Category: Dragon Home - Mell Eight's Writing Blog

A Ton of Progress

8/17/2020

8/17/20

Things are happening at an incredible pace right now. Every time I try to write a blog post, something new comes up and I have to scrap what I've written. I'm hoping to get this one posted before that happens again! Let me break all the news up into readable sections:

Accepted Manuscripts

NSP has accepted all six books in The Oracle series! This includes the brand new final book, The Oracle's Current. We have decided to rename The Sentinel's Prophesy to The Oracle's Prophesy so it fits in better with the rest of the series. Aside from that, there shouldn't be any more substantive changes. The Oracle's Flame, book one, should be released sometime in mid to late 2021.
NSP has also accepted A Little Fairy Dust, my fairy tale anthology. To everyone who has asked me when Cleanly Wrong or Cinder-Elle would be republished, you finally have your wish, plus you get a bunch more brand new stories! Keep an eye out for A Little Fairy Dust to be (tentatively) released in early 2021.

Editing

I have completed editing Dragon Adventures, the combined short stories of Dragon Adventure and Dragon Home. I just received the copy edits and hope to have that done soon as well.
The first round of edits for Dragon Lesson, book seven in my Supernatural Consultant series, has also arrived. There doesn't appear to be anything big to change, but I'm still working my way through. I'll let you know if anything substantive gets changed.
I have started pre-edits for Kelpie Blue and Magnified. We're going through and trying to remove repeated words and other mind-numbing minutia prior to digging into the meat of the stories for edits. It's going to take me a while to do each story's pre-edits, but it means the actual editing process will be much more streamlined when those stories get closer to their release dates.

Releases

Dragon Dilemma was another hit! Thank you to everyone who reviewed or let me know you enjoyed it.
The next book in my Supernatural Consultant series, Dragon Detective, will be re-released on August 24, 2020. Did you see the beautiful cover? Don't forget, if you pre-order it from NSP, you can get your e-copy on August 21st.

More Book News

10/20/2019

10/20/19

NineStar Press has also accepted the final three books in my Supernatural Consultant series! The two short stories, Dragon Adventure and Dragon Home, will be combined into one book. Right now the working title will be Dragon Adventures (we added the 'S', because we're clever like that), but inside the book "part two" will still be called Dragon Home. We're not wedded to the new title, so if anyone wants to suggest something they think is better, please feel free. NSP also accepted Dragon Lesson, which I'm super excited about. This means the entire series will be republished soon!

In other book news, there have been no new developments. It's too soon to hear whether NSP will accept the two books in my Wizard Wars series. It's also way too soon to get any additional tentative release dates. Edits for Ge-Mi: Nevada could arrive any day now, and once they start, edits for all my accepted books will continue to arrive almost non-stop for the next year. I know that is going to curtail my writing time considerably, but I am still going to try my best to get some new material completed as well. At the top of the list are my fairy tales, which I am sooooo close to finishing, and of course all the sequels everyone has so patiently been waiting for. I will keep working hard, so thank you all for your continued support!

News: Procrastination is Going Well

6/24/2017

6/24/17

I received the edits for Gathering the Hoard, the Dragon's Hoard short stories, and for Justified and I did start working on them both, but then the next thing I knew I had somehow managed to write 5k words for If A Butterfly Don't Fly and hadn't touched my edits in a week. That was not my intention in the least bit, especially since both sets of edits are already running a bit behind schedule. My plan to bust my butt this weekend and see if I can get the edits for Gathering the Hoard done and get a good chunk of Justified completed too has so-far been successful. Gathering the Hoard was just returned to LT3, so if I can get a lot accomplished in Justified, I can stop feeling guilty about procrastinating from edits by writing.
Speaking of If A Butterfly Don't Fly, that story is going amazingly well. I've added 5k words and I think I've figured out an extra twist that will make the story longer and will also help to strengthen the romantic elements. Right now there is a romance, but it's a little stilted, and the twist will hopefully help to iron everything out. I hope to reach my goal of 40k soon.
The reviews for Dragon Home have been beyond amazing. Everyone seems to have really enjoyed reading it, which I am so ecstatic to hear. The next step for this series is Dragon Spy, which is slated to be released this October. I'm hoping to have the next book in this series mostly written by that point, but that's only going to happen if the edits stop coming in so quickly. Since I still have three more stories I haven't seen edits for just yet, I have doubts on my ability to get book seven completed before book six is released. The good news is, I think I've come up with a title for book seven. What do you think of Dragon Trick? That's still subject to change, of course, but it fits with how the story is writing so far.

Out Now: Dragon Home

6/21/2017

Dragon Home

With Rios happily mated and planning an entire future, Aqua can't help but feel left out. The brother that had always been his chief playmate and best friend is going to leave him behind, which isn't at all acceptable. The obvious answer is to leave first, so Aqua packs a bag to go on an adventure. But this adventure isn't anything like his last one and the chances of him returning home alive dwindle every moment.

News: I'm Way Too Busy

6/18/2017

6/18/17

I feel a bit like I'm drowning under edits. It's my own fault because I submitted so many books right on top of each other, but the edits are hitting me one after another without a real chance to catch my breath. So far this month it's been books 1-3 of my Dragon's Hoard series. Then right after that I got book 4. I returned book 4 to LT3 and not even a day later the short stories and Justified arrived. All of my free time has been spent editing. I didn't even notice I had forgotten to put together my goals for June until June was half over. There isn't even a reprieve on the way, because once I've finished with Justified I'm expecting the first round of edits for Dragon Spy to get sent my way. This is absolutely insane for me, but in other ways it might be a bit of a blessing. Since I've been working solely on edits for so long, I won't have a dozen stories ready to submit this year, which means next year I won't get buried under edits again.
That said, I have managed to fit some writing into my schedule today. I added about 3k words to If A Butterfly Don't Fly, the second story in my Out of Underhill series. Right now it's looking like the story will only need 10-15k more words. It'll be shorter than Kelpie Blue, which I didn't really want to happen, but I can't magically force the book to be longer than the plot is calling for. Maybe I'll be able to come up with another twist, but at the moment I'm working on the beginning of the big final battle scene and I really can't see a way to expand the story any more.
I can't forget to mention that Dragon Home is coming out next week! So far the pre-release reviews have been wonderful. If you preorder your copy from LT3 before June 20th, you can get it for 32% off thanks to the big sale LT3 is holding in honor of pride month.

News: So Many Edits

5/23/2017

5/23/17

I expected this to happen, given how quickly the various deadlines are approaching, but I've been buried in edits. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I didn't expect the rewrite edits for my Dragon's Hoard series to be quite so involved. I've received the edits for the first three books in the series and have begun working on them. I knew there had to be some grammar and spelling issues given that it was my first full series, but I assumed the overall content would be fine. I was wrong, particularly with Stealing the Dragon, which has one of my minor, but still important characters needing a bit of an overhaul. I started with that story, since it needs the most work, but it's definitely going to be a bit of a struggle to get all of it done in time. (I should probably get to work instead of writing this...)
What I'm really amazed with is how much my writing has changed over the years. Back in 2010 and 2011 when I wrote my Dragon's Hoard series, I was definitely a novice and these stories do show a little of that. I definitely wouldn't have been capable of writing something so involved as Justified way back then. And yet, at the same time I can see glimmers of the growth I've since had in some of the twists and turns my characters go through. In many ways, going back through these older stories is a reminder of where I started, but it's also a lesson in understanding where I've since gone and I think my writing ability will be improved because of it. I can't wait to see what will happen as I keep on writing!
Speaking of editing, I finished writing my Rapunzel story and now I need to give it a quick edit before I set it aside. I want to fix the glaring mistakes now when I know what I meant to write. I also think I might need to bump up the romance a smidge as so much of the story is focused on the tower itself rather than the characters. Of course, this story will have to wait until all my other edits with actual time limits are completed.
Those edits also include the second round of edits for Dragon Home, which I am now remembering I never returned to LT3. I am clearly failing at being a good author at the moment, so I'll stop writing this and will get back to doing the work I would very much like to get completed before the looming due dates.

News: A BIG Change

5/9/2017

5/9/17

Dragon Home is available for preorder at LT3. You can get your copy HERE for a 15% discount. Some of you might be surprised to see it up before Justified. I know I was, and then I saw the release date and got very confused. Turns out, the releases of Dragon Home and Justified have been switched. Here are the new dates:
- Dragon Home: June 21, 2017
- Justified: August 9, 2017
At my best guess, this happened because Justified is running behind in the editing process. It's a big book with a lot of nuance, which requires more time to edit, and it definitely wouldn't have been ready for release next month. Dragon Home, on the other hand, is short and sweet with minimal edits. I am almost done with the second round and it will be back to LT3 with more than enough time for June 21st.
Dragon Adventure is coming out next week! I'm so excited to share the first half of Aqua and Rios' story. It's a fun little interlude before we hop back into the main story with Dragon Spy in October. If you want to get 15% off, make sure you preorder before Dragon Adventure comes out.

News: I'm Being Lazy

4/22/2017

4/22/17

I got the edits for Dragon Home back to LT3. I asked for them to go for a second round since I needed some things clarified by the editor. There hasn't yet been any word on the rest of the books I'm expecting edits for, but they could arrive any day now.
After the long week of Passover, running around nonstop the entire time, the long drive back to my apartment, and then having to wake up early again for work, I'm exhausted. I've been going to bed early every night this week and I haven't had the energy to work on any of my stories. I did figure out where I was stuck on a story not on this month's goals list, so I have to decide if it can wait to get written down or not, but aside from that everything is currently sitting stagnant on my computer. I'm really hoping that next week the writing bug will bite me, but I have to take the long drive back home to pick up my new glasses at the end of next week, so who knows.

News: This Past Week

4/15/2017

4/15/17

This past week has been a slow one for writing. I expected that to happen, given how crazy Passover can get at my house. We had family from all over the country visiting and twenty five people at our Seder. Now that Passover is starting to wind down, I've finally gotten a few minutes to work on my stories.
My Rapunzel story (which still needs a title) has grown by 1k words, most of which I've written today. The battle is about to begin, which should be interesting to write. I want this story to be completed already because there are so many other stories I want to be working on. I've been getting more and more requests for the second half of Ge-Mi, so I need to return to that story, and it's already halfway through April and my goals list has been languishing. Hopefully now that Passover is ending I'll be able to get back on track for my writing.
I have received the first round of edits for Dragon Home. I've glanced through them, but because of the holiday I haven't been able to start working on them yet. They're a lot more involved than I expected, although I don't have to rewrite anything significant, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to get them completed quickly. The second round of edits for Justified and the edits for my Dragon's Hoard reprint could arrive any day now, and I want to get Dragon Home done beforehand so I don't get swamped.
Don't forget LT3's anniversary is still ongoing. I'm retweeting, reblogging, and sharing as many of their giveaways as I see. Of course I would like to win something--I'm hoping to be able to purchase the second half of Megan Derr's Dance series in print--but I don't want any of you to miss out either. And maybe one of the giveaways could eventually be for one of my books. You never know! Plus, the big sale that's going on means you can get all of my books at a nice discount. Make sure to check it out: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...

News: Release Dates

3/22/2017

3/22/2017

There are many reasons why I shouldn't guess potential release dates for my upcoming books, the main reason of which is that I'm usually wrong. In this most recent case, I was very wrong. LT3 has provided me with all the upcoming dates they were able to schedule this far ahead of time and pretty much all of my guesses proved to be way off. Here's the official dates (which are subject to change, but should be mostly accurate at this point), so mark your calendars:

Dragon Adventure: May 17, 2017
Justified: June 21, 2017
Dragon's Hoard Reprint and Short Stories: July 12, 2017
Dragon Home: August 9, 2017
Dragon Spy: October 11, 2017

The only book that LT3 has accepted for publishing that is not on that list is Kelpie Blue. If I might guess (and at this point you've hopefully realized that my guesses aren't worth much), I would say December 2017 or January/February 2018.

In other news, Dragon Soldier, Dragon Detective, Dragon Adventure, and Dragon Home will be released in print in Supernatural Consultant Volume 2. This print compilation continues from where Volume 1 left off and should be released around the same time as Dragon Home in August.

Supernatural Consultant Volume 2 is also being considered for release in audio. The decision hasn't been made just yet, but I have been told it is on the list of potentials.

And the last bit of release news is that once the edits for the reprint of The Dragon's Hoard series are complete, the series will be submitted for translation into Spanish.