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Since I never heard back from the original winner, elaing8 is the new winner of Four Corners by Kate McMurray!

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Congrats to maygirl7, who won the Lashings of Sauce anthology donated by Josephine Myles!

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Contests

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Marrying Up by Wendy Holden. Closes August 10 – make sure you read the rules! US & Canada.

• Babes in Boyland is giving away an ebook copy of the m/m anthology Masks Off! Closes 9 pm CDT, August 12.

• Joyfully Jay’s giving away an ebook copy of Four Corners by Kate McMurray. Closes 11:59 pm EDT, August 13.

• Tracy’s giving away an ebook copy of Hearts of Darkness by Kira Bradley. Closes midnight PDT, August 13.

• Tracy’s also giving away an ebook copy of Sigma (The Vanguards #5) by Annie Nicholas. Closes 7 pm PDT, August 15.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Tor.com (PNR), Book Lovers Inc (romance etc), and AAR (romance, audiobooks).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Heidi Cullinan on professionally minded publishers.

• RJ Scott shares some of the things she’s learned in her two years as a published author.

• Becky Black has writerly linkity.

• A book reviewer for Slate wonders if there’s too much niceness in the world of professional online book reviewing. (Thanks, MandyM!)

• “In praise of negative reviews“.

• Goodreads released new guidelines this week – new guidelines that seem to favor writers over readers.

• You can buy color curated book collections.

• Unintentionally funny lines from mysteries. (via PD Singer)

• 10 cool typewriters.

• A stage made of books.

• Warning: if you have OCD, you should not look at these bookcases.

Ebookity

• A fake crowdsourced erotic fiction ebook made the iTunes top five.

• Columnist admits to downloading a pirated ebook. (via TeleRead)

• Infographic on English ebook markets.

• Risks of ebooks based in the cloud.

Learn, Do, Think, Make

• The results of Tam’s “Do gay men watch gay p0rn?” survey.

• A gay couple’s engagement photos were turned into an anti-gay political ad. (via The Mary Sue)

• What if a glass of water was suddenly half empty?

• “Physicists claim it would be impossible to nuke an Earth-killing asteroid“.

• The history of toilet paper.

• An ingredient commonly found in microwave popcorn and other processed foods might be linked to Alzheimer’s.

• A new study by the Mayo Clinic found that 1.4 million of the 1.8 million believed to have celiac disease in the US are undiagnosed.

• Canada has new allergen labeling requirements.

• How to identify those mysterious Asian greens, plus 11 gluten-free Asian noodles.

• Almonds might not have as many calories as originally believed.

• Which state has the fastest average internet speeds?

• A cheetah has set a new world speed record.

• The schlepping workout for the urban dweller.

• The Curiosity rover landed on Mars. Check out the LEGO version! And the xkcd comic!

• A writer for Wired describes how hackers destroyed his digital life. How to protect yourself against social engineering hacks. Ways to keep your digital life secure.

• Make a Mason jar to-go cup. (via CRAFT) (I can’t be the only person who’s simply too clumsy for a glass to-go cup, can I?!)

Cookity

• Vegan “bacon” made from coconut flakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Broccoli pasta sauce. (via The Kitchn)

• Roasted summer squash.

• Hearty summer squash casserole.

• Seared summer squash and egg tacos. (via The Kitchn)

• Sweet and smoky eggplant spread.

• Corn on the cobb salad. (via The Kitchn)

• Four-ingredient teriyaki salmon.

• Veggie summer rolls with spicy peanut sauce.

• Thai green coconut curry with chicken and zucchini.

• 12 recipes for rice bowls.

• 15 recipes for Japanese food.

• 20 fresh recipes from Southeast Asia.

• S’mores candy bars. (via The Kitchn)

• Brown butter pumpkin cupcakes with maple pecan frosting. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

• 6 skillet cakes that won’t heat up the kitchen.

• 10 recipes inspired by banana bread.

• Strawberry rhubarb sweet rolls.

• Gluten-free blueberry galettes.

• Gluten-free vegan peanut butter ice cream.

Drinkity

• Cocky Rooster (beer and Sriracha).

• Donny Draper. (via The Kitchn)

• Manhattan.

• 7 Asian-style drinks.

Crafty

• Knit a TARDIS scarf. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

Cool

• Minneapolis made it into the Weather Channel’s list of top US skylines. (via tolevann’s tumblr)

• Overlay historical maps on Google Maps. (via Gizmodo)

• TARDIS wedding ring. (via The Mary Sue)

• Batcave movie theater.

• Borg wedding cake. (via The Mary Sue)

• Storm trooper lawn chair. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

• LEGO replica of Firefly spaceship Serenity. (via The Mary Sue)

• An Australian news broadcast reenacted the finale of the women’s 100m hurdles using LEGOs.

• Gender neutral toy department.

Cool or Wha…?

• TARDIS mini dress and leggings. (via The Mary Sue)

• Tiny figures made from twist ties.

• Origami sticky notes. (via LB Gregg)

• Nunchaku chopsticks.

• Powdered beer and soda for camping.

• I love the song, but the video for David Bowie’s “Life on Mars”…

• A song about the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

Wha…?

• Creepy ads for ice cream. Really creepy. (Thanks, Cheryl!)

• Setting fire to the lawn at General Mills is an odd way to protest their support of equality…

• Please no smartphones that spray perfume.

• Showerhead shaped like an old-style phone.

• Tiny toaster usb hub with expensive tiny toast usb drives.

• Trojan had hot dog carts giving away vibrators on the streets of NYC this week until the city shut them down.

• A guy ordered a tv online, but an illegal assault rifle was delivered instead.

• A LEGO piece was lodged in a six-year old’s nose for three years…

• Take a deep cat bite very seriously!

LOL

• Some Olympic swimming humor. (make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text)

• What would be your top event in the geek Olympics? (via The Mary Sue)

• Olympic Cake Wrecks.

• New Simon’s Cat!

• How cats travel with us…

• Find the kitty!

• One of the reasons May’s not allowed in my bedroom at night…

• Batcat!

Teh Cute

• Baby bobcats! Tiger and baby! Tiger! Tigers! Tigers! Baby leopard! Black cat! Black panther! Tigers! Baby tiger! Lions! Tiger! Meerkats! Baby flamingos! Baby foxes! Cat and kittens! Cat and kittens! Baby weedy sea dragons! Lynxes! Duckling! Kittens! Baby coatis! Takin and baby! Hummingbird! Cats and kittens!

Reading Update
Diving in Deep (Florida #1) by KA Mitchell. ebook. reread. Very good m/m romance about getting a second chance with that guy you had a crush on as a teenager, who’s grown into an emotionally unavailable adult. I definitely got sniffly on this one.
Collision Course (Florida #2) by KA Mitchell. ebook. reread. Really well done m/m romance about a social worker and a paramedic who has a lot of issues with social workers.
No Souvenirs (Florida #3) by KA Mitchell. ebook. reread. Very good m/m romance about an ER doctor who takes an impulsive dive vacation in Belize when things go awry in his life. He gets to know the dive instructor really well…
By the River (Elementals #1) by Katey Hawthorne. ebook. Good m/m paranormal romance about a guy in his mid-twenties who feels drawn to return to his home town, where he becomes enthralled by a mysterious and naive college swimmer. As MandyM noted, while this was beautifully written, the HFN ending felt very tenuous… as if the “for now” might only be a few minutes or days.
In Search of Saints by Harper Fox. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about an academic who’s been too obsessed by his ex’s betrayal to realize what he has with his new boyfriend.
Inertia (Impulse #1) by Amelia C. Gormley. ebook. arc. Good m/m romance about an isolated handyman who hasn’t been with anyone since he was a teenager and started taking care of his sick grandparents. Then he’s hired to install some shelves by a sexy and strangely skittish accountant who might be flirting with him… While I enjoyed how things developed between the two men, the story seemed to bog down a bit during the last third. And I was a bit surprised when the story ended – it left me with the feeling that this might develop into a serial. 🙁
Dine & Dash (Cut & Run #5.5) by Abigail Roux. free ebook short. Steamy short m/m homecoming scene.
Fireman’s Carry (Carry Me #1) by Charlie Richards. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a gay firefighter who’s recently left his cheating ex and moves in across the street from a straight divorced cop and his kids. I read this after reading a beautifully written book, and the difference in writing between the two was a bit painful. Stalker alert. (So. Tired. Of. Stalkers.)
The Thirteenth Sigil (Section Thirteen Case Files #3) by JL O’Faolain. ebook. So-so paranormal m/m romance continuing the story of Cole, an exiled sidhe who works for a secret, paranormally focused division of the NYPD. The case in this one was pretty weird, the “romance” didn’t really work, and the sex scenes were p0rny and euphemistic. (Check out my status updates at Goodreads for specifics on the last.)
Picking Up the Spare by Heidi Champa. ebook. I read 3/4 of it and was too bored to continue. Plus the name overuse in conversation was irking me.

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem