Tag Archives: paperback edition

April 7, 2023 · 1:22 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

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

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

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

* * *

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

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

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

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

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

Betrayed (Deceived #2): Cover complete!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: On hold.

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

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SBibb Pride Nails for Genesis 9

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

* * *

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

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, betrayed novella, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz 3D, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, SBibb, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, website updates, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

February 3, 2023 · 10:33 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

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

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

* * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: On hold.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daz PA: Finally got a couple products submitted! 😀

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

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

SBibb Slush and Snow Shaders for Iray and Merchant Resource

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

* * *

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

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz 3D, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, SBibb, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, website updates, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

January 20, 2023 · 3:04 pm

Revisiting 2022 Accomplishments and 2023 Goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🌿 Distant Horizon Universe 🌊

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

2023’s Goals:

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

🗡️ Wishing Blade Universe 🔮

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

2023’s Goals:

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

👁️ Huntress Universe 🍎

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

2023’s Goals:

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

🌇 Comics 🦴

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

2023’s Goals:

Nothing currently planned

📚 Unplanned Additions 📚

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

🎨 SBibb’s Photographic Illustration 🎨

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

2023 Goal’s

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

🎲 Game Design 🎲

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

2023 Goals

Nothing specific planned at this point

✨ Daz PA ✨

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

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

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

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

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

October – SBibb Skyward Gaze Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1

2023’s Goals:

Release equivalent of two products per month

* * *

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

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz 3D, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, goal setting, goals, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, website updates, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

January 6, 2023 · 11:15 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

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

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

* * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: On hold.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our booth at the Poor Artists Sale in Calumet

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

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

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

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

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

Hawthorn Creek Anthology Signing – Photo by Trish Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

😀

* * *

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

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Filed under Business Ventures, Daz 3D, Writing

Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz 3D, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, website updates, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

November 5, 2022 · 10:12 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

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

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

* * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: On hold.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original Banner:

New Banner:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SBibb Skyward Gaze Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1

This is a pose set Isaac helped me create. 🙂

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

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

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

😀

* * *

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

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Filed under Business Ventures, Daz 3D, Writing

Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz 3D, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, website updates, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia

October 7, 2022 · 10:59 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

September passed in a blur, and now it’s time for another Infinitas Publishing status report!

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve finally finished inputting the last half of the proofreading notes into the manuscript! Next step, look over the remaining couple comments and then format the paperback edition.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve started revisions! I’m currently at 19,000 words of 58,000 words. The goal is to make revisions to what I have so far, add missing scenes, and then hand the updated manuscript to Isaac for his edits. Once I know what needs adjusted, I’ll plan on writing the next 50k-100k words during NaNoWriMo so that we can get this rough draft finished.

I’ve also made a timeline schedule for when different steps of the process need to be done in order to have it ready on time for our tentative release date.

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

Deceived #2 – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I have a couple scenes to revise, and then I can hand this to Isaac for developmental edits.

Next step is to create a book cover for Deceived #2, and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

TWB 4: (Book Four of The Wishing Blade series). I reviewed my earlier outline notes and realized I had more of this ready than I thought. I’ve started inputting those notes into Scrivener.

Next step is to finish adding the remaining outline to Scrivener, review that outline for missing plot points, and then write the rough draft.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: Isaac has updated the character creation guide for our Legends of Cirena tabletop RPG, and also created a map for Memnar Academy. This is a long way from being ready to release publicly, but might influence some of the stories in the meantime.

He also did a bit more work to the elemental card game.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

Villain Problems: (WIP panels viewable on my Instagram). I got a couple more scenes rendered and organized. Otherwise, on hold.

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

Marketing: No paid ads this month except for Amazon drip ads and the usual BookFunnel Promos. I had a little more luck with daily Twitter posts and promo scheduling, though still not quite where I’d have liked it to be, given that I also postponed one of my usual newsletter sends.

However, I did finally get the Distant Horizon Universe mailing list moved to MailerLite, and I’ve got a better idea of how automations work. Woot!

Next step: Polish the onboarding sequence for both the Distant Horizon newsletter and Wishing Blade Universe newsletter.

I’ve also scheduled this month’s weekly BookFunnel promo highlights, and I’ve started adding sample chapters to the BookFunnel pages and the main Infinitas Publishing website. Additionally, I have an updated author bio that I’m testing.

Geek UP

Early in the month, Isaac and I participated in Geek UP, a comic convention hosted by Black Ice Comics and Books. We had a great day, and this one was really successful for us. (Highlight of the day: finding out Distant Horizon had introduced someone to dystopian books and now they loved the genre.) We had a lot of fun. Since it was a more fan-based/interactive convention, Isaac made a little “power scanner” gadget that could remotely light up, and we were able to ask, “Have you been scanned for super powers yet?” before handing out a bookmark based on a character and super power from our Distant Horizon series (random number generated with a dice roller app). It was a great conversation starter, and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. We also made mini booklet catalogs that had a list of our series’ starters, their blurbs, and where to find us.

Isaac preparing for our Geek UP vendor booth.

Additionally, I made huge progress on the Infinitas Publishing business ledger upkeep. (I am notorious for waiting last minute and then cramming to get everything organized during business tax season). I’ve still got a few sections to update, but it’s coming along nicely.

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

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

Other Stories: I edited few stories for the upcoming Writers of Warrensburg anthology, and then made edits to my story based on feedback from other writers in the group. With their help, I finally got it under 5000 words. 😀

After getting the main editors’ feedback, I made those edits, and have now turned in the final draft, ready for proofreading. That project should be done soon.

In other projects, I was going to write mermaid/siren sci-fi short story idea to submit to another upcoming anthology, but ended up running out of time with all the other projects. So that one’s going on hold, though I did write 462 words for it, and still have the completed outline.

The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve started work on a project for an independent small press. The ebook formatting is complete, and I’m about halfway through print formatting. Next step is to finish the print formatting and create the book cover proof.

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

Daz PA: This month I released my Loyal Companion pose set! 😀

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

I’d been wanting to work on an animal-themed set for a while, so this one allowed me to scratch that itch. 😀

I also finished polishing my next pose set, one Isaac helped me create. That one has been submitted and is waiting for testing.

Next up: Start work on the joint PA project I’ve got planned, and finalize the second pose set Isaac helped me create. Plus… I’ve been learning how to work with dForce strand hair, so maybe there will be a hair release coming up in the next couple months, too. 😀

😀

* * *

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

Leave a comment

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia, ya queer romance

September 2, 2022 · 7:16 pm

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s only been a couple weeks since the previous Infinitas Publishing status report, but I wanted to get back in the groove of scheduling these at the beginning of the month.

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I need to finish inputting the last half of the proofreading notes into the manuscript, and then I need to format the print edition.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Deceived 2.

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

Deceived #2 – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I finished inputting the proofreading notes into the manuscript and I’ve revised a couple scenes where I found pacing issues. I have a couple more scenes to revise, and then I can hand it to Isaac for developmental edits.

Next step is to create a book cover for Deceived #2, and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

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

Game Design: On hold.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

Marketing: Again, no paid ads this month except for Amazon drip ads. I participated in a few more BookFunnel Promos, but was behind on including those posts as weekly promo highlights, and also behind on posting on Twitter.

However, I’ve already scheduled this month’s weekly BookFunnel promo highlights, and hope to do better with Twitter posts.

I’ve also continued having success with reading more fiction and non-fiction.

Next step: Move Distant Horizon Universe list over to MailerLite and create full-fledged onboarding sequence.

I’m also thinking of making a “Backburner Project Page” for projects that aren’t going to be focused on for a while, that way this status report page can be a bit more organized.

Other future marketing goals: Add a progress tracker somewhere for the different books. Test Draft2Digital for wide print distribution, test mailing list automations, revise Amazon ads, link to my Pinterest account on the Infinitas Publishing website, overhaul book categories and keywords, and do the usual business ledger upkeep.

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

Other Stories: I’ve finished drafting and revising a sci-fi short story for the upcoming Writers of Warrensburg anthology. It’s currently a little over 5000 words, so it needs a bit more trimming, but at this point, it is now ready for beta-reading. 🙂

I also outlined a mermaid/siren sci-fi short story idea (700 words). I may try writing that to submit for a different upcoming anthology.

The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Future Goals: Update the Infinitas Publishing website banner. Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects. Update the SBibbPhoto website to incorporate Daz work.

Daz PA: My Tender Affections pose set has released! 😀

SBibb Tender Affection Poses and Expressions for Genesis 8 and 8.1

I’m excited to finally release this set. This is a polyamory-themed pose set Isaac helped me create, focusing on sweet/cute triads. Was a lot of fun to make, especially since I didn’t see many other similarly themed sets in the Daz store.

My doggo-themed set is now waiting for testing, and I have two more pose sets Isaac helped me create that I’m working on polishing and then creating promos for.

😀

* * *

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

Leave a comment

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Tagged as 3d artist, 3D modeling, an author's process, author, book cover, book series, book signing, changeling, Daz PA, Daz pose sets, deceived, Deceived series, Distant Horizon, dystopian novella, epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy novellas, fantasy short stories, Huntress, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, legends of cirena, new releases, paperback edition, publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, serials, series, short stories, status report, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, writing, writing tips, YA dystopia, ya queer romance, ya sapphic romance

August 16, 2022 · 10:16 am

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

We’re midway through August… I lost track of time and forgot to write up the month’s Infinitas Publishing status report. But here we are!

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve been inputting proofreading notes into the manuscript. I’m about halfway through with the notes, and then I need to format the print edition and place an order so I can have them on hand for local conventions.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold while working on Deceived 2.

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

Deceived #2 – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): I need to finish inputting proofreading notes into the manuscript and examine a couple scenes where I found pacing issues.

Next step is to give this to Isaac for developmental edits, create a book cover for Deceived #2, and continue revisions on Deceived #3.

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

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

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

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions).

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legends of Cirena Epic: Outlining on hold. Map of Litkanston on hold. This is intended to be a back-burner project.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

Changeling: (Huntress #2) Print edition complete! KDP has approved it to go live. You can find the paperback edition of Changeling here.

Huntress 3: I started reviewing the 25k words I’d written, and started creating an updated outline. I had planned on working on this for Camp NaNo.

Instead, I ended up mostly working on an idea for a prequel novella (that’s trying to turn into a novel). I reached almost 15,000 words during Camp, and I’m now at 18,000 words. This one is a retelling of Sun, Moon, and Talia/Sleeping Beauty, but I’ve mostly been pantsing it instead of plotting, and that’s definitely a slower process for me.

I did manage to write at least one sentence every day during Camp, even if I didn’t reach a specific word count.

Game Design: On hold.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold.

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

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

Marketing: I’ve finished cleaning both the Wishing Blade Universe and Distant Horizon Universe mailing lists by removing inactive subscribers. Though the Distant Horizon universe has a basic onboarding sequence, the full-fledged one I’d like to make is on hold until I transfer that mailing list service from Mailchimp to MailerLite (considerably less expensive once I reach the paid threshold, and will also let me use more complicated automations).

You can, however, now sign up for the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter to receive the Initiated cookie. 😀 (It’s the prequel to Deceived, and works as a jumping off point before Distant Horizon and the Glitch saga).

No paid ads this month except for Amazon drip ads. I participated in a couple more BookFunnel Promos, and continued doing my daily Twitter posts, though that fell off in August due to traveling and life stuff.

I still need to schedule this month’s weekly BookFunnel promo highlights.

Good news is that I’ve been doing more reading of fiction and non-fiction. I’ve been using the genre worksheet I created last month for evaluating the fiction books I’ve read.

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

Other Stories: I’ve started working on a sci-fi short story for an upcoming Writers of Warrensburg anthology. So far I have around 1,000 words. More on that coming soon. 🙂

The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold. Comic script (“If I Had Asked”) on hold.

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

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Future Goals: Update the Infinitas Publishing website banner. Figure out a schedule for uploading general art projects.

Daz PA: Two new sets have released! 😀 (And I made some adjustments to my Egyptian Ankh makeup set so that it worked better in Daz Studio 4.20).

SBibb Bullish Behavior for Classical Minotaur for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Male

This one was something of a collaboration, since I used RawArt’s classical minotaur as the base. It was a lot of fun to work with, and I very much enjoyed putting this pose set together.

SBibb Surprise and Fear Poses and Expressions for Genesis 8 and 8.1

This is a surprise/fear themed pose set, a little more straightforward than the minotaur one. I’d been working on this set on and off for a while, since several other projects with deadlines kept popping up before I finished this one.

Up next, I’ve submitted an affections group pose set that’s waiting for review. More on that once it releases. I also have a doggo-themed set I’m currently in the process of finishing up and creating promo images for, and I may have another collab project I’ll be working on shortly (different artist). More on those later. 🙂

😀

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

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October 14, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Magic’s Stealing – The Paperback Proof Is In!

Today I’m going to interrupt my usual post with an announcement: I have received my paperback proof of Magic’s Stealing!

It came in a small, cardboard wrap (not quite a box, but not a bag, either), and was delivered to my front door. Upon opening the package, I took a few pictures. 😀

(( Please ignore the various HeroMachine pictures and cool artwork in the background… those aren’t our personal works (Though if you want a good way to organize the general look of your characters, HeroMachine is quite fun. There’s a whole row of pictures off the frame that we based on one of our campaigns). ))

Fancy Title Page

Anyway, this book has 158 pages of content, plus additional pages for the front and back matter, and it clocks in at 170 pages long. Here you can see the the title page (there’s a few pages before it), and further down this post are samples of a chapter page and a regular, full-text page. You can click the images to see them at a larger size.

I did all the formatting in Microsoft Word 2007, and I hope to do a post later on some of the fun tools you can use to add a professional touch to your books. Once I tested a few pages out on my printer for various fonts and sizes and line spacing, I saved this as a PDF, and checked it in the digital proofer on Createspace. Once that looked good, I ordered the print edition.

This particular book is 5.25 x 8 inches (based on a few of my favorite books with easy-to-read formatting), which uses the same dimensions as a 6 x 9, so the cover converted easily. Glossy cover and black-and-white, cream pages. I chose the “bleed” option so that I could use the full page image treatment (pulled from the background of the cover) for the chapter intros and title page.

Page Full of Text

I did notice that the words got a tad bit close to the gutter, so that’s something I’ll have to keep in mind for future series, but it’s still readable. Of course, I also justified the text.

This is the end result, and I’m now reading through the book to make sure the formatting is correct before I release the print edition (Amazon only, for now).

I’ve found a couple typos, which I’ve made note of, but if those are all I find, I will most likely let those slide for now so that I don’t potentially mess up the formatting right before ordering a large number of books. If I find a large number of typos, I may go ahead and do the initial revision now.

Though that one I’ve found may keep pestering me…

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll order a second proof, that way I can be sure the formatting looks right and that there are as few errors in the print book as possible.

Anyway, regardless of what I choose to do, I plan to go back and revisit both the print and ebook editions at some point for typos, but I’m considering doing that all at once, when more typos have inevitably been found.

In the meantime, look forward to the paperback edition, coming soon! 😀

Sorry, this photo got a little blurry…

I hope you’ve found this post helpful. 🙂

Have you had any experiences with proofing a print edition of your book? How do you decide when to update for typo corrections?

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Tagged as book proof, createspace, fantasy novella, Magic's Stealing, paperback, paperback edition, print edition, proof copy, proofing, publishing tips, self-publishing, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, unboxing

September 30, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – The Excerpt at the Front of a Print Book

I’m in the process of creating a paperback edition of Magic’s Stealing. I’ve got most of the formatting complete, save for a couple blank pages, and I’m currently focusing on adding an excerpt at beginning of print book. The idea is that as soon as a potential reader opens the book, the first thing they see is a teaser that makes them want to read more (and encourages them to be patient if that scene takes time to reach).

Keep in mind, when a reader is browsing a book store or examining a book at an author’s table, they will likely look at the cover, then at the back cover blurb, then at the excerpt on the first page of the book. The goal is to draw them in more and more until they choose to buy the book.

This is how I ended up buying The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross (and ultimately loving it) at a Barnes and Noble. I’ve seen other books do the same. Adding the excerpt provides a teaser so that the reader knows what to expect.

(You might see another form of this on a hardcover book, but the excerpt may be on the back cover, usually something of action or intrigue, with the blurb inside the cover flaps).

Let’s take a look at Magic’s Stealing and see how this compares.

Back Cover Blurb:

For centuries, ribbons of magic have provided the kingdom of Cirena with light, healing, and protection. Then, in a span of minutes, those ribbons fly from their masters, stolen, save for the magic of a few chosen mages. One of these mages is Toranih, a young noblewoman who would rather have a sword in her hand than use her powers to heal or throw fireballs. As a result, her magic skills are lacking. But with former mages dying from magic withdrawal, and the looming threat of an army of shadows who are impervious to mortal weapons, she must either embrace the responsibilities of a mage or watch her home perish.

Whatever excerpt I choose, the excerpt should enhance the understanding of the content inside the book.

These were the two excerpts I’m considering:

First Excerpt

Toranih cast a glance toward the distant mountain and shivered. The closer they came, the more her unease grew. It wasn’t her usual dislike of magic. As close as they were now, the magic inside the forge glowed like a star. Yet the whole place was shrouded with a thick fog, a veil that kept the magic hidden from the distance.

She frowned.

She could almost see thin filaments weaving through the fog, like the shadows of strings from a poorly played puppet theatre. The filaments lashed out in different directions, disappearing as they touched bright, sunlit sky. She tilted her head and squinted, but the strings vanished altogether.

She shivered and returned to picking at the soft innards of her roll.

There was something different about that magic. Wild. Unsteady. Like a foal that hadn’t been broken, and might never be. The magic was curious, like a dark storm cloud spewing cracks of thunder and lightning when the rest of the land was gold.

Toranih shivered.

All this magic was bound to cause strange visions.

So why was she drawn to follow?

In this excerpt, we get a glimpse at shadow magic, a sense of eeriness, and a taste of the writing style. There is a also a question at the end, which would hopefully draw a reader’s attention. However, this scene doesn’t jibe with the back cover blurb. We have a mountain forge, shadowy, string-like magic, strange visions, and some kind of call to follow that magic. While the scene should be intriguing in itself, it doesn’t mesh well with the blurb.

Second Excerpt

Toranih could actually see faint ribbons in the distance, rising from their masters. The ribbons streamed into the sky, a dazzling array of colors, then fled east, away from the city in a glaring river.

She looked at the bowl again and blinked her eyes to clear the spots. She had to know what was going on. The liquid had gone milky-white, but if she could see what was happening . . .

She ran her fingers along the strings at the top of the water. One here, one there. The tips of her fingers tingled as lavender wisps flooded the bowl. The image swirled, faint. The mountain forge reappeared. The man held his sword fixed between both hands, raised to the sky. His feet were spread strong under his shoulders. Ribbons streamed to his sword from across the kingdom. The sword glowed bright and brighter, and as the screams outside died into a disjointed murmur, the sword faded and the image darkened.

The water was clear now, devoid of life.

Everyone’s magic had fled into the stranger’s sword.

First, this excerpt shows the ribbons mentioned in the blurb. Second, we see Toranih using magic (which conflicts with her dislike of magic, but the blurb does say she must embrace the responsibilities of being a mage). Third, we see a bit about the antagonist. Fourth, we see the event that the blurb mentions, and the end of the excerpt sets the problem up further.

Ultimately, I’m thinking the second excerpt is a lot stronger as a potential hook, especially when paired with the back cover blurb.

I hope you find this post helpful. 🙂 Have you considered adding an excerpt to the front of your book?

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Tagged as back cover book, book excerpt, creating a print book, formatting, front matter, paperback edition, publishing, publishing tips, SBibb, self-publishing, Stephanie Flint, teaser, writing tips