, and at some point I’ll go into detail about all 40-something powers that Isaac and I listed for use in the original role-playing campaign that we played, with each power divided between one of four categories: Mental, Physical, Reality Shift, and Elemental.

Today I want to focus on the “elemental” category, and in specific, the “life-spirit” power.

The life part is easy. A life-spirit elemental typically has healing abilities and can sense the presence of living beings around them.

Here’s an example from Distant Horizon, with a character who uses a combination of healing and telepathy to do her work (slightly edited to avoid spoilers):


I rested my elbow on my knee as Gwen moved to treating Lance. It’ll be okay, I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how much this elderly woman could help us.

Over the next half hour, the bruises cleared from Lance’s face and the deep scratches turned to faint scars. Finally, Gwen leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes.

Lance rotated his shoulder as if he’d never been wounded. “What’d’ya do?”

“My power is in healing: the ability to save or suspend lives.” She rubbed her forehead gingerly, then looked at me. “It’s your turn. I won’t go deep in your thoughts; I just use telepathy to find the damage.”

I swallowed hard, then felt something else—be there. She was present, searching across my mind, but she wasn’t intrusive. Each memory was tucked away, as if it’d come unbidden, and her presence was friendly. When she did find pain, the memory flashed to the surface and vanished as quickly.

I tried to focus on memories I didn’t mind her seeing, drowsy as she soothed the grazed shoulder and eased the bruises.

However, when it comes to the “spirit” side, that’s when the details get trickier. Life-spirit elementals can “suspend” lives, partially removing a person’s spirit and causing them to go unconscious, or even remove a person’s spirit completely, killing them in the process.

An example from Whispers in the Code:

“Have the Legion Spore remove her spirit,” Commander Rick says, “then dispose of the corpse.”

My throat constricts. I know that it isn’t practical to keep the scout around, but there’s still something unsettling about the idea of having just been in the mind of someone about to die. “Dispose?”

“The Legion Spore needs nutrients and, this way, there will be no evidence for the Oriental Alliance to find,” Commander Rick explains.

What he leaves unspoken sends shivers down my neck. “You want it” —I swallow hard— “to eat her?”

Commander Rick glances at me, and his cocked eyebrows indicates that he understands I’m not ready to give that command. I know he’s right. The process is efficient, but the idea doesn’t settle in my stomach.

Legion Spore, remove her spirit, he sends.

Her head lolls. I detect one less presence of life through the vessel’s scanners.

Legion Spore—consume the remaining body for sustaining nutrients.

Dozens of tiny, translucent tendrils extend from the ivory floor, wrapping around her body. They flatten against her arms and chest and her skin dissolves, revealing the muscle and bone beneath. The body melts away. I force myself to watch, despite the terror creeping through every pore of my skin.

Within a minute, she’s gone.


On the farthest extreme, a life-spirit elemental can bind their spirit (or someone else’s) to an artifact, separate from a body, and thus allow a person to live on as a spirit, rather than die. It’s a tricky process, and not easily achieved.

But a few notorious figures have succeeded. Benjamin (the enthusiastic alchemist we see in the Glitch saga, and who has a cameo in Distant Horizon) is one such spirit.

Another scene from Whispers in the Code (again, slightly edited to avoid spoilers):


Benjamin’s sharp features glow a faint blue. His crisp sleeves are rolled past his elbows, and he wears a work apron over his shirt. His pockets are filled with small tools that may or may not be apparition. He’s odd like that. Sometimes he only manifests the appearance of a craftsman, while at other times, the tools are actually present.

Most noticeable, however, are his wire frame spectacles, green eyes, and his spiky, dark red hair, their colors prominent even with the lack of color across the rest of his translucent body. He’s also got a slightly mad gleam in his eye, though my encounters with the man suggest he’s mostly sane.

Benjamin grins and soundlessly claps his hands. Wonderful! Shall I take amber or emerald? His thoughts echo in my head with the determined curiosity that his voice might have held in life.


The upside of being a spirit is having additional powers. Once a person becomes a spirit, they automatically gain access to telepathy, life-spirit powers (because that’s how they sustain themselves), telekinesis, and to some extent, enhanced insight. However, it still takes them time for them to learn how to use their new powers to interact with the world, and even to manifest, unless they’ve had practice with such powers in their former life.

There are a few downsides to being a spirit, though.

First, they’re attached to an artifact. If their artifact gets destroyed, they die. Also, radiation, life-spirit powers, and electricity become much more damaging. “Shielding,” which temporarily shuts down powers, is especially devastating, since a spirit can’t manifest without access to their powers.

Still, it’s a trade-off some characters are willing to take, and one we see to an extent in Fractured Skies, and definitely becomes more of an issue in the Starless Night.

What do you think? Would you want to be a life-spirit elemental in that universe?

(Bonus: Life-spirit elementals also tend to have a natural bonus against telepaths and those with enhanced charisma!)

* * *

Life-spirit powers play a huge role in the Distant Horizon and Glitch series.

And if you don’t mind diving right into the action, Whispers in the Code is free at most online ebook retailers!

Book Cover for Distant Horizon, with a gold title. A young woman faces a sterile white hallway with faces in the doors. She has vines around her arms.
SBibb - Whispers in the Code Cover

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Happy reading and writing!

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September 13, 2025 · 8:17 am

Did you know you can get our books on Kobo Plus?

📚 There are many subscription options available in the reading/publishing world. Here, I’m going to briefly talk about two of them… Kindle Unlimited, and Kobo Plus.

The most well-known one is probably Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU). A huge selection of books for $12.00. If you’re on a budget and don’t have access to a large local library selection (or want niche books that are harder to get through libraries), then Kindle Unlimited can seem like a pretty good deal.

However, for authors, it comes with a catch.

The biggest one is that any ebooks in KU (at least for independent publishers) must be exclusive to KU during the 90 day period that they’re enrolled (or longer, if the author chooses to extend the contract).

That said, very recently, Amazon has moved to allow KU books to be made available for public libraries, which is a huge win for both authors and readers. (Previously, you most likely wanted your books in Kobo’s Overdrive if you wanted library reach).

For more details, I found these two articles:

I’ve used Kindle Unlimited before, both for Glitch and for Huntress, but I ultimately chose to pull our books from KU because I’m really not a fan of exclusivity, or of the issue of “having all my eggs in one basket.”

Because of that, I’m like Kobo Plus.

While I haven’t, as a reader, used it for myself, Isaac did use the monthly Kobo audiobook credit subscription for a while, which was quite nice.

Now, as a writer I like Kobo Plus, because it offers an inexpensive way for readers to access my books ($7.99 a month) without requiring me to be exclusive with Kobo.

Woot!

So, if you read a lot of books and want to try a subscription service, have a look at Kobo Plus. 😁

(Psst… here’s where you can find our books on Kobo!)

(Note: I am not affiliated with Amazon or Kobo.
I don’t earn affiliate bonuses through your use of either subscription).

* * *

A few first-in-series to get you started on Kobo…

Book Cover for Distant Horizon, with a gold title. A young woman faces a sterile white hallway with faces in the doors. She has vines around her arms.
Huntress Book Cover
Book Cover for Magic's Stealing

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Happy reading and writing!

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August 16, 2025 · 8:58 am

Magical Guardians

In both the Glitch saga and Distant Horizon series, we see the mention of “time stones,” strange artifacts protected by a mythological guardian. While they’re only researched in Glitch, (and used as bait to lure the rebels into a trap), Jenna and the Coalition of Freedom, a ragtag team of rebels, are a bit more adventurous with these things in Distant Horizon. They have a hands-on experience with a time stone in the first book, and continue to deal with these stones in Fractured Skies.

Here’s a peek at their introduction to one of the guardians in Fractured Skies:

(SPOILER WARNING! – There are two characters present here who aren’t introduced until the beginning of Fractured Skies, so if you don’t want to know who is involved in this scene from later in the book, you may want to skip the quote block).

I grabbed the radio from my pocket. “Inese? Where are—”

A portal appeared in front of us with Inese, Dad, and Lance tumbling through. The portal closed and Inese—with the stone—skidded to a halt, staring at the statues. “Here, too?” Her eyes widened. She clutched the stone to the black body armor of her chest with one hand, her pistol in the other.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Lance,” Inese snapped, “portal to the car, now!”

“Sure thing.” Lance wiped perspiration from his forehead as another portal swirled in front
of us. “Let’s go before that mummy comes back.”

“Mummy?” Lily yipped. “The mummies are alive, too?”

“They’re not exactly living,” Lance muttered.

“They’re spirits,” Dad clarified, breathing hard. Dark purple rings colored the underside of his eyes. Inese disappeared through the portal. The rest of us followed them to the museum roof. Dust swirled around us, revealing the location of the car in faint, shifting sand. I yanked the edge of my turtleneck shirt over my nose. Inese slammed the driver’s door shut behind her and the car went visible. I hopped in. Lily dived in behind me and yanked the door shut. Outside, trees bent against the wind, leaves whipping across the roof as the sky turned a deep, rouge red. Dark yellow dust clouds rolled in the sky, crackling with electricity.

“Inese…” Dad pointed into the distance. “That’s not a statue.”

Bright, white light traced the outline of a giant lion with the face of a man. It stepped through the cityscape, purple lightning wrapping around it and flaring in bright streaks. Lily’s jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Lance shook his head. “After the mummies, nope. Not kidding.”

A deep, resounding voice pounded through my head, overriding my thoughts.

Return the stone.

I froze, my hands clenched on the edge of the seat. The voice of the guardian echoed in my head. A thick blanket of dark sand blasted the windows, obscuring the sphinx.

As seen here, one of the guardians has the appearance of a sphinx. Each one references a different mythology, and each one has a different set of powers:

  • Guatemala – Jaguar shapeshifter with power stealing
  • Japan – Asian dragon with water powers
  • Egypt – Sphinx with radiation and electricity powers
  • Peru – A puma earth elemental with radiation powers
  • India – A representation of Durga with healing powers, riding a lion mount

They all tend to be protective of their stones. They’re also extremely powerful spirits… making them difficult to steal from.

Not impossible, but not without cost.

And then trying to keep those stones is another story entirely…

* * *

See the interaction of the team with some of these guardians in the Distant Horizon series!

Book Cover for Distant Horizon, with a gold title. A young woman faces a sterile white hallway with faces in the doors. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Fractured Skies with gold text. A young woman in a coat faces a wintery, pink-tinted forest. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Starless Night. A young woman in a black combat suit with thorny vines around her arms faces ghostly spirits in a wintery city street at night.

* * *

Happy reading and writing!

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August 11, 2025 · 10:30 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Time for the April through mid-August Infinitas Publishing status report! 📋

Despite this primarily being during the so-called “chaos months” (in this case, lots of things happening that disrupt routine… including a couple of “meh” life events that weren’t planned, of which one is still ongoing), a lot of stuff got done, and I’m excited to go back through my planner and record it all here. 😁

The chaos months are only sort of over, but we’ve finished the big move and brought home a cat, so that’s one relief. (I even figured out where to put the fancy printer so I could prep for the June events!)

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

Warning… there’s a lot. (That’s a good thing!)

* * *

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

Betrayed (Deceived #2): I’ve posted the launch review! If you’re looking for a deep dive into my launch process for this book, that’s the post to read.

Next up, revising Deceived #3 (tentatively titled Exposed).

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

Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): I continued this story a bit further, adding two more chapters before completion. This also included adding a Daz render and dossier for Agent Shepherd. I’ve also done one more revision pass, but I feel something else needs added before formatting and sending it out to beta-readers.

While I was originally thinking I’d make this exclusive for newsletter subscribers, I’m now leaning toward making it a free or 99cent “1.5” book available in the Deceived series.

Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): I’ve started sharing this with the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter! After several years of being relegated to the back burner, the prologue and first seven chapters have been fully revised, edited in ProWritingAid, and sent out to newsletter subscribers. Fortunately, the majority of this has been edited already, with the exception of one chapter that Isaac and I both somehow missed writing, so it mostly just needs light revisions.

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

Legends of Cirena Volume One Ebook Cover

The Legends of Cirena Volume One (Collection of books 1-6): Released! (Including on Google Play and Smashwords, which I hadn’t uploaded previously).

I did a small launch of paid promos (which I still need to analyze), as well as sent extra book details to the Wishing Blade universe newsletter for each included story.

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): While this was on hold during the early chaos months, my goal was to finish the missing scenes during July. Which happened!

I completed a round of revisions on the already-written scenes, added in the missing scenes, and input ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Analysis feedback, with a few notes left behind for future tweaks.

I’ve been letting it sit for a couple weeks before I begin the next stage of revisions. Then it’ll be ready for ProWritingAid edits, any final AutoCrit Analysis tweaks, and then it’s off to beta-readers!

Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.

The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): I’ve completed a full revision pass of the original six chapters, and drafted intermediary chapters for a secondary character (four complete, two to go, with one of those being outlined but not drafted). Those will still need polishing edits in ProWritingAid.

Additionally… while it’s not decided for certain, the secondary character’s perspective might allow me to start foreshadowing a much larger antagonist that appears later in the Wishing Blade world. (*Squee!*)

There’s a strong chance that this is going to be part of a new arc in the Legends of Cirena series (The Dark Forest of Aneth will conclude the previous arc while also laying the foundation for the new arc).

Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.

Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): This story concluded with seven chapters, so I have drafted, polished and sent two additional chapters to the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter since the last update.

I’ve set aside the current manuscript so I can fully review it later with a fresh set of eyes. This is another story which will likely be part of the next Legends of Cirena arc.

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

Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): I’ve outlined the next story to appear in the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter (5,400 words). I am really excited about the possibility for this one to connect with the larger Litkanston War arc, because I finally, finally get to introduce Lord Nomca. And it’s not even exactly a cameo, like I originally expected (he’s briefly referenced in the Wishing Blade series, but hadn’t yet made an appearance in any other stories). I’m currently working on chapter six, and the full draft (being revised/edited as each chapter goes out to the newsletter) is 13,300 words. I’m definitely expecting this to go into novella-length territory, if not that of a short novel. Six of the chapters have already been sent to the newsletter.

The Wind Mage and the Wolf Spin-Off (A Legends f Cirena short story) : I made some progress to Joran’s short story! I’ve revised what was already there and made note of a couple spots that still need work. Additionally, I’ve started cross-referencing the final scene in The Wind Mage and the Wolf from Joran’s point of view.

This will go to newsletter subscribers first, but I may make it a “7.5” story in the Legends of Cirena arc.

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

Huntress 3: On hold. Next step is to finish re-reading Changeling to make notes on the series guide, finalize the cover (proof created), and create a detailed outline.

Horse Shifter Romantasy (Maybe???) : This one was a surprise to me, too. 🐎

Unrelated to any of my current story worlds, this one got a lot farther along than I ever expected it to. (Thank a co-worker talking about fanfiction and me happening to be processing a book with a horse on its cover at the time). But it’s been a nice “refresher” story that’s allowed me to go running into the weeds with world-building ideas without falling down a rabbit hole in the other worlds (which often happens during chaos months when I can’t put my full attention on any particular project).

It currently has a 5,500 word outline, with additional details on the side. I’ve been using AutoCrit’s analysis features to figure out where I’m missing crucial beats and what details could still use fleshing out, and let me tell you, I’m excited for the world, the magic system, and the characters (and I think the characters might even actually be following the romance beats they’re supposed to, though that’s an area I notably have trouble writing).

If this gets written, it’s going to be because I wanted the challenge of writing a romance-focused story with really strong worldbuilding elements that tie directly into the plot.

Other Stories: I wrote a flash fiction short that I posted to Substack. This one was based on a picture Isaac created:

I also did a revision pass for the YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian story, which does need a bit more work before I’m ready to release it. The next step is to review the AutoCrit analysis to see if there’s any feedback I want to input before the next stage.

I also discovered there’s a fantasy anthology I’m interested in submitting to, so I’ve been outlining possible short story ideas I might use for my submission. I’ve got two so far:

  • One involves a grumpy sorcerer who wants to be left alone, and a sorceress who’s stuck in the form of a bat-winged squirrel and steals his pears to drag him out of his garden. Definitely a short story.
  • The other is a “love-wins-in-the-end” story involving refugees fleeing from evil ice mages whose single-minded fear/hatred has narrowed their magic to one purpose, and the refugees find support within a protective community whose magic hasn’t become so narrowly focused. Pretty sure this one is itching to be a novella.

Game Design: Not a whole lot of new updates for Anchor, but Isaac did a bit more prototype work and we’ve acquired a few more test pieces for future prototype testing.

He also reviewed our Legends of Cirena game and made notes for a shorter version of the game, and we went over some possible changes for a future edition of Battle Decks (and I like these changes, because while it’s still a war game, a new morale mechanic puts more emphasis on keeping your characters alive rather than using secondary characters as canon fodder).

Testing AutoCrit: I did a two-week trial of AutoCrit, a writing software with an analytical feature I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Mostly I uploaded previously completed manuscripts into its Story Analyzer tool to see how it did at finding loose plot threads, with hopes that it might make writing later books easier if I can quickly review what’s happened previously. Seemed to be potential there, and I liked its Story Builder tool for being able to analyze missing plot beats, so I went ahead and subscribed for a month.

Afterward, I finally went in for a year on this, because I rather like its Story Builder feature for organizing my thoughts, and because I like being able to write a chapter and then analyze it for potential issues (though I’ll admit that its analysis features are a bit hit and miss).

Additionally, while first exploring the AutoCrit Story Builder analysis features (not so much the generation features), I started exploring what I’m temporarily calling the “Greedy Adventurer” story idea, which now has a very loose outline but may influence Litkanston history within the Wishing Blade universe.

That said, because the AutoCrit tools (and the ProWritingAid chapter critique tool I like) does use Generative AI, I crafted an AI use policy so others can easily see how I do and don’t use AI.

Long story short, I don’t use generative AI for images or creating/writing the actual story, but at this point in time I do use writing-specialized genAI tools for the purpose of analyzing what I’ve already written and occasionally trying to brainstorm through a block.

As a note… I have also been trying to see what other AI features might be useful in analysis, helping organize my thoughts when it comes to quickly finding what I’ve already written, or searching for comp titles of books that I might not have considered previously. The AI policy goes more into that.

Still no plans to use it for image generation, however.

Marketing: The last several months had far less focus on marketing than the previous month. Meanwhile, these are some of the recent projects:

  • Amazon Ads same as usual, the ones that were already running and one extra as a test.
  • I created a list of my books by publication and word count for my personal use. Eventually I want to create a simple web page guide.
  • I did some research on various book pricing strategies, and I might update book prices in the near future.
  • I scheduled Initiated for a BookFunnel promo that ran in May and July, and I scheduled promos for June and August with Stone and String. It’s all scheduled and ready to send. I’ve also started doing author book swaps again where we exchange books to highlight in our newsletters.
  • The newsletters have been going out on time with their respective stories, so yay for that! (Apparently having one story in progress, and one that only needs revisions on a chapter-by-chapter basis, is working really well for me). I also finally did a scrub to remove subscribers who haven’t opened any of the newsletters in over a year.
  • I updated the design for the Distant Horizon Universe book pages on the Infinitas Publishing website. Minor tweaks, but should ultimately look better once all the details are in place (Goal is to add sample pages, Goodreads/BookBub links, additional book info, etc).
  • I kept up with Infinitas Publishing accounting through May… woot! Now it needs updated again.
  • I created my first book-themed quiz, and created a new “Extras” page on the Infinitas Publishing website! Check out the “Which of our series should you start with?” quiz!
  • I finally finished setting up the Payhip/Stripe Store accounts and linked them to BookFunnel, and I even created pages for the first six Legends of Cirena ebooks! They can now be purchased directly from me.
  • I tinkered with the idea of audiobooks, and I recorded chapter one of The Wind Mage of Maijev and tested editing the recording using Audacity. Thus far, I think if I plan to proceed with the process, I’ll likely need to re-record that chapter for better enunciation on my part. No big plans for that at this point.
  • I’ve been trying to get back into writing and marketing research, both with reading articles and listening to more podcasts and webinars. I picked up the Newsletter Ninja’s “Launch to Your List” course and I’m working on revamping upcoming book launches.

Next up: Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages. Continue adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel sales pages for each book, and then to the main Infinitas Publishing website. Add BookBub and Goodreads links to each landing page. Update my author bio across the different retailers. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.

Substack – Sporadic posting at the moment, due to the chaos months, though I did get a couple more writing tip roundups posted. I also created a Tip Jar.

Weekly(ish) Writing Tip Round-Ups:

Crafting Your Fictional World:

A while back I’d started writing a non-fiction book focused on world-building, and while I haven’t made much more progress in that regards, I did post a couple of the chapters to Substack.

Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:

For a while now, I’ve been considering going back through my older newsletters and repurposing some of the behind-the-scenes content. I got the extra push to move forward with this plan upon learning that blog content is not only good for SEO (whee… the search engines can find you and point more readers your direction, yay!), but might also be good in the age of AI search engines, which seem to be interested in context when doing searches. And sense more search engines are moving to AI-powered searches… yeah. Now I get to have fun revisiting those older newsletters and updating them for the blog. (And this actually is fun for me. The content’s already there, and just needs revising, so it’s cool seeing what I did in the past for newsletters and what I might want to start doing again).

Events: June was busy with three events. Two we vended at, and the third was a writing workshop that we attended.

UP Rainbow Pride (Marquette) – June 14th

Lots of fun, and we tested a more condensed display with our SIFlint Art (the dragons) at the front to draw people in. To our surprise, the tote bags did really well (I need to order more of the yarn dragon now), and this definitely did better this year than last. We even had someone come looking for book two in a series. Yay!

The booth at UP Rainbow Pride

Writers of Warrensburg Workshop – June 22nd

We got a chance to reconnect with friends from Missouri in what was a combination trip to visit family, attend the writing workshop, and return to Michigan with our new cat, Baby Girl Neelix.

The workshop was a lot of fun, with three presentations and four great presenters, and a lot of helpful information. Plus, we got to participate in the author signing after.

An orange cat in a harness sits between car seats.

Hancock Pride Market – June 29th

Because we didn’t have a local artist alley for Pride month, one of our friends put together an awesome local pride market that ended up being lots of fun, one of my favorite setups we’ve tried (grids to the max, and condensed setup!) and I’m definitely hoping this happens again next year.

Stephanie and Isaac stand in front of their booth at the Hancock Pride Market.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Mostly on hold for the moment, though I did do a photoshoot of my new houseplants I acquired from plant-sitting. I have chosen the ones for editing and done basic edits, but I still need to finish the bigger edits and send them to their previous owner.

I might also have another formatting project coming soon.

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

SIFlint Art: I finally got to print my shiny (literally, it’s on metallic paper!) dragon display!

I even printed my own business cards this time around. Wasn’t perfect (not happy with the paper chipping at the edges) but I’m still pretty satisfied with them.

Plus… Isaac made a shiny new self-serve sticker display! It’s been really nice so far (though we need to hot glue the back string on so it’ll stop falling off).

Goals: Finish the line-art for a bag-hoarding dragon, do a fun commission for a friend, and order new merch for upcoming events.

Daz PA: Though on hold for most of the chaos month, I’ve now returned to working on projects! Everything been updated to make it easier to work again, and I’m really glad Isaac and I made a Standard Operating Procedure for making poses last year. That really helped to fast-track me back to work on these.

I’ve finished reviewing the poses of the Leadership set Isaac started, which are ready for thumbnails. There’s been a bit of a hang-up on this one, however, because I’m hoping to include props… and it’s been a little while since I’ve done any 3D modeling. I’ve started designing a podium to go with the poses, but I need to review how to use Substance Painter so that the model (which is complete) looks decent.

In the meantime, I’ve started a “Cursed Expedition” centaur set that I’ve started making thumbnails for. Next step is to finish the thumbnails and create promo art.

Goals: Find collaborator for Genesis 9 Diverse Worlds set and complete the Ankylosaurus Rider pose set Isaac started. Maybe complete snow and ice texture pack idea?

* * *

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

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August 2, 2025 · 11:49 am

Memory Seeds

A couple weeks ago I posted “When Two Books Share the Same Scene,” and I referenced the concept of “memory seeds.”

Let’s go deeper!

In the world of Distant Horizon, telepathy is one of the strongest and most dangerous powers a person can have. While it’s generally used to read minds and emotions, telepathy can also be used to implant ideas in a person’s thoughts and, at its most powerful, possess them.

(Tim is very much not a fan of this when he starts dealing with the second Legion Spore in Spirits of a Glitch, and he first gets an idea of how the implanted memories work in Ghost of a Memory).

Lots of fun for me as the author, not so much fun for my characters.

However, a few telepaths, including Lady Winters (the insidious “Brainmaster,” but don’t let her catch you calling her that), know how to plant so-called “memory seeds.” Rather than having to be present when they attack, a telepath leaves a set of (usually) false memories inside their victim’s mind that are set to activate under certain conditions.

In Jenna’s case, Lady Winters inserts memories of Jenna being transformed into a sub-human beast, though she’s never actually been in a beastie tank.

Here’s a look at a scene in Fractured Skies where she’s attempting to confront the seed with Gwen, one of the rebel telepaths:

Are you ready?

I swallowed hard… or imagined I did… and nodded. Let’s get this over with.

She raised her hands to the black ceiling above us. The blackness grew lighter, shifting into green. Gwen faded into the darkness. Green liquid crashed over my head.

I was trapped in the glass tube of a beastie tank.

Thick bubbles shimmered around me as I flailed, screaming. The burning liquid, the deadened sensation of my hands and feet—I shook my head and begged to get out, but my words were lost in the breathing mask strapped over my mouth.

Look around you. This isn’t real. Wasn’t real? What wasn’t real? I pounded my fists against the glass. “Let me out!”

Look beyond the glass. What should you see?

I took a gasping breath. Beyond the glass I couldn’t see anything…

That was the problem. I should have been able to see something. A shadow of movement, the smooth structures of other tubes. Those images slowly formed in front of me… but not because my eyes had adjusted.

Recognizing that your surroundings aren’t what they are supposed to be allows you to take the first step in controlling your situation.

That voice… Gwen!

Over time the memories get worse, with the idea that the next time Jenna confronts her, Lady Winters could easily use the memory seeds to disable her in a fight.

This happens and, in a later confrontation, Lady Winters adds the memory of the Legion Spore’s transformation. With the latter seed, simply hearing the Legion Spore’s telepathic voices can trigger the memory, but crowded spaces (claustrophobia from being inside the transforming Legion Spore) can also cause the seeds to strike.

Ideally, another telepath would be able to remove them, which is what Gwen tries to do at first. But when you’re dealing with someone as strong as Lady Winters, removing the seeds can be a challenge, especially when traps have been laid to keep them from being removed.

Memory seeds aren’t the only trick telepaths can use to manipulate others, and once we get to Fractured Skies, Jenna learns that the seeds in her head may be a bit more complex than the average seed.

And once we get to Starless Night, well, the enemy she’s fighting might be herself…

* * *

Who can Jenna trust when she can’t trust her own mind and memories?

Book Cover for Distant Horizon, with a gold title. A young woman faces a sterile white hallway with faces in the doors. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Fractured Skies with gold text. A young woman in a coat faces a wintery, pink-tinted forest. She has vines around her arms.
Book cover for Starless Night. A young woman in a black combat suit with thorny vines around her arms faces ghostly spirits in a wintery city street at night.

* * *

Happy reading and writing!

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July 19, 2025 · 7:43 am

When Two Books Share the Same Scene

Hi there! Today I’m going to be talking about tackling two points of view of the same scene in different books. But there are going to be some spoilers regarding the Distant Horizon Universe. They’ll be minor, but if you’re trying to avoid spoilers, go read the books first, then come back after!

Still here?

Cool.

There are several scenes in Fractured Skies (Distant Horizon #2) that reference events in the Glitch Saga.

While the Glitch Saga (Glitch #1-3) follows Tim’s point of view within the Camaraderie, the Distant Horizon series follows Jenna’s point of view with the Coalition rebels.

At times, these scenes directly overlap.

For example, in Ghost of a Memory (Glitch #2), there’s a scene where Tim first takes the Legion Spore to attack the OA training base in Japan:

Master Zaytsev, we are required to alert you to a small, unidentified vessel leaving the area.

“Insignificant,” I murmur. We need to fix this glitch, not apprehend ships.

Master Zaytsev… The voices are curious. She has our memories.

I frown and bring the revolving set of images onto the main screen. Mechs. Helicopters… There’s a small firefight in the distant region, but most of the people on the ground now are Special Forces.

We are legion, it calls mentally, and I almost swear it’s happy. Then I see the fast fleeing vessel.

“Zoom in.” Nothing happens. I bite my cheek. “Legion Spore?”

No response.

I type the command, and one of the Legion Spore’s eyes shift and focus until they reveal a small, black car flying into the distance. My chest tightens as I manually scan the ground for signs of the rebels. I don’t see anyone, so maybe they escaped. “What were the memories?”

Not her own. Disappointment. Stolen memories, used to cause pain. Are we a device for pain, Master Zaytsev?

Long story short, there’s some behind-the-scenes information that Tim doesn’t have in regards to those memories the Legion Spore saw. During an earlier mission, Jenna fell victim to a telepathic attack that left “memory seeds” in her head, seeds which attempt to weaken the victim’s mind.

Jenna is all too familiar with the problem these seeds can cause, and the memories—painful images of being transformed into a beast and the Legion Spore—tend to attack at the worst times. Such as right in the middle of a mission.

In Fractured Skies, she’s at the same base when Tim brings the Legion Spore there to attack, and her view of what’s happening is a little bit different:

We are legion. Telepathic voices, overlapping but discordant, boomed in my head, overshadowing every other thought. I clapped my hands over my ears, trying to plug out the sound, but that didn’t stop the wave of pain rolling through my skull. So many voices, so much pain…

I gasped, my eyes watering. Pain. I knew exactly what this was. The numerous voices and the sense of being one unit… “The Legion Spore,” I whispered. Chills ran down my spine. My body shook, all of my muscles feeling loose and scattered, as if there was nothing else around me but so many creatures, beastie and human, their bones knitting with metal. Their skin stretching to form a hull. A loss of sight, our vision was black, and all there could be was a terrible, hot, burning pain. We gritted our teeth, strained against our binds. The noise… that beating, beating pulse of hearts merging with clicking gears and digital clocks. Winding, binding, whimpering, crying…

“Jenna!”

 We struggled against the metal grid. It held us tight. The bindings, the wires were part of our bone, part of our new skeleton, and radiation… terrible radiation unified us, our new sight—our powers, together, a legion of souls—

“Jenna! Listen to me!”

Listening. Commands… commands… Her senses, same as us. Her memories are ours… She is part of us. Meant to be part of us. She could complete us. Join us; we are legion…

“Jenna! Damn it, I need her to see me!” A firm hand gripped my chin and forced me to look into brown eyes—

Brown eyes… Lance’s eyes were green. Whose were these?

 “She’s responding,” the face said. Slowly it came into focus, and I finally saw Quin, not the horrible visions. Cold sweat covered my aching body.

“Can we go invisible yet? I think we’re out of range, but still—” A fuzzy-looking Inese turned in the driver’s seat, looking back.

“Not yet. Let’s be sure we have her.” Quin held my chin tight so I couldn’t look away. “Can you hear me?”

I swallowed hard. My throat burned as if it was raw. “Yeah,” I whispered.

“Do you remember anything?”

“Yes.” I stared at his face. I should have been able to escape the memories. But how could I use Gwen’s teachings if I didn’t know it was a memory? It felt real, like only part of it was a memory, but part of it was new.

“What happened?” Quin released my chin and I looked around me. The base was out of sight and, thank the Community, so was the horrible vessel.

“A memory seed,” I said. “The creation of the Legion Spore. One of Lady Winters’ attacks.”

Quin frowned, his eyebrows quirked with worry. “You were saying ‘We are legion.’ ”


So there you have it!

A look at what was going on in Jenna’s mind when the Legion Spore spots the fleeing rebels.

This scene was fairly easy to match up, because we really don’t see a whole lot of overlap.

I think this might be the easiest way to work with multiple perspectives, because, while the larger event is the same, there’s not a whole lot of interaction.

In one of my other projects, I’m working on an alternate perspective for The Wind Mage and the Wolf, and there’s an entire scene of dialogue and action that overlap.

That one has been proving trickier, since I need to make sure that everything still happens the same, in the same order, and makes logical sense without contradicting the other.

For that one, I wrote the majority of the story, and left the overlapping scene for last. My current method for trying to bring them together is to strip out the fluff from the original scene, making note of what the POV character in the new story would see, and then rewriting the rest of the details from his point of view.

It’s tricky, but neat to play with different perspectives.

* * *

Two sides of the same war…

Book Cover for the Glitch Saga. Orange and red. A beautiful woman with black hair faces the viewer, there's an airship in the shape of a Portuguese Man'O'War, and an angry spirit rises above a forest.
Book cover for Fractured Skies with gold text. A young woman in a coat faces a wintery, pink-tinted forest. She has vines around her arms.

* * *

Happy reading and writing!

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May 23, 2025 · 2:31 pm

A fun new quiz is available!

Infinitas Publishing now has a new page… the Extras page!

Right now it just has the one “extra,” a “Which of our series should you read first?” quiz!

Long term, I’m hoping to add other fun quizzes… think “Which character are you?” or “Which powers would you have?”

But this is the one I decided to use for figuring out how Tally.so (the quiz host) works, so here it is!


Click here to take the “Which of our series should you read first?” quiz!

Long term, I’d also like to include free coloring pages, printable bookmarks, and that kind of thing. Let me know if there’s anything you’d especially like to see!

* * *

Happy quiz-taking!

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April 27, 2025 · 3:54 pm

Betrayed Launch Overview

For Betrayed, the first new book I’d launched (aside from a coloring book and omnibus print edition) since Starless Night (November 2021)… I wanted to give it the full launch. But with a little over three years since the last big launch (which had me double and triple checking my math because where did that time go?) I had some catching up to do, some notes to revisit, and whole new systems to build.

This post is where I do a post-mortem of the launch so I can see what I intended to do, versus what actually happened.

SBibb - Betrayed Cover

First off…

The Marketing Plan List – I made myself a list. It wasn’t a list of any particular order, but it was what I referenced every time I had time to work on the launch but couldn’t remember what needed to happen next. Anytime I thought of something that needed to be done for the launch, I added it to this sheet.

Analysis
I want to make a more streamlined version of this list for future projects, though I’ll expect it to be messy each time. Also, this eventually got spread across two or three sheets.

This list was very helpful with keeping me on track.

Let’s see what all ended up on that list. I attempted to somewhat organize these into logical categories, though they most definitely weren’t organized on my original sheet.

Goal – I created a goal for myself so that I could focus on what needed to happen and make choices based on that goal. This time it was: “Funnel readers into newsletter through Deceived and catch interest for rest of the series.”

Analysis
Most of my early setup was focused on this goal. It appears I added three organic subscribers to my list via this method.

Something needs to be adjusted here. Further analysis will need to occur to figure out where the hangup is. (Marketing? Branding? Writing style?)

Newsletter

Review DHU Newsletter Automation – I wanted to make sure the current automation I had set up in MailerLite was 1) still functional and 2) up-to-date.

Analysis
Complete! I did find a couple things that needed updated… namely in regards to author bios since Isaac had finished his PhD.

Subscriber Landing Page for Initiated – Turns out I already had this set up on MailerLite, but it did need updated.

Analysis
In the future, I’d like to create a landing page that isn’t specific to MailerLite. That way if I ever need to switch email list hosts, I don’t have to remember to update the back matter of every book with that page.

Test Initiated Subscriber Page – Since I updated the sequence, I wanted to make sure that the automations were all working correctly.

Analysis
Had to swipe Isaac’s email for testing, but so far, so good!

Deceived Updates

Fix Backmatter in Deceived – I updated the newsletter info and subscriber page URL, and added a page for Betrayed, now that I had the info for that.

Analysis
Reviewing the backmatter was useful for checking how it might funnel readers through the series, since I hadn’t reviewed it in over three years.

Review Deceived Blurb – I wanted to update the blurb to be stronger, but with time running out, I decided it was fine for now.

Analysis
I would like to update the blurb eventually, but it didn’t happen for this launch.

Upload updated Deceived ebook at all retailers – With the backmatter updated, I wanted to make sure it was uploaded to all retailers.

Analysis
Complete! And it was here that I realized I had somehow missed adding Deceived to Google Play. That’s now been fixed.

Set Price of Deceived to Free – Since I wanted to run a promotion on Deceived in order to draw attention to the Betrayed launch, I needed to set this to free.

Analysis
For the stores with price change promo systems… super easy. For KDP I set it to 99cents first, in case I had trouble swapping it (though it did mean that the “regular price” shown was not what it will ultimately return to), and then set it to free at all other stores. I created a list of Kobo links at the different territories I wanted Amazon to price-match, then sent them the email asking for the change. It took a couple days, but swapped over nicely. (Now I just have to remember to update the price… and the royalty percentage… when the promo ends).

Promotions

Review Paid Newsletter Info and Choose Submissions – Several years ago I used to run paid ads in a variety of newsletters that showcased free and discounted ebooks. I had made a list of those most likely to work for my books, as well as detail about what they accepted, price, and various other notes.

Analysis
I updated the most promising choices on the list and removed ones that were no longer applicable. I ended up choosing four newsletters (small and medium size) to stay under my $50 budget for the launch, and I’m promoting Deceived in them while it’s free. I ran one before the launch, one day of, and a couple spread out after. I paid $44 for various promos, and earned back $33 across all books on all retailers during the start of the promos to two weeks after the last promo ran.

There are several other newsletters on my list I still need to update.

Kobo Ad – Kobo has a promotion tab for various promotions, which I’ve submitted to in the past.

Analysis
I didn’t realize it at the time, but since I already had a specialty price promotion scheduled for the book, it was not eligible for the usual promos I apply to. I ended up passing on this promo this time.

Book Funnel Promos – I originally planned to place Initiated (newsletter exclusive prequel to Deceived) in a few Book Funnel group promos, or possibly make a couple niche promos of my own.

Analysis
Ran out of time to set these up and ensure they would get promoted in my newsletters. I’ll still likely do these in the future, just not part of the launch. Additionally, I need to work out a better system of transferring subscribers to my newsletters. (There is an automated version, but this costs more).

Update Subscribers from Mailchimp – There are still a few straggler signup pages that I’ve missed from Mailchimp, so I need to periodically check the lists for anyone new, then transfer them to the correct list.

Analysis
Not yet complete. Additionally, I need to figure out where the sign-up sheets are hosted that are still funneling into the Mailchimp list.

Upload Subscribers from BookFunnel – This is more of a periodic endeavor, since I don’t have the automated subscription. However, since I haven’t been running consistent giveaway promos through BookFunnel, this tends to get overlooked.

Analysis
I’d like to get back to a consistent practice with BookFunnel giveaways and find a smoother way to make sure I get subscribers uploaded into MailerLite.

Write a DHU short story for the launch – I wanted to make a related short story for the launch, something that those who were already familiar with the universe could enjoy, and something that might entice readers who hadn’t yet read the stories (or only read the freebies) to go try something else from the universe.

Analysis
I had a few ideas in mind, though the main ideas I had seemed a better fit for the next book in the series. Ultimately, I decided to create a set of “dossiers” on each of the characters from Deceived, with a “school ID” style photo and short passage from the point of view of an upcoming antagonist. Stuff that’s happening behind the scenes during Betrayed. I got two complete and sent out during launch. The other three planned ones needed to be completed later and sent out in the regular newsletters. Ultimately I hope to compile them into a mini ebook that can go in the Newsletter Subscriber bonus section.

Update:

Dossiers completed with eight chapters, and six dossiers, and the final chapters goes out in an email on April 27th (three months after the launch…) I’m additionally considering whether to only have this as a newsletter bonus story or to also make it a “1.5” story available for free or 99 cents.

Newsletter Subscriber Bonus Page Updates – I wanted to better organize the bonus page, which is currently a giant gallery of art thumbnails. I also wanted to add some of the flash fiction short stories that I’ve sent out to the newsletters.

Analysis
Not yet complete, but something I would still like to update. Will probably need to decide how to better organize that page.

Betrayed

Upload Betrayed to Retailers and set Pre-Order – I chose the pre-order date of January 28th, 2025, and waited until I had the book complete and ready to upload before creating the different retailer pages. I did this around the two week to release mark.

Analysis
This took a few steps since Smashwords still needs its own version of the table of contents and I had to create the Google Play version of Deceived, first. But it otherwise went smoothly, and I have since learned that Amazon takes the D2D epub for Kindle, which looks great, so I’ll probably switch to that method from the previous method of creating a ZIP file.

Upload Betrayed to all Distributors – I made a list of all distributors (KDP, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords, D2D, BookFunnel) so that I could easily mark when I had updated the backmatter to Deceived and when I had uploaded Betrayed. I also used it for BookBub and Goodreads.

Analysis
This was very helpful for keeping track of everything.

Create BookFunnel Sales Page – I intended to create a sales page with links to all retailers as something that would let me create a sample that would then point to where readers could find the rest of the book.

Analysis
This didn’t get completed, however, I did create a Books2Read page and updated the one for Deceived, and that was extremely useful for my newsletter. I definitely want to review the other universal links I have for future use and make this link for future books.

Add Pre-Order Links to Infinitas Publishing Page – Once the ebook was uploaded to a retailer and had gone live, I added the link to the landing page on our Infinitas Publishing website. I had a “coming soon” note beside any of the links that I was still working on uploading or hadn’t yet gone live.

Analysis
Complete!

Marketing

Betrayed Blurb – I wanted to review the Book Blurb Magic course notes I had and create a blurb for Betrayed.

Analysis – Complete! It may still need revisions long term, but I got both the blurb and the shorter pitch version written.

IP Website Page for Betrayed – I needed to create the landing page for betrayed on the Infinitas Publishing website, which meant I first needed the cover (all variants already created a while back when I did the early release on Wattpad), and the blurb. Initially I simply listed the pre-order date since I didn’t yet have links. This also meant creating the appropriate links on the world and series pages.

Analysis
I still would like to add a link to sample pages, as well as include Goodreads and BookBub links on all books. Also, it really helped having the cover already made, so I would like to lean toward finishing the cover and blurb earlier in various projects so I can get these pages uploaded sooner.

Check Backmatter of Distant Horizon and Glitch books – The idea was to make sure their backmatter is up to date.

Analysis
This did not get done, but I would still like to do this before the next related launch.

Backmatter for Initiated – I wanted to check that all backmatter was up-to-date.

Analysis
Complete.

Make sure Whispers in the Code is set to free – This is a permafree book, and since it is related, I wanted to ensure it would still be available for free. (Amazon has a habit of unmatching the prices after so much time on different territories).

Analysis
I checked both Whispers in the Code and The Wind Mage of Maijev in all the links and sent my template email to KDP to ask for a price match in the necessary territories. I also created myself a private web page with clickable links to make it easier to check each territory. That made it super easy (and didn’t make it so hard to load tabs on a browser as I’ve done previously), so I plan to make more lists for any future books that need to be checked for price matching.

KDP A+ Content – Since I’ve already been making art for the newsletters, I was planning to transfer some of that art into A+ content (the image promotions on a book page) on Amazon.

Analysis
Ran out of time for now, and still need to make some of the art I’d like to, but I still want to give this a try, at least for first-in-series books.

Deceived Free Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.

Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Not sure how much impact it had.

Betrayed Pre-Order Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.

Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Not sure how much impact it had.

Betrayed Launch Day Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.

Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Also posted to X/Twitter. Not sure how much impact it had.

Review Goodreads and BookBub Pages – Some of the books need to have their updated covers added, or duplicate entries merged.

Analysis
Ran out of time to complete this. I’d still like to do this at some point in the near future.

Improve Keywords – In general I’d like to review all books and improve their keywords for retailer search functions.

Analysis
Ran out time, not yet complete.

Add BookBub and Goodreads link to Infinitas Publishing Website Pages – This hasn’t yet been added to any of the books, but I think it would be helpful for readers looking to read reviews, so I wanted to get these links added to the website.

Analysis
Not yet started. I’ll likely do this after I get the book covers updated on those websites.

Advance Reader Copies

Create ARC Request Form – As it had been a while since I had sent out ARCs (advance reader copies), I put out a call for interested reviewers to the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter. In order to simplify things, I created a simple Google form that allowed me to collect responses, and I uploaded them manually into MailerLite.

Analysis
I realized from doing this that I already had an ARC list (as well as a beta-reader list, which needs to be transferred to MailerLite and updated). So I updated the form I already had and transferred the ARC list. This should go smoother next time since it’s already set to go, though I may put out another call in the future for ARC readers both in the Distant Horizon newsletter and in the Wishing Blade newsletter. I also hope to push this much earlier in the launch process for future launches.

Ask for ARC Readers – I mailed the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter list, as well as anyone who indicated interest on the previous list, and offered ebook copies of both Betrayed and Deceived. First, I uploaded the necessary files for Betrayed and the updated file for Deceived into BookFunnel and used those links for ease of use.

Analysis
I did do a reminder email after a few days for anyone interested in signing up for the ARC who hadn’t done so yet, which had one person show interest. However, my newsletter host shows that they never checked the follow-up email, so I don’t know if they were still interested. I’ll likely try follow-up reminders again in the future, but if they have similar results, I may hold up on follow-ups after that.

Create Follow-up ARC email with details – I created an email to automatically go out on the day of the launch with all updated links and to let ARC readers know that the book was live.

Analysis
I’m not sure if this is helpful for them or not, but since it’s basically an updated form of an already-written email, I’ll probably do this again next time, too.

Create ARC Thank You Email – Originally I planned on crafting a standard thank you email as a template to start with whenever a reviewer might respond to let me know they had posted their review.

Analysis
I ended up just writing a direct response. They’re already quick, and this way I can personalize my response easier.

Refresh Beta-Reader List – After updating the ARC list, I realized I had a beta-reader list that I hadn’t transferred from Mailchimp when I switched email hosts. My intent was to transfer the list.

Analysis
Ran out of time; not complete. I would like to complete this before my next launch, however, so I can send out a call for beta-readers for the next book.

One thing I learned was that it really did take me the whole month to set everything up for launch, and even then I didn’t complete everything I hoped to. Still, there are several systems now in place that weren’t there previously, so that should help for next time.

Anyway, I hope this overview has something of use to you as well. 🙂

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