Tag Archives: The Trial of Bells and Blood

August has flown in, which means it’s time for another Infinitas Publishing Status Report!

And wow, July was busy. Between finishing several Daz projects, a trip to San Diego, and releasing The Trial of Bells and Blood, there’s a lot to talk about.

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

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Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). This was on hold while finishing The Trial of Bells and Blood and various Daz projects. I did get a few small revisions made, and started working on converting a penciled map to digital for continuity reference.

Revising this is my main writing project for August.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold with a rough draft at 50,000 words.

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

Galina’s Saga (Deceived) – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Though I’d hoped to make revisions to Deceived #2 in July, that didn’t go as planned. I did edit the first chapter and input Isaac’s notes into the manuscript. On the bright side, Isaac read Deceived #3 and part of #4 while on vacation, so I have more of his feedback. Some big changes to the climax of #3, but should be pretty easy to implement. I’ve added his notes into the manuscript, so that one is ready for revision.

I still need to finish updating the book cover, deciding on a series title, and outlining Deceived #6.

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: Finally got the rest of Isaac’s notes added into the manuscript. Otherwise 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.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: I read through the current draft of the Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over and made minor revisions. It was in better shape than I expected, though there’s a couple small scenes I’m considering adding earlier in the story.

Due to focusing on Starless Night next month, I don’t anticipate continuing the rough draft for this one until September.

In other news, I do have a tentative title, and a basic concept for the book cover.

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.

The Trial of Bells and Blood (Hahven (The Cursed Halls of Kalecen) & Alia (The Scars of Her Past) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena novella): Released!

I finished applying beta-reader feedback, printed it out for proofreading, and then uploaded the final version to retailers. It released July 20th. 😀

Since I was traveling during launch week, I did a pre-launch party the week before launch for The Wishing Blade Universe newsletter.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

Huntress / Changeling: I’ve removed Changeling from Kindle Unlimited, and Huntress will be leaving KU once its term ends in late August. I plan to take the series wide after that, and to make Huntress free, at least temporarily, as a way to boost awareness in other stores.

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. (Currently at 25,000 words) On hold. I was originally hoping to start looking over the current draft in July, but that didn’t happen. It’s looking like revisions may happen in September at the earliest, unless Starless Night revisions go super smoothly.

Game Design: On hold. Elemental games needs final card art polished, as well as further testing of game mechanics.

Future plans in game design involve taking product shots of the updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter, and possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold until both of us have time to sit down at the same time and finalize panels for episode one.

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

Marketing: The ebook promos for this month’s newsletter have been selected, though I still need to set up the weekly promo highlights for this blog. Last month I went ahead and upped my promotions to four. Seems like the number of shares they each received from my newsletters dropped or remained about the same, though I showcased them in multiple newsletters like the previous month. I decided to try limiting the promos to three again for this month.

Last month I didn’t do any paid promos until the very last day, and sales remained low, with a slight rise this month compared to the previous month because of the new release (The Trial of Bells and Blood). I’ve updated the previously run paid promos to see number of downloads and the number of related sales in the week after. Then I decided which ones to try again because they seem to either earn back their cost or make a profit, and which ones have the most potential to earn out. I have a few scheduled for next month to see what happens.

Also… I now have a Pinterest account! https://www.pinterest.com/stephanieflintauthor/

Not sure how much I’ll put up there, but feel free to follow it if you’re interested. 🙂

Future goals: I plan to revise the Amazon Ads I use, which will probably involve shutting off most of the ads that are still running. The new ad I tested with Huntress never really started showing impressions. I plan to retest that ad once I have Huntress out of KU.

I still want to overhaul the book categories and keywords for the different series, and do the usual business ledger upkeep.

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

Other Stories: The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold. Also have a necromancer/villain problems short story I want to write at some point.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Had some ideas for putting together a pre-recorded webinar of sorts on various writing topics. Things like “showing versus telling” as differences in writing style, more in-detail looks at world building, converting a role-playing game to a story (Isaac’s idea). No immediate plans for making this happen, just an idea that’s brewing on the back burner for now.

Future Goals: Update the Infinitas Publishing website banner.

Daz PA: Finished making tweaks to the prop and pose set and finalizing adjustments to the promos. It has now been submitted. I also submitted a pose set, which came out recently: SBibb Cursed Merman Poses and Expressions for Zale 8.1. And I submitted an expression set, which also came out recently: SBibb Seafarer Expressions for Wolfgang 8.1. Additionally, I submitted a second expression set, which is waiting to be assigned a release date. Progress!

Next up I’m working on the female variant of the Diverse Worlds head morphs set, and then I might work on a pose set I’ve been tinkering with off and on for a while. Then I’m thinking I may work on another 3D modeling project so I can keep those skills fresh.

 

SBibb Cursed Merman Poses and Expressions for Zale 8.1

 

SBibb Seafarer Expressions for Wolfgang 8.1

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

And now it’s July! (Lookie! I’m actually posting this on the 1st!) That means 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). On hold while finishing The Trial of Bells and Blood.

I’m hoping to add in the missing scenes and make revisions from my notes in July. After that, it’s either ProWritingAid notes or a first round of beta-readers for content feedback.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold with a rough draft at 50,000 words.

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

Galina’s Saga (Deceived) – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): During our trip to Missouri, Isaac got a chance to read through the current version of Deceived #2. Most of his feedback has involved easy changes, with the exception of a couple scenes. I’m planning on making those changes in early July before continuing edits on Starless Night, and possibly sending out Deceived #2 to beta-readers while making the Starless Night edits.

Also, I’m still considering adding in a book six, though I’m not sure yet. I still have plans for a possible book cover update as well. Got all the pieces in place, and now need to set them up in Daz and render them.

Still need to decide on the series title update.

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: More notes need to be added into the manuscript before starting revisions. On hold.

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.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over is on hold. I’m hoping to have time in July or August to read through the current rough draft and make revisions so I can get this started up again in the Facebook group soon. Possibly August?

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.

The Trial of Bells and Blood (Hahven (The Cursed Halls of Kalecen) & Alia (The Scars of Her Past) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena novella): I’ve updated the manuscript based on feedback from the writers group I go to (Hi, Writers of Warrensburg!) and given it one more reading pass. After a pass in ProWritingAid, I sent it out to beta-readers.

I’ve gotten beta-reader feedback, and I’ll be applying that in the next few days before uploading the final manuscript to the different retailers.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. (Currently at 25,000 words) On hold. Depending on how much time revisions take on Deceived #2, Starless Night, and Legends of Cirena #9, I’m hoping to at least begin looking over the rough draft for Huntress #3. Seems more likely that I’ll start working on this in August, though.

Game Design: On hold. Not much new progress this month. We still need to polish and finalize the card art for our elemental game, as well as continue further testing of the game mechanics.

Future plans in game design involve taking product shots of the updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter, and possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold until both of us have time to sit down at the same time and finalize panels for episode one.

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

Marketing: The weekly ebook promo highlights have been set up for this month. Last month I focused on three promos, and this month I’m focusing on four. A little bit of experimenting, since it did seem that showcasing them multiple times (rather than in one single newsletter) increased the amount of traffic to those promos. We’ll see if that trend continues.

In the meantime, I didn’t do any paid promos (aside from the usual ones through BookFunnel), and sales dropped drastically. The plan now is to assess the previous promos to see which ones did best. I plan to utilize paid promos again this month, particularly regarding the Legend of Cirena series since there will be the new release (The Trial of Bells and Blood) later in the month.

Future goals: As with the past few times, I still plan to revise the Amazon Ads I’m using. I’ve got one new ad I’m testing with Huntress. One thing I’ve been trying to do is read more books related to the ones I write, and I’m planning to focus on comp titles with those ads. Not sure how well it’ll work, but we’ll see if it has a better response (provided I can get the ads to show in the first place).

I still want to overhaul the book categories and keywords for the different series, and do the usual business ledger upkeep.

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

Other Stories: The YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold. Also have a necromancer/villain problems short story I want to write at some point.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Eventually I want to update the Infinitas Publishing website banner, but that’s on the back burner for now.

For presentations, I got to participate in a Novel Writing workshop with the Writers of Warrensburg. My topic was “Crafting Your Fictional World.” I had a blast, and I might have had a little too much fun putting together the worksheet for it. (If you’re curious, you can find it on the Writers of Warrensburg Resources page). Took me the whole day to finish it after creating the outline (with testing to try to get my corresponding presentation time down to 45 minutes… somehow I succeeded), and I submitted it at either one or two in the morning. (To be fair, it’s not entirely uncommon for me to go to bed then, but I digress).

Anyway, I’d kind of like to explore the world-building topic further, and I know I only barely touched on some of the topics in the presentation. If that’s something you’d like to see more of, let me know.

Daz PA: I submitted one prop and pose set and got feedback on it. Hoping to resubmit that once I make a few tweaks. I have another pose set that’s almost done. I need to make the promos, and then I’ll submit it. No new releases last month (though I did have a few products in the temporary PC+ for a Day sale), but it looks like there’s a good chance of having a couple products come out relatively close together in the coming month or so.

I’m thinking after that I’ll probably work on finishing the female variant of the Diverse Worlds head morphs, but there’s at least one other pose set I’d like to complete, too. 

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

I’m not quite sure where the month went… it feels like I got a lot of stuff done, but I’m not really sure what. I think there was a lot of planning involved for summer. And fighting with UV maps.

A lot of fighting with UV maps. (3D modeling learning curve).

And revisions. There was that, too, though that involved less glaring at a set of lines and trying to figure out why they weren’t lined up correctly on the texture side of things.

Still, we’ve switched over to June, which means it’s now time for the Infinitas Publishing Status Report!

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

* * *

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). My goal for May was to finish the first round of revisions on Starless Night. To achieve that, I set up a project on the NaNoWriMo website (because you can make projects that use the goal structure at times other than November and the camps–sweet!) for editing 100,000 words. That ended up putting my par at roughly 3400 words per day (took about an hour to achieve if I wasn’t stopping to research something).

Good news is that I completed that goal! The first pass of revisions is complete at 125,000 words (97,000 words since the last status report a few days into May).

I managed to write everyday until I finished the goal, so I sort of did it daily (though the site doesn’t show it since I stopped after the goal was achieved before the end of the month), and I also reached my par every day with the exception of one, which was the day after I got my second covid shot.

There are still pieces left to revise: at least three scenes that need to be written and added in, areas that aren’t quite getting the right tone/characterization, and sections that need minor tweaks or research. I left myself notes so that I could find them again and fix them in the next pass.

After that’s complete, I plan to send this out to beta-readers. (It might go through ProWritingAid edits first… not sure yet).

Still, it’s in a pretty good spot. My initial focus in June is going to be polishing The Trial of Bells and Blood. After that, I plan to work on the second pass of Starless Night revisions. I expect that to be a little spotty, however, due to summer vacation and various events. I’m expecting to get more of this done in July.

Changing Tides: (Book 4 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold with a rough draft at 50,000 words.

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

Galina’s Saga (Deceived) – (Distant Horizon spin-off series): Mostly on hold for the moment. I have a few scenes I know I want to add and adjust in the books I’ve already drafted.

However, the real news here is that, while revising Starless Night, I realized there were some things that should have happened in the Deceived series that would effect how Galina’s group interacts with Jenna in Starless Night. Started plotting what that was so I could keep it consistent…

And I might have come up with an idea for a sixth book in the Deceived series.

I’m not sure yet if this one will be written or if the series will stay complete at book five, but I do plan to outline it to make the next round of Starless Night revisions easier.

Other than that, this series is temporarily on hold while finalizing The Trial of Bells and Blood and revising Starless Night.

In yet other news… I think I might have finally struck on a book cover design for the series that I like and should also be on target for the genre. (Woot!) Hopefully I’ll get that updated sometime this month.

That said, I’m still debating on what the series title should be.

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: More notes need to be added into the manuscript before starting 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.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Ro’nor-Zynia cross-over is on hold. Current rough draft needs revisions and then I’ll continue with the story in the group.

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 while completing the Starless Night revisions and polishing The Trial of Bells and Blood.

The Trial of Bells and Blood (Hahven (The Cursed Halls of Kalecen) & Alia (The Scars of Her Past) cross-over / A Legends of Cirena novella): This was on hold in May while getting the Starless Night revision pass completed. However, finalizing this is my primary goal for June.

“MOG”: On hold. (Needs revisions)

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

Huntress 3: Needs rough draft completed. (Currently at 25,000 words) On hold. Hoping I might have time in July to finish the rough draft.

Game Design: Isaac really ramped up progress on the card art for the elemental card game. We figured out an art style for the back of the cards (one which uses a mix of 3Delight rendering instead of Iray, paired with Photoshop filters to get an illustrated effect). He got quite a few of those rendered and the illustration effects applied. Still plenty more to do for this, but a large chunk has now been knocked out. We also managed to get in another test run of the game, and the new rule (limiting the amount of shards per card) made it finish in a much more timely manner. Needs more testing, but we’re hoping that’s a step in the right direction.

Plus, after watching an online panel at ConQuest 52, he got some ideas for how he might update the cards for a legacy game and a few different abilities that might work better than what’s currently in use.

Future plans in game design involve taking product shots of the updated Phalanx board for The Game Crafter, and possibly preparing a print-and-play version of Battle Decks.

Space Adventure Comic: On hold until both of us have time to sit down at the same time and finalize panels for episode one.

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

Marketing: I never did get the weekly book promo highlights set up last month for the blog. (Though they did make it into my newsletters). I did, however, get them set up for this month. I decided to limit the amount of promos I participate in this month more than I usually do, with the idea I can showcase each promo twice (once in each newsletter). We’ll see how that does.

I only did three paid newsletter promos last month, smaller ones, and did see a drop in sales. Not sure yet which ones paid for themselves, but I plan to update the records and examine the results this month so I can decide which ones I want to continue doing and which ones I don’t want to bother with. So far I haven’t set up any new paid promos for this month. That may change once I look over the records.

Future goals: Revise Amazon Ads in general (trim old, non-performing ads and decide whether to start any new ads), update book categories and keywords for the different series, calculate how book promos are doing, and update the business ledger for book royalties (I did get part of this updated).

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

Other Stories: After watching a ConQuest 52 panel about anthologies, I’m really wanting to write a short story to submit to a magazine or anthology. I realized I might be able to take a couple story ideas in which I have an idea, but not a full-length novel or novella, and explore it that way, especially since those ideas aren’t part of an established universe yet.

Not sure when I’ll try writing those stories, but I do have a parody/humorous dungeon villain scene I’d really like to write…

In the meantime, the YA SciFi Alien Invasion/Dystopian Conspiracy short story revisions are on hold.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: I’ve updated the imagery on this blog! Not sure if this is going to be the final version, and I still want to update the side bar, but the new look should be a little more on par with the brand and focus more on the author/artist aspect rather than just SBibb’s Photographic Illustration (which I have geared more toward my Daz PA art).

I’d still like to update Infinitas Publishing website banner, but that’s on hold for the moment.

As a side note, I also got to do a “Success in Creative Writing” presentation with Rebecca Frost, which was fun, and this month I’ll be doing a “Crafting Your Fictional World” panel at the June 12 Writers of Warrensburg online novel-writing workshop. (If you’re interested in writing a novel or honing your writing craft, check it out; it’s free!). Both Stan C. Smith and I will be presenting, and he’ll be talking about time-saving tips for novel writing as well as marketing a series, while my presentation will focus on world-building and incorporating world-building details into your novel. (Writers of Warrensburg is the Missouri writers group I’m part of, that I’ve been able to join in again while the meetings are online).

Daz PA: No new releases from me last month. That said, I have a pose/props set that I’m finally getting close to completing. It’s had some rough learning curves, especially regarding some really problematic UV maps. But I think I got them mostly sorted. I got all the smaller props made now, all the poses and expressions made, and now I have one prop morph to make, thumbnails, expression dials, and promos.

It’s getting close. 😀

Additionally, I also have the female variant of the Diverse Worlds head morphs that I’d like to complete, but it’s on hold for the moment while I finish the larger project. 

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