The Cellophane Queen: 'Cause you can look right through me, Walk right by me and never know I'm there...
Quest for the Simurgh"If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear - never to see them again - you send them to Egypt." Bob Baer - Former CIA Agent
1- I (Edward) will maintain a list of service personnel email addresses as they come in to me.
2- Authors should have available a DRM Free Kindle compatible version of yourbook or books.
3- If you don't have that available, the easiest (and beneficial way to you as well) is to put your books up at Smashwords.com. And then download a free copy to yourself.(One author has suggested using Smashword's coupon system, which is an option. Iwill be emailing my books directly, however, anyway that you can get the book tothe troops, is fine)
4- Once you have the book in place, let me know. I'd like to have your email address. Right now, I'm using PMs, but as this takes off (and I have no doubt that it will), it will be easier for me to email new troop email addresses out to all the participating authors in one email.
5- Once the author has the email address, just send the book(s) - if many, then ZIP -and put in your subject line: Operation Kindle Book Drop. Whatever you want to put in the body of the email is up to you, and I guarantee that among the obvious good deed done stuff, you will get a response from the troop. I plan to save mine, to read on those days when I get a 1-star review and feel that I have failed somewhere.
Readers can participate by getting the word out or helping with nifty links.
I think Tales Of A Texas Boy by Marva Dasef will appeal to both children and adults. In fact, the large print is particularly suited for children and senior citizens whose eyesight is perhaps not as good as it once was. Marva Dasef skillfully brings her colorful characters to life, “a different life than any of us will ever know”, and I could have happily read another one hundred pages and another twenty Tales Of A Texas Boy. I’ll just have to read it all over again. And again.
Can't get much better than that.
Note: The book is available through Amazon in a several formats. A trade paperback has normal print, and there are two different large print editions.
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This is not a review.
The reason that it isn't is because I'm on page 29 of the 935 page book, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it. I will plow ahead, but I have to say that I'm already disappointed in it.
I love Stephenson's books. I'm a huge fan of Cryptinomicon and the Baroque Cycle. Both of these are huge tomes, so the length doesn't faze me.
What bugs me in Anathem is that I feel like I'm reading another language in which I am ill-versed. This is frustrating. I really, really want to love this new book of Neal's, but I'm afraid it will be returned to the library unfinished. When it comes out in paperback, and I can buy a used copy I will most likely give it another try.
But, for now, I'm thinking I should just return it to the library so that someone else can have at it.
I'd be interested to hear from others who have read the book. It might reassure me that either 1) I'm being silly and should plow ahead, or 2) this is incomprehensible unless you're into getting a Ph.D. in Stephenson Arcana.
20. You’re actually the 139th person to submit a conspiracy thriller
involving the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, entitled THE MICHAELANGELO
CIPHER.
21. And the 78th to submit a chick-lit manuscript about an attractive
woman’s sweet tooth and affection for footwear, called CHOCOLATE AND
SHOES.
22. You know the part where the protagonist stuffs those puppies into
the wood chipper? It’s not quite as funny as you seem to think.
My good friend Bryan Catherman gives some helpful hints on how to write a book review.A good book review usually tells as much about the reviewer as it does about the book although the reviewer should seek balance between the two.
Just for the young? Not necessarily!, January 28, 2009
By Al Past (Beeville, TX USA) - See all my reviews
Tales of a Texas Boy is a collection of 21 reminiscences of rural life in the Texas panhandle during the Depression, told in the voice of an eleven year old remembering his childhood as an elderly man (modeled after the author's father). Each tale is short and complete in itself, and all add up to a convincing evocation of what life was like during those days in that area of Texas.
The boy, of course, would not dwell on hardship, deprivation, or lack of creature comforts. From his point of view, he had regular chores to perform, a loving, fairly strict family to live with, and various spells of an interesting or exciting nature to experience.
These include adventures with snakes, a man who had a pet bear, a livestock auction, driving his father's Model A pickup truck, a wild jackass, various odd neighbors, going on an old-fashioned cattle drive, dogs, skunks, fishing, chickens, and his little sister, to name a few. Each story is preceded by a few sentences of authorial scene-setting--a nice touch--and a small black and white photograph, not credited or explained, but adding a pleasant visual accent to the pages.
The prose style has a countrified flavor, but not excessively so. Each story is well narrated, with the right details in the right place and usually a satisfying and appropriate conclusion.
Tales of a Texas Boy is intended to be a young adult book, but I see no reason younger children wouldn't enjoy it too, or adults, for that matter. I enjoyed it myself, and I am very far from a young adult. It reminded me of some of the stories J. Frank Dobie, the grand old man of Texas folklore, used to love. In fact, parents who are in the habit of reading bedtime stories to their children (an excellent idea) might find children as young as five would be entertained by them--the length of the stories is about right, and they offer a fine opportunity for parental dramatic reading. Indeed, the point could be impressed upon the child that daily life, however prosaic it might seem now, is worth gathering and writing down for the interest it might have in the future. It's easy to imagine a sleepy child asking why the Texas Boy never watched television. Calling grandpa and grandma!
(Al Past is the author of the popular Distant Cousin series and reviews for PODBRAM.)
Christine (CF): How long have you been writing?
Marva (MD): The “all my life” answer that writers usually give here seems a bit disingenuous. Personally, I did not pop out of the womb with pen in hand. The better question is: how long have you been writing for publication? I wrote technical documentation for thirty-five years. I started writing fiction for publication about three years ago. Before that, I wrote stories for fun. The good part is that I dredged out a few of those old stories and have done well sending them out as individual stories. Three of my oldies eventually became books. Lesson: Never throw anything away. Those old ones were on paper only.
"Chosen Sister" is published by Wild Child Publishing. They put out an eclectic bunch of books. I've had stories in a couple of their anthologies, so I gotta like them.
Buy Chosen Sister in ebook format for $5.95 at Wild Child.
When the Gold Wizard comes looking for the Child Warrior in Reina's village, it's no surprise he's only looking at the boys. However, when the wizard magically selects her younger brother as the warrior prophesied to defeat the Red Wizard, Reina has mixed feelings—jealousy and concern. Austyn is only six.
Allowed to accompany her brother, Reina soon finds they're in deeper trouble than she thought. The Gold Wizard's fake beard is ripped off by attacking harpies, revealing he's only seventeen, not to mention his magical demonstrations tend to go awry. Unfortunately, with the Red Wizard's harpies and snakewolves on their trail, finding a new (and better) wizard mentor is hardly an option. If anyone's going to find a way to track down the elusive Sword of Chivalry for Austyn and get him into the Red Wizard's castle to fulfill whatever the obscure prophecy insists must be done, it's got to be Reina.
Read The Toasted Scimitar interview where I blather on about my writing and talk a bit about Cadida!
