Free books. Who Knew?

I am not one for devices. It's not that I'm a Luddite--you'll have to peel my computer from my cold dead hand--but I don't see the point of phones that double as NASA flight control, you know? (I'll probably have a Droid this time next year and people will snicker and point at me, but right now, I'm content with just being able to text.)

But then there's the Kindle. I don't know when I would have bought one for myself. Probably not for awhile as it seems kind of a frivolous item for a person who works at home. But my friend Connie, who is an early adopter of everything techno, gave me one and well, I will probably never look back. After I bought a copy of my friend Geoff Taylor's new OFFICIAL VARIANT EFFECT COLLECTOR PACK (and you should too)I started looking around to see what else was on offer at Kindle. And imagine my surprise when I found a whole lot of neat books for FREE.

Free books. Two words that gladden my heart as almost none other can, except perhaps for the words "Gerard Butler." It is true that these are books in the public domain that I could find and download at any time. Still, when you search a name like, say, Wilkie Collins, and get back dozens of titles that you've never heard of, it's like Christmas. (And speaking of Christmas, did you know Wilkie wrote a couple of books with Charles Dickens? Definitely worth a look-see.)

So I started clicking away and the next thing I knew, there were 134 books stored in my Kindle. (I kind of went into a fugue state.) I can't wait to start reading...

Sample a Story

New fiction up at Dark Valentine Magazine's site. The Sin Eater.

Girl Talk on NoHo Noir

The plot thickens in NoHo Noir as Lyla Fox and her new beau, dentist Rob Cervantes, double-date with his business partner Tim McIlhenny and Tim's pregnant girlfriend Erika.

Erika left her husband, James Garrett for Tim and is now pregnant with his child. She's recently moved in with Tim, which annoys James. It's also created anxiety for her son Ty, a smart kid who loves astronomy and animals and his dad.

The illustration is by Mark Satchwill. Here's the opening of the story:

When Lyla Fox saw Rob’s business partner enter the restaurant with his pregnant girlfriend, her first thought was, What’s wrong with this picture? Tim McIlhenny—like the people who make Tabasco he said when they were introduced—was a beefy redhead with skin the color of uncooked tilapia. It wasn’t that he was ugly, exactly, he was just utterly, completely …
A word surfaced in her memory, schnorbelie. It was a word her college roommate Connie had used to describe people like Tim and even though it was a nonsense word, you knew exactly what it meant.
Tim McIlhenny was schnorbelie. Erika Garret, on the other hand, was gorgeous. If Tim had been a movie producer, Lyla wouldn’t have thought twice but a dentist? How’d that happen?

Ca’Del Sole
4100 Cahuenga Blvd.
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
9:20 p.m.

It was clear Tim couldn’t quite believe his luck either. He established his claim on Erika every chance he got. He couldn’t keep his meaty hands off her and nuzzled her all through dinner. He was solicitous to the point of annoyance. I wonder if he’s going to cut her meat for her, Lyla thought as the entrees were served.
Lyla had gotten the mezzalune, which is what she always ordered. Rob had selected the gnocchi with duck ragout. They toasted each other with their forks before they started eating. Erika dug into her meal with the ravenous relish Lyla remembered from her own pregnancies. Tim inhaled his fish and continued the monologue that had begun the moment he sat down. She found herself staring at him with horrified fascination as he talked with his mouth full.

When Rob had first suggested a double-date with Tim and his girlfriend, Lyla had gotten a little giddy. It wasn’t exactly “I want you to meet my family,” but after a month of dating, it was a good sign that their relationship was more than an elongated one-night stand. Now, after listening to him pontificate on everything from the revolution in Egypt to the nuances of the pricey bottle of wine he’d insisted on buying for the table, Lyla was starting to get a headache. When he started talking about a restaurant he wanted to invest in, Rob suggested Tim consult with Lyla on the financials. Tim had smirked. “I’ve got my own money guy,” he said. “No offense Lyla.”
She’d smirked back. “None taken.”
Why do they always want to invest in restaurants? Lyla wondered. Not a week went by that one of her customers didn’t tell her about some great place on Melrose they wanted to buy, dazzled by the notion of being a restaurateur and completely oblivious to the reality.
Even her ex-husband hadn’t been immune to the fantasy. When his first series blew up, the first thing he wanted to do—after buying the Ferrari—was put some of his money into a French bistro in a strip mall in Eagle Rock. She’d told him he’d be better off buying a couple of Subway franchises in Hollywood but back then, she was just his cute little wife who was good with numbers.
“If you cook it they will come,” he’d said, a riff on the famous Field of Dreams line. He’d been an extra in the film, playing one of the ghostly ball-players, and Burt Lancaster had encouraged him to follow his dream to Hollywood.
Her ex had lost a fortune on the restaurant. He’d consoled himself by having an affair with the restaurant’s pastry chef, a sloe-eyed beauty named Laure.

You can read the rest of the story here.

I (Heart) Writing Contests

Over at the Novel Novice, one of my favorite blogs, they're having a Literary Lovers Mash-Up Contest that ends Monday, Valentine's Day. The idea is that you take two lovers from different books and write a love scene between them in 500 words or less. (Edward Cullen meets Jane Eyre?) Everybody who enters gets a little prize and the best stories will be published on the site. Here are the details.

I Want Candy

Speaking of fudge, as we were a few minutes ago (see below), check out Kat Parrish's story "Sweet Tooth" over at Dark Valentine Magazine.

Oh Fudge....

So I know what you're thinking. You're thinking it's nearly Valentine's Day (plan ahead people) and this year you don't want to get just ordinary candy. You want to give a gift of deep, delicious fudge. But not just any fudge. (Which reminds us of Miss Eudora Welty's wonderful novel The Ponder Heart in which a character sniffily dismisses a trifling character as "eating the kind of fudge anyone can make." But I digress.)

I am an honorary member of "Michiganders in L.A." which has a memorable Memorial Day picnic every year. A highlight of the picnic is a trivia contest and the prizes always include a box of fudge from Mackinac Island Fudge Shop. (Mackinac Island is where they filmed the movie Somewhere in Time.) I have never won this fudge (though it is worth boning up on Michigan trivia for) but I have sampled it. And it's that good...

Deadline for Valentine's Day shipping is February 9th. (I told you to plan ahead.) Details here.

The time has come ...

Speculative fiction has been a literary orphan since the genre first sprang from the fertile brains of writers like H.G. Wells. This thoughtful article from the Guardian analyzes the chances this year will be the year the prestigious Booker Prize will go to a novel in that genre.