Meljean Brook

…I have determined that this is the sexiest part of a man’s body.

Followed closely by that line of muscle that runs alongside the abdomen down to his groin in a pair of low-slung jeans.

Forget Fabio or John DeSalvo. The person who defined the look of a hero for me (or rather, Missy) was the artist who covered many HPs (and a few HRs) in the early-80s: Len Goldberg.

Unfortunately, that look was not a good one. I’m alternately fascinated and repulsed by the men, who all seem a cross between Clint Eastwood and (as Long pointed out) George Hamilton. (Only I had no idea who George Hamilton was in the mid-80s.)

But they’re all the same: tanned (weatherbeaten, even), with jaws and cheekbones to slice cheese on, weirdly pouty lips, and eyebrows that have come to define “winged” and “arrogant” in my head (and against my will. I can’t help it; when someone writes that a hero has an “arrogant” expression, I immediately think of a Len Goldberg hero. Probably because so many of the heroes in HPs are described as arrogant.) Oh, and their faces look as if they’re hurting. I think it’s supposed to be passionate, though.

And the women! I swear, Missy I thought that all British women had those prominent browbones, archily-arched eyebrows, pointed chins and dainty noses. And appley-cheekbones. Oh! and lashes to kill for.

Oh! and did I mention the swan necks, and the impossibly arched backs? Because so many of them are bent (in ecstasy, I’m sure) beneath the pained hero. These heroes don’t clinch — they clutch. Powerfully. Arrogantly. And I’m quite certain the heroines all have bruises on their shoulders.

Even now, when I’m reading a HP, this hero pops into my head. Thank god it doesn’t happen with single-titles (and that I somehow escaped the influence of Fabio and Elaine Duillo.)

Click the thumbnails to enlarge. These are by no means all of the covers Goldberg did — these are just a few of them I could find online. The sad thing? Going through many of the HP titles to find these covers made me realize how many Missy has read. The other sad thing? How very many of them I want to order just to reread them.

Demon Moon is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. I’ve included a non-spoilery snippet of dialogue after the jump, just because all of the awesome reviews of the new James Bond are making me craaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyy and I probably won’t see it until it hits DVD.

Thanksgiving was spent in Dallas (OR) at my mother’s house (it was also her birthday — Happy Birthday, Mom!) and I found out that:

1. My younger sister (but not my youngest sister, who lives with me) does not like the Demon Moon cover, because she says that Colin looks too old. Oh, and that his leg looks funny (I think it’s the way the highlighting hits his ass.)
2. That, speaking of asses, she walked in on my brother’s friend while his (apparently vampire-white) ass was doing some older, married lady. Why this was happening at my parents’ house, I have yet to learn.
3. My brother’s friend didn’t want me to mention this on the blog — and, if I did, to describe him as a) not-so-white, b) taller, c) say that the chick was unmarried and younger, and d) that he was uncircumcised.
4. The last item (d) was a lie. I just added it for my own amusement.
5. My older sister, but not my oldest sister (I have five siblings, four of them female) liked Demon Angel better than the “last crappy one” even though she thought Lilith wimped out at the end by saying “I love you” to Hugh. She’s dead to me now.
6. My dad is currently reading the ARC of Demon Angel that I took down. It’s unfortunate that I will never look him in the eye again.

(more…)

Coming out of holiday to say:

Gambit in X-Men #4?

Please please please please please please please please please please please PUH-LEEEEEEZE! let it be true.

And furthermore: let the movie not destroy their characters as much as The Last Stand did.

Oh, and furthermore: give Rogue her damn powers back.

See ya next Monday with more of this guy.

The Ja(y)nes at Dear Author are giving away a copy of DEMON ANGEL (along with a bunch of other books; check out that list!) They’re also highlighting some of their favorite novels in the genre (one of mine was Dream Man, and as soon as I get downtown to Powell’s I’m picking up the Michele Jaffe book), so it’s also a great time to get some fantastic recommendations!

RENFIELD: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly

Hambly has retold Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the voice of a minor character, Renfield, the madman who becomes the vampire’s slave-agent in England. In Stoker’s original, Renfield is a harbinger, extremely strong and violent, given to an unnatural diet of flies. When Dracula occupies the estate next to the asylum in which he is confined, Renfield attempts several escapes, claiming that his master is calling him. Hambly creates a past for this possessed man via his diaries and letters to his wife and gives him occasional lucid moments. When Dracula imposes himself on Renfield’s deteriorated mind, he, bound to an active purpose, becomes yet more lucid. When Dracula orders him to kill Van Helsing, he isn’t strong enough to refuse, but on the journey from London to Transylvania, he develops the strength to resist the count, find allies, and eventually retrace his journey back from lunacy to sanity. Hambly superbly weaves Stoker’s plot and style with her own, producing one of the best recent vampire yarns. (Booklist)

BLINDSIGHT by Peter Watts

Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who’s more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who’s a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant’s ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story. (Publisher’s Weekly)

(From the comments of the talkingsquid review — don’t miss the Flash slide show of the vampire study Peter Watts made — funny and odd.)

I don’t know how long they’ve been in there. But they’ve been growing.

This is what I get for being an idiot.

Woot! That little round face at the bottom left is ME! This is for the upcoming (November 20) issue of Publisher’s Weekly, which focuses on the romance genre (the article is apparently “Fresh Faces in Romance”). I’m at the bottom of a pile of hot mama debut romance authors, and I’m loving it!

In fact, Colleen Gleason is RIGHT ON TOP OF ME! Naughty, naughty Colleen.

Who else is there? The PW site only had this little picture of the cover, so I couldn’t make out the others in the tiny little circles. I *think* Jacquelyn Frank is right next to me. Anyone recognize anyone else?

MISSY: I hate you.
MELJEAN: What? What do you want me to do? You, my precious inner/former child, should learn to like the closet a bit better.
MISSY: Die.
MELJEAN: If I do that, then you’ll never see how Tender Rebel turns out.
MISSY: It’s a romance, they end up happily-ever-after.
MELJEAN: Oh, dear Missy. But you haven’t gotten to the chair scene yet.
MISSY: What chair scene?
MELJEAN: Now where did we leave off?
MISSY: Anthony kissed Roslynn, and the horrid yucky James had just given up his pursuit of her. What chair scene?!
MELJEAN: Ah, yes, that be it. Just for posterity’s sake, let’s show that cover again, in which the aforementioned leaving-off scene is depicted: (more…)