Need a last minute Christmas book for a kid?

Check out Rick Daley's The Man in the Cinder Clouds. I'm reading it to my daughter right now and she's loving every word. Remember, the actual Christmas season runs until January 13th this year.

You can check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Cinder-Clouds-Rick-Daley/dp/1461091683/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356004941&sr=8-1&keywords=the+man+in+the+cinder+clouds

The Man in the Cinder Clouds

By Rick Daley

A young boy and his scientist father made an incredible discovery at the North Pole—an ancient book embedded deep within an ice core. Even more incredible is the story the book tells: the long-lost history of Santa Claus you never knew…and will never forget.

This origins-of-Santa story is a great holiday read for the whole family. Its mix of action, humor, and Christmas spirit keeps younger readers turning the pages, but The Man in the Cinder Clouds is not just a kids’ book.

As one Amazon.com reviewer puts it, “THE MAN IN THE CINDER CLOUDS is one of those middle grade books that the grown-ups get sucked into along with their kids. You think you bought if for your young reader but after you browse chapter one you just sort of... can't stop.”

This story-within-a-story reveals the origins of our most familiar Christmas traditions: from Christmas trees, stockings, and lumps of coal to jingle bells, the North Pole, and flying reindeer. Highly original and thoroughly entertaining, The Man in the Cinder Clouds will show you how Kris Kringle came to be known as Santa Claus. It wasn’t easy.

About the Author

Rick Daley has been writing professionally for over 15 years. His experience includes marketing copy for print and web, press releases, business proposals, training and technical manuals, and whitepapers. His essays, ranging from family life during the holidays to his first skydiving experience, have been featured in The Columbus Dispatch.

Rick lives in Lewis Center, Ohio, with his wife and two sons (and a neurotic schnauzer).

Free Souls: Book Three of the Mindjack Trilogy

Free Souls by Susan Kaye Quinn

(Book Three of the Mindjack Trilogy) Now Available!

When your mind is a weapon, freedom comes at a price.

Four months have passed since Kira left home to join Julian’s Jacker Freedom Alliance, but the hole in her heart still whistles empty where her boyfriend Raf used to be. She fills it with weapons training, JFA patrols, and an obsessive hunt for FBI agent Kestrel, ignoring Julian’s worries about her safety and repeated attempts to recruit her for his revolutionary chat-casts. When anti-jacker politician Vellus surrounds Jackertown with the National Guard, Kira discovers there’s more to Julian’s concerns than she knew, but she’s forced to take on a mission that neither want and that might be her last: assassinating Senator Vellus before he can snuff out Julian’s revolution and the jackers she’s come to love.

All Mindjack stories available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and iTunes (Note Free Souls is not yet available on iTunes)

Early Praise for Free Souls

“Quinn paints a picture of a not-too-distant America where politicians inflame the hatred of one section of the populace for another—all for their own gain—and you worry that her world is not so far off from our own.”

— Dianne Salerni, author of We Hear the Dead, The Caged Graves, and the forthcoming The Eighth Day

"Free Souls starts with a bang and doesn't let up. Like a mash-up of all your favorite science-fiction adventures from Star Wars to The Legend of Korra, it blends nonstop action, nail-biting escapes, and great romance. I absolutely loved it! A great series conclusion—a must-read."

— Leigh Talbert Moore, author of Rouge and The Truth About Faking

“Susan did it again. Free Souls was WOW! I expected Kira to step up to her role as heroine but not like this. Surprises kept coming until the very end which tied up more loose ends than I knew existed. Warning: Don't start reading until you have time to finish. I didn't want to put Free Souls down for a second. It's that kind of book.”

— Sher A. Hart, Goodreads Review

Interview Susan's over at Amy Saunder's blog today (12.14.12), answering questions about how she came up with the mages' abilities, what kind of mage she would be, and all about her future works. Digital Box Set Since Free Souls is out, there is now a Digital Box Set of the Mindjack Trilogy for those of you who want the whole series!

Available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble

Mindjack Origins Collection Want more Julian? Wondering how Sasha's ability really works? Looking for EXCLUSIVE DELETED SCENES from Free Souls? This collection of novellas, scenes, and other goodies is for those craving a bit more of the characters and drama of the Mindjack series.

Includes: Mindjack NovellasMind Games (Raf's story)The Handler (Julian's story)The Scribe (Sasha's story) TWO EXCLUSIVE DELETED SCENES from Free Souls (published nowhere else!) PLUS Mindjack flash fiction, an (imaginary) conversation between Raf and Julian, and other goodies for readers who want just a little bit more of Kira, Julian, Raf, and the Mindjack crew.

Available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble

ENTER TO WINone of FIVE ecopies of the Mindjack Origins Collection

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Four Short Walls #74 - The Joys of Publication

Everybody Loves a Good Transformation

This is why it's all about your unique interpretation and not just the idea itself. A muscial example of how it works in the writing world:



If you haven't seen the Katy Perry original, feel free to youtube it. :)

Four Short Walls #73 - The Writer's Impulse

Operation Napoleon - Under the Microscope

Operation Napoleon

This book was a gift to me, given because I liked the author, Arnaldur Indridason. The trick, though, is that it's a little different than his other books. His other novels are gritty crime novels, dark police procedurals in the vein of Henning Mankell, Ake Edwardson, Jo Nesbo, and Sjowall and Wahloo (ah, the Scandinavians...). This particular book, however, is a thriller, an adventure mystery (though there are a few murders, of course) set in Iceland, revolving around a Nazi plane that crashed there at the end of WWII. Secrets abound, and many people want the plane and the secrets it holds. And they'll kill to get them.

I enjoyed the novel, though not as much as the other Indridason novels I've read. Is part of that simply my own preference for dark crime novels rather than escape-the-bad-guy thrillers? Partly. But it also struck me that the writer simply hadn't mastered the ouevre quite as well. Interestingly, the part of the book I thought was best... was when two cops were trying to figure out a crime. There was a realness and grit to this part, a vividness that was lacking in other parts. It was like he knew how to occupy these characters, and all the details were right. This world was a little more three-dimensional. In the other sections, things were two often good guy and bad guy, and the antagonist was sort of a classic hollywood villain, which is much different than the socio-cultural focus of Indridason's crime novels (which are more about a situation and its influences than about evil dudes with a grudge).

If you like thrillers full of mysterious historical secrets, this book might be for you. If you like dark police procedurals, check out Indridason's other books. Plus, Iceland is a great place to visit in the winter; it makes everywhere else seem almost warm.

Four Short Walls #72 - Loyalty