The Home for Mell Eight's Original Fiction

Mell Eight is an author of LGBTQIA original fiction, primarily M/M. 
If that is not your thing, hit the back button, otherwise welcome and enjoy! 

Out Now:

Hunter
May 9, 2023

Coming Soon:

Water's Price
June 20, 2023

Current Projects:

  • Shiver and Quiver
  • The Chef
  • Vivary Tales

Submitted Projects:

  • Witch
    --Accepted
  • Twin Elements
    --Accepted
  • You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart
    --Accepted

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I have been working with Nine Star Press since August 2019.
I worked with Less Than Three Press from December 2011 to July 2019.
Supernatural Consultant Volume One received this award.
Ground of Insurrection was Nominated
Hadash Aviv was Nominated

News:
5/15/23

Out Now: Hunter http://melleightsblog...out-now-hunter

5/5/23

The flowers are blooming, and I'm sneezing.  The flowers are pretty, but behind that beauty lies a nefarious evil.  LOL  I live where I get to experience four distinct seasons because I love it.  The anticipation as winter comes to an end, knowing warmth and sunshine and the beach are just around the corner is only matched by my anticipation in August that the oppressive heat of summer will soon be tempered by snow.  The dopamine boosting cycle of anticipation and fulfillment is exactly why I never want to go anywhere else.  That said, spring is probably my least favorite season, mostly because I spend a lot of April and May, and sometimes into June, fighting off sinus migraines, runny noses, and general blah.  I always find my writing suffers because of this; if I have a major headache, the last thing I want is the bright lights of a computer screen.  Luckily, I seem to be doing okay so far this year.  The word count for The Chef continues to steadily grow.  I passed 50k last week, making this officially the second longest single story I've ever written.  Only Magnified is longer.  I'm certainly happy with how much I've been able to put into this one new story.  All that's left to write is the final battle and the wrap up, so fingers crossed this story will be done soon. 

If you pre-ordered Hunter from NSP, make sure you go download your copy to read!  Hunter is officially released there.  For every other retailer where Hunter is sold, May 9th is only a few days away!  I can't wait for everyone to get a chance to catch up with Kana and and Ember, and Kana's familiars, and see where this new adventure brings them! 

I have also started working on the first round of edits for Twin Elements, my high fantasy stand alone about a pair of twins trying to survive some difficult political mechanizations all while falling in love with the people who come to save them.  Twin Elements is such a fun bit of world building and character development.  I loved writing it, so revisiting this story in edits has been wonderful. 

That's basically everything I've been up to this past week.  I'm starting to plan my garden for this year, which is mostly veggies, and I'm mentally preparing for my first, inevitable sunburn of summer.  I'm also starting a new paint by numbers project that will likely take a few months to complete (I chose a really complicated one this time), so I'm excited about that.  Otherwise, it's just work, figuring out what my chef in The Chef will cook next, and sneezing.  So. Much. Sneezing.  Summer, here I come! 
 
4/29/2023 

This blog post was originally sent out via my email newsletter.  I'm sharing it here two weeks later.  If you want to receive my newsletter, feel free to sign up on the form on my website! 
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Like most authors, my Google search history raises some red flags.  Writing fantasy and paranormal leads to very interesting searches.  Here's some of the fun things I've researched recently:

For Hunter:
  • Types of spears, length of spears, what are spears made of?  One of the significant characters in Hunter carries a spear (hence the spear on the cover), but I've never held one in my life.  Researching bladed weapons, particularly unusual ones, always makes we wonder what algorithms I'm tripping.  Lol
  • Herbs for sleep, what's in sleep medicine?  So many plants are poisonous, even ones as simple as sleeping pills.  You would not believe how many times I saw a warning along the lines of "too much could kill you".  This actually influenced the plot of the book.  Kana's decision to conduct more research before concocting a sleeping potion was based on my own concerns about what I found during my searches. 

Hunter comes out on May 9th, so you don't have to wait too long to see the results of those (and more). 

For Water's Price:
  • What's on the bottom of the ocean; what plants grow in northern waters?  It was a lot harder than I originally thought to find out what can grow in frigid northern waters, or even what the ground is comprised of.  Sand, stone, seaweed?  No idea, and Google wasn't clear either.  I even looked at pictures of the Titanic to see what was growing there.  I did the best I could describing the setting of some of the scenes, but I look forward to what my readers have to say about it.  
  • Variations of the plot of The Little Mermaid.  There are more versions and interpretations of The Little Mermaid and mermaid stories than I originally thought.  Yes, Disney has the monopoly, but it's not solely Hans Christian Anderson who wrote about fictional water creatures and their adventures.  I was able to take bits and pieces and weave together my own tale based on what I found. 

Sharing any of the other fun things I researched would spoil the book, so that's all I've got now.  Water's Price comes out on June 27th, so after that I might be able to share more! 

For The Chef:
  • Can you grind up dried pasta to make flour for fresh dough?  The answer to this was maybe, so I went with it. Given the difficult circumstances Char is cooking in when he concocts this particular recipe, I figured I could make it work.  Many of the recipes I'm using in this book are sound (and are ones I've cooked myself), but this particular pasta recipe should come with an asterisk.   
  • Poisonous mushrooms, what do poisonous mushrooms taste like, what happens when you eat a poisonous mushroom, etc.?  Yet another instance where I hope I'm not tripping an algorithm.  Lol  I can't really go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but this one led me down multiple rabbit holes.  Trying to figure out which mushroom, how it would taste, what might happen if someone did eat it, and all the nuances of inadvertently cooking with poison led me on quite the adventure.  I'd say a third of what I found actually ended up in the book, but it was interesting all the same. 
  • What do wild onions look like?  At first glance, this appears to be a benign question.  Right?  Wrong.  Turns out, wild onions are often mistaken for a lovely plant called the Death Lily, so it was back down the poison rabbit hole for me.  Lol 

I have about 10k words left to write in The Chef, after which it will need edits and polishing.  I hope to have it submitted to a publisher for consideration toward the end of this year, so keep an eye on my blog for more information.  I promise I will have more ridiculous searches to share from this book in the future. 

Is there a bit of plot or some factoid in one of my published books you're curious about?  Let me know and I'd be happy to elaborate! 

4/22/23

Hunter is available for preorder at most major retailers: http://melleightsblog...hunter-available-for-preorder 
 
4/14/23

It has been far too long since I wrote a blog post.  I've been trying to do better this year about posting, but somehow this past month just slipped through the cracks.  Getting ready for Passover, then Passover itself, probably contributed, but I also haven't had much to share.  I need to come up with something fun I can post semi-regularly for those lulls.  Let me know, do you want something about my writing style, how I come up with my books, or something totally different?  I want to share things you're interested in! 

Luckily, the lull is over!  I have great news to share: You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart has been accepted for publishing at NSP!  The contract is signed, so I'm hopeful this time next year you'll be able to read my quirky sci-fi/fantasy crossover story with dragons and magic and futuristic technology.  You Can't Sell A Dragon's Heart is one of those stories that practically wrote itself.  I didn't have long pauses or breaks to figure out plot, so it flows really well.  I think you'll like it as much as I do, so I'll be sure to share any updates as this story moves through the editing process. 

Speaking of updates, Hunter, the second book in my Witch's Circle trilogy has gotten some excellent ARC reviews!  The book is apparently an excellent continuation from Coven, book one.  If you missed it, Coven is available at most major retailers.  Hunter comes out on May 9th (less than a month away!!!) and should also be available for preorder at most major retailers soon.  If you preorder from NSP, you can get your copy four days earlier than everywhere else. 

My last update is some of my writing is going really well.  The Chef, my story about a chef trying to survive and cook in some difficult situations, is almost completed.  I have two more major plot points to write, with some minor stuff mixed in between.  This includes the build up to the final fight, the fight itself, and the aftermath.  I had initially thought this book would reach 60k words.  Then the first half of the story didn't expand as much as I anticipated so I moved the expected count down to 50k.  However, the Chef currently stands at 44k, so I think a goal of reaching 55k words is achievable.  That said, the overarching plot of the story is nowhere close to being completed.  Plus, I realized Char, my main character, is not the correct person to be resolving those issues.  This means a sequel is in order!  It's going to be called The Prince.  I know who the two main characters are and I've plotted out the opening scene, but I can't delve into it more until The Chef is completed.  I haven't written anything in any of my other stories, which is sad, but I believe The Chef is good enough to warrant my full attention.  Fingers crossed I finish writing The Chef soon, so I can start digging into The Prince and see where this series might take me, and then I can return to some of my other stories as well!