Yayayayayay!

I’d planned to throw a huge blog party when it finally came out in ebook, but I’m not sure what form that will take yet (I kind of, ahem, didn’t expect this and totally blew my promo budget for this month on the New Year’s giveaway postage.) So I’ll come up with something over the next few days.

Now, about Demon Angel – a lot of people ask whether to start the Guardians series here, and it’s true that the series officially begins with this book … but it and Demon Moon are also the two books that readers have had the most trouble getting into (and other readers love them, so I can’t even begin to guess whether you would, too). My advice usually is: Read the reviews. If the problems mentioned sound like something that would really bother you, skipping to Demon Night might be a good idea (and you can always go back later and read the first two books when you’re more familiar with the mythology of the series.)

I’ve written a bit more about this here. You can see in the comments, the same reactions: some loved the series right away, some couldn’t get into until Demon Night.

Of course I hope you all love it, though! Lilith and Hugh are still one of my favorite couples … and Sir Pup, too

Also, Penguin ebooks don’t typically come with covers. So here’s one (mildly offensive) that I made up for the print readers long, long ago*.

A mildly offensive cover that fits Demon Angel a little better than the real one does. Click to enlarge.

*Ack. Thank goodness my Photoshop skillz have improved a little since then.

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.

Borders.com ~ BN.com ~ Powells.com

And

• at Books-a-Million
• at Penguin’s Bookstore
• at Rendezvous Books (Aus)

 
At this time, it isn’t in digital format. My apologies to ebook readers. Releasing the ebook with the printed book wasn’t the standard at the time Demon Angel was printed, and backlist conversions haven’t caught up with it yet.

About two and a half months ago, Maya M. of Apprentice Writer asked a few questions about DEMON ANGEL and DEMON MOON in the comments of this blog post, and Meljean said she’d get back to her on them ASAP. Meljean’s an asshole. Where are the answers?

Sincerely,
Tired of Incompetent Twits

Dear TIT,

I feel your pain. I’ve been stuck here in the closet for almost three freaking years now! She’s always saying, “I’ll get to you, I promise!” but then I look around and she’s doing belly-flops in the hall or trying to burn off her hair. She’s a total freaking loser (even worse, she’s not a virgin, which means she’s probably the sophisticated-other-woman-slut who’s going to try to steal away someone’s hero!)

But I hunted her down, shot her through the shoulders with a crossbow, pinning her to the floor, and jumped on her head until she gave it up. Here are those answers:

SPOILERS FOR DEMON ANGEL AND DEMON MOON FOLLOW!

In Google Reader, the cut doesn’t hide the rest of this post. Don’t go any farther if you don’t want to be spoiled for DEMON ANGEL and DEMON MOON.

Maya M asks:

Q1. Lucifer strips away L’s demonness bit by bit. I thought she was coolest when she had wings and perched all over the place. ‘Angel’ doesn’t have space for any rumination on what she misses about being a full-fleged (halfling) demon. I don’t remember right now if she thinks about this in ‘Moon’ or ‘Night’ (still havent’ started ‘Bound’ yet, waiting on my night table) – but I wonder: doesn’t she miss flight? Perching on things?

Yes, she misses it like crazy. When Sir Pup first brings her back and Hugh puts her into the bath and she says, “I hate this. I can’t be this.” — She’s talking about being human again, and that’s about all she says about how much she hates the idea of living without her powers.

The reason for that is twofold: One, she’s a survivor, so although she absolutely hates what Lucifer did, she’s going to take what she has and just try to stay alive with it. Lilith can’t brood, or she’s dead. She’s never been able to float around in her own misery (Lucifer would have killed her for it, because misery is too self-centered, and she should be serving him.) After two thousand years plus, she’s in the habit of not dwelling on what she doesn’t have, and what hurts her.

The second reason was that Hugh was broody enough, and to have both of them brooding would have dragged on the narrative more than it could handle.

But does she still miss it? Definitely. And I try to put her in perching positions as much as the blocking of a scene allows — like when she comes to Savi’s little hidey-hole to blackmail her into joining SI, or later when she’s perching on Colin’s chest — just to keep that image of the demon that she was (and still is.) In later books, however, we see her primarily behind her desk at SI; rarely is there anything that she can perch on without running into ridiculous posturing, so she sits on the edges of desks and the arms of chairs quite a bit.

As for “seeing” how much she misses her demon powers in later books, the problem I run into there is that she’s not a POV character anymore, and Lilith would never show how much she feels that loss to anyone but Hugh.

Q2. In ‘Moon’, C & S are periodically menaced by wyrmwolves. If they escaped from Chaos – why only one or two at a time, if they live in packs there? And if the wyrmwolves can find a way out – why don’t the Nosferatu follow them?

This is one of those situations where I run into something that I can’t explain in the book simply because the characters don’t know it, so there’s no one to offer the info to the reader. And so Savi and Colin eventually realize that when her shields are down and the wyrmwolves start ripping into each other, they are creating a portal — what they don’t know is that it’s a fragile one, like a little rip between the realms. The nosferatu don’t come through because they don’t notice it right away (the wyrmwolves are always running around and tearing at each other); and only one or two wyrmwolves come through because a) it doesn’t stay open if Colin can’t feel Savi’s psychic scent and b) once a wyrmwolf goes through, it uses up the power that opened it and so the portal seals behind it…until more blood comes and Savi’s shields are open again, and another rips through. So the night the story opens (when she makes him come in his pants), her shields were just down because of the fever, and one came through. The night at Auntie’s, she opened, closed, opened again — that was the time with two. Then when he had to run across the city — another time when she was just holding open.

Now, at the very end, when Colin writes the symbols on the wall and creates another portal — that one would stay open if Savi didn’t have her psychic shields up, and the nosferatu and wyrmwolves could pour through if they wanted to. That portal isn’t a rip, but more like a speculum — it’s going to stay open until someone closes it, and it’s a true portal (almost like a Gate).

…and, that will come up again in the next book.

Here’s a description:

For two thousand years, Lilith wrought vengeance upon the evil and the damned, gathering souls for her father’s armies Below and proving her fealty to her Underworld liege. Bound by a bargain with the devil and forbidden to feel pleasure, she draws upon her dark powers and serpentine grace to lead men into temptation. That is, until she faces her greatest temptation—Heaven’s own Sir Hugh Castleford…

Once a knight and now a Guardian, Hugh spent centuries battling demons—and the cursed, blood-drinking nosferatu. His purpose has always been to thwart the demon Lilith, even as he battles his treacherous hunger for her. But when a deadly alliance unleashes a threat to both humans and Guardians in modern-day San Francisco, angel and demon must fight together against unholy evil—and against a desire that has been too long denied…

Who will be the first to succumb?

And remember — if you don’t like the official cover, the replacement is available to print and wrap around your copy (a bit NSFW/click to enlarge).

I need book discussion questions. Do you know the kind I’m referring to? Here’s an example from Random House‘s website for The Road. Since I’m feeling decidedly unable to come up with intelligent questions, I’m asking all of you for help.

So, have you got any for her — questions that came up during your reading, or that you feel might spark an interesting discussion among other readers? And are there any you’d like me to answer?

Too, too funny.

Everyone has probably already seen this at Dear Author, (and that’s how I found out about it), but DEMON ANGEL was in a The Courier Mail’s “Best of the Year” list.

Demon Angel, from new author Meljean Brooks, is the kind of novel you are lucky if you manage to come across maybe once a year: a thick, meaty, dig your feet in and hold on tight kind of novel with adventure, sex and an epic quality that’s rarely seen in this genre. Demon Angel is an astonishing debut, and a harbinger of great things to come. If you read one romance this year, make it this one.

As an aside, maybe I should have made my pseudonym “Brooks” instead of “Brook” (which is the last syllable of my maiden name.) It seems to flow off fingers more easily when people are typing it.

Anyway, I’m writing writing like mad, so I can’t promise daily updates, but I’ll be around a bit more now. And I can check my e-mail in a timely manner, too.