3/30/24
For many reasons this week has both dragged and gone way too fast. Every time I looked at a clock, it felt like the hands were moving backward, and yet I blinked and suddenly it was already Friday! I can't really put how odd this feels into words, so instead let me explain everything I've been up to this week. First of all, the response for Gifting a Dragon's Heart has been beyond positive. Not a single bad review, which is almost unheard of! You all really seem to have enjoyed my quirky sci-fi/fantasy crossover story. For anyone that missed it, Gifting is available for purchase at most major retailers. My next story on the docket for release is The Chef, which is completely different in style to Gifting a Dragon's Heart. Beyond the fact that The Chef is almost double the length of Gifting, it also has a lot more world building and a slower build up to the romance and the plot. I received the first round of edits for The Chef this week. It's amazing how much more time and effort editing 60k words is compared to all the shorter stories I've been releasing. I was so excited to be working on The Chef again, but this was another instance of the clock moving in the wrong direction. I'd think I had made a lot of progress and was enjoying the opportunity to play with this story again, and then I'd realize I had only finished five pages. In a 20 to 30k story, five pages is a ton. In a 60k story that's barely scratching the surface. Lol It took me all week to return The Chef to my editor for round two. Despite that, my goal is still to write more longer works so this process has been very rewarding. Speaking of writing, I added another chapter to the third book in the trilogy, The Spy, which concludes the fun that began in The Chef. I've finished the needed introductory parts to the second half of the story and now it's time to dive into the meat of the plot as the climax for this book and the series takes off. The Spy is currently 35k words long and I believe I have enough outlined to get it to 50k, which would put it in the longer range for my books. I had to pause writing this story when the edits for The Chef came in, so I hope I can jump back in where I left off. I want to finish writing The Spy as quickly as possible because there are a ton of other plots dancing around in my head, asking for their turn. If a book is listed on my Current Projects page, it is one of those stories demanding I write them too. The problem is if I start working on one of them, The Spy won't get finished. That's what happened with my Magnified trilogy; I got distracted by other series and plots, and now it feels too daunting to go back and finish the last book. Codified is absolutely still on my to-do list, but so is Dragon Spy and Vivary Tales, and the list goes on. There's a lot to look forward to, so I'm excited to see where the next few weeks of writing take me!
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2/21/24
Today it feels as if I'm behind on everything. One of the things I'm delinquent on is keeping all of you in the loop about my stories, so writing this post is a good start at catching up. There's a lot of information about what's going on to share, so here we go! The reception and reviews for Soul Bond have been excellent. Everyone seems to have enjoyed my Valentine's-themed short story! Mixing illegal magic with a good mystery and sweet romance appears to be what everyone wants to read this time of year. I don't currently have any plans for more short stories, but I will make sure not to ignore a plot bunny for one should it hop into my brain. Gifting a Dragon's Heart is my next story getting released. You can pre-order it at NSP, Amazon, or Smashwords right now! If you want, you can also add it to your Goodreads list, where positive ARC reviews are already coming in. Gifting officially comes out on March 19th, just over a month away. As usual, if you pre-order with NSP, you can get it four days early. For a sneak peak of the cover, head over to any of those sites. I should have the official graphic to share really soon! The Prince, book two in my Princes of Toval series, was accepted for publishing with NSP! I'm really happy, as this means it's just as good as the first book, The Chef. I expect the editing process for The Chef to begin really soon, but The Prince likely won't start that process until fall. I've made great progress writing the third book in the trilogy, The Spy. I have written over 30k words, which is more than halfway. I will definitely reach 50k total words, although I'm still aiming for closer to 60k. There was some major action right before the halfway point, which means this story needs to enter a lull as I set things up for the final punch. Making sure the slower build-up is as interesting as the fast-paced action is always a good challenge so I'm very hopeful the next few scenes turn out. 1/1/24
My memory is comprised of Swiss cheese. I swear. I've written three separate posts in the past month, and said "I'll edit and post it after I [insert random activity here]." The realization that I never got around to actually posting came about two days later. By the time I found five free minutes, the contents were obsolete. I ended up writing a new post, and the cycle continued. I swore to myself that this weekend I would absolutely get my post actually posted. (You'll notice today is Monday...so I failed...sigh.) Anyway, I hope everyone had a very happy holiday season and a happy New Year! Here's what I've been working on the past few weeks: The draft of the cover for Soul Bond is absolutely perfect. And pink. I can't wait to share it with you, as it's completely different to every other cover I've ever had. I'm so excited for my fantasy Valentines story to come out. It was so much fun to write, and we're reaching the final countdown to release! Soul Bond is currently scheduled to come out at the end of January. I expect to have pre-order information to share very soon. Gifting a Dragon's Heart has completed both rounds of edits and is off to the copy editor. This story is moving through the editing process at a lightning pace. I expect to have a scheduled release date sometime soon. Generally, NSP likes to schedule releases after copy edits are completed, so keep an eye out for that step in the process. I have gotten a ton of writing done in The Spy, the third book in my Princes of Toval trilogy. I'm at 24k words, which means I've written about 15k in the last three weeks. The Spy is on track for at least a 50k, if not a 60k, final word count. My characters spent a long time stuck in the woods, and I couldn't figure out how to get them moving on to the next bit of plot. Chapter 8 is therefore a good bit longer than I usually want, but I'm finally on to chapter 9 and a new setting. I have almost finished the build-up for the midway point in the book, after which the story switches gears. I'm excited to write the next half, so I'm really hoping to get to work on it soon. My plans for this new year haven't changed from what I've said before. Now that it's January, I get to pull out The Prince, book two in my Princes of Toval trilogy. The Prince will get a final edit, I'll format it for submission, and send it off for NSP's consideration. I'm also expecting the first round of edits for The Chef, book one, very soon. Once I finish writing The Spy, my plan is to see about getting some of my older, languishing stories completed. I have so many ideas for new books, but my to-do list is far too big. Fingers crossed I can finish some of them in the next year! 10/14/23
There's so much to talk about and I'm not sure I can fit it all into one post! Sorry if this one is a little long. I'll start with the most exciting news first! Twin Elements is available for pre-ordrer at most major retailers. You can reserve your copy today! Here are some links:
NSP accepted The Chef for publishing! I'm so excited! They seemed to really enjoy it, which is always a great sign. I expect we will start working on editing sometime next April-ish, and you'll have it in your hands around this time next year. I am so incredibly close to completing The Prince, the sequel to The Chef. The story itself is done; all that's left is writing the epilogue. I am hopeful I'll be able to write the rest this weekend or next, depending on whether I get distracted by anything else. Wish me luck! Speaking of distractions, I am 90% finished with a short story for NSP's internal Valentine's Day call. When they first put out the call, I had no idea if I was going to write something for it, and I certainly had zero idea of any sort of plot. Then, last weekend I had a moment of epiphany: What if magic was illegal and my main character was cursed and needed to find some magical help without also getting thrown in jail in the process! Somehow, this crazy idea has turned into a Valentines-themed story. My working title right now is Soulbond. If I can complete it this coming week, I should have just enough time to get it edited before the submission deadline. I'll keep you all posted. On another note. I have purposefully chosen to leave politics and anything real-world out of my blog and separate from my life as a writer. However, some of you know I lived in Israel for a year while I was getting my Master's. All I'll say is so-far all my friends in Israel are okay. They've been very lucky. Some are fighting, and the rest have found other ways to give support. I might not be able to do much, safe on my couch in the US, but for anyone from Israel who reads this, please know I support you, I'm praying for you, and I wish this somehow ends with the terrorists removed from power in Gaza so all people in the region can finally live in lasting peace. 9/3/23
Twin Elements has a release date! October 17th! That's really soon, much sooner than I expected. I haven't seen a draft of the cover yet, which is a really big step in terms of getting this book ready for all of you to read. I therefore didn't expect to see a release date until November or even December. October 17th is a very pleasant surprise. I will let everyone know when Twin Elements is available for preorder and will definitely share the cover as soon as I get to see it myself. In more great news, as I promised, I took The Chef out of hibernation and gave it another read through. I fell in love with the story again as I was reading, and as I was editing I somehow managed to expand it just enough that it squeaked past 60k words, which was my minimum word count! The Chef is still my second longest story; Magnified is longer. However, I'm really, really happy with how The Chef turned out! So happy, in fact, I've gone ahead and submitted it to NSP for consideration. I don't expect to hear whether NSP says yes or no for a while, but I'm excited to move this story on to the next step. Writing for The Prince, the second book in my Princes of Toval series, is going really well. The new scenes I'm adding after getting my characters down from that cliff have really helped this story flow much better. I have resigned myself that this book will likely tap out at 50k words, rather than the 60k I originally wanted, but I think 10k words fewer is better than forcing this book to expand when it doesn't want to. That would make the story feel tough and stilted, rather than the fun flow I'm going for. I still have a lot left to write, but I'm hopeful this story will also be ready for submission before too long. Aside from that, I haven't done much else with my writing. I have started some planning for book three in Princes of Toval. I'm calling it The Spy. I know who the main characters are and have been figuring out some of the major plot points. The main conflict still needs some work, but overall this story is in good enough shape that I can start writing as soon as The Prince is complete. I also have a vague idea for a fourth book, but it's entirely dependent on one of the plot ideas for The Spy going well, so I make no promises just yet. 8/4/23
Happy August everyone! Summer is really flying by. The crazy humidity is finally taking a break, so the weather isn't too bad. To be honest, it feels like autumn, which makes me worry I'm in for another slam of crazy weather sometime soon. Summer, particularly a summer like this one has been, isn't going to go away easily. I'll enjoy this lovely break while it lasts. Has writing been going well? I really wish I had an answer to that question. I finished writing chapter 10 of The Prince today. It was longer than the word count I wanted, which is good, but I'm still behind on the overall word count for this story. I've reached the halfway point in the plot, where I finally get to pull all the threads I've been building together as we head to the final battle. I'm incredibly excited to write it, but I'm also aware I'm probably going to be about 10k words shorter in this book than in book one, The Chef. I'm hoping I get some inspiration that will allow me to expand somewhere, but the opportunities for that are dwindling the further I get into the story. Luckily, I really, really like how the story has turned out, so, length issues aside, I'm happy with it. I have figured out the major plot points in the third book, which I'm calling The Spy. I am currently planning for it to be half the length of the other two, but am open to it growing if the plot calls for it. I'm still thinking up my working blurb, so there's not much else to share just yet. First, I have to finish writing The Prince, of course, but I'm looking forward to starting this book too! I mentioned I had an idea for a dungeon-style story with dragons. I wanted to give the idea a go and wrote most of the prologue and some of the first chapter. I can already tell this story is going to be amazing. I have the main character fleshed out, the post-apocalyptic setting, and some of the plot, but I'm missing the main conflict. I plan to peck at this story when I need a break from The Prince, but until I get a better handle on the bigger picture this story is still just a dream. 7/8/23
I have been getting a ton of writing done in The Prince, the second book in my still unnamed series. Is Tales of Toval as a series name confusing, or do you think I should go with it? Princes of Toval? Adventures in Toval? Anyway, I've started writing chapter 6, so I'm making decent progress. Except, none of the chapters have reached my minimum word count goal. I should be well over 15k words at this point in the story, but I've barely scraped past 13k. I am hoping when I go back and edit, I'll find places where I can expand, but for now I'm starting to wonder if I'll even make it to 50k, let alone the 60k I'm aiming for. If I'm lucky, chapter 6 or 7 will blast past my word count goal and set this story back on track, but we'll see. I can only write what my characters ask of me. If you'll remember, I said the reason I wasn't submitting The Chef to NSP for consideration was I needed to wait until I was far enough into writing The Prince to be certain I don't need to go back and change anything? Well, I'm actually having the opposite problem. I couldn't remember what I named the mountain range in The Chef, so in The Prince I wrote MOUNTAINS in uppercase, to remind myself to go look up the Spikehorn Mountains. There was a character in The Chef who appeared in one scene, and he appears again for a larger scene in The Prince. Right now I have NAME there as a reminder to figure out what I named him. Sigh. Clearly I need to go back to writing stand alone stories (I have two coming out sometime soon). Unfortunately for me, I currently only have series in my hopper. LOL I have figured out the two main characters for The Spy (or The Baker, I haven't decided on a title yet), the third book in my aforementioned unnamed series. I was also poking at Dragon Spy, which will be the last book in my Supernatural Consultant series. One of my hang-ups was figuring out who the main character was, and if there's a new love story, or whether the story simply continues the relationships from previous books. I finally decided to let the story and the characters dictate, and have ended up with multiple points of view, including Alloy, who will have some sort of romance brewing. Vivary Tales took a backseat while I focused on writing The Chef, but I will return to writing that series soon. I have an idea for a dungeon-style/post-apocalyptic story with dragons (yes, I read and loved Solo Leveling and am very excited for the upcoming anime!!!), but I have too much on my plate right now. It's begging me to write it, but so is The Prince, and I have to prioritize completing something I've already started. None of the rest of my stories are speaking to me right now. I get an occasional poke from Codified, from my Magnified series, asking why I haven't taken a look at the third book in a while, but I am so stuck on where that story is going right now that it's easier to focus on what's actually writing. Hopefully, that will change and I will be able to complete some more off my to-do list soon! 6/12/23
I have been doing so much better lately with posting regularly to keep everyone in the loop, and then I went and vanished for an entire month! Sigh. I admit I've been very busy, and spring has definitely kept me on my toes. My sister is getting married this summer (soooo excited!!!), so the last few weeks were the bridal shower and bachelorette party. Plus, I had a business trip for my 9 to 5 and I went to the beach for Memorial Day. And this entire last week has been sniffles and coughing. Covid test was negative, but I still felt nasty. After about ten hours of sleeping three nights in a row I'm starting to feel better, so I appear to be on the back end of this spring cold. Blah. Here's everything else I've accomplished over the last month: The Chef is complete! I've dotted my Ts and crossed my Is and set it aside to rest for a while. I was right that it wasn't going to beat Magnified as my longest story, but it came really close! To all my readers who have mentioned they "love my stories but wish they were longer", The Chef is for you! It taps out at a whomping 59k words, which is easily double the length of most of the rest of my stories. My plan is to pull The Chef out of hibernation sometime in August or September, give it a last read through, and submit it to NSP for their consideration. That is a lot longer than I normally give my stories for their resting phase, but The Chef is part of a series whose overall plot will continue between the books. Right now, the second book, The Prince, is entirely dependent on events that occurred in The Chef. If something in The Prince isn't flowing correctly, I need to be able to go back into The Chef and make changes, which means The Chef is going to be delayed. I expect by August to have gotten far enough into The Prince where that won't be an issue any longer. Another problem is I haven't come up with a series name yet. I might go simple and call it Kingdom of Toval, which is one of the locations in the book, but I'm not sure yet. Also, I have some vague ideas for a third book in the series, but I don't really see how it can fit into the current plot. I'm contemplating making it a short story set in the world, but that would depend on how The Prince ends up. I have seen the first draft for the cover of Witch, the third and final book in my Witch's Circle series, and it is glorious! I can't wait to share it with you. I don't have an official release date yet to share, but it is with the proof reader at the moment (the final step before ARCs), so I should hear more very soon. Aside from that, the only fun thing is my garden is starting to sprout. It looks like I will have beans, peas, green peppers, and lettuce fresh on demand all summer! I can't wait! 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! This blog post was originally sent out via my email newsletter. I'm sharing it here two weeks later. If you want to receive my newsletter, feel free to sign up on the form on my website! Like most authors, my Google search history raises some red flags. Writing fantasy and paranormal leads to very interesting searches. Here's some of the fun things I've researched recently:
For Hunter:
Hunter comes out on May 9th, so you don't have to wait too long to see the results of those (and more). For Water's Price:
Sharing any of the other fun things I researched would spoil the book, so that's all I've got now. Water's Price comes out on June 27th, so after that I might be able to share more! For The Chef:
I have about 10k words left to write in The Chef, after which it will need edits and polishing. I hope to have it submitted to a publisher for consideration toward the end of this year, so keep an eye on my blog for more information. I promise I will have more ridiculous searches to share from this book in the future. Is there a bit of plot or some factoid in one of my published books you're curious about? Let me know and I'd be happy to elaborate! |
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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