RG Alexander | Stumbling Over Chaos

New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Book Lovers Inc (romance etc), All About Romance (romance audiobooks), and Katiebabs (various types of romance).

Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

KMont wonders how much we actually remember about the books we love.

Should authors reply to reviews? (via Eden Winters)

On being a beta reader.

A wise quote.

Smart Bitches has a funny post about a photoshop cover fail.

Strunk & White humor from xkcd. (Make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text!)

The first in a three-part series about how reading has changed over time. (via TeleRead)

“The book is not dead, it’s just shapeshifting.” (Thanks, Lea!)

Covers of songs inspired by literature and poetry.

Ebookity

Kim Dare’s posted a free short m/m story based on a photo I took in San Francisco last fall. 🙂

Kris’s latest Choose Your Own M/M Story is Red Velvet by Angelia Sparrow.

Ebook reading is taking off in the Netherlands.

Read the reviews carefully before you even think about purchasing the new Google Books ereader.

A TeleRead contributor writes about how she lost access to her Kindle library after her Amazon account was hacked.

Do, Make, Learn, Think

See what’s connected to your wireless network with this portable Windows app. (Perhaps this article will inspire you to get the app…)

How to move all your stuff from your old computer to your new one.

55 million years ago, there was a continent off the coast of Scotland.

I did not know that a derecho was a type of storm.

Use “Jenny’s Number” to get discounts at stores without sharing your personal information.

Infographic of Netflix local favorites.

Infographic about sunscreen.

There’s a new strain of gonorrhea that’s resistant to all known antibiotics.

Celiac disease has been linked to cataracts.

If you had an endoscopy done to see if you had celiac disease and the results were negative, it could’ve been because the biopsy wasn’t sufficiently thorough.

If a monkey takes a photograph, who owns the copyright?

Although it looks like the Minnesota state government shutdown is over, it might’ve resulted in beer shortages!

Make frappuccinos at home for cheap.

Liven up your kitchen with a sparkly floor!

Potterity

Harry Potter fans hack a road sign. (Thanks, Jenre!)

Watch all the Harry Potter trailers made into one five-minute long uber-trailer.

The Mary Sue devoted yesterday’s “Things We Saw Today” post to Harry Potter.

Harry Potter, Jackie Chan style.

Gigantic Harry Potter tribute maze.

Harry Potter post from Cake Wrecks.

Things I am not allowed to do at Hogwarts.

A real life Patronus?

Make your own butter beer.

Make golden snitch butter beer cake pops. (via The Kitchn)

Butter beer glazed cookies.

Make your own Chocolate Frogs, Acid Pops, Cockroach Clusters, and Licorice Wands! (via The Kitchn)

Cookity

Cake batter pancakes.

Nutella cookie sandwiches. (via The Kitchn)

Granny square cookies.

Chocolate bean brownie cake.

Gluten-free cherry almond muffins.

Crafty

More subversive cross stitch.

Cross stitch an iPhone cover.

Turn a portrait into embroidery.

Sew a laptop bag.

Sew a yarn project bag.

Knit gerbera daisies.

A review of What Would Madame Defarge Knit? 21 Patterns and Essays Inspired by Classic Literature.

Cool

LEGO motorcycle helmet… (via The Mary Sue)

These LEGO-inspired concrete bricks would be cooler if they were big.

LEGO Bat Cave!

Fun crafting, food, and thought-provoking linkity from MrsPao.

Cutaway leaf art.

Confessions from your cat.

The Symphony of Science project.

Yoda toddler hat! (via The Mary Sue)

Darth takes a holiday.

The guide to shirtlessness in superhero movies… *ahem* (via The Mary Sue)

Cool or Wha…?

Steampunky animal head “trophies”. (via The Mary Sue)

Superhero garden gnomes.

Weird state foods. (via The Kitchn)

TARDIS soap. (via The Mary Sue)

Bouncy tomb tours.

Tiny tea ring.

Wha…?

So… you know how we get annoyed when people in romance novels stop to have sex at inopportune times, like when their lives are in danger? Apparently it happens in real life, too…

Vintage glove mold chandelier.

Hammock house overlooking boob tower.

Anatomy dress.

LOL

*snicker* (Thanks, Lea!) (Possibly NSFW, although it is from USA Today…)

Movie title autocorrect fails.

The secret of inner peace.

Pick your battles carefully. (Thanks, Bron!)

Little known facts about Minnesota.

Kitten vs. apples… (Thanks, Jase!)

Places cats sleep but shouldn’t.

Teh Cute

Bear napping with fish. (Thanks, Bron!)

Kittens! Lion and cub! Lion cub! Lioness and cubs! Cat and kitten! Koala! Eleanor (and the source video)! Hedgie! Kittens! Panda! Baby panda! Kittens! Tiger cubs! Tigers! Kittens! Fox and kits! Kitten! Baby cheetah! Kitten and baby otter!

Reading Update
Masochism 101 by Kim Dare. free ebook short, although you’ll need to be a member of the Goodreads M/M Romance Group to read it. The prompt for this excellent kinky short m/m romance was a guy photographed midway through falling in the bathtub…
Trust Me (Cover Me #2) by LA Witt. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a cop who’s ready to break up with his boyfriend because he suspects his boyfriend has been cheating on him, but what’s really been going on is a helluva lot more complicated. You also get to see how things are going with the guys from Cover Me.
And To All a Good Night (Life Lessons #1.5) by Kaje Harper. free ebook short. Very good short free holiday-themed m/m mystery that takes place a few months after Life Lessons, right before Christmas, as the out teacher continues to recover from his injuries and learns to deal with dating the deeply closeted cop.
Dirty Kiss by Rhys Ford. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a former cop, now PI, investigating the apparent suicide of a prominent Korean businessman when he becomes fascinated by the businessman’s disgraced cousin. Hopefully there’s a sequel… and I’d love to get more of Bobby’s story.
Again by Mary Calmes. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy who was devastated when the love of his life, a CIA agent, suddenly left him for someone else, without knowing that their surrogate was pregnant. It’s five years later when he runs into now-former CIA agent… I have to confess that I wanted to smack Dante more than once – he was such a steamroller! I wanted him to stop and actually listen. 🙂
Accidentally in Love by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a photographer who’s definitely a player, engaging in a non-stop string of one-night stands. When he rents part of a house from a goodhearted computer geek with crappy self-esteem, he decides to help the geek finally get a guy of his own. So why is he unhappy when his plan works? As others have mentioned, the first part of this book was excellent. The last part of it got bogged down by sex and lack of direction.
Tea and Crumpet by UK MAT. ebook collection. Very good collection of United Kingdom-themed GLBTQ short stories, from contemporary to paranormal to historical. I was delighted to discover that there was a Cambridge Fellows short from Charlie Cochrane! And I absolutely love the cover. 🙂
One Night by RJ Scott. ebook. Good m/m romance about a deeply closeted guy who’s convinced that two men can’t have a loving relationship, only a sexual one, so he’s engaged to be married to a woman so his adopted daughter will have a stable home.
Finding Forgiveness (Poconos Pack #1) by Dana Marie Bell. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about a wolf shifter who suffers from debilitating migraines and has no idea why the guy destined to be his mate avoids him at all costs.
Clay’s Challenge by Cassandra Gold. ebook. Good m/m romance about a guy going through a crisis in confidence about how he looks after someone he met online isn’t interested in dating him because he’s “too fem.” So he decides to go on a wilderness adventure and prove to himself that’s not the case. (Main character Clay was actually a minor character in Quinn’s Hart.)
Bicycle Built for Two by Jeff Adams. ebook short. Good short, completely angst- and conflict-free m/m romance about two guys who meet during a charity cycling event to raise money for HIV/AIDS research.
From Pack to Pride (Supernatural Mates #1) by Amber Kell. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about a wolf shifter whose alpha brother sends him to stay with a pride of lions in order to keep him safe from a hostile wolf who wants to kill him. (Ok, Tam, you were right – I liked it better than Hellbourne!)
A Prideful Mate (Supernatural Mates #2) by Amber Kell. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a lion shifter who sees a picture of jaguar shifter on a shifter dating website and knows the jaguar shifter is his mate. Now he just has to convince his mate to stay… and keep his mate alive.
Not in Kansas by R.G. Alexander. ebook short. Cute short m/m fantasy roughly based on the Wizard of Oz.
Salad on the Side by Karenna Colcroft. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a vegan who doesn’t realize he’s living among werewolves until he’s bitten and changed. These were probably the most long-winded werewolves ever – there needed to be a lot less talking in this book. Hopefully the obviously planned for sequel will be less chatty.
The Male Room by Carolyn Levine Topol. ebook. Ok m/m romance about two best friends, one who’s just been kicked out by his boyfriend and the other who’s just been fired, who decide to start an online GLBT dating service together. I need to remember that this author’s stories are too sugary for me…
Semi Precious Weapons by Clancy Nacht. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about two models in New York City who hook up and hit it off, but then things get messed up between them. This book definitely needed a bit more editorial care – a couple spots were so tangled that I couldn’t sort out what exactly was happening.
Joy & Pain by Celia Kyle. free ebook short. Ok kinky short m/m romance about a stripper who meets and is attracted to an older big bear of a man. This book needed better proofing: “illicit” instead of “elicit”, “spurn” instead of “spur”, etc.