Enthralled ARC

Please read ALL this stuff:

These are advance review copies, and I’d really love it if they were used as such. So if you win one, please review it somewhere by the week of July 2nd: on your blog, on an online bookseller’s site, Goodreads or Library Thing, wherever. I’m not asking for positive reviews, or even detailed reviews — just reviews. If you don’t think you can read it by July, please pass on these advance copies; I intend to give away several final copies when the book is released, so you can try again, then. (If you want to be reminded of the release, you can sign up for the Postcard Mailing List or the Email Newsletter.)

About the ARCs: these are the construction-paper bound copies, and are copy-edited, but they haven’t gone through that final proofreading pass. That means that there are more errors than in a final version, and that some dialogue, sentences, and descriptions are different than will be in the final version. There are no substantial differences in plot, characters, or any of the scenes. If you have any questions while reading, I’ll be more than happy to answer and/or send you the corrected passage, if applicable.

About Salvage and ENTHRALLED: Salvage is a novella in my steampunk romance series, The Iron Seas. It is a standalone novella; you don’t need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this one. A few characters from previous stories do make brief appearances, but the primary action and romance centers on Big Thom and his wife, Georgiana. The official blurb:

They have the power to hold you spellbound, to captivate your senses, and to keep you forever in their control. Forever enthralled…

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh returns to her sensual world of the Breeds…as one stubborn Breed meets her match, and can no longer deny her mate—or the fierce desires of her own heart.

New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day introduces the League of the Black Swan…and the dangerous game one woman plays when her family’s curse dooms her to kill the man she loves.

New York Times bestselling author Meljean Brook delivers a new story in her steampunk world of the Iron Seas…a man who’s lost everything returns home to find that not only is his marriage in jeopardy, but he must now fight air pirates who intend to steal his one remaining treasure — his wife.

And Lucy Monroe, national bestselling author of the Children of the Moon novels…unleashes the feral passions of a werewolf on the body, mind, and soul of his prey, his lover, his lifemate.

To read an excerpt for Salvage, go here. To learn more about steampunk, click here, and you can see a guide to the Iron Seas world here.

How to Enter:

Just comment below. Any old comment will do.

Last Date to Enter:

Sunday, May 26th, at 11:59:59 PM Pacific time. Winners will be announced on this blog on May 27th and notified by e-mail.

How I Pick Winners:

Winners will be chosen using this handy-dandy giveaway plug-in that picks random entrants from the comments.

Official Rules:

Comment by 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on May 26th, 2013 for your chance to win. Three winners will be selected randomly using a WordPress giveaway plugin, and their names posted on this blog the following day. Winners must provide Meljean with their mailing address by June 15th, 2013 or the prize will be forfeit. Only one entry per ISP address. The contest is open to international readers. No purchase necessary to enter. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Void where prohibited.

I don’t know how long that will last, but it’s a great price for the anthology. Here’s the info on that book.

Plus, this might be a tl;dr answer and I didn’t want to hog the comments, either. And I thought that this might end up in spam with all the shagging and fucking anyway. So.

I understand that these explanations won’t actually make the usage any easier for readers to read without being irritated or brought out of the story, but since the question of “what was she thinking?” popped up, I might as well address it. I’m not careless with language in any way, especially when I’m worldbuilding. That doesn’t mean everyone will like how I’ve used it or agree with the choices I’ve made, but there actually are reasons behind all of them.

The use of “bugger” — this was deliberate. It keeps the sodomy usage firmly in mind, actually. This is a term that the English people (the buggers) use for themselves and it both came out of the original usage (the act of sodomy) along with the new connotation of having “bugs” in their blood.

Language is fluid, so it absolutely made sense to me that after several hundred years of having bugs in their blood, the infected English would transform the term to mean something that more literally references the nanoagents. To those people who’ve grown up under the Horde, the term has all but lost its original meaning (just as most of the stigma surrounding the act of sodomy has also been lost in certain social classes.)

The bounders (descendants of the English who fled the Horde two centuries before) still use the term “bugger” to mean sodomy (though very quietly). It’s not a usage that they are comfortable with at all, because — in general — the English who lived in the New World have a much more conservative, Victorian-ish* outlook. The term “bugger” embarrasses them; so, in turn, the people who grew up under the Horde (many of whom resent the bounders’ return) are even more determined to use it in reference to themselves.

Now, did I actually stop and consider: Should I use this word, considering what it means to my modern readers? Frankly, it made me even more determined to use it, because of the reference to sodomy. The people of England feel that the infection is something that everyone else in the world is looking at them and saying: They are dirty, they’ve been used by the Horde, they’re infected — and it’s talked about very quietly by every else in the world, as if being a bugger somehow makes them “less than.”

So, yeah. I wanted to have that connection to the original meaning.

As for “shag,” I use it as an indicator of class, and developed it into the primary word for “fucking” for a specific set of infected laborers in England, particularly anyone who has grown up in a creche. Mina’s mother would never in a million years say it. Before Mina began working as a detective inspector and began picking up language in some of the rougher areas, she never would have either — in their home, sex wouldn’t have been the taboo topic that it would have been in Manhattan City, but it would have been referred to as “relations” or something similar.

So Ivy Blacksmith (from Here There Be Monsters) says “shag.” Mad Machen (who is a bounder) prefers the use of “fuck” and thinks that “shag” is wonderfully vulgar and dirty, so he’s surprised and pretty turned on when she says it. Rhys says both with equal regularity, but prefers shag. Yasmeen only says “shag” when she wants to make a point in the same language that whoever she’s talking to is using, and Archimedes wouldn’t say it at all. Neither would David or Annika from Riveted.

Again, I realize it’s jarring for some readers and that many can’t get past the usage (especially if they are familiar with the use in other contexts). But I like to have language markers as part of the worldbuilding, and I chose that as one of them. That won’t change through the series — but whether the words are used in the books depends wholly upon the characters, so it won’t necessarily be a common thing.

And that’s why I used “shag” and “bugger” a lot in that book (and in Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City.)

*though of course, not really Victorian, because there has never been a Queen Victoria.

Here There Be Monsters, coming October in digital and currently available in Burning Up (click for excerpt).

What do you think?

Guardian fanart by Kitana. Click through for larger images at her Deviant Art gallery.

And speaking of bigger size, I just received the first pass pages for Guardian Demon, and through some miracle of book design it is … 563 pages! (not including the front matter, which adds about 10 pages.)

Page Proofs for Guardian Demon (from Chapter 1). Click to embiggen.

And why surprised? Because when I first saw the ads for the series last fall, I was all eye-rolly. The only reason I started watching was for my love of Lucy Liu, but even then I didn’t expect much. But then I was hooked.

I do like the BBC version and the movie version, quite a bit (and I like the BBC version over the RDJ movies). But between the treatment of Sherlock and his addiction + the awesome that is Lucy Liu’s Watson, Elementary has jumped ahead of the others*.

I just wish the show had a more regular schedule, instead of jumping around week to week, because that seems like it would be a kiss of death as far as ratings are concerned. :-/ It’s hard to develop an audience when they can’t count on the show being on. (Also, thank goodness for Amazon video subscriptions, or I wouldn’t ever know it was on, either.)

So, for those who are watching — which version is ahead?

*Sometimes. There are bits and pieces of the BBC version that I love and think are brilliant, and better in some ways than the U.S. version, and the charisma of Cumberbatch and Freeman (and their chemistry) is pure magic. But in terms of characterization, I just have to go with the Miller/Liu version. Maybe it’s because they have more episodes to develop? Not sure.

Yay! Congratulations to …

Ebook Winners!

fishgirl182
kelly sheehan

Print Copy Winners!

Theresa Haendiges
Felicia LaRrett

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! Check back soon, because I’ll be giving away the entire series over the next few weeks!

If your name is listed above, please fill out the following form:

The Hot Burning Sun
Photo Courtesy of NASA
Public Domain

I am currently caught in the same, endless pre-convention debate that I always have: to self-tan, or not to self-tan.

I’ve tagged this post “bloodsuckers” because after being in a deadline cave for a year, my legs are as white as a vampire’s. (Though I can’t really blame the cave. Even when I’m not working on a book, I avoid the sun. Because, redhead.) But that always brings me to the conundrum I face whenever a conference approaches.

I buy a new dress or two.
Dress shows off legs.
Legs are as pale as a whale’s belly.

Self-tanning might cut down the glare, because it’s not like I would slather it on.
Self-tanning might make me orange and blotchy, even if I don’t slather it on and follow all the directions and use the palest tint (as known by experience).
Self-tanning might be worse than blinding-white legs.

And then, of course, there is the ultimate danger — that I will step out into the Kansas City sun, and the glaring reflection from my pale, pale legs will instantly sear the retinas of everyone around me. Then the glare of light will raise the climate’s average temperature by several degrees, melting the ice caps, and sending the world into a catastrophic apocalyptic cycle of mega-hurricanes and The Day After Tomorrow-like deep-freeze super storms.

This isn’t about vanity. This is SCIENCE!

And a totally appropriate post for Earth Day.

Warnings!

There are SPOILERS for previous books in the series in this excerpt.

And just so you know, it ends on a cliffhanger…and it doesn’t come out until August. So, uh, don’t kill me.

Anyway. I hope everyone has a safe and happy and uneventful weekend. Take a rest. Hug someone you love. Read a happy book. Give blood. Try not to read the comments on news sites. And remember that there are far more amazing and wonderful people out there in the world than there are bad ones, and far more people willing to help others than there are willing to hurt others.

And some far more trivial news:

I’ve finally updated my news page, which had been sadly neglected. If you’ve been following the blog, though, there’s nothing new there.

I’ve also added a description for “Wrecked,” my novella in Fire & Frost, along with a website page for the anthology. No excerpt yet, but I’ll be adding that as soon as the story is finished and edited.

I’ve heard that Berkley is mailing out print ARCs of Enthralled to reviewers — I hope everyone who receives the anthology enjoys it! That story will be available in print and ebook on July 2nd. A description and excerpt are available here.

Oh, and there’s also going to be another story coming from me in May, but I’ll talk about it more after Fire & Frost is finished. It’s not connected to any of my other series, though — more of a standalone, like Under Her Skin is. Except it’s longer. And, uh, more explicit. Because I like that.