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!

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 ^.^

Tomato Tossing?

Woot, guys! My one Q&A is up at The Romance Reviews today! It's question nr. 2:

Casper in Hot Hands has been a victim of what?

 a: Tomato-tossing

 b: Fry-thieving doves

 c: Sail-by goosing

 d: Attacks from the midget vamps

Yeah, I had fun making those answers, hehe.

Win Absolutely Eric!

I'm happy to announce that I have an estimate for Absolutely Eric's release. It's expected to come out (and be proud!) at the end of April or beginning of May. I didn't think it would be so soon, but I'm glad it is :) Can't wait to share this book with the world.

There's a contest running on Goodreads. What you have to do to enter is to put Absolutely Eric on your to-read list there and you might win one of the two copies I'm offering. If you have no desire to open up an account at Goodreads, worry not, because there will be more contests later. 

I have a 7 line excerpt to share, since I did the Lucky Seven on Facebook:

Lucky Seven:

1. Go to page 77 (or 7th) of your current ms

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating.

4. Tag 7 other authors. No cheating

My lines:

The place is pumping, and the beat is thumping by the time Adam, Jesse, and I arrive at eleven PM. As always, I skip the line and walk straight up to Stan the Doorman. He immediately lets me in exchange for a kiss on the cheek, which I gracefully give him. It takes me a while to gather my bearings in the flashing lights and sea of partly naked arms and shoulders. Adam calmly surveys the place while Jesse’s eyes nearly pop out at the sight of the loin-clothed men dancing in cages.

It’s Tarzan night again. (Copyright © by Erica Pike)

Okay, what else? Isn't the cover gorgeous? It's a Dan Skinner photo that I'm particularly proud of having, since I'm a big fan of Dan's. 

I'm finalizing the SWAG for GayRomLit 2012, and it features this cover. I'll share it with people once we get closer to October. It's nothing short of awesome. 

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

Only want the M/M Authors?

I thought I'd share my short list of m/m authors in the Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop, for those who are only looking for m/m reads ^.^

1. Erica Pike: an e-copy of Hot Hands, an e-copy of A Life Without You, a $15 gift card from No Boundaries Press.
2. Kharisma Rayne: any Dec or Jan release of choice.
3. Erotic Diaries: 7 Different ebooks by various authors.
4. Cassandre Dayne : One copy of St. Nick’s Night of Xstasy (menage) and One copy of Shattered (m/m).
5. Havan Fellows : Winners choice of one of my anthologies.
6. Elizabeth Black : a copy of either “Filthy Leuker” or “Feral Heat”.
7. Jambrea Jo Jones : a pdf from my backlist, a holiday ornament, and a print copy of Seeds of Dawn Vol. 1 & 2.
8. Elizabeth Nobel : Choice off backlist.
9. S.J. Frost: Winner‘s Choice of any title from my backlist in print of ebook.
10. Pender Mackie : audio version of my first book, Scent of Attraction.
11. Anne Barwell : ebook copy of my novel, Cat’s Quill.
12. Lily Sawyer : Winners choice or prizes.
13. BL & Rawiya : Anything from BL and Michael’s backlists.
14. Gabrielle Evans : A giftbasket with a signed paperback book (reader’s choice), swag, and lotions, bath salts, etc. from Sephora, One signed paperback (reader’s choice), Two ebooks (reader’s choice).
15. Tara Lain : 2 ecopies of Mistletowed.
16. Julie L Hayes : winner choice of anything from my backlist.
17. Keta Diablo : a book of their choice from my releases.
18. H.B. Pattskyn : A signed copy of my debut novel, Heart’s Home, and a hand crafted tree ornament.
19. Lee Brazil : copies of Word Play or And the Prompt Is, and And the Prompt Is The Holiday Edition.
20. Sue Brown : Choice of backlist.
21. Shannon West : copy of Come Hell or High Water.
22. Laura Tolomei : an Ebook of my new release The Pirate’s Surrender.
23. Z.A. Maxfield : one copy of each of my holiday stories.
24. Lisa Worrall : one copy of each of my holiday stories, Too Much Christmas Spirt and Mr Popsalos.
25. A.J. Jarett : $25 gift card to Amazon and a pdf of my book Fate’s Second Chance.
26. Pink Squirrel Press : an ebook copy of our m/m seasonal anthology – Winter Warmers.
27. PD Singer : one story from my backlist and a PD Singer keychain flashlight.
28. Sloan Parker : a copy of my upcoming release, Take Me Home.
29. Megan Slayer : $5 GC to changeling.
30. Sara York : A $20 gift certificate to Amazon.

Happy hopping!

Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop!

Merry Christmas, kids! I'm super excited to be writing my first blog hop post. Let it be the first of many!

Over the next three days, Dec. 16th-18th, nearly 200 authors/publishers will be giving away prizes on their blogs. To find this glory goodness, go to this link: The Blog Hop Spot. They have all the names and prizes listed. To sum up: over $450 in gift cards, 150+ ebooks, jewelry, gift baskets, Christmas ornaments, a KINDLE FIRE (don't miss that one! Blogger nr. 78), and all sorts of stuff.

But before you click the link, check out MY prizes! I'm giving away an e-copy of my upcoming release of Hot Hands, the first short story in the College Fun and Gays series. It will be released on January 8th 2012. I'm also giving an e-copy of my debut novel, A Life Without You, which will be released by MLR Press early next year. AND a $15 gift certificate from the Hot Hands publisher No Boundaries Press (their store will launch in the beginning of January). 

I know! It sucks! No one will receive my prizes before Christmas, but I promise they're worth waiting for. I'll randomly draw three winners, one for each prize.

I'm not going to make you jump through hoops to enter. Of course I would love it if you would follow my blog - but if you have little or no interest in keeping up with my future ramblings and m/m related things, then I won't ask you to follow for the mere sake of following. There's little point in that ^.^

Just leave a comment below and an online way for me to reach you if you win (email, facebook link, anything). You don't even have to check my blog again to see if you won, though I will announce the winners ;) You know, bragging rights and all.

Christmas Prizes

I'm taking part in the Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop that takes place between 16th and 18th of December. There are just under 200 authors/publishers taking part with prizes like books, gift cards, and ornaments, jewelries, etc. We're talking over $400 in gift cards (combined) and 150+ books. How cool is that?

I'm giving away one copy of Hot Hands, one of A Life Without You, and a $15 gift card from a publisher's book shop (because buying directly from the publisher is how the authors get the most into their lint-filled pockets). I will draw three winners, each will win one of the prizes above.

I've been preparing myself for those two days by finding all the people who are offering m/m books - because that's the only thing I read these days. I figure it will give f/m readers more chance if I don't sign up for those ;) If anyone wants that list, I'll be happy to send it (just give me a few more days until all prizes are up on the official Blog Hop page.

Anyway, super fun ^.^ Super exciting!