**apologies that this is showing up in your RSS feed again. I deleted the original post, thinking it might have somehow been causing the blog’s lagging problems. Now that I know it was a plugin, I’m reposting the post for those who hadn’t yet seen it the first time.

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of the videos. I was having problems with uploading to Vimeo. Turns out it was AdAware blocking the upload. In case you ever have that problem.

Video one is a quick video of readers/authors talking digital devices. Video two talking digital books, and video three is just a quick glimpse of some of the activities at the Lori Foster event. (and someday I’ll figure out why all videos of me start with my eyes closed. Gah)

Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t as excited about the imminent (and subsequent) arrival of my new Kindle as I should have been, mostly because I knew the file management system hadn’t changed and that meant that my use of the Sony 505 wouldn’t change either.

Initial impressions of the Amazon box are that it’s small, much smaller than the box the old Kindle came in. When I open the Amazon box, I realize that it’s packaging made especially for mailing the Kindle 2. It’s lined with the same type of paper that wraps the Kindle packaging. The Kindle packaging is not as fancy as the original Kindle 1 packaging, which was kind of nice and sturdy. This is very much a temporary-type of packaging. (nice pictures of unboxing the Kindle from Engadget here)

The Kindle itself is much sleeker and thinner. I think it’s ten times more attractive than the original Kindle, but still not as sleek and trim as the Sony. But definitely an improvement over its predecessor. I’m already glad of the smaller buttons, as I had a lot of problems with unintentional page turning before. The buttons on the bottom of the Kindle have lost some of that “chiclet gum” feel and are rounder and slightly more recessed into the device.

I’m not sure what to think about the “joystick” in my initial look. I’ll have to wait and see. I’m happy about the new design as far as the back goes, as well. As Smart Bitch Sarah said, on the Kindle 1, the back would come off “if you sneezed wrong”. They’ve removed the button for turning off the wireless and made it an option on the menu instead. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet either. The wireless does seem to be faster, which it was supposed to be, and it downloaded the content I had waiting (a free copy of Silent in the Sanctuary) immediately, along with my welcome message from Jeff Bezos and a guide about Upgrading Your Content to the new Kindle (which seems relatively easy). One thing I notice is that having the wireless be part of the system, if you try to do something that requires the wireless to be on, and you have it off, the device will ask you if you want to turn it on, then do so and continue with the task.

Several things I’m disappointed about: 1) the Kindle comes with no cover or protective sleeve. Which means an automatic outlay of more money if you have any interested in protecting it at all while in your purse/bag/pocket. 2) They switched from a micro USB to a mini USB, which is a less common USB. And this also means that the iGo tip I bought for the original Kindle is now obsolete and I’ll need to buy a new one. Bugger (on closer look there is no tip for the Kindle 2 at this time. Damnit). 3) No improved file management. And to this I say, WTF, Amazon? That was the ONE improvement I wanted in the Kindle 2. The one thing that might have enticed me over from the Sony and the one thing I point to as a serious drawback to people shopping for a dedicated reader. Well, also the fact that you don’t recognize any DRM formats, including the PRC format. WTF again?

Text-to-Speech. This isn’t really a function I think I’ll use, but I tried it out. One thing to know is that if you stop in the middle of a page, when you start again it will start reading from the top of the page, not from where you stopped. Also, it tends to run things together in an odd way.

The last thing that’s not immediately clear to me is whether the Kindle is charging while plugged into the computer via the USB cord. When plugged in, I see the “charge” symbol flash onto the battery indicator before the USB screen comes up. And the light on the bottom comes on, but a message on the screen states “USB Drive Mode: If you want to use your Kindle and continue charging, please eject your Kindle from the computer.” But the instructions say that if the yellow light is on, then it’s charging. So I’m not sure what the screen message indicates. Something to investigate.

Final first impressions: Being thinner and sleeker, it does fit in my smallish purse, though it’s about an inch longer than the Sony 505. However, that’s without a case, so it depends on whether I can find a case that doesn’t add a lot of extra bulk. If I were going to use this Kindle (I’m not except for demo purposes) I would invest in this M-edge case (along with the optional light) which I wish to the depths of my soul they would make for the Sony. And yes, I did say I won’t be using it. Why? No file management. I love Sony’s tagging system, which allows me to sort my books in a variety of ways, including personal and business use, and I hope that Amazon can fix their unusable (for me) system with a firmware upgrade, rather than waiting another couple years for a whole new device.

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I have two confessions today. One is that I went shopping this morning for pants that I can wear to cocktail parties Monday in NYC. I didn’t find any because I’m TOO SHORT. Kohls is having some great clearance sales and I tried on an embarrassing number of pants but they all were too long for me by about 4 inches. It might have been worth it at clearance prices to buy them and pay to have them tailored, but I was too overwhelmed to make that decision this morning. Maybe I’ll go back.

The other confession is that I’m not at all ready for the traveling to start again. I think it must be because I’m basically lazy at heart, and it suits me to be able to do nothing all day Also, ever since I told her I was going (last week, because she heard me talking about it and asked) Brianna has been telling me how much she doesn’t want me to go. This morning she was particularly upset about it.

But on that note, blogging will probably be lighter again in the next few weeks, because we all know I’m no good at traveling and blogging!

For the Reader:
Since I don’t normally promo my releases during the week, I’m going to start listing them here, under the “for the reader” section. So, released this week:
Taken by Anya Bast (erotic sci fi romance)
Called by Blood by Evie Byrne (erotic paranormal romance)
Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon (m/m action romance)

Publisher’s Weekly is looking for reviewers in fiction genres including romance!

Kristen Nelson wants to know if free books work on you. On an interesting related note, I got an email from one of my blog readers this week, who was emailing to tell me that the free books she’d gotten from Samhain definitely resulted in her buying others. Anecdotal evidence that free works! I think editor Leah Hultenschmidt talked about that on her blog this week as well.

Jane from Dear Author wonders if you’d be interested in a rent-to-own ereader and ebook subscription?

Smart Bitches has the video from MSNBC that features the Kindle (and Kate Duffy of Kensington!)

Continuing the series about the Dear Author reviewers and their new Sony Readers. I’m really enjoying these posts.

For the Author:

Edittorrent had two great posts up on rejections this week. Alicia wrote this one on form rejections that I swear I could have written myself. Theresa wrote one that relates to my blog post here a few weeks ago about how fast is too fast?

And since we’re talking rejection, here’s one more on post-rejection protocol from Jessica Faust at BookEnds.

Author Lauren Dane has started a Sunday series on promotion.

Author Maria Zannini talks about signature lines. Honestly, an obnoxiously long signature line irritates me enough to remember the author’s name in a negative light.

Author Shannon Stacey has an awesome post up about making sure you’re following your dream, not someone else’s.

In the Kitchen:

Download spice jar labels.

Nom nom nom, these Italian love cakes look good (and easy)!

Pioneer Woman is doing a series on sushi. I actually learned how to make sushi from a Japanese friend years ago, but I’m still enjoying this series.

Peanut Butter and Rice Krispie treats. Me please.

For the Crafty:

Does anyone out there knit? I really want this scarf. Almost enough to take up knitting, except it would take me five years to finish. The scarf combines my love of two things: Doctor Who (LOVE Tom Baker) and scarves.

Sew, Mama, Sew is doing Fat Quarter February. Check out all the fat quarter projects they’re sharing. Tissue holders here (and if I’d thought of it sooner, I’d have whipped up a bunch as small Valentine Day gifts for the daycare staff)

Check out this list of the top 100 tuturials of 2008

I would love to make one of these tea wallets. I like to travel with tea but it always ends up in the bottom of my purse.

I love this idea. Anyone who’s ever been to a conference has a bunch of tote bags laying around. Here’s a tutorial for dressing up and resuing those tote bags!

For Everyone:

Thankfully, the CPSIA Lead-Testing Law has been delayed for one year. I hope they can work the kinks out of that and get a new/different/better law into affect.

An interesting post on recipes and copyright (where I learned, though was not surprised, to find that recipes aren’t copyrighted).

A little insight into the editorial debate between an author and an editor. These are weighty issues we discuss!

Whee! There’s going to be another Sex and the City movie. I’m not sure what type of story line they’ll come up with, but I don’t care. I’ll go see it! Looks to be set for hopefully Summer 2010

It’s what everyone has been talking about. The Snuggie. Now you can make your own and pimp it out to boot! Score!

$25 free from E-Trade when you open an E-Trade Savings Account.

You know you want to make one. A LOLCat purse!

So you’re bored and want to kill some time? Make your own comic strip!

Maybe your music library is like mine and could use a little attending to? MakeUseof.com has 4 suggestions for tools to fix and auto-organize your music library. Let me know if you’re familiar with any of them or try them!

Wi-Fi Hotspot finders. I need to put these links in my phone, with as much as I travel I often need Wi-Fi (even with an aircard, it’s nice to find Wi-Fi)

For the Political:
Not really political but I’m putting it here. Via HighlandGal, a quote about the Michael Phelps thing that made me laugh (also, see the bottom of this post for some links to current articles about Phelps losing sponsors):

Look, I don’t blame Michael Phelps for apologizing. He has a living to earn, so he did what he had to do.

In the meantime, I merely note that this broken wreck of a man’s failure to win any more than a pathetic fourteen Olympic gold medals (so far) is a terrifying warning of the horrific damage that cannabis can do to someone’s health—and a powerful reminder of just how sensible the drug laws really are.

-Andrew Stuttaford from The Corner at National Review Online.

A new video from Ashley Judd about Sarah Palin’s support of the brutal hunting of wolves. The video is not for the tender-hearted.

Obama puts a cap on executive pay at businesses that received bailout money. I really wish more things like this had been put in place before the bailout money was ever given out.

I’ll admit it, I laughed when I read to the end. There’s a follow-up article here. All I can think, though, is that our nation is facing the largest unemployment rate in two three decades and this guy is going to be worried about a suit jacket? Puh-lease.

Michelle Obama is stepping into the stimulus package fray. Oy.

Picture of the week:

Because the whole idea of this still makes me laugh.

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• New Website Launches to Keep Tabs on Sarah Palin’s Animal Conservation Record (Video) (treehugger.com)
• In the Kindle Backorder Queue? Upgrade Offer for Kindle 2 Coming. (jkontherun.com)

Last week in the comments of a Dear Author thread, I told one of the commenters I’d take some pictures of the Sony and the Kindle, for a visual comparison of size, as well as the best visual comparison of the screen images as I could get. Luckily, I have a sunroom that gets good light in the morning, so the pictures don’t do too bad a job showing the readers in natural light. Since I have them, I also threw in some pictures of the Ebookwise, the iPhone and the Asus EeePC. Sadly, I don’t have the Sony 700 or other readers to provide comparison pictures of.

I’m going to share a few here, but for the whole shebang (I took a lot) please go to this album to browse them. There you’ll find pictures of the Sony and Kindle from all angles, including the back, pictures of me holding them and side views, all to give you an idea of the differences between the two.

Two side by sides of the Kindle and Sony 505 from different angles

And a picture for a comparison of the eink screen on each. To be honest, I thought the Sony might be darker but side by side, I didn’t notice any big difference. I have to wonder if it’s the difference in the white casing versus the darker casing.

And shots of all the readers (From left to right: Asus EEE 900, iPhone, Kindle, Sony 505, Ebookwise:

Eink versus grayscale:

I think it’s important to note about the grayscale, that the contrast can be adjusted quite a bit. That’s just how I happened to have it.

Anyone want to see any other pictures that I didn’t include?

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• Questions from the comments (nicemommy-evileditor.com)

I’ve had these two comments flagged to answer in their own post, so I thought I’d better get to them!

Wyzwmn asked

a question if you please

why would you buy an e-reader over a laptop or notebook?
wouldn’t it just be one more tool to haul around?

I actually have a laptop. And an Asus EeePC (mini laptop) that only weighs 2lbs. And an iPhone. And an iPaq (which doesn’t get used at all anymore, but I’m just using it to illustrate my point). When I want to read, I immediately reach for the Sony Reader (I also own a Kindle and an Ebookwise, but the Sony is what I use right now). No other device has been able to replace, for me, using a dedicated reader, no matter how small, portable or otherwise useful it is.

I tried to think of a good analogy, but the only one I could think of was pretty weak. Let’s say you have some sort of ongoing problem with your skin. You could go to your general practicioner but if you have the option, wouldn’t you rather go to a dermatologist? Because they specialize, you know it will be better.

That’s how having a dedicated ereader is for me. Yes, it’s a specialty item but it’s a specialty item that can’t be replaced. Yes, I can read on other devices, but the experience isn’t the same, it’s not as convenient and I don’t care to do it if I don’t have to. One of the things about the newer eink devices (not the Ebookwise) is how easy on the eyes it is to read on. As much as I love ebooks, I’m like many people who say they don’t want to read on the computer. I spend probably an average of 12 hours a day looking at a computer screen. I already notice the effects of that. So when I’m ready to read for pleasure at night, it’s a huge relief to be able to reach for an eink device and be able to read on that.

Now, that said, I’m still a fan of the Ebookwise, which isn’t eink technology but is grayscale and a little less harsh than reading on the computer. Dedicated reading devices still have other advantages, such as the size (close to reading a book), the ease of holding them (easier than holding a book or a laptop) and ease of portability (which no computer or laptop can compete with, not even an Asus Eee PC).

I really love my dedicated device. If something happened to the iPhone, the Eee PC and my readers all at the same time, and I had to choose which to replace, I’d replace the dedicated reader first!

Kerry asked:

Since you mentioned the Kindle and other e-devices, I’d love to ask a question about Samhain books. Is there a schedule or specific timeline for Samhain books to be released for the Kindle? Are *all* books at some point available for Kindle, or only ones that are “proven sellers” on, say, My Bookstore and More first?

I’m also curious about the availability of Samhain books at fictionwise. I prefer to buy some books for my iphone at fictionwise because of their rewards program, but apparently Samhain books on fictionwise are only availabe in secure mobi/lit format. I’m kind of on a book-buying diet until my credit at fictionwise is gone, so it’s a bummer.

We do have a deal with Amazon/Mobipocket to release all books in mobi and Kindle formats, but it’s really up to Amazon when they appear. There are people at Samhain who have put a lot of time and effort into making sure all the books are available, but we’re dependent on Amazon to actually get them there. All we can do is keep emailing and keep asking. That was the long answer. The short answer is that all of our books should be available at all online retailers, if the retailer chooses to carry them.

Fictionwise is a little different. We have not had a contract with Fictionwise until very recently, because we were unable to reach an agreement of terms with them (I have commented on this in the past on other blogs). So Fictionwise was getting our books from Lightning Source, where the majority of online retailers get the books from. Lightning source puts the DRM on them (not Samhain) and makes them available in only a few formats. This was Fictionwise’s only option for carrying our books at that point.

Now that we’ve just reached an agreement with Fictionwise and recently signed the contract, our office staff has been working with Fictionwise to get it up and running. Going forward, very soon, Fictionwise will be offering Samhain books starting with new releases in a variety of formats (I believe unsecured formats). Backlist will hopefully be gradually converted, but that won’t happen right away.

Hope that answered both of your questions and I’m sorry it took me so long to respond. Does anyone else have any pressing questions they’ve been wanting to ask?

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An ebook if you could read the first chapter?

The discussion going on at Smart Bitches has got me thinking about this again, and I’ve asked it before but not gotten much response. Would you rather read the first chapter than an excerpt on a publisher’s website? People often do the first 10 page test in the bookstore, on print books, would this be similar enough for an ebook purchase?

I’ve been in a serious reading slump. Not that I’m not reading, but all my reading for almost 6 weeks has been almost exclusively work–edits and submissions (though I did read and finish Right Here, Right Now by HelenKay Dimon. Fabulous dialogue!). I have some great books that I want to read but my motivation, at the end of the work day, has been lacking. I thought maybe I was going to have to wait until the next JD Robb book before I found my groove–I will come out of any reading slump for a new Eve and Roarke story.

But then I saw this on Meljean Brook’s blog and…tada! Who’d have thought that fanfic would be what brought me out of my reading slump? I don’t normally read fanfic, don’t seek it out on the internet and don’t actually think I’ve ever read more than a paragraph or two of any fanfiction before. But for Firefly, for a novel length story, I made an exception. And I’m so glad I did. Reading this book is transporting–it’s like watching the show, being there with the characters. I’m not a huge TV fan, I watch Doctor Who and Torchwood, loved Buffy, La Femme Nikkita and Sex and the City. And Firefly. And I mourn Firefly. I want it to come back. Even now, years later. Of all the shows I’ve loved and lost *smirk* this is the one that I feel ended way before its time. Bring Firefly back. *sob*

If you love Firefly like I do, check out the Firefly fanfic by Stephen Brust. You won’t be sorry you did.