Stop by and enter the contest for Barging In by Josephine Myles! Contest closes 7 pm CDT, September 19.

Congrats to Cayce, who won Love is in the Title (Love #1) and Love is in the Hallways (Love #2) by RJ Scott!

Congrats to D, who won Galen and the Forest Lord by Eden Winters! Galen and the Forest Lord will be released by Torquere Press on Saturday, September 10.

Contests

• Bronwyn Green’s giving away an ebook copy of Anna Mayle’s Lullaby for a Stolen Child (Stolen Child #2). Contest closes 7 pm EDT, September 9.

• Desert Island Keepers is giving away an ebook copy of Katie Reus’ Deadly Obsession. Contest closes 7 pm PDT, September 9.

• Smexy Books is giving away five different sets of new releases, in a variety of romance genres. Contest runs through September 10.

• Bronwyn Green’s giving away winner’s choice of a print or ebook copy of RA Evans’ Asylum Lake. Contest closes 7 pm EDT, September 12.

• MJ O’Shea and Piper Vaughn are giving away two ebook copies of MJ’s new book, A Little Bite of Magic (Little Magic #1). Contests close 9 pm PDT, September 12.

• Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of Take Me Down by Lauren Hawkeye. Contest closes 11:59 pm, September 15.

• Caught in a FAB Romance is giving away a signed copy of Lauren Dane’s Never Enough. Contest ends September 20.

• To win your choice from Devon Rhodes’ backlist and you’re on Twitter or Facebook, guess the date by which she’ll get sick now that her kids are back in school.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR, plus newsletter), Renee’s Book Addiction (a little of everything), and Book Lovers Inc (a little of everything).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Carolyn Crane on “scarcity thinking” in writing.

• All Hallows Read. (via Tor.com)

• Man goes to jail because of overdue library books.

• Make mini-accordion books.

• Vintage typewriters. (Thanks, Bron!)

• Bookbath! (via Caught in a FAB Romance)

• Less napping, more reading.

Ebookity

• Sixty-one percent of ebook readers in the US are female.

• Add a solar panel to your ebook reader.

• An American Editor on how the Agency 6 changed his book buying habits… and definitely not in the way they intended.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• The results of IBM’s 2011 Commuter Pain Study.

• The summer of 2011 was the worst summer for movie theaters since 1997.

• Malware prevention and cleanup for your PC.

• An award-winning Swedish nature photographer turns out to have been using stock photos and photoshop…

• Make a travel flashlight from a soda can and a cereal box.

• Scientists still don’t understand female orgasm.

• If canning looks to be the only way out of your CSA veggie overload, check out these five canning websites.

• JP Morgan explains the Euro debt crisis using LEGOs.

Cookity

• Make your own butterscotch Tastykakes. (via The Kitchn)

• Twenty-three lemon desserts. (via The Kitchn)

• Nutella-filled shortbread. (via The Kitchn)

• Chocolate dipped cookie dough gelato sandwiches. (via The Kitchn)

• Snickerdoodle pumpkin ice cream sandwiches. (via CRAFT)

• Red velvet ice cream sandwiches. (via The Kitchn)

• Easy fridge garlic dill pickles.

• Shrimp pad thai. (via The Kitchn)

• Pizza dip. (via The Kitchn)

• Betty Crocker’s Outdoor Cookbook from 1961. (via CRAFT)

• Blueberry rum smash.

Crafty

• Crochet a Ms. Pac-Man amigurami. (via CRAFT)

• Crochet a granny ripple pattern.

• Knit zoetrope hat.

• A knitted and crocheted garden! (Thanks, Jeanne!)

• Knitting with glass.

• Encrypted WWII cross stitch.

• Crafty non-Wreck cakes.

Cool

• Geyser right before it erupts.

• Camera desk lamp.

• Propane tank that looks like a giant LEGO head.

• LEGO dragon.

• LEGO kraken.

• Disney princesses as Sith warriors.

• A capella version of the Doctor Who theme song.

• Formal TARDIS dress. (via The Mary Sue)

• Dalek art car.

• Linkity from Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

Cool or Wha…?

• The Back to the Future shoes are now available from Nike.

• Blunt umbrella.

• A mixer with a hood ornament.

• Boar’s head balaclava.

• Those crazy Aussies drew a penis on a Google Street View camera…

• Dumpsters as mobile urban mini parks.

• Hipster Harry Potter characters.

• Pink Dalek dress.

• My Little Pony Ood. (via The Mary Sue)

• Knitted BMW engine. (via KnittyBlog)

Wha…?

• Google uses more power than Salt Lake City.

• Bomb alarm clock.

• Eleven foot tall iPod dock.

• Dress your dog up like a dinosaur.

• Ack! The risk of overused sperm from sperm banks…

LOL

• Have you been to PassiveAggressiveNotes.com yet?

• The Oatmeal’s recommended curriculum for high school seniors.

• August 2011’s 15 funniest autocorrects.

• Hmm. I wonder if I could get away with putting this up on my cubicle wall?

• Evil shouldn’t smell like strawberries.

• New Simon’s Cat!

• Cat ideology.

Teh Cute

• Kittens! Swan and cygnets! Kitten! Swan and cygnets! Cat and kitten! Muntjac and baby! Cat and kittens! Lion cubs! Young cheetahs! Lioness and cub! Tiny turtle! Fawn and fox kit! Painfully cute kitten! Young panda! Owlet! Fennec kit! Baby bat! Tiger and cub! Lion cub!

Reading Update
Lullaby for a Stolen Child (Stolen Child #2) by Anna Mayle. ebook short. Very good short m/m/m dark fantasy about a human stolen by the Fae as a child, the Redcap who took his place, and the golden Fae hunter who’s been entranced by him for years.
In Darkness Bound (The Society #1) by Christine Price. ebook. Very good m/m/m paranormal romantic suspense that I had to read after reading The Usual Apocalypse. And maybe I was more forgiving of its faults than I might’ve been if I’d read it first, but it totally sucked me in and worked for me.
Not Knowing Jack (Regularly Scheduled Life #2) by KA Mitchell. ebook. Very good m/m romance about Jack, a chef, and Tony, Jack’s younger bartender boyfriend. When Jack begins to act mysteriously, Tony realizes how very little he actually knows about Jack, even after living together for a year. This book had the potential to be a five-star read; however, I found the ending rushed and thus rather unsatisfying. (“Wait, where did the previous year go?!”)
Bullied by Jeff Erno. ebook collection. Very good, if somewhat heavy-handed, collection of short stories about gay teens being bullied in school. The stories are told primarily in first person, from a variety of perspectives: the student being bullied, the bully, the parent who’s been lying to herself about her open-mindedness. While the stories are painful and moving, the overall message is hopeful: things can get better, but not without help.
The Hunting Moon by Evelyn Shepherd. ebook. Good but inconsistent paranormal m/m romantic suspense about two cops, a powerful psychic and a werecoyote, on the Columbus Preternatural Task Force. As the werecoyote pursues the mutual attraction that the psychic denies, they’re also trying to solve a string of murders and capture a deranged stalker from the psychic’s past. Several things kept me from rating this book higher: an ongoing issue with word usage and substitution (“saddled” instead of “sidled” being the most memorable) and inconsistencies in the psychic’s powers (if he could lock and unlock doors with his mind, why couldn’t he get out of handcuffs?).
Ash Swan (Cob Brothers #1) by Amber Kell & Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance loosely based on the fairytale of the Six Swans. In the first installment of this series, the crown prince, who’s living on Earth for a few years before taking the throne, rescues a handsome bike courier who’d fallen into a pond while feeding ducks and geese in the park, then proceeds to get to know the courier better…
Hey, There’s Fur in My Wedding Cake (Lost Shifters #12.5) by Stephani Hecht. free ebook short. Good short paranormal romance about an exiled wolf shifter who returns to the pack that exiled in order to attend a wedding reception, where he meets a very intriguing feline shifter…
Change on the Fly (Blue Line Hockey #5) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about an NHL player who sustains a career-ending injury and isn’t doing so well until his best friend from high school shows up at his door.
Swept Away (Beach Bums #2) by Diana DeRicci. ebook. Good m/m romance about a guy who’s retreated to his beach house to try sorting out his thoughts after he drunkenly kissed a guy in a bar on a dare… and enjoyed the kiss so much, his fiancee ended their engagement after he told her about it.
In From the Cold by Mercy Celeste. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a sheriff’s deputy and a country singer who were each others’ firsts in high school, but who’ve taken different and equally self-destructive paths since then… and that doesn’t end when tragedy brings the singer back to their hometown. This book had a lot of unrealized potential, which was unfortunately overshadowed by somewhat choppy writing and the absolutely worst case of pronoun confusion I’ve ever encountered.
The Playwright (The Male Room #3) by Carolyn LeVine Topol. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a playwright whose writing partner and roommate signs him up for The Male Room online dating site, hoping to help him get over a broken heart years before. The insta-love was more insta-lovey than usual in the this one.

I got a new tattoo on Sunday. 🙂 This one first, so you can see where it’s located:

And a close-up, so you can see the bright green eyes!

(Please ignore the bruising…)

My other tattoo is located in the same spot on the back of my left arm.

“May and I have noticed that your new tattoo doesn’t look like us, but instead some freaky black cat. Any last words?” -Chaos