A Booming Summer Sale and other literary highlights

With the Fourth of July holiday only a few days away, planning for your extended weekend celebration should include fun reading material and to that end, my e-book publisher Smashwords is having a big summer sale and yes, I am participating!.

 So, starting today and ending on July 31, the first two volumes of my e-book series,The Chronicles of Copper Boom, will be available for free downloads at Smashwords. Just use the code SSW75 at the SW site to get part one,Party Overkill and part two, A Chilling Warmth to cool you down this steamy season.

 My other e-book titles,The Hench Woman's Handbook and The Austen Avenger, are also still free reads and I hope those of you who enjoy those stories will take this golden opportunity to check out Copper Boom as well.

 The Copper Boom series tells the tale of Penny Slater, a young woman who has hidden her extraordinary abilities out of fear of being rejected by family and society alike. However, the unexpected meeting of a pair of super villains has Penny coming out into the open and learning to deal with her power,not to mention deciding whether she's meant to be good or evil.

The cover art for these book were done by my talented sister Stephanie,whose work can also be seen in the online graphic novel Perfect Agent(written by Greg Carter) and who will be doing the cover for my next e-book in 2014,Fanny Price:Slayer of Vampires. In the meantime, tune into my own version of a potential Hit Girl,whose adventures will continue:

On the print side, the paperback edition of Emma Straub's debut novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, goes on sale tomorrow and it's definitely something to snap up for your beach bag this week. I'm reading it now and for fans of old school Hollywood star stories,this is a real treat complete with sprinkles on top.

 The book chronicles the journey of Elsa Emerson, a Midwestern girl with dreams of acting, who becomes glamorous movie star Laura Lamont. Along the way,she struggles to maintain a harmonious family life while putting a happy face on her inner demons of doubt and the haunting presence of her doomed sister in the past.  

If you're expecting a tawdry little Hollywood romp,think again. The tale of Laura Lamont is much more down to earth and I look forward to spending this holiday weekend with her,far from the glare of the studio system limelight:

And in movie adaptation news, the release date for the film version of Fifty Shades of Grey was announced late last week. The targeted time period is August 1,2014 and the cast assembled for this erotic extravaganza is set to be revealed at Comic Con(why there is beyond me,folks).

Not that I'm planning to camp out at my local theater to get a ticket for this one but I have to say,August? That's one of the calendar months where movies open up only to die quickly and quietly at the box office(which is why I hold Bad Movie Month then). It doesn't sound like the studio has much faith in the film if that's the date they're going for.

Granted, some late summer movies have done well but those were mostly along the lines of mature as in older adult(Julie and Julia,for example) that mature of "for adult audiences only" nature. We shall see, I suppose, if we can get a peek through all of the steam this flick promises to make at the multiplex :

 I will be back later this week with my regular TV Thursday round-up but still want to wish all of you out there a very happy Independence Day. Even if you can't watch the fireworks where you are, there is still fun to be had with all sorts of games such as Book Shelf Scavenger Hunt(tag, you're it!),suitable for readers of all ages-enjoy!: