It's a beautiful thing...

By Robin 'Red Hot' Kaye

When technology finally catches up to our expectations.

Shortly after my very first book came out, back in November of 2008, a friend of mine from New York met me for lunch in Baltimore. She’d been one of my first writing friends; she shared my journey to publication and cheered me on for the seven years I’d known her. I was so excited to see her. While we were eating lunch, she asked me when my book was going to come out on Kindle. She had just purchased her Kindle and refused to buy another paperback—even mine. I was crushed—not because she wasn’t going to buy my book until it went on Kindle (heck, I offered to give her a paperback) but because I’d never get the chance to sign a book to her. She nicely refused my offer of a book because living in a studio apartment and being the voracious reader she was, she just didn’t have the room for books. Still, she assured me that she would buy my book as soon as it came out on the Kindle. I said something like, “Yeah, but what am I supposed to do? Sign your Kindle?”

Since then I’ve had people approach me at book signings asking me to sign book marks, mailing labels, and odd scraps of paper all because they were e-book readers. I gladly signed them but still it felt as if something were missing—like the book. Then, a few years ago, a wonderful young woman approached me at a book signing. She held out her Kindle and a sharpie and asked me to sign her Kindle. I was floored. She explained that she had a skin on it, but wanted only her favorite authors to sign it. I was honored, and I have to tell you, when I saw the company my signature was keeping, I was walking on air. But as cool as that was, there was something missing. The reader got a blanket signature, from each of her favorite authors, but not a signature or a personalized inscription for each of her books.

Technology had failed to keep up with my expectations of a personalized e-book signing until a few weeks ago. One day I was on one of my writer’s loops and saw a thread about signing Kindle books. I followed the link and was amazed to find out that finally, someone figured out how I, and all of my e-book reader friends can get our books signed. I found Kindle graph! A website where you can request personalized digital inscriptions for more than 4,0000 books from over 800 authors, and the author list is growing daily. I checked it out, and signed up. Now, every day I get an email telling me how many Kindle graph requests I have. And every morning I sit at my desk, in my pajamas, with my coffee and go to a virtual e-book signing. How cool is that? And the best part is, you don't even have to see me in my jammies!

Win a Kindle for Your Kid!

Did you know that according joint study by Bowker/PubTrack and the Association of Booksellers for Children, more than 80% of teens have never read an e-book? With how wired kids are today, that seems hard to believe, but the fact remains that e-readers just aren't widespread amongst the younger set.

Does your preteen or teen want a Kindle, but you're hesitant to spend the money on yet another easily-lost electronic gadget in this economy? Or maybe your teen keeps borrowing your Kindle so often that you never get a chance to use it.

How would you like to WIN a Kindle for your kid? Of course you would!

Just go to http://www.kindleindiependence.blogspot.com no later than July 3 to enter to win a brand-new Kindle, preloaded with 17 of the hottest indie MG and YA titles. Runners-up with win free e-books.

But don't stop there! The website also lists all the various ways to earn additional entries, such as by sending Twitter messages, "liking" the event on Facebook, or submitting honest reviews of any (or all) of the books involved in the promotion. There's no limit to the number of times you can enter, so start today!

What types of tweets count? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s some sample tweets you can send:

Want a free Kindle? #KindleINDIEpendence http://bit.ly/l3yXeE

Visit the #KindleINDIEpendence day blog to learn more ways to win a free Kindle. http://kindleindiependence.blogspot.com

I just put Codename: Dancer by Amanda Brice on my TBR pile! #kindleINDIEpendence

Love the cover of Queen Bee of Bridgeton by Leslie DuBois! #kindleINDIEpendence

Those are just some examples. Use your imagination, but be sure to use the #kindleINDIEpendence hashtag so we can count it.

So come earn your Kindle INDIEpdendence! DEADLINE: July 3!

Killer Fiction’s Kick off the New Year Contest!!!

By Robin "Red Hot" Kaye


There’s nothing better than a contest to kick off the year! Here at Killer Fiction, we’d like to thank all our readers for a fabulous 2010 and kick off 2011 in fine fashion. And what better way to kick off the New Year than with free stuff? All the rules for the contest are on the sidebar, so read up and make sure you’re entered to win great prizes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All contest winners will be drawn the weekend following the end of the contest. So if you didn’t hear about the contest right away, don’t despair—you can still go back to previous blog posts and enter.

For my blog day, I’m giving away a $25 egift card to Amazon.com or BN.com—winner’s choice and a copy of one of my books, I have Romeo, Romeo, Too Hot to Handle, or Breakfast in Bed--winner’s choice.

Now, for my official contest post…

I can’t believe I said that!

I don’t know about you but have you ever listened to someone and laugh about how an otherwise highly intelligent person could sometimes say or do the dumbest things?

My mother is one such intelligent person. Years ago, when I was going to college and she was getting her masters, she walked past my bedroom door on her way to the garage and told me she was checking her oil. I wondered why she was telling me this. Did she want me to alert the media? I smiled encouragingly and said, “That’s nice, Ma.”

About ten minutes later, she came back and said she was a quart low. I resisted the urge to make a joke, and nodded thinking nothing of it. I’m a girl who would crawl under her car and change her own oil regularly without a problem until I got married and put my DH in charge of all automobile maintenance. Just because I can do it doesn’t mean I want to. But that’s a topic for another post.

My mother returned to the garage and I returned to whatever I was doing. A good ten minutes went by and I looked up to find my mother standing in my doorway holding a dipstick. “All done?” I asked. She shook her head. “I can’t figure out how to get the oil in that teeny-tiny hole.

Needless to say I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants. Back then, in my early twenties, I thought I was so far above ever doing something that ridiculous. I used to call what my mother did “pullin’ an Angi.” since her name is Angela.

Several years later, I was married, had a few kids who were, unfortunately, old enough to remember. My husband was driving down a road in Boise, ID that I traveled daily. I sat in the passenger seat and was looking over at a pasture where horses grazed. I did a double take because the horses looked strange. They were short. Their bodies looked to be about the average length, so I knew they weren’t miniature horses. Stupidly, I opened my mouth and pointed at the misshapen animals. “Honey,” I said. “look at those short horses.”

My husband took one look at me and laughed. “Rob,” he said, “They’re not short, they’re just standing in an irrigation ditch.” I laughed so hard, I cried. I still do every time I think about it. I had turned into my mother. I had pulled an Angi! At the time, I laughed too hard to be mortified. That came later and said mortification revisits me every time one of my kids brings up the short horse story.

So tell me, have you turned into one of your parents or ever said anything as inane as “Hey, look at those short horses!”?