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.
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5/18/19
The Coup and the Prince comes out next week! Right now LT3's having a big sale in honor of Sam's birthday, so you can get it for a big discount. Otherwise, it will be available on Amazon and all other retailers very soon. You can always check it out on Goodreads until then. This book has been an adventure to write and to edit, and I do think it eventually turned out really well. I'm excited for everyone to read it! May 22nd can't come quick enough. I have seen the first draft of the cover for Ground of Resurrection and it is phenomenal. I asked for two tweaks. Hopefully once the changes are made, I'll have it to share with you. I don't yet have a release date for Resurrection, but given we're already talking about covers, it has to be coming soon. The second round of edits for this story should be coming soon too. A quick update on everything else: I'm still working on the edits for My Truest Love. I'm late in getting them back (again...sigh), but I'm hoping to get them done this weekend. I can't believe how involved edits for a reprint are. There were definitely some small changes, but the overall story isn't different. If you purchased it previously, you probably don't have to buy it again. I'm looking forward to the new covers for the series too. Wounded Alpha is still somewhere in the ether that is the editing process. I won't see it for at least a few more months. Ge-Mi: Part Two is still in the submission pool. It's only been three weeks since I submitted it (it feels like forever ago!), so I won't hear for at least another two to six weeks. I'm anxious to know whether LT3 likes it, but I'm also hoping to have some time to work on book two in the series too. Writing has been totally stagnant. I've been burned out by the mono and by work, which isn't fun. I need to be able to think in order to put words onto paper properly, and I just haven't been capable of that lately. Also, I keep having interrupted weekends where something comes up that drags me out of my apartment for half of it. That leaves me with only one day to do all the other chores and things I have to get done, and writing has unfortunately been taking a back seat. Right now June is looking like a good month with no interrupted weekends or crazy work projects. I am very hopeful I'll be able to get some real work done on my poor, neglected stories throughout June. 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. 4/14/19
I slept ten hours last night and I woke up feeling pretty good, so I'm going to do my best to buckle down on the edits for Ground of Resurrection. I have a lot still to do for that and they're due next week. Next week is also the start of Passover and I'm going to be incredibly busy. Today is my last full day to really get these done and I'm going to do my best. If I make a lot of progress with Resurrection, I'm hoping to start on Ge-Mi: Part Two today as well. If not, Ge-Mi will have to wait until after Passover. I know I promised I'd get the editing and formatting complete this month, but it's just not going to happen. I will get it done next month. The response for both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Sentinel's Prophesy have both been excellent. The reviews have been positive. Thank you so much to everyone that has read and enjoyed either of those books. 3/7/19
I want to start off by reminding everyone that If A Butterfly Don't Fly will be released next week! If you want to pre-order the book for a 15% discount at LT3, now's your chance: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... It will be available on Amazon and all other major retailers by March 13th. I'll give you one guess as to what I'm working on now. If you immediately thought "edits!" you're right. I'm actually on time for all my edits, which is a nice change, but when I really want to be writing instead... Anyway, here's what I'm working on right now: First were the edits for The Coup and the Prince, which I have completed and returned to LT3. I decided I liked the way the story ended as it was and I didn't want to muddle it up by adding an epilogue. I instead added a couple of paragraphs to the last scene that should hopefully address why the editor was thinking an epilogue would be useful. Next for this story are the copy edits, after which it will be ready for publication. Speaking of copy edits, I just received those for The Sentinel's Prophesy. I've read through and for the most part they're very straightforward. There are one or two minor tweaks I need to address, but overall I don't think they'll be a heavy lift. Once the copy edits are completed, this story will be ready to go. The last set of edits I received were the first round for Ground of Resurrection, the second book in my Wizard Wars series. I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, so I don't know how onerous they'll be, but they're going to be interesting either way. I won't be able to get started on this story until Prophesy is back with LT3, so I'll give you an update on it soon. I have also resubmitted Wounded Alpha to LT3. I think (I hope) I fixed the issue, and I will find out in a few weeks whether LT3 also thinks it's fixed. I'll let you all know whether they accept it this time. 2/18/19
Good news first: I have an official release date for The Sentinel's Prophesy: April 3, 2019. You can also preorder it at LT3 right now: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... All that's left before Prophesy is ready to go is the copy edit and the galley proof, neither of which should take too long, and the cover. I haven't seen the cover yet, but I'm sure it's going to be as amazing as the rest of the series, so I'm definitely excited for it. If A Butterfly Don't Fly also comes out in a month. If you haven't had a chance to pre-order, now's a good time: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... Now for the bad news: Wounded Alpha was not accepted as part of LT3's Bound by Nothing call. They were kind enough to tell me the two reasons why: 1, I wasn't as original as I hoped and they had too many similarly-themed stories. When they had to choose which of those stories made the cut, mine didn't. 2, There was one scene that needed a bit of work, which is why mine didn't make the cut. However, they did say if I fixed that scene they would reconsider the story as a regular release. I was originally planning to spend the entire long weekend working on the edits for The Coup and the Prince and I made a lot of progress until I got that rejection email. After reading the email, I had a good idea for how to fix the issue, so that's what I spent today doing instead of my edits. (I wanted to get it down on paper before I forgot it.) I've finished my fixing and I'm going to let the story sit for a few days, which means it's back to edits. Of course, all of that means I haven't had a chance to work on any of my waiting stories. I was happy to have added about 1k words to Ge-Mi: Part Two, but haven't been able to get back to it since. I also started fleshing out the beginning and basic outline for the third (and likely final) book in my Wizard Wars series, but again, I haven't had time to really dig in. Hopefully once I'm done with this round of edits I'll be able to get back to it. And that is the last of my bad news. Hopefully next week will only be good news to share. 2/6/19
If A Butterfly Don't Fly is back up on LT3 for preorder. Unless you got a refund, don't buy it a second time. If you didn't get a chance to preorder before, now's your chance to get it for 15% off. Check it out here: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... It will likely become available on Amazon and all other retailers on the release date, March 13th. All the edits for Butterfly and The Sentinel's Prophesy are back with LT3. That means Butterfly is 95% ready for release. All that's left is checking over the galley, which will happen sometime in the next few weeks. I made a lot of changes in Prophesy, but I'm not sure whether it needs to go back to the editor. It might not go through a second round of edits and instead head straight to the copy editor. I don't know what that means in terms of release dates, but the fewer edits I have to do, the better. Just today I received more edits for The Coup and the Prince. I haven't had time to start working on it, but I glanced through and it doesn't look too bad. A couple tweaks here and there, but I didn't see any major rewrites. However, the editor did recommend I add an epilogue, which could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand words added (depending on how the characters speak to me). Once I get into the nitty gritty of the edits, I will have to read through and reevaluate whether I agree with that recommendation My Truest Love and Wings of the Stars are both supposed to get a quick edit, so I'm expecting to see something regarding those two stories sometime soon as well. I am not expecting to hear anything about Ground of Resurrection for a few more months, which will hopefully allow a break between editing jobs that I would like to fill with writing instead. LT3's Bound by Nothing call officially closed last week. It will likely be a few more weeks before I hear whether they accept Wounded Alpha, but they have started the process of going through all the submissions. I will of course let you all know when I have news to share. 1/20/19
I have new release dates for both of my postponed stories!
Even better news is I already know I won't miss Butterfly's new release date. I received the copy edits last weekend. My plan was to simply look through them to see what I was in for, but as I was scrolling through I started fixing. I managed to finish the edits, so all that's left is a final read-through before I send it back to LT3. If I didn't already have edits I was working on, I would have this completed today. Speaking of those other edits, I'm making good progress on the first round of edits for The Sentinel's Prophesy. I'm about two thirds of the way through and should get that last chunk done this weekend. Then it's a read-through and back to LT3. I'm glad I'm making good progress on both sets of edits. The sooner I'm done with them, the sooner I can return to writing, which is what I really want to work on right now. Thank you to everyone that voted in the M/M Romance Goodreads Group awards. Ground of Insurrection did not place, but I'm still really happy and honored to have been nominated. I'm hoping you all will enjoy the sequel, Ground of Resurrection, just as much. 1/5/19
I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and a good new year. So far, my new year is starting off well. I have lots of news to share, but first I want to tell you my new years resolution for writing: Get all my edits done on time! Conversely, if I'm struggling with the edits, contact LT3 well ahead of the deadline so we can work something out before it gets away from us both. I'm not going through that again this year, and it's not right that I put LT3 on the spot like that. 2019 is a new year with a new start where I will juggle my real life and my writing life competently. With that out of the way, on to my news: Edits have returned. The Sentinel's Prophesy has arrived in my inbox to start the editing process, which I'm super exited about. There's always a lot to do for the first round of edits, but nothing crazy jumped out at me after a quick glance through. I started working on it already and I hope to get a big chunk completed this weekend. By Sunday night I should know how crazy this round will be, and how many rounds of edits this particular story will need. I want to get Prophesy back to LT3 quickly because I'm expecting edits for the two postponed stories to appear at any moment. Both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince went back for more edits. I don't know what the timeline is for either story, which means I don't know when to expect them back, and in the interest of avoiding overlapping edits (which is one of the things I had issues with last year), getting Prophesy completed soon is a high priority. Two of my stories have had their contracts renewed. Road to Home, book two of my contemporary spy thriller series, will continue to be sold through LT3 without interruption. I will not be making any edits or changes, so if you own the book don't worry, and if you don't own the book, you have plenty of time to get your copy. The other renewed contract belonged to Wings of the Stars, a short sci-fi story I wrote for LT3's A Loose Screw collection. Wings of the Stars is technically the second story in a series I've always loosely called Space Stars. The first book in the series, My Truest Love, was written for LT3's Rocking Hard anthology, and it went out of print a few years ago. Therein lies the dilemma. If I wanted to renew Wings of the Stars, I needed to do something with My Truest Love. I spoke with LT3 and they have accepted My Truest Love again. I would like to have new covers made for both stories that reflect the fact that they're in a series together. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. The last bit of news is that the voting for M/M Romance's Best books of 2018 closed. I have to wait until next weekend to learn how Ground of Insurrection did. There was a lot of competition, but I'm still hopeful. Thank you to everyone that took the time to vote. |
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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