It is done

One more series is complete. This time, it's The Luriel Cycle, the trilogy of books titled Awakening, Enlightenment, and Eternal.

Eternal is now available at several stores and will soon be distributed to many more. The purchase links on the series page will be updated as those become available. As of this post, Amazon, Google Play, and Smashwords have it available for purchase.

For millennia, the world of Ahlias was guided by the whims of the Shadow Realm's beings. Daemons unleashed their fury hunting down the enemy luriel hiding inside humans. Those Awakened humans struggled to survive until they could one day Ascend to join the ranks of the luriel fighting the daemons in the Shadow Realm. The cycle of Awakening, Enlightenment, and Ascension was all they knew.

Until now.

Lilly has the power to end the luriel cycle, defeat the daemons, and restore the balance of the Eternals. She has learned to use the Un'Dei within her. She has seen the truth about the luriel and daemons. And she has accepted her fate. The time has come to cross the bridge to the Shadow Realm to end the war that has shaped her world and stolen the man she loves.

But the Shadow Realm is no place for a mortal...

Getting lost

I get lost what day is what often enough that I was planning the middle of August to be in two weeks instead of three. I have so much going on my head is spinning. I blame the thyroid, but I'll spare you the details of living with that issue.

I've been stressing for several months about my horse since the owners of the place where I pay to board put it up for sale. There aren't many options here and I didn't want to put that on my parents, who have a farm/ranch 50 miles from me. Then, something happened to ease my worries--this summer, a place advertised to take in a few boarders, one where I could ride out of the weather and bugs. The only problem is the price and that my little pasture pony will have to get used to being in a stall. He won't have his herd. However, living in a stall with daily individual turnout I've found tends to make horses more reliant on humans for companionship and more confident in their humans as leaders. They don't rely on other horses so much for cues on how to behave. This could be a good thing for he and I, although it is still a long drive from my house while being close to my day job.

I haven't even been able to focus much on riding on the days that would work (a modest breeze to keep the awful flies and mosquitos reduced but not too windy and not too hot). At the new place, I won't have to worry about anything except the rare severe thunderstorm and snowstorms. The ride last Friday was a rare treat where I have been boarding.

I'll be moving my boy this weekend, before this cool weather leaves us and summer returns. Once that's done, one worry will be off my mind, except paying for this very nice boarding situation every month.

Another issue I've been dealing with has been recovering an old series. The five-book Dark Angel Chronicles are getting a makeover. I'm hoping this is the final look. It has to be good. Cover artists are not cheap, especially the good ones.

All this has taken my attention from editing Eternal. I'm still working on that. The edits are getting less and less and I'm past ready to be done. It has been three months since I finished it and I've edited four books now, this being the fourth. I had also done final edits on Enlightenment in this same series and re-edited Tiger Born and Spirit Blade because it bothered me for a long time that they needed another coat of refinement, small things but many of them. I don't think I need to do anything more for those. I still enjoy them very much.

And I've now had at least six passes through Eternal and have rewritten everything to some degree. I don't think it will need anything more after this latest. I am 2/3 done with this round and it is very readable with few changes needed. Reading in different formats (paper, computer, ereader) all reveal different issues. I don't know how good it is but I know that it wraps up The Luriel Cycle very well. The series evolved as I was writing it, but part of that was me changing because of the thyroid as I mentioned above--it influences everything, even our emotions and sleep. And those play a big part in writing.

Around those bigger projects are always the day-to-day tasks--work, cats, family needs, doctor appointments, exercise time, etc. Friends have said they don't know how I can do it. Sometimes I don't know either. I just give myself time to relax in between. I think that is how I do it--by setting up time slots for everything and just making the task of that slot a priority. I have to, because life is complicated with thyroid disease, which makes everything more difficult. The glue to keeping it together is regular exercise and a family who isn't too demanding.

Soon, Eternal will be done. With all luck, maybe I can finish this weekend. Otherwise, by the middle of next week. I have to finish--I've been away from writing too long and need to get back to it asap.

Just for fun, the kitties say "Hi!"

Dargo on top of the cabinets in the kitchen

Dargo and Suki recharging in the sun by the deck door

Dargo and Jack (BFFs) snuggle together in the front window

Suki up close

Jack on top of the pantry

ps--a lot of these pictures are shared on my Instagram account @melanienilles_author.

my Buddy

I've been trying to ride my horse regularly this summer, which usually means twice a week on good weeks. But it's probably for the best that he gets a few days of recovery after each ride--he's been building strength with each ride or ground session, mostly through the leg yields in hand or under saddle. He's also getting the trot leg yield coordination and balance down, which helps in so many ways.

My little horse finally has the strength to do what comes harder for him than most other horses--cantering. On Friday, we tried for the second time this year after a week since the first time. He's five, a little older than most horses get it, but cantering has never been easy for him. Now, he has become balanced enough to carry a rider in canter in each lead. He stays in shoulder-fore pretty well, with help from me, but I have to keep him together to keep the gait. I'm just proud of how far he's come.

And he's trail riding more calmly too. Here's a little video I took after our workout on Friday. He was so good that--after we overcame a couple bucks getting into the canter going his more difficult direction--he earned an extra helping of grain as a reward!

He tries so hard for me. I love this little guy. I only wish he hadn't outgrown pony size, but at least he's still small. I'm done with big horses (no offense--the ground is just too hard at my age when things go wrong).

a small delay

I have to apologize. I've had a million little things going on in my life the last couple of weeks and have not been getting far in editing Eternal. When I do, I find a lot that still needs rewriting. Because of this, I will need another editing pass after this current one, and I'm not that far on the current pass.

Some books require a lot of rewriting and some seem to never need more than small tweaks. I can only say that this is one that requires a LOT of rewriting.

So, it's looking more like mid-August for a release date on Eternal. But I promise that it will be worth the wait.

Thank you for your patience.

Demon Age and Luriel Cycle series linked - musings from the author's mind

I've been mulling this for some time. Since I've been editing for the last two months--Enlightenment and Eternal of the Luriel Cycle and then another pass of Tiger Born and Spirit Blade of the Demon Age series--I've seen a lot of similarities. Too many, in fact. Is my unconscious mind creating something bigger than I ever considered possible?

I have been wondering if they might be extensions of each other. Now, much of it could be just me--I tend to lean towards particular systems of magic and religious views --but I also wrote both series. Here's what I did in both:

1. In The Luriel Cycle trilogy, magic comes from the world. Several years before, I did the same thing in the Demon Age novels, particularly Spirit Blade.
2. The Black Fire demon in Spirit Blade resembles the daemons of The Luriel Cycle.
3. In both, the life of the worlds are the sources of magic.
4. In both, the worlds gain sentience because of the accumulation of life essence. However, in the  Demon Age series, that has been the case for thousands of years. In The Luriel Cycle, the nuonir of Fal Oroneth only gained sentience when the Un'dei exploded. The Un'dei was the sentient power from a completely different realm.

The Ancients of Derandria (Demon Age) and the Falluar of Fal Oroneth (Luriel Cycle) were both mysterious, until the Falluar are exposed in Eternal. We don't know yet about the Ancients.

And then there's the Nik'Terek gate of the Demon Age series. The gate was supposedly created to rid Derandria of the mistakes of the Ancients. However, I've always speculated that the gate was actually a portal, which means that the Obelisk of Mai'Kari and the demonlords who passed through, among other things, were actually transported to another universe or world. In Eternal, Lilly explains to Commandant Renvil that the realms could be considered to be different universes. The Falluar visited multiple "realms" in their explorations through the bridges they created. What if the Nik'Terek Gate was actually created by the Ancients of Derandria and that it only later came to be known as the Nik'Terek gate because the Nik'Terek demonlord clan took over responsibility for it? But the gate is a one-way ticket, that could have linked to another realm and world, like Fal Oroneth in the Shadow Realm. Remember, time is different in different multiverses, as explained in The Luriel Cycle trilogy, so anything is possible.

These are the thoughts going through my head at the moment and ones which I find quite interesting. I like the idea that the two worlds are linked but separate. It makes my expanding universes that much more intriguing. It means there is a larger plan in the works that not even I yet understand but is unfolding in its own time.

If these worlds interest you, you can find links to purchase both series at my webpage at melanienilles.com.