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Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Sunday, October 3: The DNA of Relationships, the Silk Road Travel Series, Space Opera, Arousing Love, and a Dozen More New Free Promotional Titles in the Kindle Store! plus Cate Rowan’s award-winning Kismet’s Kiss (Today’s Sponsor), and Links to Over a Million Free Kindle Titles

We’re on a great roll with dozens of new additions to our list of free contemporary Kindle Store listings never before seen in our Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alerts….

  
But first … a word from Today’s Sponsor

(Editor’s Note: Some people are born to entertain us, born to tell stories, born to write. Cate Rowan seems to have known from a very early age. Jurors of the Romance Writers of America Golden Hearts competition have known it for a while. Readers have been discovering it with such intense pleasure that I have barely been able to keep up with the 5-star reviews. But our mission today at Kindle Nation is to help let the rest of the world discover Cate Rowan, one Kindle at a time….S.W.)


Kismet’s Kiss (Alaia: The Women of Kismet, Book One) 
By Cate Rowan
4.9 out of 5 stars – 9 Reviews – Kindle Price:    $2.99 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

When a deadly epidemic strikes a sultan’s family, only a magical healer from an enemy land can save them. Soon the sultan wonders if he can save his heart from the feisty infidel, though his culture condemns her sorcery.

KISMET’S KISS is a two-time RWA Golden Heart® Finalist and a winner of the Duel on the Delta, Molly, and Put Your Heart in a Book contests.

In the desert realm of Kad, a deadly epidemic strikes the palace of Sultan Kuramos. Only a magical healer from an enemy land may have the skill to save his household. He doesn’t realize that healer is a woman.  Varene finds her own surprises in Kad. She expects the sultan’s arrogance, but not his courage or his selfless care of the ill—or the possibility that the epidemic is the curse of a vengeful goddess.  Kaddite culture condemns Varene’s mystical talents and her presence triggers a plot to overthrow Kuramos. Yet as he and the healer toil for the cure, he loses his heart to her. She falls for him as well, but how can she relinquish her homeland and her principles for him—especially when he already has a harem and his family may be cursed?   
Praise for KISMET’S KISS:  
  • “Magic, passion, and intrigue—KISMET’S KISS has it all! Cate Rowan’s uniquely compelling fantasy debut is set in a fascinating and fully realized world where danger lurks in every shadow. Rowan is definitely an author to watch!” – Alyssa Day, New York Times bestselling author  
  • “KISMET’S KISS is a compelling tale of love and duty set amid the clash of cultures. A thoroughly enjoyable adventure!” – Jana Oliver, author of the Time Rovers series and DEMON TRAPPER’S DAUGHTER  
  • “A wonderful Arabian Nights story laced with humor and scheming with intriguing twists.” – Robin D. Owens, RITA-winning author of HEART THIEF and GUARDIAN OF HONOR  
  • “KISMET’S KISS is a lush, inviting, immersive gem of a book. No one who loves being swept away by a great story should miss this!” – Kendra Leigh Castle, author of CALL OF THE HIGHLAND MOON and RENEGADE ANGEL  
  • “KISMET’S KISS has everything a reader of fantasy could ask for—suspense, action, incredible world-building and magic. What captured me most was a romance so exquisitely crafted that it kept me up all night, devouring every word until the very last page. This story is a one-sitting read to be savored again and again!” – Shelby Reed, author of THE FIFTH FAVOR and MIDNIGHT ROSE 

More About Author Cate Rowan

Cate Rowan has washed laundry in a crocodile-infested African lake, parasailed over Cabo, and swum with dolphins, but her best adventures are her story worlds. Her lush fantasy romances about magic, danger and passion in faraway realms have won more than thirty awards. Her debut novel, Kismet’s Kiss, was a two-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® finalist.

Cate credits her favorite childhood authors–a list that includes J.R.R. Tolkien, Guy Gavriel Kay, Anne McCaffrey, Nora Roberts, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Herriot, and C.S. Lewis–for her love of fiction, great characters, and a rich imagination. She also thanks her family for forgiving all those times she brought a novel to dinner.
For more information on Cate’s books, please visit CateRowan.com. You can also follow her on Twitter or on Facebook. Cate thanks all her readers for their support!

Visit Amazon’s Cate Rowan Page 


Click on the titleto download Kismet’s Kiss (Alaia: The Women of Kismet, Book One) (or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
UK Customers: Click on the title to download Kismet’s Kiss (Alaia: The Women of Kismet, Book One) from the UK Kindle Store
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Promotional Titles in the Kindle Store
Note: (Updated Oct. 2, 2010) – Click here for a separate list of Erotica titles sponsored by Rena Diane Walmsley’s steamy coming-of-age novel Girl on Fire

Click here for a complete listing of over 100 free promotional titles and links to millions of other free books for your Kindle.


Click here for a complete listing of over 100 free promotional titles and links to millions of other free books for your Kindle.


Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

 Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon 
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled 
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.  

In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library.  While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before.      I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.”   Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly 

Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward. 

Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.

The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men, each of which is now available for pre-order at Kindle-appropriate prices in the Kindle Store. (Order them now and they will be delivered automatically to your Kindle or Kindle App on October 18, but between now and then you’ll have plenty of time to read this free copy of the prequel, which runs 589 locations).

The New World 
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!

Elvis and The Dearly Departed
Elvis and The Dearly Departed
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars  (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled

They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.

Raising Jake

by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

The 7th Victim
The 7th Victim
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights 

Velocity

 by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled  
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010.

Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”  

Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.” 

Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”


Twelve Kindle-Compatible Math and Science Textbooks

Can you imagine a future when high school students can work on their tans, shoot baskets in the driveway, or chill on the sofa while their Kindles read their homework assignments to them?
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 
(Once you buy just about any Kindle ebook, it’s a snap to go to your Manage Your Kindle page and send the ebook to other registered devices to which you have downloaded free Kindle apps. See the screenshot above at the right.)

Free Kindle Nation Shorts – October 2, 2010 – A Brand New “Scary Saturday” Free Kindle Nation Short: An Excerpt from The Red Church, A Novel By Scott Nicholson

By Stephen Windwalker

Editor of Kindle Nation Daily  ©Kindle Nation Daily

It’s the first Saturday night in October, and whether you’ve been very, very good, or very, very bad, Kindle Nation is an equal opportunity provider of treats….  
 
We think you deserve a very special treat.  
 
We think you deserve … to be scared out of your britches.  
 
And fortunately, we’ve got the #1 bestselling ghost story in the Kindle Store to do the trick. Or almost.   
 
What we have are the first 15,000 words of Scott Nicholson’s ghost story novel, The Red Church. That’s a really generous, really scary free excerpt, but there’s no heinous bait-and-switch at work here. If you like it and want to keep reading … if you dare to keep reading … Scott is offering the entire novel for download in the Kindle Store for just 99 cents.  
 
How great a deal is that? Well, as you can tell from the reviews below, it’s a terrific deal. And equally important, it will leave you a little money to pay for some extra locks on your doors….   
 
Here’s what some other very distinguished authors are saying about The Red Church:     
  • “A damn scary story well told.”-Christopher Ransom, author of the international bestseller The Birthing House    
  • “Like Stephen King, he has an eye and ear for the rhythms of rural America, and like King he knows how to summon serious scares. My advice? Buy everything he writes. This guy’s the real deal.”-Bentley Little, author of The Disappearance     
  • “Keep both hands on your pants because Nicholson is about to scare them off.”-J.A. Konrath, Origin and Serial    
  • “Always surprises and always entertains.”-Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero     
  • “Scott Nicholson knows the territory. Follow him at your own risk.”-Stewart O’Nan, Boston Noir     
  • “A wonderful storyteller.” Sharyn McCrumb, author of The Ballad novels

A Stoker Award finalist and alternate selection of the Mystery Guild. A boy and a rural sheriff must solve the mystery of a haunted Appalachian church when a strange preacher returns to town.

Scroll down to turn on all the lights and begin reading the free excerpt now


by Scott Nicholson
Haunted Computer Books
Kindle Edition

List Price: $0.99

Buy Now

An Excerpt from 
The Red Church

A Novel By Scott Nicholson


Copyright 2002, 2010 by Scott Nicholson and reprinted here with his permission.

CHAPTER ONE

The world never ends the way you believe it will, Ronnie Day thought.
There were the tried-and-true favorites, like nuclear holocaust and doomsday asteroid collisions and killer viruses and Preacher Staymore’s all-time classic, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. But the end really wasn’t such a huge, organized affair after all. The end was right up close and personal, different for each person, a kick in the rear and a joy-buzzer handshake from the Reaper himself.
But that was the Big End. First you had to twist your way though a thousand turning points and die a little each time. One of life’s lessons, learned as the by-product of thirteen years as the son of Linda and David Day and one semester sitting in class with Melanie Ward. Tough noogies, wasn’t it?
Ronnie walked quickly, staring straight ahead. Another day in the idiot factory at good old Barkersville Elementary was over. Had all evening to look forward to, and a good long walk between him and home. Nothing but his feet and the smell of damp leaves, fresh grass, and the wet mud of the riverbanks. A nice plate of spring sunshine high overhead.
And he could start slowing down in a minute, delaying his arrival into the hell that home had been lately, because soon he would be around the curve and past the thing on the hill to his right, the thing he didn’t want to think about, the thing he couldn’t help thinking about, because he had to walk past it twice a day.
Why couldn’t he be like the other kids? Their parents picked them up in shiny new Mazdas and Nissans and took them to the mall in Barkersville and dropped them off at soccer practice and then drove them right to the front door of their houses. So all they had to do was step in and stuff their faces with microwave dinners and go to their rooms and waste their brains on TV or Nintendo all night. They didn’t have to be scared.
Well, it could be worse. He had a brain, but it wasn’t something worth bragging about. His “overactive imagination” got him in trouble at school, but it was also kind of nice when other kids, especially Melanie, asked him for help in English.
So he’d take having a brain any day, even if he did suffer what the school counselor called “negative thoughts.” At least he had thoughts. Unlike his little dorkwad of a brother back there, who didn’t have sense enough to know that this stretch of road was no place to be messing around.
“Hey, Ronnie.” His brother was calling him, it sounded like from the top of the hill. The dorkwad hadn’t stopped, had he?
“Come on.” Ronnie didn’t turn around.
“Looky here.”
“Come on, or I’ll bust you upside the head.”
“No, really, Ronnie. I see something.”
Ronnie sighed and stopped walking, then slung his book bag farther up on his shoulder. He was at least eighty feet ahead of his little brother. Tim had been doing his typical nine-year-old’s dawdling, stopping occasionally to tie his sneaker strings or look in the ditch water for tadpoles or throw rocks at the river that ran below the road.
Ronnie turned-to your left, he told himself, so you don’t see it-and looked back along the sweep of gravel at the hill that was almost lost among the green bulk of mountains. He could think of a hundred reasons not to walk all the way back to see what Tim wanted him to see. For one thing, Tim was at the top of the hill, which meant Ronnie would have to hike up the steep grade again. The walk home from the bus stop was nearly a mile and a half already. Why make it longer?
Plus there were at least ninety-nine other reasons-
like the red church
-not to give a flying fig what Tim was sticking his nose into now. Dad was supposed to stop by today to pick up some more stuff, and Ronnie didn’t want to miss him. Maybe they’d get to talk for a minute, man-to-man. If Tim didn’t hurry, Dad and Mom might have another argument first and Dad would leave like he had last week, stomping the gas pedal of his rusty Ford so the wheels threw chunks of gravel and broke a window. So that was another reason not to go back to see whatever had gotten Tim so worked up.
Tim jumped up and down, the rolled cuffs of his blue jeans sagging around his sneakers. He motioned with his thin arm, his glasses flashing in the mid-afternoon sun. “C’mon, Ronnie,” he shouted.
“Dingle-dork,” Ronnie muttered to himself, then started backtracking up the grade. He kept his eyes on the gravel the way he always did when he was near the church. The sun made little sparkles in the rocks, and with a little imagination, the roadbed could turn into a big galaxy with lots of stars and planets, and if he didn’t look to his left he wouldn’t have to see the red church.
Why should he be afraid of some dumb old church? A church was a church. It was like your heart. Once Jesus came in, He was supposed to stay there. But sometimes you did bad things that drove Him away.
Ronnie peeked at the church just to prove that he didn’t care about it one way or another. There. Nothing but wood and nails.
But he’d hardly glanced at it. He’d really seen only a little piece of the church’s mossy gray roof, because of all the trees that lined the road- big old oaks and a gnarled apple tree and a crooked dogwood that would have been great for climbing except if you got to the top, you’d be right at eye level with the steeple and the belfry.
Stupid trees, he thought. All happy because it’s May and their leaves are waving in the wind and, if they were people, I bet they’d be wearing idiotic smiles just like the one that’s probably splitting up Tim’s face right now. Because, just like little bro, the trees are too doggoned dumb to be scared.
Ronnie slowed down a little. Tim had walked into the shade of the maple. Into the jungle of weeds that formed a natural fence along the road. And maybe to the edge of the graveyard.
Ronnie swallowed hard. He’d just started developing an Adam’s apple, and he could feel the knot pogo in his throat. He stopped walking. He’d thought of reason number hundred and one not to go over to the churchyard. Because-and this was the best reason of all, one that made Ronnie almost giddy with relief-he was the older brother. Tim had to listen to him. If he gave in to the little mucous midget even once, he would be asking for a lifetime of “Ronnie, do this” and “Ronnie, do that.” He got enough of that kind of treatment from Mom.
“Hurry up,” Tim called from the weeds. Ronnie couldn’t see Tim’s face. That wasn’t all bad. Tim had buck teeth and his blond hair stuck out like straw and his eyes were a little buggy. Good thing he was in the fourth grade instead of the eighth grade. Because in the eighth grade, you had to impress girls like Melanie Ward, who would laugh in your face one day and sit in the desk behind you the next, until you were so torn up that you didn’t even care about things like whatever mess your dorkwad brother was getting into at the moment. “Get out of there, you idiot. You know you’re not supposed to go into the churchyard.”
The leaves rustled where Tim had disappeared into the underbrush. He’d left his book bag lying in the grass at the base of a tree. His squeaky voice came from beyond the tangle of saplings and laurel. “I found something.”
“Get out of there right this minute.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“But look what I found.”
Ronnie came closer. He had to admit, he was a little bit curious, even though he was starting to get mad. Not to mention scared. Because through the gaps in the trees, he could see the graveyard.
A slope of thick, evenly cut grass broken up by white and gray slabs. Tombstones. At least forty dead people, just waiting to rise up and-
Those are just stories. You don’t actually believe that stuff, do you? Who cares what Whizzer Buchanan says? If he were so smart, he wouldn’t be flunking three classes.
“We’re going to miss Dad,” Ronnie called. His voice trembled slightly. He hoped Tim hadn’t noticed.
“Just a minute.”
“I ain’t got a minute.”
“You chicken or something?”
That did it. Ronnie balled up his fists and hurried to the spot where Tim had entered the churchyard. He set his book bag beside Tim’s and stepped among the crushed weeds. Furry ropes of poison sumac veined across the ground. Red-stemmed briars bent under the snowy weight of blackberry blossoms. And Ronnie would bet a Spiderman comic that snakes slithered in that high grass along the ditch.
“Where are you?” Ronnie called into the bushes.
“Over here.”
He was in the graveyard, the stupid little jerk. How many times had Dad told them to stay out of the graveyard?
Not that Ronnie needed reminding. But that was Tim for you. Tell him to not to touch a hot stove eye and you could smell the sizzling flesh of his fingers before you even finished your sentence.
Ronnie stooped to about Tim’s height-twerp’s-eye view-and saw the graveyard through the path that Tim had stomped. Tim was kneeling beside an old marble tombstone, looking down. He picked something up and it flashed in the sun. A bottle.
Ronnie looked past his little brother to the uneven rows of markers. Some were cracked and chipped, all of them worn around the edges. Old graves. Old dead people. So long dead that they were probably too rotten to lift themselves out of the soil and walk into the red church.
No, it wasn’t a church anymore, just an old building that Lester Matheson used for storing hay. Hadn’t been a church for about twenty years. Like Lester had said, pausing to let a stream of brown juice arc to the ground, then wiping his lips with the scarred stump of his thumb, “It’s people what makes a church. Without people, and what-and-all they believe, it ain’t nothing but a fancy mouse motel.”
Yeah. Fancy mouse motel. Nothing scary about that, is there?
It was just like the First Baptist Church, if you really thought about it. Except the Baptist church was bigger. And the only time the Baptist church was scary was when Preacher Staymore said Ronnie needed saving or else Jesus Christ would send him to burn in hell forever.
Ronnie scrambled through the bushes. A briar snagged his X-Files T-shirt, the one that Melanie thought was so cool. He backed up and pulled himself free, cursing as a thorn pierced his finger. A drop of crimson welled up and he started to wipe it on his shirt, then licked it away instead.
Tim put the bottle down and picked up something else. A magazine. Its pages fluttered in the breeze. Ronnie stepped clear of the brush and stood up.
So he was in the graveyard. No big deal. And if he kept his eyes straight ahead, he wouldn’t even have to see the fancy mouse motel. But then he forgot all about trying not to be scared, because of what Tim had in his hands.
As Ronnie came beside him, Tim snapped the magazine closed. But not before Ronnie had gotten a good look at the pale flesh spread along the pages. Timmy’s cheeks turned pink. He had found a Playboy.
“Give me that,” Ronnie said.
Tim faced his brother and put the magazine behind his back. “I-I’m the one who found it.”
“Yeah, and you don’t even know what it is, do you?”
Tim stared at the ground. “A naked-woman book.”
Ronnie started to laugh, but it choked off as he looked around the graveyard. “Where did you learn about girlie magazines?”
“Whizzer. He showed one to us behind the gym during recess.”
“Probably charged you a dollar a peek.”
“No, just a quarter.”
“Give it here, or I’ll tell Mom.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Will, too.”
“What are you going to tell her? That I found a naked-woman book and wouldn’t let you see it?”
Ronnie grimaced. Score one for dingle-dork. He thought about jumping Tim and taking the magazine by force, but there was no need to hurry. Tricking him out of it would be a lot more fun. But he didn’t want to stand around in the creepy graveyard and negotiate.
He looked at the other stuff scattered on the grass around the tombstone. The bottle had a square base and a black screw top. A few inches of golden-brown liquid were lying in the bottom. He knew it was liquor because of the turkey on the label. It was the kind that Aunt Donna drank. But Ronnie didn’t want to think about Aunt Donna almost as much as he didn’t want to think about being scared.
A green baseball cap lay upside down beside the tombstone. The sweatband was stained a dark gray, and the bill was so severely cupped that it came to a frayed point. Only one person rolled up their cap bill that way. Ronnie nudged the cap over with his foot. A John Deere cap. That cinched it.
“It’s Boonie Houck’s,” Ronnie said. But Boonie never went anywhere without his cap. Kept it pulled down to the bushy line of his single eyebrow, his eyes gleaming under the shade of the bill like wet ball bearings. He probably even showered and slept with the cap plastered to the top of his wide head.
A crumpled potato chip bag quivered beside the cap, fluttering in the breeze. It was held in place by an unopened can of Coca-Cola. The blind eye of a flashlight peeked out from under the edge of the chip bag.
Ronnie bent down and saw a flash of silver. Money. He picked up two dimes and a dull nickel. A couple of pennies were in the grass, but he left them. He straightened up.
“I’ll give you twenty-five cents for the magazine,” he said.
Tim backed away with his hands still behind him. He moved into the shadow of a crude stone monument, made of two pillars holding up a crosspiece. On the crosspiece was a weathered planter. A brittle sheaf of brown tulips stabbed up from the potting soil.
Tulips. So somebody had minded the graveyard at least once since winter. Probably Lester. Lester owned the property and kept the grass trimmed, but did that mean the tobacco-chewing farmer had to pay respects to those buried here? Did the dead folks come with the property deed?
But Ronnie forgot all that, because he accidentally looked over Tim’s shoulder. The red church was framed up perfectly by the stone pillars.
No, NOT accidentally. You WANTED to see it. Your eyes have been crawling right toward it the whole time you’ve been in the graveyard.
The church sat on a broad stack of creek stones that were bleached yellow and white by eons of running water. A few of the stones had tumbled away, revealing gaps of darkness beneath the structure. The church looked a little wobbly, as if a strong wind might send it roof-over-joist down the hill.
The creepy tree stood tall and gangly by the door. Ronnie didn’t believe Whizzer’s story about the tree. But if even half of it were true-
“A quarter? I can take it to school and make five bucks,” Tim said.
The magazine. Ronnie didn’t care about the magazine anymore. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
“You’re going to take it from me, ain’t you?”
“No. Dad’s supposed to be coming over, that’s all. I don’t want to miss him.”
Tim suddenly took another step backward, his eyes wide.
Ronnie pointed, trying to warn him about the monument. Tim spun and bumped into one of the pillars, shaking the crosspiece. The concrete planter tipped over, sending a shower of dry black dirt onto Tim’s head. The planter rolled toward the edge of the crosspiece.
“Look out,” Ronnie yelled.
Tim pushed himself away from the pillar, but the entire monument toppled as if in slow motion. The heavy crosspiece was going to squash Tim’s head like a rotten watermelon.
Ronnie’s limbs unlocked and he leaped for Tim. Something caught his foot and he tripped, falling on his stomach. The air rushed from his lungs with a whoosh, and the smell of cut grass crowded his nostrils. He tasted blood, and his tongue found the gash on the inside of his lip just as he rediscovered how to breathe.
A dull cracking noise echoed across the graveyard. Ronnie tilted his neck up just in time to see the planter bust open on the monument’s base. Tim gave a squeak of surprise as dingy chunks of concrete rained across his chest. The pillars fell in opposite directions, the one on Tim’s side catching on the ledge just above his head. The crosspiece twirled like a slow helicopter blade and came to rest on the pillar above Tim’s legs.
Ronnie tried to crawl to Tim, but his shoe was still snagged. “You okay?”
Tim was crying. At least that meant he was still alive.
Ronnie kicked his foot. He looked back to his shoe-
NO NO NO
-red raw burger hand.
An arm had reached around the tombstone, a bloody arm, the knotty fingers forming a talon around his sneaker. The wet, gleaming bone of one knuckle hooked the laces.
DEADGHOSTDEADGHOST
He forgot that he’d learned how to breathe. He kicked at the hand, spun over on his rear, and tried to crab-crawl away. The hand wouldn’t let go. Tears stung his eyes as he stomped his other foot against the ragged grasping thing.
“Help me,” Ronnie yelled, at the same time that Tim moaned his own plea for help.
Whizzer’s words careened across Ronnie’s mind, joining the jumble of broken thoughts: They trap ya, then they get ya Categories Books

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Saturday, October 2: A Dozen New Free Promotional Titles in the Kindle Store! plus Patricia Ryan’s award-winning Silken Threads (Today’s Sponsor), and Links to Over a Million Free Kindle Titles

We’ve updated our list of free contemporary Kindle Store listings with a dozen new titles never before seen in our Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alerts….

  
But first … a word from Today’s Sponsor

(Editor’s Note: Kindle Nation Daily is honored today to be sponsored by a medieval take on the classic Hitchcock tale Rear Window” — a romantic suspense novel, originally published by NAL and awarded the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for Best Long Historical Romance, by Kindle Nation fave Patricia Ryan!”S.W.)


Silken Threads

by Patricia Ryan 
4.4 out of 5 stars  (18 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $2.99 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled  
 
This medieval romantic suspense novel, originally published by NAL and awarded Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for Best Long Historical Romance, was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. While untangling a mystery, a soldier heals from a broken leg in the London home of a young widow who steals his heart–but his future rests on an arranged marriage to his overlord’s daughter.
“Fresh, swift and sexy, Silken Threads strengthens Ms. Ryan’s reputation as an outstanding author of medieval romances.” New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

Silken Threads resonates with the sounds, smells, intrigues and passions of the Middle Ages. Add engaging characters, authentic historical details and a well-crafted mystery and you have a delectable tapestry whose threads glide like silk through the pages.” Romantic Times




More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon’s Patricia Ryan Page 

Click on the titleto download Silken Threads (or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
UK Customers: Click on the title to download Silken Threads from the UK Kindle Store
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.


Click here for a complete listing of over 100 free promotional titles and links to millions of other free books for your Kindle.


Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

 Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon 
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled 
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.  

In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library.  While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before.      I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.”   Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly 

Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward. 

Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.

The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men, each of which is now available for pre-order at Kindle-appropriate prices in the Kindle Store. (Order them now and they will be delivered automatically to your Kindle or Kindle App on October 18, but between now and then you’ll have plenty of time to read this free copy of the prequel, which runs 589 locations).

The New World 
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!

Elvis and The Dearly Departed
Elvis and The Dearly Departed
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars  (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled

They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.

Raising Jake

by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

The 7th Victim
The 7th Victim
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights 

Velocity

 by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled  
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010.

Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”  

Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.” 

Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”


Twelve Kindle-Compatible Math and Science Textbooks

Can you imagine a future when high school students can work on their tans, shoot baskets in the driveway, or chill on the sofa while their Kindles read their homework assignments to them?
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 
(Once you buy just about any Kindle ebook, it’s a snap to go to your Manage Your Kindle page and send the ebook to other registered devices to which you have downloaded free Kindle apps. See the screenshot above at the right.)

CK-12 Trigonometry

Start reading the books you love right on your browser with Kindle for Web: L.C. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal and Bone + Beyond the Comfort Zone, by James M. Turner

Just a quick post here to recommend, if you are looking for a great but inexpensive read for the weekend: Today’s Kindle Nation sponsors couldn’t be more different, yet each, in its own way, appealed to me:

L.C. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal and Bone




Beyond the Comfort Zone, by James M. Turner




UK Edition, Kindle Nation Free Book Alert:The New World, a Kindle Exclusive story-length prequel to the award-winning Chaos Walking trilogy, plus James M. Turner’s stunning memoir Beyond the Comfort Zone (Today’s Sponsor)

Today’s special addition to our Free Book Alert listings is the perfect introduction, a story-length prequel, to Patrick Ness’ award-winning Chaos Walking trilogy. And it’s available exclusively on Kindle… 

But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor

(Ed. Note: We’ve had a spate of memoirs the past few years by performers with little story to tell and even less skill for storytelling, but James M. Turner is a glorious exception. He engaged me fully with the story of his ascent as a musician, but this book was transformed from a good read to a can’t-put-down with the compelling tale of the deeds and dangers involved in his struggles for human decency in the jungle of southeast Asia. Along the way he reveals a novelist’s touch for narrative and dialogue. It’s not only a wonderful story of one man’s times, but better yet, of his struggle to redeem those times. –S.W.)
 

by James M Turner 
Beyond The Comfort Zone is the remarkable true story of one man’s extraordinary journey, from the music stages and TV studios of the world to the jungles of South East Asia. As one of the UK’s premier session musicians James M Turner led a life most only dream about, playing saxophone with some of the world’s bestselling artists and travelling the globe performing to legions of adoring fans. So, as he stood on stage at Wembley Stadium, raised his sax and 70,000 people screamed into the night air, he could have been forgiven for thinking that his life would always be this way. A few short years later however he would find himself deep in The Golden Triangle, fighting for his sanity and survival as he attempts to infiltrate and capture those engaged in the tearful trade of human trafficking. 
“The low pass by the chopper had brought back that ominous feeling. There was something sinister about that sound. That relentless, winding, bass frequency Doppler. Something about the way it penetrated deep inside the chest cavity and rumbled through the organs made me nervous. What was going on over the border? What plans were being hatched? What stories were being told to prise daughters from their mother’s arms and what heartbreak was seeding itself permanently in the breast of mother and child? I could feel the dark maw of the pit opening up again…” 
About the Author 
James M. Turner is an author, composer, musician and screenwriter. 
  • Born in the UK in the heart of rural Cheshire in 1961 where he completed his secondary education before re-locating to Manchester in the late 1970’s to begin studying the Saxophone. 
  • During the mid 80’s establishes himself as a popular choice for successful pop groups of the day and goes on to play with many international acts including UK pop phenomena ‘Bros’ and ‘Take That’ Moves to Thailand in 2002 which is largely the setting for his first auto-biographical memoir ‘Beyond The Comfort Zone’ based partly upon his experiences there. 
  • Relocates again in 2005 to Los Angeles California and begins to work in the film business, working on films such as Crystal Sky Pictures ‘Tekken’, ‘Death Race 2’ (2010) as well as ‘Annihilation Earth’ and ‘Witchville’ for the Sci-Fi channel. 
  • His first Television series screenplay ‘The Taker’ is heading for production late 2010. Besides his other talents James is a keen swimmer and linguist. As well as English he speaks both Spanish and Thai, his Mandarin Chinese is still a work in progress. When he is not on film sets he divides his time between Los Angeles, Manchester and Asia. 

Amazon review
Beyond The Comfort Zone is among the best, and certainly the most engrossing, non-fiction books I have read in a long time. One of the strongest compliments I can pay is that while being entirely believable and hyperbole-free, it reads like fiction, and tightly written, exciting fiction at that. [..] Sometimes incredibly funny at others desperately heartbreaking, I could not put it down. “

All4women.co.za
His exceptional journey is the making of a Hollywood blockbuster and at times I had to remind myself that it’s a true story [..] Turner’s dialogue leaps off the page. A Shantaram for south east asia.”

Music.co.uk
this is one book that will grip you from start to finish. If you’re looking for a unique read, full of interest, intrigue, danger, and high emotion, then this is the book for you.

Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors! 
*  
Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information: 

Click here to sponsor a Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert!

*     *     *
  • “Free” in the Kindle Store refers here to the price for download to UK-based Kindles.
  • The best way to find out about these free listings right away, when they occur, is to subscribe to the UK Kindle edition of Kindle Nation Daily, which pushes Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alerts directly to your Kindle Home screen 24/7. And in the case of many free listings that disappear within a matter of hours or days, “right away” is often just in time.
  • No Kindle Required: Whether you are a long-time Kindle owner or you’ve just acquired an iPad and are filling it with ebooks for the first    time or you are reading Kindle books on a PC, Mac,  iPhone or iPad Touch, you can get any and all of these titles absolutely free on your                Kindle-compatible device of choice! Click here to download a free Kindle App for your device.
(Sponsorship can take a number of different forms and implies no endorsement either of or by Kindle Nation or a sponsor.)

Free Today in the UK Kindle Store!

The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men, each of which is now available for pre-order at Kindle-appropriate prices in the US Kindle Store, and we hope will soon be available for UK Kndle customers.

The New World 
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

    Ransom X (Legacy Series) 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ransom-X-Legacy-Series/dp/B002Q0Y0OY/kinnatdai-21
by I. B. Holder – Kindle Price:    £0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled   

Martin Legace is a former special ops standout, once recognized as the top field interrogator in the American military complex. His study of the human mind was carried out in make-shift tents on the edge of the battlefield; he didn’t write or read the book on how to break a prisoner, he simply followed his instincts, dissecting human behavior in a way that verges on autism. He had a reputation for getting anything out of anyone – “had” being the operative word. Five years ago, a random crime shattered Legace’s world. Withdrawing inside himself, he built his life around the only family he had left, his teenage daughter. He withdrew from operations, and took the most isolated post he could, in the basement of the Alexandria FBI, working the archives. Legace brought consequence to the job. His tactics of getting inside the minds of criminals led to a controversial new form of investigation that came to be known as- shadow projection. It was a term coined by his insufferable regional director, Bailey, and Legace couldn’t begin to count the ways he hated the simplification of his process. Legace threw the deductive model out the window. He didn’t follow the trail of the criminal; he took on criminals who were smart enough to leave no trail. They were fixed objects like sundials casting a unique shadow for every incremental step in their journey. His methods involved knowing the inner workings of the criminal, and projecting forward to the next activity that such a person would engage in.  His life was verging on stable when a young female agent from Washington walked into his office with an opportunity, an obligation and a threat. Now, normally Legace would have ignored all three, but there was something about the case and the victim that struck a very personal chord in him.  All of his powers were going to be needed for a case that landed on his desk along the agent who now called herself his new partner. There was an abduction ring that was preying upon young women of marginal fame, using them in adult films and ransoming them for the price of pornography. The profit engine became a fad among perverts (the largest single unified economic bloc) and the income was staggering. This great influx of capital precipitated a bold move by the abductors. Their newest acquisition was the daughter of an old friend, the Director of the FBI. All hell was breaking loose over the Web and the world, and with a two-week window to find his quarry, Legace knew that his performance on this case would either cement his reputation as borderline charlatan with blood on his hands, or announce his reinstatement as borderline hero with all of the official responsibilities that entails, and he couldn’t actually say which outcome he feared more.

 4.3 out of 5 stars  (22 customer reviews) Kindle Price: £0.00 
‘The writing is elegant and surprisingly humorous — if you haven’t come across Beck before, you’re in for a treat.’ Guardian 
‘I have never read a finer police story.’ Los Angeles Times 
‘The decalogue about the Swedish Chief Inspector Martin Beck created by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo during the 1960s and 1970s are indeed classic police fiction. They changed the genre. Whoever is writing crime fiction after these novels inspired by them in one way or another.’ Henning Mankell 
‘If you haven’t read Sjowall/Wahloo, start now.’ Sunday Telegraph 
‘Their mysteries don’t just read well; they reread even better. Witness, wife, petty cop or crook — they’re all real characters even if they get just a few sentences. The plots hold, because they’re ingenious but never inhuman.’ New York Times London Review of Books 
Publisher: Harper Perennial (10 April 2009)

Other Martin Beck Titles – £2.99 Each

Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Buy: £2.99
Thousands of Free Classics for UK Kindle Readers!
With thousands of titles, the Kindle Store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read. This includes the most popular classics for free with wireless delivery in under 60 seconds to your Kindle, computer, or other mobile device.

Around the Kindlesphere, October 1: Kids, Not for Kids, Kudos, and Keepers of Gates

Kindling Kids’ Reading Kicks. According to a Scholastic study reported by The New York Times on Wednesday, children enjoy digital reading and would “read for fun more frequently” if e-book technology was available to them. This is exciting—when students of any age declare their passion for reading. The study, as Scholastic’s chief academic officer indicates, is further proof of technology’s importance in education: as she put it, it’s “a call to action” for more quickly embracing e-reading devices and e-books.


The specific data, as reported by the Times: “About 25 percent of the children surveyed said they had already read a book on a digital device, including computers and e-readers. Fifty-seven percent between ages 9 and 17 said they were interested in doing so. Only 6 percent of parents surveyed owned an e-reader, but 16 percent said they planned to buy one in the next year. Eighty-three percent of those parents said they would allow or encourage their children to use the e-readers.”

The article quotes skeptical parents who are concerned with technology’s negative impact on their children. “My daughter can’t stop texting long enough to concentrate on a book,” said one parent surveyed, the mother of a 15-year-old in Texas.

In a future where the feel and smell of hardcover books may prove less relevant, the most helpful technology for encouraging reading may be the one that is the least distracting.

But Not All Kindle Content is for Kids. James Ledbetter’s Slate column Wednesday focused on what he called most downloaded item for Amazon’s Kindle — Jenna Bayley-Burke’s Compromising Positions. This genre of “Kindlerotica,” as he defines it, is very much en vogue (although the particular title mentioned may owe its temporarily lofty perch as much to the fact that it had been offered free up until early this week as to marketing copy that compared it with the Kama Sutra).

This emergence of the Kindle as the brown paper bag of the 21st century is nothing new. Our editor Steve Windwalker has noted this diversity of literature in the Kindle universe in past, and we have even gone so far as to create a separate page for free and bargain erotica listings on the Kindle Nation website, currently sponsored by Rena Diane Walmsley’s steamy coming-of-age novel Girl on Fire (not to be confused with The Girl Who Played with Fire.)
 
But Ledbetter may be confusing smoke with fire when he wonders “how comfortable Amazon is with being identified with this material” and if conservative Christian groups will lash back against Amazon’s tolerance for racy stories. Neither Amazon, most Kindle readers, nor anyone else with a healthy respect for the Bill of Rights is likely to suggest that bookstores and censorship should go together.
And, as our annual observation of Banned Books Week draws to a close tomorrow, isn’t it nice that, with the Kindle, nobody ever knows whether you’re reading Girl on Fire or Molly’s soliloquy from Ulysses, or, for that matter, which is hotter!

Kudos to a Kindle Kolleague. Kudos to Andrys over at A Kindle World for picking up this story about Amazon’s recent response to an illegal book upload.  

After an earlier controversy concerning Amazon’s removal of 1984 from customers’ Kindles when it determined that an uploaded edition was in copyright violation in some geographies, CEO Jeff Bezos issued a strong apology and the company assured customers would not take the same action again.

Indeed, when Amazon discovered in July that Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef 2 Recipes had been uploaded and was being sold by a party without the rights to sell it, Amazon emailed customers who had downloaded the book: “We are writing to inform you that we need to refund your purchase,” Amazon said.  “This book was added to our catalogue by a third party who we now believe did not have the rights to make the book available for sale.  We will be removing the book from our servers, making it unavailable for re-downloading from your archived items.  Any copies you already have on your Kindle devices will not be removed, but you may choose to remove any such copies yourself.” 

Practice makes perfect.

Are Bloggers the New Gatekeepers in Publishing? is the title of
Writer’s Digest’s recent Q&A; article by Jane Friedman for which we issue a sincere thank you to all concerned, because our name came up in a very nice way.

After
digitizing and formatting her highly successful Eden Murdoch novel An Uncommon Enemy, author Michelle Black (photo at right) reports that she decided quickly on the free Kindle model because she “loves reading books on [her] Kindle, but also because of the attractive 70% royalty Amazon is currently offering.” In sum, Black concluded that the Kindle format would let her charge “a modest price “ and still make “a royalty comparable to the hardcover royalty” at a New York-based publisher.  

Black cites the excerpting of her book here as a Free Kindle Nation Short as sparking an influx of e-readers and causing her book to jump from #124,000 to #127 in the Kindle Store. The book rose to #7 for historical novels and #1 for Western books in genre-specific sales rankings.

We don’t know if we and other bloggers are the new gatekeepers, but anything that brings authors of distinction closer to smart, discriminating readers like the citizens of Kindle Nation can’t be all bad.

(Ed. Note: This digest has been prepared by one or more hard-working Kindle Nation student interns, but it is our editor, Steve Windwalker, who is solely responsible for the ridiculously lame repetition of misspelled K-words.)

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Friday, October 1: Outlander, Diane Gabaldon’s first great time travel novel plus free bonus material!, plus it’s time to get your pumpkin on with L.C.. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal & Bone (Today’s Sponsor), and Links to Over a Million Free Kindle Titles

Today’s special addition to our Free Book Alert listings is one of the great historical fantasy reads of the past decade, and with well over 1200 5-star reviews may have done as much as any other book in the early part of this century to build an audience for time travel novels that take us back to previous centuries….

  
But first … a word from Today’s Sponsor

(Editor’s Note: It’s October already! Is there a pumpkin on your front porch or stoop yet? It may seem like a small thing, but its absence could be an indication that you might be lax in your preparations for All Hallows’ Eve. We can’t have that, but happily there are two relatively easy remedies. One involves a trip to your local farmstand or other purveyor of the festive orange gourd-like member of the genus Cucurbita. The other is quicker and costs less — you’ll just need to download and read the first volume in the October Girls series by L.C. Glazebrook, and we’ve provided a link right here! –S.W.)

by L.C. Glazebrook

Five days until Halloween and all hell is about to break loose. And it’s all Crystal’s fault. Because she’s been consorting with her dead best friend Bone and opening the portal to the afterlife.

Then a teen movie maker comes to Parson’s Ford, and he has a very special project in mind: a horror movie starring a real ghost. The kids who watch his movies turn into brainwashed zombies. And to totally complicate matters, Crystal thinks he’s kind of a hunk, and she’s afraid her boyfriend Pettigrew only loves her because of Momma’s magic spells.

The movie is rolling, the creatures are stirring, and the zombie teens are ready to welcome a new star from beyond the grave.

Crystal and Bone must overcome drama queens, coffin cuties, and mangled magic if they want to remain best friends forever—but at this rate, forever may not last much longer.

Look for the next book in the October Girls series, Dead & Unfriended, in early 2011.


 Click on the titleto download October Girls: Crystal & Bone (or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

UK Customers: Click on the title to download October Girls: Crystal & Bone from the UK Kindle Store

Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Today in the Kindle Store!

Click here for a complete listing of over 100 free promotional titles and links to millions of other free books for your Kindle.


Click here for a separate listing of free and bargain erotica titles for your Kindle.

 Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon 
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled 
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.  

In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library.  While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before.      I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.”   Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly 

Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward. 

Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.

The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men, each of which is now available for pre-order at Kindle-appropriate prices in the Kindle Store. (Order them now and they will be delivered automatically to your Kindle or Kindle App on October 18, but between now and then you’ll have plenty of time to read this free copy of the prequel, which runs 589 locations).

The New World 
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!

Elvis and The Dearly Departed
Elvis and The Dearly Departed
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars  (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled

They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.

Raising Jake

by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

The best kind of journey, one you don’t want to end…funny, moving.-Mike Lupica, New York Times bestselling author of Heat  In Charlie Carillo’s funny, insightful novel, a divorced man gets to know his seventeen-year-old son in a tale that rewrites the book on quality time together. . .  Sammy Sullivan is working his way down the ladder of success. Divorced and pushing fifty, his relationships have the longevity of a fruit fly. But how many men can get themselves fired and have their only son expelled from prep school all in one day? Now, after almost eighteen years, he and Jake may finally get to know each other. (That’s if his ex-wife–the super-achiever Sammy can only dream of being–doesn’t find out.) Jake knows virtually nothing about his roots. So, Sammy shows him the old neighborhood in the far reaches of Queens. But it’s been thirty years. The older woman Sammy lost his virginity to now uses a walker to get around. Most of his hangouts are long gone. It’s dreary, born-to-lose stuff. But Jake is on a mission. Wise beyond his (and his dad’s) years, he doesn’t want his father to miss out the second time around on the good things he blew the first time. And they’ve got a whole weekend together–a journey where Sammy will confront his, dysfunctional childhood and Jake will face a past he never knew he had.  This isn’t your typical father-son story–one is still growing up. The other is his son.  “In the tradition of Tom Perotta, Carillo explores the strength of the family bond, the power of forgiveness, and the hope that comes from embracing second chances. . .truthful, and hilarious.”–Alison Grambs, author of The Smart Girls Guide to Getting Even  “I don’t like funny, touching novels because they make me wish I’d written them myself. I enjoyed Charlie Carillo’s book from beginning to end and now I’m miserable.”–Sherwood Kiraly, author of Diminished Capacity  “A literary romp through the minefields of a totally normal, and totally abnormal, family. . . I actually laughed out loud and kept turning the pages to make absolutely sure that all worked out at the end.”–Cathy Lamb, author of Henry’s Sisters  “Scathingly hilarious and truthful.”–Sally Jenkins

The 7th Victim
The 7th Victim
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights 

Velocity

 by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price:    $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled  
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010.

Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”  

Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.” 

Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”

by Mike Shevdon – 5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
THERE IS A SECRET WAR GROWING BENEATH THE STREETS OF LONDON.   A dark magic will be unleashed by the Untainted…Unless a new hero can be found. The smarter, faster brother to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere has arrived. 


Twelve Kindle-Compatible Math and Science Textbooks

Can you imagine a future when high school students can work on their tans, shoot baskets in the driveway, or chill on the sofa while their Kindles read their homework assignments to them?
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 
(Once you buy just about any Kindle ebook, it’s a snap to go to your Manage Your Kindle page and send the ebook to other registered devices to which you have downloaded free Kindle apps. See the screenshot above at the right.)

CK-12 Trigonometry