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Congrats to Matthias, who won The Chimera Affair by Keira Andrews!

Congrats to Melissa E, who won Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs #1) by L.A. Witt! Where Nerves End will be released on June 3 by Amber Allure.

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Contests

• Largehearted Boy is giving away two ice cream cookbooks and a $100 Threadless gift certificate. Contest closes 11:59 pm EDT, June 1.

• Joyfully Jay’s giving away an ebook copy of Wacky Wednesday by JA Rock. Contest closes 11:59 pm EDT, June 4.

• Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of Alien Revealed by Lilly Cain. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 4.

• Wrapped Up in Books is giving away an ebook copy of LC Chase’s forthcoming Riding With Heaven. Contest closes 9 pm CDT, June 5.

• Daily Forage – gluten free is giving away a gluten-free goodie basket to celebrate its first anniversary. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 8.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Elisa (LGBT), Tor.com (UF, genre benders, scifi, fantasy), AAR (romance audiobooks), and Book Lovers Inc (various types of romance).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Publishing as a service industry.

• Fifty Shades of Grey infographic. Jennifer Armintrout on Fifty Shades and domestic violence.

• Satire about the future of copyright enforcement.

• Extreme reading.

• Book-shaped bookcase.

• Book paintings. (via TeleRead)

• Cool reading lamp.

• Go check out Cole’s new m/m romance review blog!

• Lots of links to posts about all aspects of self-publishing from indie authors.

• Heidi Cullinan on why she has an agent.

• Neil Gaiman on authors responding to bad reviews.

• 7 handy websites for writers.

• The four stages of writing. (Thanks, Bron!)

• Book art.

Ebookity

• Go learn more about the Digital First Read-a-Thon, which starts today.

• Why ebooks are great for knitters.

• Book covers in the age of ebooks.

• 5 nifty Kindle covers.

• “Enhanced ebooks don’t enhance literacy.”

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• Eight legendary same-sex couples. (Thanks, Jase!)

• Does face cream hold the secret of Amelia Earhart’s fate?

• How Kickstarter hides unsuccessful projects.

• Consider ditching the gym to increase your fitness.

• Find cheap or free things to do this summer.

• The FDA didn’t seem to think much of the Corn Refiners Association’s petition to call high fructose corn syrup “corn sugar” instead.

• Needleless injections have been invented.

• Creative ways to stay cool this summer. 10 ways to beat the heat from Lifehacker.

• Is this the perfect ice cream scoop?

Cookity

• Everything you need to know about making stir fry.

• Make your own Jucy Lucy burgers at home. (via Neighborhoodr: Minneapolis)

• Make your own Spam at home… (via CRAFT)

• Smoked trout and potato salad with buttermilk vinaigrette.

• Turkey pesto meatballs.

• Tuna salad with blueberries and cashews.

• Roasted baby carrots.

• Gluten-free flour tortillas.

• Gluten-free and vegan picnic foods.

• Gluten-free snack ideas.

• 10 ways to add cacao nibs to your breakfast.

• 20 brunch recipes.

• Strawberry rhubarb drop scones. (via The Kitchn)

• Simple, no-mess chocolate peanut butter cups.

• Spiced pretzel snickerdoodles. (via The Kitchn)

• Caramel walnut upside-down banana cake.

Brrrrrity

• Pinot Noir-infused blackberry ice pops.

• Caffe shakerato.

• Frozen chocolate Oreo ice cream cake.

• Peanut butter Oreo popsicles. (via The Kitchn)

• 5 takes on “one-ingredient” ice cream.

• 15 crisps and cobblers to serve with ice cream.

Crafty

• If you missed my Monday post of images from the vintage knitting pattern booklet, Hand Knits for Men, you really must check it out. 🙂

Cool

• Olympic quidditch jerseys.

• All the magic from the Harry Potter movies.

• TARDIS earrings. (via The Mary Sue)

• The Doctor (Who) Puppet Tumlbr. (via Tor.com)

• A five-year old girl dressed as Iron Man for her birthday party.

• Star Wars splatter art posters.

• Star Wars characters posing with bunnies.

• Cartoon voice actors reading from the Star Wars screenplay.

• Cute and easy LEGO costume for a toddler.

• The number 42 in pop culture.

• You can play the original Castle Wolfenstein 3D in your browser for free. (via Gizmo’s Freeware) Am I the only one who remembers the original (2D) Castle Wolfenstein? Your character looked like a little stick figure wandering around in a maze of lines.

• Bill Murray made a film short about walking down the hallway for a fan.

• 56 years of tornado touchdowns in the US on a single map.

Cool or Wha…?

• Minecraft wedding.

• Cakes with bite… (Thanks, Bron!)

• The Dark Knight Rises trailer done with hot dogs.

• Batman backpack.

• Cthulhu Barbie. (via The Mary Sue)

• Cavernous vegan pizza sculpture.

Wha…?

• So that’s what the light switch that doesn’t seem to do anything actually does…

• Paint your car with crushed diamonds!

• A 19-year old lived in AOL’s offices for two months and no one noticed.

• WHY!??

LOL

• Extroverts vs introverts. (Thanks, Bron!)

• A little Mulder & Scully flashback…

• Slinky on a treadmill.

• Telephone “etiquette” commercials from AT&T in 1946 and 1972.

• Are you ready for Earth Standard Time? (hover your pointer over the comic for additional text)

• Run Forest run!

• New Simon’s Cat!

• From the movie The [Mountain] Lion King?

• It could happen to anyone!

• When kitties groom you…

• Kitties and yarn.

• Cat on a leash.

• Definitely one of the reasons the kitties are not allowed in my bedroom at night. This is another.

Teh Cute

• Kitten! Baby lion! Lioness and baby! Tigers! Black jaguar! Black jaguar! Swan and cygnet! Black panther! Black panther! Egret! Tiger! Nicobar pigeons! Cats and puppy! Baby sea otter! Baby raccoon! Kitten! Dolphin and baby! Sleepy black kitten! Otter and baby! Kittens! Kittens in the kitchen! Cat and kitten! Bison and baby! Kitten! Capybara and babies! Kitten! Cats in a box! Kitten! Baby otter! Duckling!

Reading Update
Brushback (Evan Austin #1) by Jamie Scofield. ebook. reread. Excellent m/m mystery about a Seattle private investigator hired to find an about-to-be heir by the mother who abandoned the boy and his father years ago. However, things aren’t quite as straightforward as that… This ends on an HFN and was published three years ago, so hard to say if there will be more books…
Prey (Infected #1) by Andrea Speed. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romantic suspense containing two novellas about a private investigator who was born with the werecat virus. His partner (personally and professionally) was infected with a particularly virulent strain of the virus when he was in college. Either the first story had fewer unclear pronoun references than the second or I noticed them less. 🙂
Bloodlines (Infected #2) by Andrea Speed. ebook. Excellent m/m paranormal romantic suspense that I can’t say much about other than make sure you have tissues and the next book at hand. *sniffles*
Absolutely Eric (Boston Boys #2) by Erica Pike. ebook. Good m/m romance about an unrepentantly slutty college senior who decides it’s time for him to have a boyfriend; unfortunately he makes a very poor choice. At times this was difficult to read, but it was due to things that happened as a result of that poor choice and not because of the writing!
Floods and Drought (The Wranglers #3) by Zahra Owens. ebook. Pretty good western m/m romance about a guy freshly paroled from prison who’s given a job as a ranch hand at the same ranch he went to prison for stealing from. But the handsome wrangler supervisor he once shared a kiss with is vouching for him, so he’s stuck.
Rock and a Hard Place by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow. ebook. Good m/m romance about two business rivals who are at each other’s throats to such a degree that their boss sends them on a vacation together so they can work through their animosity… and then their plane goes down into the ocean. I wish I’d skipped the last chapter (18, if you’re so inclined).
Island of Temptation by Claire Thompson. ebook. reread. Ok m/m romance about two guys, one bi, one straight, who end up stranded on a desert island after their cruise ship sinks. I had a strange compulsion to reread this after finishing Rock and a Hard Place.
Belly of the Beast (ES Peters Investigations #2) by AM Burns. ebook short. Meh short m/m paranormal story about an investigative mage and his werewolf partner who are trying to find a teenage werepuma missing under suspicious circumstances. The verb tense wandered and the story was completely uninvolving. I only finished reading because it was so very short.

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NaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNa, Bat Cat!