Happy Monday!

So I’m back from Yaoi-con and back to work *whimper* but it’s all good. I guess. lol I had a wonderful time in San Francisco and it was a time filled with awesome sauce. The fact that I got to meet Tam, Kris, Chris and Jen was the bestest part by far – four wonderfully funny women who are just nice people. I felt quite honored to be there with them. We never did get a group picture but here’s one of Jen, Tam and Tam’s daughter all dressed to go the Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

We had a great time going to the Castro and walking to Haight/Ashbury.  We shopped at Union Square 

and walked to Chinatown where we had lunch.  

This is Chris after she’s stuffed the biggest piece of broccoli EVER into her mouth.  (Yeah, tried to get the actual stuffing on vid but she was too quick for me)

(Click on picture to watch video)

We went back to the Castro and Jen, Chris and I bought a chocolate macaroon shaped like a penis with coconut hairy balls from Hot Cookie.  

And then decided to torture all of our male friends with the penis macaroon death!  Evil, I know.

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for some reason it’s not letting me post the full sized vids so just click on the pictures and it will take you to the videos)

Explanation of my pig, cupcake, tight asses post…when I was younger I picked up a pig trinket of some sort and the next thing I knew everyone and their mother and the horse they rode in on was buying me a pig of some sort. I pretty much started collecting them until one day my oldest sister, Ann, bought me a real pot-bellied pig for my birthday. Hamilton was so cute and was a huge pain in the ass but I loved him to death! Anyway, I told Kris about the pig thing and next thing we knew pigs were everywhere we looked. Who knew there were so much pig paraphernalia in the world? Really.

Then there was the cupcake thing…I read Icing on the Cake by Alison Kent before I left and I telling Kris that I was so damned hungry for cupcakes while reading it since they had cupcake descriptions at the beginning of each chapter. That day…and many days afterwards, someone was mentioning cupcakes or we were seeing them in abundance. I think it was a conspiracy to make me gain 10 pounds. lol

And the tight asses (though it should be self-explanatory)…this started when I was reading a book – can’t remember which one right now – and the character was describing the man he was attracted to as having the most perfectly tight ass with the jeans that cupped it beautifully. You gotta wonder – are there really that many tight asses in the world? We never hear about the men that others are attracted to as having a flat ass, now do we? Definitely not as appealing – but really…more likely to be true.:)

Now Yaoi-con. What fun. It was a con made up of panels, author signings, games, artwork and of course a dealer room where you can buy stuff. The con also had other stuff that we didn’t attend like the Bishi bingo session (where I hear those Bishi’s stripped down to their undies) and the Bishi auction where you could actually purchase (for charity) a Bishi to go with you to the dance that they had (which we didn’t attend either). There were some crazily dressed people there but it was fun to look at all of them. Tam took my camera around and got some good shots:

And these were just a few – SO many costumes!

There were also a bunch of m/m authors in attendance and it was fun to meet and talk to them. On Friday after the Opening Ceremonies – where they unveiled this beautiful banner

Tam Chris, Jen and I had drinks with Marie Sexton, Andrew Grey and Lynn Flewelling. Clare London was there for a bit as well but had to go prepare for her panel. I just loved all of these people. They were just wonderful and funny and it was so nice to just talk to them for a bit. On Saturday we had coffee with Amy Lane, Andrew Grey and Mary Calmes and lunch with Marie and Andrew again, Belinda McBride, Clare London and Z.A. Maxfield – again, wonderfully friendly and nice people. During the course of the day I also was lucky enough to meet Ginn Hale, Astrid Amara, Nicole Kimberling, TC Blue, Felicitas Ivey, EM Lynley, Rowan McBride and Ariel Tachna. Gosh – that’s something that doesn’t happen every day! I was totally perfecting my fan girl squeee…only I have to admit to keeping it on the inside and not embarrassing myself completely. I wanted to jump up and down several times while meeting everyone but kept myself in check. Dammit – it was hard! lol

The best group picture I have – although Kris is missing and we added Andrew Grey! (I apparently have gout and can’t stand up straight! lol)

It was sad having to come home while all the girls were still at the house but RL called and I had to get back to my family. If I had been gone for Halloween I think my kids would have strung me up…my hubby would have too, I’m sure. As it was we had all of 3, yes THREE, kids come to the house for candy. We live on a hill so we never get a huge amount, but three? Wow. Here are my kids in their costumes. The oldest was a belligerent omg-do-you-really-have-to-take-my-picture referee and the youngest the ever popular candy corn witch.:)

I have no idea why she was standing on the coffee table but I just went with it. She’s got a mind of her own. lol

Ok – So what did I read this week? Well I started a book before I left home and read it on the plane. The problem was that it needed my full attention and once I got to SF I couldn’t give it that. So that book went back into my bag and I did a yaoi manga binge – which seemed fitting since we were there for yaoi-con!

In order of reading:

Wild Rock by Kazusa Takashima – The story of two warring clans. One clan leader sends his son out dressed like a woman so that he can get close to the other clan leaders son. They of course fall in love but how can they be together with their clans warring. This was a really well drawn book and I liked the story. Very primitive but good. There was also an extra about the clan leaders themselves that was great. 4 out of 5

Saihoshi by Kosen – The story about a Guardian who is charged with seeing a spoiled prince’s safety. The Guardian finds himself falling for the prince’s servant (and lover) though. Another great book. I wasn’t getting into the story at first – even though I really liked the graphics, but Tam said to keep reading and I’m so glad I did as it ended up being a really good book. 4 out of 5

Pineapples and Chocolate by EM Lynley – This is not a yaoi manga but a short, free m/m book I got from ARe. The story was about a guy who sees an attractive man in the grocery store and decides he’d like his chocolate sauce poured all over him so he can lick it off. The two go back to his apartment for a little get together. A very cute story. 3.5 out of 5

Two of Hearts by Kano Miyamoto – This was the story of an author who is having writers block. He finds a teenager on the beach and brings him home for a shower and food. The boy has an alcoholic mother and is not taken care of. The two start a relationship that goes one for a long time. This was good – not great. The situation with the teenager’s home life was odd and the writer and his agents relationship was odd too. Not bad graphics. 3 out of 5.

Wishing for the Moon by Dany & Dany – A story of four men who come together: two actors, a director and another who ends up writing a play. The interaction between the four – what happens when love and jealousy gets mingled together. Good but could be a bit depressing at times. I like Dany & Dany’s graphics. 3.5 out of 5

The Lily and the Rose by Dany & Dany – Two boys who meet and fall in love at school – Christophe wants to be a priest and devote his life to God – Alain wants nothing more than to find the man who killed his mother. Years later they meet while Alain is under orders to get Christophe into a compromising position so that he can be used by a Cardinal. Alain and Christophe still love each other though and try not to hurt each other. Again, good graphics but Dany & Dany’s characters look the same in most books I discovered. 3.5 out of 5

IDOL by Dany & Dany – A bizarre story about an artist, David, and the prostitute, Adam, he hires to be his muse. The artist falls in love with Adam but the guy is still out with other men which doesn’t set well with the artist. This was very angst ridden and I’m sure poetic in some way. The end had me saying: WTF?. Again, good graphics but I don’t think this one was for me. 2 out of 5

Anima by Dany & Dany – A Steampunk yaoi novel…not something you read every day. Patrick, a journalist, meets Danya, famous dancer, on a cruise where they hit it off. But Danya’s “agent” doesn’t want Danya having anything to do with Patrick and tries to tear them apart. I really liked this one a lot. The graphics were different enough that it made a difference in my reading of the book and I very much enjoyed the steampunk aspect of the book. 4 out of 5

The Aluria Chronicles by Calissa Leigh & Yishan Li – A boy, Gin, (who looks to be about 10) is accused of murder and set out as a sacrifice for the demon to kill only the demon decides to save him and take him to Aluria. He’s jailed, for his own safety, until the Alurians can figure out who he is, where he came from, is he a threat to them, etc. In his cell he meets Kakale who is a vampire. Kakale switches bodies with him and in Gin’s escape he meets Rakioul, another vampire, who helps Gin. The graphics on this one were pretty good but the story bothered me for the fact that Gin looked so young. He was a sex slave in his previous land and then has sex with Kakale and damn if it was just disturbing! lol I’m sure he was supposed to be 18 or over and just look young but I just couldn’t enjoy the book because of it. 2 out of 5

Making Lemonade by TC Blue – Not a yaoi manga but an m/m novella about Evan who is grieving his lover’s death. He is comforted by his lover’s nephew, Gray, (who’s about the same age as him as his lover was older than him) and they become friends. But it’s more than friendship and Evan has a hard time accepting with his feelings toward Gray as he thinks he shouldn’t be having them at all after Will’s death. It was a great book about dealing with the emotional upheaval of death and the beginnings of new love. I really liked both Evan and Gray a lot and thought they were just perfect for each other. I will definitely be reading more of TC’s books. (I have Margarita Mondays all set and ready for me on my EZReader!) 4 out of 5

Finder series book 1: Target in the Finder by Ayano Yamane – Akihito Takaba is enlisted by a police detective to get pictures of a deal that’s taking place. He does this but the pictures are stopped by Asami who was in the pictures and is a powerful underworld leader. Asami decides to punish Takaba with sex and there’s some non-con sex going down. But there’s another player in the mix – Fei Long from China. Another big wig in the Chinese underworld – he’s getting back at Asami through Takaba. The rest of the book is a series of shorts that are, of course, incredibly drawn and quite entertaining. 4 out of 5

Finder seris book 2: Cage in the Finder by Ayano Yamane – This is really Fei Long’s story. It tells the story of Fei Long’s family, where he came from and what exactly his association with Asami, from book 1, is. I really liked the way Fei Long is drawn with his flowing hair – just beautiful. There is only 1 unrelated short story in this book but it connects with a short that was in book 1. 4 out of 5

Overall a very good yaoi manga reading week and a fun week in general!

My Book Binge review that posted since last Monday: