Awakening is...

Finished!

Actually, the first draft is finished and I'm giving it a read-through now for consistency and content. So far, I breezed through the first 1/5 very easily. It flows quite well, imho...but I'm biased. I love how the ending worked out and can't wait to read all the way through, but I'm trying to read without that too much in mind except to make any changes necessary so it all fits together consistently.

I'm also a very, VERY picky reader. I often feel like my work sucks at points until I get to read as a reader, when a work is all done, and get a clear picture of the overall scope and feel. I  took out much of what I had originally written and rewrote the rest of what I had from the 35K words I had started several years ago on this project before writing new stuff.

In this post-draft read-through, I will make editing changes. Awkward sentences, redundancies, typos, descriptions, details, flow, characterization, etc. are given attention but not yet to a deep degree. Mostly, the first read-through of a completed work is to see that the overall picture came together in a coherent, interesting story.

At this point, I'm very pleased and find it hard to stop once I start. Even after six months, I'm not sick of it. That's a great sign considering I have three more books planned for this saga.

I've also reworked the description and am hoping for a release date in June 2015...early summer.

Here is what I've worked on:

A luriel spirit has awakened in Lilly, marking her as a target for daemons. But she is not alone--the Pallora Fen is a group of humans bearing luriel spirits like her. They train in preparation to ascend to the Shadow Realm to join the battle against the daemons. To prepare the fledglings newly awakened, they assign mentors. Mychel, the daemon slayer assigned to protect and train Lilly, has a challenge on his hands to prepare her for Enlightenment, the path to Ascension. Darrac is a daemon determined to stop that from happening by destroying her and the luriel within, but he doesn't anticipate the power that has awakened within her, an ancient power that can change even him.

Lilly is determined to make up her own mind about what's right for her; and the fates of two realms and an eternal war depend on her choice.

*Chapters are being made available on Wattpad and being updated as edits are made.

Current Status

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating those you love.

Today for us was a family day that went like this: Clean house, then off to the theater on a spur-of-the-moment whim to see Jupiter Ascending (which hubby and I had planned to go see Monday, except we had a sick child that day), and then an early supper and a quick errand before coming home. Overall, it was a pleasant day. Valentine's may be considered a day of romantic love, but I'm blessed to have a family to love and enjoy spending time with (when kids aren't fighting). It was a rare treat.

And the movie was much better than I expected. I had read many reviews that panned it but I found it enjoyable. I kept thinking a little bit of Dune, a little Farscape, and a lot of other pieces from SF I like. Overall, I liked it. It was cute and exciting, and eye candy for those who love breathtaking visual effects.

Now, seeing so many movies with winged characters, I have to wonder when I'll get a call from some big Hollywood exec/producer/writer interested in buying the rights to my series. A writer hopes...

And speaking of that, congrats, Lisa K. I will be sending signed paperbacks of the complete Dark Angel Chronicles series with the new covers. Thanks for joining the mailing/contest list.

Last of all, I'm within 20K words of finishing the first draft of Awakening. I'm at the point of building up to the final big moment and then a revelation that will lead into the next book, Enlightenment.

But before Enlightenment, I'll be going back to finish Nemesis (Revelations book 3). I love the butting heads between Leksel and Valdas. That conflict is almost too much fun to write. I'd been waiting so long and now I want to do it right, because...It's Leks and Valdas. There's no other explanation necessary for it. I'd been laying the path of it since Broken Wings but didn't know it until finishing Phantoms. Shards sets up some big changes for Leksel, so be sure to read through that before Nemesis.

And if you want to be sure you get it as soon as possible, sign up on my mailing list to receive the notification of the pre-order availability...Go to melanienilles.com/contact.html.

Sometimes stress is helpful

The creativity has been flowing in torrents the last few weeks and I've been mostly meeting or exceeding my writing goals. I just finished a 2K day, which is fantastic for me. I'd keep going if it wasn't late and I wasn't tired.

It's odd, since you'd expect me to be too stressed--I'm organizing the annual conference for work with all the details that go into it and am putting in longer days during which it sometimes feels like all I'm doing is running in circles. Eep! I took on so much with this job, but maybe that's a good thing. I needed the challenge. It's pushed me and I am fulfilled by the success I've had in meeting the challenges presented. That spills over into every aspect of my life, including writing. The right kind of stress can be very motivational. ;)

Only one problem remains--my fingers are crossed that I don't have to report for jury duty on Tuesday, because it's one week before that conference and I have TOO many last minute details to take time off.

a quote from Awakening

I love when my characters reveal truths to me, like this one did to Lilly:

Mychel took a deep breath. Despite the tension stiffening through him, he maintained an even tone when he said, "You want easy answers, but there aren't any. Sometimes the explanations we seek are hard to accept because we don't want them to be real. We want our beliefs to be proven valid and that is where we stop. Nothing else exists. But beyond that point lie the true answers to our questions."

Awakening will be available later this summer.

Now, back to writing. I'm within 30K words of finishing a first draft.

If the World Had a Front Porch

http://youtu.be/SrAJS8wBd1A