Notebook, not E Book

Here we are again, standing on thr brink of Read an E book week. The calendar flagged up the notification, 7th to 13th March, 2021. Annually, the first full week of March.

Twelve months ago, I posted about it, gave a heads up for the links to Smashwords, and the dedicated page on the site. 

I'm a fan of digital, as much as the traditional, hard copy format of the book.

The technical advantages of the ebook are balanced by the aesthetic of the paper version. Softback, hardback, whatever the actual size and format the physical aspects possess what the virtual can never hold. 

The image at the head of this post captures something of the last year, and gave me the answer to a question. the series of posts exploring the notebook, with emphasis on the traveller's notebook and it's lookalikes. I knew the answer, sort of. The timing was curious. The picture of the eReader tucked neatly into the pocket, and the hardcopy struggling to fit caught the mood of the day.

Digital, everything has taken a digital angle in the last twelve months, working from home, and Zoom, or Teams, Hookups, Whatsapp, etc.

Life traded the physical for the virtual, and is poorer for it. Arguably necessary, under the circumstances, but poorer nonetheless.

Sight and hearing have been overloaded, sated beyond their normal capapcity, yet smell, taste and touch have suffered neglect.

The confinement brought out a strain of creativity to satisfy the needs. Baking, gardening, art, anything that can be touched, smelt, tasted.

The notebook, the trigger, brought with it the unmistakable characteristics of real leather. Following the process to completion was a balm. A confirmation, of a primal urge, to touch, to explore the texture of an object.

An idea, drawn from the virtual into the real world.

Suppressed by lockdowns and social distance the primal urge, expressed by a fingerprint on recently dried paint, the irresistible desire to touch found an outlet.

So here's mine, all my own work, including the Inserts, with a bought clip and the ubiquitous Jotter pen.

Have fun with whatever you're doing.

Martyn

Update Read an Ebook week

The latest from Smashwords to authors, is sign up for Read an eBook week.

Preparations are underway for the annual read an eBook week sale. Discounts and promotions on the site. Find your new favourite author at the Smashwords read an eBook week page.

Kicks off Sunday 1st March.

Unfortunately there is an extra day to wait this year, February has put on weight, gone up to 29 days.

Coming soon, Read an E book week 2020

A whole seven days to gorge!

Seven days dedicated to the wonder and variety of electronically formatted literature.   The first full week in March. The ebook distribution site, Smashwords usually has a dedicated section. You'll find over half a million books on the site, and 82,146 of them are free. 

True, the touch and smell of the printed pages is missing. The page curling under your thumb and the smell of new ink and paper blended caught between a well-made cover is a bonus,  I don't want to lose that.

For ease of handling, a library  snug in your pocket has a plus. For those of us who look back on our tender years and find modern small print a strain.  (I disagree with my optician, small print is getting smaller. More precise digital printers make the best use of space - a whole new twist on shrink to fit.)

The variable fonts of the electronic page, the switch from day to night viewing. The choice of page colour, creating a better contrast with the text. Adjustable brightness,  online, offline reading. Multiple app platforms on one device. It works for me. 

Childhood hours spent late in the night tucked under the covers, balancing a torch and a book to find out what happened next, a back lit page would have made it easier and with an auto shut off to save the batteries after I’d fallen asleep.

The other side of the coin, spoilt for choice, and that's the key to read an E book week, seven days to dig out that new writer, the new voice that touches the sweet spot and draws you back for more.

Over on this side of the water, we also have the delights of World Book Day, 5th March. Most of the world marks it on the 23rd of April, the United Kingdom (including Scotland and Wales) and Ireland get into it earlier.

The date is a focal point on the calendar, the idea is to encourage reading. Print or digital,  tablet or phone, wherever your app may be. Accept the mission, to make books available to all. 

Check it out

Martyn

Start now...

Sunday, at last, a plethora of literary gems waiting to to be snatched up - OK - downloaded.
Read an eBook week is here.

Ready, press start

Check out The Grange series at Smashwords, enter the code RAE50 at the checkout.

Check my author page at Smashwords

 Browse the Smashwords read an eBook week page

Go find yourself a gem

Be alert...

Your country needs lerts!

Yeah, I know, it's an old one, goes way back as far as I can remember, but joking aside yesterday's email flagged up advance notice of something bang up to date.

The Ninth annual Read an eBook week starts next Sunday. The 5th to the 11th of March; seven days of discounts, freebies and hidden treasures revealed. There's more information about the event on the smashwords,blog

Maybe the kick up the back end I'm looking for to stop me feeling grounded, bogged down, or whatever; get my finger out, pull my socks up. Slot in whatever vernacular descriptive you feel is appropriate.

Give myself the Gibbs head slap and get back on track.

So what are you waiting for?

Sunday, of course.

Keep an eye on this space, check out Smashwords and follow the links from wherever you are, to where you want to be. The Grange stories will be discounted.

Grab an eBook for a discount or a freebie and enjoy yourself.

If Sunday is too far away,  nip along to Indies Unlimited and check out Thrifty Thursday.

Don't forget to pop back on Sunday!

Reaching the line

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to hang in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," was Dr  Samuel Johnson's take on a deadline. Not something we are likely to face, even if we consider writing in the same vein as Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool Football Club, who considered the game to be more important than life and death.

Chris Baty, founder and chief instigator of NaNoWriMo considers the dead line to be the writer's secret weapon. Douglas Adams  always enjoyed the sound of them whooshing along as they sped past.

Deadlines, not facing the hangman, or speeding by, but a limit. Self set, and policed, by the independent. There's the rub, self control makes them potentially flexible. Ideally they should give enough time for the job to be completed with a smidgeon of leeway, and not come up like you're running at a brick wall, even if it can move ahead of you.

The next deadline comes up tonight as Read an eBook week closes its doors and the discount code (RAE25)  at smashwords expires. The alternative codes remain valid,  on this blog and  at cheekyseagull.co.uk for the individual Grange Thrillers.

Which brings me to the plan, it's a bit formal calling it a plan at this stage, more a what am I going to do next arrangement.

Two projects,  both of them Grange Thrillers, Gone to Earth and  ClearWater, both unfinished and frankly, Gone to Earth needs a kick start, so, in need of a dead line, I've given myself a prompt. April, twenty five thousand words and hopefully a first draft put to rest by the end of the month. The protagonists are mustering for the final denouement and the scene will shortly be set, once Josie Burke has figured out the necessary deployment.

The plan is to unpublish Gone to Earth, to pull it offline until the work is finished. Once that's dealt with Clear Water takes the head and will be the focus.

When the time comes I'll keep you posted as to how things are progressing.

Read an eBook Week starts here....

Read an eBook Week kicks off for 2016, seven days of discounted and free ebooks at Smashwords. The Grange thrillers are involved, with a 25% discount code - especially for this week.

Check the links with the books at their Smashwords pages;

Iceline -free as usual.
Control Escape - enter RAE25 at the checkout
What You Ask For - enter RAE25
The Obedience of Fools - enter RAE25

Flag them for your e-readers, give your friends a nudge towards new writers and books at the summer promotions page.

What are you reading this month?

                            

March is Read an eBook Month, and once again kicks off with Read an eBook Week. For the Seventh year in succession smashwords are promoting read an eBook week with a site wide promotion and the Grange novels are part of the action this year, skip across to smashwords.com and bag yourself a good read; What You Ask For and Control: Escape have a 50% discount, enter RAE50 at the checkout to claim yours, then explore the other talent on offer this year.

Read an ebook (week) 2014

Spring is starting to break out, the first green shoots are struggling through the damp and cold, stretching for the warmth and deep inside a longing for summer sun and long lazy days on holiday; with a book, or lots of books.

Read an ebook week is upon us and links are prepared, ready for the new links between readers and author I your new best author waiting with something special lined up for you?

The Grange novels are part of the action again this year, Control Escape has a 50% discount (enter the code REW50) and the rest are FREE; Iceline, What You Ask For and The Obedience of Fools.

Enjoy yourself, check out some really great writing and stock up!

Keep it rolling

There are still Smashwords discount codes available for Iceline and Control Escape, 100% off until the 31st March.

The code for Iceline is TA34B and for Control Escape is BU95A, get hold of one, or bag the brace, spread the word, be part of the action. 

Almost there!

The last few hours of Read An Ebook Week 2013, and the search through the catalogue at Smashwords brings one or two things to notice, Iceline and Control Escape have a good showing in the Fiction - Thriller and Suspense categories; Iceline is hanging around at the bottom of page 1 in the units sold, epic (>100,000 words), RW100 100% off listing; page 2 in the full length (>50,000 words) RW100 100% off and Control Escape is over the page at 3 on page 3 in the full length listings. Like the listing says, Thriller and Suspense, Intrigue and conspiracy.  Not long left for this annual extravaganza, don't be the pumpkin, the codes run out  at midnight Pacific Time tonight, March 9th.
Thanks for your interest, grab one or both, bag the brace, enjoy them!

Area 51?

Area 51 - that got your attention; no, not the place that officially unofficially exists or doesn't somewhere in Nevada, although Google Earth seems convinced it knows where it is, but the 51st area for Apple's iBookstore - Japan. Now open for business

I admit there are certain oriental mysteries about the culture and people of the Japanese islands that have always intrigued me, and a favourite James Bond novel, You Only Live Twice, is set there. The book has a much more exotic element regarding poisons and volcanic vents than the film, but it catches something of the strangeness of the culture.

The news yesterday morning carried a link to the press release announcing the opening and tucked away inside it was a fascinating factoid, a conversational elephant stopper, 130 million iBook apps have been downloaded to iPads, iPhones etc.; now wind it back and run it again. That is a staggering figure, and imagine all that space waiting to be filled with books, 130 million iBook apps, we're already half way through Read an Ebook Week and time to go bobbing in Apple's barrel.

If you haven't had your fill yet, help yourself, my two books Iceline and Control Escape are part of the action this week and the notification emails have never been busier. The discount code until Saturday is RW100, don't keep it to yourself.
A week is said to be a long time in politics, not so when your working through the pages of a book, a week may put ten or fifteen thousand words on the story, more if you're working at it full time - a delightful luxury I'm not in a position to enjoy at the moment, but hey, I can dream.

Be part of it, spread the word.

130 million opportunities for an Indie Author like myself to connect with the reading public: you,  to entertain you, to share the adventures of my characters and hang in there with them through thrills, mystery and danger until  way off in the distance there is a hint of a large lady singing.

Whatever and wherever you're reading, enjoy.

Don't keep this under your hat!

Spotted this poster on the www.ebookweek.com site, the whole thing is news to me but it's sort of the parent site for all this fun, and I'm having a good time. I loved the atmosphere of this poster and have adopted it; my books are thrillers and this is the archetypal image. Running the whole gamut from The Third Man; the Maltese Falcon etc., all the way down ghetto line. The Give-Aways are going well and the "sales" are encouraging - OK, I've shifted more books in the last twenty four hours than the previous six months, but I'm fine with that. The word from the start was this was a long journey and I'm definitely up for it. I'm enjoying it, and the suspense is there right at the heart of it, wondering when the next ping on the email will log another book on the sales chart.

To all you lovely people who already have Iceline and Control Escape on your e-shelves, thanks for the thumbs up, have a good time with them, I had fun writing them.  Bag the brace if you haven't done so already; I should be cracking on with the third novel, What You Ask For. I'm already being asked when it will be available. It started with the gallop through November and Nanowrimo ( I logged 50,000 plus within the thirty days and the book became a winner) and then it lost impetus and the writing schedule has already been stretched, twisted beyond recognition and lobbed in a corner where it missed the wastebin. What You Ask For is published at Smashwords as a work in progress and free to download; stay with the story if you're following it, and if your new to Steel, Jardine and the people at The Grange, this week is an opportunity to say hello, and have them on me.

There is another story somewhere down the tracks, but that is still working its way out of the back of my mind and the problem with the brilliant idea and the notebook in last night's, or was that this morning's post, is all too familiar; maybe I'll go back to the old style tape recorder and try to look good talking to myself. Generally a fail, even with the ubiquitous bluetooth stuck in your ear. 

As the man in the poster says, this is read an ebook week, don;t keep it under your hat, spread the word and be part of the action; and I'm going to stir up the action in the next book,

 See you soon, I'm off to the typeface. 

Somebody's reading free ebooks

Is it you, or the person next to you. Are you going to be the only pumpkin in town midnight on the 9th, after all week thinking about it. This is the time for action. That ebook, you know the one I'm talking about; you've hovered on the Smashwords page view for ages, now chase it down. Hunt it across the four corners of the web and bag it. Get a brace of them if they're in a pair, take the trophies back to your favourite chair and enjoy.

Read an ebook

Go on, you know you want to. The week has started at Smashwords, so the code is live and you won't feel like a total pumpkin for jumping the gun. The code is RW100 for free copies of Iceline and Control: Escape, follow the links.

This could be fun - seriously

The annual  Read An Ebook Week is here, this is the first time I've been in a position to take part and it looks like fun, and if something is going to be fun then you have to be serious about it. There is a serious side to it; serious enough for the Canadian Parliament in Motion 239 of the First session of the 41st Parliament to declare March Read An Ebook Month. The host site www.ebookweek.com is worth a look at. The week is featured and discussed on the Smashwords blog,  go for it, dip in and take a look; help yourself to a book, or even stagger out with the electronic equivalent of a shelf full. Your new favourite writer may hiding in the list. The Smashwords Catalogue is open through the week

Be part of the action, spread the word!

Free ebooks for this week

Read An eBook Week starts tomorrow at Smashwords.com, the fifth annual celebration of books on the site, and Iceline and Control: Escape are free for the week. Enter the code RW100 for each book when you go to buy.
What You Ask For is free and downloadable, still a work in progress but updated yesterday.
Go with the links in this post or click on the cover image alongside, but don't forget the code.
(The official start time is one minute past midnight on the 3rd March Pacific time; then the Smashwords catalogue appears, it will disappear at the stroke of midnight pacific time on the 9th.)