Tracy Falbe's Blog, page 83

Fantasy novel Firefly Island gaining readership plus a free ebook about a werecat

Fantasy author Daniel Arenson and his novel Firefly Island are the new feature on the home page of the Fantasy Tavern. In the Kindle store at Amazon, Firefly Island's sales rank in the category epic fantasy has broken into the top 100. That's doing well in such a competitive market, and judging from the excerpt available at Arenson's website, he is quite deserving of high praise.

Read some of Firefly Island.

I've had a lucky weekend discovering new fiction by independent writers. I found a fre...

How to make a new word: ebook, e-book, eBook?

The digital revolution triggers new words all the time. Usually, the new digital inspired words arise from the need to describe a new noun or verb in the digital landscape or to label a digital version of a long established item in the analog world. The electronic book is a current example of a digital item seeking a new name. Most people verbally refer to them as ebooks, but, when written out, I have seen three predominant forms: e-book, eBook, and ebook.

The hyphenated form e-book is a logi...

The Art of War by Sun Tzu this month's featured ebook classic

Over the weekend I watched the Chinese movie epic Red Cliff parts 1 and 2 directed by John Woo. Except for a couple minor goofy flaws, it's a tremendous and exciting movie. While watching it, I particularly enjoyed how the master strategist applied principles similar to those detailed in the famous ancient work by Sun Tzu The Art of War.

The Art of War provides very interesting reading. Although it comes from an ancient world, the essence of Sun Tzu's advice remains relevant today.

Sun Tzu sai...

I'm a featured expert this week at Bizymoms.com

In March I was invited by Bizymoms.com to start submitting articles to their expert advice categories. This site focuses on the work-at-home mom audience and, along with promoting job opportunities, it also publishes articles on a variety of subjects like writing, relationships, literature, health, and so forth. Yesterday, I received an email informing me that I was being featured this week on their home page.

So far I have written two articles about self publishing and ebooks.

How to self...

iPad users can read my fantasy series

That tech behemoth Apple has jumped into the ebook retail scene in a big way with the release of its already popular iPad multi purpose tablet device. I read this morning that over 300,000 iPads were sold over the weekend. If any of those people happen to enjoy reading fantasy fiction, you can freely download the iBook version of Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I with your new iPad. It's a free way to test out the iBookstore if you are interested in using your iPad as an ebook rea...

The big list of where to download my fantasy novel for free

The official Read an Ebook Week began March 7th and many ebooks are free this week to inspire people to try digital reading. Free is a great starting point when you are curious about a new thing, and that's why the first novel in my fantasy series has always been free in ebook form so readers can check out my work and hopefully discover a fantasy series that they can enjoy.

Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I is free at...

Brave Luck Books - This is my website for marketing my fantas...

Facebook poker chips have value in the virtual goods market

Popular social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo have active poker game scenes. The games are supposed to be purely for entertainment and not for real money (except you can trade points or chips for prizes in some cases), but online gaming tends to trigger side markets where people trade real money for virtual goods, like Zynga poker chips. The poker chips from Zynga can be used on the gaming applications in several social networking sites, like Facebook. People who get good a...

Taking a look at poker culture

I've added a new section to Poker Situations where I'll place articles about poker culture. This is a very broad category because the subcultural elements specific to players of this game encompass speech, dress, etiquette, and attitude. Most poker players do not fulfill full-blown stereotypes but they often share an understanding of the jargon specific to the game and a passion for the card-playing lifestyle, which players exhibit in numerous ways.

The two articles published this week were:

H...

Read an ebook week encourages readers to try the digital experience

I know from conversations with readers over the years that many people outright reject the concept of an ebook because they can't stand the thought of reading a novel on their computer. But ebooks are not solely about reading a novel on a desktop computer. There are many more comfortable options like: dedicated e-ink devices, smart phones, PDAs, and laptop computers.

To encourage people to poke their noses outside their personal comfort zones and try something new, award-winning author Rita Y...

Agamemnon by Aeschylus ebook - Greek Tragedy standing the test of time

One of the best things about reading classics is finding literary works that deliver truths that do not diminish over the ages. In the tragic Greek drama Agamemnon by Aeschylus I encountered a powerful and beautifully written tragedy that was very sensitive to the female victims of war. It is easy to imagine that ancient fully patriarchal societies would overlook the female concerns of anything, but Aeschylus displays a thoughtful sensitivity to the suffering of women and children in war. The...