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Congrats to Judianna P, who won Sinnerman (Warder #4) by Mary Calmes! Sinnerman is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.

Congrats to Marie A, who won Just-You Eyes by Clare London!

Congrats to Kerstin, who won Deefur Dog by RJ Scott! Deefur Dog will be released by Silver Publishing on Saturday, June 18.

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Contests

• Mandi’s giving away a signed copy of Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation (Psy/Changeling #1) at Desert Island Keepers. Answer her question in the comments before June 18 for your chance to win.

• Bronwyn Green, Devon Rhodes, Gwendolyn Cease, Kris Norris, Suzanne Graham, and Jessica Jarman are having a Summer Solstice Contest and are giving away winner’s choice of a Nook WiFi 3G or a Kindle 3G WiFi! To enter, you’ll need to visit and comment on each author’s blog with your top two choices from that author’s backlist. Contest closes noon EDT, June 21.

• Rachel Haimowitz is giving away a Crescendo swag pack to celebrate finishing her first draft of the novel. Answer her question in the comments for your chance to win. Winner will be selected June 24.

• Joder’s giving away Dark Passages by Sara Reinke. Make sure you read the rules for how to enter! Closes 11:59 pm, June 25.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Love & Freedom by Sue Moorcroft. Answer her question in the comments for your chance to win. Closes July 27.

• Patti’s giving away an ARC of Wish You Were Here by Phillipa Ashley. Answer her question in the comments for your chance to win. Closes July 1. US only.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR) and Book Lovers Inc (romance, etc).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• Dear Author on readers’ rights.

• KZ Snow wonders why so many readers of m/m romance are fixated on how many sex scenes books have (and seemingly want more).

• Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods is going to be an HBO series.

• Wonderful bookish quote.

• Turn a book into a reading light.

• Make a book strap.

• Roll-up bookshelf.

• House of bookcases.

Ebookity

• The British Flash m/m romance anthology is available free on Smashwords.

• You can read a new free PsyCop short by Jordan Castillo Price over at Jessewave.

• Overdrive has enhanced its platform for libraries.

• The Digital Reader explains why Wired is clueless about ebooks.

• Some words of advice from an editor to a speshul snowflake author.

• Steampunk ereader.

Make, Think, Do, Learn

• The same hacker group that took down cia.gov earlier this week posted a list of email addresses and passwords – check to see if your information was on the list. (One of my email addresses was!)

• How to travel with your friends and stay friends.

• Tips on macro photography from National Geographic. (via Gizmodo)

• Why you can’t win an argument online.

• Make a flashlight powered by your phone line for the next time the power goes out.

• Nine techy things made possible by IBM (which turned 100 yesterday). My dad (who was a computer design engineer for IBM for 30 years) said there’s a date error in this list, but I’ve forgotten which it was…

• If you’d rather that the music in your music library wasn’t filled with identifying data, this program can remove such data for you. (I ran the program and it worked very well.)

• Cool factoids about the sounds that animals make.

• Vampire stars! O.O

• Compare commercial cleaners with some homemade alternatives.

• How did you celebrate Captain Picard Day yesterday?

Cookity

• Yum – eat peas like edamame! (via The Kitchn)

• Homemade Nutter Butters.

• Nutter Butter brownies with chocolate peanut butter ganache.

• Cream cheese ice cream.

• Make homemade Pupsicles for your dog!

Crafty

• Quilted iPhone case.

• Rainbow quilt.

• Knit cable braided necklace/bracelet.

• knittyBlog covered International Yarnbombing Day. Kmkat got some great shots of a yarnbombing in Minneapolis.

• Eleanor provides a tutorial for dyeing yarn so you end up with long blocks of color.

• Pocket watch photo album.

• Woven paper gift wrap.

• Crocheted gallbladder, complete with removable gallstones.

• Crocheted graduation teddy bear.

Cool

• Star Wars, the silent film.

• Nearly everything that’s been big on the interwebz, perfectly choreographed to “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.

• TARDIS tent. (Thanks, Bron!)

• Plush Indiana Jones. (via The Mary Sue)

• Balloon art as you’ve never seen it before.

• What went wrong with the Star Wars prequels and what writers can learn from them. (Thanks, Bron!)

• Cellos playing “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns’n’Roses.

• Dear Photograph vintage photo blog.

• Cute mug.

• Tiny people foodscapes.

• Gumball Wars. (via Paperback Writer)

• Milky Way time lapse. (via Gizmodo)

Cool or Wha…?

• Giant sculptures of candy.

• Artist who paints pictures on gum stuck to the sidewalk…

• Toast art.

• Man Cans candles.

• Bicycle helmets made from cardboard.

• Turn your hotdog into a little person or an octopus?!

• Zucchini weenies.

• Unicorn ring (can be used for self defense?).

• Chocolate bar bed.

Wha…?

• The five most pointlessly women-specific products. Gah! (via The Mary Sue)

• The All-Whopper channel on DirecTV…

• Just say no to the poopburger.

• Toy security wand.

• Smell-o phone is a reality…

• Sofa bike.

• Wine in perfume-shaped bottles.

• Twenty percent of human genes are patented?!

• A mother might donate her uterus to her daughter. Erm. I wonder if the universe will end when the uterus that birthed her ends up inside her…

LOL

• A new Simon’s Cat!

• Unicorn eep!

• Is there a vampire on my head?

• Infographic on when it’s ok to tweet a dick pic.

• Twelve most awkward autocorrects.

• This penguin’s never going to make it as a cover model.

• Cat people vs. dog people.

• Not the last two lids that fit! Noooooo!

• Sounds like something Chaos might be working on in his spare time…

• Kitteh who looks like Gene Simmons!

Teh Cute

• Cat and kitten! Owl! Cat and kittens! Foxes! Kittens! Baby sloth! Kitten! Lions! Kitten! Yawny fox kit! Kitten! Bun! Kitten! Lion and cub! Kittens! Baby cheetah! Kitten! Baby sloth! Crabby kitten! Yawny lion! Yawny baby bat! Baby otter! Baby penguin!

Reading Update
Knight Errant by K.D. Sarge. ebook. Excellent m/m scifi romance about a 16-year old being raised on a spaceship by his sister and her crew. He’s been trying to be who she wants him to be, but is quietly miserable. And then he meets a guy who completely aggravates him…
Life Lessons by Kaje Harper. ebook. Excellent m/m romantic suspense about a high school teacher who finds the murdered body of one of his coworkers, then is questioned by (and keeps running into) a deeply closeted police detective. Plus this was set in Minneapolis! 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading more by Kaje Harper.
Lies and Consequences by Kaje Harper. free ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about an author pretending to be his lesbian best friend’s fiance so that her career in the Navy isn’t threatened. He’s so used to protective lying… can he even tell the truth anymore? (Stalker alert!)
The Night Porter by Sue Brown. ebook short. D’oh. How did I not notice this was a Bittersweet Dreams title?! Very good, but… *blots eyes*
Moments by R.J. Scott. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a badly behaved actor in a cable series who’s been busted for possession and ends up staying at a neighborhood resource center as part of  his community service.
Being Lead by Celia Kyle. ebook short. Very good kinky short m/m romance about a dancer who’s just retired and is at loose ends, needing his Sir to ground him.
Becoming His by Shawn Lane. ebook short. This was a sweet short m/m romance about a stripper and a bisexual television actor getting together. However, it felt incomplete to me. The whole groper subplot sort of stuttered out. And the ending felt somewhat forced and abrupt.
Car Wash by Shawn Lane. ebook. reread. Pretty good m/m romance about Kevin, who’s working at a car wash after getting laid off from his office job. I must admit that I got a bit frustrated at Kevin not standing up for himself.
Kevin’s Stories: Volume 1 (Car Wash #2) by Shawn Lane. free ebook short. Good free m/m romance containing two short stories following up on Kevin and Michael from Car Wash.
Kevin’s Stories: Volume 2 (Car Wash #3) by Shawn Lane. free ebook short. Good free m/m romance containing two short Christmas stories featuring Kevin and Michael from Car Wash.
Realize by Kerry Freeman. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a college senior who has a crush on his freshman roommate, but hasn’t done anything about it other than scare off anyone looking to get closer to his roommate.
Fugitive Color by ZA Maxfield. ebook. Good m/m romantic suspense about a sleep walking artist whose muse has been murdered… and he’s pretty sure he didn’t do it…
Rite of Passage by Bryl R. Tyne. ebook. Ok m/m romance about an anxiety-stricken writer who moves to the Colorado Rockies for solitude and to hopefully get past his writer’s block. This was hard for me to rate, since I had a hard time with the writing style and never connected with the main character.
Emerald: Hey, Jealousy by B.A. Tortuga. ebook short. Ok kinky short m/m romance about two friends who are attracted to each other, but haven’t acted on it in a long time, due to a misunderstanding. And then something changes all that… This seemed to stop mid-scene, which I found annoying. And it read an awful lot like a Sean Michael title….
Possession by Jessica Skye Davies. ebook short. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a guy who brings home a cast iron Punch statue, then begins having odd accidents.
His Gentle Touch by Stormy Glenn. ebook. So-so m/m romance about a guy who meets a gentle (and very sexy) giant in a bar, then wakes up married to him without remembering what happened. Classic Big Misunderstanding plot. Fewer mistakes than usual!
Sexier When Wet by Eden Cole. ebook. Meh m/m romance about a wishy-washy guy who stays with his cruel lover because he’s afraid of being left out on the street with nothing. He’s pursued by a not-quite-as-cruel guy, who wants him to leave the cruel guy. So, as you may have guessed, my main problem with this one was the lack of likable characters… (Hi, Candy Cane Guy!)
Takedown by Stacey Kennedy. ebook short. Poorly written and edited short m/m encounter between a US Marshal and a bartender. Some examples: “Kiss for kiss, dominance filled the air until it was thick with it.” “His G-spot stimulated by Wyatt’s hard cock…”

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*sunbeam bliss* – Chaos