Awesome and helpful information for authors! I’m going to check this app out!
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A List of Things to Look Forward To — Or Please Be Over Winter #wintersux #summercomesoon
Below is a list of things I soothe myself with while getting ready to exit the house in the mornings. The miserable cold is only bearable when I can envision a future without it. So…here we go.
1. No Socks. Ladies and gentlemen, the day I get to just wear sandals again will be an awesome one. Socks are devils tools because:
a) You can never find a matching set even though you only buy the exact same sock design over and over and over. It’s a friggin’ mystery.
b) They don’t seem to make the right size for me, being either too big or too small. Because half the time I end up wearing my daughters’ socks and the other half my husbands’ (because the ones I buy myself inevitably go missing within 24 hours of purchase) my feet are never comfortable. Too big socks lead to them being cold, too small socks lead to swelling in my ankles.
c) Laundry! They are just another thing to wash! And there are never any clean ones when you really need a pair even though you own literally two hundred pairs of socks.
2. SUMMER DRESSES!!!! This is the thing I can’t wait for. No more constricting, constraining, totally-covering-my-skin-yet-still-failing-to-keep-me-warm and somehow-always-unfashionable winter clothes! Instead I’ll wear my beloved comfortable, (kinda) fashionable, always easy summer dresses. Holy God, I love them so much. Let me show you my absolute favorite. It’s the Nectar dress by Athleta, though they discontinued it (assholes!) and now I have to buy it on Ebay. I own like six in different colors/patterns. Because it is perfection.
I have literally never met a person who didn’t look good in that dress. Any size, shape, whatever. It’s the best dress to ever exist.
I have other summer dresses, too, and I love them all so much. Even my least loved summer dress is 1000% better than my favorite winter outfit.
That’s it. Really, that’s as far as I get before I’m out the door in the mornings. I admit I spend a long, long, long time on the summer dresses part of the thought process. But, seriously, do we need another reason to want summer to come like whoa? I think not.
Sweden’s Moonbabies Releases First Album in Seven Years on April 28 | Green Light Go Music PR #music #thebest
I cannot even express how excited I am that Moonbabies have a new album coming out. Oh my God, you guyssss. So excited!
Back when I was pregnant and often overwrought with insane hormones, my husband would put on The Orange Billboard, Moonbabies’ second album, and within moments of the opening notes, I’d find myself happier, calmer, and able to cope. “I love this album,” I’d say to him. And he’d say, “I know.”
When my daughter was three At the Ballroom was released and it became the happy-day album for our whole family.
I can’t wait to see what Wizards On the Beach will bring!
“Moonbabies’ first album in seven years, Swedish husband and wife duo Ola Frick and Carina Johansson Frick will release Wizards on the Beach on April 28, 2015 on their imprint label, Culture Hero. The album explores a sense of Salvador Dali surrealism and vibrant dream pop rich in introspective shades, melodic hues, hazy instrumental washes and technicolor electronic explosions.
The release of Wizards on the Beach reflects a buoyancy upon coming to the light at the end of the tunnel where each note feels like a diamond refracting into a rainbow of colors upon the aural spectrum. A tunnel with many turns and valleys, the album’s underlying themes are subliminally centered around the musicians being caught in a cycle of feeling stuck, wanting to be anywhere but the present situation, and throughout the recording process coming out on the other side to a field of dreamlike possibility envisioned through the completed album. Ola Frick expands on the meaning of the album and the personal battles, “It’s our way of seeing our hellish years where we almost lost the battle of our dreams, but we stood strong and fought like wizards against all odds and managed to get through it with something great and magical. The Beach is the dream-state, the utopia, the narnia, the place where you can take your mask off and just be.”
Read more via Sweden’s Moonbabies Releases First Album in Seven Years on April 28 | Green Light Go Music PR.
One of my favorite songs from The Orange Billboard:
A Drive Through Cades Cove — Smoky Mountain Dreams #bonus #extras
In Smoky Mountain Dreams, Jesse and Christopher have an afternoon picnic at Cades Cove near Gatlinburg. I’m attaching someone’s film of a drive through Cades Cove. I’ve tried to make the link of this video go to the interesting part (23:23) because the first bit is rather dull and you can’t see much. But the later parts are lovely.
Also here is a link to Wikipedia to explain what an Appalachian Cove is. It’s different from a cove near water. 🙂
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.
Smoky Mountain Dreams
Wonderful review of Smoky Mountain Dreams!
(Seattle) punk is dead, long live punk | Ajax Bell #punk #80s
“I have been having a hard time describing 1982 punks in my book. I feel like I’m describing them accurately, albeit somewhat from memory, and they just aren’t enough. They aren’t loud enough, they aren’t bright enough, they aren’t rowdy enough. And then I found these videos and discovered I was spot on in my descriptions. The problem is what was so punk and so out there in 1982 is just the usual stuff today. Those punks back then? We’re all in our 40s and 50s now, and some of us don’t dress any different than we did 25 or 35 years ago. My fictional punks seemed too mainstream because who they are is mainstream now. But it meant something then, and now I know my task as a writer: it isn’t to comically describe those punks as bright, loud, and brash as they were, it’s to describe that world 33 years ago and how different it was from ours now, because only against that background will how outrageous those punks were really stand out.”
Absolutely fascinating blog post about punk in the 80s. Read more via (Seattle) punk is dead, long live punk | Ajax Bell.
Why my books don’t cost 99 cents #pricing #truth
“I haven’t crunched the actual numbers, but let’s assume a novel is about 100-300 hours of work (I’m pretty sure that a historical novel, with all the research and fact-checking is a lot more than that) and you do manage to sell those 6,700 copies and do make $2,000 for a book. If you average the production time (200 hours), that would be a theoretical $10/hour (before tax, before cost like internet connection, heating, research books). That’s about £6/hour. Minimum wage in the UK is £6.50/hr, while London “living wage” (how much you need to cover living costs in London) is £7.85/hr.
Now, I’ve made more making sandwiches at gas stations (EUR 9/hr), which required about a 30-minute training. Yes, everybody can write, but to write something other people want to read takes tens of thousands of hours of practice, which isn’t paid and incurs quite a bit of cost as well. I’d estimate if you’re working very hard and have access to mentoring and how-to books, it will still take 3-7 years to train yourself to become a writer who can write a decent story. I’ve been writing and learning for 20+ years.
And we often forget all the other hours an author spends on supporting their books and being available to readers: answering reader emails, blogging, paying out of pocket for print books for giveaways, swag, attending conferences, postage and admin for sending signed print books around the world, responding and being present on social media, responding to thousands of messages and questions overall. All those are hours not spent writing or doing a day job. I believe they have value.”
read more via Aleksandr Voinov – Letters from the Front: Why my books don't cost 99 cents.
“That’s called being a great storyteller.” – Review: Smoky Mountain Dreams — by Leta Blake #gay #amreading
“I love the risks that Blake takes in her writing. Things don’t all end Disney-like, we get realistic (yet happy) endings and our characters go through some shit to get through to the end. That’s called being a great storyteller.”
“The sex and emotion between these two was off the charts hot and incredible.” This Charming Man by Ajax Bell ~ Crystal’s Many Reviewers
I loved this book so much! Glad to see that Michelle enjoyed it, too. 🙂 (Though I disagree with some of her comments about things she didn’t enjoy as much. I felt like the book was paced just right for a coming-of-age with-a-side-of-love-story as I view this book to be. But that’s what makes reading so cool, huh? To some degree there is no definitive reaction to a book or story. There’s only an individual’s reaction. Yay for diversity in reading/writing!)
“The sex and emotion between these two was off the charts hot and incredible.”
via This Charming Man by Ajax Bell ~ Crystal’s Many Reviewers.
Photos of my writing/research trip to Gatlinburg, TN | Smoky Mountain Dreams Bonus Material #extras
When I went on up to Gatlinburg to work on Smoky Mountain Dreams last June, I took some pictures of the town and my little rented condo. Not all the pics are awesome, but they’re all being shared here. 😀
Driving toward Parkway, there was this view of the mountains through my car windshield.
Driving up the mountain to Gatlinburg.
The little condo.
Oy, this is a bad pic. But I wrote most of the book on that sofa with my feet on that ottoman.
The view out the window. 
Now on to Gatlinburg itself!
The taffy stretcher and piecer.
This is 
This is a thing that exists. For real. 
Puckers!
The chair lift over the creek before it ascends up the mountain.
Because OF COURSE.
The shady drive to my condo.
So, I think what we learned from this is that I’m a shoddy photographer. 😛 And that Gatlinburg is weird. 😀
Ganymede Quartet News! Goals/plans for 2015 | @Darrah_Glass @mmromance
It looks like those of us crazy about the Ganymede Quartet series have a LOT to look forward too! Eeeeeee!!!!
“Finish Ganymede Quartet series. This means the main books plus their accompanying Martin stories. GQ Book 3+Martin story will be out in March 2015. Book 4 will be out in June 2015. I don’t have a schedule for finishing the side stories that will either extend the series timeline or tell side characters’ stories, but I currently have over 20 (!!!) stories extensively outlined (and one basically finished), so I fully expect I’ll complete some of those by the end of the year.
read more about Darrah’s writing plans via Goals/plans for 2015 | Darrah Glass.
“The hype is correct! This book was so amazing!” | Leigh’s review of A Forbidden Rumspringa #gay #amish
“The hype is correct! This book was so amazing!”
via Goodreads | Leigh’s review of A Forbidden Rumspringa.
Southern Accent and Halloween Snow and Gatlinburg Views. LOVE. #extras #smokymountaindreams
I lost so many hours the other day watching random stranger’s vidoes of Gatlinburg on YouTube. I don’t even know why. Heh. I mean, I am doing it to make these blog posts but I know no one is even gonna watch these videos. Still, here’s a favorite. See, we don’t get snow in this area and this is considered insane–snow on Halloween! Highlights of this video: THE ACCENT. I don’t speak like this, but these are examples of how many people in this area sound, including Gareth and others in the book. And the views. <3 Love it.
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.
How He Became A PROPER LOVER–Review and Get Your Free Book
Love this series, too! <3
Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK Book: Smoky Mountain Dreams “What an excellent book this was!” #gay #reading
So thrilled that Night Owl Reviews chose Smoky Mountain Dreams at a Top Pick! 😀 And the review is absolutely wonderful, too! Thank you!
“My first time reading this author was a huge success. What an excellent book this was.”
read more of the review at Night Owl Reviews via Smoky Mountain Dreams.
BUY AT AMAZON: Smoky Mountain Dreams
Q&A With Indra Vaughn – ARe Cafe #fated #mmromance
Indra Vaughn is at ARe Cafe talking about her new book, Fated, and our upcoming joint writing endeavor.
“I SHOULD be working on the third Shadow Mountain book (*hides from editors*) but I’ve actually been tinkering on a series of three novellas that all take place in the same hospital but with individual storylines. A certain someone (*squints at Leta Blake*) threw a plot bunny my way the other day which revolves around a priest and a rockstar and now I am finding myself doing research on American Catholicism while she gets to do the rockstar research… And then that same certain someone recently read Dust of Snow, my Christmas novel, and talked me into giving one of the characters a sequel. So yes, the well hasn’t run dry just yet.”
What I read in December
Oh wow! Ellen Gregory reviews Smoky Mountain Dreams, Training Season, AND The River Leith at her blog! <3 Thank you, Ellen! So happy you enjoyed the books!
Great Rafflecopter of many books! Go Check it out! Tams Top 10 of 2014 W/Giveaway | TTC Books and more
“Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to 2015!!I thought I’d usher in the new year with a nod to some of my favorite reads from 2014. I read and listened to over 150 books last year so it was quite difficult to narrow down a list of favorites, but I had to put a limit on the list or we’d be here all day. I’m including the buy links and the link to my review with each book synopsis so you can grab a copy for yourself, if you’ve missed out on these great reads. ”
via Tams Top 10 of 2014 W/Giveaway | TTC Books and more.
The River Leith is in Tam’s Top 10 and part of the Rafflecopter Giveaway! 😀
The New Year #2015 #newyearseve #storytime
I found this going through my old writing. It was never meant to go anywhere, so I’ll post it here. It ends where it ends, with the expectation for something more. The way a New Year’s Eve should.
The New Year
The beer bottle dangled from his hand as he sat outside on the front steps. His other hand he stuffed in the pocket of his blue jeans, keeping it warm in the burning cold of the winter midnight. The sound of laughter and toasts to the New Year echoed in the house behind him and encroached on his sense of solitude.
They were his older sister’s friends, all of them almost thirty, most of them married, each of them anxious in the way of people with something to prove. Their laughter sounded breakable, like the champagne glasses they kept refilling. Time had them in its grip, propelling them forward into adulthood, and old age, and eventually death. The terror of truly coming to understand the passing of time lent a falsity to their party and he could sense it, hated it, and knew that one day he’d join them in it.
He brushed his hair out of his eyes, lifting his gaze to the sky, explosions from the country club’s fireworks audible but not visible. He didn’t turn around when he heard the stick and give of the front door opening. He didn’t move as two bare lovely legs covered in goosebumps folded beside him, and long blonde hair swung into his peripheral vision.
“Happy New Year,” she said, clinking her champagne glass against his beer bottle.
“Cheers,” he answered, lifting the beer to lips and taking a sip.
Taylor Swift Says She’s ‘Obsessed’ With This Mashup of Her Songs ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Style’
This is the shit! Unf! Yay!
