Ann Somerville's Journal

You all know how much I adore this book right? Well now you can buy it from Smashwords in all your favourite ebook formats (as well as in print, of course.)

This book is beautiful, brutal, erotic, clever and deeply twisty. It will mess with your head and leave you gasping for air. Possibly the most unusual m/m book you will ever, ever read.

So go buy it, now!

To celebrate Ebook week, Tamara Allen is giving away 10 free books. You all know I adore her work (and her, because she’s a love ), so skip over and enter!

And Sarah Frantz is giving away a copy of K A Mitchell’s new book, No Souvenirs. Sarah’s review is here. I’ve bought the book and am still reading it. Will let you know what I think.

This can be tricky, in light of recent discussions, but here are a few hints that an author might be pissing around with reader expectations and showing no respect for the GLBT community:

• fake bio with fake gender
• use of homophobic terms in book titles, which they then repeat despite apologising ‘if’ anyone was offended
• describing your m/m writing alter ego as ‘my long-lost gay cousin’*

*Bonus points if you’re already the author of such towering works of literature as the famous Knight Moves which introduced the reader to the expression “disappointed queeb sound”.

This shit isn’t funny or clever. Which, actually, is pretty much par for the course for Ms Layne/Jill Elaine Hughes. Nice to know that not only is she talentless, charmless, amoral and generally unpleasant, but she’s also got a tin ear for the sensitivities of minorities such as African Americans and gay men.

She probably sells more books than I do. Somehow, that doesn’t want to make me want to be anything like her.

Read about your favourite kinky cops in ebook format! Cold Front and Unsettled Conditions are now both in ebook format at Smashwords. They remain free to read on my site, of course.

Via bodlon (Christian A Young) from here

Do not, under any circumstances, ever forward a LiveJournal comment notification.

If you DO forward a LiveJournal comment notification, any recipient of that forwarded notification can POST A COMMENT AS YOU. This has just happened to my friend rm, who does not deserve the shit she will almost certainly get because of it.

So, this is a giveaway a little different from most I run. For a start, no one who has my LJ/DW friended can enter themselves

But! Everyone who has my LJ/DW friended can have a chance to give a gift of one of my self-published ebooks to one of their friends.

Here’s how.

Post this link on your LJ/DW. All anyone who reads your journal has to do to claim a free book from the books listed there is to email me with the following message:

“I am [username] on [LJ/DW]. I am a friend on [LJ/DW] of [username], and I would like a copy of [name of book] in [PDF/epub/.mobi/LF] format”

(Naturally replacing the stuff in brackets with the real information)

I will send free copies out to the first ten people to respond. One entry per person, and I will check to see the person is a friend of yours.

Don’t care if you want to post the link flocked or whatever. This is just so you can give a little something to people you like, which hopefully they will like.

I’ll post again when I’ve got ten entries, and list the names of the people whose friends took up the offer. So get your links on, kids!

Okay, this is a new review from a new review blog, and I’m impressed. It’s the kind of thoughtful review I’d love to see all the time, and never do. Am I miffed about the ‘terribly plotted’ comment? Hell yes But this?

The true thrust of the collection is Ythen’s journey from privileged, prejudiced Kelon oppressor to Nihani civil rights activist. It’s a collection that’s deeply character-driven and could nearly dispense with the private detective framework and just attend to the actual business of the story.

None of which makes this a bad book. On the contrary, the nuanced thoroughness with which Somerville has designed Medele, combined with the soulfulness of the relationship between Ythen and Shardul, makes for compelling reading.

I’m in my corner, very happy.

I know I’ve been rude about Samhain in the past, and I’m not diminishing the issues I’ve had with them (though those have disappeared with the role change/resignation of certain individuals), but I do have to give them credit for not whitewashing the cover for Somatesthesia. Not only have they shown Devlin as black, he’s up front and center, where he belongs. [Ignore that man who's supposed to be Connor. He's just some walk-on character ]

Some posts about why having people of colour on book covers really matters:

Is Bloomsbury Hanging Out the “Whites Only” Sign?

Cover Matters: On Whitewashing

Links: India, Covers and Romance

I know as a white person, I’m privileged not only in being published, but also in being able to have a PoC on my cover without being stereotyped as writing as only writing about PoC characters. It’s important to support authors of colour, and to encourage publishers to give them contracts and represent their characters accurately. But it’s also important to encourage publishers who do the right thing, and Samhain is definitely one publisher who have never shied away from showing PoC on their books.

A few of you have had to listen to me moaning about our neighbours and the saga of our pond and sunroom, so I thought I would share photos with everyone, in case you find this kind of thing interesting Sarah, it’s really changed since you were here! Warning, there are a lot of large photos under the cut.

If you’re writing real world sex, then real world issues intrude. Reasons for men having sex with anyone need to wear a condom in this world (and even in another):

• to prevent infection of himself and his partner with sexually transmitted diseases, of which AIDS is only one
• to prevent pregnancy
• to prevent urinary tract infections
• to assist with premature ejaculation

Reasons that men don’t wear condoms, even when they should:

• they don’t like the feel
• they don’t like to wait
• they forget
• they choose not to (because they like the risk, or because fluid bonding is something they want)
• they’re allergic to latex

Good reasons not to wear a condom:

• The couple want to fall pregnant
• both members of the couple agree despite theoretical risk, and have taken appropriate steps to avoid that risk

What the couple can  do if the man can’t or won’t wear a condom, or there isn’t one available:

• not have sex at that point
• have non-penetrative sex, such as manual or intercrural sex
• have penetrative sex and take the risk of pregnancy and infection

Pregnancy and infections can happen even with a condom:

• if it breaks
• if it leaks
• if it’s reused
• if it’s not worn correctly
• (infection only) if infected semen/fluid enters the bloodstream another way during oral/manual/nonpenetrative sex

Ways men try and talk their female partners into not using a condom, and appropriate responses

Ways men try and talk their male partners into not using a condom, and appropriate responses