Contests, Reading, Tales of the Neighborhood

In which I share some photos from TCPride and give away *gasp* PAPER books [CONTEST CLOSED]

51 Comments

This was the 40th year of TCPride. Hundreds of thousands of people turn out every year to support GLTBTQ Minnesotans and it usually restores my faith in humanity for a while. πŸ™‚ The big issue this year is the Anti-Marriage Amendment that will be on the ballot in November. Voting “No” means that you oppose defining, in the Minnesota State Constitution, marriage as being between one man and one woman. (One of my memorable Pride moments was trying to explain the Anti-Marriage Amendment to two Japanese tourists whilst having an asthma attack sans inhaler. Oy.)

First the pictures, then the contest. Onward!

From the Pride Parade comes this fascinating melange – the Chipotle float in the upper left, Obama reelection supporters in the upper right, and the “Mayor Rybak Says Just Vote No” crowd in front. Kudos to all the politicians who are taking a stand on this! (Remember, you can click on the pictures to embiggen them.)

Marriage was a theme throughout the Parade.

Why, yes, those are guys dressed as slices of cake riding on Segways.

And it wouldn’t be Pride without a little skin…

Here’s the drag queen who hugged me after I took her picture.

I was very impressed by all the churches and religious organizations showing their support and inclusiveness.

An idyllic scene from Loring Park after the Parade: statue, drag queen, same-sex couple.

One of my favorite parts of Pride is the QLibrary tent, where used books are sold. (This is not a picture of the tent. This is a picture of the QLibraryMobile from the Pride Parade. In case you were confused.)

And guess what? The QLibrary tent is where I got the paperback books that I’m going to give away. πŸ™‚ (Please note that in some cases, I have listed an ebook edition in my Goodreads link. That’s just so you can see what the correct cover looks like!)

  1. Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger. A guy puts everything on the line to find the love of his life – who got away 20 years ago – in this funny, touching, fast-paced novel. This is one of those books that just doesn’t work as an ebook.
  2. Willow Bend by Ally Blue. Can two men from different worlds cut the ties binding them to heartaches past and present, and make a life together?
  3. Stress Relief by BA Tortuga. Amos thinks he’s gotten away from it all, heading off to the wilderness after the wild life in the city leads him right into an early retirement. Dave thinks he’s gotten over Amos, moving on with his life and driving himself to success at all costs. They’ve gone their separate ways, and think they’re happy with what they’ve made of their lives. So what happens when these two meet up on Dave’s long overdue vacation, forced on him by his personal assistant?
  4. The Painted House by Drew Zachary. Gabriel Nash looks for a beach house in Nova Scotia, hoping to find something perfect for the new movie he’s working on. When he sees Marc’s house, he knows it’s just right. Marc doesn’t want to deal with the movie people, but he wouldn’t mind having Gabriel around.
  5. Center by Sean Michael. This edition combines two previous novels by Sean Michael, The Center of Earth and Sky and Painting the Desert.
  6. Nothing Personal and Nick of Time by Scott & Scott. (Yup, given away as a set.) Nothing Personal: The gay marriage ban is nothing personal, unless you’re a Cuban-American gay man in the heart of red-state America. Carlo Batista takes on longtime conservative Tall Tony Scipione in a race for state representative. And he takes on mystery man Brian Gallagher in the race for his heart. Nick of Time: Nick is a savagely handsome stonemason who has given up on gay men and has agreed to marry an Irishwoman who needs him for a green card. Brent is dancer from the city in town for his sister’s wedding. To Nick, Brent’s a bitchy slut who would think nothing of breaking his heart. To Brent, Nick’s just another dumb strong closet case stuck a thousand miles from the city beat.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment listing the books in which you are interested. (This is what is known as a Very Important Step.)
  • Contest closes 7 pm CDT, Monday, July 9.
  • By entering the contest, youÒ€ℒre confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • If you havenÒ€ℒt commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesnÒ€ℒt show up! The blog gnomes will decide your comments are spam and then only ritual dust bunny sacrifice will salvage your entryÒ€¦
  • 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 Γ’β‚¬β€œ this refers to some pretty clever comment spam.)
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • You must leave a valid email address in the Ò€œEmailÒ€ portion of the comment form.
  • Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
  • I am not able to reliably contact people with aol.com and netscape.com email addresses Γ’β‚¬β€œ please use a different email address if at all possible!
  • If a winner doesnÒ€ℒt respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
  • This contest is open worldwide!

“I know you’re all jealous of my fabulously furry abs.” -Chaos

51 thoughts on “In which I share some photos from TCPride and give away *gasp* PAPER books [CONTEST CLOSED]”

  2. Very nice photos, looks like you had a blast!
    Definitely want to get my hands on this one!-Center by Sean Michael

  5. I would like Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger or Nothing Personal and Nick of Time by Scott & Scott.
    Thanks. πŸ™‚

  6. Awesome pics, thanks for sharing πŸ™‚
    I’ll just stare at those and wish the others good luck, I’m not entering this since I can’t squeeze anymore paperbooks onto my shelves
    Oh, we finally, after 23 years went all the way towards equality, same sex couples can now get married in the church as well as the original Civil Partnership done at the City Hall ( which we’ve had for 23 years πŸ˜‰ )

  8. Glad y’all are enjoying the pictures. Obviously I had fun. πŸ™‚

    And I see how this is going. There’s going to be a brawl over Center! πŸ˜‰

  16. The QLibrary is such a cool concept! [jealous] I’m not too coherent today, (gotta love a summer bug), so please bear with me. My first impulse was to squeal, “Ooh, ALL THE BOOKS!” But I know that would be naughty. So, instead, I will just say that I would be willing to win any of them, especially PAINTED HOUSE (bit of a fixation on Nova Scotian boys from years of Sloan fandom), CENTER, STRESS RELIEF, ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE, or WILLOW BEND. Many thanks! (Now I have the urge to watch THE SIMPSONS’ Jebediah Springfield episode, thanks to Val’s use of “embiggening.” Makes sense, it’s a perfectly cromulent show. πŸ™‚ )

  17. Great pics, Chris. It looks to be a great experience. We have a pride parade in Leeds at the beginning of August but I’m away so I won’t be able to go. Shame!

    I’d like Willow Bend by Ally Blue, please.
    A recent post from Jenre..Post-ponedMy Profile

  18. Wow. Thanks for the paperback giveaway and for giving us links to read about them!

    Interested in Almost Like Being in Love and Willow Bend.

  19. Looks like you had a great time πŸ™‚
    Thanks for the generous giveaway Chris.
    I’m really interested in reading Steve Kluger’s Almost Like Being in Love. I’ve only heard good things about it, so I’d love to enter for that one.

  21. Very cool pictures! I’ve never tried Segway cake, but it looks good!

    Wishing you a better outcome on your vote than we had in NC. πŸ™

    I am interested in the BA Tortuga and Sean Michael books.

    Thanks so much!
    Donna

  24. No books for me, but I did want to say it looked like a great day and it is inspiring to see the support.

    thanks for sharing!

  25. Great pictures – thanks for sharing! I’d like to throw my name in the hat for Stress Relief, please (it doesn’t even have to be the book!)

  26. Hello Chris,

    It LQQks like you had an Awesome time at the 40th Annual Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minnesota, thank you for sharing your Photos of your time there, they were Great!

    I would very much appreciate the opportunity to be considered in your very generous giveaway of 6 Fantastic Paperback Books (well techinally 7 Books because selection #6 comes with 2 Boooks lol)…..& it’s Great that these Books came from The QLibrary Tent.

    They are all Great Books, but having to make are selection, here are my choices in order of interest, Thank You:

    “Center” by Sean Michael

    “The Painted House” by Drew Zachary

    “Willow Bend by Ally Blue”

    Take Care Chris & Stay Naughty πŸ˜‰
    PaParanormalFan ReneeÒ€ℒ S.
    paranormalromancefan at yahoo dot com

  27. Nice pictures πŸ™‚ My choice of books are these three:

    Almost Like Being In Love

    Willow Bend

    The Painted House

    Thanks!

  29. Love the pictures you shared with us. And thanks so much for the awesome give away. All the book look interesting but if we have to pick then here would be my choices

    Almost Like Being in Love
    Willow Bend
    Center

    The otheres look good too but those would be my top three choices. Thanks so much!

  31. I’m interested in anything except Nick of Time and Center (I have those two already!)

    Looks like you had fun πŸ™‚

  33. Chaos…you are correct as usual! Chris, please count me in on all as I have none of these. Thanks, Mi

  34. I love all the pics from pride, but my favorite: “guys dressed as slices of cake riding on Segways”, the best! LOL!
    For the giveaway is hard to choose but: “Almost Like Being In Love” and “Center” are the ones I would pick.
    πŸ™‚

  37. Wow!! That looked like such fun!! I have never been to a pride parade but I honestly am so anxious and dying to go to one! lol…
    Ah~ makes me happy to see all this support. It really does.

    Thanks so much for the contest.
    oh, heh, I’m interested in books #5 and #6. πŸ˜‰ fufu~ Thanks so much again!

    (I will so try to go to on here in L.A. the next time there is one.)
    and omg!!! chaos is so adorable there!! I just wanna squeeze and ruffle all that fluffiness~~ mmmfff~~ lol..

  38. Chaos, I’m envious of anyone’s abs, furry or not…

    That QLibraryMobile is attention-grabbingly colorful. πŸ˜€ I wish we had one driving around here.

    Enter me in the giveaway, please. I’m interested in Almost Like Being in Love, Willow Bend, The Painted House, and Center.

  39. I’ll give it a try. Interested in anything but the Sean Micheal and Ally Blue books as I’ve read them. Love the pictures.

  40. Yay, thanks for sharing the photos! I always love seeing Pride photos. πŸ™‚

    And while I’m not jealous of Chaos’ fabulously furry abs – I’d be alarmed if my own suddenly looked like that! – I am admiring.

    I’m not entering the contest, I’ve been trying to pare down my own paper collection lately. I used to be one of those who thought I’d never sacrifice the pleasure of paper. Ha! Silly me. πŸ˜€

  41. Count me in please. All of the books sound very interesting. Maybe center for top pick. Thanks.

  42. Thanks for the great giveaway. I am interested in all of the books. Wonderful pictures.

  43. Looks like a wonderful time. I am interested in Ally Blue’s book Willow Bend please. Thanks

  44. Thanks for the giveaway! I would love any of these: Center by Sean Michael
    The Painted House by Drew Zachary
    Willow Bend by Ally Blue
    I loved the cake people πŸ™‚ Well, you are what you eat…maybe that is good for other people that love cake but eat vegetables too?

  45. I’d love to read Steve Kluger’s Almost Like Being in Love. *batts eyelashes**

  46. Pride looks great!!!

    I’d like Willow Bend and The Painted House! Thanks for the contests. πŸ™‚

  48. I have no idea how I missed this post (the heat is killing me, so that could be it).

    Great, great pictures. You can actually see how much fun you had in all of them, though I paused at the skin ones. ~_^

    And, please, please enter me for Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger. One of my absolute favorites forever.

  49. Well, I’m interested in Sean Michael’s Center, B.A. Tortuga’s Stress Relief, and Willow Bend by Ally Blue. And in that order too. Cause I’m just organized like that πŸ˜› LOL Anyways, thanks for the awesome photos, Pride looks awesome!! Have a good week!

  50. Hello there.

    Is it okay to say I’d be interested in any of them? I don’t have any of those in paperback so +D All in?

    So if that’s okay, please count me in!

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