Magic Thursday: My Writing Journey, the Condensed Version with Mel Teshco!

I remember handwriting pages and pages of horse stories when I was younger and devouring any book I could find, then finally getting a typewriter and tearing up pages and pages of work (thank goodness for computers!) after finding a mistake or changing my mind about where my story was going. 

I guess that made me a writer long before I became published as Mel Teshco in August 2009 with Ellora’s Cave and shortly after with Harlequin Nocturne Bites. It was with these publishers I started out with novellas until I was more confident in my craft and began writing longer stories. 

This was in the days before self-publishing became a thing. It was quite the milestone to get a publisher and/or agent, and as an author finally feeling good enough after doing the hard yards to get my work noticed. (This is not to negate those writers publishing indie stories now and knocking it out of the ballpark, I applaud them and wish I’d had the nerve to do it sooner.) 

Looking back, I’m thankful for the competitions I entered, the critique partners I had and the editors and publishers I was lucky enough to work with. They all contributed to my growth as a writer, made me confident in my ability as a storyteller and to revise and edit my indie stories in the direction I want. Book covers are another matter…I’ll always leave them to the experts like HelzKat Designs.

Writing has also taken me in directions I never expected, like taking part in boxsets with fabulous authors Christina Phillips and Cathleen Ross—and becoming great, lifelong friends—and being in an anthology which included Laurann Dohner. I’ve also ghostwritten a shapeshifter wolf story and done a few stories for Chapters – what a learning curve that was!

Almost fifteen years later (gulp!) I’m working on Damaris, a science fiction romance that is the fourth book in my Alien Fugitive series. I

I’ll then return to my dark romance mafia series along with a brand new sheikh series. I’m like a mother hen about book one of my mafia story Wedlocked, a novel I did in five weeks right after major stomach surgery. I’ve turned it into a series with the MCs being two opposing mafia families. Book three, Enforced, releases in June this year.

All these years later, and with around eighty books in my backlist, I’m still trying to perfect a work-life balance (I work PT outside of writing.)  Maybe one day I’ll discover the secret! Or maybe I’ll continue fumbling along while my family and my seven cats distract me all too easily. ☺

Damaris

Book 4, Alien Fugitives

Can two lost souls complete one another?

Damaris Trant has never been alone…until now. Not only is he stuck on planet Earth, his six Strazanian comrades—rares with special powers just like him—are scattered around the city of New Faxian like confetti to avoid an enemy that has already wiped out the rest of their species. Damaris doesn’t even know if his comrades are still alive since landing on Earth.

Despite his purple scale coloring making him a lower caste, his rare powers, which had elevated his standing on his planet Strazan, are now erratic at best. Add to that the memories of his deceased family, and he’s rendered even more powerless.

Then he meets Callie, and his already topsy-turvy life is turned upside down. She’s an addict who sees things differently. That she doesn’t find Damaris abnormal is beyond appealing to his peace of mind. If only she didn’t also see him as just another man without a conscience.

After Callie Trueberry lost her family to a house fire, she fell into a dysfunctional world of her own making. Chemicals and alcohol might decay her mind, but at least she’s no longer half-mad with grief. Then she stumbles into Damaris and wishes she was the woman she used to be, a woman who would have turned his head and perhaps even won his heart. He is everything she’s ever wanted in a man, their shared grief binding them closer still. But will he stand by her side as she cleans her body and her mind while enemies are hunting him down, or will he be lost to her forever?

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Mel Teshco

I’m an award winning author who loves to write scorching hot contemporary and science fiction romance—stories I love to read. I love working from home, where my office window looks out over our ‘block’ of fourteen acres with gorgeous mountain views. After enjoying a stint as a foster carer for cats, I now have seven felines to entertain me, along with two dogs and two horses. But only when I’m not distracted by my three gorgeous daughters, one of whom—a teenager *shriek*—is still living at home. As for my husband…he’s still waiting for retirement.

Visit melteshco.com