It’s finally October! Or, at least, it will be in two days. I absolutely LOVE October because it finally really starts getting cooler and Fall is my favorite season. The fact that GRL is now only in a few weeks makes everything even more exciting.

It also means a lot of new book releases. Pretty soon we’ll have some kind of Holiday bulk release from just about every publisher, and even some releases for Halloween and some Thanksgiving stories. Canadians have Thanksgiving coming very soon! Anyway, it is my favorite time of year. What is yours? Do you all love Fall as much as I do?

The blog is gearing up for GRL and the end of the year, which seems like it is going to be very busy. I’ve outlined a lot of what we’re expecting both this week and this month further down in the post.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

This Week’s Wrapup

Josephine Myles stopped by once again for this months Confessions of a Shameless Yarn Slut. This month’s post was all about Macrame, which just happened to fit in quite well with her new release, The Hot Floor (which I loved — you can see my review here). Speaking of the book and the author, make sure to look below for info about her upcoming visit with JL Merrow for the Hot Pressure Blog Tour!

Here are the reviews from this week, in case you missed any:

Pop Life by Ryan Loveless – Not Feelin’ It
Losing and Gaining by Heidi Champa – Really Like It (Nikyta)
A Most Unusual Courtship by Nancy M Griffis – So So
The Hot Floor by Josephine Myles – LOVED It!
Couched as a Question by Jane Davitt – Really Like It (Sadonna)
Beyond the Edge by Elizabeth Lister – Pretty Good
Power Exchange by AJ Rose – Really Like It (Sadonna)
Monkey Wrench (Were Menagerie #2) by Xara X Xanakas – So So
Dapper Gentlemen by J Rocci – Pretty Good (Sadonna)
Dear Rival by Robin White – Not Feelin’ It
Counting Down by Kiernan Kelly – So So (Sadonna)
Digging for Gold by Sean Michael – Not Feelin’ It
Wanting it All by Emma Lai – So So
In His Corner by Charlie Cochet – Really Like It (Sadonna)
Taming the Lion Tamer by Caitlin Ricci – Really Like It (Nikyta)
Dirty Kiss (Cole McGinnis Mystery #1) by Rhys Ford – Really Like It
Acrobat by Mary Calmes – LOVED It!

Coming Up This Week – September 30-October 6

I’m so excited to have Jo and Jamie visiting this week to promote their recently released books — The Hot Floor and Pressure Head in the Hot Pressure Blog Tour! Jo is a regular contributor to The Armchair Reader with her monthly yarn posts, Confessions of a Shameless Yarn Slut and I’m super excited to have Jamie visit in an official capacity. Both of these ladies are two of my favorite authors, and their post this Tuesday, October 2 is appropriately titled, Do Real Men Knit? I’ll save you the trouble ladies, yes they do I’m excited to see what they’ve written as I have thoroughly enjoyed their posts at other blogs over the past couple of weeks (click the banner to be taken to them).

We have another full week of reviews. Incidentally, I have an announcement about this busy month and upcoming reviews, so make sure to check that out below. Here are the tentative reviews we have planned for this week:

Announcements

October is looking to be a HELLA busy month. TAR is planning to take the week of GRL off (from Oct. 15-21) because I will be heading to NM early and not coming back until the next week. But there is also a LOT of stuff to do before then, so starting after this week we’ll be scaling down the reviews until after the retreat. Then, there will be a huge surge of reviews as well as the events we have planned for the rest of the year, because there are a lot of great books coming out this month I’m eager to review, plus the book release events popular from Halloween through the Holidays.

So we’ll be busy! Until then, we still have some authors and publishers visiting. GB Gordon will stop by on the 9th to promote the debut novel Santuario, released from Riptide, and Riptide will be visiting to talk about their first anniversary on the 22nd, the first day back from GRL. Until then, I’ll be doing my best to clean and pack rather than read and review. I admit, it will be a daunting prospect

And for all of you who are gearing up for GRL just as I am… I’m looking forward to seeing you there! And if I don’t see you/meet you, I hope you have a wonderful time!

Torquere just put out a general submissions call:

Torquere Press, the first GLBT Romance epublisher, is open to GLBT romance submissions in all categories. Click here for current open anthology and special calls.

Torquere Press focuses on GLBT romance, exclusively. We publish all the sub-genres of romance — paranormal, contemporary, western, suspense, etc.. We do require a happy ending, whether that ending is happily ever after or happy for now.

We publish lengths from 3000 words and up. Our pricing structure is based solely on word count.

All submissions to Torquere Press must adhere to the following guidelines or they will be discarded unread.

All submissions must contain gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters. While works do not need to be graphic, they must contain romance and focus on the interaction between characters. Acceptance preference will be given to stories with fully realized romances and a high level of sensuality.

All manuscripts must be submitted to submissions@torquerepress.com as an attachment in either .doc, .txt, or .rtf format.

Length standards:

• Novel – 45,000 words and up
• Novella – 20-45,000 words
• Novelette – 10-20,000 words
• Short Stories – Under 10,000 words

All submissions must

• be spell checked and edited for grammar.
• be single spaced with a space in between paragraphs. Indents at the beginning of paragraphs are not necessary. Any submissions with severe formatting problems (ie: blocks of text with no paragraph breaks, illegible fonts) will not be read.
• labeled in subject line of email as a submission, and include the anthology name if applicable
• include a word count and a brief synopsis of the work.
• all spelling should be in American English
• include a short bio of the author along with the author’s contact information. Authors may use a pseudonym for their work, but we will need full legal names and contact information for contracts. All information will be kept in the strictest confidence.

We are primarily looking for homoerotic stories in all genres. We are not looking for sex without characterization. Plotty, sensual character-driven novels are our focus. We are currently actively seeking menage stories (m/m/f) and sensual, sexy gay novels (m/m).

We will not accept stories with pedophilia; incest or those containing rape for titillation or other gratuitous violence. We will not accept stories with bestiality (relationships with animals occurring in natural life not including shapeshifters). We will also reject stories that are clearly a copyright infringement, including any that have been converted from fan fiction or that are based on TV shows, movies, or literary characters. We do accept simultaneous submissions, however we require you to update us if there is any interest in your submission from another publisher or if it is accepted elsewhere. We do accept multiple submissions.

We are not currently seeking m/f/f romance.

Unsolicited manuscripts are accepted at any time. Please remember, however, that current projects take precedence, and while we will acknowledge all submissions in a timely manner, it may take some time for one of our editors to review your work. Please allow 3-8 weeks for a response.. All accepted works will need to be provided to us as an electronic file, and please note we are now using electronic contracts.

This Week’s Releases

This coming week carries on with the outstanding releases we’ve been seeing lately. This week we see (FINALLY!!!) the third book in JL Langley’s Sci/Regency series, My Regelance Rake, which I’m so excited about and will be immediately reading and reviewing as soon as I get my hands on it. Here are the other things I’m looking forward to:

Posted by Cole in Weekend Update Tags: Submission Calls