Energetically Examining EBooks…

It's funny to keep piling thank yous upon thank yous, but I want to thank everyone who's made the Lucky 13,000 Short Fiction Give-Away a success.

* Meanwhile, yes, the give-away is still on & will remain on. Ping me if you want your freebie. *

During the past week, I've traded emails with dozens of new readers — new to me, at least — some of whom were already familiar with the Plague Year novels, some who weren't.

This has become a trademark phrase with me, but it's very true: I spend a lot of time alone in a room with a laptop listening to the voices in my head, so it's awesome to know there are real live people out there in the world who enjoy the work.

Thank you. There's more coming — more e-collections and also the Secret New Big Thriller. More soon!

Two digressions:

First, as part of gathering data about who's reading what how ( i.e., I asked everyone what sort of ereader and/or software they preferred), two emails really jumped out at me.

Here's one favorite: I'm neither a Nook nor a Sonywhatever person. I use my oldie Nokia with Opera Mini 4.2 and have uploaded your book into the Bookworm online epub reader http://bookworm.oreilly.com and the Ibis (epub online) reader http://ibisreader.com (for my UC Web browser), and read it online.

Here's the other: I prefer to read off a backlit LCD screen. Right now I've just been reading on my Android phone. It's convenient since I always have it. But over the years I have mostly read books on Chinese media players. My current 5″ touch screen Chinese player (Onda Vi20) makes a great ebook reader in addition to playing music and high def movies.

I feel like we're living in a William Gibson novel. Welcome to the future!

Second, I wanted to plug my friend and evil genius Michael Gallowglas, who's dabbling his own toes into the expansive e-waters of e-publishing with two novellas. One is a collaboration with Steve Moore. One is a solo flight.

Knight of the Living Dead In this tour de farce novella, a group of Renaissance Faire performers find themselves in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse. Can they fight their way to safety in the Arizona desert? Where exactly is Area 51? Who is the mastermind behind the Denny's franchise? Let's be honest, our heroes are some of the finest people ever to don tights… but can they piece this puzzle together and bludgeon their way through the living dead before it's too late?

Dragon Bone Flute "Dragon Bone Flute" is a fantasy novella by Michael Gallowglas, a professional storyteller at Renaissance Faires and frequent contributor for Fantasy Flight Games.

No one in Elzibeth's village has seen any sign of a dragon in generations, yet they still have the good sense not to wander too close to the Dragon's Cave for fear of stirring up old trouble. Three bullies challenge her to seek the cave place out, and though the last man who went there never returned, she must accept this task or risk losing her music forever. Returning to her village with a small bone as proof, Elzibeth learns that the magic of dragons is more than skin deep…