Re-Release: Grade-A-Sex Deal - Crazy Hot Cover!

Don't you just want to lick the both of them? Droooooool. Again, cover by Zathyn Priest and edits by Douglas Black. 

$0.99 on All Romance eBooks and Amazon (soon).

Blurb:

When College professor Daniel Corrigan was brutally kicked out of his home after revealing his true sexuality to his wife, he had to make a whole new life for himself. For the first time in two years Daniel’s main heartache isn't the none-existent relationship with his two kids, but the fact that the grade-A-sex deal with his student Troy Anderson is about to expire. After a whole semester of office fun, Troy has managed to squeeze his way into the core of Daniel’s soul. Daniel, however, is positive he’s nothing more to Troy but a teacher who can modify a grade.

Amazon Excludes Erotica

We're being censored (again). This time by Amazon (again). This article explains it better, but basically what they've done is remove all books marked as erotic from their search engine on the main page. You'll have to type in the exact name of the book to find it, or go into the Kindle section first and then type it in*.

Look, I get that parents don't want their kids to wander off on Amazon and discover erotic content, even though Amazon has already removed the most lewd titles and covers. I'm not even going to go into the whole 'parents are responsible for what their kids see on the internet' thing - we all know that teens will find it if they're looking for it even if the parents are watching (which makes what Amazon is doing pretty pointless). I'm just going to size up a couple of things:

Believe it or not, I used to read outside the m/m scope. I loved YA books - paranormal, mostly. I also read some adults books in the sense that they were non-erotic, but written for adults. One such book was Dexter. 

I loved Dexter on TV, so I thought I'd try the book. I wasn't disappointed. He was as lovingly psychotic as he is on TV. The only reason I didn't continue with the books was because I discovered m/m shortly thereafter. 

Point one: It's okay for kids to stumble upon books that describe murder as a glorious thing, but it's not okay for them to catch a glimpse of erotic titles.

Earlier this year, a friend convinced me to read a non-m/m YA book. It was a zombie book called Ashes. People who have read my blog know I love post-apoc books, so I was all for it. It was a good book and I was firmly immersed. However, the blood, gore, bone-gnawing, and horror made me shudder more than once. And this is supposed to be for teens!

Point two: It's okay for kids to read splatter books, but heaven forbid they see erotic titles on Amazon!

Come on now, Amazon. You can't just pick and choose!

Now, out of curiosity, I typed in "Grade-A-Sex" (for my story Grade-A-Sex Deal) from the main page and you know what I got? A bunch of sex-education books: What's the Big Secret?: Talking about Sex with Girls and Boys and How You Are Changing: For Boys Ages 10-12 and Parents (Learning About Sex), for example. Nice.

*Apparently this search engine restriction is only supposed to restrict the search from the main page. I tested this and here's what happened: I went under Kindle Store - Kindle ebooks and typed in "Grade-A-Sex". I got nothing. I then went under Kindle Store - Kindle eBooks - Fiction and typed in my search words and found my book on page 3 while all the titles listed before it didn't have all of those search words in their titles. I had to go all the way under Kindle Store - Kindle eBooks - Fiction - Erotica for Grade-A-Sex Deal to show up on the first page, but even then it's the beneath two other books that don't have "Grade" and "Sex" in their titles. Um, yeah, this censorship doesn't only apply to the main page.

One last thing, check out these covers: 

Oh yeah, those are fine by Amazon. They would've scared the crap out of me as a kid (still kind of do). But apparently it's socially acceptable for kids to stumble upon these covers but not on an artful nude.

Oh wait... Here are a couple of nudes that pop up on the first page on Kindle Store - Kindle eBooks "Nude":

Okay...but these are for some kind of art thing. But hey, what's this then on the same first page?

Amazon, you confuse me. Why does this get to go on the first page but not my Grade-A-Sex Deal?

Now that I'm checking, another one of mine that is marked as "erotic" (why-oh-why don't you have an "erotic romance" category?) called Hot Hands doesn't show up on the Kindle Store - Kindle eBooks first page either.

Oh, right, because those above are marked as "Arts and Photography" and not "Erotic"... 

Edited to add: I typed in "Fifty" on the Amazon main page and Fifty Shades of Grey popped up before I could type in more. I don't know if it was marked as erotica before and now they've changed it, but despite how it's listed now, it is definitely an erotica. Here's how it is on Amazon now:


Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Contemporary Women
Books > Romance > Contemporary

So whoever said that Fifty Shades of Grey couldn't be accessed from Amazon's main page after the changes was wrong (or they were right at the time).

On a side note, I'm seriously thinking about asking my publisher to remove the erotica label if it's okay to label Fifty Shades of Grey as a romance. All my stories are love stories and the sex scenes aren't more erotic than the ones in Fifty Shades (less flowery, perhaps) - you can read small lines and excerpts from Fifty Shades' sex scenes here, but here are a couple of lines:

"“You’re so deliciously wet. God, I want you.” He thrusts his finger inside me, and I cry out as he does it again and again. He palms my clitoris, and I cry out once more."

“I’m going to fuck you now, Miss Steele,” he murmurs as he positions the head of his erection at the entrance of my sex. “Hard,” he whispers, and he slams into me."

"“Aargh!” I cry as I feel a weird pinching sensation deep inside me as he rips through my virginity."

"“Open your mouth,” he commands and thrusts his thumb in my mouth. My eyes fly open, blinking wildly.
“See how you taste,” he breathes against my ear. “Suck me, baby.”"

 Highly erotic, wouldn't you say? ^.^ Even Anastasia thinks so:

"I taste the saltiness on his thumb and the faint metallic tang of blood. Holy fuck. This is wrong, but holy hell is it erotic."

I'm not writing this as an if-they-can-I-can-too. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy and how publishers will start to falsely label books on Amazon now. Also,  if Amazon won't hide 50 Shades from their main page - it being a very popular book that's widely known for its eroticism - they're being even more hypocritical, discriminating against books with lesser profiles.

Edited to add links:
Amazon looks pathetic by excluding porn from its search engine (but still selling it) (The original article from where the excerpt posted in the link I provided at the top is).
Revisiting the Censorship of Erotica (General info throughout the years)

February 2012 Recap

February 2012:

I started the month setting up reading goals...which crashed an burned spectacularly! What can I say? I was busy with edits.

I was also busy expanding on my m/m-only blog hop idea. Originally, it was only supposed to be a giveaway of m/m books only (since I'd taken part in many blog hops where I'd had to wade through m/f books to find the few m/m books to sign up for). However, once I read about the International Day Against Homophobia, the goals changed, and my friend K-Lee Klein came up with the name Hop Against Homophobia. N.J. Nielsen was also a part in the organizing. The goals were now "to help create awareness against homophobia and to stand together as an m/m genre (authors, publishers, reviewers AND readers) to try to help the world see gay fiction as first class literature, not second class." We felt it was important to stand together as a community of m/m because RWA had grossly discriminated against m/m by excluding same-sex stories from a contest of theirs.

February 17th was a release day! Some readers didn't seem as keen on Grade-A-Sex Deal as they were on Hot Hands, mainly because of the subject (teacher-student relationship) and the darker theme of the story. However, there were a number of "I didn't think I'd like this story because of the subject, but...".

Paypal started censoring books and I felt they were sniffing around way too close to m/m, which only reinforced my determination to make Hop Against Homophobia a success. I didn't want m/m books to be pushed under a dirty carpet as some form of indecency! These were great books that had to be seen. So now, the HAH team didn't want to make a splash anymore, we wanted to make a tsunami.

Wicked After Dark Hop

I'm taking part in three blog hops or events over Halloween. This is the first one, the others will be on Oct 26 and 29. 

We don't celebrate Halloween in Iceland so I am absolutely thrilled to be in the USA on the 31st this year. My cousin and I will be in Vegas on the weekend before - the 27th - and we're going out clubbing in costumes. Can't miss the opportunity! Then on the 31st we'll be in Veil, looking like two creeps standing on a street corner to watch the kids trick or treat. I just hope the cops don't show up! We just want to see this thing in action ^.^

I'm supposed to offer up something wicked. All I can offer are erotic stories from my College Fun and Gays series. These are short stories that have been well received and there are even people waiting for the next in the series. All of them are standalone stories (with college as a theme), so you don't have to start with the first. If you're impatient to get one of these stories, they can be bought at No Boundaries Press and other retailers (Amazon, B&N, ARe etc.).

However! You can try to win a story. I'm choosing two winners. Each winner can choose from one of the following stories. To enter, please leave a comment and tell me which book and format you'd prefer (pdf, mobi or ePub). Please also leave me your email address. If you don't want your email address on the internet you can send me mail at eripike at gmail dot com with "Wicked Hop" in the subject line. I will randomly draw, contact and announce the winner as soon as I can after the hop (since I'll be on the road!).

I'm not going to force you to follow me or subscribe to anything of mine, but if you're interested I have several options. There's a follow button to the right for those who prefer that. I also have a newsletter, Twitter account and a Facebook page. You can even check me out on Goodreads. Again, this is not necessary to take part in the contest.

Before I post the excerpts, if you want a free story of mine you can download Half-Baked Promises from here.

For weeks, college student Casper has been the victim of sail-by goosing and groping. The problem is that Casper would very much like to get more than groped by those wonderful, big, hot hands. 

With a journal full of clues, he sets out to discover who his mystery groper is. However, he may be in serious trouble once he discovers the ominous identity, trouble that has nothing to do with the light bondage involved.

When College professor Daniel Corrigan was brutally kicked out of his home after revealing his true sexuality to his wife, he had to make a whole new life for himself. For the first time in two years Daniels main heartache isnt the none-existent relationship with his two kids, but the fact that the grade-A-sex deal with his student Troy Anderson is about to expire. After a whole semester of office fun, Troy has managed to squeeze his way into the core of Daniels soul. Daniel, however, is positive hes nothing more to Troy but a teacher who can modify a grade.

Short and scrawny college student Harley Santos has a strange relationship with the guy on the other side of his bedroom wall. For weeks, the two have been masturbating to each others voices, but they have never met in person.

When Harleys roommate (Ryan) is asked out on a date by one of his neighbors, Harley is devastated that his wall-mate mistook not-hot Harley for super-hot Ryan. Helping Harley through his heartache is Tasha Novokov, the other neighbor, who is tall, dark, and impossibly handsome.

Grade-A-Sex Deal Freeeee Today!

Third and last post today!

Grade-A-Sex Deal is FREE to download from the publisher's website today (and today only). Go ahead and grab a copy ^.^

Update! It's still free today (Oct. 7th), so quick, go grab a copy while you still can!

Hop Winners and Free Read

Thanks to everyone who took part in the blog hop :) Random.org has chosen my winners and they are:

Debby: A Life Without You in ePub
Nancy: Absolutely Eric in pdf

Congrats!

I sent out my very first newsletter yesterday where I revealed an insider info on Jazz's love interest. If you're interested in such insider scoops and advance knowledge on giveaways and freebies, feel free to sign up for the newsletter. I will send out a newsletter monthly - twice a month at the most (if there's something special going on that can't wait).

Please stay tuned for next Saturday. I'll be giving away a copy of The Walls Have Ears on The Sweet Spot yahoo group. 

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4th of July Blog Hop!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Because of the unexpected 50% off sale at ARe today (and today only - happy 4th!), I won't hold you to your choice in case you decide to use the opportunity to buy one or more of my titles. I'll email the winners tomorrow and they can decide if they want to change the title they want as a prize.

Ready for another treat? I'm taking part in the Celebrating Independence Blog Hop along with over 200 other authors. We're lucky this time because Dawn has marked off the m/m ones for us! (And the f/f, m/f etc.). So now you can scroll down the list (click the link above) and look for the m/m ones, if that's your only poison.

Free

Anyway! MY giveaway is a book of choice to two winners. Please leave me your email and which book and e-format (pdf, mobi, or ePub) you'd like to receive, if you win. These are the only conditions (though I can be forgiving if someone forgets to mention something), but if you'd like to follow my sometimes-senseless blogging, or my book updates, there's a follow button to the right. There's also a newsletter option, facebook, twitter, etc. None of this is mandatory to get your name into the hat (or random.org, which is what I'll use to pick a winner), just a friendly reminder :)

Now, if you want to sample my writing, a short story of mine was recently released: Half-Baked Promises (Castor Springs #1). If you'd like to download the free copy, please click the link. It's available in the three formats: pdf, mobi, and ePub.

If you win, which of these would you like:

A Life Without You:

Jesse's like a bar of soap: the tighter Adam holds on, the faster Jesse slips away. Or thats how it feels to Adam. It doesnt help that Jesse has a girlfriend back home and claims to be straight, but there's no way with all the sparks and physical intimacy flying between the two roommates.

When Adam believes he has reached his ultimate happiness, the bedroom walls come crashing down with a visit from Jesses girlfriend.

Now Jesse has to decide if he can come to terms with his sexuality, while Adam has to learn to accept that Jesse might never be able to crawl out of the closet.

Absolutely Eric:

Eric Wesley is short and snazzy, hot and happy. Or thats what he thought. After three years of living on the wild side hes tired of being a playboy and wants to find love.

Eric, however, has never been in love before and doesnt see that the guy whos been gazing at him all summer might be Mr. Right. Alexander Centauri isnt only style-less and clumsy, but also terribly awkward. After a miserable date, Eric plants Alex on another guys lap and goes after Mr. Wrong who looks so right.

When Eric realizes his mistake, it might be too late.

Hot Hands:

For weeks, college student Casper has been the victim of sail-by goosing and groping. The problem is that Casper would very much like to get more than groped by those wonderful, big, hot hands. 

With a journal full of clues, he sets out to discover who his mystery groper is. However, he may be in serious trouble once he discovers the ominous identity, trouble that has nothing to do with the light bondage involved.

Grade-A-Sex Deal:

When College professor Daniel Corrigan was brutally kicked out of his home after revealing his true sexuality to his wife, he had to make a whole new life for himself. For the first time in two years Daniels main heartache isnt the none-existent relationship with his two kids, but the fact that the grade-A-sex deal with his student Troy Anderson is about to expire. After a whole semester of office fun, Troy has managed to squeeze his way into the core of Daniels soul. Daniel, however, is positive hes nothing more to Troy but a teacher who can modify a grade.

The Walls Have Ears:

Short and scrawny college student Harley Santos has a strange relationship with the guy on the other side of his bedroom wall. For weeks, the two have been masturbating to each others voices, but they have never met in person.

When Harleys roommate (Ryan) is asked out on a date by one of his neighbors, Harley is devastated that his wall-mate mistook not-hot Harley for super-hot Ryan. Helping Harley through his heartache is Tasha Novokov, the other neighbor, who is tall, dark, and impossibly handsome.

As Harleys affections shift to Tasha, his heartache hits an all time high because with all the girls hanging around, Tasha has to be straight.

Have fun hopping and happy 4th of July!

St. Pat's Day Winners!

I had 42 entries (one excluded at request) and these are the winners:

For The Walls Have Ears: PaParanormalFan! (#39)

For Grade-A-Sex Deal: Melanie! (#27)

Congrats girls ^.^

And for the grand prizes...

For the Kindle/Nook: Melissa L!

For the $90 GC: Shadow!

Congrats everyone! This was so much fun ^.^ 

My next giveaways will be:

Sunday March 25th at The Romance Reviews
Friday-Sunday April 6th-8th here during the Easter Hop
Sunday May 13th at Guilty Pleasure Book Reviews
Thursday May 17th-20th here during Hop Against Homophobia (the m/m-only blog hop)

Then, of course, there's two copies of Absolutely Eric to win at Goodreads. Add it to your to-read list there and you're in :)

My newsletter should be ready by the 25th, for those who want reminders and updates - possibly even a contest  or two :)

Hope to see you then :)

Header image credit

St. Pat Day Blog Hop - Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet

We don't celebrate it here, but all the green makes me think of summer, so I'm in! 

There are two grand prizes. This is for the overall hop - not something I'm offering single handed ;) 

Grand Prize 1: Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet (winner's choice)

Grand Prize 2: $90 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice)

Here's the main site. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have of winning.

But I know you're all here for MY prizes! (Come on, you know you are!). I'm giving away one e-copy of Grade-A-Sex Deal and one e-copy of The Walls Have Ears (once it releases) to two different winners (one book each). If you're interested in buying them, please click on their links to see the info on my webpage. Please, if you don't read m/m, let me know in your comment and I'll exclude you from my drawing. You'll still be entered to the grand prize drawing :) It'll give m/m readers more chance to win a book of their liking.

The Walls Have Ears:

Short and scrawny college student Harley Santos has a strange relationship with the guy on the other side of his bedroom wall. For weeks, the two have been masturbating to each others voices, but they have never met in person. 

When Harley's roommate (Ryan) is asked out on a date by one of his neighbors, Harley is devastated that his wall-mate mistook not-hot Harley for super-hot Ryan. Helping Harley through his heartache is Tasha Novokov, the other neighbor, who is tall, dark, and impossibly handsome. 

When Harleys affections shift to Tasha, his heartache hits an all time high because with all the girls hanging around, Tasha has to be straight.

Grade-A-Sex Deal:

When College professor Daniel Corrigan was brutally kicked out of his home after revealing his true sexuality to his wife, he had to make a whole new life for himself. For the first time in two years Daniels main heartache isnt the none-existent relationship with his two kids, but the fact that the grade-A-sex deal with his student Troy Anderson is about to expire. After a whole semester of office fun, Troy has managed to squeeze his way into the core of Daniels soul. Daniel, however, is positive hes nothing more to Troy but a teacher who can modify a grade. 

Now, I'm supposed to talk about something Irish. I've been to Dublin once and loved it there. It was the first big European city I'd really had the chance to explore and I was fascinated by all the statues. Only a couple of weeks after I got back, I received a pen-pal request from an Irish guy called John. This was back when pen-pals used snail-mail and you waited in anticipation for the next delivery. Anyway, John ended up visiting Iceland and fell for my best friend. They dated for a while, broke up, and then got together again years later. They're married today and have a little girl :) Anyway, when I got my first phone call from John, I could not understand a WORD he was saying. Man, that accent had me going "yes...uhuh...mhm...yeah...oookay..." But I got used to it and have no trouble speaking with him on the phone today. The Irish I know are a jolly bunch and we get along great humor-wise. Almost as well as Icelanders and Australians (who are a perfect mix).

Anyway, just leave a comment below with your email address and you'll be added to the contest :) Happy Hopping!

Wait! While I have you here, I'd like to remind everyone of the M/M-only blog hop on May 17th: Hop Against Homophobia. Over 160 m/m authors, reviewers and publishers have signed up and we're expecting more before May rolls in. It's a great cause (held on the International Day Against Homophobia), so please mark it down if you're an m/m lit lover :) If you're an m/m author/reviewer/publisher, feel free to sign up.

Before I go, if you want to win a copy of Absolutely Eric (see the new cover!!), I'm having a giveaway at Goodreads, drawing two people who've added it to their to-read list before the book comes out. Giveaway ends on release day :)

Okay, hop, hop, hop!

Win a Book or Three!

There are currently TWO giveaways running:

Stumbling Over Chaos is giving away a copy of Hot Hands AND Grade-A-Sex Deal (both for one winner). Just leave a quick "I'm in" and you'll be added to the pot.

Joyfully Jay is giving away a copy of A Life Without You and it's the same deal: quick "I'm in" and you're in.

What's on the agenda today? Real life stuff :/ But tomorrow I intend to finish editing The Walls Have Ears ^.^

Have a great almost-Friday everyone!

Giveaway - Two for One

If you want a chance to win a copy of Hot Hands and Grade-A-Sex Deal, head over to Chris' Stumbling Over Chaos and leave a comment. Easy as that :)

I've managed to do a lot of editing today (finally) on The Walls Have Ears. Looks like it's going to be a bit longer than 14k words - it's closing in on 15. 

What's been bugging me lately (aside from the Paypal fiasco - I'll write more about that soon) are all the sequels popping up in my head. I already have everything mapped out for Hot Hands and Grade-A-Sex Deal. I'm sure I'll get a new bunny for The Walls Have Ears once it's ready. Who knows, maybe I'll talk NBP into doing this again next year with a new round of stories. 

I've added another story on my to-write list! This one's a free read in the Love is Always Write writing even hosted by the M/M Romance group on Goodreads. There will probably be around 130 stories or more. This is the same deal as the Hot Summer Days short stories that came out in 4 free volumes. Here's my picture and prompt:

First, when I was looking at the pictures to choose from, this was a big NO for me. I mean, it didn't call to me AT ALL. But when I saw the prompt below, I just had to have it:

Prompt: One more day, that's all he needed. One more day to finish this presentation and get the hell out of town and back to his normal, everyday life. So it absolutely figured that some over-muscled moron with a pneumatic dick substitute would wake him up at the ass-crack of dawn and shoot his plans right to hell. At this point he'd try anything -- maybe a bribe?
Requester: Nancy

Grade-A-Sex Deal Excerpt

Here's a little excerpt from yesterday's release of Grade-A-Sex Deal:

A light knock on the door brings me out of my misery. The only perk of this job is about to enter, and perky he is indeed.

Troy Anderson pokes his beautiful face into my office, swings his slim, athletic body inside and locks the door behind him.

“Come in,” I say calmly to the young kid who only ever wears skin-tight jeans and sleeveless tops. My guess is that he does it just to tease me. I can’t take my eyes off his thin waist and nicely toned biceps and whenever he catches me ogling, he shoots me a smirk.

“What can I do for you, Troy?”

“You can give me an A on that exam you’re making,” Troy replies in his low, seductive voice. His blue eyes scan the table in front of me. Out of habit I pull a folder over my notes. 

“And why would I do that?” I ask in my monotone teaching voice.

Troy’s full lips quirk into a smirk. “Because we have a deal.”

He walks to my desk and traces the edge with a long finger. My eyes follow that finger where it slides off the wood and lands on his growing bulge.

“The deal’s off,” I state matter-of-factly. 

An old magazine lies on top of my screen. I grab it and pretend to sink my consciousness in the wonders of the South-American rainforests while everything within me is fantasizing about what he keeps hidden in those jeans.

“No way,” Troy says with a confident smile in his voice. “I haven’t been coming to see you every week for you to bail out now. The exam is next week.”

I count down a full minute before I lower the magazine to answer. “I’m very well aware of that, Mr. Anderson, but you didn’t show up last Monday night. You broke the deal.”

“Oh come on, I was studying,” he says and for the first time I hear a crack in his resolve. It surprises me so much that my eyes fly up to meet his. That gorgeous, sandy-blond hair half covers one of his blue eyes and sweeps the curve of his neck. His slender jaw flexes on his tanned face as he swallows.

“What do you propose?” I ask calmly, trying hard not to reveal how much he affects me. His mere presence is enough to have me jumping hoops. Yes, we do have a grade-A-sex deal, but the more we meet the more I like having him around. 

He resumes his calm nature, leaning over the end of the desk with his perky little ass in the air. “Well, I’m here now. You can do me twice.”

He has my undivided attention for a few seconds before I toss away the magazine, grab a pen and start flicking through the Webster’s. 

“Oh come on,” he murmurs, edging himself a little farther towards me. “I know you have other guys knocking on your door every night. It’s not like you didn’t have anyone to play with. How many guys have you fucked this week?”

“Several,” I reply with a shrug. “How many teachers have fucked you this week?”

“Several,” he echoes with a carefree grin and adjusts his perfectly shaped elbows on my desk. 

New Release!

I'm happy to announce that Grade-A-Sex Deal was released by No Boundaries Press today! I'm doing a pretty funky office-chair wiggle. So glad I have a tiny heart shaped sticker over my webcam ^.^

Blurb:

When College professor Daniel Corrigan was brutally kicked out of his home after revealing his true sexuality to his wife, he had to make a whole new life for himself. For the first time in two years Daniel’s main heartache isn't the none-existent relationship with his two kids, but the fact that the grade-A-sex deal with his student Troy Anderson is about to expire. After a whole semester of office fun, Troy has managed to squeeze his way into the core of Daniel’s soul. Daniel, however, is positive he’s nothing more to Troy than a teacher who can modify a grade. 

A Grade-A-Sex Deal is the second of five in a series of short stories, College Fun and Gays.

I've set it up on Goodreads.

It's $2.99 and available from these sellers (will add links as they pop up):

No Boundaries Press Store (to buy directly from the publisher)

All Romance eBooks

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Barnes & Noble

Bookstrand

Hop Winners and a Word on Homophobia

There were 40 entries to my giveaway this time, which is more than last time and absolutely fantastic. It still indicates that I have a lot of work to do for the m/m-only blog hop in May. We'll want greater numbers than 40 with 130 m/m authors, publishers and reviewers already signed up (and more coming). If you're an m/m author, publisher or reviewer (don't have to be m/m-exclusive publisher or reviewer) and want to take part in the Hop Against Homophobia, sign-ups will be open until May 16th. The more the merrier.

If you're a reader, we'd love it if you could mark down this event and tell your m/m-reading friend about it. This is for a good cause: to help create awareness against homophobia and to stand together as an m/m genre (authors, publishers, reviewers AND readers) to try to help the world see gay fiction as first class literature, not second class. I'm sure many of you caught the RWA's stint of excluding same-sex romance stories from entering their More than Magic contest. RWA cancelled the contest after an uproar from the GLBT community and supporters, but they followed the cancellation up with a lame excuse that shows that the m/m genre still has a lot of work ahead of itself to be considered normal. We hope that Hop Against Homophobia will be a step toward making that happen.

But you  probably came here to see if you won! The plan was to draw three winners, one for each prize offered, but since I have two kids I decided to draw four winners. What I did was print out the entrants' names, cut it down in strips, fold the whole lot up and let them draw two each.

The winners are:

Valerie - A Life Without You

PD Singer - Hot Hands

Lisa - Hot Hands

Valentina - Grade-A-Sex Deal (it will be out very soon!)

Congrats guys :) I'll send out the emails later today. For the rest of you, I'm so sorry you didn't win this time, but I'm taking part in the Easter hop where you'll get another chance :) Then, of course, there's the May 17th Hop Against Homophobia where my prizes will be a bit more extravagant and in greater numbers. 

Until then, you're welcome to download my very short but very sweet free story, In His Pocket. If you get warning messages, just continue to click "continue" until you get the file to download (I hear this can be a problem for international people).

(Header image credit)