Win pre-release copies of "Braineater Jones"

"Braineater Jones," the new zombie horror from Stephen Kozeniewski, hits the streets next month - and we're celebrating with a giveaway!

Braineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life. Along with his partner - a smart-aleck severed head - the newly-minted zombie descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder. This wise-cracking, rollicking novel takes readers into Prohibition-era speakeasies as Jones gets immersed into the postmortem crowd - and tries to quelch a surge of cannibalism that threatens the entire city. Here's a synopsis of the book.

We'd like to offer a free pre-release copy of the e-book for 15 of you!

You can sign up below to enter. On October 14, 2013 we'll draw for the winners and announce the results here in this post. Good luck!

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Kindle Fire Free App of the Day: Table Tennis 3D and bonus app: Car Maintenance Reminder Lite

Today's Free App of the Day is Table Tennis 3D
Originally $0.99

This is a virtual table tennis game. Ping pong, as the home game is called. However, the one star reviews cite privacy issues AND game play.

6 of 11 reviews are four stars and above.

So we have a bonus pick: Car Maintenance Reminder Lite.

This is a routine car maintenance and fuel log and reminder. It is the lite version, so you can only add one car. However, I liked it well enough to upgrade to the Pro version as we have multiple cars.

You enter your car's name, make and daily mileage. I entered Miata as the name, picked Mazda off the list presented. If you have a car not on the list, such as my Austin Mini Cooper, you can add "Not Specified." It would be nice to be able to add makes to the list.

I left the daily mileage at the default 15 miles a day (You can choose between 0 and 1000. It increments by 1 mile up to 20, then by 10 miles up to 100. And so on. If you are driving a thousand miles a day, oh, my!) The daily mileage is used to estimate when the next service is due for reminders.

The car shows up as a tab along the top with the manufacturer's logo. If you have the pro version, a tab for each car will show along the top. Save your entry.

You then enter the current mileage on the odometer. You can update the mileage. This is a single entry at any one time.

The default is to show maintenance records. If you want to switch to recording fuel mileage, tap on the "Show MPG tab in the upper left. To go back to Maintenance, tap on the "Show Maint."

You can then add notes about the car such as optimal tire pressure, engine oil type, or other notes. There is a single note area.

You then add maintenance.. You can add your last service for various items, as well as the odometer reading and date when they were done:

Oil change
state inspection
tire rotation
wheel alignment
engine air filter
cabin air filter
windshield wiper
transmission fluid
radiator coolant
brake fluid
spark plugs
front brake pad
rear brake
power steering fluid
timing belt
battery

The various maintenance activities come with set intervals, such as 4 years and/or 60,000 miles for the timing belt. But you can change that by tapping on the little gear in the upper right of each activity.

You can also add custom maintenance tasks to cover items that you do routinely that aren't listed.

To add fuel records, tap on the "Show MPG." Tap on "Add Fill Up Record" on the right. You must enter the date, the odometer, and the volume (amount) of gas purchased. You can optionally enter the price or the total purchase (only enter price or total purchase, the app will calculate the other item), the octane (gas type) and a note, such as where you bought the gas (Atlanta, Fredericksburg, etc.). You can check "partial fill up" and "forgot to log last fill up." Save the record. To edit or delete the record, tap on it.

Once you've got a fuel record, when you enter the next fuel record, the app will guestimate the mileage based on your daily mileage since the last entry.

Once you have entered a record or preferably two, you can view various graphs about your fuel use. Tap on a graph to enlarge it and again to go back to all the graphs. You can view fuel statistics such as fuel economy, fuel consumption, drive dist per day, drive dist per fill up, days between fill up, volume per fill up, price, cost per fill up, per mile, per day, month or year. You can also toggle between using the last three months of data or all the records.

12 of 16 reviews are four stars and above.

These apps are compatible with the original Fire and with my Fire HD 8.9" 4G. To tell if an app works for your Fire HD or other Android device registered to your Amazon account, click on the above link and look on the right side of the web page.  Amazon will tell you if it will work with your registered device.

Have fun!

Also check out the other digital deals from Amazon, including great deals on MP3s and videos:

 

Discover the "Gastien" series by Caddy Rowland

Looking for a new series to get lost in? Discover Caddy Rowland's engaging series about Gastien and the Beauchamps family, appealing to lovers of historical fiction, drama, family sagas, and psychological novels.

Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream (The Gastien Series), by Caddy Rowland

"What is Gastien? What is a family saga? I didn't know either of these things at first, but it sounded interesting. It was so much better than interesting though. This review will never come close enough to how this book made me felt, but I will try.

Have you ever had a goal in life, one that no matter what, you would never give up on? Were you in a position in life that stated, by almost everyone, you'll never make it? That was Gastien's world. Born to a bitter and abusive father, in order to accomplish his dream of painting, he must run and never return home. He was a dreamer who refused to quit, and he will take himself to the most bitter edge of starvation to accomplish it. When others would say `I would rather eat' or `I would rather live somewhere nice', he chooses to never give up and use that money for his art. Foolish or brilliant?

Gastien will rise and fall multiple times. When will he get his ultimate dream? A job? When will he at least get off the streets? Just when you think `he's okay', it all comes crashing down again. Just like in life, you never know what to expect in this book. You could be crying emotionally for three pages at a time, and then the next start bouncing with joy. It is a rollercoaster ride that I do not want to get off of. I think my heart will break a little when the journey is finally over.

This book is sexually charged. Besides painting and art, Gastien is definitely about the sex. That is who he is though, without it, this book would not be the same. Having such a hard time as a child, growing up to love is tough. Sex is a substitute to feel wanted and warm. I have a feeling the second book is really going to be putting Gastien to a test, if the summary is anything close to it!

The highest I can rate it is five. However to me, this is one of the best books I have read in years. It will be a long time before another book will be able to take its place." -- "Trying to Live” Book Blog

When young Gastien Beauchamp flees the farm for Paris, the late nineteenth century bohemian era is in full swing. Color has always called to him, beseeching him to capture it on canvas and show people a new way of seeing things. His father belittled his dream of being an artist and tried to beat him into giving it up. The dream wouldn’t die, but Gastien would have had he not left.

He also yearns to become a great lover. After the years of anguish he has endured at the hand of his father, it would be heaven to feel pleasure instead of pain.

However, the city of Paris has a ruthless agenda. Unless a man has money and connections, Paris unfeelingly crushes dreams and destroys souls. With neither of the required assets, Gastien faces living in alleys, digging in trash bins for food, and sleeping where a man is often killed for his threadbare blanket.

Left with only his dreams, Gastien stubbornly pushes on. He vows that absolutely nothing will stop him, not yet realizing what keeping that vow might mean. Sometimes the “impossible” is possible – but the cost can be extremely high.

This historical fiction novel is book 1 of a 5 book drama/family saga for adults (The Gastien Series). Each book can stand on its own, but is most compelling read in order.

Historic people, places, events and things mentioned: Impressionism, bohemia, Acdémie Julian, bourgeois, Crémerie Restaurant Polidor, absinthe, hashish, L'Estaque, Le Procope, Montmartre, Notre Dame de Paris, artist, gentry, peasant


Get the first book in this series!
Worldwide links:

More books in The Gastien Series 




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Meet the Author

Caddy Rowland grew up with a stack of books that almost reached the ceiling before she was five. Books, along with her vivid imagination, have always been some of her closest friends.

She lives with her husband, who was her high school sweetheart. They are owned by two parrots. Besides being a writer, she is an artist. One can often find her "makin' love to the color" (painting) with loud music blaring.

Her goal as an author is to make readers laugh, cry, think, and become intimately connected with her main characters. She writes dramatic novels showcasing the sublime joy and bitter tragedy of being human.



Visit author website

The "Reynolds Family Saga" series!

The "Reynolds Family Saga" is a romantic suspense series, with the first book, "The Many and the One," available for 99 cents today.

The Many and The One (The Reynolds Family Saga-Book 1), by Donald Wells

"This book is a saga all its own and takes place over about twenty years. The bad guy in the book, Derek Stern, is such a tragic figure, it's almost like he had no choice but to turn out the way he did because of his mother. This book had me laughing in one chapter and crying in the next." -- Amazon reviewer

From the author of THE FIX-IT MAN & The TAKEN! Series

When Lindsay Parker catches her boyfriend Derek Stern cheating, she wants only one thing--Revenge!

Knowing of Derek's hatred for Jason Reynolds, she begins dating Jason simply as a way to hurt Derek.

However, something happens that Lindsay didn't count on. She falls in love. Derek schemes to get Lindsay back into his life, however, his obsession goes too far, and leads to a violent and life-altering confrontation with Jason.

When Derek's beautiful, but conniving mother Charlotte enters the fray, the stakes escalate into a decades long struggle that tests Lindsay and Jason's bond, while redefining the boundaries of love.

Get the first book in this series!
Worldwide links:

More books in the The Reynolds Family Saga series




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Don't miss updates on The Reynolds Family Saga Series - sign up for the email newsletter at the author website:

Subscribe to author newsletter

Meet the Author

Donald Wells is the author of the TAKEN! Series, The REYNOLDS FAMILY SAGA, BLUE STEELE & The CALIBER DETECTIVE AGENCY.

When he's not writing he spends his time reading and when he's reading, he wishes he were writing.

A man of many talents, Mr. Wells invented the now much used term .com as well as the word "Dealy"

Before becoming a writer, Mr. Wells spent years as an aspiring pianist and was often known to spend hours at practice. If he had ever had access to a piano, who knows what heights he might have achieved.

A renowned Chocoholic, the town of Hershey, PA. is considering erecting a statue in his honor.

A little known fact: Mr. Wells was one of the original Back Street Boys.

Another of his talents is the writing of bogus biographies in the third person.

An avid blogger, Mr. Wells now has his own blog on the Validation Publishing website (www.valadationpublishing.com) in which he frequently pokes fun at the world of Traditional Publishing.

To learn about Mr. Wells' new releases and enjoy bonus content, please visit, www.donaldwells.com

Thanks!



Visit author website

Kindle Fire Free App of the Day: Zookeeper DX

Today's Free App of the Day is ZOOKEEPER DX
Originally $0.99

This was the App of the Day on Nov 28, 2012.

Here is my review at the time:

Note that I think this is a Japanese game that has been translated. At least I hope it is, since some of the English sentences don't read quite right. I decided to look at it again to see if I'd give it a different review.

There are three ways to play:
Normal match 3;
Zookeeper Battle--online battle with global players;
Tokoton--Catch 100 animals and advance to next stage.

The Zookeeper Battle apparently requires a free download of a separate app. You are given a goal for the number of tiles to clear of each type. The goal, which seems to be the same for each type, at least in the lower levels, goes up by one with each level. There is a timer bar at the bottom that increases with each match and goes down as you delay between matches. The board starts to twitch when you are close to running out of time.

Some of the reviews complain about the poor graphics. Actually, the quality of the graphics on my HD8.9 are quite good; but the style is reminiscent of the 8-bit graphics, so it has a very retro look. You can turn of the sounds completely, or adjust the volume of the background music (BGM) or sound effects (SE) individually.

You can pause a game in progress, but if you quit, you start over at level 1, you can't save your progress. To resume a paused game, tap the "pause" button again. The only "power-up" I've encountered so far is a little spinning icon. When you tap on that, all the instances of the tile that is up are cleared.
There is a "How to Play" that says, in total: "Catch more animals than target and beat all stages." I ran out of time on one level (because I was working on this review) and there was a cute graphic of a judge telling the zookeeper "Don't neglect your duty." If you run out of time, you are allowed to Retry, but you start over at level 1. There was another cute little graphic between levels six and seven, so I expect others as I play. 

All in all, I'd give it four stars; the imperfect English and the a bit-too-simple "how to play" keep it from five stars for me.


82 of 124 reviews are four stars and above.

These apps are compatible with the original Fire and with my Fire HD 8.9" 4G. To tell if an app works for your Fire HD or other Android device registered to your Amazon account, click on the above link and look on the right side of the web page.  Amazon will tell you if it will work with your registered device.

Have fun!

Also check out the other digital deals from Amazon, including great deals on MP3s and videos:

 

Book Discovery Day! (Friday Sep 27)

It's Book Discovery Day! Twice a week we bring you a selection of books that are newly-published, or that have been overlooked.

Every great book was once a hidden gem. Browse through the books below and start your own discovery!

Book Discovery - newly-published and overlooked books!

Raven's Witch (Twelve Months of Romance - October), by Margaret Lake
	Raven's Witch - a novella Rowena comes from a long line of witches reaching back some two hundred years. So, she wants to know, why is it that her lotions separate, her potions harden and she can’t even cast a simple little love spell? Enter Allan, a raven that Rowena is sure is destined to be her familiar. But when the raven turns into an all too human man, Rowena knows she has failed once again. Man or familiar, Allan soon realizes it is up to him to rescue Rowena from the two hundred year old legend that keeps her spellbound....
The Spinster and The Earl (Book 1 Gentlemen of Honor), by Beverly Adam
	She was known as The Spinster of Brightwood Manor, and that suited Lady Beatrice O’Brien just fine. She was happy being a spinster; happy running her father’s estates while amassing a fortune of her own; happy tending to the needs of her community; and most of all, she was happy not having a man around to tell her what to do. But when Beatrice accidentally shoots her new neighbor, the Earl of Drennan, her life turns upside-down. Suddenly, this very arrogant gentleman, who also happens to be charming and attractive, makes himself at home at Brightwood Manor, and proceeds to court her! Beatrice knows one thing for certain. Marriage will complicate her life. But falling in love? That’s an entirely differe...
Hunted and the Damned, by R. J. Dillon
	A British spy’s disappearance in Berlin at the height of the Cold War has never been fully explained. When a retired British Secret Intelligence Service officer is brutally murdered in Berlin, the two events are dismissed as unconnected, simply a coincidence. Following the dead officer’s trail from London to Berlin, Nick Torr – the SIS Director of Covert Operations – uncovers an obsessive quest for a missing convoy of Nazi gold seeped in myth and legend. In the shadowland of a city still divided by memories of the Wall, he discovers that the gold is only one piece in a complex puzzle of treachery, deceit and betrayal. In Berlin, he uncovers a number of traitors linking past and present together, secrets that Soviet Milit...
Simma (Water Worlds), by H. S. St. Ours
	Simma was sure she'd never see Sami again. Sef or Glyn, either. She'd left Sami standing in the middle of the street in First Right nearly a year ago, and the boys had vanished without a trace long before that, or were chased from the tunnel by the Judge. Living under the water in tunnel Tee Two, with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend, Namid, frightened Simma no end. Any moment, she felt, the walls would split and the whole of the mile-wide river would rush in and drown her. Namid said she'd outgrow it but she was nearly sixteen and this feeling of dread only deepened in her. Then Sami came, as if in a dream, and told her to run! Through a catastrophe brought ...
Allegra's Dream (Avador Book 4, a Books We Love Fantasy Romance), by Shirley Martin
	Used as a pawn for much of her life, Allegra vows that someday she will determine her own fate. But when Rowan Leinster becomes her guardian, she fears she has gone from bad to worse. Soon, danger threatens her. For her safety, Rowan takes her to a far-distant land, a world beyond time and space. There, Allegra and Rowan discover their growing love for each other, yet they realize they can't stay in this paradise. With the help of a friendly dragon, they return to their own world with its turmoil and strife. When a handsome king seeks Allegra's hand in marriage, she must choose between the needs of her country and the desires of her heart. Shirley Martin Avador Series Published by Books We Love
The Ardis Cole Series: Murder and the Monalet Ruby (Book 4), by Vickie Britton
	When Ardis Cole goes to South Dakota to handle a bequest of pioneer and Sioux artifacts left to the University of Chicago by the wealthy private collector, Anthony LaMoine, she finds unexpected trouble—a stolen ruby, a present-day murder, and a skeleton in the cellar! As a teenager after a battle with his father, Anthony’s adopted son had run away from home. Find the son, the housekeeper tells her, and you’ll find the thief. But is the son really the guilty party? And is the mysterious writer-historian, Seldon Drake, the man he claims to be—or is he an imposter?...
CRYO: Rise of the Immortals (A Science Fiction Adventure), by Geoffrey Wakeling
	John Carlody always thought he was destined for greatness but an atomic bomb, out of control censorship and the death of his wife have put pay to his ambitions. When he wins one of the world's most elusive tickets - a place on the CRYO program - his wildest dreams begin to unfurl as if the past was always leading towards this moment. However, lusting for the future and saying goodbye are two different things entirely. As John prepares for a new time and world, he begins to realise that there's something far more to CRYO than their glitzy public exterior. And now he's caught in their tangled web, he may just find that the world he's running from becomes the only place he ...
Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse, by Stephen Drivick
	Our hero had it all: A great job, a beautiful wife, and even a nice car. As he approached middle age, all the comforts of a fantastic life were within reach. Then the zombies came, destroyed the world, and it all disappeared in a flash. Now he walks in a shattered world filled with hungry undead, dead towns, and desperate survivors. He is low on supplies, running out of time, and with slim hope of long-term survival. His long walk to escape the dead is slowly becoming a death march. Then one day, he meets another survivor. A young, starving former college co-ed walking the other way. This is their story....