Free Book (nook) - Ninja

Today's Free Friday selection at Barnes and Noble is Ninja ($1.99 Kindle), by Jon F. Merz, an author I've mentioned a few times previously on this blog. This one is a short story, at just under 10,000 words, and is the start of a new series. Jon also has an upcoming book, published by St. Martins, The Kensei ($9.99 Kindle), in his Lawson Vampire series, the earlier titles of which are, unfortunately, only available in used book stores. He does have an author newsletter (I checked my archive and it only comes out every few months); if you sign up for it this week, you'll get the next issue, which will include a new short story, "Rudolf the Red Nosed Rogue".

Book Description
In the style of Robert E. Howard, NINJA tells the story of a mythical warrior hero named Ran as he graduates from the ninja school he has been attending for twenty years and begins undertaking all sorts of missions across an alternate Earth. Ran will travel far and wide gathering intelligence, acquiring priceless artifacts, and battling evil wherever he finds it...

Written by bestselling author Jon F. Merz, himself a 20-year+ practitioner and master instructor of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu, NINJA is destined to thrill readers with its authentic ninja action combined with the adrenaline of the best fantasy fiction. This is the first in a planned series of adventure surrounding Ran.

Click HERE to get the download from B&N.

Free Book (nook) - Selected Stories of O. Henry

This week's Free Fridays book at B&N is one of their Barnes & Noble Classics Series, Selected Stories of O. Henry, by O. Henry & Victoria Blake. A nice edition of a well-known classic, this one was also free last July.

Book Description
Selected Stories of O. Henry, by O. Henry, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

O. Henry mastered the art of the humorous, energetic tale that ends with a sudden, ironic twist. In “After Twenty Years,” for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman. Behind the rendezvous lurks a powerful dramatic situation with a fascinating moral dilemma—all dealt with in a few brief pages.

This is just one of the many literary gems in Selected Stories of O. Henry, a collection of 45 of O. Henry’s most renowned and entertaining short stories. Each one offers insights into human nature and the ways it is affected by love, hate, wealth, poverty, gentility, disguise, and crime—themes that ran through the author’s own life. Born William Sidney Porter, O. Henry started writing while in prison for embezzlement. Later he moved to New York, and his tales romanticizing the commonplace, particularly the life of ordinary New Yorkers, became highly popular. The most widely read author of his time, O. Henry died penniless but left behind a wealth of short stories that endure as classics of the genre.

Victoria Blake is a freelance writer. She has worked at The Paris Review and contributed to the Boulder Daily Camera, small literary presses in the United States, and English-language publications in Bangkok, Thailand. She currently lives and works in San Diego, California.

Free Book - Immortal Ops

Immortal Ops (Book 1), by Mandy M. Roth, a novella originally published in the anthology Hunters (Immortal Ops, Book 1), is free at AllRomance.

Book Description
Captain Lukian Vlakhusha is having issues with his newest target, Peren Matthews. Something about her has left him staring at her picture and wondering what it would be like to touch her soft skin. When the time comes for the team to strike, Lukian senses danger and aborts the mission. He makes an attempt at meeting Peren and is set in his place by an independent young woman who knows what she is, and isn't, looking for in a man.

Lukian is having trouble telling Peren that he's what she fears most, a werewolf. Can they make the passion that burns between them last, or will Lukian's condition be too much for Peren?

Click HERE for the free book. You will have to choose a format after purchase (when downloading) and that format choice is locked in; if you need/want multiple formats, you'll need to purchase the book more than one time (free each time). The book is DRM-free, however, so you can also convert the format you download using Calibre or another free tool.

Available formats: Adobe Acrobat, Palm DOC/iSolo, Microsoft Reader, HTML, Mobipocket, Rocket, Epub

A Gift for Christmas

CJ West has been writing thrillers for a decade and is just one of the indie authors who is getting consistently good reviews at Amazon. I looked in my archive and see that I bought one of his books myself, earlier this year.

As a Christmas gift to thank his readers, he is offering to send everyone a copy of The End of Marking Time ($2.99 Kindle) via email. Send an email to him at authors (at) 22wb dot com (obviously, you'll need to replace the words with the correct punctuation to get a valid email address). If you get it in today (Wednesday), all you have to do is ask. If you see this on Thursday, you get a copy too, just mention this blog, as he has extended the offer for my readers. You can use any type of email account, he isn't accumulating the addresses for later use, just to send you the file. By default, he'll send you a MOBI formatted file for the Kindle, but if you want PDF or RTF, he can do that also, just make sure to mention it in your request.

Once you receive the file, just save it onto your computer, then copy it to your Kindle (or, if you are lazy, like me, just forward the email he sends you to your free Kindle address and it'll show up there the next time you have wi-fi on). He is sending the free books out in batches, so will get some sent out tonight and the rest tomorrow night; don't panic if it doesn't show up right away.

Book Description
Gifted housebreaker, Michael O'Connor, awakens inside an ultramodern criminal justice system where prison walls are replaced by surveillance equipment and a host of actors hired to determine if he is worthy of freedom. While he was sleeping, the Supreme Court declared long term incarceration to be cruel and unusual punishment and ordered two million felons released. The result was utter chaos and the backlash from law-abiding citizens and police departments reshaped the United States. Felons now enter reeducation programs where they live freely among the population. At least that's what they think. In reality they are enslaved to an army of counselors and a black box that teaches them everything they failed to learn from kindergarten through adulthood. Michael believes he's being tested by the black box, but what he slowly begins to realize is that everything he does is evaluated to determine whether he lives or dies.

Free Book (nook/EPUB) - Love on a Dime

Love on a Dime ($9.60 Kindle), by Cara Lynn James, the first in her Ladies of Summerhill series, was free in the Kindle store last month (in topaz format). Today, it's free from B&N, in their own unique EPUB format, and Sony (ADE-EPUB).

Book Description
In age of elegance and excess, Lilly Westbrook longs for a love both true and eternal.Newport, Rhode Island, 1899, is a place of shimmering waves, sleek yachts, and ladies of leisure. Of opulent mansions that serve as summer cottages for the rich and famous. Home of railroad magnates and banking tycoons--dashing young men and the women who aspire to marry them.But it's not the place for lady novelists. Especially not those who pen disreputable dime novels. This poses a problem for Lilly Westbrook, because that's exactly what she does.No one in Lilly's social set knows she pens fiction under the nom de plume Fannie Cole. Not her family or the wealthy young man about to propose to her. And especially not Jackson Grail, the long-lost beau who just bought her publishing company...and who stirs her heart more than she cares to admit.But Lilly must put aside her feelings and follow the path that will maintain her family's social stature and provide the financial security that everyone is depending on.Now Lilly faces a double dilemma. Can she continue to protect her secret identity? And will she have the courage to choose the man who will risk it all just to win her heart?

Click HERE to get the free download from B&N.
Click HERE to get the free download from Sony.