Today's Deals

For those buying EPUB books, don't forget, to enter the Kobo daily contest. If you miss a day, you can answer prior day's questions after the daily question (and still get another coupon code). The coupon codes won will expire at the end of the contest.

Fictionwise Coupon, 022412, 55% off most books (not Samhain), expires 02/27/12 (or a couple of days later, usually).

Slumberland ($1.99), by Paul Beatty, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.

Book Description
Critical darling Paul Beatty's highly original, widely praised novel of race, identity, and underground music.

After creating the perfect beat, DJ Darky goes in search of Charles Stone, a little know avant-garde jazzman, to play over his sonic masterpiece. His quest brings him to a recently unified Berlin, where he stumbles through the city's dreamy streets ruminating about race, sex, love, Teutonic gods , the prevent defense, and Wynton Marsalis in search of his artistic-and spiritual-other.

Ferocious, bombastic, and laugh-out-loud funny, Slumberland is vintage Paul Beatty and belongs on the shelf next to Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, and Junot Diaz.

Love All the People ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Bill Hicks, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.57 on Kindle or $10.49 at Kobo, where it is coupon eligible).

Book Description
Bill Hicks was arguably the most influential stand-up comedian of the last 30 years. He was funny, out of hand, impossible to ignore and genuinely disturbing. His work has inspired Michael Moore, Mark Thomas and Robert Newman among others. The trade paperback published in February 2003 was the first collected work and included major stand-up routines, diary, notebook and letters extracts, plus his final writings, most previously unpublished. This smaller format paperback has extra material discovered subsequently.

Write Great Fiction - Plot & Structure ($3.99 James Scott Bell, B&N), by James Scott Bell, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. If you are an aspiring author, you may also be interested in Writing Fiction for All You're Worth: Strategies and Techniques for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level (also $3.99); he has a number of other books on writing techniques (his field of expertise), as well, although most of those are in the $9 range, to go with his bestselling thrillers, published by Zondervan.

Book Description
How does plot influence story structure? What's the difference between plotting for commercial and literary fiction? How do you revise a plot or structure that's gone off course?

With Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, you'll discover the answers to these questions and more. Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot, including:

• Techniques for crafting strong beginnings, middles, and ends
• Easy-to-understand plotting diagrams and charts
• Brainstorming techniques for original plot ideas
• Thought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapter
• Story structure models and methods for all genres
• Tips and tools for correcting common plot problems

Filled with plot examples from popular novels, comprehensive checklists, and practical hands-on guidance, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure gives you the skills you need to approach plot and structure like an experienced pro.

About the Author
JAMES SCOTT BELL is a bestselling and award winning suspense writer. He was the fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine and has written four popular books for the Writers Digest line: Plot & Structure, Revision & Self-Editing, The Art of War for Writers and Conflict & Suspense. Jim taught writing at Pepperdine University and numerous writers conferences in the United States, Canada and London.

Free Book - Southern Seahawk: (K/N)

Southern Seahawk, the first novel in the Seahawk Trilogy by Randall Peffer, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.

Book Description
Southern Seahawk: A Novel of the Civil War at Sea grows from the true story of Commander Raphael Semmes’ rise to infamy, becoming the Union’s “Public Enemy Number One.”

In June, 1861, Semmes’ Confederate cruiser Sumter makes a daring escape through the Federal Blockade of the Mississippi. So begins the commander’s career as the Southern Seahawk. With a hand-picked crew of Southern officers and mercenary seamen, Semmes seizes eight enemy ships in four days, a record never surpassed by any other captain of a warship. By the time the cruises of the Sumter and her successor Alabama end, Semmes will have taken and burned more than eighty prizes, making him the most successful maritime predator in history.

For two and a half years Semmes eludes a pack of pursuers and almost single-handedly drives marine insurance rates so high in the North, that many Yankee ships refuse to sail until he is caught. Back in Washington, Semmes’ predations fuel feuds within the Lincoln cabinet and incite the spy games of historical figures like courtesans Rose Greenhow, Betty Duval, detective Allan Pinkerton and the commander’s mistress.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Hire Me, Hollywood! (K/N)

Hire Me, Hollywood!: Your Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Most Exciting - and Unexpected - Jobs in Show Business, by Mark Scherzer, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.

Book Description
The secret to Stan Lee's writing process
The story behind Elmo's giggle
What's for lunch on the set of The Walking Dead
Squirrel training with Johnny Depp

Think you know what it takes to get your favorite TV show on the air every week? (You'd be surprised.) Or what all those people whose names in the credits of the latest blockbuster actually do? (Including the Supervising Digital Colorist?) What better way to find out than from the who's who of Hire Me, Hollywood!

Entertainment insiders Mark Scherzer and Keith Fenimore are here to give you a crash course in all things Hollywood through thirty sometimes funny, occasionally racy, and always revealing interviews with such industry experts.

Whether you've always dreamed of yelling "Action" on a major movie set or you'd be thrilled just to get Matthew McConaughey his morning coffee, this book will give you inside scoop from craft service to the director's chair--and every take in between.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

8 Free Books from New Word City (K)

New Word City has another batch of free books in the Kindle store, which are likely to only remain free for a day or so.

1. Decadent Desserts, by Stonyfield Farm *repeat
2. Alfred Sloan's Way
3. Henry Ford's Way *repeat
4. 7 Steps to a Great Speech, by Nick Morgan
5. The King's Speech, by Nick Morgan
6. How to Tell Great Business Stories, by Nick Morgan
7. How to Read Body Language, by Nick Morgan
8. How to Give a Great Presentation, by Nick Morgan

Today's Deals

For those buying EPUB books, don't forget, to enter the Kobo daily contest. If you miss a day, you can answer prior day's questions after the daily question (and still get another coupon code). The coupon codes won during the contest will expire at the end of the contest, but I've managed to snag a couple of 35% off coupons already. Today's also the last day to use the 40% off coupon at Kobo, in case you have your eye on a particular title.

Today's free MP3 is a Tex-Mex album that is an Amazon exclusive by The Krayolas (a San Antonio band you can hear on Little Steven's Underground Garage show, quite often) and features Flaco Jimenez - both are pretty popular artists in their own right and fans won't want to miss this one. You can get another free song (Honeybee of Love, which will be on their next album) from the band on their website, as well as listen to their birthday song recorded for Bob Dylan and check out a several music videos.

Blood of the Wicked ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series by Leighton Gage, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Check your libraries on this one, as it was free in Dec '10 under a different ASIN (I have not idea if it's a new listing at B&N, as they don't indicate on a book page that you've bought it, but it's in my library there, too).

Book Description
In the remote Brazilian town of Cascatas do Pontal, where landless peasants are confronting the owners of vast estates, the bishop arrives by helicopter to consecrate a new church and is assassinated.

Mario Silva, chief inspector for criminal matters of the federal police of Brazil, is dispatched to the interior to find the killer. The pope himself has called Brazil’s president; the pressure is on Silva to perform. Assisted by his nephew, Hector Costa, also a federal policeman, Silva must battle the state police and a corrupt judiciary as well as criminals who prey on street kids, the warring factions of the Landless League, the big landowners, and the church itself, in order to solve the initial murder and several brutal killings that follow. Justice is hard to come by. An old priest, a secret liberation theologist, finally metes it out. Here is a Brazil that tourists never encounter.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day features all titles in the 2011 The Best American Series for $1.99 each. These are great short story and essay compilations and definitely recommended (although the last one seems a bit controversial this year). I've been lucky enough to get a couple of them for review and will be using this sale to add them to my permanent library.

• The Best American Short Stories 2011, edited by Geraldine Brooks and Heidi Pitlor
  Includes: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Jennifer Egan, Nathan Englander, Allegra Goodman, Ehud Havazelet, Rebecca Makkai, Steven Millhauser, George Saunders, Mark Slouka, and others
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2011, edited by Harlan Coben and Otto Penzler
  Includes: Lawrence Block, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin, Ed Gorman, Richard Lange, S. J. Rozan, Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, and others
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011, edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger
  Includes: Atul Gawande, Jonathan Franzen, Deborah Blum, Malcolm Gladwell, Oliver Sacks, Jon Mooallem, Jon Cohen, Luke Dittrich, and others
• The Best American Essays 2011, edited by Edwidge Danticat and Robert Atwan
  Includes: Hilton Als, Katy Butler, Toi Derricotte, Christopher Hitchens, Pico Iyer, Charlie LeDuff, Chang-Rae Lee, Lia Purpura, Zadie Smith, Reshma Memon Yaqub, and others
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011, edited by Dave Eggers
  Includes: Daniel Alarcón, Clare Beams, Sloane Crosley, Anthony Doerr, Neil Gaiman, Mohammed Hanif, Mac McClelland, Michael Paterniti, Olivier Schrauwen, Gary Shteyngart, and others
• The Best American Travel Writing 2011, edited by Sloane Crosley and Jason Wilson
  Includes: André Aciman, Christopher Buckley, Maureen Dowd, Verlyn Klinkenborg, Ariel Levy, Téa Obreht, Annie Proulx, Gary Shteyngart, William T. Vollmann, Emily Witt, and others
• The Best American Sports Writing 2011, edited by Glenn Stout and Jane Leavy
  Includes: Paul Solotaroff, Sally Jenkins, Wells Tower, John McPhee, David Dobbs, Wright Thompson, P. J. O’Rourke, Selena Roberts, and others

Paw Tracks in the Moonlight ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Denis O'Connor, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).

Book Description
When Denis O'Connor rescues a three-week-old kitten from certain death during a snowstorm, little does he know how this tiny creature will change his life forever. Against all odds the kitten - who he names Toby Jug - survives and forms an unusually strong bond with his rescuer. Set against the rural splendour of Northumberland, Paw Tracks in the Moonlight charmingly chronicles the adventures of one man and his Maine Coone cat.

From an invasion of bees at Owl Cottage to the case of the disappearing tomatoes, life with Toby Jug - who believes himself to be human - is never dull. Nevertheless, it is only when Denis and Toby Jug embark on a summer camping trip on horseback in the Cheviot Hills that a new world opens up for them both.