Melissa Scott

I wrote earlier here about the splendid Night Circus game created by FailBetter to promote Erin Morgenstern's novel of the same name.  (FailBetter are the people who do Fallen London, formerly known as Echo Bazaar, a fabulously well-written web-based game that's had me hooked for about a year now.)  I've said for a while that I'd pretty much do anything to get to play with their toys, and now the word is that they're going to make the platform available to other writers.  To quote:

"We like stories, we like games, we like compelling narrative experiences you can enjoy in a few minutes a day - real drama, real choices. We've been building these for two years (if you haven't tried www.fallenlondon.com or http://nightcircus.co.uk, you should) and we keep being asked 'when are you going to open the platform to other creators?' That day's nearly here.

We're launching StoryNexus in June with a couple of showcase games of our own. Think 'Musketeers Noir' and 'interactive tragedy'. After that, we'll start opening up the toolset so you can write your own games."

If you want to play, you can sign up for an eventual beta slot here - the people with the most referrals get in earlier, so if you go through this link....  Er, yes, well.  :-)

I'm tremendously excited.  I think the Points would be a lot of fun to try in this format....

At last, some solid news on the next books in the Legacy series!  The really good news is that Book 4, The Furies, (which was titled The Avengers until a movie with the same name unaccountably appeared) will be released June 28.  This is a solid deadline at last:  all the MGM approvals are in place, Jo will receive the galleys this week, and the book will be off to the printer as soon as she can turn them around. 

And we have a tentative schedule for the final two books.  Book 5, Secrets, is scheduled for August 7, and Book 6, The Inheritors, is scheduled for November 1.  Secrets and Inheritors both still need to go through the MGM approval process, which is always unpredictable, but we have every intention - we being me, Jo, Amy, and Fandemonium - of having the series finished before Christmas.

And, thanks again to random.org, the winners are...

kindkit and ladysalieri!

Drop me a message and let me know where I should send your copies. 

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you all for playing!

Point of Knives received a very nice review in Publishers Weekly over the weekend!

To celebrate that, and the upcoming July release, I've got another giveaway: I have two copies of the galleys of Point of Knives, which I'll send to two people who comment here - chosen at random, of course. 

There's a little something special about these galleys, too.  At the excellent suggestion of Lethe's editor, Steve Berman, I added one last little bit to the story after the galleys were printed, and I'll include that as well.  So you'll get the galleys plus the sheet with the additional paragraphs - signed, if you'd like.

Comment here if you'd like to participate in the drawing.  I'll choose two names at random Wednesday morning, and post the winners! Good luck!

I'm pleased to announce that Lost Things has been selected for the Barnes and Noble Nook First program!  This means that for the month of July - from July 9 to August 9 - the ebook of Lost Things will be available exclusively from Barnes and Noble as a featured selection! We're really excited that B&N will be promoting the book.  (Not a Nook reader?  No worries.  We're DRM and copy protection free - you can buy from B&N and convert it to your preferred format and device.)  After August 9, the ebook will be available from all the usual channels.

The trade paperback will be out August 1 from the usual outlets - Amazon and direct from Crossroad Press for sure, and from any bookstores that choose to carry it, and presumably by special order from bookstores that don't stock it directly.

And there will be an audiobook edition!  Production is just getting started, so I don't have a release date yet, but I'll update as soon as I do.

From the Arkansas Gazette, 1930, in which a local official argues that times aren't as bad as they seem:

"It is my opinion that robbing banks is about the only offense that was a crime under the common law that perhaps is on the increase in Arkansas, but we must remember that there are more banks to rob, and more money to induce the hazard of the undertaking."

This may be the worst example of a cloud with a silver lining ever....

Jo and I have begun working on Steel Blues, the proposed sequel to Lost Things, which means I've been re-reading the owner's manuals for a 1929 Ford Trimotor.  Along with such advice as "Engine Instruction Book Should be Carefully Studied" (capitalization as in the original) and "do not use brakes unnecessarily," I found the following:

"When flying on all three engines, it is possible, through reckless or incompetent handling, to put the ship into a position - such as a steep climbing turn near the ground - where, should the lower engine fail, there would be great difficulty not only in maintaining the altitude already gained, but in preventing a turn toward the engine which has stopped. The solution to this problem does not lie with the builder of the plane."  (emphasis mine)

No, it really doesn't.  And even in 1929, it was important to spell this out. 

I'm delighted to announce that Five-Twelfths of Heaven, the first book in the Roads of Heaven trilogy, is now available as an ebook from Crossroad Press. It's also up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, if you prefer shopping there.  This is a book that has been particularly hard to find used, judging from the number of people who've asked me if I know where they could get a copy, so it's really nice to have it back.  And I really like the cover!

( Cut for art, and some musing... )

And now it can be shared - the rough of the cover for Lost Things!  I've loved Bob Eggleton's work for years, and I am utterly psyched to have his art for a cover.



I think this really captures the period feel of the story, and the airship - the Independence, on its maiden transatlantic voyage - is perfect.

I got a sneak peek at Bob Eggleton's cover art for Lost Things last night, and I'm utterly delighted.  It's gorgeous, exactly what I imagined, and it captures the feeling of the book.  As soon as I have a version suitable for posting, I'll put it up, but in the meantime, I'll share the teaser page that we just turned in to Crossroad. 

( In which the airship is in serious trouble.... )