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lianabrooks · 7 months

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'tis spooky season in North America and that means it is time for another All I Want For Christmas book, your horror for the holidays!

Pack your bags and come with Iris Muhly to stunning Seoul! She's an American ingenue way out of place and about to lose her job. Can the resident villain save the day? Maybe!

Watch this space for pre-order links and news!

https://www.lianabrooks.com/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-a-gargoyle/

Opening pages below the break...

Need a book to read right now? All I Want For Christmas Is A Werewolf All I Want For Christmas Is A Reaper

Opening pages from the unproofed ARC (because my editor is still fixing things and I wanted to share today!).

Everi1/ShatteredEndings: Longtime lurker, first time poster, I’m really torn on how to vote for Shattered 5. I’m a Z-wysh shipper, but I don’t know if I can forgive Iris for dumping Jihun! - @ValL0vesM3 @MaxIsBae53 – You can’t come back from that. @xxUwUxx23 – SAME @EveriReader – Jihun would tell you to follow your heart. Until Our Darling says he wants Iris gone, don’t believe the gossip. The eighth reel is the one set up by the original author, and that means keeping Iris.

A decade or two ago my dark, chocolate brown hair might have drawn some attention as I got off the bus near Gongdeok Station in Seoul. My skin was a little too pink to be native, my height still a few centimeters taller than the average Korean woman's, my eyes double-lidded and noticeably western European. Today, no one seemed to notice. A few teens glanced at the bedraggled black and purple wig in my hand and the water-damaged fan sign for the hit TV show Shattered, but if they thought anything it was probably that I was a fan who'd gone to see the cast in their final appearance of the penultimate season four.

Absolutely no one shouted out "Wysha!" as I passed, even though that was the name of the purple-haired, mortal-turned-immortal I'd played since the season three finale. Even fans would have struggled to remember my legal name - Iris Muhly - simply because I was, as they said in Hollywood, an ingenue.

Unknown.

A random extra who wound up playing a major character for one season and was destined for a gruesome on-screen death if I didn't get things fixed.

Bitter cold winds rushed ruffled overhead holiday banners lining the alley as I hurried to my Yeonnam-dong apartment. It had been another very long day, with a four am call time so the principles of the cast could do a six am morning show followed by the teaser trailer for the upcoming fan vote. I'd escaped that at ten and rushed to the salon to get my poor, bleached hair treated, re-colored back its natural brown, and then headed home as the sky turned dark. It was only a little after five in the evening, but it was a bitingly cold December day and the sun was setting.

Somewhere over the sound of rushing cars I could hear someone learning that sound doesn’t carry well when it’s -20C outside. No, not even for cheery Christmas carols or romantic pop ballads about first kisses stolen between snowflakes. The winter weather this year consisted of a freezing drought, brutal winds, and none of the romantic snow the Koreans were all expecting.

"Fine by me," I muttered as I eyed the frozen blue sky. I had a plane ticket for a red-eye out of Incheon airport heading straight back to the good 'ol US of A. Home sweet... spawn point?

It was less about going home to somewhere good or safe and more about being in a place where my work visa wouldn't expire as soon as I was fired. Because my first acting gig was rapidly going from Going To Get Fired to Going To Get Fired And Blacklisted.

Hugging my black coat around myself against the cold I glanced both ways along a narrow street and dashed across the street in a way most likely to 1) get me hit by a passing car and 2) get me fined if any of the CCTV cams were working. Which, they weren't. The agency I'd signed a twelve-month contract with was paying for the apartment here in Seoul and they weren't springing for a luxury penthouse for someone who wasn't an actual star.

I ducked past the shops lining the ground floor - convenience stores, noodle shops, and pharmacies - fighting the wind with each step. Plastering myself to the side of the building I tugged off a thin gray glove long enough to punch in the six-digit door code.

The tinted glass door slid open with a soft whoosh of warmer air.

For the first time all day I could almost breathe easy. Granted, there were fourteen CCTV cams pointed along the entry way for the apartment building and two more doors to get through to get to the communal mail hall, but at least I was safe-ish when the doors locked behind me with a click.

It sounded delusional, but for the past week or more I'd felt like someone was watching me.

I'd pushed it off as a delayed response to eighteen-hour work days on set in front of cameras. Compared to the last fourteen months of filming and promotions this past week had been comparatively easy. The cast had split the interviews and appearances, I'd only been in six of the fourteen live things, done four signings, and only been physically threatened, oh, maybe a few thousand times.

With a glance at the heavily tinted windows I went through the next set of doors to the common area where a bank of TVs displayed everything from the local weather channel and the stock exchange to the celebrity news.

The same picture was on half the TVs: a Korean man so handsome my breath caught even though I’d spent the past fourteen months in close proximity with him. “Michyeosseo,” the word slipped past my lips in an angry huff and I wasn’t sure who was crazier, me or the fans on screen screaming "J'aime Max!" and "Max Kang, je suis délicieux! Épouse-moi!" and the old stand-by, “Sauve-moi, roi des gargouille!”

I wouldn’t stand out in the cold to wave purple and black dragons at a camera for an anyone. Not even in Paris where all the rosy-cheeked teens were. Not even for pay.

Okay, well, that was a lie. Because I could unreservedly cheer for Max Kang for pay and absolutely had during at least one alternate-universe scene this season.

Shattered, the multinational television show that let viewers write the ending to the universally acclaimed series that started with the novel All These Broken Seasons, was all about merging alternate universe and looking at what could have been. The whole premise was two realities collided and the death of some fey[1] princess meant the people in normal Earth suddenly were confronting the people from a magical Earth.

Max Kang, easily one of the hottest men on the planet, played the big, bad villain: Zjarr Aabo. On the screen of the lobby TV Max was seated right next to the breathlessly hungry host who was eyeing his thin, black silk shirt with the undone buttons as if she could make the others fall off by wishing alone. He probably wasn’t currently sporting the chiseled Abs of Treason he flashed at least once a season, because getting that definition involved extreme dieting and dehydration that wasn’t healthy to maintain, but most of the audience didn’t know that.

Not that Max needed chiseled muscle to make him delicious.

He was a man who’d built his fame playing classic bad guys, and one of the highest grossing Korean actors. Black hair that somehow always looked sexily tousled, wide set black eyes, heavy eyebrows, a broad and expressive face, and the muscles of a man who spent every spare hour in the gym or with the show’s fight trainer. The fact that he could dance and sing was just icing on the slice of Hallyu Wave perfection that was Max Kang.

Light loved him.

There was a glow, and a natural presence that survived even the camera’s harsh glare. When Max stepped into a room every head turned. His dramatic baritone voice was rich and low enough to send a shiver up anyone’s spine.

The evil demon of a man certainly didn't need to look directly into the camera with his ridiculously incomparable dark eyes and wink as his lips curled into a perfect come hither smile that all but melted everyone in his line of sight.

No, he didn't need to do any of that.

But he did.

I rolled my eyes as I pushed the button and waited for the elevator. All of this was to sway the vote. No, make it The Vote. With sparkly letters and fancy fonts and everything.

All These Broken Seasons was the best selling fantasy series of the mid-21st century but it had a little problem... the ending didn’t exist.

Years ago the author had rudely died, or run away, or been kidnapped by Bigfoot. Something like that. One day they were in full contact and posting daily teasers for the untitled final fifth novel, and then they vanished. The jury was still out on what really happened.

Shattered was the answer.

Some studio had the rights, the author’s sudden disappearance gave them an opening, and they ran with it. Four, big budget seasons followed the books with a gratifying amount of accuracy[2] and now the fans got to vote on which ending we would shoot.

Since most the fans currently wanted to shoot me, the ending that promised my brutal death on screen was winning with eighty percent of the votes. Angel Xi, Shattered’s leading lady and the primary love interest of the hero, had oh-so-not-kindly told me that in Cantonese the word Four sounds like the word Death. Angel’s a sweetie like that.

The elevator opened and was empty, thank goodness. I stepped in and stabbed the close button before anyone could hop on.

Most of the building’s residents were polite enough to pretend they didn’t know me. Koreans weren’t fans of small talk as a rule, especially in Seoul, but things had been tense since the tabloids snapped pictures of Kim Jihun crying.

Tears weren’t the problem. Men could cry, and Jihun often did as the tortured, lovelorn hero of Shattered. The problem was that the tabloids had been snapping pics of me and Jihun hanging out for the past year and the world was convinced we were dating. If Jihun was smiling, I’d done something to make him happy. If Jihun was angry, it was my fault. If he was crying, I ought to die for hurting The World’s Darling.

Despite all the tabloid rumors, Jihun and I had never shared more than heartfelt glances on screen. He was my type, but I wasn’t his, and I was smart enough not to chase a man who didn’t want me.

[1] Fae? Fairy? Whatever. She was the typical All Powerful Magic Girl and she died at the end of the first book.

[2] I hadn’t read the books until after I’d been cast, and I really didn’t appreciate how much work went into adapting a book into a screenplay until I met some of the script writers. Suffice it to say, they deserved all the awards they kept winning and the full adoration of the fandom. Other fandoms wish they were this lucky.

#All I Want For Christmas Is A Gargoyle #Christmas Gargoyle #Liana Brooks #booklr #books #books and reading #set in #Seoul #South Korea #RoK #forced proximity #American Abroad #Secret Identities #You Had Me At Hello #He Falls First #Kdrama #Bad Boy Loves The Good Girl

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emotionalsupportmanteau · 8 months

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Home

#new house #just moved #expat life #American abroad

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justarandomgirl98 · 2 years

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How I spent the Fourth of July: Informing my family (After returning from the UK 6 hours before) that I, within the next year, will be moving to the UK either for a PhD or a job. And I am in the process of looking for a position. I plan on living in London as many of my friends live there and I don't care that my salary will be slightly less.

Because I realised that while standing in central London that was where I wanted to be. And if I could have gotten away with it, I would have never gotten back on the plane.

So it's official, I'm going to be an ex-pat. And my family just all nodded and said I have to visit once and a while. I found the place that felt like home and it is across a bloody ocean.

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jaffacakesofficial · 1 year

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i just talked to the bbc about the ucu strikes and why i support them omg

#ucu rising #i love unions they are so great #uk politics #university student #american abroad #study abroad #qub dot ac dot uk

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sillywoman01 · 1 year

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Chapter 5 of " A Rumble in Birmingham" is now posted on A03

Credit for inspiring me writing this story goes to @lokilickedme who is a very talented writer and her Tom Hiddleston fancast fics were quite inspiring. I encouage you to check out her page. I dared to step out of my writing comfort zone to write a romantic comedy . Binge watching Bridget Jones Diary also contributed to ideas for this fic.

Fandom: Original Story / British Actor fancast

Rating: Explicit

Chapter Summary: Sammie runs into Henry on her way home and he has both surprising and unsurprising information for her. Her peaceful sleep is interrupted.

Story Summary: Shortly after divorcing her cheating husband, New Yorker Sammie Darlington decides to start over when her job offers to relocate her to their office in Birmingham, England. She’s started to settle into her new life when she meets two men at work who are complete opposites of each other that both catch her interest even if they don’t seem to show any romantic interest in her.

She tries to hide her attraction to both men and distracts herself by making new friends and finding new experiences. As time goes on she finds herself drawn in to both of their lives while trying to navigate her new surroundings in some downright embarrassing situations.

Henry is the good natured, handsome playboy, who Sammie finds herself excited to see every day, even if she thinks he doesn’t notice her as he always surrounds himself with much younger, attractive women.

Tom is her boss and next-door neighbor who is typically sullen and grumpy. He seems to go out of his way to make her new life in the UK miserable but Sammie can’t help but find herself drawn to him even if he acts like he finds her annoying.

#original story #original characters #original work #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston fanfiction #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill fanfic #british actor fanfiction #American abroad #romantic comedy

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wisemancax · 9 months

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American in the UK: 15 British Culture Shocks

American in the UK: 15 British Culture Shocks Reflecting on the biggest things that have surprised me about the UK after two months here as a US tourist. Watch next: How I See the UK As An American Abroad. Traveling with Kristin

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passportkings · 9 months

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Living Abroad: 9 advantages you should consider when leaving America

In today’s interconnected world, the idea of living abroad has become increasingly appealing. Many Americans seek new adventures, personal growth, and diverse experiences. While the prospect of relocating to a foreign country may seem daunting at first, the benefits of living abroad can be truly life-changing. In this article, we explore some surprising reasons why you should seriously consider…

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astald-hallaer · 1 year

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The ice cream my husband brought home from the store. Chocolate and hazelnut flavor. 😅

#chocolate and hazelnut #my nuts #ice cream #American abroad

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neurodivergent-newbie · 1 year

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You know what made me a better American living abroad? And a better world traveler overall?

This muhfucking game:

Truly.

My family loved this game growing up and I could tell you what the card said in the first reading almost every time.

If you don’t know- the card takes a common phrase and obfuscates it by writing it as smaller incorrect words. Then phonetically you get the real word. Like this:

Is Salma Hayek.

People around the world know English better than I know any other language and in Asia, Central America, and Europe this game allowed me to be able to converse with people’s heavily accented English in a way that made me feel so connected to my fellow human. It decreased the amount of time I spent processing or asking them to repeat and it also helps me understanding really drunk or much older Americans who may not speak as clearly.

This is a real life close captioning hack.

#linguistics #mad gab #board games #are rea life training #American abroad #world travel #esl #cc

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palipunk · 3 days

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Making this un-rebloggable bc I’m tired of coming back to the blue maga discussion but I continue to see that many people have the preconceived notion that White Americans are the default for trans people and it’s really annoying because I’m literally a trans Palestinian but everyone interacting with me just assumes that I have no stake in trans rights at all. Because I am Palestinian

#babe I literally got disowned by my father in 2022 sjksks trust me I am well aware of the concept #and I say white Americans because I know full well you are not thinking of black/brown and/or Indigenous people in these statements #who are being harmed not just in occupied turtle island but abroad and yes! in Palestine as well!

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hotcocoandmarshmallows · 2 months

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This is about the modern USA and the regions within (Appalachia, Midwest, Great Lakes, New England, ECT) and the cultures that have grown in those regions and subregions (a subregion being a major city&suburbs, such as NYC)

Hardly the most scientific or inclusive poll, but this is more about curiosity if other Americans feel like their region has a distinct culture from the rest of the USA. Personally I know New England does, but I'm curious about other parts of the USA.

#polls #united states #sociology #i guess #my polls #my own personal culture thing is that apparently Americans are seen as very friendly people abroad #but New Englanders are some of the most unsocial people you will ever meet #if we can avoid talking to a stranger on the street we will #about the only time you talk to people is when you're in a mutual Situation #it's seen as rude to chat people up #also we're very focused on seafood along the coast #rural areas are kinda... frozen in time #my mom grew up in the New England countryside and there's not a lot of new construction #there's a general store out there that looks straight out of the 1940's

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