Tracy Falbe's Blog, page 86

Paradise Lost by John Milton ebook

I can't praise this epic poem first published in 1667 enough. Paradise Lost by John Milton is one of those works that makes reading classics so rewarding. There are very good reasons that this title is still being read three and half centuries later. I have no doubt that it will continue to amaze readers for many more centuries.

In Paradise Lost Milton has dramatized the great events from Judeo-Christian mythology when Satan falls from Heaven and also when Adam and Even are expelled from the ...

What's new? Fantasy book review, featured classic, and holiday entertaining

Now that I'm finally settled into something approaching a normal life, I've been doing a lot of housecleaning and additions to my websites.

New this week was a review of the fantasy book "The Summoner" by Gail Z. Martin.

Fantasy readers craving a good quest with an interesting cast of characters will find page-turning fun in Gail Z. Martin's The Summoner. The hero of the story is the Prince of Marjolan, Martris Drayke, a second son of the king content not to inherit his father's throne. But...

Why fantasy series drag on and why we keep buying them

The fantasy genre thrives on multiple book series. Readers love getting into an exciting world of magic populated by great characters, and then having multiple novels with which to enjoy the experience. Publishers do a lot of printing to meet this need, but then readers often complain that promising series degenerate into meandering narratives that go no where.

Go to any online forum where fantasy books are being discussed and you will always find threads complaining about fantasy series that ...

This week's classic ebooks converted to epub

Since finally deciding to add yet another format to my ebook offerings, I have been pecking away at the new conversions. I reason by doing a little bit all the time, I will get my growing collection of classic genre works and nonfiction entirely available in the epub format.

This weeks accomplishments:

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

These titles are all fabulous stories and titans of their respective genres.

The Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana ebook

When I started reading the famous sex guide from ancient India the Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana, I did not know what to expect. I had always heard that it was about sex positions, but it is so much more than that. Most of the sex positions discussed will be familiar to any sexually active person, but a few left me trying to picture them. After describing the exotic positions, the author would inevitably note that practice was required. This makes sense considering this is the same society that d...

Adding EPUB format to most of my ebook catalog

I've begun the slow process of adding the ebook format known as epub to my catalog. For years I have been selling ebooks in multiple formats, and I have decided that the time has come to add another one to the mix.

The epub format has been developed in the attempt to offer the publishing industry a standard format for presenting digital reading materials. This is a great idea but I took a wait and see approach over the past year to see if the format actually emerged as a standard. Having watc...

Amazon is not the only source of ebooks for the Kindle

The Kindle ebook reader from Amazon has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to the experience of reading books on a digital device. A big selling factor for Kindle has been the device's ability to wirelessly purchase and download content from Amazon. Although this is a little too convenient for my budget, immediate wireless ebook purchases supply instant gratification, and people like getting what they pay for right away.

Although Amazon naturally corrals its customers into solely...

Free fantasy ebook available to read on iPhone and iPod Touch

As a writer serving the digital marketplace, I seek to deliver my novels in as many popular ebook formats as possible. This is actually a rather onerous task, but I hate the thought of people wishing to read my work but not having a file available that will work on the platforms they like to use. When I heard that the iPhone was actually being used to read ebooks, I was quite keen to make my novels available for this device.

The publishing company Smashwords came to my rescue. Writers who sign...

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister ebook

I've been reading westerns again, and the classic The Virginian by Owen Wister really made me feel like I was in the Old West. You can literally taste the dust, shiver from the cold cutting wind coming out of the mountains, feel the weight of your gun on your hip, and taste the whiskey. The detail within the novel summons the look and feel of the era in an amazing way. As well as being a novel that sets every scene with effortless easy going prose, the characters truly sparkle. An endless sup...

Finally finished my website remodel

Today I uploaded the new and improved pages for my main website where I sell books and ebooks. I'm very happy with how it turned out and that it is finished. I've been wanting to clean up the Falbe Publishing and Brave Luck Books TM websites and cull old content all year, but all the moving I've done over the summer really put the project on hold. Overall, my dear little business has been outright neglected for months, but I'm settled again and getting back in gear. Sales have been trickling ...