Category: - Mell Eight's Writing Blog

2014 Goals Results

12/30/2014

One of the things I started doing in 2014 was posting my monthly goals. It's worked really well, so I figured I might try doing the same thing for the entire year. Here is how I did in 2014. Look for my 2015 goals to come out in a few days!

Book Releases:

Paint, Guns, Money, and Love came out in February and ran as a serial story with LT3. It came out in ebook and print few months later in June.
The Oracle's Hatchling, book two in The Oracle Series, came out in ebook in March.
Wings of the Stars, part of LT3's A Loose Screw collection, came out in ebook and print in April.
Heart's Tournament, part of LT3's Won't Back Down anthology, came out in ebook and print in May.
Heartbeat, part of LT3's Satisfaction Guaranteed anthology, came out in ebook and print in September.

Books Ready for Release:

Road to Home is edited and ready to to arrive in stores in January.
The Oracle's Golem, book three in The Oracle series, is also ready to be released in January.

Submitted Manuscripts:

The Oracle's Sprite, book four in The Oracle series, has been submitted to LT3.
Dragon Consultant, book one of my new Supernatural Consultant series, was also submitted to LT3.

Completed Manuscripts:

Thunderbird, my submission for LT3's Intertwined collection call, is back from a beta reader and almost ready to be submitted.
Ground of Insurrection, my submission for LT3's Devil's Land collection call, is in edits.
Dragon Deception, book two in my Supernatural Consultant series, is completed and in need of editing.
Magnified, the longest story I've ever written at 60k words, was also completed. I want to finish writing the sequel, Justified, before getting Magnified ready to submit.

Writing Progress:

Dragon Detective and Dragon Spy, the next books in my Supernatural Consultant series are growing daily.
The Oracle's (Water) and The Sentinel's Prophesy, the next books in The Oracle series, are also taking form.
Kelpie Blue wins the award for the most progress made this year. It's only reached 20k words, but it took the most research and planning of any of my stories to get there.

Other Accomplishments:

I started posting monthly goals to keep myself on task and have had a fair amount of success with it so far.
I created a monthly newsletter to help keep readers and fans informed.

Two Giveaways:

4/3/2014

4/3/14
There are two giveaways of my books that you should all check out!

Good Luck!

Out Now: Wings of the Stars

4/2/2014

Out Now: Wings of the Stars

After a horrific accident during a mecha showcase event, Tarle is shunned by the robotics community and forced into hiding. Unable to abandon mecha entirely, he starts building a new robot in secret.

Starr is a porn star. He's used to the open admiration of his fans and the derision of his detractors, but the bombing of his house is more than he can take. Desperate to escape, he runs away to a dead-end town at the edge of space, where he is taken in by Tarle.

Hiding away together, they find, is far more appealing than going it alone, but no one can hide forever, especially when there are people determined to find them.

Buy it Today!

Why Anthologies?

3/26/2014

Wings of the Stars, part of LT3's A Loose Screw anthology, is set to come out on April 2 and Heart's Tournament, part of LT3's Won't Back Down anthology, will arrive only a month later on May 14. Since I have so many anthology stories coming out this year, I thought it might be interesting to explain why I continue to write for their calls. Read on if you're interested, or go check out the pre-orders for those two books. I've posted links at the very bottom of this post.

Writing for an anthology call is how I got my start as a published author. I submitted Cinder-Elle to LT3's ongoing Fairytales Slashed call in December 2011 and Cinder-Elle eventually became my very first published story. Since then, I have published five stories in anthologies with an additional three to come out soon. Anthologies are so much fun to write and there are so many practical applications that every writer should keep in mind. Here are a few:

News: Coming Soon and Writing

2/28/2014

2/28/14

There's only a few more days left to preorder The Oracle's Hatchling. It comes out next week!
My next book to come out is Wings of the Stars, part of the Loose Screw anthology LT3 put together for their existing authors. I'm working on the copy edits right now, which is the last step in LT3's editing process. I expect it will be available for preorder in the next few weeks! Be sure to also check out all the other stories in the collection.
I'm still plugging away at all my stories. I'm trying to work out a timing issue in Kelpie Blue, so that story has stalled for the moment. Is it okay to jump an entire year in one chapter? I may have to add another chapter between what is currently planned for chapters two and three to make the time skip less jarring. I'm thinking of titling it, When Water Freezes and Kelpies Mope, but since I don't really have more plot than that title implies I can't say for certain how the story will work just yet.

I've also been working on If A Butterfly Don't Fly. It's a story with lots of bands and music, so I've been trying to figure out the lyrics for two songs. In My Truest Love, my last musically inclined story, I got away with snippets of lyrics from a chorus, an abbreviated song, or just a song title. If A Butterfly requires a full length song, which is darned hard to write!

Magnified is currently being stubborn. I think the muse in charge got offended that he was so rudely shoved aside by his brothers to make way for Out of Underhill. I'm not sure who the evil villain is just yet or what his/her motivations are, which makes it difficult to set up the foreshadowing I need. The romance portion of the book is starting to take shape, which is a plus, but it isn't quite enough to force the story to move forward.

Instead of working on The Oracle's Golem, I started writing book four. Book four doesn't have a title or more plot than just the prologue. It's also contingent on the ending of Golem, which I haven't written yet. Why it decided that now was a good time to pull my attention was beyond me. I'll get Golem finished soon, I hope. I know exactly how the book is supposed to go, so it's really a matter of finding the motivation to sit down and write it.

News: Audiobooks, Release Dates, and Writing

2/8/2014

2/8/14

Finding the Wolf is officially available as an audiobook! You can purchase it right now from Red Planet Audiobooks. It will roll out to all third-party vendors starting on its scheduled release date of February 15th. LT3 will link to other vendors as the audiobook becomes available. The rest of the Dragon's Hoard series will follow next month!
I have an official release date for Wings of the Stars. It will be ready for sale on April 2, 2014. Look for pre-order sales to start sometime in March!
I have written a good chunk of The Oracle's Golem. I have an idea of where I want the story to go and I'm getting ideas for book four of the series as well. My goal is to have Golem in LT3's hands before Hatchling comes out on March 5th. I think it's very doable!
Just a reminder, there's only a few more days to buy My Truest Love, part of Rocking Hard Volume 2, for a 15% discount. It goes on sale February 12th. Paint, Guns, Money, and Love will also start running on LT3's serial section on February 12th. There's so much to look forward to next week!

News: Writing and Happy Holidays!

12/26/2013

12/26/13

The holiday season is ending. I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Christmas and that everyone who doesn't celebrate, like me, enjoyed their day off from work. I saw Frozen and American Hustle this past week, so I've been spending my time wisely. Okay, I've also written a lot too. The third section in Magnified is quickly drawing to a close, which is good because the fourth section is where all the fun starts to happen. I'm looking forward to sitting down and planning it all out.
Ge-Mi is also starting to take shape, and I don't mean just on paper. I'm still slogging through all the tough introductory stuff that happens whenever I create a new world I need to build around the character, but the foundation is really starting to form. The next step is the very beginning of the romance. The non-paper/writing development is the title. I have a beautiful vision of two separate covers, which means there somehow must be two different books. Therefore, the series must be called Ge-Mi (or Genetic Mutation) and book one must be called A Kitten's Claws. I honestly have no idea what plot idea there is for a second book, but I'm going to try!
The next big holiday is New Years. I always go to First Night with my family, which is amazing fun. This year I have two big things to look forward to. First, my third, seasonal job will be ending which means less money in my bank account, but more time for writing and other fun things. Second, the submission dates for LT3's Satisfaction Guaranteed and DSP's Juicy Bits are coming due. That means I'll soon hear yes or no for the stories I've submitted to each. It really is so very exciting!
My last bit of news is the cover for Wings of the Stars is finalized. It's to the right, so please have a look. I know the artist and LT3 worked very hard on it. Hopefully I'll soon have the cover for The Oracle's Hatchling to show off too!

News:

12/18/2013

12/18/13

There’s not much happening right now. I’m still plugging away at my stories. I’m hoping to have something ready to submit by the end of January, but there’s still a lot of writing to go.
The 2013 M/M Romance Group’s Member’s Choice Awards are still ongoing. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. Hadash Aviv was nominated in the Best Law Enforcement category and could use your support! You don’t have to be a member of the group to vote: http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=31dc63a9-f374-40b9-a220-b3aad4f2ba0d
The edits for Heart’s Tournament are back with the editor. I’ve done my research and I’m hoping that the issues with the age of my characters has been resolved. Who knew toddlers couldn’t climb walls? Not me, apparently.
I have seen a first draft of the cover for Wings of the Stars. It's a work in progress, but I know if will turn out all right. I can’t wait to show it off here!

News: Giveaway, Writing, Release Dates, and Voting

10/28/2013

10/28/13

The Red Sox win again! Yay! Only two more wins to go. To celebrate when they win the World Series, I'll be holding a giveaway on twitter. I'll be offering one electronic copy of my vampire short story Bloody Kiss, which is set in Boston, to one lucky twitter follower. After the final game has finished and the trophy begins its journey back to Boston, stop by and tweet hello!
In other news, I am officially halfway through writing Road to Home, the sequel to Road to Revenge. My final goal for the story is 40k words and I just reached 20k. I wrote a lovely romance scene under the auspices of the sphinx and now it's time for the dark twist. I have to gear up for it, because it's going to be a tough bit of writing. I'm looking forward to the challenge.
I also have some release dates to share! Nothing is officially official yet. In fact, it's pretty vague. Still, it's more than I had before! Here's what I know: The Oracle's Hatchling will arrive in early March 2014. Heart's Tournament is scheduled for May 2014. Wings of the Stars will arrive sometime in late summer or early fall 2014. I'll continue to keep you updated as I learn more!
There's still time to vote for the cover of The Dragon's Hoard at the Rainbow Awards cover contest. It will definitely need more votes to get into round four, so please head on over. Thanks!

News:

10/23/2013

10/23/13

The Dragon's Hoard made it to round three of the Rainbow Awards cover contest! I can't believe it, but then I did have an amazing cover artist. Please go vote for your favorite cover here: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2419818.html
I have written almost 8k words in Road to Home so far this week. That means I'm almost halfway through with the story! It really is turning out to be just as awesome as book one, Road to Revenge, which is very exciting. My next big scene to write is a bit of sweet romance at the pyramids. I'm looking forward to the challenge.
I'm still waiting for more information about release dates for The Oracle's Hatchling and Wings of the Stars. The call for Heart's Tournament closes at the end of the month, so I expect to start hearing news about that soon too. I'm kind of shocked when I see how many stories I already have lined up to release in 2014, but it's also very awesome at the same time.