Congrats to Nikyta, who won Looking for Adventure by Valentina Heart!

Congrats to Sandy Jay, who won Wrong Number, Right Guy by Mia Watts! Wrong Number, Right Guy will be released by Amber Allure on March 27.

Contests

• Smexy Books has an absolutely brilliant Black Dagger Brotherhood skit, plus the chance to win a $25 giftcard for Amazon or $25 to spend at JR Ward’s Merchandise Store. Comment by March 26 for your chance to win.

• Fiction Vixen also has an absolutely brilliant Black Dagger Brotherhood skit, plus the chance to win a $25 giftcard to the online bookstore of your choice. Comment by March 26 for your chance to win.

• MsM’s giving away two different groups of paperbacks, both of which include some m/m. Contest closes March 28.

• Tracy’s giving away an ebook copy of Either Ore (Going for the Gold 2) by Karen Mercury. Contest closes 7 pm PDT, March 31. Contest post is NSFW!

• Brief Encounters is having their UK m/m authors fortnight and are giving away all sorts of ebooks by authors from the UK. Comment by 7 pm CDT, April 1, for your chance to win.

• Comment by April 1 for your chance to win a dozen gluten-free hamburger buns from Gluten-Free in Georgia.

• Book Lovers Inc is giving away two copies of Beth Kery’s The Hometown Hero Returns. Leave a meaningful comment through April 2 for your chance to win.

• MrsPao is offering both a knitterly and non-knitterly prize to anyone who donates to Shelterbox to help Japan. Comment to let her know  you donated by April 10.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Book Lovers Inc (a little of everything) and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR new releases, contests, news).

• Jordan Castillo Price with three ways you can increase the chance your story will get published.

• A New York Times bestselling author explains why she pulled her YA m/m short story from a forthcoming anthology because the editor told her to change it to an m/f story. (via KathyK)

• Is the “ideal reader” (as seemingly perceived by the Agency Six) really ideal?

• Monday Morning Stepback from ReadReactReview.

• Self-publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking signed a $2+ million four-book contract with St. Martin’s Press.

• Comparing traditional publishing and self-publishing.

• The Google Books settlement was rejected.

• A bacterium is in violation of copyright.

• Make a book a day.

• Books carved to look like their authors.

• Paperback Writer on how to know when you’re an older writer.

• An amusing review about whether paper is a viable reading medium.

Ebookity

• You can download Clare London’s paranormal historical m/m romance, Threadbare, for free (along with some other m/m romances from JMS Books) if you don’t mind an ad at the beginning of the book.

• Unsurprisingly, effective ebook pricing depends on consumer perception of value.

• Dear Author on the “right price” for both print books and ebooks.

• Some more on the Harper-Collins 26-checkout-limit of ebooks at libraries.

Make, Think, Do, Learn, Help

• From now until April 15, Mary Lou’s donating 100% of her online pattern sales to Doctors Without Borders for Japanese earthquake relief.

• AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telecom. Stephen Colbert’s 2007 report on AT&T’s formation remains true today. Gizmodo on why this will probably be bad for consumers.

• Did you miss Talk Like William Shatner Day on March 22, the day Shatner turned 80?

• There are new recommendations for how long kids should be in rear-facing car seats and booster seats.

• Use a clementine tangerine as a tea light.

• A large popcorn at the movies can contain as many calories as three Big Macs. Ack! No wonder movie theaters want to be exempt from including calorie counts…

Crafty

• Knit a Dwarven Battle Helmet for your next Halloween costume. (Thanks, Seanna Lea!)

• You could cross stitch your Easter eggs this year instead of dyeing them…

• Make your own paper TARDIS.

• Crochet an adorable hat.

• Make a quilt from a photograph.

• Build a ship in a bottle.

• Make Pantone chip magnets.

Cookity

• Dark chocolate bacon cupcakes…

• Purple pesto! (via The Kitchn)

• Nutella cupcakes! All sorts of Nutella recipes! And darn it, we missed World Nutella Day on February 5.

• Make your own Hostess Cupcake Cake Balls.

• Apparently cupcakes in a jar are the latest thing in cupcakes.

Cool

• This rainbow cake has a leprechaun trap in it! (Thanks, CursingMama!)

• Geeky felt toys.

• Fun geeky jewelry.

• Printed circuit board lights.

• Hmm. Maybe I’ll do this to my toenails this summer.

• The Royal Mail’s going to have a line of stamps featuring “wizards and magical bigwigs”.

• Pillow covers with kitties on them.

• Linkity from mrspao – check out the fun USB drives she found – and linkity from Kristi.

• Annoyed by gender targeted toy ads? Now you can mash them up!

Wha…?

• For all your Elder Gods knitting needs… (Thanks, PD!)

• 25 more terrible breakfast cereals!

• Do you have the pencil sharpening attachment for your power drill yet?

• Boat shoe boat and electric shoe car…

• Babycakes Cake Pop Maker…

• Fetus-displaying belly strap-on thingie…

• The official Starfleet Academy… spike heel?

• Keyboard jacket…

• Creepy gloves.

• A condom USB drive…

LOL

• If condoms had sponsors…

• Stephani Hecht’s family reviews The Vampire Boys.

• Stages of internet loneliness.

• Facebook you vs. real you.

• If The Onion developed the next version of Microsoft Word…

• Things that make cats go crazy.

• Basement Cat overload!

• I can almost hear the squeaky meowing…

• When kitties help you read…

• Woe the sparkly ball!

Teh Cute

• Sproinging lambs! Kitten! Red panda! Kitten! Baby panda! Kitten! Baby numbat! Kitten! Baby koala! Kittens! Red panda video overload! Kittens! Baby buns! Kittens! Fawn! Kitten! Red panda! African black-footed kitten!

Reading Update
The Morning Star (Shadow of the Templar, Book 1) by M. Chandler. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense, heavier on the suspense than the romance, about an FBI agent and an elusive jewel thief. I’ve definitely read books that cost a lot more than this ($0.95) that weren’t anywhere near as good! Also, make yourself a post-it to keep track of the team’s names and codenames – thanks for the tip, Kassa!
Double Down (Shadow of the Templar, Book 2) by M. Chandler. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a jewel thief who’s hired by the FBI to help solve a string of industrial prototype heists by someone with a style eerily similar to his…
With a Bullet (Shadow of the Templar, Book 3) by M. Chandler. ebook. Excellent m/m romantic suspense in which an old enemy gets out of jail and comes after the team. Each book in this series is a bit longer… I stayed up until 2:30 am because I had to finish this one.
High Fidelity (Shadow of the Templar, Book 4) by M. Chandler. ebook. Excellent m/m romantic suspense in which our FBI agent ends up in his jewel thief’s world for a while. I cried an awful lot near the end, even though I was pretty sure it would turn out ok, and stayed up to late because I absolutely had to finish. While I had a complete immersion experience in this series and it just really worked for me, that’s not the case for everyone – check out the discussion on Kassa’s Goodreads review of The Morning Star for another perspective.
Assorted Shadow of the Templar free fiction that fits before, during, and after the four main books.
With Abandon (With or Without, Book 4) by J.L. Langley. ebook. Pretty good, yet somewhat disappointing paranormal m/m romance about a closeted alpha werewolf who’s convinced himself that he can secretly enjoy his male mate for a few years, then let him go with no one the wiser. I never warmed to the alpha… and there was a stalker, which is what, the second or third in this series already?! Definitely time to find something else to add external tension.
The Boy Next Door by Kate McMurray. ebook. Good m/m romance about a designer who moves from NYC back to his small Connecticut hometown to keep an eye on his mom after his dad dies. He discovers that the house he just bought is next door to the guy he had a crush on in high school, who’s now divorced with a six-year old daughter.
Two-Man Advantage (Seattle Marauders, Book 1) by Riley Shane. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a guy who gets dumped via text message as he’s supposed to be heading off on a romantic weekend getaway with his boyfriend. Going on his own, he discovers there’s a naked man asleep in the bed in his cabin. This story suffers from insta-love, and perhaps got some of its inspiration from Ethan Day’s Sno Ho…

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos