#29:  I was very pleased to see The Secret Lab appearing on Holly Hook’s bargain eBooks list (my book is #354).  For avid readers, this is a wonderful list of inexpensive but worthwhile eBooks—ideal for giving e-stocking stuffers to your favorite person(s) for the holidays, for example.  For writers, if your eBook is priced low enough, Holly’s list is a good place to list it—it will help you build your platform.  The URL is: http://bargainebooks.blogspot.com.

Holly provides a link to each book’s webpage on Amazon.  In the case of The Secret Lab, remember that it is also available via Smashwords, which distributes to Barnes & Noble, Sony, and other online eBook distributors.

The Secret Lab is my first venture into the young adult genre.  It’s also a sci-fi thriller but one appropriate to tweens, teens, and adults that are young-at-heart.  The main characters are a very intelligent tabby cat, Mr. Paws, and the Fearsome Four, kids growing up on the International Space Station in the future.  I think you’ll like it and at $0.99, it’s a steal.

#30:  If you’re looking for more entertaining eBooks for the holidays, check out Donna and Alex Carrick’s opus—everything from short story collections (see #34) to Donna’s award-winning novel The First Excellence.  The URL is: http://www.carrickpublishing.com.

Carolyn J. Rose and hubby Mike Nettleton are still releasing both trade paperbacks and eBooks.  Their genre is mystery and suspense, like Donna, but sometimes it’s deadly serious, like Carolyn’s Hemlock Lake, or thigh-slapping comedy, like their The Big Grabowski.  Their releases also make good holiday gifts.  The URL is:  http://www.deadlyduomysteries.com.

If you want some scary Halloween stories, try the October issue of eFiction magazine.  Yours truly has a story there:  “The Bridge.”  The URL is:  http://www.efictionmag.com.  There are fun short stories and poetry every month.

#31:  For Nook, Sony, and other eBook readers, Evil Agenda is now being released to other online dealers by Smashwords.  Consequently, you now have three sources for The Clones and Mutants Series:  Amazon (Kindle), Smashwords (most eBook reader formats available), or other online retailers (Barnes & Noble for Nook, etc).  At $2.99, Evil Agenda is a bargain.  Also, at $4.99, Full Medical, its prequel, is also a bargain.

#32:  In addition to listings like Holly Hook’s list (see #29), check out http://www.bookpleasures.com.  Norm Goldman runs a tight ship there and the reviews are honest.  Yours truly is one of Norm’s reviewers.  If you’re curious about a book and want to see an honest review before you buy, check out this website to see if the book has been reviewed there.

#33:  Walter Isaacson has just released his timely biography of Steve Jobs.  Consider it an honest review of the man’s life.  I was impressed by his review of Albert Einstein, although he focused on Einstein, the human being, and not on Einstein’s theories, which even I think is appropriate in a biography.  I would suspect that he wrote similarly about Jobs.  Einstein carried us kicking and protesting into the 20^th century from the 19^th in physics; Jobs did the same for technology, leading us from the 20^th into the 21^st.  Of course, century boundaries are artificial—they would both be important even if they worked in the middle of those centuries.

#34:  Writing reviews is writing, so I do a lot of reviewing to help readers…remember: readers rule!  While I have reviewed both fiction and non-fiction, I have become recently stymied about one particular type of review, though.  How do you write a review for an anthology?  I generated this question by wanting to write a review of one of Alex Carrick’s short story collections (see #30).  While I can just take a wag at it, guidelines from any writer out there with experience in this area would be greatly appreciated.  Just send it as a comment to this blog post since other writers might be interested.

In libris libertas…

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