1/21/23 I sent this out with my newsletter last week, so this may be a repeat for some of you. I wrote up a short history of how Coven, and the rest of my Witch's Circle trilogy, came to be. Check it out: It might not seem like it, but Coven is actually one of my oldest stories. Waaaay back in 2010, when I was still mostly writing fanfiction, I had an idea for an original story about an awkward reporter being forced by his nasty coworkers to go interview some vampires. I started writing. The main character reached the front gates of the vampire house, and then I hit a conundrum. An ordinary human wouldn’t survive a vampire encounter! I needed to figure out that aspect of this story before I could move forward. About a year went by while I thought about it. Could the love interest be a vampire, willing to help the main character survive? Except, the vampires were supposed to be evil in this book so that idea went nowhere. (The failed idea for the love-interest vampire is what helped me create Shannon, a secondary character who plays an interesting role in the latter two books.) I realized the main character had to be powerful in his own right. However, that led to a major problem: if the main character was so powerful, why would his coworkers treat him so poorly? My initial thought was the coworkers were family who hated him, and the main character was desperate to get away, but that felt rather flimsy and didn’t go with the “powerful MC” idea. Also, what sort of powers should the main character actually have? I couldn’t figure it out. Besides, I was distracted. A cute baby dragon had bounced across my desk, insisting I write his story instead. First Nyle, then Tori, and all the dragons, wolves, and other creatures in my Dragon’s Hoard series came to life. Coven fell so far onto the back burner, I almost completely forgot it existed. Fast forward to 2020, almost ten years later. COVID, working from home, waist deep in reprints, and I was exhausted. I desperately wanted to write something new, but was struggling to come up with an idea that felt viable. Burned out was an understatement. I don’t know what prompted me, but I started digging through my older, long-forgotten material. Some only have one line, some close to 20k words, but all very, very dead. Also, my writing way back then was…yeah. Let’s just say I hope I’ve improved a lot since. Unfortunately, that went nowhere. Or so I thought. About a week later I was at work when I had a sudden thought: What if the MC was a male witch? Since witches are stereotypically female, that would be a reason for the conflict! However, a male witch wouldn’t be sent maliciously to interview vampires by cruel coworkers, since if the coworkers knew about his powers they knew he would survive. The idea that his coworkers were ignorant was born. Which meant I needed a new backstory. When I got home after work that afternoon, it was research time! I looked up types of witch powers, the function and structure of a coven, and fell into the age-old idea that werewolves were the daytime protectors of vampires. I decided on the feminine-sounding Kana for the MC’s name to hammer home the fact that he had been born male into a female-dominated society, and suddenly I had it! On the run from his coven because he was powerful, Kana ended up by coincidence in the same city as the vampires and their werewolf protectors. One werewolf in particular having rather nice shoulders. LOL The story, and the entire trilogy, bloomed from there. So, there you have it. Coven almost wrote itself at that point. The following books, Hunter and Witch, flowed easily. Burnout gone. I can only hope my next projects go so smoothly. You can buy Coven now at most major retailers. Hunter has completed editing at NSP, so I should have a release date and more to share very soon.
*If you liked hearing about the history of one of my books and want to know the history of a different book or series, let me know and I’ll be happy to write another post for you!
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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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