---

---

Congrats to SusieQ, who won Battle of Hearts by Valentina Heart! Battle of Hearts will be released on April 14 by Silver Publishing.

---

---

Contest

• Embrace the Rainbow is giving away 36 different GLBTQQ ebooks and print books by 28 different authors. Make sure you read how to enter! Contest closes midnight EDT, April 18.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Rarely Dusty Books (m/m romance), AAR (romances), and Book Lovers Inc (a little of everything).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

• The 2012 Hugo nominees have been announced – and you can read some of them free.

• Becky Black explains why writing is like playing Monopoly.

• Surviving on a writer’s income. (via Jordan Castillo Price)

• Bookwyrm Knits shares some of her thoughts on literacy in the US.

• Why old books get that “old book” smell.

• Details on JK Rowling’s first non-Harry Potter book have been released.

• An editor’s erotic tale of lines and actions deserving of a snarky blog… Part 2. Part 3 (the end). (Thanks, Juni!)

• Some humorous tips from Sloan Parker on how not write.

• A calendar of fictional birthdays.

• Do your cats judge your reading materials?

• Better title for Much Ado About Nothing.

• Book igloo.

• Cool bookends.

Ebookity

• Dear Author on options for backing up your ebooks.

• Amazon isn’t going to kill publishing. “Amazon is not all of ebooks.” And also, Amazon is succeeding in spite of agency pricing, so… what was the point?

• Dear Author explains the settlement between the Department of Justice and Hatchette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster.

• Smart Bitches summarize some of the articles about the DOJ and publishers.

• Sixteen US states are suing Apple and the Big Six publishers.

• Australia might sue Apple and the Big Six publishers, too.

Think, Make, Do, Learn

• The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that it isn’t a crime to break a Terms of Service (TOS) agreement, so no need to feel bad about never having read one! 😉

• Rick R. Reed featured an interesting article about why Pinterest could be a game changer.

• Go sign a petition in support of Electronic Arts, which is under attack from conservatives for including the option to have same-sex couples in a recent game.

• The evolution of the pen.

• The history of Peeps.

• An easy way to check for and remove the Mac Flashback virus.

• How identity theft works and how to counter it.

• If you’re not thrilled that Facebook bought Instagram, here’s how to export all of your Instagram photos at once.

• Drinking a beer might help your creative problem solving skills.

• Matt Groening finally reveals where The Simpsons’ Springfield is located.

• 15,000 temperature records were broken in March (contiguous US).

Cookity

• Soft pretzel bunnies. (via The Kitchn)

• Menu for a backyard Mexican fiesta.

• Deviled egg spread. (via The Kitchn)

• Salmon and asparagus.

• Spinach and artichoke grilled cheese. (via The Kitchn)

• Spring superfoods salad. (via The Kitchn)

• White bean and roasted veggie salad.

• Black pepper tofu. (via The Kitchn)

• 10 rhubarb desserts.

• 15 slow cooker meals.

• Puffy cloud s’mores. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten-Free

• Gluten-free lemon-infused pasta salad with grilled asparagus.

• Gluten-free poutine.

• Portable gluten-free lunches (make sure you read the comments, too).

• Five meals and five desserts to serve nearly everyone (even your vegan, gluten- and lactose-intolerant friend who’s allergic to nuts and eggs!).

Drinkity

• Cake vodka martini. With sprinkles. (via CRAFT)

• Jelly bean cocktail.

Crafty

• Download a pattern to knit an Olympic gymnast.

• Make your own charm bracelet. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• Download an excellent free Leonard Cohen tribute album from Herohill. (via Cover Me)

• Free iPad apps: National Geographic Today (cool photos) and Minds of Modern Math (a millennium of math history).

• Canada now has a limited edition quarter with a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur on it… although it costs $30 to purchase one.

• Smauglock Holmes.

• Turn yourself (or a friend) into a superhero action figure! (Definite gift potential.)

• There’s going to be a Katniss Barbie/action figure.

• Looking at Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window from a different angle.

• Penny-for-your-thoughts ring.

• Vintage letterpress bracelet.

• Pixelated crayons.

• Amusing use of stock photos by Senator Al Franken.

Cool or Wha…?

• Kitty art heels…

• Millennium Falcon ice cube tray.

• Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter, which would probably go well with your Enterprise bottle opener.

• It takes two people to turn the pages of the world’s largest atlas.

• A “bottle” of wine that’s in four serving-sized portions.

Wha…?

• The Chork – a fork combined with chopsticks.

• iPod dock sofa.

• A janitor found a portable meth lab in a Walmart bathroom.

• Sunglasses shaped like the US.

• Hotdog stuffed pizza crust.

• A pumpkin pie-ish head covering?

• Yellow and brown ombre crocheted shorts.

LOL

• Poking at the recent spate of legislation restricting the reproductive rights of women in the US. (Possibly NSFW)

• Darth Vader as a good dad.

• Power to the Peeps.

• Easter autocorrect fails.

• Some litter box humor.

• Get a cat they said…

• How to tell when you shouldn’t try to cuddle your kitty.

• Measuring happiness with cats.

• I’ve been that kind of tired.

Teh Cute

• Fennecs! Fennec! Tiger and baby! Baby tiger! Baby tiger! Baby tigers! Cheetah and baby! Red panda and baby! Kitten! Black jaguar! Kitten! Bird and bison! Fennec! Baby clouded leopards! Fennec! Baby tigers! Cheetah and babies! Hummingbird! Kitten! Baby penguins!

Reading Update
Magic Mansion by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about two magicians who briefly connect during auditions for a reality television show about magicians in which they both end up as participants (along with ten others). Who will take home the glory… and the $250,000 prize? Wonderfully written and with bonus points for a completely unique story concept!
The Art of Words by RJ Scott & Meredith Russell. ebook arc. Very good m/m romance about an artist with severe dyslexia that he keeps hidden. When his work attracts a wealthy, handsome sponsor, it seems too good to be true…
If Only by sadtomato. free online. Very good *braces self* Edward/Jacob slash. I can’t believe I typed that! LOL. But really, it’s just a story about a gay guy and his straight roommate/best friend… with a crazy number of “outtake” chapters at the end, including an alternate ending that made me sniffle a bit.
Little Boy Dead (Boystown #0) by Marshall Thornton. free ebook. Very good gay mystery prequel to the Nick Nowak Boystown series in which we get to meet a younger, less cynical Nick working as security for a film festival and just starting his new life as a private investigator. (Also, that is a scary belly button.)
The Long Con by Lori Toland. ebook. Good m/m romantic suspense about a British agent who tracks a stolen Faberge egg to New York City, where he’s mistaken for a prostitute and uses that to his investigative advantage. This book had a somewhat over-the-top old-school romance feel to it; while that’s not usually my forte, it mostly worked here and I got sucked into the story.
Ice Blues (Donald Strachey #3) by Richard Stevenson. Good gay mystery that starts with Don going to pick up his car (towed in a snow emergency, the bane of all northern folk) and finding a dead, frozen body in it…
Third Man Out (Donald Strachey #4) by Richard Stevenson. ebook. Good gay mystery in which Don is asked to protect a guy who forcibly outs prominent gay people and who fears his life is in danger as a result. (In the ebook edition I read, none of the acronyms were capitalized. Argh.)
Shock to the System (Donald Strachey #5) by Richard Stevenson. ebook. Good gay mystery in which Don tries to figure why a guy who’d dropped out of an ex-gay program ended up dead. (Had the same acronym issue as the previous book. And… aren’t these covers heinous?)
Chain of Fools (Donald Strachey #6) by Richard Stevenson. ebook. Good gay mystery in which Done investigates what may be one part of a family turning against another over selling the family’s award-winning newspaper to pay off debts. (No acronym issues! Yay!)
Learning from Isaac by Dev Bentham. ebook. Good m/m romance about a college professor who’s mutually attracted to one of his students (a senior), but they agree not to act on that attraction until after graduation. And then the professor runs into the student in a most unexpected place…
Reluctant Mate 2 by Eden Cole. ebook short. Meh short paranormal m/m romance about a guy who, aided by a drug that makes it seem as if he’s a shifter, vows to hunt down the wolf shifters who killed his brother.

---

Every time I see this sign in my neighborhood, it gives me the giggles, so I had to get a (somewhat enhanced) photo of it:

---

“You’re too close, Mom!” -Mayhem