Cardeno C.'s Blog, page 133

Contests by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday, y'all. Today I want to let you know about a couple of opportunities to win my books. 

Lasha's Reviews is giving away several paranormal books, including a copy of Wake Me Up Inside: http://lashasreviews.blogspot.com/.




Stumbling Over Chaos is going to give away a copy of my upcoming release, The One Who Saves Me. The contest information will go live tomorrow here: http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/archives/21874.



The Romance Reviews is having a huge event starting in a couple of weeks with hundreds of giveaways, including one of my books. You can see the list of participating authors, etc. here: http://www.theromancereviews.com/event.php.




www.cardenoc.com

One Star Out of Five – Part One – by BG Thomas

We've all seen it, and a bunch of us have experienced it. A bad review. Now I am not here to tell you that my writing is so excellent that it is comparable only to Twain, Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Fitzgerald. Not at all! God, no!  As a matter of fact, I've learned some valuable lessons on writing from mediocre reviews. They can be valuable, teaching me and helping me refine my craft. For instance, a story that I just knew had a great twist ending was seen coming from a mile off by every reader who has read it. It taught me to be more subtle. A character that I thought was sad was considered whiney by a lot of readers. It taught me to be more careful when creating a character who's been through tough times. No one wants to write a whiney character! 
I am not somehow above a less than spectacular review and I try and learn from them.  On the other hand, a reviewer once knocked me down on her review because they had an "aversion to toe sucking." I was like, WTF?  That is NOT why you knock off points on a review. You knock it down because of bad characterization or loose plotting or bad research. Not because you don’t like the way two characters have sex. And toe sucking? I wasn’t writing scat play for goodness sake!  Now understand, my heroes had cleaned out a stable earlier in the story--but it was much earlier! And they didn’t do it barefoot. And they’d showered since then. I implied they showered only hours before making love. These weren't rank, nasty, gross feet. And anyone who has ever had their toes actually sucked on would heartily disagree with the reviewer! LOL! And yes, I do love to suck toes.
Another thing that often confuses me, and has been something else that has had my stories get knocked down lots of stars, is when my heroes fuck without a condom.  Let me tell you something you might not know. Men are not whiney when they say they don't want to wear one. Condoms suck, and not in a good way. They really are like wearing a raincoat in a shower. Even the best of them block so much of the feeling and unless you are turned on to the nines, it's hard to cum with one on.  
This doesn't mean I don't wear them when I've had sex. In this day and age they are a sad necessity. I've managed to get to this ripe old age without contracting HIV and I want to keep it that way. But my husband and I don't use them with each other. A great thing about commitment. We will have been together twelve years next week and we test once or twice a year. We don't have to use them with each other. Thank God. Because condoms are worse than sand in your underwear, a tornado on your wedding day, or accidentally picnicking on a hill of fire ants. 
They suck Blue Whale dick.
When I read a romance, I am reading for fantasy. I am reading to escape. I am reading to watch first love or new love for someone who stopped believing in romance. And when I finally get to the sex scene, the LAST thing I want to read is the two of them stopping some beautiful and hot love making to find a condom, open it, and put it on. Something awful has happened. Real life has interfered with these two men and now they are separated by a piece of latex.  
What is one of the best things about love making? For me it is skin against skin. lips touching, fingers entwining or running the length of their lover's body. Legs rubbing against legs, chests crushing up against each other. Imagine your body covered in latex before you make love. Would you like it? Of course not. 
In real life, until you KNOW the status of your lover and unless you are monogamous, we must wear condoms.
But in fantasy? Hey! I already know you don't get shot dead and then wake up in another man's body in 1942 and finally find the man of your dreams. You don’t get abducted by a sexy humanoid alien. You don’t get captured by red Indians and rescued by a hot cowboy. It is fantasy. And in fantasy I don't want my heroes to have to wear a condom. It brings the story to a HALT for me. I want to believe there are worlds where we all find the perfect man, we are always sexually compatible, we can take a vampire or a werewolf as a lover, we can travel through space and time, we can make love with a clean and fit pirate AND we don't have to wear condoms! Sometimes my characters don’t wear condoms. As a matter of fact, whenever I can think of a way so they don’t have to wear them, they don’t. Surprisingly I’ve been told the not-wearing-of-condoms yanks a person out of a story as much as the wearing of them yanks me out of a story. To tell you the truth, I have no idea why. I’ve asked too. Maybe one day, I’ll find out why this issue is so important to the other side of the issue. Namaste, BG Thomas, Next Week:  Cheating

Welcome to the Weird (T.C. Blue's week in review)

Well, as most of you know, I live in Maryland, which was right in the path of the lovely *rolls eyes* Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. What you may not know is just how incredibly hysterical people around here get over weather. (To be fair, we don't get hurricanes often, so consider, if you will, that the threat of this sort of weather here is like telling the state of Florida or Louisiana that they're about to get a foot of snow.)

There was much rushing about for many in my neighborhood. Groceries, water, gasoline, batteries. Me? I bought some coke and hot pockets and called it a day. I don't think there will ever be a storm so bad I'll need to have 80 rolls of toilet paper. Just saying.

So Sandy came... sort of. We got a bunch of wind and a few days of truly depressing rainy/drizzly/steady wetness. My power went out for about two minutes. No big, right? In fact, it was so little big, I was inclined to start with the inappropriate humor (cuz that's just how I roll). Then I started seeing stories about people who'd died and other horrible effects of the storm and decided it was WAY too soon to start being a smart ass. Smart-assery will come, and when it does it will likely involve Grease in some way. Heh.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering how this qualifies as weird, and perhaps it doesn't in any way other than the most important one. I'm restaining my automatic impulse to be irreverent and crass. That might actually be a sign of the apocalypse.

There's actually a whole bunch of other strange things I could mention, but I'm not sure those things are weird to anyone but me. Haha!

Hope you all, wherever you are, survived the week relatively unscathed.

Until next time, Love and stuff!

Well, Boo, Damn It.

Halloween has rolled around once again here in the States. The day when children don costumes and masks and go door to door in the time-honored tradition of trick or treating, ringing bells and holding out little plastic pumpkins for treats.

It's the only day of the year when it's okay to take candy from strangers. Except Mom and Dad will probably have the candy x-rayed before allowing Junior to eat it, because God knows it's much safer to let the kids swallow chocolate with a radiation chaser.

I remember the days when you didn't need to worry about someone slipping a Mickey into your Mars Bar. We went trick or treating in homemade costumes, usually made from bits and pieces of this and that found in the basement or attic, and held together with Elmer's glue, safety pins, and a lot of luck. We donned our rattiest clothes, smeared dirt on our faces, and went as hobos, or drizzled glitter on that year's Easter dress along with a pair of construction-paper wings and wand, and went as a fairy. It was never anything fancy or store-bought, but positively dripping with imagination.

We went by ourselves, without parental supervision, in packs of ten or more, ringing bells and shouting "Trick or Treat" into the faces of whoever dared open them. Our plastic pumpkins and pillowcases grew heavier by the hour as we trudged block to block, leaving a wake of toilet-papered trees behind us in the years of those unfortunate souls too terrified (or cheap) to answer the doorbell.

Ah, the good old days.

Halloween Blog Hop by Cardeno C.

I sure hope better late than never counts for blog hops because I'm a little late with this one. So sorry! My only excuse is that I've been very busy this week going over galley proofs for my next two stories and putting the finishing touches on my newest book. Thanks to Give a Rush for getting my butt in gear!

You can find the other blog hop participants here: http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/. Leave a comment below (with your e-mail address) for a chance to win your choice of a book from my backlist. Happy halloween, y'all!

Here are the details on my upcoming release.

The One Who Saves Me by Cardeno C.
(Now available for preorder)


At fourteen, Andrew Thompson and Caleb Lakes become best friends. As the years pass, they stand by each other through family trauma, school, and the start of their careers. They share their first sexual experiences as friends, learning and experimenting. And they talk each other through countless dates and breakups. Decades of trust and loyalty build a deep and abiding friendship —until Andrew suffers a tragedy. Caleb moves in with him, and the parameters of their unique relationship blur.

Wrestling with feelings he can’t articulate, Andrew spirals into self-loathing. Caleb struggles to help his friend heal, but he longs for more than Andrew can give him. After so many years, neither man knows how to break out of his established role. After all, boyfriends come and go, but best friends are forever.


www.cardenoc.com

Worn Out on a Friday Night (After GRL) -- by BG Thomas

So here I am, worn totally out from GayRomLit and I've been home for a few days and back in the real world with 12-hour shifts and a novel due to my publisher in less than a week. Is it any wonder this post is late?

Next week you'll get better, but I thought I would take this time to just post a few pictures from the amazing GayRomLit 2012. I wish you had ALL been there!

The incomparable JP Barnaby and the equally sexy Edward Manning (who I got to see in the hot tub!)
An impromptu sexy dancer and Damon Suede get down! 
ME and the sexy dancer!I hated taking this picture (NOT!)
Me and JP again (she is HOT!) 
Look at me with one of the nicest people I've ever met.The and awesome Aurore Rose.  TJ Klune and Eric Arvin (note the hickies)
Me and Sue Brown We started right around the same time and I was deeply moved and affected by finally meeting her! 
Two wonderful ladies who have helped my dreams come true.The amazing Julianne Bentley -- I adore her!And Ariel Tachna! Oh oh oh!Two people who have helped me believe in myself. 
Sunset over the desert on the last night.

The Most WonderGhoul Time... (T.C. Blue loves Halloween!)

I could totally say something here about GRL, but BG and Kiernan have already done that extremely well, so I'll simply say that their accounts were entirely accurate and much fun was had in Albuquerque by me, as well. *grins* I even opened myself to complete (and public!) humiliation by 'singing' karaoke! (Those who weren't at GRL this year can be glad to have missed that particular debacle. *nodnod*) So GRL is what I won't be talking about today. I won't even apologize for flaking on posting last Thursday due to GRL events and such, as well as lack of time. *rueful grin*

Instead of any of that (haha!) I'm going to talk about Halloween, which is -- hands down -- my favorite holiday of the year. I LOVE IT! It's fun, festive, colorful, and has a very colorful history. That history is also not what I'll be talking about. Maybe next year. *hee* THIS year, it's all about the vampires for me! Vampire movies, to be more specific.

So yesterday (Wednesday), I was feeling kind of sick (still am, thanks to this lovely cold I picked up in New Mexico) and also a wee bit out of sorts, likely due to it being late October with temperatures in the mid-seventies where I live. This does not seem like the sort of weather I recall from when I was a kid. Of course, that doesn't stop it from being only a week away from the bestest holiday ever, right? RIGHT!

Being a bit under the weather (no pun intended :P), I spent a while cruising around on Netflix, seeing what was available to get me in the Halloween-y mood, since the temperature outside wasn't doing the trick, and I was actually quite amused by some of the movies I came across. Many are new to me (and I now have a whole list of those), but there were a few that have me feeling downright nostalgic.

Anybody remember Dracula - Dead and Loving It? How about Rockula? From Dusk Till Dawn, and Queen of the Damned? (All old favorites that I'd not seen in far too long.) And more recent movies, like... Daybreakers (Ethan Hawke in Vampland!), Blood Wars (pure silliness on a college campus), Transylmania (I can't even explain the silliness here), and a show I never heard of that MTV did, called Death Valley, which is gory but funny enough that I giggled.

Yes, I love vampires. And witches, and werewolves, and ghosts, and... well, pretty much everything along those lines. However, I thought it would be better if I focused on only ONE type of para-supe movie this time. Otherwise this post would get way out of hand. Hahaha!

I have to say that I love Netflix. In my browsing, I came across an incredible number of vampire flicks I'd never even heard of, and many of them are recent. Some are also clearly rip-offs of the Twilight/Vampire Diaries type things, but that's to be expected (and possibly avoided depending on one's own tastes). Others sound tremendously interesting and I'm looking forward to watching The Moth Diaries, Blood Angels, Midnight Mass, Dead Cert, and a whole slew of others between now and October 31st! (My one regret is that Netflix doesn't have my all time fave, The Nightmare Before Christmas, available for streaming! Luckily, I own a couple versions of it. LOL)

How about you, dear friends? What's your favorite Halloween viewing experience? Do you prefer vamps, ghosts, or something else that goes bump in the night? Do you like your All Hallow's Eve flicks to be scary, funny, silly, or spooky? Inquiring minds want to know!

GRL: Hot Books, Booze, and Fan Gurl Squeeing

First, I apologize for not blogging last Tuesday. I just didn't have the time or the energy to write since it was my travel day to Albuquerque for the Gay Rom Lit retreat. We left for the airport at the crack-ass of dawn - four in the freaking morning. The flight was long, and the desert was dry, and the need for caffeine was making me feel like a junkie in need of a fix. Seriously, by the time we got to the coffee shop at the Hard Rock hotel, I was ready to suck the caffeine out from under the barista's fingernails.

We spent a lot of time in the coffee shop, called "Chill." Luckily, they brewed Starbucks coffee, which made me happy since the coffee served elsewhere in the hotel tasted like moose piss. Although truthfully, I've never actually drank moose piss, so I can't vouch for the similarity, but I imagine it would taste like really bad coffee. Maybe with a mossy aftertaste. In any case, it wouldn't be pleasant, and my point is that the coffee served elsewhere in the hotel was really, really bad. So bad that the restaurants didn't even charge for it, because even they knew how bad it was. Moose piss bad.

The coffee in Chill was fabulous though, and I drank enough of it to float my kidneys back home to Florida.

For those of you who didn't attend the conference, let me describe the location of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to you. Picture miles of barren desert and mountains. Then picture a hotel stuck squarely in the middle of it. That's where we were. Miles from anything. Unless you had the foresight to rent a car (which we didn't, of course), you were stuck there, at the mercy of the in-house restaurants.

Happily, the food at the hotel was not only usually good, but very reasonably priced. There were five places diners could choose from, and all were tasty and priced well, in my opinion, from the high-end steakhouse called "Embers" to the tiny counter-service grill in the casino.

A word of warning; in New Mexico, they put chilli on everything.  Seriously, I bought chocolate at a candy store in Old Town in Albuquerque, and there was freaking chili in it.

In. The. Chocolate.

Chili.

Burn.

Aside from perpetually fiery tastebuds, I had a  fabulous time at the conference. My swag consisted of decks of nude male playing cards, and they seemed to be a hit. At least, I brought almost four hundred decks with me, and only had a half-dozen left by the end of the weekend. I also brought little hand-sculpted zombie keychains, rainbow colored bubbles, t-shirts, and a few other swaggy items, all of which went. Even my books sold at the signing. In the end, I shipped home only a fraction of what I'd brought.

The very best part of the con was seeing old friends and fans, and making new ones. It seemed I never got anywhere on time because I was constantly stopping along the way to chat with this person, or hug that one. It was terrific, and humbling, and makes me wish it was next October already so we could do it all over again.

I participated in a Q&A with Anel Viz, AKM Miles, and Marie Sexton, moderated by Kris Jacen, and stopped in at the Torquere Press, Dreamspinner, Loose Id, and MLR Press spotlights,since I'm published with all of them.

I think the best times I had were at lunch and dinner with friends and fans. I think I ate with different people every meal! I only wish we'd had more down time during the weekend to just sit around and chat. It seemed like we were on the go constantly from morning until night every day.

Next year, the conference will be held in Atlanta. That makes four cons I'll be attending in Georgia next year, but since it's within driving distance, it's all good.

Plus, I know the location of every Starbucks between my house and Atlanta, and will no doubt stop at each and every one both going and coming.

Anyway, back at this year's GRL, booze flowed like a proverbial river. We drank margaritas,sangria, cocktails, and beer (usually trying to douse the fire from the chili). There were male strippers (yeah, you haven't lived until you've watched Damon Suede shake his booty onstage with a stripper in red sequins), karaoke (Geoff Knight singing "Summer Nights" T.C.  Blue grooving to "Black Velvet" and Jarod doing his best Cher impersonation were highlights, in my opinion), piano drinking games, and so much more!

On the return trip, my suitcase was weighted down with books, none of which were my own. I participated in the GRL Reading Challenge run by Mantastic Fiction this year, and went fan gurl on some of my favorite writers, buying their books to take home with me.

If there was one thing not missing from this year's con, it was hot m/m romance! There were tons of it, in every sub-genre imaginable, from sweet to sizzling, and I fully immersed myself in all of it.

It was a terrific con, and I can't wait for next year!

GayRomLit Report -- by BG Thomas

I am here!! Squueeeeeeeee!!!!! GayRomLit in Mew Mexico!

Got here at around midnight Wednesday and visited a bit with roomies Julianne Bentely and Ariel Tachna along with Zahra Owens and Shannon for about an hour before going to bed.

Thursday was fun. The swag room (the place where authors give away all kinds of cool stuff) opened early this morning and I got cards and pens and condoms and notepads and magnets and stress squeeze things (cool ones) and so much more. I sold my books (!!) and helped sell for other people.

What’s more – I met fans. And what I mean is – my fans!! I have fans!! I was in tears as people thanked me—thanked me!!!!—for my books. For writing books with characters they could identify with. It was incredible.

Then I met Rick Reed, author of the amazing book “Chaser.” Read that book.

Next was the amazing opening ceremonies. Most conventions, when they have snacks or horsd’œuvres, you don’t get enough food to fill a finger—and the food is blah to meh. Then a few people rush to the front of the line and FILL their plates and half the people don’t get anything. Well NOT in this case. There was a ton of food. A TON!! Crabcakes and jumbo fried shrimp and jumbo shrimp (not fried) and stuffed mushrooms (OMG!!) and more

Then I met several authors I really really wanted to meet, including Marie Sexton, Jacob Z Flores and SDJ Peterson! Still haven’t met Eric Arvin, darnit!
Then I am headed to a kind of hodown put on by gay men, including nearly naked dancers! HURRAY for nearly naked dancers. Male of course.

Today was amazing. Dreamspinner Bingo!  DSP gave out Bingo cards where the object was to get 25 DSP autographs in the squares.  There were 75 to choose from. Then they called out names for great prizes.
Then I met another wonderful author--the first MM author I ever read--Heidi Cullinan for av event called Coffee and Porn, where there was also more Bingo and more great prizes.
Soon after we were all bused down to Old Town--the historic part of Albuquerque. A huge lunch was given to us all--then shopping (I got a Zuni bear fetish, a naughty shirt and a magnet)--then an event with great sangria (where we remembered those MM authors who passed this last year).
Then it was back to the hotel for steak dinner (dinner was on our own tonight) and later it is karaoke.
This whole event is not to be missed. If you aren't here, please find a way to come next year.  Atlanta, GA!
If you are here, come say hello!
Namaste,BG Thomas!

Reader Reviews by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday, y'all. Today I'm sharing another review from Shirley Frances about her all-time favorite book - Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane. Please leave a comment here for Shirley to let her know how much you enjoyed her review (I sure did!).


Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Rating: 5 stars

Review: Amy Lane has done it to me again! She has turned me inside out by giving me an insight into Crick's and Deacon's love story. And what a story it was! She wrapped me up from the very beginning, making sure I was as tightly wrapped up in the story as all the characters were. 

The pace was amazing, giving us glimpses of two great characters, their everyday life, inner struggles and interaction with others. First, introducing me to Crick, who my heart went out to immediately. Then, I got to know Deacon and my heart broke for him on the spot. He was so shy, so strong and loyal, that you couldn't help but love him. Crick was too, strong and loyal, but he had an inner strength that made you believe he could surpass anything thrown at him (which he did, mostly). But Deacon, my God! I've never felt so much for a character before. I found myself crying with him at every turn (which happens mostly with Amy Lane's books!).

The characters were fully developed. It was beautiful to see how the both Crick and Deacon came into themselves and gave each other to one another without question. Of course, every character played a special role in this story and helped it come together beautifully. 

The writing was exceptional. Each scene carefully worded to bring every emotion to life. Be it happiness, loneliness, humor or heartbreak. The sex scenes were both sensual and emotional and the main character's 'screw-ups' were so beautiful executed that I felt I was right there with them (of course, most of the time I wished I was right there with them to smack some sense into them, but that happens often when I read).

Anyway, the story of Crick and Deacon is amazing. The things they had to endure were heartbreaking and at times I didn't know if they could get over most of them. But leave it to Amy Lane to bring it all together seamlessly. This one goes directly to my keep pile.

Keep spreading the love!
xoxo, 
Shirley Frances
LeAnn's Book Reviews
If y'all have a favorite book, please consider sharing your thoughts with other readers. Send me an e-mail and I'll post your review of a book you loved so other readers can enjoy it. New release, old favorite, doesn't matter. As long as it touched you, made you laugh, or warmed your heart, someone else will appreciate reading it too.
- Cardeno C. (www.cardenoc.com)