The Sharing Knife Series by Lois Bujold eBook editions

The writing of Lois McMaster Bujold is among the best in characterization. She creates a personal connection for the reader that runs deeper than is common for this genre.

Her Vorkosigan Saga dominated by the character of Miles Vorkosigan has always amused and absorbed me when new bits of the series were released. I recommend it to anyone with an ounce of romance in their soul.

She has switched themes and is moving down a path dedicated to exploring historical fantasy worlds.

While I miss Miles and other characters brought to life in her earlier work, I still await her new books with appropriate anticipation. For anyone who likes SF or Fantasy she is in the top ten at her craft.

The presence of her Vor society will stand alongside many of the greatest series in the history of SF. The same will probably be true of her newer venture into Fantasy writing. I do hope that she will revisit Miles a few more times in moments in the future. While he is now happily married in her most recent piece of work on him and certainly more mature there is still a lot of life left in the little man.

I have watched a lot of authors come and go in fifty years of reading SF and Fantasy. The truth is that great writing is not what Science Fiction is all about. Even the greatest SF writers usually lack some literary hallmarks that live more often in other genre types and literature in general.

Bujold is one of the exceptions and whatever she serves up will be well worth reading, often more than once.

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eBook Discounts for February 25, 2009

It goes again my grain to include the same book a couple of times, but He's Just Not That Into You is an overwhelming favorite with readers; so here it is again. It looks as if the Movies are strongly influencing readers; probably appropriate post Academy Awards. And speaking of post; in this post-Madoff world David Latko's book is a "must read!" Use coupon code A9JG4 at checkout to get this week's discounts.

He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys (Mobipocket) eBook edition by Behrendt, Greg / Tuccillo, Liz / Marcus, Barry David A provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. . . It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you More Info List Price : $16.99 Your price $13.07 (Using your 10% discount and $ .69 points in eBook Reward points)

Confessions of a Shopaholic eBook Edition by Kinsella, Sophies Rebecca Bloomwood just hit rock bottom. But she's never looked better...Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is that she can't actually afford it -- not any of it. More Info List Price : $6.99 Your price $5.38 (Using your 10% discount and $ .28 iin eBook Reward points)

Organize Your Digital Life eBook edition by Baldridge, Aimee This book delivers basic step-by-step instruction on streamlining and organizing your "digital life" so you can find what you need instantly and create presentations your friends and family will love. In addition, you’ll be amazed at the decrease in household clutter and paper waste. More Info List Price : $15.95 Your price $12.28 (Using your 10% discount and $ .65 in eBook Reward points)

Reader eBook edition by Schlink, Bernhard "The Reader" is both a literary surprise and a moral challenge: a riveting, provocative, and deeply moving novel about a young boy's erotic awakening in a passionate, clandestine love affair with an older woman, and what happens to them both when the secrets in her past are revealed. More Info List Price : $13.95 Your price $10.74 (Using your 10% discount and $ .57 in eBook Reward points)

Everybody Wants Your Money eBook edition by Latko, David W. A street–smart guide by a trusted expert that exposes how we make shocking money mistakes, often involving the people we trust the most, and explains how we can prevent or undo those missteps. More Info List Price : $22.99 Your price $17.69 (Using your 10% discount and $ .93 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About in the last 15 days -- we will gladly offer you a rebate on the book; just contact us

Adobe FINALLY Makes a Move

For months there has been this nagging little question at the back of my brain.  It is -- "What the hell is Adobe thinking!?"

One day, with no warning and for no apparent reason to the average reader, they switched the eBook reading format from Adobe Reader to Adobe Digital Editions. 

Now, Adobe Reader is a fine little piece of software.  Sure it has some problems with reflowing text.  It means that to read some text you have to to scroll around (from right to left) to read a full page.  A nuisance for sure, but not a deal killer. 

Adobe Reader functions on Windows, Mac and many Unix computers as well as on most hand held devices.  It allows you to change how pages display.  It even lets you rotate the page view from portrait to landscape.  The search function is peppy and and if you want it, you can have an automated voice read to you.  Pretty nifty.

But one day it was: Goodbye Reader; Hello Digital Editions (DE). 

Initially DE only worked on Windows based computers. Now it works on a Mac, but still not Linux or Handhelds.  The big breakthrough was when they struck a deal with Sony so that the Sony eReader could actually accommodate DE.

And instead of a more or less intuitive menu structure DE pretty much did away with menus.  The DE interface gives new meaning to the idea of minimalist. The icons are hard to see and hard to decipher,  I suspect this is in an effort to hide the fact that they really aren't very useful.  Page display options are severely limited; search is deadly slow and there are no tools like zoom or automatic scroll.

It is apparently based on Flash and has the annoying characteristic of checking back to the Adobe site everytime you open it.

But here is my favorite part.  DE claims to have "Powerful markup features."  My question is where?  I have looked high and low, but so far have been unable to highlight, annotate or otherwise markup anything.  So I am not even sure what this claim means.

Almost every publisher creates an Adobe version of their title.  Very often the only available digital format is Adobe.  So why have publishers allowed Adobe to summarily change out the format and disenfranchise a big part of the market.  I know that we used to sell lots of Adobe versions to people with handhelds. 

The net result is a curious disconnect between book technology and book readers. Publishers love Adobe and none of the eReaders (with the exception of Sony) embrace it.  Very odd.

Evidently, that is about to changes.  Last week Adobe announced that they have a new SDK (software development kit) that will make it easy (?) to create Digital Editions formatted books for use on the Cybook, Illiad and Plastic Logic eReaders. 

I am always a little suspicious of technology that is referred to by initials:  SDK, OS and DRM come to mind. 

Adobe has a lot to prove!  Not to publishers, who evidently don't really care since eBooks are such a small part of their market.  But to eBook retailers like me who have seen our sales impacted at a time when no one can afford to take an economic hit.  And most importantly to readers who are increasingly frustrated by an industry that can not get it's act together.

 

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The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister eBook edition

Every now and then I stumble over a novel that reminds me that English is a rich, evocative and beautiful language.  The School of Essential Ingredients did just that.

This is a simple story driven by a chapter devoted to each of the Cooking School's students.  Each has arrived at the school for very different reasons which are slowly revealed.  The revelations are cleverly interspersed with philosophy and recipes. 

I appreciated the character development and while the plot is not thrilling it is well crafted and inexorably pulls you through the book.  The appeal of this book stays with you long after you have read the last word. 

Bauermeister's descriptions of food are -- well -- sensual. Not to mention mouth watering and visual.  After a couple of chapters I wanted to get into the kitchen and start cooking.  The only problem was that I would have to put down the book to do that.  So I kept reading; stomach growling.

The food is one thing; the writing style is something else again.  This prose is close to poetry as Bauermeister draws parallels between food and words.  She also somehow transforms words into visceral objects that sing and dance through your brain.

This may be Bauermeister's first book, but I sincerely hope it won't be her last!  I finished the book and wanted more.  Maybe book two about the next class.  Which sounds fine, but I found I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters either. 

At the risk of spewing "purple prose" I will just state that her lush prose make a literary feast. . . Seriously, this is a book to savor. 

The publisher says:

The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen.

Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her student's lives.

One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian's food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another.

Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

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Discounted Tom Clancy eBooks

Tom Clancy, for all his adventuring as a writer, is evidently something of a Luddite at heart.

For years he has refused to release his title as eBooks. But I guess time, demand a possibly his publisher have finally persuaded him to give it a try.

In February and March most of his books will be released as eBooks.

So between now and March 31st, we are offering a 10% discount on any and all Tom Clancy books.

To get this discount, just use coupon code zCl293 at checkout.

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Smartphones in the Classroom

This morning, the New York Times has a great piece on smartphones in the classroom.

One one side is the cellphone industry saying that using a smartphone improves math skills. The claim is based on a study conducted in four North Carolina schools. The schools were all located in low-income neighborhoods; and 9th and 10th-grade math students were given high-end cellphones. The phone were each preloaded with special algebra learning programs.

The students used the phones to study -- recording them solving problems and even posting videos of their work for other students to watch. Evidently the school had set up a private network just for these students. Now how cool is that!

But there's more. . . the students were allowed talk and texting minutes to use during their off time. And just to keep things safe, the messages were monitored by teachers to make sure that they were appropriate.

At the end of the year the students were given an algebra exam and the results showed that students with the phones performed 25 percent better than those without the devices.

Of course, there is the other side. This side includes the usual suspects, teacher unions such as the American Federation of Teachers, school administrators and some individual teachers who believe that cellphones are just a distraction from the real business of learning. Which explains why many states and school districts ban cellphones on school campuses.

I would be willing to bet that most of these detractors have never even used a smart phone. . .

After watching the teens around me, I have to say that giving them a cellphone sounds like a winner idea. They are smaller and cheaper than computers; they can be insured for very little money and the kids love them.

Most of the teens I know remind me Charleton Heston -- you will have to pry the cell phone out of their cold dead hands. It seems to me a winning strategy to use their passion for the devices and leverage it into an educational tool.

The cost of a smartphone, especially when bought in bulk, can't be much more expensive than the outrageous amount of money spent on textbooks and supplies.

From what I have seen in our local school system there is a lot of room for experimentation. When you have one third of the children in the district "left behind", the status quo is clearly NOT working.

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Consequences by Penelope Lively eBook edition

As a part of my (very British) upbringing, we played parlor games.  On rainy days or during long quasi-social evenings a favorite was Consequences.

Consequences is a very simple sequence games.  The first person writes a man's name, folds the paper down and passes it to the next person who writes a woman's name.  Each person adds a scrap on information -- the place, what he said, what she said, the consequence and the outcome.  The results are always random and very often hilarious.

Consequences is a clever adaptation of this old parlor game.  Matt met Lorna in Saint James Park . . .

This simple statement begins a seventy year history of three women:  Lorna, Molly and Ruth.  The story weaves external history and internal stories and demonstrate how time and memory change perceptions of events.

The lives of these three women (grandmother, daughter and grand daughter) are held up for examination and exploration.  Lively deftly compares and contrasts their lives, their choices and the random events of the world around them.  She shows how the present is ever shadowed by the past; even when we are not aware of exactly what the past was. 

Both the interior and the exterior lives of these characters are finely drawn.  Even if you do not agree with the choices they make, Lively's narrative will pull you in and keep you reading.

I have been a Penelope Lively fan for close to thirty years; every since I happened upon a copy of the Road to Lichfied.  She always writes about time, perception and loss with great empathy and grace. Her eye for detail, vivid prose, meticulous plotting are a joy to read. And as an added bonus, I always feel a little smarter when I finish one of her books.

Here is the publisher's blurb:

A chance meeting in St. James's Park begins young Lorna and Matt's intense relationship. Wholly in love, they leave London for a cottage in a rural Somerset village. Their intimate life together--Matt's woodcarving, Lorna's self-discovery, their new baby, Molly--is shattered with the arrival of World War II. In 1960s London, Molly happens upon a forgotten newspaper--a seemingly small moment that leads to her first job and, eventually, a pregnancy by a wealthy man who wants to marry her but whom she does not love. Thirty years later, Ruth, who has always considered her existence a peculiar accident, questions her own marriage and begins a journey that takes her back to 1941--and a redefinition of herself and of love.

Told in Lively's incomparable prose, Consequences is a powerful story of growth, death, and rebirth and a study of the previous century--its major and minor events, its shaping of public consciousness, and its changing of lives.

 

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eBook Discounts for February 11, 2009

You picked two of my personal favorites this week -- Dewey and Oscar are wonderful characters! Personal motiviation, romance and housing round out the week. To get your discount on these titles use coupon code DH59Y at checkout.

Dewey eBook edition by Myron, Vicky How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books More Info List Price : $14.99 Your price $11.53 (Using your 10% discount and $ .61 points in eBook Reward points)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao eBook Edition by Diaz, Junot Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. More Info List Price : $14.00 Your price $10.77 (Using your 10% discount and $ .57 iin eBook Reward points)

Going the Distance eBook edition by Kennedy, Kevin Going the Distance identifies eight key obstacles to the long-term success of great businesses-and shows exactly how to overcome them. Former Cisco SVP Kevin Kennedy and leading consultant Mary Moore show how to assess corporate health and correct weakness. More Info List Price : $19.96 Your price $17.07 (Using your 10% discount and $ .90 in eBook Reward points)

And the Desert Blooms by Johansen, Iris eBook edition by Johansen, Iris It begins with a single shot. . . Devon Brady is a devoted veterinarian working in a makeshift hospital on a remote search and rescue mission. When a man arrives with his wounded black Lab, Ned, she has no idea that she is about to be plunged into a whirlwind of terror and destruction. More Info List Price : $6.99 Your price $5.38 (Using your 10% discount and $ .57 in eBook Reward points)

Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville eBook edition by Rybczynski, Witold, This is the compelling story of New Daleville, a brand-new residential subdivision in rural Pennsylvania. When Witold Rybczynski first heard about New Daleville, it was only a developer's idea, attached to ninety acres of cornfield an hour and a half west of Philadelphia. Over the course of five years, Rybczynski met everyone involved in the transformation of this land -- More Info List Price : $11.99 Your price $10.25 (Using your 10% discount and $ .54 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About in the last 15 days -- we will gladly offer you a rebate on the book; just contact us

eBooks in the News

It was busy, busy week for eBook news items. Here is a grab bag of the ones I found the most interesting.

Google Mobile

Google announced that it's library of 1.5 million scanned books is now available for the PC, the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. These books are scanned so that there are no links but the image quality is pretty impressive.   Check out it out on the Google Book Search Blog.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 and Surprise Announcement

Rumor has it that Amazon will be releasing a new version of the Kindle next week.  More info and pictures can be found on the  Boy Genius blog

AND according to the New York Times, Amazon is now working on making Kindle titles available on a variety of mobile phones. Not surprising really. . . of course there is no time estimate but the idea has a lot of people watching this new development.

Computer World Predicts a Bright Future for eBooks

One of the most interesting articles I have read about the growth in the eBook market showed up over the weekend in Computer World.  Staff writer Mike Elgan makes a case for revolutionary growth in the eBook market.  He believes that six major trends will finally kick eBooks into the mainstream:

• The economy
• The environment
• Publishing revolution
• Aggressive eBook marketing
• A rise in books written for electronic reading
• The decline of the newspaper industry

An excellent and persuasive piece which is worth reading from top to bottom.  Click here to read it.

A Short History of eBooks

Another excellent piece is a rather long article by John Siracusa at ars technica.  He traces his experience with eBooks starting with his job at Palm in 2002 to the present.  My favorite quote:

Let me leave you with a quote from another Peanut Press founder, one which reflects his not-entirely unfounded optimism about the subtle seduction of e-books: "You know what we call people who finally try e-books after they've sworn they could never read on a handheld device? 'Customers.'"

It is an excellent history of eBooks and the story of his personal experiences with the content and the technology.  I actually laughed out loud a couple of time!

Cell Phones -- the Statistics

I know.  Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.  I can not resist, however, quoting some statistics that back up my belief that cellphones are going to rule the world of eBook reading.  

• 1.18 Billion new mobile phones were sold in 2008 (IDC 2009)
• There are 4 Billion mobile phone subscribers
• The world has about 6.7 Billion people, so this means that 60% of the world population has a cell phone

Admittedly some people own multiple phones but even so, that might take the percentage down to 50% (extremely low).

Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore explore this phenomena in great detail on their blog. Check it out!

That's it for this week -- my top five stores.  Stay tuned for news and updates and follow the links to read the items mentioned here.

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Smoke and Shadows eBook by Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff whose Science Fiction and Fantasy novels have occasionally delighted me in the past has developed a relatively new series.

The Smoke Trilogy begins with, Smoke and Shadows and I hope continues for a long time. So what is an old guy like me doing reading books aimed at a largely far younger audience?

Well, I have this eleven year old granddaughter who is writing a vampire story. I just thought reading a bit of the genre wouldn’t hurt too much.

In fact when I picked up the book I was quickly delighted by the fact that Huff has captured the weirdness and clarity necessary to write interesting fantasy novels. She is capable of populating them with characters that ring true under the wildest circumstances imaginable. I have no limits on what I will read if the author will just make the characters believable. The angst and fury of saving the world with the help of a prince of a vampire falls on a young man, Tony Foster. Ms. Huff populates the world around him with vivid and lively characters.

Tony is working in Television on the set of a vampire series while developing his career interest in TV production. He meets a wizard, works out the nature of the problem threatening our world, engages the help of his vampire friend/lover, a real prince of a fellow and, well, read the book!

Remember this was a research project for me. But in doing it I gave my granddaughter a gift of a new author, something we can never have enough of in life. I also understand her fascination with the whole Goth thing and the vampire genre as well a great deal better now.

I’ve liked Huff as an author since she broke into the SF/Fantasy scene sometime in the 1980’s. I have up to now ignored her vampire books. Now I find myself buying them all not just to give to my granddaughter but to read for my own enjoyment.

If you want to understand a culture read its literature in the native language. The subculture that fascinates this particular grand-daughter right now is Goth. The literature is populated with wizards, and warlocks and vampires and other interesting human and nonhuman types. Certainly that would have interested me at her age. It still does! I find that is true much to my amusement and gratification.

Give it a try, what’s a little bloodletting among friends?

In 1991, a new series soared into the fantasy firmament with the publication of Blood Price, the first novel in Tanya Huff's acclaimed five-volume masterwork, which followed the exploits of Vicki Nelson, private investigator, and vampire Henry Fitzroy.

Together, Vicki and Henry faced and survived perils ranging from demons, werewolves, and mummies to zombies and restless spirits crying out for revenge. In their trials they were aided-willingly or not-by an assortment of allies. Among these allies was a street kid named Tony Foster. Claimed by Vicki as a reliable snitch and by Henry as "one of his own," Tony found himself rescued from his dead-end existence and given a chance for a better life.

Relocating to Vancouver with Henry, and forced to get his act together, Tony embarked on a career in Vancouver's burgeoning TV industry, landing a job as a production assistant at CB Productions. In an example of art echoing life, the syndicated TV series Tony worked for was "Darkest Night," a show about the adventures of a vampire detective.
Except for his unrequited crush on the show's handsome costar, Lee Nicholas, Tony was pretty content, at least until the day everything started to fall apart on the set. It began with shadows-shadows that seemed to be where shadows didn't belong, shadows that almost seem to have an existence of their own....
Tony tried to ignore it, to tell himself it was all in his imagination-until he found Nikki Waugh's body... and felt the shadow's touch....
And when shadow appeared to cast its claim on Lee, and a crash stunt went wrong for no discernible reason, Tony could no longer ignore what was happening. He had to find out what was threatening everyone on the "Darkest Night" set. And, of course, he needed Henry's help.

It wasn't long before the trail left to CB Productions own special effects wizard, Arra Pelindrake-and a frightening explanation which only a young man with Tony's unique background could accept. But knowing what he faced was only half the battle-finding a way to survive the unsurvivable, and defeat the undefeatable-that was the real challenge!

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eBook Discounts for February 4, 2009

We have topical books: Multiple births and the movie opening of He's Just Not that Into You this weekend. Popular novelists Roberts and Patterson are the fiction picks. And finally, save money on Chase's. Use coupon code C3KL9 at checkout to get these great discounts.

Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets eBook edition By: Carson, Beth, Gosselin, Jon, Gosselin, Kate Kate Gosselin tells the amazing story of how she and her husband, Jon, have survived the overwhelming odds of birthing not only twins but also sextuplets in three years, and how they continue to strive every day to honor Christ while he teaches them to thrive in spite of emotional, financial, social, and physical exhaustion. More Info List Price : $15.99 Your price $12.30 (Using your 10% discount and $ .65 points in eBook Reward points)

The Pagan Stone eBook Edition By: Roberts, Nora From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Blood Brothers and The Hollow—the conclusion to the electrifying trilogy of three men and three women who join forces—and hearts—to battle the ultimate evil. More Info List Price : $7.99 Your price $6.15 (Using your 10% discount and $ .32 iin eBook Reward points)

He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys (Mobipocket) eBook edition By: Behrendt, Greg / Tuccillo, Liz / Marcus, Barry David A provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. . . It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He's just not that into you More Info List Price : $16.99 Your price $13.07 (Using your 10% discount and $ .69 in eBook Reward points)

Cross Country eBook edition By: Patterson, James When the home of Alex Cross's oldest friend, Ellie Cox, is turned into the worst murder scene Alex has ever seen, the destruction leads him to believe that he's chasing a horrible new breed of killer. More Info List Price : $20.99 Your price $16.15 (Using your 10% discount and $ .85 in eBook Reward points)

Chase's Calander of Events 2009 eBook edition eBook edition By: Chase's Calendar of Event Chase’s Calendar of Events 2009, is your authoritative guide to special occurrences, holidays, anniversaries,celebrity birthdates, religious observances, sporting events, and more from around the world. Librarians, marketers, journalists, and other professionals depend on it! More Info List Price : $74.95 Your price $64.08 (Using your 10% discount and $3.37 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About in the last 15 days -- we will gladly offer you a rebate on the book; just contact us

eBooks, eNovels & ePublishing for the cell phone

I admit to having an almost morbid fascination with the whole reading on cell phones thing.  So of course, this Galleycat title grabbed my attention:

86 Percent of Japanese High Schoolers Read Cell Phone Novels

Cell phone novels, called keital in Japanese are hot sellers with Japanese youth (particularly young women). The headline is just the beginning.  The article goes on to say that 75% of middle school and 23% of grade school girls read cell phone novels.

Last year ten of Japan's best selling paper novels started out as cell phone novels and sold about 400,000 copies each.  And in fact most of those sales were for expensive hardcover books.  The buyers had almost all read the novel on their phone before buying the book.

Japan is a country where a great portion of the population commutes on trains. Commuting and text messaging have become almost synonymous.  Talking on cell phones in a crowded space is considered rude and texting is cheaper than voice service. 

Get on any rush hour train and you will see literally hundreds of people peering at their phones.  It makes sense that the young have found their own form of entertainment -- evidently games for guys and cell phone novels for girls. 

These cell phone novels are usually written for the young by the young.  The novels text standard techniques:  short lines, simple vocabulary, and lots of mobile symbols (abbreviations).

But it is it literature?  Not according to the older generation or academics! 

But the older generation and academics are only a small portion of the Internet/cell phone population.  And in this day and age good ideas jump oceans and continents in a single bound.

Consider textnovel, the first English language cell phone novel site.  The site offers free subscriptions to serialized cell phone novels.  Last month cellphone novelist, Saoirse Redgrave, won $1000 for her novel 13 to Life: a Werewolf's Tale. 

It has started!  Stay tuned.

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