I'm finally the owner of a Kindle.
What took me so long, you ask? Well, I still, even after owning my Kindle for a week, prefer the tactile nature of a book. And if I spill coffee on the book, no worries, just a stain. There was nothing about the coffee-proof nature of the Kindle in its instructions.
On first blush, I was pretty happy with the slim profile of the Kindle. I thought it'd be a bit more klunky feeling. The instructions were a bit vague, but adequate.
What am I doing reading instructions? Yeah, I'm a guy, I know I broke a rule or two. But after hearing some stories of the first half hour confusion some people have when they get a Kindle decided me to go ahead and flaunt the rules.
After I actually cracked it open and started playing, here are my first impressions.
1) they make it very easy to get to the Kindle store.
2) they make it hard to find the supposed 'free books' that are supposed to be available for download (I still haven't found these and haven't 'Googled' the question.
3) the instructions aren't that great. In order to see if there was a light somewhere on the device, I had to Google the question (there isn't) since the instructions didn't say one way or the other.
4) I really ...no, REALLY like the preview option. You can search any book and download a free preview instantaneously. How cool is that?!
5) the wifi option still puzzles me. It allowed me to connect to my home's wifi, but I'm still not sure of the rules for when I'm not home. I'll have to play with this out of the house.
6) reading a PDF on the Kindle is another thing that they were unclear on . Asking the question on Google revealed that you can do it, but you either have to convert the file to something else first or send it to Kindle who will charge a fee to do it. Still a bit of a mystery, but I'm not in a hurry to do this.
Searching the books on Kindle revealed some more interesting stuff. Of course, right away I checked out my books and learned something very, well, not interesting, more like disturbing. My second book, The Next Adventures of Guy, is not on Kindle at all. Weird. So I went to my publisher's website and looked for it on ebook there. Still not available. I'm going to check my contract and see if they own the rights. If not, I'll put it on Kindle. If they do, I'm going to ask them to do it or revert the rights back to me.
My other books are there, though, including two for just 99 cents. These two were ones I did myself and I downloaded both of them using 'Word' rather than converting to the somewhat mystifying html, and they came across okay, but it convinced me to try and convert it next time. The Guy'd Book was my first attempt, and I think both the book and ebook showed my technical inexpertise (though the book is fantastic! you need to read it). With the Adventures of Guy, I didn't want to lose the PDF drawings (of a mug of beer) that accompany each chapter. I have the same issue with WereWoof (wolf howling at the moon) but I think I'll go ahead and bite the bullet and strip those off.
I also checked some of Joe Konrath's books, just to see what he does with ebook. Joe's wildly successful with Kindle, so it was intriguing to see his books and how he presents them.
I have yet, after a week, to purchase a book (because I was reading some other books at the time). So now I'm going to embark on this. There are two fellow Echelon Press authors I want to check out, Jon Gibbs and Sean Hayden. I downloaded previews of their books and I like what I'm seeing. I've decided to start with Jon's book, "Fur Face," because that's darn near what I was going to use for a title for my own upcoming book "WereWoof."
More on this later.
Norm
www.normcowie.com
Norm on Amazon
Showing posts with label echelon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label echelon. Show all posts
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, September 11, 2009
Presenting Fang Face
I'm going to repost Regan Black's introduction to Fang Face from the Teen Seen blog, cuz she did it so well ... thanks Regan! ... here goes:
Fresh from Echelon Press for September is Fang Face by Norm Cowie:
"Hilarious, lightning-paced, and as sharp about high school as a bite to the throat. I loved this book, fangs and all." - James Rollins, New York Times bestseller of Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow.
From the back cover:
Erin has bigger worries than how she’ll do on her Trig Final.
A vampire bit her and she’s turning into an Undead.
Things could be worse, though. It cleared her complexion, she can fly and now her parents have to let her go out at night. And being a vampire is great for freaking out her little sister. The downside? … besides being dead, of course … and having to drink blood smoothies … was having to give up tanning and pizza.
And with her new edgy Goth look, jet-black hair and porcelain skin, everyone tells Erin that she’s become beautiful. So much so that the other girls in school have started calling her names…like ‘Fang Face.’
Erin wouldn’t mind checking her new look for herself. But as everyone knows…
Vampires can't see their reflections!
And here's an excerpt from between the book covers:
Alex bolted upright from a sound sleep, her heartbeat beating out a manic drum solo.
What was that? Was it real? Was it part of her dream?
There was thumping on the stairs and running footsteps in the hallway.
"Alex? Erin?" her mom called, her voice filled with anxiety.
Well okay, then. It was real.
"Girls!"
"Mom!" Alex squeaked.
The door burst open and a bright light slashed into her room followed closely by her mother. Her mom looked pumped full of the surge of adrenaline mothers use to lift cars off their offspring. Her face relaxed when she saw there wasn't a Toyota on her daughter.
"I'll check Erin," her father said as he tore past the door, a huge gleaming sword in his hand, chain armor rattling in his haste.
Not really, it was a Louisville Slugger and he was wearing pajamas.
He disappeared and a moment later they heard his squeak of horror.
Yeah, yeah, if you asked him, he would deny it was a squeak. He would say it was a grunt or some other manly noise. Uh, huh.
Her mother looked back at the doorway in alarm. Seeing Alex was safe, Beth commanded, "Stay here," and then bolted down the hallway.
Three seconds later there was a woman's scream. Her mother this time. Either that or Dad was trying to get in touch with his feminine side.
Alex froze, her mind spinning. She had been told to stay put, so like any teenager, she did what she was told without question.
Um...right.
What really happened was she jumped up and crept toward her sister's room. The door was wide open and light streamed into the hallway.
She sneaked a peek around the corner and gasped.
Erin was sprawled on her bed, eyes open and staring. Twin streams of blood pumped from puncture wounds near her jugular.
Want to read more? Like your own copy of the whole book right now?!?!!
The reviewers have spoken:
"This book sucks ... in a most delightful way! Norm Cowie's latest is boy-meets-girl-meets-vampire-meets-wow. Don't miss this gem." - Shane Gericke, National Bestselling thriller author
"FANG FACE made me laugh, and I'm not a Teen. Or perhaps I am, but I'm trapped in a grown-up's body.”- Raymond Benson, author of James Bond, The Union Trilogy
Mr. Cowie, I mean, Norm speaks to being an author...
The best part of writing is it feeds my freak. A writer is a bit of a control freak. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I decide who farts, who bites whom, and it’s up to me what a vampire is like. Does he sparkle in the sunlight? Does he need a straw to suck blood? Does he need SPF eight billion?
The worst part of writing is what I like to call, ‘the other writing.’ Extra curricular writing, like blogs. Anything that takes me away from writing fun stories. I even begrudge ‘Twitter.’ I’d much rather write a story than write about writing stories.
The craziest part of being a writer is signing stuff. I love graffiti’ing all over a book. I was always taught that we should respect and take care of a book. But now, people want me to write on a book … even better … they want me to write something weird or crazy. And I want to sign other stuff, like body parts. I know of a case where one of best-selling author Christopher Moore’s fans had one of his books tattooed onto her leg. Then she came to one of his signings and he autographed her leg. Then she had his autograph tattooed onto her leg. I want that!
What's next for Norm and his readers?
What else? A sequel. Fang Face ends a bit on a cliff hanger, though most issues are resolved in the first. I’m busy working on its sequel, WereWoof. Yep, werewolves, kinda, sorta. Count on more biters and more fun.
Thanks, Norm!
Find Norm here on Teen-Seen or at his website or the fang place blog!
Presenting Fang Face by Norm Cowie
Fresh from Echelon Press for September is Fang Face by Norm Cowie:
"Hilarious, lightning-paced, and as sharp about high school as a bite to the throat. I loved this book, fangs and all." - James Rollins, New York Times bestseller of Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow.
From the back cover:
Erin has bigger worries than how she’ll do on her Trig Final.
A vampire bit her and she’s turning into an Undead.
Things could be worse, though. It cleared her complexion, she can fly and now her parents have to let her go out at night. And being a vampire is great for freaking out her little sister. The downside? … besides being dead, of course … and having to drink blood smoothies … was having to give up tanning and pizza.
And with her new edgy Goth look, jet-black hair and porcelain skin, everyone tells Erin that she’s become beautiful. So much so that the other girls in school have started calling her names…like ‘Fang Face.’
Erin wouldn’t mind checking her new look for herself. But as everyone knows…
Vampires can't see their reflections!
And here's an excerpt from between the book covers:
Alex bolted upright from a sound sleep, her heartbeat beating out a manic drum solo.
What was that? Was it real? Was it part of her dream?
There was thumping on the stairs and running footsteps in the hallway.
"Alex? Erin?" her mom called, her voice filled with anxiety.
Well okay, then. It was real.
"Girls!"
"Mom!" Alex squeaked.
The door burst open and a bright light slashed into her room followed closely by her mother. Her mom looked pumped full of the surge of adrenaline mothers use to lift cars off their offspring. Her face relaxed when she saw there wasn't a Toyota on her daughter.
"I'll check Erin," her father said as he tore past the door, a huge gleaming sword in his hand, chain armor rattling in his haste.
Not really, it was a Louisville Slugger and he was wearing pajamas.
He disappeared and a moment later they heard his squeak of horror.
Yeah, yeah, if you asked him, he would deny it was a squeak. He would say it was a grunt or some other manly noise. Uh, huh.
Her mother looked back at the doorway in alarm. Seeing Alex was safe, Beth commanded, "Stay here," and then bolted down the hallway.
Three seconds later there was a woman's scream. Her mother this time. Either that or Dad was trying to get in touch with his feminine side.
Alex froze, her mind spinning. She had been told to stay put, so like any teenager, she did what she was told without question.
Um...right.
What really happened was she jumped up and crept toward her sister's room. The door was wide open and light streamed into the hallway.
She sneaked a peek around the corner and gasped.
Erin was sprawled on her bed, eyes open and staring. Twin streams of blood pumped from puncture wounds near her jugular.
Want to read more? Like your own copy of the whole book right now?!?!!
The reviewers have spoken:
"This book sucks ... in a most delightful way! Norm Cowie's latest is boy-meets-girl-meets-vampire-meets-wow. Don't miss this gem." - Shane Gericke, National Bestselling thriller author
"FANG FACE made me laugh, and I'm not a Teen. Or perhaps I am, but I'm trapped in a grown-up's body.”- Raymond Benson, author of James Bond, The Union Trilogy
Mr. Cowie, I mean, Norm speaks to being an author...
The best part of writing is it feeds my freak. A writer is a bit of a control freak. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I decide who farts, who bites whom, and it’s up to me what a vampire is like. Does he sparkle in the sunlight? Does he need a straw to suck blood? Does he need SPF eight billion?
The worst part of writing is what I like to call, ‘the other writing.’ Extra curricular writing, like blogs. Anything that takes me away from writing fun stories. I even begrudge ‘Twitter.’ I’d much rather write a story than write about writing stories.
The craziest part of being a writer is signing stuff. I love graffiti’ing all over a book. I was always taught that we should respect and take care of a book. But now, people want me to write on a book … even better … they want me to write something weird or crazy. And I want to sign other stuff, like body parts. I know of a case where one of best-selling author Christopher Moore’s fans had one of his books tattooed onto her leg. Then she came to one of his signings and he autographed her leg. Then she had his autograph tattooed onto her leg. I want that!
What's next for Norm and his readers?
What else? A sequel. Fang Face ends a bit on a cliff hanger, though most issues are resolved in the first. I’m busy working on its sequel, WereWoof. Yep, werewolves, kinda, sorta. Count on more biters and more fun.
Thanks, Norm!
Find Norm here on Teen-Seen or at his website or the fang place blog!
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