Kay Em Evans' World Race Mission: Auctions Open

We’ve got some awesome gift sets to be auctioned and raffled. It’s really easy, and I’ll explain exactly what to do.

All proceeds go to our friend Kay Em Evan’s WORLD RACE MISSION. Kay is going on an 11-month mission to Central and South America, where she’ll be doing ministry and humanitarian work. She’s got to raise a lot of money, so let’s help her out!

Bid on these amazing gift sets and enter to win one of the incredible raffle prizes! We’re even giving away RUNNER UP PRIZES, so there will be lots of winners by the end of the contest!

We’ve got two AUCTIONS to bid on:

AUCTION #1

Abby Road Gift Set

Winner receives an autographed copy of Abby Road by Ophelia London! Comes with Abby swag, and the winner will also get copies of Ophelia’s other titles (both in ebook format): Speaking of Love and Playing at Love. And since Abby Road has a Beatles-y type of theme, Ophelia’s going to include some Beatles swag too!

If you’re a Beatles fan, or if you just love romance-y novels, this auction item is for you! Ophelia London fans, you’ll definitely want to bid on this unique gift set! We’re using Ebay since it’s a dedicated auction site, so just go to the listing to place your bid:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200959695632?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Starting Bid: $16

AUCTION #2

Dragonfly Gift Set

Winner receives an autographed copy of Leigh T. Moore’s Watercolor (book 3 in the DRAGONFLY series). Comes with books 1 and 2 in the DRAGONFLY series (both in ebook format) plus your choice from any of Leigh’s other titles (choice of one, also in ebook format):

The Truth about Faking – YA romantic comedy

The Truth about Letting Go – YA coming of age; Semifinalist, 2013 "Best Indie Book Awards" sponsored by The Kindle Book Review

Rouge – New Adult romantic suspense & Quarterfinalist, 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

If you’re a Leigh T. Moore fan, or if you just love a good YA book, this is the auction item for you! Start bidding to win this amazing gift set! We’re using Ebay since it’s a dedicated auction site, so just go to the listing to place your bid:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200959699207?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Starting Bid: $16

RUNNER UP PRIZES – for second highest bidder in each auction

One of the following:

Autographed copy of S.A. Bodeen’s The Raft (or)

Ophelia London’s Playing at Love or Speaking of Love in ebook format (or)

The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux (or)

A Short History of Almost Everything by Bill Bryce

And we’ve got two RAFFLES you can enter:

RAFFLE #1

The RaShelle Workman Gift Set

The winner of this raffle drawing receives a 15-page critique by RaShelle plus any TWO of RaShelle’s books: 1 autographed copy and 1 in ebook format (winner’s choice!). Here are the titles the winner can choose from:

Blood and Snow

Sleeping Roses

Touching Melody

Exiled – Immortal Essence #1

Beguiled – Immortal Essence #2

This gift set is truly one of a kind! RaShelle is an experienced author, and she knows what editors are looking for—let her help you nail your opening pages so agents and editors will be begging to see more! If you don’t need a critique but know someone who does, you can team up with that person to enter this raffle: you keep the books, your friend gets the critique. BAM. Easy as that. J

To enter this raffle, just go to Kay’s mission blog and make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation of $10: kayemevans.theworldrace.org. Click SUPPORT ME at the top of the page, and you’ll be redirected to Kay’s donation page at Adventures in Missions. Donations can be made by credit card or bank draft.

NOTE: For every $5 more you donate, you’ll receive EXTRA ENTRIES in the drawing!

RAFFLE #2

The Kay Em Evans Ultimate Critique Package

The winner of this raffle receives an ultimate critique package by Kay Em Evans: one-page query, two-page synopsis, and first 10,000 words of manuscript. The finalized query will be featured on Matthew MacNish’s Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment with breakdown and analysis. Package comes with a copy of SCENE & STRUCTURE (Elements of Fiction Writing) by Jack M. Bickham.

To enter this raffle, all you have to do is buy one of Kay’s APOSTLE t-shirts! These soft, comfy tees are a great way to show support for Kay’s mission, they come in both men’s and women’s styles, and they’re free shipping: www.HeartsAndStars.org.

RUNNER UP PRIZES – to be awarded to secondary names drawn in each raffle:

Choice of the following:

Autographed ARC of Jessica Bell’s latest book BITTER AS ORANGE PEEL (or)

Critique of choice: query or opening pages of manuscript – to be provided by Matthew MacNish/Kay Em Evans (or)

Autographed copy of The Straits of Galahesh (Book Two of the Lays of Anuskaya) by Bradley P. Beaulieu (or)

Any of S.A. Bodeen’s titles (limit 1, ebook format)

A Scary Good Book, by Anita Laydon Miller

I promise to get to more about my vacation soon, but today I have to announce that my friend Anita has released her second novel.

This one is a middle grade mystery titled A SCARY GOOD BOOK. Here is the official description:

Twelve-year-old Hannah Stone tells everyone she’s “okay,” but that’s a total lie. Two years ago her dad was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The detective in charge of the case never found the driver, but he somehow managed to get Hannah’s mom to fall in love with him. The jerk. And speaking of love, Hannah’s developed a major crush on Ollie Ortega—he’s her best friend and the only one she can talk to—a crush on Ollie is so not a good idea.

Also not a good idea? Searching for a missing person with no help from the police. But that’s exactly what Hannah does when she finds messages in library books—underlined words that point her in the direction of someone who needs her.

And, suddenly, Hannah’s even further from okay. She breaks into a library, gets caught in a kidnapper’s web, and is stalked by her dad’s killer, all in an effort to save a life…but can she save herself, too?

I haven't personally read it yet (it's just being released today), but I know Anita well enough to know that this is certainly a fun kids' ebook. And at $0.99 you absolutely cannot beat the price.

You can find the Kindle edition for sale on Amazon, here, but if you're not sure whether this might be for you, I suggest you at least visit both of Anita's great blogs, and get to know her a little better:

Anita Laydon Miller's blog.
Anita Laydon Miller's Middle Grade blog.

Thanks!

Kindle versus Nook

So my family went shopping yesterday, and picked me up an early father's day present. They bought me a Nook Color, Wi-Fi, 8GB. It's quite a gift. We don't usually do big ticket items like this in our family, especially not for something as minor as father's day, but both Kelly and Madison will be out of town on the actual day, so there may be some guilt involved.

It's truly a kingly gift. It's a pretty neat device.

But, that being said, I've got to spark a debate here on the old blog. I had actually been thinking of buying myself a Kindle recently. I want the el-cheapo, B&W, Wi-Fi only version. It's very reasonably priced now.

There are arguments for and against each device, and advantages to both, but let me tell you why I was leaning toward the Kindle before the Nook showed up in my house yesterday.

First things first, Amazon is a Seattle company (I'm from Seattle). I've had friends work there, and they all say it's a good company. I'm not necessarily for some of the very near monopolies they've developed lately, but it's still a company I do business with all the time, and I've never been unhappy with a transaction. But loyalty really isn't the issue here. Barnes and Noble is a decent company too, as far as I know. I don't know anyone who's worked there, but the employees seem happy enough for retail workers.

None of that really matters because it's all about the device. The Kindle is basically designed just for e-books. Even the high end worldwide 3G edition still just has the black and white e-ink technology for it's screen. That might sound like a drawback, but I would actually prefer reading an e-ink version of a book to reading on a back-lit LCD screen. I work in tech support and I stare at a back-lit LCD PC monitor ALL DAY LONG. I don't want to read books in a way that strains my eyes.

Another advantage that the Kindle seems to have is free e-book editions of books that are in the public domain. I like to try to read a classic or two each year. I have not fully researched this yet, but so far I have checked on A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, and Moby Dick, or the whale, by Herman Melville. Both books are available as free Kindle editions, but the Nook Books cost $0.99. That seems a little disingenuous to me. Who exactly is profiting off of these publicly owned works? There may be some kind of third party service that will convert free e-books into Nook Books, but why should I have to go through the extra effort when the Kindle editions are free and easy?

Yet another problem seems to be the availability of certain books. Just checking briefly last night I found several books that I am interested in that are available as Kindle editions, but so far are not available at all in the Nook Book store. Cassastar, by Alex J. Cavanaugh, is not available as a Nook Book. Twisted Velvet Chains, by Jessica Bell, is not available as a Nook Book. Ghost Medicine, by Andrew Smith ... actually that one is available, but for some reason you have to go onto the internet to find it, because it does not show up on the Nook when you shop directly from the device. In the Path of Falling Objects is available directly on the device. I imagine this has a lot to do with self-publishing, and the way that Amazon's system supports independent authors, but I would rather have the device that has the most access to the most books.

So, at this point you're probably thinking I hate the Nook my family bought me. I don't. It's actually pretty cool. The one nice thing that the Nook has that the Kindle doesn't is the internet, apps, and extras like the music player, and the ability to store any kind of file. Actually, I'll have to research that, I think the Kindle can store some documents. But the internet on the Nook is pretty nice. The screen is large enough that if you turn the device sideways you can use almost any website with relative ease. I tested Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and Le Blog. Updating anything that requires entering text is a little clunky, because often the fields show up very small, and the websites are not displaying in a special mobile format like they do on most smart phones.

All in all the extras of the Nook make it pretty attractive for the price, but there's one drawback. At the price point the Nook Color is selling at right now, it is basically trying to market itself into a position between the Kindle and the Apple iPad. The problem is that the Nook doesn't do everything the Kindle does, and the things it does do that Kindle can't, are things that are clearly outperformed by the iPad. Obviously you can't compare them directly, because of the difference in price, but my personal opinion is that if I want a full color device that reads e-books and does internet, I would prefer the larger screen, smoother interface, and reliability track record of Apple. Besides, you can get a used iPad original edition for about the same price as a Nook Color.

What do you guys think? Do you own a Nook? Do you own a Kindle? Do you own an iPad? Anyone ever switched from one to the other, or owned more than one of these devices?

I need to make a decision about whether I am going to return the Nook in favor of a Kindle, but I want to make sure I get all the information, and advice from friends, that I can, first. As I said, I haven't researched it all fully, and I was curious what all of you thought too.