State of the TAM - 26th July

What’s Up

I can confirm that it is definitely a VERY, VERY WET July. I am water-logged. I’ve had to buy extra-harnesses for the dog because they aren’t drying out. Izzy and Jax found a dead badger in the undergrowth…I don’t know it drowned, but I don’t know it didn’t!

But in book news! If you are going to GayRomLit this year the pre-order list is UP! Go and order…and hopefully mine will work!

And…

Footwork by TA Moore is up for pre-order on Amazon now!

Bode Harlan has never claimed to be a good guy, but he’s trying to keep his nose clean and his head down these days.

After a year in prison for assault--and to be fair, he did it--he isn’t looking to go back. Admittedly, his pretty face being the star attraction in an illegal underground fighting ring seems to run counter to that goal, but he’s gotta pay the bills and there ain’t much else he’s good.

And it keeps his parole officer off his back…since she runs the place.

Then his mom skips town and her boyfriend kicks Bode’s 14 year old brother out on the street. Bode grow up in and out of foster care, he doesn’t want that for Danny. It’s not like he can take the kid in, though. He’s an ex-con who gets beat up twice a month for money.That’s how he ends up on his good-natured ex-boyfriend’s doorstep. Sonny is a soft touch. At least he always was for Bode. All he wants is somewhere to crash for a couple of nights, nothing more. Sonny’s got his life together now--a home, a boyfriend, even a dog--and it would take a real asshole to want to blow that up.

…of course, Bode’s never said he wasn’t an asshole.

Pre-Order

Pupdate of the Week @tamoorewritesGotta lick it all. #staffordshirebullterrier #dogsoftiktok [image error]Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserFree listen of the Week

‘In the Name’ by TA Moore is prequel to Elf Shot. The peace that Conri and Bell try to protect in Elf Shot was hard won.

Shout-Out of the Week

Alan

I haven't been out with a guy in the last two years. Partly because I'm a gay elementary-school teacher in a fairly small, conservative town. Partly because I'm a sorcerer, and dating ordinary humans only leads to trouble. Sleeping with one though? That's doable, so when my birdbrained familiar Sunny lines up a tall, muscular firefighter for me, I'm not going to say no. Just once, though. Maybe twice. I don't need more trouble in my life.

Jason
I don't regret moving back to my hometown and my big family. Well, not much. I'm not out to them, and I miss the anonymity of the big city, but I like the local fire house and the slower-paced life. Still, when I see my niece's teacher, Mr. Hiranchai, in gray sweatpants talking to a mini-parrot on his shoulder, something inside me (or maybe something in front of me) perks up and says "I want that one." I can't have an actual boyfriend, but I sure wouldn't mind getting laid, and Alan's slim, dark-haired, smart-assed style rings all my bells.

It's no surprise we turn out to be great together, even if my job and his responsibilities make it hard to find time. It is a surprise when I realize I want more than just an occasional night. But some weird fires out in the brush keep us firefighters hopping, and when this strange carnival comes to town and lands me with a pair of magical doll shoes, life gets truly confusing. There's more to Alan than he's telling me, and I'm getting a bad, bad feeling about all this.

Magic Burning is a story in the Necromancer universe, 60 years after Marked by Death, and is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series. Each book stands alone, but each one includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains a snarky, matchmaking bird, a lonely young teacher, and a gay firefighter finally coming out to his large family.

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Must Read of the Week

This is fascinating. I never really thought that there WAS any point to the weird boxy ads at the bottom of articles/headlines. I thought they were just pre-generated, or grabbed by people with no desire to do a good job.

Turns out they have a point AND a name. Who knew?

The chumbox is still the dirty design secret of the internet

My breaking point came when I saw the headline for the 50th or so time: “Diabetes Is Not From Sweets! Meet the Main Enemy of Diabetes.” Only this time, instead of the usual imagery that ran below it—alien-looking insects, what appears to be a trio of eels, a bowl filled with (*scream*) raw testicles—there was a pile of porous objects. I squinted. And there, in the tiny square ad, was something that made even less sense: a pile of otherwise delicious (and highly sought after) morel mushrooms.

I cracked. I clicked. And once I arrived at the outbound link—a primitive Web 1.0-esque landing page simply titled “US News”—the morel mushrooms were nowhere to be found. (Nor were any eels or much in the way of explaining the promised “main enemy of diabetes.”) Instead, I found myself a cog in a much bigger machine; one that has transformed the end of so many online articles into a grid of ambiguous horror. 

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This looks so good.