6/16/20
I've been getting a bunch of questions from my readers about a number of different stories and topics. I thought I ought to post some answers in a central location where everyone can read them. If I missed your question, or if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me (comment on any of my blog posts, on Goodreads, on Facebook, or Twitter) and I'll definitely answer it. Q: You said Alloy is going to have a story with the crazy territory leader in Texas. Where is that story? A: Quite frankly, I've realized I just don't know enough about Texas to write a story with a main character from there. I don't understand the cultural references that would make a character a fully-rounded individual. No amount of research is going to get me to a place where I feel comfortable writing that character. While I still like the idea, unfortunately I think the best option for everyone is going to have to be scrapping it. That said, I have another idea for Alloy that I think will incorporate the parts I liked from the previous plan, and will likely flow better overall. (I'm not giving anything away yet to avoid spoilers, but you should see the first hints of this in Dragon Spy.) Q: Will there be a Ge-Mi: Part Three? A: Short answer is no. The long answer is much more complicated. Book One was Ge-Mi. Book Two is Di-Na. Book Three doesn't have a name yet. I'm not done writing Nevada and Taylor just yet, but chronologically (both in my writing and in the timeline of the story) Di-Na: Parts One and Two must come first. I haven't decided whether Nevada and Taylor will have cameo appearances in Di-Na: Part Two, or whether I want to hold off on their involvement until book three. Rather than writing Gi-Mi: Part Three, my plan is to write Book Three under a new name, but with all the main characters from the previous books coming together. Q: I have been waiting for years for the sequel for X story. When will it be released? A: Every single one of my series, and even some of my stand alone books, have received some variation of this question. There are three possible answers.
Q: When will Y story be re-released with your new publisher? A: See #2 in the previous answer for part of the explanation. The rest of it is: I sent NSP 30 books. I have effectively buried them in manuscripts. So far they've released three, one is due to come out next week, three are in the midst of the editing process, seven more have been accepted, and the rest are still in the assessment queue. Everyone involved with the process of re-releasing all my books must be patient. It's not a fast process, but NSP and I will continue to move forward with it until every book is back on the shelves. Q: But what about your out of print books? When will you re-release them? A: The ones that can be re-released will be. There are restrictions I have to follow regarding story length, content, and quality that means six of my previously published books are not acceptable by NSP's standards. The most pressing issue is story length; LT3 accepted shorter word counts than NSP, so unless I can figure out a way to add a few thousand words to some of my old stories, NSP will not accept them as is.
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9/28/19
To everyone that celebrates, I hope you have a happy and healthy new year. I'll see you all again in 5780! I also want to let you know I'm still around. I'm sorry I haven't had any news to share lately. My contracted stories are in the middle of the editing process, so it's a waiting game of a few months. I will let you know as soon as I hear more. In the meantime, I've been working on Di-Na: Kay and on my fairy tales. Di-Na is a slow process as I need to get everything set up right in the beginning in order for the rest of the story to flow correctly. I think I've finally gotten that down, so now it's time to dig into the meat of the story. I'm looking forward to it! My fairy tales are a different kettle of fish. I've had to scrap Trip Trop Trail, my Billy Goats Gruff/Robin Hood crossover. It wouldn't write, it wouldn't flow, and the characters all hated my guts. That story is the reason my fairy tales have been held up so long, and, while scraping it was hard, it has allowed me to move forward again. I have finally figured out the last bit holding A Heart's Dream back, so I should be able to finish that one soon. I have also started work on two new fairy tales to replace the one I removed. The first is called The Curse. I just need to finalize the epilogue and The Curse will be complete. The second story is The Beast, which I've just begun working on. I'm hoping to have it completed soon. The question then becomes, what do I do with my fairy tales once they're complete? First I have to edit them all, and then they'll have to sit for at least a month before I edit them again. Obviously I'm going to submit them to NSP, but I already have so much I still need to submit. Once all the books in my Supernatural Consultant series have been evaluated by NSP (either as a yes or no for publishing), I will be able to submit something else. The plan right now is to send them the two books in my Wizard Wars series next. After that, as long as my fairy tales are ready to go, I'm thinking I'll submit all nine of those. It depends on what NSP says, of course, but I think I'm going to try to stick to that plan for the next few months. 8/9/19
As you no doubt read in my last post, Ge-Mi, Parts One and Two were both accepted for publishing at NineStar Press. I'm super excited about it, as I love this series and I know my readers love it too. A new publisher does mean there will be a few changes that I want to make sure everyone knows about:
As I continue to get more information about Ge-Mi and any of my other stories, I will share them here with everyone. I hope to have more news to share really soon! Thanks for all your words of support as we work through this together. 6/1/19
Ge-Mi: Part Two was accepted for publishing with LT3! I'm so excited! Right now I need to get the contract in the mail so everything is signed and official. I expect this book to come out in approximately ten months, so first quarter 2020. Aside from signing the contract, my first step is providing LT3 with a description of what I want on the cover. Readers either loved or hated the cover for Part One--there was no in between--and I think I'll get similar reactions for my idea for Part Two. You'll just have to wait and see ;p. The Oracle's Golem was also accepted for a contract extension. There won't be any edits or cover changes for this book, and therefore won't be any break in sales. I'll get the contract in the mail with Ge-Mi's and Golem will be good for another few years. I forgot to mention earlier, but I did get the edits for My Truest Love back to LT3. I still need the new cover, as well as a release date, but otherwise this story is mostly ready to go. The second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection should be coming my way soon, as well as the reprint edits for Wings of the Stars, but I'm enjoying the brief respite. I had to take a mental health break from working on my stories for a few days, but I eventually found the energy to resume working on The Oracle's Current and Di-Na: Part One. Neither story is anywhere close to being completed, but every bit of progress helps. I hope to keep working on them until another round of edits comes my way. 4/28/19
Those of you that follow me on Twitter already know that I successfully submitted Ge-Mi: Part Two to LT3. For everyone else, Ge-Mi: Part Two was officially submitted to LT3! I got confirmation that they received it, so now it's just a waiting game. LT3's website says it's a 6 to 8 week waiting period while they evaluate the manuscript. If they accept it, I should be signing the contract sometime in June and the book should be released anywhere from 9 to 12 months after that. So what's next? Editing, of course. I'm still working on the edits for the reprint of My Truest Love. After that I'm expecting the edits for the reprint of Wings of the Stars. The Coup and the Prince might have a copy edit or galley coming my way in the next few weeks, and then the second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection will arrive. Editing continues to take the bulk of my writing time, but once that list is done, I'm expecting to have a few months without any edits. Which means, I finally get to write again! Di-Na: Part One is, of course, high on my to-do list, but that list is incredibly long right now. I think I need to focus on the stories that have languished the longest. I really, really want to finish off my Oracle series and The Oracle's Current, so that's on the top of my list, and I also want to finish my fairy tale project. There's also Codified and Dragon Spy, which are both patiently waiting for a bit of my attention. There's so much still to do and I'm looking forward to finally having the time to actually do it! 4/26/19
Wounded Alpha was accepted for publication at LT3! This means the areas I fixed when the story was rejected the first time worked. This story was a ton of fun to write, so I'm incredibly excited to have it accepted this time. I'm expecting to see the first round of edits for this story in approximately six months, so start looking for publication announcements for sometime fourth quarter 2019 to first quarter 2020. I have returned the first round of edits for Ground of Resurrection to LT3. I think the story is really looking good, but it still has to go back to the editor for another round. I should start getting word about a potential release date and the cover approximately when the second round of edits arrive. I have also received the edits for My Truest Love, which is a reprint. The story has already gone through the editing process, but I wanted it to get another look through to make sure everything was good. For the most part the edits are simple, but there are a couple weak spots. I knew about them before, but couldn't fix them when the story was previously released as part of the collection call. The editor this time was kind enough to point them out and offer suggestions. It's therefore going to take a bit of work to get this story ready, but I'm hoping to get it done quickly. Even though Wings of the Stars, the second book in this series, is currently still for sale at LT3, I'm also expecting to get edits for it soon too as part of the series revamp. Next on my to-do list was Ge-Mi: Part Two and I'm happy to say this book is completely done! After I returned Resurrection to LT3, as promised I pulled out Ge-Mi and ran it through a final edit. I have to say I'm incredibly happy with how it turned out and I do think you'll love it just as much as I do. My plan is to submit it to LT3 either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I will let everyone know whether LT3 accepts it. Next for this series is Di-Na, book two in the series, which will also be split into two parts. I've begun writing Di-Na: Part One, so hopefully I'll be quicker about it and have it to LT3 within a year. 7/14/18
I have so much news to share. Some of it's good news and some of it's bad news, and I'm really hoping you and LT3 will forgive me for the bad news. Let me get all of the bad out of the way first. I am a very, very bad author. I struggled so much with the edits for The Coup and the Prince. It was ridiculous considering how short the story is, but for some reason those damned edits just wouldn't go. I finally got them back to LT3, but I was beyond late. There is no way Coup will be released on time and it's all my fault. I'll let you know what LT3 decides to do about it, but for the interim I will continue to wallow in misery for my incompetence. The next bit of bad news is that the audio book for Supernatural Consultant: Volume Two will be delayed indefinitely. I know some of you had expressed interest in Volume Two, which is why I reached out to LT3 about it. Sales for Volume One just weren't high enough to justify putting Volume Two into audio. LT3 is still interested in doing it, but it's been pushed back to the bottom of the to-do list. The second that changes I'll let you all know. The last bit of bad news is Paint, Guns, Money, & Love is out of print. It wasn't selling well and it wasn't my best work, so it was decided to let it go. I have a feeling it won't be missed, but I'm still sad it's gone. And now, finally, on to the good news! The response for Ground of Insurrection has been phenomenal. I haven't seen a single negative review! A few bits of constructive criticism, but overall everyone has really enjoyed it. Reading all those wonderful reviews really lifted my spirits when I needed it most, so thank you to everyone that read and reviewed. The Coup and the Prince is available for pre-order at LT3 for a 15% discount. You can get your copy reserved today: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... I have been working on Ge-Mi. No, part two hasn't grown, but I finally started organizing book two. Each book in this series will be split into two parts and Di-Na, the second book in the series, not only has a name, but it has its two main characters. I hope you'll love Kay and Sierra as much as Taylor and Nevada. Now that I've gotten all of that figured out, I'm really hoping to return to finishing Ge-Mi: Part Two. Feel free to check out the summaries and such on my current projects page. I have seen the first draft covers for The Coup and the Prince and for Heartbeat and they are perfect. I'm really looking forward to sharing the final versions with all of you, so check back for a cover reveal post soon! All I have left on my to-do list this weekend are the edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly. I put them off while I was figuring out Coup. I'm hoping because this is the second round, the edits will be easy. We'll see, but I'm going to start working on them as soon as I finish giving The Sentinel's Prophesy one last check. I am going to get Prophesy submitted to LT3 today. And that's it for all my news. I'll keep you all appraised as I learn more and I'm hoping next time it will be all good news. |
Coming Soon
Gifting a Dragon's Heart
March 19, 2024 Soul Bond
January 30, 2024 Twin Elements
October 17, 2023 Witch
April 15, 2023 AuthorMell Eight is an author writing with NSP. For more information about Mell and her writing, please visit her website: http://melleightfiction. Tags
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