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!