Congrats to Jane, who won Not Anymore by Em Woods! Not Anymore will be released by Total-E-Bound on September 27.

Contests

• LesleyW wonders what turns you off in a protagonist. Comment by September 25 for your chance to win a copy of Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair.

• Mandi’s giving away a copy of Christina Phillips’s ancient historical romance, Forbidden. Contest is open through September 25.

• Don’t miss out on several chances to win Carolyn Crane’s forthcoming urban fantasy, Double Cross!
  

• Shawn Lane’s giving away a copy of her forthcoming m/m romance, The Beach House. Comment by October 1 for your chance to win.

Bookity

• New releases: Lily (m/m romance), Katiebabs (various books whose covers she likes), and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR, news, contests, etc).

• The Supreme Court ruling on legislation forbidding the sale of violent video games to children has wide implications for the future of media, including books.

• Brick-and-mortar bookstores are trying to figure out how to bring people in.

• Can you name seven Disney movies based on R-rated stories? (Thanks, Jase!)

• Some cover fail from Dear Author. Of course, Good Show Sir has daily cover fail with snarky commentary…

• Excellent book linkity and commentary from ReadReactReview.

• Zombie PSAs from publisher Penguin.

• The book trailer for Night of the Living Trekkies is amazing!

Ebookity

• You can read Stephani Hecht’s free Choose Your Own M/M Romance Story over at Kris’s place.

• Download an ebook containing creative content inspired by a “painting depicting Wil Wheaton in a clown-face sweater riding a unicorn pegasus kitten attacking an ogre John Scalzi.” Although you can download for free, if you donate/pay, you’ll be helping fight lupus.

• Just getting started with ebooks? Check out the first part of TeleRead’s primer.

• The 30 best free ebook websites, via TeleRead.

• Ebook price wars are beginning in the UK.

• Beware of ebook scams.

• The publisher of Smashwords shares seven secrets of ebook publishing failure.

• An American Editor discusses differences between eInk and LCD screens for reading ebooks. (I prefer eInk.)

• Looks like increasing scifi and romance ebook sales might be leading to decreased print sales in those genres. A survey found that one in eight American are using ebook readers and that these people buy more books. Ebook sales seem to be increasing a lot. But really, no one seems sure exactly what any of these numbers might mean. 🙂

• The Etch-A-Sketch iPad case would be cooler if the knobs actually did something.

• Very cool quilted rolling iPad quilt that you can make (and that has potential for ereaders).

• Lovely essay about the difference between the electronic and the physical.

Learn, Make, Do, Think

• This infographic of texting statistics boggles my mind. For the record, I don’t text.

• The internet might actually make people happier.

• Lifehacker provides tips on detecting photoshopped images.

• If your computer’s running hot and noisy, cleaning it might help.

• Prey seems like a useful tool for tracking and possibly recovering your laptop or Android phone if they’re stolen.

• I didn’t realize that some crows have mastered tool use.

• Ever wondered what happens when food cooks?

• Strangely, rebranding high fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” doesn’t make it any less evil.

• The FDA has ruled that genetically modified salmon won’t need be labeled as genetically modified.

• A shockingly simple explanation of Blockbuster Video’s bankruptcy.

• You might want to read this infographic before you buy another gift card.

• Before there was computer imagery, scientists built models and some of those models were very cool.

• I must confess to finding human-powered gadgets very cool – if all tvs and video games were powered by exercise bikes, would America have an obesity epidemic?

• What do you think the best way to incorporate odor-eating charcoal briquettes into one’s decor would be?

• Make ice cream at home without an ice cream maker.

• Check out Kristi’s recipe for knitter friendly anti-eczema bars.

• Craft’s got a pattern for knit and felt toy sailboats and another for your very own unraveling calendar (best for those without children, cats, or ferrets).

Linkity Peeps

• Procrastination Station from EPBOT…

• Kristi has craft, food, photography, and miscellaneous links.

• NSFW miscellanea from Lily.

• NSFW WTFery from Katiebabs.

Cool

• Clever advertising campaign for the Calgary Farmer’s Market. (Thanks, SVZ!)

• Cute game, although it may cause cubicle workers to weep uncontrollably… (Thanks, Jase!)

• I might need one of these for my espresso maker, which I often forget to turn off.

• Manta ray as film maker.

• Mario push pin mosaic.

• You must know someone who would like an NCC-1701 pizza cutter!

• Blueprints for building your own full-sized Dalek…

• Sir Terry Pratchett forged his own sword… and meteorites were involved.

• Origami kitties!

• Sweet Tetris cross stitch!

• A knitted bridge cozy!

• Thirty miles of yarn, math, and airbrushes can make art!

Huh

• Unicorn vs… Dolph Lundgren?! (Thanks, Jase!)

• The men of… mortuaries? (Thanks, Katiebabs!)

• KFC’s paying college women to advertise the Double Down on their butts?!?

• O noes! Your kitty could get robbed unless you have this product!

• Spray-on clothing…

• Clown ministry?!

• T-shirts with cute poo on them?

• Spiderwebs that are stronger than Kevlar?!

• Semen can be used as invisible ink?!

• The largest iPad dock available is a… bed?

• Aw, come on, you have a spare $100,000 around to buy a Stargate, right?

• A pizza topped with… pizzas?

LOL

• Interactive zombie movie! (via Luisa Prieto)

• Sesame Street spoofs True Blood.

• The bad ex service… make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text!

• Statistics can kill… make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text!

• “Jane Austen’s Baby Shower [Cake] Chronicles.“

• Cthulhu meets the Old Spice commercials…

• How to protect your stuff.

• How the facepalm gesture came to be in Star Trek: The Next Generation…

• My kitties did not enjoy this black cat meow mix video. At all. Chaos was so sure that I was hiding another kitty in my laptop that he got mad and started to act out. (Thanks? Lisa!)

• Your cat wants you to stay single.

• Obviously someone’s been spying on Mayhem while she’s in the litter box.

• Cats do not care about your deadlines.

• How to pet a cat.

• And you thought it would be cookies that tempted you to the darkside…

• The softer side of Basement Cat.

Teh Cute

• OK Go’s latest video involves performing dogs.

• Fetching kitty! (Both Chaos and Mayhem are fetching kitties – in both senses of the words.)

• Wee weasel! Wombat! Skeery panda! Floofy kittens! Cygnet! Kitten! Floofy kitten! Kitties! Ear tufts! Wee whatsit! Sleepy kitten! Kitties! Yawny ferret! Red pandas ! Baby elephant! Serious otter! Tv-watching kitty! Kitten! Naughty kittens!

Reading Update
Seriously, was this my week to read about mysterious guys or what?! You’ll see. 🙂
Ruthless Pursuit (Lost Shifters, Book 6) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance continuing the story of the search to find the Lost (Feline) Shifters, who were abducted when they were young and raised by humans. This installment is about trying to capture the criminally inclined Andrew.
Man and Wolf by Kate Roman. ebook. Decent paranormal m/m romance about a vet who meets and immediately connects with a mysterious guy who brings in his poisoned dog. I enjoyed this one, although an entire storyline of menace never really played out to be anything. Plus the sex-to-story ratio was a bit skewed.
Touch of a Wolf by Jez Morrow. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a grad student who just caught his boyfriend cheating and moved out. He has an uncharacteristic sexual encounter in an alley with a mysterious guy he runs into on the street – who later shows up on his fire escape – and his life is changed, possibly forever.
Wicked Cool by Val Kovalin. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy with a junk removal business who becomes very intrigued by a mysterious property manager he meets while on a job. Can he deal with the unknown, or will all the secrets drive them apart?
His Gift by Clare London. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy who wakes up injured in a rainy ditch, with no memory of how he got there. He manages to make it to an old house, where he meets a handsome, mysterious man and his life takes on a dream-like quality.
Bound by Blood (Soul Mates, Book 1) by Jourdan Lane. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a bartender with a vampire phobia who slowly realizes that not only is the hot guy he’s been ogling a vampire, he’s the Master vampire of the city… (I can definitely tell that Lane was influenced by Anne Rice’s early Vampire Chronicles and LKH’s early Anita Blake books. It works.)
Ethan’s Choice (Kindred Spirits, Book 1) by Jude Mason & Jenna Byrnes. ebook. Decent paranormal m/m romance about an analytical guy who’s considering buying the seaside inn he’s vacationing at. But why are the current owners selling it after only six months? And could the hunky handyman possibly be gay?
Almost Home by Nicole Gordon. ebook short. Intriguing short m/m story about two guys who’ve been friends for years, while one has been going through some rough things that just ended with his father’s death. Sadly, this book simply stops, with no resolution of any sort. However, I did leave a question for Nicole Gordon on her blog and she’s working on a sequel.
What They Say About Love by Alexi Silversmith. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy who breaks up with his girlfriend instead of proposing to her as he’d intended. He decides to go out and pick up a guy to explore a side of himself he’s kept under wraps since college…
The First Real Thing by Cat Grant. ebook. Good m/m romance about a male escort who picks up the wrong guy in a bar and finds himself in an actual relationship… with a guy who doesn’t know what he does for a living.
Not Anymore by Em Woods. ebook short. Good m/m romance about a guy who’s on vacation in Hawaii with his sister and her boyfriend when his attraction to a guy who approaches him on the beach outs him to his family. Things get really complicated when his nasty ex shows up and then the identity of the guy from the beach is revealed. Despite a few niggles, this was an enjoyable read and I’ll definitely look for future books from Em Woods.
Vince by J.M. Snyder. ebook. Pretty good young adult m/m story about two guys who’ve been best friends since they were little… until, when they’re 14, one confesses he’s in love with the other and gets laughter in return.
Just the Right Notes by Sean Michael. ebook. Good kinky m/m romance about an architect and a composer who periodically escape to their cabin for a weekend of D/s play. Will that be enough to keep them grounded when their lives go into crisis?
Prisoner of the State by Alex Morgan. ebook short. So-so short kinky m/m about a police chief who abducts a guy he pulled over for speeding and keeps the guy in his basement as a sex slave. This would’ve been better if it had been fleshed out more – it read more like a story outline at points.

“This sock, it has a flavor! It tastes… woolly.” -Mayhem