At some point in 2019, I took to learning how to use Daz Studio in my spare time. Daz is a 3D modeling program that lets you purchase assets (poses, characters, clothing, backgrounds, etc) for your own use and then position those assets to create scenes.
There is also the ability to “morph” the basic models so they match how you envision your own characters.
The first character I customized was Siklana Covonilayno, Toranih’s sister from The Wishing Blade series:
Her hair’s a bit too long here, but this was a quick render to test the outfit and general background.
Here’s a closer look at her facial structure (customized from the Victoria 4 base model — which I’m still impressed I succeeded with since shortly after, I started working primarily with Genesis 8 models).
(At some point I needed a Daz PA (Published Artist) profile image, and this was one of my early renders I was happy with, so I used that. Later on I realized that she looks a little like me when the image is in tiny thumbnail size. Not intentional.)
At some point I might make some adjustments to Siklana’s design, mostly in redoing the character on a later model to take into account some issues and limitations I didn’t know about when first starting.
I continued to work with learning the program, and eventually put together a full scene with her.
In this case, she’s with her horse, Esara.
(The horse’s coat and mane ended up a bit darker than I was initially picturing for Esara, so I may need to do some tweaking if I do further images with her).
The idea behind this image, though only mentioned in The Wishing Blade series rather than actually seen, is that Siklana used to go outside of Cirena City to practice her knife-throwing skills in peace.
She would ride out to the forested region behind the city walls to a small, abandoned ruin. (This region was once Aneth, home to those who would eventually spread throughout Cirena. At the time, they faced attacks by the immortals, and many of their buildings ended up in ruin once they fled). This particular building would likely have been fairly recent in their history, though still abandoned. But now this side of the forest is relatively safe. The perfect place to go when someone wants time to themselves to study and throw knives.
Are there any characters from the Wishing Blade universe (any of the stories) that you would be interested in seeing?
* * *
Though Siklana starts as a side character, by Magebane she has a major character arc…
Today I thought I’d do a behind-the-scenes snippet for one of the Cirenan-Cantingen goddesses: Meshon.
Meshon is one of the older goddesses, and she has a strong presence in both Cirenan and Cantingen pantheons.
Though not considered a primary goddess in the Cantingen pantheon (who only recognize a small handful of deities in addition to Madia), Meshon is revered as Madia’s trusted messenger.
Meshon is often referred to as the Oracle, capable of seeing visions of the future and walking between realms–though her ability to cross realms means it’s not always clear which world her visions refer to, and that issue has landed many of her followers into trouble for trying to interpret her dreams.
Shevanlagiy/Ralendacin has held a grudge with the goddess for this very reason, and that grudge is clear in Magebane.
Meshon currently has a role in both The Wishing Blade series and Stone and String, and even plays small roles in some of the Legends of Cirena short stories, such as The Scars of Her Past… though she plays a much larger role in the upcoming Legends of Cirena novel, The Dark Forest of Aneth. (Yes, novel. It was supposed to be a novella but it has well surpassed that word count at this point).
Below is one of the test images I created for Meshon using Daz 3D Studio. Her design is still in progress, but this is fairly close to how I see her. 🙂
Meshon’s prophecies will eventually have a strong role in the next Stone and String story, and it’s her prophecy that references the coming of Ralendacin, the “Destroyer of Worlds” (Shevanlagiy in The Wishing Blade series).
The process of writing a rough draft can be… well… a bit rocky. Surprisingly, at the time I originally wrote this post to send to newsletter subscribers, the draft for a novella I’d been working on (and later shelved) had been going surprisingly smoothly.
Well… sort of.
Originally, I planned on it being a short story. (If you’ve been following me long at all, you probably have an idea of where this is going.
At the time I wrote newsletter email, the story was sitting firmly in the “novella” category at 28,000 words.
And it wasn’t done yet.
The story finalized at finalized at 37,000 words. For comparison, Magic’s Stealing is a novella of 34,000 words, and Wind and Words clocks in at 22,000 words.
The good news was that I only had two or three scenes left before the story is complete. Then came the challenge of editing to create a tight plot (because extraneous scenes like to make their way into the rough draft while I’m still figuring out the details).
Then I got to go back and add in the translations for the various spells and sections in different languages.
Which is what I wanted to talk about today. Because seriously, I had sections in the rough draft that looked something like this:
He came out of the storeroom with a shallow bowl and a pitcher of water. “Be la mireyan naébiéeth so nocho Farris NAME chono li mirra da nac so wusna miduhan la be.” (CHECK PHRASE… add (not to exceed my focus))
In this case, I snagged the scrying spell from The Shadow War, inserted the correct name (and realized I didn’t have the targetted character’s last name), and made a note to myself to recheck the phrase and add in an extra qualifying statement.
Err… it looks a lot more coherent when it’s done.
The extra fun part of this was that I knew I’d probably have to do additional grammar work due to including the then-fledgeling conlang in the story.
He went back to the storeroom and came out with a shallow bowl and a pitcher of water. “Be la fayquelvi miruen, mireyan naébiéeth so nocho Farris chono li mirra da nac so wusna miduhan la be.”
Magic, not to exceed my focus, reveal the location of Farris in the form of an image in the bowl of water before me.
And as you might notice… I decided to omit the last name. Ideally, the caster would use the full name. But this character is supposed to be exceedingly strong at wielding intent versus precision (which is also extremely dangerous), so it’s fine. And words got added.
But that’s a little look into my rough draft process where conlangs are involved.
Originally I planned to release this story after Magebane, with the idea that it was going to be a bridge between The Wishing Blade series and the Stone and String series.
But Isaac pointed out some world-breaking holes in the current version of the story, so it’s been hanging out on the back shelf of one of my hard-drives while I tackle other books.
That said, I’d like to return to this one eventually…
* * *
Read the two series that this novella was intended to bridge…
Today, I thought I’d take a look at one of the methods I used in writing The Wind Mage of Maijev, the first in the Legends of Cirena series.
This series started with me writing a “segment a week” based on voting from members of the Legends of Cirena Facebook group (now on a semi-permanent hiatus).
My writing partner, Isaac, did quite a bit of world development for the Legends era, especially in regards to the different districts and the shops. While this was meant for a personal tabletop roleplay version of Cirena, it’s also been really helpful for world development. (And I’ve still occasional yanked out the charts he made for reference in later stories that are currently in development).
In this case, Isaac took what I had already developed of Maijev (the general concept for the city, the larger world map, etc.), divided the city-as-a-country into districts (such as the Northern and Southern Quarters, of which the Southern Quarter is the primary area where The Wind Mage of Maijev takes place), and figured out who would likely frequent the region, the kind of prices those stores would have, and even which factions characters might run into.
Here’s a glimpse at the document he created:
Enen’s Study and Zora’s Market are the primary characters and locations I pulled for The Wind Mage of Maijev, though Cross Bones does get a brief reference.
Overall, having these charts has been really helpful in developing the Legends stories, since I can easily look to them to figure out what might be in the area and what sort of encounters a character might have.
For example, Livena, the protagonist of The Wind Mage of Maijev, has mixed feelings about Zora’s Market… especially since they sell a few items that probably shouldn’t be in Maijev. 😉
* * *
See how those charts turned into a story in The Wind Mage of Maijev, (and you can get the ebook edition for FREE from online retailers!)
I recently shared my process for designing the cover of The Restless Sands of Neel, and today I thought I might take a look into the steps I took for the next book in the series, The Cursed Halls of Kalecen.
This ended up being the final cover:
I had a lot of fun with this story, since it deals with an immortal creature known in Cirena as a chesnathé.
Long story short, they’re this world’s version of a unicorn… except they’re a mix of the European unicorn and the Asian qilin, so chesnathéme are known for either judging their victims as guilty and killing them by spearing the guilty party’s heart with their horn, or determining they’re innocent and, (if “pure of heart”), granting them immortality.
Thing is, one of the Cirenan gods, Kalecen, has a broken horn and his sense of justice is… skewed. Technically a god of justice, he’s more a god of revenge.
So when the student of a protective duelist, Hahven,foils a revenge plot and incurs the wrath of Kalecen, it’s up to Hahven to shield her from the god’s harsh judgement.
For the cover, I wanted to depict Hahven facing off with Kalecen, but the first few images I rendered seemed far too static, so I ultimately ended up adding the god’s blood-thirsty champion to the picture… and I liked the result a lot better.
Here’s a few of the in-progress pictures:
I used Daz Studio to model the images, and it took several tries before I was finally happy with how it looked. (And a few days of running renders at night to give it enough time to render at a large size without being grainy). The images above are the raw renders, before I took them into Photoshop.
A: The first version. I used atmospheric lighting, which I liked, but it was too dark and Hahven’s pose seemed too static. Not exciting enough.
B. Different lighting method (no atmosphere), and I tweaked the pose so that he would be facing Kalecen better, but it was still missing something. Too static.
C. Added in Kalecen’s champion. Now he’s facing off with her… and he is supposed to be level headed, but… (can you guess what I’m going to say here?) Still too static.
(Noticing the trend?)
D. Brightened the scene a bit more and changed Hahven’s pose. Much more dynamic… but forgot to use DForce on the clothes to get them to lay naturally. Not a fan of the lighting. Also, accidentally angled the camera wrong and ended up with the purple blotch where the floor ended.
E. DForced Hahven’s clothes and now they lay properly. Also added the atmospheric lighting back (but with higher brightness levels). After changing the angle, I was much happier with the result. He’s benefitting from one of the roof’s lights, and it’s also much more dynamic. Plus… shiny reflection, even if you don’t get to see much of it on the actual cover do to the typography.
Ultimately I decided to zoom in so he’d be closer on the cover, but version E was the one I ended up Photoshopping. 🙂
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Read TheCursed Halls of Kalecen and root for a duelist fighting an unhinged god of justice…
Like many of my cover designs, especially my designs using Daz renders, the design for The Restless Sands of Neel had a major shift from the first iteration to the final.
Sometimes the title changes, too! Originally I was going to call the novella, The Dragon in the Desert.
But, after feedback from newsletter subscribers, I was worried it might disappoint readers looking for a more typical dragon.
Ro’nor, the protagonist, might have descended from dragons, but he doesn’t have wings or any of their special powers, and he can’t shift into their form. The biggest creature we see in the story is a monstrous pit worm.
So… after a bunch of brainstorming, deliberating, and tweaking words to see what else might work, I finally settled on:
The Restless Sands of Neel
Anyhow, here’s a look at the first proof I made for the cover:
There were some changes I already planned to make: a different set of robes/shirt, maybe a different hair once I double-checked what was stated in the story, possibly a different coat pattern for the horse to make sure it’s consistent with the story, and the final touch-ups to make it look like a polished cover.
I sent this out, along with the tentative title, to the newsletter, and several readers chimed in with their thoughts and suggestions. (Much appreciated!)
As a result, I ended up making some major changes, two based on making it more accurate to the novella (the horse’s coat color and the main character’s hair style), and I did a bit of work to make it more dynamic and personal (a common problem of mine, for some reason).
And so I ended up with this for the final version of the cover:
What do you think? Did the changes work in its favor?
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Read The Restless Sands of Neel and see how a (sort-of) dragon fairs against a giant pit worm…
The second Legends of Cirena short story I released was called The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear.
And so I figured it would be a good idea to feature a gryphon on the cover.
Now, I create most of my own covers via photomanipulation or through Daz Studio renders (“The Singing Coil” was the exception, being illustrated via ink and Photoshop). But, sometimes, when you try to create a gryphon… the gryphon decides to be disagreeable.
And this was before I had discovered Daz Studio.
Sometimes you try to photomanip a gryphon, and you don’t end up creating a gryphon.
Like… what is this guy? I like him, but he’s definitely not a gryphon.
Needless to say, I had to take a different approach for that cover. However, the experiment did result in an idea for a new creature that can be found in the Immortal Realm, a strange owl-cougar-human-looking hybrid called an armansee.
And so this fellow flew his way into a short story I was planning to write but hadn’t fully plotted yet, one which would eventually be called A Path of Swords and Feathers.
I knew I wanted to write a story featuring Daernan’s father and the adventures he went on after he left Daernan and his wife behind to follow the demands of the goddess he serves. And with this strange creature as inspiration (and with me listening to a lot of filk–fictional folk–songs), the plot for A Path of Swords and Feathers came into being.
Now, whether this immortal is foe or friend…
Well, you’ll just have to read the story if you want to find out. 😉
* * *
Want mystical, immortal creatures in your short story reads? How about one of these two stories?
Many years ago, while Isaac and I were enjoying Applebee’s 25 cent wing special (do they do that anymore?) and getting some studying done, we had the joy of running into someone who had read one of our books and seen us at the local comic con.
(*Squee! Recognition!*) ☺️
Anyway, that was awesome.
But during our conversation, one of the things the reader mentioned was wondering a bit more about the gamemaster guy and the sea monster he threw at the protagonists toward the end of Distant Horizon, and whether or not there’d be more about him in the next book.
(Spoiler… there is. His name is Spectator, and he plays the role of a minor antagonist in Fractured Skies, and gets a couple mentions in Starless Night. He also makes a brief appearance in Initiated.)
The conversation got me thinking more about that character and his role in the Distant Horizon universe. Isaac and I have gone back and forth into how much of a role he should play (with me usually wanting to give Spectator a bigger role and Isaac wanting to scale him back… mostly because Spectator has a tendency to interfere with overarching plot points or become deus ex machina. His scenes have gone through a lot of revisions).
Granted, part of the deus ex machina problem might be because that was his original role in the game.
See… I had a tendency to make some not-great decisions for Jenna in the role-play game Isaac and I were playing, and I’d kinda-maybe-sorta gotten her captured by the bad guys with no explainable hope of escape in what was supposed to be a one-shot campaign.
That I very much wanted to see continue because I had questions and I wanted answers.
So Isaac snagged a character from one of my previous campaigns in the same world (but modern day), upgraded that character to Spectator status, and decided this newfound “Spectator” was going to make sure the game continued (see “fourthwalling,” below).
So Spectator does a bit of timey-wimey/alternate reality manipulation to make sure certain events can now happen, and the last scene of the one shot campaign got a teensy update.
And Jenna’s team is now able to come to her rescue.
(And we did a ton of work in the novels to make sure his involvement makes sense and doesn’t read quite so deus ex machina-y.)
And once we’d done a bit more work, we determined that Spectator is kind of like the “Q” of the Distant Horizon Universe (Q from Star Trek, for those not familiar). Spectator is not quite omnipotent but close, well aware of things he shouldn’t be, and mischievous. He can put just about any character who knows who he is on edge. He’s a reality bender, capable of changing the world around him to suit his whims, at least to an extent, and he’s also a fourthwaller, meaning he believes he’s part of game world of sorts, and thanks to his insight, he can break through the walls of that world.
Within the Distant Horizon universe there is a cult of fourthwallers who believe their world is controlled by two gamemasters, and that, in order to maintain their existence, they must be as interesting as possible to hold the attention of those gamemasters. Unfortunately, this means that if they lock in on somebody they think is a “player character,” they’ll cause them worlds of trouble in an attempt to stay in the gamemaster’s focus.
That’s all fairly meta, though, and most of the characters simply try to avoid fourthwallers when possible, dismissing them as crazy. Jenna, having come from the Community, has no idea these people exist until Spectator shows up. The rest of the rebels, once they realize he’s a fourthwaller and getting involved, are quick to research everything they can about him… all while trying to keep mysterious artifacts (the ones that lead to the sea monster showing up during Distant Horizon— it actually wasn’t Spectator’s fault) out of the hands of their rivals.
Spectator’s role in the story is explained more in Fractured Skies, so I’m going to avoid delving too much into that since that would be spoilers. But I hope you find him as interesting as I do.😁
Eventually, more will be revealed about the role of reality benders and fourthwallers, a trope I have readily enjoyed both in shows like Star Trek, involving Q, and in superhero stories, like X-Men.
Long story short, Isaac and I are both fans of Star Trek (For me, Voyager was long my favorite, though my first experience came from Next Generation, but Lower Decks now might be my favorite among the series, followed pretty close by Strange New Worlds).
Next Generation, however, introduced me to one of my favorite Star Trek characters: Q.
He’s such a fun character, especially paired against straight-laced Jean Luc Picard. It also helps that the actor who plays Q, John de Lancie, is pretty cool, too. (At least from what I’ve seen of him).
Fun fact, if you ever watch the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series (which has some surprisingly great nods to science fiction, fantasy, and various social themes you might not expect), Discord (a chaotic character of that series) is played by John de Lancie. The show’s writers wanted to get someone who could pull off a Q-like character. The people in charge of casting decided, why not ask the original actor, just in case? According to one of his interviews, he was a bit surprised, but went ahead and agreed to the role… meaning that a few iconic references to Q from Star Trek landed in MLP.
Also, the actor was one of my favorite panelists at a Star Trek convention I went to when I was in high school, and he was really friendly at answering my teen self’s questions about acting and directing. Plus, he can direct a pretty good radio play (I had the fortune of seeing that in college).
All righty… I digress.
Point is, I think Q is a cool character, so of course that made its way into characters I enjoy writing.
* * *
See how the meddlesome Spectator gets involved in the Distant Horizon universe…
I’ve been rummaging through my older newsletters for blog content (circa 2018/2019), and I came across an email with my behind-the-scenes process of how I put together the cover of The Wind Mage of Maijev.
So, today, I’m revisiting that. 😊
Below you can see the stock images that went into it, and then the final version:
Since the storm plays a major role in the story (including the cause of most of the conflict), it seemed fitting to include that element. Plus, the walls leading to the entrance seemed to work well with the walled city of Maijev. Livena, the main character, isn’t particularly excited about her magic, so I removed the outspread arms, but still, she faces the storm… which she ultimately must face if she is to deal with her magic.
Here’s the final version:
I used the same photomanipulation technique for the next book in the Legends of Cirena series, The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear, but afterward switched to Daz 3D renders so I would have more flexibility with how I illustrated the covers.
An example of the Daz style covers comes with book #7 in the series, The Wind Mage and the Wolf:
* * *
As a note… I try to keep The Wind Mage of Maijev ebook available for FREE, so if you’re interested in reading this one, grab it from your favorite retailer!
(Just be sure to double-check the price before buying. Amazon especially is notorious for switching the permafree price back to its paid price, since they rely on price-matching rather than allowing authors to set the price to free).
A few years ago, while visiting my parents’ house, I found a stage play I attempted to write during college based on my original version of The Wishing Blade series.
It was cheesy.
Really cheesy.
But it was cool seeing which plot points changed and which ones had remained surprisingly similar to the final, published version of Magic’s Stealing and The Shadow War (originally part one and two of the same book).
When I first started writing the story that would eventually become The Wishing Blade series, it was in 2003. (I did a lot of plotting in eighth grade choir).
Eventually, the story got shelved during the later part of high school and college–except for a playwriting class where I decided to try reworking my story idea into a screenplay. While I think I got a decent grade on it, looking back now…
There was way too much going on for a stage play.
However, it was one of my first successful attempts to fully rewrite the original draft and re-envision the story as a whole.
As such, it was fun to read through sections of the play’s draft and see which aspects stayed the same from the original story, and which aspects changed. (Even though several things had already changed from the rough draft to the stage play version).
Here’s a look at what the stage play looked like. As a warning, there are spoilers for the current version of the story. It would be best if you’ve already read Magic’s Stealing and The Shadow War before reading this. However, I’ve tried to make annotations that relate to the series as a whole.
I’ve added my comments in red.
SHEVANLAGIY
(Aside.)
So easy to fool him (Isahna) with half-truths. He doesn’t know why Aifa attacked me, and he does not know who the traitor’s son is. Poor Nihestan got into so much trouble, yet still he lives. Better yet, only a few know how I came to be here. Isahna has an idea, yes, but there’s still so much he doesn’t know… unless he does know and he’s pulling the trick over me…
(Aside from Shevanlagiy monologuing, which happens a lot in the stage play version… Nihestan was Shalant’s original name, and he had connections to Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale. Though hinted at in The Shadow War, the “traitor” aspect has not yet been addressed in the current version of the series… though I think there’s a couple hints of this in Magebane).
(AIFA comes on stage.)
AIFA
You like to make things hard on us, don’t you? Here string magic binds you, and maybe string magic will hold you, unlike the ribbon magic of mortals.
(I was actually surprised that I had string magic referenced this early in the story’s development. The idea that something is wrong with Shevanlagiy’s string magic remains in the current version.)
SHEVANLAGIY
If I’m not mistaken, ribbon magic is the magic of the gods, too. Isn’t it?
AIFA
That… that is true.
SHEVANLAGIY
Sure, string magic can hold me for a time being. But how long before my look-alike pulls a trick that unravels this prison?
AIFA
She doesn’t have that kind of power. And she really doesn’t look that much like you.
SHEVANLAGIY
Close enough. Genetic code is amazing, yes?
AIFA
Genetic what?
SHEVANLAGIY
Heritage. I wouldn’t expect you to know. Though, being a matchmaker goddess, I would think you would be more inclined to know than some of the others. Then again, it isn’t like the gods to try multiverse travel.
(Though I’ve downplayed it in the current version of the story, Shevanlagiy’s travel to other worlds was more prominent in the earlier drafts, as was her tendency to befuddle those around her with her other-worldly knowledge. That being said, the concept of Shevanlagiy visiting other worlds starts playing a much larger role in Magebane.)
AIFA
That doesn’t change the fact that you’re stuck here.
SHEVANLAGIY
Actually, it does. But what’s a minor goddess like you doing with the Time Stone? How are you controlling it? Surely it’s beyond your powers.
(Originally, the shodo’charl was called the “Time Stone.” However, with the introduction of “time stones” in the Distant Horizon universe that Isaac and I write, I decided to change the name to the “stone of passage,” or “shodo’charl.”)
AIFA
It… is trying.
(As seen in the end of The Shadow War, the newer version of the story has it that Aifa’s not having nearly the same amount of luck controlling the stone as we see here. It’s a factor that I intend to play a larger role in the fourth book of the series.)
Some hints have already been snuck into the books, and more hints are working their ways into the upcoming stories as well…
Anyway, that’s a look at one re-imagining of the Wishing Blade series, even though that particular version has been permanently shelved.
(That said, I haven’t gotten rid of my idea that ribbon dancing should be used to portray ribbon magic in a theatrical version).
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 