Author Spotlight - Richard Herley

Richard Herley is one of those midlist authors that saw his books published worldwide, in several languages, only to have them eventually drop from the shelves as other authors gained the spotlight and finally his books fell out of print. He eventually pioneered the shareware ebook market, but found that few bought compared to those that downloaded (although, to be fair, no doubt few read either, as the net was them mostly dominated by those who collected free books and other content, rather than read them). After removing all of his ebooks from sale, he was persuaded to try once again, setting up his own website with free downloads (which seems to have since disappeared). Now, he has added his books to Smashwords and they are very reasonably priced, with two of them completely free. I know he won't get the sales or reviews he would if he were in the Kindle store, but his books are definitely worth trying out (and the DRM-Free Kindle format there works just fine). If you do, be sure to leave him a review when you get a chance.

The Penal Colony (free), a 103,000-word thriller, is the basis of the futuristic Ray Liotta movie No Escape.

Book Description
It is 1997. The British government now runs island prison colonies to take dangerous offenders from its overcrowded mainland jails.

Among all these colonies, Sert, 25 miles off the north Cornish coast, has the worst reputation. There are no warders. Satellite technology is used to keep the convicts under watch. New arrivals are dumped by helicopter and must learn to survive as best they can. To Sert, one afternoon in July, is brought Anthony John Routledge, sentenced for a sex-murder he did not commit. Routledge knows he is here for ever. And he knows he must quickly forget the rules of civilized life. But not all the islanders are savages. Under the charismatic leadership of one man a community has evolved. A community with harsh and unyielding rules, peopled by resourceful men for whom the hopeless dream of escape may not be so hopeless after all ...

The Stone Arrow (free) is one that I bought in paperback long ago and is still on my shelves.

Book Description
Stone Age England. The ancient, nomadic way of life is coming to an end; the agricultural revolution has begun. When the farmers of Burh attack the sleeping nomad tribe, Tagart is the only survivor. Twenty-five and heir to the chief, his sole inheritance now is his tribal honour – and it demands revenge. His ally is the forest itself: that, and his own ingenuity, courage and hunting skill.

The Flint Lord ($2.99)

Book Description
England, 5000 years ago. Brennis Gehan, Lord of Valdoe, is planning the genocide of the indigenous hunter-gatherers. Word has already reached them, but when their grand chieftain dies in a hunting accident it seems his successor will not heed the warning. Only Tagart understands the danger: but first he must win the battle for leadership, waged according to ancient and ruthless laws ...

The Earth Goddess ($2.99)

Book Description
3000 BC. The cult of the Earth Goddess is controlled by a sinister priesthood. The island country has been annexed and its lord murdered. His consort has fled, carrying his heir, Paoul. Ignorant of his parentage, Paoul is orphaned and sold into the Red Order. His teachers predict a great destiny for him. Only later, beyond the point of no return, do his doubts begin ...

The Tide Mill ($2.99)

Book Description
In 13th-century Sussex, an illicit love-affair and ruthless power-politics find focus in a masterwork of medieval engineering ... The newest novel from this award-winning writer.

Refuge ($2.99)

Book Description
It is 2029, twelve years on from a global plague. John Suter believes himself the sole survivor until he finds a mutilated body in the river near his house. He knows he has no choice but to investigate. What he discovers upstream stretches his endurance to its limits and forces him to reassess not only his own humanity, but also his place within the human family he had once believed extinct.

Free Book - Dark Water's Embrace

Dark Water's Embrace ($8.99 Kindle), by Stephen Leigh, is available for free, direct from the publisher, through the end of the month.

Book Description
Often compared to Ursula K. Le Guin’s ground-breaking The Left Hand of Darkness, Dark Water’s Embrace is a fascinating look at issues of human (and alien) sexuality. Stephen Leigh creates a rich world with elaborate care and uses this alien backdrop to delve into issues of survival, sexuality and the meaning of life itself.

Descendents of a long marooned group of humans struggle with mutations and infertility and if a cure cannot be found they are doomed to extinction.

The colony’s doctor, Anaïs, herself suffers from a sexual deformity. However, her world is turned upside down when she discovers that the preserved corpse of a long-extinct native race carries exactly the same deformities as herself.

What is the connection? And can she find the answer to this mystery that has reached back from time to haunt both her and the colony struggling to survive against impossible odds?

Click HERE for the free book. You'll have to scroll down to find the book's listing, then click on the "Free EBook" link underneath the cover picture. On the next page, enter an email address and coupon code 9991300, then check your email for the download link (which will also have some coupons for other books at Smashwords). There isn't a Kindle format, but the epub and PDF are DRM-free, so can be easily converted.

One Buck Book (Kindle) - Damage Control

Damage Control, by Amy J. Fetzer, is currently 99 cents as a limited time promotion from Amazon.

Book Description
Two Against The World

Explosives expert Sebastian Fontenot has patience in spades-whether he's deactivating bombs or gritting out three days beneath a pile of rubble. But when the hard-bodied operative learns his oldest friend is in trouble, he flies into action ... and ends up on the Artic Circle, where a sexy scientist holds clues that threaten his mission ... and her life....

Olivia Corrigan can handle men. But Sebastian Fontenot is like no other she's encountered: hot as hell and in danger of thinking he can order her around with that delicious drawl of his. Lucky for her, the mesmerizing mercenary is on her side. And it's a good thing, too. Once they stumble onto a horrifying international cover up, it's up to Olivia and Sebastian to keep their hands off each other just long enough to keep a dangerous power from falling into the wrong hands-.

Free Book (nook) - Billy Boyle

Billy Boyle ($7.51 Kindle), by James R. Benn, the first in the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series, is free from Barnes and Noble tonight.

Book Description
What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he’d barely made detective when war was declared. Unwilling to fight—and perhaps die—for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz. And Uncle Ike wants Billy to be his personal investigator.

Billy is dispatched to the seat of the Norwegian government in exile. Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned, but it is feared that there is a German spy amongst the Norwegians.

Billy doubts his own abilities, with good reason. A theft and two murders test his investigative powers, but Billy proves to be a better detective than he or anyone else expected.

Click HERE to get the free book.

And now, a word from a sponsor - Diapers and Parents Magazine

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OK, not really a sponsor. But this deal has nothing whatsoever to do with books, games, videos or music, so is pretty much just an ad (but a great deal for some of you out there). If you don't have or take care of any kids, just click to read the next post. If you do and have to buy diapers, you will want to take advantage of this deal at Amazon. You can get more than 90% off of select diapers and baby wipes, by combining a subscription and multiple coupon codes onto one order.

First, click HERE or on the picture above. Order any of the items on the deals page using the Subscribe and Save option and you'll get 30% off the already discounted price shown. Don't worry, you can cancel your subscription at any time after you receive confirmation that your order has shipped, so you are not really locking yourself in to getting them from Amazon all the time. You'll also automatically get free 2-day shipping on these orders, so you don't need to pay any extra for that, either.

Don't submit the order yet, though. First, search the August and September issue of Parents Magazine (print, not Kindle). In it you will find a little Orange Card for Amazon with an offer for 20% off. You can combine this with the deal above for a total savings of 50% OFF!! (30% with the subscribe and save discount and 20% with the Amazon coupon from Parents Magazine). You enter the coupon code off of the orange card after clicking on Subscribe and Save, but before confirming the order - there is a place for entering coupon codes there, just as with regular orders.

Each card is a one-use code, like gift certificates, but they can be combined on one order, so long as the starting letter is different. There are cards that start with an A, W or X, so you could potentially add all three on one order to get an additional 60% off. That's a total of 90% off so far, but there's more....

If you use Pampers Diapers, Pants, Easy Ups Trainers or UnderJams, you can get an additional $1.50 off by first going to your Amazon Coupons Page and clicking on an applicable coupon. You do, however, need to make sure that the item you pick on the Coupons page is one of the ones on the 30% off deals page, though. I don't know about you, but I forget to check the coupons that Amazon has set up for me. These seem to change about every time I refresh the page, but I was presented with the $1.50 Pampers coupon the first time, after clicking on the links above.

So, for maximum savings of 90% plus $1.50 off the Amazon (not list) price, follow these steps

1. Locate the coupons in the August and September issues of Parents Magazine. There are Facebook and other groups that trade codes, if you need to do so.
2. If you are a Pampers customer, click on the Amazon Coupons Page and refresh until you see a coupon for the type of Pampers product that you use (I see an expiration date of 8/28/10 on these, so this isn't a one-day only deal).
3. Finally, click on the Diapers Promotion page to make sure you are getting one of the items included on the promotion.
4. Click on Subscribe and Save (on the right side of the screen, below the usual Add to Cart and 1-Click options).
5. On the order confirmation page, enter your codes, up to three per order, so long as they start with different letters (you enter a code, click on Apply, then repeat for each code).
6. Then, check your order total and submit!

You should see a shipping notice within a day or two, for most products. Once the item has shipped, you can go to the Manage Subscribe & Save Items page under Your Account and cancel any future shipments. And, here's a secret - generally you can cancel a subscription and then start a new one, even on the same day, in order take advantage of deals like this that are usually for new subscriptions only.

The coupons in Parents magazine are rumored to be coming in future issues as well. If you want to subscribe, there are two decent deals: for today only, Barnes and Noble has a one-year subscription for $5. If you miss that one, want more than one year or just prefer to keep all your subscriptions at Amazon, where they are pretty easy to manage, then Amazon has a two-year subscription for $12.