Current Projects

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month

I won NaNoWriMo 2021 last November and I am pumped! I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo now in April 2022

https:\\www.nanowrimo.org

https://nanowrimo.org/participants/danniswrites/projects/adia-one-of-prophecy

Book Covers

I have been using DAZ Studio instead of Poser for several years now and am very happy! You can get it here:

DAZ Studio Free 3D software https://www.daz3d.com/

Book Cover Project: I want every story to have a cover. Now using Vue 2016 amd DAZ Studio. All the resources I have are because of my generous sister. Also, I am learning the legalities and niceties of including other talented artist's hard 3D work in my covers. I am now tracking every single piece of freebie clothing I download and who the artist is. I didn't know that when making my cover for Home Is Not Home. I created the Adia figure from DAZ's Victoria 4 figure, and the character came from Adam Thwaite, with the Shadow Dancer outfit for V4 from DAZ. So, I want to credit all of them. I have added many covers using stock photos also.

Series: Here are the ones I'm working on, as I can. There are a lot of dovetails, and all of them tie into the Home Is... Series. Every book is standalone, and I include enough of the story from the previous book so the reader can catch up. I advise readers to start with Home Is... and maybe add Rainbow next, then Ishah Secrets, then Domino. There will be other dovetails. But, the reader may start anyplace in any series. The reading order is the way they are numbered, however.

Home Is... Converting the entire series to shorter YA Science Fiction and rewriting so they have better plots.

Adia Series is the new one.

Rainbow Will be redone to Molly, Queen of Rainbow Series

Domino Effect is on the back burner right now. This is the story of Greg and Deb Wehn Cet, but the plot will be very different since I am rewriting the Adia Series. There will be other books about characters in Adia, One of Prophecy, when I get it written.

Ishah Secrets planned, it's a work in progress

Health problems are interfering with my typing and dry eye syndrome is bothering me constantly, so work is slow on my series. I still have many unpublished stories to upload to Kindle. I had a major setback with cataracts, but had surgery a couple years ago and doing well. Allergies are still a major problem with seeing my screen. I am in my 60's so I guess it comes with the age.

LibreOffice

Formatting these stories is a real pain! The normal procedures that Amazon recommends have not worked for me to remove old formatting from many versions of Word. Once I go through all the old stories, I don't anticipate any problems with them. I know better about the technical side of word processing and how to set up my template for stories. It is a mystery to me why, when I have my font set for Georgia font, after I strip my file to vanilla print and upload to Kindle, augh! I see Courier New font, which I once used, and underlines instead of italics. This is how I was supposed to set up my manuscripts for submission to publishers. Right now, I can't see the old formatting when I bring up the file in LibreOffice, nor could I see it in Word. If I can't see it, I can't get rid of it. In plain English, I will have to go through my 500-plus page book and change every underline to italic. Repeat that for every one of my books, novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories. This is why I am taking so long to update those original 54 stories on Amazon! If you see these problems when you read one of my books, please email me at dannistories@gmail.com

I have redone my Access databases which contain my universe in LibreOffice Base. I have databases for characters, places, healing, and story plots, among others. In plain English, I have the things I typed in, so the info is there. But I have to rewrite the code to make it easier to find that info when I need it, and add to it. Why the switch? Access is part of Microsoft's Office suite, but is not included with the package unless you pay extra. A LOT extra! I'm low-income. So I have to stay within the budget. DanniStories needs more readers to be profitable. Right now, it's a labor of love.

I love LibreOffice and it's free!

Plotting 2022 - Pantser To Plantser

I am also learning a lot in 2022 about plotting. I'm reading up on KM Weiland's wonderful site for writers and have gone from pantser to plantser! It will take time, but I am currently working on my Adia series. Since switching to YA Science Fiction from regular, I am going through my old Home Is Series and paring it down. Finally I can see the forest AND the trees.

KM Weiland Website - Story Structure

Easy to read and understand [I need this!]

I am also using the Snowflake Method for writing and editing. Works very well with what I'm learning about the 3 Act Structure on KM Weiland's site.

Snowflake Method

https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

Get Snowflake Pro for free if you buy the book **How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method**

https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/contact/download-again/

Randy talked these folks into letting him incorporate Snowflake Method into their software. It includes many plotting methods besides this.

Plottr

Wonderful software to help with plotting novels or short stories. Many templates included. Yes, Snowflake Method is there, along with Three Act Structure, Myers-Briggs and Enneagram to help you with Character Creation, and other nice tools.

https://plottr.com/

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/secrets-story-structure-complete-series/

Guide To Adia's Universe This will be a guide to races, worlds, and stories with maps and artwork but I am still in the planning stages.

Artist Training I am slowly working through tutorials on 3D Modeling so i can make better looking covers.

Software Used Currently

[Note: I have no connection with any of these folks except to use their products! I highly recommend all of them to all.]

Vue 2016 is a software to help me create beautiful skies, mountains, fields, and cities! The parent company went to a fee per month model so I will not be upgrading. For now, Vue 2016 works very well, especially on my new [2021] PC thanks to my wonderful sister.

E-on Software makes Vue and many major filmmakers use it. Many are also turning to DAZ Studio.

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/

Interested in learning 3D? You can download a free copy of DAZ Studio to play with here:

DAZ Studio Free 3D software https://www.daz3d.com/

There are a lot of great sites out there to download 3D content [people, clothes, props, and sets].

My Go-To Freebie Sites

DAZ Studio offers freebies every Wednesday

https:://ww.daz3d.com

Renderosity has good quality freebies all of the time!

https://www.renderosity.com

ShareCG has lots of freebies and you may search by DAZ Studio, use restrictions, and a lot of other criteria. Artists here also sell models but you can specify free. Caveat: Some artists are not experts and there is little vetting of models. Some may not work as expected.

https://www.sharecg.com

Wilmap is one of my fave artists, and her site is full of quality clothing!

https://www.wilmapsdigitalcreations.co.uk/

I was mistaken when I said Sanbie created the Babygrow for Genesis outfit I used last livestream. This artist goes by several names....I think Sanbie and Pusey are two of them. Maybe artists have to use a diff name for each vendor site that hosts their items?

https://www.wilmapsdigitalcreations.co.uk/view_product.php?id=49

Most Digital Creations site has a ton of freebies! All are very high quality. Adam Thwaite, the artist, creates the most realistic poses ever! He also has a ton of free animal models if you need one that doesn't pose.

https://www.most-digital-creations.com/

Poser-DAZ Freebies This list is growing all of the time, and lists many artist websites! It is a wiki so you may read up before you click on the link!

https://poserdazfreebies.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page

Remember when looking for freebies:

DAZ Studio can read Poser format items, for the most part. Lights will not work nor shaders. Characters, Clothing, Animals, Props, Poses, these work fine. However, they must be for DAZ figures. Clothing for Poser figures [like James, Sydney, LaFemme] or HiveWire figures [Dawn, Dusk, Baby Luna] will not work.

Some items are only in Poser formats. If you include the word Genesis in your search, for clothing, the items will usually work on your figure.

You may import things in various file formats like .obj, .dae and a few others, but the textures on the item may not import properly. It won't break your DAZ, but you might not like the way it looks. Others of the same format import fine! It really depends on the item. There are tutorials on how to make these items work, if it doesn't work when you import one.

Poser-DAZ Freebies also lists tutorials!

Blender is an open-source, free software to create a 3D model from scratch, layer by layer.

Open-source means it is in the public domain, maybe with certain limitations. A program has source code, or source, as the programmers say. Open-source means anyone can copy it, add to it, and re-release it, as a free product. SourceForge is a great resource for free software.

http://www.sourceforge.net

Legal Stuff and You: If you just want to print it out and hang it on your wall, you don't have to worry about this stuff. But, if it's going outside your home [on your blog, emailing to friends, book cover, etc] it's a good idea to wait and check the ReadMe or license info on the site you downloaded a 3D model from, first. If it goes viral, you might get sued for plagiarism, which is claiming someone else's work as yours. There's a lot of good info on Copyright.gov on what plagiarism is, and isn't. Look up Fair Rights here:

http://www.copyright.gov

As an author, I check this site whenever I have a legal question. Any prospective writer should check it out. If you have a manuscript that you want to publish yourself, I strongly recommend you take the trouble to copyright your work with Library of Congress. It is true that the moment you write something, you have legal rights to it under the law. But, if you are serious about publishing it yourself, you must be serious about protecting your work. If you plan to submit it to a publisher, keep a copy, and any revisions you do on it, ever. I've been able to prove my stuff to Amazon by submitting all those revisions.

If a publisher accepts your work for print, you should be covered without going through Library of Congress. The publisher will get an ISBN number for you. This is the number assigned to your book so bookstores can distinguish your book from other books that might have the same title. It is expensive to buy your own ISBN number, but if you use a print on demand service, you can use the one they assign. It just won't have whatever name your Indie publishing house uses on it.

I use Amazon Kindle for my ebooks and to print my print books and make them available through Amazon, but there are others out there. I use Lulu for my hardcovers, because Amazon doesn't offer the format yet but it's coming.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/

My experience with Lulu was good, but no hardcovers of my book sold yet so I can't comment on how they were with customers. The proof copy I received was library quality and beautiful! Paper is becoming more expensive, so the cost of one hardcover is probably a great deterrent to my possible readers! Most of that price is what goes to Lulu.

http://www.lulu.com/

Good luck to all who want to start writing or playing with 3D, or both!

If you want to watch me play with DAZ Studio, check out my livestream on Twitch! I do stuff about the Writing Life every MWF 8-10pm, and the recordings are available on my DanniStories YouTube Channel afterwards.