October Statistics

Okay, last month I checked for city locations in the books I read, I said this month I’d keep track of hair and eye colour. Do you have any idea how often hair and eye colour are ignored? Trust me, often. First person is the worst, because rarely do people say “my blue eyes and blond hair looked great” so unless the love interest says “I love your blue eyes and blond hair.”, you’re kind of out of luck. However I thought I’d see how it went.

I analyzed 19 books (31 guys), some of them only had one hero described, but I figure for an overview that works. I combined some like amber in the brown eye category. I also discarded characters that only had one attribute such has hair colour but not eyes described.

The most common hair/eye combination was:

• Black hair/brown eyes (7)
• Brown hair/brown eyes (5)
• Blond hair/blue eyes (4)
• Brown hair/blue eyes (4)
• Black hair/blue eyes (3)
• Blond hair/green eyes (3)
• Blond hair/brown eyes (2)
• Brown hair/green eyes (1)
• Brown hair/gray eyes (1)
• Bald/blue eyes (1)

I think that mainly accounts for a few stories I read with Hispanic, black or Native American men, who tend to have the black/brown combination. But on the whole, brown/brown and blond/blue following closely behind as common combinations. I only read one bald character and he was shaved not natural and I've no clue what color his hair was.

If you go solely by color of eye/hair and not the combination.

Brown hair - 11
Black hair - 10
Blond hair - 9
Bald - 1

Brown eyes - 14
Blue eyes - 12
Green eyes - 4
Gray eyes - 1

Amazingly not a hazel eye or a red head in sight. But I think the numbers are pretty much in keeping with the general population. There weren’t 15 green eyed blonds, despite the exotic attraction of the duo. So there you go, my color-coded reading life.

What to analyze next month? Not sure. Penis size? Recovery time between smexin' sessions? Underwear style/colour? That might be interesting. How often is underwear style/colour mentioned? Hmmm. :-) Something to think about anyway.

♫ ♪ ♫ I left my .... in San Francisco. ♫ ♪ ♫

So I FINALLY get a chance for my last update. Sunday was a bit of a rough day with an over-tired kid, but trick-or-treating went well and she got lots of candy. Very few kids came to our house. Everyone sits on their step so I did that with my computer, but only a few kids came. Still it was nice out. We had snow back here at home so I wasn't sorry I missed that.

Monday morning I got up and actually went to the post office to mail some stuff home. Yes, I had too much crap to get it home in the luggage I brought. Shut up! I made sure I only sent things I won't miss if they go missing forever and ever. Then we went for "American pancakes" as that was one of the things Jen wanted to have before she left. I had a Belgian waffle with Nutella and strawberries. DIVINE. The we took a few picture and hugged good-bye as Kristen and I were heading to the airport and Chris, Kris and Jen were going to the Castro for a bit. It was very sad. I did not want to leave everyone. *sniff* *sniff* Really, I still get sad when I think about saying good-bye. Sigh. It was a chance of a lifetime though to see everyone and so worth all the traveling to get there and the sore legs from climbing hills.

So I have a few last pictures to share and then back to your regularly scheduled book updates. I think tonight is an early night for us as we didn't get to bed until after 1:00 last night and were up at 7:00 to work/school. Ugh.

These are a couple of pictures my daughter took when she went sightseeing with a friend the day I was at the Con. The one from through the abandoned fort window under the bridge was very cool. It was gray and rainy that day but she still had fun. They walked out to the first upright part and then our friend got freaked out being over the water. LOL

This is Alcatraz as seen from the wharf. It's really not that far and I find it hard to believe that no one could swim it considering people swim the Atlantic Ocean, but what do I know. They were at the beach at high tide and at low tide our friend husband runs on the other side of that first rock. The beach is HUGE then.

In a couple of little stores in Chinatown I found these. The drinks are "Neuro Sport" for athletes, "Neuro Trim" for dieters and "Neuro Gasm" for .... ummm, horny people I guess. LOL It says passion in every bottle. However I did not try it so not sure if it causes spontaneous orgasm if you have to work for it. Then in another shop I found candy cock rings. Yum. :-) And only $5.95. A steal.

These are a few more of the costumes from Yaoi Con. Woohoo, Legolas was there. When I asked those first two girls if I could take their picture their response was "But we're not in the same series" as if I'd be outraged. Umm. Series? Riiiighhht Just stand there and look pretty kay? Most people in costume were happy to pose (and they all have a signature pose) when you asked. But I guess if you go out in public dressed that way you WANT people to look at you. What was funny was I noticed a wedding party by the doors later. Imagine explaining to Grandma why all these people dressed like this are walking around your wedding. I'll bet they were wishing they'd checked with the hotel what was going on that weekend before they booked.

You could tell this guy was dragged along by his girlfriend. When I asked to take their picture she got right into posing and he looked like he wanted to crawl under the Dreamspinner table. LOL It was like "OMG, I so did not sign up for this."

So that is the last of my San Francisco reports. It really is a beautiful city (if you don't have to walk). It was pretty easy to get around by public transit and I found everyone in the city very friendly and willing to help you out if you needed directions or advice EXCEPT the cab drivers. Beware if you go because some will try to rip you off. I've been to New York City several times and never had that happen to me there. I was really shocked it happened to us. They also drive like NYC cabbies but with hills. Eeeek. :-)

Our rental apartment was perfect, so central and it was nice to have a kitchen and couch and stuff to crash on without feeling penned up in a hotel room. So this has been my year for amazing trips. I have had three trips in the last 5 months where I met up with on-line friends and ALL of them were fantastic and I hated to leave everyone. Now I have real-life friends I stay in touch with on-line. :-)

Tomorrow, back to bookie stuff. Have a great week everyone.

Yaoi Con, Author Schmoozing and #$%& San Francisco Cabbies

So yesterday was our big day out at Yaoi Con. This is the huge banner they had for the show, gorgeous stuff.

I had not registered in advance so I had to do it that morning. This lady did my registration, and it was really rather interesting to watch her strutting around and wonder when the bosoms would make a complete showing for the audience in the lobby. But they managed to maintain their position ALL day.

There were tons of people in costume. Some pretty lame but these were some of the fancier ones. Yes, the last picture is a boy. There was a fair bit of flesh on display and the Con is 18+ but on the whole nothing too risqué. I didn't get many shots of the Bishie boys (think the guys on the banner) who were running around later in high heels and uber-miniskirts as they were getting ready for the Bishie auction later that night and we were pooped and heading home.
So what is Yaoi Con all about you ask? Well there are tons of panels during the day you can attend, how to get published, BDSM 101, what the Japanese High School system is like, discussion panels with authors, autograph sessions with the guests of honor, role playing, there is a games room, a dealers room with all kinds of book sellers and people selling art, candy, hats, corsets, jewelry, you name it. There was also a fan market where private fans were selling their own artwork or yaoi related materials. It was lots of fun but very tiring.

I went to two author panels with author's I read which were very fun. They are very small and intimate which is nice. Kris managed to win a ticket to get her book signed by the HUGE guest of honour. She only signed 200 books so out of the thousands of people she was very lucky to meet her.

What about all those rich and famous authors I mentioned? Did I get to schmooze, lick their boots, carry their bags? Almost. I did get to schmooze, but no one let me carry their bags, I think they were scared I'd run off with them. Not that I didn't have enough of my own to carry. My shoulder was killing me. So who did I meet and what are they REALLY like? BWAHAHAHAHA, the truth shall be revealed (in no particular order).

• Clare London - We are sandwich soul mates, no mayo, no mustard, why must everyone put mayo on everything with bread? Funny funny lady.
• Andrew Gray - A man with energy to spare, very very funny and spoiled rotten by his husband who serves him dinner on a tray while he works. I really need to get one of those. Great hugger.
  
• Mary Calmes - Super lady, very funny and the type of person you'd just love to hang out with.
• Marie Sexton - Beautiful and can make horizontal stripes look freaking hot.
  
• Amy Lane - A fun woman who can knit and talk at the same time. Just like you'd imagine her based on her on-line personality, a fellow Mom of a teenage girl.
  
• Belinda McBride - Looks far too young to have a daughter who is a chef. It was fun to find someone who knows all the foodie stuff.
  
• ZA Maxfield - Funny, friendly, just a terrific person, making everyone feel comfortable and at ease, and amazingly even knew who the hell I was.
  
• Ginn Hale - I covet that woman's hair. GORGEOUS! She's tiny and a bundle of energy. Super friendly.
• Astrid Amara - Another one with great hair. Is there a rule that Blind Eye Books only takes on authors with great hair? Another funny lady who was so nice.
• TC Blue - We laughed, I was a goof, I offered to have her autograph my boob since she didn't have any books there. But we found a post card instead. I think she was relieved.
  
• Tessa Cardenas - Gorgeous lady, so young, well, she looked young. :-) Sweet woman.
• Lynn Flewelling - I didn't get much chance to talk with Lynn but I was in a panel with her and she was so gracious to her fans from the previous panel, she patiently signed all their books and was friendly and open.
  
• Felicitas Ivey - We didn't spent much time talking, but I was in the panel she was on and she was very funny and straightforward and a great speaker.
  
• Ariel Tachna - I didn't get much chance to talk to her but she is another tiny young one who had on the most amazing Indian inspired outfit with jingly bells.
  
• Nicole Kimberling - I didn't get a chance to really talk with her but she was working at the Blind Eye booth.
  
• Nikki Bennett - Again, I saw her but we didn't chat.
• EM Lynley - Another author I saw but did not get a chance to talk with.
  

I know there may have been a couple of other authors there I missed Rowan McBride but I heard she was there. No sure who else may have passed by me and not had their "I'm a famous author" blinking sign on. :-) You'll notice a word that comes up over and over above. Funny. These people are all freaking hilarious. To think they can write so much angst and still be so damn amusing. Other adjectives - friendly, gracious, professional, just super people. I got tons of autographed books and I'm pissed I didn't get Mary Calmes. I was going to get a book later when she was there and then totally forgot. Grrrrr. I'll have to stalk you elsewhere Mary. ;-)

It's hard to believe that before this Con, as I told Marie Sexton, the only author I'd met was Robert Munsch. Yes, it's true. I'm on m/m author glut at the moment and loving every minute of it.

So after all that fun, we came home, ordered pizza as my daughter walked up hill after hill after hill and her shins were killing her. LOL While I was out schmoozing (fawning), the sister of a friend took her out sightseeing yesterday. She got to see the SF State University where she attends, they walked ON the Golden Gate Bridge, found an amazing cupcake place and she had an amazing day.

Then about 10:30, Jen, Kristen and I got our costumes (or a sort) on and headed out to Rocky Horror Picture Show. We could NOT get a freaking cab. We phoned 5 cab companies and they either didn't answer or we got "circuit is busy". WTF? So we walked down to a main street and flagged a cab. Three of my friends bailed but we easily sold those tickets to waiting people. The show was great fun, they act it out and had costume contests and other competitions before it started. There were some great costumes but I have to say I saw some better Frank'nfurter costumes in Ottawa last year. There was a Sean of the Dead who was a dead ringer for Sean. He won. But we had great fun, dancing and yelling along.

Then came trying to catch a cab home. First one guy asked where we were going (and it was only a $10-$15 ride) wouldn't even stop for us when we told him. FINALLY someone stopped and when we told him where he refused to go. He would not move the cab until we got out. I was soooo pissed I kicked the cab as he left. After I thought maybe not so smart as I might have had a free ride in a police car. FINALLY someone picked us up. I gave him a $5 tip on a $10 cab ride. We are really close to the Castro so it's not like those other cabs couldn't have gotten a gazillion fares right by our house. I'm still annoyed by it. We got home at 3:00. Ugh. Oh well, that's what vacations are for.

Tonight Kristen and Kris are going to go Trick or Treating, we'll put our pumpkin out on the step too. I'm meeting a friend for lunch and we're going to so a bit more shopping around and just checking out the city today, then taking it easy tonight and tomorrow we're off to the airport. All too soon. It has been so great spending time my blogger friends, we all got along, no strife considering everyone is existing on less than optimal sleep, but we're having a great time and I'm so glad we made this happen.

Happy Halloween everyone.

San Francisco Report

So we've had one full day in San Francisco and it was a busy one with sore feet and for some even more sore legs. We're having fun and the six of us haven't killed each other yet living in the same house. :-) There are some gorgeous houses here, everything very tall and on hills and many of them in gorgeous condition. Here are some random pics of what we saw since we got here.

Kris and Jen and Kristen have gone to Alcatraz today. I am going shopping later (doing a load of laundry now), then meeting up with them in Chinatown. I think tonight we are going out to Yaoi Con to meet up with some people for drinks. That's the plan anyway.

A cool house.

There is a little gift store near our apartment and there are three cute pups like this who seem to live there. They like to play chase the ball in the store.
There are several great Halloweenly decorated in our neighbourhood. This one was might impressive with giant moving spiders.

Some weird building.

A view of the hillside and all of the houses near our place.\
The Castro Theatre and Hot Cookie where Ally Blue tells me they have macaroons shaped like happy man parts. I'll be stopping in there later this morning.

Some more spooky decorations, and hey, they're going to vote for Wiener. Yum, hot dogs.

The perfect house for Polt. And it's only about 4 blocks from the Castro. Totally perfect. :-)
The most frightening thing we saw at the Museum of Modern Art. Michael Jackson and Bubbles in ceramic, human sized. Eeek.
Kristen, me and Jen near some random painting.
A very cool spider statue we think made by the same woman who made the giant spider in Ottawa.
My favourite artist Mondrian.
Squee. Yes, the Mondrian cake. Swoon. Kristen sent me a pic of that a year ago and after I found out it was from San Francisco I was determined I was finding it while I was here. It was totally yummy (and $9). Kristen had the upside-down ice-cream.

San Francisco Here We Come

Not sure I'll see that when we get there. ;-)

So tomorrow we're off to San Francisco to meet up with Kris and Chris and Jen and Tracy. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, I'm not looking forward to getting up at 3:45 so we can be at the airport by 5:00. Ugh. But at least we don't waste a whole day day traveling. And in theory we can sleep on the plane. Yeah right.

I told my neighbour I'll be away next week and she goes "Do you even live here?" Umm. Now and then we use the house. LOL

I also found out this morning I'm going to be going to Chicago in early December for some training. I'm only gone two nights though so not much chance to be a tourist. I've never been before though so that will be cool.

So I'll try and post some pics while we're there. Yaoi Con should be an interesting experience. I'm thinking I should attend the seminar on Japanese High School 101 since many take place in high school and I have no clue how it all works. So I'll learn something and hopefully get to swoon over some authors. I'll try not to be too fawny or stalkerish.

See y'all soon.

Monday of a super short work week!!!

Only two days of work this week and then my daughter and I are off to San Francisco to hook up with the ladies where we will be tourists and visit Yaoi Con where we will be fan girls stalking he m/m authors we've been able to figure out are going to be there. Of course I have a ton of things to do before we leave Wed. morning, at work and home, but it will all get done, it always does. You'd think I wouldn't be reading so much but .... I tend to work better under pressure. :-) That's what I tell myself anyway.

Corruption by Jack Greene (26 pages)
Phaze Books

Tom and his friends plan to go out to 80's night but end up in a goth/industrial club. Tom sees a dancer in a cage and thinks she's gorgeous. When he finally sees her face, ack! she's a he. He freaks as he's never been attracted to men before and runs, but he can't get the guy out of his head and goes back the next week. This time he guy comes up to him and says he likes straight guys and takes him home. It's amazing, but the guy is used to straight guys who never call back (duh, that's what happens when you sleep with straight guys) but Tom is determined to show Cameron he's different. He finds out where he works and sends him flowers, takes him out for dinner and reveals his feelings. This runs very close to the insta-love line, they both admit to almost love after seeing each other twice in 2 weeks and Tom is pretty open after his initial freak-out to being with a guy. However the sex scenes were hot and for a little short it was good.

Core Training by Andrew Grey (81 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Hugh is feeling depressed. It's his 44th birthday, he's single and hating getting old. However sexy little Max comes onto him at the gym and they end up in bed. Hugh is a one-night-stand-only kind of guy but that just makes him more depressed, however he can't figure out why a hot young thing like Max would be interested in an old fogy like him. Max does his best to convince him, but he's also dealing with an alcoholic father who blames his drinking on the fact that Max is gay. This is set in the world of the gym of Spot Me and Pump Me Up and you get to see Dan and Lonnie. Lonnie kills me, he is so rude and crude and funny. This smacks pretty close to insta-love as well (do I have a theme here?). They only date twice and both are declaring their nearly-love. I think it would have been better if they had more time to get to know each other and work through the age-difference thing. But still, it fit with the rest in the series.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Clare London (57 pages)
Amber Allure

Gary is stuck in the airport in Glasgow. The deal was he would meet his best friend Will who is flying in from the US and they are going to meet up with some friends for a group holiday. Unfortunately The Delay is causing all flights to be late by about 10 hours and since he can't reach the organizers of the holiday and doesn't know the hotel he's stuck waiting, although he promised Will he would wait. He suddenly gets a couple of young kids as companions as he waits and their questions trigger him to do some thinking about his relationship with Will, what he really wants and how he feels about Will's chance to take a high power job in the US leaving London. This was a very cute story, Will and Garry only get together in the last couple of pages, the entire book is Garry and the kids and its at turns humorous and touching and a bit sad. A cute concept how something you are angry about like a delay can turn out to be a good thing in the end.

Movie Review: RED

Last night my daughter and I went to see RED. The movie is about Frank (Bruce Willis), Joe (Morgan Freeman), Marvin (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren) who used to be the CIA's top agents - but the secrets they know just made them the Agency's top targets. Now framed for assassination, they must use all of their collective cunning, experience and teamwork to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers and stay alive. To stop the operation, the team embarks on an impossible, cross-country mission to break into the top-secret CIA headquarters, where they will uncover one of the biggest conspiracies and cover-ups in government history.

That blurb pretty much sums it up, but of course Frank, whose life is BORING, has been tearing up his pension checks just so he can phone the person responsible for his file and chat with her (Mary Louise Parker). When he realizes they have been shadowing him, he knows they'll go after her so he goes and picks her up to keep her out of harms way. She is NOT impressed, his use of duct tape on a "first date" is liberal, but of course she finds the whole spy thing wildly exciting, just like the romance novels she reads. :-) After that it's a roller coaster ride of explosions, bullets, disguises and one liners.

This is not a serious movie, there are MASSIVE plot holes, but it is certain a fun movie. John Malkovich is hilarious as a freaked out ex-agent who had been experimented on with LSD for eleven years. Very very fun, the pig. Ha! (you'll have to see it now to know what that's all about) I told my daughter I think I would be afraid to be alone in a room with him and Christopher Walken, they both appear totally whacko. They should make a movie together.

Is it wrong that I still find Bruce Willis hot? Okay, just pretend I didn't say that.

Helen Mirren? Total girl crush, and I want to BE her when I grow up. I was thinking she must have had a blast as she usually plays more serious characters and she was shooting machine guns and seemed to be having a great time.

The inside assassin who is an up and comer in the CIA was played by Karl Urban and he was good I suppose in that I didn't like him at all. He was totally a "just following orders" kind of guy until he finally opened his eyes at the end.

So if you are looking for a light hearted romp, with some laughs (and a few groans), with totally implausible explosions and escapes, it's the movie for you. We had a good time and sounded like others in the theatre were also enjoying it.

Yaoi before Yaoi Con

I had a whole bunch of yaoi I need to read before I had to San Francisco in a few days so I've been buckling down and finishing it so I can pass it on to the next person there.

Wishing For the Moon by Dany & Dany

Allesandro is an up and coming actor (blond) and Luca, an aspiring author, becomes his roommate. They become good friends until they make the mistake of sleeping together and then trying to pretend they didn't. Allesandro starts an affair with his co-star who is in an open relationship with the director who is mentoring Luca and well as they say on your Facebook status "it's complicated". Eventually Allesandro breaks up with his new lover leading to his suicide and ultimately a HEA for the two men. I found this one pretty melodramatic. Kind of the artsy "oh I feel so much more deeply than regular people, my dreams are so much greater..." kind of thing that I don't have much patience for. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one set during the French Revolution.

Anima by Dany & Dany

On a cruise, famous ballet dancer Danya (blond) will be performing. Also on the ship is investigative reporter Patrick who is accompanied by his android Ed. The two guys hook up and start seeing each other after the trip, but Danya's mentor/manager is not thrilled as he's involved in some shady business and he doesn't want Patrick to find out. Danya also has his own secret. The manager is determined to separate them, no matter how. *cue evil laughter* They said this steam punk but it seemed more futuristic to me, but I have to say I loved Ed. He has no emotions or filter on his mouth it seems so he just puts stuff out there, which is true but not very diplomatic at times. I liked this one much more as there is less of the "woe is me, I'm an artist *hand to forehead swooning*" stuff going on.

I.D.O.L. by Dany & Dany

Sigh. Back to more suffering artist angst. David is an artist who becomes fascinated by prostitute Adam. He hires him but to pose for a painting. This goes on for a bit until they finally sleep together and David just can't finish the painting, something is missing, and when Adam's job leaps up and slaps him in the face they have a fight where the painting is destroyed. He revamps it and hooks up with a rich guy he knows hired Adam for two months and surprise, he invites Adam to join them in a whole BDSM thing. David stops it and the guy is so mad he tries to run him over him and Adam takes revenge. There is no HEA here. Seems David's friends just delight in telling what a horrible person Adam is/was and he then draws him fantasizing about his love. Ugh. I didn't care for this at all. With friends like that who needs enemies? Although their drawing is of a style that works for me.

Chocolate Surprise by Lily Hoshino

This is a series of little shorts, predominantly about high school students but also with one story about a single father who is recently divorced and having a relationship with his daughter's tutor. The title story is about a popular boy who offers the girls a chocolate. Some of the have guarana which supposedly makes you hot. A young guy is talked into joining and if he gets it he can sleep with one of the girls. Well, he gets the chocolate but doesn't want one of the girls and the other boy offers to "help him out" with his problem. The others were similar friends to lovers, or popular boy and nerd, type stories. One drawing made the uke look REALLY young, in fact it kind of squicked me out although supposedly they are the same age, but .... I don't really care for the books that are a series of shorts, I prefer one longer story. It was okay though and is pretty typical artwork.

Finally Friday.

Yay the weekend. Work was awful this week. How bad? The stress triggered a cold sore. Grrrr. Right before vacation. Great, just what I need. It's going to be a very long year. Anyway, I went shopping today, bad me, bad me. Sigh. But I NEEDED those books. So I've done a bit more reading.

Dance with a Vampire by Fabian Black (7 pages)
All Romance E-books

This is actually a freebie at ARe. A young man is going to a club on Halloween with his date. The bouncer won't let him in because he doesn't turn 21 until the next day, midnight technically. He hangs around harassing the guy. When he still won't let him in, he leaves in a pique and ends up being rescued from getting mugged by the bouncer. He's even more pissed when he finds out the age for he club is 18, but it seems the bouncer has his sights set on him. It's a D/s story and there are no names. It's very poetic, I guess is the way of describing it, not really my prose style, but not a bad little short and you can't beat the price.

Model Student by Shae Connor (70 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Aaron is a film student who supports himself by modeling. One day on a shoot he's introduced to Matt who's doing a journalism thesis and wants to use Aaron as an example of a model/student. There's an instant attraction and they start to get to know each other. Things are going well and virgin Aaron finally believes he's found 'the one', when a secret Matt was keeping from him crops up, and sends them both spinning into dealing with crap from their pasts and old negative behaviours. I like stories with young guys and to be honest, these guys seemed young. I don't mean that negatively necessarily but they reminded me of teenagers (both 20), falling in love easily, kind of idealized ideas about love and sex. The problems didn't drag on too long so I wasn't too frustrated with them. It's the first story I've read by the author and I would definitely try more. I liked both guys and the style. Maybe a bit light and fluffy for some but I loved the last sentence. Very cute.

Strawberries for Dessert by Marie Sexton (229 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

I read this awhile ago and kept forgetting to post. Not that it's forgettable. Just my brain failing. This is a continuation of the Promises series with Jared's casual fling Cole and and his ex Jonathan. Jared suggests the two get together and Cole is as flamboyant as they come. I'm surprised he doesn't wear a feather boa at all times. He is totally not workaholic Jonathan's type, but Cole is very clear he's only looking for some fun, travels a lot and has men all around the world. That works for Jonathan, until he starts to get more deeply attached and yet he's embarrassed by Cole's flamboyance and it causes friction for them. When Cole finally proposes more, which would mean Jonathan giving up his job and being a 'kept man' for multi-millionaire Cole, it could spell the end of their relationship. I love swishy flamboyant characters so I adored Cole, and you just know there's something more going on under that designer clothes surface and fey image. I did want to kick both of them really a few times for being afraid to say they wanted more than fuck-buddy status, but I liked Jonathan's Dad, who while not really "getting it" tried his best and offered some sage advice. Jonathan's next door neighbor and friend was also great, I liked her a lot. A nice continuation of the series although I've yet to read book 3, this is 4. You don't NEED to read the others to enjoy this one though.

October: Trick of Silver by Jamie Craig (122 pages)
Amber Quill

Darren works for the Argenti, a group who hunt down werewolves. He's tasked to take out one of the most powerful ones at a Halloween party, whom they suspect of killing several people. However, Aden KNOWS there's someone there to take him down, and he also knows someone is setting him up and he's determined to find out who. Darren is thrown when Aden reveals him as the assassin within minutes, and despite his better judgment is willing to give Aden a chance to prove his theory. When it seems Darren is being also set-up by his own people, they have to decide what to do about it and the raging hormones they have going between them. If you like your sex rough, gritty and lube-free this is the book for you. It's acknowledged that it's lube-free and Darren likes it rough, and doesn't get overly grossed out by having sex with a guy covered in someone else's blood. I thought Darren seemed a bit too willing to give Aden a chance given his "job" was hunting werewolves, but I did enjoy it. There is a follow-up, On the Ragged Edge of the World which I'll get to shortly. I hope, because I'd like to see what happens next now that Darren is on the Argenti shit list.

Short is good too.

I haven't been very much in a reading mood. Seems after I read a couple of long books I kind of tucker out but I've read a few Torquere shorter stories in the last 3 or 4 days.

Mr. Snowflake by Elana Hawk (25 pages)
Torquere Press

Devin is standing on his balcony in the snow thinking about his recent break-up with his girlfriend when suddenly a hot guy with dreads is kissing him. WTF? One, he's not gay and two, how the hell did a guy get on his balcony. He eventually invites him in and Michael (he has no name so Devin calls him Michael) explains that he's a snowflake who saw Devin "kissing he snow" so he kissed him back. Devin thinks he's a homeless nut, but a hot one and they get funky. When he wakes up Michael is melting and even putting him outside is no help. Does this mean Michael's gone forever? Is Devin gay? This was kind of cute, Michael was humorous with his lack of knowledge about some things, but he seemed to know all about the buttsecks, which was handy. I also enjoyed Devin having to wonder about his attraction to a man and it was pretty sad when Michael melted. I think I would have made the ending a little different myself, maybe a little less convenient, but hey, snowflake shifter (of sorts). Yeehaw. You go girl. The more unusual shifters out there the better I say. (No, I'm not writing that penguin shifter thing ... yet.)

Where There's a Will by BA Tortuga (81 pages)
Torquere Press

When Reggies dies of cancer, he leaves his multi-millions to his two best friends, Toby who was with him at the very end, and Keagan. Seems all three were best friends in college and you don't find out until later why Toby and Keagan had a falling out. He's leaving them the money on the condition that they both live together in his house for one year. They are both pissed, but if they refuse the money goes to fundamentalist Christian charities so they agree. Y0u then find the truth about why their friendship broke and FINALLY the BM is resolved (within a week or so) and HEA ensues (after a health crisis and drunkenness and fighting). I didn't really connect with this one. I did feel the pain of the loss of their friend, that was very evident, but the whole BM thing (you really aren't told how long this is after college but more than a couple of years) didn't work so well. I also found at times I wasn't sure who was talking and I had to go back and follow the dialogue "A, B, A, oh A again, B, A. That makes more sense" I did that more than once. On the whole I liked the part with the dying friend and Toby, better than Toby and Keagan.

Copper Country Gold by Taylor Lochland (80 pages)
Torquere Press

Steven is up checking out the Upper Peninsula in Michigan for a possible a geology teaching job at the college there. He meets Zach at the bar and they have a one night stand. He gets the job and a few months later he's back and runs into Zach at the mine where he gives tours. He's a bit stand-offish, but agrees to be friends even though Zach wants more. Of course Zach has a secret and when on a camping/field trip with some high school students, Steven gets himself in a pickle, Zach goes against his clan's leader and reveals himself to Steven to save him. This then leads to a crisis within Zach's clan as they decide what to do with him and the fact that Steven knows their secret. I enjoyed this one, it's pretty light on the whole and I liked that Steven pulled back when he moved there, when Zach, Mr. One-Night-Stand, wanted more and let their friendship develop. Zach's personality was also very likable. A cute fast little read.