Destroying Walls and Other Adventures

I thought that with all the cons done for the year, I would get a little less busy and be able to catch up on writing ^^;;

Honestly, I should know better by now :3

Not that I'm complaining, definitely not ^__^ I got a call from my mom early last week asking if we wanted to come help them renovate their den. It was decided midway through the project that instead of a den, it would become an office. Plans also changed from 'get rid of wood paneling and put up nice walls' to 'also, fuck that ceiling'. It was quite the project. Sadly, Sasha and I had to return home before it was totally done, but for those interested I will def obtain pics of the finished room. All other pictures so far taken can be found here ^__^ And here is a picture of me that seemed to amuse everyone (that's my dad and Samantha behind me.)

I am furiously catching up on LT3 work, and hoping to get slightly ahead, because I want to use November to attempt to catch up on my writing. The first Wriggle & Sparkle story will be going up on Yaoifix the beginning of 2014. When I have solid dates, I will let you know. Rin asked if I might expand the story to include a certain confrontation. I said that wasn't doable, but I could definitely write another story. There are definitely two contracted with Yaoifix, and if I write more past that, they'll wind up there or at LT3, depending on Rin :3 W&S and FINALLY finishing up the last Princes of the Blood stuffs are my major goal in November. NOTHING WILL GET IN MY WAY.

In other book-related news:

The Engineered Throne has concluded as a serial. If you've been waiting on the ebook, you can pre-order it now. In two weeks you can read it and yell at me for being a meanie mcjerkface like all the serial subscribers have been doing. They had it worse, though, because I have a problem with cliff-hangers #noregrets

You have ONE MORE DAY to obtain Embrace and then it is gone, baby gone.

The Prisoner audiobook is out, at two sites right now and it should reach other retailers soon-ish.

Moving back to serials, much love to everyone for comments on Of Last Resort. I was not certain how fantasy vampires would be received, and it's probably some of the most @_@ world-building I've done in forever, so I'm glad I did not completely fuck it up. I would apologize for the cliff-hanger problem, but I'm too busy cackling gleefully. Of Last Resort is the only story in that verse to be serialized; the other two will go straight to ebook. I have harassed everyone with the covers, already, but I don't care because I love them to fucking death. LOOK AT THEM AGAIN.

And once Of Last Resort wraps, it will be followed by:

Which is set in Deceived-verse, and I posted a rough excerpt of it here (as you can see, the title has changed).

After all these projects are done, I have no idea. I may try to tackle some short stories I have piled up. I'm also really in the mood to switch back to poly, which means either Dragon Magic, Sandstorm-verse, or Clan Mordred. But Kria-verse is also demanding attention, and I would like to tackle Goblin Market. We shall see.

To all my darling nano'ers, good luck and have fun ^__^ Everyone take care and have a good rest of the week, and a great weekend. Happy Halloween! :D

Prisoner Audiobook Giveaway

As we speak, LT3 is listening to the Prisoner audiobook for final vetting :D

While I do not have the exact release date (being this is the first audiobook, we're still learning timelines and such) it will be up before the end of October.

In celebration I am giving away ONE free copy of the audiobook ^__^ Leave a comment (on the blogger post) with a way to contact you. The winner will be randomly selected on November 1st, around noon. Winner will have twenty-four hours to reply and then a new winner will be selected.

Good luck! Thanks for helping us get this far, my darlings ^__^

Back to New York I Go

State and City this time :3

Sasha's sister is getting married this weekend and we are headed up to attend (Sasha is in the wedding, I am just going to sit in the very back row and read Sterek porn. That is not a lie. It's a lot easier to get away with reading porn in church when you don't to look FOREVER for ONE. FUCKING. BOOK. that does not have a dead-giveaway cover. Thank you, Apple. Yes, I know I'm going to hell. I will see you there, friend. Mom, stop giving me that look).

Anyway, we are leaving at This Sucks O'Clock Wednesday morning and will be driving aaaaallll fucking day.

The good news is that instead of heading straight for, uh, whatever the hell city the wedding is in that I'm blanking on, we're stopping in NYC first. To see a live showing of Welcome to Night Vale :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D We also get to meet E.E. Ottoman, one of our authors, and Aisha, one of our cover artists ^__^ I am excite!

And then Friday we drive up for the wedding, which is on Saturday? And then Sunday (my birthday) we drive home. And we will finally be free of travelling until January. Bleh.

The moral of this story is I will be pretty fucking hard to reach Wednesday-Monday, and probably will need the rest of next week just to catch up on stuff so may be slow to respond. If you absolutely need me, text or tweet and I'll do my best, but I'm going to be even busier and more absent than usual on roadtrips so chances are you will not hear from me until at least the 15th.

Now I have lots of shit to do to actually get ready for this trip, so away I go.

Embrace coming down forever

I do not like taking my books down, even if some of my earlier work I'm not happy with and would prefer to pull and have done with. Readers enjoy those stories still so I generally let it go.

That being said, there are some stories that bother me, for various and sundry reasons. Embrace is one of them, and I have decided it's finally time to retire it. So throughout October it will be 50% off at the LT3 site. Come November 1st, it's being pulled and will be gone forever. I am sorry to those disappointed by this news, though I assume most of those peeps have a copy and don't really have much need to stress.

I am grateful to those who have liked it despite its many flaws. Your support is, as ever and always, greatly appreciated.


~Megan

Goblins, Elves, and Art

A huge and magical thank you to Megan Derr for hosting me on the Goblins blog tour!

Today I’m going to show you some of the picspiration for my fantasy series, Goblins. I am, after all, a frustrated artist. My hands suck at drawing, so I type my fantasy ideas instead. *grin*

I am obsessed with art, and photography. My favourite artists are a mix of classical and bizarre; Aubrey Beardsley, Brian Froud, Jan Pienkowski. I also love Arthur Rackham:

Arthur Rackham illustration ~ from Das Rheingold

I love anything beautiful and sinister. Fairy tale illustrations that intrigue and scare you a little bit are my favourite.

My favourite painter is J.W. Waterhouse, because I also love ancient Greek mythology. Waterhouse was famous for painting lithe and pale beauties, male and female.

Waterhouse ~ The Naiad

When I was writing the first Goblins story, my focus was very much on the goblins themselves, the ‘baddies’ of the forest. I don’t tend to write plots; once I’m going I’ll just write what comes… (ha, ha)… and in this story, one of the elves made an appearance.

What I wanted for my elves (and what I love about paintings like the Waterhouse above) is the way the pale, human-like bodies are almost at one with the trees. So the way I wrote Elfren, my elf who makes a guest spot in the tales, is that he very much blends into the forest, and materialises out of the greenery.

All of my goblins and elves wear the forest as clothes, in leaves and vines (the elves are summery, the goblins are wintery) but Elfren is also covered in faeries, no bigger than butterflies.

I loved that aspect so much; it’s both my ode to Peter Pan and also so I could get in a joke about Elfren’s faery entourage. There will be more of the faeries to come, when Elfren has his turn at a story.

Art and inspiration plays such a huge part of the Goblins series, because each and every scene is total fantasy. I wanted to create pretty and romantic images; stills for the brain, in a way. One of the reasons that we ended up with original illustrations for the first book was that imagery was so important.

I’ll leave you now with a very pretty picture. Photography that inspires my goblin characters (as they’re all shape-shifters), and I am a huge fan of masks, and/or big hair, so this one is a double win for me:

Blurb:

In the 17th Century, the ancient sprawl of Epping forest is bursting with magic and those who go unseen by human eyes: the elves who rule the summer court, and the goblins who rule the winter court. It is said that if a human catches the eye of one of the fey, they are either doomed or blessed.

Wulfren & the Warlock

When Wulfren wakes from a strange dream of a human captor with long silver hair, and grey eyes, his brothers tell him they rescued him from a warlock, and take Wulfren back home to the goblin king's palace. But Wulfren isn’t so sure the matter is that simple. Why was he missing so long? What are the strange dreams of the beautiful man with the silver hair? Dalliances with humans are severely frowned upon, especially by Wulfren’s father, but Wulfren is willing to risk the scorn of his family to find the human who haunts his dreams.

Quiller & the Runaway Prince

After a hard winter, Quiller is sent deep into the forest on a family errand, and is surprised when a human stumbles into his path. Quiller swoops in to pester him, perhaps even eat him, but there is something special about the human: his scent is royal, though he protests that he is not, and soon Quiller finds himself agreeing to help the human with his troubles—in exchange for a kiss.

Goblins buy link

http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=92&products_id=502

Melanie website

 www.melanietushmore.co.uk

Melanie twitter

@melanietushmore