Liz Winters's Blog, page 3

Christmas Loot!

I hope that everyone who celebrates Christmas had a very merry day yesterday! And for those celebrating today, Happy Boxing day! We had a very nice Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my aunt's side with my side of the family over a festive traditional Polish supper, and then we spent most of yesterday with my husband's side of the family at his brother's house. In between, we had Christmas morning to ourselves and a chance to open our presents.

Since I'm not working outside t...

Friday Favorites: The Jakarta Pandemic by Stephen Konkoly

While I usually use this blog to post reviews of LGBTQ books, this Friday I wanted to make a small departure in favor of a favorite I first read a couple of years ago and then recently re-read (not something I do often) and loved just as much the second time. The book is The Jakarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly.

Many, including the author, have referred to this book as fitting in the post-apocalyptic genre, but to me it's more of speculative fiction. What happens in this book coul...

Five Huge Stars to Not as Easy as it Looks by Jaime Samms

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the toughest book critic. I have eclectic reading tastes and I'm an author who knows how difficult it is to sit down and write a story and then have the guts to share it with others and await their criticism - sometimes constructive and sometimes not - so I often give five or four stars to books that, may not be perfect, but hold enough appeal that I don't want to "downgrade" them based on my personal preferences. If I have any reservations...

Resist the gay sex double standard on TV

I ran across an article the other day that asks:Does TV have a responsibility to show only safe gay sex?and the suggestion that different standards should apply to TV portrayals of heterosexual and homosexual sex made me angry. I'm still angry about it two days later, so I decided that the only way for me to get it out of my head was to address it here.

The article author's premise seems to be that the ABC show "How to Get Away with Murder," which features the hottest gay sex scenes on networ...

Friday Favorites: Strawberries for Dessert

Do you re-read books? I usually don't, preferring to spend my precious reading time on books I haven't read yet. But there are a few exceptions.

Yesterday I was stuck at a car dealership for over four hours. Bored, I reached for my kindle, but for some reason I didn't open a new book. Instead, as I scrolled through my options I saw Strawberries for Dessert by Marie Sexton and it proved a temptationtoo powerful to resist. Even though I'd already read the book at least twice, I co...

900 Reasons to say thanks

This post would probably have been more appropriate yesterday, but I figured most people wouldn't read blog on Thanksgiving, and it's never too late to say Thank You! So, dear readers, thank you! Thank you for buying my books and helping me raise money to help homeless LGBTQ youth.

In January I gave you an update on last year's fundraiser, which helped $180 for Lost-n-Found Youth in Atlanta. I continued to tally up 50% of the proceeds from the sale of Beneath Angel's Wings through the end of...

Flash Fiction

Twice a week the m/m romance group on Goodreads posts photos to inspire people to write "flash fiction" - stories that are exactly 100 words long. This was today's photo and I couldn't resist. Here's my flash story:

On my way out, I saw him enter the hotel with another client. Our eyes met but there were no other acknowledgements.


Stomach in knots, I kept walking. I couldn’t be angry. After all, we’d met the same way.

Falling asleep that night was impossible. I kept seeing him with the other gu...

GayRomLit Retreat starts today!

I've been waiting for this day for quite some time - it's hard to believe it's finally here. This time the GayRomLit Retreat is almost in my back yard (literally I live 15-20 minutes away from the venue) so I was thrilled to be able to sign up. This 4th annual retreat is a great way for authors, publishers and readers of m/m romance to come together and celebrate our genre.

Theauthors who will be at the retreat definitely represent the who's who of m/m romance. I'm going as a reader, not an au...

Kindle Freebies This Weekend only!

Hi Everyone! I know I've been MIA for a while, but there have been some big changes in my life that I hope will make it possible for me to blog more often in the future. For now, I just wanted to pop in here to tell you about a couple of freebies you can find on Amazon for your kindle this weekend.


The second story is a gay erotica short titled Spunk Craving Zombies , by a very good friend of mine, John T. Don't pass this one up! I know Zombies and erotica don't seem lie they w...

Fundraising for Project Fierce Chicago!

Starting today, half of my proceeds from the sales of my YA LGBTQ novel will be donated toProject Fierce Chicago,a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to reduce LGBTQ youth homelessness in Chicago by providing affirming transitional housing and support services to homeless LGBTQ young adults. The group has done a lot of grassroots work and is in the midst of a fundraising campaignto purchase the home that will enable them to accomplish their mission. I am very excited to be abl...