Ebook Pricing

There's been debate recently about ebook pricing. What do you guys think? Are ebooks too expensive? What factors go into your buying decisions? 

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Paper or Plastic Electronic?

The other day, a friend was saying that she couldn't remember the last time she'd purchased a book in print. She and her Kindle are never apart, and if a book isn't available electronically, she probably won't read it.

It made me think about the last time I'd bought a paper book, and I really couldn't remember. I've bought dozens of books in the past year -- all electronic. I have a trusty Kobo that I read from every day and is just so handy in so many ways. I still have a bookshelf with beloved tomes that I don't see myself ever getting rid of, but I'm not sure what would make me start buying paperbacks or hardbacks again.

What about you? Have you made the switch to ebooks, or are you still a paper devotee?

Triplesex has been rereleased!

Caleb has worked hard to get where he’s at in life. Recently offered tenure at the college where he works, Caleb has let his personal life slide in favor of impressing the powers that be. Now that a much-needed summer vacation is finally at hand, Caleb fears his long hours may have been detrimental to his long-time partner’s happiness.

An appreciative eye for the male form is perfectly natural, but Zaki’s preoccupation with other men is cause for concern. Even though Caleb trusts his lover, he’s suspicious of Zaki’s motives. While Caleb isn’t above a little recreational sex by mutual consent, he wouldn’t be able to forgive Zaki for screwing around behind his back. His only hope is to turn back the tide of discontent before it’s too late.

You can find buy links and read an excerpt here:

http://www.amandayoung.org/books/bottoms-up-triplesex/

Rerelease & Contest!

A Kinky Orgasm has been re-released by moi. To celebrate, I thought I would give away a couple of copies here on Slash & Burn. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this blog. I'll choose two winners at random tonight at 10pm est and announce the winner here on the blog. Easy as that.

Here's a little bit about the story:

Briar Henley can’t believe his good fortune when Truman Lee strolls into his little bar and orders the house specialty—a kinky orgasm. Briar serves up the creamy, alcoholic drink with more than an ounce of curiosity. Why would a straight jock be in a gay bar?

After a little flirting, Briar doesn’t much care why Truman is there. All grown up, Truman looks better than ever. Briar can’t help but react to the pull he’s felt for the other man since high school. Painful memories of the insatiable crush he harbored for the homophobic jock makes Briar yearn for a little payback of the intimate persuasion.

Only Briar is in for a surprise of his own. Truman isn’t in town for a visit. He’s home to stay. And he wants Briar for a lot more than his fancy beverages...

ETA: WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF TODAY'S POST.

I Was Wrong

I was wrong.

I’m not afraid to admit it. I was.

I said there was no way in hell that you’d catch me with an e-reader. I said I would never give up my physical books with paper and ink and colorful cover art. I said it. And I was wrong.

How’d it happen? How’d I go from NEVER to Can’t Leave The House Without It?

It started when I won a PDF copy of Andrew Wolter’s novel, Nightfall. I sat on it for months, maybe even over a year, because no matter how I tried, I couldn’t read fiction on a computer monitor. Heck, I don’t even read many blogs because the glare of a monitor inspires low-level migraines when doing anything more than skimming emails and tweets. I save that pain for reading manuscripts and edits, so sadly, Nightfall wasn’t being read more than a page at a time.

This was around the same time that I was discovering the wonderful world of M/M romance. I had been buying paperbacks of Price’s PsyCop series and Mykles' Heaven Sent boys, but some of the great M/M stories out there weren’t in paperback or, as you probably know, they were priced noticeably higher than the mass market books and releasing well after the e-book versions. So, after I managed to win a couple of more e-books, I started to cave. (No, please don’t ask why I was entering contests for e-books in the first place. I don’t have a good answer. The book sounded good, after that, I just couldn’t say.)

Long story short, I studied the Kindle, and other readers, for months – MONTHS – before finally breaking down and buying one. My first download was a book part way through a paranormal series by the lovely Ally Blue. From there, I fell in love. Oh, I already adored Ally’s characters. I meant I fell in love with my Kindle, and I never looked back. There are still paperbacks sitting on the shelf unread because I can tuck the Kindle in my messenger bag and read M/M at work discreetly. (Plus it has a copy of Alice in Wonderland, so when people ask to see it, I can switch from a hot and heavy threeway to something more office friendly for a demonstration.)

I’ll get to those paperbacks eventually, and I’ll still buy horror paperbacks to grip the pages white-knuckeld (until I decide I’m wrong about that too). I must say, however, I’m glad I was wrong, because it tickles me pink to put my very own books on my Kindle. I can stare at them and convince myself it’s not just a dream without looking like a narcissistic maniac to passersby. I’m crazy, after all, just not that kind of crazy.

Have a great April, dear Readers!

Ciao,
Pia Veleno
http://piaveleno.com

New book!

I'm delighted to announce the publication of a new story. It's a shorter novella that I really enjoyed writing very much. It's my first historical and I loved doing the research. Voyageurs is part of Torquere's fun Spice It Up e-book series.

Jack Cavendish needs to get to his station at Fort Charlotte, a fur-trading outpost in Grand Portage, Upper Canada. The fort is only accessible by canoe, and there’s just one man willing to take him on the perilous, thousand-mile journey from Montreal this late in the summer. Young Christian Smith, the son of an Ojibwe mother and absent British father, needs the money to strike out on his own, so he agrees to take Jack deep into the wild.

As they travel endless lakes and rivers, at times having to carry the canoe over land, the arduous expedition takes its toll. Yet the attraction between Jack and Christian, two men from vastly different worlds, grows ever stronger. Locked in a battle against the wilderness and elements, how long can they fight their desire for each other?

How long indeed? Here's a peek.

*

There would be no fire that night, so they quickly ate a cold dinner. Jack couldn’t wait to reach Grand Portage and have proper meals again. When he returned from relieving himself in the woods, he saw that Christian had pulled the canoe farther up the riverbank. One end of the overturned canoe was perched on a low rock. Christian unrolled a large, oilskin tarp over it. He glanced over at Jack. “This will keep the rain off.”

Jack’s heart skipped a beat. “We’re sleeping under there? Both of us?”

Christian’s expression hardened. “I’m not sleeping out in the rain.”

“Oh, no! I wasn’t suggesting you should.” Jack felt so flustered and dim-witted. “It just looks... small.” He was always saying the wrong thing. The thought of sleeping next to Christian in such close quarters set his pulse racing. They’d slept under the stars until this point, with plenty of ground between them.

Christian grunted a response and disappeared into the forest. The rain had slackened a bit, but Jack was still eager to take cover. He crawled under the tarp and the canoe. Although the ground was sodden, it was a relief to be out of the elements.

A few minutes later, he heard Christian’s approach. Jack couldn’t see much under the shelter, and he tried to squeeze himself over to one side. Christian shimmied in beside him, and although Jack had been practicing a deep breathing technique he’d picked up in India, his body still reacted. Christian was mere inches away and it was as if Jack could feel the heat of Christian’s body.

Jack took a ragged breath. Christian’s voice was loud in their little shelter. “Are you ill?”

After clearing his throat, Jack replied, his voice shaky. “No, no. I’m fine. Thank you.”

Christian rolled over, his broad back so close to Jack. If Jack shifted only a tiny bit, his shoulder would press into Christian. He wondered if Christian would move away. Soon Christian snored lightly, and Jack reminded himself that he needed to rest. He was exhausted, and yet sleep refused to come. He listened to the rain on the tarp and Christian’s deep, steady breathing. He could reach out so easily...

The Annual LRC Awards on Now

Voting for the LRC's "Best of 2009" Awards begins on FEBRUARY 15th and ends on FEBRUARY 22nd.

I’m up for three and other’s here are up as well!

Best Sci Fi/Futuristic Book:

The Edge of Desperation (Jason Edding and James Buchanan-MLR)

 

Best GBLT author 2009

James Buchanan

 

Best Mystery/Suspense 2009

Personal Demons (James Buchanan-MLR)

 

To vote:
Email  dawn_roberto AT yahoo DOT com with "LRC's "BEST OF 2009" Awards" in subject. If this is not in the subject it will not be counted. You are to vote from the nominee list on your pick. The list will be up in our loop files under "LRC Best of award nominees 2009".

All entries are to be in by 2/23/2010. Any entries received after that will NOT be counted and automatically deleted.

Here’s an Excerpt from Personal Demons

Excerpt:

Hours later, Chase stared at the drink in his hand. Maybe this was just a bad idea. He’d been in the City of Angels for four hours, tops, and he hadn’t even talked to anyone yet. Well, during dinner, he’d chatted it up with a waiter who looked way too young to be serving drinks. The kid recommended the bar Chase leaned on now. Relaxed, trendy — but not — and way crowded; Silverlake’s low-key answer to West Hollywood’s forced urban hip.

Nude women stared vacantly off red and gold walls. Chase figured he should have specified somewhere more overtly gay and less just gay-friendly when asking for recommends. People, of all orientations and ages, lounged on Moroccan-styled couches along the wall. Maybe he would have had better odds on a weekend, Chase mused into the amber liquid swirling in his glass.

“Wow.” A voice at his shoulder jerked Chase’s attention from his self-pity.

He looked up into a bright smile and warm skin. “What?” Damn, the guy was good looking. Not in that stunning movie star kinda way, but with a pleasant face, easy body language and dark eyes. A choker of red and white beads flashed at the open collar of his white shirt. Both colors set off the man’s caramel skin.

Another smile flashed as the guy tapped Chase’s tumbler. “You managed to get a drink.” He laughed and the sound traveled straight down Chase’s spine to his hips. “Takes an act of congress to get service here.”

“Oh,” Chase’s face felt strange. Then he realized it was from an ear-splitting grin. Shit, if that didn’t come off as desperate, Chase would eat his badge. He coughed and raised his glass to his lips in a badly concealed effort to mask the smile. “I laid the money down before I ordered.”

The guy slid onto the stool next to Chase. “Explains it then.” He leaned in and drummed his fingers on the bar. “My name’s Enrique, I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

Enrique’s hip pressed against Chase’s thigh. When Enrique shifted, a hard bulge rubbed Chase through his jeans. Okay, Chase mused, so maybe the waiter had been on the money about the place. “I would be surprised if you had,” Chase nudged back a little, letting Enrique know he felt it, “Just in town for business.”

“What kind of business?” The question came loaded. Chase wasn’t sure with exactly what. A strange wariness seemed to lurk under the words. For a moment, Chase toyed with a few implausible explanations and then figured he just didn’t care. Because the hand that dropped down onto his thigh wasn’t wary in the least. Easy, light, Enrique traced the inseam of Chase’s jeans with his fingers.

Refusing to elaborate, Chase muttered, “Just business,” as he knocked back his drink. Chase shrugged and spread his legs a little wider.

“Really,” Enrique moved in closer, “I thought it might be scoping twenty-somethings out looking for their sugar daddies.” The faded edge of cologne threaded under the scent of guy in a hot, crowded bar.

Chase snorted. A sense of humor, he liked that. Not that it was a requirement, but it made it nice, friendly. “The problem with twenty-somethings is they’re twenty-something.” He slid his arm around Enrique to cup a nicely toned ass through expensive slacks.

Damn, if Enrique moved any closer, he’d end up on Chase’s lap. “How ‘bout a thirty-something then?”

“You’re, ah, pretty direct there.” Chase teased. Actually, for a bar pickup, Enrique was beating about the bush a lot. Half the time a nod, a smile and a jerk of the chin arranged everything.

Enrique leaned in and laughed in his ear. “No, pretty direct is, do you wanna fuck?”

He squeezed Enrique’s butt. “Is that an offer?” Felt good.

No laughter this time. Enrique hissed, “Want it to be?”

“Yeah.” Chase stood.

“Then it’s an offer.”

Read the entire story!

Download in PDF or DOC

lovers-thrall-by-slash-burn-authors.doc

loversthrall-by-slash-burn-authors.pdf