Links! We got links!

If you enjoy pod casting, or blog talk radio (Yes! Live Internet radio shows!) here's one I just found out about -- Dialogue Between the Lines with writers Susan Wingate & Joshua Graham. Here's the blog radio link and their Face book page.

Also -- Banned Books Week continues with several good posts. Check out Jerry Weinberg's post on the advantages of being banned, and Patricia Wrede's explanation that book banning happens all the time, and maybe in your backyard, too.

Silliness break for today --

Last week on Batman: The Brave and The Bold, the Birds of Prey ranked the sexual prowess of DC's superheroes, in song. It's all double entendres, but in case someone is really paying attention, I wouldn't click on this around your young kids. They'll memorize it in a heartbeat. And then start asking what the song means when it says "XXX"....

Images are Office Safe, but audio? Only if they can take a well-wrapped joke.

What you can do....

Writer Mindy Klasky did a nice post on what you can actually do to help writers and books you like. If you think being asked to do anything is an imposition, then stop reading and don't click that link!

Something to add: Word of mouth is always good. You like the book? Tell your friends verbally, on Facebook and/or Twitter and Live Journal, etc. while you are thinking about it. Word of mouth is gradual, but it does build and can be effective. In a world where the Internet problem now is not being buried under all the stuff out there, pointing out stuff you liked is a help to friends.

Something bad: Never, ever take books from the back of the store and move them to end-caps or flat tables in front. (Whoever thought this up? Bad idea.) I know that end-caps are now paid for by publishers -- they pay extra for that rack space, folks. Yes, more of helping a book attract attention. This is a book a publisher wants to be big, so they are laying out extra bucks. If a field rep catches the wrong books on that end-cap, the bookstore could be in trouble. Maybe even money penalty trouble. This may also be true for the flat tables -- I don't know the details on those. The books moved might be stripped and sent back.

On the other hand, if you can turn a favorite book face out without messing up a regular shelf display, that's nice. Just realize it may only last a day or so -- restocking may take up all that empty space. Too little rack space anymore, too many books.

Everything Works in Theory! FIRES OF NUALA

So -- Today is the day. FIRES OF NUALA, ISBN 978 0 9828440 7 6, cover art by noted astronomical artist Don Dixon, 110,000 words plus appendices, is available in four formats over at Book View Cafe -- PDF, MOBI, PRC and EPUB. The first three of those formats will work on a Kindle, so don't wait for a so-called Kindle version, because that is months away. Getting the other two books in shape to become E-books is more important. Sony eReader and B&N Nook can read PDFs.

The book can be purchased here.

There should be a link on the front page of Book View Cafe tomorrow, Thursday, leading to the first scene of the book. I've broken the 110,000 word novel into 54 blocks that vary from 2500 to 3500 words -- the size of a short story. You can start the novel and read on-line every Thursday from now until the cows come home. Or -- you can buy a copy a soon as you'd like! This edition contains all the extras that pertain to this part of history -- maps (in my own, spidery handwriting) time, calendar, language, genealogy -- and the thieves' cant that was left out of the original novel.

I hope you enjoy it. If you like it, tell the world! I plan to put up the other two books, and hope to get back to writing in here, too. I need to either sell a bunch of books or get a part time job this fall, building up my strength to work full time again. The fate of this e-book, and a few submissions out there, will determine whether fiction is full time, or the hobby after everything else is taken care of.

I'll leave a LJ post open for comments, discussion, etc. each week, if people would like to talk book. Remember to hide spoilers! This is a new book to many. http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/

Thank you for your support, and your belief. Special thanks go to writers Vonda N. McIntyre, Pati Nagle, and Amy Sterling Casil of Book View Cafe -- this would not have been possible without them. When you visit BVC, be sure and look up their books, too -- Vonda's Starfarers Quartet is also now available in E-Book formats!

Here we go again....