Kindle Marries the iPhone

Kindle has arrived on the iPhone, instantly giving Amazon's ebookstore millions of new customers, all of whom have already paid for their hardware and carry it with them everyday. The Kindle App for iPhone includes free samples and works over Wireless - no need to have a cell plan (I've tested it with a non-activated iPhone and it's advertised to work with the iPod Touch as well). For those who live in a non-WhisperNet zone, this is the perfect method of trying out new books. Download the sample to your iPhone, then after your purchase, settle down to read the full book on your Kindle, without the eyestrain. Using WhisperSync, you can switch back and forth between the two devices and they will automatically open up to the last page read each time. For those who don't yet have a Kindle, you get access to more than 240,000 books at great Amazon pricing.

A few things do work differently - you buy the books via the web site, using Safari (most likely due to a restriction from Apple, which doesn't allow buying content via an App). Also, you cannot yet make annotations/notes on the iPhone (but you can do standard iPhone screen captures, see below), simply due to the differences in hardware. You can, however, create bookmarks and view the annotations and bookmarks made on the Kindle. For most books, you are reading simple text and there are font size changes, just as with the Kindle. For books that include graphics, however, they can appear in full color (I tested this on The Clutter Diet and had blue tables, instead of grey), although there does not appear to be a way to zoom in on those graphics with the iPhone. You also don't (yet) have the ability to view personal documents or non-Amazon books. However, there are already other apps out for both of these uses, so you aren't losing any functionality (WhisperSync only works with Amazon's Kindle books, even on the Kindle, not on personal books or documents).

Get the Kindle iPhone app free and be reading your Kindle books on your iPhone within minutes.

To do a screen capture of your Kindle page on the iPhone: Hold down the Home and Power buttons at once, and a picture of the screen will be stored in the Camera Roll (under Photos), which you can then email or sync to iPhoto.

Free Ebook: Solomon's Grave

Small publishing firm Dragon Moon Press is offering a free pdf download of Solomon's Grave by Daniel G. Keohane for free. This book has not even be released in the US yet (paperback, $19.95). You can share the ebook (as is, only, and it is a secured PDF) with anyone you like (as long as you don't charge or claim it for your own work) and print out one copy for your own use. Originally printed in Germany (in German, natch!).

Synopsis:

Nathan Dinneck's new role as pastor may be shorter than he expects.

For thousands of years a secret has been hidden from the world and protected from those who covet its power. Popes and Kings have sought it. Theologians and historians have debated its very existence. In every generation since the days of Solomon, one person is chosen to keep its secret, protect it from an ageless group claiming the treasure for their own dark god. After millennia of searching, they are finally closing in on their prize.

Evil has followed Nathan home to Hillcrest, Massachusetts.

Nightmares of temples and blood sacrifice, visions of angels and cemeteries foreshadow a dark battle to come. In the balance hangs the lives and souls of those chosen to protect history's most holy relic, perhaps even the gateway to heaven itself.

Two free ebooks from eHarlequin

Both of these are available in several formats, with DRM that limits them to three devices, but they cannot be read on your Kindle.They are both fairly short, though, so you can read them on your PC or phone without too much eyestrain or on an ereader that supports Adobe or Mobipocket DRM.

Triple Threat by Jennifer LaBreque. This one was available to pre-order a few days ago, but may not have shown up in your library (it didn't in mine). Since it is free, just re-order it today.

Subject: Airborne Captain Eli Murdoch.

Current status: Ready and raring to go!

Mission: Serve his country.

Obstacle: Sexy Tara Swenson. Impossible to resist.

Weddings are a minefield for Eli Murdoch. Each time he goes to one, he falls into bed with the same woman—Tara Swenson! But a relationship between a footloose soldier and a homebody can never work. Can it?

Tara can't seem to keep her panties on and her legs together around her former high school crush. But she wants more than wham bam, thank you ma'am. Although Captain Hard Body is very good at that!

When he returns for a third wedding, Tara's faced with a man trained to outmaneuver her! So she makes the first offensive move. Directly into Eli's very willing arms...

The Amazon's Curse by Gena Showalter. This is a short story that is part of the Atlantis series.

Zane, a fierce vampire warrior, has been enslaved by the Amazons. Nola, a lovely Amazon soldier, has been cursed with invisibility. Now, these two stubborn enemies must overcome the pasts that haunt them and embrace a love that can set them free...

$1 Bargain Ebook: Pleasure Unbound

Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione. There is no content warning on this one, but from the description, it appears to be on the erotica side of the Romance genre.

Someone has been cutting up demons and removing their body parts, and this doesn't make sense to doctors Eidolon and Shade, the only surgeons in the world who care exclusively for demons. One patient after another has been arriving at the "demon ER" with missing internal organs, and Eidolon vows to find who has been targeting his race and for what purpose.To make matters worse for Eidolon's demon-kind, he's just gone and treated a female demon-slayer who heats his blood as no other has. Tayla is a sexy, lustful, demon-slaying warrior who works for The Aegis, a council of humans who have vowed to rid the world of demons. Eidolon knows Tayla's deepest secret: that she is actually half demon herself. She is, in fact, the only being Eidolon has ever seen who has half-demon, half-human blood. And she's the only woman who has ever captivated him so. But is this woman, who is trained to eradicate Eidolon's species, the person responsible for the rash of demon mutilations that are turning his hospital upside down?

Also available at Fictionwise, BooksonBoard, Diesel and Sony for those who need alternate formats.

Bargain and Free Ebooks Roundup

The Crimson Shadow ($7.99) by R. A. Salvatore. This single volume contains all three novels of The Crimson Shadow trilogy: The Sword of Bedwyr (hardcover only, $28.00), Luthien's Gamble ($5.59), and The Dragon King) ($5.59). Not only is it a bargain price, but the first novel in the series is not yet available for the Kindle as a single title.

... an acclaimed fantasy bestseller of nonstop action and thrilling adventure. Alone, young noble Luthien Bedwyr can do little to save the land of Eriador from a foul wizard's demon armies. But with the help of mysterious allies, Luthien transforms into a legendary outlaw: a fearless rebel leader who strikes at will, remains hidden from foes, and casts...

This month's $1 Orbit book is Empress ($1.00) by Karen Miller. Non-Kindle formats available at Sony and Booksonboard.com (it is not marked down yet at Fictionwise). This is book one of the GodSpeaker trilogy (The Riven Kingdom ($6.39), Hammer of God ($6.39).

In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader. But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her God, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak.
This is the story of Hekat, precious and beautiful.

The Legend of Witch Bane ($0.99, Paperback $13.45), by Kevis Hendrickson is a bargain Young Adult title and is priced under a dollar for a limited time: High Queen Rhiannon Eldess has placed the kingdom of Kaldan under a terrible curse. Only Kòdobos, Anyr, and Laris can save their people from a dark fate. Danger awaits the children as they face the queen's evil minions in their desperate quest to save their kingdom. To gain final victory the children must find Witch Bane, the magic sword which will give them the power to defeat Rhiannon once and for all! But a prophecy foretelling of the return of an ancient evil threatens to doom them all. It will take all their courage to survive the malevolent forces of evil gathered against them. Will they fail or will they succeed? Prepare for the adventure of a lifetime!

Those who can't wait for health reform might want to check out How To Do Your Own Dentistry ($0.45). Although I really doubt most of us are up for doing more than pulling out a loose baby tooth. Luckily, this is a (short) graphic story and is more of advice for those wanting to set up their own dental practice (of sorts). So far it has two reviews: one loved it, the other hated it.

Next, there are a number of free ebooks worth checking out. First up is King Dog, by Ursula K. Le Guin. This one is a screenplay and in HTML format. Each chapter is a separate page, use the Print button to get a clean copy of each chapter and cut/paste them into a Word document, then email to your Kindle once you have it assembled).

A little background: The character of King Ashthera, with his dog, and his gambling streak, is derived from King Yudhisthira in the Mahabharata, the wonderful and interminable epic of India. When, towards the end of the story, Yudhisthira gets to Heaven, he is outraged to find some of his enemies are there, and some of his friends are not; and he decides not to enter Heaven at all unless they let his dog in with him. I stole all that.

The theme of figuring out what one’ s duty is and how to follow it is from the Mahabharata too. The rest is my invention. Yudhisthira’s dog’s name is Dharma, but Ashthera’s dog is just Dog.

From Amazon, pick up The Healthy House Answer Book: Answers to the 133 Most Commonly Asked Questions, by John & Lynn Marie Bower.

Among the various healthy housing books, The Healthy House Answer Book by John and Lynn Bower is something a little different. While the rest of the offerings in this field are thick, very comprehensive volumes, this is a smaller book in both size and depth--sort of a "pocket healthy housing guidebook." While covering the major concerns anyone would have about all aspects of construction and maintenance, all the information is presented in a very concise Q and A format. With subject chapters and a complete index, this is a great introductory book for anyone interested in the subject.

Peyton Lee has a large number of novels as free downloads on LuLu. There is an index on his web page; most of the titles are Historical Romance, including the six volume Geneva Saga.

Sean Williams is offering The Crooked Letter (Book One of The Cataclysm) as a free download in PDF format (paperback $12.46). From the author:

For those who aren't familiar with it, The Crooked Letter is kinda urban New Weird on a massive scale. It's been compared to China Mieville, Philip Pullman, Ursula K Le Guin, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, yada yada, and it won both the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards the year it was released (the first fantasy novel in the history of the awards to do so). Chronologically speaking, it's the first book in my Change series, and stands as a prequel to The Stone Mage & the Sea, The Blood Debt, and The Changeling. It's also my attempt to take all the world's religions and wrap them up in a crazy Darwinian package that even an atheist like me might be tempted to believe. It was the most difficult book I ever wrote, and now it's free. Check it out!

The world had shattered into a million pieces, and he didn't know if he could ever put it back together again...

Hadrian's mirror twin, Seth, is dead, stabbed in front of him, and the woman he and his brother both loved has seemingly disappeared. As Hadrian searches for her, the cityscape becomes more nightmarish by the second.

Figures from legend swirl around him to help and hinder. These figures give darks hints of secret histories and sleeping gods stirring. Was everything he ever knew about the world a lie?

Caught between ancient forgotten magic and an uncertain future, Hadrian must learn to trust in the only person he has left: himself.

For those who would rather listen than read, Stranded, by Lori Foster, is available again as a free download from Audible.com. You'll need to either log on first, before trying to download the title, or create a new account after clicking the download button (no option is given to log in on that screen and the purchase doesn't go thru the "cart" process).

Last, for those who fancy taking a stab at writing, rather than reading, be sure to pick up a copy of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, free on feedbooks.