Leta Blake's Blog, page 65
January 3, 2014
Already Purchased Reading Challenge 2014 #books #amreading
So, I have a bunch of books that I’ve not read yet. I’ve decided that in addition to the ones I’m sure to purchase/read with my kid/beta read/edit this year, these are the fifteen I’m going to commit to clearing from my shelves. Ten e-books and five paperback books. I suppose I should start with my Currently-Reading list on Goodreads.
Ebooks
1. Let the Right One In - I was reading this last year and then some horrible violence involving children took place and I couldn’t handle it anymore. I feel like it’s worth finishing. Will give it another whirl.
2. Mind Fuck - I’m sure I’ll end up loving this series like everyone else, but at the moment I’m struggling with finding the characters likable. They’re hot, sure, but likable? Not so much yet. That will likely change. Also, uh, hello non/dub-con! That is definitely something I often enjoy, but when I stopped reading I was in the mood for something sweeter than that. I’ll come back to it.
3. Bone-mend and Salt - I’ve been meaning to read this for awhile now but have been daunted by the size. I read the first page or two several times and then would think, “But maybe I just need a fast read.” I’m sure to love this, though, once I commit myself.
4. Blood Beneath the King – Ginn Hale, yay!!
5. History of a Pleasure Seeker - I have no idea when or how I bought this book, but I’m enjoying it so far.
6. Blame It On the Mistletoe - I bought this for a Christmas read, but then got distracted by Training Season marketing. I’ll read it this year.
7. Drowning Guard - I have no idea where I heard of this book or why I bought it, but Imma gonna finish it.
8. Safety Net - My friend loved this and bought it for me, so I’m going to read it!
9. And Then There Were None - I’ve never been a huge fan of mysteries, but I’m writing one (or two) and so I need a better idea of pacing, suspense, etc. Who better than the master to help me with that?
10. Cocaine Blues - Another mystery.
Alternate: Caveat Emptor – research for a book
Paperback Books
1. American Gods – OH MY GOD THIS BOOK BORES ME. I WILL FINISH IT. BECAUSE I’M A MASOCHIST.
2. The Back Passage – I bought this forever and an age ago. I should read it. Get if off my shelves.
3. Dull Boy - If I recall the protagonist was a bit unlikable in the first few pages, but maybe he grows on you? We’ll see.
4. Beast - Because I own it and I should read it.
5. Microserfs - I’ve had it many years. Should read it.
Alternate: Cavedweller - Yay Southern Lit. Let’s get depressed!
January 2, 2014
“Read this book. Now. You will NOT be disappointed.” Review: Training Season by Leta Blake #mmromance #amreading
I am giddy over this new review! Thank you so much Ninjakitty! 
Review: Training Season by Leta Blake | Mama Kitty Reviews.
To quote:
“If you are looking something real, and passion that leaps off the pages, read this book. Now. You will NOT be disappointed.”
“This book felt like a real relationship, crazy hits of jealousy, moments of exasperation and the very real knife of sometimes making decisions that suck. This is the only time I have ever, and I mean EVER, emailed an author halfway through reading a book to exclaim how much I loved it.”
“What if you were madly in love, and your love treated you terribly? Abused you, mocked you, crushed your dreams and didn’t even kiss you before it screwed you? What if sometimes that love sent you flying, touching the edges of greatness and sending you away with love pouring from every particle of your body? No, this is not an episode of Teen Mom or even the latest and greatest BDSM novel. This is figure skating, and just because you might wear eye shadow doesn’t mean you get cry like a girl.”
Rating: 5 Stars
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. Coming soon to iBooks.
January 1, 2014
Whips or Shopping? Who Can Choose? Oh My! #MFRWhooks #mmromance #bdsm
“I have leather horse whips, actually,” Rob said.
“You do?” Matty sat up, nearly smacking his forehead against Rob’s chin.
“Of course. Have you seen my ranch?”
“Oh my God, go get them!”
Rob laughed and stood up slowly, stretching. “Actually, I was thinking we should head into Missoula to do some shopping.”
“You’re passing up whips for shopping?”
“You’re bitching about shopping?”
“I feel so torn!” Matty pulled at his hair. “Oh my God. You suck.”
Whips or shopping? Read to find out!
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December 31, 2013
Thank You To Readers! You’ve Made My Year Amazing! #2014 #grateful
When I wrote the first draft of Training Season in 2010, it was a world before Fifty Shades of Grey, and I thought there would never be an audience for a book like this. So I shared it with some friends and some fellows in interests and put it out of my mind.
In fact, when I entered 2013, Training Season was far from the front-burner of my attention. I hadn’t truly thought of the book in several years. On December 31st of last year, I never would have imagined that the upcoming year would close with me having worked through twelve drafts of that old book, and I never, ever would have imagined that it would create so much buzz and be so generally well-received!
The end of the year has been full of surprises both in my personal life and in my writing career. It’s almost like someone had my life set to slow-motion and they suddenly hit fast-forward. Like a shot, Training Season was out of the gates and rounding the bend of the track before I even had time to realize the race had started. Um, yes, that was cliche ridden sentence. Go with it. I’m sorry.
All of this to say, THANK YOU so much for giving Training Season a chance, for embracing it with an enthusiasm I could never have imagined, and for reading the work that I imagined no one would be interested in. Thank you for being my readers. Thank you for laughing, learning, and crying along with Matty and Rob. Thank you for being so generous in your sharing of your love far and wide, on Goodreads and Amazon and blogs. Thank you so much for everything. I can’t express how exciting and humbling it’s been to see people respond to my work.
May you all–each and every one of you–be blessed with a beautiful, joyful, successful New Year!
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. Coming soon to iBooks.
Hearts on Fire Reviews » 2013 Reviewer favorites #mmromance #amreading
Wendy at Hearts on Fire listed Training Season as one of her faves of 2013! Thanks, Wendy! So happy you enjoyed it!
via Hearts on Fire Reviews » 2013 Reviewer favorites.
Writing Round Up – Taking Stock of the Year #amwriting #2013
Over on LiveJournal, under my fandom persona, I’ve always done an end of the year round up of writing meme. I decided to transfer that here this year.
Number of Books Published in 2013
1. Ascending Hearts with Keira Andrews
2. Love’s Nest with Keira Andrews
3. Training Season
Words Written in 2013
1. Training Season – 60,000 new words
2. Love’s Nest – hilariously, I had 51,900 at the end of 2012, but didn’t actually finish the book until February of 2013, and, after edits, it was down to 51,061. So, I netted no words there. – 0 words
3. Binasco Bakery – 5,630
4. ’90s Coming of Age – novel – 24,000 new words (at least, but I don’t have a good ‘before’ count)
5. Falling – novella – 10,000 new words
6. Smoky Mountain Dreams – novel – 0 new words
7. Everything Is Yes – novella – 10,000 new words
8. Trans* Story – novella – 11,242
9. Sheriff Jackson – novella – 951
10. Lost Souls – novel – 0 new words
11. Bucket List – novel – 1,034
12. Ask Jungle Jason – novel – 2,314
13. Always Naked Men - short – 2,648
14. Heist – 457
15. Stalking Dreams – novella – 9,986
16. Leuka – original novel – 0 new words (poor Leuka)
17. Lost Sea – original novel – 0 new words
18. HertClub – original novel – 0 new words
19. Stalking Novel – novel – 44,777
20. For Reasons – novel – 3,158
Subtotal: 186,197
I also wrote 75,000 words of pure smut under a different pen name. Nope, not sharing it here, but I did write it and it’s out there bringing in smut money. 
So, I’ll count those words toward my total count. (And also make note to decide if these words paid off monetarily in terms of focus, time, effort, etc.)
TOTAL WORD COUNT – 261,197
I’d like to hit 350,000 new words in 2014.
Overall Thoughts:
Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?
I always overestimate what I’m going to get done, so I’d go with less. I’d have wanted to break 300k word count, at least.
What did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
I finished Training Season. That was never in my plan for the year. It hit me in August that I had an old draft of a book about an Olympian and that, hey, the Winter Olympics were coming up. If I wanted to do something about that, now was the time. So, when I started the year, Training Season was not even in my plans.
What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
Training Season, actually. It is the kind of book I want to write and I’m proud of it.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I decided to finish and self-publish Training Season. I learned that I love, love, love self-publishing. I love having control over when the editing happens, when it’s released, how the cover looks, etc. I love being able to make coupons for the book to provide discounts for special occasions. I love the freedom of choosing if I want to go to print or not. I love it all. At this point, I might need to be sold on why I should return to a publisher. The last one I dealt with offered very little in exchange for their 60% of profits, and they were often rude in correspondence, didn’t seem invested in getting my book out there, and sales were abysmal. So, yeah, I’m not sure where the benefit is, necessarily, except perhaps in access to readership. For that reason, I’ll probably submit a few books to publishers, but I will have to be won over whole hog before I’ll submit every book.
I’ve decided to take a huge writing risk next year. But I’ll save that for later!
From my past year of writing, what was…
My most popular story of this year:
Training Season, for sure.
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Ha! Well, I guess it would have to be poor Love’s Nest. I’m not sure what the problem is with selling the book, because, though the other two fairy tales didn’t fare very well either, they acutally did better. I suspect it’s the pricing, but I have no control over that, since it’s not self-pubbed. (Oh, hindsight!)
Most fun story to write:
I loved working on Stalker Novel [half-finished]. It was a blast. I loved finishing up Training Season. I had fun with the expansion of Coming of Age Novel [also half-finished].
Story with the single sexiest moment:
I write so much sex that I have no f’ing clue! LOL!
Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:
There’s a lot of that going on in Everything Is Yes [submitted to a press].
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Everything Is Yes.
Hardest story to write:
Love’s Nest. I am very happy with how it came out, but there were parts that were like pulling teeth, and we knew sales would be abysmal, so feeling inspired to finish it was quite hard, to be entirely honest.
Biggest Disappointment: Everything about the publishing experience prior to self-publishing. Though, as I said, I’m willing to try another house and see if things are different. But, wow, I didn’t anticipate the complete lack of investment from the house we were with.
Biggest Surprise: Training Season‘s reception! What is this madness!?!?!
Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Oh, hell. They probably all are very telling. I’m sure the way I had to approach the kink in Training Season or Everything Is Yes is the most telling of all, though.
Do you have any goals for the New Year?
I want to put out ’90s Coming of Age Novel as a serial. I want to finish ’90s Coming of Age Novel, Stalking Novel, and Trans* Story. I also want to start the Bill/Angus companion novella to Training Season. Though, if you look above, I’ve got twenty-one works in progress, so I’m always wary of starting a new book. But, I think if I finish the three I mentioned, then I would be in the clear to go forward with Bill/Angus. I really want to get my het novel, For Reasons, mostly finished, too. I just opened it up to see the word count earlier, and, oh my god, I love it! Ahem. Anyway, that’s what I’d like to do, but I have no idea if that’s possible.
December 30, 2013
Kurt Hummel Is Too Cute #glee #klaine
I have nothing to say about this gif other than, seriously, how cute is Kurt Hummel? It’s not the best quality gif, but who cares? I mean, darling, right?
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And Blaine looks like he’s thinking, “OMG YOU ARE AWESOME. I LOVE YOU.”
December 29, 2013
Wow! Training Season Declared One of Jay’s Best of 2013 — Joyfully Jay #mmromance #bestof2013 #gay
Wow! My head is still reeling from Training Season having been declared one of Joyfully Jay’s best gay romance books of 2013! There are many great books on her list, and I’m honored and touched to have written one that is among them! Thank you, Jay, for reading! Totally honored and amazed!
Jay’s Best of 2013 — Joyfully Jay.
Picked as one of Joyfully Jay’s Best of 2013!
Whitefish Winter Carnival — Training Season Extras! #mmromance #whitefish #montana
The Whitefish Winter Carnival, attended by Matty and Rob in Training Season, is a real event! It takes place every February in Whitefish, Montana, and every year the theme changes. I’m officially dying to attend. And I hate cold weather. And snow. And all things that come with cold weather and snow. But, seriously, they make it all look so crazy and fun!
There’s Skijoring!
And the Penguin Plunge!
People are named Queen and King and Prince and Princess!
And there’s a parade! And so, so, so, so much more! Check out their Facebook page for more Whitefish Winter Carnival madness!
***
By the way, this isn’t for the Winter Carnival, but, oh my gosh, how awesome is this? Watch a little of it! Wow!
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. Coming soon to iBooks.
