Bunch of E-Books

Visit my new website for a variety of Kinde Ebooks

Linda

http://bunchofebooks.com/

Cheryl Richardson on "Boundry Busters"

Cheryl Richardson has a new paperback edition of her book The Art of Extreme Care Self-Care.  Many of us may be "sensitive" and affected by negativity from the world around us.  Cheryl gives some great ideas on how to protect ourselves from negativity, whether it comes from relationships, stress, overload, media news, etc. 

I like her phrase, "Boundry Busters."  Have you had any of those in your life?

Are you an empath--able to pick up the emotions of others? And in doing so, have you learned to protect yourself from taking on those emotions of others?  Is your intuition fine-tuned?   

~Linda 

The Unknown, A Novel, by Linda Pendleton

Available at Amazon Kindle

A Small Drop of Ink, Famous Quotations by Linda Pendleton

Within A Small Drop of Ink, you will discover inspiring words of men and women from ancient time to the present, along with vignettes from the author. This collection of inspirational and thought-provoking quotations from the wisdom of the ages will inspire and lift the spirit.

Longfellow, Emerson, Carver, Stanton, Lincoln, Wordsworth, Plato, Thoreau, Alcott, Byron, Seneca, Tennyson, Sophocles, Beecher, Shakespeare, Twain, Vandyke, St. Augustine, Cicero, Whitman, Goethe, Aristotle, Blake, Bacon, Beethoven, Dickinson, and many others share their inspirational, moving and powerful words about life and death, love, success, life lessons, freedom, equality, the beauty of nature, and creativity.

As Lord Byron once wrote:
"Words are things; and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands,
perhaps millions think."

Now in Kindle, in print in a few days at Amazon.

~Linda

The Unknown, Mystery Suspense, now at Kindle

“The dark hand of our government had just come crashing down around John Warren and fear clutched at him, centering deep in the pit of his stomach.”

International tensions arise as nine gifted children mysteriously disappear from a research conference in Southern California. John Warren and Denise Fellini, single parents of the two American children, are drawn together as they are pitted against a mysterious agency and led into a labyrinth of intrigue, murder, government cover-up, UFOs, and the paranormal. What they discover shakes their own personal sense of reality and that of their government and the world.

Now at Kindle, soon in print.

Cover by Judy Bullard
Male model, Jimmy Thomas

~Linda

My Experience with Amazon's Kindle Select Program

I just posted this at Jon Guenther's Ctrl+Alt+Pub "a multi-author blog dedicated to providing information about self-publishing and inspire authors seeking to publish their own works through non-traditional venues"...and decided to post it here as well.

A few weeks ago, when Amazon announced their new Kindle Select Program, I was not in favor of it. My reason for that was the exclusivity required to enroll your book/books. I had even posted at a blog that I would not be taking part in Amazon’s new program. The idea of giving books away as a promotional tool was not at all my reason for declining the opportunity. Over the years I’ve given many books away: mine, those of my late husband, Don Pendleton, and ours.

From the Amazon Kindle site: “ When you make your book exclusive to Kindle for at least 90 days, it will be part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for the same period and you will earn your share of a monthly fund when readers borrow your books from the library. You will also be able to promote your book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.” The monthly fund for December was $500,000, and for January it is $700,00. Sharing that amount of money should be enticing. I happen to be a Prime member of Amazon and have been for a number of years, and am now able to “borrow” many books free through the Lending Library.

I have over fifty books now published at Kindle, which includes more than a dozen of Don Pendleton’s books. A number of our books are also at Smashwords, and distributed to a number of ebook retailers, including for the Nook, Kobo, iPad.

But one of my books has been exclusive to Kindle, only because I had not gotten around to putting it elsewhere. I decided to give the program a try. On December 27 and 28, I gave my historical Civil War novel, Corn Silk Days: Iowa, 1862, away FREE. I was amazed!! Nearly 8,000 copies were downloaded. It was #1 on the Free Best Seller Lists, War Fiction: The # 2 book on that list was Tolstoy’s War and Peace! Other listings included, # 4 in Historical romance, # 4 in Historical Fiction; # 19 in Romance; # 77 in Fiction.

When the two-day promotion ended, it stayed fairly high on the Best Seller Lists, staying in the Top Ten of paid books under War Fiction. Today, it is listed as # 2 under Best Selling Historical War Novels in the Kindle Store. # 3 is War and Peace (a free edition), and War Horse is # 4. Obviously my sales and the Kindle Lending Library downloads are continuing.

I then added two additional books, one mystery, one nonfiction, to the Select Program. The results have not been quite as impressive, but my nonfiction, To Dance With Angels, went # 1 in Paid New Age Channeling, and # 1 in New Age Religion and Spirituality. Today, it remains in the Top Ten after a two-day promotion on January 1st.

So I’m happy! Sales have increased on many of my others books not in the program. I’d say this promotion may well be worth it.


~Linda

Free Kindle book, TIME TO TIME by Don Pendleton

Don Pendleton's TIME TO TIME: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novel is FREE today and tomorrow AT KINDLE.

Grab you copy for you Kindle reader or Kindle App.

http://amzn.to/z8DWbx

Elvis

Elvis Presley, January 8, 1935 - August 16, 1977

To Dance With Angels by Don and Linda Pendleton,now Free at Kindle

Late this evening, our classic and popular spiritual nonfiction book, To Dance With Angels will be FREE at Amazon Kindle. for a short time.

~Linda

A Kindle Christmas!

More than a week ago, on December 15th, a press release from Amazon.com stated that "Kindle devices remain the hottest products this holiday season – for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com since its introduction 11 weeks ago."

I wonder what the number will be by year's end. 5 million??


Whatever the number, as an author with numerous books at Kindle, I am happy to hear this news.


I like my Kindle, a gift from my son, daughter-in-law and grandson, last Christmas, and I also use Kindle on my PC.

So many book to chose from, including many from those of us who have chosen to self-publish many of our books. Here are some ideas to check out for books to put on your new Kindle or Kindle Fire.


Last week I read Andrew E. Kaufman's second book, The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted. It is a very good psychological thriller. You won't be disappointed! Andrew's first book will also keep you in suspense: the best-selling book, While the Savage Sleeps


Read the Interview I did with Andrew E. Kaufman here following the release of his first book.


For something different, yet suspenseful, is The Fourth Awakening Series by Rod Pennington and Jeffrey A. Martin, Ph.D. The first book in the best-selling spiritional fiction series is The Fourth Awakening. The second in the series, The Gathering Darkness was publ ished recently.

I also interviewed Rod Pennington.


Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Private Eye Series of six books are now all priced at .99 cents for the holidays.


I reduced the price on my own Catherine Winter Private Eye Series, Shattered Lens and Fractured Image.


Roulette, a crime novel by Don Pendleton and Linda Pendleton is now 3.99. This book turned out to be Don Pendleton's last novel. Don was the "father of the Action/Adventure genre."


The Death Gods by Richard S. Prather. It is his last novel, 61 years after the publication of Prather's first book in his best-selling Shell Scott Mystery Series.


A fascinating nonfiction memoir you might take a look at is Athena Demitrios' book, The Seasoning of the Soul. An inspirational read!


Check my Author Page at Amazon and you may see a variety of books, nonfiction and fiction, that may interest you. The California Gold Rush nonfiction books seem to find their home on Kindles all the time.


Happy Holidays! Happy reading. Don't you just love the new technology?!


~Linda

Sixty-One Years of the Shell Scott Mystery Series by Richard S. Prather

It was in 1950 that Richard S. Prather's first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett's Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet, titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine.

Richard S. Prather's book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor. He received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986, and was twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. His Shell Scott mysteries are now back in print with ereads.com and available as POD paperbacks and ebooks, and a number of his novels are at booksinmotion.com as unabridged audio books. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott mystery, is now back in print, published by Hard Case Crime, November 2006.

I met Richard and his wife, Tina, in 1989, when my husband, Don Pendleton and I were vacationing in Sedona, AZ. Don and Richard had shared the same literary agent for a number of years, yet the two of them had never met. Don picked up the telephone and called Richard and we spent a delightful evening with them at their home.

About five years later, Don and I moved to Sedona, so we often got together with Richard and Tina.

Richard had given me a wonderful endorsement quote for my first Catherine Winter PI novel, Shattered Lens, and encouraged me to make it a series, which I have done. Fractured Image is the second book in the series and I hope there will be more Catherine Winter in the future.

In 2006, I asked Richard if I could do an interview with him. We did it by mail, and due to his declining health, it did take some time. I published the long interview in December 2006. During that time, Richard asked me to take his unpublished 1,000 page manuscript, The Death Gods, at his death and to do my best to market it. Following his death in February, 2007, I received the manuscript, all 1,000 pages, only a few of those pages typed, the balance, handwritten with lots of his blue felt pen notes squeezed between lines.

The task seemed overwhelming and due to the length, agents and publishers did not find it an attractive opportunity. But I did not give up on publishing Richard’s work, as I felt strongly that his fans and new readers should have the opportunity to read the last Shell Scott mystery.

So sixty-one, yes, Sixty-One years after Richard S. Prather’s tough, yet happy-go-lucky, Southern California detective, Shell Scott hit the pages of a book, the last Shell Scott mystery is now in print and in ebook formats. I am pleased with his story, with the book and with the cover I designed with Judy Bullard. I hope readers will enjoy Richard S. Prather’s last creation.

Read more here

Blog, Richard S. Prather, The Death Gods, Shell Scott

Exclusive Interview with Richard S. Prather by Linda Pendleton, at Kindle

~Linda

Richard S. Prather's The Death Gods, Shell Scott: The Death Gods

Richard S. Prather's The Death Gods, Shell Scott: The Death Gods: “Even I—and I am not a doctor, and thus can’t know for sure about such things—understood that civilization must be face-to-face with its gre...

Richard S. Prather and Shell Scott Series

Richard S. Prather's "The Death Gods" is now in Kindle, in print at Amazon, and at Smashwords. Coming soon to other ebook retailers.

Happy-go-lucky, Los Angeles Private Eye, Shell Scott, bulldozes his way thru thugs, often with light-hearted humor, and with a beauty or two along the way, in this final novel of the long-running and best-selling classic Shell Scott Series by Richard S. Prather. More than 40 million Shell Scott books sold in the U.S., and millions more worldwide.

This was Prather's last book. Richard S. Prather (1921-2007) received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986.

Cover by Judy Bullard , Published by Pendleton Artists.

~Linda

The Death Gods, A Shell Scott Novel by Richard S. Prather

The Death Gods

Happy-go-lucky, Los Angeles Private Eye, Shell Scott, bulldozes his way thru thugs, often with light-hearted humor, and with a beauty or two along the way, in this final novel of the long-running Shell Scott Series by Richard S. Prather. More than 40 million Shell Scott books sold in the U.S., and millions more worldwide.

Coming soon to Kindle, print and Smashwords.

Sales Soar as E-Books Go Mainstream

According to The Authors Guild, Inc.: “e-books are now mainstream. Year-over-years sales of e-books increased 160 percent, to $389.7 million, in the first five months of 2011, exceeding sales of adult hardcovers and gaining fast on adult trade paperbacks.”

And the Authors Guild states that the Book Industry Study Group reports that the percentage of book buyers reading digital titles rose from 5 percent last October to 25 percent in June.

I’m sure e-book sales will continue to “soar,” especially as more and more authors choose to go the self-publishing route with Kindle, Smashwords, and receive a decent royalty, much higher than any traditional publisher offers. It also gives readers opportunity to buy e-books at reasonable prices for their Kindle, iPad, Kobo, Smartphone, computer, tablets, or other devices. And some we haven't even heard of yet....

Linda

Author Interview, Rod Pennington

I am pleased to do this interview with Rod Pennington. He has just released the second book in The Fourth Awakening Series, written by Rod Pennington and Jeffery A. Martin, Ph.D. The first book, The Fourth Awakening, has done quite well, often topping Amazon sales lists in the U.S. and in the U.K.

This is the Amazon Kindle Description for The Fourth Awakening:

“A group of top scientists, lead by a legendary Nobel Prize winning physicist, has made a discovery so startling and with such deep religious implications that it sends shockwaves through the corridors of power around the world. As the federal government moves to suppress the research, all of those involved vanish without a trace.

“A mysterious call from the editor of The Washington Post starts Penelope Drayton Spence off in search of the missing scientists. After she crosses paths with enigmatic industrialist Michael Walker, Penelope becomes a fugitive in a wild, hold on tight to the edge of your seat race to expose the truth about the Hermes Project before the government can cover it up.

“While a work of fiction, The Fourth Awakening is grounded in cutting edge science and an emerging new spiritual reality. It offers readers a glimpse of their future.”

The spiritual quest continues in the second book of The Fourth Awakening Series., The Gathering Darkness.

"Be careful what you wish for. A year earlier, with the help of enigmatic industrialist Michael Walker, all of Penelope Drayton Spence’s dreams had come true. Now, as one of the country’s top journalists, she has discovered what she thought would make her happy was only making her busy. After months of avoiding her, Michael Walker burst back into her life with an outlandish plan to launch his controversial “Hermes” satellite into space. But she soon learns someone just as resourceful and well-financed is willing to go to any lengths to stop the launch. After the Hermes Project’s facility in Jackson Hole is attacked, Penelope gets a ringside seat as two of the world’s most powerful men go toe-to-toe in a battle of wills that could change the course of humanity. "

Rod, I’m pleased do this interview with you. On my bookshelf containing autographed books is a copy of your novel, Devon’s Way, The Quicksilver Solution, which you autographed a number of years ago to my husband, Don Pendleton.

Rod: I remember sending it to Don. I actually did a work-for-hire a few years later and wrote two novels based on characters Don had created for Harlequin: Lethal Trade and Death Hunt.

Linda: When did you become interested in writing? Did you write as a kid? I don’t mean for school but for yourself? Do you recall the first story you ever wrote? If so, do you want to share what it was about?

Rod: I started writing in high school. I helped write two produced school plays and I was one of the editors of our weekly newspaper. My first major sale was when I was the tender age of 18. I did an interview with one of my college professors who was on the last plane out of Prague in 1968 when the Soviet tanks rolled in. It was picked up by the AP and made the wire services.

Linda: Was your Devon’s Way novels your first books? Do you plan on making them available again through Kindle?

Rod: The Devon’s Way series were my first three novels but I had done a ton of freelance and ghostwriting prior to that. I would love to release them on Kindle but while I hold the copyright I’m not sure where I would stand legally. The original publisher went bankrupt owing me money in 1989. The contracts I signed hit the landfill years ago so it is a gray area.

Linda: Who or what has influenced your writing and in what way?

Rod: The two most important nuts and bolts people are Joseph Campbell and Syd Field. To me they are the master storytellers. If you want to understand story and character development read the famous Chris Vogler's coverage of Joseph Campbell The Hero with a Thousand Faces that changed Hollywood forever. Bill Moyers did a 6 hour documentary on PBS about this. If you have Netflix it is available for instant download. If you want to understand cinematic pacing, then Syd Field is the best I’ve ever seen.

In terms of writers, I’m a huge Rex Stout fan. I like his books because he created a pair of truly original characters in Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Beyond that, there are 50 to 100 great writers whose work I appreciate.

Linda: I love Joseph Campbell. Bill Moyers' interviews with Campbell (Power of Myth) are priceless. And of course, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces is an excellent look at the mythical hero. I’ve not read Chris Vogler’s work on it, though.

Rod: I’ll put a link to it on my webpage. It is possibly the best thing ever written about how to craft a story.

Linda: I know of Syd Field and his expertise in screenwriting. I’ve adapted several screenplays myself, and written an original one. Maybe one day I will do more screenwriting, as I did enjoy it. It is a tough market to break into.

I discovered not long ago while doing family genealogy that I am related to Rex Stout. Our connection goes back to the early 1600s to Richard and Penelope Stout, my 9th great-grandparents, his 6th great-grandparents.

Rod: Penelope? Now that’s a great name for a character!

Linda: I understand you are not only a novelist, but also a screenwriter. Would you tell us a little about your screenwriting and what led to that?

Rod: I had just been orphaned by my second publisher in less than three years when the phone rang. A guy introduced himself and said he had seen my novels and wanted to know if I had ever written a screenplay. I told him not only had I never written one, I had never even seen one. He said he would send me a script then we’d check back to see if I had any interest in working with him. The next day, overnight mail was a much bigger deal in those days, a package arrived. It was the script for a recently released summer blockbuster movie. I read it and he called me back. I had just seen the movie and it was slightly different than the script he had sent me. I asked about it and he said the author of the book it was based on didn’t like this version so they hired other writers. I asked what they had paid for the script they didn’t use and he casually answered $500,000. This was 1990. He had my undivided attention for the next 4 years. I didn’t find out until years later that it was unusual to have the VP of Creative Affairs of a major studio track down a writer in Ohio and offer them work.

Linda: Oh, boy. What a lucky break that was!

Rod: Indeed. It was one of those moments that changed my life.

Linda: As most writers, I have read a number of books on creative writing and techniques of novel writing. What books on writing have you found to be of value early on in your career, and why? And I understand you now teach writing yourself, is that right?

Rod: I used to teach writing. I was an instructor in the Writers’ Digest Novel Writing Workshop and the Advanced Novel Writing workshop. I’ve also taught some Adult Ed classes and occasionally speak at writers’ conference. My biggest influences were Joseph Campbell and the skills I picked up in Hollywood. My novels, because of screenwriting, are long on dialogue and short on narrative. The plots move right along and I try to leave a gasp at the end of each chapter. The Amazon reviews I cherish are the ones who say they lost a night’s sleep because they couldn’t put my book down.

I’m currently writing a brief little eBook for a nice group of people who are trying to encourage first time writers entitled Writing the Spiritual Novel. It’s only about 15,000 words but it goes over Joseph Campbell and how I craft a story.

Linda: Thanks for sharing the draft of Writing the Spiritual Novel with me. It’s going to be a help to new authors, Rod. It’s very good.

Rod: Thanks. Mostly it’s just a cut and paste of my classroom notes, the Vogler memo and a few other nuggets I’ve picked up over the years. If any of your readers would like the draft copy send me an email to AskRod@RodPennington.net.

Linda: I find it fascinating that you moved from writing action/adventure into writing New Age Thought with The Fourth Awakening Series. (I know someone else who did that—Don Pendleton). What brought you and Dr. Jeffery Martin together? I see Dr. Martin is a Harvard- educated social scientist and researcher of human potential—and his concept of non-symbolic consciousness. How easy was it for the two of you to blend the metaphysical concepts into a suspense novel?

Rod: Jeffery and I have been friends and business partners for nearly two decades. He’s currently spending a year in Hong Kong as a guest professor. We are basically fire and ice when it comes to novel writing. I’ve had 8 novels published and he has written all or part of over 2 dozen non-fiction books. He doesn’t read fiction and I don’t read non-fiction and I particularly avoid the academic gobbledygook that tends to make his heart go pitty-pat. Here’s a hilarious story about The Fourth Awakening. There is scene where Penelope wants to talk about Michael Walker but had been warned not to mention his name in public. Penelope called him, “He who must not be named.” Jeffery didn’t get it because he didn’t have any idea who Lord Voldemort was.

We’ve had some Titanic battles over these novels; in fact we thought The Gathering Darkness would have been out over a year ago. But we hit a loggerhead and it sat for 8 months with neither of us working on it. Still, because we have great respect for each other, we got past it.

Linda: Do you have plans for several books in The Fourth Awakening Series?

Rod: This was intended as a trilogy but the characters have developed a nice following so they may live on. We’ll see. The third book will be much darker than the first two. We plan to explore the dark side of enlightenment. This may completely turn off our core audience because this is a subject many of them ignore. By the time Return to the Light has been around for a few weeks the desire for more of Penelope and Walker could be over.

Linda: What is your usual writing routine, Rod? I know readers often want to know how many hours a day do we spend at our computers? Do we outline? How long does it take to complete a book? Where do we get our ideas?—our inspiration?

Rod: I’m an early riser and most of my creative stuff is written early in the day. I’ve found if I try to be creative for more than 5-6 hours in a day and push myself, the next day the tank will be empty. As for how long it takes to write a book it depends. I wrote The Linz Trust in six weeks. The novel adaption of a screenplay I sold is still unfinished after 20 years. Everything else falls somewhere in between.

Linda: Of the elements that go into a novel such as characterizations, dialogue, action scenes, plotting, sex scenes, and setting, among other things, which do you find easiest for you personally in your art of writing? In other words, what do you consider your strength to be?

Rod: That’s easy. Dialogue. I love to let two characters with opposing viewpoint go at each other. I think this is why I caught the eye of the folks in LaLaLand. Movies and television are almost all dialogue.

While I’m uncomfortable writing sex scenes, I do think I may have written the best non-graphic one of all time in The Gathering Darkness. Not to spoil it, but it is the first 40 words of Chapter Thirty-Two.

Linda: What is your favorite quote?

Rod: I’ll give you two. "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." Charles Schultz.

“I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.” Mother Theresa

Linda: Great quotes! Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Rod: This is the new Golden Age of writing. We’re entering an era similar to the 1930s up until the 1960s. Cheap pulp fiction was everywhere. From Louis L’ Amour westerns, to fantastic mystery and detective yarns to incredible science fiction, you could get anything you wanted for .35 cents at the local drug store. As the cost of printing and distribution began to rise fifty years ago these “pulp” books and magazines couldn’t compete with “free” TV so it dried up. I see a new renaissance on the horizon.

Thanks to places like Kindle, even if you hire a professional editor and cover design person, you can have your book online for less than a $1,000. After that if you’re selling your book on Amazon for 99 cents, if you can get only one tenth of one percent of the American population to buy your book you’ll make over $100,000 dollars. That’s .001.

Go out and write what you would like to read. But remember this. In rock music, the bands that come up with a new sound that resonates, play to packed venues every night. Good cover bands are working the lounge at the airport Holiday Inn.

Thanks to eBooks we’re going to be seeing a lot of cover bands. Tell good stories and create fresh original characters and the universe will find you. Don’t try to repackage stuff that has already been written. Derivative characters and tired plots lines are a dime a dozen.

Find your voice and use it.

Also, read an article that was in the Wall Street Journal back in March. “Cheapest E-Books Upend the Charts”. This was the article that motivated me to get back into the novel writing business.

Linda: Great advice, Rod. I was visiting your website the other day and found your article, “What’s In a Name” quite interesting. I have always thought you had the perfect name for an author. :-)

Rod: LOL! I had never really thought about that.

Linda: Tell us more about The Fourth Awakening, if you’d like, and tell us about your new action/adventure novel, A Family Reunion (The First Charon Family Adventure).

Rod: The Fourth Awakening was an attempt to wrap some cutting edge science in a fast paced suspense novel. We also wanted to present the history of mankind in a way most people had never considered. The second book, The Gathering Darkness, is a much more personal story. I throw everything at poor Penelope. The last book in the trilogy will explore the dark side of enlightenment. This one will be a stunner.

I wrote A Family Reunion to blow off some steam after the Fourth Awakening books. You have no idea how hard it is to keep the tension level up when there is no violence. No sex. No foul language and one of your lead characters is devoid of emotion. There’s a reason most murder mysteries, thrillers and action stories have a dead body in the first chapter.

The Charon Family Adventures are right in my wheelhouse. Funny, bawdy, fast paced and long on dialogue and short on narrative. To separate them from my more serious work, I’m putting outrageous covers on them. A Family Reunion, has a dark and shadowy Grim Reaper holding a brightly colored picnic basket. The next book in the series Family Business, has the Reaper holding a bunch of bright “Grand Opening” balloons. That’s my fair warning to the reader that they are about to start on a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Linda: Thank you, Rod, for taking time to do this interview. I wish you and Dr. Martin the best with The Fourth Awakening Series. It is such an unique concept—really a new genre—New Thought Fiction, and I’m sure the books will continue to do well. And I wish you the best for your other novels, too.

Rod: Thanks!

----------------------------------------
Rod Pennington’s Website
The Fourth Awakening
The Gathering Darkness (The Fourth Awakening Series)
A Family Reunion (The First Charon Family Adventure)

Jeffery Martin’s Amazon Author Page
Rod Pennington’s Amazon Author Page
The Fourth Awakening FaceBook Page

In Memory

Angel Copyright by Danny Hahlbohm

In Memory
We will always remember those who lost their lives
and those who so gallantly risked their lives to save others.
May peace and healing come to the families and friends of those lost,
and to the many rescue workers and others who were touched by this tragedy. – Linda



"America, America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929)


"The land of the free and the home of the brave."
–Francis Scott Key (1779–1843)


"I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murders, and for a time they seem invincible.
But in the end they always fall. Think of this. Always."
–Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)


"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear–not absence of fear."
–Mark Twain (1835–1910)


"This land is your land, this land is my land,
from California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me."
–Woody Guthrie (1912–1967)


"There is nothing we cannot live down, rise above, and overcome."
–Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855–1919)


"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
–Bible, 2 Timothy 1:7


"Okay, there's a group of us and we're going to do something...
If they're going to drive this plane into the ground we've got to do something."
–Thomas Burnett (1963–2001)
Passenger, Flight 93, Sept. 11, 2001


"We've decided, we're going to do it."
–Jeremy Glick (1970–2001)
Passenger, Flight 93, Sept. 11, 2001


"Are you guys ready? Let's roll!"
–Todd Beamer (1917–2001)
Passenger, Flight 93, Sept. 11, 2001


"Imagine there's no country, it isn't hard to do,
nothing to kill or die for, and no religion, too.
Imagine all the people living life in peace."
–John Lennon (1940–1980)


"Never in this world can hatred be stilled by hatred;
it will be stilled only by non-hatred–that is the law Eternal."
–Buddha (568-488 B.C.)


"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
–Seneca (c. 4 B.C.–65 A.D.)


"We should always be at war with injustice. Always."
–Maya Angelou (1928–)


"Only the just man enjoys peace of mind."
–Epicurus (371–270 B.C.)


"To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy
and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations and as individuals,
is one of the highest functions of civilization."
–Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)


"When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters.
One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."
–John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)


"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
–Sun Tzu (c. early 4th Century B.C.)


"If you want to heal, give. When you need comfort and strength,
give to others. By helping other people, you can begin to heal."
–Dr. Phil McGraw


"Until you have become really in actual fact a brother of everyone,
brotherhood will not come to pass. Only by brotherhood will liberty be saved."
–Feodor Dostoevski (1821–1881)


"Life has its ups and downs. When you are down,
the angels are waiting to lift you up."
–Linda Pendleton


“We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
–Joseph Campbell, (1904-1987)


“I believe that peace becomes possible when we choose to make peace an attitude and a habit.
I believe that the reality of peace begins within each of us….”
~Mattie J. T. Stepanek, (1990-2004) Just Peace, A Message of Hope

E-book Publishing With Smashwords

I was asked not long ago how difficult it is to publish ebooks. My answer was that it is not difficult at all. I had suggested to the woman was asked, to take a look at Smashwords.com, and then download and read the free Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker. His guide can be most helpful in learning how to format your book for Smashwords. Mark takes you through the process, step by step. And I must say, the steps are easy to follow and to make the necessary changes to your Microsoft Word Document manuscript so it is ready to upload.

Smashwords enables authors to have their books distributed to numerous ebook retailers for their Ebook Reader platforms. If you’re interested in having your book/books available for the various applications and online stores, such as Barnes and Noble’s Nook, the Kobo, Diesel ebooks, iPad, iPhone, and Sony, then Smashwords is the place to be. Smashwords distributes your ebook to the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, Kobo, and the Diesel eBook Store, and will be adding more retailers soon. And your book will earn 85% Net at Smashwords, and 60% of list price at major ebook retailers. Also, you set your own price on your book.

Smashwords also offers a free, Book Marketing Guide by Mark Coker, that can be of value to a new author. Getting your book published is only part of the “game.” Yes, you have written your book and now have it published, but there is still more work to do to promote your book. The marketing guide gives ideas for making it easier for a reader to find your book.

My cover designer is Judy Bullard and she has done covers for me for more than a decade. She now does ebook covers for other authors and is on Mark Coker’s list: Smashwords Independent Service Providers - Ebook Formatting and Ebook Cover, which he will send out for those people in need of designers or formatters. For Mark’s list send email to list@smashwords.com . Judy has designed a number of ebook covers for authors who publish at Smashwords. Check out Judy’s gallery .

All author contracts with Smashwords are non-exclusive, and authors retain ownership rights to their works and are free to publish elsewhere, if they choose. In other words, publishing ebooks with Smashwords gives the author control over his or her work. You choose your own price, your own cover, and will be able to have your own author page at Smashwords. Smashwords is also on Facebook, and you can follow Mark Coker on Twitter, and follow his blog.

It is my belief that books that sell are ones that are well-written, well-edited, and have sharp covers. So put your best work out there. The interest in ebooks and ereaders continues to grow.

I have published a number of books of mine and Don Pendleton’s at Smashwords. And I will be publishing more. Our books can be found at our Smashwords Author pages:
Linda Pendleton Page
Don Pendleton Page

Read about Smashwords here

Linda

Pixels or Fonts; A Meeting of the Minds

In 2002, I wrote a letter in response to a local librarian who had put down the value of ebooks. A copy went to the librarian and was published in the local newspaper. I quote from it: “I have always believed it should be the goal (and desire) of librarians to encourage people to read. It should not matter what format the reader chooses. The author’s words are there to be shared—a meeting of the minds—whether in pixels or fonts.

I had also commented: “The popularity of e-books is growing, and unfolding technological advances will improve formats. Young children are becoming proficient in computer knowledge, and computers are becoming the norm for many of them. E-books will not fully replace paper books on library shelves, but will give millions of readers the opportunity, 24 hours a day, to download their choice of reading materials from home or work. A trip to the local library will not be necessary.

We’ve come a long way in nearly a decade!

Linda