Congrats to Kaetrin, who won Beyond Reckless by Ava March! Beyond Reckless will be released by Amber Quill Press on Sunday, November 28.

Freebies

• If you have an Amazon account, you can get $3 worth of mp3s free through November 29.

• All Romance eBooks (ARe) just released three free paranormal romance ebook collections. Just One Bite (Volume 1) is m/m and the other two volumes are m/f.

• Atlas Sound has four free albums (Bedroom Databank, Volumes 1-4) you can download at their blog. (The links to Volumes 3 & 4 are in the comments of the link.)

Contests

• Blodeudd’s giving away a copy of Christy English’s historical romance, The Queen’s Pawn. Contest ends November 28.

• Mandi’s giving away three sets of the following romances: It Happened One Night, Montana Legacy, Tall Tales & Wedding Veils, and Talk of the Town. Contest open through November 28.

• Patti’s giving away a set of Lydia Dare’s paranormal romances (A Certain Wolfish Charm; Tall, Dark & Wolfish; The Wolf Next Door; The Taming of the Wolf) to someone who comments by December 3.

• Patti’s giving away a signed copy of Shelley Workinger’s young adult novel, Solid. Comment by December 8 for your chance to win.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Lily (m/m romance), Smexy Books (upcoming UF/PNR), and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR new releases, contests, news).

• Author and publisher news and more from Dear Author and ReadReactReview (including a link to the very expensive official Dark-Hunter dolls).

• Social networking’s not necessarily going to help writers sell books.

• ReadReactReview contemplates the penis size of romance novel heroes and the reactions that heroines have.

• At DIK (Desert Island Keepers), Lea wonders whether or not book reviews have a limited shelf life.

• Meljean Brook has a great short post about how writing can be hard on one’s possessions.

• Yikes! Talk about an inexplicable cover for The Princess Bride!

• Are you familiar with the Nine Circles of Writing Hell? (Thanks, Amy Lane!)

Ebookity

• Sweet Vernal Zephyr has some thoughts on which ereader might be best for the ereader newbie. TeleRead has some thoughts on that, too. Dear Author has the second part of their ebook reader holiday buying guide, including links to Black Friday deals.

• TeleRead reports that Wired posted a tablet shopping guide.

• Some recent articles on piracy via TeleRead.

• A classic xkcd about ebooks and the Kindle – make sure you hover your mouse over the comic for additional text.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• Did you check Gizmodo’s Black Friday Cheat Sheet before you headed out today? (Plus some Black Friday humor from Gizmodo.) If you’re hiding from the insanity, Lifehacker has a guide to and tips for finding great online deals… and recommends that you wait until after the holidays to really get good deals on electronics.

• I hadn’t heard about this fascinating 1980 event in which Texaco, drilling in a Louisiana lake, accidentally drained the lake and created a huge whirlpool.

• You might want to stop drinking from decorative drinking glasses (the kind with enamel on them), since some have been found to contain about 1000 times more lead the recommended daily allowance…

• Bruce Schneier has a nice round up of some of the recent articles about the TSA backscatter x-ray controversy.

• A recent study of which scents men find most arousing discovered that  the winner was a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie.

• Another recent study discovered that each of our brains has more connections than all the computers on the planet!

• If you’re looking for a new notebook computer, Gizmodo’s guide to the best notebooks of 2010 is worth a look.

• To think about…

• I’m a huge fan of dustless under-the-bed storage – I have a storage futon frame (built by my brother, with a little help from me) that has space for 20 copy paper boxes, plus a layer of wrapping paper, luggage, and more on top of the boxes. Here’s how to modify an IKEA bed to get your own additional storage.

• Popular Mechanics did some research to figure out who treats your packages best: FedEx, UPS, or the USPS.

• GF news from Triumph Dining.

• Flying snakes. Ack!

Linkity Peeps

• Craft, photography, food, and natural living links from Fiber Fool.

• NSFW WTFery from Katiebabs.

Gift Ideas

• Perhaps the frequent flier in your life would like underwear with the Fourth Amendment printed on them?

• For the martini drinker,  you could make an Altoid tin martini kit!

• CRAFT has a gift guide for knitters and crocheters and another for kids.

• Gizmodo’s guide to all all their gift guides.

Cool

• Traditional fair isle knitting and robot mashup… Lorraine, I bet you could do a fair isle/Dr. Who mashup! 🙂

• TARDIS quilt!

• I can’t believe we didn’t get a chance to see this awesome mural while we were in San Francisco.

• Crocheted amigurumi like you’ve not seen before, including scenes from The Exorcist and Sid and Nancy… (via the Bloggess)

• World flags in pizza.

Huh

• Sippycup FAIL. (Thanks, Lea!)

• Vibrator FAIL. (Obviously NSFW…)

• A tombstone shaped like a computer?!

• A motorcycle hearse?!

• Fizzing bacon tablets…

• A combo shot glass and pint glass…

• Adam Savage of Mythbusters made it through airport security with two 12″ long razorblades he’d forgotten were in his laptop bag…

LOL

• O noes! Area 51 is receiving poor reviews from interstellar Google Maps users! 😉

• Unusual security measures employed by the TSA… (I had a hard time deciding whether this belonged in “Huh” or “LOL”…)

• Indexed on the TSA.

• What the Statue of Liberty would look like to the TSA…

Teh Cute

• Tiger cubs! Kitten! Kittens! Purring cougar kitten! Penguin! Baby hedgehog! Kittens! Kitten! Cartoon tiger! Kitten! Baby otter! Red panda! Kitten does not want to be carried! Panda rolling down hill! Tree kangaroo!

Reading Update
Breathe by Sloan Parker. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a guy who’s just spent six months in prison and is returning to his home town. I don’t want to say more about it, because part of this book’s strength is how what happened in the past and what’s happening in the present unfold together. Every time I was sure I had things all figured out, I was wrong. 🙂
Last Call Europe: Black Wolf by Belinda McBride. ebook. Very good kinky m/m paranormal romance about a lone wolf shifter and detective who’s been following the trail of a killer around the world. He ends up in London, at the paranormal bar Last Call Europe, where he’s teased by a saucy Siberian Husky shifter…
Caught by Surprise by L.D. Madison. ebook. Good m/m romance (from Loose Id’s Coming Out Day series) about two FBI agents who wake up naked in bed together with no memory of how they got there… My only complaint about this book was a plot thread that seemed to be going somewhere but was dropped.
Hit and Run by Cassidy Ryan. ebook . Good m/m romantic suspense about a guy who witnesses a crime, then ends up on the run, trying to stay alive long enough to testify.
After Hours by Cassandra Gold. ebook short. Cute steamy short m/m story about a guy closing at a bakery, who’s kind of impatient when a customer rushes in at the last minute…
The Hitcher and His Ride by Misty Malone (according to ARe, even though that doesn’t match the cover…). ebook short. Ok short paranormal m/m story about a lost driver who sees a wrecked motorcycle on the road and picks up the injured rider. This was a variation of a pretty traditional hitchhiker ghost story, with a few twists.
Nature’s Own by Nica Berry. ebook. Meh m/m urban fantasy about the fae, with a menagey bit. Alas, this story never drew me in, nor did I particularly care about any of the characters by the end.
Beg for More by A.J. Hardcourt. ebook short. So-so short m/m encounter between an architect and the owner of a construction company when they’re working late one evening.
The Club at Cool Harbor by Christiane France. ebook. Meh m/m romance about two guys who are trying to figure out who’s leaking secrets from an exclusive gay mens’ club. My major problems with the book were a plot based on a big misunderstanding, stalkerish tendencies (after a single date that didn’t actually happen, one guy called, sent letters, etc, for months?! Really??), instalove, and a lack of dramatic tension.
Sleepless in San Francisco by Ryan Field. ebook. PWP based on the movie Sleepless in Seattle. I knew this wasn’t going to be a good book, but it was worse than I expected.

“Everything looks so upside down. I wonder why?” -Mayhem