Thoughts on Writing – Flash Fiction – “Into the Dark”

A while back I posted a couple flash fiction pieces based on the prompt, “Unicorn.”

Today, after a group meeting regarding flash fiction, Charli Mills of Carrot Ranch (A flash fiction writing community), gave us the prompt, “Into the Dark.”

For the purpose of these prompts, flash fiction is fiction with an exact count of 99 words.

I decided to write two variations. One that is unrelated to my other stories and is “lighter” in tone. The other is based on the events of Spirits of a Glitch / Fractured Skies, and is darker in tone.

Isaac also wrote a flash fiction piece. Since he doesn’t have a blog, I’m posting it for him here.

Enjoy. 😀

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“Freedom in the Darkness”

by Stephanie Flint

(Contemporary / Portal Fantasy)

Locust trees stand fast in the brambly forest before her, their long thorns defying the night wind, a forest dark with promising secrets. The steel gray sky flashes light. Flocks of swirling birds race the wind, specks of coal dust against the embers of clouds.

She wraps her arms tight around her sundress. One hesitant step after another, closer to the forest. The chilly wind raises gooseflesh along her bare neck.

A glance behind, to safety.

Thunder growls behind a distant farmstead. Cows shuffle close to the chicken coop.

They have safety, but her freedom lies in the darkness.

* * *

“Stalling”

by Stephanie Flint

(Based on the events of Spirits of a Glitch / Fractured Skies)

The agent holds his rifle close. Sweat trickles from his forehead, dripping into his eyes. Quick blinks. Fear… he senses danger around the corner. The seething, burning wrongness presses against his powers, then pulls.

Pulls at his spirit, his life…

Angry spirits, thirsting for revenge.

He swallows hard. The looming hall twists before him, his terror spinning familiar architecture into an uncertain whirl of rich rugs, steel doors, and clockwork lamps.

Clockwork lamps tick, tick, ticking until the generator stalls.

The hall goes dark.

Burning voices whisper in his head with cold, eager glee.

We are Legion… join us.

*

“Day of the Hawk”

by Isaac Flint

His nose fell to the ground, his whiskers twitched, his pupils constricted. He’d stayed out too late. The sun was out; the Hawk was out. His heart raced. He took to his feet across the garden.

A swoosh in the wind, his ears perked, he dodged around a stone, slid under a vine, splashed in a puddle.

The wind brought the scent of sundried feathers. He thought of pups, he thought of his mate. He was glad they were not in the sun. They were safe, deep down in the burrow, where he would soon go, into the dark.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this post. Though we were a bit late for the Carrot Ranch “Into the Dark” prompt, if you want to participate in their weekly posts, head over to Carrot Ranch. 🙂

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Thoughts on Writing – Outlining Results (Cyberpunk Snow White) and New Release

Last year, I wrote a post on outlining a novel with the goal of reaching between 50,000-60,000 words in 12 days (a condensed version of NaNoWriMo). This was for a cyberpunk Snow White retelling.

The goal was met, I did a bit of editing on that project, handed it off to a beta-reader, and then sat it on the proverbial back burner.

Though I was busy with other projects, I occasionally thought back to that cyberpunk fairy tale but didn’t do much with it until several months later, when (in classic fairy tale-style fashion), I had a dream that I was busy editing the cyberpunk story.

Later that same day, the beta-reader who’d read it contacted me to ask if I had a cover for it yet or if I had made progress.

I took that as the “go-time” flag to get back to work on that project.

(I’m not kidding. I really did have a dream about editing the story before getting contacted out of the blue on the same day by my beta-reader. Coincidence? Probably. But still a great story to tell about the writing process of a fairy tale retelling).

Anyway, I proceeded to make revisions, sent it out to another round of readers, polished it, did a read-aloud for errors, and then proof-read.

The book… now dubbed “Huntress” (and the first in a series), released on Sunday. 😀

*Happy-dance*

If you’d like to see how it turned out, grab a copy!

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)

From now until Sunday, December 9th, you can grab it for 99 cents (or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited).

And, of course, you can get an idea of what the original outline looked like (and what changed) by reading the original post here).

Without further ado…

Huntress

A YA Cyberpunk / Dystopian Retelling of Snow White

Her touch is poison.

Verdi is a huntress for Koenigin Corp. She’s augmented. Perfect.

Determined to earn her dear president’s favor and finally have her voice heard, Verdi agrees to target Maria Snow, the favored candidate of the Society for Natural Progression, in an acid attack.

After all, once Maria is no longer so lovely, surely she’ll accept the nanite-based technology that can remove her scar—thus branding her as a traitor to her cause.

But when Maria Snow refuses treatment and Verdi catches her secretly meeting with an enhanced, sapient bird, she realizes Snow might be the one woman who can forge an alliance between the technology-loving corporations and the nature-oriented Progressionists.

Forced to choose between loyalty to the corporation who raised her, and falling in love with the woman who could finally unite the two factions, Verdi’s decision will change the face of the city.

Buy Huntress today!

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)

I hope you enjoy the book! 😀

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(Note… I don’t plan to keep Huntress in Kindle Unlimited forever. The first three months are a test run, and then, depending on how it does, I plan to eventually release it wide across other retailers.)

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In the meantime, I wrote the rough draft of the sequel for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I used a similar process, creating an outline (though I diverged more from it), and writing 50,000 words in ten days instead of twelve.

Now it needs editing, but the start of the story is there. 🙂

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

It’s been a busy month between a trip to San Diego (school conference for Isaac where I got to tag along and see the sights), and a condensed NaNoWriMo (my goal was 50,000 words in 10 days, which I managed to succeed at. More about that in the “Cyberpunk Snow White” section).

In the meantime, here are the updates! 😀

 

* * *

Fractured Skies: (Book 2 of the Distant Horizon series). Still needs a print edition. I’m hoping to work on that early next year.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). On hold until Magebane edits are complete, and then this will be the next major project. The first step will be to assess what’s already been written and figure out what still needs to be written or rewritten.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off novel) On hold. (Needs rest of rough draft written).

Sky Runner: *Cough.* Isaac and I might have seen a really cool premade cover that was on sale, bought it, and gotten an idea for a story about an airship pirate captain. *Cough.* Same universe as The Multiverse Chronicles, but takes place about fifty years later. On hold, but with plans to construct an outline. Not sure if this will be a short story or novella.

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions per Isaac’s notes).

Magebane: (Book Three of The Wishing Blade series) Needs a couple scenes added, and then smoothed out. After that, a read-aloud with Isaac. Then we’ll determine if it needs another round of beta-reading. Still hoping to release this early next year.

Stone and String 3: Since a few events of this story coincide with events of The Wishing Blade book 4, I need to wait until that rough draft is written (or at least outlined) to work on this one. That will happen sometime after Magebane is complete.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade series) Out to beta-readers. I’m hoping to finish revisions this month, depending on how extensive revisions are.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Already completed one short story (tentatively called Livena: The Wind Mage of Maijev) and I’ve created a cover mock-up for it. We’re midway/toward the end of the second story now.

My current project is to revise Livena’s story and see what still needs to be done with it, so I can release it early next year.

“MOG”: On hold. Needs further revision.

Cyberpunk / Dystopian Snow White Story: *Cough.* Meet Huntress, a YA SciFi retelling of Snow White with a female huntress as the main character. You might remember me talking about the outline last year.

This was my surprise project of last month that I hadn’t planned to work on… but ended up going into overdrive to complete. I finished revisions, sent it out to beta-readers, made a few minor changes, did a read-aloud with Isaac, proofread it…

And Huntress should be launching sometimes next week. 😀

More on that in a few days. 😉

(And if you want more details, I’ve started a newsletter. Click here to subscribe!)

Yes, there will be a sequel following the same character, but focused on a different fairy tale. (That was the condensed NaNoWriMo project I mentioned at the beginning of the post).

I’m super excited and nervous to get it out there, but I hope readers enjoy it. 😀

Game Design: On hold.

Marketing: Continuing working on understanding AMS/Amazon Ads. Maybe seeing a tiny bit of traction… particularly with the UK ads?

Not enough data to say for sure yet.

Also, Isaac and I had a booth at the Geek U.P. convention hosted by Black Ice Comics, which went well. (Even with the surprise snow that morning. Not quite a storm, but definitely a lot of snow in a short amount of time. Looked outside once… it was misting. A few minutes later… heavy snow). Still, a lot of fun. Got to meet several other artists, and enjoyed talking to con-goers. 😀

I also dropped off doing the Weekly Book Promo Highlights last month due to the crazy schedule, but I intend to start back up again this month and see how it goes.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Ebook loosely formatted. Working on details for print formatting.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold. Debating whether to release the first one as I soon as I complete revisions (and go through the usual read-aloud/proof-reading process), or to wait until I get the second one written.

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That’s all for now!

I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂

Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

Eeeps! I’m behind on getting this Infinitas Publishing status report out. But we’ve got a lot to talk about. 😀

* * *

Fractured Skies: (Book 2 of the Distant Horizon series). Fractured Skies is now available to the world! Check out the release post by clicking here.

A print version should be in the works sometime in the next few months. 🙂

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). Parts of the rough draft have been completed but need to be reorganized and rewritten. Once Magebane is complete, this will be my next major project.

Lily’s Story: (Distant Horizon series spin-off novel) Temporarily on hold while completing other projects.

The Multiverse Chronicles: On hold.

Little One: On hold.

Magebane: (Book Three of The Wishing Blade series) Figured out how to reorder the scenes for better pacing and what needs to be added in order to make the ending more satisfying. I still need to write those scenes, but I’ve started the editing process of making sure earlier scenes are transitioning smoothly.

In the meantime, the cover for Magebane is now complete. Hopefully we’ll be releasing this book at the beginning of next year. 🙂

Stone and String 3 (and assorted Wishing Blade short stories/novellas): The novella whose protagonist I can’t reveal yet does have a name (at least a working title): The Secret in the Shadows.

I’m currently working on revising this story for Isaac to read. Most likely, it will release after Magebane, in order to avoid spoilers for those reading The Wishing Blade series.

Then I’ll be working on the third Stone and String story.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure: I started a new Facebook group where I post a new story section each week, and group members can vote on what happens next. Learn more here, or join the group here! It’s been lots of fun thus far. 😀

“MOG”: On hold.

Cyberpunk / Dystopian Snow White Story: This story now has a rough cover and a name: Huntress. I’ve begun a round of edits based on beta-reader feedback. No idea how soon this one is coming, but I’ve been switching between editing this and The Secret in the Shadows now that Fractured Skies is complete.

Game Design: On hold.

Marketing: Starting to learn Amazon Ads… we’ll see how this goes.

Also, Isaac and I did an Author Meet & Greet at Black Ice Comics in Houghton, Michigan. We had a lot of fun, and Shana (the store owner) provided yummy snacks. 🙂

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Continuing along with projects. Need to create a book cover and format an ebook. Finished the typing side of a project.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: Temporarily on hold, though I’ve been itching to work on revisions.

* * *

I think that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂

Fractured Skies is here! :-D

It’s here! Today is the release day for Fractured Skies! 😀

Fractured Skies

A Dystopian Thriller

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | BN.com | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords

Not sure if this is the book for you? Try answering these questions…

• Do you love a good dystopia, and want even more vivid world-building and believable factions?
• Do you crave lots of fast-paced action, thrilling adventure, and cool, unique ways to use familiar superpowers?
• Do you prefer character romances to be a slow-burn, and not always end in a happy-ever-after?
• Do you want your cast filled with heroes who face antagonists where it isn’t always clear who is really the “good” guy and who is really “bad” guy… despite what they may believe?
• Do you love little Easter Eggs referencing various movies and games, interwoven into the story so that even if you don’t recognize the reference, you’ll still “get” the joke?
• Do you like strong protagonists who make tough choices and aren’t afraid to state their mind… even when no one else agrees with them?

If you answered “yes” to the above (or even most of the above), then Fractured Skies may be the book for you to dive into.

So grab your copy today, sit back, and enjoy the adventure. 🙂

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | BN.com | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords

Fractured Skies Ebook Pre-orders are now live!

Woot! Exciting news! *And a happy dance.*

Almost two years after the release of Distant Horizon, the second book in the series is now slated to release on October 9th of this year…

That is, Fractured Skies is now available for pre-order as an ebook, and will soon be available for purchase! 😀

Fractured Skies

YA Sci-Fi Dystopian Thriller

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | BN.com | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords

Here’s a look at the blurb:

Not all monsters are beasts.

The government’s secret transformation of beasts—subhuman creatures made from humans with powers—means that the Community’s utopian ideals of safety and security are lies.

Thanks to a high-ranking telepath, nineteen-year-old Jenna Nickleson knows what it’s like to go through one of those transformations. During a mission for the rebellion, the telepath cursed her with false “memory seeds” that attack her mind with horrifying visions of being turned into a beast.

If Jenna ever wants to see the Community be secure, she needs to figure out how to end the transformations, remove the government making her cherished Community a front for a nightmare, and get those memory seeds out of her head before she loses herself.

And here’s an excerpt! 😀

I stepped over Quin’s legs into the other room. He still stared at the wall, his expression blank. I bit my lip, and then slid down next to him. “Hey.”

“Done eavesdropping?”

I stared at him. He hadn’t moved an inch, save to speak. His hands were clasped over his knees, his chin tilted toward the glass window in the ceiling. His black hair was cropped less than half an inch from his ears in a Community-oriented hairstyle, though he wasn’t Community. He had a rounded face, a smooth, beardless chin, and a lean form. His tunic hugged his chest, but gave his arms space for movement.

“You heard me?” I wrapped my vines close. This guy could easily beat me in a fight. Hopefully Pops was right to trust him.

“Didn’t hear you,” he corrected me, still staring at the window. Aside from the reflection of that creepy blue light, there was nothing of interest outside. “You walked by, but once you went to the other room, they didn’t acknowledge your presence. I figured you were trying not to be seen.”

“Um…” I closed my mouth, not really sure what to say. “Does it… I mean—”

A small smile formed at the edge of his lips. “I’m not mad at you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“She’s your partner, so I didn’t know—”

He snorted, still staring at that confounded window. “She’s my sister, and I’m a mercenary. Mercenaries eavesdrop.”

“I’m not a mercenary,” I protested, vines quivering with annoyance. Months ago, they responded to my thoughts at a snail’s pace. Now they responded to all my thoughts.
“I didn’t say you were.”

I scowled. “You implied it.”

“No. I meant only that if I eavesdrop, I should not be angry when others eavesdrop.”

I blinked. Someone who worked for the Camaraderie who talked sense? “Who are you?”

His smile widened. “My name’s Quin. I’m a mercenary.”

“Why?” I asked. “If it hurts people—”

“We need influence to survive.” He stretched out his legs. “For influence, which equates to power, we need money.”

At least he and Private Eye had their stories straight, though I didn’t think Private Eye had been staring so insistently at a window. I pulled my knees to my chest. “What’s so great about power?”

“There’s safety with power. A sense of security, of being someone.”

“The Community is safe, and it doesn’t have power,” I retorted automatically. But with the dead rioters above us and the students being sent to beastie plants, I couldn’t say that. Not really.

“You don’t seem so certain.” Quin held my eyes with his. I swallowed hard. If he wanted power, he had it then. With his enhanced persuasion ability, I couldn’t look away if I wanted to.

“How? How do they have power?” I squeezed my knees tight. This was unnerving. He’d had a staring contest with a window, and though windows didn’t normally blink, I didn’t think the window won.

“The Camaraderie of Evil is power. They hand their power directly to E-Leadership, where it is passed to the Community. Almost everyone in the Community does what they are told, because that’s what is best. It’s a long chain, like a marionette holding a puppet, but nonetheless, it is power.”

That was it—why his expression held such authority. He was telling the truth he knew; a truth I didn’t want to admit existed.

Click the link to your favorite retailer below and pre-order Fractured Skies today! 😀

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | BN.com | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords

Join “The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure” Facebook group!

Exciting news! 😀

Do you want more stories from the world of The Wishing Blade?

(The books below are all part of The Wishing Blade universe):

 

 

Want to get a look into the “legends” of Cirena?

That is, the time period before “The Wishing Blade” series and “Stone and String” series, back when the gods still had a large presence in Cirena, the Divide hadn’t yet risen, and Ruetravahn had not yet made a deal with Listhant-Nsasrar to give word magic power to the Cantingen language?

Then come join my new “Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure” Facebook group!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/289873391615430/

Originally, I planned to do this just for my newsletter subscribers. Then I realized that it would probably make the newsletter super long, and if I did a Facebook group, I’d be able to do it weekly instead of every other week, and I’d also be able to use the polling feature.

Plus, if you aren’t really into newsletters but use Facebook, this is the perfect way to get involved and get your input into a story!

This is a new, experimental process in which I’ll post a new story segment every Tuesday to the group. (This week, I’m starting with four polls that will decide the character for the first story).

At the end of the story segment will be 2-4 choices as to what the protagonist is going to do next.

Want to influence what happens?

Cast your vote before Friday at midnight! (This weekend it’s going to be Saturday at midnight, since the group is just getting started).

Then, based on the most popular response, I’ll write the next section of the story, post it on Tuesday, and the process repeats.

Once the story is complete (which may or may not be canon to The Wishing Blade universe), I’ll polish and publish it.

(Those of you in the group, of course, will get access to grab the polished version for free). 😀

Sound like fun?

Then click the link below, join the group, and make your choices!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/289873391615430/

I hope to see you there. 😀