Category Archives: eBooks & eReaders

The Gifted Ones Book 3 Now Available!

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I promised Book 3 of The Gifted Ones series for Halloween, and here it is. The Animator focuses on a Gifted One you’ve already met, and a certain lady he’s very taken with. This is the official blurb:

Ellie’s Aunt Grace has always had a love/hate relationship with The Gifted Ones. Deep down, she blames them for destroying her sister’s life, so when Doo Clovis, an especially kind-hearted Gifted One, shows her some attention, she isn’t quick to take the bait. When Grace finally lets her guard down and begins to warm to the handsome cowboy and his old-money Texas family, however, she is unprepared for the evil that lurks in the more distant branches of his family tree. The next thing she knows, Grace is found with blood on her hands, sucked into a web of lies and deceit, and must turn to The Gifted Ones to get herself out.

It’s showing on all the big vendors now. You can find the purchase links on the book’s page. So scoot on over there, and hunker down for a hunky read.

Cover Reveal for The Gifted Ones, Book 3

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Still lots of editing to do on this puppy, but we’ve got a nice cover done, so I thought I’d float it out in the world and see what people think. Anyone who’s not sighing over this rugged-yet-thoughtful cowboy is clearly not into guys. But if that’s the case, that’s okay, because, as usual, there are plenty more players where that one came from—my stories are nothing if not packed with colorful characters. And if you’re wondering what they’ll be up to in this one, the blurb is up for The Gifted Ones Book 3, The Animator on the series page.
 
Given that we’ve now got the outside of Book 3 finished, and we’ll have the inside done in another 10-14 days, I’m certain this installment of The Gifted Ones series will go live before Halloween, as promised. The book will be available in all the popular ebook outlets, as I don’t do the whole “exclusive with Amazon” thing. Yes, I wish my books could be available to borrow in Amazon’s all-you-can-read club (“Kindle Unlimited“), but I’m just not willing to help Amazon shut down every other ebook vendor on the planet in exchange, and that’s what they require of small publishers who want to participate.
 
As always, this book will be in need of reviews when it comes out, so if you’d like a free copy in exchange for a review, just drop us a line on our contact page, and we’ll send you the file type of your choice, straightaway.
 

Worse Ways to Spend Your Weekend

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Well, how-dee! Yes, there surely are worse ways to spend your weekend, but I have to admit, after staring at about a thousand pictures of handsome cowboys the past few days, my eyes are bugging out. I’ve been searching for just the right model and just right the pose for my next book cover, and as usual, I’m incredibly hard to please. No picture is ever quite right. It took me about a week to find the image I wanted for Book 2 of The Gifted Ones, but that was of a Native American man, and those are hard to come by. The striking cowboy from Amarillo, Texas needed for Book 3, I thought, should be a cinch. Well, the pictures are easy enough to find, it’s settling on just the right one that’s tough. I’ve been to five different photo sites already and found dozens of handsome hunks I’d be happy to marry…or adopt…or pay to just stand around looking pretty all day. But now I have to narrow it down. What do y’all think of this swoon-worthy farm boy from 123RF?
 

Win an iPad!

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Just thought I’d bring your attention to this awesome giveaway. A FREE iPad or equivalent value. There’s a lot of Rafflecopter clickng involved, but hey, an iPad is worth $600. That’s a pretty nice prize! So spend 5 or 10 minutes over there, enter the giveaway, and meet some cool indie authors.
 
Enter the iPad Giveaway
 

Under The Covers

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Conventional ebook publishing wisdom has it that changing up your covers every so often is a good marketing move. You can revitalize an older book or series and draw in new readers by giving your product a whole new look, or so the recommendation goes. If it works for politicians and fast food restaurants, it ought to work for ebooks, right? Well, I’m not sure I follow the logic, but you’d be surprised—even covers that you once drooled over start to look old and tired when you’ve seen them too much. So, just to relieve my own eye fatigue, and in celebration of almost ten years since I started the first book in the series (Little Miss Straight Lace), I’ve invested in a beautiful new set of covers for my old standy-by, Unbreakable. Remember, if you haven’t read it yet, the first book is free, so grab it now and try out the new skin!
 

Free $5 Coupon for B&N Nook Store

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Here’s a FREE five bucks for ya, compliments of the good folks at B&N. Just download the Nook app to your phone or tablet and try it out, and they’ll give you a $5 credit for the Nook store, so you can buy the Nook Books of your choice. But hurry, hurry–only good til 3AM EST Monday, March 30th.
 
Details here: Free $5 in NOOK Books
 

The Gifted Ones Book 2: A Learner

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In case anyone missed it, last week we released the second book in The Gifted Ones series, as promised, on pi Day (3/14/15), though we didn’t quite make the 9:26 AM deadline to really give it the geeky math mojo (3.1415926). The book is available in all the usual outlets—just check the series page for purchase links.
 
And if you haven’t seen it yet, here is the final synopsis of the story to pique your interest:
In the second volume in the series, Daniel Holybear, a Native American Gifted One, finds himself at odds with a development company that is threatening the peaceful seaside town he grew up in. When the company’s construction project unearths a mysterious stone tablet, Daniel calls on his Gifted friends to help secure the stone and uncover its secrets. Their efforts to assist him, however, are complicated by a peculiar kinship Ellie senses between Daniel and the project’s lovely manager. As their relationship deepens, Ellie finds her Gift bringing more pain than pleasure to those around her, and ultimately leading one of them to the brink of tragedy.
 
Since the book is brand new, it’s painfully shy of reviews, so if anyone would like a free copy in exchange for a review, just drop us a line on our contact page, and we’ll send you the file type of your choice, straightaway.
 

 
Cover Photo Credit: fatalsweets @dreamstime.com
 

The Gifted Ones Book 2 Cover Reveal

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Argh! Here I go, once again, madly in love with my own, sadly, fictional creation. Meet Daniel Holybear, another of the Gifted Ones, and a descendant of the Manitoke Indian tribe in eastern North Carolina. When a nearby construction project uncovers an ancient artifact on tribal lands, Daniel calls in some of the Gifted folks that readers met in Book One to help unravel the mystery and protect the property from unscrupulous developers. But you needn’t worry yourselves with all that, just sigh and drink in all the lovely alpha-maleness you can stand. He does make a very fine cover model, doesn’t he? And for those of you who want more than a just a pretty picture, hang in there, the book is in final editing now, and will be released before pi day (3/14/15).
 
Cover Photo Credit: fatalsweets @dreamstime.com
 

Make up your own words!

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But the difference between Shakespeare and the rest of us is that his made-up words got added to the dictionary, and then we had to learn them! His additions to our vocabulary include zany, generous, frugal, courtship, undress, and one of my personal favorites, rant. Read more about it here: 13 Words You Probably Didn’t Know Were Invented By Shakespeare.
 

Want to be more like Katniss? Just read the book.

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Comments Off on Want to be more like Katniss? Just read the book.
Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger GamesA new study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that reading about characters in fictional works can cause us to become more like those characters, but only if we identify and sympathize with them. In other words, if you find a character likeable or admirable, you will actually begin to think and act more like him. A talented writer, of course, can lead us to sympathize with characters we wouldn’t ordinarily like, so this study has some interesting implications. To learn more, see these stories: The Body Odd – You Are What You Read or Science Daily – ‘Losing Yourself’ in a Fictional Character Can Affect Your Real Life, or explore the research yourself.