Next week, her next book in her steampunk series comes out - HEART OF STEEL. I got a chance to read this book early and was blown away by how fun and adventuresome it was, and how utterly likable Yasmeen and Archimedes were. I could read an entire series based on those two! Here's the blurb:

As the mercenary captain of the Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control.

Treasure-hunter Archimedes Fox isn’t interested in the Lady Corsair — he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she’s no easy conquest.

When da Vinci’s sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco — and straight into their enemy’s hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart…

Their relationship is so sexy and fun. Archimedes reminds me a little of Han Solo in his lighthearted, playful nature. And Yasmeen? Well...she kind of reminded me of Han Solo too, in that rogueish mercenary captain sort of way. So this book was like watching Han Solo make out with Han Solo, which was pretty much as awesome as it sounds. Oh, and with airships.

Interested? How can you not be after my stunning analogy?

Want to win a free copy?  I'm giving away TWO paper (or Kindle! Your choice!) copies of Heart of Steel to two winners. This is open to anyone that Book Depository ships to, so if you're international, no problem. Here's what you have to do:

Meljean's next book after HEART OF STEEL is titled MOLTEN. The next is RIVETED. What awesome steampunk title would you give the book after that?

Just comment with your title suggestion by 11:59pm CST on 10/31/2011! Meljean reserves the right to totally borrow any incredibly awesome titles for future potential title-dom of course! I'll pick one winner of the title I like the best, and one random, so your odds are good even if your title is not.

The fine print: Comment by 11:59:59 PM CST on 10/31/2011 for your chance to win. Two winners will be selected and their names posted on this blog within the next day or two. Winner must provide me with their mailing address via email or contact form. You may enter as many times as you like for the title portion - I will weed out multiples for the random winner. So if you enter 5 times, you will have 5 title chances to win, and 1 random chance to win. The contest is open to international readers. No purchase necessary to enter. A review of the book is always deeply appreciated. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Void where prohibited.

Here's a quick blurb:

When a car accident takes Leah Sunderland’s life, she finds herself in dire need of divine assistance. Her fairy godmother comes to the rescue, but her help comes with conditions. As a fairy godmother, the only assistance she can offer deals with (you guessed it) fairy tales. To win a second chance at life, Leah must play out the tale of The Little Mermaid.

Armed with a mermaid tail and nothing else (not even a voice!), she has one month to make a nobleman fall in love with her, or else she’ll die permanently. But the nobleman she must seduce is a hard, fierce warlord who thinks she’s a spy and the mistress of his enemy.

Can she win him over before the thirty days are up? Or is she in danger of losing her heart as well as her life?

It's a category-length time travel romance (about 60k) and features a fairy godmother you just might recognize.  It's available on Smashwords, All Romance, B&N and Kindle! And for the first week, it's only $0.99 cents. After Labor Day, it'll be going back to full price.

Next up is the Succubus short starring Remy, Jackie and Zane. I had a bit of a mental freeze on it but I worked through the plot with my husband and it's flowing now! I'm also still hard at work at the sequel to BEAUTY DATES THE BEAST. After that, I have a massive line-up of projects - some are polishing up old manuscripts and some are brand new, and some are contracted work. I'm pretty much booked up until next year. Whew!

For the rest of March, I'm putting my contemporary romance, WICKED GAMES, on sale for 99 cents. Here's the link:

And here's the blurb:

Abby Lewis never pictured herself on the survival game show, Endurance Island. She’s just not the ‘survival’ type. But when her boss offers her a spot on the show and the opportunity of a lifetime, she packs her bags and heads to the tropics to be a contestant.

Once in the game, it’s clear that Abby’s in over her head. The game itself is full of competitive, aggressive people, and no one’s more aggressive than sexy, delicious – and arrogant – Dean Woodall. Sure he’s clever, strong, good at challenges, and has a body that makes her mouth water. He also hates Abby just as much as she hates him. That’s fine with Abby; she’ll just ignore the jerk.

But the rules of Endurance Island are working against them. Abby and Dean are teamed up – alone – on the beach. It’s either work together, or go home. Stuck with no one else’s company but their own, they learn they do make a good team after all. And that with just a little bit of kindling, the flames of hate can quickly turn to flames of passion…

This book features enemies, lovers, enemies who become lovers, and lots and lots of tropical heat.

#

Right now it's available on Nook and Kindle. If you're international, I'm going to try and get it up on Smashwords this weekend if at all possible, so please be patient with me.

Length: 59,000 words

Update for HEAT - 90% sure that the title will be changed to BEAUTY DATES THE BEAST. I like it because it's fun and frisky, much like my stuff! What do you think? There's some other stuff going on with BDTB and as soon as I have stuff to share, I will keep you all posted.

Update for Succubus #4 - right now I'm calling this SUCCUBI ARE FOREVER. And I have one chapter written. And I will have more info on it soooooon, my pretties. Soon.

Update on Kindle Projects - Okay, so those that follow my journal and have for a long time know that I try to keep a project going at all times. AT ALL TIMES. This means that a lot of stuff that I write never makes it to New York or my publisher. Sometimes I'm not happy with the way a project turns out because I'm really picky. Sometimes I'm waiting on revisions. Sometimes I start something and never finish it. I have a 'crap I need to finish' folder that's getting larger than it should. And sometimes I finish something and it's just not right for NY publishing. Maybe it's only 55k instead of the 85k+ it should be. Maybe it's a weird genre. Maybe it's both. Anyhow, I have a few projects that have sat on my computer for a long time while I pondered what to do with them. MIRRORLIGHT was one, and I ended up Kindle-ing it. It's actually done really well and I'm really happy with it, so I'm going to Kindle a few more things. Starting with...

My conquistadors and dinosaurs book. I always talk about this one as my 'weird' project but it's really not THAT weird. I've always been fascinated by the Bermuda Triangle, and for Nanowrimo one year, I decided to write a Bermuda Triangle book. What if this chick's plane goes down in the Bermuda Triangle and she's stranded on a deserted island? Except the island is not so deserted? It's full of dinosaurs and neanderthals and bugs the size of her arm. It's a place where time doesn't exist properly, and those that are shipwrecked there end up staying for longer than they anticipated. It also has a rather sexy Spaniard for a hero. This book is just a hair under 60k, and it's sweet and romantic and fun (I think). So I stuck it up on Kindle and Nook. BEHOLD THE MANTITTY GREATNESS:

Now, my husband was not thrilled to make a mantitty cover for me, but he did a spectacular job, I think! Anyhow, if you want to read ISLAND HEAT, it's available on Nook and Kindle for $2.99 and I hope you enjoy it. There's an excerpt (a short one!) on both the Amazon and B&N pages if you click. This weekend, I'm going to take a stab at getting my stuff up on ARe if you are international and want to read.

(And if you are one of my book blogging peeps and want a review copy, please do let me know.)

But that's an OLD project, right? What am I doing right now, since I find myself between deadlines? Why, I'm working on another Kindle/Nook project. This one is set in the Succubus Diaries universe, but it's not about Jackie. (BLASPHEMY, I know). This one is actually about a woman named Olivia who was once a demimonde courtesan and was turned into a succubus against her will. She hasn't had an easy time of oh, say, the last 120 years because her vampire master has been cruel to her, so she's a little bit more broken and brittle around the edges, and she is totally pulling at my heartstrings. I cannot wait to write a happy ending for her, which sounds totally dippy, but it's true! Anyhow, this one is all ironed out on paper and I'm about halfway done with it. It's probably going to be around 30k long, and it'll be going up on the Kindle/Nook as well. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and even if you don't want to buy it, that's okay! Noah has a role in the story, but it is absolutely not going to be essential to read it to follow along with the regular Succubus Diaries books.
Intrigued? Here's a snippet - let me know what you think! (click on the 'more' tag at the bottom of the post)

***********

They say that desperate times called for desperate measures.

I say they haven’t seen desperate until they’ve been a vampire’s slave for a century or so.

Still, all desperation aside, I wasn’t going to let little things like memories of my master ruin my day. Or the fact that my thong was currently crawling up my ass. Or the fact that my shoes hurt my feet. Today was going to be a good day, dammit.

Because today, I was going to take control of my own freedom, once and for all.

With that thought ringing through my mind, I pushed open the glass door of the enormous office building and entered the lobby of Gideon Enterprises. I even smiled at the receptionist there, who was considerably less thrilled to see me. She stared at my outlandish clothing, blinked a few times, and then had to think for a long moment before she put on a fake smile and spoke. "Can I...help you?”

"Hi there," I said in a cheerful manner as her gaze coasted down my outfit once more. "May I see Noah Gideon? It's kind of an emergency.”

She looked at me with an arch expression and did not even bother to give her screen a cursory glance. "Mr. Gideon is unavailable.”

Well now, that was irritating. “I see. Can I just wait for him?”

“I’m sorry. He’ll be unavailable all day.” She gave me a pointed look.

“Of course,” I agreed. “He’s a busy man.” With that, I gave her a polite smile, then leaned over and brushed my fingers across her forehead, putting her to sleep. Sometimes it was good to be a succubus.

The receptionist slumped forward in her chair, her head tilted to the side and a faint snore escaping her mouth. I leaned over and propped her against the edge of the desk, her cheek cradled on her keyboard. I could have rifled through her memories to find where Noah's office was, but it was just as easy to reach over the desk and jerk the phone toward me, looking at the extension list attached to it. Room 501 - Company President. That would be Noah Gideon.

Pleased with my discovery, I grabbed a visitor's pass off the front desk and headed for the elevator.

The elevator was (thankfully) empty, so I didn’t have to field comments about my choice of clothing. Small blessing. The elevator dinged on the fifth floor and I got out, my heels clacking on the marble floor. I stood in a wide hallway, decorated in corporate motivational posters and muted lighting. Two doors were at the end of the hall, along with another desk – that would be Mr. Gideon’s assistant, if I had to guess. Arming myself with another cheerful smile, I approached the desk.

This time, a man got up from his desk to stop me. He gave me a startled look, gave my clothing a shocked look, and then began to shake his head. "I'm sorry, miss--“

“Oh, it’s no problem,” I assured him, and put him to sleep too. All it took was a touch of my hand. He fell to the ground in a heap and curled up on his side, his face smoothing as he napped. I stepped over him and eyed my choices of doors. One was labeled ‘Sunrise Conference Room’. Cute, but not what I was looking for. I went through the other door instead.

Noah Gideon sat at a large, antique oak desk, a laptop open in front of him. On the wall across the room, a flat screen TV was turned to a financial channel, and the electronic tickertape rolled across the bottom of the screen with the day's stock prices. The large office windows were open behind him, letting in the sunshine and giving a beautiful view of New City in summer.

The sight of the windows open brightened my mood - I loved the sunshine, even more since I'd been deprived of it for so long. Mr. Gideon looked just as I suspected he would - a very large, beautiful man with shoulder-length, tousled blond hair and a very neat, very expensive gray suit.

He glanced up as I entered, frowning. His eyes were blue - not a good sign for me. That meant that the Serim curse would hit very shortly, and I needed to be far away.

I had a reason to be edgy around immortals that needed to slake their needs, after all. And I wasn’t going to stick around for his needs, not if I could help it.

Noah’s eyes focused on my clothing, and his handsome features slid into a frown. "Is this a joke? Did Remy send you?”

A joke? I blanked out for a moment, puzzled at his logic. What was he talking about?

Then I looked down. Oh, right. I’d forgotten how I was dressed.

I had sauntered into his office wearing a French maid outfit. Not by choice, but it was what it was. The skirt was very short and crispy - a bit like a ruffled, sexy tutu. The top was little more than a skintight black baby tee with a deep vee that practically went to my belly-button, made questionably-decent by a teeny tiny white apron. I even wore the jaunty hat that went with the get-up and black platform heels and fishnets. Man, I hated fishnets. Two of my toes had slipped through the holes in the 'net' and had lost circulation hours ago.

No wonder he thought someone sent me – he probably thought I was a hooker. The irony made my mouth twist. "Sorry, no one sent me here to service anyone. I came to talk to you." At his skeptical look, I continued. "I'm Olivia Rhodes. The Serim council told me to come find you. I'm looking for David Thornton. They said you knew where to find him.”

The description:

When Cora Grames is abandoned in England at a haunted castle, she feels very sorry for herself…until she sees the sexy man in the mirror that only appears to her. And when she finds out that she can touch him, he suddenly becomes more than a fantasy. But how can she fight for a man that doesn’t exist in her time?

This novella (19k) includes a man that might be a ghost, a neighbor that might be a fairy godmother in disguise, and possibly sex involving a mirror.

If you read it, please let me know what you think!

First of all, if you haven't already seen this, you can read the first chapter of MY FAIR SUCCUBI over at the Simon & Schuster website. Yay!!

MY FAIR SUCCUBI also got a lovely review over at Katiebabs's Babbling About Books review blog, and she mentions some tricksy things that I included in the book...including a new character.

I also guested over at Parajunkee yesterday, talking about what a day in the life of Jill looks like. Warning - it's kind of sad and lame.

If you haven't already seen this, there's a giveaway of my books over at Patricia's Vampire Notes and I talk a little bit about the mythology of succubi and how I sorta warped it to make my books work.

And there is a BIG giveaway over at All Things Urban Fantasy today! They're giving away all 3 books (3 sets of them!) so check it out.

TWO WEEKS UNTIL RELEASE DAY!!

*runs around in circles*

My husband made me a book trailer for Book 3, MY FAIR SUCCUBI. Check out its glory below:

Isn't that awesome? He is a great husband. I love his art, and if you want to see more of his stuff, check out his website at km245.deviantart.com.

You might notice that it's set to $0.99 cents. It's not that I'm looking to make craptons of money on the darn thing. It's that Kindle won't let me set it to free. $0.99 cents was the lowest price I could set on it. So if you want to buy it, that is perfectly groovy with me!

(You might also notice that it is $0.99 cents on Smashwords. I did this because I want it to be included in the premium catalog and eventually be ported over to B&N. But I think you can also port over freebies? So I am looking at changing this. It simply did not occur to me at the time. Swiftness, thy name is not Jill.)

If you do not want to buy it, it remains free on the web, but without the sassy nekkid hip. If you want a free copy of it, you can download it here on the Simon & Schuster website.

In another week or two, I'll be adding Zane's Tale to these sites as well.