The first book in a queer, trans Gothic horror series about toxic corporate vampires reinventing what it means to be alive—to live—and the pieces of themselves they lose along the way.
This book is for adults only, and contains heavy topics that may not be suitable for all readers.
re·frain /rɪˈfreɪn/
n. the burden of a song. v. to hold back. n, again. the burden of a man.
what you return to, again and again.
One-two-three-four…
Have you been enjoying your holiday?
The London-based biotech company Ichorous Innovations was founded, ostensibly, sometime in the 1900s by René Louvel, a man determined to not only research, but build, a better life for people like himself—vampires, that is. Surely the specific year is on their company logo or something, but Hector can never remember it. He’s preoccupied with other, more important things, like the next time he’s going to get laid, the shock waves up his arms when he cracks someone’s skull, or, most recently, hazy memories from his thirty-ninth birthday party that ended in sharp glass being plucked from his forehead by cold, gentle hands.
The fact that it took two decades of animosity is impressive, he'll give himself that much. Not his fault the worst person in the office has an explosive fuse and a mean left hook.
The company was founded, for the record, in 1922, though it didn't get off the ground until several years later. The date is burned into Simon's retinas, courtesy of a keen memory and too many hours staring at the plaque on Lee's wall proclaiming as much. Same goes for the image of blood streaming down Hector's face, and the knowledge that Simon can't let something like that happen again. Managing the tension grows more difficult by the day, though, as being a turned vampire is just as taxing during its eighth year as it was on day one.
Simon's always thought immortality was the short end of the stick. Being proven right has never tasted so sour.
…five-six-seven-eight.
Relearning the world is a nightmare.
AKA:
When your interpersonal life can be explained via organizational chart, or medically managed immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be, or
vampires in love (and other four-letter words).
MELT: REFRAIN is the first book in a queer, trans Gothic horror series about toxic corporate vampires reinventing what it means to be alive—to live—and the pieces of themselves they lose along the way.
Told non-chronologically from multiple POVs, it's dipped in noir, drenched in subtle terror, and urges you to remember that, much like hate and love, sex and death are eternal bedfellows.
The very basic goal of this campaign is to fund an initial print run of MELT: Refrain, in 5.5" x 8.5" paperback format. If we knock that out, we'll be aiming for a campaign-exclusive spot UV treatment on the cover, and maybe a few hardback copies.
All pre-launch followers will get a free preview from the first section of the book!
If you're a long-time lurker, you likely know me as an editor first, and an author second. As such, I'll be offering a couple of discounted editing slots as special pledge tiers! If you've ever wanted to work together, keep an eye out—you're unlikely to see prices this low from me again.
Latest from the Creator
subvertebra
about 22 hours ago
MELT: REFRAIN Pre-Launch Newsletter: FUN FACT #5
Hey, weirdos!
… All right, so it's 38 days until launch, but the book opens on Hector's 39th birthday and technically I'm writing this up with 39 days remaining, so it counts.
Since we switched to updates everyone can see the intros to, I suppose we can do away with the weekly introductory paragraph, can't we? Neat! Still, this is your promised behind-the-scenes update with fun facts about the story and the campaign itself.
I've been real busy and real fatigued, so this particular update is rather short and sweet. Let's get right into it, shall we?
If you're new here: hello! Welcome! Every other Monday, I send everyone following this campaign an update with inconsequential fun facts about MELT and its characters, and consequential fun updates about the campaign itself. This is one such message.
This week we're doing things a wee bit differently. I divined another way to send these out (read: I brushed up on BackerKit's intended functionality and made some flow changes), so now new followers have access to all the previous weeks' info. Exciting! Unfortunately, this means the main link to the campaign will now redirect to a less thematic teaser page… but sometimes we must sacrifice beauty for functionality. It was a good couple of months, right?
If you want to send someone to the pretty version, use this link. :)
In any case, onto the fun stuff!
First, an update on follower count: we hit (and surpassed) the funny sex number. Thank you all for your efforts, I am blessed, my crops are watered, etc. Now we must disseminate (heh) the love. If you haven't already, please check out the campaigns for:
Additionally, I recently finished May Day by Josie Jaffrey! If you've enjoyed previews of Hector being an appalling mix of competent and self-sabotaging, give May Day's campaign a follow and keep an eye out for Jack, its protagonist, doing the same damn things.
This was previously sent out as a newsletter, and is being uploaded retroactively as an unlockable update for all followers. Enjoy!
Hey there!
Welcome back to another edition of MELT trivia and campaign updates!
If you're new here: hello! Every other Monday, I send everyone following this campaign an email with inconsequential fun facts about MELT and its characters, and consequential fun updates about the campaign itself. This is one such email. (In future weeks you can just skip this paragraph, promise.)
This week we're sitting at 56 followers which is still wild, thanks for being here. If you know anyone else who might want in on the silly shit in advance, would you kindly send them this way? (Can we hit 69 before launch? I want the sex number.)
I'm going to try staggering cast-wide trivia with individual bits of what-the-fuckery. As such:
This was previously sent out as a newsletter, and is being uploaded retroactively as an unlockable update for all followers. Enjoy!
Hey there!
Happy(?) Monday! Unless it's no longer Monday in your time zone, in which case happy time zone anyway, I hope.
If you're new here: hello! Welcome! Every other Monday, I send everyone following this campaign an email with inconsequential fun facts about MELT and its characters, and consequential fun updates about the campaign itself. This is one such email.
At the time of writing, we are sitting pretty at 50 followers! Holy shit! Thank you! What the hell! If you want to help that number rise even higher, and know anyone who might like a weird, unsettling, sexy book, send them right over here, would you?
This was previously sent out as a newsletter, and is being uploaded retroactively as an unlockable update for all followers. Enjoy!
Hey, all!
Vert here with a few brief messages for you.
First, thank you so much for your support and interest in helping me fund an initial print run of my upcoming book, MELT: REFRAIN. The text itself has been in the works for about a year; the incredibly annoying people in it, however, have been around for closer to eight.
Good lord.
As such: I cannot wait to unleash them into the world and inflict them on everyone else. Get them out of my brain and into your hands.
The Actual Neat Stuff ⟱
Because the book's focus is on those terrible people and their interpersonal maladies, I figured that—while I wait to hit you with a free preview once the full digital version is out—I'd offer some Word-of-God-via-omake-chapter-style character facts that have absolutely zero spoiler bearing on the story itself.
I'll send an email every other week until October, where I'll up it to once per week as we approach campaign launch on the 29th. That's a total of nine emails, including this one, so I promise I won't spam you!
The rest will also be a lot shorter than this, I swear.
