Archive for the ‘Saturday Sound Off’ Category

It’s been a while since I posted a weekend sound off… school, life, an unhealthy twitter addiction ….it all got in the way. Anyway, summer is upon us so I once again find myself with an abundance of time. I have a lot of reading to make up for over the next 3 months.

Upcoming for KindleVixen

Currently Reading: Brains by Robin Becker
Up Next: Red Rock Pass series by Moira Rogers – Be sure to stop by here tomorrow as we will be taking part in a cool contest sponsored by Moira Rogers… you could win a Kindle!

All things Kindlicious

Consumer reports compares the Amazon Kindle to the Apple IPad. I agree with its findings and conclusions. I dropped by the Apple store (what can I say, im a fan girl) and played with the Ipad. Neat to mess with, but I was underwhelmed…. especially as an ereader. The LCD screen for books was virtually useless in the wrong lighting or outside in the sun. With some improvements I think an IPad will be a cool toy to have, but not if you are going to mostly use it for books. For now, I can get all the same functions from my iphone, macbook, and kindle.

Dear Author had three really useful ebook related posts. The first… how to share some ebooks without having to strip the Digital Rights Management (DRM). The second is a good look at the different ereaders available: “Dear Jane, what eBook Reader should I buy?“. The third is a good recap of why Penguin books are just now beginning to trickle back into the Amazon Kindle store and agency pricing.

Not really “kindle” related but ebook related…. Feds are raising questions about the accuracy of big media’s claims that piracy effects them negatively. The article is from April, but worthy of a read.

On that same note, Joe Konrath wrote another excellent blog post on why fighting piracy is a waste of time. I am planning on buying all of his books just because he “gets it“.

Author News

Jeaniene Frost posted a great post full of advice for aspiring authors here.

Ilona Andrews posted a Curran POV snippet based on a scene from Magic Bleeds, written by Gordon of course. Full of awesome, I promise. Congrats to them for hitting the NYT list!

Moira Rogers posted a super long post on how they write as a duo….and you even get cake at the end. Good luck to them as Sanctuary Unbound releases June 1st!

There looks to be a new group author blog making its way to the light of day…. Supernatural Underground has my interest piqued because it includes the likes of Jeaniene Frost, Vicki Pettersson, and Melissa Marr.

Around the Blog World

Buzz is sorely slacking in his blog duties and luckily I am here to point it out.

FictionVixen is giving away a copy of Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur, contest ends June 4th. Moon Sworn is the last book in the Riley Jenson series and on my list to get to this week!

The Book Vixen has a post about book blogger reviews being taken from Amazon.com and used on other sites. I don’t really care either way about the practice, but if you review books at Amazon and do care, you should check out her post.

Books Read This Week (review linked if available)

• Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews – 5 stars
• Master of None by Sonya Bateman – 4 stars
• Cheat the Grave by Vicki Pettersson – 4.5 Stars
• Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge – review coming
• Demon Bound by Caitlin Kittredge – review coming

Books Added to Kindle This Week…

Music listening to while writing this blog entry…Skin and Bones by Foo Fighters

Yes, it is really Sunday, but I spent all day yesterday absorbed in a blog which will be named later AND then I went out for a good time involving John Mayer tickets. Yes, I know he is a dick/douche/jerk…. but man he puts on a good show and has sexy arm tattoos ….. I love a man who can play guitar and play it well. I think it’s the forearms. Anyway, a few pics from my night out:

On top of that this morning we went out and climbed some rocks.

Upcoming for KindleVixen

Currently Reading: Lion’s Heat by Lora Leigh
Up Next: Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler and The Devil’s Playground by Jenna Black.

All things Kindlicious

Books on Board put up a notice about moving to the Agency Pricing model as required by 5 of the 6 big publishing companies here. What does this mean? It means that books from the following publishers will all be priced according to “Required Ebook Pricing (REP)” which is set by the publisher, not the book store.

Hachette (publisher of Stephanie Meyer, David Baldacci, James Patterson and more)

Penguin (publisher of Nora Roberts/JD Robb, Lora Leigh, Nalini Singh, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris)

Harper Collins (publisher of much Dennis Lehane, Christine Feehan, James Rollins, Johanna Lindsey, Diane Mott Davidson, Kerrelyn Sparks, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lisa Kleypas, Jodi Picoult, Jeaniene Frost, and Tony Hillerman)

MacMillan (publisher of Lisa Scottoline, Governor Mitt Romney, Terry Goodkind and more)

Simon & Schuster (publisher of Kresley Cole, Kathy Reichs, Sabrina Jeffries

Books from these publishers will probably go up in price and may be susceptible to sales tax when they were not previously. More info on what this could mean here.

Author News

Jeaniene Frost posted the cover for the next book in the Night Huntress World series (the Cat & Bones spinoff) here. I hate to say it because I have loved all of her previous covers, but I am just not feeling this one. I can’t explain why tho…. it just doesn’t do it for me.

Ilona Andrews posted a contest for Magic Bleed advanced review copies. Its over, so don’t go running over there trying to enter. What makes it news worthy is that she actually had more than 1200 entries…. that must be some sort of bloggy world record of some kind. To say that Magic Bleeds is highly anticipated is clearly an understatement…. we are all pervs. We want the Curran/Kate smexin and we want it now!

Moira Rogers has finished Sanctuary Unbound and posted a super neat list of releases and projects they are working on here. Is it sad that even with 4 new releases in the next year I think they need to write faster? I could never be an editor.

Around the Blog World

Have you ever checked out The Pioneer Woman’s blog? I admit I have peeked at it on occasion looking for a recipe, but I have never browsed it fully. I had some spare time on my hands Saturday morning and happened to click on a link called Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and next thing I knew it was 3 hours later. Her real life love story is funny, entertaining, and so romantic I almost wish I had myself a hunky cowboy with a ranch. Click here, you won’t regret it.

FictionVixen had her Josh Lanyon cherry popped over at SmokinHotBooks. There is even a Mr. Clean badge. I <3 me some Josh Lanyon and can't wait to get to Somebody Killed His Editor.

I first found the Mighty Buzzard hanging out over at WickedLilPixie’s comments and fell in love. He is funny and sarcastic and totally entertaining. I pestered him about signing up for twitter, but instead he now has a blog. Go, read, follow…. you can thank me later. Feel free to pester him into getting a twitter account…. we could use his snarkiness. I am hoping to convince him to do a guest post on ebooks/etc here for me…. so Buzz if you are reading this… wanna? :p

Books Read This Week (review linked if available)

Music listening to while writing this blog entry…Say Hey, I love you by Michael Franti and Spearhead. I need some new music to add to my iPhone… any suggestions?

I woke up at the godawful time of 7am this morning, on a Saturday for crying out loud, to pick up some fruits and vegetables from a co-op. It is worth it, but by afternoon my behind is draaaaaging, which is why this post is so late. Oh and because I had to bake hamburger buns…. and I kept losing track of time. Blame the buns. Actually, this post is going to deviate from the plan in general because I clicked over to g-reader and had 850+ new posts…. I had to hit “mark all as read” so I have no nifty around the blog world stuff to share because I simply haven’t had time to read any! So instead, I have a question for you….

Do you ever give up on a book, and if so, when?

I faced this question myself a couple of times this week. Usually I would say, no, I never give up on a book. I have a few OCD tendencies (none in the cleaning department much to the hubby’s dismay) and I really hate to not finish a book I have started. I have the same problem with a book series, I can’t stand to not read every book no matter how bad they are. If I start it, I must finish.

Yet, this may have changed for me the last week or two simply because there are too many books and not enough me to go around. More specifically there are too many GOOD books and not enough time for me to read them. So I ask myself, when is it ok to say this book doesn’t work for me and I don’t want to finish it? Over the last week I struggled with 2 books (one of which I posted the review yesterday)…. each time I sat down with them I sighed. I even found myself finding other things to do(cleaning!) so I wouldn’t have to read…. blasphemy! I think for my own sanity I have to realize that I am not going to love, or even mildly like, every book and sometimes it is ok to shelve it.

So my question to you, as a reader, do you finish every book your start? If not, how much of a chance do you give it? Part of me says that if I don’t like a book by page 50, its fair game to say it isn’t going to grab me…. but it seems like such an arbitrary number! For my book blogger buddies – do your standards change for books that are sent to you specifically to review?

And this has been your weekly installment of KindleVixen’s Saturday Situation….. (blame WickedLilPixie for that bad alliteration, she started the trend )

Books Read This Week (review linked if available)

Music listening to while writing this blog entry…Battlefield by Jordin Sparks….. just don’t ask LOL

Is it Saturday already? I guess it is actually almost Sunday. Time has ben flying by lately! My reading time was cut to almost non existent lately as my Psychology class was wrapping up, thankfully that is over! Now I just have to face English 102 instead…. oh joy! The lack of reading lately has put me into a funk and I am not sure what to read next… I need something exciting – something that I can’t put down!

Upcoming for KindleVixen

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about our twitter weight loss blog… well its live and we are breaking it in! My day to post is on Thursdays. Feel free to stop by and say hi! Twitloss – women twittering with purpose.

All things Kindlicious

Amazon announced its Free Book Collections “store” – making it easy for you to find free reads.

With over 450,000 titles, the Kindle Store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read including New York Times® Best Sellers and most new releases at $9.99, unless otherwise marked. And Amazon provides thousands of the most popular classics for free including titles like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island with more coming.

But of course, the Internet is huge and there are lots of older, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books online. We wanted to make it easier to find these collections, which today represent nearly 2 million titles. See the sites and instructions below to download free classic and other out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books and transfer via USB to your Kindle device or read on Kindle for PC.

Note that these large collections of older free books are typically created from scanned copies of physical books and can have variable quality.

Around the Blog World

Author Joe Konrath has a really fabulous post on ebooks and writers up on his blog.

I get to talk about Danielle at Alpha Reader twice this Saturday! she has been rocking my blog world lately, posting really great content…. totally making me jealous! My poor blog, it feels neglected. Anyway, curious about which of your favorite Urban Fantasy books were/are being made into movies and more? Then check out her post here. Wondering what an author is up to lately? Check out her post here. Can I just say how excited I am that Karen Chance’s Pritkin is getting his own story?!?! No I can’t say because I am too excited for words.

Evil Author extraordinaire Moira Rogers posted some snippets from their “Works In Progress” – including Deadlock. *thud* …. that was my head hitting the desk. How long til January 2011 again?? If you like math and numbers and charts (and really, if you don’t I have to wonder about you)… then check out Bree’s post on 3rd party royalties. Its interesting to say the least.

Jackie at Literary Escapism is getting ready to host another group author challenge and needs your help! Go here for more info and to add your opinion!

Books Read This Week (review linked if available)

Books Added to Kindle This Week…

Music listening to while writing this blog entry…nothing unless the soundtrack to Maggie and the Ferocious Beasts counts.

Happy Saturday! This Saturday Sound Off is going to be slim pickings, I have had a super slow reading week. I have been a baaad baaaad blogger this week (cue Chris Isaak music). I am almost finished with Battle of the Network Zombies, but life outside of books took over this week! I did get a couple nights out and a few drinks here and there tho – some much needed stress relief.

Upcoming for KindleVixen

First, a small group of us on twitter were talking about losing weight and came up with the absolutely genius plan to use twitter as a support group. That was followed by an equally smart idea of creating our own blog about it. So, twitloss will be coming to the blogging world on Monday, watch your tweets for the link!

Even more fabulous upcoming news? The talented and super evil author, Rachel Vincent, will be answering my questions here on KindleVixen on MONDAY! Make sure to mark it on your calendars or I will have to chase you down. Oh, she also posted to her blog this week one of the best book trailers I have seen yet. Well done Mrs. Vincent. Well done. (WARNING, contains PREY spoilers!)

All things Kindlicious

Get your free copy of Kim Harrison’s Dead Witch Walking, book 1 in the Hollows series, from Amazon here.

Around the Blog World

Dirty Sexy Books (love the blog name!) posted a neat post, The Ten Biggest Mistakes Authors Make on Their Websites. I giggled a little at number 1 and found myself nodding along with all of it. Great post!

Danielle at Alpha Reader posted an all encompassing look at Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series. I agree with all of it and highly suggest you check it out for motivation to start the series if you haven’t already.

Nat at WickedLilPixie posted “I buck the trend” this week – a post about the growing trend to affiliate with other book bloggers. I agree with her post and wrote my own novel of thoughts in her comments.

Keith Melton posted some really weird and creepy Unicorn photo on his blog this week. I have no idea why I am even linking it other than it left me speechless. I think its his attempt to distract us from noticing his absence on twitter this week. How are we supposed to harass him for super secret book info if he isn’t online 24 hours a day?!?!

All Things Urban Fantasy posted a great recap of new releases upcoming for March. I am especially looking forward to Silver Borne, Mind Games, The Devil’s Playground, Succubus Shadows (seth!), and the Mage in Black.

Katiebabs pointed out that there are only 2 more months until Lover Mine’s release and we are all hoping for some serious Team Qhuay loving. I am so stealing her button, which was made by sparklybearsy.

No books read and reviewed this week – I blame it on twitter.

Music listening to while writing this blog entry…Bust a Move by Cast of Glee