Congrats to Nette, who won her choice of Left in the Darkness (Haven Coffee House Boys #2) or Tagged and Bagged (EMS Heat #14) by Stephani Hecht!

Contests

• Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of Sometimes It’s Fate by Angela Stone. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 9.

• Armchair Reader Cole is giving away an ebook copy of the m/m anthology Like It or Not from Storm Moon Press. Contest closes 10 pm CDT, June 10.

• Tracy’s giving away an ebook copy of Irresistible by Mackenzie McCade. Contest closes 7 pm PDT, June 10.

• Joder’s celebrating her 100th Feature & Follow Friday post with a contest – go see what you can win! (And aw, she featured Stumbling Over Chaos!!) Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 10.

• Joder’s also giving away an ebook copy of Love the Sinner by Avril Ashton. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 11.

• Tracy’s giving away an ebook copy of Kill Shot by Anne Patrick. Contest closes 7 pm PDT, June 12.

• Joyfully Jay’s giving away an ebook copy of Townie and the Twink (Men of Holsum College #3) by Daisy Harris. Contest closes 11:59 pm EDT, June 13.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away Cowboy Crazy by Joanne Kennedy – one copy to someone from the US or Canada and one copy to someone outside the US and Canada. Contest closes June 20.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Rarely Dusty Books (m/m romance), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Tor.com (PNR), RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk (all sorts of romance), and Book Lovers Inc (all sorts of romance).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author. And Smart Bitches.

• RIP, Ray Bradbury. The Illustrated Man definitely made my childhood more surreal. And Fahrenheit-451 is as relevant today as it ever was.

• Neil Gaiman reading his short story “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury”.

• Writing-related links from Becky Black.

• Lori Toland explains how to avoid auto-adding Facebook friends on GoodReads.

• Vacuous Minx on “the rise of the published first draft”. I can completely relate to this statement: “I’ve been reading first drafts for quite a while in m/m.”

• Authors, should you be writing right now? Find out!

Ebookity

• “Dead PDA retrospectives”.

• “The ebook effect on buying and reading more”.

• Kindle to Nook fail.

• Stephen King’s going to try using piracy to promote.

• The dangers of NOT reading ebooks on holiday. (Satire alert.)

Do, Learn, Make, Think

• Beware – aerosol sunscreen is quite flammable.

• If you don’t have outside venting, your kitchen can be more polluted than a highway from your gas stovetop.

• Cutest use of tennis balls ever?

• Apparently the ancient ancestors of humans had wanderlust.

• I am completely unsurprised to hear of a possible link between celiac disease and migraines. *clutches migraine drugs*

• Fat or Fiction is a visual nutritional guide.

• Tomatoes have more genes than do humans.

• There and Back Again: A Packet’s Tale – how the internet works.

• A new type of rearview mirror for vehicles eliminates blind spots.

• Aw, “One Million Moms” left Facebook. (via The Mary Sue)

Cookity

• Chocolate-chocolate chip + bacon cookies. (via CRAFT)

• Cookie dough and cheesecake brownies. (via The Kitchn)

• Crispy & chewy gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.

• Roasted cherry brownie sundaes. (via The Kitchn)

• Fruit tacos in chocolate tortillas. (via The Kitchn)

• Strawberry-rhubarb pie.

• Fruit crumble from any kind of fruit.

• Rhubarb ice cream. (via The Kitchn)

• Four-ingredient frozen peach yogurt.

• 7 spaghetti squash recipes. (via Bron’s Pinterest)

• 10 summer dessert recipes featuring sour cherries.

• 10 summer desserts for picnics and parties.

• 10 easy side dishes.

• 15 recipes featuring oranges.

• 15 recipes featuring limes.

• 20 summery strawberry recipes.

Drinkity

• Make your own strawberry-infused vodka. (via CRAFT)

• Roasted peach lemonade.

• 10 aqua frescas.

Crafty

• Have you checked out the new online knitting magazine The Sock Report yet? (Thanks, Jeanne!)

• Yarnbombed trees in Seattle. (via Apartment Therapy)

• “Electronically knitted spam poetry”.

• Ohm sweet ohm cross stitch.

• Make a wee LEGO sewing machine. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• TARDIS engagement ring box. (via The Mary Sue)

• The space shuttle Enterprise being taken to its new home. (via Gizmodo)

• Pictures of Venus transiting the sun. Not the Transit of Venus you were looking for.

• Disneyland time lapse from 30,000 photos.

• Mr. Rogers, remixed.

• LEGO menagerie at an Iowa park.

• LEGO Lord of the Rings trailer.

• Kitten as ring bearer.

• Stained-plexiglass watertower.

Cool or Wha…?

• Cthulhuesque chair.

• Brain cupcakes. (via The Mary Sue)

• I think that growth is actually… a house.

• Rainbow unicorn pinata that shoots confetti… out of its butt. (The Mary Sue)

• Pint glasses… with capes?

• Historical events photobombed.

• R2D2 flash drive cufflinks.

Wha…?

• A pink lake.

• Have you picked up your bug cookbook yet?

• Tires as fashion?!

• This is not the hot guy you’re looking for.

• Helicopter ceiling fan.

• The CDC wants everyone to know that we are not entering a zombie apocalypse.

LOL

• Simplified version of how the American Revolution began.

• Best school absence note ever.

• Wifi humor.

• I’d probably have to think about this, too. (Make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text.)

• Another kitty truth.

• And another…

• Kitties are great aids to procrastination.

• May works the eyes like that, too.

• Kitties love boxes.

• Editor cat saves you from yourself.

Teh Cute

• Alas, the photo of a black lion going around tumblr is a hoax. 🙁

• Baby tiger! Baby tiger! Baby tiger! Tiger and baby! Baby leopard! Lion and baby! Lioness and baby! Tiger! Black cat! Baby cheetah! Kitten! Kitten! Kittens! Kittens! Baby otter! Baby arctic foxes (they are in St Paul MN)! Buns! Baby raccoon! Black kitten! Baby clouded leopard! Piglet!

Reading Update
Life After Death (Infected #3) by Andrea Speed. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romantic suspense following up on Roan as he moves on from the shattering event in the previous book. I had some niggles about the timeline that I tried to ignore, but they just kept poking at me.
Freefall (Infected #4) by Andrea Speed. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romantic suspense in which Roan has a particularly rough time between his excessive use of painkillers and his increasingly frequent migraines. On the plus side, he finally makes some progress in his personal life.
Shift (Infected #5) by Andrea Speed. ebook. Excellent m/m paranormal romantic suspense in which Roan’s abilities continue to develop in new and inexplicable ways and he and Dylan face some hard truths about themselves and their relationship.
Worth the Wait by Lori Toland. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a scientist who inadvertently turns an old cell phone into a time machine and decides to go back to encourage his younger self to be more social. Loved the twist to this one!
The Chimera Affair by Keira Andrews. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a spy who uses a young man’s naivete in his pursuit of keeping a biochemical weapon out of the hands of terrorists, but then feels sufficiently guilty that he rescues the young man in the nick of time. And then things started to get interesting. 🙂
The Hanged Man’s Ghost (The Night Wars #1) by Missouri Dalton. ebook. reread. I started the second book, then realized I’d forgotten everything about the first book, which I read in… February. D’oh! Very good paranormal m/m romance about a Chicago police detective with a drinking problem and a crush on his straight best friend. When he realizes he can see ghosts, his life spirals quickly out of control. Sloppy proofing and a storyline that needed to be reined in just a bit kept this from being a five-star read.
Poisoned Spirits (The Night Wars #1.5) by Missouri Dalton. ebook short. Good short historical paranormal m/m romance in which a cop in Chicago’s paranormal division discovers his boyfriend’s been poisoned.
The Night Shift (The Night Wars #2) by Missouri Dalton. ebook. This m/m paranormal romantic suspense would’ve been rated higher, but it ends on a cliffhanger, basically midscene. I can’t recommend that anyone read this until the next book is available. Very sloppy proofing in this one, too.
Fiends in Low Places (The Night Wars, maybe #2.5?) by Missouri Dalton. ebook short. reread. Good short paranormal m/m romance about a guy who works for the MC from The Hanged Man’s Ghost and The Night Shift. This takes place a couple of years after The Night Shift.
Taxes and TARDIS by NR Walker. ebook. Cute m/m romance about an electrician who has to take his shoebox full of receipts and tax stuff to a new accountant after his previous accountant retires. He’s not usually attracted to slim, geeky men, but there’s jut something about that new accountant…
Cost of Repairs by AM Arthur. ebook. Good m/m romance about a beat cop who moves to a small town to escape tragedy in his past and becomes intrigued by the prickly, prideful cook at the local diner.
Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs #1) by LA Witt. ebook. Good m/m romance about a bar owner who’s having a really rough time – his bar is losing money, he’s having trouble paying his mortgage, and he has chronic pain from an injured shoulder. Having his straight acupuncturist rent part of his house should help his budget crisis, but he doesn’t anticipate how sexually frustrated he’ll be seeing the guy wandering around half-dressed all the time… While I enjoyed this, I had a couple niggles. First, the relationship just didn’t make complete sense to me – I think there just wasn’t enough time spent on it. Second, the financial problems didn’t make sense to me, either – they were amorphous and started to feel unrealistic. If things were that dire and nothing really changed other than business slowing down for the summer, it doesn’t seem as if he’d be able to stay out of foreclosure or bankruptcy.
Holed Up (Holed Up #1) by Hank Edwards. ebook. reread. Pretty good m/m romantic suspense about an FBI agent protecting a man who overheard information about a terrorist attack.
Shacked Up (Holed Up #2) by Hank Edwards. ebook. Pretty good m/m romantic suspense continuing the story of the FBI agent and the guy he was protecting, who are now living together but not communicating very well.
Beach Balls (Balls to the Wall #3) by Tara Lain. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a closeted lawyer who heads to a friend’s beach house on weekends to hook up with anonymous guys… and then while diving, he meets someone he doesn’t want to be anonymous with.

Mayhem, napping on a nip toy…