How is it May already? Did anyone else feel like they time travelled? Where have I even been this whole time? It feels like I’m only just waking from a long and disorienting hibernation... Wait, is my brain a bear? It would explain so many things... 

Anyways, here we are. Dawning of the Sun has been officially finished. All the edits are done and the manuscript is being submitted for interior layout sometime this week! This means a lot of things. Mostly it means that once that layout has been approved (by me), advanced reader copies will be sent out! To those of you who have agreed, I thank you. For anyone who does reviews, has a book influencer account of any kind, etc feel free to contact me to request an ARC copy. I am so happy to be able to share my work and please spread the word! Pirates! Ships! Sword fights! Promiscuity! Banter! It's all there. I know that at least a few fantasy readers will enjoy it.  

On the Waning of the Moon front, it would appear that the first draft will likely be completed this month! *Gasp!* Yes, only two years instead of 16 to write a manuscript. I’m improving. My betas will be on the edge of their seats to hear this news, but sadly many many many edits will be needed before this manuscript can be looked upon by sane mortals. I’m already aware of many kinks and missing details that will need to be addressed, sorted, categorized, re-thought, and executed (pun intended). << This is funny on a lot of levels but mostly because there are a lot of deaths in Waning of the Moon, the second book in the Aeternum series, if you haven’t been following along.  

So, once that beast is complete and I move to the edits phase, I will not leave the writing alone. I plan to keep writing and get a good grip and start on the next manuscript, Eventide of the Crown, book three of the Aeternum series. I was calling it book 2.5 for a while, but I have changed my mind, despite the fact that it occurs at the same time as book two. It’s fiiiine... mostly... probably.  
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So there’s a little insight into the goings on behind the scenes of the scenes of my works. Dawning of the Sun is on track to be released at roughly the end of August. I’m excited and terrified. I’ll keep you posted on the goings on and when the pirates will be sailing into your hands. We’re getting closer and closer to that finish line, but really isn’t it just the starting line? 

On the seventh day I hath risen... from a viral pestilence that plagued by tonsils. I was out cold for basically the last six days. I was a curled-up incubator of viral infestation, and I lost nearly a week of my life, of myself to this monstrosity.  

But, I’m relatively sound of mind now, even though my body is still trying to catch up to that point. So, here’s a little Dawning of the Sun update. I submitted my final pass for copy edits on the final day of March. The manuscript has been handed over to an undisclosed proofreader who I pray is working quickly but ever diligently to review the basically final state of my manuscript. It’s terrifying. I don’t know if I’m happy with how it is... there are so many little things I feel like I should be improving. A million tiny oversights that some reader will inevitably point out to me and I’ll find myself pulling my hair out over once the thing is in print.  

When I spoke to my editor she said, “Don’t change too much, it’s ready.” Are you insane?! Are you out of your fucking mind?! How could it possibly be ready?! I’ve only spent the last 17 years (yes, 17) working on this story, this world, this brain spawn. At some point I need to let it go. By the time this is a physical book in your hands the story itself will be graduating high school. (I’m cringing on the inside to know it took me that long to figure all this out.) I pray to the muses, to the literary gods, that Waning of the Moon the second iteration of the Aeternum Series will not need so much mental incubation and, let’s face it, trial and error in the writing process.  

Everything is on track. Despite some setbacks with the publishing process, it does appear that my personal timeline for release will be met. The way my aggregate publisher works is that I will not be getting a release date until the book itself is complete. Once everything is essentially ready to hit the presses I’ll get a date and it will be a 3-5 day window between me finding out the date and the release date itself. It will be a fast turnaround from me screaming the date all over any social media I can access to the actual release date. This is my first book, my first time ever dealing with any sort of publisher and oh boy is all this weird and overwhelming and confusing.  

So, stay tuned to find out if this whole process will break me. If you want a couple of reels from me between posts, find me on the social medias, I’m everywhere under some version of “mekalous”.  
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Thank you for coming to my almost death bed, we appreciate your business. (I might not be as sound of mind as I thought.)

I am still waiting for my copy edits! I’m pulling out my hair over this. I want them, I need them! I want to get this harrowing process underway!! I am desperately hoping that this delay is because my editor is going through my work with a fine-toothed comb rather than just leaving it in her to-do pile. (Due to the way that my aggregate publisher operates I do not have direct contact with her so I can’t even ask!)  

It’s not like I’ve just been sitting twiddling my thumbs doing nothing... I have been doing other stuff... and things. I have been working on the first draft of the Aeternum Series Book Two. It’s closing in on the final scenes. I’m hoping that the muses will smile on me until the final punctuation, but likely those fickle little... [insert curse word of your choice] will abandon me at the worst possible time and the manuscript will just hang over my head for a long time before they return.  

I’ve also been working on my “social media presence” ugh. I feel gross just typing it... but I’m trying to make “engaging posts” and trying to reach out to book influencer type humans that might want an advanced reader copy (date TBD) to post something about my little book. If you’re one of those, please contact me!  

I’ve also been reaching out to all-grown-up authors with books out in the world to see if they would be willing to write a blurb for my cover! So far it’s a resounding silence... and a few “too busy for that, good luck though.” Well... I can’t win them all right? I would honestly be happy with just one author that would agree to do such a thing. But this whole process has taught me that if you want something done, likely you’re going to have to do it yourself. Although that may not apply here seeing as how I can’t write a blurb for my own cover... or can I? No, no. That would just be all kinds of self-indulgent and weird.  
I’m also pretty excited that my other half has bought me a brand-new laptop that converts to a tablet so that I can do pen edits without printing 200 pages and basically contributing to mass deforestation.  
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So there’s a little update on the goings on in my written worlds. If you don’t already, please follow me on the social medias and possibly give me some insights into how to get noticed. I’m like a child tugging on the internet's shirt trying to get it to look at me... and it’s far too busy with its internetting to bother.  

Boom! Pow! Womp! Comic Book Fighting Sounds! I’m not entirely sure if I am the one making the sounds or the one on the receiving end of them, but here we are. I’m officially 34 levels up now.  

I’ve been reflecting on my life a little and honestly, I have no idea if I’m ahead or behind. “Successful” is not something you could really call my career, both in the writing space or in the real job sense of the word. But, I can’t say that my life has been bad. There have been bad moments, gods know there have been struggles and trials and our new favorite buzz word “trauma,” but overall it’s been good I think.  

I’ve been gazing towards the horizon, looking out for what comes next. My book release is coming in the fall. I’m trying to work as hard as I can to get my release slotted for September, but so far, the timeline is still up in the air since so much work is left to be done. But, I did promise myself my first book would be published before I turned 35, and low and behold I actually fucking did it... or I will have done it. Whatever tense fits the future tense of this particular situation. (I’m clearly no editor, I’m an idea woman.) 

The process of getting my novel out there is a LOT of work. I didn’t think it would be easy, but I honestly didn’t think it would be this much. Mostly it’s this ridiculous social media component I didn’t really think too hard about and now I’m sort of reeling from it. It’s a full-time job in and of itself, this “generating a media presence” fuckery. I honestly feel like a snake oil salesman, peddling a fictional product to all of you. (Yes, that’s a pun.) Partly because the physical book is not in my hands, I find myself feeling like I’m trying to sell you, well snake oil. (If you don’t know what that means... I can’t help you because I have to go cry over how god’s damned old I am.)  

I’ve been soliciting social media posters whose profiles and feeds I enjoy, that enjoy my gerne of work, and being like “hey, you want an advanced reader copy of my book to review, for free cause I’m the broke ass indie author?” Many have said “yes” which gives me such joy. But, at the same time these advanced reader copies are not ready and will not be ready for months yet and I feel like a fool asking so early but I’ve been told by my publisher to already start this. It feels bad... I feel as if my integrity dwindles with every self-promoting step. Unfortunately, this is the only way to sell this book in this day and age. I cannot huddle in my writing cave and hope that people notice my book, I need to shove it in their faces because otherwise it will be lost in the sea of books that are published regularly.  
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So, here we are... I do hope you, dear reader, end up purchasing a copy of this would-be book and that you love it as much as I do, even though at times I hate it so much.  

Another rotation around the sun has returned to its inevitable origin. We’re back at the start, another turn around the boiling sphere of light that ensures we can see another day, another dawn, that brings an end to the night.  
It's been a tough year for a lot of us, me included. A roller coaster of ups and downs, of positives and not so positives and a flurry of days that seem to have all passed in the blink of an eye.    
I finished my developmental edits between the holidays over the last week. I sent in the manuscript and immediately panicked that I’d fucked it up. That I missed some critical theme, point, character development, etc etc and that my manuscript would be found lacking. Because I am technically self-publishing I am determined to hold the whole project to a higher standard than that of a traditionally published book. I want you, dear reader, to look at that finished book in your hands and know that everyone put in everything they had to make it an enjoyable, beautiful, and cherished product for you to consume and be proud to have in your hands. So, you can understand why I have a panic attack every step of the way.  
I’m sad to say that I did not find time over the last month to write a single word for the second installment of the Aeternum Series. It was on the back burner as I painstakingly took apart Dawning of the Sun and put it back together with more emotion, more character interaction, and more connection. The deep dark part of my heart knows that I’ve improved the manuscript with the help of my wonderful editor Rebecca. I am a nervous writer, I am constantly doubting and questioning if my words are well written, if they are understood, if I’ve made the point I’ve trying to make. Rebecca’s responses to my (probably very primitive and stupid questions) gave me the confidence to actually admit that I, in fact, am pretty good at this.  
I had planned to finish the first draft of Waning of the Moon, Book two in the Aeternum Series by the eve of December 31, 2023. I did not get there. I have all my scenes planned out, and while I did hit a very respectable 100,863 word count, there are still a whopping sixteen scenes I have planned until I reach the inevitable end of that story. I suspect that the first draft will come in at a staggering 150,000, but this number will ebb and flow with every revision. I can’t even guess what the final count will end up being.  
So, for anyone keeping up with my progress, for anyone interested in the upcoming release of Dawning of the Sun, it is happening. Work is always being done. I have a variety of other universes on the back burners, simmering. I’m hoping to build a respectable career from all these stories overflowing in my head. Thank you for being with me along the way, as I take my first steps on the path to becoming a real, honest to goodness, author. I am so grateful that you even considering spending your time with my little words.