Showing posts with label Kindle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindle. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Free Ebooks for Kindle from Me with update on progress


 From Feb. 26 until March 2nd, there will be two of my books available for free kindle Downloads.


Amazon's Dixie Dawn Miller Goode Page has the links! You can view it at:


 Of course it seems crazy to work for years and then give that work away for free when you only ask a bit less than people would pay for a cup of coffee anyway, but once I heard the quote that says every book copy that you get out into the hands of the reading public is like your own personal ambassador to the world, encouraging good-will and getting themselves seen and getting you in the public eye, I saw the logic behind the trend to give away books.



Book Description For Duffy Barkley Is Not a Dog

Remember being with a group of friends where you felt safer and more included than you had ever felt at home, friends you had always wanted, who made you look around with a lump in your throat, wishing you could stop time? They were a lot like the groups in all the popular stories. They were the reason people love MASH, Harry Potter, Narnia, Friends, The Lord of the Rings , etc. They were a group of imperfect, overwhelmed and harassed people who became winners because they didn't have to face the overwhelming odds, alone. Even in the face of dark wizards, popular girls, bad hair days or War, they had each other's back. When one of them had a weakness, another had a strength to balance it out. When one was a jerk, someone else saved the day, and forgave them eventually. Now times are turning more difficult again. The world needs that kind of support. We need a source of encouragement so that we can find a way to be that kind of support when we are needed. As times are dark, people look for a reason to laugh, love and hope again. Duffy Barkley is not a dog, a middle grade fantasy, gives you those friends, that escape, that voice of hope in the darkness. Duffy is alone, handicapped, desperate. He is picked-on, lost, & yet, never defeated. In the most alien of places he finds friends. In the most dire of emergencies he finds courage. In the most evil of villains he finds compassion and a solution. In giving away what he most needs, he gains everything. Duffy, a 9 year old boy with cerebral palsy, survives tragedy in the form of a school shooting in which his younger sister is seriously injured. Falling into a new world, he regains his health but finds himself the focus of historic prophecy. While trying to deny his place in their prophecies he discovers his own abilities & changes his life & that of others in both worlds. He enjoys being physically strong but must give it up to save the villain, and find his way back to save his sister, Izzy.






Book description for Double Time: on The Oregon Trail

The past and present meet on the Oregon Trail when two girls travel the same trail with the same lap desk 152 years apart. Kenyon is traveling in 2002 from Pittsburgh to Salem, OR. Her mother is pregnant and staying behind to close escrow on the house and then flying west to join the family. Kenyon; her 5 year old sister, Melissa and her father are in a Dodge Caravan, with a trailer hitch. Her Grandfather has given her a plain, black polished ebony wooden lap desk lined with a scented wood that still smells faintly of cedar. The box is filled with thick, creamy paper, envelopes, a calling card, a hand mirror, pens and pencils and a small Swiss army knife, postage and an electronic address book. Her Grandfather is not moving with them but plans have been made for him to fly out in December for a visit. Kenyon strongly resents being expected to entertain Melissa at the motels in the evenings. Her father has decided to take the long way and show his girls some of the wonders of this country and Melissa is excited but Kenyon is determined to not have any fun. Traveling in 1850, Della, age 15, has already traveled from Northern Illinois to St. Louis, then a week by steamboat on the Missouri River. She stopped in Independence, MO to prepare for the journey and meet with the wagon train. She left behind her 60 year old grandmother who feels too old to attempt the trip, but who gave her a gift of a wooden lap desk. The desk is filled with paper, a small mirror, wooden handled pens with steel nibs, a metal letter opener, hair pins and a small sewing kit. Her younger brother, Orville, her father, and her pregnant mother are traveling with her. She has been asked to teach the younger children around the campfire in the evenings. What happens when they open the desk to see the other girls journal?







So if you choose to take advantage of the free offer, I hope you tell others about the books, I'd love it if you post a review on Amazon or Goodreads, I'd be happy if you but the Duffy Barkley: Seek Well sequel and Most of all, I hope that you have as much fun reading them as I did writing them

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Here We Go NaNoWriMoing

 November is very quickly coming on, and with it, one of my favorite activities in the world, because after all, November is Novel Writing Month and NaNoWriMo has helped make my daydreams and doodles turn into books and a bit of spare cash.
My first "Proof" copy
 The first time I heard of the idea of writing a quick and dirty rough draft in a month. I thought pledging myself to writ 50,000 words in November sounded just like what I needed.  After all, I had been telling people i wanted to write, and taking writing classes for 30 years.  But I had only filled a few notebooks with poems and short stories and sent a few out but stopped when the rejection letters came.  Now I know, DUH!  Of course they come.  They are good things.  Only writers get rejection letters from editors, so while I was getting them, I was being a writer.
The "real book"

first painting
 So I wrote the 50,000 words and realized that it was a lot of work, but it wasn't close to a finished book, and it took me a year to write the next 38,000 words and more time to edit and doodle and make covers that looked like my main character could have drawn them.

painting for 2nd book
 But createspace had offered to make a free copy of a proof of the finished book if we finished NaNoWriMo, so I was motivated to do this just to have one copy of my book in my hand.  I finally hit "publish" at createspace and my book came here, and obviously needed edited a lot, and a new cover but I was hooked.  I made the corrections and did the work and soon had a box of books to sell to people at schools and fairs and links on Amazon and other bookstores.


Book 3 went in a time travel journey to the Oregon Trail

 And now, years later I still love the rush of writing without worrying about cleaning it up as I go, and the social support of 300,000 other dreaming writers around the world.  I don't always manage a book, and sometimes I do CampNaNoWriMo in the summer instead.  I have managed three books this way, and by going to schools and to writer's Conferences and using social Networking sites I have managed to have fun and sell enough copies, in paperback and kindle, that I can really say, "I am a writer" and no, you may not have heard of my books, but that's ok - some kids have and I have.





and in the end, there are a lot of books out there, but only I can tell my stories.  I think everyone has a story they should tell, one that is only theirs.  If you are ready.  Check out NaNoWriMo at http://www.nanowrimo.org

and my books at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004458ES2


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

On Books, Kindles, And Writing for NaNoWriMo

 NaNoWriMo Challenge day 23, and I am still doing ok in my life, Mt. Washmore has not taken over the house thanks to my Flylady routines and I even took a day to drive down the coast with my family and enjoy such lovely views as this lagoon.

After the rain, the school garden roses were lit by a beam that also created a rainbow.
clipping from Del Norte Triplicate


Teaching as a substitute is an off and on position, and I have been pretty busy this month at the schools but I have managed to luck into being there for some of the most wonderful activities,  as you can see in the newspaper clipping from the Del Norte triplicate, the middle school kids lay down or knelt on the grass in assigned colors of clothing and the photographer went up to the top of the fire truck ladder to create a living mosaic of an elk and to teach the kids about how sometimes you need distance to see the big picture and realize how important each person is in the long run.

And I was at the grade school when the Native American drumming, flute and hoop dancing assembly held the children enthralled.   I, as the teacher was equally fascinated by this display of talent from Minneapolis.
 I had never realized how much energy and playfulness and imagination went into the hoop dancing.


Along with writing, teaching, being a wife and Mom (and I am not even going to go into the energy needed to parent a 17 year old high school senior and an 18 year old with 2 dogs and a live in girlfriend)

I also worked on compiling a sampler of book snippets and blog posts and cover art from 15 authors, hoping that we could sell it on kindle and capture some attention for our individual writings while also raising a bit of money for the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Project.
www.amazon.com
The contents of this collection are a group of book snippets, cover art and a couple blog posts, shared in the hopes that you will find books and stories that catch your eye and encourage you to try the longer books or other work by the same authors. Many of us share our writing
The weather has been stormy and the wind and rain at least have made me OK about spending every minute I can, at the keyboard, writing a book that the world may not know it needs, but does!


 and I have seen my books  on the new Kindle Fire now, which is really fun and thrilling and I am hoping some of you will agree and want to upload them to your own new toy, or your old Kindle is fine, I'm not picky that way.  :)
 Duffy Barkley has  and needs crutches but don't tell him "No" he can't do something

In book 2, Duffy goes to Guatemala to help a child, but gets pulled back into Uhrlin to seek a friend