“Read any good books lately?”
We’ve all been asked the question hundreds of times, but once you begin reading J.L. Bryan’s The Haunted e-Book that question is likely …
To send chills up your spine?
To creep you out?
To ruin e-books for you forever?
Probably not the last thing, but prepare to be scared.
“Think Ur Meets The Bookman’s Promise.”
By Stephen Windwalker
Editor, Kindle Nation Daily
©Kindle Nation Daily 2011
©Kindle Nation Daily 2011
I don’t know about you, but as a reader, a former bookstore owner, and an author, I’ve always been a sucker for books about books … about booksellers … about libraries … and lately, about ebooks.
I loved Stephen King’s Ur and I was thrilled when John Dunning’s Cliff Janeway books became available on Kindle.
But King’s novella was short and had a bit of the “made-to-order” product placement about it, so now I’m happy to share with you the news that a terrific full-length novel by JL Bryan has become available on the Kindle and … yes … about the Kindle. And it’s a real treat to be able to share this 5,000-word free excerpt with you through our Free Kindle Nation Shorts program!
The author is in the midst of a blog tour to promote the book, and he is giving away some nice prizes. You can find out more about those here — http://www.jlbryanbooks.com/thehauntedebooktour.html — but to be totally truthful I should let you know that I called him up at home this evening and told him “Jeff, I’m happy to mention the blog tour and the giveaways, but you’ve got a terrific book here and I don’t want the other stuff to get in the way of that/”
So here at Kindle Nation, we’re all about the book, and here it is. Enjoy….
by JL Bryan
4.1 out of 5 stars – 10 Reviews
Kindle Price: $2.99
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here’s the set-up:
Dee escapes her dreary librarian job and unfaithful boyfriend by reading romance and fantasy on her Kindle.
She tries The Haunted E-book, the story of a 19th century tramp printer whose ghost awakens whenever someone reads a book he created. The ghost stalks his readers and threatens them with death if they stop reading the book. Though she doesn’t usually like ghost stories, Dee can’t stop herself from reading it.
Then Dee learns the stories in the book are true, the malevolent ghost is real, and Dee might be the next character to die.
 Free Kindle Nation Shorts – March 2, 2011An Excerpt from
The Hauted e-Book
A Novel by JL Bryan
Copyright © 2011 by JL Bryan and published here with his permission
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“Don’t that thing hurt your eyes?” asked the children’s librarian, Cloris Measley. Cloris was in her fifties, her hair a shade of red that could not be found in nature.
“No, it’s not like a computer screen.” Dee tapped the Amazon Kindle in her hands. “It’s made just for reading.”
“Seems like it’d hurt your eyes.” Cloris sat across from Dee at the picnic table.
Dee was enjoying her half-hour lunch break. The picnic table behind the library was under a stand of old oak trees, and it offered the only shade in sight on a hot September day.
“These kids are worse every summer,” Cloris said. “I can feel my hair turning gray. Mind if I smoke?”
Dee shook her head.
Cloris glanced back over her shoulder at the back door of the library, then slipped a Virginia Slim into her mouth.
“Sorry,” Cloris said. “Have to sneak when I can. Leslie still don’t let me smoke on library property. Which don’t make it easy, listening to kids holler and cleaning snot off their books.”
“I’m sorry,” Dee said.
“I’m sorry for you, too,” Cloris said. “You should have been promoted to Circulation Librarian II. I don’t see why Maggie got it, she’s not all there.”
“Maggie’s in Leslie’s bridge club,” Dee said. “I’m not, and I haven’t been invited, either.”
“Would you play, if they invited?” Cloris asked.
“No!”
They both laughed.
“And how is that boyfriend?” Cloris asked. “You still seeing Justin?”
“I see him, but I’m not sure he sees me,” Dee said.
Cloris gave an uncomfortable laugh. She looked at the Kindle and changed the subject. “What are you reading?”
“It’s a seventeenth-century romance,” Dee said. “The Pirates of Paris.”
“Why on Earth would there be pirates in Paris? There’s no ocean.”
“They have to spend their loot somewhere,” Dee said. “In this case, the rugged pirate captain Jacques Forquois is wooing a young noblewoman, Mireille. But she’s engaged to an aristocrat, the Marquis du Chappelier. So they have to meet in secret places, brothels, playhouses…”
“How exciting!” Cloris said. “Do they got it as a real book, too? Or just a computer thingy?”
“I’m not sure.”
The back door of the library swung open, and branch manager Leslie McKenna stood there, hunched over her cane. Cloris heard the door open behind her and visibly panicked, looking down at the burning cigarette in her fingers.
“Cloris?” Leslie asked. “Cloris, what are you doing back here?”
“I’m just looking at Dee’s new computer book whatcha-callit!”
“There are two children in need of reading recommends,” Leslie sang. “Why don’t you come in now?”
Cloris crushed out her cigarette.
“Now, Cloris!”
Cloris crammed the cigarette butt down between two boards of the picnic table. She stood, brushed off, and gave Dee a nervous smile.
“Cloris!” Leslie yelled.
“Good luck,” Dee whispered.
Cloris walked to the back door of the library. Leslie took up most of the doorway, leaning on her cane, and refused to move. Cloris had to turn sideways and squeeze past her. Leslie sniffed at Cloris and shook her head.
Leslie cast Dee a suspicious look, then slammed the heavy metal door.
Dee’s cell phone rang, for the third time today. Justin. She didn’t want to hear about how he was working late again, or going out to Danny O’s with the boys again. She could tell when he was lying.
Instead, she turned off her phone and dove into the world of charming pirates, French court politics, and eager Mireille’s heavy and passionate bosom. It was her only escape from Leslie, from Justin, from the hot and dying town of Elmer, Georgia, where she’d gotten trapped somewhere between the end of college and the start of her real life, the one that would begin on some yet-to-be-determined day on the future.
Dee read:
“I will love you forever,” Jacques proclaimed, grabbing Mireille hastily in the wardrobe room of the theater. Out beyond the stage, the audience sighed at a sad moment in the play.
“But we cannot be together!” Mireille sighed. “My father would forbid it!”
“In my world, the world of pirates, nothing is forbidden,” Jacques breathed suavely, caressing her.
“Oh, but in my world, everything is!” Mireille sighed.
The rest of her day at the library was as dull as the morning had been. Dee suffered under the hawkish stare of Leslie, who had never adjusted to the county assigning a black woman to work in her library, though Dee had been at the library four years now.
Dee went home to an empty apartment. It was small, tucked into the upper corner of a rundown brick building. The building had four apartments in all, and the two downstairs had been empty as long as she’d lived here.
The apartment was cramped but comfortable, with secondhand bookshelves along most of the walls. These were stuffed with poetry, plays, fantasy, romance. Most of her books were tattered paperbacks scrounged from flea markets and garage sales.
Dee walked into the kitchenette and pressed the automatic can opener. Skitter bounded into the room as fast as his heavy belly would allow. The fat orange cat must have been sleeping in her bed, or on the cool tiles of her bathroom floor, since those were the only other rooms in her apartment.
“There you are.” Dee scratched Skitter’s neck. He purred while she poured dry food in his bowl. “You decide to make an appearance?”
She was convinced Skitter had the power to turn invisible. Even in this tiny apartment, he could disappear for days at a time. The only evidence of his existence would be the magically disappearing cat food and the magically dirty litter box.
“Where do you think Justin is?” she asked Skitter. “Working late, grinding the sausage? Shooting pool with the guys? What do you think?”
Skitter had no opinion. He crunched into his cat food.
Dee called Justin’s phone, but he didn’t answer.
“Justin, we don’t have much to eat,” she said to his voice mail. “Since you’re at the grocery store, grab us something. Not pickles and bacon again, either.” She hung up.
He probably wasn’t at the Farm-N-Fresh Grocery Mart, making yet another “special meat order.”
Ella Rae was a cashier at the Farm-N-Fresh. She was twenty-four, ten years younger than Justin, but always looking at Justin with her chest poked out, twirling her purple hair around her fingertip and snapping her gum. Dee saw how she winked at him, how she punched him in the arm and giggled, and now Dee couldn’t stand to shop at Farm-N-Fresh anymore. She had to drive twenty miles to the Kroger in Americus.
Dee picked up the Kindle again.
Jacques kissed her full, ripe, red, strawberry-like lips. He kissed her with great ardor, caressing her curvaceous bosom.
“Oh, Jacques,” Mireille sighed. “You are such a dangerous and manly pirate.”
“I can’t do it anymore, Skitter,” Dee said. “This book is too stupid.”
Skitter licked his paw indifferently.
“I’m sick of romance. It’s all bullcrap. In real life, your boyfriend isn’t a dashing and suave pirate who ties roses to your doorknob as a secret message. He slices bologna at the Farm-N-Fresh and forgets to wear deodorant and then he sleeps with some drugged-out checkout girl and pretends you don’t know it. And you wonder what you were thinking, dating a townie.”
Skitter jumped into the easy chair and curled up. He closed his eyes.
“Thanks for your support,” Dee said.
She picked up the Kindle and clicked the bookstore link. Dee’s neighbor BJ had a wireless internet thing, and let her feed it off it. She supposedly paid him a few dollars a month for this, but he never really accepted the money.
Dee stared at the bookstore page. She wanted something dark and twisted. Like real life. Something where the characters seemed real, everybody suffered, and nobody was happy at the end.
This mood eventually led her to the horror section. Each book had a cover graphic, so this meant sifting through pages of skulls, castles, candles, tombstones, sinister red churches, countless pale and sallow vampires.
One oddball book caught her attention. The cover was plain and black-no lingerie models dripping blood from their mouths, no rotten hands jutting out of the grave. The title, in ghostly letters, was:
THE HAUNTED E-BOOK
By Unknown
Dee snickered at the title. It might as well be called The Evil Penguin or The Demonic Shoelace. And the author hadn’t even put his name on it, a pretty bad sign.
She decided she could use a laugh, so she downloaded the free sample chapter of the book.
The first page of the book said:
WARNING: Publisher not responsible for any supernatural incidents, events or hauntings that may result from reading this book.
“Ha!” Dee said. “Cute. Skitter, you should read this.”
Skitter was asleep on his back, snore-purring, his fluffy white belly exposed to the world.
Dee pressed the arrow button to flip the page. The story began:
THE HAUNTED E-BOOK:
Chapter 1.
Madison was alone on the seventh floor of the university library. She sat at her favorite table, by the windows. Outside, the night was as dark as death. The full moon stared at her like a cold yellow eye, watching and waiting.
Madison had not noticed as the handful of other students left over the past hour, taking their books and notes with them. She liked the ninth floor because it was quiet, especially at night. The floor held odd-sized books, like art folios. It was the top floor, the most remote.
She liked being away from everyone. People always stared at the twisted pink burn scars on the left side of her face and down along her neck.
If she had noticed everyone was gone, she would have been glad. The library was her retreat from her annoying, peppy roommate, who didn’t mind having loud and squealy sex with her boyfriend Tyler, even when Madison was trying to sleep in the same room.
Madison didn’t notice she was alone because she was absorbed in the Kindle reader in her hands. The story had completely drawn her in, and she lost all sense of her own surroundings. She was reading something called The Haunted E-book. It was kind of stupid, but also kind of scary. And it was getting scarier.
Madison read: 4
THE HAUNTED E-BOOK:
Chapter 4.
Parker stalked away from her friends, who still laughed at her from the food court. Her face was red and angry. It wasn’t funny that Brenden had cheated on her with Misty. She didn’t see how that was funny at all.
To be alone, she walked down the mall’s south wing, where a lot of the stores had permanently closed. The storefronts were either covered in plywood or just staring out like blank glass eyes. The only two stores still open up here were a Candy’s Candles and a Buddy’s Book-A-Rama.
Parker glanced into Candy’s Candles. It was illuminated only by candlelight, with dozens of odors swirling together-jasmine, vanilla, cherry blossom, chocolate, musk. The combination of so many smells was sickening.
Inside the store, an elderly clerk slumbered at the checkout. Her wrinkled eyelids were closed behind her glasses, which had slid down to the tip of her nose.
Parker walked past the candle store. At the end of the south wing was Buddy’s, her favorite place when she was a child. On Saturdays, they used to have people dressed like famous book characters, Peter Pan or the grinning Cheshire cat. Their children’s book section was a wonderland that took up half the store, with fairy castles and furry hand puppets.
She’d lost interest in Buddy’s around age eleven, when she started middle school. Now she stepped into the store for the first time in five years.
Buddy’s had not thrived. The linoleum floor in the grown-up part of the store was filthy and cracked. The bright orange carpet in the children’s half was spattered with dark stains, and some areas were frayed and showed the concrete floor beneath. The handpainted castle was peeling and dusty.
The Storytime Land behind the cheerful picket fence, where the children’s specialist used to read stories to young customers, had once been decorated with brightly colored chairs and cushions. Now it was a storage area crammed with cardboard boxes, bulging garbage bags and empty rotating paperback racks.
Puppets lay strewn on the floor of the children’s section like bodies after a war. She saw Larry the Lion, his arm sheared off, his eyes gouged out, his mane clotted with years of snot. The smiling puppet clown Pupeeto had a pencil stabbed through his mouth, and it looked like he was choking on it.
Half the lights were out overhead, and the remaining yellow fluorescent bars sizzled and flickered, giving the store a shuddering, nauseating look. She didn’t see any customers, or any employees in their smiley-face yellow Buddy’s Book-A-Rama aprons. The four checkout lanes were empty, their jaunty twirling lights switched off.
Parker walked past aisle after aisle of books, seeing no people. The bookshelves seemed understocked and dusty, with large empty gaps in every section. Torn books were scattered on the crumbling linoleum floor.
“Hello? Is anybody here?” Parker heard herself ask. It was a stupid question. The store was open, so obviously somebody was here. They must be working in the back. A great chance to swipe something.
Parker walked down the horror aisle, looking for books with the scariest, goriest covers. She didn’t care about reading them, but she wanted Brenden to see her reading books like that. Then she could look up at him with cold, glaring eyes over a black book with snarling red corpses on the cover, like she was plotting revenge. Maybe she could do that at school Monday.
She found the grossest zombie paperback the store had, with a guy’s face eaten up by maggots. She looked around. She didn’t see any cameras, or any of those weird rounded mirrors she was convinced might be cameras, too.
She shoved the book down the front of her jeans. She adjusted her wide belt, then quickly covered the bulging waistband of her jeans with her shirt.
A loud squeaking, clacking sound echoed through the store the moment she had the book covered. She looked up again, panicked, but still couldn’t see any sign of security cameras. No way anybody had seen her swipe the book way back here in the aisle.
Parker strolled as casually as she could out of the aisle, listening to the squeaking and clacking as it slowed down. She stepped into the open central space of the store.
She still didn’t see anybody, but she found the source of the squeaking. In the story-land-turned-storage-area, one of the empty paperback racks was spinning. Something tacked to it kept clacking against the other empty racks. It looked like someone had tied something to the rack, given it a hard spin, and then run away.
Parker walked past some cheesy display with a big projection screen above it. She stepped over the fence into the children’s section and approached the rack as its spinning slowed. It stopped when she reached it. Whatever had been tied to the rack was behind it, caught on another rack.
Parker lay her shaking hand on the rack. She slowly turned it until she saw what had been attached.
It was Pupeeto the clown, pencil impaled through his mouth, pinning him to the rack.
She held the clown in her hand. Its big orange wig and puffy shirt buttons were stiff with years of kid saliva. One button eye dangled by a thread.
“Pupeeto?” she said aloud.
There was a loud clattering, then a crash. Parker spun around.
The store was closed. The wire mesh security wall had just rolled down across the entrance, trapping her inside.
“Hey!” Parker yelled. She ran to the mesh and tried to pull it up, but it wouldn’t give. It felt locked into place. She pulled as hard as she could, and the middle fingernail on her left hand bent backward and snapped.
“Ow!” Parker slapped both palms against the wire security mesh. “Hey! Somebody help me!” she yelled into the deserted south wing of the mall. Empty storefronts stared back at her.
Categories free kindle nation shorts
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Tuesday, March 1: 12 Brand New Freebies to Start the Month of March, plus … Promises to Keep by Kathryn Shay (Today’s Sponsor), and 3 More by Kathryn Shay from 99 cents to $1.99Usually when Amazon and Kindle publishers role out a dozen brand new free contemporary titles there’s something for most reading tastes, and that seems definitely to be the case with this morning’s latest additions to our 220+ Free Book Alert listings…. But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor
“Kathryn Shay is a master of her craft. Promises to Keep  will hold you on the edge of your seat with an ending you’ll remember long after you turn the last page.” –USA Today bestselling author Catherine Anderson  “Kathryn Shay never disappoints.” Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Don’t have a Kindle
 ? Get yours here . “An engrossing romantic suspense novel!”
Here’s the set-up: By-the-book Secret Service Agent Joe Stonehouse is paired with rebel Agent Luke Ludzecky as they go undercover in a typical high school that has the potential to erupt in deadly violence. The two women they meet cause the situation to be even more explosive. Originally published by Berkley Press.
What the Reviewers Say
“I can’t say enough about this author’s work—pure perfection.”
–Old Book Barn Gazette “Kathryn Shay’s first mainstream romantic suspense is a gripping story that will haunt readers with its authenticity. And those who pick up a copy will find not one, but two absorbing romance threads, full of sensuality and fire. If ever the label of “sure thing” were deserved by a book, Promises to Keep is such a book.” –The Romance Reader “These are all living breathing people you might meet anywhere at any time. The action and suspense balance well with the love, so that neither plot is skimped upon. I eagerly await her next release.” And don’t miss Kathryn’s trilogy of new novellas, The Educators…
a bold new series of never before published novellas. Veteran teacher Shay returns to one of her favorite settings and vividly portrays the teachers, administrators and students of Crystal Corners High School. As is her trademark, sizzling romances are back-dropped by controversial, complicated and sometimes dangerous situations.  STILL THE ONE  SOMEONE LIKE YOU  MAYBE THIS TIME
 for $1.99MAYBE THIS TIME features Delaney Dawson, a good teacher who has just been transferred to the high school. Her lessons are innovative, she participates in school activities and her students love her. But when she hooks up with the Gage Grayson, the father of a girl she has in class, a myriad of problems occur. First, the two adults didn’t know of their connection through Stephanie. And Stephanie hates her father, which jeopardizes the troubled teen’s burgeoning relationship with her teacher. But when they learn that Steph is being lured in by a bad crowd with a proclivity towards school violence, all three must work together to prevent deadly consequences.
About the Author
Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first ‘romance,’ a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists – and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path as a teacher.
But by the early 1990s, she’d again made room in her life for writing. It was then that she submitted her first manuscript to publishers and agents. Despite enduring two years of rejections, she persevered. And on a snowy December afternoon in 1994, Kathryn Shay sold her first book to Harlequin Superromance.Since that first sale, Kathryn has written twenty-two books for Harlequin, ten mainstream contemporary romances for the Berkley Publishing Group, and two online novellas, which Berkley then published in traditional print format. These days, she lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. “My life is very full,” she reports, “but very happy. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pursue and achieve my dreams.”
Click here
  to download Promises to Keep (or a 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 below to download
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, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store
 HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:
Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies. Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Monday, February 28: 7 Brand New Additions to Our 200+ Free Contemporary Titles on Kindle! plus … Steve Silkin’s The Forbidden Stories Provide 5-Star Reading for Just $1.99 (Today’s Sponsor)This morning’s latest additions to our 200+ Free Book Alert listings cover a wide range of interests from crockpot recipes to social media and marketing innovations….
But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor
A straight 5-star rating for this short story collection the author calls, “Eros and Thanatos. Stories of sex and death“…  “These are great stories. Really enjoyed them. Transgressive, odd, some straight ahead, some dreamlike and surreal. Highly unusual and original.” “Forbidden, yes, but read it anyway!”
Here’s the set-up via reviewer Gabriela Popa
“Forbidden Stories  is a collection of vivid, expertly crafted fiction stories spanning a wide range of events (growing up as a kid in Los Angeles, traveling to Europe, living in France) told with passion, nostalgia and – some of them – a relaxed wisdom that borders a zen-like attitude… Anyone who wants to explore the human condition will appreciate the multilayered “Green Parrot at My Window” – a complex story about death and the inextricable EXIT sign that awaits us all. A tangled criss-cross of relationships develops in “The Cake Girl”, “Euro-Looting” and “La Hongroise”- stories in which the author, part mastermind and part subject, keeps a keen eye on what’s happening around him while himself progressing as a character along the story. Yet for all their significant metaphorical content and multidimensional messages, these stories are charmingly accessible and captivating and speak about the universal value of human relationships. This is a great collection of stories – and a must for literature lovers.” And don’t miss Steve Silkin’s novel…. Did you love L.A. Confidential? Boogie Nights? The Candidate? Pulp Fiction? Weave them all together into a smart, edgy, fast-paced political thriller that you can read right on your Kindle for less than two bucks, and you’ve got Steven Silkin’s The Cemetery Vote.
 by Steve Silkin
5.0 out of 5 stars – 4 Reviews
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Jace Kingman, a drug dealer, is recruited to round up Latino day laborers and take them to the polls on Election Day. Dan Vienna, a fired police officer on the road to become an Internet porn producer, tries to extort a million dollars from a losing candidate for U.S. Senate by claiming he can prove the election was stolen. Jace and Dan will cross paths as both schemes go awry. Can they save themselves? Or will they destroy each other?
The Cemetery Vote takes you on a roller-coaster ride over a landscape of ballot-box stuffing, Internet porn production and drug trafficking, plus a love story – or rather two or three or four of them. Featuring iconoclastic twins, an ex-con philosopher and an X-rated actress who’s more than she appears. It’s a political thriller with philosophical underpinnings….
What the Reviewers Say
“These stories, forbidden or not, are written in prose so clear it’s nearly transparent, allowing you to see all the way to the deep sense of loss that lies like muck at the bottom. Maybe that’s why they’re forbidden; the current’s strong, and you can’t tell how deep the water is. Still, each piece is laced with enough humor and insight to keep them from feeling like they’re going to pull you under. I’ve enjoyed Silkin’s other books but this one’s my favorite, and not just because I have a crush on Cake Girl.”
–R. Toady “After reading Silkin’s “The Cemetery Vote “Steve Silkin’s growing list of titles–which also includes Telescope Builder Click here
to download The Forbidden Stories (or a 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 below to download
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, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store
HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:
Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies. Chick Lit With Heart and a Southern Flair: Our KND eBook of the Day, L.C. Evans’ We Interrupt This Date is Steel Magnolias with Chihuahuas, Attitude, and an “Androgynous Little Tart” – Just 99 cents!Sweetly written from the heart, L.C. Evans’ We Interrupt This Date
 is a tale of love, family, and one woman’s redemption as she tries to take back control over her own life – by taking a “time out” from her freeloading family. And it is just 99 cents on Kindle! Here’s the set-up for L.C. Evans’ We Interrupt This Date:  Since her divorce a year ago, Susan Caraway has gone through the motions of life. Now she is finally coming out of her shell. Just when she decides on a makeover and a new career, her family members decide she’s crisis central. First there’s her sister DeLorean, who has come back from California with a baby, a designer dog, and no prospects for child support or a job. As soon as DeLorean settles in at Susan’s home, Susan’s son Christian returns from college trailing what Susan’s mama refers to as “an androgynous little tart.”
Then there’s Mama herself, a Southern lady who wrote the book on bossy. A secret from Mama’s past threatens to unravel her own peace. But not before Mama hurts her ankle and has to move into Susan’s home with her babies—two Chihuahuas with attitude.
Susan would like to start her new job as a ghost tour operator. She would like to renew her relationship with Jack Maxwell, a man from her past. But Jack isn’t going to stand in line behind her needy family.
 L.C. Evans currently lives in North Carolina with her husband Bob, their three or four Chihuahuas, and grandson, the Boy. Taking on the care and feeding of the Boy has made her a born again soccer mom, who suffers from occasional bewilderment over what kids like these days. When not wrangling the Chihuahuas and the Boy, she writes novels.
From the Reviews:
I think anybody who is from the South, or knows an old fashioned southern family, will especially love this book. That being said if you’re not from the south you still need to read this book as a wonderful opportunity to learn, laugh, and cry.
LC Evans’ writing style is hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud at least once in every chapter.
We Interrupt This Date is a tale of love, family, and one woman’s redemption as she tries to take back control over her own life – by taking a “Time out” from her free-loading family
This book was a perfect balance of humor, friendship, family, love and southern sweetness! Even the characters you want to choke you end up loving in the end.
I loved the Charleston location and humorous depiction of Southern family life, complete with Mama.
Sweetly written with heart.
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Sunday, February 27: 3 Brand New Freebie Novels top our list over over 200 Free Contemporary Titles! plus … Noir meets the Novel in Jeff Sherratt’s gem of a mystery, Detour to Murder (Today’s Sponsor)A World War I romance, an interesting case of “Medical meets Inspirational,” and something rather different from the creator of the “Left Behind” series top this morning’s latest additions to our 200+ Free Book Alert listings…. But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor
“Jeff Sherratt has created a gem of a book [with] a completely new spin on a classic movie. This book will blow your mind!”
 Detour to Murder (A Film Noir Mystery)
(Jimmy O’Brien Mystery Novels  ) by Jeff Sherratt 5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Reviews Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Don’t have a Kindle
? Get yours here. “Great Noir Mystery Novel”
Why did Roberts give a false confession? And why has he waited 29 years to tell the truth? In this Five-Star noir mystery, Jimmy O’Brien digs into the past, igniting a powder-keg that threatens to expose the long-held secrets behind Detour, the iconic Hollywood film documenting Roberts’ story…
In 1945, the semi-nude body of a woman is found in a two-bit Hollywood motel, a telephone cord wrapped around her throat; face frozen in a grimace of horror. The stolen car of a murdered motorist is parked in the motel parking lot, the owner lying broken and dead on the side of an Arizona highway. Al Roberts confesses and has spent the last 29 years in prison. Now, nearly three decades after meekly confessing, the aged Roberts swears his innocence.
 Jimmy O’Brien, defense attorney to the dregs of the criminal world, must find out why. Why did Roberts give a false confession? And why has he waited 29 years to tell the truth? O’Brien digs into the past, igniting a powder-keg that threatens to expose the long-held secrets behind Detour What the Reviewers Say
“If you like noir mystery, or if you don’t know if you like noir mystery, you must read Detour to Murder
, by Jeff Sherratt. Heck, if you just like mysteries, read this book.
The book picks up where the movie Detour, a film noir classic, leaves off. In the movie, a man named Al Roberts follows the woman he loves to Hollywood after she jilts him to seek a movie career. Two people die along the way, and Roberts is ultimately arrested for murder. .. My favorite thing about Detour to Murder is the trip into old Hollywood from the 40’s through the 70’s. It puts you right in the mix of it all, with all its glamour and deceit. In addition, the characters are interesting, the plot is fun, and the twists keep cropping up. And even if you do figure out “whodunit,” I bet you won’t know why until the very end.” –Teresa M. Burrell “Love the way it blends the awesome feel of film noir with a mystery novel. Jeff is a great writer and really knows to how to drive up suspense.” “Love the way it blends the awesome feel of film noir with a mystery novel. Jeff is a great writer and really knows to how to drive up suspense.”
About the Author
Jeff Sherratt is the author of the acclaimed Jimmy O’Brien mystery series. His newest book, DETOUR TO MURDER
(2010), is published by ZOVA Books and is the first in the Jimmy O’Brien film noir mystery series. Jimmy O’Brien’s latest exploits are chronicled in EXPECTATION TO MURDER (2010), an exclusive e-book released on July 5, 2010.
Soon after its release, his first novel, THE BRIMSTONE MURDERS Jeff has been a speaker at many book events including libraries, various California prisons, and he was the guest speaker at the prestigious Southern California Writers Conference. He is currently working on his fourth Jimmy O’Brien novel, CYANIDE PERFUME. Jeff lives in Newport Beach, California with his wife, Judy. Click here
to download Detour to Murder (A Film Noir Mystery) (Jimmy O’Brien Mystery Novels) (or a 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 below to download
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Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store
HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:
Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies. Coming in March! A Touch of Revenge, a Lendable eBook Borrower’s Book, and Kindle Free for All in PaperbackBy Steve Windwalker
We’re happy to share news here of a couple of new titles that will be coming out in March, and one that has just come out.
A Touch of Revenge. First, we mentioned the other day that Kindle Nation fave Gary Ponzo has completed work on an exciting sequel to his very popular Nick Bracco page-turner A Touch of Deceit
 . The sequel, entitled A Touch of Revenge, is due about March 31, and has already been featured with a sneak Free Kindle Nation Shorts preview. If you’d like to receive a quick email heads-up with a note from Mr. Ponzo when the sequel is available for purchase and download from the Kindle Store, just send an email — it can be blank, or not, it’s up to you — to KindleNation+touch2@gmail.com, and we’ll let you know! A Book Borrower’s Book. Second, I’ve been having some fun lately collaborating with Martin Higgins on a short ebook about how to get the most out of the new Kindle lending feature, and it should be out in March as well. Martin brings a lot to the table on this project, since he and his wife Catherine MacDonald are co-founders of the phenomenally popular and user-friendly BookLending.com website (formerly the Kindle Lending Club.) Neither Martin nor I is any Gary Ponzo, but we’ve had so
 many responses to the email offer regarding A Touch of Revenge that we will do the same with this new book — it’s untitled as yet, but think”How to Lend and Borrow Kindle Books for Fun and Savings,” and it will be priced no higher than 99 cents. If you’d like to receive a quick email heads-up when How to Lend and Borrow Kindle Books for Fun and Savings is available for purchase and download from the Kindle Store, just send an email — it can be blank, or not, it’s up to you — to KindleNation+BLC@gmail.com, and we’ll let you know! (And yes, just in case you are wondering, this book will be lendable.)Kindle Free for All in Paperback. Okay, this is deeply counter-intuitive, but one thing that happens each time I bring out the Kindle edition of a book about the Kindle is that readers — and these are almost universally Kindle owners, I am pretty certain — write to me and ask when the paperback will be out. And since it is very inexpensive and risk-free these days to publish a paperback, I have tried to co-operate, even though initially I kind of expected the paperback versions to sell a grand total of about two dozen copies, most of them to blood relatives. I was wrong. The paperback version of my Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 guides have now sold over 15,000 copies, and people tell me that they enjoy following along with the paperback as they try things out on their Kindles. Okay, cool, then. So I have just brought out a paperback version of KINDLE FREE FOR ALL: How to Get Millions of Free Kindle Books and Other Free Content With or Without an Amazon Kindle
 , which came out in an ebook edition in December and has already sold over 10,000 copies. I priced the 172-page paperback at the lowest possible price that I could set and still get retailers to carry it: $7.99. Indie author and publishing whiz April Hamilton, who is going to end up being a very important part of Kindle Nation’s future if she doesn’t watch out, has done a gorgeous job on the paperback formatting just as she did on the Kindle edition, and she has also created a very nice accompanying page of all the links included on the book — let’s call it the Kindle Free for All Links Page and you’ll find it at http://www.kindlenationdaily.com/KindleFreeForAll.html or http://bit.ly/FFA-links — which I am hopeful will be the second thing that readers try immediately after tapping on a page in the paperback. This won’t be for everyone, but if it works for you, there it is! Fur-Face by Jon Gibbs — a middle grade fantasy about unusual friendships, unlikely alliances, and wanting to fit in — is our Kindle Nation eBook of the Day, and here’s a free sample!
Here’s the set-up for Fur-Face
 by Jon Gibbs, one of those librarian’s recommendation for kids from 7 to 13 that will actually appeal to kids, and adults, of all ages: When 13-year-old Billy Euston moves to the English country village of Little Chumberry, he finds an unlikely friend in Snowy, an outrageous talking cat that only he can hear. Through Snowy he learns of an evil scientist who kidnaps local animals for use in experiments on inter-species communication. Billy finds himself drawn ever deeper into a world of cruelty and exploitation, where every answer uncovers another question.
Who is Fur-Face? Why does he operate on animals’ brains? What really goes on in the tunnels beneath Adventure Safari (the nearby zoo and theme park)? With the help of Snowy and Carmen, a local girl whose grandmother owns both the research center and the park, Billy tries to find out, not realizing his search for answers could cost Snowy every last one of his nine lives.
From the Reviewers:
Jon Gibb’s Fur-Face
can take its place among classics like Robert O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Richard Adams’s Watership Down and Robert Lawson’s Fabulous Flight. They all involve marvelous interaction and communication between thoughtful animals and, often, children….Sometimes juvenile literature charms adult readers as well, and from the start Fur-Face
by Jon Gibbs had me reading with delight….Great plot and engaging characters…Highly recommended! Fur-Face
is a fast paced story with an intriguing plot….Child friendly, without being just for kids….
Potentially a classic. Although Fur-face
was written for the “young adult” market, it’s written well enough that adults of all ages will enjoy it….I’m reading Fur-Face
to my ten-year-old son and he’s enjoying it. He laughs at Snowy’s quips and jokes and when him and Razor traded (G rated) insults. If you need a fresh bedtime story for your kids, this is a good choice….If you have middle grade kids, they will LOVE Snowy.
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
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for $.99
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, the iconic Hollywood film documenting Roberts’ story. Secrets that could destroy the underground aristocracy that has held power in Los Angeles, city of broken dreams, for years. Jimmy’s ordeal takes him from the bleakness of Roberts’ prison cell to the seedy streets of Hollywood, frantically searching to find out who took this 
(2009) was nominated for the Left Coast Crime Panik Award. Jeff has written nonfiction articles for corporate newsletters and his short stores have been published in H2O Magazine and the anthology, THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT. He is a past board member of Sisters in Crime/LA, and currently a member of Mystery Writers of America.
