Hop Against Homophobia Blog Hop (Sneak Peek & Giveaway)
17 May 2012 26 Comments
in Amy Lane, Ellis Carrington, Events Tags: action, Amy Lane, blog hop, contest, Ellis Carrington, giveaway, Hop Against Homophobia, Immortal Valentine, Little Goddess, M/M, paranormal, Quickening, romance, Under the Full Moon, vampires, werewolves
Mothers, tell your children: be quick, you must be strong. Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong. Remember how they taught you, how much of it was fear. Refuse to hand it down – the legacy stops here.
I was lucky enough to be raised in a family that not only accepted people, no matter their differences, but one that welcomed people into it with open arms and no questions asked. It’s unfathomable to me the amount of judgement and hate people endure for the simple act of loving someone others might deem “unacceptable”. I’m participating in this Hop Against Homophobia because I believe that every individual who says “I love that YOU love” adds a voice to a larger cry for understanding and tolerance. I believe that every person who says “I love that YOU love” helps to end the misconceptions and fears that lead to discrimination and inequality.
I have friends and family very involved in the M/M fiction community, much more involved than I, and I’m proud to stand with them in the hope that this type of event will be unecessary in the future. If you’re interested in how International Day Against Homophobia began, or how you can get involved, you can visit their site here.
Now… for the fun stuff 
For you, my lovely hoppers, I have a some special treats. Two very talented ladies have agreed to help me out for this event. First, an exclusive sneak peek from Amy Lane, and below, some giveaways from Ellis Carrington!!
I am addicted to Amy Lane’s Little Goddess series. Addicted in a way that is both embarrassing and wonderful. I beg for snippets, I try to bribe with cyber chocolates and twitter funnies… I have even offered to GO TO CALIFORNIA and DO HER LAUNDRY AND BABYSITTING so she can write QUICKENING (book 5 in the Little Goddess series) faster. Alas, my efforts have failed and I still wait. HOWEVER… for this event, Amy is sharing a 500 word snippet from the book!!! *pardon me while I dance like a loon*
Below is a fantastic peek into what’s coming for our Lady Cory and her crew. *WARNING* This snippet contains HUGE spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the Little Goddess series. I’m not even sure what to say to anyone who hasn’t read the series, except GET THEE TO YOUR PREFERRED BOOK STORE AND BUY THEM!!! If you ARE up to date with all the happenings at Green’s Hill… a gift from Amy and I:
I woke up thirty minutes later, on Bracken’s lap this time instead of Green’s. You’d think they’d been practicing that move or something. He had himself a book.
“No,” I said, looking at it in horror.
“But aren’t you at all curious?” he asked plaintively.
“There’s going to be pictures and it’s going to be gross.” Oh God. “Didn’t we see enough of the inner workings of my body this summer?”
Bracken was not a stupid man, but much of what I said puzzled him. “We saw your blood. And your…” he floundered for words, “your grooming rituals which we will not discuss anymore because if you shave yourself bald down there again I’m going to have to beat someone.”
Okay, in my defense? I’d left a landing strip. Also in my defense? If I’d been wearing the swimsuit I’d wanted, I would have let him find his own way through the damned jungle. But he didn’t give me a chance to say that, oh no, because Bracken, the least discreet person I’d ever met, ever, had actually had to keep a secret for a month, and now he was going to make sure nothing about my body ever remained secret ever fucking again!
“Do you realize that your vagina is already swollen with more blood and secreting more fluids than usual?” he asked, and my eyes got so big my eyeballs got dry.
“Please stop.”
“But the things that are happening to your body! You complain all the time about the lack of magic in the human world, and your body is becoming magic.”
“I’ve got a hair trigger stomach, Bracken—I’m not shitting around here.”
He scowled at me. “Why are you being obstinate about this? I am just pointing out that—“ He stopped, and smiled a little, his eyes narrowing wickedly.
“Pointing out what?” I asked suspiciously.
He stuck out a finger then, blunt for the sidhe, but long for a human, and pointed it at my collarbone, which was peeking out of the collar of my oversized shirt. Very carefully he traced along my clavicle, then down to the notch between both of them, then down as low as he could get before the collar of the T-shirt stopped him. I caught my breath, because my breasts—normally very flat and very not-interesting—were actually swollen enough to push against his finger as it rested between them. I’d probably deck him if he went for the sensitive nipples, but right there, the skin was so tender that just having his finger between them made my sex slick and my breath catch.
Bracken leaned forward and breathed in my ear. “I’m just pointing out,” he whispered, “that your body is even more of a miracle than it always has been, and maybe we could explore that a little before you bitch Green and I out of your bed.”
I narrowed my eyes, because that last part hadn’t been the least bit nice, but his breath in my ear said otherwise. It said he cared about me, and he wanted me, and he knew exactly what I needed to wrap my brain around my uterus—and it involved the usual pathways to that exact location.
So typical of our Bracken, lol. I can NOT WAIT for this book. If Florida were closer to California, I might just sit outside Amy’s window and make her tell me what happens, so I don’t have to wait for the words to hit the page, lol!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, to the lovely Ms. Lane, for sending a snippet to tide us over a bit longer. I hope you all enjoyed it.
And now, for some giveaways from Ellis Carrington!!!
First, Ellis’ newest vampire novella, IMMORTAL VALENTINE.
(Gay/Vampire/Contemporary/Public Places)
After a heart-pounding brush with danger on Valentine’s Day, Caleb runs into a handsome stranger and decides to roll the dice on a one-night-stand. But things don’t work out the way anyone intended when Caleb gets sick unexpectedly. He wakes up alone the next day, extremely confused and utterly embarrassed.
Angelo is an insomniac vampire who leads a solitary existence. He comes out of hiding once a year—on Valentine’s Day—to soothe one lonely human soul while drinking the blood he needs to survive.
But when Caleb falls ill, Angelo winds up connecting with a human as never before, and putting his own life at risk…
Ellis has also graciously offered a second prize. An (as yet) unreleased vampire/werewolf short called UNDER THE FULL MOON. (It’s 3K words, and there’s no hanky panky… but come on… VAMPS and WEREWOLVES, and you get to see it first!! You KNOW you want this!!)
Under the glare of the full moon, wolf-shifter Neiran finds the beaten and broken body of his nephew and the boy’s unlikely rescuer: a vampire named Andrei. Wolves and vampires have been at odds for centuries, and against his better judgment Neiran takes Andrei home to heal him, even allowing the vampire to drink Neiran’s blood to mend his wounds. But when Neiran wakes in the morning to find the vampire gone from his bed, he is stunned at the depths of his disappointment…
Andrei has never subscribed to the notion that vampires and wolves should be at war, but is still confused to find himself in a wolf-shifter’s bed after fighting his own brother to protect a young cub. He understands neither his growing attraction to the wolf nor his brother’s vengeful anger. Suddenly he no longer belongs in his family’s home, but is there a place for him in Neiran’s?
To enter, simply leave a comment about anything in this post, along with which of the prizes you’d like. You can comment on my thoughts at the top, Amy’s QUICKENING snippet, either of Ellis’ prizes, or anything else related to this event. Please remember to choose which prize you’d like in your comment. One winner will be chosen randomly from those who’d like IMMORTAL VALENTINE, and one winner will be chosen randomly from those who’d like UNDER THE FULL MOON. Contest is open until the end of the hop, Sunday, May 20th. Winners will be chosen and notified on Monday, May 21st through email.
Don’t forget to check out all the other authors, bloggers, and publishers who are participating… there are a LOT of them, and they’re ALL offering some kind of prize!! You can click HERE to see the full list. So… Good Luck to all of you… leave a comment below, hop along to the next blog, and don’t forget to be kind to someone today!!
