Tag Archives: writing fantasy

June 13, 2026 · 9:30 am

An early render of Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale

Since we’ve been looking at a lot of my early Daz renders, let’s now take a look at the renders I have of Lord Cafrash Menchtoteale, one of my characters from the Wishing Blade series. (He starts as an antagonist… then kind of ends up in as the questionable mentor… whether he wants to be a mentor or not).

So a long, long time ago when I was playing around with Daz, I rendered Cafrash, the creator of the Wishing Blade (the series’ namesake). I rendered this image a couple times, since I apparently designed it on my older laptop, whose graphics card that would have made rendering nice went caput before I found Daz. Then I rendered it again once I got my then-new laptop (which now mostly lays in rest because I used it a lot for rendering and that’s… very intensive on a laptop, unfortunately. Renders now happen on a desktop with much better fans and airflow.

That first render took 7 hours, and didn’t have nearly as good as the results of this 2-hour render.

Needless to say, I was quite happy with the capabilities of the then-new laptop. (And I suspect the new desktop would render this much faster… though we’re on a new version of Daz now so the lighting system would probably have to be readjusted).

Anyway, enough about laptop capabilities. Lord Menchtoteale was a blacksmith before getting involved with the trickster god. Long story short, he forges the Wishing Blade, the weapon used to steal magic from Cirena in Magic’s Stealing.

Here’s a render that Isaac put together from a later version of Cafrash’s character design, which I then polished:

A blacksmith hammers a sword with magical blue wisps above it.

But did Cafrash actually want to forge the sword?

Is he really the warlord everyone thinks he is?

Or is there more going on behind the Trickster’s plans than meets the eye?

Cafrash’s backstory is one part of the story I’m having a lot of fun working with, and first started showing up in The Shadow War, and has a much larger role in Magebane.

* * *

Meet Lord Menchtoteale in all his grumpy “I’m going to give you advice whether either of us want to deal with this,” in The Wishing Blade series…

Book Cover for Magic's Stealing
Book Cover for The Shadow War
Book Cover for Magebane

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Happy reading and writing!

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May 30, 2026 · 8:20 am

An early render of Siklana

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:

A young noblewoman with long brown hair in a navy blue dress and overcoat.

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.

A young woman standing on a vine-tangled staircase offers her hand to a curious horse at the foot of the stair.

(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…

Book Cover for Magic's Stealing
Book Cover for The Shadow War
Book Cover for Magebane

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Happy reading and writing!

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May 16, 2026 · 7:17 am

An early render of Meshon

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. 🙂

The goddess Meshon spreads her arms to do magic. She has dark skin, wears a sheer head scarf, and has beads in her braided hair.

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).

* * *

Meshon plays a role in many stories…

The Scars of Her Past Book Cover
Book cover for Stone and String
Book Cover for Magebane

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Happy reading and writing!

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May 2, 2026 · 7:54 am

Rough Drafts and Conlangs

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…

Book Cover for Magic's Stealing
Book cover for Stone and String

* * *

Happy reading and writing!

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April 18, 2026 · 7:36 am

Using charts to write The Wind Mage of Maijev

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!)

The Wind Mage of Maijev - Book Cover

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Happy reading and writing! 📖

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April 4, 2026 · 7:16 am

Designing the Cover for The Cursed Halls of Kalecen

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:

The Cursed Halls of Kalecen - Book 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. 🙂

* * *

Read The Cursed Halls of Kalecen and root for a duelist fighting an unhinged god of justice…

The Cursed Halls of Kalecen - Book Cover

* * *

Happy reading and writing! 📚

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March 21, 2026 · 2:00 pm

Designing the cover for The Restless Sands of Neel

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?

* * *

Read The Restless Sands of Neel and see how a (sort-of) dragon fairs against a giant pit worm…

The Restless Sands of Neel Book Cover

* * *

Happy reading and writing! 📚

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March 7, 2026 · 3:00 pm

A failed gryphon design inspired a short story

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?

A Path of Swords and Feathers - Book Cover
The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear - Cover

* * *

Happy reading and writing! 📚

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February 21, 2026 · 3:00 pm

That time I tried testing a different cover for Magic’s Stealing

As much as I loved the old cover for Magic’s Stealing, there was a time when I wasn’t sure it conveyed the genre well.

So I decided to test a new design that I made in Daz, one which focused on Toranih instead of Shevanlagiy.

Book Cover for Magic's Stealing
Original Cover
Alternate Cover for Magic's Stealing
New Cover Design

I only changed the ebook edition, but I left it up on Amazon a few weeks to see how it went. The idea was that, depending on the response, I’d either switch back to the old design, or swap the the other ebook covers to match the new design and upload those across all retailers.

Regardless, I planned to keep the print covers matching the older design until the series was complete, that way anyone who had already picked up print copies could still get a complete collection. (Plus I have ideas in mind for those covers).

I’d say this was kind of in my middle-ground stage of working with Daz. Not quite as rough as early attempts, but I still didn’t have quite as good of a grasp on the program. Here’s a look at a 3D rendering I made of Toranih, the precursor to creating the newer edition of the cover:

I did end up making a few changes to her between this picture and the design of the cover, but at the time that was about how I pictured her.

The results?

Well, I left the cover up for a month, and I didn’t see a noticeable difference in sales.

However, I also didn’t have a chance to do as much with Amazon ads as I would have like to have tested, so I might not have had the best comparison to work from.

Eventually I switched it back to the original cover, since I still liked that one better. Someday I may try to update the ebook cover again, once I have a better baseline set up and a more well-thought-out plan for advertising, but for now, I think I’ll stick to the original.

What do you think?

* * *

Read the YA fantasy series where magic gets stolen, and one of the only two people who still have magic is a young woman who can’t see it and doesn’t trust it…

Book Cover for Magic's Stealing
Book Cover for The Shadow War
Book Cover for Magebane

* * *

Happy reading and writing (and book cover designing)! 📚

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February 7, 2026 · 7:34 am

Creating the Cover Art for The Wind Mage of Maijev

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:

The Wind Mage of Maijev - Book Cover

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:

SBibb - The Wind Mage and the Wolf Cover

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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!

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo | Smashwords
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(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).

The Wind Mage of Maijev - Book Cover

* * *

Happy reading and writing! 📚

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