2nd Round of Beta Reads!

November 8, 2022 / melaradark / 1 Comment

Finally!

After gathering all the feedback from the first round of beta reads and making edits, I’m happy (and relieved!) to say that I am ready for the second round.

Vhantalya will be going back to several of my first beta readers as well as a couple of new ones looking at the story fresh. I have put in an alternate beginning, fleshed out the ending quite a bit (no, Caro, I did not change the ending! Don’t kill me!), and added a couple of scenes among the other more general feedback.

Beta readers, you should expect to see the updated manuscript in your post box. Right now I am hoping to get everything back by New Years, but with the holidays I know this might be problematic with some. Please let me know if you can’t make that timeframe and we’ll figure something out.

Now, on to the less pleasant news.

After a lot of frustration I have decided to put my draft of Scarlett on hold. As you might know I lost the original last year and I am struggling mightily trying to rewrite it. I find myself trying to force the story and continuing to do this will only do a disservice to the book and my readers. Its a story I want to tell, but I want to tell it well and do it justice, not try and hammer it into the box of the first draft until I make it fit.

Instead I will concentrate on getting Reboot’s first edits done and get it heading to beta readers.

I am still planning on starting 2023’s stories – So My Grandma Summoned a Demon, Ferry Tail, and As You Witch – as scheduled on New Year’s Day. I will probably come back and revisit Scarlett where I have time between them, but I for now I’m letting it lie. As we come closer to the New Year I’ll update the front page with 2023’s works in progress, and move Vhan and Reboot to a new page of ‘Pending Publication’ (fingers crossed).

Oh! Speaking of page updates, some of the feedback I received about Vhantalya was in regards to the book cover. So if you sneak over to the front page you will see I have replaced the old cover with a new one I hope works much better. Take a peek and let me know what you think!

Thank you everyone!

Where has the time gone?

September 25, 2022September 26, 2022 / melaradark / 1 Comment

Edit: So a big part of the reason I did this update is because I revamped my book order yet again, then totally forgot to mention it in the update. Apologies for that. I’ve revisited my book order and my projects and did a bit of shuffling around again. Nothing major, and nothing that will affect my writing the remainder of this year or for 2023. Thank you.

Hello everyone! Sorry I’ve been a bit incognito for a while. Lots of things going on!

I have gotten all beta reader feedback from this first round with Vhantalya and am deep in edits on my final draft based on the feedback. Thank you so much to everyone who participated!

Overall, the feedback was excellent though there were some constructive, actionable points that I am taking into consideration. Almost universally, there were issues with the beginning of the story so I am rewriting the beginning (again!), adding a bit more of a fleshed out ending, and an additional scene in the body of the work. Other than that, most of it is just polishing up typos, grammar, and revamping an occasional sentence to flow better. After my edits are done there are a couple of new beta readers (and at least one old one) this will go to in order to wheedle out any final pain points that might come up.

I’m very pleased so far and extremely excited to get this finally finished and start querying agents!

For Reboot: the edits and second draft are ticking along well. I’m hoping to have it to beta readers by end of October. If you are interested in beta reading Reboot please remember to send me an email with the subject heading ‘Reboot Beta’ and I’ll get you on my list.

For Scarlett: the rewrite continues to go slowly. I’ve broken 50,000 words and I am hoping that by the middle of October I am back up to 90,000 (which is where I was when I lost the original copy). Even with the slow pace its looking good that the first draft will be finished by the end of the year as I’d planned.

Lastly, I hope everyone out there is doing well and thank you so much for checking out my tiny corner of the interwebz. Stop in for tea any time!

Cover is up!

March 16, 2022 / melaradark / Leave a comment

Finally! So it took a lot longer than I was expecting. Clearly I have a lost a bit of the old speed that I had (breaks out the walker and hacks a few coughs in geriatric), and this cover has a lot of little fiddly details that took a lot of time. Still, here we are!

I’m about halfway through my reread of Vhantalya, highlighting areas that I need to quickly neaten up, and then we’ll be to the beta readers. If I have talked to you about being a beta reader, or if you are interested in being one, please email me and include in the subject header which story you are interested in beta reading. I only need about four per story, and I believe Scarlett is full. Also, don’t limit yourself to just what’s on the front page! Look at my future project timelines and if you see any there you’d be interested in trying your hand at, give me a shout. Just keep in mind the timelines those will be finished.

For those that I select for beta reads, there will be a deadline to get it back to me, as well as a form that will ask particular questions or what kind of specific feedback I may be looking for, in addition to the usual general feedback. Mostly, looking for plot holes, inconsistencies, good pacing, things like that.

So that’s where I am with Vhantalya. I’m on schedule with Reboot as well, knocking out a nice ten thousand words plus a week. At this rate I should be finishing on schedule for June/July with the first draft. I might be a bit biased, but so far I think it’s some of the best writing I have ever done. After that, it’s off to find an agent!

Lastly, I’m also working on my artwork, not just book covers. I used to have my work on Deviant Art a long time ago, but l looked at it recently to see if I wanted to revive it and I don’t think I want to keep on with that site. Instead, I will be building a website and portfolio for my art on ArtStation. Once that website is up and running, I will be linking it to this page. I specialize in digital photorealistic/semi-photorealistic paintings but I want to expand my hand into more cartoon/animation/comic styles as well.

Love you peeps!