MeiLin Miranda's Blog, page 33
April 24, 2012
Chapter 3 Part 3 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Ansella returned to her drawing room, fingers steepled against her mouth as she wandered back and forth before the fire. Ibbit, an Annikan. I will not cry over her, an enemy of my son is an enemy of mine. But the tears fell no matter how often she repeated it.
Was there anyone who could be trusted in the Sister's Temple? Perhaps Imvalda was an Annikan. No, that couldn't be. Ibbit ranked lower than Imvalda. Wouldn't it be easier to take control of the Sisterhood without a fight over the succession? Imvalda was still relatively young, though; if she weren't an Annikan, it would be at least twenty years--perhaps thirty--before an Annikan could try again. Ibbit would need the sponsorship of a great personage to beat Imvalda…someone like the Queen.
Chapter 3 Part 2 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Ansella sighed and settled back onto the couch; it was already growing cold where Ibbit's solid body had been. The warmth and security Ibbit brought never lasted long after the priestess's departure. Yet in the last few spokes, especially since Wirdun's health failed and the competition for Eldest Sister began, Ibbit's attentions were more suffocating, her conversation more pointed. Something was not quite right between them, to the point that Ansella had suffered unfamiliar bouts with nerves. She didn't eat when she was out of sorts; she'd taken to wearing tippets to hide her protruding collarbones. Though she still loved Ibbit, she withheld more from her now.
They like me! You like me! Jinkies!
You guys! I'm #5 on Amazon Kindle's Most Popular Fantasy Series books! Look quick, who knows how long it'll last! 
This is the highest I've ever been ranked on any paid Amazon Kindle list. And yes, it's having an effect on sales. Since January my sales have doubled and my income has tripled. That's not counting the Kickstarter. I'm still not makin' the mortgage payment, but I'm makin' more than half of it.
April 16, 2012
Chapter 3 Part 1 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Ansella lay cuddled beside her lover before her private drawing room fire, Ibbit's arm heavy around her. "You're spending a great deal of time here lately, love. Shouldn't you be more at the Hearth?"
Ibbit squeezed her waist. "I have others helping my cause there. For now, I think it best I should be known to be with you as often as possible."
Ansella frowned, absently running her fingers along the woolen weave of Ibbit's green robes. "Why is it so important that your being here be known?"
"I saw your son today," said Ibbit, playing with a curl escaped from Ansella's hair. "He was paying a mourning call with his senior clergy--and I use the term 'clergy' lightly. When I'm Eldest Sister, there will be an end to visits from the likes of them, I assure you."
April 15, 2012
An interview with me and a heads-up: Free ebooks for tax day! (Updated)
Kate Danley interviewed me at her blog today--thanks, Kate! Why the interview:
A bunch of fantasy writers, self and Kate included, are doing a free ebook giveaway for Tax Day (the US tax day, anyway). Among the books will be Lovers and Beloveds. It'll be free April 17th only at Amazon. LaB, like all my books, is DRM-free, which means you can pop it into Calibre and convert it to whatever format you'd like. (It also means for the next 90 days LaB will only be available at Amazon--it's a marketing thing I couldn't afford to pass up, though I'm not keeping it in that program past the 90 days.)
Watch this space on the 17th for details and descriptions of the books. There are at least a dozen, and they include some real knock-out stories.
April 14, 2012
Free Fantasy for Tax Day, Including "Lovers and Beloveds!"
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Fantasy writers feel your pain. After all, we're self-employed; tax day is super painful for us! So we're helping take the edge off the day by giving you something: Free ebooks! All the books listed below are free 4/17 only at Amazon* (Lovers and Beloveds is also free 4/16, but I can't vouch for the rest) and many including mine are DRM-free so you can convert them to the format of your choice:
MeiLin Miranda: Lovers and Beloveds
When eighteen-year-old Prince Temmin comes of age and joins his father's court, he's unprepared for its politics, assassins and sexual intrigues--and even more so, the King's immortal advisor Teacher, the holder of the royal family's hidden magic. Teacher becomes Temmin's tutor, his lessons contained in a magic book. Through it, Temmin experiences everything each story's characters do, and he's forced to confront serious mistakes in the kingdom's--and his own--past.
His present is no easier. He's falling for beautiful twins--brother and sister--who are the human hosts of the gods of love and desire called the Lovers. Being with them is more than sex; it's a religious calling. But an ancient prophecy says if Temmin heeds Their call it may spell the end of the monarchy, and the King fights him every step of the way.
Temmin must choose: Serve the Lovers and lose his father--and possibly the kingdom--or obey the King and risk the wrath of the Gods.
Tristan J. Tarwater: Little Girl Lost
Tavera is a child passed from hand to hand as a source of cheap labor in the underworld of the Valley. When she finds herself at the mercy of the vicious sausage maker, the elderly Madame Greswin, she discovers secrets from the woman's past and the consequences leave Tavera fighting for her life.
"Little Girl Lost" is a short story and prequel to "Thieves at Heart", the first novel in the series "The Valley of Ten Crescents".
J. R. Tomlin: Blood Duty
In a remote mountain valley, a scout is tortured and killed in a brutal rite of summoning. An army of demons will soon be on the move. Fellow scout Jessup Inntour wouldn't care very much if the empire he reluctantly serves is attacked, but the woman he loves is another matter.
Tamra Dervon, Captain of the Guard of Wayfare Keep, thinks her biggest problem is her love affair with Jessup. The scout is holding things back from her, and she doesn't know what. But when the seemingly unbeatable army of demons invades, Tamra's personal problems look very small. Tamra and Jessup find themselves leading a last-ditch defense. Their army is defeated. Jessup disappears in the retreat. As Tamra continues the struggle to defend her homeland, she discovers that another duty lies ahead -- to face a demon horde alone.
Dave King: Betrovia (Land of Betrovia)
Patrik, a newly-married young man, turns down the safety of small town life to help his uncle manage a road-side inn many miles away. But before he can learn even the basics of running an inn, the uncle suddenly dies. If he had stayed where he was born, Patrik could have become a successful hunter, fur trapper, or even a successful artist. So why did he leave the comforts of home?
Not long after the death of his uncle, Patrik's wife dies, leaving him to mourn her death while struggling to be a good father to their two young daughters. Where can he find the inner peace he feverishly desires?
Tamara, boisterous, beautiful but often cantankerous, has turned down every man who has offered to rescue her from the pitiful routine of The Lonely Fox inn. Who, if anyone, could ever capture her love?
Kristof, The Lonely Fox Inn's stable hand, has attempted to earn Tamara's affection since he first set eyes upon her but has suffered a lifetime of rejection in the few months he has been employed there. What can he do to somehow make her love him?
Edward W. Robinson: The White Tree
Secrets don't like to stay hidden. In the kingdom of Mallon, all knowledge of the death god Arawn has been brutally quashed--but a teen named Dante has just found the dark god's holiest book.
Within days, Dante's attacked in the streets. Not by the city guard. By Arawn's own servants, long-hidden. Two things save his life: a big-mouthed bodyguard named Blays, and his own growing skill with the nether, the shadowy power that fuels the world.
But the attacks on Dante are just the first stirs of a larger threat. In the far north, Arawn's followers are rallied by a priestess named Samarand. Mallon is burning. To save their homeland, Dante and Blays will have to travel to a half-ruined city and assassinate the woman driving her people to war.
Cate Dean: Last Chance Jack
Jack is a guardian angel. A guardian angel who has failed every single assignment. For the past hundred years.
Now he has been given his final assignment, and he has one last chance - one chance to prove himself, one chance to change his fate.
But there is a catch: the assignment can't see him, unless he can find a way to break through, a way to touch her. Only then can he even begin to help her.
He has three days.
Colin Tabard: Fall of Ossard
Ossard is falling...
Growing up in a city of Merchant Princes, Juvela discovers she can see what others can't. The very currents of the celestial are open to her, and that includes the truths they hide: An escalating series of unsolved kidnappings have been haunting the city-state, leaving its shadows pooled deep with innocent blood.
Has Juvela been cursed with the Witches' Kiss - or perhaps something worse?
Yet, more is to come, for not only has she witnessed an abduction, but she will have to endure a role in the victim's ritual death. For Juvela is about to become forsaken, and that's before she learns the real truth of not just the crimes plaguing Ossard's bloody streets, but the wider world: A world at war, and governed by gods whose highest pleasure is to sup on the taste of death.
Matthew Musser: Jadeflies [image error]
An epoch has passed since the light of the divine last shone upon these harrowed lands. The gods that were have been cast out, and in their place has grown an edifice of depravity. A kingdom of corruption, abetted by an ancient order, balances precipitously above a clash of faiths. In the city of Borsad, a notorious gang of thieves known as the Jadeflies have carved a territory. They indoctrinate children of the street and orphans into ruthless thieves and killers to expand their reach. Miri is not ruthless, and is objectively less talented than her counterparts, but vies to prove her worth to the Jadeflies and earn her place. After a guaranteed simple job, from the hand of the boss, Taira, leaves her injured, Miri stands up against the punishment for failure she expects to receive. When Taira gets violent, Miri reacts, and the cold steel of her dagger finds itself in her mentors gut. As she flees the wrath of the Jadeflies she finds herself in the caring hands of a stranger, a priest of the ancient order who offers her safety and redemption if only she'll accept. Can the old gods truly shield her or is she just biding time?
S. M. Reine: Death’s Hand [image error]
Policing relations between Heaven, Hell, and Earth is messy and violent, but Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner excelled at it--until coming across a job so brutal that even they couldn't stand to see one more dead body. Now they've been pretending to be normal for five years, leaving their horrific history a dark secret. Elise works in an office. James owns a business. None of their friends realize they used to be one of the world's best killing teams.
After years of hiding, something stirs. Bodies are vanishing. Demons scurry in the shadows of the night. A child has been possessed. Some enemies aren't willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead...
Brendan Carroll: The Red Cross of Gold
The immortal Knights of the Council of Twelve comprise the ruling body of the clandestine Order of the Red Cross of Gold, Poor Knights of Solomon's Temple. Some of them have been around since the Crusades in the Holy Lands, secretly directing, aiding and abetting world events that they believe will eventually culminate in the ultimate confrontation of Good and Evil at Armageddon. As Knights of Christ, they live, fight and die safely as God's executioners in the service of the Master of the Universe.
E. Stoops: Corner of a Round Planet
In an alternate universe where the twentieth century gave rise to individuals with psychic talents and World War II never happened, the Gulf Wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first are fought with Great War tactics and equipment. The medics, a prime target for the enemy, are dying at a far greater rate than the other soldiers. War is in need a facelift. Meredith Clase, an electronics engineer, might have just the thing. But Sergeant Wens Lillenthal has been holding a grudge against Clase for almost eight years and he doesn't plan on dropping it soon. When Clase arrives and insists that he become the hero he plays to his men, Lillenthal is dragged along a path to fame he never wanted, and into a world he can't ever leave.
Christopher Bunn: Ice and Fire
A Tale of Rubies, Shadows, and Romance
When the King's miners discover a strange ruby filled with fire, deep under the mountains, the King is overjoyed. There's one problem, of course. The gem belongs to the shadows who live in the mine. The King, however, will do anything to get his greedy hands on the ruby, even if that means disaster for the kingdom. The chief miner's son, Peter Snow, is forced to save the day.
Ice and Fire is a short story of about 5200 words, complete with a hotheaded princess, an exceedingly wise cook, and a handful of moat frogs.
Kate Danley: Maggie for Hire
When monsters appear on Earth, Maggie MacKay is on the job. No one is better at hauling the creepy crawlies back where they belong. No one, that is, except her dad, who disappeared without a trace in the middle of an assignment.Now an elf named Killian has shown up with a gig. Seems Maggie's uncle teamed up with the forces of dark to turn Earth into a vampire convenience store, serving bottomless refills on humans.
The only hope for survival lies in tracking down two magical objects and a secret that disappeared with Maggie's dad.
*TIP: If you're outside the US, once you get to the page of the book you want, substitute the TLD for your local Amazon.
Example: If the book you want is at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043EX1S2 and you're in the UK, change the .com (the TLD) to .co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0043EX1S2
April 13, 2012
Chapter 2 Part 6 | Son in Sorrow | IHGK Book 2
Temmin plopped himself on the couch and blew out all his breath. The door opened and Barik came in. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"How much of that did you see?"
"Oh, all of it."
"Even after Esterill left? Urf. I know I shouldn't have said that to Mistress Esterill, but--"
Barik reached up and put his hands on Temmin's shoulders. "No, you did right. She does deserve better than marriage to Gyors Esterill--Gyors himself deserves better than to be forced into marriage when he cannot bear a woman's touch, but that is the way of things for eldest sons who wish to inherit. He won't be unkind to her, but he can't love her. We can."
April 10, 2012
"Scryer's Gulch" on Hiatus for a Time, Possible Kickstarter News, and more
I'm going on hiatus with the Gulch for a while; I need to work hard on the draft of "The Machine God" if I'm going to have it ready for release at the end of the year (and have time to work on book three of the History). I'm about 10,000 words in, and it'll weigh in around 60k when I'm done--almost half the size of my usual books, OMG!
The good news about the break is, I'll also be working on compiling the first 53 episodes of the Gulch into both a paperback and an ebook. That means the original ebooks and paperback will be going off sale. I'm getting rid of the remaining four Gulch paperbacks in stock for the measly price of $4.95. I'm not sure how many pages the new Gulch paperback will come in at, so I can't give you a price point yet; I'm thinking in the $11.95 range. Dunno yet. Ditto with the ebook, though I'm thinking around $3.95. You've already gotten a look at the new cover; it's to the right in the sidebar, and it's on the home page as well.
That'll make four book releases for me this year: "Son in Sorrow"; "Scryer's Gulch 1-53"; "The Amber Cross"; and "The Machine God!"
Speaking of "The Machine God," I may be posting a (drafty) sample of it tomorrow in lieu of a Gulch episode. I'm considering running a Kickstarter pre-sale for it; it needs editing, and while book sales are going really well they're not going well enough to afford Netta's hiring. My royalties are budgeted for living expenses--I know, right?--though they're trending well enough that some day I won't have to depend on pre-sales to hire my production squad.
I worry about two things:
Going back to the well too soon. I know other people who use Kickstarter as their regular pre-sale channel and make their goals every time. I'm still not 100% confident that this tactic will work for me. I know, I know, shut up already!
No one's invested in "The Machine God" as they are in the History or even the Gulch. To that, I can only say as much to myself as to you: Yet. I'm really digging the characters and story I'm working on, and there will be four other books by four other writers connected with it and all released at the same time--yes, five novels, all in the same universe written essentially about the same period in time, and all really different though related. A whole series at once! We may even write more books set in this universe. Once the set of five is done, it's up to us as individuals whether we want to continue.
So I'd appreciate your thoughts on that.
OTHER BITS OF NEWS IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:
Shopworn sale: I've got six copies of "Lovers and Beloveds" that have seen slightly better days, now on sale for $10.95. That's $4 off the usual cover price! ONLY six copies. When they're gone, they're gone. (By the way, I'm strongly considering selling two--maybe three, can't remember--copies of the original draft book one, the only ones left. It's out of print and will never be going back into print.)
Ebook drawings: I'm holding free ebook drawings for both my Facebook fan page and my email newsletter when they reach certain mileposts. I was going to do the drawing at 300 fans on FB, but that's not gonna happen any time soon so how about 250? Thirty more to go before that drawing, and two random winners will be announced. But your chances are better/sooner for the mailing list drawing! It's one random winner at the 100 member mark, and there are 91 people on the list at present. Join them both and get a chance to win!
Best of the Indies Awards
Do you have a favorite "indie" author? (Doesn't have to be me--I'll never know.) You'll want to nominate him or her for the Virtual Book Fair's Best of the Indie awards. I have no idea what the awards entail or anything, but I do know Bards and Sages are good folks. So there's that. 
April 9, 2012
SALE! Slightly Shopworn "Lovers and Beloveds" paperbacks!
This is the exact same paperback that sells for $14.95; these copies have just gotten a little shopworn. They still come with an autograph and everthang, they're just not as pretty as they might be. I only have six copies at this price! Once they're gone, they're gone!
$10.95
Quantity:
