3/11/22
I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. It's also been a while since I had a book come out! Let me fill everyone in: NSP is reorganizing their release schedule to provide dates that allow for more promotion and such. During that process, my last few reprints were shuffled around, and got bumped from their original proposed release dates. The new process is once a book has completed copy edits, it will be added to a schedule, and only then will I know a tentative release date. I have just finished a ton of copy edits, so I'm hopeful my next post will have a bunch of information on when they'll be available for purchase. For now, here's where all of my books that NSP has accepted for publishing stand: Books with completed copy edits right now include:
I expect to have more information to share on all those stories really soon. On a happier note, I have been writing a bit. Mostly in drips and drabs. I've been so busy with real life (and copy edits) that squeezing writing in continues to be an adventure. However, as you can see from above, I am almost done with all the reprints, which means I will definitely be able to return to writing really soon!
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1/23/22
Two years of pounding out reprints, desperately trying to ensure my readers don't miss out on any of my books all while working a full time job, has taken its toll. I'm definitely feeling the burn out. It's not just that I haven't been able to write nearly as much as I would like; I've also not been posting on my blog as much either. I truly enjoy interacting with my readers, but it has been months since I had the time or energy to put together something and post it. With all that said, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Just last week the final book in my Dragon's Hoard series, Melting the Ice Witch, was re-released. The only series yet to be reprinted is my Oracle series, and The Oracle's Flame, book one, should be arriving really soon (release date to come). In fact, my editor and I are already working on The Oracle's Sprite, book four, which means there is only one more reprint after that! Now is the time to start looking toward the future and what's next for my writing. Right now, I have two brand new books accepted for publishing at NSP: The Oracle's Current, the sixth and final book of my Oracle series, and Coven, the first book in my Witch's Circle trilogy. In addition to that, Hunter and Witch, the latter two books in that series, are ready for submission as soon as NSP is ready. I also have a fairy tale I'd like to submit to NSP's "Shorts" collection, but am waiting for my editor to have time to breathe before I send her that too. 2022 is therefore set in terms of what books will likely come out. My focus therefore must be getting books ready for 2023. That sounds like a long way off, but in the publishing world it really isn't. Over the last few weeks I've written small bits in Codified and Dragon Spy, and the aforementioned fairy tale will be part of a new collection I'm also working on. I can't make any promises as to what I might finish next, but I am looking forward to being done with reprints so I can focus exclusively on my new stuff, and can write blog posts about it much more often. 7/17/21
Coven, the first book in my Witch's Circle series, was accepted for publishing at NSP! We haven't officially signed the contract, but I'm super excited. By the time Coven is released (best guesstimate is the end of 2022), I will be done with reprints. I can't wait to return to a more normal writing and publishing schedule, and Coven is the first step in that process. Hunter, the second book in the series, is also completely written. I was in the process of giving it one last edit before I format it for submission, but I had to pause temporarily because I received more edits. I hope to have Hunter submitted for consideration with NSP within the next few weeks. I am still writing Witch, the third book. I am stuck on the final sentence for the book, and then I have to write a quick epilogue, which I already have planned out. Hopefully I'll be done writing it soon! Unfortunately, that's it for the writing front. I haven't had time to work on anything else. June was incredibly busy both at work and in life, and I've spent the first half of July catching up on all the little things that fell by the wayside, i.e. laundry. The latter half of July is mostly open, so I hope to finish Witch and return to working on some of my other languishing works in progress. However, that depends on what edits I receive. I recently completed the second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection. That means editing for all my upcoming releases through October are in progress. I am waiting on edits from the proof reader and copy editor for all those books, which is a good sign they are on schedule for their respective release dates. Road to Home is currently scheduled for November, so I expect to start working on the first round of edits for that book soon. As long as the edits continue to go smoothly (and as long as my real life isn't too busy) I will hopefully be able to get in some writing time as well. Maybe by the end of 2022, my publishing life really will be back to normal! 3/21/21
Readers who have been with me from the very earliest days of my writing know my Dragon's Hoard series. Finding the Wolf, book one, was my first ever accepted manuscript, and Tori, the main character from Stealing the Dragon, book three, captured hearts. I have had some readers who remember the series and I've had readers who have only recently discovered my books ask when the Dragon's Hoard will be republished. I am happy to say the first round of edits for Finding the Wolf are completed! Finding the Wolf is slated to be republished with NSP in June, so you won't have to wait much longer for my very first set of happy dragons to fly back into your arms. There have been a few other things going on with my writing over the last few days:
Passover starts next weekend, so I probably won't be able to put up a blog post like usual. I'll still do my best to keep you all in the loop if anything fun happens, though! 1/30/21
Every time I mention I'm having an issue with my house, someone invariably nods sagely and says "the joys of home ownership". Every time! I'm wavering on whether it's actually joyful. I bought a house because I couldn't stand to stay in my noisy, smelly, and annoying apartment, and I don't regret that decision at all. However, to date I have had to replace every single appliance in my kitchen, my furnace, my AC, and now my water heater. (Finding water leaking into my basement Wednesday morning was less than ideal.) I'm waiting for that moment where home ownership is stress free, when I can simply enjoy having my own space without worrying something else is going to go wrong. At this point, I don't think I'm going to reach that stage until after I've rebuilt the entire house from scratch, but one day I know I will achieve the elusive joy of home ownership. On a happier note, I have seen the first draft of the cover for Magnified. It blew me away! I can't wait to share it. Also, all the edits are done for Magnified, so it is completely ready to go for its March release. I have also completed the second round of edits for Wounded Alpha, so that's on pace for an April release. I haven't had much time for writing these past few weeks. My untitled Circle stories are still going well, which is nice, but I haven't had a moment to dig into any of my other works in progress. I am thinking of scraping the third book in my Wizard Wars series. I'm not sure the overarching story warrants a third book, and my efforts to force one to happen anyway aren't going well. Maybe that will change once the first two books are released again, but for now I'm setting it aside to focus on more pressing books. Now that my home ownership issues have (presumably) been solved, I plan to focus my free time on writing rather than on calling plumbers. Wish me luck! 1/15/21
The installers got to my house a little after eight this morning, worked all day, and by 4 PM I had a new furnace! Right now my house smells like whatever crud is burning off the new furnace, but that toasty marshmallow/acetone smell is still better than the burnt oil stench I've been enduring the last few months. Once everything is burnt off, I'm hoping I won't even notice when my furnace is on. I have received the first round of edits for Wounded Alpha. This is a brand new, never before published story, so I'm incredibly excited it's moving closer to being released! My amazing editor really likes the story too. I am hoping to finish this round of edits this weekend so the story can continue moving along in time for its April release date. I have also had a lot of success on the writing front. My witch/vampire/werewolf story is complete. It needs a lot of edits. I started writing the sequel, which is when I realized I needed to fix a couple of things in book one to ensure I had proper continuity. After I fix things in book one, I'm going to set it aside until the sequel is also done, just in case I find something else I want to change. At some point I will also have to come up with book and series titles, but for now I'm just going to enjoy writing again. 12/31/2020
I hope everyone has a very happy new year and I'm wishing you bright things to come in 2021! So far my writing in 2021 is looking good: For my upcoming books, A Little Fairy Dust will be released on the 4th (you can pre-order it HERE), Magnified is in excellent shape for a March re-release, and we have begun the first round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly, which is currently scheduled to come out in April. Once this first round of Butterfly is complete, I should receive edits for Wounded Alpha, which is also scheduled for April. This is excellent progress on both re-releases and for some brand new material! I am excited to continue moving forward with getting all of my old stories available again, but I'm also really happy to offer brand new books for my longtime readers. Right now I have three completely new books coming out in 2021: A Little Fairy Dust (which does reprint Cleanly Wrong and Cinder-Elle, but also has seven additional new stories), Wounded Alpha, and Ground of Resurrection in September. I am really hoping to fit in some writing in 2021 as well. I already know editing my re-releases will be a constant, just as it was in 2020, but I am going to try my best to try to continue to work on brand new books. I have made good progress on the start of my brand new (currently untitled) series about a witch having some difficulties with vampires and werewolves. I'm hoping to complete at least the first two books in that series over the next year. Of course, I also want to spend some time with Lumie (as his stories in Supernatural Consultant series aren't done yet), and I want to make progress on the third and final books of my Magnified, Out of Underhill, and Wizard Wars series. And now it's time to watch the ball drop and get 2021 started! 12/12/20
How editing works: Wow, I've made so much progress! I've reworked sentences, approved a ton of commas, and clarified a bunch of issues with the editor. I'm moving along so fast and I'll have this finished in no time! Looks down at the page count. I've only done two pages?!? Editing is a roller coaster. There's the high when things are going well, when the edits are moving along smoothly and I feel like I'm making progress. Then there's the low when I realize despite all the work I've done, I still have over a hundred pages to go. Or when the editor (helpfully) points out something I've done very, very wrong. And then the high again once I get through those snags and start chugging along, and then the low... You get the idea. I'm behind on the edits for Magnified, and every time I get into the groove and start feeling like I'm making progress, I look down at the page count and realize just how little progress I've actually made. It's hard, but this is how all edits work. The difference is Magnified is 20 to 40 thousand words longer than most of my stories (it's double the length of one of my Supernatural Consultant books), which means it takes a lot longer to complete. The plan is to finish Magnified quickly this weekend, so maybe I'll have time to write something too. Thanks to everyone for sending emotional support about my furnace. I have decided on a brand, and I have decided to bite the bullet and get an AC unit too. It took a ton of research to figure out the best model for my climate, and to decide on Energy Star ratings, but a decision was finally reached. Of course, I made my choice too late on Friday, so I won't get the contract until Monday, but hopefully I'll have a new furnace before the new year! 12/5/20
You might remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I was smelling oil every time my heat turned on. I finally had someone out to look into it, and it's bad. The technician found a puddle of oil underneath the pump, took the pump apart and found more oil, and guessed there's even more oil leaking somewhere he can't see. It's not a ton of oil, because the oil in my tank isn't mysteriously vanishing, but it's enough that he told me my furnace is shot. I have to completely replace it, which is going to be a fun adventure. Anyone have any recommendations on a good oil furnace brand? I'm especially thrilled because I've only owned said furnace for about five months, which means it was probably shot last winter and the previous owners lied to me about it being in perfect working condition. Now I'm wondering what else I'm going to have to replace. The AC unit is very old too, so I might try to get a package deal for that with the furnace since they're tied together. Do I need to take a closer look at my water heater? What other big ticket items did the previous owners ignore? Owning a home was supposed to reduce my stress, because living in an apartment really, really sucked. Unfortunately, until I have all the pieces and parts of my house fixed, my stress levels are going to remain incredibly high. Luckily, I have writing to escape with. Codified is going well. I completed a major scene and have started the bridge to the next one. The guys are about to travel somewhere new, so I'll have to do a bit of world building. There's still a lot to write, but I'm really liking how it's going so far. Although, I just received the first round of edits for the Magnified reprint (book one in the same series) and I have to finish those before I can continue writing. 11/28/20
I know I mentioned it when I first posted the release dates for my books, and I mentioned it when those dates were subsequently changed, but all potential release dates are tentative. The dates have changed again. We are aiming to release as many books as possible in 2021, which means were are condensing the schedule. Our aim is to finish re-releasing all the reprints (peppered with some brand new material, of course) as soon as possible. This is good news for you. For brand new readers, you're getting almost my entire back list at your fingertips in an incredibly short amount of time. For everyone else, you're getting the brand new books sooner too. Those of you who have waited far too long for Ground of Resurrection (for example), you'll now get it months earlier than previously planned. You can check out the newly revised schedule HERE. The best part of the new schedule is what comes after. Yes, I will be spending all of 2021 in almost constant edits, and that's going to get trying at times, but once everything is re-released I will be free. Without those obligations, I will have a ton of free time to focus exclusively on writing. You have no idea how much I've missed unfettered writing time these last two years. Only one more year and I'll be back to my normal writing schedule. Speaking of books I need to write, I've had a break between edits over the last week and I was able to add a small chunk to Codified, the third and final book in my Magnified series. The prologue is complete and I've started the setup for chapter one. I'm still figuring out some details for the overall plot, but in many ways the prologues of all three books in this series have been the hardest to write. Completing that section for Codified was a huge success, one I hope to continue capitalizing on for as long as edits remain scarce. |
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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