Leta Blake

author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.

Leta

Can a Slave Ever Really Be a Proper Lover? Book Two of Ganymede Quartet Begins to Ask #gay #amreading

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What does it mean to belong to someone?

Henry Blackwell is the happiest he’s ever been, and it’s all because of his companion slave Martin. Every experience, whether it be mundane or spectacular, is improved by having Martin at his side. The better Henry gets to know his slave, the deeper his feelings grow. Though the physical attraction between them is undeniable, Henry’s sure there’s more to their relationship than just sex. He can’t be certain, as it’s never happened before, but he believes he might be falling in love.

Henry’s friends are ready and willing to put their own slaves aside in favor of female companionship, and they’re beginning to wonder why Henry isn’t interested in girls. Henry only wants to be with Martin and doesn’t know how much longer he can use “late bloomer” as an excuse. The holiday season approaches, along with the promise of parties with friends and family. Henry doesn’t want to share Martin with his friends, but he doesn’t like being left out. Will he stand up for himself—and Martin—when it counts?

This is the second of four installments in the Ganymede Quartet, continuing Henry & Martin’s story from A Most Personal Property (Ganymede Quartet Book 1).

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A Proper Lover by Darrah Glass begins where Book One, A Most Personal Property, left off. The book begins to ask and explore the question of love between a slave and his owner. Can either man be a proper lover when one owns the other? This is a question to be fully explored later in the series but begins to be touched on in this book when Henry begins to investigate his deeper emotions for his slave Martin against a backdrop of other boys who want girls and a society where being queer just isn’t ever acceptable.

This alternate universe of 1900 New York City is so thorough and accurate to the time-period, including the style of the time, and so well-drawn that many times while reading I forget that this isn’t an actual historical book.

The Ganymede Quartet books are some of my desert island reads. They are so incredibly thorough and wonderfully long that I would want them with me to roll around in for ages and ages while I waste away on my desert isle. 🙂 I’d scribble fanfiction for them in the sand! I’d write an AU piece about Henry and Martin on a desert island! 😀 I eagerly await the next installment!

Available on:

Amazon

Kobo

Smashwords

Scribd

and soon to come at Barnes & Noble.

Christmas Music – Dec 18, 2014 – City Sidewalks, Busy Sidewalks #vandaveer #music

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When I was a kid, Silver Bells was my favorite song on my parents’ single Christmas LP. It was a mix of artists and long gone, so I no longer know who sang that version. I’ve never been able to locate it. Most versions of Silver Bells actually bother me because they aren’t the right one. But this version by Vandaveer is the closest to the old one I’ve ever found and it makes me happy.

Great discussion on choosing a genre: Can you tell what it is just by looking? | Ajax Bell #gayfiction #genre @flickerjax

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“The defining factor of so many books is Genre. It’s an excellent way to find the stories you want to read, to find community who shares your literary wishes. You know how it is, you’re talking to a co-worker and discover you both love reading. Giddy with the connection you ask what they are reading, and then it’s crashing disappointment when you discover their deep love is True Crime and you’re all about hard Sci-fi. Sure your Aunt May reads constantly, but it’s all Mysteries and you’re not interested in those so much, even if you’ve read a few you like.”

read more about the difficulties of branding a book with a particular genre via Can you tell what it is just by looking? | Ajax Bell.

WILL SEATTLE MAKE A MAN OF HIM YET? It’s 1991 and Steven Frazier has danced away half a decade in the Seattle club scene with his beautiful-but-poisonous best friend, Adrian. Two glittering princes against the world, too high above life to care about what they might be missing. But everything changes when a chance meeting with older—not to mention handsome—businessman John Pieters, reveals a cosmopolitan world and possible futures Steven’s never considered. Flashy club clothes won’t impress John, this charming man who knows so much about many things. Motivated by fantasies inspired by his crush on John, can Steven finally fight Adrian’s sick hold? As he steps out into the larger world, supported by new friends, Steven must prove to John—and to himself—that he’s not a hedonistic rhinestone club kid, but a true diamond in the rough. CLICK TO GO TO AMAZON TO BUY!
WILL SEATTLE MAKE A MAN OF HIM YET?
It’s 1991 and Steven Frazier has danced away half a decade in the Seattle club scene with his beautiful-but-poisonous best friend, Adrian. Two glittering princes against the world, too high above life to care about what they might be missing.
But everything changes when a chance meeting with older—not to mention handsome—businessman John Pieters, reveals a cosmopolitan world and possible futures Steven’s never considered.
Flashy club clothes won’t impress John, this charming man who knows so much about many things. Motivated by fantasies inspired by his crush on John, can Steven finally fight Adrian’s sick hold?
As he steps out into the larger world, supported by new friends, Steven must prove to John—and to himself—that he’s not a hedonistic rhinestone club kid, but a true diamond in the rough.
CLICK TO GO TO AMAZON TO BUY!

A Post of Love for LolaWaldorf – My FAVORITE FanVidder EVER #florence+themachine #sherlock #glee #borgias #supernatural

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I’m a fangirl. Anyone who has known me long must know this fact about me. I love my favorite media quite violently. As it turns out, I’m also a fangirl of fellow fangirls. LolaWaldorf makes my all-time favorite fanvideos because:

a) They are never common.

b) They are always intelligent and are saying something much bigger than just the surface.

c) They are surprising, beautifully edited, and always, always, always hers. You can detect a Lola vid just by her vidding style alone.

d) They take me out of the words in my head and just fill me with feeling. I can’t even really talk about the vids. They just stand entirely on their own.

My top five favorite vids of hers.

1) Glee: Kurt – My love’s too big for you my love.

2) This multifandom piece of brilliance that makes me just flail. Incorporating pieces of other fanvids made to the same song, it’s Florence as the fangirl/boy being devastated by media.

3) Borgias: I walked because you walked

4) Supernatural: Vesuvius – My ALL-TIME favorite video. No one but Lola would’ve made something this brilliant.

5) Sherlock: Rococo – They seem wild but they are so deep.

 

Two Marines risk everything for love in WWII gay romance SEMPER FI #gay #1Click

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“The idea for this gay romance came about when my dad lent me a book on the Guadalcanal Campaign, and I started wondering about the Marines who fought there. Were any of them gay? What were their lives like after the war? Did they find happiness even after the horrors of battle?”

find out and read more via Two Marines risk everything for love in WWII gay romance SEMPER FI.


Click the above picture to go to Amazon to read reviews and buy!

Christmas Music – December 15, 2014 – Such Was My Need On A Chronic Christmas Eve #sineadoconor #music

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One of those songs that’s probably only a Christmas song to me. I have a few like that. Like Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” and EBTG’s “Come On Home”.

Oh I wanna make something

So lovely for you

‘Cus I promised that’s what I’d do for you

With the bible I stole

I know you forgave my soul

Because such was my need on a chronic Christmas Eve

And I think we’re agreed that it should have been free

And you sang to me

They dress the wounds of my poor people

As though they’re nothing

Saying “peace, peace”

When there’s no peace

ETA: Apparently, I am not the only one who sees this as a Christmas song. “Christmas can serve as a hollow, ironic and painful reminder for many that beyond the season, the give and take of our society has often not served them with the justice of enough.

In this vein I love the song ‘Something Beautiful’ by Sinead O’Connor picking up the themes of Jeremiah at Christmas. Talk about one cantankerous prophet quoting another!”

 

 

“I loved Smoky Mountain Dreams & highly recommend it.” — Joyfully Jay #gay #mmromance

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“There is just such a quiet beauty here in this slowly building relationship filled with such warmth and love.  These guys are so great individually and in need of so much love and companionship, it is so rewarding seeing them find happiness together. Not to mention they are crazy hot together OMG, the scene with the pearls! Trust me.  So this one just made me want to curl up by the fire and enjoy.  Perfect for a cold winter’s day.  I loved Smoky Mountain Dreams and highly recommend it.”

via Review: Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake — Joyfully Jay.

Sometimes holding on means letting go Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he's still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He's raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There's no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn't want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn't want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER

And now at KOBO.

Playlist for Smoky Mountain Dreams | 3 Chicks After Dark | Bonus Material #spotify #music

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“Over the years, I’ve discovered that a major key to reaching the varying levels of emotional intensity I hope to reach in a novel is to have a really strong soundtrack to listen to as I write. This was no different for Smoky Mountain Dreams.The following Spotify list has the eight most important songs I listened to when writing Smoky Mountain Dreams.”

Head on over to listen to the playlist if’n ya are curious!

Guest Post: Leta Blake for Smoky Mountain Dreams | 3 Chicks After Dark.

Sometimes holding on means letting go Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he's still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He's raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There's no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn't want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn't want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Reasons Why Leta Blake Hates Winter, A Whiny-Butt List #ugh #hate #cold

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So, if you love winter, this is probably not the post for you. I absolutely believe in everyone’s right to love whatever seasons they want to love, so this is not meant to be a list of reasons why you should hate winter. It simply reflects my own state of mind on this particular winter day (and, frankly, most winter days).

1) In the winter my four dogs (yes, four because of I’m nuts, apparently) can’t just go wander around in our fenced back yard, enjoying the outside, eating worms, digging holes for me to trip in, playing with sticks, or just go running around in happy loops around the fence. No, in winter my dogs are inside, bored, restless, and not happy. The new puppy is not getting enough exercise because two walks a day aren’t cutting it for her, so at this very moment she is working on chewing up her brand-new dog bed and I’m not stopping her because then she’ll whine and bark with boredom. (She already chewed up all of her latest toys. Need to buy stronger toys that will withstand the teeth of her giant maw.)

IMG_8895
Puppy. Dog #4. 6 mos.
IMG_8897
Dog #3. Age 9.

 

2) In winter it is cold. I hate being cold. I’d rather be sweaty and overheated any day of the week. Cold is sheer hell. Misery. Completely impossible to think sort of misery that leaves me almost ragey. This is one reason the walks aren’t good enough for the puppy because I can’t really stand being cold long enough to walk far enough to wear her out. Also the cold is bad for my lungs which aren’t awesome after multiple bouts of pneumonia (I sound like an old lady) and it’s awful for my rosacea which ends up getting super-inflamed after a walk in anything lower than, say, 50F.

Aside: the puppy officially ruined part of her bed while I just sat here and watched. I’m an awesome dog owner. *eyeroll* That’s why we’ve got four. Argh.

IMG_8881
Dog #2. Age 11.

 

3) Winter means sickness which, for me, can mean pneumonia. Right now kiddo is home sick with a fever/headache/cough thing that kept me up monitoring her temperature much of the night. It got up to 103.7. I was pretty fretful and had a near panic attack that I’d fall asleep before her fever went down I’d wake up and she’d be dead from spiking to 106 or something. I have a very active imagination. So, yes, winter sucks because winter is germ vector kiddie time.

The old lady. Dog #1.
The old lady. Age 15. Dog #1.

4) I HATE WINTER CLOTHES. On other people they are mostly fine, but I hate them on me. They are often itchy, uncomfortable, and ugly. I don’t like sweaters since most of the pretty ones are made of wool (I’m allergic) and most of the others are shaped in some hugely unflattering way. I don’t like tights because they are itchy. Even my favorite winter shoes are problematic due to my high (and somehow damaged) arches. My most comfortable (and awesome) new boots are too cool to ruin and I am reluctant to wear them in the rain, and its rained most every day lately.

5) Socks. They are the worst. There are never enough clean ones that match and they are uncomfortable and I hate them. Give me a summer-bare foot any and every day. Florida, can I please be allowed to move to you?

6) Gray sticks and brown mud. That’s what winter looks like where I live. It doesn’t snow much (THANK GOD), so it’s not white and fluffy and frozen. It’s sticks and mud until spring. Not very gorgeous. Though I admit I love the gray fuzziness of the winter mountains. Or I would if I had on comfortable clothes and no one was sick and puppies weren’t bored and I wasn’t cold. But they’re pretty in a grungy, funky sort of fuzzy-brown-winter way.

I have more reasons but I’ve got to entertain this puppy before…well, before something. I’m not sure what. Probably before she starts up the attention barking which is maddening. You’d think the other dogs would entertain her, but they are all curled up in their beds sleeping.

This grumpy post was brought to you by WINTER which can get the eff out asap. 😛 I do like Christmas, though. I like Christmas trees and lights. I like Christmas carols. I like hot coffee on a cold morning. I like cozy blankets. I like…um, well, other Christmassy stuff, but that’s about it.

Spring, please be on your way. I’ll sing for you even. Baby, I need your lovin’, got to have all your lovin’.

Wah-wah-wah over now. Adios. Attention barking has begun. SHOOT ME.

ETA: It’s interesting, though, that I set almost all my books in winter. Maybe I’m trying to work out my winter issues.

“I loved every bit of this book and found myself longing for more!” 5 stars – Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake #mmromance #bestseller

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Wendy at Hearts On Fire Revews says:

This book is set in the fall of the year leading up to Christmas. It’s my favorite season leading to my favorite holiday. I love the scenery that Mother Nature puts on display – the vivid hues of reds, oranges, and yellows of the leaves on the trees and bushes. Not everything is beautiful because there are also the darker browns and almost colorless debris that can be found as well. It all seemed kind of symbolic of the depth and complexity, the bright spots and struggles that can be found in this story. And just like my favorite season, I loved every bit of this book while it lasted and found myself longing for more in the end.

The reds, oranges and yellows:

• Christopher – humble and good to the core. He’s a man who adores his Gran and hears her advice in his head when he needs a little reality check. He has reconciled himself to always being second best (in life and in love). He puts others first even if it means heartache for himself. He secretly longs to belong in a family and to have someone really “see” him and actually make him their first choice. I would so totally make him mine if I could (or hug the stuffing out of him trying).
• Jesse – devoted and loyal. He’s open and honest and sincere about trying to do the right things whether it’s caring for and advocating for his wife, guiding his children or speaking openly with Christopher (I loved how Chris and Jesse could actually communicate and share their true thoughts with one another). He may have been bi-sexual, but it really seemed to be a one-off with his wife. He was a man’s man in all other respects.
• Strong women – Christopher’s Gran and Jesse’s sister Amanda were both awesome in their ability to give the best advice and guide their respective men with a swift kick in the ass when needed!
• The passion and the sex – reds, oranges and yellows definitely represent how hot and colorful these guys were when getting down to business. From the exceptional love of rimming (so very intimate), to down and dirty talk, to the creative use of, um, pearls, to their own special post anal sex soothing ritual, I loved being privy to their private moments and very glad they were quite plentiful!

READ MORE OF HER REVIEW AT HEARTS ON FIRE!

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER

And now at KOBO.

“Leta’s words are so good you always want more.” Smoky Mountain Dreams #gay #amreading

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“Leta’s words are so good you always want more. And I wouldn’t mind getting more of these two guys at all! I’m hoping there will be a sequel. *crosses fingers*”

via Goodreads | Pates Saint Louis, MO’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams.

Sometimes holding on means letting go Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he's still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He's raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There's no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn't want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn't want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER

And now at KOBO.