chatter

Summer Fun

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Thanks, Katrina!

Fun stuff, having Katrina here. She and I seem to share the same tastes in books. At least books about hot men doing other men. The excerpt for Off the Beaten Path certainly has me wanting to read more! Katrina and I have even both recently been into steampunk type stories. I wrote Sursein Judgment and Katrina’s written Slight of Hand. I know both of us are looking to do more steampunk or — as Ciar Cullen recently dubbed the softer side of steampunk — “softsteam”. Maybe sometime in the future the stars will align and we can be in an anthology or a series together.

Ah summer. Time of heat. Since I live in southern California and have all of my life, I’m well acquainted with the beast. I just realized that I don’t have many stories that deal much with the season or time of year. Oh, I mention the passing of time in the Heaven Sent books, sure, but I’ve not dealt much with it. Revelations, though, does a little. Gretchen is on summer vacation, you see. The boys in the band are on a break and she decides she deserves one too. In her new house. She’s even got a pool. Mmmm, yes, take a look at the cover for Revelations then think of Archer in the pool. That’s in the book. It’s actually great fun and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Continue reading Summer Fun →

excerpts, guest, contemporary, m/m

Guest Blogger – Katrina Strauss – Summer is hot, but volunteerism is hotter!

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Off the Beaten Path by Katrina StraussGood day from Katrina Strauss! No, don’t adjust your monitors — you’re at the right place! Many thanks to Jet for inviting me to play at her blog today. There are some sizzling men to be found here at ComputErotika, so I thought I’d bring two hotties of my own! That’s Travis and Kyle to your left. They’re the stars of my next m/m release, Off the Beaten Path, coming this Tuesday, July 28th from Loose Id.

As you might guess from the cover, Off the Beaten Path centers on a camping trip. Well, okay, besides the double whammy of sexy man chest, it involves camping! To be more precise, Travis and Kyle are thrown together on what’s called a “volunteer vacation” at a wilderness state park. A volunteer vacation can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Here are some opportunities begging to be taken advantage of:

** Constructing an inner city playground from recycled goods.
** Building or maintaining pedestrian and bike trails on former railroad beds.
** Wilderness trail maintenance at state and national parks.
** Working for a day at a local soup kitchen or food bank.
** Mentoring at-risk youth enrolled in summer programs.
** Planting trees with the Nature Conservancy.
** Building houses with Habitat for Humanity.

And that’s just a few! As you can see from the above list, volunteer vacations can range from day trip to out-of-town adventure, urban outing to wilderness escape. When volunteering at state and national parks, participants can receive a discount on guest fees with meals, housing, and/or camping equipment provided. (Volunteers are also often granted access to parts of the park that are closed to the public!) If you’re a high school student planning for college, or a college student seeking an internship, a volunteer vacation can count toward service points. Best of all, a volunteer vacation can be enjoyed by friends, families, youth organizations, church groups, etc, with crew size numbering from a few to several members depending on the task at hand.

Or as Kyle’s friend Mac explains to Travis, a volunteer vacation is “a nice alternative to the usual Vegas trip or overpriced ocean cruise, plus you do something that helps others.” If you’re looking to enjoy an affordable vacation that’s a little different, and serving a worthwhile purpose while you’re at it, you may want to consider one of the volunteer variety! Simply Google “volunteer vacation” to learn more!

Back to Travis and Kyle, I’ll leave you with the blurb and a teaser from their own excursion off the beaten path: Continue reading Guest Blogger – Katrina Strauss – Summer is hot, but volunteerism is hotter! →

chatter

Conference is over

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And I think it went well. I, personally, wasn’t terribly productive but I’m pretty sure others were.

Jade Buchanan kicked ass as the Rainbow Romance Writer president. She met everyone — or so it seemed to me — and made sure she touched base with all the members she could. Looks like RRW weathered its first RWA pretty well. And Jade made lots of contacts for herself, of course, which is all good.

Ally Blue met the owner of Lambda Rising at a restaurant down the street from the hotel, so that was pretty cool.

I finally met Anne Cain. That was cool! I finally have a face to put with the excellent artwork. Talked to Treva Harte and a bunch of cool Loose Id authors at a delicious Lebanese restaurant. Met LB Gregg aka Lisabea and we had some good laughs. I met a lot of other great people and (if you’re reading) I’m so sorry I don’t remember all the names. I must admit to being a tad spacy during much of this weekend. Must be the bright purple hair *sage nod*

All in all, good fun even if I didn’t do the networking I was supposed to. Ally and I discovered that DC — at least the part we were in — is crawling with gorgeous men! OMG, there were too many of them to properly process the hottness. Eye candy all over the place and, I’ve been assured by someone who lives here, probably most of them are gay *dies*

Not sure if I’ll go to Nashville next year but who knows? I wasn’t going to go to this one either. We’ll have to see what happens between now and then.

chats, past events, appearances

RWA National conference

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I guess since I mentioned Romance Divas not going to the conference, I should mention that I AM going  to the RWA conference in Washington DC from the 15th to the 18th.

I wasn’t goint to go initially but then decided I wanted to be there for the Rainbow Romance Writers‘ first official conference. Plus a lot of my buddies are going to be there and it looks like it’ll be the only event that I attend this year.

Official site for author Jet Mykles