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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Two Free Short Stories - Girls to the Rescue (K/N/E)

Update: 3/25/12 Both titles now free from Sony.
Update: 3/7/11Tulia is now free from B&N.
Update: 3/5/11The Royal Jouse is now free from B&N.

Bruce Lansky has two free short stories in the Girls to the Rescue series available on Kindle today: The Royal Joust and Tulia (Kindle pre-order; March 6).
The Royal Joust (Kindle, B&N, Sony)
On the last day of the Royal Joust, Reggie is in too much pain to get out of bed. He asks his sister Lindsey to tell the judges he has to drop out of the tournament. Lindsey borrows Reggie’s horse. Unbeknownst to Reggie, she also borrows his armor. She’s Reggie’s training partner; if nobody finds out she’s not he, maybe “Reggie” won’t have to drop out of the tournament…

In most fairy tales, a helpless young lady waits around for a prince to rescue her. But the spunky girls in the entertaining Girls to the Rescue series are much too busy saving the day to wait for Prince Charming. “The Royal Joust” is one of ten stories from Girls to the Rescue Book #1.


Tulia (Kindle, B&N, Sony)
Tulia means “calm down” in Swahili. Aisha’s mom often used the Swahili word “tulia” to help calm down her children, now Aisha uses the word herself when she is in scary situations.

One night Aisha was visiting her sister, Ellen, while she was babysitting. After the little boy Ellen was babysitting was tucked into bed for the night Ellen scooped-up bowls of her favorite ice cream for each of them, but that’s when Aisha’s keen senses kicked in, she smelled something… she smelled smoke. In this scary moment, a very brave girl, armed with her mother’s voice, finds courage…

In most fairy tales, a helpless young lady waits around for a prince to rescue her. But the spunky girls in the entertaining Girls to the Rescue series are much too busy saving the day to wait for Prince Charming. “Tulia!” is one of ten stories from Girls to the Rescue Book #5.

Free Short Story - Newfangled Fairy Tales (K/N/E)

Update: 3/25/12 Now free from Sony.
Update: 3/16/12 Now free from Barnes & Noble.

Newfangled Fairy Tales - free short story, by Bruce Lansky (author of the popular Girls to the Rescue series), Timothy Tocheris free to pre-order in the Kindle store. This looks like it is a single story from a planned 20 story book or it is referring to the entire series in the description, as you can currently, you can get New Fangled Fairy Tales Book #1 and New Fangled Fairy Tales Book #2 for $3.99 apiece (discounted from $17.20 or $11.50, it claims, but I suspect that is the normal price for this series), might very well be worth grabbing, as well, for those with middle-grade reader. Each of the latter books contains 10 stories.
Book Description
The Big Bad Wolf is running a successful scam on Little Red's Grandma until Little Red catches him in the act.

The Newfangled Fairy Tale series consists of twenty contemporary fairy tales, each puts a delightful new spin on classic stories and themes. King Midas is a workaholic banker who would rather play with his money than attend his son's Little League baseball games. The Three Bears invade Goldy's house because their forest home is being stripped to build a super highway. A Prince refuses to marry any of the grumpy princesses who lost sleep because there were peas under their mattresses. A clever princess pays a dragon to lose a fight so she can marry the man she loves.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Today's Deals

A big coupon code at Kobo today: c4auto40 for 40% off any non-Agency title, expires February 25. Don't forget, also, to enter their daily contest.

If you pre-ordered Evernight with Bonus Materials, a YA urban fantasy by Claudia Gray, it should have been delivered this morning. For those who can't (or won't) do a pre-order, you can still get it free, to have at it.

Additional formats on these free books are now available:

House of Thieves ($0.99), a short story collection by Kaui Hart Hemmings, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
In her debut collection of short stories, House of Thieves, Kaui Hart Hemmings has set the magnificent islands of Hawaii as a backdrop to describe bold frustrated adolescents and adults as they wrestle with themselves and each other over the age-old issues of deprived freedom, misguided love, being cool, and being true; and as they experience together the loneliness of feeling miserable in paradise.

The nine stories in House of Thieves are told from varied points of view--a father, a child, a young woman, an adolescent boy, and more. Rooted in the circumstances and situations of island people, they reveal the mundane cycle of small triumphs and tragedies that make up the lives of ordinary people everywhere. A single mother's discovery of a pornographic magazine in her thirteen-year-old son's room sends her down a spiral of jealousy that ultimately guarantees her loss of him. A middle-aged man struggles with this secret hatred for his brother and finds a way to enact a revenge whose absolute destructiveness promises to heal him. A white man who is left by his native Hawaiian wife struggles to understand why he and his daughter, abandoned together, feel such deep resentment for each other. A boy who insists on the illusion of his happy family suddenly recognizes his father's lack of real love and comes to "the understanding that certain things are severed and they can't grow back again, the sorrow from loving a place that doesn't love you back."

Hemmings' tart, confident voice plunges headfirst into the unfamiliar world of a Hawaii far from the tourist track, providing glimpses of the islands' divisive racial and class issues, as well as the proud heritage of kings and warriors and the legacy of colonialists and missionaries. Her unceremonious dealing with issues like drugs, sex, and abandonment and her entirely unself-conscious prose allow her stories to wash effortlessly like an ocean wave, portraying with unsentimental insight and wry humor the complex forces that bind family members together in love and hate.

Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Andrew Lane, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
The year is 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. His life is that of a perfectly ordinary army officer’s son: boarding school, good manners, a classical education – the backbone of the British Empire. But all that is about to change. With his father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously ‘unwell’, Sherlock is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire. So begins a summer that leads Sherlock to uncover his first murder, a kidnap, corruption and a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent . . . The Death Cloud is the first in a series of novels in which the iconic detective is reimagined as a brilliant, troubled and engaging teenager – creating unputdownable detective adventures that remain true to the spirit of the original books.

The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople ($2.50 Kindle, B&N), by Stephan Schiffman, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Now you can join the hundreds of thousands of salespeople who have followed Stephen Schiffman's advice and watch your performance soar. Schiffman lets you in on the industry's best-kept secrets. Learn how to: Convert leads to sales; Motivate yourself and motivate others; Give killer presentations; Keep your sense of humor. This new edition includes: New examples using the latest advances in sales presentation technology; Up-to-date cases of these successful habits in action; Five bonus habits showing readers how to overcome mistakes, set sales timetables, and reexamine processes to shore up weaknesses. If you're a salesperson looking to succeed, this is the book for you! Stephen Schiffman has trained more than a half-million salespeople at firms such as AT&T, Information Systems, Chemical Bank, Manufacturer's Hanover Trust, Motorola, and U.S. Health Care. He is president of D.E.I. Management Group and the author of such bestselling books as Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!) and Closing Techniques (That Really Work!).

The author of The 25 Most Common Sales Mistakes . . . And How to Avoid Them teaches salespeople how to demonstrate trustworthiness, turn a customer's objection around, and 23 other proven habits for sales success.

Free Book - Stuck With You (K)

Stuck With You, by Trish Jensen, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Two feuding divorce lawyers. One infectious "love bug" virus. The symptoms are hard to resist . . .

Paige Hart is blessed and cursed with a large, loving and ... colorful Southern family. As the only lawyer in the clan, she can't say no when her cousin needs her help in a messy, no-holds-barred divorce. Tax attorney Paige squares off with Ross "the Snake" Bennett - one of the slickest divorce lawyers in the county. The case is going as well as an acrimonious, zinger-filled, wrangle of epic proportions can go until exposure to an infectious bug with an unusual side effect lands both lawyers in quarantine together.

Free book - Dark River Road (K)

Dark River Road, by Virginia Brown, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
One powerful man . . .has always controlled this small Southern town. Unchallenged, until now.

Like everyone else in Cane Creek, Mississippi, Chantry Callahan grew up in the shadow of town boss Bert Quinton. Quinton held the lives of local people in his harsh grasp, never letting go. He knew where all their secrets were buried, along with the bodies of anyone who had dared to defy him. As a boy, Chantry couldn't best Quinton. Couldn't protect the people he loved, including his own mother. But now Chantry is grown. He's come back for answers. And for justice.