MeiLin Miranda's Blog, page 20
January 24, 2013
Kickstarter update: 200%+ funded, new stretch goal reward!
The Kickstarter campaign to produce The Machine God has been super successful! But with four days left, I don't think we're going to reach the $4,000 audiobook stretch goal.
January 21, 2013
Chapter 12 Part 7 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
By the time Dunnoc demanded Tennoc leave court, the plans had already been made; Lassanna told him with some hauteur that her son had been invited to stay at Brunsial, for Williard ar Sial had use for him even if his King did not. The news left Dunnoc in a grimmer mood than he expected. He thought he'd be more at ease, the danger to his children banished, but he hadn't reckoned on driving a wedge between himself and Lassa. Everywhere he began to see signs she grew bored with him, of her flirting and encouraging younger men.
When he told his lords at council the next day that Tennoc would go to Brunsial, the response surprised him: they urged him to kill Tennoc on the way.
January 18, 2013
Chapter 12 Part 6 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Gwynna darted among the apple trees so quickly Tennoc couldn't get a bead on her; his missile bounced off a tree trunk. She was luckier. The hard little green apple flew from her hand and hit Tennoc square above the heart. "Ow!"
"A fair hit! A fair hit!" she cried, jumping up and down and clapping her hands until her flowing sleeves flapped. "You're dead, sir!" Tennoc clasped his chest, let out a melodramatic shriek and fell down obligingly.
A few yards away, Kenver said, "Can I get up now?" His sister went to both her fallen enemies and helped them to their feet in gracious victory. "How did you become such a good shot?" grumbled Kenver as he dusted off the dirt and picked twigs from his once nearly white hair, now a dark brown.
January 14, 2013
Chapter 12 Part 5 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
"Pirrun, you should have been there!" cried Tennoc, clapping a young man on the shoulder. Music, endless wine and drunken laughter filled Gwyrfal's great hall; Kellen's warriors were home after a long, successful campaign.
"I would've if I hadn't broken my leg," winced Pirrun. "You've been gone so long it's healed! Why did you two not come home on the Royal Road, as the King did? Why come home with your soldiers? You could've been back weeks ago!"
"I don't ask anything of the men I'm not willing to do myself," declared Kenver. "Besides," he added in mock confidentiality, "Tennoc gets nauseous when I take him through a reflection!" The crowd hooted.
January 12, 2013
Kickstarter update: 130% funded, approaching first stretch goal!
The Kickstarter is plugging along. It's just shy of $2000, and the first stretch goal is at $2500. That's a new story in the Drifting Isle universe for all contributors. At $4000 I'll be able to outright hire an audiobook narrator and give everyone at $45 and over a copy of the finished book. Yay! I really prefer hiring narrators outright; with revenue share, the narrator is taking a real risk.
Happy birthday, Gudy!
Happiest of days to one of the community's stalwarts, our own Gudy. All das Beste zum Geburtstag!
January 11, 2013
Chapter 12 Part 4 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Gwyrfal, Kellen
Spring's Beginning, 60 KY
Eighteen-year-old Tennoc ar Sial took the stairs to his mother's bower two at a time, bearing a parchment in his hand. "Mother!" he called. "I--oh!" The young man skidded to a halt. Ladies-in-waiting surrounded his mother, at work on their embroideries and sewing; they smiled at him, especially Cariodas. Any other young man would welcome her soft brown eyes gazing at him in worship, but Tennoc blushed and looked away. "Ah, something has come for you, Mother. The messenger said it was for your eyes only, but that it concerned me."
January 8, 2013
"The Machine God" Kickstarter Is Live!
Here t'is, my latest book The Machine God! This Kickstarter is for $1500 and funds the editing and production of the ebook and paperback. Here's the book description:
Once upon a time, I built myself a God...
Professor Oladel Adewole has lost tenure, and his much-younger sister has died. With no reason to stay, he leaves his homeland for the University of Eisenstadt.
One thing makes life there bearable: the island floating a mile above the city. No one's ever been there, nor knows how it got there. Every culture in the world tells stories about it, and Adewole specializes in them.
When an inventor makes it there in her new autogyro, the government sends Adewole up with its first survey team. The expedition finds people, but Adewole finds a powerful, forbidden fusion of magic and metal: the Machine God.
The government wants it. So does a sociopath bent on ruling Eisenstadt. But when Adewole discovers who the Machine God is--and what it can do--he must risk his life to protect the Machine God from the world, and the world from the Machine God.
The Machine God is part of The Drifting Isle Chronicles, stories set in a universe created by fantasy writers Joseph Robert Lewis, Charlotte E. English, Katherine Tomlinson and MeiLin Miranda.
This is a "lightning round" Kickstarter--only 20 days long. Some of the backer rewards are what you might expect. Autographed paperbacks and so on. But some of them are unexpected: Coffee from Portland's Cellar Door Coffee Roasters, our favorite cuppa. Coffee is of desperate importance to the main character, and that gift comes with instructions on how to make it like he does (a lot like Turkish coffee).
Thanks for buying The Machine God during this presale!
January 7, 2013
Chapter 12 Part 3 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Once he arrived in his sitting room, Temmin called, "Hullo, Jenks, are you here?" No answer. His mother's influence extended to his rooms at the Estate, more to his taste than his grand apartments at the Keep: brighter and more open, the furnishings nimble--lighter and less formal. Few books graced the shelves here, and those that did contained the finer points of equine management, exciting Cavalry stories, or both. Ranged among them were his schoolbooks--most with near-pristine bindings, some with uncut pages.
January 5, 2013
"The Machine God" release candidate finished; Kickstarter imminent
This weekend I will begin a lightning round Kickstarter: $1500 in 20 days. o_O
It goes to fund production of The Machine God, my entry in the four-novel shared universe series The Drifting Isle Chronicles. I finished Release Candidate 1 and shipped it to the beta readers moments ago. Now to do the KS video. My microphone decided to die on me this week, so the video will be...creative. Well, probably not. 
