Leta Blake's Blog, page 32

Sweden���s Moonbabies Releases First Album in Seven Years on April 28 | Green Light Go Music PR #music #thebest

I cannot even express how excited I am that Moonbabies have a new album coming out. Oh my God, you guyssss. So excited!

Back when I was pregnant and often overwrought with insane hormones, my husband would put on The Orange Billboard, Moonbabies’ second album, and within moments of the opening notes, I’d find myself happier, calmer, and able to cope. “I love this album,” I’d say to him. And he’d say, “I know.”

When my daughter was three At the Ballroom was released and it became the happy-day album for our whole family.

I can’t wait to see what��Wizards On the Beach will bring!

“Moonbabies��� first album in seven years, Swedish husband and wife duo Ola Frick and Carina Johansson Frick will release Wizards on the Beach on April 28, 2015 on their imprint label, Culture Hero. The album explores a sense of Salvador Dali surrealism and vibrant dream pop rich in introspective shades, melodic hues, hazy instrumental washes and technicolor electronic explosions.

The release of Wizards on the Beach reflects a buoyancy upon coming to the light at the end of the tunnel where each note feels like a diamond refracting into a rainbow of colors upon the aural spectrum. A tunnel with many turns and valleys, the album���s underlying themes are subliminally centered around the musicians being caught in a cycle of feeling stuck, wanting to be anywhere but the present situation, and throughout the recording process coming out on the other side to a field of dreamlike possibility envisioned through the completed album. Ola Frick expands on the meaning of the album and the personal battles, ���It���s our way of seeing our hellish years where we almost lost the battle of our dreams, but we stood strong and fought like wizards against all odds and managed to get through it with something great and magical. The Beach is the dream-state, the utopia, the narnia, the place where you can take your mask off and just be.”

Read more via Sweden���s Moonbabies Releases First Album in Seven Years on April 28 | Green Light Go Music PR.

One of my favorite songs from The Orange Billboard:

Smoky Mountain Dreams! Want to know what Gatlinburg is like? Now you can experience it yourself! :D #gatlinburg #extras

I didn’t actually have to watch this video myself in order to write about Gatlinburg since I’ve been there many times over the course of my life. In fact, my folks used to take my brother and I up there as kids for little day trips on random weekends. I actually wrote about 50% of Smoky Mountain Dreams during a week’s stay in Gatlinburg in June of 2014 and went to Puckers and a few other places to make sure I got the descriptions right in the book. (By the way, there is a lingering shot of the Puckers sign at the end of this video.)

I wouldn’t say this is the best video of Gatlinburg. For one thing there is that unfortunate red truck blocking the view of a lot of it. I much prefer the video I posted earlier this month. I think it gives a better feel for the place. But I do think this gives one an idea of the landscape and the crowds and the way the traffic flows through there (and why Christopher is always taking shortcuts). It’s a busy little place akin to, say, Daytona Beach in the mountains in terms of quality of shopping experience and type of crowds. It might even be described as trashy. I’m okay with that. :)

So here you go! Complete with a Dolly Parton song! :D

Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He���s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children���s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON

B&N

SMASHWORDS

iTUNES

SCRIBD

OYSTER

And now at��KOBO.

A Drive Through Cades Cove — Smoky Mountain Dreams #bonus #extras

In Smoky Mountain Dreams, Jesse and Christopher have an afternoon picnic at Cades Cove near Gatlinburg. I’m attaching someone’s film of a drive through Cades Cove. I’ve tried to make the link of this video go to the interesting part (23:23) because the first bit is rather dull and you can’t see much. But the later parts are lovely.

Cades Cove – YouTube.

Also here is a link to Wikipedia to explain what an Appalachian Cove is. It’s different from a cove near water. :)

Sometimes holding on means letting go
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He���s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children���s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.

Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:

AMAZON

B&N

SMASHWORDS

iTUNES

SCRIBD

OYSTER

And now at��KOBO.

Smoky Mountain Dreams

Leta Blake:

Wonderful review of Smoky Mountain Dreams!

Originally posted on GayListBookReviews:

Title: ��Smoky Mountain Dreams

Author: ��Leta Blake

Publisher: ��Leta Blake Books

Length: ��434 pages

Rating: ��B+

Quad Shot of Love

Blurb: ��Sometimes holding on means letting go

After giving up on his career as a country singer in Nashville, Christopher Ryder is happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee. But while his beloved Gran loves him the way he is, Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. Even when he���s center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.

Bisexual Jesse Birch has no room in his life for dating. Raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children���s mother, he doesn���t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn���t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song���

View original 1,100 more words

(Seattle) punk is dead, long live punk | Ajax Bell #punk #80s

“I have been having a hard time describing 1982 punks in my book. I feel like I���m describing them accurately, albeit somewhat from memory, and they just aren���t enough. They aren���t loud enough, they aren���t bright enough, they aren���t rowdy��enough. And then I found these videos and discovered I was spot on in my descriptions. The problem is what was so punk and so out there in 1982 is just the usual stuff today. Those punks back then? We���re all in our 40s and 50s now, and some of us don���t dress any��different than��we did 25 or 35 years ago. My fictional punks seemed too mainstream because who they are is mainstream now. But it meant something then, and now I know my task as a writer: it isn���t to comically describe those punks as bright, loud, and brash as��they were, it���s to describe that world 33 years ago and how different it was from ours now, because only against that background will how outrageous those punks were really stand out.”

Absolutely fascinating blog post about punk in the 80s. Read more via (Seattle) punk is dead, long live punk | Ajax Bell.

Why my books don’t cost 99 cents #pricing #truth

“I haven’t crunched the actual numbers, but let’s assume a novel is about 100-300 hours of work (I’m pretty sure that a historical novel, with all the research and fact-checking is a lot more than that) and you do manage to sell those 6,700 copies and do make $2,000 for a book. If you average the production time (200 hours), that would be a theoretical $10/hour (before tax, before cost like internet connection, heating, research books). That’s about ��6/hour. Minimum wage in the UK is ��6.50/hr, while London “living wage” (how much you need to cover living costs in London) is ��7.85/hr.

Now, I’ve made more making sandwiches at gas stations (EUR 9/hr), which required about a 30-minute training. Yes, everybody can write, but to write something other people want to read takes tens of thousands of hours of practice, which isn’t paid and incurs quite a bit of cost as well. I’d estimate if you’re working very hard and have access to mentoring and how-to books, it will still take 3-7 years to train yourself to become a writer who can write a decent story. I’ve been writing and learning for 20+ years.

And we often forget all the other hours an author spends on supporting their books and being available to readers: answering reader emails, blogging, paying out of pocket for print books for giveaways, swag, attending conferences, postage and admin for sending signed print books around the world, responding and being present on social media, responding to thousands of messages and questions overall. All those are hours not spent writing or doing a day job. I believe they have value.”

read more via Aleksandr Voinov – Letters from the Front: Why my books don't cost 99 cents.

“That���s called being a great storyteller.” – Review: Smoky Mountain Dreams — by Leta Blake #gay #amreading

Leta Blake:

“I love the risks that Blake takes in her writing. Things don���t all end Disney-like, we get realistic (yet happy) endings and our characters go through some shit to get through to the end. That���s called being a great storyteller.”

Originally posted on Bea's Hive Romance Book Reviews:

Other Reviewers: Goodreads

This is��an advance reader copy given to me by the author for an honest review. ��As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions.

I have previously read and reviewed a few books by Leta Blake. ��What I love about her books are that they are not ���typical��� romances, meaning someone does not ���rescue��� the other one and no one has anything perfect. ��While our men are very well matched and ���Perfect��� for each other, they have a significant amount of baggage that it takes the entire book for them to accept themselves and each other.

This format allows the reader to follow the character development and unveiling plot with anticipation, because you will never get what you think will happen!

Basic Plot:

Christopher Ryder is a singer, who tried to become a ���star��� in Nashville, but never had the talent to break through���

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Psychopathia Sexualis – and other filthy books of 1900 | Darrah Glass #research #sex

“Toward the end of��A Most Personal Property, Henry and Martin have a conversation about what sorts of dirty stories they���ve read. Henry tells Martin about the excerpts James read him from��Psychopathia Sexualis, and Martin relates the following:

���Oh, there was a book, Sir, that we all read in secret, though our teachers must have known we had it. I don���t know what it was called because the cover was missing���as were some of the pages, for that matter. It was very dirty, Sir! It was from England, I think, as some of the words were different than we use, and it was about a family who all had sex with one another, mothers and sons, aunts and nephews. I know that feeling you referred to, Sir, excited and sick. You don���t want to like it, but you do, in some deep way, and your prick responds just as it would to something you really want.���

There is an actual book I had in mind when Martin gives that description, and thanks to Project Gutenberg, you can read it, too.”

See more at Martin���s dirty book | Darrah Glass.

“The sex and emotion between these two was off the charts hot and incredible.” This Charming Man by Ajax Bell ~ Crystal’s Many Reviewers

I loved this book so much! Glad to see that Michelle enjoyed it, too. :)��(Though I disagree with some of her comments about things she didn’t enjoy as much. I felt like the book was paced just right for a coming-of-age with-a-side-of-romance as I view this book to be. But that’s what makes reading so cool, huh? To some degree there is no definitive reaction to a book or story. There’s only an individual’s reaction. Yay for diversity in reading/writing!)

“The sex and emotion between these two was off the charts hot and incredible.”

via This Charming Man by Ajax Bell ~ Crystal’s Many Reviewers.

Photos of my writing/research trip to Gatlinburg, TN | Smoky Mountain Dreams Bonus Material #extras

When I went on up to Gatlinburg to work on��Smoky Mountain Dreams last June, I took some pictures of the town and my little rented condo. Not all the pics are awesome, but they’re all being shared here. :D

Driving toward Parkway, there was this view of the mountains through my car windshield.��

Driving up the mountain to Gatlinburg.

The little condo.��

Oy, this is a bad pic. But I wrote most of the book on that sofa with my feet on that ottoman.��

The view out the window.��

Now on to Gatlinburg itself!��

The taffy stretcher and piecer.��

This is��

This is a thing that exists. For real.��

Puckers!

The chair lift over the creek before it ascends up the mountain.

Because OF COURSE.

The shady drive to my condo.

So, I think what we learned from this is that I’m a shoddy photographer. :P And that Gatlinburg is weird. :D