Category Archives: Linkity linkity link

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Reading, contesting, and linking, oh my!

August 26, 2009 Chris 24 Comments

Congrats to the commenters who won copies of Dark Hunger: Tink, Anne, Morning Glow, CC, and Dottie! Thanks to everyone who participated – stop back tomorrow for a new book giveaway.

All About Books has a copy of Karen Marie Moning’sÂ Dreamfever up for grabs – comment by 11:59 pm, EDT, August 27, for your chance to win.

You have several chances to win a copy of Devyn Quinn’s latest release, Possession: at Love Romance Passion (comment before August 29) and at Anna’s Book Blog (comment before August 30).

SciFiGuy is giving away two signed copies of Annette McLeave’s new release, Drawn into Darkness. Leave a comment by midnight, August 31, for your chance to win.

For your chance to win a copy of Jory Strong’s Ghostland or Spider-Touched, leave a comment at Literary Escapism by midnight, September 1.

A Journey of Books is giving away copies of Highland Rebel – you have until midnight EDT, September 15, to participate.

Fantasy Dreamer has a great list of book news and contests. So does Cecile!

Sony announced a wireless ebook reader yesterday. Gizmodo compares the major wireless ebook readers and has some info about the virtual library ebook checkout that Sony mentioned.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier than Mr. Darcy, Vampyre… here comes Jane Bites Back.

LOL – if you’re brave and need some laughs, head on over to The Thrillionth Page to read about Miss Doreen’s sordid reading discovery…

How about a random but adorable link to a little black kitty boy?

Reading Update
Blue Fire, ePistols at Dawn, and The Long Way Home by Z.A. Maxfield. ebooks. M/m romance. Blue Fire and ePistols at Dawn were ok. Sadly, The Long Way Home would definitely have benefited from more editorial attention – the basic story was good, but it rambled, wandered, and fell down more than once due to structural issues.
St. Nacho’s and Physical Therapy by Z.A. Maxfield. ebooks. Related m/m romances about the somewhat mystical and strangely healing California town of Santo Ignacio, known as St. Nacho’s. (And hey, there’s a detour to River Falls, Wisconsin!)
Fire on the Mountain by P. D. Singer. ebook. Smokin’ hot m/m about two guys fighting forest fires in the Rockies.
Black Hills by Nora Roberts. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how much I love the Black Hills, so I was particularly interested in the latest from Nora Roberts. Alas, it’s set in the Deadwood area, which isn’t the area of the Black Hills with which I’m familiar. As usual with the Nora, it was well-written and suspenseful until almost the very last page.
Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) by Charlaine Harris. Oh, my, just when you think that Sookie’s life can’t get any more complicated and crazy… another book comes out.
Somebody Killed His Editor (Holmes & Moriarity, Book 1) by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Mystery writer Christopher Holmes is trying to revitalize his career at a writing retreat and things don’t go quite as planned… This was really well-done and poked fun at publishing and crazyily targeted mystery niches. Speaking of Josh Lanyon, Love Romances & More is deep in their m/m focus series and had a great interview with him yesterday.

May appears to have forgiven the toy basket… mostly.

“I’m keeping an eye on this toy basket, and keeping one foot on the floor. Just in case.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

We’ve been squirrelized!

August 21, 2009 Chris 42 Comments

Donâ€™t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Monday, August 24, for your chance to win a copy of Rita Herronâ€™s paranormal romance, Dark Hunger! (And hey, you can download the ebook of Herron’s paranormal romance Insatiable Desire for $1.99 this month.)

Crap. Apparently this is post #1000. Um… rah?! 😉 I know I should throw a party, but I think that’s going to have to wait until after the work craziness winds down. Anyway, many thanks to all of you for making the past nearly four years so enjoyable and interesting. The small, near-daily acts of creativity that blogging requires (taking photos, editing photos, captioning photos, writing posts) have been good for me. And getting to know all of you – through my blog, through your blogs, through email exchanges, through face-to-face meetings – that has been the very best thing of all. So, again – thank you.

Ok, enough mushy stuff. Onward! 🙂

Anna’s giving away a lovely hanging bookcase – leave a comment by August 26 for your chance to win.

Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) is giving away two books from Jeanne Stein’s Anna Srong Vampire Chronicles. Leave a comment by August 25 for your chance to win.

Author Kelly Moran’s giving away five copies of Karen Rose’s new romantic suspense, I Can See You. Leave a comment for your chance to win.

Lea explains what exactly The Great Western Drive is and includes a link to a related contest. Hmm. The closest I’ve gotten to reading any Western romances is the sort of cowboyesque Love at First Bite vampire series by Kimberly Raye. Not sure that really counts! 😉

Book Junkie has links to more, more, more book contests!

Hee hee – several people have pointed out that this seems perfectly Chaos. It does indeed!

Awww, look at the cute little black kitty…

Hmm. An artist who works with the fur of her black kitties. Creative use of cat hair, I must say!

Marketing for pre-owned cats…

Looking for a good, inexpensive book light? J. Kaye has a review of one she liked.

Kindle humor over at xkcd.

Minnesota publishers talk about ebooks.

Reading Update
I Spy Something Bloody, The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks, The Adrien English Mysteries, Books 1-2 (Fatal Shadows & A Dangerous Thing), The Hell You Say, and Death ofÂ a Pirate King (Adrien English Mysteries, Books 3-4) by Josh Lanyon. ebooks. More excellent mystery and romantic suspense from m/m author Josh Lanyon. I really can’t say enough good about the Adrien English series. I devoured the books, and yet had to put them aside periodically because of how emotionally invested and worried I got about Adrien English. It’s been a while since I spent so much time (outside of reading the book) thinking about a character and caring so much about what happened. Highly recommended. (And check out Elisa Rolle’s feature on Josh Lanyon!)
Partners in Crime 4: The Art of Dying by Josh Lanyon and Jordan Castillo Price. This ebook contains suspenseful, non-series m/m stories from the always excellent Lanyon and Price.
Bring the Heat andÂ Out of My Mind by M.L. Rhodes. ebooks. Well-done and steamy m/m romance, with excellent covers. 😉
Double Play by Jill Shalvis. Contemporary romance about a major league baseball pitcher and a reporter who’s supposed to find out dark secrets about the team. Shalvis definitely knows how to write a solid and enjoyable story and I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.
How To Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist. Kudos to Diana Holquist for her absolutely delightful contemporary and Regency romance mash-up! Highly recommended.
Skin Deep (Laura Blackstone, Book 1) by Mark Del Franco. Very well-done urban fantasy set in the same world as Del Franco’s Connor Grey series – I’ll definitely continue to read this series. (But I still prefer the Connor Grey series!)

Many thanks to Jeanne for “squirrelizing” this picture for me:

“Dang, he looks tasty, but he’s as big as I am!” -Chaos

“Who are all you people?” -Squirrel

*dreaming of birds* -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading

A shocking number of book contests

August 19, 2009 Chris 24 Comments

Donâ€™t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Monday, August 24, for your chance to win a copy of Rita Herronâ€™s paranormal romance, Dark Hunger!

Congrats to the winners of the So Into You contest: Limedragon, Park Avenue Princess, Catie, CursingMama, and Marie!

I Read Romance is offering the chance to win a Cool*er eBook Reader. (Please note that you will be added to some authors’ mailing lists by entering.)

For your chance to win a copy of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, leave a comment with your favorite ghost story at Literary Escapism by midnight, August 25.

If you’d like the chance to win three of Roxanne St. Claire’s romantic suspense novels, leave a comment at Jaci Burton’s blog sharing the title of your favorite romantic suspense novel. Contest closes Friday, so stop back after that to see if you’ve won.

ScifFiGuy’s giving away two copies of John Shirley’s new urban fantasy novel, Bleak House. Leave a comment by midnight, August 24, for your chance to win.

You have many opportunities to win a copy of Julia London’s latest, Summer of Two Wishes: Seductive Musings (closes 11:59 pm EST, August 22), Park Avenue Princess (closes September 9), A Journey of Books (closes midnight EST, August 31), and Book Binge.

Dear Author’s giving away an assortment of Bantam titles – head on over and check out the details.

For your chance to win a copy of Dawn Halliday’s historical romance, Highland Obsession, leave a comment at Yankee Romance Reviews by the end of the week.

Not enough book giveaways for you? Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) has links to more! So does Literary Escapism.

I love it – two librarians rummage around in the stacks at Awful Library Books, including such classics as a title about cats’ sex lives…

Could by Mayhem, but not quite…

This is an amusing cover for your Kindle or other ebook reader.

Check out the linked picture of how one ebook title looks on an assortment of different screens.

Ah, the joys (not) of ebooks with DRM. This is going to be the same issue I have with my Astak EZReader/Hanlin V3.

“The toy basket totally started it, Mom! I’m sure it’s out to get me!” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Books and links and books and links and books and…

August 12, 2009 Chris 26 Comments

Thanks for the fun captions you’ve been leaving on that picture of Chaos from yesterday! I definitely needed the giggles. 🙂 Mayhem did her part by sending one of her toy mice along with me in the bag of library books to be returned. Chaos… um… well, he didn’t succeed in tripping and killing me while I fed him. 😉

I know that there’s a heckuva lot of book linkity going on in this post – fear not, as it’s meant to tide you over until my next post on Monday, August 17. I’m leaving for da cabin up nord bright and early Thursday morning.

Donâ€™t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Monday, August 17, for your chance to win a copy of Sandra Hillâ€™s So Into You!

For your chance to win a copy of Mr. Darcy, Vampyre (yes, you read that right!), leave a comment over at Yankee Romance Reviews.

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Robyn DeHart’s romance Seduce Me, leave a comment at Park Avenue Princess by midnight EST, August 30.

Need a new bookcase? Temple Library Reviews is giving one away – comment before September 6 for your chance at it.

J. Kaye’s usually has over a dozen various book/audiobook giveaways going at any given time, covering a breadth of genres. You should subscribe to J. Kaye’s blog. 🙂 (Speaking of good stuff from J. Kaye, is your library part of Library Elf?)

Fantasy Dreamer Donna has links to many, many more book-related contests!

An interesting post about the benefits of print and ebooks at Embrace the Shadows.

Looking for free ebooks to fill your reader? The Finding Free Ebooks blog might be just the thing for you.

Author Monica Ferris is giving away a free short mystery about a female police investigator and the Minnesota State Fair. (It isn’t a Betty Devonshire mystery, for those who follow that series.)

Some tips for how to read faster. I hadn’t thought of it before, but I guess when I’m reading books, I don’t subvocalize. I do for other sorts of reading, such as blogs, emails, etc. Teaching yourself to knit while you read (or is it read while you knit?) might have a similar effect to the technique in the linked post.

Which of the top ten hero types is your favorite? My answer won’t surprise any of you…

Need a giggle? Carolyn shows how adding vampires would spice up an otherwise ho hum spam email.

And while you’re giggling, you simply must check out this hysterical historical romance-themed cover from Minnesota Monthly magazine.

It ain’t your mama’s romance – and that’s not a bad thing.

Notice anything similiar about the cover of Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn novella, Master of Shadows, and the cover of Lynda Hilburn’s book, The Vampire Shrink??

Dear Author always has informative and thoughful posts. Some that caught my eye recently were on buying ebook readers and a wonderfully snarky book news roundup.

Did you hear that Sony’s coming out with some new, less expensive ereaders? They’re pretty cute. Astak’s also coming out with some comparable looking ebook readers in the same price range.

Hmm. Could Kindles go the way of Betamax? (Really too early to assess things like that, but it’s always fun to speculate.)

Reading Update
Spin a Wicked Web: A Home Crafting Mystery by Cricket McRae. I couldn’t resist the cover when I saw this book at the library, and I’m glad I didn’t! Spin a Wicked Web was a well-written and enjoyable read; it managed to avoid the cloying sweetness to which many craft-related novels succumb. I plan to read the other books in this series – and I wish I’d read the others first, as this turns out to be the third book.
Personal Demons by Stacia Kane. Enjoyable paranormal romance about a psychologist who starts a radio show promising to banish people’s personal demons and gets more than she bargained for.
Watch Over Me by Lucy Monroe. Latest contemporary romance in her Goddard Project series. I read half the book, realized I didn’t care about any of the characters and that I’d napped through a s3x scene, and put it in the pile going back to the library. Also, while using the word “adamantine” (and helpfully clarifying it as “diamond-like” within a few sentences) to refer to someone’s abs does showcase your vocabulary, it’s not a common word and using it twice (complete with “diamond-like” reference) in the first half of the book? Sticks out.
Boys of Summer by Cooper Davis. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about how scary falling in love and coming out can be.
Don’t Look Back, Dangerous Ground, The Dark Horse, and The White Knight by Josh Lanyon. ebooks. Suspense and m/m romance by one of the masters of the genre. Well-written, vividly characterized, deeply involving, and definitely steamy hot – what’s not to like?
Among the Living and Criss Cross (PsyCop, Books 1-2) by Jordan Castillo Price. ebooks. More excellent romantic suspense and m/m romance, but with a titch of paranormal!
Protect and Defend by Francesca Hawley. ebook. A steamy paranormal romance about a cop who’s a shapeshifter and a writer who turns out to be his mate. Unfortunately, there were far too many pages used for the amount of story available, and the draggy bits were too sappy for me. (But hey, it has a great cover and it wasn’t even m/m!)

“I’m sure you heard wrong. No way would Mom leave us for four days!” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

All linked up and nowhere to go

July 30, 2009 Chris 26 Comments

Tune in tomorrow for a book giveaway!

Star Trek Red Shirt Cologne?! Um… Why would you want to smell like a doomed crew member?! I love the last line of Gizmodo’s review: “And we’re guessing it could be somewhat effective in your dating life should you wear it in substitute of your typical Star Trek uniform.”

Thanks to Mel for linking to Nietsche Family Circus, which is hysterical.

Wait, why is Mayhem moonlighting over at Knit Princess?! Or is she masquerading as a white kitty over at lolcats? (Nah, that’s not her – those mice all still have tails.) This is probably what she and Chaos do to entertain themselves while I’m at work.

If you’ve ever loaded software or copied files in an MS Windows environment, this cartoon will explain one of the major Windows mysteries for you.

Beware following this link at work. Although the picture’s just of a vegetable, it’s easily the most, erm, graphic vegetable I’ve ever seen.

Is cursive handwriting dead? Hmm. Lifehacker suggests that people born after 1980 have a distinctive non-cursive style of handwriting, which sounds an awful lot like my handwriting even though I was born before 1980 (heck, before 1970, too).

Turns out texting while driving is 23 times more dangerous than talking on the phone while driving. Eep. This cartoon sums things up, doesn’t it?

If the Altoids catapault wasn’t enough for you, how about the Altoids trebuchet?

Lifehacker reveals how to get rid of earworms.

Burn more calories by fidgeting and pacing and drive everyone nearby crazy!

Staple City is very cool. I’d probably only manage to complete Staple Trailer Park before my boss had a talk with me…

“Still worried about the big scary noisy kitty-eating trucks!” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Of book linkin’ and kitty prisons

July 28, 2009 Chris 21 Comments

Morbid Romantic’s giving away five copies of Robin Wells’ contemporary romance, How To Score. Contest closes at midnight EST, August 9.

A Journey of Books is giving away five copies of Michelle de Kretser’s novel, The Lost Dog. Contest closes at midnight EDT, August 17 – make sure you stop back to see who won.

Dude watchin’ with the Brontes… brilliant!

If you’ve read J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series and love it despite its faults, you’ll probably enjoy the chapter by chapter review going on over at Smart Bitches.

The Lifehacker’s Guide to the Reading Galaxy is a must.

Tele-Read provides some great thinking points about ebooks, reading, and ownership, as does Dear Author. Barnes & Noble’s new ebookstore (complete with their own DRM) gets some thoughtful criticism.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon apologizes for the Orwellian Kindle deletes of… Orwell. Tele-Read suggests that this would’ve been a far better apology.

Go vote on the five title finalists for the Orbit Books Worst Cover Ever!

For you iPhone folks, there’s now a free IndieBound app that sounds pretty cool.

Fantasy Dreamer found another source for physical books with no shipping charges (and no $25 minimum)!

A Minnesota-themed literary trivia contest?

Reading Update
An Inner Darkness (Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 5) and Where the Heart Is (related to the Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, should be read after Book 5) by Ally Blue. ebooks. And now I have finished reading all the books that are out (so far) for this m/m paranormal romance series. I really enjoyed this series and find myself still thinking about the characters.
Willow Bend by Ally Blue. ebook. Non-paranormal m/m romance that was good, but definitely didn’t have the impact as the Bay City Paranormal Investigation series.
Without Reservations, With Caution, and With Love (With or Without series) by J.L. Langley. ebooks. The first two books are about a group of friends (on an Apache reservation in New Mexico) and the third is set in the same world (but in North Carolina), with roughly the same premise – these are m/m paranormal romances about werewolves and are very well done.
Tidal Wave (Forces of Nature) by Vivian Arend. ebook. Very, very steamy paranormal about dolphin shapeshifters. It was ok, but let’s just say that the multiple partner configuration is not a configuration that I enjoy reading about.
Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod. It has a new Harry Dresden story! 🙂
The Fire King (Dirk & Steele) by Marjorie M. Liu. This was an ok addition to the Dirk & Steele series. (Dirk & Steele being the internationally known detective agency that allows telepaths and psychics and shapeshifters to hide in plain sight.)
Edge of Dawn (Light Warriors, Book 3) by Patti O’Shea. I really hate the cover – it looks incredibly awkward to me. But the book itself was a decent paranormal romance, this time set in Seattle instead of Minneapolis, as the previous two were.
Lucky Charm and Lucky Streak (Lucky Trilogy) by Carly Phillips. Generations of Corwin men have been cursed to lose their loves and their fortunes. Find out how the current generation of Corwins deals with the curse in this fun contemporary romance trilogy.
Surviving Demon Island (Demon Hunters, Book 1) by Jaci Burton. They think they’ve signed up for a reality tv show about hunting demons, which they assume will simply be humans in costume. Boy, are they ever wrong about that!

“It was nice of Mayhem to volunteer to keep an eye on Mom while I took a nap. I’m sure Mayhem will be vigilant about letting me know if Mom makes a break for the portable kitty prisons again.” -Chaos

*….zzzzzzzz….” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Secret Kitty Hideout, exposed!

July 22, 2009 Chris 29 Comments

Fang-tastic Books is giving away an ebook copy of Maree Anderson’s steamy and enjoyable paranormal romance, Even Demons Get the Blues. Leave a comment for your chance to win.

For a chance to win a copy of the young adult paranormal Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, leave a comment at Book Smugglers by July 25, 11:59 pm. (Oh, and don’t forget that it’s Young Adult Appreciation Month at Book Smugglers!)

Barnes & Noble launched an ebookstore, complete with its own DRM (digital rights management) scheme. According to Dear Author, of the 700,000 books available, 500,000 are in the public domain… so B&N pretty much has the same non-public domain offerings as everyone else.

Oh, my. The Broomba?! Very Sorcerer’s Apprentice…

We should’ve guessed it was coming after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies… Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Learn how to load non-Amazon ebooks on your Kindle. Why would Kindle owners want to do that? Well, perhaps you heard about Amazon’s latest Big Brotheresque kerfuffle, in which they removed copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles without notifying those who’d purchased the books first. (Really, could they have picked a better book than 1984 for this shenanigan?!) Yes, the books weren’t legal for the US (still copyrighted here, not so in the rest of the world), but the sweeping unannounced delete was probably not Amazon’s finest moment. Also, apparently there’s a class action lawsuit in the works over the fragility of Kindles.

Signs that you might be reading too many romance novels… (although I can make a case for #7 and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels!)

Too bad this reading lamp/bookstand is just a concept.

Did you hear about Book Blogger Appreciation Week? It’ll run September 14 – 18.

Head over to Lurv A La Mode to vote yay or nay for mantitty on romance novel covers. (Some covers will look familiar to you from this blog.) Can you guess what I voted? 😉

Reading Update
Red Fire and Red Kiss (Gods of Midnight, Books 1-2) by Deidre Knight. After how much I loved Knight’s book The Butterfly Tattoo, I had high hopes for this paranormal series about immortal Spartan warriors. I’m intrigued by the characters (enough to continue following the series), but the writing seems uneven and parts of the storyline annoy the heck out of me.
Animal Instinct (Men of Alaska) by Paige Tyler. ebook. Another story about a hunky Alaskan werewolf. What’s not to like? 🙂 This is the sequel to Animal Attraction.
A Fantasy Medley by Kelley Armstrong, C.E. Murphy, Robin Hobb, and Kate Elliott. Short stories, set in each author’s particular world. I liked the stories by Kelley Armstrong (no familiar Otherworld characters, alas) and C. E. Murphy (Janx! And Daisano! And Baba Yaga!) the best.
Tooth and Claw by Annmarie McKenna. ebook novella. Seth’s a vampire who can shift into jaguar form and faints at the sight of blood. He’s met his mate… only she doesn’t know it yet. Oh, and it’s too bad she hates vampires… My only complaint about this one? I wanted the story to be longer!
Forever Immortal (Immortal Series, Book 4) by J.K. Coi. ebook. Ok story about a demon hunter who finds himself in love with a demon who used to be human.
Called by Blood and Bound by Blood (The Faustin Brothers, Books 1-2) by Evie Byrne. ebooks. Very good, steamy paranormal romances about vampire brothers who live in NYC and whose mother has visions that send the brothers out to find their fated mates. I’m looking forward to the next book!
My Wicked Enemy by Carolyn Jewel. Very good paranormal romance about fiends (a type of demon) and magekind (humans who wield magic and often enslave fiends for nefarious purposes). Recommended.
Oleander House, What Hides Inside, Twilight, and Closer (Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Books 1-4) by Ally Blue. ebooks. This is another series I’m really enjoying. These are sort of hard for me to categorize – they’re definitely romances, although be warned that they are m/m romances. They’re paranormal, in that they’re about a group that investigates mysterious phenomena. Also, be warned that each book gets progressively more steamy.
Turn Left at Sanity by Nancy Warren. Delightful contemporary romance about a New Yorker who goes to Beaverton, Idaho, to see if it’s a good place to locate a kitty litter factory. The eccentric residents of Beaverton aren’t particularly pleased with the factory idea. Particularly notable about this book? The spectacular errors in the back of book blurb, where the town is referred to as Saunders, Idaho. Whoops.

“Mom! The top of the fridge is our Secret Kitty Hideout where we plan Kitty World Domination! Go away!! Bwa-ha-ha!” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link

Linkity blowout!

July 15, 2009 Chris 22 Comments

For your chance to win a Betty Crocker gf mix prize pack, leave a comment at Gluten Free Food Reviews by 11:59 pm, July 18.

JessaLu’s celebrating her birthday and that her box bags are going to be available at Sock Summit by having a contest. Leave a comment about which of her bags is your favorite for your chance to win one of them. Contest closes by midnight, July 16.

Does it surprise anyone that a study has found cats can control humans?

This documentary about “extreme cat ownership” sounds intriguing. I guess that’s the gender neutral description for cat ladies now?!

A-ha! I’ll have to keep this handy dandy reference list close, eh? The 50 cats of the apocalypse?!

If you need pet health information, PetMD might be helpful.

Ack! And here I was worried about people texting while they drive.

How to bake cookies on your car’s dashboard… Hmm. More or less distracting than texting and watching movies?!

Strategic cussin’ as a pain reliever?!

My brain totally does this.

Lifehacker debunks hydration myths.

Apparently people are more likely to return your wallet if you have cute baby pictures in it.

Turn an Altoids tin into a catapult!

Oh, this foldaway desk is cool.

Alas, the iSaw was a hoax. But maybe this handy usb kitten will ease your pain over the iSaw.

WARNING! This game could be addictive! WARNING!

“Really, I’d prefer it if you didn’t stumble over me, Mom.” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Now with even more Vampire Kitteh!

July 14, 2009 Chris 29 Comments

Author Nancy Herkness is giving away a K2TOG car magnet. Send her an email before July 20 for your chance to win.

If you’d like to find out more about that mysterious Canadian blogger, SciFiGuy, and have a chance to win a copy of Shadowfae by Erica Hayes, head on over to Marta Acosta’s Vampire Wire blog before the evening of July 18.

Live in or near the Twin Cities and you’d like to improve yourÂ knitting project and yarn photos? Author and photographer Gale Zucker (Shear Spirit) will be holding two 2.5 hour workshops at the Yarnery the evenings of July 23 and July 24. I’m jealous of whoever attends this, since I’m on call that week and the odds of getting called increase exponentially based on what you have planned and how excited you are by it.

This month’s free ebooks at the Suvudu Free Library are Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever (highly recommended!) and Stephen Baxter’s Manifold: Time.

Orbit’s looking for the worst scifi/fantasy book title you can come up with so that they can put together “the most awesomely bad SFF cover in the world.” Even if you can’t come up with a title, it’s worth reading the comments for the titles that have been suggested.

It’ll be Young Adult Appreciation Month from July 19 – August 15 over at Book Smugglers. Not only will they have events throughout the month, they’re also encouraging bloggers to participate by writing a review of a young adult novel, posting it on August 15, and sending the review url to the Book Smugglers as soon as your post goes live that day. They’ll update their links to the reviews throughout the day.

Hee hee – a Jane Austen-related comic. And check out the great Evolution of a Hero wallpaper from Smart Bitches!

My library system has a clever “How much is the library saving you?” form that I recommend trying. If I checked out 30 books (at $15 each, which is a good balance between mass market pbs and hardcovers) and one music cd each month, that’s $460 saved. Now, I wouldn’t actually spend that much on books if I didn’t have access to a library – at the very least, I’d hit the excellent used book and cd stores in the Twin Cities much, much more than I do now.

Do scholarly writers empower the romance genre?

Reading Update
In the Midnight Hour and In Twilight’s Shadow (Light Warriors, Books 1-2) by Patti O’Shea. Paranormal romance set in Minneapolis, as written by a Minnesota author. And even better – the books are great! 🙂 They’re about a race of magic users called the Ginneal, who live side-by-side with humans, unnoticed. Not a vampire to be found.
Branded by Fire (Psy-Changelings, Book 6) by Nalini Singh. Another excellent paranormal from Singh, which answers the question about whether cats and dogs can get along…
Midnight’s Master by Cynthia Eden. Can a human anchorwoman and a very naughty level ten demon find true love together? This latest book in Eden’s Midnight series is a solid read.
Deadly Night (apologies for linking to the hardcover – the mass market pb had a Debbie Macomber book image for some odd reason), Deadly Harvest, and Deadly Gift (Flynn Brothers Trilogy) by Heather Graham. Decent thrillers featuring ghosts, psychics, banshees, and mysterious evil. The first is set in New Orleans, the second in Salem, Massachusetts, and the third in Ireland and Newport, Rhode Island. If you’re looking for something to read that isn’t as, um, graphic as many romances have become, I’d definitely recommend these.
Romeo, Romeo (Domestic Gods, Book 1) by Robin Kaye. Very good contemporary romance. This has CursingMama written all over it. 🙂
All of Me by Lori Wilde. Decent contemporary romance that’s apparently the last book in a set of related books about four friends in Houston and a magical wedding veil.
Catch a Mate by Gena Showalter. Ok contemporary romance about a service that people can hire to test whether their significant others will give in to the temptation to cheat. Not one of Showalter’s best.
Sea Witch, Sea Fever, and Sea Lord (Children of the Sea, Books 1-3) by Virginia Kantra. Selkies and demons and mer-princes, oh my! Very good paranormal romances (with no vampires at all), much of it set on the coast of Maine, the rest set off the coast of Scotland.