9/15/21
The incessant editing is finally starting to slow down now that more of my books have been re-released, which means I actually have time to focus on my writing. It's a very nice change, and it's really making me look forward to when the reprinting process is done and I can return to a more normal writing schedule. I was able to complete Witch, the third and final book in my Witch's Circle trilogy. The original epilogue grew too large, so I turned it into another chapter instead. That meant when I started working on the new epilogue, I was able to keep it short and sweet. Witch will now sit for a while to marinate, after which I will give it an edit and format it for publishing. Hunter, the second book in the trilogy, is ready to be submitted to NSP. As soon as I have a free moment I will send it in for consideration, however my schedule for the next few weeks is insane so that probably won't be until October at the earliest. Given the first book in the trilogy, Coven, won't be available until mid to late 2022, I'm not in a rush to get the last two books submitted. I added a large chunk to Dragon Spy as well. I was finally able to get two of the main players to meet, which means the drama can really begin. Spy has a long way to go, but it's been so long since I was able to work on it I'm taking even this little bit of progress as a victory. I have decided to trim it down to two points of view, instead of the three the original outline had, which makes it flow a lot better. You'll hear from Nickel and Alloy, and it's Alloy whom I'm going to put through the ringer. Nickel's POV is needed to help with the overall plot, and he'll have an adventure of his own, but poor Alloy's story is going to be center stage. The only other book on my active to-do list is Shiver and Quiver from my new attempt at a fairy tale anthology. The entire story is plotted out, I just have to find the time to write it. It's growing in bits and pieces and I'm probably about halfway through, but it's still going to take a bit more time. Once this story is complete, I'll get to work on the second story in the group, but, as I said in an earlier post, it will very likely be years before this anthology is done and in your hands. For anyone who celebrates Yom Kippur, I hope you have a g'mar chatima tova, a good and meaningful fast.
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7/17/21
Coven, the first book in my Witch's Circle series, was accepted for publishing at NSP! We haven't officially signed the contract, but I'm super excited. By the time Coven is released (best guesstimate is the end of 2022), I will be done with reprints. I can't wait to return to a more normal writing and publishing schedule, and Coven is the first step in that process. Hunter, the second book in the series, is also completely written. I was in the process of giving it one last edit before I format it for submission, but I had to pause temporarily because I received more edits. I hope to have Hunter submitted for consideration with NSP within the next few weeks. I am still writing Witch, the third book. I am stuck on the final sentence for the book, and then I have to write a quick epilogue, which I already have planned out. Hopefully I'll be done writing it soon! Unfortunately, that's it for the writing front. I haven't had time to work on anything else. June was incredibly busy both at work and in life, and I've spent the first half of July catching up on all the little things that fell by the wayside, i.e. laundry. The latter half of July is mostly open, so I hope to finish Witch and return to working on some of my other languishing works in progress. However, that depends on what edits I receive. I recently completed the second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection. That means editing for all my upcoming releases through October are in progress. I am waiting on edits from the proof reader and copy editor for all those books, which is a good sign they are on schedule for their respective release dates. Road to Home is currently scheduled for November, so I expect to start working on the first round of edits for that book soon. As long as the edits continue to go smoothly (and as long as my real life isn't too busy) I will hopefully be able to get in some writing time as well. Maybe by the end of 2022, my publishing life really will be back to normal! 3/21/21
Readers who have been with me from the very earliest days of my writing know my Dragon's Hoard series. Finding the Wolf, book one, was my first ever accepted manuscript, and Tori, the main character from Stealing the Dragon, book three, captured hearts. I have had some readers who remember the series and I've had readers who have only recently discovered my books ask when the Dragon's Hoard will be republished. I am happy to say the first round of edits for Finding the Wolf are completed! Finding the Wolf is slated to be republished with NSP in June, so you won't have to wait much longer for my very first set of happy dragons to fly back into your arms. There have been a few other things going on with my writing over the last few days:
Passover starts next weekend, so I probably won't be able to put up a blog post like usual. I'll still do my best to keep you all in the loop if anything fun happens, though! 3/6/21
It shouldn't sound so shocking to say I've been writing, but I feel like it is. The last few years have been editing and more editing, and even more editing. However, with Magnified now released, I'm starting to see the finish line. Yes, I have books and reprints coming out for the rest of 2021, and even into 2022, but Magnified was the big one. It was the longest, with the most convoluted plot, and I knew it would require the most strenuous edits of all the books I have coming out. Having Magnified re-released--and with such stellar feedback from readers--is a big relief. And, somehow, despite the fact that edits are still around, I have been finding some time to write. Of course, I haven't been working on the next books in any of my established series. That would be too logical. Instead, I've been working on my new series about a witch, some vampires, and a werewolf pack. I completed writing the second book this past week, and have started on the prologue for book three. In fact, the only thing that isn't running smoothy for this new series is figuring out what to call it. Everything I've come up with has sounded too trite. I'll think of something eventually, I hope, but until then I will continue to work on Circle Z (untitled). I am hoping once I get my coven circle stories written and therefore out of the way, the ideas will start flowing again for some of my other books. Lumie, from my Supernatural Consultant series, has been poking at the back of my mind, wondering why his next book hasn't grown any in a long while. The rest of my books seem to be content to wait their turn, but I will get to them all eventually as long as I continue to find time to write. 2/8/21
Fingers crossed, but I haven't had any home issues in the last week! I'm running out of big ticket appliances to replace, which hopefully means there's less available to go wrong. Not worrying about my house does mean I have more free time to focus on writing! Circle Y, the second (untitled) book in my (also untitled) series about a witch and some werewolves, has reached the halfway point. I've introduced the bad guys, set up the main drama, and am ready to get the ball rolling. FYI, if anyone has any suggestions regarding what you think I should title the books or the series, I am definitely open to recommendations. I'm not in a rush to decide, since I won't be submitting these stories to NSP until the end of 2021 at the earliest, but it would still be good to have something to actually call them. I have also reached the point in book two where I need to start thinking about a book three. I'm not certain there needs to be a third book, but I'm loving these characters and want to keep working with them for a few more books. The problem boils down to: is there enough plot to carry more books? I am hoping as I keep working on the latter half of Circle Y, I'll be able to come up with an answer. On a different note, I have begun work on the first round of edits for Justified, book two in my Magnified series. Magnified comes out in March (only a few short weeks away!), so I don't want to spoil anything for first time readers by talking too much about Justified right now. Let me just say the edits are going smoothly and I expect Justified to stay on schedule for a May release. Here's a quick status update for my books being released in the next few months:
1/30/21
Every time I mention I'm having an issue with my house, someone invariably nods sagely and says "the joys of home ownership". Every time! I'm wavering on whether it's actually joyful. I bought a house because I couldn't stand to stay in my noisy, smelly, and annoying apartment, and I don't regret that decision at all. However, to date I have had to replace every single appliance in my kitchen, my furnace, my AC, and now my water heater. (Finding water leaking into my basement Wednesday morning was less than ideal.) I'm waiting for that moment where home ownership is stress free, when I can simply enjoy having my own space without worrying something else is going to go wrong. At this point, I don't think I'm going to reach that stage until after I've rebuilt the entire house from scratch, but one day I know I will achieve the elusive joy of home ownership. On a happier note, I have seen the first draft of the cover for Magnified. It blew me away! I can't wait to share it. Also, all the edits are done for Magnified, so it is completely ready to go for its March release. I have also completed the second round of edits for Wounded Alpha, so that's on pace for an April release. I haven't had much time for writing these past few weeks. My untitled Circle stories are still going well, which is nice, but I haven't had a moment to dig into any of my other works in progress. I am thinking of scraping the third book in my Wizard Wars series. I'm not sure the overarching story warrants a third book, and my efforts to force one to happen anyway aren't going well. Maybe that will change once the first two books are released again, but for now I'm setting it aside to focus on more pressing books. Now that my home ownership issues have (presumably) been solved, I plan to focus my free time on writing rather than on calling plumbers. Wish me luck! 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. 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! 12/5/20
You might remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I was smelling oil every time my heat turned on. I finally had someone out to look into it, and it's bad. The technician found a puddle of oil underneath the pump, took the pump apart and found more oil, and guessed there's even more oil leaking somewhere he can't see. It's not a ton of oil, because the oil in my tank isn't mysteriously vanishing, but it's enough that he told me my furnace is shot. I have to completely replace it, which is going to be a fun adventure. Anyone have any recommendations on a good oil furnace brand? I'm especially thrilled because I've only owned said furnace for about five months, which means it was probably shot last winter and the previous owners lied to me about it being in perfect working condition. Now I'm wondering what else I'm going to have to replace. The AC unit is very old too, so I might try to get a package deal for that with the furnace since they're tied together. Do I need to take a closer look at my water heater? What other big ticket items did the previous owners ignore? Owning a home was supposed to reduce my stress, because living in an apartment really, really sucked. Unfortunately, until I have all the pieces and parts of my house fixed, my stress levels are going to remain incredibly high. Luckily, I have writing to escape with. Codified is going well. I completed a major scene and have started the bridge to the next one. The guys are about to travel somewhere new, so I'll have to do a bit of world building. There's still a lot to write, but I'm really liking how it's going so far. Although, I just received the first round of edits for the Magnified reprint (book one in the same series) and I have to finish those before I can continue writing. 11/28/20
I know I mentioned it when I first posted the release dates for my books, and I mentioned it when those dates were subsequently changed, but all potential release dates are tentative. The dates have changed again. We are aiming to release as many books as possible in 2021, which means were are condensing the schedule. Our aim is to finish re-releasing all the reprints (peppered with some brand new material, of course) as soon as possible. This is good news for you. For brand new readers, you're getting almost my entire back list at your fingertips in an incredibly short amount of time. For everyone else, you're getting the brand new books sooner too. Those of you who have waited far too long for Ground of Resurrection (for example), you'll now get it months earlier than previously planned. You can check out the newly revised schedule HERE. The best part of the new schedule is what comes after. Yes, I will be spending all of 2021 in almost constant edits, and that's going to get trying at times, but once everything is re-released I will be free. Without those obligations, I will have a ton of free time to focus exclusively on writing. You have no idea how much I've missed unfettered writing time these last two years. Only one more year and I'll be back to my normal writing schedule. Speaking of books I need to write, I've had a break between edits over the last week and I was able to add a small chunk to Codified, the third and final book in my Magnified series. The prologue is complete and I've started the setup for chapter one. I'm still figuring out some details for the overall plot, but in many ways the prologues of all three books in this series have been the hardest to write. Completing that section for Codified was a huge success, one I hope to continue capitalizing on for as long as edits remain scarce. |
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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