5/5/23
...and I'm sneezing. The flowers are pretty, but behind that beauty lies a nefarious evil. LOL I live where I get to experience four distinct seasons because I love it. The anticipation as winter comes to an end, knowing warmth and sunshine and the beach are just around the corner is only matched by my anticipation in August that the oppressive heat of summer will soon be tempered by snow. The dopamine boosting cycle of anticipation and fulfillment is exactly why I never want to go anywhere else. That said, spring is probably my least favorite season, mostly because I spend a lot of April and May, and sometimes into June, fighting off sinus migraines, runny noses, and general blah. I always find my writing suffers because of this; if I have a major headache, the last thing I want is the bright lights of a computer screen. Luckily, I seem to be doing okay so far this year. The word count for The Chef continues to steadily grow. I passed 50k last week, making this officially the second longest single story I've ever written. Only Magnified is longer. I'm certainly happy with how much I've been able to put into this one new story. All that's left to write is the final battle and the wrap up, so fingers crossed this story will be done soon. If you pre-ordered Hunter from NSP, make sure you go download your copy to read! Hunter is officially released there. For every other retailer where Hunter is sold, May 9th is only a few days away! I can't wait for everyone to get a chance to catch up with Kana and and Ember, and Kana's familiars, and see where this new adventure brings them! I have also started working on the first round of edits for Twin Elements, my high fantasy stand alone about a pair of twins trying to survive some difficult political mechanizations all while falling in love with the people who come to save them. Twin Elements is such a fun bit of world building and character development. I loved writing it, so revisiting this story in edits has been wonderful. That's basically everything I've been up to this past week. I'm starting to plan my garden for this year, which is mostly veggies, and I'm mentally preparing for my first, inevitable sunburn of summer. I'm also starting a new paint by numbers project that will likely take a few months to complete (I chose a really complicated one this time), so I'm excited about that. Otherwise, it's just work, figuring out what my chef in The Chef will cook next, and sneezing. So. Much. Sneezing. Summer, here I come!
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3/6/21
It shouldn't sound so shocking to say I've been writing, but I feel like it is. The last few years have been editing and more editing, and even more editing. However, with Magnified now released, I'm starting to see the finish line. Yes, I have books and reprints coming out for the rest of 2021, and even into 2022, but Magnified was the big one. It was the longest, with the most convoluted plot, and I knew it would require the most strenuous edits of all the books I have coming out. Having Magnified re-released--and with such stellar feedback from readers--is a big relief. And, somehow, despite the fact that edits are still around, I have been finding some time to write. Of course, I haven't been working on the next books in any of my established series. That would be too logical. Instead, I've been working on my new series about a witch, some vampires, and a werewolf pack. I completed writing the second book this past week, and have started on the prologue for book three. In fact, the only thing that isn't running smoothy for this new series is figuring out what to call it. Everything I've come up with has sounded too trite. I'll think of something eventually, I hope, but until then I will continue to work on Circle Z (untitled). I am hoping once I get my coven circle stories written and therefore out of the way, the ideas will start flowing again for some of my other books. Lumie, from my Supernatural Consultant series, has been poking at the back of my mind, wondering why his next book hasn't grown any in a long while. The rest of my books seem to be content to wait their turn, but I will get to them all eventually as long as I continue to find time to write. Magnified
Magnified started as an experiment. Most of the books I write fall within the 20k to 40k word range, and I wanted to know what a story I wrote in the 60k range would be like. I also wanted to know whether I was capable of writing a novel-length story. From that desire, I crafted Magnified. Learning how to elongate the story with additional scenes of drama, pulling the story together around a pair of budding romances, and creating an enemy threatening everything they stand for was unlike anything I had ever written before. Or since. Magnified took a lot out of me to write, and challenged my abilities in ways I hadn't dared try before. The results awed me, and to this day Magnified remains one of my personal favorites of the stories I've written. I admit, after writing Magnified I was happy to return to the world of happy dragons and simple romances, but I soon returned to the challenge to write the sequel, Justified, and will return once more to write the last book in the series, Codified. The challenge teaches me new techniques that I then bring to my books about happy dragons, so I am pleased whenever I have the time and energy to focus on Magnified once again. Fun Fact: I wrote the prologue for Magnified first and submitted it to LT3 as a 10k word short story. LT3 liked it, but told me it didn't have enough romance for their press. They asked me to rewrite it and try again. The ideas for adding werewolves and wizards to the vampires I had already introduced blossomed, and the challenge of creating a novel-length book bit me. Over a year later, and an additional 50k words written, I resubmitted Magnified. I told LT3 the story was a bit different to last time, and they responded with: A bit? The rest, as they say, is history, and now NSP is republishing Magnified so a whole new set of readers can enjoy this wonderful story. Magnified comes out on March 1st in ebook and print at most major retailers. You can pre-order it today from NSP and get it three days early! If you're a reader like me, while you enjoy ebooks, there's something about the feel of a print book. If I can, I prefer to buy books in print, so I want to take this moment to highlight some of my own books that are available in print right now, or will be available in the very near future: Available For Purchase:
Coming Soon:
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:
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! 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! |
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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