Get a Refurbished Kindle - In Stock Now!

As those who have tried to order a Kindle (Amazon's Wireless Reading Device) lately are aware, the backorder time is now up to approximately 3 months for a new Kindle. Used Kindles are being sold for roughly two times retail ($700-$850) at Amazon and on Ebay. But, there is still a way to get a "new" Kindle for Christmas and it costs LESS than $359. Amazon is selling their refurbished Kindles for $329. They are currently in stock and you can easily have one in had next week, giving you plenty of time to test it out and load it up with free books before Christmas arrives.

Kindle Bargain Books

A number of Kindle edition books, mostly author back catalogs, have been marked down recently (but there is no guarantee they'll stay at these low prices). The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure is currently $1.95, but if The Princess Diaries is more your style, it's going for $4.76. The best bet for The Princess Diaries, currently, is to read it online for free, over at Harper-Collins' website.

Some examples of authors with bargain books:

Isaac Asimov
Suzanne Brockmann
Jennifer Crusie
Janet Evanovich
Tami Hoag
Kay Hooper
Linda Howard
Iris Johansen
Lester del Rey (classic SciFi)
Robert Silverberg

Note that a number of Robert Silverberg's entries are short stories, but there a few gems in there, with The Book of Skulls and The World Inside both under $1.00 and Dying Inside and Son of Man only slightly more (Son of Man seems to be a love it hate it book - reviews are clustered at the 5 and 1 star range, with those who hate it wanting some way to leave zero stars, so take advantage of the free sample before squandering the $1.50!)

And if you've been thinking of starting restaurant, going into food service or maybe even just remodeling your kitchen, you might want to check out Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Foodservice, which is currently going for $0.01 (yes, that's ONE CENT) in the Kindle Edition. This is a large book (12 MB) and the print version is listed for $63.80 (but no doubt has better pictures), which is actually about $25 less than the 2nd edition hardcover. The Kindle edition is also the newly updated third edition - quite a bargain for those needing this particular information.

Free ebook for Kindle - Dark Resurrection

Dark Resurrection by John A. Karr

The paperback lists at $16 (but is $12.48 at Amazon), but the Kindle edition is available today at no charge. The Kindle editions is also a slight update from the print version (yet another plus of ebooks). Here's the description from the Amazon web site (note the warning about content at the end):

Surgeon Victor Galloway kept death at bay in the operating room-now death has claimed him. Resurrected against his will, he must fight for his family and his soul.

Victor Galloway is a prominent surgeon and family man. When he suffers a heart attack, he claws his way to the phone and dials 911. The paramedics arrive, smile down at him and quickly administer a lethal injection.

Victor-s life is ending, but his nightmare has just begun.

Close to death and strapped to a gurney, he-s offered an unholy deal by Tobias, H.E.L.L.-s CEO: Use his surgical skills to harvest the living to feed the undead in exchange for immortality.

Refused but not to be denied, Tobias presses his unwilling recruit into the ranks of the undead. Whether by chance or divine intervention, Victor is different from the others. He is a monster with a conscience, a force for good ensnared by evil, and the only one willing to stand against Tobias and his burgeoning nest of zombies. He must destroy them, but doing so risks the lives of his family and the last hospital employee with a pulse.

This book has been previously published and has been revised from its original release.

Warning, this title contains the following: dark themes, graphic violence, language, gore, and a smattering of explicit sex.

Kindle Out-of-Stock for the Holidays!

Have you been thinking about getting a Kindle for the Holidays this year, for yourself or someone on your shopping list? If so, you may have waited too late to get one before the end of the year. Two days after the mention on the Oprah show, the Kindle was listed as back-ordered, with a three to four week wait. This past weekend, the early holiday shoppers did the math and put in their orders - the backlog is now up to 11 to 13 weeks (that's right, three months, just as long as when it first released).

I know some are claiming Amazon should have planned better, just as they complained when it was first released. But the popularity of the Kindle, just as with some other hot electronics of the current season and season's past, sometimes overwhelms the best planning (people are still waiting to get the WII Fit in many areas and even the WII console is only in stock now and then and it's been out even longer). Just as the initial year's worth of Kindles sold out in 5.5 hours when it was first released last year, it looks like another year's worth sold out due to the Oprah show and the holiday season. Those who have held out, hoping for a Kindle 2.0, should heed the official word from Amazon: there will be no NEW Kindle design out until 2009 AT THE EARLIEST. Sure, the speculators (who also seem to have a lot of pro-Apple iPhone articles on their blogs) keep mentioning that a new version will be out "soon", but it may be another year (or more) before a new hardware design hits the shelves.

In the meantime, reserve yours now and put an IOU under the tree. You can actually start purchasing books for the Kindle (unless it's a gift for someone not on your Amazon account, in which case you should make sure you check the box to mark it as a gift, so it doesn't register to your account) as soons as it ships (and maybe as soon as you order; I don't know about back-ordered ones), so that the IOU under the tree can be cashed in for a loaded Kindle, with books ready to read, right out of the box, when it does finally arrive.

Free ebooks: Eleven titles from Dragon Moon Press

Dragon Moon Press is a small publishing house run by Gwen Gades. that has managed to gather a few notables to its list of publications. Even better, several of these are available for a free pdf download at the website/blog.

The current list of free fiction includes (links take you to Amazon, where you can read a description and any reviews):

* Alien Deception by Tony Ruggiero
* Alien Revelation by Tony Ruggiero
* The Chalice of Life (Adventurers of the Carotian Union, Book 1) by Karen Anne Webb
* Darwins Paradox by Nina Munteanu
* Lachlei by M. H. Bonham
* Small Magics by Erik Buchanan
* Sojourn (Time Rovers - Book 1) by Jana G. Oliver [FMBOTYA Editor's Choice Winner]
* The Darkling Band by Jason Henderson
* Gryphon Highlord by Connie Ward (Gold Winner)
* The Longevity Thesis by Jennifer Rahn
* Virtual Evil by Jana G. Oliver (Time Rovers BK2)

Lachlei has been offered as a free download for about a week now (included in the download is are details on how to be eaten by a werewolf in the next book of the series!), but the rest are recent additions as free downloads. All are available at Amazon either as a print book or a Kindle download, some in both formats.

Remember our Veteran's!

and a belated Happy Birthday to all my fellow Marines, whether serving currently or in the past!

Free ebook for Kindle - Maiden Flight

Samhain Publishing has announced their next Kindle title giveaway. From November 10 to November 16, 2008 – Maiden Flight from Bianca D'Arc will be FREE for the Kindle. This title is the first in her Dragon Knights series. Here’s a little bit about the book:

War is coming for the knights, dragons and a damsel who is not quite in distress, but finds her heart’s desire in the strong men of the Border Lair.

A chance meeting with a young male dragon seals the fate of one adventurous female poacher. The dragon’s partner, a ruggedly handsome knight named Gareth, takes one look at the shapely poacher and decides to do a little poaching of his own. Sir Gareth not only seduces her, but falls deeply in love with the girl who is not only unafraid of dragons, but able to hear their silent speech, which is a rarity. He wants her for his mate, but mating with a knight is no simple thing. To accept a knight, a woman must also accept the dragon, the dragon’s mate… and her knight too.

She is at first shocked, then enticed by the lusty life in the Lair. War is in the making and only the knights and dragons have a chance at ending it before it destroys their land and their lives. But there’s nothing a knight enjoys more than a noble quest and winning the heart and trust of a maiden is the noblest quest of all.

This title has been previously published.

Warning, this title contains explicit sex and menage-a-trois.

Free Ebook: Emissaries from the Dead

Emissaries from the Dead: An Andrea Cort Novel by Adam-Troy Castro, which looks like a murder mystery/scifi cross, is free for a limited time EOS books. From the main Harper Collins Ebook web site click on the "download a free ebook" box at the left of the page or follow this direct link. Don't forget to use the coupon code EOS6 when you get to the checkout page in order to get it for free.

If you have a Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device, check the Amazon site to see if this title is offered free later this week. Usually they feature the same titles as Harper/EOS has had free within a day or two. If you are thinking of getting a Kindle for the holidays and haven't placed your order yet, you'll want to get your order in soon. With the boost in awareness after being featured on the Oprah show last week, the Kindle is now SOLD OUT! Shipping estimates are now at 2 to 3 weeks, not quite as long a wait as when it was first released, but considering the increased production numbers reported elsewhere, this is estimated on some Kindle blogs to mean over 100,000 units were sold (although no true numbers are released for sales, leaks from the EInk displays screen hardware vendor have been used to estimate numbers for the Kindle and it's competitors). Although the discount is now over, you can still get in your order now and get it before Christmans.

Book Review: The Devil Can Wait

The Devil Can Wait (A Sam Harper Crime Mystery) is the latest in what looks to be a winning crime mystery series from Marta Stephens. The book hits the stands November 2 and I've just finished reading the review copy. Well written and definitely recommended this complex, yet fast paced thriller mostly follows Detective Sam Harper, first introduced in Silenced Cry, as he attempts to stop what appears to be a serial killer on the loose.

The book opens with the latest in a series of murders of teenage gang leaders in Chandler, Massachusetts, then jumps to Columbia, South America, where a drug smuggler is dumped into the jungle after he steals from his employers. Luckily for him, he ends up not far from where his mother hides in the jungle, suspected of being a witch by local villagers, with a ring that holds her power and which her son longs to possess. The ring, however, is known to others and a series of murders follows it's possession, while the drug smuggler follows it's path to Chandler. As he kills those who stand in his way, we discover that the ring is an essential element in the biblical prophecy of the End of Days and he intends to be the one to fulfill it.

As the story progresses and the bodies pile up, all the threads of the story weave together, linking the ring and the serial killer cases together. As the End of the World prophecy is fulfilled, the true face of evil isn't unveiled until it’s nearly too late.