update

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!

Reboot is live!

/ melaradark / 1 Comment

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend!

I didn’t post this yesterday because we were out at my Dad’s house all day, but Reboot successfully went live yesterday, and is now available for purchase!

Until September 15th, the ebook is exclusive through Amazon KS/KU. After the 15th the ebook will be launching on pretty much every platform ebooks can be purchased (Kobo+, Apple, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, etc).

Paperback and hardcovers are also on sale through Amazon. Check out the new ‘Available Now’ page for a free preview, share, and purchase link.

Next Saturday is the launch party!

In the mean time I’m still hard at work on several new books and *fingers crossed* hope to have at least one published in 2025, fingers crossed for more! Most likely Vhantalya will be going out in 2025, but not sure yet which of the others is going to make the cut to join her out in the wild. We’ll have to see!

I did learn a lot from this process and hopefully the next launch will be far smoother. Until then, stay wonderful everyone!

The thing about being the worst, it’s only up from there!

/ melaradark / 2 Comments

Hey everyone, and welcome to 2024!

I am the literal *worst* it seems about updating the blog posts here and keeping you appraised of what’s what. You may have noticed, especially if you’re a beta of mine, that although I had three stories on my works in progress to finish in 2023, every single none of them actually got completed.

So yeah, about that…

I did quite a lot of work this year. Had a couple of firsts. And by firsts, I mean drafts of course!

*crickets*

Ahem. So, anyway, once I start writing a first draft, I’ve never wiped it and started over from scratch. I’ve certainly never wiped it *twice* and started over…but that’s exactly what I did with The Tree Y’Edenel. I got about 90k into the first draft and realized I wasn’t even a third of the way through. I like a big meaty book, but a 500k word MS was probably a *bit* much. I was also waffling over the direction it was going, so I set that original draft aside and began fresh.

Then, about 60k into that version, I stopped again. Though I liked a few nuggets of this new draft, for the most part it felt even more wrong footed then the first and wasn’t going to be any shorter unless I completely rushed the characters through it. That wouldn’t serve the characters, the book, or my readers.

I read back over the original 90k, approaching it with a bit of a fresh perspective, and ultimately decided to merge the two. I also realized that no matter which approach I took, this story was going to be much too long for just a singular book.

So I made the hard choice to split one book into a duology. The first draft for part 1 now stands at 105k and I am within spitting distance of wrapping it up. I’m also launching directly into part 2, which I expect will round out the first draft at about a similar word count.

Of course this means I had to rearrange a few things. The Rose of Fire, the next book in this same saga, has been bumped now to next year to make room for the duology, which bumped every subsequent book back a year as well. But I’d rather take more time and give you, dear friends, a better quality read.

I haven’t been idle on the other two stories that were slated for 2023 either. I have made good and rather satisfying progress on both So My Grandma Summoned a Demon, and Ferry Tail, and I will continue to work on these even as I start to tackle 2024’s first draft list. I’ve also rearranged (again) and added to (also again) my WIP list. There are also some title changes, most notably to the Willem series that I am starting this year.

And good news! The first draft of one of the stories slated for this year, the Human Heart, is already done! I need to give it some edits, of course, and rearrange the ending a little bit, but it should be up and about and ready to toddle to beta readers here in a month or two.

Even better news: the finishing line for Reboot is now in sight! I’m doing a few more quick edits now based on beta feedback, and then Reboot will be going to the editor. I’m nearly done with the cover as well, just need to give it a final spit and polish. As of this writing, I am bound and determined to at least have ARCs out and a firm launch date set by the beginning of May this year, just in time for BookNetFest!

So exciting! At least, I’m excited, and I hope that a few out there are a little tiny bit excited as well.

Happy New Year, and may yours be filled with joy, love, and wonderful books to read!

2nd Round of Beta Reads!

/ 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!

I artify as well!

/ melaradark / Leave a comment

Hello all you crazy cats and kittens!

So I don’t only write, I do art as well. I’ve been doing digital paintings for years (as well as photography). I have been getting back into it more lately to do my book covers, and figured why not do some illustrations of my original works as well?

I have created an ArtStation account to post my works, including my book covers and some fan art, as well as these illustrations. This is a WIP, but I will be slowly adding my past art as well as the two book covers I’ve done so far (For Vhan and Scarlett). Some of it may eventually go up for sale but for now I’m going one step at a time.

If you like what you see, feel free to favorite and comment! Heck, if you hate it too…why not?

Still ticking along on Reboot, and as soon as I get the end of the first draft in sight I’ll be doing a cover for that as well and posting it up. I have to say, so far I am loving this story!

Till next time!

Here we go…

/ melaradark / Leave a comment

Reboot is now at 3 chapters, 24 pages, and sailing along. Some of my best work, if I do say so myself.

As far as Vhantalya, the cover is almost done, and the final once over and polish before she toddles off to beta readers begins…now.

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!