Linda Welz

As a child, Linda remembers reading every Nancy Drew mystery available.  The end of each chapter left her salivating to find out what happened next.  Fast-forward 20+ years when she worked as a bookstore manager.  That’s when the love of all books permeated her soul.  Which leads to today’s opportunity to share that love with others through review.  Today she is an avid reader and collector of cookbooks, children’s books, self-help and how-to books among others.  Linda is always on the lookout for compelling books for her adult and teen daughters and her grandchildren.    Linda is a 24-year veteran with the U.S. Air Force, currently serving full time in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a public affairs specialist.  She is a two-time winner of the Defense Department’s Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence and professionalism in military print and broadcast media.  Her career specialties also include medical administration and video production and documentation with combat camera.  Linda plans to retire from the military in 2016 but continue her work with them in a civilian capacity.    Linda, the middle child of three, is an Ohio native, who currently resides in Southern California with her husband, youngest daughter, two miniature Schnauzers and two cats.  Her oldest daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and grandson are a military family, living in Alaska.  Her son and daughter-in-law live in Nevada and are expecting their first child.  She is a lifetime member of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club and willingly admits it.  Linda is an active member of her daughter’s school and her church community.  Her claim to fame is winning the big deal of the day on Let’s Make a Deal and singing on stage with Barry Manilow.

Axie Barclay

Ax is a Michigan writer with a cow-habit. When she’s not milking cows, making disgruntled noises at what disgusting thing the heeler dogs dredge up, riding horses, or keeping the fence up around her small beef herd, she’s holed up reading a book or tapping out stories and articles on her laptop. She graduated with a B.S. degree in English, Journalism, and Anthropology from Central Michigan University. She’s usually hard at work on various works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction articles, and book reviews, and has begun to dabble in commercial writing as well. When she’s not working, she enjoys kicking back with her honey and friends at a campfire with some hardy-flavored beers, and she makes a mean mojito. Chat her up at barclayfarmsandlit.blogspot.com where she delves into literature and farming with a relish… and occasionally ketchup. Some of her articles can be found at  www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/axbarclay. She’s also on twitter and facebook at www.twitter.com/axieb and www.facebook.com/axieb.

Robyn Oxborrow

I am a part-time freelance writer and editor based in Reno, NV. As a native Nevadan–first born and raised in Pahrump, then relocated to Reno to attend the University of Nevada, Reno–I find the desert both relaxing and a challenge at times since the weather can change quickly. I graduated in May  2009 with B.A. in English writing and minor in photography.  During my last year at UNR, I lucky to have interned at the University Of Nevada Press and gain a wealth of knowledge about book publishing. I have a growing interest in working for print and online publishers, and greatly enjoy helping others to develop their ideas into a story or artwork.

In my free time, I enjoy writing, rock climbing, lounging by the Truckee River or Lake Tahoe when the weather permits, taking part in Reno’s interesting nightlife, and visiting San Diego or San Francisco when I can get the chance. Currently, I’ve been taking poetry workshops and learning web development.

You can find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/roxborrow or www.roxborrow.com (under development).

Jennifer Melville

Jennifer Melville is a freelance writer currently living in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. She is a busy mother of four and the proud wife of a Navy helicopter pilot. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Maryland. She was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but has traveled all over the United States since marrying her husband in 2004.

Jennifer’s work has appeared in multiple print and online publications, including Natural Awakenings Magazine, Women’s Digest, Jax4Kids Magazine, Jax Air News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has written book reviews for the Story Circle Network for several years and always has a new novel on her nightstand. Crime mysteries and historical romances are her all-time favorites. She is currently writing a Y.A. novel, as well as a historical romance.

Stacia Levy

Stacia Levy is a linguistics and ESL professor in California. She currently works at National University and University of the Pacific.  Research interests include academic writing and second language learners. She has published two academic texts.

Her first love, however, is fiction, and she enjoys literary fiction, as well mysteries and romance. She has completed one romance novel, and is working on a mystery/crime novel about hate crime on a college campus. (Both the crime and campus are fictional, despite some readers’ concern to the contrary.)  She recently won an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards for her short story, “Father.”  She lives in Sacramento with her husband and daughter.

Jodi M. Webb

Jodi Webb was destined to be an enthusiastic reader. Her mother was an English teacher with a rec room with shelves of books whose idea of a good time was to take all the kids to the library. Like her mom, Jodi’s idea of a good time is taking her kids to the library where all the librarians know her by name. Speaking of names, she named her older daughter after a character in a book. Her other two kids have names with less literary roots.    When she isn’t perusing the dusty library shelves, Jodi is busy writing something she hopes will someday sit on those shelves. As a writer, Jodi has hundreds of magazine articles to her credit as well as one book Pennsylvania Trivia. She keeps working on that historical novel that just won’t end! And in between she organizes blog tours for authors through WOW-Women on Writing and writes two blogs: Words by Webb and Schuylkill Matters.   The last book store in Jodi’s county closed in early 2010. Their months long going-out-of-business sale was like the longest wake ever. Book lovers were constantly meeting at the store to buy ”Just one more book.” Now the nearest bookstore is 45 minutes away(Jodi timed it). So when she had the opportunity to review books, Jodi jumped at the chance. She missed that feeling of discovering a jewel unexpectedly on the bookstore shelves. Now she gets her fix via packages from the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Reviews.

George Erdosh

George is a culinary scientist, food writer, and certified cooking teacher with a strong science and research background (Ph.D., McGill University, Montreal).  He is the author of 10 published food-related books: a six-book series for young readers Cooking Throughout American History and The African-American Kitchen; Start and Run a Catering Business (in its 4^th edition, translated into five languages), Tried and True Recipes from a Caterer’s Kitchen and What Recipes Don’t Tell You, as well as numerous articles and magazines and newspapers.

Originally an exploration geologist, he switched career to be a high-end caterer, a business he ran for more than 10 years, before switching to food writing and running cooking classes.

Katie Cappello

A native of Phoenix, Arizona, and former resident of New Orleans, Katie Cappello currently resides in Walnut Grove, a small farming town in the Sacramento Delta.  She graduated with an MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University, where she edited Hayden’s Ferry Review.  Her poems can be found in journals, such as Burnside Review, Cave Wall, Crab Orchard Review, Fourteen Hills, and Los Angeles Review.

Katie is the author of the poetry collection Perpetual Care (Elixir Press, 2009) and the chapbook A Classic Game of Murder (Dancing Girl Press, 2009).  Katie is, in equal measure, a freelance wizard, reading fiend, and haphazard gardener.  She blogs about literature and life on the farm at www.drowningthefield.blogspot.com.

Albert Riehle

Albert Riehle consented to step away from the blogosphere and write book reviews for us, but feels badly about using his powers for evil instead of good.  Wracked with guilt over becoming a critic, he often cries himself to sleep at night wondering what his heroes Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi would think of him for joining the Dark Side.  Only the fact that his opinions about books (and everything else for that matter) are always right give him any comfort.

When he’s not reading and reviewing, Albert is usually found working as a Sales & Marketing Manager.  He enjoys long, romantic walks on the beach, but not as much as he loves short, spiteful sprints on the water.  His beloved hometown Chicago Cubs have broken his heart 35 times and counting.  Albert has broken far fewer television sets after learning to surround himself with soft, squishy items when the Cubs game is on so that when he throws them, he does less damage.  Most of his blogs are like Fight Club; the first rule is that you can’t talk about them—or where to find them—but he occasionally remembers to update his flagship blog at http://albertriehle.blogspot.com.  Finally, he’d like you to know that no animals were harmed in the writing of this bio, but if a spider had wandered across the screen, he probably would have gone medieval on its ass.

Rachel Wallace

Rachel Wallace is a research assistant holding a Master’s degree in biology with a habit of moving every couple years. It would take all her fingers, and most of her toes, to count all the places she’s lived, but she currently resides in Davis, CA, with her husband, two dogs, and one overly inquisitive horse.

Reading has been a lifelong hobby of Rachel’s, with no book safe from her wide-ranging interests. When not reading – which takes up most of her spare time – Rachel is writing, watching sports, traveling, debating the merits of various video games with the above-mentioned husband, or working with rescue horses.

Debbie Suzuki

Debbie Suzuki is a quality engineer working for Adobe Inc. In her free time, she loves to read and blog. Reading has always been a favorite past time since she was a small child. She would spend her afternoons at the library reading or spending time with the librarians. This pattern has continued as she worked in her high school and university library. In 2005, she earned her Master of Library Science from San Jose State University and hopes to one day work as a young adult librarian. Some of her favorite genres to read are historical and paranormal romances and young adult fiction. In 2008, she started her blog, Debbie’s World of Books, http://debbiesworldofbooks.com/. Stop by to check out book reviews, giveaways, author interviews and more.

Leslie  Wolfson

In her first gig as a book reviewer for a city newspaper, Leslie Wolfson was a struggling freelance writer who dared to send the editor a bill for her reviews, and was promptly fired!  This was back in the 80′s when she actually received $50 per review, which was pretty good money in those days.

After giving up freelance writing for about twenty years, she is writing again on the side. (Working with high-risk teens as an English teacher is her day job.)  Leslie has had many articles published in magazines and newsletters (most of them paid) and has also published six children’s plays (also paid.)  But book reviewing is so darned fun, she’s been doing it for free over the last three years.  To warm up, she wrote book reviews for both Children’s Literature and VOYA, where she occasionally saw her byline on Amazon.com. Leslie has moved on, and up, naturally, to Sacramento/San Francisco Book Review.

Having been a writer since the age of six (she “wrote” her first poem at five) she is always working on something having to do with writing.  Her current project is her Y.A. novel, which she hopes to finish first, and publish second.

Amanda Mitchell

Kidnapped by gypsies at an early age and subsequently abandoned by the gypsies, Amanda Mitchell spent her formative years moving cross-country, from Los Angeles, California, to southern Florida to northern Wisconsin. All of these moves taught her what was really important: clothes, toys, even siblings could be replaced once you moved into your new house, but nothing could take the place of a well-loved book. Amanda’s father blames his chronic back problems on the boxes of her books he personally carried up and down dozens of flights of stairs during Amanda’s childhood.

All this reading eventually led to some writing, which eventually led to a weekly humor column for a regional Wisconsin newspaper. (To this day, no one’s really sure how that happened.)  Amanda’s since given up the column, though she still writes from her new hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And she still reads. A lot. Her favorite books include Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.

Amanda’s blog can be found at Non Skweeter.

Heather Ortiz

My mother always told me that I’d been born to a group of traveling circus performers, but as the years went by and I found myself strangely uninterested in being shot out of a cannon, I began to suspect she might be pulling my leg.   I did exhibit some carnival-like freakishness, however, when I began reading at age two, and by the time I was four, it was a common practice to amaze friends and visitors by handing me a newspaper and having me read it out loud.  Then I’d make it disappear into thin air.  When I was six,,I went to my school’s library and picked out my first ever “grown-up” book, The Black Stallion by Walter Farley.  After a brief tussle with the librarian (that stately matron was fully convinced that that book was far above the abilities of a six-year-old) I managed to stun her with my incredible alliterative abilities and a few well-chosen naughty words.  The librarian learned an important lesson about the dangers of trying to balk a well-read six-year-old, and I was allowed to take the book home.  I almost didn’t bring it back.  I was in love.

My childhood was plagued with an infestation of stepmothers (three at the last count) and since the justice system has yet to add “annoying the hell out of me” to the list of offenses that are punishable by severe defenestration, the only place I could escape was into books.  I’m almost positive I read the entire contents of my high school library in four short years.  I even smuggled home Stephen King novels, although Stepmother #2 had expressly forbade them from coming into the house.  College and on-campus living brought a respite and a huge new library to read my way through.  Unfortunately, it also brought the bitter revelation that I was not cut out to be a novelist.  Turns out that writing a novel isn’t all book signings and Oprah appearances and getting to work in your pajamas all day.  Apparently one has to actually also write things down in a comprehensive and logical manner.  Every day!  I spent a week in a despondent funk that involved a lot of Alanis Morissette, a lot of cookie dough ice cream, and not a lot of showering.  But, eventually, I got over it and resumed loving books with my trademark level of ferocious enjoyment.

I grew up in New Mexico, terrorized South California for eight years and am now currently located in North Carolina working as an IT Program Planning Specialist.  Life with my fiancée and our 60 lb Norwegian Elkhound named Loki includes watching a lot of movies (Loki loves musicals), creating my own line of snarky note cards for my Etsy shop, motorcycle rides in nice weather and books.  Books, books and more books!

Lanine Bradley

Lanine has loved reading since she was a small child. Coming from a long-line of school teachers, she had little choice in the matter.  Now, as an adult, she reads approximately one book a day. “Books have always served as my stress reliever. Any time I’m having a bad day, all I have to do is pick up a book. Twenty minutes later, I’m refreshed and ready to face the world.”  A self-proclaimed bibliophile, she recently downsized her personal library from 600 books to her favorite 225. “I had to, we were running out of bookshelves,” she explained.

In 2003, after graduating with a Bachelor’s in Strategic Management, Lanine swore never to set foot on campus again. She recently had to eat her words when she returned to California State University in 2008 to earn her MBA, double-majoring in Finance and Urban Land Development. She anticipates graduating in December of 2010. “Being on campus again as an older student is amazing. I feel I can better appreciate all university life has to offer, such as the awesome art shows or the wonderful guest speakers. I recently was able to catch Henry Rollins when he preformed spoken word on campus. It was amazing.”

Last year she left corporate life to work as a property management coordinator for a small start up company and has never been happier. Lanine lives in Roseville, CA with her two teenagers, two cats, and a Chihuahua/terrier mix. When not working, studying, or manage her brood, she indulges in her passion for coffee, bookstores, movies, blogging, spending quality time with friends, and her dirty little secret–an addiction to reality TV shows. Working on her first novel, Lanine is hopeful to finish early next year.

Jordan Magill

A recovering political consultant, Jordan Magill is an alumnus of both the Squaw Valley and the Tin House writer’s conferences.  In 2010, he will be disembarking to New York with his very understanding wife and their three children, where he has been offered a fellowship by NYU’s Creative Writing Program.

Jordan’s first novel, Who Mourns for Saul?, a retelling of the rise and fall of the first king of Israel, is currently out for reading by publishers.

Kelli Christiansen

Kelli Christiansen launched bibliobibuli professional editorial services in 2007, putting 20 years of experience in publishing to work for individual authors and publishers on a variety of manuscripts as an editor, publishing consultant, and writer. Kelli began her publishing career in 1988 as a bookseller for B. Dalton (part of Barnes & Noble). She served as a journalist and city editor for a chain of community newspapers before becoming an acquisitions editor first at Publications International, Ltd./Consumer Guide and later at McGraw-Hill.

Prior to launching bibliobibuli, Kelli was an executive editor at ABA Publishing (part of the American Bar Association). Kelli has worked on more than 200 books, including several that have won kudos from a number of publications, including The New York Times, Business Week, Barron’s, and Library Journal. Her clients include Amacom, Bloomberg Press, Kaplan Publishing, and Sourcebooks. Kelli works out of her home office in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Sheli Ellsworth

Sheli Ellsworth is a free-lance writer and mother of two teenagers who lives in Thousand Oaks, CA. She has a master’s degree in psychology used mainly to annoy family and friends.

Her writing has been published in the Pacific Daily News, the Ventura County Star, BackHome magazine, Auto Week, Zone4 and she also writes Dear Miss Betty-advice for those who need to be slapped for Spotlight on Recovery.

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes is a Bay Area native and a historian.  He currently teaches strategy at the Naval War College.  He has a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, an M.A. from the University of Kentucky, and a B.A. from the University of Texas.  He has written two books.  His third Allies Against the Rising Sun: The United States, the British Nations, and the Defeat of Imperial Japan comes out in late 2009.    He is currently finishing a fourth book on the 1980 Olympic boycott.  He has published a number of articles that have appeared in outlets such as The Journal of Military History, and ESPN.com.  He has won five writing awards for his article work, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Although trained as a historian, he has also worked as a journalist.  He was a reporter and an editor for The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas.  Since then, he was written for The Montgomery Advertiser, Austin American-Statesman, The Augusta Chronicle, and the Augusta Daily Metro.  He is currently moving into the world of fiction with an effort to write a mystery novel.  He reviews both fiction and non-fiction for the Sacramento Book Review.

When he is not busy writing, he is trying to improve his modest snow skiing skills.  He has skied in five states, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Auey Santos

Auey Santos is a professional photographer, a voice actress, and a mom of two little boys. She was born in Indiana, but has lived in Boston, Welch WV, Tampa Bay FL, New York City, Chicago, and Pasig City.  She now calls the East Bay her home.  She is a very nice person and likes to smile a lot.

Raised on a healthy dose of Judy Blume and Louisa May Alcott, Auey remembers smuggling books and a flashlight under the covers to continue her reading habit after lights out.  The last time we looked,  she has 12 books on her bedside table, which she reads on rotation as the mood strikes. Fortunately, she’s invested in a bedside lamp. She’s been wearing eyeglasses since she was 10 years old.

Auey loves stories. And she likes to tell stories through her photos. Visit her photo-blog at http://www.aueysantos.com/.

D. Wayne Dworsky

Although he grew up in New Jersey, D. Wayne Dworsky was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1944. He recognized his love of nature at a very young age. In 1980, he graduated from Herbert H. Lehman College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and launched his career in education in 1984 by teaching mathematics, which would span 21 years. Between 1983 and 1984, he achieved recognition in the Mohonk Preserve in the Shawangunks as a first-class rock climber, which led to his conquest of the Matterhorn in Zermat, Switzerland in 1985. From 1978 to 1985, he served as editor of the newsletter put out by the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New York. In 1987, he received his Master’s Degree from City College. In 2004, he retired from teaching and began to publish. He hosts a radio talk show on Blog Talk Radio . The show airs each Monday night at 8 pm EDT.  He writes articles for American Chronicle | D. Wayne Dworsky.  Publicity and praise of his fictional stories may be viewed here.  Additional information is available at his full blog

Joseph Arellano

Joseph Arellano is a newer member of the Sacramento Book Review team.   He grew up not far from Sacramento in Stockton, where he received his B.A. in Communication Arts from the University of the Pacific (UOP).  Joseph quit the Pacific debate team in order to thoroughly enjoy himself spinning records for KUOP-FM.  He produced the weekly rock album reviews for the radio station and for the campus paper, The Pacifican.

Joseph moved to Los Angeles for graduate school and somehow never learned to dislike the area (Southern California Book Review, anyone)?  After completing law school, he pretty much decided that he wanted to do anything but boring legal work, and accepted an interesting job with a state agency.  He quickly became entrenched in state service and has worked as a public servant – including teaching in the Criminal Justice Department at Sacramento State – for many, many moons.

Joseph also expresses himself via his blog on which he focuses on books (yes), music (naturally), beer, running, health news, cats and other essentials.  He plans to eventually start a new one, with just book and music news and reviews, which will be located at http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com.  He’s also begun to try his hand at some pre-publication editing work for a technical publisher.

He currently lives in Elk Grove with his wife Ruta and Norwegian Forest Cat, Munchy.  He spends his time being confused about exactly what books he’s supposed to be reviewing, which tends to frustrate Heidi to no end.  What is it Heidi says about supervising the team of reviewers?  Oh, yeah: “It’s like herding cats!”

John Ottinger, III

John Ottinger III is passionate about science fiction and fantasy. A prolific reviewer, he has been posting reviews online and in print since 2004. More recently, he has become a regular contributor to Tor.com, as well as landing gigs reviewing for Publisher’s Weekly, Sacramento Book Review, The Fix, Fantasy Magazine, and the twitterzine Thaumatrope. In addition, he runs his own popular science fiction and fantasy blog, Grasping for the Wind (http://otter.covblogs.com), where he post reviews, interviews, free fiction, and news from the worlds of speculative fiction.

John’s passion for fantasy began at a young age, when his father read him The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia before bed. From there, he graduated to reading work by David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Orson Scott Card, Terry Pratchett, and George R. R. Martin. John is glad of the opportunity to review books, as it has brought his attention to many new an upcoming authors, as well as fostered interesting online friendships with fellow bloggers, authors, and publishing industry professionals.

By day, John is a (not so) mild mannered financial analyst, working particularly with non-profits and churches looking to purchase real estate and construct buildings.

When not working or reviewing, John enjoys watching crime dramas on television, playing with his miniature dachshund Darra, and helping out his local community through volunteer service.

Doreen Erhardt

Doreen was raised in the Santa Clara Valley, where she married in 1980.  She embraced a successful fifteen-year career as a Project Planning Specialist and Supervisor at Ford Aerospace Communications Corporation (now known as Space Systems/Loral), until 1994, when she and her husband relocated to the beautiful Sierra Foothills of California-a goal they had worked towards since their introduction to Amador County in 1981.  It is here that Doreen launched her second career as an artist and gallery owner.

She discovered her passion for photography in 1981 when her husband bought her first SLR camera system for their first wedding anniversary.  In 1990, she returned to college, studying both black & white and color photography, completing her education in 1994.

Finally settling into their new life in Amador County, Doreen was invited to join the Left Bank Gallery in Jackson.   From there, she become a co-owner in the Volcano Gallery, and two years later, opened her own gallery; The St. George Salon of Art in Volcano.  For six years, she acted as curator; creating and executing group and solo art shows, creating and maintaining a global presence through the Internet and handling all aspects of one of the gold country’s more prominent galleries. The artist has received more than 50 awards for her art and photography, including being the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Art and Science of Photography in 2004. Doreen has collectors in the United States, China, Europe, Hong Kong and the U.K.

Wishing to spend more time with her recently “retired” husband of 28 years and her camera, she left the gallery exhibition world in 2005.  Since that time, Doreen has added to her website www.SalonOfArt.com many series and collections to her body of work.

She offers many collections, sets and series that are well-matched for a large variety of markets.  Doreen has created several mock-up product images which can be found throughout the website.  Her focus in 2008/2009 is to find licensing opportunities in apparel, gift wrap, stationery, greetings card and home décor markets; to name a few.

You can visit more of the artist’s work at her other shops. For great casual apparel for the family (including your pets) check out: http://www.cafepress.com/salonofart .  For specialty items, such as; men’s designer ties and Ked’s shoes visit: http://www.zazzle.com/salonofart . For great greeting cards stop by: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/salonofart. And for monthly updates on new art and product releases you can swing by http://www.squidoo.com/salonofartnews

Genny Heikka

Genny lives in California with her husband and two kids, where she balances writing with motherhood and loves both. She’s the author of two children’s books (A Trip to the Supermarket and Find the Sea Animals, to be published by Unibooks Education and Publication, Korea, 2010). She’s also an Assistant Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and edits a regular column in the North/Central California SCBWI newsletter, The Acorn.

Two of Genny’s manuscripts have received awards, including her middle grade novel, Give and Take, which received Honorable Mention in the 2009 Sue Alexander Awards.

In addition to her children’s writing, her work has been published in the book Kirtsy Takes a Bow: A Celebration of Women’s Favorites Online.

You can find Genny writing at her blog, MyCup2Yours, and at places like Sacramento Parent Magazine, PluggedinParents, HybridMom, 5 Minutes for Faith, and MothersClick.

Some of the things she loves? Coffee, chocolate (or actually any dessert), writing, reading, exercising, the smell of fresh cut grass, sunsets in Maui, hiking in Tahoe, dates with her husband in San Francisco, organic products, any movie or book that makes her cry, sushi, getting up early in the morning, candles, reading with her kids at night, and more coffee.

Megan Just

Megan Just has always been reading fanatic.  As a child, she required weekly trips to the library where she would pick up a new armload of books.  It’s hard to keep track of that many books and, thus, began Megan’s bad record of library fines that continues today.  By mid-elementary school, Megan was animating her toys by writing stories about them, one key at a time, on her father’s old manual typewriter.

Megan began reviewing books for the Sacramento Book Review in March.  At the time, she was living just up the hill from Sacramento in South Lake Tahoe.  Although Megan recently moved south to Redlands, California, she will continue to review books for SBR.  She especially enjoys reviewing books by local authors and books that are so new they have not been released for sale yet.

As a freelance writer, Megan writes for a variety of projects.  She likes screenwriting and fiction writing best of all.  She recently finished first drafts of two different books: one is a contemporary women’s novel, and the other, with some work and time, will be literary fiction.  Megan hopes that someday her fellow SBR reviewers will be reading and analyzing her own books.  You can read Megan’s Just Writing blog at www.meganjust.com.

Allena Tapia

Allena Tapia is a freelance writer, editor, mother and perpetual student. She was born and raised in 1980s Detroit. From an early age, she watched her mother climb out of the poverty of the Brightmoor barrio through books and education. By elementary school, Allena was picking up the novels assigned in her mother’s college classroom, and can still be completely lost in a book-much to the annoyance of her husband and two children.

Allena developed a strong loyalty to Michigan State University when her family moved to the Lansing, Michigan area in order for her mother to complete her education. In high school, Allena discovered that other languages provided the same succor, and she eagerly took up Spanish. She eventually made her way to Michigan State University herself, majoring in English and Spanish. She recalls entire days lost in the third floor stacks at MSU’s library, and curious glances from clerks who would process out 20 books at a time for her.

She began her word-oriented career editing and writing full time for both Michigan State and the local community college, but holds that the University classroom spoiled her. She much prefers to work on her own circadian rhythms, and pursue her own interests. She also enjoys prolonged travel to her husband’s family ranch in middle Mexico, where she can practice her Spanish and write quietly as her children manhandle farm animals and run wild in the village. Because of this, she has found her calling as a freelance writer and editor. She is the managing editor of a regional, bilingual social-justice oriented magazine, and has held contracts with the NYT- owned About.com, EBSCO, Thompson-Gale and M.E. Sharpe. Articles and book reviews have been printed in regional and national glossies, and much of her work focuses on Latino issues and culture.

Allena regards words, linguistics, literature and language study as the “stuff of life.” Recommended reading includes “Love in the Time of Cholera” and Verbatim magazine. Her future includes completing her first novel, visiting the Alhambra in Spain, and someday retiring to Mexico with her beloved husband.

She is available for freelance writing, editing and book reviewing through her company, GardenWall Publications: www.gardenwallpublications.com.

Susan L. Roberts

I have a passion for children’s picture books and have a collection of more than 300.  I’ll go into a library or books store, pull 15-20 off the shelf and spend a delightful hour reading and re-reading new titles and my favorites.  It’s something about the simple, often nurturing, text and beautiful art.  Whenever I’ve had a hectic day at work, I slip into bed with a few of my favorites, and life is good again.

I live in Sacramento, California, have a degree in Business Administration and work in marketing.  I love promotions, so writing children’s book reviews for Sacramento Book Review combines two of my passions.

Cathy Lim

Cathy Carmode Lim has been reviewing books for newspapers for more than 10 years. She was a book-page editor for two of those years, until her recent move to California’s Central Valley area. Her lifelong love of reading, along with her “professional-sounding” status as a book reviewer, has led a lot of friends and acquaintances to ask for advice on books to read or just to start up conversations about good reads. She has been able to be in a couple of book clubs and had even more opportunities to talk about books and enjoy the company. What fun  – books, friends and even tasty snacks or scrumptious desserts!

Cathy runs a website called Rated Reads (www.ratedreads.com) that not only provides reviews of recent books (young adult, middle reader and adult novels and nonfiction) but also gives ratings to the books based on content. Some readers find themselves frustrated on finding a popular book has a whole lot of bad language, vulgarity or sexual content (or on learning that their teen has picked up a book with that kind of material), so the site is a service to give extra information for those who like to “be warned.”  It’s much like the ratings system for movies or television – and information is power.

Cathy is a wife to a physical therapist and mother to four daughters, ages 13 down to 2. Books are in her office, living room and bedroom and in each of her daughters’ bedrooms. She has read with her girls every night since each was little – and still reads with the oldest at least once a week. It’s delightful time spent together.

Cathy has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and works part-time now at the Visalia Times-Delta, laying out a weekly entertainment magazine (which naturally includes book pages). She is working on finding a publisher for a children’s book she has written and is next working on a young-adult book.

Andrea Rappaport

Andrea Rappaport’s passion for food and cooking was sparked early on. While most kids her age were making mud pies, Andrea found herself in the kitchen with her grandmother, who lovingly and patiently taught her to prepare the food of her Eastern European heritage. Andrea also received an early culinary education from her food -obsessed parents, who insisted on dragging her and her brother to every hot, new Los Angeles restaurant.

In high school, she spent much of her free time cooking with friends and, at the age of sixteen, landed her first job at a gourmet food shop, where she was introduced to delights such as cheeses from around the world and pasta made from scratch.

At eighteen, Andrea left home to attend college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, while she majored in sociology, she found herself focusing more intently on creating exciting meals for her friends. In her senior year, it finally became clear that she should  pursue a career in cooking. Encouraged by her parents to complete her degree and to get some hands-on restaurant experience before diving straight into cooking school, she took a job at a local restaurant where she found that she thrived on the pressures and excitement of restaurant life.

In 1990, Andrea moved to New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and it was during her stint there that she procured a six-month externship in Wolfgang Puck’s kitchen at Spago in Los Angeles. Upon completing her degree at the CIA, she returned to Los Angeles to cook at Spago and then left a year later to be part of the opening staff of Spago, Las Vegas. Andrea spent two years honing her craft and mastering every station in the Las Vegas restaurant, but eventually felt the need move on.

The next stop on her culinary journey was in San Francisco, where she accepted the position as executive chef of the Italian restaurant Zinzino. In her six years as the chef there, Andrea received sparkling reviews from customers and food critics alike and was named a Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Examiner. She was also invited to be a guest chef at the James Beard House in New York, one of the highest accolades an American chef can receive.

Eventually, Andrea burned out on the frenetic restaurant lifestyle. She spent a year running her own catering business and then took a full-time job as the private chef for a family in the Silicon Valley, where she has remained for eight years. Today, she continues her work as a private chef and divides her time there with free-lance catering, teaching cooking to adults and children, and consulting. She is also a contributing writer for the website Chef2chef.com and writes cookbook reviews for Sacramento Book Review. Andrea spends her free time enjoying the many wonders of San Francisco, socializing with friends, and immersing herself in her cookbook collection which is more than 1200 titles strong.

Alyssa Feller

Alyssa Feller has recently returned to her hometown of Sacramento after earning a B.S. in English from BYU-Idaho.  She’s loving the sunshine and not missing the cold, snowy weather at all!  She now works as a freelance writer and proofreader while still finding time to do her own writing and blogging (mostly about books!).

Alyssa grew up with a family of readers, and was rarely seen without a book.  Weekly trips to the local library meant all the librarians recognized her and greeted her by name.  Alyssa began reviewing books 4 years ago when her love of reading and writing about books led her to a volunteer position reviewing for a Young Adult book website.  Alyssa loves writing for Sacramento Book Review because it gives her the opportunity to read her favorite type of books (Young Adult) and still discover some great new reads in other categories.

When not reading or writing about books, Alyssa enjoys movies, musicals, and spending time with her family.  When she’s lucky she also gets to take the occasional trip to her favorite place in the world: Disneyland.  You can catch up with Alyssa at her blog: http://theshadyglade.blogspot.com.

Holly Scudero

Holly Scudero has been a lover of books ever since learning to read as a child.  That love continued through all of school, where she was consistently ahead of her grade level in reading, through high school and beyond; in college, she took numerous literature classes for fun, including one on Shakespeare and Bible stories.  That love of books is deeply interconnected with a general love of the English language; a someday English major with an A.A. in Liberal Arts, Holly loves to write short stories and poems.  In fact, a close friend of hers frequently asks her to tell her bizarrely crafted stories to fill spare time.

Currently working for a financial services company in Sacramento, Holly lives in Woodland with her husband in their recently acquired house.  Also living there is her cat, Freddy, a small monster who enjoys playing with his food and water and opens Holly’s dresser drawers when she is not home.  Holly grew up in the Bay Area, where the majority of her family and some of her closest friends still reside.  She volunteers every summer at Two Sentinels Girl Scout Camp and is a lifelong Girl Scout.  Holly belongs to the Davis Women’s Book Club and absolutely loves her side job as a writer for the Sacramento Book Review.

Holly has been a vegetarian since shortly after graduating high school.  She absolutely loves to cook exciting vegetable dishes, and loves it even more when she can sneak vegetables into unexpected places, such as in cakes.  Holly is a bit of a health nerd, actually.  She’s also a bit of a comic book nerd, and a video game nerd.  Well, Holly is kind of a nerd in general, and she wears the title proudly.  She frequently attends comic book conventions and makes a journey to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, every year.

Her favorite genres have traditionally been popular fiction or fantasy, but lately she has been rediscovering a love for classic literature and has found that some chick lit isn’t all that bad.  Her favorite books currently include The Jigsaw Woman and The Time Traveler’s Wife, as well as The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice & Fire series.

Amber K. Stott

Amber K. Stott joined the Sacramento Book Review as a freelance writer in March 2009. She also writes gardening tales, recipes, book and restaurant reviews on her blog AwakeAtTheWhisk.blogspot.com.

Amber’s award-winning writing has earned her several first-place honors from the Sacramento Public Relations Association. Currently, she serves as the head of fundraising and communications for Women’s Empowerment, a Sacramento-based nonprofit serving homeless women and children. She has raised more than $4 million for nonprofits including WEAVE and Freedom from Hunger, and serves on the board of the California Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She also holds awards for nonprofit event planning.

Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Illinois, and from the same university, a Master’s degree in African Studies and Women’s Studies, Amber also received a Fulbright Hayes scholarship to study Zulu. She also speaks Danish, and was a Rotary Exchange Student to Denmark.

Raised by a librarian, Amber is often seen with a book in hand. As soon as she could reach the kitchen counter, she baked regularly with her grandma and bakery-owner aunt. She also picked fruit in the yard to make jam with her dad. Today, Amber tends to five raised garden beds with her husband in Sacramento, California, using crop rotation and organic methods. Her seasonal recipes draw inspiration from the ripe produce in her back yard. Her favorite books include Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl.

Alex C. Telander

Alex C. Telander was born in 1979 in Málaga, on the south coast of Spain, where he lived for the first nineteen years of his life, attending an English high school.  He started writing with a vested interest at the age of fifteen with short stories for class and personal enjoyment.  In his last few years in high school, he started his own newspaper, the St. Anthony’s Gazette, where he published some of his stories, as well as a wealth of other material that he mostly wrote for the paper.

Attending Long Beach State, he majored in English: Creative Writing, which he earned a B.A., as well as a minor in history focused on medieval studies.  While in college, he wrote for the independent, student-run newspaper, formerly the Long Beach Union, now the Union Weekly (http://www.asicsulb.org/unionweekly/), first as a staff writer, then as an editor, starting the Literature Page, where his book reviewing first began.  In his last year at Long Beach State, he was Editor in Chief.

Alex C. Telander is a very busy guy.  He has been reviewing books for more than a decade and over the last few years for BookLoons.com and now also working for the great Sacramento Book Review.  He also keeps his own website, www.alexctelander.com, updated every couple of months with his book reviews and other writings, including the “Stream of Consciousness” page.

He is the creator and host of the unique book review and author interview podcast BookBanter (http://bookbanter.podbean.com), which has new episodes on the 1^st and 15^th of every month.  He has already interviewed big authors like Brandon Sanderson, Amber Benson, Dan Simmons, and Bernard Cornwell, with many more interviews planned.  You can check out BookBanter at: http://bookbanter.podbean.com, or search for it on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293685675).  Check out his Facebook group or send an email to bookbanterpodcast@gmail.com to join the mailing list.

Alex is currently working on what he hopes to be the last rewrite of his mystery/thriller novel, Nothing is an Accident, about a man who wakes up and doesn’t know who he is or where he is, or how he even got there.  He is also working on a comic book series called 1066: a historical account of the Battle of Hastings.  He has already completed a young adult fantasy novel, Kyra, with plans for many more books, including Wyrd, a historical fiction novel set in  sixth century Britain.  With what little time he has left, he spends it reading, reading, and more reading, watching TV, hanging out with friends, and watching his favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, when he can.  Go Giants!

Laura Friedkin

Laura Friedkin lives on the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington state. She and her husband relocated there last spring after her husband took a job as a network engineer for one of the local Indian tribes.

Laura’s a graphic designer, with 20 years of experience, and has worked for printing firms as well as several businesses, doing packaging design for health and beauty aids, pharmaceutical and agricultural products, and sports nutrition supplements. Currently, she is doing volunteer work in her new small-town community and spending precious time with her aging parents, who retired from Illinois to the Peninsula 18 years ago.

Laura is an avid reader and enjoys doing reviews for the Sacramento Book Review, which opens up her viewpoint to reading a wide variety of book genres. There’s a nice perk in getting to choose from a broad number of books, and insures her of a steady flow of books for her reading appetite! She’s been reading all her life and looks at it as a way to keep her imagination vivid and her thought process well oiled. It’s also a wonderful means of escape sometimes.

Having spent numerous vacations on the Olympic Peninsula, there are a lot of places yet to explore, and it’s a far cry from living in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, where she and her husband lived for 6 years. It’s been an interesting process, adjusting to small-town living, where the population is in the neighborhood of 25,000, after living in a populace of well over 500,000. The pace of life is much slower, the climate more agreeable, and the scenery, profound, with towering mountains and miles of beach to wander.

Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene is native Californian, novelist, and avid blogger.  She has been married for 13 years, works from a home office, and spends much time with her four energetic children. In elementary school, she discovered Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and began reading classic literature in earnest. The urge to write soon after blossomed from an inkling to serious intent, and her passion for poetry and literature did not diminish into college.

Now a writer for BelatorBooks.com, she has authored four fiction novels and is currently co-authoring a historically-accurate fiction series with her husband and fellow novelist Stephen Greene, starting with On the Way to America, a novel chronicling two immigrants coming to New York in early 1909. Seeking to further her professional experience in freelance writing, she began writing reviews for the Sacramento Book Review, and found the experience to be both informative and rewarding; she views such publications to be important venues in encouraging appreciation for the written word. Despite the veritable cloud of literature available, her favorite books remain The Count of Monte Cristo, Pride and Prejudice and My Family and Other Animals.

Mark Petruska

Mark Petruska is in love and wants the world to know it.  The object of his affection?  The Pacific Northwest, where he has lived for the past 15 years.  Born in Hawaii, his father was in the Air Force, and the family moved often.  Over the years, Mark has called many places home – Dayton, Ohio; Rapid City, South Dakota; San Jose, California – but his heart belongs to Vancouver, Washington, where he currently resides.

Mark is also passionate about writing.  In the 8^th grade, he finished first in a short-story contest, and has been hooked on the written word ever since.  When he turned 30, he decided to try his hand at novel writing, and has cranked out four books over the years; he is currently hard at work on #5.

“My dream is to become a published author,” Mark says.  “I’d love to walk into a bookstore someday, and pull a novel with my name on it from the shelf.”

In the meantime, Mark is enjoying the experience of reviewing books for Sacramento Book Review.  “It’s a win-win situation for me,” he says.  “I love reading, and this has given me the chance to discover some promising new authors.  Plus, it’s giving me some valuable publishing experience, which will hopefully help me out when it’s time to pitch my latest book.  I’m excited to be a part of the whole process, and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Sacramento Book Review.”

Mark is divorced, and shares custody of his two children, Jason and Danielle.  His “day job” is a marketing coordinator for a pressure washer manufacturer in southwest Washington.  Hobbies include cooking, photography, “mind-numbing reality television,” and hiking in the Columbia Gorge.

Scribd.com has recently risen in my esteem. After discovering one of my eBooks on their website some weeks ago–copied and placed thereon by a book pirate–the folks at Scribd had the offending PDF taken down before 10 hours had elapsed. Soon after that, my husband and I began posting “sample” chapter PDFs of our various eBooks, and immediately I saw that this website had potential for self-published eBooks writers.

As in most cases these days, folks need a bit of complimentary “incentive” to visit a new website; right after adding a free short story to Scribd, our daily unique website visitor numbers doubled, and our titles in the Kindle Store began to hum with increased activity. While the sales figures are still far from fabulous, taking the trouble to post a piece on Scribd appears to be paying off.

However, each silver-lining has a cloud attached to it; on Paul Biba’s eBook-news website Tele-Read, I found this article outlining one author’s problem of with Scribd, charging to download her “archived” pieces. In her blog, author Lynn Viehl explains how to go about resolving the problem, but it takes some vigilance on the writer’s part to keep free titles out of the non-royalty-paying Archives.

Free stories hits and problems notwithstanding, the more informative piece we posted brought in the most reads and website visitors. On Monday, I posted a free course of sorts entitled Top Ten Tips for Newbie Fiction Writers, a piece I’d compiled late last year on for writerscafe.org; after re-posting it on Scribd I was surprised to see 200 reads by the end of the day. On Tuesday night, it was featured by Scribd; four days after I posted it the piece has more than 2,250 reads, along with eight 5-Star ratings; the comments and remarks left on our posted items provide valuable feedback on the continuing marketability of our writing. The best part is–unlike some of the other websites I’ve posted free items on–displaying these pieces on Scribd has actually translated into sold eBooks, via both The Kindle Store and Smashwords. In lieu of paid and obtrusive advertisements, we merely added live links to our various titles at the end of each PDF we uploaded. We’re currently uploading our eBook titles into the Scribd Store, where free samples are automatically generated for the viewing public.

Consumers browsing through Scribd.com like to read free reports, studies, courses and stories, but these same folks appear willing to purchase, once they’ve had a chance to “’sample” on a yet-reputable website.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

9.2.10: Scribd Pros & Cons for Scribes and Buyers Alike

8.27.10: The Waning Summer

8.19.10: Podio Books on the Rise

8.13.10: Antitrust Threat for eBooks?

7.30.10: Smartphone > eReader?

7.26.10: Amazon VS Apple

7.15.10: A Medley of eBook News

7.8.10: Summery Sideyards

7.2.10: iHelp for eWriters

6.24.10: April Sales Bring May Statistics

6.17.10: Book Pirates Loot Indy Writers

6.10.10: To BEA, or Not To BEA…

6.2.10: Knowledge, History & Travel – Vicariously

3.20.10: The Emerging eBook Market

5.13.10: Backyard Reading

5.7.10: Fair Book Fare?

4.30.10: eRules for eAdvertising

4.14.10: Statistical Aftermath

4.8.10: 250,000 eBooks

4.2.10:  The Gardener is IN

3.26.10: Spring Soreness

3.18.10: O’ Barbeque

3.14.10: Sorting Through PODs

3.4.10: Publisher eBook Model Evolves

2.25.10:Libraries Blossom Amid Bad Economy

Americans seem to feel renewed interest in literature in the presence of want. Libraries across the nation are reporting a 5%-10% rise in individual attendance. Apparently, folks are not only visiting libraries for the Internet connections, DVD, and periodicals; several city library systems are reporting a marked incline in books being checked out and new cards being issued. More than two million books were checked out in 2009 in the Spokane Public Library system in Washington State, for instance–a 5.6% rise over the year previous–according to a January 2010 article in The Spokesman-Review, along with nearly 14,000 new library cards issued. Folks interviewed in the article like the one-stop-shop approach for research and entertainment, all for free.

The presence of Internet terminals seem to be functioning well as a draw. According to 2009 reports available online at www.ca.gov, last year in the Sacramento Public Library system alone, terminals were used 985,755 times, but libraries also lent out 163,822 items, while 87,434 people attended 2,600 programs and librarians answered almost half a million reference questions. In California public libraries statewide, the number of items lent out in 2008 rose nearly 25% over the previous year; the 2009 report also projects that Internet usage in libraries will increase over the next five years by 23%.

Libraries have taken notice of such statistics and are evolving along with their patrons. Many libraries can be followed on Twitter, for up-to-the minute news on new titles, classes, programs and even available jobs. Find your library on Twitter for a comprehensive list:

The Sacramento Public library can be followed at http://twitter.com/saclib

The San Francisco Library can be followed at: http://twitter.com/sfplnews

So, the next time you get a Tweet from your local library, consider picking up a few of the following titles I’ve recently reviewed (and liked very much):

• The Illustrious Dead by Stephen Talty
• Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan
• Lincoln For President by Bruce Chadwick
• Return to Antarctica: The Amazing Adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott’s Journey to the South Pole by Adrian Raeside

–Meredith Greene

2.18.10: Hobbies From Home

For many Americans, the current economy appears to have mandated a temporarily hold be placed on the pricier spring and summer hobbies. Kayaking gives way to picnics, road trips turn into short scenic drives, and fishing trips switch venues, from the Ocean to local rivers and streams. Finding fun things to do closer to home–or at home–appears to be the favored solution, which, to a small degree, stimulates the economy of one’s own neighborhood. A book reviewer has the unique position of being exposed to numerous ideas during the week, depending on how many books one chooses from the publishing cornucopia; besides the favored history pieces and occasional business books, an interesting array of hobbyist tomes have crossed my desk and have taken root in our home.

As an amateur digital photographer, I was especially pleased to read three  books on the subject, hoping to better my skills not only in art photography, but also in ‘fiddling’ with them via computer software.  Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook proved to be an initially complicated book, but full of helpful tips for proper image capture,  format, and storage tips, as well as an unintended Photo Lingo 101 course for the complete camera novice. If photography’s technological aspects do not inspire, then the gorgeous art in Harald Mante’s Photography Unplugged may just do the trick. The March reviews–coming out in a few weeks—hold two more volumes on the subject; one on using software to enhance the natural quality of your photographs, and the other dedicated to helping one learn the elusive art of portraiture.

If gardening is your forte, then watch for new reviews coming out in the March issue; among them is Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening a huge volume on month-by month gardening help, uniquely addressing plants and garden preparation by micro-climate. Bee-keeping has also become an inexpensive and doubly-rewarding hobby. Depending on state and local government regulations, you may be able to keep bees in your backyard. It is useful type of hobby; honey can be harvested 2-3 times a year and bees wax has several medicinal and craft uses. After reading A Short History of the Honey Bee, we were inspired to get our own bee cabinet and look forward to our first harvest later this year.

Newly sprung herbs, lettuces, and spring vegetables will be soon making appearances at the local farmers markets. No longer a mere fad, healthy cooking had solidified into marked changes of eating habits in many kitchens. Environmentally-conscious cookbooks like Cooking Green and the vivacious Mediterranean-styled Ciao Italia will help get you going, while reading Bread Matters will take the winter’s remaining edge off with healthy, digestible breads from your own kitchen.

If the urge to travel yet lingers, one can always pick up a good travel book with breathtaking photographs aplenty for perusal; reading 1000 Ultimate Experiences from Lonely Planet may not be the same as physically going on trip, but at 1/1000^th of the cost of a foreign vacation it makes for a worthy substitute.

–Meredith Greene

2.11.10 -A Paper Experiment

Ever since my husband and I began our self-published eBook company in early 2008, we’ve expended the majority of our advertising efforts on the Internet realm; we’ve joined dozens of online writing and literature communities, posted blogs, commentaries, musings and messages, reviewed others’ work, posted answers to literary questions, etc.—all in an attempt to grab consumer attention via non-spamming methods. These efforts have produced fruit; not just the virtual kind either, but that which renders money into the PayPal account.

However, seeking to expand visitor numbers to our website, we’ve decided to try new avenue of advertisement, one once considered a “stand by” in the industry: putting ads in paper publications.

Few of the more well-known publications remain in business; however more and more local entrepreneurs have been busy creating regional literary publications with a smaller—but devoted—circulation and appear to be slowly thriving, despite the floundering economy. Liking the idea of supporting local business, and perhaps gaining some for ourselves, we jumped in to the fray with our rather diminutive ad budget.

We chose February to begin posting paper ads, utilizing a handful of regional publications. Upon checking last week’s website statistics this morning, we noticed a 15% rise in daily unique visitors; we also noticed the number of pages viewed nearly doubled as folks meandered through at each and every page on the site. The number of eBooks sold remains fairly normal, but it is just the first week. We did notice that the new visitors tend to wander the site during business hours; one imagines they are still reading thorough the “sample” chapters that we offer, all the while trying to avoid the hawk-like gaze of the boss.

Once we’ve gone through a solid month of the Paper Experiment, I shall report back with the full results; if the first week hold true, with a bump in eBooks sales, we shall call the trial a success and perhaps dole out more dollars for the experiment’s continuation.

– Meredith Greene

D i d  y o u  k n o w ?

Six in 10 Consumers Still Use Newspaper Ads

U.S. consumers say they rely on newspaper advertisements more than ads in any other medium when they are planning, shopping and making purchase decisions, according to early results from a study commissioned by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), conducted by MORI Research.

The research found that 59% of adults identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions.  Among respondents who say they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising 61% clipped a coupon, 50% bought something, 27% tried something for the first time.  In addition, 73% of adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper inserts, and 82% have been spurred to action by a newspaper insert in the past month.  “Newspaper advertising remains the most powerful tool for advertisers who want to motivate consumers to take action,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm.

2.5.10 – A Plethora of Projects

The last weeks of winter make themselves felt in ways more acute than mere chilly weather; before spring emerges, the continuous days-sans-sunlight compile upon one another in an almost threatening blanket of fog-laden despondency. Unwilling to be beaten by such morose diurnal overtones, like many of my fellow humans I’ve determined to keep busy.

As the garden is off-limits until better weather ensues I have noticed that the closets beckon as I pass by, coyly showing their more un-organized portions for addressing. Having reviewed a few books on organization recently (DIY Organizing for Dummies and  A to Z Storage Solutions) I find that the best advice is simply to put down the book, toss out unnecessary items and get some actual work done.

Further down the ‘to keep busy’ list resides several home-improvement projects. Happily, one of these has actually come to fruition; at the end of December, my husband and I embarked on a small master-bathroom remodel, using only our own labor and an appropriately-proportionate budget for the current economy.  The local building-products store provided cut-rate deals on a space-saving vanity and mirror combo; buying the floor model saved us 15%. We used a new product on the floors, a recycled-material floating plank floor system–guaranteed to be 100% water-proof–hued to resemble cherry-wood floors.  It proved reasonably-priced and was remarkably simple to install. A more spacious, pleasant bathroom was the result, and the entire three-day process furthered the burning of unwanted winter calories.

On that note, “bad” diets plague most people I know during these Doldrums Days, but there are glimmers of light on the cooking horizon; more knowledgeable folks are publishing seasonal cookbooks,  faceted with healthy eating in mind, such as Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations from Stonewall Kitchens, a book which made the idea of winter salads more tangible.

The realms of crafts and arts cannot be ignored; Knitting and Sewing step out of their respective nooks and silently display their modern usefulness, along with centuries of supporting evidence. After reading The Alchemy of Color Knitting and Hat Heads, my daughters and I began learning to knit via free You Tube lessons with resounding success; the long, dark evening hours are a bit more charming with the subtle clicking of knitting needles and little faces scowling in concentration. I got a useable (and half-way decent-looking) pair of wool socks out of my labors, which on colder mornings I am quite glad to wear.

Reading and writing become close companions during these weeks, whereas in spring or summer, the outside plants have more claim to my attention; besides the weekly column and monthly reviews my husband and I are working on our eighth novel and have been doggedly re-formatting our books for paper self-publication. Not to ignore the simple pastime of reading, of the recent books reviewed, my most favorite proved to be the highly-informative A Splintered History of Wood: Belt-Sander Races, Blind Woodworkers, and Baseball Bats, which not only gave me some excellent ideas for future home projects, but displayed well to our children all the ways that wood cultivates art.

While waiting for springtime and solar-driven actives, one finds that merely existing does not suffice; winter doldrums are indeed quickly dispelled by a plethora of projects.

–Meredith Greene

1.21.10 – A Look at eBooks

eBooks–while still gaining public acceptance–have many advantages over books manufactured from cellulose products; besides the obvious difference of not requiring paper, eBooks neither need printing services nor trucks to distribute them; eBooks can be sampled and purchased with the click of a button without requiring the consumer to get in the car and drive to a store.

Cost also seems to play a big part in eBook’s increasing popularity. Digital books are often marketed at one quarter the price–or lower–of buying equivalent paper books at a retail-chain. Whether due to the downturn in the economy or merely looking to latch on to the next “it” thing, book-buyers worldwide are seeking out eBooks online in droves.

According to the AAP website (American Association of Publishers), eBook sales were up in 2008–20% over the previous year in the US alone, while audio book sales fell. In 2009–citing only wholesale numbers for eBook sales in the US–the revenue rose sharply to more than $46.5 million; the AAP website even included this sentence alongside the figures: Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures, due to industry wholesale discounts.

The US is actually a little behind in this trend; as early as 2006 Japanese cell phone users were downloading novels to their phone to the tune of $58 million dollars annually, a 331% increase over the previous year’s figures, according to the Digital Content Association of Japan. Initially, a large portion of these were manga books, but writers everywhere took notice of the startling number of young people willing to read books on the tiny screens.

More and more consumers spend increasing amounts of time surfing the Web; it only makes sense that the computer/smart phone is where folks begin to do the majority of their reading. Though a number of traditional publishing houses have recently begun to offer digital books on their websites, they seem to be running to catch up with the soaring potential of this market. Over the last two years especially, self-published authors–like my husband and I–have been more than willing to fill the gap. eBook writers worldwide created websites, soaked in free feedback and editing advice, and wrote more digital content than ever, unconsciously creating a revolution in the book-publishing industry.

The main impediment to eBooks gaining mass popularity was not the content itself, but with the rather awkward methods of reading said content; the initial eBooks could be bought and downloaded to a stationary PC, or even transferred to a laptop, but reading them required using a mouse or keypad in order to turn pages or scroll down. Even to modern consumers, paper books held more appeal as they could be taken anywhere and required no batteries.

Advances in e-reader technology have addressed the majority of the initial concerns consumers had with reading digital books. No longer limited to static Desktop computer screens, eBooks can be downloaded to laptops, smart phones, and, more recently, the handheld reading device.

Amazon’s Kindle took center stage in 2008 as the first viably user-friendly hand-held reading device; it sold out before it was even available for mass distribution. Even more impressive was the Kindle Store, a vast collection of eBooks that could be downloaded to any Kindle, in which any writer–published or not–could upload their own material to the store to be presented and sold. Not to be left out, Apple began offering iPhone apps like Stanza and Iceberg for the burgeoning number of eBook consumers; these apps utilize ePUBs, an alternative format to the nearly-obsolete PDF. Iceberg, in particular, provides the reader with the more book-like experience using virtual page-turning motions and easy ?touch control, verses using a button, tool, or mouse.

Folks in the public eye are also jumping on the eBook bandwagon. Last year, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote a column comparing the Kindle reader and the iPhone using Iceberg, among other readers and apps; while he liked the Kindle as a independent reading device, he admitted it was more convenient to read the eBooks on the iPhone as he already was carrying it as a cell phone and managed to knock off a chapter while waiting in line, without having to reach for a second device.

Besides being more environment-friendly than paper books–not to mention more convenient to purchase–eBooks have the advantage of being sent world-wide attached to an email, compared to a paper book, which must be weighed, paid and then delivered using fossil fuels. eBooks can also be stored by the thousands on a chip smaller than a postage stamp.

Amid the swirl of questions and controversy on how the average person can strive to be greener, it seems the consumer, once again, leads the way in turning to eBooks, especially in combining digital literature with existing business/communication tools.

–Meredith Greene

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1.15.10 – Garden Plans Amid Winter’s Throes

Winter’s chilly conversation seems to invoke a keen longing for warmer days, along with aggressive and abundant plans for spring. The colder the weather, the more grandiose these plans become. In our home, this inclination means mapping out new configurations for our small backyard garden and establishing which plants will reside therein. Our children even have a say in the process, which—we flatter ourselves–cultivates a lifelong interest in backyard gardening.

Over the last few months, I’ve reviewed a slew of gardening-related books, mainly on choosing the proper plants for individual places, both edible and ornamental.  Garden Anywhere, for instance, focuses on folks living in tight spaces, low-budget gardening with realistic advice; The Book of Weeds allows avid gardeners to stock up on information to preempt troublesome intruders before they have a chance to take hold; Right Rose, Right Place harbors succinct and informative advice on one of the most popular and gratifying ornamental plants in the US; A Short History of the Honey Bee inspired our family to make plans to purchase a bee cabinet, which will sit in the corner of our garden during the upcoming spring, right by the honeysuckle vine.

Future reviews in this category are forthcoming over the next two months; I am in the midst of reading a highly-informative book for the planners among us, titled The Well-Designed Garden, the review of which is due out in SBR’s upcoming February issue. When the biting wind imbues you with despair, take heart; soon your hands will be kissed with sunlight and digging contentedly in the heady, moist earth once again.

–Meredith Greene

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Books about historical architecture have always fascinated me. Just opening the pages allows for a figurative walk around someone’s home or office, even if the owners are long deceased. These rooms were actually lived in; work was accomplished here; steps sounded up and down the staircases; and calls, laughter, and music floated in the air interspersed with the contented silences of sleep.

A long-time fan of Arts & Crafts master William Morris’ floral designs, I eagerly browsed the pages of M. H. Baillie Scott’s impressive collection of buildings, reading author Ian MacDonald Smith’s generous introduction with rapt attention; the writer did not stint on the photographs, either. Taken as a group, the building exteriors bear a striking resemblance to one another: white, brown and reddish brown colors, geometrically peaked gables and thick brown timbers. “They all — kind of — look too similar,” I thought; immediately I imagined the book’s author standing by my desk, clucking his tongue and saying: “Ah … only to the untrained eye.”  The interior photographs of each building make their individuality more apparent, though due to the darkness of the homes’ interiors (common in this time period, apparently) I was forced to squint at most of the “whole room” pictures. Thankfully, the writer included many adjacent detail plates to study. The rather ominous feel of Scott’s rooms lends scope to some of the classic books I adore; I could almost see one, or more, of the Bronte sisters scribbling away in one of Scott’s studies … walking the halls with a candle as a thunderstorm roared outside. This book has earned a place on my table, right by the volume on Monet’s paintings.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene

In Northern California, the weather proved unusually mild this summer. Normally, we experience over 100-degree heat wave upon heat wave, inducing in me an almost hermit-like existence indoors. Instead, the cooler temperatures allowed for several trips outside, staying longer typing away on the trusty laptop. As the kids scampered about the landscaping with vacation-borne glee, I finished eight chapters of three novels, read wide-eyed of eBook price battles spanning half the globe and read through a stack of titles.

August came with a plethora of books to review, only half of which I actually managed to finish; the stack contained titles both intriguing and useful – but also those wielding the Dagger of Disappointment. Two books, namely Flash CS5: The Missing Manuel & Business Voyages, were hefty tomes of over 750 pages each. Historical architecture is one of my favorite genres; The Houses and Gardens of M. H. Baillie Scott stole many of my reading hours, advocating with photographic pleas to be studied with care and understood thoroughly. I sat reading in the relative sub-urban quiet, enjoying the warm afternoon air with a cool breeze ruffling the pages. I picked up the cooking tomes almost reluctantly, knowing that the sumptuous recipes within would almost certainly tempt me back indoors. 101 Things I Learned in Culinary School, however, proved worthy of moving inside. Changing venues inside may have been a good idea, as we soon got our first taste of impending autumn with a crisp, blustery day followed by partial overcast.

As I read through the month, I snuck looks at the various eBook blogs and industry news pages that I frequent, adding comments where incited to and re-tweeting when especially impressed. A particular piece by J. A. Konrath caught my eye on Monday, titled The Changing Face of Publishing; in it, Konrath voices fears that the paper book industry may be spiraling downward.

“I’m sensing a shift.” he writes, “And this shift will likely prove fatal for many of the parties involved. If, as I suspect, publishers are going to print fewer books, that will result in a death spiral. Fewer books printed means fewer sold in bookstores, which will no longer be able to stay open. Without bookstore orders, publishers will print even fewer books. And so on.”

After reading the above, I glanced over at the sizable stack of advance copies on my backyard table and realized that if Konrath’s prediction played out, my lengthy season of receiving free paper books to review might also be waning. Advancing technology takes its toll – remember metal typewriters with hand-turned rollers? I saw one the other day on display in an antique store window; it was selling for $300.

As long as paper books are around I’ll read, review and display them on my shelves, encouraging my children to take down a volume when bored, or curl up with them by the fire on a windy winter night, reading from tangible pages in the flickering firelight, yet I will also continue to write eBooks and self-publish online, for that’s where the money is. No one buys the paper versions of our books anymore – they are simply too expensive.

The air surrounding my stack of books has a melancholy feel to it all of the sudden, as if an end to an era looms, while under it another gathers strength.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

Professional programmers and developers use Flash to make nifty political cartoons and multimedia websites , tutorials, presentations, visual effects for film and TV shows, video games. I liked how author and producer Chris Grover didn’t extol the program’s uses too much–nor waxed poetic on its history–but got right into “What’s new about Flash CS5.” As a relatively new user of Flash I delved into this piece eager to learn some shortcuts, especially after slaving nearly three days over a thirty second animation piece not too long ago.

Grover’s “Up To Speed” gray boxes hit my not-quite-savvy-with-coder-lingo reader group just right, being basic, back-fill information that you should know before proceeding. The narrative is easy to understand and thankfully Grover tells you where to find the things he’s talking about and didn’t take subtle jabs at the novices’ expense. The section on ‘text’, especially walking the reader thorough making vertical containers, helped me a great deal. I would have liked to see more on embedding fonts, but the manual is already quite thick without it.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene

My husband and I recently embarked on a journey fraught with elocution: turning our various ebooks into Podiobooks, or serialized audiobooks broken down into 30-40 minute ‘episodes.’ Apparently a growing number of daily commuters like their audiobooks in these shorter segments, rather than having to fast-forward through entire books files.

Audio books have been slowly taking over more of the consumer market for some years. According to the Association of American Publishers website, for May 2010“Physical Audio Book sales posted an increase of 5.1 percent in May with sales totaling $12.9 million; sales for the to-date are up by 13.1 percent. Downloaded Audio Books increased 72.9 percent on last year, with sales of $5.9 million this May; the category was also up 33.3 percent year-to-date.”

While one can present these read-aloud mp3 files into iTunes and charge for them, the indie eBook trend is leaning more towards offering audio book episodes as free marketing pieces. Podiobooks.com, for instance, boasts a membership of more than 71,000, lists greater than 430 podiobooks in 20 genres, as well as offering concise help for authors just beginning their trek into the audiobook realm.

What do they charge for the book?

Nothing.

Donations are accepted, however, of which the authors get a sizable portion. Librivox (literally ‘BookVoice’ in Latin) is a non-profit organization that provides audiobooks of titles in the public domain.  They currently have more than 4,200 titles in 26 languages. The organization also hosts an award ceremony each year for the best male and female narrators, called The Audies.

After reading the how-to manuals and guidelines thoroughly, we found that with a good quality mic, a laptop, and a free download of Audacity (a phenomenal program thus far), one can read one’s book over muted royalty-free music and produce a great-sounding podiobook episode. There is a catch.  It will eat up your spare time. Reading with an even tone flawlessly is not as easy as it seems; no sneezing, no background noise, no excessive pausing, and no yawning. I ended up re-doing the first two chapters of my most popular eBook six times before getting a recording I was happy with. On the flip side, the entire process was rather relaxing.  Reading my own pieces felt far more natural than reading another writer’s work out loud, and I was able to really get into the characters’ voices, weighing whether or not to attempt to imitate the accents. Any technical problems I ran into were easily parried by search-friendly information in the scads of pod-cast/audiobook community help threads.

The free aspect makes us a bit nervous yet–even in this sample-friendly market–just due to the amount of work necessary, not only in writing and editing the books, but in the days required to read the prose aloud, and then in making any necessary corrections. Rather than offering the full audiobooks for free, we’re going to put up a few chapters of each book as a ‘sample’ download and see if a demand for the full books arises.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening.

Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink.

Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

As Amazon’s slashed eBook pricing period drew to a close, Kindle/Kindle app consumers saw a decided increase in prices; the pricier titles included newly re-introduced Penguin books as well as a handful of other publishers’ titles, and immediately some folks cried “Foul!” Over a dozen articles were re-tweeted to me this past week, featuring mild paranoia front and center.

‘Antitrust’ is an emotionally packed word capable of stirring up and smelting public suspicion into a vaguely sharp foil; this weapon is often used for little more than lashing out at shadowy figures in the mist, simply for the sake of ‘looking really busy.’ As much as we like the idea of making certain that the ‘big’ companies stay on the lesser side of Greedy, we must remember that pulling out the Antitrust Card tends to lead towards government ‘regulation’ of yet another aspect of our lives. Next thing you know we’ll be told what we can and cannot write about, all under the guise of ‘fairness.’ Personally, I want to see federal regulation of eBooks like I want to see federal censorship of the Internet; just ask folks in some foreign countries how that’s going for them.

It seems to me that threatening the use of antitrust laws for eBooks is giving the issue undeserved credence. If indeed Apple, Amazon and the ‘big six’ are price-fixing, then the average consumer has lost only the convenience of getting their eBooks in trendy places. There are hordes of Indy writers on the Internet with little websites of their own, many of them offering eBooks at half the cost of those by larger companies; some Indy writers even offer free titles as an enticement, not to mention Project Gutenberg and many other web sites where free eBooks can still be found. In Amazon’s own backyard, The Kindle Store is home to thousands of eBook titles going for less than $5, prices set by the writers themselves. Thus, the eMarket is still broad enough for consumers of digital literature to meander about.

So, what’s causing the upset? Well, back in January Macmillan had a rather sizable skirmish with Amazon over wanting to raise the prices of their eBooks from $9 to just shy of $15, to which Amazon replied by temporarily pulling all Macmillan e-titles from their e-shelves and then releasing the following statement to its customers:

“Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”

Amazon’s statement went on to say “Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan.”

In March, I wrote an article quoting Macmillan’s CEO John Sargent’s blog entry on the ‘new’ Agency Model the publishing giant was adopting, in which he briefly outlined how this move would benefit consumers: “We will price our e-books at a wide variety of prices. In the ink-on-paper world we publish new books in different formats (hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback) at prices that generally range from $35.00 to $5.99. In the digital world we will price each book individually as we do today.”

In that particular blog, Sargent gave the proverbial nod to the consumer, which rather counter-acted its decision to raise prices earlier in January:

“Most Macmillan e-books will still be priced below ten dollars… $9.99 and lower prices will continue to represent the largest portion of our business.”

At the end of the day, consumer spending is what ultimately impacts a given company. If the ‘big six,’ Apple or Amazon set prices too high, then consumers will either buy fewer books or they will seek out Indy writers’ websites even more prolifically than they do now. It stands to reason that such consumer behavior would cause the ‘fixed’ prices to correct themselves rather quickly, lest quarterly reports reflect a loss in unit sales. In the meantime, it may behoove eBook writers to avoid the all-the-eggs-in-one-basket mentality and offer their titles on multiple platforms.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

One of my earliest columns quoted a review that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote about eReading devices, like the Kindle, especially pointing out that while he liked reading on his Kindle at home, he most often resorted to using his iPhone to read eBooks; he simply did not wish to carry two devices while out and about. Some ebook news bloggers expect smartphones to overtake devices as the main eReading platform.

Smartphones with big screens–like iPhone & Droid–are becoming more popular worldwide; sales are up in the UK, garnering 73.5% of the UK contract market according to UnwiredView.com. In a PublishingPerspectives.com piece on July 23^rd, Edward Nawotka asked “Will Cell Phones Prevail Over Dedicated Devices for Mass Market E-Reading?” Nawotka then went on to state: “In emerging markets, cell phone are far more ubiquitous than dedicated e-reading devices, which are more expensive than phones and thus more exclusive and rare. In the US and Europe, dedicated devices have a foothold in the market, but as cell phones continue to grow in size and functionality, the relevance of dedicated e-readers looks to wane.”

More ebooks in Spanish and Portuguese will soon be poured into the mobile-reading cauldron. Spanish telecom giant Telefónica and the Spanish Association of Publishers’ Guilds shook hands on an eBook-purveying deal; their announcement coincides with the launch of Libranda, the e-book distribution platform backed by Spain’s largest publishing houses.

US consumers are not far behind in this trend; according to ComScore.com, 45.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the December 2009 to February 2010, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009. Also in the ComScore report: 18 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter from December 2009 through February 2010, up from 15.1 percent from the prior period.

On the blog NielsenWire, Nielsen analyst Roger Entner had this to say of the issue: “We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the Internet and the world at large…”

What does all this mean for eBook writers? Lately, a few column visitors have remarked on the rather chaotic feel of a market containing such a swirl of names, stats, formats and devices to contend with. It does indeed seem that selling books to the burgeoning eMarket is a bit more complicated than the good ol’ method of simply sending in your typed manuscript to a publisher. Writers considering branching out into eBooks may have to provide titles in multiple formats, probably in both EPUB and in Kindle’s proprietary software, along with convincing an editor to barter for services as well as doing most of their own promotion. It couldn’t hurt to have your eBook translated into other languages as well; in browsing freelance websites like Guru.com and oDesk.com I’ve seen a spike in manuscript translation jobs available as more and more eBook writers seek the attention of foreign customers.

As the evolving book industry and technology advancements align, the convergence appears to be equally favoring mobile customers, app writers and eBook writers.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

Just before Apple’s big announcement (record quarterly earnings), Amazon pulled a rabbit out if its eHat with a press release, apparently to remind the general public that it has survived the iPad onslaught by cutting their eBook prices and that of their Kindle.

“The growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled…”, and “… over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books.”

The only blot on this news for Amazon is that it refuses to release numbers on exactly how many units/Kindles/books it has sold so—for the most part—the company’s statistics fall until the ‘fuzzy math’ category. Publisher’s Weekly, however, put up an article that said how “publishers” are backing Amazon’s claims:

“Interviews with several major trade houses found all acknowledging that they were selling at least as many e-books as hardcovers through Amazon with one major publisher reporting that in the last couple of weeks the ratio had been higher than the 143 e-books to 100 hardcovers Amazon reported for the second quarter. “[E-book] sales are growing week by week,” this publisher said.” (One notes that the name of “this publisher” was not included.)

Apple’s press release, however, gave us concrete figures to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over, though without the surprise invoked by Amazon’s statements: CFO Peter Oppenheimer told investment analysts Apple sold $2.1 billion in iPads and $5 billion in iPhones, the latter up 74 percent from last year’s quarter. Also, iTunes Store revenue reportedly exceeded $1 billion (a 25 percent gain from last year); 225,000+ apps are available, including more than 11,000 apps specifically for the iPad AND consumers have now downloaded greater than five billion (with a ‘B’) apps. Apple also sold 3.472 million Macs last quarter, along with 3.270 million iPads to sync them with.

“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Oppenheimer in Apple’s earning press release.

I was hoping to see more in the Apple press release regarding the number of eBooks sold on its various platforms, but was unable to locate this information.

On a darker note, despite its price cuts and remaining popularity, Amazon  may have stabbed itself in the foot with a new data-gathering program for tracking what its users highlight and also publishing the results. The privacy issues stemming from this tracking program and lack of “data-context” seem to be making even die-hard Kindle fans among the blogging community a bit nervous, to the point where some are reconsidering buying certain books.

As for eBook writers, most on my contact lists seem to view the Amazonian Apple Toss-Up as a positive phenomenon, citing price cuts of traditionally-published titles and growing technology affordability. Indy writers also appear to be playing both fields; my husband and I are no exception. We’ve had our titles in the Kindle Store (located back near page 742) and are actively using several online companies to get our books into the iMarket.

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

Of all the history lessons read and recited in school, none excited my imagination as much as those of the Roman civilization. A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities by classics professor J. C. McKeown earns its title in providing a smattering of odd-yet-intriguing facts about the powerful, superstitious nation.

McKeown readily admits that the book is a collection of facts gathered in a hodge-podge fashion and categorized only by a main idea. As I read, I found this simplified method suited the subject matter perfectly, allowing one to absorb the information with ease. I enjoyed learning about Roma’s secret name — its palindrome, amor (love); those caught divulging this secret name outside sacred rituals were executed. Some of the book’s facts invoked a gasp of disbelief, such as highly educated minds using verbiage so highbrow that their writings were mistakenly viewed by the public as spells; one such author (Apulcius) was tried for witchcraft, though he’d only penned a natural history volume on aquatic life.

This book is especially enjoyable to read amid sunset hues sitting outside in the summertime, where it is easy to imagine the hills of Rome grouped about the River Tiber, the Pantheon and buildings of the Campus Martius blazing in the sun and the citizens, slaves and merchants walking the forums, living lives filled with subtle levels of curiosities.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene

A large segment of the public associates the working out of math problems with schoolwork or tedious employment. In sharp contrast to this general view, Professor John D. Barrow presents a wryly humorous narrative illustrating how fully ingrained math is in our lives. In lieu of an overly analytical textbook, Barrow chooses to relate his carefully gathered facts in a short-story fashion, which in turn reveal to the reader a few personal tidbits about Barrow himself. Readers learn of his fondness for ice cream and literary quotes, his avidly curious nature, as well as a penchant for confounding a willing audience with “obvious” information, related in a saturnine — yet subdued — glee reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes.

This reader enjoyed the “Mind Reading Tricks” section, despite the fact that Barrow failed to correctly predict my answer to the first (eagle). Overall, the book proved abnormally eye-opening regarding everyday items such as mirrors, PowerPoint presentations, the arrangement of items in packing boxes and the actual efficiency rate of turbine windmills (about 20%).

Reviewed by Meredith Greene

Extra, extra! Publishers Weekly released information yesterday regarding the May 2010 U. S. eBook sales statistics:

“After sales growth slowed slightly in April, to 127%, e-book sales rose 162.8% in May, to $29.3 million, at the 13 publishers that report results to AAP’s monthly sales report. Sales for the first five months of the year increased 207.4%, to $148.3 million.”

The PW report went on to say that mass market paperback sales from nine publishers were down over 14% for the month–down 7% for the year-to-date–while hardback sales rose.

Yesterday appeared to be The Day for breakthrough eBook announcements; Smashwords reported on their blog that late Sunday night their 15,000th “Indie” eBook was uploaded.

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth in the last two years, thanks to the trust and confidence placed in us by nearly 7,000 indie authors and publishers around the world. A lot has changed in the last two years. Indie authors are starting to earn the respect they deserve. We still have a long way to go, however.”

A new eReader also surfaced yesterday the Velocity Mico’s Android Cruz Reader, a device set to launch in August. Instead of taking on the iPad, the folks at Velocity Micro pared down the features and price to $199; it will run on Google’s Android OS. The Cruz Reader has a 7″ 4:3 display with a built-in accelerometer and SD capability. Also in their lineup is the Cruz StoryPad, a children’s tablet with the same basic features as the Cruz Reader, plus drop-resistant casing and an interface reportedly designed to be “intuitive for children”.

In other eReader news I received an email alert from Amazon yesterday stating that the “new” Kindle DX is available, a slightly altered and cheaper version of the old one with a 9.7” display, “50% better contrast” on the eInk screen but alas, still no color. I deleted the email and took another peek at the iPad ad-video on Apple’s website.

On the iFront, Audible.com released a new audio book app for iPhone & iPad; the release of the new application comes just a few weeks after the company released a version of its software for Android-based smart-phones. The app has the capability of browsing through your iPod library and finding audio books that have already been downloaded to your device using iTunes or Audible’s download manager, allowing users to skip re-downloading their audio books from Audible.com’s website.

Libraries across the country are beginning to not only see the use of eBooks, but some are taking the next step, providing “docking stations” for in-library access to online titles. Resource Shelf, a daily online newsletter, put up articles about the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Baltimore Library taking said strides.

“Coming soon: a docking station for a free download of popular titles. Under one plan under discussion in Baltimore, library patrons would have three weeks to read it on a Kindle or iPad, then the text would disappear. They could also access a musical recording for a similar period of time.”

To round out the day’s news, I stumbled upon a press release from publisher Knopf Doubleday regarding their latest hop onto the eBook bandwagon; as an eBook writer, I must say that I found the first line especially amusing:

“Not that you had any doubts from the beginning, but the ebook is here to stay. Publishers everywhere are in the process of expanding the number of new titles they plan to make available electronically, and in addition, are making available for the first time older titles that have previously existed only in traditional formats.”

While the news above is good to hear, how quickly the book industry forgets that eBooks were—until quite recently—considered to be ‘a passing fad’. In the midst of such a popular storm it is admittedly easy to forget that the ever-growing group of indy writers are the ones largely responsible for consumer interest in both eBooks and eReading devices, leading the way by presenting their books in a unique fashion and simply refusing to leave the marketplace.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

The warm weather of June inspired me to select a number of cooking volumes to review, as well as a title geared towards helping homeowners give their outdoor living spaces a more ‘Mediterranean’ feel, thus setting the mood for summer gatherings about the grill. Already our barbeque has seen considerable use, both before and after rainstorms, but I am especially grateful for the grill’s presence on sweltering days, when I can stand under the jasmine-shaded canopy and cook, keeping heat and smoke out of the house. No indoor designer kitchen can hold a candle to this open forum of food with its fresh breezes blowing by, its swaying vine-tendrils studded with flowers and the scampering sounds of children at play.

Stonewall Kitchen: Grilling stole the top honors this month, with its “year-round grilling” focus and  mouthwatering montage of photographs. I most appreciated the included tips and hints, which actually helped produce better grilling results.

BBQ Makes Everything Better took some searching to fully appreciate, but proved a useful book nonetheless. Besides gaining a few recipes to try, I learned a handy trick for grilling bone-in chicken and getting the blackened skins off grilled peppers  a bit more easily. A word of warning, however: bacon, Italian dressing, bacon fat and sausage feature prominently in many of this book’s recipes.

For some excellent dinner conversation ‘morsels,’ immerse yourself in A Revolution in Taste: the Rise of French Cuisine. It’s full of intriguing facts about how food was prepared prior to the “nouvelle” cuisine that flowed out of Parisian kitchens and caused much of the civilized world to re-think its cooking methods. What BBQ could not use more simple, nutritive flavors woven together with complimentary art?

Not merely relegated to the food, Italian Rustic also brings art into play, transplanting design ideas and methods straight from Tuscany to your backyard, and also to your home. The pages of this book have inspired us to consider re-plastering our master bedroom and apply a natural “wash” for subtle, earthy tones, in lieu of a blank of latex paint. Outside, one looks with new eyes at the sun-drenched spaces for ways to dress them up: fruit-bearing lemon trees (bought on sale) planted in large pots are a smart stand-in for expensive topiaries; several broad lengths of breezy, light colored fabric sewn over fishing line at the sides can be stretched across hot spots and anchored to eye-hooks embedded in the good neighbor fence, providing an immediate alfresco dining area.

Green-thumbed individuals with small outdoors spaces will heartily enjoy this earth-conscious tome: Garden Anywhere, reviewed back in March 2009; these pages yet influence my garden plans each season.

May pleasant gatherings be yours this Summer.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

From the impressive iPad-related eBook sales on its debut weekend (250,000 eBooks sold) to the more recent figures, it behooves eBook writers to jump a few hurdles in order to get their titles into the iMarket.

As independent eBooks writers, my husband and I have spent many days sending emails and calling complete strangers endeavoring to get our eBooks on the iPhone (and now the iPad) as individual apps, without spending a large amount of money. Initially, we worked through a company specializing in just such a task; impressed with our ‘Indy’ selection, they began formatting five of our fiction novels for rendering, but the market itself interfered. Due to the sharp rise in demand for digital literature the company helping us out quickly became backlogged, and our titles were shelved.

Not to be beaten, we began formatting our books into EPUB format using Calibre–a free converter program—with mild success, though the resulting files fell solidly in the Not-Quite-Professional-Looking category, no matter how they were tweaked, reformatted, or cajoled. Relegated to updating the ol’ PDFs as much as possible, we heard that UC Davis was offering free online courses on making your own iPhone apps. Downloading the initial course from iTunes, we avidly watched  each lesson, taking copious notes amid the intermittent sound failures (we graded the sound tech an Objective ‘C’), but by the end of the first lecture, we realized that our computers would need an expensive upgrade in order to create quality apps, not to mention additional software requirements.

Who should traipse into the dire scene but Lulu; our searching gaze lit upon their ad “Get your eBooks onto the iPad!” with a mildly-suspicious gratitude. Upon  further reading, we learned that, for a limited time, the innovative folks at Lulu offer users the ability to optimize their digital works for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and the Sony Reader at no initial cost. The eBook ‘optimization’ re-formats existing PDF files into EPUB with what appears to be clear, professional results. They also offer fee-based services to convert your eBook files for you, but where’s the fun in that?

Writers already using Lulu generally appreciate the site’s user-friendly approach to creating eBooks, not to mention the Scribd iPaper format option with embeddable AdSense. There are quite a few requirements by Apple, but after jumping through some minor formatting hoops, we can finally have our books on two of the most popular consumer devices on the planet.

So, what could we be making? Lulu starts pricing at $9.99—the default for the iBooks store—and then Apple takes 30% off of that; the author takes 80% of what’s left, around $5.59 a book.  Latching onto EPUB appears to be working for Lulu, according to the site blog: “Since we introduced the format, the number of eBooks created on Lulu has increased 40 percent.”

Lulu isn’t the only service offering eBook-to-iPad conversion services. Some companies charge writers an up-front fee—like Tunecore’s Biblicore—but claim that “100% of the royalties” is the author’s to keep.

On the other hand, Smashwords offers a free service for authors and touts the ability to “Publish to the iPad, B&N Nook, Sony Reader, and More” and—according to their website—can distribute to multiple stores. “Smashwords will pay authors and publishers 42.5 percent of the digital list price (set by the author) for book sales through Amazon. The rate is higher than what many ebook authors can receive on their own if they publish direct with Amazon.”

Speaking of Amazon, it is worthwhile for eBook authors to note a recent CNET To The Rescue comparison of iBooks VS the Kindle app for iPad. “The new Kindle app for the iPad lacks some features iBooks has, but makes up for it with superior flexibility, and a few useful features iBooks does not have.”

With Apple selling its three-millionth iPad on June 22^nd, and the iPhone coming to Verizon in January 2011, it makes ‘cents’ for eBook writers to utilize what inexpensive options remain open, to ensure that their titles be on as many digital bookshelves as possible.

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

In an age of 24/7 animal-themed channels on television, often regurgitating a mantra of “Protection!”, one tends to forget that animals are in fact wild, and many of them extremely dangerous. In Deadly Kingdom author Gordon Grice carefully illustrates just how dangerous, with facts, statistics, and a few stories of his own encounters; in doing so he manages to slowly lift away much of the preconceived notions of what civilized folks view as “dangerous” and “safe” classifications within the animal realm.

Beginning with the most beloved of domesticated animals — the dog — Grice hikes methodically along relaying his rather ominous observances of lions and tigers and bears …  also of cats, jellyfish, hyenas, sharks, spiders, snakes, deer and hippos. The stories contained in these well-penned pages consist of clear warnings and should be required reading for humans who wish to come in close contact with animals of any type. The report of a man being eaten by his seven exotic pet lizards proved especially disturbing. Due to human fascination with the topic, almost anyone can talk of deadly fauna and generate a bit of intrigue, but to weave the facts so artistically together as Mr. Grice has done takes considerable talent and a keenly felt interest.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene