Congrats to Deanna, who won the copy of A.M. Riley’s recent m/m romantic suspense, Son of a Gun!

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Contests

• Let LesleyW know what you think of ebook prequels to books that are released as print books. If you comment by April 23, you’ll have the chance to win a copy of Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp.

• Largehearted Boy is giving away a $100 Threadless gift certificate and a copy of Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend to one lucky commenter who names their favorite baseball player by midnight CDT, April 23.

• Katiebabs is giving away a copy of Lisa Valdez’s new historical romance, Patience (Passion Quartet, Book 2). Leave a comment by April 23 for your chance to win.

• If you’ve always thought that Bruce and Vishous should’ve ended up together (Black Dagger Brotherhood), rush right over to Smexy Books, where Mandi makes it happen! While you’re there, leave a comment for your chance to win a signed copy of Lover Mine, the latest in the BDB saga. Contest closes April 24.

• Janna’s giving away a copy of Vivian Arend’s Rocky Mountain Heat (Six Pack Ranch, Book 1) to someone who comments by the evening of April 24 and a copy of Sloan Parker’s recent m/m/m romance, More, to someone who comments by the evening of April 26.

• Heather’s giving away a copy of the Harlequin collection, More Than Words, Volume 6, which honors five women who’ve made a difference. Leave a comment by April 26 for your chance to win.

• For every comment made on Jane’s April 4th post (to celebrate her first year free of cancer treatment) by April 28 (her birthday!), Jane will make a donation to the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation. (Plus anyone who comments on the April 4th post is entered in a drawing to win yarn or book prizes from Jane!)

• In honor of Earth Day, Ralph’s giving away a copy of Addison Albright’s recently re-released short m/m romance, Cow Pie Bingo. Leave a comment by midnight ET, April 29, for your chance to win.

• Book Junkie’s got quite a few contests listed (and they aren’t specifically urban fantasy print books). Abigail’s got 124 (or so) urban fantasy print book giveaways in her post this week. And Miranda keeps a running list of contests in her sidebar (again, not limited to urban fantasy print books).

Reading & Beyond

• For info on new and upcoming releases, contests, interviews, and more: Lily (m/m romance), Literary Escapism (paranormal romance, urban fantasy), Katiebabs (all sorts of romance), and SciFi Guy (urban fantasy, paranormal romance, etc).

• Donna Fantasy Dreamer put her blog on hiatus – we’ll miss you, Donna!

• Both KMont and Katiebabs found examples of cover art reuse last week!

• From EH, looks like social network Ning is trying becoming a pay service.

• TeleRead highlighted an overview article about the future of eInk, including color and increased contrast.

• A review of the forthcoming Kobo ereader from TeleRead.

• Some new iPad reviews, including an indepth review from Dear Author on the iPad eBook app.

• For the record? It’s not so easy to hide your plagiarism in this internet age – especially if you’re plagiarizing a well-known romance review blog.

• Hmm. Piracy, while not a good thing, might not be killing music after all… so what are the implications for ebooks?

• The RIAA and MPAA want to implement a plan that automatically finds and deletes copyright-infringing items on your computer…

• According to a recent survey, PCs are the real competition for Kindles and iPads and other dedicated reading devices.

• The New Yorker takes an in-depth look at the publishing power struggle between Amazon, Apple, and Google.

• I love the Monday Morning Stepback posts from Jessica at ReadReactReview – this week, she talks about steampunk, book blogs and marketing, the implications for ebooks of Apple banning apps in its app store (did you hear about the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist whose app was rejected?), and an application called Freedom which can lock out your internet connection for a set period of time to help you work without distractions.

• Some great links in this post from Dear Author. Sydney also has some fun links, including to an etsy seller who makes tiny books that you can wear on a necklace. And Anastasia has even more links! (Y’know, just in case there aren’t enough links for you here, Wren.)

• Lilith Saintcrow linked to a post from Jennifer Crusie that’s a must-read for authors trying to make time for their writing – Taking Out the Garbage: How To Protect Your Work and Get Your Life.

• Thought-provoking post from author Alexi Silversmith on using pen names when writing m/m fiction. And another post about why an alias can be a very good for authors. Finally, do readers care about pen names?

• Via Lynn Viehl, Coyote Con is a digital author conference held by Drollerie Press during May.

• Have any of you used the Google Books feature of your Google account? What did you think of it?

• Letter to a reader by excellent m/m romantic suspense author Josh Lanyon.

• Jenre did a really interesting series of posts at Desert Island Keepers on category romance themes in m/m romance: historicals, westerns, and others.

• Rich Adin of An American Editor crafted his manifesto for BLASTR (Book Lovers Acting to Save Readers).

Learn-Do-Make

• If you use Adobe Reader, be warned that you should change a setting to avoid a new malware threat.

• Jordan Castillo Price posts about how to read faster.

• Moderncat has cat photography tips.

• Seven inexpensive iPad stands you can make, courtesy of Lifehacker.

• Windows maintenance tips, presented in handy charts.

• An amusing infographic to help you choose the perfect font for your project.

• Does heating water in the microwave first really make for better microwave popcorn?

• I’m a big fan of storage beds (my bed has no under to collect dust bunnies – it’s all dust-free storage). Check out the clever storage bed at ikea hacker.

• Turn a small bookcase into a cheap cat tree.

• Turn your refrigerator into a giant chalkboard! (Thanks for the link, CursingMama!)

• What a clever way to leave yourself high-visibility reminders!

• Too bad these floppy disk post-its are only a concept right now.

• Telecommuting myths debunked.

• How to make inside-out peanut butter cups. (Although they look more like muffins to me…)

• Build your own cotton candy machine.

• Look! “Proof” of time travel! (It is a really cool photo.)

Sad

• This is a heart-breaking story about an elderly gay couple, who’d done as much as they could to protect themselves legally… and it didn’t matter.

LOL

• Ha! How mechanical pencil sharpeners really work.

• Beware if you play with your cat using a laser pointer!

• How to tell that it’s Monday…

• How to tell that your cat has issues.

• Look out, Ceiling Cat!

• If you tend to be more tactful than sarcastic, skip this one.

• Strangely, I don’t find this as funny as I probably should… *ahem*

• Lightsaber chopsticks, anyone?

• What your computer is thinking about you…

• Via Cursing Mama, the Bloggess on accidentally brushing her teeth with eyelash glue…

WTF

• The (mostly) anatomically correct Rectum Bar?!

• I had no idea it was possible to outsource grading papers…

• Wow, it’s actually possible to sign away your soul if you don’t read the fine print…

• Some cool and unusual knitting, but the deep-fried gansey is very odd… Link courtesy of Amy Lane.

Squee!

• If you like pictures of cute boys with cats, there’s now a website devoted entirely to such pictures – and it even looks safe for work.

• Kitten.

• Very close kitten.

• Yawning kitten.

• Grooming kitten.

• Curled tail kitten.

• Kitten tummy.

• Kitten vs gravity.

• KittenS.

• Tuxedo kittens.

• Dangling kittens.

Reading Update
Jude in Chains by K. Z. Snow. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a gay journalist who attends a “reparative therapy” camp pretending to be a straight journalist.
Out of the Blue by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Very good m/m historical romance about a British and an American pilot in France during World War I.
The One That Stayed by T.C. Blue. ebook. Poignantly sweet m/m romance with characters who will be familiar to those who’ve read TC Blue’s The One That Was Lost and The One That Got Away. The story is told in a mixture of present day and flashbacks, with perhaps a bit too much headhopping.
Cinnamon Dreams by Vic Winter. ebook short. Cute short m/m romance a guy who ditches his hated office job to work in a bakery, where he spends a lot of time drooling over the hunky baker…
Officers in Need and Uniform Hardness by John Simpson. ebook shorts. These short m/m stories had some of the most stilted, least natural sounding dialogue I’ve ever read. They weren’t meant to be humorous, but I laughed out loud more than once. Ouch.
Man Down by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Enjoyable m/m romance about a paramedic student with a secret past and a paramedic who doesn’t really want to find him intriguing. While the characters from Running Hot do make brief appearances in this book, I think either book could be read first.
Still the One (The Best Gift, Book 2) by Shawn Lane. ebook short. This sweet m/m romance takes place five years after The Best Gift. Malcolm and Dusty are deeply committed to each other, but what will happen when they end up on opposite coasts for their careers?
Until the End of Time (At Long Last, Book 2) by Shawn Lane. ebook. Good m/m romance follow-up to At Long Last. Prescott and Scott have been together for seven months, but is Prescott ever going to admit to his parents and friends that Scott’s not simply his roommate?
Finding the Divine by J.L. Jensen. ebook short. Good m/m romance about a nurse who becomes friends and roommates with the sexy new doctor at the hospital. They’re attracted to each other, but neither knows the other is gay. This was part of Torquere’s “Arcana” series and was the first one I’d read in which the Tarot played a major part in the story instead of just being added as an afterthought. Also, it was set in the Twin Cities, which is always fun for me to read.
If I Must by Amy Lane. ebook short. reread. After reading the great review of this sweet m/m romance short at Reviews by Jessewave, I had the urge to reread it myself. Just as good the second time as it was the first!
The New Client by J.M. Snyder. ebook short. Meh short m/m mystery about a PI who’s hired by woman to find her missing twin brother. Not much of a mystery, plus a pretty glaring condom gaffe.
Savage Awakenings (Lost Shifters, Book 3) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. I have to confess I’ve put off reading this m/m paranormal because it’s Rat’s story; since I’ve always had this urge to punch Rat in the previous two books, I wasn’t sure I could make it through his book. Instead, I got totally sucked into the story. 🙂
Bound by Nature (Force of Nature, Book 1) by Cooper Davis. ebook. I really liked Boys of Summer by Cooper Davis. Alas, this m/m werewolf romance does not measure up well. While I don’t mind books in which flashbacks are used well (such as in Amor en Retrogrado and Son of a Gun), the alternating chapters of present and past in this book drove me nuts. As did a glaring continuity error in which one character puts on his glasses… and then picks up and puts on his glasses a paragraph later. How many simultaneous pairs of glasses can one person wear?! *ahem* Anyway.
To Hate and To Hold by Dakota Rebel. ebook. Good m/m paranormal romance about two vampires who hate each other and get bonded together as part of a mysterious curse. Their cursed bond forces them to get very, very familiar with each other… (Yes, that’s Slouching Open Black Jacket Guy on the left!)
A Pint Light by Devon Rhodes. ebook short. Enjoyable paranormal m/m romance about a vampire who’s expected to mate with a mage and is somewhat surprised to discover the mage is male.
Love Me Dead by A.M. Riley, Lex Valentine, & William Maltese. ebook collection. Good m/m paranormal romance collection about ghosts. (That cover scares me more than any ghost would…) I particularly enjoyed the two stories by A.M. Riley. Lex Valentine’s story was pretty good, but maybe a bit too sweet for me at the end. And, as is par for the course, I skipped the story by William Maltese.
Fire Season (Tales of the Darkworld, Book 3) by Lex Valentine. ebook. Ok m/m paranormal romance about a straight dragon shapeshifter whose fated mate turns out to be male. I thought the strongest part of this story was the time it spent showing how Holden dealt with (and didn’t deal with) his sudden attraction to a guy, which gets glossed over in a lot of fated mate stories. I didn’t like that Garrett made a lot of pronouncements, but never followed through on them. I also really wish I hadn’t read the epilogue, which suggests that their story isn’t finished… and I definitely won’t be reading the rest of it, based on that.
Caging the Tiger (Animal Attraction, Book 4) by Michelle Houston. ebook short. Ok m/m paranormal romance about a tiger shifter who’s finally going to meet the magician with whom he’s been corresponding for years. I think I’m done with this “series” of unrelated shorts, though – I just don’t care enough.
Guardian by Kalita Kasar. ebook short. Ok m/m romance about a guy who has no memory of his life before he was hit by a car when he was ten. And why does he have a recurring dream, from which he wakes yelling for Ben? He doesn’t know anyone named Ben… (Oh, good eye, you! That is BBG on the cover!)
Laying a Ghost by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance set on a Scottish island, about a fisherman who’s lived there all his life and a guy who comes to the island to live in the house his uncle left to him. Even with the insta-love aspect of the story, I really enjoyed this book. I know there are two additional books (and I have them already), but I’m not not sure I’ll be reading them soon because this really felt like a complete story unto itself.

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“But I don’t want to use the other portable kitty cave, big kitty. I want to use this one.” -Mayhem

“Tough luck, May. I got it first and I’m prepared to defend it with my laser eyes!” -Chaos