Blog Hop Opportunity: Manga and Romance - Hayley B. James' Bee-Hive

If you're a brand new author or a veteran of m/m romance, you'll find a great opportunity to share your novels, novellas and short stories to a whole new readership when you join in on Hayley B. James' Manga and Romance blog hop. The focus lies in the YAOI side of manga, which for some who may not know is the eastern equivalent of m/m romance.

I, myself, received my introduction to the world of m/m romance through YAOI and shounen-ai. There is quite a large following of YAOI and YAOI eventually will lead to the western style of m/m romance as it did for me.

Hayley's blog hop is a wonderful chance to broaden your horizons along with those of the YAOI manga readers. Her rules for the blog hop are simple and easy to follow. She's going to have at least two YAOI manga publishers promoting the hop and possibly participating!!! That is a great opportunity in itself for everyone who writes m/m romance to potentially gain more readers!

And of course for the readers, it's a great chance to learn more about western m/m romance and find authors who may tickle your fancy! So be sure to join us all for the upcoming hop June 22 thru June 24th!

Link to join the blog hop and find the other participants: Hayley B. James' Blog Hop - Manga and Romance

Head on over today to sign up and join in on the fun! :)

Kisses,
J.R.

Swag Winners and Successful Hopping

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay in the post. I didn't have much chance to get online last night. I'm here to announce the two random winners and the winner for the best quote. I've already contacted them off list so if you're one of the winners make sure to check your email and let me know what your favorite choices are!

Random Winners: 

• Sylvan65
• Lilly Jones 

Best Quote:

• Judi (Arella3173)

Congratulations to you three and I look forward to hearing from you for your choices! :D

I think the blog hop was a smashing success! I saw so many participants and quite a few numbers increased on my page counter. I am so happy to see that so many people joined in, whether to comment or just to read the different posts. So many touching stories and wonderful inspiring posts. Let's keep spreading the word even without the Hop!


Going to head off to do some writing! Only one chapter left to go and then it's editing time! Have a wonderful night everyone and congratulations again to those who won!

 Kisses,

~ J.R. ~

Hop Against Homophobia: What is Homophobia?

Recently there was a blog post discovered where the author of said blog post flat out called the Hop Against Homophobia blog hop a means to sell more books. Anyone who joins in on this hop, reader and writer alike, knows that isn't the real reason behind the hop. It's to raise awareness in others at how much prejudice, hatred and homophobia still exist. Although many who join in on the hop know this to be true, there is hope by participating in the blog hop that it will impact others who may not realize what homophobia truly is and what it represents in the gay community.

"Homophobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality or people who are identified as or perceived as being LGBT. Definitions refer variably to antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, and irrational fear. In a 1998 address, author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King stated that "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood."" ~ Wikipedia

It has never been said better. There is no difference between being prejudiced against someone for their sexual preference and someone for their race or religion. We are all born equal. We are all born beautiful. Who is anyone to sit in judgment of someone else for being who they are?

But what some may not know is that in a lot of cases it goes beyond using words to hurt someone. It goes to the depth of physical violence and can often lead to the victim being brutalized until their life is taken from them by someone who's intolerant. How can such hatred exist and how can the people who feel that level of contempt actually take an innocent person's life?

Stop Homophobia... Live and let live. Stop worrying about things which don't affect your life or your happiness. Discrimination is discrimination no matter how you twist it or speak it or think it.

I'm going to post links to my books, M/M Romance because I love seeing two men together, and if anyone is interested in reading an excerpt or looking at my books please do so. If not, thank you for stopping by to join our Hop Against Homophobia and make sure to spread the love, not the hate.

Dreamspinner Press Releases:

Chasing Seth

Touch Me Gently

Silver Publishing Releases:

Fragments of a Unicorn's Soul

White Rain

Swift's Temptation

**************CONTEST************

2 bundles to win!!

Here is a chance to win a couple of my newest swag/promo items! (See previous post).

Feather (Chasing Seth) or Unicorn (Fragments) Charm - They are cell phone/purse/jeans charms or zipper pulls. Hang them from your rear view mirror even! Always have a reminder around of your favorite J.R. Loveless novel. Your choice of color and charm! I have every color of the rainbow and even crystal. So just tell me your favorite color if you win. :D

I'm also going to be making some with snowflakes for White Rain and cowboy hats for Touch Me Gently but the charms haven't come in yet so unless you want to wait for one of those, I can only offer the feather or unicorn at this time.

I will also be including one of my new posters! Your choice of color, Blue or White.

You'll also be receiving one of my previous book marks, signed by yours truly :D

All you have to do to participate is leave a comment about my post and include the name of at least one other participant in the Hop Against Homophobia. (Please be sure to leave your email address in the post so I know who to contact if you win!) I'll be putting all the names in a hat and drawing out the two lucky winners who will be notified May 21st and I'll be posting the winners of the contest on my blog.

***Side contest***

If you leave me a really awesome and inspirational quote against Homophobia I'll throw in a third bundle for the quote I like the most!

Kisses,

J.R.

Upcoming GRL Swag and Blog Hops

So, I'll be doing two blog hops this coming month. The first is the Men of May. It starts May 4 and runs through May 6th. I'll be offering up a small prize for the hop so be sure to join in the fun!

The second is the Hop Against Homophobia which begins May 17th and ends May 20th. I will also have a prize up for grabs during the event so make sure to stop by! :)

Unfortunately I didn't sign up for GRL in time, so I will only be there in spirit and promo! These pictures I'm posting below do not do these items justice. In the light they are absolutely gorgeous! They are charms for your cell phones, your purses, jeans, and even zipper pulls! However you want to use them. ^.^ Each one is handmade and have a feather to represent the earring Seth wore in Chasing Seth.

There are charms of every color. Red, Blue, Black, Green, Yellow, Brown, Purple, Pink etc etc!!

I would love to know what you think, so please drop me a comment! :)

I will also be sending posters to GRL. I had two different colors made up. One in Blue and one in white. They will be available at GRL as well, one with each Publishing Company (DSP and Silver).

My other best friend, Joshua, designed these for me! I think he did an outstanding job! :D Much better than anything I could have possibly designed on my own. I have other swag items in the works but nothing concrete to show here, but keep an eye out and I'll let you know when I have some pics available. Signing off, J.R. Loveless

Work in Progress Update & Some Mindless Rambling

Evening, all. :)

My current work in progress, detailed HERE, is coming along nicely. I'm just over 60k+ words. I usually aim for around 75k so not long now to go. Then it's polishing, editing, and submitting. After that I should be starting on the sequel to Chasing Seth.

Just a reminder if you haven't already voted, Chasing Seth is up for Best GLBT Paranormal Romance over at The Romance Reviews, so please head over between now and Saturday March 31st to cast your vote. Vote Here

And Touch Me Gently is up for Best Gay Romance again over at the TLA Gaybies. If you haven't already cast your vote or would like to vote again (you can vote as many times as you'd like) please go HERE between now and Saturday March 31st to vote.

On to some mindless rambling...

I haven't read the Hunger Games and I have nothing against it, but HOLY HELL, am I sick of the commercials! I can't even go to a website online where they aren't pushing it. It makes me NOT want to see it. I feel like they're shoving it down my throat. UGH.

It seems my boss at my day job wants to send me to California for a conference in May... I don't even know if I want to go. I mean the idea of going to California is awesome, but it's not for a vacation, it's for a conference where I am sure to be bored out of my tree. Maybe I'm looking at it in a wrong perspective, but it's unknown territory for me in many ways. 1. Never been to a conference, what the hell do they do at one? 2. Never flown... my first flight was to be in September for a retreat I'm going to and the flight would only be three hours with one layover. I would prefer the three hour flight for my first flight versus SIX hours! 3. They're sending me alone... Really? No one else can go? I'm being sent three thousand miles away from home, on a plane for the first time, to a state/city I've never been to before and I'll be on my own. Could we take a fish out of its element anymore than that? When I went to Orlando for Gay Days on my own, that was a big move for me considering I've never gone that far from home alone. It's just overwhelming and mind boggling. Any advice for the novice in all of that?

I was hoping to have a contest on my blog, but unfortunately the contest I had in mind isn't going to happen because of what I intended to do for it. Apparently the state of Florida frowns on raffles. I wasn't going to sell tickets, just offer up three tickets to every reader who purchased one of my books between March 15th and March 31st to enter a raffle for either a t-shirt or a tote bag with their choice of book covers on it. *sigh* But of course, the state I live in stinks. I'm trying to think of another one which would make it as exciting. :) So keep an eye out for it.

I think I'll stop rambling now, lol. If I keep going, this is going to turn into a monstrous post. Have a good one, all!

J.R.

Chance to Own a Personalized Paperback Copy of Chasing Seth!

The Romance Reviews First Anniversary Party has been rocking and rolling for 21 days now. Today, the 21st day, there is a copy of Chasing Seth signed by yours truly available over at the site. So if you haven't participated as of yet click the link below to join in on the fun and take a shot at winning the paperback copy of Chasing Seth up for grabs.

You can read about the event, publishers and authors joining the event at
The Romance Reviews Anniversary Party!!! CLICK HERE!

Chasing Seth Nominated on TRR for Best GLBT Paranormal Romance!

Wow so many wonderful nominations this month!




Chasing Seth is up for Best GLBT Paranormal Romance over at The Romance Reviews this month! So head on over to vote and to join in on their Anniversary bash where you can even win an autographed paperback copy of Chasing Seth!! TRR Best Book of 2011




Touch Me Gently is once again nominated for the 2012 Gaybies! So head on over and vote as many times as you want between now and March 31st! 2012 TLA Gaybies


Other Exciting News!! Touch Me Gently is now available in Audio Book Format from iTunes, Amazon.com, and Audible! Check it out today! Audio Book Format

Touch Me Gently will also be released in the coming months in Spanish, German, French and Italian! So keep an eye out for them!