So it seems fitting to put up the next Christmas song with a fanvideo since I’m doing a post later today about my favorite fanvidder.
“Leta’s words are so good you always want more.” Smoky Mountain Dreams #gay #amreading
“Leta’s words are so good you always want more. And I wouldn’t mind getting more of these two guys at all! I’m hoping there will be a sequel. *crosses fingers*”
via Goodreads | Pates Saint Louis, MO’s review of Smoky Mountain Dreams.
Christopher Ryder and Jesse Birch are two men hanging on to the past. While Christopher has let go of his failure as a country singer in Nashville, he’s still trying to please his narrow-minded, non-accepting family. His beloved Gran loves him the way he is, but Christopher feels painfully invisible to everyone else. He’s happy enough performing at the Smoky Mountain Dreams theme park in Tennessee, but even when Christopher is center stage he aches for someone to see the real him.
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to bisexual Jesse. He’s raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother. There’s no room in his life for dating, his kids are his priority, and he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And now at KOBO.
Smoky Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake AVAILABLE NOW #gay #mmromance
My next book, Smoky Mountain Dreams, has been a wonderful journey for me and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to write the stories of Jesse and Christopher. I’d like to thank my friend Alice Springs for loving the book first and for encouraging me to finish it. I hope readers love it even half as much as Alice did from the start!
Bisexual Jesse Birch has no room in his life for dating. Raising two kids and fighting with family after a tragic accident took his children’s mother, he doesn’t want more than an occasional hook-up. He sure as hell doesn’t want to fall hard for his favorite local singer, but when Christopher walks into his jewelry studio, Jesse hears a new song in his heart.
Smoky Mountain Dreams is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And will soon be available at KOBO.
What Are Bitters? Matty’s Fave Drink Explained. #cocktails #curealls #liqueur
Bitters comes in many different flavors and brands. Some of the most famous are Agostura bitters, Bittermens, and Fee Brothers. Fee Brothers brand currently features the following flavors: Aromatic Old Fashioned, West Indies Orange, Peach, Lemon, Grapefruit, Mint, Cherry, Plum, Aztec Chocolate, Rhubarb, Plum, Celery, Black Walnut, Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters, and Gin Barrel-Aged Orange Bitters.
THIS ARTICLE from Australian Bartender discusses a tasting event involving bitters and had this lovely and handy explanatory piece with it:
Further historical info from Wikipedia: By 1806, American publications referenced the popularity of a new preparation termed cocktail, which was described as a combination of “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” Of the commercial aromatic bitters that would emerge from this period, perhaps the most well known is Angostura bitters, which was first compounded in Venezuela in 1824 by German physician Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert. Originally, Dr. Siegert’s bitters was compounded as a cure for sea sickness and stomach maladies, among other medicinal uses. Dr. Siegert subsequently formed the House of Angostura, a company that previously sold the bitters to sailors. Angostura bitters was named after the town of Angostura in Venezuela, although the preparation contains no angostura bark, a medicinal bark which is named after the same town.
Apparently, making your own homemade cocktail bitters is a thing people do! And I sure wish I’d realized this a few months back. I could’ve made some for some fancy-pants, I’m-so-cool Christmas presents for people! Look how pretty her end result turned out!
Now, you may be asking, why did Matty in Training Season drink bitters in his hot water? Well, because they give flavor and they feel a little decadent. I’ve had them a few times when feeling sick and they do settle one’s stomach. I’m not even sure why it came to me that he would do this. I suppose it just seemed like something Matty would do. It’s fancy pants and snooty and feels decadent while not really adding much substance. Very Matty at the beginning of the book, especially.
Halloween Rage #ryanadams #halloween
Someone sent me a link to the above article because it is about Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem, one of my all-time favorite bands. I loved reading about his HateSong (click above to see what it was) and it only took me about half a minute to come up with my own HateSong.
Halloween Head by Ryan Adams fills me with RAGE. Why? Because I love Ryan Adams. He can write some amazing songs. Like, for example, The Sadness or Hotel Chelsea Nights, and so when I buy an album of his, I expect it to be awesome. Well, the album that had this evil song it was just so-so and then…and then…suddenly Halloween Head came on and I was like, “OH NO YOU DID NOT, RYAN FUCKING ADAMS!! NO YOU DID NOT!!!”
This song is shit. I hate it. The end.
(If you love it and it is your all-time favorite song, well, I’m…no. I’m not sorry. I’m just not.)
New Year’s Eve and Tournament of Roses Parade Viewing Ideas?
One of the issues with not having ‘real tv’ in our house–(we’ve got a tv and access to streaming video and Netflix, just no cable or antennas)–is when it comes to certain American cultural touchstones like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Rose Bowl Parade, and New Year’s Eve shows in Times Square. Last year, I found a legal livestream of NYE in Times Square, but it was kind of crummy and mainly showed the Rock of Ages cast doing “Don’t Stop Believing” like 20 times.
So, I’m doing some research early this year, looking for various options. I could try to find an illegal stream, I guess, of NBC, CBS, or ABC’s coverage, but I was thinking that surely there are more legal options than last year’s terrible one?
So far I’ve found these:
1. Earth Cam — it looks like it will mainly be crowd shots and stuff? I guess I could watch the 3D one from last year to verify what it is like, but I don’t want to risk a migraine. Also, will this year’s been in 3D? Because I don’t want that.
2. Times Square Ball App — We have an iPhone and iPad and could possibly AppleTV this app. To quote: ” The 2013 Times Square Ball App lets you experience all of the New Year’s Eve festivities by offering a six-hour live live stream from the scene. App users can watch the ball drop, the party in Times Square and live musical acts throughout the night.” Looks likely to be lame in terms of coverage, but this might be our best bet. Looking more closely, though, I’m doubting that we could AppleTV it, so it’d probably just be on the device, which is less awesome.
3. New Year’s Eve Livestream 2013 — I’m not sure if this is the same livestream as the iPad App, but at least it looks like I could stream it to the tv via the main computer.
Does anyone else know of any other options for New Year’s Eve?
As far as the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day, these might be an options:
1. KTLA
2. Huffington Post links to livestreams for last year’s parade.
3. My World Webcams
KTLA looks like the best option, but if anyone knows of something better, do hook me up.
What are you planning to do for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? Will viewing Times Square or the Rose Parade be part of your plans? We’ll be staying home with the kiddo and watching the rest of the world party-extreme through whatever webcam livestreams we can find.
Leta Blake 