Month: February 2014

Bubba and the Dead Woman on Free Book Friday

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It’s still Free Book Friday, and if you can’t laugh at the week that just took the tinsel from your branches, then at least you can laugh at this book. And it occurs to me that’s a seasonal reference, quite out of season. Well, no matter, this one looks funny, and you can’t beat free.

Bubba and the Dead Woman by C.L. Bevill. FREE from Smashwords.com
Bubba is a good old boy with lots of problems. His ex-fiancee is deader than a door nail and everyone thinks he dun did it. His house is haunted. His mother is running an illegal gambling ring. His dog likes to bite people too much. And he’s got to find out who really did it before the sheriff throws him in jail…again.

All I Want Is to Be Lazy

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Do you ever have one of those days when all you want is to sit on the couch, a marathon of shows or movies ahead of you, knowing that the only place you need to go is the kitchen?

Yeah, well, today is not one of those days. I kind of wish it were, though.

But it’s not.

Instead, it’s got a to-do list that gets longer every time I scratch something off of it. I’m not an expert in to-do lists, but I thought that they were supposed to get shorter the more you do. Not at this rate.

Nope, the soonest I can have a lazy day is Sunday, though when you think about it, Sunday’s really the prototype for days like that. What I wouldn’t give for another “House of Cards” run of episode after episode, but I did that already, and Orange is the New Black doesn’t come back until June. Everything else is miserly, giving us one measly episode at a time.

I need a new series on Netflix, that’s what I need. I’m open to suggestions.

Oh wait, right. My to-do list. Still, if you have any ideas…you know. In case.

Deadly Stillwater Runs Deep

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Get your weekend, and Free Book Friday, of to a heart-pounding start with this thriller. Though I wouldn’t envy the setting of St. Paul this time of year. Then again, given our weather right now, I probably wouldn’t notice the difference.

Deadly Stillwater by Roger Stelljes. FREE from Smashwords.com
NYT & USA Today bestselling author, Roger Stelljes delivers an action packed, pulse pounding thriller that is the 2nd book in the McRyan Mystery Series. An abduction is just the beginning in a case of betrayal and revenge that will ultimately strike at the soul of the St. Paul Police Department. Also available: FIRST DEADLY CONSPIRACY – 3 book box set and Newest Release – ELECTING TO MURDER.

Put Down Some Witchy Roots

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I’m having one of those days when I wish I had a little bit of real-world magic. Well, at least we know there is one place we can always find it, even if, for now, it’s only electronic words on an electronic page.

Someday.

Well, probably not. But you might as well read this in the meanwhile.


Roots (Witchbound Book One) by Kelbian Noel. Amazon for $0.99. Roots (formerly Elemental) is the 2nd Edition of Book One of the Witchbound Series.

If you’ve purchased a copy of the 1st Edition and would like an updated copy, please contact me on my website or Goodreads.

Seventeen-year-old Baltimore Land just wants to be normal, but magic has other plans.

I don’t consider myself a witch, that’s my parents’ thing. I’ve never really believed in magic either. Sure, I tried it a few times. Fell for the whole “magic happens” thing. But it didn’t happen to me. No amount of rhyming stopped my parents from moving me halfway across the country. Not one spell stopped me from being labeled the town freak.

And worst of all, no matter how many times I begged the Universe to bring my twin back, I was ignored. Until now.

He’s back all right. And in a magical bind of his own. Not the magic-won’t-work-for-me kind either. In fact, it’s working a little too well. Too dark. Too deep.

It turns out our entire family’s magical roots run just as deep and my brother didn’t end up where he is by accident. So I’m going to help him. But magic isn’t really on my side. Nope. Once I finally get the craft under control, I’m expected to abandon the one person in the world who’s closest to me, just to save myself.

*******Check out the book trailer on the author’s Amazon page!*******

Upcoming Chicago Polar Plunge Gets a Special Guest Star

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I caught a clip on the news of a bulldozer clearing ice from Lake Michigan. Why, you say? So glad you asked.

Apparently there is a Polar Plunge on Sunday. The 14th Annual Chicago Polar Plunge, to be specific. Yes, that means that people have done this, in Chicago, 13 times before.

To the best of my knowledge, a polar plunge is when people, brains addled by the winter, lose all orientation as to temperature and go for a dip in the lake anyway. It’s my understanding that along with the urge to submerge oneself in water more frozen than the margarita you’ll be sipping lakeside come July, there are additional side effects. Like lost glove collecting and the inability to taste anything hot.

It does benefit a great cause, the Special Olympics, but I’m pretty sure they’re open to donations that haven’t been marinated in freezing water. At least the temps are predicted to be in high 20s on Sunday. That’s nearly 30.

But I haven’t told you the best part yet. Apparently “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” star Jimmy Fallon will be taking part while wearing a suit and a tie, and encouraging others to put on ties with whatever it is you wear to throw yourself into icy water.

Chicago loves you, Jimmy. Frozen or fully thawed.

Celebrate John Steinbeck’s Birthday with This Collection

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In honor of his 112th birthday, here is a comprehensive collection of John Steinbeck’s short novels. Steinbeck immortalized the lives of people who would have been forgotten, mere footnotes in the pages of history. Almost tenderly, yet with gripping realism, he lets us inside their worlds.

And with six novels for one price, think of this as a bargain for your brain.


The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by John Steinbeck. Amazon for $20.99. Collected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s most widely read and beloved short novels—Tortilla Flat, The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, Cannery Row and The Pearl. From Steinbeck’s tale of commitment, loneliness, and hope in Of Mice and Men, to his tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of Monterey society in Cannery Row, to The Pearl’s mythic examination of the fallacy of the American dream, Steinbeck created stories that were realistic, rugged, and imbued with energy and resilience.

Oh Ho Ho It’s Magic (Tricks)

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Maybe you’re a nascent Barney Stintson in training (hopefully not. But maybe you are). Maybe you’ve just always wondered how they did that. Maybe you like to mystify children. Or maybe you’re not a fan of small talk.

Whatever it is, everyone needs a hobby. Why not magic?


Magic Tricks – 50 Simple, Fun and Quick Tricks Book (How To Be the Life of the Party) by Joshua Minute. Amazon for $3.99. Magic Tricks 50 Simple, Fun and Quick Tricks

Having a few magic tricks “up your sleeve” can go a long way in making you the life of the party – and that is what we want to do – provide you with varying types of knowledge that you can use to entertain and have fun.

Now the quickest way to do this is to learn some easy magic tricks and then go and challenge your friends with a trick or two.

Here is one example of a baffling and entertaining trick. Learn The Impossible (and Impassable) Corks. This trick baffles just about everyone that it is shown to. In fact, you can actually show the people how to do it and they, still, won’t be able to do it. This trick has even stumped Ph D’s in engineering for hours.

If you want something less challenging, read about how to levitate a cup. We guarantee you that as soon as you are done reading the trick you WILL be able to make that cup float.

If that trick isn’t enough, learn how to call a coin flip, correctly, one hundred percent o f the time. Again, those around you will never guess how this trick is done either.

The magic tricks in this ebook were purposely selected to accomplish three things. They had to be easy to do, they had to be fun and challenging, and they had to use something that you would find at a party or at a dinner in a fancy restaurant (or have on you, like a deck of cards.) Other tricks use bottles, napkins, coins, paper money, straws, bread, utensils and more).

The Earth’s in Charge Here. Always

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When it’s cold like this, really cold, the air from the humidifier hits the window and little droplets of water form along the bottom edge. There have been times this long, continuous winter, where they actually freeze, and it’s like the outside is seeping in through the glass, no longer content with only the outdoors as its domain.

I turn down the humidifier, but it doesn’t always help, the window so cold that any moisture at all in the air seems to find a spot to gather. I can turn it off completely, but then it gets arid, dry enough to draw any moisture from me, until I feel like a long-suffering mummy.

Either way, the weather wins.

It’s seasons like this when the Earth shows her sharp, glistening teeth, when we can see that we are mere guests here. We are only being tolerated.

Things could become very uncomfortable very quickly, and the planet wouldn’t care. We are so fragile, and the Earth so enduring. We found a niche, but niches don’t always last forever.

You’d think we’d try to keep ours going.

Start Your Day with Complications Over Coffee

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Romance is in the cup, or so it appears in this contemporary romance from Asrai Devin. Or over the cup. Whichever. Either way, it looks like a fun, light read perfect for a Wednesday.


Complications Over Coffee (Up In Flames) by Asrai Devin. Amazon for $1.99. Nicole received the news seven months ago: men are cheating scum. She is close to signing her divorce papers, or she thought she was. Then her lawyer calls and says her soon to be ex-husband wants to sell the house and take custody of their two children.

Nicole turns to her new friend Mandy Turner for support. Where she inevitably ends up with a crush on the handsome and charismatic Corey Porter.

Corey had lived his life apart from others until he met Mandy Green, who has taken Corey’s one time confession for a family to heart. She would like to see Corey settled and happy as she is with Kip. So she starts on her quest by sending him on a blind date, later speed dating and an attempt at on-line dating.

Corey has his reasons for wanting to stay single. And he has no intention of talking about them. Even to his best friend Mandy. He would do anything for her, so he goes along with her match-making attempts, even though it drives her crazy.

Nicole and Corey meet in the Turner driveway one day, while Corey is running from Mandy and Nicole has just returned from a meeting with her lawyer. Corey invites Nicole to vent to him. When she does, her passion ignites desire in Corey, which leads to a heated kiss. And then an embarrassed parting.

Circumstances throw Nicole and Corey together again and again.

While Nicole struggles to finalize her divorce, find a job, she also fights a growing. Corey struggles with his tight hold on bachelor hood and his temper.

Kip has some struggles of his own while he tries to deal with his wife’s growing belly and the reality that he will have a baby to look after.

Will Nicole and Corey successfully keep their lives untangled? Or will they give in to their desires and let their lives get complicated?

Voted Most Talkative? You and Andy Cohen Both!

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If you’ve seen his late night show on Bravo, “Watch What Happens Live,” you know Andy Cohen as bubbly, intelligent and hilarious. He’s also got a very steely resolve under that charming demeanor. No matter who his guests may be, it’s impossible to end the impossibly speedy half-hour without a smile. Now you can have that with no need for a cable connection.


Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen. Amazon for $8.89. he man behind the Real Housewives writes about his lifelong love affair with pop culture that brought him from the suburbs of St. Louis to his own television show

From a young age, Andy Cohen knew one thing: He loved television. Not in the way that most kids do, but in an irrepressible, all-consuming, I-want-to-climb-inside-the-tube kind of way. And climb inside he did. Now presiding over Bravo’s reality TV empire, he started out as an overly talkative pop culture obsessive, devoted to Charlie’s Angels and All My Children and to his mother, who received daily letters from Andy at summer camp, usually reminding her to tape the soaps. In retrospect, it’s hard to believe that everyone didn’t know that Andy was gay; still, he remained in the closet until college. Finally out, he embarked on making a career out of his passion for television.

The journey begins with Andy interviewing his all-time idol Susan Lucci for his college newspaper and ends with him in a job where he has a hand in creating today’s celebrity icons. In the witty, no-holds-barred style of his show Watch What Happens Live, Andy tells tales of absurd mishaps during his ten years at CBS News, hilarious encounters with the heroes and heroines of his youth, and the real stories behind The Real Housewives. Dishy, funny, and full of heart, Most Talkative provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of television, from a fan who grew up watching the screen and is now inside it, both making shows and hosting his own.