The Wind Mage of Maijev – Now Available!

Good news! “The Wind Mage of Maijev,” the first of the Legends of Cirena short stories written for the collaborative adventure Facebook group, is now available as an ebook!

This is a stand-alone short story that takes place approximately 200 years before the events of The Wishing Blade series and the Stone and String series.

 

A wind mage in a city that hates magic…

“The Wind Mage of Maijev”

YA Fantasy Short Story

A wind mage in a city that hates magic…

Livena is a young woman living in Maijev’s southern quarters, staying ahead in life by working odd jobs. When her brother entrusts her with selling a pile of books in the undercity, it seems like another normal day.

Until she senses a dangerous storm brewing.

Most would hunker down until the storm passes. But Livena’s deplorable wind magic lacks control, and weathering out a storm inside only invites trouble.

The storm won’t stay outside where it belongs.

If Livena can’t make it home before the storm, and her magic gets exposed, it’s only a matter of time before a deadly mage hunter unravels her secret.

Explore the magic in this exciting short story…

Read “The Wind Mage of Maijev” today!

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

Enjoy! 😀

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Infinitas Publishing – Status Report

December has come and gone, along with the busy holidays. We did a lot of traveling and got to spend time with family. Overall, it was a good trip. Not quite as much done with the company due to the holidays, but that was expected. Now it’s time for the Infinitas Publishing Status Report! 😀

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Fractured Skies: (Book 2 of the Distant Horizon series). Part of the print edition has been formatted (mostly as a test to get the rough page count), but I’m hoping to finish the formatting process and order a proof copy in February.

Also, since CreateSpace (the printer of our books) has merged with KDP Print, we’ll need to have a second look at our currently published print books to see if any adjustments need to be made.

Starless Night: (Book 3 of the Distant Horizon series). I’ve read through the rough draft I wrote several years ago, making notes on each section for an overarching outline. Some of it is salvageable (with edits), and some isn’t, and about 20,000-30,000 words need to be reallocated to book 4. (The current draft clocked in at around 160,000, but needs to be divided as we realized there was not only enough planned for two different books, but also two major climaxes).

I finished reading the rough draft before the break, but the next step will be to look through those notes and divide the story, then create an outline from the remaining notes to figure out what still needs to be written, rewritten, and revised.

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

Sky Runner: During the break, Isaac and I constructed a rough outline for this project. Still has some parts that need fleshed out, but overall the concept is now there (including a rough pitch). However, I don’t anticipate starting on this project until other major projects are complete.

However, there will be airship pirates. And dragon eggs. And a frazzled, slightly naive beastmaster trying to clear his name after being framed for theft.

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

Little One: On hold. (Needs revisions per Isaac’s notes). I’m hoping to start revisions sometime in the next couple of months, but we’ll see.

Magebane: (Book Three of The Wishing Blade series) I’ve started the process of writing in the new scenes and editing for consistency. Hoping to do a read-aloud with Isaac sometime in the next month. If all goes well, I’ll move on to proofreading. If he finds major issues, then this may need to go back out to beta-readers before release.

Stone and String 3: On hold until Magebane is complete and the outline for book four of The Wishing Blade series can be written.

The Secret in the Shadows: (Prequel novella for The Wishing Blade series) Feedback received from beta-readers and a round of revisions complete. Handed to Isaac during the trip, however, he found several consistency issues. Plus, after reading the first half of The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson, I’m seeing the potential to do a lot more with the whole prophecy “lost in translation” issue that I original wanted to play with in this story.

As such, I’m putting this one on hold until I can do more development and better work out the plot. I’m suspecting this one might not actually release until after The Wishing Blade series is complete, since it heralds some of the events for the series we have planned afterwards.

The Legends of Cirena – Collaborative Adventure Facebook Group: Second story complete, and third story in progress. See “The Wind Mage of Maijev” below for news on the first short story.

The Wind Mage of Maijev: (A Legends of Cirena Short Story) Basic revisions are complete and feedback gathered from my beta-reader. I’m now in the process of polishing the story, and then doing a read-aloud with Isaac and preparing it for publication.

I currently have a rough blurb created and a semi-polished cover. If all goes well, I’ll be releasing this at the end of January. 😀

“MOG”: On hold. Needs further revision.

Huntress: Huntress is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited (KU)!

I’m testing it in KU first to see how it goes. At this point, I have a sequel in the works, and I’ll probably launch that one in KU as well, waiting until the series is complete before releasing it wide across other retailers.

Next step will be to make the print edition for Huntress.

Huntress 2: Not yet titled, though I have a rough draft already written (from the November NaNoWriMo. Plans are for it to be a Cinderella retelling. Hoping to work on revisions next month so I can send it out to beta-readers soon.

Also, I already have ideas for book 3. 😉

Game Design: On hold… though we did take notes after playing one of our work-in-progress games with family during the trip!

Marketing: Occasionally dabbling in Facebook ads… but I need to do more research before putting a strong emphasis on those. Thus far I haven’t had much luck with them.

In the meantime I’m continuing to research and learn Amazon Ads. I also attempted a test of adding meta-data to certain pages on the Infinitas Publishing website. Waiting to see if that brings any additional traffic.

I also still need to update this blog with information on Huntress, as well as adjust the side bar.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Print book formatting started for a client; need to do polishing touches and wrap-around cover.

LitRPG / GameLit Story: On hold due to wanting to develop story a bit more before release.

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That’s all for now! 😀

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.

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“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.

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“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.

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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. 🙂

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! 😀

 

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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. 😀

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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.

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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