Contests

• JessaLu is celebrating her birthday with a contest – she’s giving away some handspun yarn and some of her gorgeous bucket bags. Stop by and wish her a happy birthday before midnight EDT, July 16 (yup, that is today), for your chance to win. And, hey, mention that I sent you. 🙂

• Lea’s giving away a $10 Amazon gift card, plus your choice of a Beth Kery or Julie James book from the Book Depository. Leave a comment with your three to ten favorite movies by midnight EDT, July 16.

• Wendy’s giving away four skeins of gorgeous sock yarn – leave a comment by noon EDT, July 18, for your chance to win one.

• Mandi’s giving away a copy of Sean Cummings’s latest urban fantasy, Funeral Pallor (Valerie Stevens #2). US & Canada only. Contest runs through July 18.

• Over the Edge Book Reviews is giving away a signed copy of Dark Warrior: Untamed, the latest paranormal romance by Alexis Morgan. Contest runs through July 18.

• Heidi’s giving away a skein of Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver yarn – check out her blog for multiple ways to enter the contest, which closes July 20.

• Ms Moonlight’s giving away five steamy print books (three from Samantha Kane’s m/m series Brothers at Arms, Stranded by Eve Vaughn, & Alpha’s Mate by Leah Brooke) – for your chance to win, you need to be a follower in the US or Canada and write captions for the three posted book covers. Contest closes July 21.

• Learn a little more about Kim Dare and leave a comment before July 23 for your chance to win an ebook from her backlist.

• Morning Glow’s celebrating her birthday by giving away a $40 gift certificate to CSN Stores (US & Canada only). Contest closes 12 am EDT, July 23.

Bookity

• New releases: Lily (m/m romance), Renee (eclectic short listing of June books), Katiebabs (eclectic listing of future releases), and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR, with interviews, contests, and more).

• Smokin’ Hot Books has some m/m romance book recommendations.

• Dear Author does linkity posts several times each week. While Dear Author’s linkity is usually serious stuff, the linkity at Smart Bitches is definitely much less so!

• Dear Author reports back from RomCon on what readers think about book covers.

• Do you read Good Show Sir? They look at scifi/fantasy book covers and try to recreate what the art director must’ve told the artist to end up with the cover in question… 🙂

Ebookity

• An American Editor on ebooks and the TBR (to-be-read) pile.

• Ebook sales were up 162% in May.

• TeddyPig on increasing ebook sales and decreasing brick & mortar bookstore sales.

• Will publishers learn from the recording industry’s mistakes, or will they make the same mistakes with ebooks that the recording industry made with the internet? Can traditional publishers even adapt to the internet?

• How should a publisher choose which platform to use for ebook publishing? (My thought: Please don’t be platform-specific!)

• IKEA Hacker has a very inexpensive way to make an iPad or ebook reader stand.

Learn, Do, Make, Think

• A real unicorn! (Thanks, Amy!)

• If you’ve always wanted to be a mermaid/man, now you can make your own functional swim tail!

• This is clever – make a self-cleaning pet bowl using a fish tank filter.

• You probably thought you knew everything there was to know about Star Wars. You’d be wrong! (Thanks, Stephani!)

• Curious about the lies people tell during online dating? (I now understand why every guy who claimed to be my height of 5’9″ was actually shorter than me when we met!)

• How to be positive and supportive on social networks, yet not annoy everyone.

• Oh oh – the five-second rule is under attack by actual science.

• No! Foodborne illnesses from salsa and guac?!

• Common kitchen myths debunked… wait, that baking soda isn’t doing any good?! Waaaah!

• This hand-crank coffee grinder looks pretty cool.

• What will the unemployed astronauts be doing in 2012?

• If you have a DSLR, you can make your own inexpensive negative scanner (although my dad suggested you paint the inside of the toilet paper tubes matte black).

• Very cool poster from the 2009 Love Your Body Campaign. (Thanks Jase!)

• Do you know what caffeine is actually doing in your body and brain?

Linkity Peeps

• Eyre’s back with more of her completely NSFW linkity.

• Kristi’s back with photography, knitting, and food linkity.

Huh

• Make a paper clone of yourself.

• Ugh. Clothing grown from bacteria?

• A clock that tells time by knitting.

• If you crochet and have a small car…

• Just say no to canned sandwiches, ok?

• A lawnmower tricycle?

• What has it got in its pockets? (Thanks, Jeanne!)

• Bodily fluids represented in paper art, via CRAFT…

• Sperm plush dolls??! (Thanks???, Stephani!)

• The Transportation Safety Administration is recruiting via… pizza boxes?! (Really, that explains so much, doesn’t it?)

LOL

• Brilliant! Twilight Eclipse as told by cats. (Thanks, Bronwyn!)

• Vampires on Facebook…

• Your parents on Facebook! (Via Eric Arvin)

• Do you know what the nine stupidest superhero secret identities are? (Thanks, Stephani!)

• Erm. It’s not often that cake is NSFW, but… more superheroes!

• Kitty as a video game.

• Kitty sleeping habits.

• Kitty porta-potty…

• Beware the soul vortex!

• Hmm. I think some of these kittehs are more Purgatory Kittehs than Basement Kittehs.

• O noes! “Missing” kitty! (Thanks, Jeanne!)

Teh Cute

• Kittens! Kittens! Kitten! Kitties! Kittens! Kitties and puppies! Kitten! Floofy kitten! Fundraising kittens!

• You probably need Daily Bunny in your life. (Thanks, Jase!)

• Kitty wants cake!

• Danger! I Can Haz Cheezburger is doing linkity posts, too.

Reading Update
Truth in the Dark by Amy Lane. ebook. Excellent m/m version of Beauty and the Beast about a bitter, disfigured woodcarver who agrees to leave with a strange part man, part beast so that he will no longer be a barrier to his sister’s happiness.
Truthful Change by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow. ebook. Very good kinky m/m romance about a retired mercenary who becomes fascinated by his seemingly innocent gardener…
Jacob’s Ladder (St. Nacho’s, Book 3) by Z.A. Maxfield. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a pastry chef who ends up in St. Nacho’s because of a cold and domestic violence. He’s planning to leave town as soon as his brother can pick him up… but you know how plans like that go in St. Nacho’s!
Start from the Beginning by Chrissy Munder. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy who recently had a stress-induced heart attack and is now staying at a friend’s cabin to learn how to slow his life down. Without much to do, he becomes fascinated by the reclusive artist who lives in a nearby cabin.
Fair Winds by Chrissy Munder. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy who’s supposed to be part of a sailboat’s crew during a big race, until the other crewmembers find out he’s gay. I’d really like to see a sequel to this one!
Blast from the Past by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good m/m romance about a teacher who was laid off and is now working at a daycare center, where he runs into the guy he had a huge crush on in high school.
A Detour Home by Devon Rhodes. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about two college-age friends who’ve known each other for years, but not done anything about their attraction until they work together on summer road crew job.
Undeniable Magnetism by Bonnie Dee. ebook. Good m/m romance about two men who are very different (black/white, closeted/out, white-collar/blue-collar) who may or may not be getting involved with each other.
Runaway Love by Z.A. Maxfield. free ebook short. Good short m/m romance about an artist who’s driving to San Francisco when he stops to pick up two young hitchhikers.
Beautiful Sunset by Sarah Masters. ebook short. Lyrical short paranormal m/m romance about a man who was brutally betrayed by his boyfriend; since then, he’s been going to sit by a small lake and feed bread to a heron and think.
Life After by Jaime Samms. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about a guy who’s taking some time off from the law firm where he works as he reevaluates his life. He’s been spending a lot of time thinking in the cemetery, until one day the caretaker walks up and starts talking to him.
Unstoppable Force by Lisa Marie Davis. ebook. Good m/m romance about a successful businessman who doesn’t believe in love, so he simply hires high-class prostitutes for a weekend or a few weeks. And then he hires a guy who starts to really get under his skin… and whose past isn’t quite ready to let him go. This would’ve been a much better read if everything hadn’t been tidied it up in half a chapter and an epilogue – it definitely felt rushed.
Martin and the Wolf by Anne Brooke. ebook. Very good short paranormal m/m romance about a guy who has a scorching hot encounter with a crude and mysterious man at a friend’s garden party – an encounter that he doesn’t realize will change his life.
Sweet Surrender by Ashleigh Walton. ebook. So-so, but very sweet, m/m romance about an architecture student who starts dating a guy with his own landscaping business. A bit too syrupy for my taste.

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“But if I show you my super soft tummy, you might think that means you can rub it. And it doesn’t. At all.” -Mayhem