Today I thought I’d give you a look into the messy sketches and scribbles of my cover design process for the The Wind Mage and the Wolf, the seventh story in the Legends of Cirena series.
I don’t always make sketches like these, but in this case, I had a few ideas I wanted to jot down so I wouldn’t forget.
Note: the scribbles are barely readable in person. Unforunately, that means they’re even less readable here.
As you can see, these are really rough sketches, meant to give me a general idea of where I might place key elements.
I’ve tried to make a note of possible titles, variant backgrounds, and things I’d need to take into consideration when I went to create the proof.
All of this was on one sheet of paper, and covered multiple stories, but I cut the page in Photoshop to make it easier to view in an email, where I originally sent out this preview in 2019.
Fast forward to the finished version of the cover, which I designed in Daz 3D Studio:
Here we have Livena and Nuaka (currently in an altered wolf form) as they head down the streets of Ashan. Though Livena’s magic wouldn’t normally be visible to the naked eye (she can’t see it, either), I was aiming to convey the magic/fantasy genre.
This was the first of the covers for the crossover portion of the Legends of Cirena series, each of which are novellas (or a novel, in the case of the upcoming The Dark Forest of Aneth) instead of short stories.
Eventually I decided on the title: The Wind Mage and the Wolf
(Notice in the sketch it’s “The Wolves of Maijev” which… didn’t really work for me)
My logic was that “The Wind Mage and the Wolf” crosses the title conventions of the two previous stories (“The Wind Mage of Maijev” and “The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear”), where Livena was the wind mage, and the cover art focuses on the style of her cover, whereas the title style is closer to Nuaka’s story (previously she was the mountain bear, and now she’s the wolf).
I was concerned it might sound too silly (or be too close to the first title), but ultimately, it stuck. 😄
* * *
A wind mage and a shapeshifting thief start with their own adventures… and then end up working together:
I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.
* * *
Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.
Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.
Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.
Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.
Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): On hold, though I did start working on a character design for Trish in Daz, and started on a render but haven’t yet completed it.
Next up is adding missing scenes, doing a complete read-through to check for revision smudge, and then doing a read-aloud with Isaac to make sure the story still fits his vision. Then it’s off to beta-readers! I’m hoping to start revision work in July.
Little One (Distant Horizon Prequel): This story is back in action?! It is!
After doing some braindumping into a chat session with Claude and having it create a chapter by chapter “line edit” I could review, I decided to go ahead and do a test round of revisions. First four chapters went smoothly, so I gave Little One the green light to start sharing in the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter!
So far I’ve revised six out of a lot of chapters (this is a longer novel), but I’m really enjoying the process. Current plan is to do light revisions and ProWritingAid edits on this chapter by chapter, then send out a chapter with each regular Distant Horizon newsletter email.
TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.
The Dark Forest of Aneth (A Legends of Cirena short novel): On hold during June while finalizing Fae. Next step is to finish inputting my notes from my Kindle Paperwhite read, then review those revisions and see if it’s ready for beta-readers.
Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.
Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.
Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.
Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): Last time I was at chapter twenty-six around 58,000 words. I hit a bit of a snag this month with writing, but I have sent out chapter twenty-seven and the draft now sits at around 60,000 words. While Claude Fable was still available, I ran a developmental edit test to pick out remaining loose threads and plot issues to keep an eye out for during later revisions.
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.
The Wind Mage and the WolfSpin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold.Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.
Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.
Fae (Huntress 3): I’ve completed the read-through on my ancient Kindle and input those notes. Afterward, I did a test of Claude Fable (before it got pulled and recently reinstated) as an “ARC Reader/Proofreader” for feedback. Got some really useful notes, especially around little typos that were super easy to miss. Got those corrected. Then I did the read-aloud with Isaac using ElevenReader (verdict… much more natural sounding that the stock computer voices, and even better than previous uses of NaturalReader, though it still occasionally missed the mark with how a sentence should be read).
Meanwhile, the base of the cover is now complete. Painterly touches have been added. Still needs retouching (and I noticed I forgot to add the series number), and there’s one more special effect I think I might add in, but it’s almost done.
The blurb is also almost finished. I reviewed my original blurb but wasn’t quite happy with it, so I had Claude run through the same questions I gave myself and create a blurb as well. Then, after a lot of back and forth where I would read Claude’s version, make suggested changes and ask the AI to make suggestions on specific spots (the whole process reminded me quite a bit of times when I was on a more active writer forum and would exchange blurb feedback, just a lot more instantaneous), we got the blurb to a point that I actually mostly liked. Mashed my version and that version together, and now it’s set aside for me to review again after a couple days away from it.
Once the cover is finished I’ll finalize the backmatter in Huntress and Changeling and get those ebooks updated.
Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.
Dark Romantasy Idea: On hold. I need to finish writing the synopsis (currently 4,000 words).
Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – Edits based on the meeting feedback have been input, and the revised version was submitted! Next step will be to edit four of the other anthology short stories by the end of July.
Other Stories: The YA Alien Invasion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
Poetry (?!): Nothing new this month
Game Design: Still doing bits and pieces of game design.
Phalanx: I finally updated the Infinitas Publishing Phalanx landing page to reflect the current offerings. I still need to get a photo showing all of the pieces for the mousepad edition.
The beta version of the digital Phalanx game is ready to go, so I’ll be making a post about that soon! Once that’s live I’ll include a link to that on the Phalanx page (and possibly the “Extras” page).
Elemental Card Game: Been a while since I touched this one, but I grabbed the rules for the game (the ones I could find in our older files, anyway), and had Claude create a digital version for playtesting. This one is still in alpha testing and nowhere near ready for release (somewhere I have the notes Isaac and I made while beta-testing), but I’m starting to remember the basic mechanics and get a functional testing version going.
Legends of Cirena Tabletop Game: On something of a whim I gathered all the files we had for this game (since it had a finished, printable prototype but was still technically in beta-testing) and handed those to Claude to create a digital edition. Still very early in the conversion phase, but I’ve got a version ready to start testing for playability. (Needs help with the user interface conversion, though).
Battle Decks: Digital version on hold. I need to playtest this to find the remaining quirks, then see if we can’t get a mobile version functioning properly.
Anchor: Physical edition complete, but I need to get a landing page for it on the Infinitas Publishing website.
Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold until Isaac has a chance to review it.
Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim– Not a huge amount of adjustments here, but I did have Claude set up the game so it can now play properly in mobile. Haven’t had much chance to test it yet. Adult creature lineart still needs cleaned up and added to game, and juvenile creature art needs adjustments. I still need to add my own flavor text as well.
AI Usage and Policy: No new updates. Most of what I’ve been doing with AI is mentioned in this report. Been reading more books on the topic, and still have the idea for a presentation on AI Literacy.
Marketing/Admin:
Continued with BookFunnel group promos. I’ve scheduled monthly promos through August! One change I made here is to test Claude CoWork, and I’ve structured an automation which allows Claude to go through my BookFunnel Dashboard and select all potentially relevant promos in a set time period for me to look at. I then review the picks and discard any I’m definitely not interested in. Then Claude pulls any extra details and the links to the banner (because I do review the banner for whether it’s a good fit). Once I’ve narrowed those options, Claude creates a basic submission email for me from a template I provided, which I can then quickly edit if additional details are needed, and then submit! I also had Claude create a list of the chosen banners and their respective tracking links to make those easy to upload to both my blog and newsletters, and Claude creates a basic paragraph for me with promos linked that’s easy for me to tweak and test the links. (You’ll be seeing that in the July and August posts–shouldn’t look any different from what I’ve had previously). Basically saves me from wading through a ton of promo lists that mostly aren’t good fits for the books I’m currently promoting, and automates the really repetitive tasks. Real test will come at the end of July when I go to set up the September promos (provided I’m still on the Claude Pro plan), but so far, it’s looking promising.
I tried running a few all-new Amazon ads, but didn’t see any traction with sales, so I ended up pausing those. Next step is to review them and see if *anything* was working about them to pull for future tests.
Continued using Claude to update my weekly/bi-weekly priorities list to help me stay on track with projects. I’ve also been doing a post-event review where I drop in all my thoughts of what worked and what didn’t… mostly so I’ll have a record for myself, but also to see what patterns the AI could spot.
One issue I’ve had with permafree books is Amazon not keeping the prices free in all territories, and the process of checking all the links and composing a message to send them requesting specific territory fixes can take a while. I set up an automation in Claude CoWork to check the prices for me, and then create the message to send based on a pre-written template. It also reminds me twice a month to do a check. So far, this has been working to help me keep both Whispers in the Code and The Wind Mage of Maijev available for free!
On a semi-backburner project, I gave Claude my series briefs for Distant Horizon and Glitch and had it recommend a to-market, genre-based book cover. Then, in a rare case of using ChatGPT image generation, I had it create a mockup based on the brief. (Note: The generated images will NOT be used as the actual covers. They’re visualization for my purposes only.) Though a couple of the mockups were definite misses, one stood out, so I returned with that image to Claude to discuss what I thought was working, what I thought wasn’t working, and what I liked/didn’t like compared to my current covers. I’ve gotten some pretty good ideas I want to test in a future cover, and I started toying with the perspectives on one of my Daz setups to see if I could mimic the parts I liked about the mockup image. What I found especially interesting about this process was that it reminded me of one of the assignments in my photography classes where we intentionally modeled another image we liked, so we could better learn the techniques.
Continued sending out Distant Horizon Universe and Wishing Blade Universe newsletters.
I’ve been keeping up with accounting!
Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs, review a social media and newsletter email PDF I bought. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages and adding metadata. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On Hold.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
I did get the June posts scheduled ahead of time, but still need to schedule the ones for July. I recently pulled a bunch more content from my Wishing Blade Universe newsletter and need to do the same for the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter.
Events: This month is one of our bigger months for events, and we had both UP Rainbow Pride in Marquette and Hancock Pride Market. One thing I found useful, is that last month, before the Flower Moon Spring Market, I had Claude create an HTML event prep checklist based on the things I knew still needed done. That helped, so I updated it to be more generic but overall useful, and both times that helped keep me from forgetting anything while organizing everything to take to each event.
A Crafting Your Fictional World presentation is still planned for later in the year.
UP Rainbow Pride – Marquette MI (June 13th)
So much wind! Thankfully we had both stakes and cinderblocks to keep the tent in place, while I did spend quite a bit of time holding the back of the tent to make sure it didn’t suddenly pitch and knock over our displays. Made a great conversation starter, though.
UP Rainbow Pride was a couple hours out, but we still had everything mostly gathered from the Flower Moon Spring Market, which meant it was fairly easy to make a few adjustments to our inventory and have everything ready to pick up from the storage unit the night before, then leave first thing in the morning without trying to pack. We split the booth with a friend, so that also helped.
The event went well, and we made about the same as last year (including almost exactly the same from stickers and totes. O.o ). Aside from the wind, the weather was nice, and we had a fun time.
Hancock Pride Market – Hancock MI (June 28th)
This one is closer, and since we still had everything organized from UP Rainbow Pride, it didn’t take long to prep for at all. (Definite bonus part of having three events with a few weeks of each other). Got set up real quick, which gave us more time to chat with the other vendors. We didn’t make as much as expected on this show, but it might have been too close to other shows. Not enough data to say for sure on that outside of speculation. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable event.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Just about done with formatting the ebook for an indie press! Need to help set up categories/keywords, and then it’s ready to upload.
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: Stickers ordered! I got the proofs and asked for a couple small corrections. Bag hoarding dragon stickers, coming soon! (Plus restock of plant hoarding dragon and Not-a-Ghoost).
Also, had fun making a mermaid render in Daz – “Reaching for the Light.” I used Affinity for the basic touchups. (Still need to learn how to use it for more complex touch-ups, though, so for now I mostly still use Photoshop CS6 on my older laptop).
Daz PA: Not quite as strong sales as last month, but still an improvements, so I plan to continue submitting products for the Quick Grab and Outlet Store slots.
* * *
Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
A couple weeks ago, I introduced you to Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale, the blacksmith who forged the Wishing Blade.
Today, I’d like you to meet Merto, one of Cafrash’s two sons. Unlike Camir, who makes a grandiose show of impressing those around him and makes favors with anyone he can work into his grasp, Merto tries to stay out of the public eye, careful not to draw to much attention to himself.
For now, Merto remains meek… though he knows and can do far more than he lets on.
Merto makes his first appearance in Magebane, and will continue to make appearances throughout the Wishing Blade series.
Excerpt from Merto’s first appearance (Magebane):
“What are you doing here?” Toranih demanded. The leather hilt felt slick under her clammy fingers.
The light stopped moving. “Father sent me.”
“Father?” She frowned, still not quite able to make out the figure’s features in the low light. “Show yourself.”
The young man opened his hand and a pale turquoise crystal dimly lit his tall frame. He looked about Toranih’s age—she couldn’t tell if he was older or younger—and he was a shadow like the others, his features clear since she was part of his realm. His dull, grayish hair was cut loosely around his ears. His eyes were pale and he had a petite, pointy nose and rounded jaw, both of which looked familiar.
The light weaved back and forth as the young man swayed, unstable on his feet. “My father… Cafrash.”
Though Merto has a fairly small role to play in Magebane, he has his own secrets, and Toranih quickly decides she isn’t sure if she should trust him.
But then, that could be said for everyone in Cafrash’s family, and Merto isn’t the only one with a hidden agenda.
(Huh. I realize now that I haven’t designed Camir’s character in Daz yet. Given his flare for fancier clothes and haughty attidude, I bet his render would be fun. What do you think? Should I take some time to make his render?)
Eventually I want to edit Merto’s backstory novella… which I do have written but needs edits to avoid breaking my plot. Fun times.
* * *
Both brothers have an agenda… but whose plans are more dangerous?
Since we’ve been looking at a lot of my early Daz renders, let’s now take a look at the renders I have of Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale, one of my characters from the Wishing Blade series. (He starts as an antagonist… then kind of ends up in as the questionable mentor… whether he wants to be a mentor or not).
So a long, long time ago when I was playing around with Daz, I rendered Cafrash, the creator of the Wishing Blade (the series’ namesake). I rendered this image a couple times, since I apparently designed it on my older laptop, whose graphics card that would have made rendering nice went caput before I found Daz. Then I rendered it again once I got my then-new laptop (which now mostly lays in rest because I used it a lot for rendering and that’s… very intensive on a laptop, unfortunately. Renders now happen on a desktop with much better fans and airflow.
That first render took 7 hours, and didn’t have nearly as good as the results of this 2-hour render.
Needless to say, I was quite happy with the capabilities of the then-new laptop. (And I suspect the new desktop would render this much faster… though we’re on a new version of Daz now so the lighting system would probably have to be readjusted).
Anyway, enough about laptop capabilities. Lord Menchtoteale was a blacksmith before getting involved with the trickster god. Long story short, he forges the Wishing Blade, the weapon used to steal magic from Cirena in Magic’s Stealing.
Here’s a render that Isaac put together from a later version of Cafrash’s character design, which I then polished:
But did Cafrash actually want to forge the sword?
Is he really the warlord everyone thinks he is?
Or is there more going on behind the Trickster’s plans than meets the eye?
Cafrash’s backstory is one part of the story I’m having a lot of fun working with, and first started showing up in The Shadow War, and has a much larger role in Magebane.
* * *
Meet Lord Menchtoteale in all his grumpy “I’m going to give you advice whether either of us want to deal with this,” in The Wishing Blade series…
📋 And here’s the May report! Going to try to keep these updated on a monthly basis, but we’ll see.
Got a lot done, but that said, this last month through me for a curveball with my cat, BG Neelix, passing away unexpectedly. (If you want to know the details about what happened, click here).
I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.
* * *
Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.
Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.
Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.
Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.
Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): The epilogue has been sent, along with an additional wrap-up scene. I even got a chance to do a read-aloud with Isaac on these chapters. Yay!
Next up is to add missing scenes, do a complete read-through to check for revision smudge, and then do a read-aloud with Isaac to make sure the story still fits his vision. Then it’s off to beta-readers! I’m hoping to start revision work on this project in July.
TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.
The Dark Forest of Aneth (A Legends of Cirena short novel): I’ve been slowly inputting my notes from my Kindle Paperwhite revision round into the manuscript, though this is on the backburner while I work on Fae. Next step will be to read through those revisions and see if it’s ready for beta-readers.
Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.
Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.
Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.
Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): Last time I was at chapter twenty-three and around 51,500 words. Now I’m at Twenty-Six around 58,000 words, and I have a pretty good idea of the remaining scenes that still need written.
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.
The Wind Mage and the WolfSpin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold.Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.
Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.
Fae (Huntress 3):Placeholder page made! Got Fae back from beta-readers, made adjustments, and put it onto my ancient Kindle Paperwhite so I can give it one more pass before the read-aloud with Isaac. Then I had Claude Code create a timeline of the Huntress series (after several iterations to correct for incorrect entries) so I could make sure the passage of time was clear in Fae. I also used Claude to do a basic formatting pass on the manuscript based on my previous ebooks to make it easier to finalize later.
I did a couple more tests with the cover, and finally found the right stock images to make it work. Base of the cover is complete, and now I need to do the polishing “painterly” touches.
I’ve also drafted a blurb and will need to review it soon to see what I might want to change. I gave Claude a set of questions to ask me with a prompt to include feedback, and used that to go through the process though I did the actual writing to the blurb myself.
I updated the backmatter in Huntress and Changeling, which I’ll upload once I finalize the cover for Fae.
Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.
Dark Romantasy Idea: On hold. The idea is still pinging at me, but I need to finish writing the synopsis (currently 4,000 words).
Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – Story has been drafted (and is surprisingly short for me), edited, and read at one of the Writers of Warrensburg meetings! Next step is to review the feedback I got and make edits. I also still have a couple more meeting to watch the recordings of and submit feedback on.
Other Stories: The YA Alien Invastion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
Poetry (?!): I wrote another poem called “Glittering Moments” but I’m not quite happy with my revisions yet, so I haven’t posted it. You might see it in the future, though.
Game Design: Progress! Isaac and I made a trip to Marquette to pick up supplies for finalizing Phalanx and Anchor.
Phalanx: Mousepad edition of Phalanx complete, and debuted at Flower Moon Spring Market!
Additionally, I worked with Claude to create the web-based browser edition that works both on mobile and desktop. Beta-version is now complete, and the current version of the game includes a link to a form for testing. Deployed via Netlify, and I’m giving the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter subscribers the first go at it, and then I’m planning to release the beta on the main Infinitas Publishing website. (I’ll probably also include a post about it here as well as on our Facebook page.)
Battle Decks: I did the first review of what Claude was able to code based on the trial version of the card game, then did further testing to refine the user interface and fix rules that didn’t quite translate into the programming. Currently it needs me to do some testing to make sure everything is playing correctly, then see if we can’t get a mobile version functioning properly.
New game — Anchor!
Anchor: Isaac completed his physical prototype and created the art for this game (I tried inking his original sketch and it came out too cartoony, so he turned to Daz Studio instead). We used Claude to double-check dice probabilities to make sure his scoring made sense, I proofread Isaac’s rules booklet and did the formatting polish, and we put together five first edition box sets. We got this done in time to debut at the Flower Moon Spring Market!
Fantasy RPG Productivity App: On hold until Isaac has a chance to review it.
Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim– I cleaned up the art for the juvenile creature in the game and worked with Claude to trouble-shoot some issues with how the graphics were presenting. I still need to clean up the adult creature art and make a few more adjustments to the juvenile creature that I missed in my previous pass.
I also had Claude create a table for me that lists all the different items and shops so that I can make sure to update everything with my own flavor text, and had it review the code for areas to streamline.
I also finally set up Claude Code on my computer because the game got too hefty to edit in a regular chat.
AI Usage and Policy: I decided to keep the Pro Plan of Claude, at least for now. It’s been really helpful for keeping me on track with business stuff, so I’m going to hold onto it a bit longer. I did update the Infinitas Publishing AI usage policy to include our usage of Claude AI for coding.
I still want to do a presentation on AI Literacy, but haven’t made any further progress with setup. (I have, however, been reading several more books and articles on the topic).
Marketing/Admin:
Created a project file in Claude for Infinitas Publishing. Using that for analyzing past reports and keeping up to date with admin processes. I’m continuing to do a check-in every week or two to make sure I’m staying on track with my goals.
Continued sending out Distant Horizon Universe and Wishing Blade Universe newsletters.
Did a couple more BookFunnel group promos, and created a promo for June (but no one signed up for it so I cancelled that one). I signed up for the next round of promos and pre-scheduled the blog-post/newsletter email.
Updated retailer links for my books on BookBub (just need to double-check now that I got them all updated)
Finally updated my author bio on the blog and most retailers.
Updated the series pages on the main Infinitas Publishing website.
Worked with Claude to create the bones of the Huntress KROWN Assessment quiz based on the interactive personality test Isaac and I did at last year’s Geek UP. Needs some interface work and further beta-testing.
I’ve continued using Claude to help keep my priorities organized, review accounting and event results, and review stats I’ve been tracking.
Attempted to have Claude Design work on A+ content for Distant Horizon using my own images. It’s got some interesting ideas… but it isn’t there yet.
Printed and cut out new Infinitas Publishing Business Cards for events.
I’ve been trying to make Facebook posts on the Infinitas Publishing page to help promo some of our upcoming products and events.
I finally paused all Amazon ads, and have had Claude help make suggestions for how to maybe make adjustments for new ads. So far not much luck with getting those going.
So far I’ve been managing to keep up with accounting. Yay!
I had Claude make me a personalized event checklist that I’ll be able to repurpose for future events. Hopefully, once I finish organizing it, it’ll make it easier for me to keep track of what I need to get done ahead of time.
I still need to update Infinitas Publishing book pages with buttons for retailers. I also need to continue adding metadata information.
Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales (alternately, review new BookFunnel feature offering Square sales?). Overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On Hold.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
Still going strong with the blog posts here. Scheduled May ahead of time, which helped. I need to do the same for June, especially considering the various events going on. But it has been helpful with rekindling some of that exciting “new publishing” energy I remember from when we first started Infinitas Publishing.
Events: We went to the Flower Moon Spring Market in Hancock at the end of May.
Meanwhile, we’re planning to be at UP Rainbow Pride in Marquette, and we’ve applied for the Hancock Pride Market that happens at the end of June. I also still have a Crafting Your Fictional World presentation planned for later in the year.
Flower Moon Spring Market (May 24th)
We had a booth inside at the Flower Moon Spring Market, and we debuted not only the mousepad edition of Phalanx (the first time we’ve had Phalanx available to purchase in several years), and we also debuted an all new game–Anchor!
Admittedly, neither of us were at full energy due to having recently learned that BG Neelix had cancer, but the event was still fun and Isaac was able to demo the games to a lot of passersby.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Still working on formatting an ebook for an indie press.
Future Goals: Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work and fix the SEO information. Finish designing cute mascot for a local store. Finish editing photos for a local Aikido group.
SIFlint Art: On hold. I’m watching for a sale at my sticker printer so I can order more stickers (and get bag hoarding dragon stickers!)
Daz PA: The new Daz store promotions seem to be working! I’ve seen a strong uptick in sales, so I’ve continued submitting products for the Quick Grab option and plan to try for the Outlet Store again as well. I’m hoping these sales continue to have luck. If so, it’ll make for a nice revival of the backlist.
I’ve also started playing with some character shaping as a possible upcoming product. Haven’t gotten far yet, so we’ll see if I continue working on this.
* * *
Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
At some point in 2019, I took to learning how to use Daz Studio in my spare time. Daz is a 3D modeling program that lets you purchase assets (poses, characters, clothing, backgrounds, etc) for your own use and then position those assets to create scenes.
There is also the ability to “morph” the basic models so they match how you envision your own characters.
The first character I customized was Siklana Covonilayno, Toranih’s sister from The Wishing Blade series:
Her hair’s a bit too long here, but this was a quick render to test the outfit and general background.
Here’s a closer look at her facial structure (customized from the Victoria 4 base model — which I’m still impressed I succeeded with since shortly after, I started working primarily with Genesis 8 models).
(At some point I needed a Daz PA (Published Artist) profile image, and this was one of my early renders I was happy with, so I used that. Later on I realized that she looks a little like me when the image is in tiny thumbnail size. Not intentional.)
At some point I might make some adjustments to Siklana’s design, mostly in redoing the character on a later model to take into account some issues and limitations I didn’t know about when first starting.
I continued to work with learning the program, and eventually put together a full scene with her.
In this case, she’s with her horse, Esara.
(The horse’s coat and mane ended up a bit darker than I was initially picturing for Esara, so I may need to do some tweaking if I do further images with her).
The idea behind this image, though only mentioned in The Wishing Blade series rather than actually seen, is that Siklana used to go outside of Cirena City to practice her knife-throwing skills in peace.
She would ride out to the forested region behind the city walls to a small, abandoned ruin. (This region was once Aneth, home to those who would eventually spread throughout Cirena. At the time, they faced attacks by the immortals, and many of their buildings ended up in ruin once they fled). This particular building would likely have been fairly recent in their history, though still abandoned. But now this side of the forest is relatively safe. The perfect place to go when someone wants time to themselves to study and throw knives.
Are there any characters from the Wishing Blade universe (any of the stories) that you would be interested in seeing?
* * *
Though Siklana starts as a side character, by Magebane she has a major character arc…
Today I thought I’d do a behind-the-scenes snippet for one of the Cirenan-Cantingen goddesses: Meshon.
Meshon is one of the older goddesses, and she has a strong presence in both Cirenan and Cantingen pantheons.
Though not considered a primary goddess in the Cantingen pantheon (who only recognize a small handful of deities in addition to Madia), Meshon is revered as Madia’s trusted messenger.
Meshon is often referred to as the Oracle, capable of seeing visions of the future and walking between realms–though her ability to cross realms means it’s not always clear which world her visions refer to, and that issue has landed many of her followers into trouble for trying to interpret her dreams.
Shevanlagiy/Ralendacin has held a grudge with the goddess for this very reason, and that grudge is clear in Magebane.
Meshon currently has a role in both The Wishing Blade series and Stone and String, and even plays small roles in some of the Legends of Cirena short stories, such as The Scars of Her Past… though she plays a much larger role in the upcoming Legends of Cirena novel, The Dark Forest of Aneth. (Yes, novel. It was supposed to be a novella but it has well surpassed that word count at this point).
Below is one of the test images I created for Meshon using Daz 3D Studio. Her design is still in progress, but this is fairly close to how I see her. 🙂
Meshon’s prophecies will eventually have a strong role in the next Stone and String story, and it’s her prophecy that references the coming of Ralendacin, the “Destroyer of Worlds” (Shevanlagiy in The Wishing Blade series).
📋 Now that I’ve posted the ‘end of 2025’ status report, let’s take a look at January through April 2026!
Still quite a bit of life stuff happening during these months, but much of that has now been wrapped up. I somehow still got a lot of stuff done, so let’s see what’s been going on…
I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.
* * *
Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.
Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.
Future steps: Input Isaac’s notes from Deceived #5 (formerly #4) into the manuscript, revise Deceived #5, and revise #6 (formerly #5) before handing it to Isaac for his feedback.
Dossiers (Deceived Spin-off): On hold. Next step is a revision round which involves incorporating notes into the manuscript.
Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): Last time we were at chapter seventeen in the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter. We’re now up to chapter twenty-six, and my next email will send the epilogue! 😃
So far the manuscript is at 77,000 words, though I expect it to go longer before publication due to several missing scenes.
Isaac and I already knew the detective plotline needed additional scenes written. But I did take the entire manuscript into Claude and asked it to create an interactive timeline that showed where each character group appears on a per-chapter basis, to include a short sentence or two on what’s happening with that group, and to mark incomplete arcs. I now have a better idea of which characters need to be looped in together and where to focus my next set of revisions.
Overall, this should make the revision process go much smoother. Once those scenes are added in, my next step is do a complete read-through to check for revision smudge, and then do a read-aloud with Isaac to make sure the story still fits his vision. (He wrote the original draft, which I then edited). Then it’ll be off to beta-readers!
The question is where to slot working on this story in the grand scheme of things. I don’t want it to get sidelined for as long as last time.
TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold. Next step is to write the outline and reread the first three books.
The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I input the notes from the manuscript I printed for editing into my Scrivener file. I ran the updated manuscript through Claude and AutoCrit for developmental feedback, then set the project aside so I could review it later with fresh eyes and decide if I agreed with the suggestions. Ultimately, I disagreed with several of the suggestions, but I did decide I probably need to merge/cut the first couple chapters. I think I ran this through ProWritingAid for copy edits, but this isn’t entirely clear in my planner notes, so I’ll want to double-check edits before finalizing the project.
I also put the manuscript onto my ancient Kindle Paperwhite (from 2013… it’s slow but it does still function, at least for the moment) and read through it like a book. (This was the pass where I decided to merge chapters).
Next step is to input my notes from that round, then see if it’s ready for beta-readers.
Other Goals: Revisit the book cover concept. Create a blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
The Ruins of Amixthael (The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear Spin-Off): On hold. Next step is to revise the chapters of the secondary character, then merge the two drafts together.
Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.
Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.
Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): Last time I was at chapter fifteen and 34,000 words. At the end of the month I’d reached chapter twenty-three and around 51,500 words. I’ve continued running each chapter through ProWritingAid for copy edit suggestions before sending it out to the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter.
I once again took the most up-to-date version of the manuscript into Claude to look for missing plot threads and to use Claude as a “talking” rubber duck to bounce brainstorming ideas off of. I ended up getting a better idea of what still needs to be added to the story before wrapping it up. (And I’ve also started getting an idea of where the next story might go… and some character motives I hadn’t decided on for one of the antagonists in The Wishing Blade series. Bonus!)
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft.
The Wind Mage and the WolfSpin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold.Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.
Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.
Fae (Huntress 3): Revisions complete!
I also did a second round of revisions for the notes I’d left myself, and ran the AutoCrit “beta-reader” analysis on the manuscript to see if there was anything I wanted to adjust before sending it to actual beta-readers. After that, I took it into ProWritingAid for edits, compiled the chapters and asked Claude to format it based on the ebook formatting of one of my previous books. (Score for a very fast formatting round that only needed a few corrections!)
I then read through that version to check for revision smudge, then took that into Atticus so I could prepare the beta-reader edition. Now it’s off to beta-readers!
Next step is to finalize the cover and write the blurb while waiting for feedback.
Horse Shifter Romantasy 🐎: On hold. Next step is to start drafting from the outline.
Dark Romantasy Idea: Toward the beginning of April, I got an idea for a dark romantasy story that wouldn’t leave me alone, so I took the idea into Claude and started brainstorming/plotting. I now have a rough outline in the form of a bunch of scene ideas that I had Claude organize, though its interpretation of my scenes is a little off from my intentions, so I started writing out a synopsis to better match my vision. I have a small chunk of that written but it’s more like the told version of the story and currently sits at 4,000 words.
Writers of Warrensburg Anthology – I decided to participate in the upcoming Writers of Warrensburg (Missouri writers’ group) anthology! My short story outline has been approved, and now needs drafting. I’ve been watching the online recordings of the meetings and sending my feedback of each story via email since I can’t usually attend live.
Other Stories: Got an idea for a fantasy short story where the gods/demons are inspired by various AIs (working title: “The Gods of Aether Ignis”). About 500 words written into it, but I only have notes for it rather than a solid outline, so we’ll see how far I get with this. Mostly I have three scenes in mind, with one of those scenes drafted, but I’m missing a connector piece.
The YA Alien Invastion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
Trinar Seven – Rediscovered this story (first NaNoWriMo project I did) while at my parents’ house. Ran it through Claude to review its strengths and weaknesses in case I’d like to return to revising it.
Little One – Set up in Scrivener because I’m considering editing this one for my next Distant Horizon Universe newsletter story.
Poetry (?!): Well, I wasn’t planning on writing poetry, but I guess that’s what happens when I read Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing. Published both on this blog and on Substack.
Got it back from beta-readers, formatted it, input the final edits, read through it on my ancient Kindle Paperwhite, and then did a read-aloud with Isaac to catch any remaining typos.
I tried two versions of the blurb. The first I wrote entirely myself. The second version, I handed the story to Claude and gave it a series of prompts to consider, then asked it to create a blurb based on those. I then refined that version and asked readers on a feedback group to review which one they liked better. The Claude-based blurb won out, so that’s the one I’m trying first.
While working on the blurb, I illustrated the cover to get it as close to cozy sci-fi cover conventions as I could. Original drawn in pencil, then inked, scanned into the computer, then cleaned and colored in Photoshop CS6. I did this for both the foreground and background. In dealing with the title treatment, I asked Claude to write me a program I could use to locally batch my typeface files into images so I could choose the font I wanted without having to individually wade through thousands of options.
I had ChatGPT review my backmatter to see if I had any obvious issues with tone when it came to pointing to other stories in my catalogue. (As a note, I’ve been leaning away from using ChatGPT).
Separately, I got the Infinitas Publishing book page created for The Singing Coil, and I created a series of blog posts for the launch, though I still have one that dives into the details of the cover design process that I haven’t yet finalized but want to share.
For mini side projects I attempted to add guitar chords to the lullaby and record a version of me singing it. Eh… let’s just say that’s a work in progress.
Game Design: Quite a few things happening here!
Phalanx: We have most of the pieces we need to finalize the mousepad edition of Phalanx, so the next step is to acquire the last couple of components and package it all together. Goal is to have this edition at the Flower Moon Spring Market.
Separately I tested inputting the rules, card art, and game details into Claude, and asked it to create a web-based browser game. It came out surprisingly well on the first try. I made a few iterations to the browser edition, and at this point I just need to test it and make sure there aren’t any bugs before sharing it. (And also trying to adapt it to a mobile-friendly version).
If there’s enough interest in the browser edition, I’d like to hire a developer to create a nicer version of the game, but that depends on if there’s enough interest to fund it.
Anchor: Isaac has been eyeing this fun little dice game again that he made and we’re looking to trying to develop a version we can take to local events.
He already has a list of components needed for the prototype test, so we’ll see if we can acquire those when we do our run to pick up the final components for Phalanx. We have a couple beta prototypes already that we’ve used for our own purposes in testing, but they aren’t polished.
Next step is for me to polish the art sketch he designed for the logo of the game.
Fantasy RPG Productivity App: Sometime in early March, Isaac mentioned wanting a productivity app that used role-play game dynamics to incentivize completing various daily tasks and work projects.
So… I’ve been developing that using Claude, and after several iterations, it’s now over to Isaac for testing. I gave Claude instructions on what aspects we wanted in the app. (Quest boards with daily tasks, a marketplace to get equipment for your character, companions, an overly enthusiastic, encouraging fairy to cheer you on…) And I worked with it to adjust the human factors aspect of actually using the app both in a desktop browser and on a phone.
Right now the app uses a placeholder story generated by Claude (with my worldbuilding suggestions) to see if the mechanics work during testing, but if Isaac likes the app and we decide to develop it further, I’ll want to write my own “chapters” into the game.
I also suspect that, of all the apps I’ve been working with Claude on, this one (or the cozy fantasy pet sim, below) would benefit the most from hiring a human developer.
Cozy Fantasy Pet Sim– Toward the end of April I decided to test an idea that had been rolling around in my head for a while. Once again I took to Claude to see what could be created in terms of a browser-based game. My goal? Create a cozy fantasy pet simulator that was entirely self-contained and could run in a browser.
The sim has now been through several iterations. The genetics seems to be working, buying/selling items is functioning properly, going on expeditions and training skills is cohesive, etc.
I’ve also done the first round of inputting my own artwork into the game. Right now there are still several placeholder vector designs for items and backgrounds (I didn’t realize Claude could design vector art and I got quite the surprise when the game first loaded with a fully functional cozy critter design).
Next step is to finish polishing the juvenile creature art I created, then move on to cleaning the adult creature art and adding it into the game. (Right now it’s just “big” juvenile and “little” juvenile).
I’ll also need to write flavor text and create an intentional list of in-game items rather than using the generic generated list. (Anything on the expeditions are already mostly created by me because somewhere along the line I decided this was going to be a Upper Peninsula flavored cozy fantasy and I had way too much fun brainstorming item lists).
This is another project that, if I get the game functional for sharing, I would hope to eventually be able to hire a web developer to make a nicer edition. (Or dream goal… hire a web developer and hire artists to add in new creatures beyond the ones I draw).
AI Usage and Policy: As you can probably tell from this report, I’ve been exploring quite a bit of AI usage. As of the moment, our December 12th AI Use Policy update still holds true, though it doesn’t explicitly reference the use of code generation. I intend to periodically review this policy and update it if needed.
I did go ahead and pick up the $20 Pro plan on Claude to see what it was capable of. Will re-evaluate at the end of the month to determine whether to keep the subscription or cancel it.
Also… I started working on notes for a potential presentation on AI Literacy. Specifically, what AI is, what it can/can’t do, and how to use it safely, or avoid using altogether if preferred. I’ve got a lot of ideas for this, and could really branch off into more detailed presentation ideas, but haven’t yet formed the actual presentation. I’ve been using Claude to dump my ideas into and keep them organized.
Marketing/Admin:
No adjustments to Amazon Ads. Thinking about starting a couple new ones to test, but these aren’t high priority.
Continued participating in BookFunnel group promos and rotating which book I focus on promoting. Also tried to do a store-specific promo (Kobo) but haven’t seen much change in retailer traffic.
I’ve continued sending out story chapters with each newsletter email (The Multiverse Chronicles in the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter and the Ferta story in The Wishing Blade Universe newsletter.) With Multiverse Chronicles about wrapped up, I’m debating which story to tackle next. I’m considering pulling out Little One. But we’ll see.
I had Claude help me design a book progress tracker in Google Sheets. I’ve been using this to quickly overview what steps are still left on any given project.
I’ve been using Claude to check my progress every couple weeks or so to make sure I stay on track and don’t get (too) derailed by shiny side projects. I also created an Infinitas Publishing-focused project within Claude to help keep myself organized and analyze more business data for patterns I might be missing. It seems to be helpful in prompting me to clean up my business sheets, get accounting done faster, and finish these status reports. (Mostly because if I want feedback on them, they actually need to be done. And even artificial feedback is apparently useful in giving me that poke to get a move on it).
I tested ChatGPT for making a rough Google Sheets business model canvas for Infinitas Publishing. I’m not sure that was actually useful. I’ll need to look at this again later.
I used Claude to review the Infinitas Publishing website design and get suggestions for improving readability and placement on a new button feature I’m considering adding. Currently Huntress is the only page that has these.
Tinkered with Claude Design in beta for a slide-show style book trailer. (Note: I had it use my own images). Same with creating A+ content for Amazon pages. I liked the ideas but it’s not quite polished enough to use yet. Might revisit its suggestions later.
Updated Huntress and Changeling metadata! Woot! Finally updated Amazon keywords and categories for these two. (Apparently I hadn’t updated these in several years). I had Claude suggest keywords based on my series briefs, which I then checked in Publisher Rocket. I returned with the keywords I was considering, then had Claude pick from those with an explanation for why. Got these updated. Haven’t yet seen a boost in sales, but hoping it will help long term.
I used Claude to review my manuscripts for suggested content warnings, tropes, and comp titles and started adding the ones I agreed with to the book pages on the Infinitas Publishing website. Currently have them on the Deceived and Distant Horizon series, and part of the Glitch series.
Finally started updating book pages with additional details like ISBN, genre, publication date, word count, etc. Also tested website accessibility for both Alt text and generative engine optimization and started restructuring series pages based on that. This is in progress.
Been listening to more podcasts (especially The Creative Penn podcast and related Patreon) and did a lot more reading, mostly of non-fiction.
Infinitas Publishing accounting is up-to-date through the middle of April. Now I’ve just got to try to keep it up to date. I’ve made a note on my calendar that repeats once a month for getting these details entered.
Finally updated my Amazon Central author bio.
Next up: Review and update book prices; watch Book Blurb Magic course on books with multiple POVs, continue updating metadata of other books. Continue updating the design of individual Infinitas Publishing book pages. Check for what other retailers need my updated author bio. Continue adding books to the Stripe store for direct sales. Revise Amazon ads, and overhaul book categories, keywords, and blurbs.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On Hold.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
Still doing this! And still enjoying seeing what I wrote previously and updating it as needed. I’ve been trying to schedule a month’s worth of posts at a time, with varying degrees of success.
Events: We’re currently planning on going to the Flower Moon Spring Market in Hancock at the end of May, and plan to apply to the UP Rainbow Pride event in Marquette. Books have been ordered!
I’ve made plans to do a Crafting Your Fictional World presentation later in the year. More on that closer to the event.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Finally started formatting an ebook for an indie press. Basic formatting complete, and next step is to incorporate the publisher’s feedback.
I’m debating getting back into photography with a specific focus on casual, fun shots, especially those with costumed or fantasy vibes. Still working out the logistics, but I’m starting to talk to friends about how to go about setting up a test session.
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 created a dragon illustration for a local zine. Still in progress, but the inked version now exists.
I’m watching for a sale at my sticker printer so I can order more stickers (and get bag hoarding dragon stickers!)
Daz PA: I submitted a few products for Daz site promotions. The Egyptian Ankh Makeup set and Frog Prince poses have been accepted for the month-long Outlet store, so we’ll see how that goes. 🙂
* * *
Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
The process of writing a rough draft can be… well… a bit rocky. Surprisingly, at the time I originally wrote this post to send to newsletter subscribers, the draft for a novella I’d been working on (and later shelved) had been going surprisingly smoothly.
Well… sort of.
Originally, I planned on it being a short story. (If you’ve been following me long at all, you probably have an idea of where this is going.
At the time I wrote newsletter email, the story was sitting firmly in the “novella” category at 28,000 words.
And it wasn’t done yet.
The story finalized at finalized at 37,000 words. For comparison, Magic’s Stealing is a novella of 34,000 words, and Wind and Words clocks in at 22,000 words.
The good news was that I only had two or three scenes left before the story is complete. Then came the challenge of editing to create a tight plot (because extraneous scenes like to make their way into the rough draft while I’m still figuring out the details).
Then I got to go back and add in the translations for the various spells and sections in different languages.
Which is what I wanted to talk about today. Because seriously, I had sections in the rough draft that looked something like this:
He came out of the storeroom with a shallow bowl and a pitcher of water. “Be la mireyan naébiéeth so nocho Farris NAME chono li mirra da nac so wusna miduhan la be.” (CHECK PHRASE… add (not to exceed my focus))
In this case, I snagged the scrying spell from The Shadow War, inserted the correct name (and realized I didn’t have the targetted character’s last name), and made a note to myself to recheck the phrase and add in an extra qualifying statement.
Err… it looks a lot more coherent when it’s done.
The extra fun part of this was that I knew I’d probably have to do additional grammar work due to including the then-fledgeling conlang in the story.
He went back to the storeroom and came out with a shallow bowl and a pitcher of water. “Be la fayquelvi miruen, mireyan naébiéeth so nocho Farris chono li mirra da nac so wusna miduhan la be.”
Magic, not to exceed my focus, reveal the location of Farris in the form of an image in the bowl of water before me.
And as you might notice… I decided to omit the last name. Ideally, the caster would use the full name. But this character is supposed to be exceedingly strong at wielding intent versus precision (which is also extremely dangerous), so it’s fine. And words got added.
But that’s a little look into my rough draft process where conlangs are involved.
Originally I planned to release this story after Magebane, with the idea that it was going to be a bridge between The Wishing Blade series and the Stone and String series.
But Isaac pointed out some world-breaking holes in the current version of the story, so it’s been hanging out on the back shelf of one of my hard-drives while I tackle other books.
That said, I’d like to return to this one eventually…
* * *
Read the two series that this novella was intended to bridge…
Time to wrap up 2025 with the Mid-August through end of December Infinitas Publishing status report! 📋
Yes, I know it’s almost May of 2026 already, but I still wanted to compile all my notes that I hadn’t yet reviewed on 2025. I’ll do a separate report for January through April of 2026.
And ooof. What a year.
A lot happened over the last several months, especially in real life. Some stuff I’ve talked about in my newsletters, some stuff I haven’t yet mentioned unless I’ve talked to you in-person. Let’s just say it’s been a little (a lot) rough.
But there’s been good stuff, too, including the amount of progress I’ve been making on writing and drafting in the background so that 2026 should finally see more book releases! Yay!
So let’s go back through my planner and see what all got done in the last few months of 2025, shall we?
I’ve highlighted the projects that had changes in blue.
* * *
Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). Still on hold while working on The Dark Forest of Aneth. Next step is to merge the two revised drafts and start writing the missing scenes.
Deceived #3: On hold. Needs revisions. Tentatively titled Exposed.
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 tested asking for “beta-reader” feedback on the current manuscript using Notebook LM, and got a few ideas of areas I might want to strengthen before sending this out to actual beta-readers.
Multiverse Chronicles (Distant Horizon Universe Spin-off): Progressing along! Last update mentioned having sent out seven chapters, and as of the end of December, I’d sent out chapter seventeen! We reached the point where I had made revisions, but I hadn’t fully edited it because we’re past where I’d originally been sharing episodes on the blog. Most of the sent chapters have been fully revised and edited now, but we’ve made notes where new scenes may need to be written and added to fill in plot gaps.
I’m thrilled that we’re finally close to finishing this story. After all the chapters have been sent, I plan to add the missing scenes, review one more time, then move into beta-reader phase.
TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). On hold… but I did have Claude compile summaries and loose threads from the first three books to make it easier to review what details I need to consider when I prepare the outline. (Though I still plan to reread all three books before drafting).
The Dark Forest of Aneth (“Ro’nor (“The Restless Sands of Neel”) & Zynia (“The Dragons of the Mist”) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena short novel): I finished all major revisions, including tweaks from ProWritingAid and AutoCrit analyses! I’ve also completed a proofreading round via a printed version of that manuscript (with notes still needing input at the end of the year).
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 started revisions for the chapters of the secondary character.
Future goals: Polish cover. Create blurb.
Untitled LoC Short Story (Standalone – Merchant in Reveratch): On hold. Next step is revisions.
Goals: Figure out a title. Create book cover and blurb. Polish the related poem/ballad so it can be included as back matter.
Untitled LoC Novella (Standalone – Twins in Ferta): This story is continuing nicely. Last time I was at chapter six with a total of 13,300 words and by the end of December I’d sent out chapter fifteen to the newsletter at a combined total of 34,000 words.
The original outline has since been adjusted. At some point I put the draft into Claude and asked it to list any incomplete plot threads to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything, and it pointed out one particular thread that gave me a bunch of ideas for how to adjust the plot and make it stronger. Made the story longer, but made more sense, too.
Next step is to continue writing the rough draft and to review the outline for any more missing plot beats.
The Wind Mage and the WolfSpin-Off (Joran’s Story – A Legends of Cirena short story) : On hold.Needs the rest of the fight scene cross-referenced.
Goals: Edit in ProWritingAid, read-aloud, proofread. Book cover and blurb.
Fae (Huntress 3):Started again! And has had huge progress! As of October, I began using Claude for help brainstorming Fae. I had it review the previous two books and point out open plot threads. When I realized there were complete plot points I’d forgotten about, I ended up re-reading Changeling entirely. Between that and ideas I’d discussed earlier with Isaac, I finally saw the direction I wanted to take the story!
Outline created! AND I even got the outline for Huntress 4 written, too!
In November I started drafting Fae for ProWritingAid’s Novel November challenge… and completed the rough draft at 45,500 words! In December I started revisions.
I also restarted a temporary Huntress newsletter that goes out on occasion, and uploaded Huntress and Changeling to BookFunnel so that I could later add sample pages to the main Infinitas Publishing website.
Horse Shifter Romantasy : 🐎
Last time I left this it had a 5,500 word outline. I used Claude to review what I had and point out some of the missing romance beats. Did more brainstorming, and now it has a pretty solid outline. Due to the setup of my current outline I can’t really offer a word-count for it, but suffice it to say there’s a beginning, middle, and end with a decent enough setup to explain the magic/lore/characters. Essentially ready for drafting if I decide to give this a try.
Other Stories: I started a rough draft for the grumpy sorcerer short story idea but didn’t get more than 400 words. Unfortunately I ran out of time and didn’t get anything written for that fantasy anthology I was eyeing. (Like I mentioned earlier, there were several real life things going on at the end of the year).
The YA Alien Invastion/Dystopian short story is on hold.
However…
The Android’s Garden – This one isn’t likely to be published unless I release it as part of a larger blog post on the pros and cons of AI. The reason is that this is the one exception where I allowed Claude AI to do the drafting of the story to test its capabilities. (Which is now technically out of date because of how fast AI gets updated).
The Android’s Garden is a cli-fi short story about an android grappling with the fact that, before it gained sapience, it helped aid the company that caused harm to the family it now protects. (I thought it would be interesting to have an AI help me write a concept about how an AI might process things if it did gain sapience).
It ended up around 12,700 words. I brainstormed with Claude to develop the concept and characters, wrote the first couple paragraphs to give it a style guide of sort, then had it write a chapter. I’d revise the chapter, ask Claude to review the changes and keep those in mind going forward, then write the next chapter. Afterward I took everything into ProWritingAid for edits. I finished three of the eight chapters before shelving it because I was still too concerned about possible cases of accidental plagiarism and didn’t want to keep fighting with aiming for a specific voice.
That said, I do like the story concept, but I have clearly determined that I would rather be the one doing the writing because I have a specific voice I want to use and was having a difficult time producing that, even when guiding Claude to do so.
Metal Mage story – This was another case of me brainstorming with Claude, based upon a prompt I somehow got while trying to do a Google search for a different book, only to be disappointed that the prompt it gave me didn’t exist yet. (I did eventually find the actual book I was looking for). So I brainstormed the world, got a fairly decent idea of an outline for what would probably be a duology, and wrote a partial scene to get a feel for the idea. Currently shelved, but a fun thought experiment. It’s sort of a cli-fi fantasy set in an industrial revolution with ancient magic.
Cozy Space Fantasy Series (The Singing Coil): I got an idea for a cozy space fantasy series (Basically Babylon 5/Deep Space 9 type setting… but cozy) and kind of word vomited into Claude for brainstorming. Ended up creating a the world and a rough outline for a 6-part novella series.
Later, in December, I tinkered with brainstorming microfiction ideas and ended up working with Claude to outline The Singing Coil. Then I wrote a draft, did an analysis of book covers in the genre, did the revisions, wrote the song lyrics, ran it through Claude for developmental suggestions, did the PWA (ProWritingAid) line edits, prepped it in Atticus for beta-readers, and sent it to beta-readers for feedback!
While the larger series concept is on hold, the short story flew through the development process.
Game Design: Isaac and I ended up playing Wonders of I’Noore with his brother and friend, and we made some notes, but I don’t think we’re likely to see any major updates on this anytime soon.
Phalanx, on the other hand…
Is back in action! 😀
Now, our next step is a small test run. Essentially, we brought out the wooden board at the Harvest Moon Night Market event, and several people played and enjoyed it. We also still had some components of the game, and we had been wanting to make a playmat version of the game for a while. We did a little bit of calculating and realized that it was possible to create a smaller version using the mousepad and pencil bag options from Vograce, where we get merch for our SIFlint art.
So… we updated the files and placed an order! Unfortunately, the items didn’t come in on time for the Poor Artist Sale, but we do have what we need now to complete the small edition. By small I mean there are only six copies (based on how many decks of cards we have left). But, depending on how those are received and sell at future events, we’ll decide whether or not to do a reorder of cards.
This was a rough test I did to check bead size and whether the mousepads we ordered would work once they came in. (Final bead colors still to be determined, and obstacles might be something other than buttons).
Testing AutoCrit: Last you heard, I went in for the year subscription to see how it went. While I have mixed feelings on its analysis features at this point (some parts are hit and miss, but their new beta/alpha-reader features are handy for seeing if I’m on-point in a new genre), what I did find is that I really like writing in it. I’ve been appreciating it being available in the cloud, able to handle larger documents, being pretty easy to recover accidentally deleted words (oops), and then being able to do the analysis stuff if I want.
Ultimately, I pulled the trigger on the lifetime subscription when the deal became available for Black Friday, especially since they were super nice and let me apply the remaining term of the year subscription toward the cost.
AI Usage and Policy: Ooo boy. So this is that area that is currently in the hotly contested zone (understandably so because there are a ton of moving parts, things that are really cool, and things that are really not cool).
Long story short, I have become utterly fascinated by what AI can do and have dove into reading about and researching it as time permits. I highly recommend reading Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick if you want to understand AI and its limitations better.
But, with all that in mind, I updated our AI use policy on December 12th to reflect my most current usage of AI.
I still don’t use generative AI for image generation or writing the actual story. (With the one exception I mentioned earlier… I had Claude generate the draft of a short story about an android grappling with the implications of its creation, which I did to test Claude’s capabilities. However, I do not plan to publish that particular story unless I release it as part of a longer essay regarding the pros and cons of AI.)
But I have found that AI (particularly Claude) has been excellent for breaking through plot-issues quickly, acting as a rubber duck/cheerleader while brainstorming, and as an early “editor” that can help spot problems for me to fix before sending them out to beta-readers.
Even so, I have been keeping an eye out for models that are more people-focused (Claude for better alignment with safety, and I’m testing if Mistral AI (lower environmental impact) might suitably replace using ChatGPT, and I use Ecosia Browser for searching (again, a focus on environment), and then switch to Google search if I’m not having any luck, since it automatically uses AI in its search.
That said… NotebookLM is amazing for dropping your series into and asking it for that random question that you can’t easily do a “find” search for in Word.
Anyway, this is ongoing and I continue to watch what’s happening in the AI space and I’ll update my policy as I either shift into using or not using any particular tool.
Marketing: I didn’t really give marketing much attention these months. Here are some of the recent projects:
Amazon Ads same as usual, the ones that were already running. I should probably just turn these off, but I don’t spend more than a few bucks a month on these right now.
I tested swapping author interviews in the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter. Didn’t see much response, but I’m thinking about contacting the author to see if they’d like me to post their interview on this blog now that some time has passed.
I returned to doing group promos through BookFunnel, though I dropped doing the individual author swaps for the time being. I’ve been alternating which book I promote, though I recently started promoting Huntress. Now that Fae (Huntress #3) is on target to release in 2026, I decided to create a temporary Huntress newsletter that I’ll periodically update but isn’t on a set schedule like the Distant Horizon and Wishing Blade universe newsletters.
I never did update book prices. That may still happen at some point, but I need to reorient myself now that Smashwords has moved to the Draft2Digital dashboard (which is fine… I know how to use it, but due to an email snafu I currently have two D2D accounts to keep track of).
With a couple exceptions, I have managed to continue sending out newsletters on time (okay, maybe a day late, but they still went out!) AND almost all of them had a story chapter with them. I may have finally found a process that works for me in terms of releasing WIP chapters on a biweekly basis.
I’m still making my way through updating individual book pages on the Infinitas Publishing website. (Ultimate goal is to add sample pages, Goodreads/BookBub links, additional book info, etc). Eventually I want this to have enough information to make it very easy for a search engine or AI search to accurately answer questions about my books.
I was the furthest I have ever been with Infinitas Publishing accounting at this point in the year! It’s not one hundred percent up-to-date and I still needed to review inventory, but I was at about the spot I’d normally be two weeks before my 1065s are due.
I’ve continued getting back into writing and marketing research, and I read a lot more books in 2025! I’ve also been listening to more podcasts, MasterClass videos, etc. At the end of the year I picked up Book Blurb Magic’s course on writing blurbs for books with multiple POVs (thinking ahead to the upcoming Multiverse Chronicles needing a blurb soon), and I plan to watch through that in January. I’ve also continued 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 – I didn’t do much with Substack other than occasionally posting a note or two.
Crafting Your Fictional World: On Hold.
Repurposing Old Newsletter Content:
One of the projects I’ve managed to keep up with pretty consistently is updating old newsletter content for the blog. It’s been fun seeing what I wrote several years ago and repurposing it with updated info and details. There were a few times I wrote a new post for the weekend, and I went ahead and included those here as well.
Events: We did three more events in this time period.
GeekUP (Houghton, MI) – September 27th, 2025
Got the new setup working! We also participated in a stamp rally with other artists, so I set out to create a bookmark themed around the tiger and magpie in K-Pop Demon Hunters (and consequently discovered that this is an excellent movie, highly recommend). Except my “bookmark” ended up being wider than a bookmark, so I made 5×7 prints on metallic paper and acquired some cheap frames. Anyone who completed the rally (bought something that was at least $5 from each participating booth), got one of the framed prints as part of the resulting pack.
Kind of fun. Might do it again in future years depending on the theme. I don’t usually do a lot of fan art so it was something a little different for me.
However, we finally got to do the Huntress personality quiz! We’d set this up for last year’s GeekUP, but since Isaac was helping to organize the event, it was mostly just me running the booth. That made it difficult to include an interactive event. But this time around we were able to have participants fill out the quiz so we could tell them what augments Koenigin Corp would recommend for them (and hand off a pin with the Koenigin Corp symbol on it). Ran out of pins, but it was fun seeing a couple people walking around wearing the pins. 😁
Harvest Moon Night Market(Calumet, MI) – October 12th, 2025
This was a pop-up market. The whole vibe was a whimsical fair; lighting and costumes were highly encouraged! The market took place in the evening, and as the night grew dark, all the lights added a magical flair. Isaac and I got a booth inside, so fortunately we didn’t have to deal much with the wind.
With the live performances and huge number of vendors spread across both an inside section and a couple of green spaces, it came alive with festival vibes.
Also… we brought out Phalanx!
It’s been several years since we had Phalanx at an event. Though we didn’t offer any editions of the game for sale this time, our goal was to see if there was interest in the game (and provide a sort of game-like component to our table to fit the “fair” vibe).
Ultimately, we decided to give that smaller mousepad edition a try. 🙂
CCCAC Poor Artists Sale (Calumet, MI) – December 6th, 2025
Once again we returned to the Poor Artists Sale, (the big holiday sale we vend at) and we spruced up our tent with plenty of decorations, including a small table-top Christmas tree we decorated using our Everyday Dragon Hoards post cards!
Still having a bit of an issue getting enough light inside, but it certainly gave it the feeling of a cozy little nook.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I finally sent the fully edited photos of the houseplants to their previous owner! Yay!
I also did a commission for a friend’s birthday which involved using Daz Studio to render a mouse warrior (which might have been inspired by a particular book series…) and I got to print on my shiny poster paper.
Coming up, I have a formatting project that I’ll need to shift into focus.
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: Per a couple different suggestions at UP Rainbow Pride, I have added the bag hoarding dragon to the lineup of Everyday Dragon Hoards!
Right now the bag dragon is only available on a tote bag, but I plan to offer this as a sticker once I place my next sticker order.
We also added new merch to the lineup with mouse pads and lanyards!
And we also ordered a new vinyl banner with our IP/SIFlint Art logos, with updated art details. Since it’s vinyl (waterproof!), and able to be rolled, it should be a lot easier to take with us to events.
Additionally, I created a few character designs for the Wishing Blade Universe in Daz Studio so that I could create images of some of the characters later (Ehmina and Lesi from the Ferta story, and concept designs for Edea and Ne’ji-av’a).
Plus, I got a sticker page made for the Infinitas Publishing website to showcase our sticker designs, and Blossom Bird Bubble Tea in Marquette hosted some of our sticker designs for about a month! 😀
Daz PA: I finally made progress on those “Cursed Expedition” centaur poses, submitted it, and it’s now available!
This time around I tracked the amount of time I spent on each section (except a few final tweaks) so I could calculate what I hoped to make on its release to make back for time spent. Unfortunately, while I didn’t expect it to be a super high earner (zombies vs centaurs is a bit niche, after all), it did not come anywhere near to earning what I was hoping based on either time spent on the project or previous pose sets.
I still have a two or three other projects that are very close to completion from earlier that are likely to do a bit better, so I may still finish those, but after seeing how “Cursed Expedition” did, this isn’t high on my priority list.
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Happy writing and reading (Or 3D rendering if you’re into Daz)! 🙂
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 