Sunday, August 1, 2010

UMBRIEL ... Keegan's latest, launching today


UMBRIEL
Mel Keegan and Jayne DeMarco
Feeling is believing

New on August 1, from DreamCraft,
and premiering an exciting new partnership in m/m fiction...


On the high moors, lonely, storm-swept and silent, stands the ruin of Saint Martin's Abbey. On a summer's afternoon, a feeling of deep peace surrounds the ruin, yet the the broken walls conceal a dark secret, a tragic mystery dating back many centuries. And in the region the abbey has earned quite a reputation. Mention St. Martins to the locals and they'll give you an odd look at once and say, "You know it's haunted."

When Rick Gray buys Rokeby cottage in the nearby village of Little Swinvale, all he's looking for is the peace and quiet to find himself again, after years of working -- succeeding -- in the difficult, demanding trade of the professional photographer. A storm is looming, close to sundown. The lighting conditions are perfect for the kind of spectacular images which have made him famous. Against all advice, he heads out to the abbey to work fast while the light holds...

And when it fades, a tiny fragment of the mystery of St. Martin's finds its way into his hands.

He calls himself John -- just John. For Rick, it's love a first sight. And the next twenty-four hours of his life will be beyond anything he ever imagined. If he had not seen and felt it all with his own senses, he would never have believed it.

But seeing ... feeling ... is believing.

UMBRIEL
•Mel Keegan and Jayne DeMarco
•Published by DreamCraft
•ISBN: 978-0-9807092-5-4
•44,000 words
•Cover: Jade
•Heat level: 3.5
•Ebook: $5.50
•Ebook formats: PDF for PC/MAC, Kindle (for Kindle & iPad)
•epub and screenreader versions due soon: stay tuned.
•Release date: August 1, 2010
•Read an excerpt online right here! (Caveat: adult themes; glbt content)

Grab the PDF ebook to suit PC, Mac, desktop and laptop:  Add to Cart
or,
Grab the PDF ebook designed to suit screenreaders
(BeBook, iLiad, Sony etc):  Add to Cart

DreamCraft is working on an epub version, and within a week you'll be able to download this book in formats to suit your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and so on. Remember, Kindle and iPad read PDFs too, and iPad also reads Kindle. Convenient, right?!


oooOOOooo


This marks the first collaboration between myself and the extraordinarily talented Jayne DeMarco, and I want to say right here, it's been a real pleasure. I come up with so many storylines -- in fact, such a constant rush of them, for years now I haven't even been bothering to even jot them down. This will probably change, because Jayne is a joy to work with, a damn' fine writer, who has a way of taking an idea of mine, running with it, and sending it back to me next month with not only the bones in place but a lot of gorgeous flesh on those bones.

UMBRIEL is one of my storylines from waaaay back, but the truth is, if it had been left to me, this story would never have seen light of day. I simply don't have the time to write the short pieces. I have NARC, Hellgate, vampyres, swordsmen and a whole lot more happening, and my writing time is earmarked for years and years to come.

Jayne, however, has time and is a self-confessed creature of inspiration. Put another way, when inspiration bites, she writes, and she actually does like to take someone else's core idea and run with it. For example, some of you will have had the very great pleasure of reading DON'T GO AWAY, which is actually a free download on GLBT Bookshelf at this time (if you've missed it, click this, and enjoy). This lovely little piece was inspired by a series of renders posted to the 3D Adventures blog by our cover artist, Jade -- who certainly needs no introduction here. The Two J's work on opposite ends of the creative connection. One reads or hears words and renders up the most dazzling artwork I've seen in a long, long time. The other sees images and is inspired to write some of the most evocative and charming fiction being produced today ... and luckily for us, it's what the reading world has come to call "m/m" -- which is not acronymical for murder and mayhem! If you missed JD's debut story back in March, you missed a damned good read. (Click here and catch up.)

So keep a weather eye out for more collaborations between Keegan and DeMarco. At this point I can't tell you want or when, but I know it's out there. In the meantime, here is a new story which comes right out of the blue, and I'm completely delighted to be sharing the cover credits with a writer who will be very well respected in the years to come.

Cheers,
Mel