4/25/21
It's been a while since I've written a blog post that wasn't just to promote an upcoming release. The last few weeks have been focused exclusively on If A Butterfly Don't Fly and on Wounded Alpha. Now that those two books are out (and readers are loving them!), I can return to telling you about edits and about writing. My editor and I are really chugging along! Over the last few weeks we've completed the first round of edits for Road to Revenge, my contemporary crime thriller. Road to Revenge is one of my earliest books, but I am really enjoying the opportunity to shine it up for everyone. I don't write contemporary often, but this particular series is definitely one of my faves. Road to Revenge is slated to come out this June! We have also started the first round of edits for Elemental Ride, my quirky urban fantasy short story about a guy, his bike, and his rather unusual mailman. Elemental Ride is scheduled to re-release this July. We're also still making a ton of progress on the rest of books coming out in the next few months. We completed the second round of edits for Finding the Wolf, and both The Coup and the Prince and Justified are completely ready to go. In fact, Justified is available for pre-order at NSP right now. If you buy through NSP, you'll get your e-copy three days earlier than the May 3rd release date. I have also somehow fit a lot of writing into my schedule. The third (and right now final) book in my Witch's Circle stories is almost done. I am currently setting up the final battle, and once that's written all that's left is to wrap up the book. I admit I'm a bit surprised at how smoothly this series has gone, but I'm very hopeful as soon as I get it completely written I'll be able to focus on some of the books patiently waiting on my to-do list.
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When I started writing If A Butterfly Don't Fly, it was supposed to be a fun stand alone story. I wanted something different in tone and texture to my dragon books, but I still wanted that same sense of wonder and adventure. The ideas for Underhill bloomed from that. Underhill is the hidden world where the fae live, accessible only through a magic mushroom circle, and I really enjoyed building the magic of Underhill into a vibrant setting. However, I knew Underhill would have to interact with the human world, so I also focused on finding out how Underhill's culture and beliefs would intersect with those of the human world. As you'll see in If A Butterfly Don't Fly it's not always smooth, but it's always going to be fun! As I continued to write Butterfly, I realized Underhill needed more than one book to fully explain what it is and how it works. The way Butterfly was written expects the reader to already have some understanding of the world of the fae, and Butterfly wasn't the appropriate vehicle to fully convey it all. Instead, I set Butterfly aside for a while and wrote the prequel, Kelpie Blue. When I finished Kelpie Blue and returned to Butterfly, Underhill had expanded into an even more wondrous place. I was able to convey so much more about the fae, and about why they're in the human world, thanks to Blue and Rin in Kelpie Blue. Merridy and Fion from Butterfly certainly appreciated all I could suddenly add to their relationship and their story, and If A Butterfly Don't Fly became one of my favorite books from then on. Fun Fact: All the song lyrics in If A Butterfly Don't Fly are original. Songs are often used in movies and TV to convey or evoke some sort of deeper reaction from the viewers. While I can't create the heart thumping reaction of the actual sounds (like the Jaws theme song so effectively does), I tried to use the words themselves and how I inserted certain stanzas into the text to build drama or emotion. Based on past reviews of Butterfly, I think I was pretty successful, but I'm eager to hear whether you think the same too! The reprint of If A Butterfly Don't Fly comes out on April 5th, but it is already available for pre-order at NSP. If you buy with NSP, you will get your copy today. It will be available in ebook and print from most major retailers in just three short days. 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!
2/8/21
Fingers crossed, but I haven't had any home issues in the last week! I'm running out of big ticket appliances to replace, which hopefully means there's less available to go wrong. Not worrying about my house does mean I have more free time to focus on writing! Circle Y, the second (untitled) book in my (also untitled) series about a witch and some werewolves, has reached the halfway point. I've introduced the bad guys, set up the main drama, and am ready to get the ball rolling. FYI, if anyone has any suggestions regarding what you think I should title the books or the series, I am definitely open to recommendations. I'm not in a rush to decide, since I won't be submitting these stories to NSP until the end of 2021 at the earliest, but it would still be good to have something to actually call them. I have also reached the point in book two where I need to start thinking about a book three. I'm not certain there needs to be a third book, but I'm loving these characters and want to keep working with them for a few more books. The problem boils down to: is there enough plot to carry more books? I am hoping as I keep working on the latter half of Circle Y, I'll be able to come up with an answer. On a different note, I have begun work on the first round of edits for Justified, book two in my Magnified series. Magnified comes out in March (only a few short weeks away!), so I don't want to spoil anything for first time readers by talking too much about Justified right now. Let me just say the edits are going smoothly and I expect Justified to stay on schedule for a May release. Here's a quick status update for my books being released in the next few months:
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! 8/26/20
I have tentative dates for when more of my books are going to come out! They are subject to change (they've already been changed once already), so don't go setting them into stone. I can almost guarantee the dates for the releases in 2022 will very likely be changed as more of my submitted manuscripts are accepted and woven into the release schedule. Still, it's good to know in terms of planning ahead, so I'm sharing them with you now:
As you can see, it's going to be very busy. There's a lot to do in a short time frame, but I'm looking forward to getting all my books re-released for you. In case you were wondering, the brand new, never before published books, are in bold. Fingers crossed I can finish another book and add some more bold lines for 2022! I'm also being lazy and not putting links for more information into this post. Instead, please go here where I've been adding the links as I get them. I will definitely keep you in the loop as these dates come closer, and if any dates are changed, I'll let you know that too. The next few years are going to be a wild ride, but it's so nice to see so much progress already being made! 2/23/20
It's been a very long February for me. Some unhappy family issues pulled me away from writing for about two weeks, and I'm only now caught up. That said, a lot has happened recently that I want to fill you in on, so I'm going to write another long post full of fun information. Read on: Submissions to NineStar Press:
That's it for news for February. I know there's a lot going on, and it's probably going to continue being a fire hose deluge of things to do until at least this time next year. I'm enjoying it, though, and I'm so glad you're all sticking through it all with me as we all patiently wait for all my books to become available again. 1/31/20
I can't tell you how many blog posts I've written this month where, just before I was ready to post, I got more news and had to rewrite. I think this is my third or fourth attempt to get out a blog post, but there's so much to tell you I'm just going to post what I have, and I may end up writing another blog post tomorrow. Either way, this post is really long, but I promise there's exciting stuff inside. Read on: Submissions to NineStar Press:
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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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