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Congrats to Giselle, who won The Decisions We Make by RJ Scott!

Congrats to Orannia, Eva, Bogusia, SarahM, and Zanara, who all won copies of Fall into the Sun by Val Kovalin!

Congrats to Helena, who won Cinder (A CinderFella Story) by Marie Sexton! Cinder will be released by Silver Publishing on February 4.

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Contests

• Blodeuedd’s giving away two copies of Deliver Me From Darkness by Tes Hilaire. Contest closes February 9. US & Canada only.

• Babes in Boyland is giving away 22 different prizes in their Valentine’s contest. Make sure you read the instructions on how to enter. Contest closes 9 pm CST, February 13.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Elisa (LGBT), Pants Off Reviews (new and recent m/m romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Tor.com (PNR), AAR (romance audiobooks), and Book Lovers Inc (assorted).

• Publishing news from Dear Author.

• Book, publishing, and writing linkity from Becky Black.

• How to increase your reading speed.

• Author Eden Winters in praise of reviewers.

• Author RJ Scott ponders reviews and ratings.

• Stephen Colbert interviews Maurice Sendak.

• Death-by-reading animated short.

• Writer’s revision towel…

• Make a miniature paper typewriter. (via CRAFT)

Ebookity

• January 28 was free fiction day at Clare London’s LiveJournal.

• StoryBundle is offering “pay what you want” “quality” ebook bundles.

• All Romance Ebooks and the relationship of DRM to sales.

• Seven ways to stop piracy that don’t include DRM, although, as TeleRead notes, they aren’t necessarily that applicable to ebooks.

• Some thoughts on piracy from the Digital Reader.

• Are we in a “self-publishing bubble”?

• Over half of all book buyers are “ebook resisters”.

• Some thoughts on what’s happening to the First Sale Doctrine with ebooks.

• Dear Author lists all sorts of Android reading apps.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• Is lower IQ associated with prejudice and conservatism?

• Thought-provoking points about prisons in the US.

• If you’ve lost the lens cap to your 35mm camera, you might be able to replace it with part of a soda bottle.

• Make your own hair gel (easy, cheap, and unscented!).

• Beware cheap (<$100) Android tablets.

• “Piracy is the new radio.” – Neil Young

• Pfizer is recalling one million packets of birth controls because… they won’t prevent pregnancy. Oops.

• If you have celiac disease, you need to be aware of the other health conditions associated with it.

Cookity

• 5 granola recipes.

• 5 baking with beets recipes.

• 10 healthier Super Bowl snacks.

• The ultimate nacho cheese sauce?

• Bacon guacamole. (via The Kitchn)

• Savory buffalo chicken cupcakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Quinoa burgers. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

• Gluten-free chicken chili with white beans, sweet potato, and lime.

• No-bake Nutella cheesecakes. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

• Baked hot chocolate.

• The Foodie Bugle online magazine. (via The Kitchn)

Crafty

• Llama fabric! (via CRAFT)

• Crochet a gorgeous blanket with yarn scraps. (via CRAFT)

• Crochet an amigurumi dragon. (via CRAFT)

• Knit a Spock hat, complete with ears.

Cool

• A LEGO Back to the Future city.

• Check out the LEGO Lord of the Rings bad guys.

• Everyday items like KitchenAid mixers reproduced in LEGO.

• Hand-stitched felt TARDIS. (via CRAFT)

• Stormtrooper housewife. (via The Mary Sue)

• Linkity from Kristi and MrsPao.

• Honda’s Super Bowl commercial is a sort of updated take on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (via Halfway Down the Stairs)

• A fifth grader invented a new (and explosive) molecule.

• Tree cat!

Cool or Wha…?

• Princess Bride wine.

• Crocheted Spock potholder. (via CRAFT)

• Amigurumi Freddy Krueger.

Wha…?

• A Chilean man was arrested for stealing five tons of glacier ice.

• An ATM dispensed a dead mouse…

• “The Uniboob.”

• Eeek!

• Special K (not the cereal) is being tested for treating depression…

• I can’t really blame them…

LOL

• English teacher for the win! (Thanks, Bron!)

• This will only be humorous if you live in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN) and are familiar with the controversy over a new Vikings stadium.

• Yes.

• “Batman is my favorite Disney princess.” (via The Mary Sue)

• 15 funniest autocorrects from January.

• 15 best TV and film autocorrects.

• Why, those sneaky kitties!

• Things following angry cats. (Thanks, Marsha!)

• Dalek or kitty?

• Why kitties adopt.

• Poor traumatized kitteh.

Teh Cute

• Cat and kittens! Baby coatis! Kitten! Baby emus! Cat and kitten! Tiger and baby! Baby lion! Swan and cygnet! Anteater and baby! Baby maras! Baby snow leopards! Baby emu! Pandas!

Reading Update
Time To Do (Perfect Timing #3) by Kim Dare. ebook. reread. Excellent m/m romance about two guys – one gay, one straight – who have been best friends since they were small and are now roommates at college. The gay guy’s been quietly in love with his best friend for years, but has been resigned to never being able to touch him… until he finds his friend’s list of things to experience, which segues from kissing and having sex with women (all checked off) to kissing a man (not checked off)… This was my first Kim Dare book, and remains my very favorite. 🙂
Dirty Laundry by Heidi Cullinan. free ebook short. Smoking hot kinky short m/m story about a timid grad student doing his laundry on a Friday night and the cowboy who comes to his rescue.
Forever in One Second by Finn Marlowe. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romantic suspense about a rescue worker who can heal with touch. When one of the people he’s healed comes to find and thank him, neither of them have any idea how much their lives will change.
The Yearning by AJ Rose. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance told from the perspective of a ghost anchored to a young mortician who is in love with his oblivious best friend. This took some unexpected and enjoyable twists. 🙂
9:05 by KC Burn. free ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about an office worker who’s the only one moving around while the rest of world is stuck at 9:05 am.
Chapter Five and the Axe-Wielding Maniac by Marie Sexton. free ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a writer with writer’s block hiding out at his Oregon cabin… and then a young man with a pick-axe knocks on his door with a surprising request.
Carbon & Ash by Chris Owen. ebook short. This was a short but sweet m/m romance about slowing sliding into something other than friendship without being fully aware. And it’s one of my comfort rereads.
A Simple Suburban Murder (Tom & Scott #1) by Mark Richard Zubro. Very good gay mystery about high school teacher Tom, who finds a much-hated math teacher dead in his classroom, and his closeted baseball player boyfriend, Scott.
All the Gear, No Idea (I Blame Brett #2) by Kim Dare. ebook short. Good short kinky m/m romance about a dom who’s asked to look after a clueless new sub.
Not a Whore by Jaime Samms. free ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a young man who’s sleeping with his boss, but things are more complicated than they appear at first…
Method Acting by Clare London. free ebook short. Cute short m/m story about two guys in bed… with a surprising twist.
Death Trick (Donald Strachey #1) by Richard Stevenson. ebook. Good gay mystery set in Albany in 1979, when things were wild pre-HIV. Donald Strachey’s been hired by the parents of a missing gay man suspected of murder, but nothing is quite adding up about the case. (This is such a weird cover! Pretty sure there wasn’t a dog in the book…)
Hair of the Dog by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about a guy who wakes up covered in blood the morning after his father’s funeral and quickly learns (from the mysterious men waiting outside his door) that he was bitten by a werewolf. It was an interesting storyline, but the timeline was too murky for my pattern-matching brain, leading the story to feel jumpy.
Melting by VJ Summers. ebook short. Good short kinky m/m romance that consists of an extended wax play bdsm scene between a dom and his beloved submissive. I really wanted to read more of this couple’s backstory.
Plan B (A Candyland Story) by VJ Summers. free ebook short. Steamy short m/m story about two guys hooking up in a bar, which appears to be the prequel to Liar, Liar.
Hold the Sky by AC Fox. ebook. Good m/m romance about two architects – one just starting out and the other quite successful – who can’t stop competing with each other.
How Much for the Whole Night? by RJ Scott. free ebook short. Good short m/m story about a guy who picks up a hooker for the first time ever on the night before his final divorce custody hearing. There was just way too much story for the number of pages!
The Librarian by Lee Brazil. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a university librarian who’s had a crush on his former college roommate, now his hairdresser, for ten years. I was going to rate this higher until nearly the end of the book, when it turned out that the entire premise was based on a big misunderstanding. *sigh*
Want (1 Night Stand #81) by Ann Mayburn. ebook short. So-so short m/m about a straight construction foreman who’s been lusting after one of the stonemasons working for him. Via the 1 Night Stand service, he manages to arrange a blind date with the man. The pronoun confusion in this one was painful – I really couldn’t figure out who was doing what to whom most of the time.

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I know this is an exceptionally crappy picture, but it amused me so much to see them both sleeping in the same pose. 🙂 (May is closer to the camera, so she looks the same size as Chaos.)