Last day of the Torquere Anniversary scavenger hunt! You've still got a chance to win a Kindle with a CD of stories from each participating author in Torquere's Charity Sip Blitz.

Here's how to play. Visit Torquere's contest page, 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 Torquere will 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.

Of Russian Myth and Lore is being published today! It's your once in a lifetime chance to see a Russian bear in its natural environment - in other words, Mischa's going home. And he's bringing Tom with him.
You can read more here.

To buy the story, go straight to Torquere or Rainbow Ebooks. By the way, the good people at Rainbow Ebooks are sponsoring the Charity Sip project by donating their usual share to the It Gets Better project.

Remember to check out the rest of the stories of the Charity Sip blitz. All proceeds of the sales of all those stories goes to this year's charitable organization: The It Gets Better project. Torquere Press Inc. will match the authors' donations completely.

The Anniversary Sip Blitz is coming up - more about Tom and Mischa this Saturday! In the meantime, the authors of the Sips are doing a daisy chain of reviews. I had the pleasure of reviewing Bella Leone's "Happy Hour":

"Happy Hour" by Bella Leone
Review by CB Conwy
Eli is definitely not on home turf. As a matter of fact, he's so far away from his native Deep South that he can't even find the right kind of beer to make his Ma's famous bratwurst recipe. He's in the middle of the supermarket, talking to her on the phone, when he sees something far more interesting than the right kind of beer.

Bodie knows exactly what Eli needs, and he isn't talking about beer. Well, he is, but that's only first step. Luckily, Eli is on exactly the same page. It's a case of instant chemistry, and Eli can't have enough of Bodie.

But what happens when two gentlemen meet? Well, they go all gallant on each other. That means waiting. Then waiting some more. Until Eli's finally done waiting; screw his Southern manners.

Bella Leone's "Happy Hour" is light and refreshing - almost like the beer Bodie makes. The guys are chivalrous, but that doesn't get in the way of some heat. Some very nice heat. "Happy Hour" is a sweet story about two guys finding the love of their life. Sometimes, life really is that easy.

Bella Leone is an erotic romance author who discriminates against no combination of lovers. M/M, M/F, F/F, and all multiples thereof are fair game. She writes about people in like, in lust, and, ultimately, in love. Bella lives in Arizona with her husband and furry minions. When she’s not writing, she’s usually lending a helping hand to other authors or indulging in her penchant for historical & paranormal fiction, petite brunettes, and athletic gingers. You can read her review of "Family Values" by Alexa Snow's story here and "Riding the Rainbow by Kiernan Kelly here.

Do you want more? Check out Bella Leone's "Happy Hour", my "Of Russian Myth and Lore" and the more than thirty stories being published this Saturday by Torquere Press. In the meantime, you can read Christopher West's review of "Of Russian Myth and Lore" here.

And remember, it's all for a good cause; all proceeds of the sales of these stories goes to the It Gets Better project. Torquere Press Inc. will match the authors' donations completely.

In 2008, Torquere Press' authors decided to support a charity with an annual short story collection called the Charity Sip blitz. In the past three years, Torquere's donated more than $13,000.00 to charitable organizations that support GLBT causes.

For 2011, Torquere's authors have chosen the theme "Getting Better" in honor of the It Gets Better project, which helps LGBT youth understand that life as an openly queer adult is not only possible, but happening for millions of people, worldwide. More than thirty authors have written short fiction pieces and have agreed to donate all proceeds of the sales of these stories to this year's charitable organization. Torquere Press Inc. will match the authors' donations completely.

This year, Torquere Press is also pleased to announce that the publisher's distribution partner, Rainbow eBooks, has agreed to be the title sponsor of our Sip collection, and will be Torquere's sole distributor outside of the Torquere Books website. Please support the sponsor by visiting them at www.rainbowebooks.com.

Torquere Press and my fellow authors truly believe we can make a difference by donating to organizations that promote awareness and equality. If you'd like to help, please support the Charity Sip Blitz and enjoy some great romance!

My part of the sip, Of Russian Myth and Lore, will be available along with the rest of the sips September 17, 2011 at www.torquerebooks.com and www.rainbowebooks.com.

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.

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.

Oh, "Going Home" has got the most wonderful review from Dark Divas Reviews! I'm so happy about it, especially because writing short isn't that easy for me (my characters tend to talk a lot. I've no idea where they've got that from). But I really wanted to do something for Doctors Without Borders, and the story was there. I only had to use less than 8,000 words to tell it... My hair is a lot grayer now than when I started writing!
Read all of the lovely review here.