infinite-story.com

Elvis Presley books fall into four practical categories — biography, photo collection, music reference, and Follow That Dream (FTD) releases — and the right one for you depends on whether you want to read his life story, look at rare images, or research recordings and concert dates. The site Elvis Presley Music groups its book coverage under a dedicated Books section alongside CD, DVD, and FTD reviews, which makes it a reasonable starting point for seeing what exists before you buy.

The four main categories

The site's own biography content is organised as a "day by day" account of Elvis's life from 1935 to 1977, including all concerts, movies, and important events — the same structure many printed biographies follow, so it is a useful free way to test whether that level of detail suits you before buying a book.

Matching the book to your goal

• Learning the life story: choose a biography. Check whether it covers the full 1935–1977 span or only a period (the 50s, Army years, 60s, or 70s are often treated separately).
• Viewing rare photos: choose a photo book, and judge it on image quality rather than page count. Sample pages are the only reliable way to check print resolution.
• Researching recordings or concerts: choose a reference guide or discography-style book, where accuracy of session dates and take information matters more than narrative.
• Wanting audio with the reading: FTD releases pair a book with CDs, so the value depends on whether you want the specific sessions covered.

What to check before buying

1. Author credentials. Ask whether the author had direct access to archives, interviews, or the Elvis Presley Enterprises estate, or worked independently from published sources.
2. Authorized vs. independent. Authorized books tend to have stronger photo rights; independent books often go deeper into fan-level detail. Neither is automatically better — it depends on your goal.
3. Format and edition. Hardcover, paperback, and updated reissues of the same title can differ in photo reproduction and added material. If a book has been revised, the later edition usually carries corrections.
4. Reviews and sample pages. Reviews on fan sites such as Elvis Presley Music, plus any preview pages the seller offers, are the fastest way to judge photo quality and factual accuracy.

A practical example

Suppose you are mainly interested in the 1953–1955 Sun Records period and the 1956 breakthrough year, when Elvis recorded "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," and "Love Me Tender," appeared on national television 11 times, and signed a seven-year contract with Paramount. A general one-volume biography will cover this in a chapter or two; a session-focused reference book or an FTD release tied to those recordings will give you far more detail. Deciding which level of detail you actually want is the single biggest factor in choosing well.

Common pitfalls

• Buying a photo book for its text, or a reference book for its narrative — the categories rarely overlap well.
• Assuming a newer edition is always better; check what was actually added or corrected.
• Overlooking format: large photo books are often heavy hardcovers, which matters if you want something portable.

If you are unsure where to start, browse the Books and Book Reviews sections on Elvis Presley Music first, note which titles keep appearing, then check those specific titles against the criteria above.

A never-ending story, in the interactive fiction sense, is a branching narrative that keeps growing as readers make choices and writers add new paths. On a platform like Infinite Story, the term describes stories built with a choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) engine: each segment ends with options, and different readers can follow different routes. You can start by browsing categories and ratings to find a story, or create an account to write and extend one yourself.

How a never-ending story differs from a serialized story

A regular serialized novel adds chapters in a fixed order. A never-ending interactive story adds branches. The text you see depends on the choices made along the way, so two readers can experience completely different versions of the same story world.

Infinite Story describes its engine as supporting "branching, choose-your-own-adventure, CYOA or text adventures — all collectively known as interactive fiction." The same tool can also be used for finite interactive workflows, menu prototypes, and image adventures, but the core idea is the same: the reader's input changes what happens next.

Key differences:

• Linear serial: one path, fixed sequence, author controls everything.
• Never-ending interactive: multiple paths, reader choices matter, other writers can add to the tree.
• Collaboration: on Infinite Story, stories can be written collaboratively, so the story can keep expanding beyond one author's plan.

Core mechanics: choices, branches, and collaboration

The engine works like a decision tree. A story segment presents text and then offers choices. Selecting a choice takes you to the next segment. If other writers have added new segments, those become part of the same story.

Infinite Story lists features that support this kind of ongoing creation:

• Writing clans
• Image uploads
• Private stories
• Submission review
• Private messaging
• Room linking

These features matter because a never-ending story is not just a text file. It is a shared space where multiple writers can build on each other's branches, review submissions, and organize around groups or clans.

How to find a story to read

You do not need to know the whole tree before you start. The platform organizes stories so you can pick by interest, quality, or freshness.

Browse by category

Infinite Story groups stories into categories such as:

• Action/Adventure
• Avant Garde
• Drama
• Fan Fiction
• Fantasy
• Horror/Thriller
• Humor
• Miscellaneous
• Mystery/Crime
• Romance
• Science Fiction
• Western/Historical

If you already know the mood you want, start with a category. If you are open, look at the top-rated or popular lists first.

Use ratings and lists to narrow down

The site shows content ratings alongside story titles. Examples from the visible listings include ratings like PG, PG13, R, MA, and MR. These give you a quick signal about mature content before you open a story.

You can also use these built-in lists:

• Top-Rated Stories — sorted by rating and reader response
• Newest Stories — recently added or updated
• Popular Stories — currently active or widely read
• IWT Writing Contest Winners — stories recognized in the site's contest

For a first read, a top-rated story in a category you like is usually the fastest way to understand how the branching format feels.

How to start writing or collaborating

Creating an account is the step that turns you from reader into participant. Infinite Story states: "Create an account or login to create your own stories."

Once you are in, the basic workflow is:

1. Create a story — start with an opening segment.
2. Add choices — each choice links to a new segment.
3. Let others branch — collaborators can add paths, or you can keep it private.
4. Use submission review — if you want control over what gets added.
5. Organize with clans or rooms — useful if you are writing with a group.

If you are a teacher, the site points to a separate space called Stories For School for classroom use.

What to expect as a reader and writer

A never-ending story is never "finished" in the traditional sense. It can always grow. That is the appeal and the challenge.

As a reader, you get variety: the same story can be funny on one path and dark on another. As a writer, you get a shared world: you can add a branch without rewriting what came before.

If you want to try it, pick a category, open a top-rated or newest story, and follow a few choices. Then create an account and add one segment of your own. That is the simplest way to understand why these stories are called never-ending.

Yes. CC0 assets can be used in commercial games without paying royalties or crediting the creator. CC0 is a public-domain dedication: the creator has waived copyright and related rights to the fullest extent allowed by law. That means you can copy, modify, redistribute, and sell work built on those assets — including in a game you charge money for.

This article explains what CC0 actually covers, how it differs from other Creative Commons licenses, and how to bring CC0 assets into engines like Unreal and Unity and tools like Blender, Maya, and 3ds Max.

What CC0 actually means

CC0 is not a license in the traditional sense — it is a waiver. When a creator applies CC0 to their work, they give up their copyright and agree not to enforce related rights. You are free to:

• Use the asset in personal, educational, or commercial projects
• Modify, remix, and build derivative works
• Distribute the asset or your derivative as part of a larger project
• Do all of the above without attribution

There is no requirement to credit the creator, no share-alike clause forcing you to open-source your game, and no non-commercial restriction. For a studio shipping a paid title, that combination is unusually permissive.

One practical caveat: CC0 applies to the rights the creator holds. It cannot waive third-party rights the creator never owned. A scanned statue, a branded product, or a recognizable logo in a texture may still carry trademark or personality-rights issues. Treat CC0 as clearing copyright, not as clearing everything.

CC0 vs. other Creative Commons licenses

The differences matter most when you are choosing assets for a commercial build. The table below summarizes the common variants.

| License | Commercial use | Attribution required | Share-alike | Notes for games | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | CC0 | Yes | No | No | Closest to public domain; safest for closed-source commercial titles | | CC BY | Yes | Yes | No | Fine for commercial use, but you must credit — plan for a credits screen | | CC BY-SA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Derivatives may need to be shared under the same license; risky for proprietary code/assets | | CC BY-NC | No | Yes | No | Excludes commercial projects; avoid for any monetized game | | CC BY-ND | Yes | Yes | No | No derivatives — you cannot modify the asset, which limits integration |

If your goal is a commercial game with no legal overhead, CC0 is the simplest choice. CC BY is workable if you can maintain attribution. Avoid NC and ND for anything you intend to sell or heavily adapt.

How CC0 assets fit into game engines and pipelines

CC0 libraries typically provide HDRIs, PBR textures, and 3D models. Each type has a natural place in a game pipeline.

HDRIs

HDRIs are high-dynamic-range environment maps. In Unreal, they are commonly used for sky lighting via a Sky Light set to use an HDRI cubemap or a Sky Sphere material. In Unity, they feed the skybox and the environment lighting in the Lighting window. You can also use them as reflection probes or as the basis for image-based lighting in Blender, Maya, or 3ds Max for look development before export.

Textures

PBR texture sets usually ship as albedo (base color), roughness, metallic, normal, and sometimes ambient occlusion or height maps. These drop directly into Unreal's material system or Unity's Standard/URP/HDRP shaders. Keep the resolution appropriate: 4K textures are useful for hero assets, but 1K or 2K is often enough for background props and saves memory.

Models

Static meshes and props can be imported as FBX or OBJ. Check the scale and pivot before placing them in a level. If the asset was authored for offline rendering, it may have very high poly counts — decimate or LOD it before use in a real-time scene.

Practical steps for importing and adapting assets

1. Download and verify the license. Confirm the asset page states CC0. Save a screenshot or the license text alongside the file.
2. Organize by type. Keep HDRIs, textures, and models in separate folders. A consistent naming convention (for example, env_forest_01_4k.hdr) saves time later.
3. Import into your engine. In Unreal, drag the FBX into the Content Browser and set up materials. In Unity, import the FBX and assign a PBR material, then wire the texture maps to the correct slots.
4. Adapt scale and orientation. Real-world assets may be authored in meters or centimeters. Check against a reference cube of known size.
5. Optimize. Reduce texture resolution where it will not be seen up close, generate LODs for models, and bake lighting where appropriate.
6. Test in context. Place the asset in a representative scene and check lighting, reflections, and performance before committing it to the project.

What CC0 does not cover

CC0 clears copyright, but a few things still deserve a second look:

• Trademarks and logos. A texture containing a recognizable brand mark is not automatically safe to ship.
• Recognizable people or property. A model of a real person or a distinctive building may raise personality or property-rights questions.
• Third-party content inside the asset. If a creator included someone else's work without permission, the CC0 dedication does not fix that.

For most generic assets — rocks, foliage, generic furniture, abstract HDRIs — these concerns are minimal. For anything depicting a real brand, person, or landmark, verify independently.

Documenting asset sources for teams and clients

Even though CC0 requires no attribution, keeping records is good practice. It protects you if a client or publisher asks for provenance, and it helps when a team member needs to know where a file came from.

A simple tracking sheet works:

Store this alongside your project files. If you later combine CC0 assets with CC BY assets, the sheet makes it obvious which ones need credit.

Bottom line

CC0 assets are safe for commercial games, require no attribution, and impose no royalties or share-alike obligations. The main work is practical: verify the license, check for third-party rights, import and optimize the asset for your engine, and keep a record of where it came from. Do that, and a CC0 library becomes a legitimate, low-friction source for production assets in Unreal, Unity, Blender, Maya, and 3ds Max.

An interactive story is a piece of fiction in which the reader makes choices that change what happens next, rather than following a single fixed plot from beginning to end. You read one by picking a story on a platform and selecting options as you go; you write one by registering an account and building branching paths with the site's authoring tools. On Infinite Story, an interactive fiction engine, both reading and writing are open to registered users, and the site also supports collaboration, image uploads, and private stories.

What counts as an interactive story

The term covers several related formats that all share one trait: the reader's input shapes the narrative. Infinite Story groups them under the umbrella of interactive fiction, describing its stories as "branching, choose-your-own-adventure, CYOA or text adventures."

The key difference from a linear story is control. In a traditional novel, the plot is fixed and the reader follows it. In an interactive story, the reader's selections determine which scenes they see, which endings they reach, and sometimes how other readers' contributions connect to their own.

How to read an interactive story

You do not need to write anything to take part as a reader. On Infinite Story, browsing is organized so you can find something that matches your taste before committing time to it.

1. Pick a category. The site lists stories under Action/Adventure, Avant Garde, Drama, Fan Fiction, Fantasy, Horror/Thriller, Humor, Miscellaneous, Mystery/Crime, Romance, Science Fiction, and Western/Historical.
2. Check the rating and length. Each story shows a content rating (such as PG, PG13, R, or MA) and a number in parentheses that indicates how many story segments or pages it contains — for example, Necromancer is listed at (81) and Ground Zero at (60).
3. Use the curated lists if you don't know where to start. The site surfaces Top-Rated Stories, Newest Stories, Popular Stories, and IWT Writing Contest Winners.
4. Make choices as you read. At each decision point you select an option, and the story continues along that branch.

If you want a proven starting point, the top-rated list is dominated by authors like EndMaster, whose Necromancer, Eternal, Death Song, and Ground Zero all appear there. For something shorter, the Newest Stories list shows entries with a single segment, which is useful if you want to see how a branch feels before investing in a long one.

How to write your own interactive story

Writing requires an account. Infinite Story states plainly: "Create an account or login to create your own stories."

The general workflow on a branching-fiction engine looks like this:

1. Register and log in. This unlocks the authoring tools and ties your stories to your profile.
2. Create a new story and write the opening segment. This is the first passage a reader sees.
3. Add choices at the end of the segment. Each choice becomes a link to a new segment you write next.
4. Repeat for each branch. You are effectively building a tree: one opening, several paths, and however many endings you want.
5. Add images if you like. Infinite Story supports image uploads, which the site also suggests can be used for "image adventures."
6. Set visibility. The engine supports private stories, so you can keep a work in progress out of public view.

A practical tip: sketch your branch structure before writing prose. A story with three choices per segment grows quickly, and mapping the paths first keeps you from writing yourself into a dead end.

Beyond fiction: other uses for the engine

Infinite Story notes that the same tool can build "very finite interactive workflows, menu prototypes and image adventures." So if you want to prototype a decision tree for a menu or a training flow, the branching mechanic works for that too — you are not limited to storytelling.

Taking part in the community

Reading and writing are only part of what the platform offers. Infinite Story lists several features aimed at collaboration and feedback:

• Writing clans — groups of writers working together.
• Collaboration — the site describes its stories as "collaboratively written," so multiple authors can contribute to the same work.
• Private messaging — for coordinating with other writers directly.
• Submission review — a review step for submitted content.
• Room linking — connecting story rooms together.
• Creative writing forums — for discussion beyond individual stories.

There is also a dedicated space for educators: "Teachers, we created Stories For School for use in your classroom." If you are assigning interactive fiction as a class project, that is the entry point to look for.

Choosing how to participate

Your path depends on what you want out of it:

• If you just want to experience interactive fiction, start with the Top-Rated or IWT contest winners lists and read a few branches to see how choices change the story.
• If you want to write solo, register, create a story, and build your branch tree segment by segment.
• If you want to write with others, look into writing clans and the collaborative story model, and use private messaging to coordinate.
• If you are teaching, check the Stories For School resource before setting up an assignment.

The site does not publish pricing information in the material available here, so treat account creation and any feature access as something to confirm on the site itself rather than assuming it is free or unrestricted.

Tandem stories are collaborative, branching works of interactive fiction: instead of one author controlling every path, multiple writers add chapters, branches, or alternative routes to a shared narrative. On a platform like Infinite Story, you join one by creating an account, browsing the story library, and submitting a new branch or chapter to an existing story for review. This format suits writers who want to build on someone else's world rather than start from scratch, and readers who want a story that keeps expanding.

How Tandem Stories Differ From Solo CYOA

The core difference is authorship, not structure. Both tandem stories and solo choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) stories branch, but the branching in a tandem story accumulates across contributors over time.

Infinite Story describes its engine as supporting "infinite stories" — branching, choose-your-own-adventure, CYOA, or text adventures, collectively called interactive fiction — and notes that users "read and collaboratively write" them. That collaborative writing is what makes a story tandem rather than solo.

How to Find a Tandem Story to Join

You don't need a special "tandem" tag. On Infinite Story, collaborative candidates surface through the same browsing tools as any other story:

• Stories By Category — Action/Adventure, Avant Garde, Drama, Fan Fiction, Fantasy, Horror/Thriller, Humor, Miscellaneous, Mystery/Crime, Romance, Science Fiction, and Western/Historical. Pick a genre you can write in; open-ended worlds (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Action/Adventure) tend to absorb new branches most easily.
• Top-Rated Stories — long-running, heavily branched works such as Necromancer (Fantasy, 81 branches) or Ground Zero (Science Fiction, 60 branches). These are the clearest examples of stories that have grown through many contributions.
• Newest Stories — freshly started stories with only one branch, like Lara's debt or The Sealed Princess of Five Fates. These are the easiest to join because the canon is still small.
• Popular Stories — a further signal of which stories are actively read and therefore worth extending.

A practical rule: the more branches a story already has, the more canon you must read before adding to it. If you want a low-friction entry, start from the Newest list; if you want to write inside an established world, start from Top-Rated.

Steps to Contribute a Branch or Chapter

1. Create an account or log in. Infinite Story states that account creation or login is required to create your own stories. Browsing and reading do not require this step.
2. Read the story you intend to extend. Follow the existing branches far enough to understand the characters, tone, and unresolved paths. This is the step most new contributors skip, and it's the main cause of branches that get rejected or ignored.
3. Choose where to attach your branch. Pick an existing node that leaves a decision open, or a story with few branches where a new direction won't contradict established canon.
4. Write the branch and submit it. The platform includes submission review, so expect your contribution to be checked before it appears. Write in a way that matches the surrounding story's tense and point of view.
5. Add supporting material if useful. Infinite Story supports image uploads, so a branch can include illustrations rather than text alone.
6. Track responses. Private messaging lets you coordinate with the original author or other contributors about where the story should go next.

Expected result: your branch becomes part of the story's branching structure, and other readers can reach it through the choices that lead to it.

Features That Support Tandem Writing

Infinite Story lists several features that matter specifically for collaborative fiction:

• Writing clans — groups of writers working together, useful when a tandem story has a dedicated team rather than open contributions.
• Image uploads — visual branches and image adventures.
• Private stories — stories visible only to a chosen group, useful for drafting a tandem project before publishing.
• Submission review — a check before contributions go live, which keeps shared canon from drifting too far.
• Private messaging — direct coordination between contributors.
• Room linking — connecting story sections, which helps manage large branching structures.
• Stories For School — a separate space Infinite Story provides for classroom use, where tandem writing works well as a group exercise.

The engine can also be used for non-fiction purposes: the site notes you can create "very finite" interactive workflows, menu prototypes, and image adventures, so not every tandem project has to be a novel-length story.

Common Stumbling Blocks

• Canon conflicts. Adding a branch that contradicts an established path is the most frequent reason a contribution doesn't fit. Read first, then write.
• Tone mismatch. A comedic branch inside a Horror/Thriller story reads as an error, not a twist. Match the category and the surrounding prose.
• Assuming open editing. Submission review means contributions are checked; this is not a wiki where any edit goes live instantly.
• Starting too big. A first contribution to an 81-branch story is harder to place than a first contribution to a one-branch story. Begin small.

Where to Start

If you want to read tandem fiction, browse Top-Rated Stories for examples of how far collaborative branching can go. If you want to write, open the Newest Stories list, pick a story with a single branch, create an account, and submit one branch that respects what's already there. That single contribution is the entry point into tandem writing on the platform.