Contests

• Leave a comment for LesleyW with some urban fantasy related ideas to muse about for your chance to win a copy of Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day. Winner announced on May 29.

• Largehearted Boy’s giving away a $100 Threadless gift certificate and a Sleigh Bells’ cd – leave a comment with your favorite song of 2010 by midnight CDT, May 28, for your chance to win.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away two copies of Lydia Dare’s recent Regency werewolf romance, Tall, Dark and Wolfish. Contest closes May 29.

• S7anna’s having her very first contest. She’s giving away three different packs of romances and swag (bookmarks, etc). Leave a comment by May 30 for your chance to win.

• Jamie Craig’s giving away an ebook copy of Shawn Lane’s recent m/m romance, Only His Heart (Only #3). Leave a comment by 9 pm PDT, May 30, to enter.

• Luisa Prieto’s celebrating the ebook release of her m/m fantasy romance, Dark Designs, by giving away both an ebook and a print copy of Dark Designs to someone who comments by May 31.

• Leontine’s curious about what sort of smut you have on your bookshelves. Leave a comment letting her know (by June 3) for your chance to win a bookcase!

• All Things Urban Fantasy had 128 urban fantasy-related contests listed this week.

Bookity

• New releases, book news, etc: Lily (m/m romance), Jackie at Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Renee (all sorts of romance), and Katiebabs (by cover appeal).

• Josh Lanyon writes about taking risks as a writer.

• A cool art car-free book mashup in Argentina.

• Linkity from Wendy the Super Librarian, ReadReactReview, and Sydney (hey, the  bookcase makes it bookity, right?!).

• Kassa wonders whether readers are bothered by things that can make books seem dated, such as mentioning specific social media.

• Val wonders how the spoiler-avoidant reader uses review sites. (Um, I might have been part of the inspiration for that post.)

• When authors rate their own books on sites such as GoodReads and LibraryThing, are they skewing the ratings?

• Jessewave wonders whether m/m romance readers are too demanding.

• Please just stop with the zombies. ‘k thx bai.

• I don’t ever usually watch book trailers, but I’m glad I watched this one by Tessa Dare. Best. Book. Trailer. Ever. (Thanks, Donna F!)

• Hee hee – Christopher Robin, Pooh, and Tigger: the later years.

• Cougar training manual (???) from 1969…

• Crafty uses for old book covers.

Ebookity

• News snippets from TeleRead and Dear Author.

• Keira of Love Romance Passion offers some suggestions for organizing your ebooks.

• The eBook Reader Blog previews the Pandigital color ereader.

• Several publishing executives spoke out about ebook piracy – I think that the quote from Penguin’s deputy chief executive is spot on.

• Publishing execs are also confused and contradictory about ebook piracy.

• Looking for an inexpensive way to make your own book holder for an ebook reader, iPad, etc?

Learn, Make, Do, Think

• Lovely. Sunscreen may help cancer develop. Make sure you check out where your sunscreen rates via the Environmental Working Group’s searchable database.

• Minneapolis was rated the third fittest city in the US by the American College of Sports Medicine! (Thanks for the link, Trek!)

• TeddyPig’s been featuring letters to the President on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and they’re amazing, alternately eloquent and heartbreaking.

• Lifehacker posted a guide to the new Facebook privacy controls. They also posted a guide to setting things back to what  you probably expected when you signed up.

• You might want to think about Google data privacy, too. And Lifehacker had some more general online privacy ideas.

• Lifehacker explains how to reset your sleep cycle.

• Consumerist on “why paying more for brand name drugs is folly”.

• Have any of you actually used a grapefruit and salt to clean your bathtub?!

• Curious about what the eight worst meals in America are this year? Or perhaps you’d like to visualize the sugar content of popular beverages? (That one was horrifying, actually.)

• Apparently USA Today had a 16-page insert about celiac disease earlier this month! Would’ve loved to have seen it.

Yikes

• These terribly sexist ads from the middle part of last century might cause head explosion. Follow that link at your own peril! (Thanks(????), Jase!)

• Telemarketers vs. axe murderers…

LOL

• Geek humor: If Mailer Daemon was a real person. Boolean wedding cake.

• Can’t you just hear the Gilligan’s Island theme playing?

• Beware Vampire Cat!

• Don’t ignore your kitteh to talk on the phone or play on the interwebz…

• I’m sure many of you have already seen Lost reenacted by cats.

• Poor Floyd.

• Anyone else wonder if this was right after a trip to the vet?

• Beware! Are you already caught up in a sneaky hate spiral?!?

Awww

• The most perfectly sweet yin-yang kitties ever! (Thanks, Jase!)

• If you need something to help you remember which key is for what, the KittyKeys key covers are an adorable option.

• Sassy kitten.

• Floofy kitten!

• Don’t these kittens look like a wedding party?

• Kittens in a basket.

• Kittens!

• Comparison pictures of how different kittens look when they’re young vs. when they’re a bit older.

• Kitten as wee pillow.

Reading Update
The Blue Moon Cafe by Rick R. Reed. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m chiller about a guy who becomes involved with a mysterious restaurant owner who never seems to be available at certain times of the month. At the same time, Seattle’s gay community is reeling from a series of brutal murders…
Witness by L.A. Gilbert. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about a cop who meets a bike messenger while on a routine call, then runs into him again when he backs over the guy’s bike. This book would’ve benefited from a bit more conflict (or perhaps conflict not effortlessly resolved) and fewer point-of-view shifts, particularly near the beginning of the book.
Idaho Pride by Sarah Black. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a sports writer who ends up in an altercation between some hockey players and staff members of the Idaho Pride newspaper – an altercation that changes the lives of many of the guys involved.
Betweentimes by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook short. Cute short m/m romance about a businessman who is surprised (but pleased) when his cute bohemian neighbor invites him out for dinner at the tacky local Mexican place.
Special Delivery by Heidi Cullinan. ebook. Very good m/m romance about Sam, a nursing student who hits the road with trucker Mitch and learns a helluva lot about himself in the process. Those of you who know I’m not a fan of books with menagey bits are probably surprised to see that I read and liked this one, huh? This book worked for me because it didn’t neglect the emotional to focus strictly on the physical. While I had to stop reading several times because I was a bit overwrought about Sam’s emotional safety, I kept returning to the book and am very glad that I read it.
An Uncommon Whore by Belinda McBride. ebook. Very good m/m scifi romance about Pasha, a whore whose master, unable to cover a bet, loses him for 24 hours to a rough and fascinating man. Pasha can’t remember the man, who seems to know more about him than he knows about himself. I’m glad Jase warned me that this stopped abruptly, so I was prepared. *commences impatiently waiting for sequel*
Winner Takes All by Jenny Urban & Elizabeth Silver. ebook. Very good m/m romance about two competitive friends and business rivals (one gay, one straight) who fool around when they’re drunk… and then a business crisis escalates things a bit.
Black: Black Leather by Vic Winter. ebook short. Steamy short m/m romance about a band that’s touring for the first time since the previous lead singer overdosed. The lead guitar player isn’t looking forward to being in charge of keeping the new lead singer in line.
8 Seconds on the Mountain (Mountain #4) by P.D. Singer. ebook short. Oh oh – is Kurt trying to get himself and Jake beaten up at the rodeo?!
And Is Never Shaken by Alexi Silversmith. ebook. Good May-December m/m romance about a professor who keeps running into a book restorer. Will the secrets from the professor’s past be insurmountable?
Only His Heart (Only #3) by Shawn Lane. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a nurse, new to the hospital, who can’t resist the handsome doctor that the rest of the staff calls the Ice Queen.
Forces of Nature by Lily Grace. ebook short. Cute short m/m romance about a physicist who’s had a huge crush on his actor best friend since college, but has always been afraid to do anything about it until they get caught in a thunderstorm together.
Time Zone Impaired by Andy Slayde & Ali Wilde. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a guy who stops at a restaurant after a flight from Australia, not realizing it’s Valentine’s Day until his cute waiter tells him. This had that unfortunate open-ended feel that makes me suspect it is the first in a series of shorts about this couple. I hate that – I’d much rather buy a longer completed story than read a serial.
Where the Moon Touches by Kiernan Kelly. ebook short. Good short m/m paranormal romance about a werewolf who’s being forced to marry a female and plans to go on sex binge with as many guys as he can during his last 30 days of freedom. His plan gets short-circuited almost immediately. (This also had that “part of a serial” feel.)
Left of Center by Zathyn Priest. ebook. Somewhat bizarre m/m romance about a non-Goth veterinarian who shamelessly lies on an online site for Goths so he can pick up guys – and then the player gets played.
Skipping Stones by D.J. Manly. ebook. I started out liking this book about a young artist who retreats from Paris after the end of an affair and seeks shelter with his best friend, who’s part owner of a gay friendly resort in Florida. Alas, by the end of the book, I wanted to slap the three main characters.
Picture Me Perfect (Sammy Dane, Book 2) by Stormy Glenn. ebook. So-so m/m romance about a photographer who moves in with a cop to hide from his abusive drug dealer ex-boyfriend. Typical Stormy Glenn. What else can I say, other than please get a better editor? (Or maybe any editor…)
Screwed by Amanda Young. ebook short. So-so short m/m romance about a teacher who was fired after racy pictures of he and another guy showed up online.

“Dear internetz: Please send help. This woman continues to hold me prisoner under the most miserable conditions imaginable.” -Mayhem