CINCO DE Harwood!! Readers Wake Up!

Bet you thought this was a Cinco de Mayo post, didn't you?

It's even better, it's a Cinco de Harwood post, and all of YOU get to read a freeeeee preview of a book I completely dig, Jack Wakes Up by author Seth Harwood.

By now you should know two things about me: I love promoting people who have amazing talents, and I am an avid lover of audiobooks. This blog is my voice to share with as many people as I can the ideas, creations, and works by people who I think are just down right talented. And I have always been a book lover, I eat them up, and now in days of modern media, I love being able to listen to books while doing my daily activities.

So here's the third part about this: I know I post a lot about cutie crafts and things I heart, but I also heart stuff that has bad ass attitude.

Meet, Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood


Click the bood to read the first 3 chapters free

Jack Wakes Up is a crime novel set in San Francisco that Seth Harwood has written and provided as free segments as a podiobook on iTunes. This book is so good, and gotten so much support from listeners, that it has been picked up for print by Random House and goes on sale **TODAY** (hence the Cinco de Harwood... you get it.)

I've posted about podiobooks before here, and if you still don't know what they are, you need to get with the program, because digital media is the future, is the cutting edge of online marketing, and is one damned fine way to get some literature back into your life.

What’s great about this little podcasting niche is that it enables small, indie authors to share their work which would’ve not necessarily made its way into print. Even better, some authors get their books in print as a result of podcasting it. -Macuser.com

Oh look, here's a very convenient vid clip of Seth Harwood himself explaining to you how he has written and shared Jack Wakes Up.

I don't think there's any better way to sell you on the book than to let you check it out for yourself. So I read it as a podcast and I give it away to you for free. -Seth Harwood

Today Seth has created yet another new idea in grassroots promotions by providing his fans with free .pdf versions of the first three printed chapters of Jack. So do check them out for yourself. See if you like it too. Then, hop on over and order it for yourself, or maybe someone you know who likes suspenseful crime novels.

Read it right here!

or open the .pdf file in your own reader by clicking here
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood

Seth's website: http://sethharwood.com
Jack Wakes Up http://sethharwood.com/jack-wakes-up


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Blarrrrg!

Martha Stewart's Craft Encyclopedia

The Martha Stewart Craft Encyclopedia is coming out this month- scheduled release of March 31st, 2009.



Pre-order from Amazon here

For nearly 20 years, home crafters have turned to the pages of Martha Stewart Living for all kinds of crafts projects, each presented in the magazine’s inimitable style. Now, the best of those projects, including step-by-step instructions and full-color photographs, have been collected into a single encyclopedia.

Organized by topic from A to Z, Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts contains complete instructions and brief histories for more than 30 techniques, detailed descriptions of the necessary tools and materials, and easy-to-copy templates. Martha and her team of crafts editors guide readers through each subject, from botanical pressing and decoupage to rubber stamping and wreaths, with characteristic clarity and unparalleled attention to detail.

That's going to be a must-buy, I think!

Ever heard of Neil Gaiman?

You have heard of his work, even if you don't know his name!

I stumbled up him on iTunes recently, looking for a good audiobook to download. I chose Neverwhere- and LOVED it.

Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but shrewish fiancée. Then one night he stumbles upon a girl lying on the sidewalk, bleeding. He stops to help her, and his life is changed forever.

Loved it.

So, I just hopped back onto my new account at Audible.com (discount audiobooks easily downloaded to your mp3 player). And I discovered...

that Neil Gaiman wrote STARDUST!!! (My FAVORITE movie. If you love a fantasy story, WATCH IT!)

In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for 600 years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve the star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.

AAAANNNNDDDD

He wrote Coraline, too.

(Coraline, if you happen to live under a rock, being the new major motion picture by Tim Burton, filmed entirely in small scale stop motion claymation that is astounding the crafting world.)



I am about to download another of his books, The Graveyard, and I will let you know how it is. With three such fantastic adult fairytale stories, I don't know how it can go wrong.

So now you know who Neil is! If you'd like to download one of his audiobooks, you can get it for FREE when you sign up at http://audiblepodcast.com/castle (One free download that you get to keep, you can cancel at any time).

Scented Science Stuffy + Fan Art

This vanilla-scented guy is a blue triangle, from the audiobook "Infected" by Scott Sigler. I am a huge Sigler addict (a junkie to Silgerism, as he calls it) and love his novels "Ancestor" and "Earthcore" in addition to "Infected". In the story, these triangles start as spores that drift in the air and get into your skin. They then send shoots into your body to draw nutrients, and form a blue triangle with three eyes on the surface of your skin. Oh, and they can talk to you in your head. And tell you to kill people. Awesome.



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Book Review: 7th Son by JC Hutchins

Here's a first for us: a book review. What does a book review have with crafting, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. This particular book is a podiobook (think, audiobook, only provided in 45 minute podcast-sized chapters). And since becoming an adult with a 40 hour a week job, a 2 hour a day commute, a 3-4 hour a day craft/internet habit, and a sleep disorder... my time for reading novels has gone caput. I've mentioned it before, but podcast short stories from Escapepod, and now podcast novels and audiobooks, are my literary saving grace. I listen to them while crafting, while painting, while decorating, while driving, while working for the man. They keep me entertained and sane pretty much throughout the day, so it definitely has an impact on this artist, and her work. And, I have something to say about this book.



7th Son by JC Hutchins is a set of 3 free thriller/suspense novels that combine into one long story line. They're available online or through iTunes. The author's website describes it as:

"The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…"
7th Son chronicles the story of seven strangers who are assembled after the assassination of the U.S. president. They quickly discover they all appear to be the same man … with identical childhood memories.
Unwitting participants in a human cloning experiment, these “John Michael Smiths” have been gathered to catch the man who murdered the president. Their target? The man they were cloned from; the original John Michael Smith, code-named John Alpha.
Soon our heroes — John, Jack, Michael, Kilroy2.0 and the others — realize the president’s murder was merely a prologue to Alpha’s plans. The outcome will unearth a conspiracy larger than they could have ever imagined….



My impression of this book: surprise. I was not expecting to love it, based on the description (there I go, judging a book by its cover), but I did. 7th Son is smart, funny, FULL of suspense, and has a plot that is, well, surprising. So often I read/listen to a book and have the plot pretty much guessed halfway through, and find myself just waiting for the end. Predictable. Or, the author tries too hard to surprise you, and comes out with a whacked out twist at the end that neither fits into the story, nor is believable. 7th's Sons plot not only kept me guessing, but when the revelations did come, I was constantly thinking "oh that's so SMART!" I was hooked, waiting for each step in the 7 brother's discovery of their past and the present dangers. I found myself downloading 3 or 4 episodes at first, then 9 or 10, until finally I downloaded and listened to all of Book 3 in one day (my job is pretty rote).



I loved the plot, the science, the technology, and the characters in this novel. I was sad when someone died. I was angry at the bad guys. I was sickened by the crazy acts and excited by the action scenes. I loved the reading of it, which was by JC Hutchins himself, and didn't have much trouble following the dialogue between characters. The one thing I was disappointed in was that the story didn't follow the final two characters through to the end, I was hoping to hear about the "fade to black" of the brother and the justice of the other. However, it certainly doesn't change the story or the ending, and didn't change how I felt about the book by the end.

Thank you, JC Hutchins, for writing a story that finally kept me interested and reminded me of what I love (and miss!) about books. This was an excellent excellent novel and I can't wait to read more of his work.

If you like mystery/suspense/trillers, you definitely will like this book. For serious. Check it out: http://jchutchins.net



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