1/15/21
The installers got to my house a little after eight this morning, worked all day, and by 4 PM I had a new furnace! Right now my house smells like whatever crud is burning off the new furnace, but that toasty marshmallow/acetone smell is still better than the burnt oil stench I've been enduring the last few months. Once everything is burnt off, I'm hoping I won't even notice when my furnace is on. I have received the first round of edits for Wounded Alpha. This is a brand new, never before published story, so I'm incredibly excited it's moving closer to being released! My amazing editor really likes the story too. I am hoping to finish this round of edits this weekend so the story can continue moving along in time for its April release date. I have also had a lot of success on the writing front. My witch/vampire/werewolf story is complete. It needs a lot of edits. I started writing the sequel, which is when I realized I needed to fix a couple of things in book one to ensure I had proper continuity. After I fix things in book one, I'm going to set it aside until the sequel is also done, just in case I find something else I want to change. At some point I will also have to come up with book and series titles, but for now I'm just going to enjoy writing again.
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12/31/2020
I hope everyone has a very happy new year and I'm wishing you bright things to come in 2021! So far my writing in 2021 is looking good: For my upcoming books, A Little Fairy Dust will be released on the 4th (you can pre-order it HERE), Magnified is in excellent shape for a March re-release, and we have begun the first round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly, which is currently scheduled to come out in April. Once this first round of Butterfly is complete, I should receive edits for Wounded Alpha, which is also scheduled for April. This is excellent progress on both re-releases and for some brand new material! I am excited to continue moving forward with getting all of my old stories available again, but I'm also really happy to offer brand new books for my longtime readers. Right now I have three completely new books coming out in 2021: A Little Fairy Dust (which does reprint Cleanly Wrong and Cinder-Elle, but also has seven additional new stories), Wounded Alpha, and Ground of Resurrection in September. I am really hoping to fit in some writing in 2021 as well. I already know editing my re-releases will be a constant, just as it was in 2020, but I am going to try my best to try to continue to work on brand new books. I have made good progress on the start of my brand new (currently untitled) series about a witch having some difficulties with vampires and werewolves. I'm hoping to complete at least the first two books in that series over the next year. Of course, I also want to spend some time with Lumie (as his stories in Supernatural Consultant series aren't done yet), and I want to make progress on the third and final books of my Magnified, Out of Underhill, and Wizard Wars series. And now it's time to watch the ball drop and get 2021 started! 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:
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! 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:
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. 1/31/20
I can't tell you how many blog posts I've written this month where, just before I was ready to post, I got more news and had to rewrite. I think this is my third or fourth attempt to get out a blog post, but there's so much to tell you I'm just going to post what I have, and I may end up writing another blog post tomorrow. Either way, this post is really long, but I promise there's exciting stuff inside. Read on: Submissions to NineStar Press:
1/3/20
I hope everyone had a very happy new year! I couch surfed and watched the ball drop, which was fun for me. I keep writing 19 rather than 20 for the year, but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. On to book news: Ge-Mi: Nevada has been sent to a cover artist. NineStar doesn't work with an illustrator. What that means is they can't keep the original cover because they don't have someone that can continue with the same style cover for the next books in the series. Ge-Mi will therefore be getting a fresh new look. I have to admit I'm bummed. I designed the original cover myself and had grand plans for the rest of the series. I was really looking forward to seeing how the artist brought my characters to life in the next covers. That won't happen now. That said, there are definitely benefits to the new cover. The new cover might actually be safe for work, which means you can read it in public, and won't be as confusing for readers that saw a naked man on the cover and immediately thought erotica rather than romance. I can't wait to see what the new cover looks like, and as soon as I have a final copy I'll be sure to share it with you all. I haven't gotten any new edits yet, but I'm expecting them any day. I also haven't heard yay or nay from NSP regarding my Wizard Wars series. There's still a few more weeks left before their timeline ends, so I'm trying to be patient as I wait. Since patience is hard, and since I know a bunch of you were excited when I originally announced Wounded Alpha, I decided to go ahead and finish shining that story up. I have just submitted it to NSP. It fits within a theme they put out an internal call for, so I'm hopeful I'll hear before the 16 week timeline. Wish me luck! And now I have to decide what story or series I want to fix up and submit to NSP next. Since I just submitted yet another fantasy/paranormal story, I'm wondering if this might be a good time to slide my lone contemporary series across their doorstep. Road To is my modern day spy thriller, but it's also one of my oldest series. I'm honestly not certain NSP would be interested, but I do think it's worth a try. What do you guys think? 5/18/19
The Coup and the Prince comes out next week! Right now LT3's having a big sale in honor of Sam's birthday, so you can get it for a big discount. Otherwise, it will be available on Amazon and all other retailers very soon. You can always check it out on Goodreads until then. This book has been an adventure to write and to edit, and I do think it eventually turned out really well. I'm excited for everyone to read it! May 22nd can't come quick enough. I have seen the first draft of the cover for Ground of Resurrection and it is phenomenal. I asked for two tweaks. Hopefully once the changes are made, I'll have it to share with you. I don't yet have a release date for Resurrection, but given we're already talking about covers, it has to be coming soon. The second round of edits for this story should be coming soon too. A quick update on everything else: I'm still working on the edits for My Truest Love. I'm late in getting them back (again...sigh), but I'm hoping to get them done this weekend. I can't believe how involved edits for a reprint are. There were definitely some small changes, but the overall story isn't different. If you purchased it previously, you probably don't have to buy it again. I'm looking forward to the new covers for the series too. Wounded Alpha is still somewhere in the ether that is the editing process. I won't see it for at least a few more months. Ge-Mi: Part Two is still in the submission pool. It's only been three weeks since I submitted it (it feels like forever ago!), so I won't hear for at least another two to six weeks. I'm anxious to know whether LT3 likes it, but I'm also hoping to have some time to work on book two in the series too. Writing has been totally stagnant. I've been burned out by the mono and by work, which isn't fun. I need to be able to think in order to put words onto paper properly, and I just haven't been capable of that lately. Also, I keep having interrupted weekends where something comes up that drags me out of my apartment for half of it. That leaves me with only one day to do all the other chores and things I have to get done, and writing has unfortunately been taking a back seat. Right now June is looking like a good month with no interrupted weekends or crazy work projects. I am very hopeful I'll be able to get some real work done on my poor, neglected stories throughout June. 4/26/19
Wounded Alpha was accepted for publication at LT3! This means the areas I fixed when the story was rejected the first time worked. This story was a ton of fun to write, so I'm incredibly excited to have it accepted this time. I'm expecting to see the first round of edits for this story in approximately six months, so start looking for publication announcements for sometime fourth quarter 2019 to first quarter 2020. I have returned the first round of edits for Ground of Resurrection to LT3. I think the story is really looking good, but it still has to go back to the editor for another round. I should start getting word about a potential release date and the cover approximately when the second round of edits arrive. I have also received the edits for My Truest Love, which is a reprint. The story has already gone through the editing process, but I wanted it to get another look through to make sure everything was good. For the most part the edits are simple, but there are a couple weak spots. I knew about them before, but couldn't fix them when the story was previously released as part of the collection call. The editor this time was kind enough to point them out and offer suggestions. It's therefore going to take a bit of work to get this story ready, but I'm hoping to get it done quickly. Even though Wings of the Stars, the second book in this series, is currently still for sale at LT3, I'm also expecting to get edits for it soon too as part of the series revamp. Next on my to-do list was Ge-Mi: Part Two and I'm happy to say this book is completely done! After I returned Resurrection to LT3, as promised I pulled out Ge-Mi and ran it through a final edit. I have to say I'm incredibly happy with how it turned out and I do think you'll love it just as much as I do. My plan is to submit it to LT3 either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I will let everyone know whether LT3 accepts it. Next for this series is Di-Na, book two in the series, which will also be split into two parts. I've begun writing Di-Na: Part One, so hopefully I'll be quicker about it and have it to LT3 within a year. 3/7/19
I want to start off by reminding everyone that If A Butterfly Don't Fly will be released next week! If you want to pre-order the book for a 15% discount at LT3, now's your chance: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... It will be available on Amazon and all other major retailers by March 13th. I'll give you one guess as to what I'm working on now. If you immediately thought "edits!" you're right. I'm actually on time for all my edits, which is a nice change, but when I really want to be writing instead... Anyway, here's what I'm working on right now: First were the edits for The Coup and the Prince, which I have completed and returned to LT3. I decided I liked the way the story ended as it was and I didn't want to muddle it up by adding an epilogue. I instead added a couple of paragraphs to the last scene that should hopefully address why the editor was thinking an epilogue would be useful. Next for this story are the copy edits, after which it will be ready for publication. Speaking of copy edits, I just received those for The Sentinel's Prophesy. I've read through and for the most part they're very straightforward. There are one or two minor tweaks I need to address, but overall I don't think they'll be a heavy lift. Once the copy edits are completed, this story will be ready to go. The last set of edits I received were the first round for Ground of Resurrection, the second book in my Wizard Wars series. I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, so I don't know how onerous they'll be, but they're going to be interesting either way. I won't be able to get started on this story until Prophesy is back with LT3, so I'll give you an update on it soon. I have also resubmitted Wounded Alpha to LT3. I think (I hope) I fixed the issue, and I will find out in a few weeks whether LT3 also thinks it's fixed. I'll let you all know whether they accept it this time. 2/18/19
Good news first: I have an official release date for The Sentinel's Prophesy: April 3, 2019. You can also preorder it at LT3 right now: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... All that's left before Prophesy is ready to go is the copy edit and the galley proof, neither of which should take too long, and the cover. I haven't seen the cover yet, but I'm sure it's going to be as amazing as the rest of the series, so I'm definitely excited for it. If A Butterfly Don't Fly also comes out in a month. If you haven't had a chance to pre-order, now's a good time: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books... Now for the bad news: Wounded Alpha was not accepted as part of LT3's Bound by Nothing call. They were kind enough to tell me the two reasons why: 1, I wasn't as original as I hoped and they had too many similarly-themed stories. When they had to choose which of those stories made the cut, mine didn't. 2, There was one scene that needed a bit of work, which is why mine didn't make the cut. However, they did say if I fixed that scene they would reconsider the story as a regular release. I was originally planning to spend the entire long weekend working on the edits for The Coup and the Prince and I made a lot of progress until I got that rejection email. After reading the email, I had a good idea for how to fix the issue, so that's what I spent today doing instead of my edits. (I wanted to get it down on paper before I forgot it.) I've finished my fixing and I'm going to let the story sit for a few days, which means it's back to edits. Of course, all of that means I haven't had a chance to work on any of my waiting stories. I was happy to have added about 1k words to Ge-Mi: Part Two, but haven't been able to get back to it since. I also started fleshing out the beginning and basic outline for the third (and likely final) book in my Wizard Wars series, but again, I haven't had time to really dig in. Hopefully once I'm done with this round of edits I'll be able to get back to it. And that is the last of my bad news. Hopefully next week will only be good news to share. |
Coming Soon
Kelpie Blue
December 28, 2020 A Little Fairy Dust
January 4, 2021 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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