Leta Blake's Blog, page 55
May 17, 2014
Promise Not To Say That You Told Me So #music #toriamos
This duet between Tori Amos and her daughter Tash Hawley makes my mother’s heart clench and my eyes get all wet. It might be cheesy, but I dunna care. I love it like so much whoa.
May 16, 2014
Yessss! The River Leith Now Available on Barnes & Noble! #mmromance #gay #amnesia
Initial reviews for The River Leith are looking pretty good!
“I cannot even begin to express just how much I loved The River Leith. I tore through the book in a few hours because it captured me from the first page and did not let me go.” – Erika, Goodreads
And now it’s available for purchase at Barnes & Noble as well!
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
Also available at:
and Barnes & Noble!
May 15, 2014
Early Release Day! The River Leith Available Now! #mmromance #gay #ebook
The River Leith is now available!
Coming soon to Barnes & Noble!
What is the reason for this early release? Well, see, I’d originally planned to release the book on the 18th, my husband’s birthday, as a sort of, “Hey, happy birthday, babe! In your honor I released a book!” But, uh, apparently he’d rather I spent his special day actually, you know, paying attention to him and not messing around with getting files loaded, dealing with glitches, messing with blog posts and announcements, and all that jazz. Can you believe that? I mean, so demanding, right? ;) Seriously, though, obviously that release-day/birthday thing wasn’t the best plan in the world. Luckily, I resolved that and now…*drumroll*…the book is available several days early! Hooray! Go forth and buy! *bounces* *bites nails* Hope you enjoy!
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
May 14, 2014
Sex in YA?
I was late to this panel and obviously missed this part about sex not being okay in YA, but I share three AM’s opinion and think her questions are valid.
Originally posted on three am:
At Rainbow Con they had several young adult panels, which is of interest to me since I read quite a bit of YA fiction. I only made it to one of the panels (damn scheduling!) but I was both bewildered and interested in what the panelists had to say. There were 5, I think, authors of YA m/m fiction and the topics ranged from language, sex, violence, and accurate portrayals.
View original 351 more words
“Leta Blake knocks it out of the park with delicious angst and drama.” | Keira Andrews’s review of The River Leith #mmromance
“Amnesia is one of my very favourite tropes, and Leta Blake knocks it out of the park here with delicious angst and drama. Leith and Zach’s struggle to come to terms with the new reality where Leith can’t remember knowing Zach at all — let alone being madly in love with him — is gripping. My heart broke for both the characters and I rooted hard for their happy ending.
The book is told from Leith’s POV, but Blake uses vlog transcripts as a clever device to give us insight into Zach’s perspective as well. His anger, confusion and hurt comes across vividly. I loved that Zach and Leith are flawed people who make mistakes, and that there are no easy solutions to their predicament. I also loved that the slow burn of UST isn’t rushed. If you’re looking for mindless sex from the get-go, this isn’t the book for you. But when the sex does happen after a long buildup, it’s so much more meaningful — and smokin’ hot!
The supporting characters, especially Arthur and Dr. Thakur, are quirky and well drawn. Also, the author includes a note at the end of the book saying that she downplayed the medical realities of head injuries and amnesia for the sake of having fun with a time-honoured romance trope. I certainly have no problem with that, and was able to settle in for the ride with no concerns about the realism of head injuries (which, let’s face it — don’t make for very good escapism!).
Full disclosure: I worked as the editor on this book. The first time I read it, I’d opened the file to just take a glance. I ended up spending the new few hours gobbling up the story in one gulp! It was completely captivating. Two thumbs up!”
via Goodreads | Keira Andrews (Toronto, ON, Canada)’s review of The River Leith.
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
May 13, 2014
Racist Songs of My Childhood #truestory #chicken
Sure, you can say, “It’s just a stupid ice cream song—quit overreacting.” But that’s exactly the fucking point. It’s the most benign, neutral thing I can think of. And this is part of its history (not even buried particularly deep)
:
via Your Neighborhood Ice Cream Truck Is Playing a Racist Minstrel Song.
So, this reminds me of a song that I was taught by my grandmother growing up. It was a racist song and I had NO IDEA. In fact, when I’d ask my mother what parts of the song meant, she’d obfuscate to avoid telling me the truth. For example, “Mama, what’s a darkie?” “Oh, honey, that’s just a child who is dirty because they are too poor to have running water.” Or, “Mama, what’s a pickaninny?” “Oh, baby, that’s a child who worked in fields picking cotton.”
Uh-huh. I see.
A hint about the song.
This all culminated one day in the third grade when our teacher offered us extra credit points to stand up and sing any song we wanted. Oh, yes…oh, yes, I stood up and sang this song. My teacher was HORRIFIED. And when I got to the middle of the chorus and messed up, and asked to start over, she was like, “Uh, no, how about you just sit down now.” I was mortified and thought it was because I can’t sing well (and I can’t). But when I told my mom about it later she just about died of embarrassment. Also, there was a black kid in the front row. LET ME TAKE A BOW NOW.
So, yes, the lesson of this story is, I guess, don’t let your mom teach your kids racist songs because then their teachers are gonna think you’re a racist. Also, for what it’s worth, I’m not teaching this song to my kid, obviously. But I still know every. single. word, and I still wish darkies were just dirty children. But…that’s not what it means and I offer up an apology to everyone offended by my childhood ignorance.
By the way, this is the song I sang, except in the version I learned, we said pickaninny instead of the n-word — apparently my Appalachian family had some limits when it came to racist terminology. POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING! THE N-WORD IS USED!:
Speaking of the n-word…my daughter and I were talking about the book Huckleberry Finn the other day and she was asking why some people wanted to ban it. The subject of the n-word came up and I was like, “Well, there’s this word in there that is very offensive, but it was used really regularly back then. What’s interesting, though, is that the book was one of the most important piece of literature for illustrating that humanity is the same no matter a person’s color, and the use of that word in the book was to help illustrate that lesson.”
“What word, Mom?”
“Uh, it’s, the, uh, n-word.”
“What’s the n-word?”
I looked at her little face and couldn’t bring myself to say it. “I can’t say it. It’s just really never okay to say it.”
“But how will I know what it is?”
“I’ll write it down.” I then looked at a piece of paper and the pencil and couldn’t even do that. “I can’t write it down either,” I said. I couldn’t hand a piece of paper to my beautiful seven year old with that word on it.
“But, Mom, how will I know what the word is?”
I almost answered, “That word should be forgotten.” But finally I realized that it’s still pervasive in different parts of our society and culture, she might hear it and repeat it after listening to some rap, for example. So I explained it by saying, “It sounds like the word bigger but has an ‘n’ on the front.”
She said, “Oh. Okay. I’ll never say it, Mom.”
And I was like, “Cool, because it’s worse than the f-word and it’s so insulting to people that it really just shouldn’t be said, okay?”
“Okay, Mom.”
So…yeah. I couldn’t look into her beautiful face and say such a hurtful, awful word. It sucks so much that there are kids out there who hear it directed at them or their families. I hope some day that stops forever.
May 12, 2014
“If you read only one M/M Romance this spring, Training Season would be an excellent choice.” 5 stars | Queer Town Abbey
“If you read only one M/M Romance this spring, Training Season would be an excellent choice.
If Training Season author, Leta Blake, is predisposed to a swollen head, then I am about to add to her cranial inflation by awarding Training Season five stars. Quite simply, Blake’s complex, compelling saga of an emotionally and physically injured ice skating star seeking redemption and Olympic Gold, is a completely realized and entertaining work.”
via Training Season By Leta Blake | Queer Town Abbey.
Click the picture to buy at Amazon. Also available at Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and many other ebook retailers!
May 11, 2014
Go Rams! The World Is Changing! Love Is Beautiful! #michaelsam #kiss
Go Rams! Whooo! Love is love! Support is support! Beautiful!
I’m so happy to see our world changing with regards to love bit by bit every single day. The fact that this kiss was aired by ESPN without any excuses or backpedaling or censorship or shock value makes my friggin’ day!
May 9, 2014
The Creepiest Thing That’s Happened In Awhile – Or: Waiter, Back Away From My Kid!
When I was in Orlando with my daughter and husband earlier this month, we ate at the poolside restaurant at the resort we were staying in. The first instance of creepy aggression from our waiter happened when I was taking a photo of my daughter as she oh-so-seriously studied the menu. Suddenly, right by my ear, I hear this voice say, “Nice picture.” I nearly jumped out of my skin, which led him to chuckle and say, “You gotta pay attention, or I’ll sneak up on you!”
I was flabbergasted by this comment and I’m ashamed to say I defaulted to the insecure chuckle women are taught at a young age.
As he started in on the specials, he snapped his fingers at my daughter (who is eight, by the way), leaned in close and say, “Hey now, little princess, look at me. I’m talking right now.” She stared up at him in shock. “You have to listen to me. If you don’t listen to me, then I’ll harass you your whole meal until you wished that you had listened to me.”
Again, it was so startling that my husband and I just looked at each other and did the nervous chuckle. My daughter, though, looked quite anxious and stared up at him while he gave a recitation of specials she’d never eat in her life time.
After he walked away, my husband and I discussed how inappropriate his behavior was and what to do about it. Eventually, we hoped it wouldn’t make another appearance and he’d just be a normal waiter when he came back. Alas, that wasn’t the case. As I was talking to my husband, he sneaked up behind my daughter and said, “Boo!” in her ear, so that she yelped and screamed.
He chuckled, saying, “That’s what you get for not paying attention to me when I was talking. You need to learn to listen when people are talking to you.”
He said it all with a grin on his face, but it wasn’t funny and it was creepy as fuck.
Looking back, I wish we’d just walked out at that moment, but we were all pretty stunned and really freaking hungry and wanted our meals. Looking back, I wish we’d complained to management, but we were exhausted and stupid from our day at the theme parks, and, quite frankly, I think, as a woman, I’m a little paralyzed from years of this kind of shit from men in one form or another.
When he came back to deliver our food, my daughter was visibly nervous and she asked him, “Are you going to scare me over and over through my meal?”
He said, “Well, that’s what you get when you–”
And I cut in, saying, “No. He won’t scare us again during this meal because WE DON’T WANT HIM TO.” I looked him in the eye. “Right? You’re not going to do that again.”
He laughed and chuckled and said, “Oh, I was just playing around, but sure, I won’t do it again.”
I’d like to say that after that he backed off, but he didn’t. He didn’t try to scare us anymore, but in an attempt to save his tip, maybe, he kept coming back and giving her necklaces and making little jokes and asking her questions.
BACK AWAY FROM MY KID, DUDE.
My daughter and I ate our meals quickly and then left, leaving my husband to pay. He didn’t leave a tip. He didn’t make a scene, though, he said, because he wasn’t sure if the guy was all right in the head, and since we were staying on the property, it felt risky to confront the guy.
I am going to send a letter, but I wanted to put this on the internet, too, because it just felt like like yet another example of the ways that women and girls are treated in creepy ways. This was over the top, sure, but there are always subtle demands of girls that they pay attention, that they laugh and take it, that if something bad or unwanted happens “that’s what they get for…” whatever behavior.
Looking back, I feel ashamed that I didn’t speak out sooner and that I modeled “nervous laughter” as a coping skill for my kid. Looking back, I wish we’d called the manager over, but I understand husband’s point of view, too, since we were staying at the property, it felt riskier somehow. All in all, I wish I’d done something different, sure, but I shouldn’t have to wish that.
I have no idea where I was going with this except to share it. So…there you go. I shared it.
(This was not a resort associated with any theme park!)
May 7, 2014
Lethe, Leith, Same Difference…Only NOT! #edinburgh #dunedin #underworld
The River Lethe (pronounced Lee-thee) was a river in the Greek Underworld which the souls of the soon-to-be-reincarnated dead drank from in order to have their memories of their prior lives wiped so that they could go forward into their new lives unburdened by the information from their old ones. When looking for a name for my amnesiac character, I liked the idea of playing with the Greek’s river of forgetfulness, and so I chose a man’s name that was similar: Leith.
As it turns out, there are actually several Rivers Leith. Check it out:
1)
The Water of Leith, aka the River Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland, complete with a naked man sculpture by a famous artist named Antony Gormley (any relation to Amelia?). This river does not appear at all in the book. Not even a little.
2)
The River Leith in Dunedin, New Zealand. This river is part of some bike course and they ride their bikes through part of it and then carry the bikes over other parts. This river does not appear in the book at all, either. Not a mention!
3)
This River Leith is in Cumbria which is part of England and I don’t think it has to do with the other River Leith in Scotland, but I might be wrong. Sometimes I am. It happens. And, yep, this one isn’t mentioned in the book either.
The only rivers mentioned in the book are monsoon-swollen rivers in India and the River Lethe. So, folks out there looking for books about any of these gorgeous rivers? This probably isn’t the book for you, unless you like boxers with amnesia and enjoy a bit of the gay romance from time to time. And if you do enjoy that, really, who can blame you?
Hey, readers, I’ll be out May 18th. In the meantime, I’ll be right here, looking like this, and you can visit anytime.
