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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Free Book - A Time to Love (K/N/E)

Update: 3/26/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook.
Update: Also free from ChristianBook.
Update: Now free in the US Kindle store.
Update: Now free from Barnes & Noble

A Time to Love (US/UK), the first title in the Quilts of Lancaster County series by Barbara Cameron, is a repeat freebie for UK customers in the Kindle store, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press. It should be free for US Kindle customers by morning and is likely to be free from Barnes & Noble, as well.
Book Description
War correspondent Jennie King thinks she's just a temporary guest in her grandmother's Amish community while she recuperates from the devastating injuries sustained in a car bomb attack that changed her world. But when she meets Matthew Bontrager, the man she had a crush on as a teenager, she wonders if God has a new plan for her. Jennie has emotional and physical scars and though she feels she has come home to this man and this place, she's not sure she can bridge the difference between their worlds.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Valeria's Cross (K/N/E)

Update: 3/26/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Update: Also free from ChristianBook.
Update: Now free in the US Kindle store.
Update: Now free from Barnes & Noble

Valeria's Cross (US/UK), by Kathi Macias and Susan Wales, is a repeat freebie for UK customers in the Kindle store, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press. It should be free for US Kindle customers by morning and is likely to be free from Barnes & Noble, as well.
Book Description
In the 3rd century, pampered Roman princess Valeria falls in love with Mauritius, captain of the Theban Legion. She sends him off to battle, where he suffers under the schemes of a notorious pagan general with an ambition for power and a lust for Valeria. In a scene based on true events, the evil Galerius kills Mauritius and his entire legion for their Christian faith. And in a shocking turn of events, the grieving Valeria is forced to become Galerius' wife against her will. Never has a marriage been set up for such failure. Valeria loathes her new husband, but he seems to undergo a change of heart, adopting a child for her and giving her power and authority, and even love. She struggles with the commitment she knows she must keep, and the love she knows she will never find again.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Four Free Books (K)

The four books below actually appear to be are self-published (turns out, they all use Bookmasters or one of it's aliases, such as AtlasBooks), but all four have managed to make their way onto Amazon's Limited Time Offers list (while the KDP/KLL freebies do not). The first is one that I received a few pages of for review (not enough that I'd actually write a review) and it's an interesting approach on a graphic novel (it's quite large to download and meant for viewing on the computer screen or a large tablet). I don't know that these four are significantly better (or worse) than the other free self-published titles flooding the Kindle library, just that it was interesting that they showed up where they did. They also won't end up in the KLL, from what I can tell, so if you want to try them free, grab them now.

STURGIS ROAD TRIP, by Shauna Beallie [note to author: you mixed first and third person in your bio; it really doesn't work]
Book Description
A group of rugged, hardcore bikers ride hard and fast to attend the biggest, baddest bike rally on earth. Driven by their shared passion for the open road, they effortlessly tear up th miles between themselves and their destination. Perfect weather, no delays, zero complications. Too bad this wasn't us. 100 pages - 400 full color illustrations. You WILL be entertained.

About the Author
Shauna Beallie has been married to an old-school biker for twenty years. She rode on the back of his bike and then on my own. She has been on many road trips and wanted to share some laughs and insights with like-minded individuals.

The Chaplain's Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam, by J. Timothy Caldwell [note to author: I'd advise using a much lower list price, if you want to continue sales after your promotion; it appears this one garnered some good reviews while it was still "in print", before going all digital]
Book Description
Caldwell manages to capture the country, the war, and the people caught up in it in a way that is emotional, profane, sexy and heart-breaking. This is JT Caldwell's debut novel and is a next generation war memoir - one without battles, bullets or air strikes, but as grim and realistic as the war it documents. The Midwest Review called the book "solid and riveting reading," and it is a humor-laced novel that strikes a balance between the absurd and merciless effects of combat and their long-term impact on the soldiers who fight America's wars.

The Cyclops Conspiracy, by David Perry [note to author: no such thing as an "ex-Marine"; this one appears to have received some good reviews via NetGalley]
Book Description
Intrigue…Corruption…Manipulation

In this engaging thriller, David Perry demonstrates his skill as a master storyteller taking us behind the counter into the world of pharmacy. The Cyclops Conspiracy accelerates through an tense terrain toward an incredible finish.

As the story opens, pharmacist Jason Rodgers stands nose-to-nose with his tortured past following the untimely death of his mentor, Thomas Pettigrew. He is reunited with his former lover and Pettigrew’s daughter Christine. Troubled by the way Pettigrew died and Christine’s unsettling statements about her father, Rodgers pushes to know more. Their reunion initiates a cascade of apparently unrelated but fateful turn of events for Rodgers…an incredible job offer working for a mysterious millionaire…the lustful pursuits of a sexy physician…and the criminal activities of a corrupt pharmacist.

Christine and Jason forge a fragile alliance as they dance around their painful past. Teaming with Jason’s brother, the ex-marine [sic] and a sleazy private eye, the quartet uncovers hastily deposited clues left by the dead pharmacist peeling back the veil on corrupt insurance billing and an inescapable conclusion about how Thomas died.

But as Rodgers delves deeper, the realization that they are dealing with more than a case of fraud explodes to the surface. Expertly manipulated, he and his cohorts have been sucked into a dark and dangerous intrigue with terrifying, world-wide implications—and placed squarely in the crosshairs of a network for professional assassins.

Jason unearths the real reason behind his mentor’s murder and the ultimate cataclysmic purpose it intended to conceal. With the clock ticking down to a nail-biting climax, he races to stop the plot and expose the conspirators before he becomes their next victim…and before American history is irrevocably altered.

Awareness As the Ground of Being, by Alfred John Dalrymple [note to author: get some decent book covers created! No, seriously.... Also, you really, really need to spell check the synopsis before posting it....]
Book Description
In this universe one thing follows another. We relate to the speed of light, and say nothing can travel faster. Today...we know that two "entangled" bits of matter, although separated by vast distance, immediately co-respond to stimilus applied to one. Some say there is no message sent...the co-response is due to the "oneness" of reality. I believe message can be sent over vast distance immediately. This retains the separable nature of reality, and assures that man can have self-emanated choice...freewill. Time and distance are relative also, and primarily, to the immediacy of Consciousness. For centuries man has wrestled with questions about freewill and fate...and time. Now...with the entrance of "entanglement", we sense that reality has a "connectedness", as being carpet-like. So, we need to reconsider time and distance, and wonder why reality has laws allowing continuance of itself. In my book I suggest that time is Consciousness "becoming"...within necessary imperfectio.

Today's Deals

Kindle Fire Contest Update: The winners have been announced. If you are on this list, be sure you contact Scott or they'll have to draw someone else.
A big thanks to everyone who shared our event and books and with their friends. Here are our Kindle Fire winners: Larry Davidson, Amy Smith, Dorothy Eddy, B June Hansberry, #CheriePie (Cherie B), Lana Baker, Anita Japp, and Brian Woodward. Our $50 gift card winner is Heather Michaels. Please email epickindlegiveaway at yahoo dot com. Under stated rules, it is winner's responsibility to claim the prize within three days or an alternate winner will be selected. Congratulations from J.r. Rain Author,Htnight Author, Aiden James Author, and Scott Nicholson!
Even if you weren't drawn (the one Kindle given to blog entries didn't go here), I think we managed to get quite a few free ebooks as part of the contest that we might not have, otherwise. I don't think they'll do the Facebook contest again (they apparently swamped their account), but they might do something else - what do you think? Do you like the occasional post that participates in such contests?

The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks ($0.99), by Donald Harington, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This one looks pretty tempting and I'll be reading the sample for it this morning.
Book Description
Jacob and Noah Ingledew trudge 600 miles from their native Tennessee to found Stay More, a small town nestled in a narrow valley that winds among the Arkansas Ozarks and into the reader's imagination. The Ingledew saga - which follows six generations of 'Stay Morons' through 140 years of abundant living and prodigal loving - is the heart of Harington's jubilant, picaresque novel. Praised as one of the year's ten best novels by the American Library Association when first published, this tale continues to captivate readers with its winning fusion of lyricism and comedy.

About the Author
Although he was born and raised in Little Rock, Donald Harington spent nearly all of his early summers in the Ozark mountain hamlet of Drakes Creek, his mother's hometown, where his grandparents operated the general store and post office. There, before he lost his hearing to meningitis at the age of twelve, he listened carefully to the vanishing Ozark folk language and the old tales told by story-tellers. His academic career is in art and art history and he has taught art history at a variety of colleges, including his alma mater, the University of Arkansas. His first novel was published by Random House in 1965, and since then he has published twelve other novels, most of them set in the Ozark hamlet of his own creation, Stay More, based loosely upon Drakes Creek. He has also written books about artists. He won the Robert Penn Warren Award in 2003, the Porter Prize in 1987, the Heasley Prize at Lyon College in 1998, was inducted into the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame in 1999 and that same year won the Arkansas Fiction Award of the Arkansas Library Association. He has been called "an undiscovered continent" (Fred Chappell) and "America's Greatest Unknown Novelist" (Entertainment Weekly).

Pao ($1.82 / £1.19 UK), by Kerry Young, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).
Book Description
I was just a boy when I come to Jamaica.

Kingston, 1938.Fourteen-year-old Yang Pao steps off the ship from China with his mother and brother, after his father has died fighting for the revolution. They are to live with Zhang, the ‘godfather' of Chinatown, who mesmerises Pao with stories of glorious Chinese socialism on one hand, and the reality of his protection business on the other.

When Pao takes over the family's affairs he becomes a powerful man. He sets his sights on marrying well,but when Gloria Campbell, a black prostitute, comes to him for help he is drawn to her beauty and strength. They begin a relationship that continues even after Pao marries Fay Wong, the ‘acceptable' but headstrong daughter of a wealthy Chinese merchant.

As the political violence escalates in the 1960s the lines between Pao's socialist ideals and private ambitions become blurred. Jamaica is transforming, the tides of change are rising, and the one-time boss of Chinatown finds himself cast adrift. Richly imagined and utterly captivating, Pao is a dazzling tale of race, class and colour, love and ambition, and a country at a historical crossroads.

What Would Keith Richards Do?: Daily Affirmations from a Rock and Roll Survivor ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jessica Pallington West, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
What is a wiseman? What is a prophet?

Someone with a strange, unflappable demeanor. Someone who speaks in cryptic koans, words whose meanings take years to unravel. Someone who has confronted death, God, sin, and the immortal soul. Someone unfit for this world, but too brilliant to depart it. Someone--in short--like Keith Richards.

Here, at last, the wisdom of this indefatigable man is recorded and set forth. These are his visionary words: "I would rather be a legend than a dead legend." Or "Whatever side I take, I know well that I will be blamed." And--indeed--"I've never had a problem with drugs, only with policemen."

Not merely a compendium of wisdom, this book is also a complete guide to the inner workings of a complex and inspired belief system, and the life of a man sanctified by fame. What Would Keith Richards Do reminds us to learn from our mistakes, let our instincts lead us, and above all, do what Keith has done better than anyone--survive.

be sure to check out today's free Android App, Pyramix. from HD Interactive. You'd never guess from the icon used, but it is a word game. It has ads, so I wouldn't recommend paying for it, but it looks worth trying out for free.
Game Description
Word game aficionados, meet your latest challenge. Pyramix, a "word enigma generator" for your Android device, is an addictive game that combines code-deciphering strategy with the simplicity of classic grid-based word games.

Drawing from a jumbled assortment of letters, try to find the right letter combinations to solve unique four-word puzzles. Play against a timer or work in untimed mode, and take in the mysterious-looking graphics and evocative sound effects.

Crack the Pyramix Code
The pyramid-shaped game board consists of four empty, horizontally-stacked rows. At the bottom of the board, you'll see a mirror image of the top rows--but these rows contain jumbled letters. To build a word at the top, take any letter from the bottom and drop it in the space you choose.

Counters show the number of possible words for each row. Lights glow when a row is filled with a complete word. But remember, the more rows you fill, the harder the challenge gets! Be strategic and keep an eye on the counters as you create words. Good luck!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Free Book Roundup

Additional formats on these free books are now available:
Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long):