Rowan McBride | Stumbling Over Chaos

Tell authors Diana Holquist and Julie James who you think People will pick as the sexiest man of 2009 and if you’re correct, you have the chance to win a copy of Holquist’s book The Sexiest Man Alive or James’ book Just the Sexiest Man Alive. Contest closes 10 pm CST, November 15, or before if People announces their pick early.

Don’t forget that J. Kaye always has at least a dozen bookish giveaways going!

Head over to Vampire Wire by November 22 for your chance to win a copy of Molly Harper’s Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men.

Author Heather Long is giving away $10 Amazon gift certificate over at Fantasy Dreamer. Enter by 8 pm CST, November 23, for your chance to win.

You could go to Moderncat for your chance to win kitty toys made from old sweaters and socks (drawing on November 17)… or you could go and look at the pictures and probably make your own. Moderncat’s also holding a contest for a cat toilet training kit… *blink blink*

The usual thorough weekend updates on urban fantasy and paranormal romance from SciFiGuy and Literary Escapism. Don’t miss Donna’s weekly news and contest post, either.

Smexy Books highlights some very steamy forthcoming books.

Dear Author links to a few of this month’s ebook specials.

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books? They look pretty cool as data sets for visualization.

If you’re NaNoWriMoing, I hope you’re reading author Lynn Viehl’s blog, Paperback Writer. She offers up tips, encouragement, and humor, all of which you probably need about now.

Hey, that sure looks like a handknitted hat! Of course, May would want it pink, furry, and sparkly.

This is exactly what would happen if I knit a kitty bed for Chaos and Mayhem.

Don’t these gf pumpkin pie bars look yummy? I wonder if I could make them dairy-free…

Margene alerted me to a holiday I missed – Chaos Never Dies Day, which was November 9. Thanks, Margene!

Reading Update
How To Score by Robin Wells. This was a light-hearted and fun contemporary romance that I think would score respectably on the CursingMama book readability scale (and since I just invented it, I’m sure CursingMama is as puzzled as y’all as to what that might be). I keep trying to summarize the plot and failing. The best I can do is tell you that this book involves an FBI agent pretending to be his life coach brother, a hitman on the loose, a woman who keeps injuring the guys she dates, a dog who will go to great lengths to devour leather, and art deco houses.
Paul’s Dream by Rowan McBride. ebook. Lawyer Paul doesn’t know that the puzzles he solves in his dreams are real, until incubus Kian shows up to thank Paul for rescuing Kian while he was dreaming. Decent, not great paranormal m/m romance.
Partners in Crime (Cards on the Table & Murder at the Heartbreak Hotel) by Josh Lanyon & Sarah Black. ebook. Two excellent stories of m/m romantic suspense.
Portrait of a Kiss by T.D. McKinney and Terry Wylis. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance that had me sniffling a bit near the end. A cop inherits an old Southern house haunted by the ghost of a man believed to have murdered a pair of young lovers 50 years before. A very handsome and irresistible ghost…
A Bit of Rough and Roughhousing by Laura Baumbach. ebooks. Very steamy, yet romantic m/m romances about an architect and a guy who works in construction. Definitely worth reading.
Sympathy by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook. Sweet and well done m/m romance that wasn’t paranormal, which is unusual for Price.
Jumping the Fence and Crossing the Line (OC Pride, Books 1-2) by Stephanie Vaughan. ebooks. Two good m/m romances from Vaughan about figuring out who you really are and what you need to be happy.
IM by Rick R. Reed. ebook. Usually I avoid serial killer books, but I think I sort of blocked out the serial killer bit when I picked this one up. Since the tagline is “Instant Message… or Instant Murder?” I think I really had to work on blocking it out. 😉 Anyway, this was a solid m/m romantic suspense offering from Reed that had me on edge to the very end.
Car Wash by Shawn Lane. ebook. Ok 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.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by Cassie Stevens. ebook. Good m/m romance about finally taking control of your own life.

“Neener neener neener – I have my own holiday and you don’t! Ha!” -Chaos

Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) is giving away a copy of Diane Pharaoh Francis’ new urban fantasy, Bitter Night. Leave a comment by 8 pm CST, November 8, for your chance to win.

Lisa at Knitnzu won a copy of Show No Fear in my contest last month, but received two copies from the publisher. Of course she’s having a contest to pass on that second copy. 🙂 Leave a comment by the evening of November 6 for your chance to win.

Beth Kery’s giving away a copy of Erin McCarthy’s first NASCAR romance, Flat-Out Sexy. Leave a comment at Beth’s blog by November 6 and make sure you check back on the the 6th to see if you won!

Author blog Fangs, Fur and Fey is having a three-year anniversary contest and the grand prize is a Kindle. Contest closes 11:59 pm EST, November 13.

Wow – check out all the paranormal and urban fantasy releases over at Donna’s! )Don’t miss her weekly book news and more.) SciFiGuy lists the paranormal, urban fantasy, and scifi book releases for November. He also has his usual excellent weekend round-up of interviews and contests.

Looking for more reasonably priced ebooks for your reader? Amber Quill Press is offering three ebooks each day (one from each of their lines – fiction, er0tica, GLBT) at 75% off.

Thoughts on ebook piracy from Dear Author and from author Carolyn Jewel. And something else to think about – music pirates actually buy more music. I wonder if this holds true for ebook pirates?

This sounds cool – a four-part series about reading on Canadian television.

TeleRead reviews the new 5″ Astak EZReader. (I have the 6″ EZReader.) Here’s a quote from the review: “This may be the first e-book reader I’ve run across that is actually worth the purchase price.”

Oh oh – did B&N misappropriate intellectual property with the Nook?

Has anyone tried this ebook price comparison site yet?

Largehearted Boy has a nice list of the best books of 2009 lists that are already available.

There’s an iPhone app that claims it can double your reading speed in five days.

I would’ve needed stitches if I’d tried this.

Not surprisingly, last week was a good week for basement kittehs over at lolcats.

So Chaos. Switch the glass of milk for a soy mocha and this could be my place.

Lucky me – I won a $25 gift certificate to Fictionwise.com during Romance Reviews Today’s blogiversary contest. Thanks, RRT!! And many thanks to Cecile – I won Supernatural dvds in one of her many October contests!

Reading Update
A Stroke of Magic (Gypsy Magic, Book 2) by Tracy Madison. I was lucky enough to win a signed copy from a contest at Anna’s Book Blog a few months ago. This is the sequel to Madison’s delightful paranormal romance, A Taste of Magic. If you’re looking for some sweet paranormal romances without a vampire or demon or shapeshifter in sight, I highly recommend this series. The only thing I didn’t like about this was the cover – it’s very striking, but on first impression? I would’ve guessed the main character was a makeup artist, not an artist/painter. Or maybe that’s just me?!
Second Time Around by Bobby Michaels. ebook. Pretty sappy m/m paranormal romance that “drove me nuts” with “excessive quotation mark use.”
Snow Angel and Angel Heart by Sharon Maria Bidwell. ebooks. Nicely done m/m romances that spend more time in the characters’ headspace than most do.
Sursein Judgement by Jet Mykles. ebook. Hmm. This m/m romance isn’t that easy to classify. Possibly as steampunk with paranormal and manga elements?! It was good, whatever it was exactly. 🙂
Personal Demons by James Buchanan. ebook. Good m/m romantic suspense about an FBI agent and an LAPD officer who team up to track down a voudon killer.
The Good Thief by James Buchanan. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about an LAPD officer (are you sensing a theme here yet for the James Buchanan books?) and a burglar who get involved, despite their best intentions. James Buchanan is definitely on my must-buy list.
One Shot by Rowan McBride. ebook. Decent m/m romance about people affected by the side-effects of a new universal flu shot, some of which include gaining or losing several inches in height!
Finding Home by Cameron Dane. ebook. Solid m/m romance about a security expert who’s in love with his straight best friend/roommate. This is told in snippets over a ten-year period, which actually worked better than I expected.
I Spy Something Wicked by Josh Lanyon. ebook. This m/m romance is a respectable sequel to I Spy Something Bloody. Apparently it’s hard getting out and staying out of the espionage business.
Deeper Blue by A.J. Llewellyn. ebook. So-so m/m romance that was choppy, uneven, and had too many wtf moments for me, such as characters behaving oddly, but the behavior wasn’t ever explained, etc.
Bridge Over Trouble Water by Vivien Dean. ebook. Ok m/m paranormal romance about a homicide detective who hates and fears vampires, but needs the help of a very special vampire to solve a case.