Yep, it's the eighth anniversary of my publisher, Torquere Press! Here's a how-to join in the celebrations from the good people at Torquere:

Torquere's having a reader scavenger hunt with weekly gift basket prizes and a grand prize (this year, a brand-new 3G Kindle along with a CD of stories from each participating author), plus daily prizes of gift certificates to show our appreciation to you -- our readers! Check our blog, http://glbtromance.blogspot.com/ where we'll have a number of our authors visiting the whole month. We'll post excerpts, hang out to chat, and talk about our stories.

In addition to the grand prize of the Kindle, we're giving away gift baskets every week! Some are silly, some are smutty, and all are fun. The themed ones are: m/m, ménage, BDSM, and lesbian plus our authors have chipped in with extra goodies.  

Here's how to play. Visit our contest page, http://www.torquerebooks.com/contest/contactmain.html, and start scavenging for the Eight Ball answers. Visit the author pages and find the graphic somewhere on their site. An online form  is set up, and we'll randomly choose a winner for the Kindle from all of the correct entries. Plus, every day, readers will have the chance to win a Torquere gift certificate and a gift basket.

Help us celebrate our eighth anniversary and ask the Eight Ball your question… Like, will I win a prize from Torquere Press? Have fun playing.

Oh, yeah. God, I love Mischa. Even when he's as cranky as he is in this excerpt from my upcoming Sip "Of Russian Myth and Lore."
And remember, the story is a part of Torquere's Anniversary Charity Sip Blitz, so every penny goes to the "It gets better"-project. As a matter of fact, your pennies will be doubled by Torquere Press. It doesn't get much better than that, does it? Oh, yes, it does. Because there's going to be a treasure hunt and you can win lovely prizes as well as a Postapocalyptic Gift Basket - among other things. But more about that later;).
Go here to have your first look at the story.

You either love it or you hate it. I do both.
Or rather, I used to love it - since I'm a nerd - but then I had to edit two books pretty much back to back. That was incredibly stressful - especially since I got sick halfway through and Real Life was incredibly demanding at the same time. As a matter of fact, I might have sworn never to write another book again sometime during that process...
Luckily, I don't seem to keep my promises. At the moment, I'm editing "Himiko: Warrior", and it looks pretty good. Of course, I can't see that; I'm obsessing over all the flaws (some of them only visible to me). But, taking a step back, I think this last part is going to round off the story nicely. "Himiko: Bonding" was all about the relationship between Matt and Pietr, while "Warrior" is far more dramatic. I still have an issue or two that makes it more sigh-fi than sci-fi, but there you go. I probably wouldn't be the overachieving perfectionist I am if that wasn't the case!

And it's really cool. Take a look at Alessia Brio's work:

I really like the intensity of it - it enhances the difference between the first and the second book really well.
I'm about to begin editing the book, and it will be published on October 26 2011. Let me know if you'd like to get on the mailing list - then I'll send you a mail when it's available.

So, a lot of news in this post! I can finally reveal The Big Secret Secret: Torquere Press is having an Anniversary Sip Blitz next month, and it's going to be a blast. We're going to have a treasure hunt with great prizes and, of course, lots of great stories.
One of those stories is a little something about Tom and Mischa and Mischa's family. It turns out that Mischa isn't as fearless as he seems when it comes to his family. You can read more about that in "Of Russian Myth and Lore", which will be published in September.
When you buy one of the Anniversary Sip Blitz stories, the full amount will go to the "It gets better"-project - and Torquere matches the amount. I really like this cause, so expect me to plug my own and other stories shamelessly during the next month and a half. 
To celebrate, I also wrote a free story about Mischa's first time. As a Dom, of course. That's also the first time he meets Toby, and it isn't exactly love at first sight. I plan to have it up here on my website in the beginning of September to celebrate Torquere's anniversary.
More Mischa and Tom: I've been working diligently on the sequel to A Russian Bear and have made solid progress. However, this week I'm going to be really busy with real life, and then I'll start editing Himiko: Warrior, which will be published in late October 2011.
Wow, that was a lot of information! I hope everybody's having a nice holiday - or surviving getting back to work.