Don't forget Earth Hour

Lights out on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Lights out at 8:30 tonight local time. Enjoy!

Nara Resurfaces

Post-it Boy is on a boat! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


I've had some flooding at my little business. I've been tied up with the clean up, insurance, and getting my office moved to a new location. If you're looking for your e-library, they've been mailed and I've heard from at least one winner who has hers. If you're wondering where the heck the newsletter is, I have that computer bailed out and dry. I'm aiming to finish the newsletter by Monday.

If you're waiting for something else...um...no worries. I'm sure the post-it reminding me to do that will float by soon.

Final 3 Winners

Nara Malone

Here they are, the final 3 winners of the flash drive drawing.

Cathy M
Alice Audrey
Beth C

Happy e-reading everyone!

Another #ebookweek e-library winner

Party Hat Cookies on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Char is the winner for Saturday's e-library drawing. I still have two unclaimed prizes and another drawing for today's spring fling so check back Monday for more winners.

Spring Fling: No I didn't

It may look that way to the world, or to at least the portion of it gathered in the Ellora's Cave Chat, but I'd just like to say that I did not knowingly ask a military man about his cybersex life.

The answer was interesting though.

Spotlight on #ebookweek Contributing Author Savanna Kougar

Sensual+Fairy.jpg (image)

Savanna Kougar, has contributed a copy of RED LIONESS TAMED . So beware, you could be running on the wild side of romance with the Kougar. Visit.the Kougar's BLOG

What does a lioness shifter do when she’s suddenly trapped in an
unknown space cruiser’s cargo hold? Then, despite her ability to
savagely defend herself she’s trapped beneath the handsome human
Captain. And next, cat-scratching ridiculously, she finds herself
carnal-trapped, and meow yowl! bound by leather straps in his bed?
Answer: She fights tooth and claw. Problem: The loner Captain is
nova-hot at seducing her.

Read an Excerpt or click the book cover to go to the book page and grab yourself a copy.

Romance book Red Lioness Tamed

#ebookweek Might be Ending But the Fun Continues: Ellora's Cave Spring Fling

Party Time DUC #178 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Ellora's Cave Spring Fling

There is a huge event over at Elloras Cave Reader Chat Loop  tomorrow, Sunday, March 14th

To participate sign in to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ellorascavechat/

There will great information for Authors

Ralene Gorlinsky will be speaking on the following topics:

We Want to Hear From You

How You Can Hear From Us

Special Products/Programs (free reads, audio books, pricing)

New and Upcoming!

RomantiCon

EC 10^th Anniversary (BOGO, Special Editions, RomantiCon)

Calling All Aspiring Erotica Authors

And that's not All

Wow, do we have some great interviews to share with you as well as fun and prizes!

(1) First, Raelene Gorlinsky, our Publisher from Jasmine Jade, has graciously allowed me to pester her with questions about happening at the company. Included in her interview that I'll be posting are items about special products & programs, new & upcoming items, RomantiCon, the EC 10th Anniversary, stuff for Aspiring Authors and more! Also, I'll be taking questions for Raelene and emailing them to her after the chat. She'll be answering us on the Chat loop so stay posted!

(2) Got Tara Green from Eye on Romance talking about promotion.

(3) Major Tom Fuller will be joining us to talk about the military and heroes and what it's like to be the husband of a romance writer.

(4) Then we've got Dita Parker and Nara Malone, new authors to Jasmine Jade to share their talents with us.

(5) And I'll be there, kicking off my new nom de plume and website, Elle Amour, www.elleamour. com.

In ADDITION, we've got all those authors you love know and love who'll be sharing and playing with us. Here's the full list of authors and prizes!

AUTHOR / LATEST BOOKS:

Elle Amour/ CLAIMED, Book 1 in the Mate Seekers series

Mari Carr/RUBY TUESDAY, part of her Wild Irish Series (we'll have an excerpt for Waiting for Wednesday which is out March 17!)

Lynne Connolly/THUNDERFIRE, Book 4 in the Wildfire series

Lise Fuller/GUARDIAN ANGEL

Desiree Holt/HOT MOON RISING & SWITCHED

Kelly Jamieson/RIGGER

Dita Parker/ALEX RISING

Nina Pierce/HEALER' S GARDEN

Michelle Polaris/BOUND ODYSSEY

Paisley Smith/FIRST TASTE & BIRTHDAY GIRL

Ari Thatcher/KYLE' S REDEMPTION (plus audio release of DEATH BY SEX due out 3/22)

Paige Tyler/MR. RIGHT NOW, JUST RIGHT & EROTIC EXPOSURE

Nara Malone/THE TIGER'S TALE (out March 12) /A new author and winner of Passionate Ink's Stroke of Midnight Award for Best Paranormal.

Some of the prizes you may win!

· Chocolate Body Paint from Michelle Polaris (find out how to win at the party!)

· A flash drive with a mini e-library installed to celebrate release of The Tiger's Tale during Read an E-book Week from Nara Malone! She's holding a drawing each day March 7 -14th. More details at her blog http://naramalone. com/e-book- evolution- e-book-week- contest/

· Books & Book Flats

· Winners choice from Kelly Jamieson's backlist

· Card decks

· Wysocki coffee mugs and memo pads

· AND more prizes to be announced!

So join us! REMEMBER, we start at 12:00 noon Eastern, and spring forward! It's daylight savings time again!

See you there!

Author Spotlight on #ebookweek Contributor Ashlyn Chase

Click here to visit the website and read the Bio for Ashlyn Chase - Romance Author

Fellow erotic romance author Ashlyn Chase  contributed one of her novels, Green Card, to an E-Book Week flash drive library.

Mason Germaine is close to a contract for his graphic novel, but if his model Katia is deported to Russia, his hopes will die...all of them.

Mason Gremaine is taking a life drawing class to improve his chances of breaking into the graphic novel industry. His job as a high school art teacher has almost sucked the creativity out of him. When he meets Katia, he has found the perfect voluptuous model for his dominatrix super-heroine "The Totalitarian."

When her uncle sees money exchange hands and gets the wrong idea about what she's doing in her spare time, he fires her and demands she leave his home. Now her sponsor is gone and if she can't find a new one quickly she'll be deported. Mason has an appointment in one week to present his idea to a publisher. If he lets her stay with him and his roommate, she can pose for him, but is he getting in over his head? And what about his roommate's crazy request for a m�nage in exchange for free rent?

Here is the book page for Green Card where you can read an excerpt or buy the book if you can't wait to read it.

Ashlyn Chase - Romantic Novels

Why E-Books Are Like Automobiles: Post 4 #ebookweek

The Car & Horse on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I was just reading this article, Will E-Books Peak Soon?, and thought how this must be the same kind of thing you heard when the automobile was first invented.

"Never mind the phenomenal growth, or the fact that more and more models of horseless carriage appear every year. It won't last."

"Horse are loyal. More people ride horses than drive cars. People don't like change."

"Cars are too complicated."

"You don't have to get out and crank up your horse."

"You get emotional satisfaction sitting up on your horse for a nice invigorating ride to work."

I'm sure it was all true. I'm sure I would find a horse more emotionally satisfying than I do my car. The fact is, I just can't go all the places I need to go on any given day by  horse.  And while the earliest cars had their glitches and shortcomings, they took over the transportation market because the technology kept improving and there was no denying they did the job better.

Scrolls replaced stone tablets, machine printed books replaced hand written books, and I can see digital print is already looking like the better option for newspapers and magazines. Books are the last hold out.  Will they stomp these e-book upstarts into the ground?

When was the last time you saw a hitching post?

E-Reader's Guide to Reading Software for #ebookweek

The easiest way to start reading e-books is to try it on free software on your computer before you go out and get a device. This gives you a chance to learn which software you like best, how you like to see your books, and what features are required for the type of reading you do. So I'm listing the ones I've tried and providing a link to the download page. They're all free.

Mobipocket Reader -- Reads mobipocket books only either encrypted or DRM free, easy to set up, also creator program available for converting your books.

Barnes and Noble eReader Software -- available for your PC, Blackberry, iPod Touch/iPhone, or MAC

Adobe Digital Editions - Reads pdf and epub files.

FB Reader - If you need a reader for a Linux/Windows and Sart Q devices. As far as I know this is the only e-reader to run on Linux

Kindle for PC -- The cool thing about the Kindle store is that there are always new, excellent books availabe for free. There seem to be new ones every week. If you run Kinde software you can download great selections to add to your e-libray.

Microsoft Reader -- This is the reader I started with and if you're trying to read on  Windows Mobile it might be the easiest to get to work.

Another #ebookweek e-library winner

Nara Malone

Jeniffer Mathis is our newest winner.

I sent this post early this morning from my iPod Touch. Either it's a better e-reader than a blogging tool, or I just haven't blogged from it enough to do it properly. I'm blaming it on the iPod.

I am just home from the VRW Chapter meeting and I'm ready blog away for this last day of Read an E-book week.

Suzanne commented (on my Glamourus Author Life post) that she bought my book, The Tiger's Tale, and finsished, and wants to see more. Thank you for that Suzanne. It means a lot to me to hear feedback from everyone. I really apreciate all the comments on the posts this week and hope all of you will keep dropping by from time to time. I'll be able to chat back in comments. I can't comment back much right now without creating a pile of my own comments to weed out before each drawing. But I've got some time today and it's the last day so I'll be out there in the cooments with you.

After I got kicked out of the beauty shop  so they could close up, I wasn't able to get a coonection, but that's fine. We'll make up for it today.

Another Excerpt from my #ebookweek giveaway The Tiger's Tale

Click HERE for an exclusive Tiger's Tale excerpt only at Kelly's blog: Building Castles

Spotlight #ebookweek Contributing Author Nan D. Arnold

Nan d Arnold, Author of Quirky Fiction for Boomer Babes©


Fellow Virginia Romance Writer, Nan Arnold, has contributed a copy of her new book, Hitting The High Notes, to go on the Flash Drive on one of our e-library winners.

Bad boy baritone Lorenzo Pazzazzi is a memorable mischief maker —Cheryl Emerson, Silhouette author of Treacherous Beauties

Widow Maggie Duncan learns life is a song when she meets by chance an AWOL opera star and a certain color-blind cop. Who will partner Maggie in a very special duet?

Read an excerpt from Hitting The High Notes

Read Nan's Bio  or visit Nan's Website

Click the beautiful cover below to go straight to book page at Champagne Books.

Hitting The High Notes - $6.00 : Champagne Books!

My First Glamourous Day as an E-book Author #ebookweek

I couldn't get online because heavy rains knock out the sat link and leave me with no Internet. So I'm sitting in a local beauty  shop, with glittery purple goop in my hair, blogging. The purple goop, I'm told, will leave my hair soft and shiny and not at all purple. Let's hope this is true. This would be a bad week to wind up with purple hair. But that was the price to pay for the only wi-fi in town, so I made the sacrifice. In all the years I was imagining the day I made my debut as an author, I never once pictured it like this.

The Tiger's Tale is up on the front page of the Ellora's Cave site. It is so cool to log in there and see it, but I made a link for you right to the book page. All you have to do is click the cover and you can read an excerpt.

This is blog-my-brains-out release day so stay tuned for more. Next up is another contributing author spotlight and then another E-Book Week post. But first, I have to go stick my head in the sink for a rinsing.

His Hands

everything's in your hands on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If his hands were a place, they'd be the Badlands -- wild, rugged, harsh, scarred, demanding.
Those callouses scraping lightly over my breasts, the sandpaper drag of those fingers along my thigh, bring shivers.
But there are times when the soft flick of his fingers, rapid as the beat of hummingbird wings, send me to heaven.

Click though to see what other Friday Flash 55 participants wrote. All commenters are automatically entered in the drawing for a flash drive e-library. Good luck and happy e-reading.

Party Time for more #ebookweek winners and The Tiger's Tale release day

Party Time DUC #178 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Anthony North is the newest winner in the e-library give away.  Congrats, Anthony.

Retta L. has claimed her library.

 I have two more two more flash drive libraries to give away, so if you're just dying to get your hands on my new novel, The Tiger's Tale, you've still got a shot.

If you don't want to wait that long, today is release day. Just click that book cover (I believe the buy link at the bookpage will appear around noon) and grab yourself a copy. You can read an excerpt while you're waiting.

Thirteen Things about Reading E

John Dewey on educative experiences on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


1. I can take my library on vacation.

2. There's no space for one more book in my house.

3. My house doesn't come with a search feature to tell me which room, which pile, which box, which shelf holds the book I've spent three hours looking for.

4. Paper books don't come with a search feature to help me find a particular line.

5. Paper  books don't come with a search feature that searches all my notes and bookmarks.

6. My iPod Touch can hold several hundred books and fit them in my pocket. My pocket can't.

7.  I love the smell and feel of a forest more than i love the smell and feel of a book.

8. I don't have to drive an hour to buy a book.

9. I don't have to wait a week for the book I just bought online.

10. When I share a book with a friend my Nook remembers to give it back to me two weeks later.

12. When I'm at work and waiting on a lengthy task I can whip out my iPod Touch or my PDA and look busy while I tap screens and make notes, but really I'm reading a romance novel.

13. I can read romances without others snickering because I'm holding a book with a man and woman groping each other on the cover. Which means you guys can give romances a try(try my erotic romance novel first) and no one would know.

The picture above is a screenshot of an e-reading app on an iPod Touch. And if you want to read that book, you can read it on your computer for free. It's available from Project Gutenberg.

Spotlight on #ebookweek Contributing Author Kelly Jamieson

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="319" caption="Romance Author Kelly Jamieson"][/caption]

Let's all leave a big thank you to my good friend and critique partner, Kelly Jamieson, for her contributions to Read an E-Book Week. Kelly writes "Romance with Sweet Heat" -- her stories are hot, but they are sweetly romantic.


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="Current Release: 2 Hot 2 Handle"][/caption]


Kelly's current release, 2 Hot 2 Handle,was on the Top 10 bestseller list at My Bookstore and More for 4 weeks!!! Way to go, Kelly. One of our lucky winners will have a copy of 2 Hot 2 Handle on their flash drive.

You can watch Kelly's Trailer for 2 Hot 2 Handle , or read an excerpt from the story.

One of our lucky library winners will find a copy of my favorite Kelly Jamieson novel, Rigger, on their flash drive. If you'd like to learn more about Kelly, her books, or give her your personal thanks for supporting Read an E-Book week, drop by Kelly's blog.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="Rigger"][/caption]

Celebrating E-library Winners

Celebrating Labor Day by kthyprn on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Today's Winner is Julie Jordan Scott.  You can check out her website Julie Unplugged and give her a high five.

Okay, this being my first giveaway means I'm learning as I go and I suspect spam filters may be coming between me and the winners. So I'm going to announce them by the name they commented under.  If it's you, check your spam filter. I'm sending another email this morning. If it's someone you know, give them a poke and tell them to get in touch with me. Their comments don't have links so I can't track them back to a website.

And the two winners in waiting are:

retta
Inigo Montoya

I use yahoo mail.  Stick nara_malone in the front and you can e-mail me. Happy e-reading everyone!

Why do I?

Mist the Oak Tree by wabberjocky

For my old dog who loves his job herding deer from garden back to woods
For the deer, silent shadows moving between trunks at dusk, feeding on acorns
For the acorns that grow into sturdy oaks with roots like armor around the chuck-wills burrow
For the the branches that provide a jungle gym for energetic squirrels to climb toward the sky
For the sky that sends the rains back to the canopy of leaves and the shelter of oakwood
For the leaves that paint blue mountains in shades of gold and orange in the fall

Because the veil was torn from my eyes in those years the loggers came
Because the whine of logging saws at dawn drowned out the birds
Because day after day they ripped through hardwoods, whittling hundreds of acres down to fifteen
Because they cut, they ripped, they burned, they sent crop dusters spraying herbicides to insure the oak would not grow back
Because rain without the filtering watershed carries the poison into my well
Because replanting with pine means they can log more often, means hardwood forests disappear, means autumn disappears
Because the chuck-wills don't sing here anymore

Modifying habits might modify their habits
Obedience to a conscience that insists I do something...anything
Those are the reasons I read E

What are yours?

This post was written in response to the Three Word Wednesday Prompt. Click that link and check out what other participants wrote.

I'm still celebrating Read an E-Book Week so all commenters are entered in the drawing to win a free e-library.

Tuesday's E-Library Winner

I've contacted Tuesday's winner and I'm waiting to hear back. Check your e-mail everyone.

I'm still waiting for a response from Monday's winner. All prizes unclaimed by Monday morning will go into a second chance drawing Monday and be sent to the new winner.

In the meantime, let's get to work on Wednesday's drawing. I've got a Three Word Wednesday post that should incite some commenting either for or against.

Are e-books already old school?

e-books EPUB on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The time went by so fast. I thought the e-books' day had finally arrived. I turn around -- it's past?

You thought e-reader technology was changing monthly -- check out digital books.

Here's a few of the new species of books that are appearing as e-books go mainstream. Some are interactive novels, some books plus game and some...I don't know how to classify.

Interactive Novel: Cathy's Book-- the online  interactive novel has been around for awhile, but the  iPhone app is new. Love this author's voice.

We have book-game mashups: 

Harlequin Presents: Hidden Objects of Desire free demo version comes with a Harlequin novel to download.

We have Facebook apps centered apps games that are spin-offs from novels:The Pirate's Journey from Angie Fox to promote her Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers.

Orchid Games brings us  Heartwild Solitaire in several versions. You play solitaire to win the next chapter in a story. This one's addictive.


This morning I found two more offerings that I haven't had the chance to play yet. I may not sleep tonight.

Jude Deveraux's Vook: Promises

and Nora Roberts' Vision in White



Some of these do a better job of merging the interactivity of story than others. I'd say some are more game than book at this point, but with every release I see them move closer to true reading immersion. A process noticeably evident in the Progression of the Heartwild Solitaire Games. Cathy's book is more book than game with the interactive elements less interactive. Give one a try and let me know what you think.  I can't wait to crack open that Vook.

This post is written in response to today's Cary on Tuesday Prompt. See what other particpants wrote here.

Monday's Winner

I have another winner and sent them an email. I'm waiting to hear back from them before I announce a name. Meantime keep posting those comments because there are five more drives to win. If you're already in the drawing, check your email and make sure you're not the one I'm waiting to hear back from :)  I'll update this post when I get the reply.

My First Pocket E-Reader

My first portable e-reader was this Toshiba Pocket PC. It's a bit heavy and fat to fit in a pocket but it fit in my purse and held it's battery power for longer than I could tolerate reading a back-lit screen. It's great for reading in the dark.

I had Microsoft Reader, Adobe Reader, and Mobipocket Reader installed. I kept libraries on compact flash cards that fit in a slot at the top. It worked well because I could pop my card in the card reader on my desktop PC or on my laptop and pick up where I'd left off in any book as I moved between devices. It wasn't my first PDA, but it was the first one that read e-books and after I had that feature I rarely used my PDA for anything else.

If I had one complaint about this one, it's the backlighting. It's hard on the eyes to read on a bright screen. That's the key to newer e-readers like Kindle and Nook. When your eyes first settle into the beauty of an e-ink display, they say ahhh. It's something I had to experience for myself before I truly understood why everyone raved about it. I still use the Toshiba but less often now that I have better reading devices.

My favorite thing about the PDA is that when people see me with it in my hand -- concentrating, tapping the screen -- they think I'm working. No one interrupts. When they see me with a book in my hand, they think it's an invitation to interrupt.

Tell me about Your first e-reader.




[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Toshiba Pocket PC"][/caption]

We have the first e-library winner!

"

Congratulations to Dee Martin. She'll have one of my tigers in her mailbox soon.

Here's Dee's blog Thoughts Have Wings if you'd like to drop by and cheer her good fortune.

I'll have another e-reading post up in a bit, so keep those comments coming. Good Luck everyone.

E-Reading Fluency 101

¿A qué huele un e-book? ceslava on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Do you read E?

In 8 years of recovering data for people with computer problems, I recovered an e-book folder with content exactly twice. And once I recovered an authors e-book from a document folder.  If I strike up a conversation about e-reading or pull out a reading device in a public place I find plenty of people who are interested, but none who know how to read e-books.

I do. I may be the queen of e-reading. If I was stopped on the street and offered a hundred bucks for every e-reading device I could pull out of my purse, I'd earn enough for a month's rent. I don't know how many e-books I have. I think the number is somewhere around a thousand. I have them scattered across multiple computers and multiple devices. They are in all possible formats: .lit .pdb .prc .pdf .epub etc. etc. etc.

Perhaps the multitude of options keep people from tackling the e-reading learning curve. Maybe no one is truly aware how much treasure has been digitally archived on the Internet in the past few years. There are books here you could never hold in your hands because they are too far away, to old and fragile, too rare. But they have been scanned and archived by the great libraries of the world for your reading pleasure. No charge. Just visit the Internet Archive link here (Hawthorne's The Snow Image, a childrens book with gorgeous illustrations) and it will open your first e-book which you can read online or download free to have for your very own.

There are also sites with brand new books fresh from the publisher given as gifts by authors to anyone with the desire to download and give it a try. Here is a link to what might be the coolest blog on the Internet,Finding Free E-Books,  and you'll find everything you need to acquire e-reading fluency. There are regularly posted links to giveaways for a variety of new books. There's a link list of e-reading software, info on how to read with or without an e-reading device, and an explanation on what to consider if you decide to shop for an e-reading device.

Today is the first day of the annual Read an E-book Week event. I hope you'll give an e-book a try. If you're an e-reading fiend like me, I hope you'll read one this week and blog or tweet about it. Point others to your favorite e-reading sources. I''ve prepared flash drives with FBReader and an pdf reader installed on the drive and a small library of e-books from the best free sources on the web and from new books contributed by great authors like Kelly Jamieson, Ashlyn Chase, Nan D. Arnold, and Nara Malone.

I'm making the promotion of e-reading a long term project. My E-book Evolution Newsletter launches Monday March 15th.

I'm thinking most of my my blog visitors are e-readers, but I could be wrong. Let me know in comments below if you're fluent in E-reading. Everyone commenting is automatically entered in this week's drawings for an e-library. I'll pick a name from all comments posted by midnight ET and post the winner tomorrow after I've contacted them. Good luck and happy e-reading!

This is my blog response to the Sunday Scribblings prompt: Fluent. Go here to see what other Sunday Scribblers wrote.

A comparison of e-readers

Fellow VRW member Beth Trissel has put together a thoughtful comparison of some popular e-book readers.

She also has a great giveaway for Read an E-book Week.

Pay her a visit and Happy E-reading!

My #ebookweek Promo made the news in London

Rita T. sent me this from The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/apps-childrenrsquos-book-publishers-offer-read-an-ebook-week-specials-1916119.html

If you look down toward the bottom they mention Nara Malone's flash drive drawings.

The Accidentally Clever Cover Art

Friday 55

There are no do-overs for cover art. There are only do-overs for cover art requests. I redid mine a hundred times, seeking the perfect idea to represent my baby, child of my imagination. Finally, I requested a sexy guy with a whip in a dungeon. But, I didn't mean that kind of whip!

Flickr Photo Download: dungeongourmet_msr



It's okay though. I wouldn't do this over if I could. You can see what other participants in the Friday Flash 55 wrote here.

E-Reading News and Links

You're going to hate me, but I have to tell you about this. Popular Science has just posted its 137 Year archive online, for free, for your e-reading pleasure. Yay! I know once you start it'll be hard to stop reading, but aren't you just dying to know what was tucked between the covers of Popular Science in 1873?


And in other good news. B&N plans to roll out bundles of print books plus e-books.

Yesterday's Child and Tomorrow's Child

Flickr Photo Download: babyboy

Yesterday's child left at the end of February a year ago.
The first snow in a decade marked his passing.
He didn't go quietly into the night.
He clung to his frail body with tenacity.
He savored each of his 90 years
He amazed the doctors again and again,
Fighting back from death's edge
For another year, another month, another day--
Each time they said he couldn't.
When they gave up predicting, he left.

Tomorrow's child came at the start of February this year.
The worst snow in decades marked his arrival.
He came quietly to life, smiled like he was greeting an old friend.
He's impatient to get about the business of living,
Clinging to wakefulness for hours at a time.
He amazed everyone, holding up his head at the end of the first week.
Batting the blanket with new limbs he tries to push up and move forward,
Not satisfied that he's already defying predictions.
Not yet, but not so long from now, he'll succeed.

They named tomorrow's child after yesterday's child
The named slipped into place, feeling as perfect as he does in my arms.
Life's sacred torch passed from yesterday to tomorrow.

I know I'm supposed to be blogging about e-books but I saw this prompt for Three Word Wednesday and my writing addiction took over. But if you're a commenter on this post you're entered in the drawing for a free e-library like everyone else. Thanks for stopping by and click that Three Word Wednesday link to see what other participants wrote.

Wordless Wednesday: Seven Little Tigers

Seven Little Tigers Jumping on the Bed « Nara Malone

To see what other Wordless Wednesday particiants posted, look here.

What's so amusing?

"

Seven Little Tigers

Seven little tigers jumping on the bed, one fell off and lost her head.

I know. I know. I've lost my head.

That rhyme has been running through my mind since my shipment of flash drives for the Read an E-Book Week great pocket library giveaway arrived. I hear these little girl, sing-song voices in my head and it makes me smile. If I were young enough to jump on the bed without damage to the ceiling, the bed, or me, I'd be there. I'm so excited about next week.

I know this is Carry-on Tuesday and encouraging each other is what we do, but I'm so thrilled to be promoting Read an E-Book week and the release of The Tiger's Tale that I'm sharing the love with whomever wanders by. If you're in the comments of this post you'll be entered to win a pocket library. Despite the cute package and the nursery rhyme, this isn't a children's library.

More details here.

The prompt for this week's Carry on Tuesday:

This week our prompt is the opening of Elizabeth Peter’s 1999 book The Falcon at the Portals
.
What is it you find so amusing, dear?

See what other participants wrote here.

E-Book Evolution & E-Book Week Contest « Nara Malone

How can we combat the greed and misperception that perpetuate e-reading illiteracy?

When I ask someone if they read e-books, I usually get some version of that meme about "the smell and feel" of a "real" book. But when I show someone an e-reader they say,  Wow!  When I pull my e-reader out in a public place to read, it always attracts attention and I happily answer questions and show people how easy it is to use. Very few people know what an e-reader looks like or how to acquire an e-book and read it. And that's a shame, because there are so many free digital repositories of knowledge and great literature. After helping find e-reading solutions for a woman who'd given up reading because she was paralyzed but for the minimal use of one hand, I realized promoting e-reading literacy could be life changing on many levels for a wide range of people.

I teamed up with author Shara Lanel to arrange public demonstrations of e-reading in places where readers gather. In approaching book sellers and libraries about working through them, I couldn't land one yes to the idea. I think with time, education and persuasion I can change that.

In some instances a lack of knowledge and fear of something new motivated the resistance. In other cases greed and the battle to control the market barred the doors. I'm not here to name names or point fingers. I don't think that's how to solve this problem. I'm on a crusade to educate readers about e-reading and the muliple options for reading e-books. I'm planning to have demos at fairs and festivals during the spring and summer. I'll be doing an e-reading workshop this fall with some other authors. I'm not normally a put-yourself-out-there person, but I'm passionate about this cause.

I'm not the only e-reading crusader. Read an E-Book Week, March 7-13th is an annual event to promote e-reading, started by Rita Y. Toews. You can visit the event's central website for a list of other activites planned. To celebrate Read an E-Book Week I'll be blogging on e-reading and e-readers March 1-15. I'll have guest bloggers joining me to promote the cause. The official twitter hashtag for e-book week is #ebookweek. Tweet about the e-books you're reading and events you're participating in.

If that isn't enough to make you bounce in your chair and shout hallelujah, I've got the coolest prizes to give away. I put mini e-libraries on one gig flash drives and installed an e-reading program right on the drive. All you have to do is plug the drive into the USB port on your PC and you have all you need to start e-reading. I'll include links to resources for e-books on the flash drive and install a mini-browser that runs from the drive, so you can use it to download more books. I'll hold a drawing to give away one flash drive each day during read an e-book week. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on my blog or sign up for my E-Book Evolution newsletter. You get one entry in the contest for each relevant comment at the blog (no spamming the comments for extra entries) and one more entry if you sign up for the newsletter.

I was thrilled when I learned my novel, The Tiger's Tale, will be released March 12th during Read an E-Book Week.  I'll include a free copy of my book on every drive I give away and some great reads from some of my favorite authors.

The next e-reading post is about the launch of my E-Book Evolution newsletter, so put this URL in your feed reader and get ready for two weeks of e-book fun.

If you're as passionate about e-reading literacy as I am, please get in touch. I'd love to brainstorm ideas about how we can promote e-reading. If you're doing something to promote e-reading literacy, let me know and I'll promote your efforts here.