Fantasy

D’oh!

/ melaradark / Leave a comment

Hello peeps!

Yes, I just likened everyone to an Easter marshmallow confection. That’s how I feel today…soft, squdgey, bit sweet, and like I’ll swell up and explode if anyone were to stick me in the microwave. Such is life.

Anyway, I just realized that the last post I had on here was saying that the paperback of Vhantalya was delayed. I never updated!

I have a shame.

I was able to fix the cover issue with the print versions of Vhantalya, and it is now available in paperback and hardcover through Amazon. Though I have been looking for alternate ways to get print books, perhaps to sell directly here off my website, I haven’t yet found a viable alternative. The hunt will continue, but for now if you don’t want to support the ‘Zon ebooks are available pretty much everywhere. My books have also been added to Storygraph, and of course you can still find them on Goodreads.

So as the end of the year (this crazy, terrible, exhausting year) creeps in and 2026 inches into sight, let me share my hopes for the coming year.

Amaranth, the first book in a duology set in Kaloran some time after the events of Vhantalya is currently progressing. I really waffled with this one. First it was supposed to be one book, but it became clear that it would be roughly the size and shape of a skyscraper if I did that, so I broke it into two. Then, most of the way through the first version I decided to completely change it up, and wrote a second version. Then reread the first version, decided I liked it better, and went back to it. Then reread the second version, realized I really liked it too, and decided to take elements from both (and sacrifice some, can’t forget that part) and am now working on the third, melded version.

I was hoping to have it to betas by the end of the year but as that’s now but weeks away and I’m roughly halfway through with what I need, I expect more I’ll be on the call for betas probably no sooner than February.

In the meantime, work on my modern(ish) day standalone book, So My Grandma Summoned a Demon, continues apace. A slow pace, granted, but apace nonetheless. I am determined to get this one out in 2026 as well, so look for a call for betas to come hopefully fairly close on the heels of Amaranth.

And it may be a bit ambitious, but I am also hoping to have either Scarlett or Ink in a Black Sea to betas, at least, before 2026 comes to a close. Both would be amazing, but I’m not holding my breath for that.

Lastly, the beginning of A Rat’s Honor has been penned and it is the next standalone after SMGSAD I have planned for release. Look for that hopefully early 2027.

In short, 2026 books to be published (by hook or by crook!):

Amaranth

So My Grandma Summoned a Demon

To be to betas in 2026:

Amaranth

So My Grandma Summoned a Demon

Either Scarlett or Ink in a Black Sea (or if insanity hits and I win the lotto and can devote all my time to writing, both)

2027 books to be published:

Tribulant (the second in the duology with Amaranth)

Either Scarlett or Ink in a Black Sea, depending

Possibly A Rat’s Honor

*whew*

And now that I’ve laid all that out back to work and hopefully not as long to the next update!

Take care, and happy holidays to everyone!

February 2025

/ melaradark / Leave a comment

Hey everyone!

So I doubt I’m the only one for whom the last three months have been the longest decade of their lives, so I just want to take a moment and spread some love, hugs, and support to everyone, everywhere, who are struggling right now. Though it may not feel like it at times, you are seen and loved.

On a more cheerful note, though my writing was on hiatus for the good part of two of those three months, I’m happy to say I’m closing in on getting the final edits for Vhantalya put to bed. I don’t have an official launch date yet, or a date when ARCs will be available, but I am trying really hard to get everything done and dusted and launched by May 16th.

Why? Well, I’m glad you asked! On the weekend of May 23rd I will be attending BookNetFest, in Orlando, Florida! I plan to bring a few copies of Vhantalya and Reboot along with me to give away, and I’m really looking forward into meeting several of you that will also be attending!

Given the state of…*waves at everything*, I have opted out of flying to Florida and will instead be taking a train. As this adds quite a bit of travel time to and from, and because I will have little to do on the train beyond stare broodingly out the window, get involved in a strange Victorian-style murder mystery, or read (or so I hear that’s how it happens when authors board trains), I have decided to bring my portable keyboard and knock out the first draft of one of my unstarted novels.

I have…a lot of those, so it took a little while to narrow down which one I wanted to go after, and I’ve finally decided on A Rat’s Honor.

I’m a pantser, and very often the idea is all I have in mind when I sit down to write, so keep that in mind when reading my summary below (things are very, very open to changing!). In my head this one contains shades of the Redwall series, The Rats of NIMH, the Tale of Despereaux, and Watership Down (still to this day my favorite book).

A group of rats that have been experimented on by a shadowy government agency find themselves alone in the rubble of a post-apocalyptic world (disease or zombie, I haven’t quite decided yet). Humans have disappeared, and strange threats howl in the night outside the walls that keep them safe. Far more intelligent than any wild rat thanks to the experiments, this colony have developed their own society, culture, mythology, and religion.

One young rat, Artmark Fleeker, breaks taboo and ventures into an area strictly off-limits to all but the colony’s spiritual leaders. There he discovers some human media, including tales of knights, dragons, sorcery, and chivalry, and determines that he wants nothing more in life than to be a knight.

For a while, all he can do is daydream and practice in secret, because if the others of his colony found out what he’d done he’d be cast out forever. Or worse!

Then one day he meets a new and unexpected friend, and when his colony and everyone he loves is threatened by foes both within and without, and their entire way of life is thrust into jeopardy, what he’s learned may be crucial not just to their evolution as a people, but their very survival.

It is only then that Artmark truly begins to understand how valuable honor is…even for a rat.

A Rat’s Honor. First draft coming to a train near you in May!

Cover is up!

/ 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!

I Dudditz!

/ melaradark / 2 Comments

Hello everyone!

I was going to wait to post this until I had finished the book cover as well, but it’s looking like that’s going to take several more days worth of work to get it where I want it to be, so look for that to be up soon!

Exciting news to share! Yesterday at 2:22 pm I finished the second draft of Vhantalya! Yes, that means on Twos-day, 2/22/22 at 2:22 pm I finished draft 2. I laughed when I saw that. Hopefully it’s a sign of good fortune ahead!

Vhantalya, the first book in my Immortal Elements series, has been a passion project of mine for well over a decade. I wrote the first draft in just about two weeks, flat out. Over the next several years (longer than I’d like to admit), I changed the beginning a hundred times, added some here, took away a little there, tweaked this and that, and started writing even more stories in my fictional world of Kaloran. Intended at first to be just a little stand-alone one-shot, this story has blossomed and bloomed and inspired what is now a ten book series that will continue with The Tree Y’Edenel, due to be done in 2024.

This project has been especially near and dear to my heart, and I’m beyond excited to get it finished up and out there.

Next steps? Well, I’m not even going to look at the story for at least a week. I am using this time to finish up the cover and get started on my next book, which I’m aiming to have finished around June/July of this year. In a week I will do a start to finish re-read of Vhantalya, making notes and tweaking little edits here and there. Then, it will be ready to go to the beta readers. Once I have feedback returned from them, hopefully there is only one last spit-and-polish, and then it’s off to find an agent!

More to come, stay tuned!