Got a Kindle? Take advantage of free ebooks!!!

Got a Kindle? Take advantage of free ebooks!!!

Smashwords often has free titles. Authors give Smashwords coupons. Gifts of ebooks are given through Smashwords.  But you own a Kindle and hate to manually upload ebooks.

I have a solution. Set your Kindle account to receive emailed attachments from your computer. Treat the new ebook like a personal document. First, when you download the mobi formatted ebook from Smashwords, save it to your desktop. (This is for ease of finding the ebook. If your computer is anything like mine, it likes to hide documents and let me scream at it all day until I find the thing. Computers are evil like that.)

Then, you must register your email account. Do it here.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200140600&#send


You must make sure that Kindle knows your personal email address. It's like not answering the phone when you see it's someone you don't know. Kindle likes to know who is sending it stuff.
Once you have a kindle address, using your name and either the @ sign before "free.kindle" or "kindle.com" simply open your email program, and attach your free ebook to your email to the above address. For example, if your name is Jane Doe, you may have an email addie like this "janedoe@kindle.com".

It will take a few minutes, but after that, all you need to do is is turn on your Kindle, turn on your wireless, and your book will download automatically.

I often download whole group digests, or large files that I want to read. It's easy, and I read them wherever I am relaxing. Try it. You'll love this feature.

Now, buy my book and try it. (Just kidding)

 

The Catch 

But, do try out some of Smashwords' other books. There are  excellent indie authors out there who offer excellent reads.And sometimes they're free!

One secret to happiness

There will be many people telling you what the secret to happiness is. And most of them will be correct. But it's up to you to find your own secret. Still, we can share our own successes in that search and hope that they will help you.
Here's one.
Give it away.
"It" is this. Your smile, your extra wealth. Your good news. Your bad news. Your love. Give away your happiness. Give away congratulations. Share your jealousy....
Wait! Share jealousy?  What kind of advice is that?
Let me explain by example. Your friend has just told you some good news. Something you've always wanted. And they have it. And like it or not, you can't have it, for whatever reason.
Share your jealousy. Tell him or her you're jealous. Let it go out there. 
And while you're at it, look at my first bits of advice. Give them your smile, share your good news. Buy them lunch. Share your heartbreak.
Share your love for them.
And by letting go of all of this, you'll be letting go of your jealousy, too. 
You see, negative things in our lives are like vampires. They suck life from us, and they really don't do well in bright light. So slay them. Expose them to light, and let them go. They'll shrivel and die away.
And while you're sharing all those wonderful things above with people around you, the negative things in your lives will drown in positive energy.
Love, live, smile.
I don't care if your face cracks. Smile. Force it out. Laugh to get it out and then laugh at yourself. Yes, you're not feeling well, but you can do it!  Go for it!
Each day is a new beginning. Don't sweat yesterday. Don't sweat tomorrow. Love like there *is* no tomorrow.
And each small success, be it getting the kids down for a nap, or getting that report done on time, or even having that one neighbor smile at you, or managing to walk away only once from a temptation, they are all successes and need to be treated like the fantastic things they are.
You deserve the celebrate the good things in your life. 
Find them, celebrate them, and go out to find your happiness. Then share it!

Taking advantage of free ebooks

Smashwords often has free titles. Authors give Smashwords coupons. Gifts of ebooks are given through Smashwords.  But you own a Kindle and hate to manually upload ebooks.

I have a solution. Set your Kindle account to receive emailed attachments from your computer. Treat the new ebook like a personal document. First, when you download the ebook from Smashwords, save it to your desktop. (This is for ease of finding the ebook. If your computer is anything like mine, it likes to hide documents and let me scream at it all day until I find the thing. They're evil like that.)

Then, you must register your email account. Do it here.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200140600&#send

Once you have a kindle address, using your name and either "free.kindle" or "kindle.com"
simply open your email program, and attach your free ebook to your email to the above address. You must make sure that Kindle knows your personal email address. It's like not answering the phone when you see it's someone you don't know. Kindle likes to know who is sending it stuff.
Then all you have to do is turn on your Kindle, turn on your wireless, and it will download automatically.

I often download whole group digests, or large files that I want to read. It's easy, and I read them wherever I am relaxing. Try it. You'll love this feature.
Now, buy my book and try it. (Just kidding)

But, do try out some of Smashwords' other books. There are  excellent indie authors out there who offer excellent reads.And sometimes they're free!

There's a refugee camp in my city!

There, in the center of Moncton, New Brunswick, a refugee camp like none seen before around here.
Doctors without Borders, or better known world wide as Medicins sans Frontiers (MSF), http://www.msf.ca
has set up a display and I was privileged to see it. A nurse took us through. First we were shown the housing. Some of the very items there were taken from refugee camps to show us exactly what the accommodations were like. Corrugated steel, wood, straw, twigs, even feed bags, and in front would be home made toys, such as soccer balls made of tape and plastic, dolls from rags, and toy cars from scrap metal or pop bottles. Shoes made from old tires, even. All sitting beside the gas cooker. Needless to say, MSF see burns on children as a result of playing too close to fires, but when you have less than 10 feet by 10 feet to call home for then next 20 years, you are going to be cramped.

We moved on to the food drop display, being shown the basic fat and meal biscuits that are dropped from planes in the early days of a disaster. Nothing appetizing, but designed to fill tummies.

Moving on, we stopped at the latrines. We usually have four people to two or three bathrooms here, but a latrine in a refugee camp would be a double hole in the ground, far away from the camp, totally unsafe and designed to service about 700 people. The rubber mat and pictures are designed to show you how to use it. Some refugees have never even seen toilets or latrines.
Don't bother to ask for toilet paper. That's what your left hand is for.

We moved on to water. The average westerner will use 100-300 litres a day, but as a refugee, you will get 5. Yup. Five litres or about one gallon. If conditions improve, you may get up to 20. No wasting water here.
We stopped at a tent that talked about the psychological effects of being a displaced person, and I nearly cried at the artwork, actual drawings by children of what they'd witnessed. You think your nine year old boy draws bloodied pictures. These kids actually saw this stuff, and the dismembered bodies and butchered livestock and raining bullets will cut you to the quick. We had to quickly move on.
Next was the Cholera station. We needed to pass through disinfecting spray and into the hospital, filled with folding cots that had holes in the center to catch the waste into a bucket beneath. But Cholera kills, and needs to be treated quickly.
The tent we visited next was by far the most heartbreaking, and I thought it was the one with the pictures until I reached here.
The malnutrition centre weighed babies and measured upper arms and the nurse showed us what they do for starving babies. They're given a nut butter paste, enough to last two weeks, with instructions for mum.
But with mum going home to other starving family members, or the offer of a trade for rice that everyone can eat, or worse, to a culture that gives male children more than female children, the babies often come back the same weight. MSF called the nut paste medicine and gives incentive rewards to mums, such as blankets, if they fatten their babies up. It's a complicated issue, and when MSF asks countries and governments to allow them to go in, they know they are facing difficulties caused by a variety of issues. But to see children suffer, it was hard.

We ended the tour with a trip to the vaccination clinic. And began to learn that MSF offers hope to many displaced persons and works hard, is totally volunteer and its reward is knowing you, as a medical staff member have done what is right.
Such was the hope we were left with. And an eye-opening look at how much of the population lives. And how to be grateful for what you have.
Barbara Phinney
Souvenirs - a romantic suspense
http://www.amazon.com/Souvenirs-ebook/dp/B005AX7Z64/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316810823&sr=1-3

The Catch

The Catch

Book #1 in The Twin Planets Series

By

Georgina Lee

Veseria, the fourth planet

Crouching, Lutus Mine parted the lush, tropical foliage to peer at their quarry. What he saw stole his breath.

With Veseria’s moons nearly full, and the twin planets still bright, Lutus could see the woman clearly. She glistened like the bright, rare coppers from the north continent. A breeze lifted her ruby hair as she tenderly set seedlings into crystal pots.

Almost immediately, his smile melted and a frown bit into his ebony features. This wasn't his hunt. He’d given it to his younger brother, Dorad. Lutus would have been content just to watch this woman, but Dorad would never agree to such foolishness.

Worse, he’d have plans for his prey that would make even Lutus shudder.

Lutus glanced through the greenery to see Dorad raise his net, all its daggerstones pointed at their quarry. Then Dorad launched it.

In that split second, the golden woman jerked up, her emerald eyes sharp with fear. Before she could leap away, the wide net dropped over her. The long daggerstones at its corners sank deep into the soft forest floor, ensnaring the shining beauty. Around Lutus, the hunters roared their thrill.