HAHAT 2014 - Jake Jaxson talks mentoring

Hey y'all. This is my last post for the HAHAT 2014, and I'm very pleased to have the second part of my Cockyboys 2014 interview on Mentoring. RJ has been swamped with filming and now the Grabby Awards in Chicago, but I did manage to wrangle Jake into answering some questions. So here we go.

~~Jake Jaxson ~ Filmmaker, artist, collector, hopeless romantic, and insatiable flirt. He lives in New York with his two loves and collaborators, R.J. Sebastian and Benny Morecock, & their four canine gaybies ~ Raif, Sebastian, Bailey & Jackson. Jake is also the owner/director of CockyBoys.~~

Hi Jake. Welcome back. 

Thank you for having us again -- I means so much to be asked back.

HAHAT and Benny Morecock are here

Greetings my friends and welcome to my first post for the 2014 Hop Against Homophobia & Transphobia. As one of the organizers, I want to thank you for joining us in our third year. If you recall, we began this journey in conjunction with the International Day Against Homophobia and there are a lot of useful links and information over there. Give them a looksee when you have a moment.

I hope you find interesting, thought-provoking posts that you feel the need to share with family and friends. Remember, word of mouth is the best way to pass along understanding and encourage change.

Before I go any further and because I have more than one post in mind for the next week or so, this will page will act as my master post to the HAHAT. So check back with it if you think you've missed something. There will also be a list of links for all the participants in the HAHAT at the end of all my posts.

K-lee picks HAHAT winners, congrats CockyBoys & thanks everyone

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2013 - both in doing a post or hopping around. We appreciate the support and the enthusiasm that seemed to gather over the last 10 days. Thank you for also for supporting the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia as well. We'll be back next year so keep your eyes peeled.

And remember, just because the hop is over doesn't mean you can't go and read all the wonderful things that were posted. There were so many wonderful posts that spoke personally about the reason we do this hop in the first place. If you have time, go check them out. (you can still use my list at the bottom of this page to get to the links)


On a more personal note, I'd like to thank Jake, Benny and RJ for an interview that touched me, make me cry and laugh and just feel a whole lot of warmth and love. For those who left comments, please accept my appreciation for stopping by.

And I also have to share the fabulous news that CockyBoys won 4 Grabby awards last weekend! Best Director - Jake Jaxson, Best Movie - Project GoGo Boy, Fan Favourite for best movie - Project GoGo Boy, & Best New Comer - Max Ryder. Congratulations guys! You deserved it. And if you haven't checked out the CockyBoys, you really should. Here's the link (do I have to warn that it's very NSFW? :P)

CockyBoys

(That's Jake Bass, Jake Jaxson & Max Ryder)

Now for the winners of my draw - *drumroll* -

~~$15.00 gift certificate to All Romance Ebooks ~~ ENGINEER QUEEN

~~Ebook from my backlist at K-lee Klein ~~ JO (Johannasnodgrass @ yahoo . com0

~~Ebook from my backlist at K-lee Klein ~~ PEGGY (peggy1984 @ live . com)

I'll be emailing the winners. Thanks again everyone. Hope to see you around my blog again. :)

Guess I better get back to work. :)

Hop Against Homophobia - CockyBoys' Interview part 2

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Hop Against Homophobia & Transphobia 1 - CockyBoys are in the house

Welcome to the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia. As one of the organizers I want to thank you for taking the time to check out all the wonderful posts that will be popping up over the next ten days. I believe the best way to abolish the need to even have an International Day Against Homophobia, is to keep talking about it and sharing experiences both good and bad. The more that's out there, the more people become aware, and hopefully, start to understand.

I will have two posts from May 17-27. They are part one and two of an interview I did with three amazing men. I hope you'll take the time to read what their individual thoughts are on growing up gay, homophobia in today's society, running a successful business, and living together in a loving relationship of three.

Now let me introduce them to you. Please welcome Jake Jaxson, R.J. Sebastian, and Benny Morecock to my Hop post. Have a look at their bios then we'll start the interview. (and yes, I did color-code each of them – OCD at its finest) Oh, and leave a comment to be included in my draw—more information about my giveaway and donations being made to the Trevor Project is at the end of this post.) Read on, people.

~*~*~*~

Jake Jaxson ~ Filmmaker, artist, collector, hopeless romantic, and insatiable flirt. He lives in New York with his two loves and collaborators, R.J. Sebastian and Benny Morecock, & their four canine gaybies ~ Raif, Sebastian, Bailey & Jackson. Jake is also the owner/director of CockyBoys.

Benny Morecock ~ Jack-of-all-trades at CockyBoys. I'm the brains of the operation, Jake is the vision. On the side I collect hobbies and enjoy teaching myself random skills that may or may not come in handy during the second coming of Christ.

R.J. Sebastian ~ Director of photography for most of the CockyBoys updates, as well as the primary photographer for most of the shoots on the website. Jake Jaxson handed him a camera and encouraged me to start shooting the behind the scenes candid shots of the models. From there, RJ moved his way up to primary photographer, and has changed the look and feel of the CockyBoys websites images. RJ wants to transform the way pornographic photos are taken and viewed, and feels that you can shoot explicit images that can also live as art and live on their own. R.J. is also a part-time model and actor.

~*~*~*~

K-lee's May update & pretties

I've been so negligent in updating this...in updating anything really. I know I don't have a lot of followers, but the few I do have deserve better than these random posts that can run anywhere from incoherent babble to depressing-as-hell thoughts. Even if I just post pretty pics, it would be better than dead air, right?  :) 

Moving on - the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia is almost upon us - 2 days to be exact or 1 depending where you are. I'll be doing at least 3 posts during that time and I have some special guests that I hope you'll drop by to say hi to - three very special and lovely men to be exact. But seriously, these guys have some very inspirational and thought-provoking things to say. And be sure to check out the other  >170 participants, too. Hey, you've got 10 days to do it this year. Hop on, people.  :)

Way to Your Heart WINNERS!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to comment on my Way To Your Heart posts. Bob the Random Number Generator has selected 5 winners. 

I said I was offering $20 in ebucks from ARE but they don't do $20, so I'm doing two $15s instead (hence the 5 winners)

I have winners! (Hop Against Homophobia)

I want to thank everyone for participating in the Hop Against Homophobia - I think we can all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Although I never made it to every single blog, I'll still be stalking them now that the hop is over.

When we started this, we never really knew what to expect or how to proceed and one of the things I know I'd didn't anticipate was the beautiful variety of posts. We had emotional, personal experiences, facts and information about how homophobia affects different parts of the world, quirky posts, interviews, etc., all that made the hop even the more interesting and important. I think we also learned that there is no "right" way to tackle the issue just as there is no right way to love except with your heart.

I was a little worried that my interview post with Patrick and Tyrell would be seen as too fluffy and not serious enough for the true purpose of the hop. But the boys and I received so many lovely comments about how the interview showed a hopeful side to the issue of homophobia - a light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps. Anyhow, thank you again, for taking the time to meet them and for honouring William Neale's memory with me.

Now back to the matter at hand... winners. *drum roll*

The winner of the Home series by William Neale is EMILY (tiger-chick)
AND
The winners of a $10 gift cert to All Romance or Amazon (if I can figure out how to do that) AND an ebook of their choice from my backlist or upcoming releases are KIMBERLYFDR and DANNYFIREDRAGON.
Congratulations - I'll be notifying all of you by email.

Enjoy your week and I hope if you have just discovered my blog through the hop, you'll stick around.

:)

Hop Against Homophobia - In memory of William Neale

In the memory of the passing of a good friend and highly-respected member of the m/m romance community, this post is in memory of William Neale. I've talked about Bill before in various ways and his passing is still fresh and teary in my mind. 

Bill's books are emotional and thought-provoking, and the perfect example of how a man can write with his heart and not just his brain. I only say that because controversy still exists in the m/m community over whether the difference between male and female authors can be clearly defined by what and how they write. 

As far as I'm concerned, Bill and others like him, JP Bowie, Ethan Day, Andrew Grey and others, shoot that theory all to hell. JP has even told me that many suspected he was female because of the romanticism of his stories. I'm not trying to start any more controversy, but on a day designed to throw some light on the issue of homophobia, hate and fear, I believe I can state my opinion without cause for attack. One person's opinion may be another person's need to judge, hate or even fear, but for today I choose to believe we can all get along and come together for a good cause.

Bill passed away in March just after finishing the last in his Home series and he was proud of hell of what he'd accomplished. The final book is called Hope and that's exactly what William Neale's writing is to me ~~ hope that one day the issue of homophobia and the hate, fear and bullying that comes with it, will not be an issue at all.

Comment on this post to win ebook copies of the entire Home series. I'd love it if you'd also comment on how Bill's books affected you if you've read any. Basically this is a William Neal lovefest post. Enjoy and good luck.

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HOP AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA blog post

Welcome to my Hop Against Homophobia blog post. I have a special interview with two very cool Canadian men who'll talk a little about growing up as gay men in Canada and about how they do their part to keep the issue of homophobia, fear and hate from becoming, excuse the pun "closeted". The instructions for my give-away are at the bottom - I'll be choosing two winners at random from the comments -- winners' choice of an ebook from my backlist (even though I don't have much of one) or one of my two new releases for June (Lucius' Bite or Countdown to Daddies), plus two $10 gift cards to All Romance Ebooks.

* * * * *

I welcome Patrick Levesque and Tyrell Witherspoon to Chaos in the Moonlight today on International Day Against Homophobia. Thank you for being here guys. I appreciate the Canadian support, eh. Lol. Sorry. 

The good, the bad and the pretty

Yeah, that's how my life kind of feels like right now. This post is a whole lot of odds and sods, some pretties, etc, etc, etc.


Just a reminder that the Hop Against Homophobia starts Thursday, May 17 on the International Day Against Homophobia. There are over 230 authors, publishers and review sites involved in the hop, all with individual give-aways. We've encouraged all of our participants to acknowledge the International Day Against Homophobia in their posts on that day, whether it be in addressing the overall issue of homophobia, the relaying of personal experiences, the importance of getting the word out about bullying or helplines, etc. So join the cause, fight the fear and hate, and see some great m/m content. Click the icon for the link. And just a heads-up, I'll be giving away a set of William Neale's Home series ebooks in his memory on my site, in a separate post than mine, so make sure you check out both posts.



Next I have a couple of release dates for June - two in one month is still a little surreal, plus I'll be on my cruise for the first and flying for the second.

Valentines' Blog Hop winners & Pimping HAH

So I've decided to double my give-aways from 2 to 4. And thanks everyone for all the birthday and Valentines' wishes.


1st winner is West
2nd winner is Ella Jade
3rd winner is Beginka
4th winner is ladyauthorsld


Congrats! 

And just a reminder, if you didn't win - don't forget to hop on by between May 17-20 for Hop Against Homophobia. We already have over 130 m/m authors signed up to participate and it's going to be fabulous! Mark your calendars and just one last shout out to you all - thanks for following my blog, it means more than you know to me. I'd love to know what kinds of things you'd like to see here as well. Give me some feedback and I'll definitely do what I can to fulfill your request. ☺

Hop Against Homophobia - Authors' registration

May 17, 2012 is the International Day Against Homophobia and in correlation with that Erica Pike, NJ Nielsen and I are organizing a blog hop, HOP AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA. Registration has already started for authors, publishers and reviewers, and within one day we already almost 40 signed up.

I'm not going to go into the details because it's just as easy to read them here. It's easy-peasy to sign up and will be a ton of fun when it happens. We encourage everyone to pass this link along to authors who might be interested in taking part, then on May 17th everyone will be invited to hop along with us.

Click on the bouncing bunny for registration

PIMPING: blog give-away extravaganzas

There's some wonderful give-aways going on around the m/m net and I just wanted to give you a heads-up on a few that I'm participating in.  Since I have two releases within days of each other I'll be giving away a copy of each here on my blog as well as in the give-aways I'm mentioning. That being said, you'll have a few chances to win both releases and if you don't win, well, you know the drill. <--shameless author begging.

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