Available now - Unbroken Bonds

I did it. I finished UNBROKEN BONDS (Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds Book 14). It is available at most of the major ebook retailers but not quite all. Once the last one lists it, I'll be sending out my newsletter announcement, but I thought I'd share it here first.

Ann and Nik's wedding is supposed to be a joyous occasion. However, they and their friends have underestimated their enemies, and even worse, their supposed allies. In the midst of the celebration on Ethal, L'Ni is taken with few clues about who or why.

When L'Ni awakens chained in a dark chamber, too numb and weak to free himself amid the torture by his captors, he soon realizes his fate. The methods to subdue him could only have been advised by his own people. The Issa Pralemmar want their heretic and will do anything to capture him.

L'Ni's friends are determined to find him. Through memories and clues, Nya and the others must solve the mystery of his disappearance and locate him before it's too late, but as the pieces come together, they soon realize the full threat to Ethal.

For updated purchase links, visit https://www.melanienilles.com/books/unbroken-bonds/. 

one more round of edits

Editing Book 14 is taking more work than it should, but the writing projects compete with other issues I have to deal with. Sometimes I can't focus clear enough to feel like the work is satisfactory, and I have to take a break until my mind is in a place where I know I'll better evaluate what the story needs.

I did all the major rewrites a while ago on Book 14. I added descriptions where they were needed, but the biggest piece was adding to a subplot that had been just simmering beneath the surface. Bringing that more into the limelight adds a layer of conflict that the story needed, not that having one of the main characters abducted isn't enough of a conflict.

Since then, what I've done in the last couple of passes is to clean up the story. In some places, I rephrase/rearrange ideas and in others, I cut entirely. After a day or so break, I did more in the latest pass than I had anticipated and want one more to evaluate the flow of the story and make sure I didn't leave words out and that punctuation is correct. Since the first editing pass, when I added to the story length because of rewrites and adding description, I've now removed about 2,000 odd words in subsequent editing. It's the great clean-up, which means the work is nearly done. Similar to what Zaer tells L'Ni at one point in Book 14 on the wedding day, it cleans up nicely. 😁

This is taking longer than expected, but, as I mentioned, I have other issues impeding my focus. One thing that readers may not realize is that I deal with multiple autoimmunities and food sensitivities (for many years, but one I didn't realize I had until recently). I never imagined when I was "healthy" what the life of someone with autoimmune issues involves (kind of like being pregnant and giving birth--no amount of birthing classes can fully prepare you for the experience!). I never realized that when I was "healthy", I was actually getting sick. So, here's my warning to you--eat clean, exercise, get out in the sun, laugh and smile, and love life while you can. I've learned to deal with my issues joyfully; it makes me appreciate what I have even more. It can make some things more difficult, like focusing on writing, but I get through it.

I guess you could say that L'Ni's training of Nya in the Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds series is a lot of what I've learned in conquering my issues--the lessons about fighting on and not giving up. A lot of the wisdom I've gained in life comes out in the writing in some form or another.

So, I missed my goal of this past week, but I am hoping I'm in the final round of edits and can publish this week.

If you're not on my mailing list for notifications, you can sign up at https://www.melanienilles.com/contact/ . If you frequent Amazon, you can also sign up to follow my author page there to be notified when a new book is available.

Thanks for reading.

Almost there

I've been editing Book 14 of the Forgotten Worlds series.

I always go into each editing round thinking this will be the last, but just one more pass to be sure... and I find even more and think "just more more pass." Fortunately, each round tends to have fewer changes and farther between, until it's comma placement and spelling issues. It starts with fleshing out descriptions where they're needed, replacing bland sentences with active sentence formats, enhancing points in the story or removing them, and moving things around--basically, major rewrites. It then progresses to adding more in the second round while taking out redundancies and scraps that get missed from major rewrites. By the third round, I'm doing much more cutting than anything else to clean up scenes and make them more concise while fixing minor issues of punctuation and spelling. Then it's just one more pass for simple copyedits.

And that pattern isn't changing. Despite having gone through and rewritten sections while trying to write books 15 and 16, I'm in round three of edits on Book 14 and still nitpicking . I'll need that fourth round for final review before publishing.

I would expect to have this ready to publish sometime in the next ten days, if not sooner. No more waiting on the wedding of Ann and Nik. Since I first mentioned the connection between Nik and Ann in Book 2, it's been a point I've been eager to reach. Twelve books later, it will be realized. I hope you enjoy it!

More pieces falling into place... and status of series

Walking never fails. Walking, showering, or driving--Those three are the biggest activities for juicing up the creativity. In this case, I was on the treadmill. (I'm not going walking outside when it's 30 F above, much less in a -20F windchill, as we have this afternoon.)

I had an explosive insight into the whole of the Starfire Angels and Forgotten Worlds series. I have the origins of the dark creature served by the Issan, and why the Starfire entities aka Guardians are so focused on it. I won't reveal that in a blog post. You'll have to stick with the series for that major revelation, which probably won't be until the end. (I have to give you something big to wait on, especially since there's already a big revelation coming in Book 17.)

This revelation is going to twist everything on another dimension completely. Everything is falling into place and coming to me before I need it but only close to when I need to reveal it.

Sounds kind of familiar... like how the Starfire tends to think. No more wondering where that aspect of their behavior comes from (my unconscious mind).🙃

And in the status of the series, I did decide to go to Book 14 for edits. It's been too long since book 13 was released and I want to get 14 out for readers. And it will also allow me to move from book 16 right into book 17. The two will be close in the days setting, so it should be easier in writing to jump from one right into the other without a break.

Look for Book 14 sometime next month!

Coming March 2023

Science and Christianity do mix

This is an amazing story:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OMBQwGzn_TE&feature=shares

Aside from this, I highly recommend The Return of the God Hypotheses by Stephen C. Meyer. It is mentioned in the video and I have been reading it myself. It is an excellent book. I have always believed in God (blessed to have been born into a Christian family), but this book provides a way to explain what I already knew and answers some of my questions about science. It requires some deep thinking and reasoning. It isn't a light read.

And be sure to read the comments under the video.

God bless you and keep you!

A bizarre twist of weirdness

Sometimes real life is so much weirder than fiction.

A while back, I started receiving calls to my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize. Like any number I don't know, I assume robocall or telemarketer. For some reason, I answered after having seen it a few times on my phone.

"Hello?" I said, expecting the signs of a robocall or call center.

After a pause, a woman's voice said, "Hello?" At that point, I knew it was a real person but one who sounded confused.

I asked who she was calling and when she said her husband, I told her it was a wrong number. She said that she dialed his number and told me the area code (a different state area code). We both found it weird that she would dial his number but get routed to my number.

It happened a day or two later and she was a bit frustrated, but we chuckled about it. 

A few days after that, I had a couple of other calls from her number but didn't answer. Then, another time, I did and we visited about the issue. We both have the same cell provider and both live within a twenty mile radius, so pretty close. I didn't have her name and she didn't have mine. Not all her calls to her husband were going to my phone, just some of them.

At that point, she asked for my number to provide to their (our in-common) cell carrier to get the issue fixed.

Jump forward a couple of days. I had a busy work event and received a call on my cell (since I was at the venue for the event and calls are also forwarded from my work phone to my cell when I set it out of office). It was the area code of the woman's husband.

I answered as normal, since any calls to my cell during the event could be one of my exhibitors from out of state and I can't afford to ignore them. Nope. It was the guy who had been helping me arrange a few speakers for the event.

Guess what...

He was the husband that the woman was trying to reach. The guy who I've been working with for months from a local speakers bureau!

Boy, did we laugh about that. They still have to resolve the issue with their cell carrier, but it was a relief for all of us to know who was who in this whole strange misrouting of calls.

You just can't make this stuff up!

Update 2/16/23: It happened again, except this time, I had tried to call the husband this morning on his cell and, when that went to voicemail, I also called his desk phone (from which he had always called me, except the other day) to provide feedback on a speaker and got voicemail there too. Later in the day, the wife's call came through to me and she even laughingly suggested we all go out to dinner (I wouldn't mind meeting her). With her on the line, I asked her to have him call me. A few minutes later, he called me, so her second try did get through to him, but he didn't see my call to his cell this morning. Something is messed up with the cell carrier.

resolving the writing issue

I finally have it. Book 16 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds is more than halfway done and I've finally figured out the rest of the story. I've been stumbling around in the near darkness for this one from the beginning, but I can now see the terrain around me.

I mentioned previously how initial progress was two steps forward and one step back. That can still happen, but now I have a plan for the rest of the book, which should reduce the stumbling around. I realized that I had started this book without a roadmap of where it was going and how to get there other than a vague idea of what it needed to accomplish.

This has led me to realize that I have the same issue in Book 17, although that one at least has the setting and the initial problem outlined. I'm just missing something important for the villain and the climax. At least by admitting that, I know what might cause some writing problems. I need to know where a story is going to figure out the path to take. That's something I'll have to put more thought into.

Next week I won't get much writing done because of a big event at work, so more delays.

I may just switch to editing Book 14 and publish that instead of delaying it further, then finish 16 and jump right into writing 17. I'll let you know if that happens, because I'd be making a book announcement when it's ready.

At least I know how to finish Book 16 now.