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Congrats to Jen B and Beth, who each won a copy of Bulletproof (A Matter of Time #3 or #5, depending) by Mary Calmes! Bulletproof will be released September 26 by Dreamspinner Press.

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Contests

• Blodeuedd’s giving away several different ebooks: the Entangled anthology, To Seduce an Earl by Lori Brighton, and Galaxy Girls by Edie Ramer. Contest closes October 3.

• Book Lovers Inc is giving away a copy of Chosen by Blood by Virna DePaul, plus an author swag package. Contest closes October 8.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Renee’s Book Addiction (a bit of everything), Fiction Vixen (romance/UF/PNR), All About Romance, and Book Lovers Inc (a bit of everything).

• Ten tips for tackling your TBR pile from LoveRomancePassion.

• Rejected book titles. (Thanks, Stephani!)

• Better Book Titles suggests one for Breaking Dawn (Twilight #4)…

• Your kitteh thinks you read too slow…

Ebookity

• According to a Harris survey, ereader owners buy and read more books.

• An American Editor shared some thoughts on what publishers could learn from the results of that survey.

• Dear Author on consumer confidence and “no-name” brand tablets… although Lenovo (featured in the post) is certainly not a “no-name” brand!

• The big ebook excitement of the week was that 11,000 libraries in the US will be lending Kindle ebooks.

• If your local library doesn’t have ebooks, check out this list of libraries that don’t require you to be a resident in order to borrow ebooks.

• TeleRead has all sorts of links and resources related to checking ebooks out from libraries.

• “Ebooks pose problems for the underside of the digital divide.”

• For fans of Stephani Hecht’s Lost Shifter series, she’s posted the first part of Shane’s story on her blog.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

• Things to ask during visits to the doctor.

• Harvard’s version of the US government’s new “MyPlate” food guide.

• Scientists have discovered a virus that destroys breast cancer cells.

• Remember the whole “Google is making us stupid” thing? Might not be true.

• It took gamers three weeks to crack an enzymatic code that could lead to new AIDS treatments… and which had stumped scientists for a decade.

• 3D films aren’t doing as well as their 2D versions.

• Oh, dear. The volcano that led to the “year with no summer” in the early 1800s is gearing up again.

• What you should and shouldn’t buy at various online and offline stores.

• If you’re going to visit someone on the East Coast soon, apparently you should bring them a pumpkin.

• Etiquette for working in a coffee shop (and not as a coffee shop employee).

• Turn a milk jug into a lunch container or a gift box.

• One of the secrets to increasing pet adoptions seems to be taking better pictures.

Cookity

• Pumpkin pie leather.

• Chocolate spiderweb cake in a jar.

• Candy corn cheesecake mousse.

• Fifteen chicken recipes.

• Ten simple soup recipes.

• Five pumpkin recipes – including pumpkin spice latte.

Crafty

• Crochet a colorwork heart hat.

• Crochet a Charleston cloche.

• Rainbow granny square parasol.

• Prepare for winter by making wool curtains out of surplus blankets.

• Crochet a door mat from old bicycle tire tubes.

• Use paper scraps to make an origami picture frame.

Cool

• Have you watched Husbands, the Series yet? It’s a cute web TV series about two guys who wake up married after a drunken night out in Las Vegas. So far there are four episodes, from 1.5 minutes to 2.5 minutes long.

• Amazingly detailed LEGO bowling alley.

• LEGO zoetrope.

• Functional LEGO greenhouse.

• A 581-foot tall lightsaber in London.

Cool or Wha…?

• Octopus coffee mug. (via The Mary Sue)

• Star Wars meets pancakes.

• Beast of Arrrggghhh plush hat…

• Freaky elevator in an otherwise ordinary office building in Queens.

• A rain jacket that looks straight out of Blade Runner!

• An IKEA in Australia has a play area called MÄNLAND for guys who hate to shop.

Wha…?

• An infographic with all the changes that George Lucas has made to Star Wars.

• Shats. (via The Mary Sue)

• *blink blink* Do you think those guys signed up to model… that stuff?!

• Shrimp scampi scarf.

• Infuse vodka with bacon.

• Full-size gummy human brain.

• “Instead of fixing a man’s laptop, Sony sends seven broken computers to his house for HIM to fix.”

• Scary cake sculptures.

• Superhero fetuses.

• Alien, vampire, and werewolf fleshlights and dildos?! (NSFW!!!)

• Boat motor drink blender.

• Seismologists and other experts are on trial in Italy for failing to warn people of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in 2009… because earthquake prediction is such a precise science… Are the new Dark Ages upon us?!

LOL

• Labyrinth-esque family photo… (Thanks, Bron!)

• Cupcakes disguised as other food. (Thanks, Amy!)

• If you’re tired of using Lorem Ipsum, maybe you’ll enjoy Samuel L. Ipsum instead…

• Ten back-to-school autocorrect fails.

• Nine birthday autocorrect fails.

• Cthulhu kitten! (Thanks, PD!)

• More Jedi kittens!

• What cats do when we’re not home.

• Gasp! A cat… using a cat bed.

Teh Cute

• Kittens! Pangolin! Kitten! Featherless penguin chick! Kitten! Fox and kit! Kitten! Baby wallaby! Kitten! Baby snow leopards! Kitten! Baby red pandas! Kitten! Baby ocelot! Tiger cubs! Arctic fox kit! Lion cub! Baby kiwis! Panda and baby! Crane and baby!

Reading Update
Full Circle by Kaje Harper. ebook short. Excellent, poignant short m/m story about a drunk who rescues a very sick and homeless young man from the street. While the story covers a lot more ground, you really need to just let this tale of redemption unfold for you. I did spend the last third of the book crying… and be aware that the ending, while not a conventional HEA, is hopeful.
Come Unto These Yellow Sands by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Excellent m/m romantic suspense about a professor and rehabilitated addict whose relationship with the town’s police chief is jeopardized by his helping one of his students leave town for a few days, then not coming clean about it when he learns the student is wanted for questioning.
Abercrombie Zombie by KZ Snow. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a pair of psychic mediums who are approached by a man claiming to be a zombie and to need their help finding the man responsible for his condition. Two important points: There is no zombie sex (whew!), but there is a cameo appearance by Wisconsin’s favorite wizard… 🙂
Aloes by Chris Quinton. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about an architect who wakes from a coma with synesthesia – he can taste truth and lies. As he begins to work on a major restoration for an intriguing new client, he starts to get threatening anonymous phone calls and mail. I enjoyed this, even though the suspense plot was easily figured out. However, the book ends quite abruptly, as if a sequel was planned – but there’s not a sequel at this point. 🙁
Fuzzy and Last Chance (First Impressions #2-3) by Josephine Myles. ebook shorts. Very good short m/m romances continuing the story of publishing assistant Steve and artist Jez that started in First Impressions. More crazy socks! And… knitting! 🙂
Clear Water by Amy Lane. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy with ADHD whose low self-esteem leads him to make some really bad choices. When the result of one of those choices leads to his near death and timely rescue by a field biologist, neither of them has any idea how much their lives are about to change.
Mixed Signals by Cooper West. ebook. Cute m/m romance about a handsome rescue copter pilot from money who meets (and is attracted to) a nerdy computer geek hanging out in a hair salon’s waiting area.
Training Cats by PD Singer. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a pharmacist who’s slowly realizing that his boyfriend is a jerk. (This is related to the On Call books.)
My Boyfriend Has a Scar by M. Raiya. ebook short. Sweet short m/m romance about a guy who returns to his home town ten years after he left because his father caught he and his boyfriend together and did not react well.
The Book of Wisdom (Change #2.5) by JM Cartwright. ebook short. Good short m/m romance set five years after A Change of Scenery, as Stephen’s protege is coming to stay with them after graduating from college and Con’s not pleased about it.
Of Russian Myth and Lore (Russian Bear #3.5) by CB Conwy. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about Mischa and Tom going to Canada to visit Mischa’s relatives.
Burning Bright by Rachel Wilder & A. Catherine Noon. ebook. Good kinky paranormal menage romance about an animal empath and veterinary surgeon who moves to Chicago to look for a job. When he’s rescued from Russian mobsters outside of a bdsm club by the club’s owner and bouncers, he finds himself strangely attracted to them… I would’ve rated this higher, but there was an extended bdsm scene in which the vet was flogged and had sex while lying on his stomach after his ribs had been broken only a few days before, but his ribs didn’t bother him at all…
Out of the Closet (Out of the Closet #1) by KevaD. ebook. Good short humorous m/m romance about a writer who decides to come out to the roommate he has a crush on, but things do not go at all as hoped.
Back in the Closet (Out of the Closet #2) by KevaD. ebook. Good short humorous m/m romance about a writer who has to go to Iowa and stay at his dead uncle’s farm in order to fulfill the terms of his uncle’s will. This read like the author was trying a little too hard to be clever.
Quick to the Hunt (Hawkins Ranch #7) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about a soldier returned from Afghanistan with severe PTSD and survivor’s guilt who deals with things by self-harming. My major problem with this one was the overblown, often lurid prose, which made nearly everything seem completely over the top and just… too much, all the time.
Sex on the Hoof (Protect and Serve #1) by Silvia Violet. ebook short. Ok paranormal short m/m romance about a deer shifter who works nights in the police crime lab and finally can’t resist the sexy vampire detective he’s been lusting after. The sex-to-story ratio is a bit skewed in this one…
A Small, Still Voice by DW Marchwell. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a teacher who left his job after being falsely accused of raping a student. Now, six years later, that time comes back to haunt him. The beginning of the book was hampered by awkwardly integrated flashback infodumping, while the end suddenly tried to morph into a mystery without much success.
When Love Is Not Enough by Wade Kelly. ebook. Uneven m/m romance that starts with the funeral of a twenty-two year old who committed suicide, then switches between flashbacks of his life, the nearly present, and the present, trying to explain how he reached the point of suicide. Oddly, this book contained what felt like a commercial – a section in which specific m/m books and authors were mentioned and one of the characters read an excerpt to another. After that, I was no longer on board with the story.
In the Wings by Michael St. Anthony. ebook. DNF. I set this aside for a month to see if I’d pick it up again, but all I felt was relief at not continuing to read it. I didn’t like the main character at all.

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“I’ll get you for this, Mom. Don’t think I won’t…” -Chaos