Happy Halloween! Have Some Swag

Posted on October 29, 2011 | 13 comments

With the various events I’ve attended this year, I’ve ended up with an overabundance of author and publisher swag. I have bookmarks, pens, postcards, trading cards, magnets, and a bunch of other great stuff. Unfortunately, it’s way more great stuff than I can use!

So I’ve decided to share the wealth. I have a pile of about a dozen “goodie bags” with a random assortment of swag in each one, and I’m giving them away. How do you get one? Easy-peasy: post a comment here recommending the best M/M romance you’ve read this year (new or not), and email your name and mailing address to shaeconnorwrites@gmail.com. Why both? Well, the commenting is just because I want to pick your brains and make sure I haven’t missed any great books! 😉

As a warning, much of the swag came from the GayRomLit retreat, so if you attended that, you might not want another set. On the other hand, you might!

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Posted in contest

What Planet Am I On?

Posted on October 21, 2011 | Comments Off on What Planet Am I On?

Sorry about the sudden radio silence there, folks. Yes, I’m still alive and kicking! A combination of day-job busyness and GayRomLit have kept me pretty much limited to 140 characters at a time. 🙂

But I’m here now with an update, albeit brief. GayRomLit in New Orleans was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. So much fun meeting so many authors and readers, and New Orleans itself is always a fun time. My favorite parts were the Dreamspinner publisher’s spotlight and the riverboat cruise, but everything else ran a close second. 🙂

A few of the things I learned: Damon Suede has enough personality in his little finger to charm the pants right off your body; I have a total platonic girl crush on J.P. Barnaby; Kate McMurray is basically me, except she lives in Brooklyn; it’s Marguerite Labbe’s fault the Braves and Red Sox tanked at the end of the season; Rick Reed is a sweetie and much quieter in person than you’d expect; Rowan Speedwell has an incredibly cool earring collection to match her incredibly cool self; William Cooper loves daiquiris and is totally adorable and I would totally adopt him, but I can’t afford to pay his tuition; construction in a hotel full of gay romance writers and readers will result in many, many comments about drilling and screwing; and I am in total awe of the event organizers for getting such a crazy bunch of people into any semblance of order.

I could go on for days (no, really), but unfortunately, the day job keeps dragging me away. Le sigh. More updates and such soon! 🙂

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Posted in gayromlit

NOLA, Here I Come!

Posted on October 13, 2011 | Comments Off on NOLA, Here I Come!

Headed off to New Orleans today for GayRomLit. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of people there! I’m not registered as an author, so I don’t have a scheduled signing or anything. But I’ll be at the Dreamspinner publisher’s spotlight, at least, so come by and say hi. 🙂

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Posted in gayromlit

Monday Music: Really Gave ‘Em… Well…

Posted on October 10, 2011 | Comments Off on Monday Music: Really Gave ‘Em… Well…

Yes, I went there. See everyone in NOLA this weekend!!

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Posted in monday music

A Question…

Posted on October 5, 2011 | Comments Off on A Question…

If I were to do a series of blog posts about American-specific information for non-US authors, and/or Southern-specific information for non-Southern authors… would you be interested?

I see a lot of questions on various mailing lists and boards about how things are done here (“here” meaning both the US and the South), everything from slang to sports to schools. There are resources to investigate a lot of those questions, but sometimes there’s no substitute for first-hand experience.

I also see things in stories set in the US sometimes that just don’t fit. Not long ago, we had a discussion on a mailing list about the Canadian practice of taking off shoes when coming into someone’s home. I had no idea that was common north of the border; it isn’t common at all here. Now I don’t wonder when I see it in stories based in Canada, but I read a US-based story by a Canadian author recently that included it with no explanation (and no, the characters involved weren’t Canadian). It was a relatively small thing, not enough to throw me out of the story, but it only happened in one scene. Had it been throughout, it could’ve become problematic.

Back to my question: if I were to dive into the fray with this, what kinds of things would you want to see covered? 🙂

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Posted in Uncategorized

Monday Music: You Can’t Pull Me Down

Posted on October 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Monday Music: You Can’t Pull Me Down

My sister and I saw “Wicked” for the first time Thursday night, so nothing could be more appropriate for today than this:

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Posted in monday music

Six Sentence Sunday: Model Student

Posted on October 2, 2011 | 2 comments

For this week’s Six Sentence Sunday, I’m dipping into the wayback machine and pulling out a snippet from my first published story, Model Student. Can’t believe it’s been a year already! 🙂

One of Aaron’s favorite old guilty-pleasure movies featured Ginger Rogers as a girl trying to decide between three suitors, making her decision based on which of them set off some kind of bells in her head when they kissed. Aaron was pretty sure he was living out the climactic moment right then, mouth fused to Matt’s. It wasn’t until Matt pulled away that Aaron realized it wasn’t bells but his cell phone, chiming and vibrating in his pocket.

Matt was laughing. “I think your thigh is trying to have its way with me,” he said, nudging his leg against the hard case in Aaron’s pocket.

“Yeah, well, so was I,” Aaron grumbled good-naturedly, reluctantly pulling his hand out of Matt’s hair and digging into his pocket instead.

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Posted in model student, six sentence sunday

View From My Balcony On A Perfect Day

Posted on October 1, 2011 | Comments Off on View From My Balcony On A Perfect Day

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Posted in real life