Our President!

I am so happy!  Congratulations!  

Honoring My Mother's Political Choice

Four years ago this week, my mother, Rosary, took a felt pen and made this shirt.  She was not an active political person, and surprised us with her support of our now President. She gave out Halloween candy wearing her shirt.  She died 5 months ago, in June 2012, at the age of 93, (would have  been 94 in Aug)., and I am honoring her by posting this photo of her support of President Obama.  She would again be supporting him because of what he stands for, Women's rights, gay rights, ObamaCare, and maintaining S.S. and Medicare.  And oh, yes, she loved his family and his compassion.  She was in the hospital 4 times the last year of her life, two surgeries, one for kidney stone, one for gallbladder removal.  Each time she was given good care, skilled nursing, physical therapy at home, and was able to maintain an independent life-style until her final two days of life.  Her heart gave out.  Widowed for more than 32 years, and because all her savings had given out a couple of years ago, I supplemented her monthly S.S. income to some extent, but Medicare and AARP paid fully for her medical expenses, and Medicare Part D, helped greatly with her medications.  As much as I miss her, I am so grateful she was able to maintain an independent living situation, because that had been my worry, financially, for a year or two.  There was not money for assisted living at the price tag of $3500 to $4000 a month.  No, she would have had to go on state assistance, and who knows what nursing home conditions.  So if you are undecided about your vote, think carefully about your future needs or those of your family, no matter your age.   

Rex Stout, Author

“I never make up characters, I never contrive them, I know damn well that if I bring someone into a story—I don’t care if it’s just a man carrying a ladder—unless I’m interested in him then the reader can’t be.  So if I’m tempted to make up a character just to save time I wait till I get there and let him make up his mind what he’s like.  Now that sounds funny; impossible even.  But any half-ways decent storyteller knows that as far as possible you let the characters make the decisions.” 

–Rex Stout, American Author (1886-1975), Creator of Nero Wolfe Series, From Rex Stout, A Majesty’s Life by John McAleer.

How true his words are, and how fun when our characters write their story.

Rex Stout had an amazing long life, 89 years, a fifth-generation Quaker, a scholar, mathematical prodigy, founded the ETS, the Education Thrift Services, the bank savings program for school children, political activist for many causes, including racial tolerance, authors rights, and of course, a best selling author for many years. I recommend finding a copy of the 600 page award winning scholarly biography by John McAleer, published in 1977, new edition, 2002. 

And he is my 7th cousin:  We share grandparent ancestors, Richard Stout and Penelope (Van Princin) Stout.

Rex Stout

~Linda 

Don Pendleton's The Godmakers

Don Pendleton's The Godmakers, is now in Print and Kindle at Amazon

Originally published in 1970, under the name Dan Britain, and then under Don Pendleton.  I'm pleased to bring Don's Science Fiction back.  

~Linda 

Don Pendleton's "The Guns of Terra 10"

In 1970, Don Pendleton's Science Fiction novel,  The Guns of Terra 10, was published.  It sold well. Even years later, one could walk into most used bookstores and find copies of it. I know I did.  And now, 42 years later (eeh gads!) I have published it again.  It is available now at Kindle.  

Earth is being invaded by treacherous aliens and the gunship Terra 10, the earth’s only hope, is in the enemy’s power!

Zach Whaleman, the Gunner of Terra 10, was moving fast, out into the darkness. A long-dormant instinct had arisen in response to his urgent need, a very human and entirely “natural” response of a life-mechanism in a survival situation. He had a weapon now! Let them catch him. Let them. He would kill them! He would do everything he had to do to save the super-secrets of Terra 10. 

Originally published in 1970 by Don Pendleton, the creator of the long-running action/adventure series, The Executioner: Mack Bolan.

Cover designed by Judy Bullard.

~Linda Pendleton

What! Hundreds of Paid Book Reviews!

The buzz, and an angry one at that, is that best-selling, self-published author, John Locke, has paid for posted book reviews (and stars) at Amazon.  Full article at NY Times.  

Come on now, do it the fair way.  After all, John Locke wrote a Kindle book, “How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in Five Months!”  I downloaded that book last year, and I don’t recall if I paid .99 cents for it or got it free.  I do know I did not learn much from it, if anything at all.  I basically was already doing most of his “suggestions” in promotion of my works.  I also believed his unusual covers might have helped his sales, and looking at a Search of his novels, I wasn’t impressed enough to buy.

But....the one thing he failed to put in his ebook, was how some of his success, and who knows, maybe all it, was because he paid for book reviews to be posted at Amazon.  A good way to become an “unethical” best-selling author and the first independent published author to sell a million ebooks at Amazon Kindle, a distinction announced in June, 2011.   

So what does this recent revelation of his promotional tactics, as well as those of others who employ these methods of paid reviews, do for legitimate reviews.  Especially for self-published/independent authors? 

But I’ve heard a lot of complaints from authors about the review process.  Too often someone leaves a negative review, and if one knows the book, it can be obvious that the reviewer either did not read all the book, did not agree with a point of view, or some detail, and leaves a bad review.

One of my friend’s first nonfiction book has had excellent five star reviews at Amazon.  Recently she called to tell me she now felt like a “real author” as someone left a terrible review, accusing her of setting up the reviews, saying her life story was made up, and the book was “garbage.”  This person has done other one-star reviews.  My reaction to something like that, is why did the person bother putting up a review?  There are too many so-called reviewers at Amazon who do things like that.  Most authors get those from time to time and find it irritating. 

But most authors will not pay hundreds of dollars to numerous reviewers who promise a good review.  What John Locke has admitted doing makes it tough for all authors who have “real and honest” reviews. 

My husband, Don Pendleton, learned early on in his career to ignore the negative professional reviews.  He also said most professional critics are nothing more than frustrated wannabe authors. 

So what does a non-professional reviewer want to be?   

~Linda 

SOUND OF SILENCE, a new suspense thriller

My latest book, a suspense thriller, Sound of Silence, is now available

at Amazon in print and Kindle.

HIGH-TECH WEAPONS—A HIT LIST—MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Southern California Investigative Reporter, Diana Chambers is in the middle of a mysterious murder investigation.  A short time after Jorge Johnston, CEO of a Manhattan high-tech weapons company, reaches out to Chambers for investigative help, he dies a horrific death, along with two of his coworkers.  And they are only the first to die.    

Chambers looks to former FBI profiler Robert Venturi for help in finding answers.  They discover the lives of several scientists are at risk, as well as their own lives. 

Who is behind the mysterious deaths?  Is it a small group of high profile wealthy business men with international ties and questionable intent, as Jorge Johnston believed.   And is charismatic Southern California television evangelist, Sanders McAllister, a member of this group of nine men?  

Diana Chambers’ investigation has led her to questions the motives of her own government, the intentions of the HAARP technology in Alaska, and other so-called non-lethal weaponry.  Is this technology lethal, not only to the environment, but also to human life?  Is mind-control real?  Have these high-tech weapons of “non-lethal” properties ended up in the hands of those with evil intent? And is to think that, nothing more than some irrational conspiracy theory?—Or is it fact? 

Robert Venturi begins to question what he knows about military advances as the investigation reveals years of covert activities and legitimate scientific development.  What they discover is terrifying and dangerous, and he is as determined as Diana Chambers is to put a stop to the killings, regardless of the fact that their own lives are on the line.  

"...Sound of Silence was a great novel from start to finish and one that you shouldn't miss!" ~Billy P. Craig, author 

~Linda 

Author Interviews

I enjoy doing author interviews.  I always like to know what motivates and inspires other authors.  I've done several interviews in recent years and I have now posted them on my new website, Bunch of E-Books. 

I hope you enjoy reading what they have to say about their careers, their lives, and publishing.  

See the author interviews here




~Linda     

Bunch of E-Books

Visit my new website for a variety of Kinde Ebooks

Linda

http://bunchofebooks.com/

Cheryl Richardson on "Boundry Busters"

Cheryl Richardson has a new paperback edition of her book The Art of Extreme Care Self-Care.  Many of us may be "sensitive" and affected by negativity from the world around us.  Cheryl gives some great ideas on how to protect ourselves from negativity, whether it comes from relationships, stress, overload, media news, etc. 

I like her phrase, "Boundry Busters."  Have you had any of those in your life?

Are you an empath--able to pick up the emotions of others? And in doing so, have you learned to protect yourself from taking on those emotions of others?  Is your intuition fine-tuned?   

~Linda 

The Unknown, A Novel, by Linda Pendleton

Available at Amazon Kindle

A Small Drop of Ink, Famous Quotations by Linda Pendleton

Within A Small Drop of Ink, you will discover inspiring words of men and women from ancient time to the present, along with vignettes from the author. This collection of inspirational and thought-provoking quotations from the wisdom of the ages will inspire and lift the spirit.

Longfellow, Emerson, Carver, Stanton, Lincoln, Wordsworth, Plato, Thoreau, Alcott, Byron, Seneca, Tennyson, Sophocles, Beecher, Shakespeare, Twain, Vandyke, St. Augustine, Cicero, Whitman, Goethe, Aristotle, Blake, Bacon, Beethoven, Dickinson, and many others share their inspirational, moving and powerful words about life and death, love, success, life lessons, freedom, equality, the beauty of nature, and creativity.

As Lord Byron once wrote:
"Words are things; and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands,
perhaps millions think."

Now in Kindle, in print in a few days at Amazon.

~Linda

My Experience with Amazon's Kindle Select Program

I just posted this at Jon Guenther's Ctrl+Alt+Pub "a multi-author blog dedicated to providing information about self-publishing and inspire authors seeking to publish their own works through non-traditional venues"...and decided to post it here as well.

A few weeks ago, when Amazon announced their new Kindle Select Program, I was not in favor of it. My reason for that was the exclusivity required to enroll your book/books. I had even posted at a blog that I would not be taking part in Amazon’s new program. The idea of giving books away as a promotional tool was not at all my reason for declining the opportunity. Over the years I’ve given many books away: mine, those of my late husband, Don Pendleton, and ours.

From the Amazon Kindle site: “ When you make your book exclusive to Kindle for at least 90 days, it will be part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for the same period and you will earn your share of a monthly fund when readers borrow your books from the library. You will also be able to promote your book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.” The monthly fund for December was $500,000, and for January it is $700,00. Sharing that amount of money should be enticing. I happen to be a Prime member of Amazon and have been for a number of years, and am now able to “borrow” many books free through the Lending Library.

I have over fifty books now published at Kindle, which includes more than a dozen of Don Pendleton’s books. A number of our books are also at Smashwords, and distributed to a number of ebook retailers, including for the Nook, Kobo, iPad.

But one of my books has been exclusive to Kindle, only because I had not gotten around to putting it elsewhere. I decided to give the program a try. On December 27 and 28, I gave my historical Civil War novel, Corn Silk Days: Iowa, 1862, away FREE. I was amazed!! Nearly 8,000 copies were downloaded. It was #1 on the Free Best Seller Lists, War Fiction: The # 2 book on that list was Tolstoy’s War and Peace! Other listings included, # 4 in Historical romance, # 4 in Historical Fiction; # 19 in Romance; # 77 in Fiction.

When the two-day promotion ended, it stayed fairly high on the Best Seller Lists, staying in the Top Ten of paid books under War Fiction. Today, it is listed as # 2 under Best Selling Historical War Novels in the Kindle Store. # 3 is War and Peace (a free edition), and War Horse is # 4. Obviously my sales and the Kindle Lending Library downloads are continuing.

I then added two additional books, one mystery, one nonfiction, to the Select Program. The results have not been quite as impressive, but my nonfiction, To Dance With Angels, went # 1 in Paid New Age Channeling, and # 1 in New Age Religion and Spirituality. Today, it remains in the Top Ten after a two-day promotion on January 1st.

So I’m happy! Sales have increased on many of my others books not in the program. I’d say this promotion may well be worth it.


~Linda

Free Kindle book, TIME TO TIME by Don Pendleton

Don Pendleton's TIME TO TIME: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novel is FREE today and tomorrow AT KINDLE.

Grab you copy for you Kindle reader or Kindle App.

http://amzn.to/z8DWbx

Elvis

Elvis Presley, January 8, 1935 - August 16, 1977

To Dance With Angels by Don and Linda Pendleton,now Free at Kindle

Late this evening, our classic and popular spiritual nonfiction book, To Dance With Angels will be FREE at Amazon Kindle. for a short time.

~Linda

A Kindle Christmas!

More than a week ago, on December 15th, a press release from Amazon.com stated that "Kindle devices remain the hottest products this holiday season – for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com since its introduction 11 weeks ago."

I wonder what the number will be by year's end. 5 million??


Whatever the number, as an author with numerous books at Kindle, I am happy to hear this news.


I like my Kindle, a gift from my son, daughter-in-law and grandson, last Christmas, and I also use Kindle on my PC.

So many book to chose from, including many from those of us who have chosen to self-publish many of our books. Here are some ideas to check out for books to put on your new Kindle or Kindle Fire.


Last week I read Andrew E. Kaufman's second book, The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted. It is a very good psychological thriller. You won't be disappointed! Andrew's first book will also keep you in suspense: the best-selling book, While the Savage Sleeps


Read the Interview I did with Andrew E. Kaufman here following the release of his first book.


For something different, yet suspenseful, is The Fourth Awakening Series by Rod Pennington and Jeffrey A. Martin, Ph.D. The first book in the best-selling spiritional fiction series is The Fourth Awakening. The second in the series, The Gathering Darkness was publ ished recently.

I also interviewed Rod Pennington.


Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Private Eye Series of six books are now all priced at .99 cents for the holidays.


I reduced the price on my own Catherine Winter Private Eye Series, Shattered Lens and Fractured Image.


Roulette, a crime novel by Don Pendleton and Linda Pendleton is now 3.99. This book turned out to be Don Pendleton's last novel. Don was the "father of the Action/Adventure genre."


The Death Gods by Richard S. Prather. It is his last novel, 61 years after the publication of Prather's first book in his best-selling Shell Scott Mystery Series.


A fascinating nonfiction memoir you might take a look at is Athena Demitrios' book, The Seasoning of the Soul. An inspirational read!


Check my Author Page at Amazon and you may see a variety of books, nonfiction and fiction, that may interest you. The California Gold Rush nonfiction books seem to find their home on Kindles all the time.


Happy Holidays! Happy reading. Don't you just love the new technology?!


~Linda

Sixty-One Years of the Shell Scott Mystery Series by Richard S. Prather

It was in 1950 that Richard S. Prather's first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett's Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet, titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine.

Richard S. Prather's book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor. He received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986, and was twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. His Shell Scott mysteries are now back in print with ereads.com and available as POD paperbacks and ebooks, and a number of his novels are at booksinmotion.com as unabridged audio books. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott mystery, is now back in print, published by Hard Case Crime, November 2006.

I met Richard and his wife, Tina, in 1989, when my husband, Don Pendleton and I were vacationing in Sedona, AZ. Don and Richard had shared the same literary agent for a number of years, yet the two of them had never met. Don picked up the telephone and called Richard and we spent a delightful evening with them at their home.

About five years later, Don and I moved to Sedona, so we often got together with Richard and Tina.

Richard had given me a wonderful endorsement quote for my first Catherine Winter PI novel, Shattered Lens, and encouraged me to make it a series, which I have done. Fractured Image is the second book in the series and I hope there will be more Catherine Winter in the future.

In 2006, I asked Richard if I could do an interview with him. We did it by mail, and due to his declining health, it did take some time. I published the long interview in December 2006. During that time, Richard asked me to take his unpublished 1,000 page manuscript, The Death Gods, at his death and to do my best to market it. Following his death in February, 2007, I received the manuscript, all 1,000 pages, only a few of those pages typed, the balance, handwritten with lots of his blue felt pen notes squeezed between lines.

The task seemed overwhelming and due to the length, agents and publishers did not find it an attractive opportunity. But I did not give up on publishing Richard’s work, as I felt strongly that his fans and new readers should have the opportunity to read the last Shell Scott mystery.

So sixty-one, yes, Sixty-One years after Richard S. Prather’s tough, yet happy-go-lucky, Southern California detective, Shell Scott hit the pages of a book, the last Shell Scott mystery is now in print and in ebook formats. I am pleased with his story, with the book and with the cover I designed with Judy Bullard. I hope readers will enjoy Richard S. Prather’s last creation.

Read more here

Blog, Richard S. Prather, The Death Gods, Shell Scott

Exclusive Interview with Richard S. Prather by Linda Pendleton, at Kindle

~Linda

Richard S. Prather's The Death Gods, Shell Scott: The Death Gods

Richard S. Prather's The Death Gods, Shell Scott: The Death Gods: “Even I—and I am not a doctor, and thus can’t know for sure about such things—understood that civilization must be face-to-face with its gre...