Mel Todd's Blog, page 3

Podcast Interview (and vid!)

I hate being on camera. But I realize what I see–namely every scar, bit of acne, bad hair, and wrinkle–is not what other people focus on. So I’m working on getting better about doing videos.  So, when I did the podcast with Blasters and Blades there is also a YouTube video where you can see me talking to the Awesome Cisca Smalls. So if you would like to hear them grill me about books, life, and see my face check it out here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrUhf...

Or find their podcast (and really it is awesome) here – https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades/ but where they talk to me is here – https://anchor.fm/blasters-and-blades...

Enjoy!

New Reads

The big news of the day – Inherited Luck is up for pre-order – Squee!!! And now I have even more stuff to do.

I swear, the fact that I’m not curled up in a ball sucking my thumb some days is a miracle, and we won’t talk about the horrible thing I did to myself that made my day worse. Can we just say some things are a bad idea always and ignorance is bliss.

Otherwise I realized I need to write a novella in between book 4 and book 5. And it will be something I haven’t written in a while – something romantic. Now before you get worried, no Cori isn’t falling in love – but Jo and Sable are getting married. And it will help create the foundation for a few things over the next few novels. Which means I have a wedding to plan and a few more twists and turns. But I need to write that ASAP while writing Drafted Luck. Plus I have a short story I need to write for an anthology, and I still need to clean my bathroom.

Really, it’s just me, how does my bathroom get so filthy? Oh well. Nothing a little elbow grease can’t fix.

Other than that I’m weeding, prepping for a garden and trying to be super productive. We will see.

Talk to you later

Time for Rent

Time is a weird thing. Either there is too much of it when you are watching the clock and waiting for something: work to be over, Christmas to come, vacation to start.

Then there is the reverse, it vanishes when you are excited and having fun: on vacation, with friends, with someone special, reading a great book.

I’m having one of those in-between things – and proving that time is either relative or sadistic. Not sure which one is more accurate. You get 48 hours to a weekend. You have about 20 hours of stuff to do. No problem, right? Until the thing that you thought would take you 15 minutes tops takes you two hours. Then you realize the item you KNEW was in the pantry – isn’t. And dinner kinda requires it. And oh yeah, your friend want to see you (can really at this point I need socialization) but that means an hour drive there and back, plus time to get dressed and put on make up (squee make up) and then go. Well… your 48 hours has dwindled to less than 20, and we aren’t even counting sleep or stuff like that.

Ugh. I still have so much to do this weekend, and I want to write this HUGE scene that is the next part of the book. But I still need to finish planning the menu, get my laundry done, schedule social media, write at least 2 shorts, edit two chapters, and take a training course. And I’d really like to curl up and read a book for fun.

Anyone have a time turner I can rent? I just need another year, maybe two.

Sunshine Means Spring?

If I go out on my deck the sun is super warm and feels wonderful. The problem is I can’t spend all my time on the deck pretending to be a cat. No matter how much I’d like that. Instead I’m inside writing and trying to resist the lure of sunshine.

Instead I’m struggling to write a fight scene and make it epic and believable. And not break my own worlds magic rules. That is harder than you might think. How to make Break Bonds and Decay sexy and exciting. Hmmm, I think I need more scientists as fans, then I could talk about isotopic decay rates and cellular breakdowns and make people either be fascinated or annoyed a how wrong everything I write is. However I’m pretty sure most of my readers would rather have fireballs and Carelian snarking.

So I’ll get back to writing and dreaming of summer or at least spring.

Changes in Plans again….

So I thought I knew what I was doing with my summer, but plans change and one of the cons I look forward to the most has fallen through. LibertyCon is going virtual which means no hugs, no getting to see friends, no networking. And I am grieving again. I know I’m an introvert, but even so I’m missing getting to see people and trying to make friends. Doesn’t happen easily or fast, but I do try. That being said I now have more space on my calendar for another con – or maybe I’ll just run away for a long weekend. Curl up and hide. That has a certain amount of attraction to it also. I don’t know what I’m going to choose at this point. Right now I am still scheduled for FantaSci and Dragoncon. Everything else is up in the air and I’m going to be keeping my fingers crossed about those two.  But for right now, I think I’m going to sulk. I really wanted to see people and show off a bit. Oh well. FantaSci in May.

Audio Galore

You might have missed it because me remembering to talk about what I’m doing is not my strong point.  But if you did.  I’m telling you now.

MY LUCK IS IN AUDIO!!!

Hazzah!  And the reason I’m reminding you is I just got the final files for Hired Luck. Yes I’m going full steam ahead. If you’re looking for my audio books, click here and you’ll see them.  And you can get them from your local library – cause I’m awesome like that.

So just to tease you – audio covers!

 

I’m super excited and in theory, someday, they will be on Audible too.  I wish I could tell you when, but all I can do is wait for Audible to decide.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Prepping for Everything

I just finished a mammoth (okay medium sized elephant) amount of prep work for dinners this week. I decided long ago that if I could get dinners and meals prepped ahead of time it did multiple things.
A- Reduced my stress level for trying to get dinner prepped.
B- Removed the “what’s for dinner” question as everything had already been laid out.
C- Ensured everyone helped rather than me dealing with it all on the weeknight.
D – Gives me more time to write.

Now I hope that last is the most important to you, but I swear the others help me write also as I’m less stressed. Also means I eat really well most days.
All of that leads me to the fact that I am on the last stretch of Inheirited Luck. And wow has this story been a rollercoaster. I’ve got maybe 5k to go and I’m not a hundred percent sure how it ends. But I am already plotting on Drafted Luck which will be book 5. I can tell you people want Cori dead, but the catch is – they have to get her to break the law so they can legally kill her. Which means pushing every button she has.
I can’t wait.
If you haven’t gotten the newsletter and read the story No Luck which is what happens to Charles at the end of Educated Luck – you can read it here.

Have a great week!

Mel

Torturing for Fun and Profit

Cori and her Trials

A portal lies in front of you, beyond it a challenge. If you fail your friends die. Enter hero!

Muahahah. I love twisting my characters and if you thought you knew what drove Cori Munroe before, wait until you see what this rips out of her.

The story is finally clicking along and I’m hoping to be done by the end of January. I’m a bit over 80k right now and it is running long (I think). But that end battle. If I can pull it off you will get to see my universe at its best and worst.

Mostly I’m really pumped and enjoying writing lately. My optimism has still made it this far into the new year. We will see how long it lasts. If you missed dit there is a free short story about what happens between Charles and Daniela. You can find it here – put if you sign up for my newsletter (hint hint) you would have already gotten to read it.

Otherwise I’m still typing away and trying to figure out what trouble she is going to get into next. But I tell you the next story should be interesting.

Take care and enjoy the new year.

Mel Todd

Year in Review – wait rearview mirror.

2020 – how do I explain 2020 in words?

Frustrating. Disappointing. Heartbreaking. Failure. Scary.

I felt all those and more.  My goals at the beginning of 2020 were (goes to check):

Write 400,000 words. – boy did I fail. I didn’t break 300k and had one month with zero – but reasons.Publish 4 novels – I made 3 and failed at that last one because of the above.Publish book 2 in Blood War – Hey this was done, woot!Attend 4 conventions – laughs – they all canceled – starts to cryGet better at networking – meh, maybe? I still suck and the lack of conventions made it so I couldn’t even practice.Improve my social media presence – meh? You tell me. How did I do?

I lost too many people this year. Realized how much I depend on my conventions to keep my sanity. And I really need to see my friends more often than I got to. And this coming from an introvert.

I need 2020 to be in the rearview mirror, but it wasn’t all bad and I’m going to remain positive about the future because to do anything else leads to depression and other bad things. Here is what I did accomplish in 2020:

Made new personal connections with two authors.Started getting better at advertising.Lost 20 lbsGot to work from home when my father was dying to support him and my mother. (The amount of sheer relief on this one isn’t funny)Published 4 books.Worked on long term plans for conventions and who I want to be.Got my website revamped.Helped some friends.Set up a new computer for writing.

So I made it out the other side with a few tears, a few more scars, but I made it.

Which leads me to my 2021 goals. I’m almost scared to have them, but at the same time they help to drive me. Here is what I am going to accomplish in 2021:

Write 400,000 wordsPublish 3 booksIncrease my ad spend to $2000 for the year.Submit 3 short storiesWork on networking and my brand

Not horribly different from last year, but I am working on it.  If nothing else you will have more stories to read, because I have SO MANY to write. 

My word for 2021 is Confidence. I am going to have confidence in my stories, myself, and my path forward. Here’s to Confidence and 2021.

May 2021 bring more laughter, less tears, more joy, less sorrow, and most of all hope and peace. I’m ready to walk through the portal to get to it.

Fuck off 2020

Mel

The relearning of academia… and 2021 conventions.

It’s been a few months offline for this author. Not literally offline, but more literary offline. I’m now in the 5th month, of a 10 month senior leader fellowship program, for my day job. I’m back in the land of APA style academic writing, professional reading, strategic thinking, personality trait surveys, more academic writing, seminars and more professional readings. I had forgotten how utterly fun it is getting yelled at about formatting and style guide adherence but folks who are not my editor or publisher.

As I look forward to my May 2021 conclusion of my academic program, I do have some early convention news. I have already received invitations to be an attending guest author for FantaSci 2021, LibertyCon2021 and DragCon2021. As the conventions prep for the potential for relaunches in 2021 they seem to be jumping on the planning and invitations quickly now. BAP will push up the formal announcements as everything looks in. I miss you all and hope to see you soon in 2021!

-Doug