So you Don't Want to go to Church Anymore (free ebook)

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey ($9.23 Kindle and Paperback), by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman, is available as a free download from the author's website.

Book Description

Jake Colsen, an overworked and disillusioned pastor, happens into a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance (in manner) to the apostle John. A number of encounters with John as well as a family crisis lead Jake to a new understanding of what his life should be like: one filled with faith bolstered by a steady, close relationship with the God of the universe. Facing his own disappointment with Christianity, Jake must forsake the habits that have made his faith rote and rediscover the love that captured his heart when he first believed.

Compelling and intensely personal, SO YOU DON'T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE relates a man's rebirth from performance-based Christianity to a loving friendship with Christ that affects all he does, thinks, and says. As John tells Jake, "There is nothing the Father desires for you more than that you fall squarely in the lap of his love and never move from that place for the rest of your life."

Download your free copy HERE. There are two PDF versions to choose from (I'd pick the first one, if you want Amazon to convert it for you Kindle) and a PDA version in LIT format, which is the best version if you want to do the conversion yourself (use Calibre and it's only a few clicks, plus it will send it to your Kindle with one more click).

Free Ebook: Bombardirovka

Originally released to help support Doctors Without Borders and written while on a creative writing Fulbright scholarship in Armenia, Bombardirovka, by Crystal Allene Cook, is now available as a free download at Smashwords.

Journalist Jada Perlmutter becomes the story she seeks as she travels from Soviet Moscow to the mountainous "South" where her lover Zadik plans to take up being a guerrilla fighter in a new breakaway state. Injured, Jada is transported back to Moscow. Years later, in NYC, the taste of ash in her mouth sends Jada back to the Caucasus to conclude the story she left unfinished.

Reminder: National Kindle & Koffee Day

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the "official" Kindle and Koffee Day, to be celebrated by taking your Kindle to a local Starbucks or other coffee shop and reading or trying to read your book while showing off your Kindle to those who happen by. See my earlier post for some suggestions of books that are suitable for the occasion (or just read the latest bargains you've picked up for free).

The people over on the Amazon Kindle forums, where the idea originated, have a list of confirmed locations (Kindle & Koffee Locations), but it is by no means an exhaustive list. I've seen messages all over the internet this week and people are meeting up at Starbucks, Pete's, Caribou, various bookstores with coffee shops (Barnes & Noble and Borders both use Starbucks Coffee) and local coffee shops. So head on down tomorrow morning and have a cup of coffee while you read. You might end up showing off your Kindle; if not, it's a relaxing hour to start off your weekend.

Free Romance: Uncovered Passion

Who couldn't use a little more romance in their weekend? Especially when it is free. Christopher and Melissa Golliday have released Uncovered Passion ($0.80), the prequel to Uncovered Thoughts ($4.79) as a free read on their website.

Sasha Verochka is an FSB agent assigned to her first mission. Her mission? Uncovering the motives for why a handsome, former Marine is in Moscow. Being telepathic, she never thought it would be so hard to reveal the truth about Garrick Caldwell. But then again, she'd never experienced desire like this.

Now time is running out as her superiors want answers she can't make herself find. For in doing so, she just might lose her one chance at passion.

Their story continues in Uncovered Thoughts:

Six years after her explosive introduction into passion, Sasha Verochka is still haunted by what could have been and will never be. But right now, she can’t linger on that, because her little sister, Nadia has fallen prey to sex slave traffickers masquerading as a modeling agency. Now Sasha must move Heaven and Earth to save her. Garrick Caldwell is a tall, sexy, shape shifting CIA agent, what’s wrong? He’s getting bored with it all. Suddenly, the mysterious beauty he once intimately explored is back in his life. A rash decision to help the telepathic Russian recover her sister throws them together in the most delicious of ways.Together again by coincidence, neither understands the fierce attraction they have for one another. But will they decide whether to risk it all to ever find true, lasting happiness?

Download your free copy of Uncovered passion in PRC (Kindle), DOC (Word) or PDF format HERE.

Fantasy Friday

First, from Jeff Inlo, the entire Delver Magic series (Sanctum's Breach, Throne of Vengeance and Balance of Fate) is available as a free download (and in 8 different formats; get the Mobipocket version for your Kindle), as well as one outside the series, Alien Cradle (which is technically Science fiction).

A rolling tremor passes through the land of Uton signaling a return of long absent magic as well as an ancient evil that accompanies it. Ryson Acumen, purebred delver, senses the changes throughout the land. In his investigations, he learns that legends he considered fables hold more truth than fantasy. The delver encounters elves and learns the Sphere of Ingar, a talisman that captured all magical energies long ago, is free from its tomb in Sanctum Mountain. As violent, evil creatures return to shred the very fabric of reality, the sphere gains awareness and chooses to spew corrupted magical energies to obliterate all life.

The sphere must be destroyed, but it rests within Sanctum, a hollow mountain with a single path to its center. The way to the sphere remains defended by devices created long ago, forged by members of each race to thwart entry to the mountain's core. Those that wish to defeat the sphere must not only overcome these barriers, they must conquer the mistrust which has flourished during the long period of separation. Human, elf, dwarf, algor and delver must reunite to defeat the obstacles that now protect the sphere. Magic, though corrupt, is harnessed to fight off strange beasts of evil that once again walk this land. Once inside Sanctum, representatives of each race face the secrets of the ages that once undone will change their lives forever.

The Children of Odin - The Book of Northern Myths ($0.99) by Padraic Colum

Master storyteller Padraic Colum's rich, musical voice captures all the magic and majesty of the Norse sagas in his retellings of the adventures of the gods and goddesses who lived in the Northern paradise of Asgard before the dawn of history.

Here are the matchless tales of All-Father Odin, who crosses the Rainbow Bridge to walk among men in Midgard and sacrifices his right eye to drink from the Well of Wisdom; of Thor, whose mighty hammer defends Asgard; of Loki, whose mischievous cunning leads him to treachery against the gods; of giants, ragons, dwarfs and Valkyries; and of the terrible last battle that destroyed their world.

Blood Will Tell ($3.99) by Jean Lorrah

The change in Brandy Mather's life begins when a corpse of a very old man is discovered on the campus of Jackson Purchase State University. There is no sign of foul play. On the body is the identification of Professor Everett Land, but Land is a young man. Dental records show that the body found on campus is that of Everett Land. It doesn't make sense; Land was a healthy man in his forties, seen by faculty and students looking perfectly normal just hours before his death. The corpse is of a man over 90, maybe over 100, who died of multiple systemic failure due to advanced age. Brandy enlists the help of Dan Martin from the Computer Science department to search records of Everett Land's past. They discover that about thirty years ago he assumed a new identity, and that under his old name he had reached his sixties. Despite the continuing mystery of the age discrepancy -- how could a man actually in his sixties, seventies and eighties possibly pass for a man in his twenties, thirties and forties? -- the police chief declares the case closed and tells Brandy to get on with her other cases. Brandy can't let go of it, though. Other cases require her time and energy, but when she can, she continues to work on the Land case. Meanwhile, she becomes more and more involved with Dan Martin. Soon she falls in love. Martin, though, has his own mysteries -- the most important one to Brandy being why he does not make love to her. Sometimes he seems to have supernatural powers, but she doesn't believe in such nonsense. Besides, nothing he does cannot be accounted for as his being especially strong and healthy, particularly intuitive and persuasive ... can it? Dan Martin is not who he says he is. Blood Will Tell is not just your standard good-guy variation on the worn-out vampire story. This book asks the question: what if the vampire is not at the top of the food chain?

Drops of Crimson is an online fantasy magazine. It's a shame that you can't get a little bit better format to read on tke Kindle (the site uses HTML and each story/article is on it's own page), especially now that the editor has started using a Kindle 2.