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Congrats to Val, who won Secrets and Charms (Secrets #2) by Lou Harper!

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Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• From Heidi Cullinan: “My book is not my baby, though sometimes it does reek of poo.“
• “On why authors have more power than readers“.
• Dear Author looks at the Kickstarter business model.
• Writing and authorly links from Becky Black.
• Haruki Murakami is starting an advice column. o.O Have you read any of Murakami’s books?! Oh my. (via twoearsandaheart)
• Genre readers unite! (via tracykitn)
• How many of you are using this flowchart to make your book buying decisions?
• Go watch a 41-second video about a book. Worth it!
• 15 lovely Little Free Libraries.
• A basement bookstore that’s walking distance from me.
• Yes, this.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• “Nonconforming and freethinking now considered mental illnesses“. (via emmaseasall)
• Turns out this year’s flu vaccine was only 23% effective.
• Target’s closing all its Canadian stores.
• The Cadbury Creme Egg recipe is changing, but not in the US.
• “Men who post lots of selfies show signs of psychopathy, says study“.
• What would it be like to swim in a pool on the moon? Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.
• “New Horizons is carrying the ashes of Pluto’s discoverer to Pluto“.
• The Pillars of Creation were actually destroyed more than a thousand years ago.
• Both Pizza Hut and Coors have new gluten-free options.
• How was the Oreo invented?
• Calculate if you’ll save money by dropping cable.
• Winter driving myths.
• Flowchart to help you pick the right board game for any situation.
• Kyle MacLachlan will be returning to Twin Peaks.

Cookity

• 12 hearty casseroles.
• 13 vegetable soups.
• Smoky tomato and lentil soup.
• Kale and potato soup.
• White bean and bacon soup.
• Slow cooker enchilada quinoa bake. (via CRAFT)
• Roast chicken with carmelized citrus and allspice. (via The Kitchn)
• Savory waffle pizzas. (via The Kitchn)
• Spiced carrot oat breakfast cookies.
• Banana nut muffins.
• Sipping chocolate.

Gluten Free

• Skinny blueberry corn muffins.
• Thick & chewy chocolate chip cookies.
• Chicken-fried chicken.
• Soft flour tortillas.

Crafty

• How knitting is like engineering. (via knittyBlog)
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Giant turtle snow sculpture
• 15 LEGO “brickfilms”.
• Fun short film. Short love story.
• Tiny paper Millennium Falcon.
• Listen to the sounds of space.
• For your Neil deGrasse Tyson t-shirt needs.
• Aerial photos of New York City.
• The lights of Uptown Minneapolis.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Topiary sculpture?
• Twitter-based Choose Your Own Adventure.
• Star Trek paperclips.
• Door-bottom air filter – wouldn’t it be smarter to put in a threshold in order to keep out smells and sounds?
• Tiny ceiling fan.

Wha…?

• Man Bowl.
• Nunchuck iPhone case.
• “Conversation heart jelly beans exist, are not heart-shaped“.
• Professional cuddler is a real job.
• Does your refrigerator really need a wifi-enabled Keurig built into it?
• Nothing says professional attire like a button-up shirt covered with poop emojis.
• “Pop-up restaurant has 60K waiting on a list to eat twitching seafood covered in ants“.

LOL

• “Canada’s most aggressive act since 1812“.
• “Gut fauna“. Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.
• If the creator of xkcd could live anywhere… Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.
• If you have trouble generating D&D characters…
• Black kitty (I guess) in a bean patch.

Teh Cute

• Reindeer and baby! Cat! Baby penguins! Tapir and baby! Alpacas and baby!

Reading Update
Foxglove Summer (The Rivers of London #5) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good continuation of this urban fantasy series, which finds Peter and Beverly Brook looking for missing children in pastoral rural England. Not rated “very good” due to an abrupt ending and some inadequately resolved questions.

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

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D’oh! I hit publish instead of schedule, so here’s the Misadventure a bit early…

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Welcome to another edition of the Misadventures in Stock Photography! Today we’ll be meeting Sword Spine Guy.

hoped to be home

(and

) as he led all

(including the

, who were

unto themselves),

, and

away from the castle to bathe in the

.

Oh my.

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“What are those naughty boys up to, that they keep trying to distract me with more socks?! I’m keeping my eyes on you, naughty boys!!” -Mayhem

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance), AAR (romance), and Tor.com (PNR)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• “Romance is not a feminist genre – and that’s okay“.
• Yet another reason reading fanfic lures some of us away from mainstream fic.
• Bring “squick” back to fandom.
• Important announcement about parentheses.
• Some Goodreads humor.

Do, Think, Learn, Make

• “If you threw cookie dough at the sun, how long would it take to bake?“
• Neil deGrasse Tyson will have a late night science talk show called Star Talk.
• Tour the Sriracha factory.
• Theater attendance hits a 19-year low.
• “Why the flu vaccine doesn’t always work“.
• The things that will be more expensive in 2015. (via Lifehacker)
• “Why are there so many dead malls? The middle class is dying, too“.

Cookity

• 7 meatless main dishes.
• 15 vegan recipes.
• 15 freezer-friendly main dishes.
• 17 make-ahead soups.
• Sweet potatoes with chickpea tomato sauce.
• Lentil soup.
• Sweet potato lentil soup with curry and lime.
• Shrimp and corn tamales with miso butter. (via The Kitchn)
• Sugar cookie popcorn. (via CRAFT)

Gluten Free

• Hot chocolate mix.
• Easy oatmeal muffins.
• Chocolate chip scones.
• Taco soup.

Crafty

• Knit some geeky mittens.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• An extremely Minneapolis photo of someone ice fishing on Lake Calhoun in Uptown with the downtown skyline as backdrop.
• Smartish 9-volt battery that will contact you when your smoke detector goes off and before it starts beeping that horrible low-battery warning.
• Small LEGO scenes.
• LEGO-inspired furniture.
• Exoplanet travel posters from NASA.
• The Hubble Telescope celebrates its 25th anniversary.
• Photo of the Andromeda galaxy.
• Poignant short film about space exploration.
• Animation about hiding our true feelings.
• If you’ve missed playing The Oregon Trail…
• Design a hedge maze for the hotel from The Shining.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Water bottles that look like rolls of film.
• Supercut of all the times Carl Sagan said millions, billions, etc.
• Life-sized cake of Dame Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey. (via The Mary Sue)
• R2-D2 projection keyboard.
• Jaws-themed baby crib. (via Tor.com)

Wha…?

• “Belfie Stick”, so you can take selfies of your butt.
• The Handicorn.
• Self-adjusting smart belt.
• Japanese domesticated owl cafes.
• GM will use OnStar to send coupons to your car.
• Drive a car remotely with a smartwatch – what could go wrong?
• Swarovski fitness tracker.

LOL

• 11 autocorrect sexts.
• How worried you should be when things happen in the movies vs in real life. (Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.)
• Should’ve done something like this when Chaos was wearing the Cone o’ Shame.
• Decorating tips from Basement Cat.
• Exploration!
• Maybe you should put that cat on a diet…

Teh Cute

• Tiger and babies! Lioness and babies!

Reading Update

• Look! Over there! In the sky!

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“Hmm. The socks appear even when there aren’t any naughty boys around…” -Mayhem

And without Mayhem:

Ravelry project page, if you’re curious about the yarn, etc.

Many thanks to Lou Harper for donating an ebook copy of her recently released m/m romantic suspense/mystery, Secrets and Charms (Secrets #2), for a lucky commenter to win!

One hot ginger. One cool blond. The result is anything but lukewarm.

Out and proud from a tender age, Olly Blackwood is content with life in LA, working at a Hollywood gourmet grocery. There’s only one thing missing: romance. He’s had his fill of casual hook-ups. He wants a man for keeps, and he wants sparks.

He certainly gets them when he meets Rich Willson, who has the stormy temper to go with his fiery hair. But is he keeper material? He might be if only he’d come out of the closet.

After losing his disapproving father, his job, his girlfriend, and pretty much all his money, Rich packed up his secrets and moved to his actress sister’s house to regroup and help her renovate. He doesn’t like the curmudgeon he’s become, but something about the perpetually cheerful Olly rubs him in a way that should be wrong, yet feels pretty damned right.

Over paint buckets and sanding tools, Rich finds Olly getting deeper under his skin. But when an altercation with a paparazzo comes back to haunt him, he finds that sordid Hollywood secrets can be murder – maybe his own.

Warning: Contains a hot-tempered ginger, a cool-headed blond, redecorating shenanigans, and sordid Hollywood secrets. Happy ending guaranteed or your ticket price refunded.

Excerpt (scroll down and select “Sneak Peek”)

Other Books

• Complete list

About Lou

Under a prickly, cynical surface Lou Harper is an incorrigible romantic. Her love affair with the written word started at a tender age. There was never a time when stories weren’t romping around in her head. She is currently embroiled in a ruinous romance with adjectives. In her free time Lou stalks deviant words and feral narratives.

Lou’s favorite animal is the hedgehog. She likes nature, books, movies, photography, and good food. She has a temper and mood swings.

Lou has misspent most of her life in parts of Europe and the US, but is now firmly settled in Los Angeles and worships the sun. However, she thinks the ocean smells funny. Lou is a loner, a misfit, and a happy drunk. You can find out more about Lou and her books at her website, her blog, and Goodreads.

Contest Rules

• To enter, leave a comment stating that you are entering the contest. Contest closes 7 pm CST, Friday, January 16.
• By entering the contest, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• 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 ritual dust bunny sacrifice 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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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Welcome to another edition of the Misadventures in Stock Photography! Today we’ll be meeting Car Crash Crotch Guy. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out which cover led to that name!

, but

yet, he fled to

, hoping for

and

.

Something easy to follow as we start the new year.

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“Hmm. Where are all these socks coming from?? Are the naughty boys behind a mysterious and dastardly sock plot?!” -Mayhem