…but probably shouldn’t 
From a review of Demon Blood, written by Valerie at Love Romances & More:
Now that I’ve popped my Meljean Brooks cherry, I am now a hard-core fan of this awesome author.
Ha! Love it. And considering that you jumped in on the sixth book in the series — holy crap and wow!
right here. Also featuring Kat Richardson, Devon Monk, and editor Anne Sowards.
I haven’t watched it yet. Eek. Here’s my segment:
The Iron Duke is a RT Book Reviews Top Pick! Whee! My first solo Top Pick! From the review:
“…a high seas/airborne adventure that’s filled with zombies, pirates and deadly betrayal. Along with the pulse-pounding adventure, there’s plenty of seriously sensuous sizzle for readers to enjoy.”
Over the weekend, an Iron Seas/steampunk Q&A that I did with fellow Rose City resident and writer Christy Carlyle showed up on the Portland Examiner site. You can read more here.
*Contest closed at 194 entries*
It’s that time again! I have ten (10) ARCs of THE IRON DUKE to give away on this site. No hoops to jump through — you just have to comment before midnight on Thursday, August 26th to enter. But! there is a small catch.
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 October 5th: 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 October, 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.)
From this box to your hot little hands!
About the ARCs: these are the yellow-covered 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 THE IRON DUKE: This is the first full-length novel in my steampunk romance series, The Iron Seas. To read a description and an excerpt, go here. To learn more about steampunk, click here. To find out about “Here There Be Monsters,” the novella that kicked off the series in the anthology BURNING UP, go here.
So, the rules: Comment by 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on 8/26/2010 for your chance to win. Ten winners will be selected randomly using random.org, and their names posted on this blog 8/27/2010. Only one entry per ISP address. The contest is open to international readers. No purchase necessary to enter, but a good faith effort to review the book by the release date is deeply appreciated. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Void where prohibited.
This is part of an interview I did with Project Paranormal — the extra stuff, I think, that didn’t fit in the Project Paranormal cut. I can barely look, but here’s the video!
Electronically Challenged
Answer: I’m not certain. Releasing the ebook with the printed book wasn’t the standard at the time Demon Angel was printed, and Berkley’s backlist conversions haven’t caught up with it yet. It should happen, at some point. I don’t have a date, though, and I will update you as soon as I see it (because I will be very, very happy to see an ebook version, too ).
ETA: Also, Burning Up finally has a Kindle link, though it doesn’t look as if it’s for sale yet. I’ll also update this spot when the link allows you to buy it.
the sampler
I forgot to mention that there is an excerpt that starts on Chapter 1 and includes part of Chapter 2 at the end of Demon Blood. The same excerpt is featured in the free paranormal sampler that Berkley has been distributing at conferences (and that might be in bookstores soon? I’m not exactly sure how wide the distribution is). That excerpt has been edited for space and is missing big chunks of Mina & Newberry’s drive from the ball to the Iron Duke’s estate, during which we learn more about the world and the duke himself, so you won’t want to skip to Chapter 2 when you pick up The Iron Duke.
The excerpt at the back of Burning Up starts at Chapter 2 and ends after the first scene.
So I’ve finally added an excerpt to the site — for those of you who have read the previous two excerpts, the first part isn’t new, but the second part is. It starts at Chapter 2 and continues on through the next scene.
*I will have some of these samplers at the Powell’s signing in September — but if you have Demon Blood, then you have the same excerpt, anyway.
So yesterday on Twitter, @kazmahoney posted this:
http://twitpic.com/2c5szo – For @meljean – dude, I have found your new book’s spiritual home in London.
The picture, if you don’t want to click, is this:
a pub in Victoria Station -- where are the bars on the windows?
Which is, of course, really in reference to this guy:
The Duke of Wellington
and not this one:
But I realized that I should probably mention, at some point, that YES — my guy is called the Iron Duke (partly) as a deliberate nod to the real one. Wellington had Waterloo; Trahaearn had the Horde tower. I gave Trahaearn a statue and iron bars for the same reason — and don’t forget the title, of course. (The real equivalent of Trahaearn’s square, however, is named after another battle — which doesn’t exist in Iron Seas history — and has Nelson’s statue, not Wellington’s, so the parallel isn’t slavish. Their political leanings aren’t really the same, either.)
Of course, the “Iron Duke” name fits him in other ways, but you’ll have to read the book to know that one.
Then I had a total WHOA moment. Because @kazmahoney is also Karen Mahoney, who has a YA novel coming out next year called:
The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney
Twilight Zone music began to play in the background. And I realized…
It’s a total convergence of IRON!
What does it mean? What does it mean?! Oh my god. Double iron all the way across the pond!
*Okay, not really. Just a terrible pun.
Well, after years and years of hoping that I’d someday write a steampunk romance, the day is here: BURNING UP is out, and the novella “Here There Be Monsters” launches my new series, The Iron Seas. I hope you all love it!
Here are the winners of the quickie contest yesterday, as picked by random.org:
#70 Hailey Edwards
#53 Camille
#61 Meljean Brook (didn’t follow rules; posted repeatedly)
#23 Donna S.
#33 Nicole M.
#35 Marg
#17 Lizzielvr
#71 CupK8
#13 Megan (disqualified for being my sister)
#32 Meljean Brook (already owns a copy, the greedy wench)
#19 Aileen
#48 Sandra
#59 Myranda
Congratulations!
I’ll e-mail each of you by tomorrow morning. If you don’t receive an e-mail, check your spam folder, or contact me with your address.
And because I’m almost sick with anxiety, now I think I’m going into hiding — or at least sticking my head in the sand. I’ll be lurking on my blog here, but … uh, oh god. How about an excerpt? This is from Chapter 2:
The jokes began as soon as Ivy ducked her head beneath the pianist’s lacy pink skirts. Rolling over onto her back, she lay on the musician’s raised wooden platform and looked up into the gears that formed the automaton’s guts. Luckily, this wouldn’t take long—just a broken tooth on the deadbeat escapement that timed the motion of the feet, and a worm gear out of alignment. She worked, trying to ignore the men doing their best to make the little town of Fool’s Cove earn its name. By the time she’d repaired the escapement, every Hans, Stefan, and Jozef with two brain cells and a drink in his hand had joined in, offering tips for oiling a woman up—including Klaas, the tavern’s owner.
She should have quoted him a higher price.
Read more
Haha, I love these! They are from Kim, who I met at RomCon — her own Sir Pup!
so happy together -- he would have made a great addition to the cover, yes?
My sister wants me to hook Sir Pup up with a unicorn. Somehow, I think the unicorn might end up being lunch, instead ... but the way to Sir Pup's heart *is* through his stomach, so maybe it all works out to a HEA.
