Jane Litte's Blog, page 1028

Catalog Support for IOS5 for the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad

For those who are upgrading to iOS5 or getting the new iPhone 4S, you may have noticed that Stanza is dead.  The app crashes and is completely unuseable.  But do not worry, folks, because there are three fairly decent alternatives.

1.  eBook Search.  Free but ad supported. $.99 to remove ads.

[image error]This app is merely a catalog reader.  It has catalogs from Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, Baen Books, Smashwords, Muneys, and the Internet Archive preloaded.  If Calibre is open and running on a computer...

Aspen Mountain Press Owner Accused of Using Royalties For Personal Use

This story broke late last week.  Unfortunately, there have been low level rumors about Aspen Mountain Press for a few months but no concrete details.  One of the principals broke her silence and admitted that AMP is a mess.

What we discovered when we took over was a nightmare:
Hundreds of emails in all the AMP accounts, gone unanswered and unopened from authors and staff.  The customer service email account alone had over 500 unanswered emails over the previous eight months.  That took two...

REVIEW: The Beginner's Guide to Rakes by Suzanne Enoch

Dear Ms. Enoch:

I'm not certain who named your book but I am convinced it is by someone who has never read it because you can tell by the first chapter that the heroine is no ingenue who needs lessons in handling men. The really wonderful thing about this book is the challenging heroine who blackmails, connives, and fraudulently achieves stability for herself in a world in which women can ordinarily only achieve security through birth, marriage or the selling of her person.

[image error]Diane Benchley's...

First Page: Unnamed Fantasy

Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.

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Mists of time, morning mists; both dim that long ago memory of a dawn when I was both boy and man. I recall my keen desire to serve my family, a desire that drove me to scout while my brothers rested in their bedrolls. I would be vigilant; I would protect. But...

REVIEW: Trencarrow Secret by Anita Davison

"Isabel Hart is afraid of two things, the maze at Trencarrow where she got lost as a young child, and the lake where her brother David saved her from drowning in a boating accident.

With her twenty-first birthday and the announcement of her engagement imminent, Isabel decides it is time for her to face her demons and ventures into the maze. There she sees something which will alter her perceptions of herself and her family forever.

Isabel's widowed aunt joins the house party, where her cousin...

What Jayne has been reading and watching in early October

A lot of my time the past week or so has been taken up with washing machine repairs and acclimating my new kittens to their new home. Guess which has been more fun. But I have gotten a little reading and movie watching squeezed in now and then.

Flawless by Carrie Lofty – A book about a bastard heroine involved in the diamond trade in south Africa in the late 19th century. How more interesting can a premise be? Not much in my opinion which makes the fact that I gave up 150 pages into the story ...

Friday Film Review: Outsourced

[image error]Outsourced (2006)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Grade:B-

Outsourced is a movie I'd had in my Netflix rental queue for quite a while but Bonnie Dee's email to me suggesting it as a review movie got me to move it up the head of the line. Though a 2006 release, the subject matter – someone who's job is being transferred to another country where it will be done more cheaply and someone who is a fish out of water – are still relevant today.

Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) manages a call center in...

REVIEW: Swept Off Her Stilettos by Fiona Harper

Dear Ms. Harper,

[image error]I've been reading your Harlequin Romance novels since your debut. When your books work for me, they are as good as a category gets. When they don't, I'm frustrated but rarely sorry I spent time with them. In my favorites among your books, you demonstrate the ability to combine humor, pathos, and realism in a compact category package. I hadn't read your last two or three novels, but when you offered Dear Author the opportunity to review your recent release, I decided to give...

Thursday Midday Posts: DRM Efficacy Questioned by Game Theory, Amazon Launches New Imprint, Kobo + WH Smith

Amazon launched its science fiction, fantasy and horror line called 47North. It's lined up some big names in scifi with the launched of 15 books "including 'The Mongoliad: Book One,' the first in the ambitious, five-book, collaborative Foreworld series led by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. All of these books will be available to English readers in Kindle, print and audio formats at www.amazon.com , as well as at national and independent booksellers. 47North will publish original and...

What Sunita is Reading in late September and early October

I've been reading for review,  trying out new authors and trying to find more self-published work. I seem to be partway through an awful lot of books. It's a mixed bag in terms of content and quality.

Reckless Runaway At the Racecourse, by Ros Clarke. Ros and I follow each other on Twitter and she offered this, her first self-published book, for free on Smashwords for a short time. I've had it in the TBR for a while. So far it's a sweet story, very much in the Harlequin/Mills and Boon...