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!
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1/15/17
The Case of the Wandering Wolves
The Case of the Wandering Wolves is actually one of my oldest stories. Back when I was finishing up writing my Dragon's Hoard Series, I took some time to figure out what was next on the agenda. I eventually came up with a curious coyote and the mate that ran away. It was supposed to be a cute detective story with a little angst and a lot of romance. I wanted it to top at about 25k words, just a little shorter than each Dragon's Hoard book. I started working on Wandering Wolves immediately and I was just as quickly distracted. Road to Revenge was percolating, as were a half-dozen anthology and collection calls. Then The Oracle's Series came along and afterwards my Supernatural Consultant Series. With every new book, The Case of the Wandering Wolves was pushed further and further back on my to-do list until it was at the very bottom.
That was honestly okay with me. At the time, I had written about 8k words in Wandering Wolves and was stuck. I didn't know how I wanted the story to progress or where the twist was. The romance had fizzled out and the overall story needed some major rewrites. I was essentially looking at what I wanted to be a 25k story with only 10k worth of actual plot and about 5k that needed to be fixed. The story had turned into a dud, which I really felt was a shame. It was supposed to be the first book of an entire series, The Trickster's Eye Series, and I couldn't even get it past the first hurdle. LT3 sent out a Satisfaction Guaranteed anthology call about the same time I was thinking of scrapping Wandering Wolves entirely and forgetting it ever existed. I guess my brain was stuck on the ideas in Wandering Wolves because I started pulling characters and plots from that original book and putting them into a new story. Orion and Denton weren't originally supposed to be part of the Trickster's Eye universe, but Heartbeat fit so perfectly into the overall story line. Suddenly, the series was off the ground. LT3 accepted Heartbeat and it was published on September 24, 2014. Now I couldn't simply forget Wandering Wolves ever existed; I had a book in the series already in my readers' hands. Yet, Wandering Wolves was still stalled and broken. Nothing I did helped revive it, so I returned to my other projects. Then LT3 put out a new anthology call: Private Dicks, Packing Heat. I stayed away from it at first because I already had too much on my to-do list, but I did eventually read it. Light bulb! If I changed this bit around, shortened this, and reworked that, Wandering Wolves was back on track. The call was for a story between 10k-20k and it turned out that shortening the story to only topping out at 15k words was the answer. I didn't need a drawn out plot or extra twists. I could focus on one case and one romance and leave it simple and easy. I got the story written, sent it off to beta readers because it was still suffering a bit, got their edits fixed, and submitted it to LT3 last year. They accepted it! Of course, they asked if it was okay to publish Wandering Wolves on it's own instead of as part of the anthology. I said yes, because I had a bit of an epiphany that there was another story in the series to write. The Case of the Hopping Hare had hopped into my brain, so publishing Wandering Wolves as a stand-alone was perfect. It's so wonderful for me to see one of my oldest stories taking off. The Case of the Wandering Wolves will arrive in stores on January 11, 2017, just a few days away. It's available for pre-order right now, so you can get your copy today: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... 1/08/17
12/26/16
12/12/16
12/11/16
12/7/16
The Case of the Wandering Wolves is one of my older stories. I started writing it about the same time as my Dragon's Hoard series (this was late 2011), but I hit a roadblock and wasn't able to finish it. Luckily, that road block recently cleared up and Wandering Wolves was completed. It's the start of what I'm hoping will be a fun series that's more lighthearted romance than what I usually write. The cover definitely reflects that, in my opinion. The Case of the Wandering Wolves comes out on January 11, 2017, but is already available for pre-order from LT3 for a 15% discount. Get your copy today: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books/...
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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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