The Way to Your Heart Winners

The Way to Your Heart bloghop is now over and I have two winners to announce! I should've announced the first a few days ago, but RL stuff got in the way, so both will be announced here. 

Winner of the 2nd Way to Your Heart blog post: Jbst. 

Winner of the 3rd Way to Your Heart blog post: Carolyn. 

Congrats to you both and I will send you both an e-mail shortly!

The Way To Your Heart Bloghop #3

Less Than Three Press is turning four years old and they're thus doing a bloghop. You can check out the masterpost HERE, with links to all the other wonderful authors participating.

So what do I love, besides writing? Reading, television, music, is what comes to mind. As the hop runs for fourteen days, I've decided to do a post for each of those three and spread it over the two weeks. Each post will also host a giveaway, so be on the look-out for them!

Music is an important part of my life. I like listening to it when I'm out walking, when I'm taking the bus or riding in a car. I like to listen to it when I'm writing as well. I don't have a particular genre I prefer; I listen to most anything. 

The band I've been with the longest must be Nightwish. I started listening to them back when I was in middle school or something like that, back when they were newly popular. I had every album they released and (im)patiently waited for a new one. It was a sad day when I found out Tarja was no longer in the band, and though I did enjoy Anette, she did not have the soprano voice of Tarja. Now Anette has quit as well, and I hope they'll go back to the soprano singer of the Tarja-era again, but I trust Tuomas to do what he thinks is best for the band. No matter what, I will always enjoy Tuomas' music. 

I'm also very much into k-pop, like Big Bang, 2NE1, B.A.P, NU'EST, to name a few of my current favourites. I also do enjoy many cover songs from Glee, along with their originals (though sometimes the Glee version is better), and I'm currently hooked on the soundtrack to Rock of Ages. 

Music can help set the mood for anything, especially when I'm writing. If I'm writing a sad scene, I like to listen to sad music. It can also distract from the writing, but that's not the point of this blog post. /grin

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

One lucky commenter will win one (1) ebook of their choice from my backlist. All you have to do to be in the drawing is to tell me what artist/band you love most of all and leave me an e-mail so I can contact you. This giveaway will run until Sunday April 14th.

The Way To Your Heart Bloghop #2

Less Than Three Press is turning four years old and they're thus doing a bloghop. You can check out the masterpost HERE, with links to all the other wonderful authors participating.

So what do I love, besides writing? Reading, television, music, is what comes to mind. As the hop runs for fourteen days, I've decided to do a post for each of those three and spread it over the two weeks. Each post will also host a giveaway, so be on the look-out for them!

Today I want to talk a bit about television. There are so many good television series out there I've enjoyed tremendously. One of my all-time favourites is Queer As Folk US. Who can keep from falling in love with Gale Harold as Brian Kinney? No matter what a tosser Brian is, he's just so loveable being it. 

As for more recent shows, I am entirely hooked on Teen Wolf and I really cannot wait for the third season to start up in June. Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski, they make that show, I tell you. I am most definitely a Sterek shipper. 

Another show I'm quite hooked on is Shameless US. I just watch the penultimate episode of the third season, and next week will bring the finale episode. I'm going to re-watch that show several times, I'm sure, as the fourth season won't premiere before 2014. 

Other shows I'm following and enjoying is The Vampire Diaries, Grey's Anatomy and Glee. I'm looking forward to Hannibal starting, and I want to keep watching The Following (I've only seen the first episode, which was quite good!) and after seeing the finale of Private Practice, I'd like to start in on that series as well. 

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

One lucky commenter will win one (1) ebook of their choice from my backlist. All you have to do to be in the drawing is to tell me what TV show you love most of all and leave me an e-mail so I can contact you. This giveaway will run until Wednesday April 10th.

Sakura Kiss Release Blog Hop Links

The Sakura Kiss Release Blog Tour is still going strong. If you've missed some of the stops, there's still chance to go comment. There's a giveaway on every stop, so five chances in all to win a copy of Sakura Kiss. 

Stop 1: Megan Derr's blog. 

Stop 2: Summer Michael's blog. 

Stop 3: Talya Andor's blog. 

Stop 4: World of Diversity Fiction. **coming Thursday**

Stop 5: The Armchair Reader. **coming Friday**

The Way To Your Heart Bloghop

Less Than Three Press is turning four years old and they're thus doing a bloghop. You can check out the masterpost HERE, with links to all the other wonderful authors participating. 

So what do I love, besides writing? Reading, television, music, is what comes to mind. As the hop runs for fourteen days, I've decided to do a post for each of those three and spread it over the two weeks. Each post will also host a giveaway, so be on the look-out for them! 

Let's start with the reading. I love to read, I always have. Years ago, when I still read and wrote in Norwegian, I used to read these serial historical romance novels popularly called 'housewife-porn'. I devoured so many of those series during the years, then got my mother hooked on them. 

Now I'm reading exclusively in English, and almost exclusively m/m fiction. I tend to read what I write, so when I'm writing contemporary fiction, I normally read contemporary fiction. I have a one-track mind so if I read something outside of the genre I'm currently writing, it tends to ruin my momentum. 

This is also true when it comes to tenses. If I write in 3rd person POV, I read 3rd person POV. If I read a 1st person POV, I tend to be inspired to write it. Still, I love to read and I can devour a book in a day. If it's a small book, I can certainly devour two. 

I could list my favourite books and series, but that would take up several blog posts in itself because there are so many awesome authors out there and so many awesome books! I still have so many of those on my to-be-read list, so I should now get back to devouring them. First though, a little giveaway for you readers!

* * * GIVEAWAY * * *

One lucky commenter will win one (1) ebook of their choice from my backlist. All you have to do to be in the drawing is to tell me what you love most of all (it doesn't have to be reading books!) and leave me an e-mail so I can contact you. This giveaway will run until Saturday April 6th.

Sakura Kiss Release Week Blog Hop

Sakura Kiss will be released this week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on where you live. For me, definitely on Wednesday. In honour of this, I have a blog hop going this week and the first can be found at Megan Derr's blog HERE. There's a giveaway too, so be sure to check it out!

Tomorrow, on April 2nd, I will be over at Summer Michaels's blog, and the following day, April 3rd, on Talya Andor's. On April 4th and 5th respectively, I will be at World of Diversity Fiction and Armchair Reader. I will post links once the blog post is up! All of them have giveaways, so there's five chances to win Sakura Kiss (or, in case you've already pre-ordered or ordered it by next weekend, another book from my backlist). 

The Way To Your Heart Birthday Bloghop

There will be two blog hops in the near future where I will be a participant. The first one will be a blog hop for the release of Sakura Kiss. I will get back to that when I have more details to share. The second is a blog hop celebrating Less Than Three Press' four year anniversary. Many of the LT3 authors will participate in the hop, including yours truly. It's going to be fun!

What The Way to Your Heart means: Participants will be blogging about all those little things they love! LT3 was founded on the idea of providing those types of stories that mean the most to us and would be just as loved by readers. But what other little things do our authors and friends love? Is the path to their heart paved with food? Are they sports fan? Are they madly in love with Doctor Who or The Walking Dead? You’ll find out in April! In addition, many will be providing shiny giveaways, including several sparklies from LT3!

I haven't decided on the topic of my post yet, it's something I need to seriously consider now that I've got most of my academic work out of the way for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else loves, besides writing!

Backlist Blog Hop: My First Two Books

This blog hop is to promote an author's older books, and I have a couple of those. They're not really that old, but it's nice to pull them up into the spotlight once in a while.

Forest of Fenris was the first book I had published, and it was also the first fantasy story that I had ever finished. I really like this book, becuase it was one of those that just happened. I was just going to write a response to a prompt, then it continued with the next prompt, and the one after that, until the whole story was laid out before me. All I had to do was write it down.

These characters just came to me out of the blue, and their story ran smoothly. I didn't really have any bumps in the road with it; it was pretty straight forward. 

Never bet against a dark forest filled with monsters...

Desperate for the approval he hopes it will gain him, Mihai accepts a challenge from his brother: Venture into Fenris Forest, and retrieve a leaf from a rare tree to prove he did it. Though he has been warned to avoid the forest and the monsters that fill it all his life, Mihai’s longing for approval trumps his fear. Mihai soon realizes, however, that it is his fear he should have heeded. Just as victory seems within his grasp, he is attacked by warg, the most dangerous beasts in the forest. Alone and helpless, Mihai resigns himself to being just one more person who went into the woods and never came out—

...until he is saved in the most unexpected of ways.

Desert Fire was my second released book and it is the sequel to Forest of Fenris. As with FoF, this story was one that just came to me as well, and though it started out one way, the characters took it another, and I just went with it.

I think it turned out rather nicely, though one character in particular is wanting his own story told. It's planned, but not written yet, though it will be.

This story was not inspired from a prompt, but rather from Brand, who was first met in FoF. Brand took over and demanded his own happy ending -- and he got it. This is, perhaps, one of the books I am the most proud of.

Brand is a man adrift: he is wolf shifter and fire mage, a traitor to his people for saving a friend on whom he turned his back long ago, a friend who no longer has need of him. He has no place to call home, no one to call family or friend, and no idea where he belongs.

With nothing better to do, he decides to seek out the infamous dragons in the firelands, curious to see if their fires will be hot enough to burn a fire witch, to see if perhaps a place that welcomes fire might have a place for him...

* * * CONTEST * * *

The contest is pretty straight forward. One (1) commenter will win a book of his/her choice from my backlist, and all you have to do is comment on this post with your book of choice, your preferred format, and your e-mail address.So get commenting people, you can grab a copy of any of the books you see on the left sidebar!

Have a nice weekend everyone, and enjoy the rest of the participants in the blog hop!

Manga & Romance Blog Hop: Giveaway Winner

Thanks everyone for a fun and interesting blog hop this weekend! I sure will join more blog hops in the future. 

As I had a personal giveaway on my post, besides the grand prize, I wrote down everyone that commented on my Manga & Romance Blog Hop post in random.org and clicked randomize. 

The lucky winner is: LyraL7.

Congratulations!

Manga & Romance Blog Hop: My Way to M/M Romance

I have written m/m romance exlusively for years. I don't remember quite how I got there, except that I had a gay character in an epic contemporary/paranormal series I once wrote, and I really enjoyed writing about him. 

I started on Fictionpress, where I read stories that I really enjoyed. For the first few years I went by the username kizuna as I posted my own stories. I also found my way to Aarinfantasy and their original forums. I do believe my username was kizuna there as well. 

I read so many good stories through the years. They helped me better my English, and gave me inspiration to write and finish my own stories. Most people that commented were always kind and had a good word or two about the story and they were always so invested in it and the characters.

I consider myself inspired mostly by these stories, which I consider to be western m/m romance. Though my stories have certain yaoi elements that western stories don't usually have; like, my character tends to fall into being either a top or a bottom. Very rarely are my characters versatile.

They weren't before, they aren't really now. I can't even think off a versatile couple at the top of my head. This is something I plan to change in the future; because realistically some couples are versatile. The guy who is a bottom also tends to me smaller and more feminine than the top. This is the only element of yaoi in my stories, I think, because while I enjoy reading yaoi I don't find it to be realistic. I strive to make my stories realistic, my contemporaries more so than the fantasy stories, but I want realism. And that's why I write and mostly read western m/m romance stories. 

I have always considered myself a writer of contemporary m/m romance, simply because of this realism I strive for. But, contrary to this, my first published story was actually a fantasy. So was the next one -- and the fourth one. Three and five are contemporaries. I always considered myself best at writing contemporary stories, but I'm really damn proud of the fantasy stories. And now I've also moved into paranormal, and it's turning out to be quite fun! It's actually my contemporary stories I have most doubts about.

I love being an author of romance. I love to set up my characters and have them fall in love. I love it when they take the story to places I'd never thought of before I started writing. I love watching the romance between two hot guys unfold on my screen and in my head. I have some bad days, but the good days outdo them to a thousand. I could never stop writing! I have written stories since I learned how to write, and I'm not going to stop now.

If you want to check out my books, look at the left side of my sidebar. The covers provide links to publisher's website where you can read the blurbs. Don't forget to comment here for a chance to win the grand prize! Remember, the more blogs in the hop you comment on, the better chance you have of winning.

I'm hosting a giveaway just for my blog as well. One lucky commenter will be randomly selected at the end of the blog hop, and can choose one of my published books. Remember to attach your e-mail on the comment so that I can contact you once the hop is over.

Have a nice weekend everyone, and enjoy the rest of the participants in the blog hop!

Manga and Romance Blog Hop

I just joined a blog hop. I've never done anything like it before, but it looks like fun so I decided to take the leap and join in. All you need to join the blog hop is a website or blog related to gay romance or yaoi, and mine certainly relate to gay romance. 

The purpose of the blog hop is to combine the two genres of manga and romance. To show romance readers that there's yaoi mangas to enjoy--and yaoi readers that there's gay romances to enjoy.

I have read both romance and yaoi, though I mostly just read gay romance nowadays. That doesn't mean I still don't enjoy good yaoi manga though. 

I will talk about all of this when the blog hop happens, from June 22nd to June 24th. Come and join in on the fun you too!