Friday, November 30, 2012

Release Day! Little Stalker by Erica Pike



Closet-case and college student Coby is being stalked by a cute guy...

Little Stalker (College Fun and Gays #4)
by Erica Pike
Blurb:
College student Coby is being stalked by a young guy and has no idea why, until someone suggests that the stalker may have a crush on him. The idea both excites and terrifies Coby, who is so deep in the closet he can barely manage to think the word “gay” without freaking out.

Excerpt:
He flinches from my touch and backs into the wall, but I follow and thread my fingers through that kitten-soft hair, pushing it aside to see the fading bruise.
Who would do that to him?
As Grayson looks down with flushed skin, his cheek brushes the inside of my palm. He jerks to a stop and holds his breath, just as I hold mine.
Without thinking about it, I lay my palm further against his skin, taking in the warm, soft feel of it. It’s like touching a girl...but still different. His skin is smooth, but there’s a thin line along his jaw that feels rougher, like a hint of stubble.
“Have you ever kissed a guy?” I ask in a low voice, shocking both him and myself with my words. But instead of trying to reel them back, I gaze down at his lowered face. Ray’s words this morning flash through my mind. ‘Just because you’d fuck him it wouldn't mean anything.’ I've been half horny all morning...
He sucks in his lower lip and licks the upper one with the tip of his tongue. It makes my whole groin twitch. The heat in my crotch is almost painful and the rest of my body feels numb.
“Yeah,” he whispers, still looking down.
“What’s it like?” I ask, my voice low and a little thicker than usual. “Is it different from kissing a girl?” It feels like there’s a vibrating rock in the pit of my stomach and its sending shocks to my rapidly beating heart. My fingers on his face tremble, and I’m breaking out in a sweat.
His gaze rises to meet mine, wide and pretty – eyes much too large for his small face. He licks his lips again, cocking his head to the side.
“ I've never kissed a girl,” he says in a low voice, chest heaving rapidly, red lips half parted.
God...
Before I can even think to stop myself, I’m lowering my head, my trembling lips touching his very, very lightly. It’s not enough to determine if it’s different, but it feels soft and wet, and oh, he smells so good. His hair is a little damp after the rain, but his own natural smell... I touch my lips to his again, a little firmer this time, lingering, savoring the wet, ticklish feel that sends all sorts of sparks through my body. My head feels so light it’s like I’m not even in my own body anymore. Yeah, it definitely feels different from kissing a girl; it feels unreal.
We kiss more, each touch experimental, hesitant. My fingers barely touch his face and he trembles less than an inch from my arm.
When I pull back, I gaze in Grayson’s dazed eyes. They mirror my own hazy brain. The warmth from his body is like a magnet, trying to pull mine closer, and I gently position my hands on his hips. I lick my lips and step closer.
He meets me halfway when I bend down to kiss him again, sliding his arms up my torso to rest on my pectorals. He moans once, his mouth opens for my tongue, and my knees go weak with all the fireworks shooting from limb to limb. God, he feels so good. His tongue is thin, nimble, and so hot against mine it burns. He grabs my shoulder when it feels like he’s about to fall, and his other hand clasps the shirt on my back for support. I grab him, holding on tightly as I kiss him with tongue twisting, teeth clashing intensity, grazing his lips with my teeth and sucking on them. I hear myself moan into his mouth and him echoing with added whimpers and sighs. He feels so good.
I break away to rest my forehead against his, just to catch my breath a little.

Available at No Boundaries Press, All Romance eBooks, Amazon, B&N (and others soon).


Little Stalker on Goodreads.


Fun Author Chat at LRC Today



I'll be at Love Romance Café today with other No Boundaries Press authors. The purpose is to promote our books, discuss future projects, answer questions, GIVEAWAYS, and just chat and have fun :) I've already answered the first round of questions. There's news of Welcome Brother there among other things.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Next Big Thing (NSFW)

Welcome Brother (by Dan Skinner)

Bet you keep seeing that blog title all over, huh? Well, it's my turn ;)

Jessica Freely, whom I had the great pleasure to meet at GayRomLit this year, asked me recently if I'd like to be a part of this big thing. So what is the big thing anyway? It probably started with one person, who chose four people to answer the same questions, who each chose four people to answer the questions, etc. So it's probably a huge pyramid by now. I'm supposed to link to her blog and to the blogs of the four people I contacted. Well, the four people I contacted were either too busy or didn't want to take part, so I'm only linking back to Jessica.


What is the working title of your book?
Welcome Brother (College Fun and Gays #5)

Where did the idea come from for the book?
A photograph by Dan Skinner, titled Welcome Brother (he gave me permission to use that title). However, the story has drastically changed since then and isn't so much about kinky sex anymore (in fact, there's not much sex in it). It's about being in love with the brotherhood's leader and some issues of being gay in a brotherhood.

What genre does your book fall under?
M/M Contemporary Romance. More specifically, college romance.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
I can't think of any. This story is too short to ever be made into a film.

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?
When college student Kyler applies for a membership to the Nova Britannia Brotherhood, all he can see is their very intimidating leader.

Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?
It will be published by No Boundaries Press, hopefully at the beginning of next year.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
A couple of weeks. I edit as I go, so it takes a bit longer. I then sent it to critique partners... and put it away for months and months before I took a look at it again. I'd been convinced it wasn't a good story, but reading it again I've realized that it is a good story, even though it just might offend a few people. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre.
Hard to say. The other stories in the College Fun and Gays series? They all take place in college (the same college, actually -  those paying attention will see the occasional character from another story), but they're not really related in any other way, so they can be read in whatever order people want. 

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Like I said, a photograph by Dan Skinner initiated the idea, but the story changed a lot since then. I actually own this photo (bought it from him and it's at the top of this post), but realize now that I can't use it for this story. Maybe I'll write a pure erotica to go with this photo, but it won't be in this series. Actually, I do have an idea for the plot...

What else about your book might interest the reader?
Kyler, the main character, is insecure about his speech. He has the "gay accent" - and this is why I think people might get offended - which isn't really a "gay" accent, just a speech pattern that some guys (gay and straight) have. As a new brother, Kyler doesn't want his sexuality discovered right away, because people don't often give him a proper chance if they know he's gay before they get to meet him. He's spent years coaching himself to keep the "gay" out of his speech, but slips up in front of the brotherhood leader. 

This part of the story was actually inspired by Zathyn Priest, who wrote a blog post about his "gay accent", a speech pattern he has, but doesn't want to have. I wrote a long author's note at the end of the story to explain this and why I put it in the story.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Black Friday Hop Winner


I've drawn and contacted a winner in the Black Friday Blog Hop. Congrats to:

Krankimom!

You'll be receiving your choice of one of my College Fun and Gays along with SWAG.

The winner for the grand prizes has also been announced here.

Thanks for playing, everyone ^.^

Hop Against Homophobia: David Bahati, Author of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" B...


Hop Against Homophobia: David Bahati, Author of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" B...: In addition to yesterday's post about the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda, there are excellent Youtube videos of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's interview with David Bahati, the author of the bill. These are from last year when David Bahati came to the USA to try to find understanding among the Americans (as in, educating USA about the necessity of this bill).

(Please click the Hop Against Homophobia link above to see the videos).

Friday, November 23, 2012

Hop Against Homophobia: Witch Hunt in Uganda: "Kill the Gays"

Free stock photo by Jason Aaberg.

I'm re-blogging this message from the Hop Against Homophobia site. Please, please go there and sign the petitions to prevent this bill from passing - or if it passes, to take action against Uganda to try to force them to change their minds.

Hop Against Homophobia: Witch Hunt in Uganda: "Kill the Gays": ... a horrible bill is being pushed through the Ugandan Parliament and is expected to go into effect this December. They call it a Christmas gift to the Ugandan nation. The bill's been referred to as "Kill the Gays". This is not only terrible, horrible news for the LGBT community, but also disastrous to humanity and human rights.

...


Death penalty:

- to repeat offenders of homosexuals acts
- to people who engage in homosexual acts with a minor
- to people who are suspected of "aggravated homosexuality" and have HIV

Prison sentence:

- to those suspected of homosexual activity
- to those who do not report homosexual activity within 24 hours
- to those suspected of "promoting" homosexuality
- to anyone who aids and/or abets a homosexual (e.g. renting to a homosexual)

In addition:

- all people suspected of homosexual activity and arrested must undergo HIV testing.
- former residents suspected of homosexuality may be extradited and sentenced.

That's a witch hunt!

Black Friday Hop: SWAG


Oh no! Now that I have actual SWAG of my own, I'm going to be giving some away with every contest!


It's Black Friday in America, which is supposedly a day when everyone goes nuts to buy Christmas presents at lowered prizes. Until last year, I hadn't even heard of this day. Then I read a blog post by someone on how to organize your Black Friday (preferably starting a week before) to get the most out of it and to beat the crowds. As I'm very interested in marketing and marketing behavior, I sat glued to my screen, amazed at how this person had everything down to a point. She and her three friends did this together, each going to X shops to buy Y things for whichever of the four wanted stuff from that store (it was all carefully marked down on paper - with images and all). So with all four of them spread over, showing up veeery early, they managed to cover a lot of ground before noon. This sounds like a lot of fun. If there's anything I love more than shopping, it's shopping in the USA. But this also sounds exhausting. I assume you have to watch your shopping cart (if there's even room for one) or people will just take things from it.
Anyway, I don't have the link to this particular blog, but I found this instead: 10 Rules of Black Friday Shopping.

So, what am I doing today aside from giving stuff away? Hoping to find crazy deals on ebooks ^.^

So, here's the deal. This hop is ONLY for today, November 23rd. I'm giving away a choice of one of my College Fun and Gays books (winner's pick - Little Stalker included, as I expect it'll be released today) along with SWAG to one winner. The SWAG pack is international (since I'm shipping from Iceland anyway). You are, of course, allowed to decline the SWAG pack if it'll only end up in your trash bin once it arrives 'cause you only wanted the ebook ;P

What you need to do to enter the contest is to leave a comment with your email address, so I can reach you. The winner will be randomly picked, posted, and contacted the day after the hop. 

But there's more!! There are grand prizes :D 

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $75 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!


The first and third prizes are USA only - but I'm sure it's okay if you have a friend in the USA to whom you can have it sent. Remember, the more Black Friday blogs you comment on, the more chances you have of winning (that's over 200 chances!). 

Please, if you're only commenting to increase your chances of winning the grand prizes - which is something you're totally entitled to do - please ask me not to include you in my personal giveaway so that the people who are actually interested in my books/SWAG will have more chance of winning. Thanks :)

If you ARE interested in my books/blog, here are a few ways you can follow me (this is not necessary to take part in the giveaway!): Google Friends Connect to your right, Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter (not terribly active on Twitter though, but I'm very active on Facebook). If you want to sample my writing, here's a free-read: Half-Baked Promises.

Anyway, happy hopping!


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Year End Splash Party: I'm Up!


Hi guys :)

My Q&A is up today (Nov. 23rd) at the Romance Review's Year End Splash (YES!) 2012 Party. What does that mean? It means that you can get two extra points in the fun memory game (with covers) if you answer correctly.

Just for fun, here's the question and answers (but you have to answer it on their site - not mine:


What does Alex have to do because Eric got his hat back so easily?

 a: Give Eric a kiss
 b: Buy Eric ice cream
 c: Sing a Lady Gaga song
 d: Do the Shuffle

Those of you who've already read the book will know this, but for those who haven't, you can find it here. It's about halfway through the excerpt (or just do like I do, ctrl+f and type in key words).

These are fun, quick challenges, where the grand prizes are $100, $70, and $50 gift certificates (and tons and tons of other prizes - an e-copy of Absolutely Eric included). 

So go, play, have fun ^.^



Friday, November 16, 2012

Over 70 M/M Books Donated


Hi guys :)

Yesterday, my cousin Þóra and I went to the LGBT center in Iceland and delivered the 63 books we brought back from GRL 2012. 63 books!! With the books that have been sent directly from authors and the ones on the way, there will be over 70 new m/m books at the library before Christmas.

What am I talking about here? Earlier this year I did a donation call to my fellow m/m writers to ask if some would be willing to donate a print book for the LGBT-exclusive library at the center. It's a fairly large library considering that it only contains LGBT titles. They have non-fics, magazines, yaoi, DVD's, articles....and a very old fiction section. They haven't had money for years to buy new fiction and the most recent title I was able to find was from 2003. None of the amazing contemporary books by my fellow authors were available and it was saddening. So I did the call and got around 20 responses. I offered to take the books back with me from the conference to give to the center. At the conference, however, more than those who signed up gave books. Some gave their whole collection (one gave 10 books!), Riptide generously gave a whole bunch and I gave bunch of books I won/bought. The majority, however, was from individual donations and I am SO thankful for the generosity. This will be a great Christmas for the library and the people who read the books from there. 

Sadly, Arni - the director - was sick and was unable to receive the books. There was an annual meeting later in the evening, so I stacked the boxes in Arni's office and the board of the LGBT organization officially received them instead. We got a big round of applause for all the books and they thank you from the bottom of their hearts. Since this was in the evening, my cousin was unable to attend and therefor I had no photographer. So, no pictures from the delivery. I did take a picture of the 63 books we lugged with us back to Iceland (header picture), so you can see the pretty pile. 

Again, a big thanks to everyone - and the ones who asked me for the center's address to send books. Here are the people/publishers who donated books (I sincerely hope I didn't forget anyone):

Ally Blue
Anel Viz
Anne Tenino
AR Moeler
Bella Leone
Cherie Noel
Christopher Koehler
Clancy Nacht and Thursday Euclid
DC Juris
Edmond Manning
Em Linley
Erica Pike
Geoffrey Knight
Jessica Freely
JP Bowie
KC Burn
Kiernan Kelly
Kim Fielding
Marguerite Labbe
Mercy Celeste
MLR Press
NJ Nielsen
Prism Books
Ranae Rose
Resplendence
Riptide
Sara York
Simone Anderson
Taylor V. Donovan
TC Blue
Torquere
Total E-Bound
Z. Allora

Saturday, November 10, 2012

#Smashwords and #LGBT: Please Recognize Us...


I'm am severely disappointed right now. I was very happy with Smashwords during the whole Paypal censorship matter and thought, hey, that's a place I want to do business with in the future. Seeing my titles up there will make me proud. I still retained those ideas until this morning.

Recently, my publisher, No Boundaries Press, uploaded all their titles to Smashwords and I was very excited. I didn't have time to look at it until today when I rushed off to the Gay & Lesbian section and searched...and searched...and searched for my titles (yes, I wanted to see them in the "New" section, instead of searching for my name - I was that excited). Fifty New titles in and I started to wonder if my titles had been incorrectly cataloged. 

So I did a search for my titles and discovered that instead of Gay & Lesbian - Gay, they were cataloged as Erotica - Gay Erotica. My titles are Romance Erotica, not Erotica, but I understood how my publisher was forced to catalog my titles there (since there are explicit scenes - she's been forced to do this elsewhere as well, though All Romance eBooks did create a special Erotic Romance category for the thousands of titles like mine). However, very few people looking for gay & lesbian titles will look under Erotica first. Besides, "Erotica" means sex only, as in there's no romance involved, and my stories are all based on love instead of just sex (even my Grade-A-Sex Deal is a Romance Erotica). It genuinely hurt to see my titles among titles such as Flaming Hot Gay BDSM, The Electrician's Ass, Confessing to Daddy, My Neighbors Little Girl, A Boy for the Tentacle Monster, Dripping Lust, Lubrication, Breeding His Daddy's Friend, Prison Sissy Sex Slave, Grocery Store Gang Bang... You get the picture and no offense to these authors - these titles and (probably) content belong under Erotica while mine (and more I saw lumped under Erotica) belong under Romance Erotica. There's a huge difference between a stroke-off and a Romance Erotica - both have its literary merits, I'm in no way down-talking Erotica here, I've even written a few that are unpublished yet - but a lot of retailers don't see a difference. It's gay sex, so it must be Erotica!

Okay, so my stories were doomed to hang out with the true Erotica titles. But hey! Farther down the page was a Romance category! I checked to see if there was a Gay sub-category there. They had Erotica sub-category! That's Romance Erotica, so maybe they have Gay under there...but they didn't. Of course, the male/female stories get their very own plethora of Romance sub-categories while the Gay & Lesbian get chucked under Erotica. Nothing new here. It's been this way ever since LGBT literature existed. Smashwords, I'm deeply disappointed. 

So I thought, hey, what about all those sub-genres of LGBT fiction out there. Most of them are Romances (and a lot of them containing some level of Erotic content) with sub-categories of: Sci-Fi, Historical, Paranormal, Horror, Action & Suspense, Holiday, Fantasy, Humor, Mystery, not to mention all the hundreds and hundreds of Westerns (gay cowboys, anyone?). But was there a "Gay" under these categories? Of not! 

So, a reader's option, when looking for Gay Lit, is to search through an impossibly long list of titles in the Gay & Lesbian - Gay (and no sub-cats like Historical, Sci-Fi, Horror, etc.), or Erotica - Gay Erotica (and I still insist that people who are looking for gay literature - erotic or not - do not go searching under Erotica to find them unless they know to look for them there, or unless EVERY category (Historical, Romance, Sci-Fi, etc.) has a Gay sub-category).

Yes, I'm probably being harsh writing only about Smashwords here. To their credit, they do have LGBT under Young Adult (not many do that). The reason I write about Smashwords specifically is because I always figured they were different, more open, more inclusive than other retailers. They're groundbreaking, they're iconic, they fight for writers. It breaks my heart to discover that, in the end, they're might just be like all the others when it comes to LGBT literature...  

If there are any retailers reading this. Please, please reconsider your cataloging of LGBT titles. Most (If not all) of you are behind times. There's been an explosion of LGBT titles in the past years and as things are now, it is extremely difficult to search through all the thousands and thousands of LGBT titles to find, for example, the most recent Sci-Fi title. I know you each have your own way of cataloging your titles, and you have very limited sub-categories, but I recommend using one (or both) of these methods:

This one's more politically correct. Have a sub-genre of Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Bisexual under each of your main categories (or as a sub-sub genre if you have Paranormal under Romance - so Romance - Paranormal - GayRomance - Paranormal - Lesbian). Historical - Gay, Sci-Fi - Gay, Horror - Gay (yes, there are gay horror stories out there and they're damn good). Please be aware that most people looking for Lesbian literature are NOT looking for Gay (as in male/male). Please also be aware that there's a big difference between Erotica and Romance Erotica.

This one's easier for people to find what they're looking for - at least at first, while they're getting used to the changes of LGBT literature being included in mainstream categories. Have an LGBT main genre, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Bisexual under that (and again, people looking for Transgender are NOT looking for Lesbian - it's not the same thing even though we're fighting for rights under the same umbrella), and then sub-sub categories of romance, erotica, romance erotica (or erotic romance - whichever way you wish to call it), Historical, Sci-Fi, Western, Paranormal, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic etc. etc. So, LGBT - Gay - Historical, LGBT - Lesbian - Sci-Fi, LGBT - Transgender - Contemporary, etc.

Personally, I recommend you do both, so readers have it easier to find what they're looking for. That's the point after all, right? The reason I usually stick to LGBT specific sales sites is because it's easier to find what I'm looking for. I just don't have the time to scroll through titles and titles of mixed sub-genres (or titles that aren't even cataloged under LGBT - like Erotica when I'm looking for a Romance Erotica). Don't wait too long and don't ignore this. This is a market increasing at a spiraling rate and I can only see it exploding further with all the changes in the USA today and in the future. Do you really want to miss sales because your cataloging is outdated? 

Header image by plrang via Stock.xchng.com (free stock images)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Got SWAG?


Hi guys,

I'm being brief again. Still trying to catch up on everything. 

I'm going to make a post about my GRL SWAG soon, once I've uploaded the pictures. In the meantime, you can win one of each SWAG I had (except the candy - I'm all out) by visiting Beauty and Books and do their Rafflecopter thing. If you're an M/M reader, I might throw in signed SWAG from another M/M GRL writer ;) Oh yes, I brought a bunch of extra with me. It says on B&B that the SWAG is USA only, but it's international from me. 

So, Thanksgiving. What am I thankful for?

My sons.
My family.
My GRL trip!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Halloween Prizes!


I know I'm way overdue on these drawings, but I did say that I wouldn't be on time due to my USA trip. Just got back, time difference still giving me a run for my money, but I've almost finished unpacking my bags, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself ^.^

So, here are the results after a random drawing:

For the Long and Short Reviews (The Ghosts Are Sexy Too post):

Debby!

For the Howloween Blog Hop:

Kassandra!

For the Wicked After Dark Hop:

Anne R!

These ladies have already been contacted. Thank you all for playing and I hope to see you all around my November contests.

Header image by Billy Frank Alexander via http://www.sxc.hu