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9/24/20
To anyone that celebrates, I hope you had a happy new year and have an easy fast! The response for Dragon Soldier has been beyond amazing. Readers really seem to love it, and that has me so excited! I was incredibly busy the last few weeks, so I never got around to posting the new cover, but it's as wonderful as the rest of the series. You can check it out here! Dragon Adventures, the next book in the series is completely ready to go. All we're waiting on is the cover, but the editing is done. I hope to have the official release date for you very soon. Sticking with news about my Supernatural Consultant series, I have been writing Dragon Spy again. I finally figured out one of the reasons the story wasn't flowing correctly was because the prologue really needed to be chapter one instead. I started writing a new prologue, which introduces a new dragon, and it's already looking so much better! There's still a lot of little plot details to work out, but overall this story is really starting to take shape. I have also finally finished the preliminary round of edits for Kelpie Blue, which is still slated to come out in January. The prelims were a beast to get through, and it took me a lot longer than I had hoped, but I did it and the story looks so much tighter because of it. I'm also super excited to start working on a different series. As much as I love my dragons, taking a break to play with a feisty kelpie was awesome. Next on my editing to-do list are the prelims for Magnified. I think I got into a groove with Kelpie Blue, so I'm hoping to carry that forward and blaze through Magnified. I am also expecting the first round of edits for A Little Fairy Dust, my fairy tale anthology. It's a huge book, so it will take a little longer to go through the editing process, which is why I'm expecting it to land in my inbox any day now.
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9/09/20
Yes, you read the title correctly! Every single manuscript I sent to NSP for consideration has now been accepted. The last stragglers were my entire Dragon's Hoard series (minus the short story collection, which I cant submit just yet), Elemental Ride, The Coup and the Prince, and Space Stars. It's taken a year of hard work to reach this point, and I am incredibly excited! When will you be able to buy any of those books? I can't say with any certainty right now, but I'm hoping NSP will weave them into the 2022 release schedule. "What do you mean, I have to wait until 2022 to buy Tori's book again!?!?" Sorry, but I have so many books in NSP's queue that my Dragon's Hoard series was unfortunately pushed to the end. It's my very first series and Finding the Wolf was my first accepted manuscript at LT3, so I promise you I'm as eager to get Tori, Nyle, and White back on the digital shelves as you are. (For anyone wondering, Tori is a very similar and equally lovable character to Lumie.) This also means I can start shifting my focus from the past to the future. It's time to start writing brand new material again rather than just worrying about all my reprints. Yes, I will be editing endlessly for the next few years, so writing time will continue to be limited, but it finally feels like I'm making forward progress again with my writing. 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! 7/15/20
I am caught up on editing. Shocking, I know, but I don't have any edits to complete right now. The copy edits for Dragon Soldier, book five in my Supernatural Consultant series, are complete and off to the proof reader for final checks. I also completed the first round of edits for Dragon Adventure, and expect the second half for Dragon Home to arrive soon, but until then I have no edits on my plate! Which means I finally have free time! Normally, I'd be taking this opportunity to get some writing done, but that's unfortunately not going to happen this month. I have been spending every free moment wrapping fragile things in paper, packing boxes, and bringing what I can safely carry on my own over to the new house. I already spent one long night cleaning and measuring for new appliances. Area rugs are arriving by mail and the place is slowly starting to feel like it's mine. Even after the moving van comes and goes, I know I'm going to be spending a lot of time I would normally devote to writing to unpacking instead. What does this mean in the long run? Not much. NSP still has 25+ of my books to evaluate, edit, and publish. Anything I completed now would simply go to the end of that very long list and you wouldn't see it for a few years. While there are books I would love this chance to get ahead on (Codified being number one on that list), I have to be pragmatic here. Taking the time to get my real life in order is just as important as completing more of the research Codified needs. Truth is, one of the big impediments to my writing has been my environment. I'm constantly interrupted by annoying neighbors being obnoxious, and that hasn't been good for my writing for a while now. After the move, when I have my own, quiet, place, I do feel that writing will go better. Hopefully next time I get a nice break between edits I'll be in a position to really get some writing done. 7/7/20
Dragon Dilemma is available for preorder at NSP. It comes out on July 20th, but if you buy from NSP you can get it three days earlier! (FYI, if you already own Dragon Dilemma, not much has changed in this re-release.) I have also seen the first draft of the new cover and it's as amazing as the rest of the series. I can't wait to share it too. Road to Revenge and Road to Home were both accepted for publishing at NSP! I very rarely write contemporary, but I loved writing both of these spy stories. In fact, prior to my writing Magnified, I think this series was my favorite. I don't know when they'll reach edits, but it should be a fun process when they do! For now, you can check out the series on my website and I'll let you know when they start to move towards publishing. I successfully closed on my house, so now I need to focus on getting packed and getting moved. As I write this, a child is screeching in the hallway and someone is blasting music from their car in the parking lot. I cannot get away from this apartment fast enough and am looking forward to having my own, quiet place to finally get some writing done! 6/20/20
These days it seems like all I have to talk about in these blog posts is editing. Yes, editing for my Supernatural Consultant series continues at a good pace, and we're ahead of schedule, but there's more to my writing world than that and I want to share it with you. I've submitted two huge projects to NSP:
I have added 2k words to Dragon Spy, the next book in my Supernatural Consultant series. (For new readers of this series, by next I mean not previously published. There are seven previously published books, all of which have been/will be re-released by NSP in 2020. Dragon Spy is book eight.)
In other news, I bought a house. It's my first house so I'm super nervous. Closing is in a week and a half, the moving truck is scheduled to come soon after that, and my apartment is currently stuffed with boxes. I foolishly thought packing my books would be the easiest place to start, however, I've filled four boxes of just books (and I know about weight limits, so they're not overfull), but have only taken about a third of my books off the shelf. Luckily, I'm moving close by. I'm going to have to take those full boxes over myself, empty them, then bring them back to fill again for the movers to take. If someone can explain how books multiply so quickly, I'd appreciate it. 5/10/20
I've been working diligently on The Oracle's Current these last few weeks (in between all the editing) and I've made so much progress. The story went from being stuck at the beginning, with me desperately trying to figure out how to get the characters started on their journey, to almost being complete. I was on such a high with how well the writing was going. Yesterday was a great day for writing. I added a ton and was halfway through writing the final battle scene, and I was getting really excited. This story has waited so long to be completed and all I needed to do was put the finishing touches on one last scene and write the epilogue. Or so I thought. I looked down at my word count and realized I needed to add another 2k words to reach my minimum. Enter a moment of total despair. There I was, thinking I was almost done, and now I had to come up with another 2k worth of plot! I abandoned writing for the day and put on a movie instead. Except, as the movie was playing, my nerve started to come back. So what if I needed to figure out another 2k. I just had to write. Finish the one scene I was working on, write the epilogue, and then see what turned out in the process. Well, that one scene I thought only needed a few finishing lines suddenly kept going. And going. I struggled to find a way to actually end it, and when I did, somehow the word count matched exactly what I needed. It's weird that things magically seemed to work out, and I don't know why. If I knew why, I'd replicate it for some of my other unfinished stories. Because, The Oracle's Current is complete! After approximately five years of writing (including a long pause while I wrote The Sentinel's Prophesy instead), I have finally finished. I did a little happy dance when I typed the final period. It's an amazing feeling to know the book and the series is complete. Now comes the next steps. I'll put Current aside until June, at which point I'll pull it out again to give it a thorough edit. After that, it's up to NSP whether they'll accept it and the rest of the series, but I'm excited to see how it goes!  5/8/20
I have so much news about Ge-Mi that I'm bursting at the seams! First, an official release date for Part Two: May 18, 2020. The best part is, you can preorder it right now from NSP, and if you do, you can get it three days earlier than from anywhere else! Here's the link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/ge-mi-part-two/ I'm certain it will be available for preorder or to buy from other retailers soon, but three days sooner is awesome. Next is the cover, which is a companion to Part One's cover. It looks similar, but is different enough (I hope) to stand alone. It's very pretty and has red wolf's fur to signify this is Taylor's book. What do you think? Ge-Mi will be released in print! Parts One and Two will be combined into one lovely print version. NSP is working with the cover artist right now to get a print cover completed. It will take a few extra weeks, but sometime after Part Two is released, the print version will also become available. I will let everyone know when I have more information, but it's something more for you to look forward to! 5/03/20
I have a bunch of books coming out in the next few weeks, so I wanted to update you on where they stand: Ge-Mi: Part Two This story is completely ready to go. I finished the proofreader's final edits and have seen the draft of the cover. All that's left is for the ARCs to go out, which will happen soon. Part Two is scheduled to come out in May, and I expect to have a firm date once NSP posts it for pre-order on their website. I am incredibly excited for this story to come out. Not only have readers waited literally years for it, but it is the first brand new story of mine NSP is releasing. I'm super excited to see how a new book does with my new publisher. Dragon Deception Book Two in my Supernatural Consultant series is starting to take shape. I have completed the copy edits for the story, which means all that's left is the proofreader. I have seen a draft of the cover, and it is as awesome as the cover for the first book. It will 100% be ready to go by June. Given the amazing reception Dragon Consultant has been getting, I'm certain Deception will also do really well. Dragon Dilemma Dilemma is also making great strides in its journey towards reprinting. I just finished the second round of edits and the story turned out really well. The editor likes the story, which means all my new readers will like it too! I have also submitted the cover form, so that's in progress too. There's still a lot to do for this story, but I think we're ahead of schedule for a July release, which is good. 4/25/20
I have reached the halfway point in The Oracle's Current! The main love interest has been introduced, and the conflict is about to really get going. I recently came to a realization about this story: I can't have it meander throughout the world; it has to be focused completely on the Monastery. As the final book in the series, I need to tie together all the last loose ends, and I can't do that if they're not in the location where those loose ends need to be tied. I therefore had to scrap my idea of more pirates and heading to Altnoia, but I think the new plan with the Monastery at the center is ten times better. I'm super excited to see how it goes, and to see if I can get it completed in time to submit to NSP with the rest of the series. As part of my work from home social distancing, I've been auditing some college courses to help my subject matter expertise grow. One course I'm taking is about magic in the middle ages. I promise, it does technically apply to the work I do for my day job, but they had a whole section on Jewish magic too. I took a lot of notes, and some ideas are definitely swirling for Codified. If you remember, Codified has been stalled because I haven't had the time to do the research the story needs. This course has helped with some of that, and has also given me some new avenues to start digging through as well. I don't actually know when I'll be able to return to writing Codified, but I'm happy with the progress I've made. That's it for writing at the moment, but between what I've added to Current and finishing my Fairy Tales, I think this has been a very productive last few weeks. |
Coming Soon
A Little Fairy Dust
January 4, 2021 
Magnified
March 1, 2021 
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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