Kindle Daily Post

Guest Blogger: Judy Blume

Judy Blume's keen insight into the world of children and young adults has delighted readers worldwide. Over 65 million copies of her award-winning books, including Superfudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great are in print, and her stories have been translated into 14 languages. Here she asks the question, "What is a real book?"

I grew up with books.  In my house, reading was a good thing.  My parents weren't afraid that browsing in the bookshelves flanking our fireplace was a dangerous activity for me.  They were proud that I was a reader, like them. So when I began to write I wasn't afraid either.  "But when are you going to write a real  book?"  my friends and acquaintances asked when my first books were published. They viewed books for young readers as something only a woman with a husband and a couple of babies might write as a hobby.  Their comments could sting--but they couldn't stop me from writing what came naturally.  I identified more with children than with them.  Writing allowed me to escape back into the world of childhood which I found more compelling, more honest, than the lifestyle I was expected to embrace in the suburbs, forty-plus years ago.  I knew what real books were.  I knew how they smelled when they were new and how they smelled when you borrowed them from the library.  Inside were stories and characters transporting you to different places, giving you insight into others' lives and your own, making you think, question, laugh and cry.

I never dreamed then that one day we'd be having another discussion about real books.  I saw a four year old at a restaurant the other night with an electronic device, pushing buttons as if he was born to the task.  I've no doubt he'll learn to read on one electronic device or another and when he does, I'm glad he'll have a choice – not only will he choose what to read but how to read it.  I hope he'll read widely, with amazement and joy.  I'm glad that my books, should he choose to read them, will be there for him on his e-reader.  The story and characters are the same whether you're listening to an audio book, reading on an e-reader, or holding a book between two covers, turning paper pages.

Sure, I hope he gets to visit bookstores and libraries and have the pleasure of browsing and sniffing.  And I’ll do all I can to make that a possibility for him.  But I’m thankful for every opportunity that brings books and readers together.

--Judy Blume

 

Author Spotlight: Dave Duncan on "Against the Light"

Dave Duncan is a prolific writer of fantasy and science fiction, best known for his fantasy series, particularly The Seventh Sword, A Man of His Word, and The King's Blades. He and his wife Janet live in Victoria, British Columbia. They have three children and four grandchildren.

Although Against the Light is my forty-fifth novel, it is different from all the others. This is my first story based on real history.

Yes, it concerns imaginary people with imaginary problems, and it is set in a fantasy land. So far, no change. But it was inspired by a book by Alice Hogge, God’s Secret Agents; Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot. Reading history is one of my hobbies, and that book I found exceptionally well written and convincing.

Briefly, four hundred years ago, England was ruled by a Protestant queen, Elizabeth I. In the eyes of the Pope, she was both a heretic and a bastard, so he announced that he released all the Catholics in England from allegiance to her. Thus he turned his followers in that country into traitors.  Undoubtedly most English Catholics were loyal to their queen, and the queen’s government was reluctant to persecute them, but the conflict between politics and religion was insolvable.

Young Catholic men fled overseas, were ordained as priests, and returned to minister to the faithful. The government hunted them down. Many of the secret hiding places they used can still be found in old houses. This sort of situation is irresistible grist to a writer’s mill.

Why did I not just write an honest historical novel? Partly because history is not as tidy as fiction and may need to be tweaked, but mostly because a fantasy setting isolates the problem from its modern avatars, preventing the reader from taking sides, either consciously or unconsciously.

Don’t worry that I will try to preach at you. I detest fiction with a message. My purpose with Against the Light is only to entertain—-and perhaps leave you wondering a bit at the end.

--Dave Duncan

Author Discusses Deep Roots of New Sci-Fi Novel, "Resurrection"

Arwen Elys Dayton began her career as a teenage staff writer at a foundation that produced Peabody Award-winning educational shows for PBS. Soon afterward, she began writing screenplays and novels, including Sovereign's Hold and Resurrection. She spends months doing research for her stories and enjoys creating complete worlds inhabited by characters who charm, frustrate, or inspire.

The inspiration for Resurrection began with pondering a problem: the best explanations of how the Great Pyramid was built just don’t hold up.

The most accepted of the official explanations boil down to some version of this: a giant ramp was used, blocks of stone (some weighing as much as 200 tons) were floated down the Nile, then rolled on logs up the ramp, and set neatly in place. The problem with the ramp theory is that it turns out the volume of the ramp would have been as great as the volume of the pyramid itself. And as for the logs, well, trees can be very strong, but if you look at how far away the quarries were, how many trees would have been needed (and how few existed in Egypt), and how heavy each individual block was, it's hard to arrive at traditional conclusions.

I am not beating the drum for alien intervention or advanced technologies, but the problems with this explanation does leave a novelist a lot of wiggle room.

In researching Resurrection, I toured the Great Pyramid with maverick archeologist John Anthony West, known around the world for poking large holes in archaeological doctrine. (His best-known book, Serpent in the Sky, is a great introduction to his work.)

When we arrived in Egypt, the pyramid was actually closed to visitors due to some renovations of the interior walkways. Luckily, John knew the art of baksheesh (the North African term for bribery), and also pulled some strings with higher-ups. Combined, these assets bought us private entrance into the pyramid, which we explored by flashlight--a flashlight with batteries that were already low when we started and which had nearly run out by the time we emerged back into the sunlight and heat of the Giza Plateau.

John was a big proponent of the pyramid's sound enhancement qualities (which ended up playing a part in the plot of Resurrection), and I was instructed to lie in the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber and chant an Om. Why an Om? I don't know, but it sounded amazing. The chamber didn't echo exactly, it just took the sound and magnified it, letting it reverberate through the solid walls for a LONG time. In that dark space, with the flashlight's beam starting to flicker as the batteries gave out, it was a bit creepy but also breathtaking. From my standpoint, my visit to the Great Pyramid may have been more exciting than the one paid by Pruit and Eddie in the story--but I'll let you be the judge.

Of course, Resurrection is not actually about how the pyramids were built. That's just a piece of the story. It's about a clash of cultures and personalities that gave shape to ancient Egypt and threatens to change the course of our modern world. And above all it's about Pruit, who hopefully, like other female heroes (Ripley from Alien always comes to mind) makes you think, "I want to be her, but please--I don't want her problems!" For better or for worse, I think there's a little bit of Pruit in all of us.

I hope you enjoy Resurrection. I certainly enjoyed writing it.

--Arwen Elys Dayton

"Swell" by Corwin Ericson

Guest post by author Corwin Ericson

On the day Swell was published, I signed a hundred copies at a booksellers trade show in California. Person after person asked me a question I should have been more prepared to answer: What's this book about? I finally settled on telling them, "Sex, drugs, and whales." If they looked nonplussed, I said it was shorter and funnier than Moby-Dick.

Swell is the story of Orange Whippey, who wouldn't mind just going back to bed. Barring that, a dry pair of pants would be nice. He could use some coffee and a cigarette too. Beer would be great. A ride home would be helpful, but he'd settle for a day that passed without getting baked in a sauna, kidnapped, beaten, tossed overboard, or drugged.

Orange is a native of Bismuth, an island off the coast of Maine, and he thought he was in for another boring summer fishing and working at the island's only restaurant. When rival whaling factions from northern Europe arrive on the tiny island to play out ancient hostilities, Orange gets dragged into a smuggling scheme that involves migrating whales, cell phone antennae, and counterfeit tiger testes.

Maybe the pair of Korean smugglers will help him out of his troubles, but they seem to enjoy watching Orange flounder. Snorri the whale herder wants him to come on a quest to find Hyperborea, the mythical city at the North Pole. Waldena the lusty whale hunter wouldn't mind seeing Orange and Snorri drown. It's Angie, Orange's best friend's ex-wife, who takes pity on him. She thinks he's skinny, slow, and needs a shower, but likes him anyway--especially when he's snorted too much counterfeit tiger testes. If they can all just manage somehow to cooperate, there's a big strange payoff for each of them.

Swell is a comic novel full of imagined lore about the New England coast, sagas, mythology, and big-fish-that-got-away stories. Readers have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Christopher Moore's Fluke. Melville's Ishmael would probably say Orange was a lazy, poor specimen of a whaler. Chandler's Philip Marlowe would have enjoyed tossing him off a pier.

Corwin Ericson is an MFA graduate of UMass Amherst and the former managing editor of the Massachusetts Review. His fiction has appeared in Harper's,the Believer, jubilat, and Fence. Swell is his first novel.

Author Spotlight: J. Gregory Smith on "A Noble Cause"

Guest post by J. Gregory Smith, author of Final Price and A Noble Cause.

Lord Acton’s famous quote about absolute power corrupting absolutely provides the backdrop for my second novel, A Noble Cause. In it, the main character, Mark Noble, a seemingly normal guy trying to find his place in the world, is forced to confront the terrible fruits of his father’s quest.

I wanted to show the havoc that an unchecked thirst for power and glory can make, not just on the seeker, but to those around him and to the world beyond. And just as in nature, when one animal has something of value, there are always others lurking in the dark waiting to take the prize for themselves.

Despite a lifetime of pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, Mark has rejected that path to follow one of his own, even though he doesn’t know where it will lead him. The resulting estrangement has left Mark ignorant of the depths to which his father has stooped to attain glory and professional achievement.

Mark only knows that his father has developed some sort of advanced hypnotherapy that he incorporated into a lucrative practice, earning him the moniker, “Shrink to the Stars.”

Following a fragile reconciliation, Mark thinks he’s about to become engaged to his girlfriend, Vanessa, but when she disappears and events send him reeling back to a destroyed home he is forced to fight for his own survival. He only knows two things for certain: there aren’t any coincidences, and he must solve the mystery if he ever wants to find Vanessa.

I thought it would be interesting to see the effects of a quest for absolute power from some of those caught in the vortex it leaves in its wake. The reader, like Mark, is unaware of the epic struggle in the background, but the more Mark seeks the truth, the more we learn as well.

With the complicated background in place, I thought it would be fun to look at the story from the perspective of a bystander, initially pulled into the fray, but who chooses to fight back and shape his own destiny.

For me much of the fun came from dropping a character into these circumstances and asking a simple question. What would he do?

Throughout all the twists, I enjoyed watching the story evolve and hope the fun I had writing it comes through to everyone who reads it.

--J. Gregory Smith

Author Spotlight: Antoine Wilson on "The Interloper"

Guest post by Antoine Wilson

In the wake of his brother-in-law’s brutal and senseless murder, Owen Patterson takes it upon himself to extract a peculiar kind of justice.

The murderer, Henry Joseph Raven, is in prison, but it hardly seems punishment enough to Owen, who must live with the aftereffects of the crime—his new wife in mourning, in-laws obsessed with their lost son. So in a quest to “balance the scales of justice,” Owen begins to write letters to the murderer, using a female pseudonym. His plan is simple but unhinged: His “Lily Hazelton” will seduce Henry Raven, then break his heart.

That’s the premise of my first novel, The Interloper.

When people ask me what it’s about, and I sense they’re looking for a one-sentence answer, I usually reply with something like, “It’s a darkly comic novel about a cockamamie revenge scheme.”

But it’s not really about revenge at all.

The revenge is a pretext for something far more complicated and problematic: Owen’s act of creation. From the moment he stumbles upon the idea for his scheme (he’s hit in the head by a Frisbee), Owen proceeds down a path of trial-and-error, of intuition and study, of memory and imagination in putting onto paper his made-up correspondent Lily Hazelton.

On his old Olivetti, Owen constructs Lily from imagined details, overheard anecdotes, docudrama plotlines, even the memory of his mother’s meatloaf. It’s not long before he discovers that if he really wants to bring Lily to life, he’s going to have to invest more of what Phillip Roth calls “the personal ingredient.” When he does, Lily transforms into an amalgam of his first love (cousin Eileen, a suicide), the traumas of his childhood, and the darkest corners of his psyche.

Sound like a novelist much?

In writing The Interloper I found myself shuttling constantly between imagination and memory. I put in a friend’s favorite joke. I reprinted poems by Whitman and Poe. I borrowed from things as mundane as my local grocery store and a license plate I’d seen twenty years before, and things as personal as an old inflatable penguin punching doll and my own half-brother’s murder.

Owen Patterson, in cobbling together what he can to seduce a reader with his words, is the mirror image of an author.

Except that he aims to destroy, whereas this author, at least, aims to delight.

Antoine Wilson is the author of The Interloper and the forthcoming Panorama City. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a contributing editor of A Public Space. He lives and surfs in Los Angeles.

Guest Post: Carly Phillips on "At Last"

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carly Phillips has written over 30 romance novels. She’s a writer, a knitter of sorts, a wife, and a mom to two daughters and two crazy dogs.

I "met" Julie Ortolon before I really met her. Back in 1999/2000 when I’d just sold my first full length book, the editor who bought The Bachelor held Julie Ortolon up to me as an example of a new author who’d written a strong book, had an innovative cover, and was clearly poised to go places. Julie’s book, Drive Me Wild, had hit the USA Today list right out of the starting gate.

Fast forward ten plus years and here we are again, with Julie poised to go places during an exciting time in our industry. It doesn’t surprise me that Julie has partnered with Amazon and their Montlake imprint to publish her book, At Last, because Julie has innovative ideas to bring to the table and Amazon has the perfect platform for her to do it in the Kindle and the new Kindle Fire. As a self-proclaimed techie myself, I’m in awe of Julie’s advanced thinking and truly enjoyed her story.

At Last treats readers to a heartwarming and fun tale featuring a sexy hero and a sassy heroine – with a bonus -– a sound track to go along with the book. Music? And a book? Sounds fantastic to me. Innovative too. Exactly what romance readers have come to expect from contemporary author, Julie Ortolon!

From the upbeat opening of At Last, the reader is engaged and drawn into the story of singer Riley Stone. They will root for her to get her man while saving her beloved dance hall and the town of Hope, Texas. Just what every romance reader desires when they curl up with a good book!

--Carly Phillips

What Is Lara Adrian Reading?

Lara Adrian is the best-selling author of the Midnight Breed series. The latest in the series, Darker After Midnight, is available January 24. 

I’ve always been an eclectic reader. Or maybe the more accurate term is omnivorous. Add to that, insatiable. As a kid, I spent endless hours at the public library, hoarding books the way some girls hoarded Barbie dolls (although, admittedly, I had my fair share of those too). I can still recall my parents’ befuddlement when I’d come home with an armload of books encompassing everything from Judy Blume novels to studies of African lions, to books on the occult and witchcraft. I simply read everything I could get my hands on, and I’m pretty much the same way today.

For instance, open right now on my Kindle is the excellent What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes. This is such a naked, moving, and achingly human account of combat and coming home, at times I find it too difficult to read for long in one sitting. It’s an amazing, courageous book, and parts of it will live inside me forever. I know I will come away from it a different (better, I hope) person from having read it.

Another book I’m reading and enjoying is The Orchard, a memoir by Theresa Weir. I first discovered this author through her dark romantic suspense novels under the pen name, Anne Frasier. I loved her voice and storytelling, but it was through her blog that I discovered she was also very interesting as a person. When I heard she’d written a memoir, I immediately put it on my must-buy list. The Orchard is beautifully written, a poignant memoir and a candid glimpse into the life of a young woman trying to find her place in the world.

Of course, I also have a ton of paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels--my favorite genres--queued up too. Here are some of the recent and upcoming releases I’m looking forward to: Immortal Rider by Larissa Ione; Bound by Darkness by Alexandra Ivy; Dire Needs by Stephanie Tyler; Within the Flames by Marjorie Liu; Blood Rights by Kristen Painter; Hunter of Shadows by Nancy Gideon…just to name a few!

I hope you find many wonderful new books to enjoy and share with others in 2012. Happy reading!

Guest Blogger: James Grippando, author of "Need You Now"

James Grippando is the New York Times best-selling author of nineteen previous novels. He lives in Florida, where he was a trial lawyer. Here, he talks about the inspiration for his latest thriller, Need You Now. 

Of course it was too good to be true:  A Wall Street whiz whose performance was the statistical equivalent of a baseball player batting .962 for ten years running.  Just days before his arrest, Bernard Madoff notified investors that they had about $68 billion in their accounts.  In reality, his giant Ponzi scheme was down to its last few hundred thousand dollars.  The stunning collapse in December 2008 left bankers, lawyers, regulators, and victims asking the same question:  where did all that money go?

Some of America’s brightest legal minds were immediately on the trail.  This past July, Securities Investor Protection Act Trustee Irving Picard announced a billion-dollar settlement of a so-called “feeder fund” case, bringing the total recovery for Madoff’s victims to $8.6 billion.  In Picard’s case, it was enough to ask who should have known that Madoff was a fraud.  As a thriller writer, I asked the bigger question:  who knew? 

For years critics voiced skepticism about Madoff.  Whistleblowers laid out dozens of “red flags.”  The entire law-enforcement arm of the U.S. government—tireless teams of federal agents who dedicated their careers to fighting complex financial crimes—was really just a bunch of bumbling fools who couldn’t sniff out a Ponzi scheme that was under their regulatory nose. 

Or so the world was led to believe. 

I found it hard to believe that Madoff was policed by the Wall Street version of Keystone Kops.  My original question—who knew?—took a sharper focus:  who in our own government knew?  And why didn’t they do anything to stop it?

Those questions are at the heart of Need You Now. It’s a step beyond the familiar premise of a cover up that is worse than the crime, though surely the fallout would be bad enough if the American public were to find out that its government knew about Madoff and let it happen.  But, what if the highest levels of government actually wanted it to happen, in furtherance of another agenda?  What if the Madoff losses were simply acceptable collateral damage in a larger financial war?

I’m not arguing the U.S. government understood the scope of Madoff’s fraud—between $18 billion and $60 billion.  But that only makes the posited government miscalculations all the more ruinous…and makes the thrill ride in Need You Now even more compelling.

Send to Kindle for PC

Sending and reading your personal documents on Kindle is now easier than ever.

We are excited to announce “Send to Kindle” for PC, adding another convenient way to send documents to your Kindle device or supported Kindle app from Windows Explorer and many other Windows applications. From Windows Explorer, simply right-click on one or more documents and choose Send to Kindle. From any other Windows application that can print, select Print and choose Send to Kindle. 

You can also simply archive documents in your Kindle Library for re-download later. Your last page read along with bookmarks, notes and highlights are automatically synchronized for your documents (with the exception of PDFs) across your Kindle devices and supported Kindle reading apps .

“Send to Kindle” is available for free download at www.amazon.com/sendtokindle. Support for Mac is coming soon. As always, you and your friends can continue to send documents to your Kindle by e-mailing them to your Send-to-Kindle E-mail address. Learn more by visiting www.amazon.com/kindlepersonaldocuments.