Category: Kelpie Blue - Mell Eight's Writing Blog

News: Dates and Edits

10/7/2017

10/15/17

I'm so glad to hear everyone is enjoying Dragon Lesson! All the reviews have been positive so far and it's really wonderful to know that the next book in the series is just as anticipated as the previous ones. I'm still writing the next book, which will feature Nickel and Platinum again (and will probably have Lumie and Goldie popping in and out throughout) and will continue the new arc. It's going to take a while before it's ready, especially considering how many other projects I have going at the moment, so until then feel free to check out all the other books in the series.

The next book I have coming out is Hadash Aviv, which is a reprint. It was originally published as part of LT3's Kiss Me at Midnight collection and while in print was nominated for a Goodreads M/M Romance Member's Choice Award for Best Law Enforcement. All the edits for the story have been completed and I can tell you not much has changed. The edits fixed a few word choices and a couple of commas, but the overall content is the same. If you own the previous printing, there is no reason to buy this one unless you want the new cover (which is awesome). For those that haven't read Hadash Aviv before, the official release date is December 13, 2017. It should be up for preorder at LT3 any day now.

Kelpie Blue is the next story on my upcoming list. I was given a release date of January 31, 2018, which coincided with my receiving the first round of edits. The edits are not easy. The editor wants a lot of big things tweaked, which will require multiple rounds of edits. I've been working hard on them, but I'm not certain January is entirely doable. I'll let you all know how it goes and whether LT3 decides to make any changes.

News: Good News to Share

8/28/2017

8/28/17

LT3 has accepted Ground of Insurrection and If A Butterfly Don't Fly! Both contracts are in the mail, which means both stories are starting their journey to being published. I am so excited!
Ground of Insurrection marks the beginning of a new series, although I don't think it will be a long one. Right now I am working on the sequel, Ground of Resurrection, but don't have any additional plans for more books. The series is set in a high fantasy world that is definitely one of the stranger ones I've come up with. It was fun to write, so I'm hoping the editing process goes smoothly and you all will have it in your hands soon.
If A Butterfly Don't Fly is a completely different type of story. It's paranormal fantasy like Kelpie Blue (book one in the series), but it goes into a world that is also stereotypically high fantasy. Readers will want to have read Kelpie Blue first before delving into Butterfly, but I promise you all will love Kelpie Blue so that isn't exactly a hardship.
I will let you all know about release dates for both those books, as well as the two previously accepted books I haven't heard dates for just yet, the second I learn them. Until then, you can always read Justified, which was released just a few weeks ago, and Dragon Lesson, which will be coming out in a few short weeks.

News: Submissions and Writing

8/19/2017

8/19/17

I read through both stories I completed last month and they have ended up in totally different directions. The Coup and the Prince was first and I quickly realized that the story wasn't ready yet. I made a bunch of changes and have decided to let it sit for another week or two. At that point I'll pick it up again. I then took a look at If A Butterfly Don't Fly and I am super happy with it! I went ahead and submitted it to LT3 and I'm hoping they like it too. I will let you know what LT3 decides.
There still hasn't been any word on the stories I'm waiting on. I submitted Ground of Insurrection almost two months ago, so I'm hoping to hear whether LT3 accepted it any day now. I also haven't had any news about Kelpie Blue in five months. I don't know what LT3 is thinking about for release dates, but I could have the first round of edits in my inbox tomorrow or two months from now. The reprint of Hadash Aviv is in a similar position to Kelpie Blue: no projected release date and edits that could appear at any time. I am hoping to have some news to share for all three stories soon, so keep an eye out for my post about it.
The reviews for Justified have been stellar. Readers are liking it even more than Magnified. I really enjoyed writing Justified, so it's wonderful to hear how much you all are also enjoying it. Codified, the third and final book in the series, still has a ways to go before it's completed. I'm hoping to have it ready sometime next year.

News: Allergies Make Life Difficult

8/5/2017

8/5/17

These last two weeks have been very interesting. Last week my family and I went to the beach for the entire week. I spent quite a few hours sitting in a chair, my feet buried in the sand, the sound of the surf in my ears, and a book in my hands. Needless to say, I didn't get much editing done. I had hoped to make up for that this week, but then something outside bloomed. When my allergies get really bad I start wheezing and my sinuses fill up. I end up with tightness in my lungs and a sinus migraine. In addition to the fact that I'm not breathing spectacularly well and am coughing to make up for it, the pain in my head is horrible. Plus, I get light sensitive with vertigo. Looking at a computer screen has been almost impossible. The only solution is Benadryl as painkillers don't touch it, so I've basically spent most of this week either suffering at work or asleep at home.
Given the fact that Justified comes out next week, I knew I had to suck it up and get the copy edits completed. I somehow managed it and Justified is now ready to go. Make sure you get your copy for a 15% discount before Justified comes out on August 9th.
I haven't finished the edits for Dragon Spy, which is a problem. If my head behaves, I would like to spend the rest of this weekend working on them. I need to get the edits back to LT3 asap as we're beginning to run short on time. I think I've settled on Dragon School as the new title, but I want to run it by the editor first before I make a decision.
You can probably guess how well the editing is going for the two stories I've completed and want to submit to LT3. I haven't touched them, but I have been thinking. I don't want If A Butterfly Don't Fly to come out too close to Kelpie Blue, the prequel. I don't have a release date for Kelpie Blue yet, but I know I want to give at least six months of space between the two stories. If I submit The Coup and the Prince first (and LT3 accepts it), that will increase the amount of space. It really depends on how the last bit of editing goes for both stories, which I can't start until after Spy is back with LT3.

News: Covers, Edits, and Writing

7/1/2017

7/1/17

For those of you that follow me on Facebook, you probably saw that I added all six new covers for my Dragon's Hoard series. They're absolutely amazing. I loved the old covers, of course, but these are super special too. Six covers is too much to share in a blog post, so if you want to check them out they're on Facebook and they're on my website.
Finding the Wolf, the first book in my Dragon's Hoard series, is available for pre-order. If you purchased it in the past, DO NOT bother buying it again (unless you want to for some reason). There have been edits, but it is basically the same book. What you can do, is when the series is re-released you can dig through LT3's rather difficult purchased page and find your original download. As far as I'm aware, you should be able to download the new version from that page. I don't know what to do if you purchased your copy from Amazon or another ebook site. If you are a brand new reader of the series, then make sure you DO get a copy now while it's on a preorder discount. The reprints of the entire Dragon's Hoard series as well as the new Gathering the Hoard short story set should all be available July 12th.
I have been plugging away at the edits for Justified and I am almost finished. All that's left is a final read through--which I've already started--and then I'll send it back to LT3. Justified is available for preorder, and you can always go onto Goodreads and add it to your to-read list. It comes out really soon too on August 9th, so get your preorder in now.
I have also been able to get a lot of writing done this past week. If A Butterfly Don't Fly has passed 30K words, which means I have less than 10k left to write. The twist I added has turned out amazingly and I'm really happy with how this story is progressing. The plan is to have it completed in July so that by the end of August I can start getting it ready for submission to LT3. By then I'm hoping to have more news to share about Kelpie Blue, the first book in the series. Kelpie Blue was accepted by LT3, but aside from that I don't know anything else about its progress. Of course, the next set of edits I should be getting are for Dragon Spy, which I know my readers are excited about since Lumie is the main character. After that is when I'm expecting to start getting word about Kelpie Blue.

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: 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.

News: Coming Soon

3/19/2017

3/19/17

The next three books on my coming soon list are starting to come together. First were the covers, which if you missed you can check out HERE. Next are the release dates. Dragon Adventure will come out on May 17, 2017. Mark your calendars for this short story.
I was also given a tentative date range for Dragon Home of sometime in June or July 2017. That date can't be finalized until LT3 and I are through with my Dragon's Hoard series rerelease process. The series will most likely be released in the same time frame as Dragon Home (barring any unforeseen editing snafus). This matters because LT3 isn't going to want to release Dragon Home too closely to my Dragon's Hoard series. This could be as simple as one comes out in June and the other July, but that determination can't be made until Dragon Home and my Dragon's Hoard series have completed the editing process.
Adding to that is Justified, which will also need a release date. It's far too soon to even guesstimate when Justified might be coming out. It is currently in a long line waiting to go back to the editor for a second round. Once it's through the line and the editor's time, I still need to complete those edits. Then it's off to the copy editor. Only at that point will the story be far enough along to start thinking about dates. If you give a month for each step in the process (March for the editor, April for me, May for the copy editor, June for formatting and other considerations) we're looking at a potential for July, August, or September, but again that date would be dependent on when the Dragon's Hoard series and Dragon Home are released.
After that it's impossible to guess anything. Dragon Spy is presumably next on the list, followed by Kelpie Blue, which was accepted by LT3 this past week. Those are months and months away from being published. Fall or winter of 2017 or even early 2018 is the best guess I could give. It's really exciting to me to see all these books slowly fall into place and, as always, I'll keep my readers updated as I learn more.

News: Writing Progress

2/14/2017

2/14/17

The first round of edits for Justified are back with LT3 to start round two. I completed them early, which means this story is off to a strong start. Hopefully the second round will go as smoothly. I'm also expecting the second round of edits for Dragon Adventure to appear any day now, given it's been almost three months since the first round was completed. I have a feeling the edits for Dragon Home might be coming soon too. It's a lot to look forward to and I'm excited to get these stories polished and ready for publishing this year.
I finished editing Kelpie Blue and gave it a final polish before submitting it to LT3. In a few weeks I'll learn whether the funky formatting is good to go if LT3 accepts it. The next book in this series, If A Butterfly Don't Fly, is stuck on a tricky bit of plot. I'm working on a build up that leads to a big battle. The problem is, I can't decide if I want the big battle to be the final battle, or just one fight that eventually escalates into the final battle. The romance has also hit the rocky point in the plot and I need to figure out how my characters want to overcome this and start really falling in love. I want to have this story completed soon, but until I figure those two bits out, I'm stuck for the moment.
Instead, I've been working on two other stories. I started working on the third book of my Magnified trilogy again. I added a few thousand words to the prologue, which is starting to shape up nicely. I have some ideas for the rest of the book, but I really need to flesh out more before I can delve in. Getting the prologue completed is important because it introduces the structure the rest of the book builds off of, so I'm glad to be working through this important first step.
The other story I've been working on is The Sentinel's Prophesy. You don't want to know how long it's been since I last opened the document for this story. I never meant for this story or the final book in my Oracle series, The Oracle's Current, to languish this long. I was distracted by my Supernatural Consultant series and by the travails of a new job, but now I'm hoping to figure out the rest of this series so I can get it off my to-do list and into my readers' hands. Prophesy is a side story to the series, but it is important because it explains the origins of the Oracle and her Dragons. The problem I've had with writing it is that the two main characters spend the first half of the book extremely depressed. Writing that emotion--and making sure to get it correct--is hard work. Last night I worked for hours on this story and when I looked at the word count I realized that I had only written 500 words. As soon as I get my characters through the depression phase, this story should start really moving. I've had the plot planned out for a while now; it's just been the actual writing that's been hard going. Here's hoping this story is the next on my completed list!

News: Things I'm Working On

2/11/2017

2/11/2017

Reviewers are really liking Ge-Mi: Part One, which is so amazing to hear. This story is so different to what I normally write, since it's sci-fi and there isn't a single dragon, and I was a bit worried that my usual readers might not flock to Ge-Mi the way they have to my Supernatural Consultant series. I'm glad to learn that my fears were unfounded. If you've read and enjoyed Ge-Mi, don't forget you can always post a review to Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you purchased your copy. I am always eager to know what you thought and to learn from any constructive criticism you can offer.
I'm still plugging away at the edits for Justified, but I'll have them back to LT3 this weekend. There's a few more little things to fix and an overall read-though, and then it's back to the editor for round two. I need to start working on the final book of the trilogy (although my editor has already asked for an additional side story about the dragon in the book). I have some ideas and have started building the prologue, but each of the books has been set on a theme and I haven't settled on what my theme for this book will be. I'm leaning towards a Passover/Exodus sort of idea, but I need to flesh it out a bit more before I can really start working on it.
Once the edits are back with LT3, it's finally time to return to Kelpie Blue. I've let it sit for a bit to marinate, and now I need to go over it with a fine toothed comb. Editing for submission is always exciting because it's my last chance to polish a story before LT3 makes the decision if they want to accept it for publishing. This story is also a bit quirky in that it's different to what I usually write, but I really, really love the story and the characters so I think it will go over well. My only concern is that it has some odd formatting that LT3 and some readers might not appreciate, but I'm going to give it a try anyway.