#author Meghan Maslow

[melaniem54]

Review: As the Raven Flies (a Charm City Chronicles novella) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 4.5🌈 Meghan Maslow’s Charm City Chronicles series is a favorite among favorites. And I’ll be the first to admit it’s due to the setting of the series in Baltimore, a city I’m deeply fond of and live near. Maslow has turned this old historic seaport city, known as Charm City, into a magical one teeming with paranormal diversity that the bosses, known as Rogers, have divided up into their…

[olderthannetfic]

I would like to ask a bit more about the Starfig Investigations, because you compared it to Robert Asprin (read: one of the biggest staples of my childhood fantasy readings, I had All of the Myth Adventures and Phule books). What's the rough premise? Who is the author? I must find!

--

It's an original m/m series by Meghan Maslow.

It felt very 90s to me, but I couldn't put my finger on it until I went to a book conference and overheard her literally saying it's Myth pastiche.

The basic concept is that a half-dragon, half-fairy who lives in the fairy dimension and works as a P.I. gets hired by a creepy unicorn dude to find his missing horn. He's gifted with the guy's indentured servant (read sex slave) for the duration of the case. This is for ulterior motives, of course, but Oh No Feelings.

It's a pretty goofy series, but has so far involved them meddling in the politics of several dimensions and trying to reform magical civil rights. In the human realm, there are pirates straight out of Monkey Island.

Probably the best encapsulation of the author's sense of humor is that the lead's father is a super powerful local politician because his specific fairy power is... the power of bureaucracy!

[ckingsbridge]

Coastal Magic Convention Report (2/?)

Continued from Part 1

This was Coastal Magic’s first year doing a murder mystery party, and it was one of the parts of the weekend I’d been looking forward to most. I’ve done these in the past with my mom’s family during our summer family vacations, and they’re a huge amount of fun if everyone playing is willing to commit.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, for a murder mystery party, the guests take on the roles of the story’s characters. You receive instructions in advance of the party with information on your character’s personality, behavior, and wardrobe, as well as details about your relationships with some of the other characters and a few secrets you might know.

When the murder mystery takes place at a party where the guests far outnumber the named characters (like at a convention!), the majority of the guests take on the shared role of “Investigator”. In this case, they don’t receive any information in advance of the party, but they’re given a booklet when they arrive that details some juicy tidbits they know and curious things they’ve observed in relation to the named characters.

During the first part of the party, the characters circulate through the room, interacting with each other and the Investigators in-character and dropping various hints/clues as they’ve been instructed. Then at some point, there’s a - gasp - murder!!!

One of the characters is declared to have been murdered. The players themselves have no idea who is going to be killed, or which one of them is the killer - they don’t find out until they open the sealed section in the back of their character booklets in the middle of the party. Then the party shifts into crime-solving mode: the guests find clues that have been hidden around the room, investigate the crime scene, and talk to the characters some more before the characters are publicly interrogated.

At the end of the party, the guests vote for which of the characters they believe is the killer. For the one we did at Coastal Magic, we also voted for the best actor and best costume. The ballots are tallied, the results are announced, and the killer is given the opportunity to explain themselves.

The Jazz Age Murder Mystery was an absolute blast! I played one of the characters myself - Win, stuffy accountant to gangsters and criminals. For my costume, I went with a “nerdy gangster” vibe: black pencil skirt, white button-down, suspenders, old-school black stockings, and of course a jauntily angled fedora.

All of the players committed to their roles 110%, which is honestly what makes or breaks this kind of party. I was also amazed by how genuinely hilarious many of the players were. Some of them had like professional-level improv skills and comedic timing. Special props have to go to Elicia Hyder (who deservedly won “best actor” - she had my vote!), J.D. Monroe, Meghan Maslow (attorney… at law), and Avery Flynn. There were times when I was falling-down, tears-in-my-eyes cracking up!

As for the mystery itself, I was vindicated in having figured out who the murderer was as soon as the victim’s identity was announced. However, it turned out that I had ascribed a much more complex and sinister motive to the killer than the game had, LOL. (I thought the murder was a premeditated conspiracy with another character, whereas the game had it as an unintentional crime of passion, albeit rooted in the same reasons that I thought it was premeditated.) I guess that’s not surprising, given my own personal taste in murder mysteries!

The party also gave me the chance to connect with fabulous author Sarah Nicolas, a person after my own heart, who ended up being the killer. In a weird stroke of coincidence, Sarah had been drinking a gin and tonic during the party - and the murder weapon turned out to be a gin bottle!

All told, I think the murder mystery party was a roaring success, and I hope it becomes a new tradition that continues at future conventions.

Saturday was the busiest day of the convention, starting with my romantic suspense panel in the morning. There were five authors on this panel, and even though we all write romantic suspense, it was interesting to see how we all write it in very different ways. It just goes to show how much story variety there can be even within a single genre!

I had a break between the end of that panel and the start of my next commitment, and for the first time, I didn’t feel the need to return to my room to decompress and recharge my introverted self. Instead, I went to the “Improv Flash Fiction” panel, which is something Coastal Magic does every year. 

For this panel, a large group of authors (I think there were 8 or 9) sit in the usual line facing the audience. The moderator asks the audience for a handful of story prompts, such as the type of protagonist, genre, setting, and main conflict. The authors then use those prompts to craft a story on the spot. Starting with the first person in line, each subsequent author builds on the contributions of the authors before them by adding anywhere from a handful of sentences to the oral equivalent of several paragraphs, introducing their own twists to the tale. As you can imagine, the story gets progressively zanier as it makes its way down the line.

This panel ranked right up there under the murder mystery party as one of the most hilarious parts of the con! And from what I’ve been told, it’s like that every year. The funniest parts, IMO, were the reactions of authors farther down the line when the author before them did something totally unexpected and wacky, then left them to deal with the fallout.

Plus, the panel was impressive as hell: all of the stories (there was enough time for 3) ended up being coherent narratives with interesting twists and turns as well as satisfying resolutions by the end.

I am in awe of people who are able to think quickly on their feet and improvise successfully - in part because it’s in such diametric opposition to my own skill set, haha. I could never, ever participate in something like this; my brain would be in a panicked scramble the whole time. But as an audience member, I love improv. Almost every podcast I subscribe to is some form of improvised comedy, and I got the same kind of kick out of the flash fiction panel.

TBC tomorrow - Lunch with an Author, and my first-ever book signing!

[thebloggergirls]

Book Review: Ride Along by Meghan Maslow

Book Review: Ride Along by Meghan Maslow

Reviewed by Ami Title: Ride Along Author: Meghan Maslow Series: States of Love Heroes: Drew Nolan/Josh de Oliveira Genre: MM Contemporary Length: 122 Pages Publisher: Dreamspinner Press Release Date: June 14, 2017 Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble Add it to your shelf: Goodreads Blurb:  Drew Nolan is a loud-and-proud mystery writer with a brutal case of writer’s block. He needs practical…

[rhysford]

Dreamspinner Press GayRomLit Pre-Orders and Sales Table

Dreamspinner Press WILL be doing a Pre-Order for GayRomLit sale this year so you can pre-order any of the imprints’ attending authors at a discount and have your order shipped directly to the event.

We will be handing out pre-orders at the DSP Author sales table as well as before the event. We’ll have more information as we get closer to the date.

Additionally, the following authors will have paperbacks and at the table for purchase. Bru Baker Andrew Grey Tj Klune Carroll S Poe (CS Poe) Rhys Ford K-lee Klein CJane Elliott Rowan Mcallister Kim Fielding Taylor V. Donovan Mj O’shea Brandon Witt Tempe O’Riley  Shira Anthony

Also look for ebook-featured postcards (with purchase links) from: Hunter Frost Meghan Maslow Avery Duran

Can’t wait to see you there!

from Dreamspinner Press GayRomLit Pre-Orders and Sales Table

[morganaskye2]

Ride Along by Meghan Maslow Blog Stop and Exclusive Excerpt!

Ride Along by Meghan Maslow Blog Stop and Exclusive Excerpt!

OS: Welcome to Meghan Maslow author of Ride Along! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing with us an exclusive excerpt from your new book! MM:   Hello! I’m Meghan Maslow and I’m thrilled to be at Open Skye Book Reviews to share with you an exclusive excerpt from my newest release, Ride Along, a novella in the Dreamspinner Press States of Love line. I decided to set the story at an imaginary…

[melaniem54]

Review:  Fae for Pay (Fortune Favors the Fae novel) by Meghan Maslow

Rating:  3.5🌈 Fae for Pay is the new fantasy novel by Meghan Maslow for the multi-author series, Fortune Favors the Fae, with a magical traveling two sided Fae gold coin as a connecting point. An immediate plus goes to Maslow’s use of the fae magical coin in the storyline.It was imaginative,interesting, and a large enough of a element in the plot to make it narratively visible throughout the…

[melaniem54]

Review: Cthulhu for Christmas: A Winter Holiday MM Tentacle Romance by Megan Maslow

Rating: 4.75🌈 I’m such a sucker immediately for anything that Maslow writes, especially when she’s putting the story smack dab near me. Maryland, specifically, around the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore close by. Places I know and love. Plus the added factor of a Christmas collection! I’ve been reading a lot of those lately, many set up in Vermont (I get it, gorgeous and Hallmark) or the pacific…

[melaniem54]

Review: Demon For The Win (A Fated Mates Novella) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 4.75🌈 Demon For The Win exists within Meghan Maslow’s Much Ado About Demons universe and it’s an extraordinary place to visit. In fact the author is able to set up various scenarios within each major storyline for other books to come without it feeling too unwieldy. Here we meet Nico Azertiran, the love incubus from In Fair Verona and Must Love Demons. He’s a important secondary…

[melaniem54]

Review: Cat's Chance in Hell:(Charm City Chronicles Book 2) by Meghan Maslow

Review: Cat’s Chance in Hell:(Charm City Chronicles Book 2) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 4.75🌈 It was so easy to fall back into Meghan Maslow’s rich paranormal universe of Charm City Chronicles. Baltimore or if you’re local then it’s “Bawlmer” or “Bawl-ah-mur.” A city so rich in varied cultures, a startling variety of architectural styles, and history that it’s a place to overwhelm your senses. In good and, *cough* bad ways. Maslow’s setting is both a love letter and an…

[melaniem54]

Review: In Fair Verona (Much Ado About Demons #0.5) by Meghan Maslow

Review: In Fair Verona (Much Ado About Demons #0.5) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 4🌈 A Prequel to Must Love Demons, the first book in Maslow’s Much Ado About Demons series, In Fair Verona is a short story that’s a mystery stocked full of characters spilling over from a universe (Marden’s Magic Emporium) that produced a 12 author Magic Emporium: Multi-Author Series https://www.meghanmaslow.com › …Magic Emporium: Multi-Author Series – Meghan Maslow . It’s also a…

[melaniem54]

Review: Fairy and Impartial (Starfig Investigations, #4) by Meghan Maslow

Review: Fairy and Impartial (Starfig Investigations, #4) by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 5🌈 Fairy and Impartial picks up right after the events of book 3, His Fairy Share. So first thing right off? Read all previous stories if you haven’t done so already. In the exact order they are written so all the characters relationships, growth, and overall developing series themes make sense. Trust me, there are some wonderfully complicated doings happening here and I suspect only…

[melaniem54]

Review: The Demon's in the Details by Meghan Maslow

Review: The Demon’s in the Details by Meghan Maslow

Rating: 5🌈 Author Meghan Maslow is a writer I only recently became familiar with but already she’s a must read and highly recommended one. I’m quickly gobbling up anything from her that I’ve not read yet. Which is how I came across this outstanding story. The Demon’s in the Details by Meghan Maslow was previously published in the Fables Retold Anthology, which I somehow missed. Now rereleased…