Contests
- Shawn Lane’s giving away an ebook of her forthcoming m/m romance, Only His Heart. Comment before May 22 for your chance to win!
- Largehearted Boy is giving away a $100 Threadless gift certificate and the Rolling Stones remastered Exiled on Main Street album. For your chance to win, comment by midnight CDT, May 21.
- Kris is having a really incredibly complicated super cool contest in which you could win m/m romance ebooks from Wren Boudreau, Stephani Hecht, Jambrea Jo Jones, Sean Kennedy, K.Z. Snow, and Angelia Sparrow. Since no one who’s entered so far has any clue what the right answers are (even those of us who’ve read the books in question) and we’re all guessing, your odds are no worse than random! Go! Go now! Guess away! Contest closes at noon Perth Australia time, May 23. According to the World Clock, that is 11 pm CDT, May 22, and 4 am GMT/UTC, May 23.
- Lisa Marie Davis is giving away a copy of her forthcoming m/m romance, In His Arms Again. Leave a comment by May 24th for your chance to win.
- Amora’s having her very first blog contest and she’s a little excited/anxious about it – stop by and help calm her down, ok? 🙂 She’s giving away an ebook copy of Barbara Sheridan’s paranormal time travel samurai novel, Falling Through Glass, to someone who comments by May 28.
- EH’s is having a “From My Bookshelf To Yours” contest, with options for the world excluding the US and Canada, and the US and Canada only. Contest runs through midnight (probably GMT/UTC), May 31.
- Nicole’s had some contest luck lately and now has duplicate books. She’s giving away the duplicates (Dear Sir, I’m Yours by Joely Sue Burkhart; Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione; Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham) to three different people who comment on any of her posts from May 14 through midnight PDT, May 31. Make sure you mention which book you’d like in your comment!
- Mandi at Smexy books is giving away two copies of Blood Born, a paranormal romance by Linda Howard and Linda Jones (comment by May 23). She’s also giving away a copy of Julie Kagawa’s young adult paranormal, The Iron King, plus a $25 Visa gift card to someone who comments by June 1.
- The contest post at All Things Urban Fantasy had links to 100 contests this week. And Book Junkie has all sorts of other contests on her contest blog.
Books & Reading
- New releases: Lily (m/m romance), Rick Reed (m/m romance from MLR Press), Literary Escapism (PNR & UF news, interviews, etc), and the Uncle Hugo’s/Uncle Edgar’s newsletter (SF/UF/PNR & mysteries).
- Dear Author has some great links to recent publishing news.
- If you’re looking for the deep thoughts version of linkity, published on Mondays, don’t miss Jessica’s Monday Stepback posts at ReadReactReview.
- Val ponders author bio cliches at Obsidian Books.
- Guy Gavriel Kay discusses the downsides of author community building.
- Neil Gaiman has an ethical dilemma about something he made up which has become, via Wikipedia, a fact.
- Mia Watts snarks weighs in about some ebook covers.
- A cover rant posted at Dear Author.
- I love the idea of cigarette vending machines being repurposed to sell small books.
- Check out the gorgeous book-related cakes from Cake Wrecks.
- Bronte Sisters Power Dolls – you know you wish they were real! (Thanks, Marsha!)
- Authors, make sure you read Paperback Writer’s post on character therapy.
Ebooks
- TeleRead took a look at three budget ereaders and decided that the Aluratek Libre was their favorite.
- Check out Lea’s post about ebook piracy over at DIK. TeleRead had a good post about ebook piracy, too. And here’s a post about movie piracy that got me thinking about ebook piracy.
- Jordan Castillo Price asked blog readers to weigh in on what they wanted in an ebook and reported on the results. Also, check out her behind-the-scenes look at how she puts together a cover for one of her ebooks.
- Rick Reed linked to a free ebook called 20 Tips for Writers that might interest some of you.
- I really like this iPad/ebook reader stand. (Book stands are great for saving your wrists and for letting you knit while you read. If you swing that way. To knitting, that is.) *ahem* Apparently I’ll have a review of how this stand works with my handy, dandy ereader in the near future, since I just bought one – I can’t resist a cool book stand…
Minnesota
- Check out Amy’s gorgeous photos of Minnesota spring from the Landscape Arboretum.
Learn, Do, Make, Think
- Ok, so entertaining regularly to help inspire you to keep your house clean is a great tip – unless you’re entertaining people who’ve started to feel like family…
- Hmm, I wonder if Chaos could out think this infrared-triggered water gun…
- Building a propane-powered pet dragon sounds a leeeetle bit dangerous, doesn’t it?
- If you’ve purchased a GE coffeemaker at Walmart, check to see if it was recalled for causing fires…
- Qwotebook is a new site that lets you save your favorite quotes and find new favorites.
- I can’t decide if I’d love the pixelated rug or if it would drive me nuts.
- If you feel you need a toothbrush sanitizer, you won’t find one cuter than this roly poly ninja.
- Do you remember the days of BBSes? (I do. I was known as the Ninja Kitten. *ahem*) Now you can flash back to those days of reading terminal-green ASCII text via modem!
- Facebook privacy: Use Adblock Plus to stop sites from adding applications to your Facebook profile. Quit Facebook without actually quitting it.
- This post from Eric Arvin was so simple, yet really got me thinking.
LOL
- Have you seen the first of Franklin’s urban knitting legends yet?
- I think Chappysmom might’ve gotten the best fortune cookie fortune ever.
- O noes! Bat country!
- Cat fail. (Cursingmama, did I find this via you??)
- Think it’d be cool to be a vampire? Think again! (Thanks, MamaTulip!)
- Things that are not pets from Indexed. Heh.
- Photoshop beauty cream – you know you wish it was real.
- Really stupid inventions, such as the rice-growing bra.
- Awful Library Books found a book about training you to train your cat. Hee hee.
- I’m just waiting for this cat to start scratching his business and yelling for a beer…
- Poor Basement Cat – he has minion fail. (Oh! Chaos has his very first minion! He’d like to welcome Lea to her new life of minionhood.)
- What if Basement Cat decides your soul isn’t worth it?!
- Kids acting up? It could be Basement Cat’s fault.
Awwww
- I love the first picture – doesn’t that black kitty look comfy?
- Isn’t Franco adorable?!
- Kitten lounging on a very big dog.
Reading Update
The Angel of 13th Street by Eden Winters. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a bar owner and former rentboy who, with help, turned his life around and now helps other young men get off the street and out of the life… and then one of his rescues really starts to get to him.
Valentine Wish by Eden Winters. ebook short. Like The Boy Under the Bridge, this was another good spinoff from The Wish. In this short m/m romance, Anton’s out with his friends and employers, celebrating his Valentine’s Day birthday. Will he be going home alone again, or will he get his birthday wish?
Mobry’s Dick by K.Z. Snow. ebook. Very good paranormal romance about guy who purchases an extremely mysterious object at a flea market and is not prepared for all of the interest it generates.
Handcuffs and Leather (Rawlings Men, Book 1) by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good kinky m/m romance about a constable who was briefly held prisoner and has to talk to a psychiatrist about the experience – the same psychiatrist he’s been dreaming of submitting to.
Lessons in Mastery 1-3: Under Control, Under Restraint, and Under Fire by Laine Williams. ebook shorts. Good m/m romances about a nurse, abused in the past, whose cop lover isn’t quite comfortable with exercising his dominance. Each of these books focuses on a critical life/relationship event.
Pool Hall Green by Sara Bell. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a former pool player whose white trash family kicked him out when he came out, yet keeps calling him to clean up their expensive messes… and he does.
Be the Air for You by T.A. Chase. ebook. So-so m/m romance about a rock star and his best friend, who he’s loved for 20 years but done nothing about. Is it time to change that? This just seemed to have a theme or two too many, and I never got emotionally invested.
Never Let Go by Jourdan Lane. ebook short. Decent short m/m romance about a writer who got tired of being the backup lay for his friend, a porn photographer, and kicked the guy to the curb six months ago.
What the Heart Wants by Cassidy Ryan. ebook short. Ok m/m romance about a guy who takes his cat Hellion to the vet and discovers that the vet is the guy he once loved… and left without a word.
Acquisitions and Mergers by Lucius Parhelion. ebook short. Ok m/m romance that I think was set in the 1950s (although I’m not sure it was ever stated). Anyway, it’s about two friends, one gay, one straight (and a widower), who own a company that’s in the process of being acquired. The story was fine, but for some reason the style kept me distanced from the whole thing.
Secret Skin by Sean Michael. ebook short. This ok short m/m encounter features Dal and Dillon from Secrets, Skin and Leather.
Nine-tenths of the Law by L.A. Witt. ebook. Very good m/m romance about two guys who start seeing each other after they discover they both had the same boyfriend… and neither was aware of the other. When something has such a messed up beginning, does it have a chance?
Carnal Intentions (Lost Shifters, Book 4) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. This was a good m/m paranormal about the continuing search for the jaguar shifter brothers who were kidnapped when they were very young. But I did realize that there’s only one more lost shifter in the immediate family this series has been about… will the next book be the last one?! There are still multiple unmated siblings…
Nothing But Trouble by Rachel Gibson. Not an ebook, not m/m. 🙂 Ok addition to Gibson’s books about the Seattle Chinooks hockey team. This was about the embittered and difficult former team captain, who won’t ever be able to play hockey again, and the actress the team hires in lieu of a home health care assistant (since the health care assistants never last longer than an hour).
*sunbeam blissout* -Chaos