Today is the last day to enter the contest to win an ebook of LB Gregg’s new romantic suspense, Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1), which closes at 7 pm CST tonight!

Don’t forget to enter the contest to win an ebook copy of Julia Barrett’s forthcoming steamy romance, Beauty and the Feast. Contest closes 7 pm CST, March 15.

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Usually I don’t do memes or awards. I’ll thank you politely in your comments for thinking of me, and then occasionally will toss the award into my sidebar for a while. But every once in a while, an award hits when I’m not coming up with blog content for the next day… Such was the case with the Over the Top blog award presented to me by Tam of Tam’s Reads. Gee, thanks, Tam!

Shall we see if I can, as directed, answer the following questions using a single word? (Additional questions and editorializing added for fun.)

Your cell phone? Dumb
Your hair? Out-of-control
Your mother? Estranged
Your father? Enthusiastic
Your favorite food? Peanut butter (hmph – I’m not going to pick a food that isn’t my favorite simply to comply with an arbitrary rule!)
Your dream last night? None
Your favorite drink? Water
Your music? Eclectic
Your dream/goal? Happiness
What room are you in? Living room (see previous aside)
Your hobby? Reading
Your fear? Spinning blades (anyone else see a pattern developing here?)
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Canada
You? Non-conformist
Where were you last night? Home
Something that you aren’t? Patient
Muffins? Cherry-Almond
Wish list item? Ebooks
Where did you grow up? Minnesota
Last thing you did? Ate dark chocolate (gold star if you can say that using a single word)
What are you wearing? Clothes
Your TV? Unplugged
Your pets? Bossy
Friends? Virtual
Your life? Comfortable
Your mood? Level
Missing someone? No
Vehicle? Beemer
Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
You? Whimsical
Your favorite store? Varies
Your favorite color? Black (it is so a color)
When was the last time you laughed? Today (I laugh a lot – I’m easily amused)
Last time you cried? Unsure (but there was an angsty book involved)
Your best friend? Mysterious
One place that you go to over and over? Google Reader
Facebook? Abstaining
Favorite place to eat? PizzaPizza (frightfully inconvenient that it’s in Toronto)

Feel free to tag yourself if desired.

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“Mom, make the big kitty stop snoring! He woke me up again! We panther princesses need our beauty sleep!” -Mayhem

“Hey! I don’t snore!!” -Chaos, offsides

Many thanks to author Julia Barrett for donating a copy of her forthcoming steamy romance, Beauty and the Feast (to be released March 16), for me to give away to one lucky blog reader!

Eva Raines is an uncomplicated country girl who’s all about food. Eva moves to the Napa Valley where her culinary skills come to the attention of the owners of a start-up and Eva finds her niche as a personal chef. Now all she needs is a man as perfect as her cooking, but she has serious doubts such a creature exists.

When wealthy entrepreneur, winery owner, and noted lothario, Gabriel Abbott, makes plans to seduce his flavor of the month, his assistant hires All Things to All People to cater a gourmet dinner. Eva expects to use her way with food to showcase the startup. What she unexpectedly discovers is that her culinary skills showcase far more. Gabriel Abbott finds himself seduced by her voice and the sensual flavors and textures of her food and his previous plans are quickly forgotten. He begins to obsess about meeting his little chef in person. He’s not alone. Once Eva hears Gabe’s voice and spends time in his home in the Napa Valley, she begins to wonder about the real man and her dreams of him are so hot they could ignite a barbecue.

When Eva and Gabe finally come face to face, the question is, how hot will their fire burn?

A bit about Julia:

Julia Rachel Barrett has been writing most of her life, poetry, nonfiction, short stories and now, romance. In addition to writing, Julia is a registered nurse and a pastry chef. She is passionate about her family, her pets, the great outdoors, cooking, reading and dreaming.

Contest Rules

• To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CST, Monday, March 15.
• If you haven’t commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesn’t show up! The blog gnomes will decide your comments are spam and then only luck and counterintuitive espionage will salvage your entry…
• If your comment is actually an advertisement or if your CommentLuv link turns it into an advertisement, your comment will be deleted. (Most of you do not need to worry – this refers to some pretty clever comment spam.)
• Winners will be selected by random number.
• You must leave a valid email address in the “Email” portion of the comment form.
• Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
• If a winner doesn’t respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
• If you win, please respect the author’s intellectual property and don’t make copies of the ebook for anyone else.
• This contest is open worldwide!

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“Wait, why did you wake me up? I was snoring? That’s a lie – I don’t snore!” -Chaos

Yeah, that’s what they all say, Chaos…

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Don’t forget to enter the contest to win an ebook of LB Gregg’s new romantic suspense, Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1), which closes at 7 pm CST, March 10.

It’s Read an Ebook Week! What better way to celebrate than by winning an ebook to read? So, don’t forget to enter the contest to win an ebook of LB Gregg’s new romantic suspense, Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1), which closes at 7 pm CST, March 10. (And make sure you check out Books on the Knob for more ways to celebrate.)

Congrats to Northmoon, Beth P, Seanna Lea, Kelly, and Sheryl VV, who all won copies of Crazy Aunt Purl’s new book!

And congrats to Jase and RachelT, who each won an ebook short story bundle from Addison Albright!

I had a lucky weekend myself – thanks to Josh Lanyon and Jessewave for the copy of The Dark Farewell that I won. And thanks to Janey Chapel and Jenre for the copy of Maritime Men that I won!

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While I don’t have a clever name for this guy (Weird Facial Hair Guy is all I’ve come up with Thanks to Jeanne’s suggestion, he’s now Caterpillar On Chin Guy – check out some stock photos of him and see if you agree), I do have a sordid tale to share with you today. It’s the story of a woman

with finding

to call ”

“. (Can I get a show of hands from those who are convinced they could make a better cover than the one for My Captive Lover above, even without a working knowledge of PhotoShop? Yeah, me, too.)

Whoops! Looks like that lady’s pretty fickle, huh? Poor Caterpillar On Chin Guy…

(Good thing the designer used capital letters for the title on that cover is all I’m saying…)

In his despair over being so quickly captured and ditched, COCG decided to try

. Silly COCG – I fear that can only end in bloodshed and scarring. Both Jeanne and CJ can tell you that merely entering the Chaos Kitty’s territory (aka my condo) leads to poofing, hissing, growling, and all around general menacing. Mastering? Eeep.*

I have one more cover, the title of which has me simultaneously rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

Time for another show of hands! Anyone out there think the title is actually referring to wintery precipitation? Me, either.

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“…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..” -Chaos

*He looks singularly unworried about being mastered, doesn’t he?

Don’t forget to enter the contest to win an ebook of LB Gregg’s new romantic suspense, Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1), which closes at 7 pm CST, March 10.

I’ve emailed the five contest winners for Crazy Aunt Purl’s new book. Check your email.

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Today I have a very special treat for all of you. Based on a discussion Bron and I had, I have decided to show you all my Portable Ubiquitous Resource Storage Environment… aka my purse.

“Surely this is a new low, even for you, Mom?!” -Mayhem

Not so, May! Back in August of 2007, we toured my then-purse, which was actually a small piece of carry-on luggage. This time, backpack straps notwithstanding, it’s actually a shoulder bag – the Eagle Creek Hitch. (Oh, Eagle Creek, how I do love thee and thy clever bags with so many pockets and features…)

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

Chaos included for scale. Also because I couldn’t keep him out of the picture.

Let’s start with the electronics, shall we? I notice that this category is significantly larger than it was in 2007.

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

Clockwise from the left, we have my ebook reader, Kuroi Neko (my netbook), my camera case (since obviously the camera was in use), my un-smart cell phone in its case, my Palm Tungsten E2, my access badge for work, a mini surge protector, and a case containing two USB drives (8 and 16 gb, respectively).

Next is everything else.

*gnaw gnaw gnaw* -Mayhem

Not sure I’ll get everything, but I’ll give it a try. Clockwise from the bottom left corner, UnPetroleum lip balm* attached to a carabiner for easy access, glasses cleaning cloth in a case, gloves and ear covering, a glasses strap, Motrin, my blog card case, earplugs, hand lotion, a notebook (with pens and a permanent marker), two Chico shopping bags, a book stand/holder, Mayhem gnawing on said book stand/holder, a GorillaPod tripod, several coffee clutches, migraine shots, decongestant (the kind you have to show ID for!), a purple hairbrush, clip-on sunglasses in vintage case, hair clip, USB to mini-USB cord (whoops, wrong photo, but very handy for charging my ebook reader and mp3 player), Swiss Army knife, hemp wallet, checkbook, crazy black kitty pocket mirror, inhaler still in box, travel lint brush, toothpaste and travel toothbrush, and sunblock. (And hey, MamaTulip, I did throw away that powder from 1997! Although… I just noticed that I have the same sunblock now as in 2007… suppose I should throw it out and start fresh, huh?)

*gnaw gnaw gnaw* “Hey, Mom, this gorilla thingy is pretty tasty!” -Mayhem

Really, May. I notice that you were chewing on it the last time I did this feature, too.

*Please note that all my backup lip balm was excluded from these photos because having eight backup lip balms just seemed sort of crazy. So why am I telling you about it?! Hmm. Also excluded were hair ties (Chaos kept stealing them), my purple hankies (just because), and my mp3 player (it was in my jacket pocket and completely unaware of this photo shoot).

Make sure you enter the contest to win an ebook of LB Gregg’s new romantic suspense, Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1), which closes at 7 pm CST, March 10.

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Contests

• Jenre’s giving away a copy of Janey Chapel’s m/m romance, Maritime Men. Answer her question in the comments by 11:59 pm GMT, March 5, for your chance to win.

• The Book Smugglers are giving away a copy of Something About You, the new contemporary romance by Julie James. Contest closes 11:59 pm PST, March 6.

• Donna Fantasy Dreamer’s giving away a signed ARC of Sean Cummings’ new urban fantasy, Shade Fright (Valerie Stevens, Book 1). Answer her question in the comments by 8 am CST, March 7, for your chance to win. SciFiGuy’s also giving away a signed copy to someone who comments by midnight EST, March 10.

• SciFiGuy’s giving away a copy of Skyler White’s new vampire novel, and Falling, Fly, too. Leave a comment by midnight EST, March 10.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Beth Kery’s latest erotic romance, Release. Leave a comment by March 10 for your chance to win.

• If you post or tweet about the Chicago author event at the Webster Place Barnes & Noble (featuring Julie James, Beth Kery, Shiloh Walker, and Joss Ware aka Colleen Gleason) on March 13, you’ll have a chance to win signed books and a $40 B&N gift card.

• Oh, you lucky Canadians – you have a chance to win one of five copies of Shadowrise (Shadowmarch, Book 3) by Tad Williams from SciFiGuy if you leave a comment by midnight EST, March 17.

• If you’re in the US, you have a chance to win one of three copies of Rachel Ward’s young adult paranormal thriller, Num8ers, from SciFiGuy – comment by midnight EST, March 17, to enter the contest.

• Author Julia Barrett’s having a recipe contest this month to celebrate the upcoming release of her steamy romance, Beauty and the Feast. Head over to Julia’s blog to get the details!

• Cecile’s giving away your choice of one of Beth Kery’s steamy romances – simply leave a comment by March 31 for your chance to win. Also at Cecile’s, if you can answer the question about Jenna Byrnes, you’ll have a chance to win one of her books. This one’s open until March 31, too.

• Sweet Vernal Zephyr keeps a constantly updated list of book-related contests going in her blog sidebar. Book Junkie has a second blog (Book Junkie II) just for contest listings. And All Things Urban Fantasy puts out a weekly list of urban fantasy contests every Wednesday – the latest has nearly 100!

Books & Reading

• SciFiGuy’s weekend report is, as always, chock full of info. So’s the March Escapist Newsletter from Literary Escapism.

• For lists of of new and forthcoming books, check out Renee’s Book Addiction (romance, m/m, paranormal, urban fantasy, etc), Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings (fantasy, paranormal, urban fantasy, YA) (Donna’s got some contest listings, too), SciFiGuy (paranormal, urban fantasy, fantasy, scifi), and I Love Books (m/m).

• Smart Bitches have an assortment of interesting links. So does author Kelly McCullough of Wyrdsmiths.

• Not sure how well this art installation promoted reading, but it sure looked cool. These vintage typewriter keyboard stickers look pretty cool, too.

• How much does it cost to publish an ebook versus a hardcover? Not everyone agrees with those numbers.

• One TeleRead contributor’s thoughts on why to avoid ereaders… for now.

• Some predictions for ebooks in 2010.

• Does Apple’s removing racy applications from its iPhone App Store have implications for its proposed ebook store?

• Author Marta Acosta shares some of her thoughts on ebook piracy.

• Trek’s thoughts and observations from the ethics assignment on ebooks and ereaders that she gave her college students.

• Are books still books if they’re electronic? If you’d like to think more deeply on the nature of the book, this might be the read for you.

• Val of Obsidian Bookshelf discusses that most challenging question plaguing m/m romance authors – how to keep those pesky pronoun references straight.

• Nicola at Alpha Heroes put together a very cool photo essay based on locations from Kat Richardson’s urban fantasy, Underground.

• Kmkat found an interesting study on what those Harlequin titles such as The Brazilian Millionaire’s Love Child might have to say about evolution.

• If you can bear to chop up old book covers, you can make some pretty cool postcards.

• Trek reviewed an intriguing book about what might happen if all your private conversations went public.

• If you’re a writer prone to procrastination, maybe you need to check out the tough love anti-procrastination application, Write or Die.

• Many thanks to Keira of Love Romance Passion for including Stumbling Over Chaos in her list of 2010’s Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs.

Learn Stuff

• How to make fakeuccinos at home instead of buying those bottled Starbucks drinks.

• Find out about the man who created MacGyver.

• Lifehacker celebrates duct tape.

• There are now officially wraps or skins for everything – including an x-ray wrap for casts.

• Gizmodo lists 15 plants that are good at purifying air.

• Topeka, Kansas, changed its name to Google, Kansas, for the month of March.

• Some psychologists theorize that the evolutionary purpose of depression is to enhance mental skills.

• I didn’t realize that every earthquake affects the earth’s axis. Because of the Chilean earthquake, days are now 0.00000126 seconds shorter.

• Gladys makes the most amazing pooling stoles from Wollmeise and shares her patterns.

• MaryLou’s Kombu Cowl is a gorgeous way to use half a skein of Mini Mochi.

• Knitblogger KarenB documented her transition from Blogger to WordPress, if you’ve been thinking about making the same move.

• Erotic Horizon discusses the tools she uses to make blogging easier.

• Thanks to CursingMama for highlighting this thought-provoking post about figure skater Johnny Weir and how he’s portrayed by the media.

• ModernCat has some great pictures of a cat table (sort of an outdoor garden/platform for your cats to enjoy on your deck or patio), plus a link to how to make one.

• Ugh. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to eat bagged salad again…

• As Jeanne noted when she sent me this link, who connects black peppercorn to salmonella?! (After all the recalls recently, I wasn’t too surprised to discover that food-borne illnesses cost the US $152 billion annually in medical care and quality of life.)

• The National Institute of Health claims that lactose intolerance is nowhere near as prevalent as people think. (Since my gastroenterologist told me I was lactose intolerance, I’m pretty sure I really am…)

LOL

• Limedragon sent me this great comic about why DRM doesn’t work… It could as easily go in the books section!

• This iPad case was inevitable…

• Dice storage is very important.

• The real reason people want laser eye correction surgery.

• Hmm. Looks a lot like Chaos to me.

• Although… this could be Chaos, too.

• SuperKitty to the rescue!

Teh Cute! It Burns!

• Aww, a little angel.

• Too cute to be fearsome.

• But does it have sparkles?

• Kmkat found a great post with pictures of  celebrities and their cats.

• Not getting enough kitten cuteness in your life with itty bitty kitty committee and pitter pats of baby cats? Give Two Mama Cats a try.

Reading Update
My Fair Captain (Sci-Regency, Book 1) by J.L. Langley. ebook. Another book for Kris’ m/m rut challenge. This was a scifi m/m romance, with a Regency flair to it… and I totally loved it. (I’m really glad I totally loved it, because if I hadn’t? I’d be afraid, as this is a very popular book.) I was a little frustrated during the prologue and first few chapters, as I tried to pull the bits and pieces together (that world-building stuff), but after I hit the breakthrough point (where you absorb the background and it doesn’t interfere with the story anymore), I was transfixed. Very steamy, yet very romantic and highly recommended read. (Kris is gloating. I can hear her.)
The Englor Affair (Sci-Regency, Book 2) by J.L. Langley. ebook. Not quite as good as My Fair Captain, but still a very good m/m scifi romance.
Friction by J.P. Bowie, Jenna Byrnes, Jude Mason, Kim Dare, Ashley Ladd, S.L. Majors, & Cassandra Gold. ebook collection. This was an enjoyable m/m romance collection. I thought of all the stories were, at the very least, decent, with one exception. And there were definitely a couple that were excellent.
Running Hot by Stephani Hecht. ebook short. Nicely done short m/m romance about a paramedic and an ER doctor.
GPS by Leigh Ellwood. ebook short. Cute m/m romance about a guy who gets a GPS for his birthday, but what the heck is up with the darn thing?! (Yes, you’re right – that is Candy Cane Guy in the background.)
Sea of Sin (Creatures of Sin, Book 3? Book 2.5?) by India Harper. ebook short. Ok m/m romance short about a police commander who lives a celibate, closeted life except for the one week during which he goes on a gay cruise vacation. Based on the sort of non-ending to this story, I suspect it’s part of the setup for the next book in the series.
629 Miles To Love by Fae Sutherland & Marguerite Labbe. ebook. Ok m/m romance about two former lovers on a drive, talking about what went wrong. (Lost points for lack of condoms and lack of discussion of same.)
Skin Deep by S. W. Vaughn. ebook. Quite good urban fantasy m/m romance that was a bit hard for me to read at points, due to graphic violence in a domestic abuse situation. I am glad I persevered. (No condoms here, either…)
Falling (Hawkins Ranch, Book 2) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about two ranchers, one of whom happens to be a demon, which I would’ve enjoyed more if it had had a bit less torture. Those parts were hard for me to read and I definitely skimmed the more graphic violence.
ReneCade (Hawkins Ranch, Book 3) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Another good m/m romance (no paranormal this time) about a deeply closeted sheriff’s deputy who’s attracted to the sheriff’s son, but very afraid of the potential consequences of that attraction. I’m glad that this was less brutal than Falling, but the angst was flowing more freely and there was cheating, so maybe it was a draw.
Do You Believe in Magic by Drew Zachary. ebook short. Very steamy short m/m romance that was a good antidote to the brutality of Skin Deep and Falling.
Slap and Tickle by Drew Zachary. ebook. So-so m/m romance about a possessive cop and the stripper he’s in love with. I found the nicknames (“Big Daddy” and “Candy Pants”) annoying and the sex-to-story ratio was so skewed I skimmed a lot to find the tiny bits of plot scattered amongst the nudity. Plus a plot point that was played up throughout the book wasn’t resolved so much as dropped, which was odd and rather unsatisfying.

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“Fine, Mayhem. Be that way. I was only trying to help. Now you will be shunned because your ears are dirty!” -Chaos

“Whatever, big kitty. I think you have OCD issues.” -Mayhem