Contests

• Roxanne of Fang-tastic Books is giving away a copy of Kate Cotoner’s paranormal m/m romance, Violet: Thunder. Leave a comment by June 12 for your chance to win.

• LesleyW’s wondering about who owns the interpretation of a story after it’s been published – author or reader? Leave a comment answering her question by June 12 and you could win a copy of Carrie Vaughn’s paranormal romance, Kitty and the Silver Bullet.

• Mandi of Smexy Books is giving away three copies of Yasmine Galenorn’s Witchling (Otherworld, Book 1), plus an ARC of Night Mist (Indigo Court, Book 1) – leave a comment by June 13 to enter.

• Blodeudd’s giving away a copy of Ashlyn Chase’s paranormal romantic comedy, Strange Neighbors. To enter (by June 14), ask Ashyln a question or comment about her books or the interview.

• Jackie of Literary Escapism is giving away a copy of Carrie Lofty’s historical romance, Song of Seduction. Make sure you answer the questions in your comment! Contest closes June 15.

• Not sure when this closes, but leave a comment at LB Gregg’s blog to welcome new m/m romance author Harper Fox, and you’ll have a chance to win Harper’s forthcoming release, Life After Joe, or Josh Lanyon’s upcoming release, A Vintage Affair.

• All Things Urban Fantasy has over 125 urban fantasy related contests listed this week.

Bookity

• New books, news, and more: Lily (m/m romance), Literary Escapism (UF, PNR, lots of contest and interview links), and All About Romance (June audiobooks).

• If you’d like to read more of the author fan letters from the Author Fan Letter Blog Crawl, Kassa has the complete list of links.

• If you love to scribble in books and feel constrained when you borrow books or check them out from the library, check out NoteTabs, which are combo Post-its/book flags.

• Book Blogger Appreciation Week will be September 13-17 this year.

• Dear Author has a nice link roundup. Jessica of Read React Review resurfaces from an attack by Russian hackers for Monday Morning Stepback.

• Editor Rich Adin explains why he does not patronize either Apple or Amazon (hint: a similar arrogance).

• Rich also has a post on what he calls the WYSIWYG Conundrum – how it can be hard to edit (and particularly hard to edit our own words) because  we see what we expect to see when we read.

• When is a book review too honest?

• Manga publishers are worried about “scanlation” aggregator sites.

• Author Victor J. Banis has some great tips for writing in general, and writing m/m fiction in particular. (Be aware that the sidebars make this post NSFW.)

• KMont has had enough of tattoos on book covers.

Ebookity

• Will ebooks kill midlist authors?

• What do you think of serialized ebooks? You can share your thoughts in a one-question poll. (I’m not a fan of serials, myself.)

• You should all read Brian O’Leary’s excellent open letter to Scott Turow, the new president of the Authors Guild, about ebook piracy.

• Interesting graph on the growth of ebooks.

• Trying to decide which ereader to buy? This post at Reviews by Jessewave might help you decide. (Be aware that the sidebars make this post NSFW.)

• You can get a completely waterproof case for the Kindle 2.

• Miranda of Sweet Vernal Zephyr has a great tutorial on making a hard cover for a Sony pocket ereader.

• How to (not really) deal with your TBR pile.

• Book burning in the age of ebooks… (Make sure you hover your mouse pointer over the comic!)

Learn, Make, Do, Think

• Lifehacker has a nice comparison of Google Docs and Microsoft’s free Office Web Apps. (High level: Microsoft shines in dealing with highly formatted Office documents, but doesn’t have collaboration. Google Docs doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but I definitely agree it’s great for real-time collaboration.)

• Interesting post at Gizmodo about fanboyism and brand loyalty.

• Wow. I really didn’t have any idea how deep the Deepwater Horizon Gusher was until I saw this infographic. O.O

• You’ll never look at a Twinkie the same again.

• Raise your hand if you thought the FDA had the power to recall dangerous food. Yeah, I thought the same thing. We’re wrong.

• Discouraging… an awful lot of Americans don’t care about the environment at all.

• McDonald’s will buy back those recalled Shrek drinking glasses for $3 each.

• If you have a cookbook stand, it might also work as a laptop stand.

• Android or iPhone – which phone would be better for a power user?

• Are gadgets, distractions, and multitasking ruining our lives? And is the internet making us smarter or more stupid?

• Saturday, June 12, is National Get Outdoors Day and admission to all Minnesota State Parks will be free!

• TeddyPig reports some promising statistics on increasing acceptance of gays and lesbians.

Gluten Free

• I really must find some of the Snyder’s of Hanover Gluten-Free Pretzels to try…

• Do you realize how many gluten free products Hormel has? (Love their turkey pepperoni.)

• D’oh! French Meadow Bakery is four blocks from me and I haven’t tried their gluten free muffins yet!

Not that Interested in the Post, But Holy Crap that Picture Is Scary

• Eeek!

Huh

• Strangely, I had not previously considered making a spiderweb from packing tape.

• CK Obsession for Men attracts Guatemalan jaguars?!

• Maybe your iPhone needs balls…

• Hmm. I can’t imagine why this reminded Eyre of me.

LOL

• BP attempts to deal with a coffee spill…

• The top ten signs that you are reading bad erotica. (If that link doesn’t work for you and leaves you at a “Page Not Found” error, simply search for “bad erotica.”)

• If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to hack a computer, the Action Movie Guide to doing so won’t help at all.

• Internet vices, such as Tumblr and Twitter, defined through drugs and alcohol (via Gizmodo).

• The rejection letter that NBC sent to PETA for its racy ad about vegetables (with the opportunity to watch the ad, of course)…

• Poor Franklin reveals the nasty rash of lace charting symbols on his chest and arm.

• When life imitates Tetris… (and how BP’s efforts to stop the gusher were like Tetris.)

• Crazy Aunt Purl’s kitties in front of the computer, squabbling over Twitter.

• Wow. Not sure I’ve seen a kitty tummy “bikini” of that size before…

• When Basement Cat’s feeling generous…

• Even Basement Cat gets lost sometimes.

• Be careful opening that package you just received, ok? It might be a box of ebil.

• I think I’m glad that all spiders are eaten here before things get to this point. (Eaten by the kitties, not me, just to clarify.)

Teh Cute, It Burns

• I’m not kidding about that cute burn. (Not that any of you will listen. So be it.)

• Charlene Butterbean hogs the kitty tent.

• Be honest – who, besides me, is tempted to catnap Melly?

• Poor scared kittens.

Reading Update
Phonebook by Amy Lane. ebook short. Fun’n’steamy m/m romance short about a guy on a business trip who calls his boyfriend, but is too embarrassed to have phone sex… directly, at least.
Gay Man Seeks Same (G-A-Y, Book 8 ) by Kim Dare. ebook. Sweet’n’kinky m/m romance about a serious guy who has a crush on his fickle coworker and places a personals ad in an attempt to get the coworker off his mind.
Bound by Deception, Bound to Him, and Deliberately Unbound by Ava March. ebooks, plus free ebook short. Very good kinky Regency m/m romances about a minor aristocrat who’s been in love with one of his well-to-do friends for years, but only recently realized that his friend was also gay. Will his deceptive scheme to take the place of his friend’s usual whore, while remaining anonymous, ultimately backfire? (And check out Ava’s post Story Behind the Story – Bound by Deception.)
The Cross of Sins (Fathom’s Five, Book 1) by Geoffrey Knight. Say you had five gay Indiana Joneses… you’d have Fathom’s Five and a rollicking romp of a read. 🙂
The Landlord by Jeff Erno. ebook. Ok kinky m/m romance that was a really mixed read for me. It’s about a brand-new college grad who gets his first job, rents his first apartment, and, via his landlord, discovers his submissive side. While I enjoyed the story, I didn’t enjoy the writing; who thinks in the passive voice?!

The following are all part of Dreamspinner’s Midsummer’s Nightmare Daily Dose:
Love Among the Stacks by Andi Deacon. ebook short. Enjoyable paranormal m/m short about a guy who’s doing research among the library stacks late one evening when he meets a very intriguing library worker.
Becoming the Spoils by J.L. Merrow. ebook short. Very good, fun paranormal m/m romance short about a journalist who gets gothed up and goes clubbing in an attempt to get the scoop on vampires, but who gets a little bit more than he bargained for.
The Scenic Route by Chrissy Munder. ebook short. Spooky short m/m paranormal romance about two guys driving through Lower Michigan on their way to the UP who stop at an extremely rustic motel for the night…
The Wounds in the Walls by Heidi Cullinan. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a day laborer who’s hired by a paranormal psychologist to, supposedly, do some work on an old house with a tragic past. Be aware that there are some menagey bits, but, as with Special Delivery, Heidi Cullinan makes it work.
Wishes by Moria McCain. ebook short. Short paranormal m/m romance about werewolves living in a society that doesn’t believe there can be mating bonds other than male-female. This started out strong, but too much story was crammed into far too little space and the ending felt rushed.

---

“Maybe they’ll forget how crabby I was yesterday, coo about how cute I look today, and try to rub my tummy. Bwa-ha-ha!” -Chaos