Congrats to Eden Winters, who won Counterpoint (Song of the Fallen, Book 1) by Rachel Haimowitz. Also, Guiltless Pleasure Publishing is offering 10% off on Counterpoint through October 16 to Stumbling Over Chaos readers who use coupon code CHAOSCOUNTER. Thanks, GPP!

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Contests

• Lea’s giving away a copy of Lora Leigh’s Nauti and Wild anthology. Comment by midnight EDT, October 8.

• LesleyW wonders whether you read book prologues or not. Leave a comment answering her question by October 9 for your chance to win a copy of the Cravings anthology.

• KB’s giving away a copy of Backstage Pass (Sinners on Tour) by Olivia Cunning. Comment by October 9 for your chance to win. (US & Canada only)

• Mandi’s giving away a copy of Kalayna Price’s new paranormal romance, Grave Witch. Comment through October 9 for your chance to win.

• Leave a comment at Cecile’s by October 10 for your chance to win a Kobo ereader and free ebooks as part of Cherish D’Angelo’s virtual book tour.

• Leave a comment at Flint Knits before October 12 sharing which design from Knitting It Old School is your favorite for your chance to win one of two signed copies of the book.

• Patti’s giving away an ebook copy of Moira Rogers’s new paranormal romance, A Safe Harbor. Comment by October 13 for your chance to win. S7anna’s giving away a copy, too – you have until October 15 to comment.

• Tracy’s giving away a copy of Adrienne Barbeau’s new paranormal romance, Love Bites. Comment by 11:59 PDT, October 13, for your chance to win.

• Fiction Vixen is giving away your choice of Carolyn Crane’s Mind Games or Double Cross! Contest closes October 14. (US & Canada only)

• Em Woods is giving away books from Suzanne Brockmann, Catherine Mann, Karen Harper, Lori Foster, and Patricia Mason. Comment by October 15 for your chance to win.

• Cecile’s giving away a copy of Daughter of Darkness by V.C. Andrews. For your chance to win, leave a comment finishing the sentence, “If I were adopted by a vampire….” by October 15.

• Sweet Vernal Zephyr’s giving away an assortment of swag: bookmarks, books, ebooks, booklets, and more! Comment by October 22 for your chance to win.

• EH has her monthly international-only book giveaway posted – check it out if you are outside the US and Canada. Contest closes midnight GMT October 31.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Lily (m/m romance – I look forward to this post every week! Thank you, Lily!), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Fantasy Dreamer (UF/PNR/YA, etc), and SciFiGuy (fantasy, YA, UF/PNR)

• On Monday, October 11, Dear Author will celebrate National Coming Out Day by giving away GLBT ebook and print romances.

• Patti wonders whether or not you should contact authors to tell them about a good review you posted.

• K.Z. Snow interviews Wren Boudreau.

• Lynn Viehl on the ten Zen habits for writers.

• Don’t worry about walking on the books in this cafe.

• Make skull bookmarks.

• Turn a tea towel into a cover for a composition book.

• Cool poster of pulp paperback titles about book collecting.

• A bookcase made of pencils…

• The Smart Bitches take Kelley Armstrong’s cover artists to task.

• Authors will particularly enjoy the top ten signs that you’re on a deadline…

• LesleyW explains her fictional ferret book rating system.

• Vampire Wire has links to free paranormals at Borders, plus an amazing trailer for True Blood done as if it were a Jane Austen film.

Ebookity

• Now through November 19, you can send comments to the US Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force on “the protection of copyrighted works online and the relationship between copyright law and innovation in the Internet economy.”

• TeleRead on how DRM promotes piracy and why readers hate DRM.

• And hey! The new Blio eReader introduces yet another form of DRM!

• Dear Author has tips on how to make pdfs more readable on your ereader’s 6″ screen.

• You can play Zork (a classic text-based adventure game I remember fondly) on your Kindle for free!

• The seven secrets of ebook publishing success from Mark Coker of Smashwords.

Learn, Make, Do, Think

• I never realized that there’s no wild broccoli! (Thanks, Jase!)

• These 20 salads are worse for you to eat than a Whopper. (Thanks, Alison!)

• Watch a guy eat as much sugar as is in a 20-ounce soda.

• Learn about how various illegal drugs affect the brain by putting cartoon mice into a chair. (Thanks, Jase!)

• If you use your laptop on your lap, please use a laptop stand/desk! Not only will it help keep your laptop from overheating (a major cause of laptop death), it will also keep you from developing Toasted Skin Syndrome. Ewww… (Although my current laptop has a built-in stand, I used to use one of these.)

• Beware flash drives, which are perfect for transmitting computer viruses.

• Which vacuums passed the cat hair test?

• Did you know that a bit of vodka will remove sticker goo?

• Lovely. Birth control pills change your brain structure.

• Beware of scams if you buy your pet’s medications online.

• As mentioned above, National Coming Out Day is Monday, October 11. Here are 50 good posts about coming out.

• Author Mark del Franco on who the truly dangerous bullies are. Author Rick R. Reed on how it gets better. Knitting humorist Franklin on how it gets better. (See link in my sidebar to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project.) Katiebabs has some stats on bullying and a link to a great It Gets Better video. The Bloggess on talking to your kids about the consequences of being a bully. Author Stephani Hecht on how proud she is of her gay son. Author Heidi Cullinan on speaking out to support the GLBT community.

• Did you know that it’s GLBT History Month?

• You might be surprised to find a video of a homeless man, two Kermit puppets, and the song “Under Pressure” in this section – but it definitely made me think and changed my awareness of the song’s meaning.

Knitting

• Knit a Jack Russell terrier.

• Knit a mini-boombox for your iPod/iPhone and speakers.

Cool

• Halloweeny: Cauldron cupcakes! Styrofoam tombstones you can make for your yard! Storm trooper masks from a milk jug! Bracelet made from actual candy corn!

• The world’s largest yo-yo is made from two kiddie pools.

• Absolutely stunning quilt.

• We had inadvertent land carpet growing up – my mom didn’t feel like really carpeting our bedrooms, so she bought all sorts of carpet samples.

• Real Moleskine covers for your iPad and iPhone.

• Turn your MacBook into HAL Jr.

• Surely there’s someone on your holiday shopping list who would love an FU t-shirt?

• You can make your own official Star Trek merchandise at CafePress. I don’t like tea, but I do like the “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” mug.

• The updated map of online communities. (If you view it at xkcd, make sure you hover your mouse for additional text.)

• On being ok with being alone: “Lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless. And lonely is healing if you make it.”

Huh

• The people who brought you Bacon Lip Balm also make Bacon Baby Formula…

• A $15,000 gingerbread house?!

• A business card with breasts… I fear to imagine what a rent boy’s business card would look like! O.o

• Firefighters watch a house burn to the ground because the owner didn’t pay a $75 fee.

• Ear buds shaped like 9 mm bullets…

• Um, yeah – pretending that downloaded music doesn’t exist is going to work so well for the Boy Scouts (who probably taught their parents how to download music in the first place).

• Barbie’s sexcapades?!

• If you love chicken nuggets and ever plan to eat them again, do not click this link.

LOL

• Literally. (Thanks, Amy Lane!)

• Being the further adventures of Squirrel!Neo from Lilith Saintcrow.

• Completely NSFW linkity from Eyre.

• A chart of nearly every sort of photo you will find on Facebook.

• Simon’s Cat and the Hedgehog!

• Signs that your cat might think you’re on the computer too much.

• Places kitties like to drink from that are not their water bowls.

• I am not surprised that it’s a black kitten…

• Hidy cat.

• Chaos interacting with visitors. 🙂

• Knitters with cats: I really wouldn’t recommend trying this.

Teh Cute

• Baby lynx! Baby tiger! Kittens! Baby sea otter! Rawr kitten! Bunny slipper! Tree kangaroo! Red pandas! Kittens! Melly! Baby Basement Cat! Baby hummingbirds! Kitten! Kittens! Puppy! Kitten! Duckling! Kitten! Red panda! Kitten! Kittens! Baby leopard! Puppies! Sloth! ‘Tocktober!

Reading Update
Lime Green: Margarita Mondays by T.C. Blue. ebook. Very good m/m romance about an interior designer with trust issues who has friends over every Monday. After a noise complaint and confusion literally bring security guards crashing through his door one Monday night, he finds himself unwillingly attracted to one of the security guards. (I hope that TC’s going to write Riley’s story very soon, although so far she seems to mostly be taunting me about it on Goodreads.)
The Beach House by Shawn Lane. ebook. Sweet, good m/m romance about a model who overdosed and was sent to rehab. Post-rehab, his agent rents him a quiet house on the beach for the summer, to get him away from bad influences and help him figure out how to have a more normal life.
Get What You Need by Janey Chapel. ebook. Very good m/m story about a cop and an ex-con who connect briefly, with unexpected depth. Be aware that this doesn’t have a HEA or even necessarily a HFN ending – it’s a good read anyway.
Code Blue (EMS Heat, Book 5) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good m/m romance about a firefighter/EMT who’s hostile and deeply suspicious of motives when a friend’s ex-boyfriend shows up unexpectedly.
Temptation by Kim Dare. free ebook short. Sweet short m/m romance about an initiate, about to be consecrated to the goddess Artemis, who wanders away from the group on the way to the temple.
Ellery’s Duty (Thrown to the Lions, Book 3) by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good kinky paranormal m/m romance about a human dominant who allows himself to be “thrown to the lions” because he wants to make sure that the subs who go through the process are treated well. He certainly doesn’t expect to meet the innocent and atypical werelion Kefir…
Gayish (G-A-Y, Book 12) by Kim Dare. ebook short. Very good short kinky m/m romance about a dominant who spots a young man huddling in the rain at the bus stop across from a gay pride rally and goes over to talk to him… (I’m sad that this is the last book in this series!)
The Jitters by Fabian Black. ebook. Two cute short stories about Trevor and Luke, who have just purchased a house and moved in together. Alas, things aren’t going so smoothly…
Backwoods by Cara McKennea. ebook. Very good, gritty m/m story about a straight bar owner who auditions a musician and is completely unprepared for (and not so happy about) his attraction to the man. Be aware that this doesn’t have an HEA or even HFN ending.
After Anna (Book 1) by Theda Black. ebook. So-so m/m story about a police detective who’s not doing so well after his girlfriend dies and he learns she was a junkie. His partner and best friend is always there for him… and things get complicated. The style made this more oblique and confusing then it needed to be, but I was drawn into the story anyway. Be aware that there’s no HEA or even HFN.
Touch Like Breathing (After Anna, Book 2) by Theda Black. ebook. Ok m/m romance continuing the story of two police detectives who aren’t doing so well with their attraction to each other. While there was an awful lot of back and forth, on again, off again (to the extent that it seemed excessive), I still got drawn in and had to find out how things turned out. (Yes, you’re right, that’s Candy Cane Guy on both covers!)
Island of Temptation by Claire Thompson. ebook. 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 definitely like Claire Thompson’s newer stuff better than the older… and yet I can’t stop myself from reading the older stuff. Make of that what you will!
His Dirty Little Secret (Sammy & Friends, Book 3) by Stormy Glenn. ebook. Meh m/m romance about a black police detective who sets up a fuck buddy relationship with a white nurse in their extended group of (gay) friends, under the condition that no one can find out about it. This was more spectacularly trainwrecky than the usual SG – it seemed as if the plot holes and character inconsistencies exceeded all previous levels.
Dreggers Deep by J. Rocci. ebook short. Ok short m/m story that probably would’ve been more interesting to me if I were following the Dregs series by J. Rocci.

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“I can’t believe the big kitty said that stripey socks aren’t what life’s all about. He’s just jealous that he doesn’t have any stripey socks.” -Mayhem