2/5/23
I had my whole weekend planned out. When I was going to the grocery store, when I was writing, when I was working on my current paint by numbers project; all of that was supposed to be fully structured this weekend. I even factored in how to get all that done around the crazy weather we've been having. And it was working! I added about 1k words to Vivary Tales before bedtime, and I knew I'd be able to pick it back up in the morning. And then at two AM I'm woken up by a WHOOMPH coming from the direction of my en-suite bathtub, followed by an ominous whooshing sound. No water leaking in my bathroom. I sprint downstairs. No water puddling anywhere on the main floor. Sprint down another flight of stairs. No water in my basement. I open the door into my garage, and my car is getting a shower. Water everywhere! I turned the water off to the house and then had a moment of "what do I do now?" The answer: call my mom, of course. Lol. There's a smoke detector in my garage, right underneath where the pipe burst. Apparently smoke detectors and water are not a winning combination. The whole system goes off, blaring and deafening throughout the entire house, and I'm still shocked my neighbors whom I share a wall with didn't come running. Picture me, in pajamas at dark o'clock, on the phone with my poor mother, trying to get the smoke detectors on four separate floors to shut off, all while my garage ceiling continues to forlornly drip onto my car. Yeah. I don't want to picture it either. So that leaves my Sunday plans absolutely destroyed. I moved my car into my driveway, got the ladder out so I could remove the smoke detector--dropped it onto the concrete floor, so I have a trip to the hardware store in my future--and now I wait. I submitted an online claim to my insurance, but I can't contact a plumber until the sun rises. No water, which means I can't shower, which nixes the grocery store run. I can't clean paintbrushes either, so no painting. No laundry, and I can't wash dishes. That means the only thing left on my to-do list is to write, so maybe Vivary Tales will take off, distracting me while I wait for a verdict from the plumber. One can hope.
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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! 1/8/23 I hope everyone has had a good weekend! I'm not used to having normal, two day weekends any more. The last few weekends have been longer because of the various holidays; suddenly going back to normal has been a touch shocking. LOL Mentally, I thought I had more time to get everything I needed to done, and now the sun has set Sunday night and my to-do list hasn't shrunk all that much. I hope you all were able to accomplish more than me, although I did have a nice weekend despite how short. I finished my chamomile paint by numbers project a few weeks back. I hung it in my kitchen and am super happy with how it turned out. For those of you who might remember, my kitchen was sponge painted orange by the previous owners. It's far more cost effective to mask the orange than to sand the walls down and repaint. The white chamomiles with their gentle orange centers look like they belong while toning down the orange wall perfectly! I started my next paint by numbers project too. I found a series of four miniature paintings that look like watercolor flowers. I don't know where I'm going to hang them yet, but the first one I"m working on is going really well. I'm very happy with it! I also received the second round of edits for my short mermaid story Water's Price. The story is really coming together and I'm very happy with it. I hope to have information on a potential release date very soon. I was able to get a bit more written in Vivary Tales, too, and I also worked on some plotting to figure out the villain and the conflict. The first story is definitely going to be light enemies to lovers. I haven't figured out the second story yet, but I have basic ideas budding for the third and fourth. I am also planning to turn this into a series, since I have a great idea for book two, but first I need to make some real progress on book one. And now I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend, before returning to the daily grind in the morning. 12/31/22
I hope everyone has wonderful plans for their New Year's celebration! I will be going full-on couch potato, and it's going to be glorious! I'll watch the ball drop on TV from the comfort of my couch in my cozy pajamas. I'll read a good book, maybe write a bit; I'll do whatever I want all evening. I can't wait! My New Year's resolution is to try to write more in 2023. I have so many works-in-progress, and series that just need one more book to be completed. Since reprints are over with, I know I'm not going to have a lot of editing taking up my time; refocusing on my older stories is going to be a priority. I also want to continue my new ideas since they're interesting too. Basically, I want to write a ton and start checking off my to-do list! If anyone was wondering, the response for Coven has been phenomenal. I've yet to read a negative review, which is rare and wonderful. LOL. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, it's available at most major retailers. For those of you who have read Coven and are waiting for more, never fear! Hunter, the second book in the trilogy, has just completed copy edits. I should have a release date, cover, and more to share with you very soon. Speaking of edits, my short story Water's Price has finished the first round. There's still a long way to go, but my mermaids are looking really good. I had a lot of fun writing them and it seems like my editor liked them too. I am hopeful I will have a release date to share soon, so keep an eye out for more information to come. Thanks for staying with me over this last year. There's so many great things to look forward to in 2023, and I can't wait to share it all with you! Happy New Year! Out Now: Coven
12/24/22
Tonight is Christmas Eve. I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful time. For Hanukkah, I will be lighting the seventh candle in my menorah. I put my menorah in my front window so the light can shine out of my house, symbolizing the hard-won freedom of the Jewish people to practice their faith without fear of persecution. That said, I know a number of Jews are choosing to light in private instead, because antisemitism around the world is on the rise. Our fear of our neighbors learning we're Jewish, and of potential attacks because we dare to display our faith, is definitely justified this year. I hope this season of peace and joy helps remind everyone around the world to practice kindness and understanding as we head into the new year. On another note, if you're looking for a gift for Christmas Eve, Coven is available at NSP for early release! You can read it right now. Coven will be available at most major retailers on December 27th, including on Amazon, where you can pre-order today as well. I know you'll enjoy this first book in the trilogy, Kana's powers as a witch, and his adventure with the werewolves and vampires as much as I did writing Coven. Some additional good news is I received the first round of edits for Water's Price, my mermaid-themed short story. Having this book also begin the journey to being published is very exciting! There's a bunch of edits, so I will probably spend most of tomorrow and Monday (Federal holiday!!!) working on it. I'm glad to have something constructive to do, although I also have to finish the last touch ups for the chamomiles paint by numbers I've been working on for the last six months. If I find some time, I would like to continue writing Vivary Tales, but writing is unfortunately third on my to-do list for this long weekend. The good news is if I finish everything on my list this weekend, next weekend I have four days off in a row to write. I should also mention I have finished writing You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart. I gave it a once-over to fix any glaring issues and have set it aside to marinate. My plan is to give it another thorough edit in February and get it cleaned up to submit to NSP. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend whether you're celebrating a holiday, hibernating from the bombo-plunge, or simply enjoying some time off work!
12/4/22
After a long week of soccer, work, soccer, writing, soccer, and...more soccer...I need a nap. Lol I haven't watched every game since I was sleeping during some of them, but I caught up on the highlights for the ones I missed. For anyone that cares, I think France has a good chance of repeating as champions, I'm withholding an opinion on Brazil until after they play a challenging team, and I'm wondering if Japan might stun the world and beat Croatia on Monday. I'm not going to say anything about the USA team right now, in case someone has taped the game and doesn't know the result yet. All I'll say is I'm pleasantly hopeful for 2026. For everyone who isn't as sports crazed as me, on to what you want to know about: my books! I have seen the first draft of the cover for Coven and it's amazing. I hope to have the final soon so I can share it with everyone. It really embodies the feel I was aiming for in the series. I believe pre-ordering should be available soon, and I will definitely let everyone know when I have more news. I didn't get as much writing done this week as I would have liked. I added a bit to the epilogue for You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart and a few paragraphs to Vivary Tales. I've been distracted by soccer, but work has also been busy. I think everyone is trying to get things done now in preparation for vacation in a few weeks. Which means, unfortunately, that I return home in the evening too wiped to do any significant writing. On the flip side, it means work will slow to a crawl soon, since I'm going to be pretty much the only person in my office the week of Christmas. Fingers crossed I'll be able to write a ton then! 11/25/22
For all my American readers, I hope you had a very happy Turkey Day. I got to spend some time with my family, so I had a lovely day. I made pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, which everyone seemed to really enjoy. Now I have the rest of the weekend to relax. Since I'm watching the World Cup, I doubt I'll be able to get any chores done, but maybe I'll be able to get some writing done instead. I have a soccer story that's been stalled for a long time because I can't decide who the villain is. Perhaps watching all this soccer will help me find some inspiration. For anyone who might have missed it, I sent out my first email newsletter in a long time! I finally had enough free time to put one together. I included a snippet from my fantasy story that used to have the working title of Fire and Water as a treat to anyone subscribed. I hope to be able to send out another newsletter soon, so feel free to subscribe if you're interested. Speaking of Fire and Water, thanks to the suggestion of one of you wonderful readers, I now have a title! The story is now titled Twin Elements. Since I have a title, I went ahead and submitted it to NSP! I hope to hear good news soon Writing is continuing to go well. I have reached the epilogue in You Can't Sell a Dragon's Heart. All that's left is tying together a few loose ends and then this story is done. Of course, it needs major edits. My plan is once the epilogue is done, I'll go back and scrub it up. I need to expand in a couple of places and fix a handful of things. After that, this story is going to sit for a few months, after which I'll edit again. I'm thinking February to submit to NSP, but that depends on the extent of the edits. We'll see how things play out the next few months. My last blog post was also very inspiring. I wrote a quick summary of what I was thinking about writing in Vivary Tales, and I've since written 8k words in the story. I can't decide whether I want to make this a massive book at approximately 120k words, or split it into multiple books in a series. It depends on how the writing goes, so it's still far too early to tell. Still, it's an extremely interesting world with unique characters and I'm exited to see how it turns out.
11/11/22
I won't comment on whether various social media platforms are about to implode, explode, or simply cease to exist. To be honest, most things about social media go right over my head. What I do know is if one of the various platforms starts having issues, I still want all of my readers to be able to find me. I created an Instagram account this week, so please feel free to follow me there. Would it be helpful for anyone if I make an attempt at figuring out Mastodon? Please let me know. Here's everywhere you can currently find me on the internet:
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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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