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Congrats to Verena, who won Teacher Plus Two (In the Eyes #2) by Valentina Heart!

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Contests

• Jenre’s giving away three ebooks by Aleksandr Voinov: Scorpion, Counterpunch, and a choice from Aleks’ backlist. Comment on one or both of the contest posts for your chance to win.

• Joyfully Jay is giving away a varying number of ebooks (depending on how many followers her blog has by 11:59 pm EDT, November 6) – winners will be able to pick from the ebooks she reviews during Virgin Hero Week.

• Joyfully Jay is also giving away ebook copies of LA Witt’s The Distance Between Us and its forthcoming sequel, The Closer You Get. Contest closes 11:59 pm EST, November 11.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away two copies of Embrace the Highland Warrior by Anita Clenney. Closes November 7. US & Canada.

• CursingMama’s giving away three Shutterfly codes, each good for 25 cards. Comment before November 11 to enter.

• Devon Rhodes is giving away a GRL swag bag that includes a signed copy of the Gaymes anthology, a Devon travel mug and t-shirt, and more. Answer the questions by midnight PST, November 14, for your chance to win. US & Canada only, but everyone who enters will receive a very cool GRL Devon magnet and an autographed postcard.

• RJ Scott’s celebrating her new website/blog with a contest with seven different prizes, such as $20 credit at Silver Publishing, signed paperbacks, and ebooks of freshly released and forthcoming books. Contest closes midnight GMT, November 20.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Elisa Rolle (GLBT), AAR (romance audiobooks), Tor.com (PNR), and Book Lovers Inc (a bit of everything).

• LoveRomancePassion has the third part of “Who’s on the Cover”, their feature on cover models. (Fabio flashback, anyone?)

• Josephine Myles examines the “happily ever after epilogue” in m/m romance.

• Gizmodo’s eight things to help you with NaNoWriMo. Lifehacker on the benefits of writing regularly.

• Make tiny leather-bound (spell)books. (via CRAFT)

• ReadReactReview on romance novel heroes who have uncontrollable erections.

• xkcd on homeopathic books. (hover your mouse cursor over the comic for additional text)

• Anne Rice talks trash about Stephenie Meyer’s vampires.

Ebookity

• Amazon Prime members now have access to Amazon’s new Lending Library program.

• PBS’s MediaShift has been running a special series on ebooks.

• Kassa wonders whether ebooks affect our memory of what we’ve read.

• A recent study found no difference between reading from a screen and reading from a printed page.

• If you purchased When I Fall (An Uncommon Whore #2) by Belinda McBride before November 1, your copy may have a major continuity error in it.

• Eric Arvin posted a free m/m horror story.

• Tam posted a cute free Halloween-themed m/m romance.

GayRomLit

• Rarely Dusty Books After Party: Damon Suede

• Leontine

• Kris

• Photos people sent in to Jessewave

Learn, Do, Make, Think

• Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend in the US and Canada.

• If you use Firefox or Chrome and are frustrated by Google removing the original sharing options from Google Reader, there are some plugins that can help.

• Tips from Gizmodo on how to not exceed  your smartphone’s data cap.

• Make an AC adapter for your battery-only digital camera.

• What are the best days of the week to buy expensive things online?

• Penguin Girl ponders on notes and notebooks, with a focus on knitting.

• Recommended plants if you’re a plant neglecter.

• Infographic of facts about cats.

• Use a rubber flip-flop as a “magic eraser”.

• A “harm-reduction” drug for celiacs has had promising early test results.

• I wonder if this actually works to get the seeds out of a pomegranate?

• Have you had a glass of “wine product”?!

• Apparently peanut butter prices have already started to soar…

• How to properly kick down a door.

• Four hundred LGB New Yorkers were asked how their lives would be different if homophobia did not exist. (Thanks, Stephani!)

• What’s your slavery footprint?

• One in 15 Americans lives at least 50% below the official poverty level.

Halloweenity for Next Year

• Americans spend $6.8 billion on Halloween?!

• Spike your pumpkins with vinegar to keep away the squirrels.

• Carve your pumpkin via explosion.

• Scifi/fantasy pumpkins.

• Geeky pumpkins.

• Awesomely geeky (and ridiculously cute) kids’ costumes.

• Creepy spider cakes. (via CRAFT)

Cookity

• Gluten-free pumpkin bars.

• Gluten-free honey glazed old-fashioned doughnuts. (via The Kitchn)

• Gluten-free apple cider doughnut pancakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Baked apple cider doughnuts.

• Non-dairy, non-separating coconut whipped cream. (via Lifehacker)

• Fifteen sweet and/or salty fall treats.

• Eleven fall drinks.

• Five fall desserts.

• Five quick pork chop recipes.

• Baked spaghetti squash and meatballs… you could even make it with vegetarian “meatballs”. (via The Kitchn)

• Baked pumpkin oatmeal.

• Pumpkin cream cheese.

• $2.50 chocolate-coconut peanut butter. (via The Kitchn)

• Candy bar caramel corn. (via The Kitchn)

• Caramel corn bars. (via The Kitchn)

• Chocolate frog jelly shots… (via CRAFT)

Crafty

• Cross stitch a TARDIS case for your iPhone. (via CRAFT)

• Crochet a pea coat for a toddler. (via CRAFT)

• Knit and felt oven mitts. (via CRAFT)

• Knit Missoni-style zig-zag mittens. (via CRAFT)

• Knit fox ears (could easily be kitty ears!). (via CRAFT)

• Kristi the Fiber Fool has tutorials for right cabling and left cabling without a cable needle.

• Margaret Atwood’s a knitter, and her knitted great auk is going to be part of an exhibit on lost avian species. (via KnittyBlog)

Cool

• Aw, what sweet kitties, taking care of that kitten! (Thanks, Seanna!)

• Have you seen Amanda Palmer, Moby, Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), and Neil Gaiman perform “Science Fiction / Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Delightful!

• Princess Vader.

• Do you have the Doctor Who Encyclopedia app for your iPad yet? (via The Mary Sue)

• Lovely and inexpensive hobbitish house built by a Welshman and his friends.

• Or you could go visit Hobbiton!

• Watch the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River being intentionally breached. (via Gizmodo)

• Doctor Who cupcakes.

• How the TARDIS works.

• A mug that will help you serve the perfect cup of coffee or tea – and has gift potential!

Cool or Wha…?

• Building wearing a giant pink bra to increase breast cancer awareness.

• Toaster with built-in griddle.

• If the Batmobile was electric, it might look like this.

• The Evil Dead in claymation in a minute.

• Spider porn.

Wha…?

• Eeep! I’d keep an eye on kids, pets, short friends… (Thanks, Jase!)

• Some states require sellers to disclose if a house is haunted.

• You can buy pizza-sized Whoppers at Burger King in Japan.

• A chandelier made from cheese graters.

• Some scientists have gone to crowdsourcing to fund their research into how strong duck penises are…

• “A frightened face appeared in the ultrasound of a man’s testicle.“

• Fashion or tentacle pr0n?!

• Leopard print garden hose cover.

LOL

• The Kitten Covers… classic album covers redone with kittens. Of course. (via The Mary Sue)

• Ten autocorrect misunderstandings with parents.

• The 25 funniest autocorrects of DYAC’s first year.

• Apparently HAL has a lot to answer for.

• Charlie Brown-Cthulhu mashup.

• With friends like that… (make sure you hover your mouse pointer over the comic for extra text)

• Well, crap. Now I feel old. (make sure you hover your mouse pointer over the comic for extra text)

• The dark side of that laser toy you have for your cat…

• Personally, I’m happy that my kitties don’t want to cuddle in the summer!

Teh Cute

• Kittens! Lion and cub! My all-time favorite picture of a tiger and cub! Big cats carrying cubs! Mama tiger and babies! Baby leopard! Ostriches and babies! Baby skunk! Elephant and baby! Cheetahs eating pumpkins! Baby harp seal!

Reading Update
The German by Lee Thomas. ebook. Very good historical gay suspense/horror set in small-town Texas during WWII, when the brutal murder of two boys has emotions running high against the Germans in town. Be prepared for a very disturbing read.
Nexus (Warder #5) by Mary Calmes. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about lawyer and warder Marcus going to Kentucky with his hearth, Joe, to visit Joe’s family, never expecting to run into demons while there. While I did enjoy this, at times I felt simultaneously as if I was missing part of the story, yet was being rushed through the story.
I Dare You by Tam Ames. free ebook short. Cute free short Halloween-themed m/m romance about a college student whose roommate dares him to go to a Halloween party and make a move on a guy he likes.
More Than Anything (More #1) by Shawn Lane. ebook short. Sweet short m/m romance about a college freshmen who thinks the hunky football player hitting on him is just doing it to make fun of him. I want to read more about these two!
Hot Ticket (Serving Love) by KA Mitchell. ebook. reread. Good m/m romance about two very different guys who meet while doing court-ordered community service. *waves at Slave Boy*
Foxe Hunt (Skyler Foxe Mysteries #2) by Haley Walsh. ebook. Good m/m romantic suspense about high school English teacher Skyler who gets involved in another murder investigation while trying to decide if he actually has a boyfriend or not. It wasn’t until I hit the cliffhanger ending that I remembered I wasn’t going to read this one until the next book came out. D’oh! Also, Skyler is starting to reach new levels of TSTL and I spent a fair amount of time wanting to shake him.
Crankset (Chainbreaker #2) by Kate Roman. ebook short. Good short m/m sequel to Chainbreaker, which unfortunately lacks the charm of the original. In this one, our San Francisco bike messenger and his Gulf War veteran boyfriend become frustrated about living behind a curtain in the corner of someone’s living room.
Night Terrors (Night Wardens #1) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Pretty good m/m paranormal romance about a guy who has to leave college in order to fulfill his destiny as a Warder and protect humanity from a paranormal threat. This one needed a bit more polish and development to really shine.
For the Bite of It (Vampire in Exile) by Viki Lyn &Vina Grey. ebook. Meh paranormal m/m romance about an exiled vampire stripped of his powers and baking cupcakes in Tempe, Arizona, where he comes under suspicion of murder. Did the suspicious cop have to be so appealing and so deeply closeted? Although this is kind of choppy and sloppily edited (“scoured” instead of “scowled”?!), it was heading for three stars until it abruptly stopped, at the point of a critical conversation, feeling very unresolved. If this is supposed to be the first part of a serial, there’s sure not anything about it on Liquid Silver’s page for the book. And if there had been – I wouldn’t have purchased it.

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“Hmm. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” -Chaos