Miranda Nading's Blog: Through the Writer's Window

I’m starting to wonder why I put the release date so far out. I can't wait to get it rolling. On the plus side, the 4 episodes that are drop-ready can always use one more read through, one more rewrite, one more polish.

Extinction Book #6 is at 70K, a good enough place to start the 1st rewrite and outline. I’ve already gotten started on it, and I’m loving the changes. Mel and her crew have been through the grinder, but now it’s time for a different kind of warfare.

Book #7 needs to stop chatting me up, though. The opening scene that keeps coming to me has all the ingredients I love: grit, survival, and some of my favorite Extinction characters (Eve, Max, and little Chrissy are on the move, but it’s not going to be easy). Makes it incredibly hard to resist.

It’s good to be off the bench and back into the zone.

With this resurrected newsletter, I’ve begun the long process of sifting through the ashes of my old online presence. There was a lot to sift through, but it’s been a surprisingly productive couple of weeks.

The ashes held a few treasures. I found fantastic reviews on my existing novels I hadn’t known were there. That alone gave me a push — a reminder to keep going, keep sifting, and start rebuilding banners, bios, and connections with readers and fellow writers.

Of course, there were disappointments too. MailChimp has no record of my old newsletter. All those wonderful subscribers are gone — scattered to the void. It stings, but rebuilding is part of the journey. And this time, I’m finally in a position to do it right.

Some things have changed. KDP no longer looks the way it did, but not all the changes are bad. When Extinction Book 6 is ready, I’ll dig into the new system. One change caught my attention: front and back matter can now be updated without unpublishing the book. That’s huge. Unfortunately, my earlier novels predate the update, so changing them means pulling them from the shelves. That day will come, but for now I’ll leave the long game for later — maybe with new covers in the mix.

And then there’s AI. It’s everywhere now — work, social media, even publishing. Debate rages over how far its reach should go. For me, AI makes a decent assistant, especially since I write in something of a vacuum. But for storytelling? No. Writing is a journey — a living world where the characters have their say. Hand it to anyone else, even AI, and you lose your voice, your heart, your art.

When I was clawing my way out of the dark years, my daughter told me something I’ll never forget: You’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from experience. That truth stands for this writing life, too. Rebuilding is a journey — one I know will be worth it, even if only for myself.

The good news? The stories are flowing again. The characters are whispering. Every day, it takes fewer breaths to coax the embers back into sparks, and from sparks into flame. Having lost that fire once, I will never take it for granted again.

And sifting isn’t all I’ve been doing. Point Zero, the new serial set in the world of the Extinction novels, is primed for launch on Substack September 27, 2025. Ideas for the next serial are already brewing. If Point Zero takes off, I’ll run a poll to let you help choose the direction. If not, well, the loudest characters always win.

Meanwhile, Book 6 of the Extinction Series is already well underway, with the opening scene for Book 7 shouting at me from the wings.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to watch the embers flare into fire, follow me at mirandanading.substack.com to catch every Point Zero episode — and to have a say in where the next serial leads.

Until next Sunday,
Keep Reaching.
—Miranda

Let me introduce myself. Like many writers, I’ve always carried stories with me. They helped me corral my misbehaving imagination as a kid and survive what life threw at me. Growing up dirt-floor poor, you learn early what survival means. You learn how to bend instead of break. Sometimes the lesson sticks, sometimes it doesn’t. For me, joining the military was a way to start building tools my childhood had left out. That was a long time ago.

Since then, I’ve added law enforcement, scuba diving, and aviation to that toolbox. Like life itself, those experiences shaped who I am and bleed into everything I write. Humor, adventure, suspense, horror, science fiction—whatever the story, it carries pieces of me. That’s what good storytelling is: a heartbeat made visible.

Until it wasn’t.

I don’t know if what I went through was writer’s block. It didn’t feel like that. It felt more like being broken. For years I believed I’d lost it forever. Like a phantom limb, the urge to write whispered at me, but I couldn’t reach it.

For context: friends used to joke that after everything I’d survived, nothing could break me. Turns out it was six deaths, a divorce, and a car wreck. The second death, my last remaining sister, didn’t just break me—it shattered me. Not long after came my father, then my husband of sixteen years. Though we were separated, I still cared deeply for him. Each loss added weight I couldn’t carry. When I finally started to get back on my feet, a fourteen-foot fall literally broke them.

When my sister passed, the stories went dark. The characters that had always whispered in the night were silent. I could write letters, reports, emails—but not stories. That part of my brain had shut down, and after a few years, I was convinced it was gone forever. Worse still, I couldn't read. Words on a page were just that, words. The life had gone out of them, the worlds they represented, and the characters that dwelled therein were barren.

2018 began what I call the Dark Years. By the time of the fall, it was 2022. It was that same year that the whispers began again. At first they came in False Starts—scrambled notes with all the tension of a Betty Crocker recipe card—but at least it was something.

By last year, my imagination was alive enough to taunt me again, hiding around corners and poking fun. Since then, I’ve been exercising those muscles, making sure they’re strong, steady, and consistent. I’ve also been relearning the “work” side of writing—marketing, promotions, platforms—which I dread as much as getting my wisdom teeth pulled.

While I was dormant, the world of publishing changed. My old laptop died, MailChimp wiped my newsletter, my author page is drowning in bot-spam, and now there are more platforms to wrangle than ever. So, I’m rebuilding, one step at a time.

Despite the whining I’ll do about the business side, I’m excited for what’s ahead. I’m working on three projects: Echoes of Amelia Lynn (suspense/thriller), Caliban 2 (genetic engineering gone wrong), and Extinction Book 6: Razor’s Edge (apocalyptic survival meets space opera). Too many projects slow me down, so my focus is finishing the Extinction series. Four more books are outlined, including Razor’s Edge, which is already three-quarters drafted.

That said, I’ll allow myself one side project. To relaunch this blog/newsletter, I’m starting Point Zero, a story told in episodes. It will introduce new readers to the Extinction universe while giving longtime readers a few Easter eggs. Point Zero: Episode 1 – Ghosts will hit Substack Sunday, September 27th, 2025, exclusively at https://mirandanading.substack.com while I get a feel for the platform. If it grows into something bigger, maybe it becomes a novella—but for now, it’s just a fun way to get back into the rhythm of posting every week or two.

Losing the ability to tell and enjoy stories was devastating. It showed me how much I had taken that part of myself for granted. Now that it’s back, it’s time to get to work—and I hope you’ll join me for the ride.

Thank you for stopping by. See you soon.

Until then, keep reaching.

—Miranda

In my last blog post, I mentioned that one of my New Year's Resolution was to get better at posting. What better way to do that than to start a series discussing my books...and what no one else knows about them.And which book is better to start with than the book that started it all, Echoes of Harmony.Written back in the 90's, this book is one I consider near and dear to my heart. Not simple because it became a sounding board for my own inner turmoil and was cathartic in so doing, but because...

The last blog post from me was dated September of 2017. That one was about starting over because I left my publisher. Now I find myself rebuilding, not because I've changed publishers again, but because I've been rebuilding myself.As many of you know from following my newsletter or my Facebook page, we got hit with not just one loved one passing, but two. I was forced to pull back from networking and social media so I could take care of my family, and then myself.When I was back on my feet, I...

Effective September 15th, all of my novels (except Eldorado Gold) will be pulled from the shelves. I'm transitioning between having a publisher and returning to full-Indie status. My reasons for leaving my publisher are many, and though I'd hoped to make the transition with as little down time as possible for my books, I've begun to realize that it just won't be possible. Not if I want to make sure everything is done right and still have time to keep going on my current WIPs (Extinction Book...

Now that Miranda's Month of Growth is on the down-hill run, I've been looking back on what I've accomplished by pushing myself out of my comfort-zone and into the construction-zone. Thanks to some wonderful authors, it's been more rewarding than I expected but it has also suffered some defeats. Here's how it has panned out so far. I'm a bad news first kind of girl, so we'll start with...The NegativesThe FB GoLive videos were short lived. I'm not sure if it was our wifi or the strange weather...

For those who read the blog on Sunday, you know that I've got big things planned for August. Chief among them is trying new things and pushing my comfort zone boundaries in a big way. Let's get to it.Eldorado Gold (a romantic action/adventure) is available for preorder and is looking at a great release on 8/15. I've just reviewed one of the final tests for the book trailer and I'm loving it. I hope to have that ready for you on next weeks blog.Eldorado Gold is the culmination of some awesome...

For the past few weeks, I've been in a funk. It's taken me a while, but I've figured out part of the problem. The thought of leaving my comfort zone (I'm an introvert to the core) is frightening. Yet, it's hard to move forward, it's hard to build on what is and grow into what could be, if you do not chance a detour once in a while and head for the construction zone.I think this is a problem faced by a large number of writers and artists. You build your creation, breathe life into it with ever...

It seems a little weird to be posting a blog on a Friday, but this has been an unusual week. As I prepare for tonight, I can't help but wonder when I will reach the point where I can say 'I did it!'. When does a writer finally feel like an author?

I was surprised to discover that most of the authors I network with feel the same way. Even those who seem to have it all together and appear to have reached that pinnacle goal that I seek, feel the lift and pull of the writing life pendulum. They feel that they are still reaching for the point in their career when they can sit back and say, 'I did it!'.

In mulling this over, I've come to a relatively comforting conclusion. We all measure our success or failure against our personal goals. The goals we set one year will rarely resemble the goals we established the previous year. And that's as it should be.

When I first published Echoes of Harmony, my only goal was to reach readers that I didn't know. Of course, most of the people I know, both friends and family, are of the beautifully sensitive nature and would never dream of picking up a book by, say, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Michael Crichton. I could hardly expect them to read mine.

Now, here I sit, getting ready to tote my books, bookmarks, and pens to a book signing, my 7th novel up for pre-order, and one more getting ready for edits. Three and a half years ago, I would have laughed out loud if someone had told me I'd be in this place.

My motto has always been Keep Reaching! Perhaps that's the essence for my measure of success. As long as I'm moving forward, as long as I'm still growing, learning, and yes, reaching, then I have found some measure of success.

By what standards do you measure success? Are your goals within reach, or forever dancing just beyond your fingertips?

Until next time,
Keep Reaching!

Miranda