Meljean Brook

I’ve been invited to guest blog at The Book Binge all this week — today, we’re talking covers.

<— Specifically, this one.

In unrelated news:

Dear New York Times,

I saw your headline this morning that read:

“A perfect ending, for the Giants”

I really think you should have used a dash instead of a comma.

Sincerely,
Meljean

Find out here on February 1st at 1pm PST.
(Yes, there are prizes involved.)

And just because:

I think I’d have bought ad space at Smart Bitches this month.

*This one ALWAYS trips me up. Is it subjunctive, so I use “were”? Or should I be using “was”?

::goes and looks it up::

The two examples of bookmarks I gave below were 2×8 — but those are too tall for mass market books. So I went for stubby (2×6) instead (these show up on my screen actual size, in case anyone was wondering).

Poor guy. I had to clip off two inches to make him fit. Also, squishing text into smaller fonts (sigh) and taking out some of the text at the back (like the names of the novellas.) All good fun.

I’m designing bookmarks for Demon Night, and am wondering: for those of you who use/collect them, do you prefer bookmarks that are slightly longer than the book, so they stick up a little — or that can be tucked inside, so that when they sit on the shelf, it disappears into the book.

And, just general design question — smaller cover pic with border, or larger pic with sides cut off and only a border on the top/bottom? (Ignore the text for now — I’m just seeing what fits — the larger pic allows less text/quotes … but is that good or bad?)

I can’t decide. But voting is always good. (see pics after jump) (more…)

Want to get on the L.U.R.V.E. Train, and get a chance to win copies of Demon Moon, and a triple-digit or seven double-digit Amazon gift certificates? Find out how.

Dear People Magazine,

Every November, you come out with your “Sexiest Man Alive” issue; every spring, you print your list of the “World’s Most Beautiful People.”

But in 2007 — for the last two hundred years — the sexiest man and the most beautiful person has been … a vampire.

George? Pffft. Brad? Come on! Jude? …no.

Why isn’t it that Colin Ames-Beaumont hasn’t graced your cover? Is it simply because his picture cannot be taken? (He’s so beautiful a blank cover with just his name on it would make your readers drool.) Because he usually only comes out at night? (How is that different than Johnny Depp?) Because you think he hasn’t bared his assets for a Hollywood camera?

Are you afraid of his tainted blood? You shouldn’t be: one look will not send you to the Chaos realm, surrounded by flying dragons and the screams of the damned. Only Colin sees that realm when he looks into a mirror — it will not trouble you. Is it the woman he’s falling in love with? Geeks need love, too, People Magazine — a fact you have long overlooked (but that is another campaign to be won.)

Is it the fear that if you met him in a dark alley, the words “Oh my God you’re so beautiful!” would hardly be past your lips before he had you up against the wall for some hot sexing that you wouldn’t remember the next day?

No; none of those things are true impediments to being called “the sexiest” or “the most beautiful”. I think the problem is that you’ve been stuck on one pesky little word in the “Sexiest Man” title: Alive.

But there are those of us — readers and authors, geeks and norms — who know that Undead can be just as sexy as Living. And we’ve got hundreds of paranormal romances to prove it.

So I’m beginning my campaign to get a vampire on the cover of your magazine. To no longer be forced to stare longingly at men who can’t read my mind. Men who can’t use a sword. Men who can’t wear satin-lined capes and look good doing it. I’m calling for all readers, living and undead, to fight for vampire equality.

And I’m nominating Colin Ames-Beaumont to the be first representative of the “Sexiest Man Alive (and Undead)” for 2007. What separates him from other vampire romance heroes, you wonder? He’s strong, as they are. He sucks blood, as they do. He’s got out-of-control sexual appeal, as they do. But there is one thing, People Magazine, that makes Colin stand out from the rest of the vampire heroes.

Colin … is blond.

But do not take my word for it; judge for yourself. And because he is cursed, unable to see his reflection or to have any pictures taken, the only proof I can offer is in Demon Moon. The book cover cannot do him justice — you must look inside. Want a peek? The first four chapters are here. Or you can buy it at Amazon (it is available June 5 in stores everywhere).

Living and Undead Readers for Vampire Equality

Join the L.U.R.V.E. Train - Because vampires are beautiful people, too.

(Want to join the L.U.R.V.E. Train? Nominate your own vampire, win books and Amazon gift certificates? Climb aboard here.)

WILD THING RELEASES TODAY!

New York Times bestselling authors Maggie Shayne and Marjorie M. Liu, and sizzling newcomers Alyssa Day and Meljean Brook discover the wild instinct in everyone with four all-new stories of feral heat. Fans will get swept away by the passions in the unfathomable depths of Atlantis; they’ll follow the shadows that stalk both the living and the undead in a world of vampires and guardian angels; they’ll enter the forbidden world of the demon horde and their willing victims; and they’ll be privy to the secrets of a beautiful animal-whisperer who’s drawn closer to the most suspect of all male animals — man.

******

For release day, we cooked up a few questions to ask each other, and we’ll each be posting our answers on our blogs. Click here for the scavenger hunt and contest to win one of four copies of WILD THING! 

******

Maggie Shayne’s interview
Marjorie M. Liu’s interview
Alyssa Day’s interview

Here are my answers to some really wonderful and fun questions:

(more…)

Went to the Beaverton Borders for my first reader group — and it was awesome. I really wish I’d known about it before, but it wasn’t until Tammie at nightowlromance.com gave me a heads up that I found out about it. I met Marcy Dodge, who was RWA’s Bookseller of the Year a couple of years ago, who was fantastic, and who was very nice when I mumbled that I sent her an ARC of DEMON MOON on Friday, and that if she hated it, it was okay. I’m not quite over my “I’m sorry I’m sending you an ARC” guilt, but I’m getting there. I could have totally slunk out without mentioning it, but I didn’t.

I looked at a bunch of bookmarks that were better designed than mine, including Jennifer Estep’s KARMA GIRL. And I picked up a couple of books that I might not have otherwise (or even heard of otherwise), because they were part of the bookclub:

NO REGRETS
Shannon K. Butcher

Renowned cryptologist Noelle Blanche refuses to have blood on her hands. So when the military asks for her help in a covert operation, she refuses–until masked gunmen raid her home and threaten her life. Suddenly it’s all too clear that any blood spilled may be her own. Noelle has no choice but to trust the dangerous stranger sent by the military to safeguard her. A stranger who is everything she detests, everything she fears…and everything she desires.

Former Delta Force operative David Wolfe thought he had left it all behind–the horror, the hurt, the guilt. But now the men who savagely murdered his wife have set their sights on a brilliant cryptologist who can lead them to the cache of weapons they prize. As passion ignites between David and the woman he’s sworn to protect, what began as just a mission escalates into the fight of his life. But can he prevent history from repeating itself?

The general consensus was that it was good, although the spread of opinion on how good ran the gamut of “couldn’t put it down” to “it was okay” (and a few people were DNF). Which, I guess, is always how reviews go. *g* One comment was that it sounded like a man’s voice; I’m interested in seeing if I agree, or if I can even tell why that comment came up. I probably won’t get to this one right away, though. Instead, I’ll be making certain that I read the pick for next month:

KNIGHT’S PRIZE
Sarah McKerrigan

She certainly seems meek and soft-spoken, unlike her warrior sisters. But once the sun goes down, Miriel of Rivenloch becomes “The Shadow,” the bold, mysterious renegade who robs the rich to give to the poor. But can she outwit the devil-may-care mercenary Sir Rand la Nuit, who has been hired to unmask The Shadow? Miriel doesn’t know Rand’s mission-only that his sudden, amorous courtship is hiding something. Rand doesn’t know who The Shadow is-only that the lovely woman in his arms heats his blood. Touch by silky touch, kiss by sizzling kiss, the stakes-and their passions-mount. And once Rand and Miriel disrobe in his bedchamber, both can lose everything they live for-including their oh-so-vulnerable hearts.

And then for those of you who want historicals set outside of England, I saw a cover flat for SILK DREAMS, set in Constantinople ** and will be published in July:

SILK DREAMS
Diana Groe

In a strange land of flashing swords and swirling silks, spicy aromas and hot breezes that feel like a lover’s breath, Valdis is utterly lost. Constantinople is so vastly different from her homeland in Scandinavia. And the harem she’s forced to enter so very treacherous.

Her family cast her away for seeing portents of the future, and now her visions are turning even more ominous: They foretell the death of the one man who could help her escape, an exiled Viking who braves the wrath of a kingdom to awaken her passion one sinful pleasure at a time. To save him, Valdis must play a high-stakes game of power and seduction that will either get her killed or finally allow her and her love to live their…SILK DREAMS.

** Does anyone else have a hard time NOT singing, “Istanbul was Constantinople / now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople / Why did Constantinople get the works? / That’s nobody’s business but the Turk’s” when they hear the word “Constantinople”?

No matter how much I love love love DEMON MOON, I actually wince every time I send out an ARC, or trade one with another author, and feel compelled to apologize for giving them something to read. Which doesn’t make sense, because I like getting them. I don’t know what causes bad feeling, but I should really stop it.

I’m very uncomfortable with self-promotion (anywhere away from this blog, that is, since I happily have a row of covers down the left side) although I’m slowly getting over that. But it’s difficult. It’s not even modesty, I think, but more of a sense that I’m forcing myself onto someone else, invading their space. When people come here, they’re looking for something. Nothing’s being invaded, because it’s a wide-open invitation.

Anyway, I’ve printed up a bunch of ARCs to send to local booksellers and a few other places over the next month, and along with it I’m sending a letter that says DM totally rocks, and their readers will love it. And it’s HARD to write that. As much as I believe in the book, it’s difficult to be so upfront about it, even when I tell myself that it’s my job to write a great book and tell people about it, and selling it is their job.

Maybe it’s their mental space I feel like I’m invading? Like the promo shouts: YOU HAVE TO LOVE THIS BOOK!!! And when anyone else says that to me, my instinctive reaction is: No, I don’t.

So maybe I just need to adjust my thinking. Instead of You HAVE to love this book it’s more like Dude, you’re totally going to love this book!

Although I probably should be all professional and shit, and not write “dude”.

(…okay, and is “job” one of the dumbest looking words ever, or is it just me?)