Virtual Book Tour

Kea's Flight is having a virtual book tour this May! I will be writing two guest posts, doing three interviews, and being reviewed five times. Check out the link to see what sites I'll be on, and when!

AWESOMECON!

Remember last May, when I signed copies of Born on the Wrong Planet for a day at the AUSM Conference? Well, I'm signing books there again this year... only, this time I'll have copies of Kea's Flight to sign too!

If all goes well, John will also be there, signing copies of his short story, Precious Metal. So, if you're registered for the conference, be sure to stop by the book room on Friday, May 6th, and say hi to us!

Nook problem solved

OK, everyone, I figured out the Nook problem mentioned in my previous post.

The sample chapter you can download from the Kea's Flight Nook listing is unreadable on my computer, but when I downloaded the Nook app for my iPod Touch and opened the sample on that, all the text was perfectly readable. Apparently when they make the sample, they make it so that only Nook software can read it.

Weirdly, the starship diagram on page three was only partly visible when reading the sample on the iPod Touch Nook app, but it was fully visible when using the Nook preview software, prior to listing the book. So I can only assume that it was cut to fit on the small screen of the iPod Touch, and it would show up fine on an actual Nook. (If you want to read Kea's Flight on an iPod Touch, it makes more sense to get the epub from Lulu anyway. The Kindle edition works too, if you have the Kindle app for your iTouch.)

Nook bugs

OK, everyone, I have a question.

I've put Kea's Flight up for sale as a NookBook:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Keas-Flight/Erika-Hammerschmidt/e/2940012378828

I submitted the same ePub file that I submitted to Lulu (it uploaded there successfully, and it reads fine on my iPod touch). When I chose the Preview option on the Barnes and Noble site after I uploaded it, it was perfectly readable. But when I try downloading a sample from the product page, I get an epub file full of unreadable symbols.

Maybe they change the ePub file so that it can only be read on a Nook? Do any of you have a Nook you can test the sample on? If you have any insights that may help, please email me at humanalien at gmail dot com.

Thank you.

A Nook can't cook

Two items of note today:

1. Cooking:

I learned to make my own granola bars. I got the recipe here. Seriously, it's easy. You just bake some uncooked dry oatmeal in the oven for about twelve minutes, stirring it from time to time. Then you mix it with wheat germ. Then you mix butter, brown sugar, honey and vanilla in a pan on the stove until it's all liquid, and pour it over the dry stuff, and press it into pans, and bake it for about a half hour. You can add any nuts or dried fruits you want (I'm currently trying it with pumpkin seeds and cranberries, and some peanut butter added to the butter.) Have I seriously been buying granola bars from the store all these years?

2. Nooking:

In other news, our novel Kea's Flight is going to be available on the Barnes and Noble Nook Store soon, in addition to the Kindle store and Lulu Marketplace where you can already buy it. It should be up in the next couple days (it says 48 to 72 hours).