Category: The Oracle's Sprite - Mell Eight's Writing Blog

More Tentative Release Dates

8/26/2020

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:

2020
- October: Dragon Adventures (Supernatural Consultant 6)
- November: Dragon Lesson (Supernatural Consultant 7)
2021
- January: Kelpie Blue (Out of Underhill 1)
- January: A Little Fairy Dust
- March: Magnified (Magnified 1)
- April: Wounded Alpha
- May: If a Butterfly Don't Fly (Out of Underhill 2)
- June: Road to Revenge (Road To 1)
- August: Ground of Insurrection (Wizard Wars 1)
- September: Road to Home (Road To 2)
- November: Justified (Magnified 2)
- December: Ground of Resurrection (Wizard Wars 2)
2022
- January: The Oracle's Flame (Book 1)
- March: The Oracle's Hatchling (Book 2)
- April: The Oracle's Golem (Book 3)
- June: The Oracle's Sprite (Book 4)
- July: The Oracle's Prophecy (Book 5)
- August: The Oracle's Current (Book 6)

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!

Another Long Post With Good News

2/23/2020

2/23/20

It's been a very long February for me. Some unhappy family issues pulled me away from writing for about two weeks, and I'm only now caught up. That said, a lot has happened recently that I want to fill you in on, so I'm going to write another long post full of fun information. Read on:

Submissions to NineStar Press:

Wounded Alpha, Kelpie Blue, If A Butterfly Don't Fly, Magnified, and Justified were all accepted for publishing at NineStar Press! I'm super excited as I really love these books. As soon as I have concrete information on release dates, I'll share more, but it won't be until August at the earliest.
I have officially maxed out NSP's release calendar for 2020. What that means is NSP can't assess any more of my submissions until they create their calendar for 2021. Everything else I've already submitted to them will therefore have to wait, and I won't be submitting anything more until they tell me it's okay.
I also submitted my Dragon's Hoard series (minus the short stories as I'll have to add one more to get to the length requirement), Elemental Ride, The Coup and the Prince, My Truest Love, and Wings of the Stars. They're going to have to wait, along with my Road To series, for the 2021 calendar.

Writing:

I have fixed my Oracle series! It took a bit of finagling, but I made the changes without having to significantly alter the plot. The series is officially ready and waiting to submit when NSP gives the okay. I have also added 1k words to The Oracle's Current, the sixth, and final, book in the series. The real drama is just starting, and I'm about to introduce the love interest, so I'm really excited about where the story is going. I'm hoping I can get it completed before The Sentinel's Prophesy is released by NSP (should they accept it, of course).

Editing:

I was able to complete the second round of edits for Dragon Consultant. I got them back to NSP late because of my family issues, so I don't know if that will effect the release date. I'm hoping April is still far enough away that it won't, but we'll see. Next for Consultant is copy edits, which will hopefully arrive soon.
I am working on the final proofreader's edits for Ge-Mi: Part One. There's not a lot to do, so I'm hoping to have them completed and back to the editor by today. That should be it for edits for this book, so I don't foresee any issues meeting the March release date. I will hopefully have an exact date available for you soon. The first round of edits for Ge-Mi: Part Two should also be heading my way in the near future as well.

Book Covers:

I have seen the first draft of the new cover for Ge-Mi: Part One and it's really nice! It's simple, but lovely, and is definitely more safe for work than the original cover. I can't wait to see the final draft, and then share it with all of you!
I have been asked what I want for the new cover for Dragon Consultant. I think I want to go with something simple again, but still bright and happy, and focused on kit-level destruction. I'm really looking forward to what the artist comes up with, and I can't wait to share it with you.

That's it for news for February. I know there's a lot going on, and it's probably going to continue being a fire hose deluge of things to do until at least this time next year. I'm enjoying it, though, and I'm so glad you're all sticking through it all with me as we all patiently wait for all my books to become available again.

Out Now: The Oracle's Sprite

9/30/2015

The Oracle's Sprite
The Oracle Series, Book Four

    At just eighteen years of age, Keir became the leader of the army fighting against the usurper king while Princes Edan and Egan led the navy. At his side, willing to help from time to time, was Sprite.

    A friendly ghost, Sprite likes to keep Keir company and occasionally play tricks on Keir's sister. When the Oracle demands Keir's presence, he expects Sprite to travel with him.

    He doesn't expect the gale that knocks him overboard and into an adventure that might just kill him.

News: Making Progress

9/26/2015

9/26/15

There's two fun announcements I have to mention first. The Oracle's Sprite is up for giveaway in a bunch of different places: HeartsonFire, LT3, and I are all offering one copy to a lucky commenter. Make sure to sign up for my giveaway today: http://melleightsblog...giveaway-the-oracles-sprite Sprite comes out very soon on September 30th.
I also have a tentative release date for Dragon Deception: February 10, 2016. The story is finished with the editing process--unless the copy editor sees something--which means that date should be accurate.
On to the progress I've made over the last week. Both Dragon Consultant and Dragon Deception are back with LT3 after I finished with their edits. I made a mental health decision to hold off returning to the edits for The Case of the Wandering Wolves for a few short days; too much editing at one time fries my brain. Instead I decided to work on one of my stories. For some reason, Dragon Spy jumped to the front. I know, I haven't finished writing Dragon Soldier, the previous book in the series, but I figured out the main plot line for Spy and wanted to start working on it. It looks like Spy will be the sixth book in the series. I'm not entirely certain I'm happy about that because there is a large time jump between book five and book six, but at the same time I think that's how the story needs to flow. Soldier is the end of arc one, Spy is the start of arc two. Squeezing a book in between there to try to soften the sudden jump feels awkward right now. Of course, given the way this series has a habit of suddenly tossing new ideas my way it might be premature to state that.
After I wrote about 3k words in Dragon Spy I returned to working on the The Case of the Wandering Wolves. The beta readers didn't hold back their punches, which is wonderful, but it means there is a ton of work that I have to get done. I'm honestly only ten pages in and that's without major procrastination distracting me. There is so much to fix, most of it requiring rewriting, and it's unbelievably time consuming. I'm going to keep plodding along and hope I'm able to finish on time.
I have also been working on Justified. This story is very convoluted. I'm just over 20k words in and I haven't even gotten to the main plot. I've given plenty of clues, of course, but I don't want to give anything away just yet. I want to finish writing the build up soon so I can really get into the fun bits.

Giveaway: The Oracle's Sprite

9/20/2015

The Oracle's Sprite is coming out on September 30, 2015 and I'm holding an ebook giveaway to celebrate. It's the fourth book in my Oracle series and I'm very excited to have it ready to give to you. In fact, I'm so excited I'm going to give away multiple copies of the ebook in your preferred format.

The Giveaway is Closed. Thank you to everyone who participated!

News: Giveaways

9/19/2015

The Oracle's Sprite is coming out in a few short weeks and two of the sites that host giveaways for LT3's books are giving away one copy. Don't miss out on your chance to enter:

LT3 is holding a giveaway on their Goodreads page. Leave a comment to enter. Plus, add The Oracle's Sprite to your Goodreads shelf for a bonus entry. https://www.goodreads.com/...giveaway---the-oracle-s-sprite-by-mell-eight
Hearts on Fire Reviews is hosting a giveaway on their blog. Leave a comment to enter. http://heartsonfirereviews.com/mell-eight-the-oracles-sprite-excerpt-and-giveaway/

I will also be putting a little something something together in a few more days, so check back soon!

July Goals: Results

7/31/2015

I did manage to get a lot done this month! Too bad that next month I'm going to be far too busy. That's why my biggest goal for July was to write as much as possible. Here's how I did:

Writing. Dragon Soldier has tripled in size. The story is almost halfway done and in a good spot for me to pick it up again in September. My superhero story fell to the wayside this past month. I was working on everything else on this list instead. The Case of the Wandering Wolves is complete and off my to-do list. Completing one of the stories here was also a goal, one I am very glad I was able to get done. TCofWW is with a beta reader; I should see it again in September when I'll get it edited and formatted for submission. The Oracle's Current is growing steadily. There's still a lot more to do, but I don't foresee any difficulties with it.
Editing. The edits for The Oracle's Sprite are back with LT3. The story should be with the copy editor and will definitely be available on September 30th. Since I also received the edits for Dragon Deception I added them to this goal and they are back with LT3 as well. I also made some progress in Ground of Insurrection. The edits from my beta reader were amazingly helpful. I'm not done yet, but I made a lot of progress. Part two has begun, but does need some more planning before I can really get into it.

News: Edits, Submissions, and A Lot of Writing

7/6/2015

7/6/15

The second round of edits for The Oracle's Sprite are done. I sent it back to LT3. It should now head to the copy editor as it moves closer to being published. Sprite will be very ready to go on September 30th! Don't forget to get your preorder in now for a 15% discount.
I asked whether you thought I should go ahead and submit Magnified and the general consensus was yes. I went ahead and formatted Magnified for submission this past weekend and sent it in to LT3 this morning. I really hope they like it. Longtime followers of this blog might remember that this is actually the second time I've submitted Magnified to LT3. The first time it was only 10k words with not enough romance. It's now 60k words and a completely different story. I really think LT3 and my readers will like it.
I have finally found a strong starting point for Justified and I'm rolling with it. I've written 6k words in the past few days and have at least another 5-10k planned out. I should keep up the pace for the rest of this month, at least until my crazy job starts and I don't have any more free time.
For some reason I've also been getting a lot written in The Oracle's Current. I'm hopscotching between the two stories. I've only written about 1k words this weekend, but I have enough planned to get the story to 10k. I would like to have Current ready to submit to LT3 in 2015. There's a lot still to do, but I think I can manage it. It guess we'll find out.

News: Release Date and More

7/4/2015

7/4/15

The official release date for Dragon Consultant has been decided. December 9, 2015. That's smack dab in the middle of Hanukkah, which makes it a great present for me. I can't wait!
We have also been discussing the cover for Consultant. It is going to be absolutely amazing, especially because I've worked with the artist before and I know that she's excellent. I'm really looking forward to my first glimpse of it.
The edits for The Oracle's Sprite are really involved again. I don't have to rewrite anything this round, but there's a lot of little things that need to be tweaked and they all require one hundred percent of my attention. My brain gets tired after too long. I've been taking breaks, but the most recent break had me rereading Magnified and then returning to work on Justified. Three days later and I'm trying to decide whether to submit Magnified instead of whether this edit works or not. I'll get myself refocused before too long, but it's definitely been an interesting few days.

July Goals

7/1/2015

July is a month of ups and downs for me. I enjoy summer and July is when the last vestiges of spring finally fade away. My birthday is also this month and I love presents just as much as anyone. There is a big downside though: my job from hell starts on the 24th. It's six days a week, full time, for six straight weeks. It's tiring and it's infuriating, but they pay me, which is why I go back every year. What the start of the job from hell means is as of the 24th my writing time utterly vanishes. I'll be able to squeak in a few minutes here or there, but any progress won't be significant. I need to get as much as possible done this month before the job starts and my goals list reflects that. Here's what I'm planning:

Writing. Work on Dragon Soldier, my superhero story, Case of the Wandering Wolves, and The Oracle's Current as much as possible. The more I'm able to get done, the better. Ideally, I would like to finish writing at least one of these stories so I can cross it off my to-do list entirely.
Editing. Work on The Oracle's Sprite. I want to have it back to LT3 within the first two weeks of July. I also want to make some progress in Ground of Insurrection. The edits my wonderful beta reader left me have been languishing for far too long and part two of the story is still begging to be written.