Contests

• Jenre’s giving away a copy of Janey Chapel’s m/m romance, Maritime Men. Answer her question in the comments by 11:59 pm GMT, March 5, for your chance to win.

• The Book Smugglers are giving away a copy of Something About You, the new contemporary romance by Julie James. Contest closes 11:59 pm PST, March 6.

• Donna Fantasy Dreamer’s giving away a signed ARC of Sean Cummings’ new urban fantasy, Shade Fright (Valerie Stevens, Book 1). Answer her question in the comments by 8 am CST, March 7, for your chance to win. SciFiGuy’s also giving away a signed copy to someone who comments by midnight EST, March 10.

• SciFiGuy’s giving away a copy of Skyler White’s new vampire novel, and Falling, Fly, too. Leave a comment by midnight EST, March 10.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Beth Kery’s latest erotic romance, Release. Leave a comment by March 10 for your chance to win.

• If you post or tweet about the Chicago author event at the Webster Place Barnes & Noble (featuring Julie James, Beth Kery, Shiloh Walker, and Joss Ware aka Colleen Gleason) on March 13, you’ll have a chance to win signed books and a $40 B&N gift card.

• Oh, you lucky Canadians – you have a chance to win one of five copies of Shadowrise (Shadowmarch, Book 3) by Tad Williams from SciFiGuy if you leave a comment by midnight EST, March 17.

• If you’re in the US, you have a chance to win one of three copies of Rachel Ward’s young adult paranormal thriller, Num8ers, from SciFiGuy – comment by midnight EST, March 17, to enter the contest.

• Author Julia Barrett’s having a recipe contest this month to celebrate the upcoming release of her steamy romance, Beauty and the Feast. Head over to Julia’s blog to get the details!

• Cecile’s giving away your choice of one of Beth Kery’s steamy romances – simply leave a comment by March 31 for your chance to win. Also at Cecile’s, if you can answer the question about Jenna Byrnes, you’ll have a chance to win one of her books. This one’s open until March 31, too.

• Sweet Vernal Zephyr keeps a constantly updated list of book-related contests going in her blog sidebar. Book Junkie has a second blog (Book Junkie II) just for contest listings. And All Things Urban Fantasy puts out a weekly list of urban fantasy contests every Wednesday – the latest has nearly 100!

Books & Reading

• SciFiGuy’s weekend report is, as always, chock full of info. So’s the March Escapist Newsletter from Literary Escapism.

• For lists of of new and forthcoming books, check out Renee’s Book Addiction (romance, m/m, paranormal, urban fantasy, etc), Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings (fantasy, paranormal, urban fantasy, YA) (Donna’s got some contest listings, too), SciFiGuy (paranormal, urban fantasy, fantasy, scifi), and I Love Books (m/m).

• Smart Bitches have an assortment of interesting links. So does author Kelly McCullough of Wyrdsmiths.

• Not sure how well this art installation promoted reading, but it sure looked cool. These vintage typewriter keyboard stickers look pretty cool, too.

• How much does it cost to publish an ebook versus a hardcover? Not everyone agrees with those numbers.

• One TeleRead contributor’s thoughts on why to avoid ereaders… for now.

• Some predictions for ebooks in 2010.

• Does Apple’s removing racy applications from its iPhone App Store have implications for its proposed ebook store?

• Author Marta Acosta shares some of her thoughts on ebook piracy.

• Trek’s thoughts and observations from the ethics assignment on ebooks and ereaders that she gave her college students.

• Are books still books if they’re electronic? If you’d like to think more deeply on the nature of the book, this might be the read for you.

• Val of Obsidian Bookshelf discusses that most challenging question plaguing m/m romance authors – how to keep those pesky pronoun references straight.

• Nicola at Alpha Heroes put together a very cool photo essay based on locations from Kat Richardson’s urban fantasy, Underground.

• Kmkat found an interesting study on what those Harlequin titles such as The Brazilian Millionaire’s Love Child might have to say about evolution.

• If you can bear to chop up old book covers, you can make some pretty cool postcards.

• Trek reviewed an intriguing book about what might happen if all your private conversations went public.

• If you’re a writer prone to procrastination, maybe you need to check out the tough love anti-procrastination application, Write or Die.

• Many thanks to Keira of Love Romance Passion for including Stumbling Over Chaos in her list of 2010’s Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs.

Learn Stuff

• How to make fakeuccinos at home instead of buying those bottled Starbucks drinks.

• Find out about the man who created MacGyver.

• Lifehacker celebrates duct tape.

• There are now officially wraps or skins for everything – including an x-ray wrap for casts.

• Gizmodo lists 15 plants that are good at purifying air.

• Topeka, Kansas, changed its name to Google, Kansas, for the month of March.

• Some psychologists theorize that the evolutionary purpose of depression is to enhance mental skills.

• I didn’t realize that every earthquake affects the earth’s axis. Because of the Chilean earthquake, days are now 0.00000126 seconds shorter.

• Gladys makes the most amazing pooling stoles from Wollmeise and shares her patterns.

• MaryLou’s Kombu Cowl is a gorgeous way to use half a skein of Mini Mochi.

• Knitblogger KarenB documented her transition from Blogger to WordPress, if you’ve been thinking about making the same move.

• Erotic Horizon discusses the tools she uses to make blogging easier.

• Thanks to CursingMama for highlighting this thought-provoking post about figure skater Johnny Weir and how he’s portrayed by the media.

• ModernCat has some great pictures of a cat table (sort of an outdoor garden/platform for your cats to enjoy on your deck or patio), plus a link to how to make one.

• Ugh. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to eat bagged salad again…

• As Jeanne noted when she sent me this link, who connects black peppercorn to salmonella?! (After all the recalls recently, I wasn’t too surprised to discover that food-borne illnesses cost the US $152 billion annually in medical care and quality of life.)

• The National Institute of Health claims that lactose intolerance is nowhere near as prevalent as people think. (Since my gastroenterologist told me I was lactose intolerance, I’m pretty sure I really am…)

LOL

• Limedragon sent me this great comic about why DRM doesn’t work… It could as easily go in the books section!

• This iPad case was inevitable…

• Dice storage is very important.

• The real reason people want laser eye correction surgery.

• Hmm. Looks a lot like Chaos to me.

• Although… this could be Chaos, too.

• SuperKitty to the rescue!

Teh Cute! It Burns!

• Aww, a little angel.

• Too cute to be fearsome.

• But does it have sparkles?

• Kmkat found a great post with pictures of  celebrities and their cats.

• Not getting enough kitten cuteness in your life with itty bitty kitty committee and pitter pats of baby cats? Give Two Mama Cats a try.

Reading Update
My Fair Captain (Sci-Regency, Book 1) by J.L. Langley. ebook. Another book for Kris’ m/m rut challenge. This was a scifi m/m romance, with a Regency flair to it… and I totally loved it. (I’m really glad I totally loved it, because if I hadn’t? I’d be afraid, as this is a very popular book.) I was a little frustrated during the prologue and first few chapters, as I tried to pull the bits and pieces together (that world-building stuff), but after I hit the breakthrough point (where you absorb the background and it doesn’t interfere with the story anymore), I was transfixed. Very steamy, yet very romantic and highly recommended read. (Kris is gloating. I can hear her.)
The Englor Affair (Sci-Regency, Book 2) by J.L. Langley. ebook. Not quite as good as My Fair Captain, but still a very good m/m scifi romance.
Friction by J.P. Bowie, Jenna Byrnes, Jude Mason, Kim Dare, Ashley Ladd, S.L. Majors, & Cassandra Gold. ebook collection. This was an enjoyable m/m romance collection. I thought of all the stories were, at the very least, decent, with one exception. And there were definitely a couple that were excellent.
Running Hot by Stephani Hecht. ebook short. Nicely done short m/m romance about a paramedic and an ER doctor.
GPS by Leigh Ellwood. ebook short. Cute m/m romance about a guy who gets a GPS for his birthday, but what the heck is up with the darn thing?! (Yes, you’re right – that is Candy Cane Guy in the background.)
Sea of Sin (Creatures of Sin, Book 3? Book 2.5?) by India Harper. ebook short. Ok m/m romance short about a police commander who lives a celibate, closeted life except for the one week during which he goes on a gay cruise vacation. Based on the sort of non-ending to this story, I suspect it’s part of the setup for the next book in the series.
629 Miles To Love by Fae Sutherland & Marguerite Labbe. ebook. Ok m/m romance about two former lovers on a drive, talking about what went wrong. (Lost points for lack of condoms and lack of discussion of same.)
Skin Deep by S. W. Vaughn. ebook. Quite good urban fantasy m/m romance that was a bit hard for me to read at points, due to graphic violence in a domestic abuse situation. I am glad I persevered. (No condoms here, either…)
Falling (Hawkins Ranch, Book 2) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about two ranchers, one of whom happens to be a demon, which I would’ve enjoyed more if it had had a bit less torture. Those parts were hard for me to read and I definitely skimmed the more graphic violence.
ReneCade (Hawkins Ranch, Book 3) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Another good m/m romance (no paranormal this time) about a deeply closeted sheriff’s deputy who’s attracted to the sheriff’s son, but very afraid of the potential consequences of that attraction. I’m glad that this was less brutal than Falling, but the angst was flowing more freely and there was cheating, so maybe it was a draw.
Do You Believe in Magic by Drew Zachary. ebook short. Very steamy short m/m romance that was a good antidote to the brutality of Skin Deep and Falling.
Slap and Tickle by Drew Zachary. ebook. So-so m/m romance about a possessive cop and the stripper he’s in love with. I found the nicknames (“Big Daddy” and “Candy Pants”) annoying and the sex-to-story ratio was so skewed I skimmed a lot to find the tiny bits of plot scattered amongst the nudity. Plus a plot point that was played up throughout the book wasn’t resolved so much as dropped, which was odd and rather unsatisfying.

“Fine, Mayhem. Be that way. I was only trying to help. Now you will be shunned because your ears are dirty!” -Chaos

“Whatever, big kitty. I think you have OCD issues.” -Mayhem