10/31/21
This is my second Halloween in my new house. The first one was a bust thanks to COVID, but this year trick or treating isn't cancelled. I'm hopeful I'll get a few, although that depends on whether it ever stops raining. I'm not into scary movies, but I watched Muppet's Haunted Mansion so I've done my due diligence for Halloween fun. I'm going to watch football the rest of today and root for my fantasy team members, and hopefully get a bit more writing done. Shiver and Quiver, my current story from my new fairy tale project is almost complete. I have to tie together the last scene in the final chapter and then write a quick epilogue. And then it's done! I haven't decided whether I'm going to save it for inclusion in another anthology or submit it as a stand alone, but I've got a while before I need to make a decision. Once it's done, I'm going to set it aside for a month or so before giving it an edit and then I'll start thinking about the next steps for this story. I finished the second round of edits for Melting the Ice Witch, the fourth and final book in my Dragon's Hoard series. I have fallen in love with this series again as I've been reading through each book, so I'm really glad it will be completely re-released soon. Melting is currently scheduled for a January release, but first is everyone's favorite baby dragon, Tori, as Stealing the Dragon comes out in December. Don't forget Road to Home is available for pre-order at NSP. It comes out on November 9th, but you can get it three days earlier at NSP.
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10/18/21
When my alarm goes off in the morning, the sun isn't even close to rising. It's still warm enough during the day that I don't need a coat if I'm wearing long sleeves, but I can't keep the windows in my house open for too long. And yet, the leaves aren't changing quite yet. It's an odd time of year, but I love it. Somehow that anticipation always leads to more interest in writing. I've made some progress on a couple of different stories. The most progress was with Shiver and Quiver, the new fairy tale I've been working on. It's reached 20k words, which is a lot for this type of story from me, but I think it's still got approximately 10k more to go. Because it's so long, I'm oscillating on whether to include it in a new anthology or make it a stand alone. I love how A Little Fairy Dust came out, so I was hoping to do that with Shiver and Quiver, but none of the stories in Fairy Dust were nearly so long. I guess it depends on how the rest of the anthology forms up, but I'll definitely keep everyone in the loop regarding where this story is headed. I also pulled out and dusted off The Case of the Wandering Wolves. I hadn't bothered to submit it for republishing because it was so short, but I added a 2k short story/epilogue to it and now it's ready to go. When am I going to send it in to NSP? Good question. NSP is doing some reorganizing of their release dates right now. Until I know how the rest of my submitted stories are going to fall, I've held off on submitting anything else new. Hunter and Witch from my Witch's Circle series are both complete and ready for submission, which brings my total to three stories I'm currently sitting on. I'm hoping to get all three in to NSP sometime within the next month or so. Aside from that, I've mostly been editing. We've just started working on the first round for Melting the Ice Witch, the fourth and final book in my Dragon's Hoard series. Stealing the Dragon, the third book, and Road to Home, the second story in my Road To duology are finished with copy edits. I'm well on my way into 2022 for my releases, and I know we will be completed with reprints very soon! 9/15/21
The incessant editing is finally starting to slow down now that more of my books have been re-released, which means I actually have time to focus on my writing. It's a very nice change, and it's really making me look forward to when the reprinting process is done and I can return to a more normal writing schedule. I was able to complete Witch, the third and final book in my Witch's Circle trilogy. The original epilogue grew too large, so I turned it into another chapter instead. That meant when I started working on the new epilogue, I was able to keep it short and sweet. Witch will now sit for a while to marinate, after which I will give it an edit and format it for publishing. Hunter, the second book in the trilogy, is ready to be submitted to NSP. As soon as I have a free moment I will send it in for consideration, however my schedule for the next few weeks is insane so that probably won't be until October at the earliest. Given the first book in the trilogy, Coven, won't be available until mid to late 2022, I'm not in a rush to get the last two books submitted. I added a large chunk to Dragon Spy as well. I was finally able to get two of the main players to meet, which means the drama can really begin. Spy has a long way to go, but it's been so long since I was able to work on it I'm taking even this little bit of progress as a victory. I have decided to trim it down to two points of view, instead of the three the original outline had, which makes it flow a lot better. You'll hear from Nickel and Alloy, and it's Alloy whom I'm going to put through the ringer. Nickel's POV is needed to help with the overall plot, and he'll have an adventure of his own, but poor Alloy's story is going to be center stage. The only other book on my active to-do list is Shiver and Quiver from my new attempt at a fairy tale anthology. The entire story is plotted out, I just have to find the time to write it. It's growing in bits and pieces and I'm probably about halfway through, but it's still going to take a bit more time. Once this story is complete, I'll get to work on the second story in the group, but, as I said in an earlier post, it will very likely be years before this anthology is done and in your hands. For anyone who celebrates Yom Kippur, I hope you have a g'mar chatima tova, a good and meaningful fast. 7/1/21
The past few months have been crazy with book releases. One after another, until I could barely keep up with my promotional posts. I finally have a bit of a break, so instead I want to let you know about everything else I've been working on. Editing: I can't believe how much editing I've gotten done. We're well past the halfway mark for getting all my books re-released, and we're also finally getting to some of my older stories. As you saw last month, Finding the Wolf, my OG book, was re-released. We've also started working on the edits for Breaking the Shackles, book two in The Dragon's Hoard series. One of my other early series, Road To, is also in the editing process. Road to Revenge is almost ready for a July release and I expect to start working on the second book's edits soon as well. Don't worry, my editor and I have been working on some of my newer stuff too. We've made a lot of progress editing Ground of Insurrection, so that will be ready for release in August. That also means the book I know a lot of you have been waiting for, Ground of Resurrection, has also started the editing process. I am almost done with the first round! (For those of you who remember, Resurrection was supposed to come out the day before LT3 closed, so readers have been forced to wait an extra two years to get their copy.) Writing: I'm still writing, but not the books I need to be focusing on. I have finally come up with a series title for the circle stories I've been working on. I'm going to be blatant and call it the Witch's Circle Series. I submitted Book One, which I've decided to title Coven, to NSP. I hope to hear yea or nay soon. Book Two, which I've tentatively titled Hunter, still needs to be edited one last time, but it's close to being complete. I was working on what I thought was the epilogue for Book Three, tentatively titled Witch or Wolf (I haven't decided which yet), but it's gotten so long I think I'm going to make it another chapter instead. This means I still have to finish the final chapter and write the epilogue, but the story is turning out really good, so I'm excited to be finished with the trilogy. Similarly to many of you, I love rewritten fairy tales. (Hence why A Little Fairy Dust exists.) I recently came up with an idea for two more stories, and have decided to therefore start a brand new anthology. The first story is a Beauty and the Beast rewrite set in the same world as Red Apple Witch. I have the basic idea fleshed out, but I haven't figured out the villain yet so this story is still in the planning stages. The other will be the title novel for the anthology, called Shiver and Quiver, My Little Tree. Although I wrote a number of Cinderella stories in Fairy Dust, they were all based on Perrault's version of the story. This one will be loosely based on The Brothers Grimm version instead. I'm a third of the way through and loving it so far. That said, A Little Fairy Dust took me five years to write and two of the stories were reprints. It will definitely be a while until you see the final product. What about Dragon Spy, you ask? I haven't written anything more just yet, but it is definitely next on my to-do list. Hopefully I'll get to it soon! |
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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