Tuesday is the mass-market release of Must Love Hellhounds! This includes my Guardian companion novella, Blind Spot, which stars everyone’s favorite hellhound, Sir Pup. The anthology also features novellas from the amazing Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh (with a Guild Hunter story), and Ilona Andrews (set in the Kate Daniels world).
About Blind Spot:
The job was simple: find her boss’s niece, bring her home safely, and hand out a whole lot of pain to whoever had abducted her. But Maggie hadn’t counted on her boss’s nephew, the hellhound who loved to make her life difficult, or her own past rearing its complicated and ugly head. Read an excerpt here.
Amazon | Borders | BN.com | Powells
First of all, Must Love Hellhounds hit #18 on the New York Times list. This is very cool, and I want to thank everyone who picked up the anthology. I hope you enjoy it!
Secondly, today’s Friday, so I’m over at the Odd Shots talking about a review of Demon Forged. Yes, I’ve been Klausnered. And not only has she managed to get everything wrong, she’s thrown in something … a little special.
So today is the release date for Must Love Hellhounds, an anthology featuring authors that no one has heard of before — like Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Nalini Singh — and me. (I bet they all cried for joy when they heard I was participating in it, too. Their reaction on the phone with their agents was probably all “Who… whoooooooooo! Meljean!” Whoo hoo!)
And my awesomeness knows no bounds, really. While I was heading over to Amazon to link to the Hellhounds anthology, I saw two reviews up. So — DAMN MY EYES! — I read them. And one pointed out that an important plot point in my novella couldn’t have happened … because South Carolina doesn’t require front license plates on their cars.
Oops. 
The most crazy and frustrating thing about research: You can only look up what you know that you don’t know. I think it was Lydia Joyce who once mentioned that she’d written about one of her characters putting something on a nightstand in her Victorian romance…only to find out afterward that they didn’t use nightstands then. They are just little items that never occur to you to verify when you’re writing, especially if they are things that you take for granted…like front license plates, which are mandatory in every state that you’ve lived in.
Most of the time, all you can do is accept it and move on (or make adjustments with a second printing). It’s a mistake, you own up to it, you do better next time. Unless, of course, you are a paranormal writer. Then you can say: In the Guardian universe, South Carolina does require front license plates. *g*
…and I guess this means my vacation is over. I won’t be posting every day, but probably several times a week (and I will be posting every Friday at Odd Shots.)
Thank you, Amie Stuart. Go here for awesome recipe for Thai-ish chicken.
I am sick with some freak not-quite-a-head-cold-and-not-quite-the-flu-but-I-feel-like-shit-regardless thing, and writing. The latest novella rewrite is going well, and because I’m finally happy with the conflict and characters, it will be the final draft until the tweaks and such that I have to do for revisions and after feedback. This is from the opening:
Less than a minute after her employer’s nephew strode into view beyond one of JFK’s security checkpoints, Maggie Wren realized that her new boss was a madman.
There had been signs, of course — such as the numerous life-sized self-portraits decorating his San Francisco mansion and his insistence on calling Maggie “Winters†— but she hadn’t counted his nephew among them until Geoffrey Blake walked close enough for Maggie to see his [something that Meljean won't reveal for another eight months or so, when it's time to post the excerpt for this novella.]
Also, contests! Don’t forget that two ARCs for Demon Bound are up for grabs (scroll down two posts); Nalini Singh is having a HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE contest; Ann Aguirre is hosting a contest for her newest release, WANDERLUST.
I <3 Sir Pup
(I should make that a bumper sticker.)
I sold a novella for an anthology — but the real awesome isn’t that (although, okay, it’s a big part) but the other writers involved. Check out those names at Dear Author.
There is much *happy dancing* in my house of late.
The anthology will be out in Summer 2009.
