by Mignon Mykel
NEUTRAL ZONE was originally a spin-off from another family series I was working on. While Noah and Ryleigh were new to that never-to-be-heard-from series, Jason was a connecting piece. While I have no plans to give Jason a story (because in this re-write I grew to dislike him), you may still see him someday in the future…
And you will see Teague in the future. Just as an old man.
I was busy plugging away on Caleb’s story when I was going through notes. One of my notations for the baby of the group is (here’s a hint, people) he is often compared to Noah, and his relationship with his lady friend is at times parallel to Noah and Ryleigh’s. That said, I thought maybe I should go back and bring FROM THE BEGINNING into the present, clean it up, spruce it up, and put it out. The original NEUTRAL ZONE was in third person, had holes all over it, and was dated (thank you, Paige). It’s amazing what has happened in eight years, guys! So I changed it up some to fit with the formatting I’m going with for Caleb’s book presently, added scenes, took out some not-so-cute, pretty-creeptastic scenes, and I found that this current rendition of the original story leaves a better taste – so I do hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved revisiting and revising!
This year I’m all about making changes for myself. I’ve wanted to truly put my books out for many years and after doing review tours for the last one, two years, I thought that now was a good time. I had a grasp on the marketing end, now I just had to figure out how to actually get the books written.
Let me say – I put myself on a tight deadline for FROM THE BEGINNING. Because of that, I learned a lot about dedication and being sure to get my words in for the day. Because of that tight deadline, my BETA readers only had the chance to read the original manuscript (ladies, you’re two of six who have ever seen it). Renee and Paige, I hope that you enjoyed FROM THE BEGINNING more than NEUTRAL ZONE. Thank you for your words of encouragement, Renee, and for your direction, Paige. You ladies have helped push me with Caleb’s story, and I was so glad you agreed to look over NEUTRAL ZONE as well.
Speaking of pushing… Shari Ryan. We have never met, we may never meet, but you have inspired me to keep writing. Thank you for your gentle nudges to get me writing, and thank you for allowing me to BETA read for you. I love being a part of your process.
Thank you to all the indie authors I’ve socially connected with over the last year or two. Many I had never heard of before starting to review for ‘tour’ but because of each and every one of you, I learned that it is possible to write my story, and it is possible to keep that dream moving.
Lisa. I’m so glad I reached out to you about PR things. Although our writing ‘pact’ wasn’t able to stretch longer than a few weeks, you helped put the writing bug back in me. 4k a week…
Mia and the IndieSage PR team: thank you for putting my tour up so quickly. I hope to work with you more in the future.
To the bloggers who participated in the tour. Thank you. Having done the tours myself, I know it can be difficult to choose what books to read, especially when they come from unknown authors (or people with names that are unusual).
My family, thank you for believing in me. It’s been a rough couple of years – or year, right, Dad? Mom, thank you for listening to me go on and on about what I learned about marketing self-published books. To both my parents and their spouses, thank you for listening when I sat with you a year ago and said I was putting school on hold, possibly indefinitely, yet again because I wanted to pursue my true passions. To my brother for always being my best friend, even though you’re far away. And of course, specifically to my cousins, Nicole and Ashley, who had to hear me talk about this Prescott family over and over, and for maybe being around during a possible note incident… Nikki may not remember all the characters I originally had, but I’m sure she could tell you how one day on a boat, we dwindled them all down to fit within eleven books – the magic number for those Prescotts.
And to the readers.
Thank you for taking a chance and reading FROM THE BEGINNING. I’m still not sold it’s my best piece I have to offer, but Noah and Ryleigh are very close to my heart, and I hope you love them at least a fraction of what I do. I hope you’ll stop over to my Facebook page or Twitter account and say hello. I’m terrible at keeping up with social media, but I will be trying.
Mignon is a twenty-something (...getting awfully close to thirty-something) who resides in Wisconsin. An avid reader since her preschool days, she 'blames' her mother for teaching her to read during that all-important time during a forming brain. Some of her earlier memories of reading include her mother buying her a book at the mall -- and finishing the book before they even returned home.
Writing happened soon after the reading started. Her first writing piece can be found in a box of other important papers from growing up. It's about an apple who was her friend, but she had to eat.
The first series Mignon started to write was about a close family, a brother and his three younger sisters. She started writing this family and their friends in 2005, but as soon as the Prescott family took over her mind, the Ashbys fell silent. Maybe someday we'll all hear from the Ashbys, but those Prescotts.... The Prescotts are excited to have their stories told.
Connect with Mignon online:
website | facebook | twitter @mnonmklwrites | instagram @mignon.mykel
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