27 January 2011

NEW: Save My Soul by Zoe Winters

LIMITED TIME SALE (regular retail price: $4.95)

All he’s asking for is her soul...

After buying the antebellum home she’s fantasized about since childhood, Anna Worthington discovers Luc, a dangerously seductive incubus who has been trapped in the house by a fifty-year-old curse. To rid herself of her problem house guest she’ll call on a priest, gypsies, ghost hunters, and the coven of witches from lust bunny hell. All she has to do is resist him long enough to break the spell so they can go their separate ways. If she doesn’t, she could die.


And that would be the best case scenario.

HEAT LEVEL: Some sexually explicit content. 3 out of 5 flames.

EXCERPT:

Instead of Beatrice, it was about the best looking man Anna had ever laid eyes on––airbrushed magazine spreads notwithstanding. Dark hair fell around his face, framing an olive complexion and cold, bright green eyes that appeared to burn with a light of their own.

They seemed to pull her in, hypnotize her. They were eyes that had known violence. Whether as the victim or the perpetrator, it was too hard to tell, but she suspected the latter.

His lips were as full as any man’s had a right to be, and Anna had to stop herself from imagining nibbling on his lower lip. He had the kind of cheekbones sculptors spent a lifetime learning to chisel into stone. Rather than sitting in the chair, he seemed to drape. Casually. Sinfully.

Shirtlessly.

She closed her eyes and raised a hand to her head, feeling for bumps. After what she’d just experienced the last thing that seemed normal was lusting after a hot stranger in her bedroom. Maybe she was dreaming again.

The next words to fly from her mouth were so stupid she would later blame a mild concussion. “You should know this house is haunted, and the last guy who tried anything got beaten bloody for his trouble. So you should ask yourself if it’s worth losing your good looks over.”

His deep, familiar chuckle slid into her, too fluid to be human. Anna vaulted out of the bed, taking the sheets with her, wrapping them around her frame as she went.

“I’ve seen it all,” he said waving a hand away as if he could never be moved by such banal things as nudity.

Not while I was conscious, Anna thought. She backed farther away as he stood and advanced on her. “Um . . . so Beatrice isn’t here?” Diversionary tactics weren’t her strong suit.

There never was a Beatrice. It was him. Her throat tightened again as that thought slammed fully into her brain. She tried to shut out the memories of all the times she’d been a little too naked in the house, either ignoring the ghost or thinking it was a woman.

A slow smile spread over his face. “I’m the thing that killed her.” Fear pulsed through her at his words, and he seemed to savor it like wine. “Beatrice went to Heaven where all good girls with intact souls go when they die. Tell me, my dear, do you think your soul will be intact when I’m finished with you?”

Anna wasn’t sure what was required to keep her soul intact, and was even less sure she could manage to follow whatever the rule was. Especially since she found herself simultaneously repelled and attracted to him.

TRAILER:


Available for the Kindle from Amazon and for the Nook from B&N.

16 January 2011

Forget Large Print Books

I received a lovely email from a Canadian reader yesterday. She mentioned it was her 93-year-old father who put her onto Kindle: “His eyesight has not allowed for much relaxing reading in the past few years and let's face it, it won't be improving at his age. He calls it the "Best thing to happen to him in years" and is once more an avid reader.”

A number of my readers (that I know of) have vision impairment or failing eyesight. Yet with all the debate over the pros and cons of ebooks, this is one aspect that is often overlooked. No longer do people with vision problems have to rely on a limited selection of large print books for their reading matter. Ebook technology means that the reader gets to control the font size (and depending on the reader, sometimes the font type). And it’s not like reading text on a computer screen.

Then there’s text-to-speech technology. Don’t want to or can’t read the text, no worries: the ereader will read the book out loud. Isn’t this something we should be shouting from the rooftops? Sharing with those whose love of reading has been hampered through no fault of their own that there is a solution?

I haven’t been able to wear reading glasses for the last few months. All I can say is thank goodness for ebooks.

15 January 2011

Can the book survive? (Good Weekend, 15 Jan 2011)

This weekend’s Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend (readership 1,623,000) featured an article on the rise of the ebook and the future of traditional publishing:
THE RISE OF THE E-BOOK HAS CAST A SHADOW OVER THE FUTURE OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING. NIKKI BARROWCLOUGH INVESTIGATES WHETHER WE SHOULD TAKE IT AS READ THAT THE PRINTED BOOK WILL BE CONSIGNED TO THE PAGES OF HISTORY.

Guess which Aussie mystery writer got a mention? :-)

‘“When you've got your very big authors walking out the door, taking their book sales with them, there won't be the money to invest in new people,” says Hamley . “It’s going to be an interesting landscape.”

It already is. New Zealand-born Vicki Tyley, who now lives in Victoria, writes mystery and suspense novels. For years, her US-based agent, Robert Fleck, battled resistance to Australian mystery novels from American publishers. So he and Tyley decided to go the e-publishing route.

In October 2009, Tyley put up one of her novels, Thin Blood, on Smashwords, an e-publishing website. Six months later, she was chosen by an American online journal, Suspense Magazine, as its featured new author for April 2010. Then in May last year, Tyley self-released Thin Blood live on Amazon through the US-based online retailing giant’s Kindle publishing program – and by the end of June had sold in excess of 25,000 copies (at $2.99 a book, earning the author royalties of 70%).

Fleck is currently negotiating with a major print publisher to release all five of Tyley’s novels as mass-market paperbacks, although Tyley has told Good Weekend that she’s hoping to keep the electronic rights. In November, Thin Blood was named one of Amazon’s best of 2010 customer favourites.’


Unfortunately, I can't post the whole article, but if you'd like to read it online, the issue is available for US$0.99: The Sydney Morning Herald - Good Weekend online

14 January 2011

Crime doesn't pay... but neither does journalism

CRIME BEAT by Scott Nicholson out today!

DRM-free and 99 cents for a limited time.

When John Moretz takes a job as a reporter in the Appalachian town of Sycamore Shade, a crime wave erupts that boosts circulation and leaves people uneasy. Then a murder victim is discovered, and Moretz is first on the scene.

As more bodies are discovered, Moretz comes under police suspicion, but the newspaper's sales are booming due to his coverage of sensational crime. His editor is torn between calling off his newshound and cashing in on the attention, plus the editor is romancing the big-city reporter assigned to cover the suspected serial killer.

And Moretz seems to be one step ahead of the other reporters, the police, and even the killer himself.

Available for the Kindle from Amazon and for the Nook from B&N.

09 January 2011

Sleight Malice a Grace Krispy 2010 Top Four Read


Grace Krispy, educator and psychologist by day, avid reader and indie book reviewer by night, was asked by author Maria Schneider to contribute her top 4 Kindle reads of 2010 for the DailyCheapReads blog. I'm honoured and delighted that Sleight Malice made her list. Thanks, Grace!

Check out her other top picks here: 2010 Top Four Reads: Grace Krispy