It wasn’t very long ago that the western was among the dominant genres read by men. Cowboys, the US Cavalry, pioneers, explorers, trappers and Indian fighters created by such stellar authors as Matthew Braun, Zane Grey, Elmer Kelton, Owen Wister, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Terry C. Johnston and Louis L’Amour were the precursors of astronauts and other modern action adventure heroes. In few other categories could readers find men and women who personified the American dream and core values that forged our national identity.

The western fiction market is a fraction of what it used to be, but there is still a dedicated readership that finds thrills and satisfaction in tales of the West. Chet Cunningham’s Pony Soldier Series exemplifies the genre at its very best if not its very most violent. The first novel, Slaughter at Buffalo Creek, introduces a grief-stricken Captain Colt Harding as he sets out to wreak revenge on the Indian who killed his wife and son. The problem is, he has to team up with some of the vilest men in the west. These are The Pony Soldiers.

E-Reads carries five books tracking their adventures.

- Richard Curtis

Further to our discussion of Kindles as learning tools, if Apple can pull off a scheme to create a full-sized keyboard for a tablet device, they will be that much closer winning what I call the Premio Gordo: universal adoption of a tablet (or tablet-oid) computer by colleges.

According to Sam Oliver, writing in AppleInsider, a 52-page patent filed by Apple Inc. “illustrates a number of techniques that would pave the way for tablet Macs that display a near full-sized multi-touch keyboard and run an undiluted version of the Mac OS X operating system.” In plain English, Mac users would be able type with both hands on the screen, an absolutely essential feature of any student computer.

– Richard Curtis

(Pictured right: The Intel Classmate prototype)

Speculation on the next generation of Kindle (my wife refers to them in Yiddish as Kindeleh) is reaching fever pitch, such as this piece on cnet news by Adam Richardson and another on engadget by Thomas Ricker.

The prognostications seem to be focusing on student applications, and though Kindle 2.0 will probably be a bit bigger for collegiate use, my own opinion is that that is not where e-book readers have to go to win the premio gordo of universal college adoption.

At the dawn of the E-Book Era, circa 2000, I recognized that pocket-portable e-books would never succeed for student use. The reason is size. Textbooks and other illustrated books simply cannot be crammed into anything smaller than a screen close to the size of a laptop. That’s why I advocated the tablet concept and design. Tablets have all the virtues of laptops PLUS touchscreen functionality. For students, reading books on an e-reading device is highly desirable but not as imperative as the ability to handwrite notes on their device’s screen. Resistance to widespread adoption of e-textbooks is explored in an excellent article by Andy Guess in Inside Higher Ed, Next Step for E-Texts. “Whether — or when — e-textbooks become as ubiquitous as laptops or smartphones on campuses depends on several factors that continue to hinder widespread adoption. Observers of the nascent market point variously to available hardware, consumer demand and the dearth of content made specifically for digital formats,” writes Guess.

Manufacturers are not unaware of these issues and have been developing a variety of readers, variously called netbooks, ultraportables, and mini-notebooks such as the Intel Classmate, that appeal to the specific needs of the student. No one has hit a home run yet, but there’s a fortune waiting for the manufacturer that does.

– Richard Curtis

Check out Linda’s page to see seven of her fans’ favorites back in print both as e-book downloads and trade paperbacks:

Big Bad Wolf
Someone’s Been Sleeping In My Bed
On A Wicked Wind
One Day, My Prince
The Seduction Of Roxanne
Cinderfella
Let Down Your Hair

The acceptability provision of a book contract can be summarized as follows: A publisher engages an author to write a book, stipulating in the contract that if the manuscript is not acceptable in the publisher’s sole discretion, the publisher may reject it and require the author to repay in full the advance that was paid on signing the contract. Until that advance is repaid, the publisher will not release the author from the contract, thus restricting him or her from entering into a contract with another publisher for that (and perhaps any other) literary work.

Inherent in this provision are three potentially explosive elements. Click here to find out what they are.

In Detective, the first Stanley Hastings mystery story by Parnell Hall, Hastings is so unconfident he actually turns a case away. It doesn’t matter. The case comes to his doorstep anyway, and with a vengeance!

Hall, a former private detective, an actor and a multiple Mystery Writers of America Edgar nominee, introduces a classic bumbler who succeeds despite his best efforts to screw up. Kirkus Reviews found Detective “Engaging…thanks largely to Stanley’s shambling, casual, occasionally raunchy delivery.”

E-Reads carries several Stanley Hastings novels about which the reviewer for the Washington Post Book World says, “…The charm of Stanley Hastings lies in his chummy, loquacious, self-deprecating commentary as the narrator of this adventure.”

– Richard Curtis

An article by Leon Neyfakh in the Observer notes that “Love Sky, a debut novel by a young woman named Mika, was read by 20 million people on cellphones or on computers.” The book, a handwringer and tearjerker, was first uploaded on Maho no i-rando, and though the author made no money on the avalanche of hits, she made a fortune on the subsequent printed book and movie.

“Why don’t these exist in the United States?” asks Neyfakh. “Obviously everyone would read them. This…is what the publishing houses should be doing if they want to keep up instead of thinking about Digg and Yelp or whatever, as some people seem to think.”

Would everyone read them in the United States? The American populace does a lot of things on cellphones and computers but reading books on a mass scale is not yet one of them. The e-book business has been growing by double-digit jumps for a decade, but when a bestselling e-book is still defined here in the hundreds, we realize how far Americans have to go before a texted work of fiction published here will make its author rich and famous.

For an idea of how huge cellphones are in Japan, there are even magazines devoted to them. An observer counted half a dozen devoted to the iPhone alone!

– Richard Curtis

After saying no to e-books for years, a big-name author, Terry Goodkind, has now said yes.

Though reluctant up to now to put his books into e-book format, Goodkind surrendered to the allure of Amazon’s Kindle (plus an undisclosed sum of money), according to a story by Rachel Deahl in Publishers Weekly. Goodkind agreed to let his first novel, Wizard’s First Rule, be rereleased on an exclusive basis on the Kindle. Read the story here.

The fact that Amazon offered competitive terms is a promising sign of financial health for the e-book industry. But it also means that Amazon has placed itself into competition with publishers for content.

For an interesting analysis of the pros and cons of e-books and Kindle in particular, check out this commentary by Hugh D’Andrade on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation entitled,What If the Kindle Succeeds?

– Richard Curtis

The Faithful, a sexy behind-the-scenes novel about the Barack Obama Democratic nomination campaign, is now available in print on Amazon.com. It was originally serialized on the E-Reads website.

The “Faithful” of Carla Dickens’s novel are a vibrant cadre of volunteers devoted to the most charismatic presidential candidate in fifty years. Drawn from today’s newspaper headlines and political blogs, The Faithful follows a cast of young, smart, beautiful and driven men and women shepherding their candidate through the turbulent waters of the Democratic presidential campaign of 2008.

RC

Natural Medicine For Weight Loss by Deborah Mitchell is an invaluable compendium of surprising and even amazing truths and fictions about weight loss.

Did you know for instance that the metabolic rate of two people of the same age, sex, and body type may vary as much as 20 percent? That most of the weight loss from popular high-protein diets is water, not fat? that your addiction to sugar can make it impossible for you to lose weight – unless you know the simple steps (and dietary supplements) for breaking it; That certain “thermogenic” agents can trigger the burning of body fat? That an herbal form of phen-fen is available without the health risks of the prescription drug? That lemon water or apple cider vinegar can reduce cravings? That self-administered acupressure can boost your metabolism – and reduce bloating?

All this and more in Natural Medicine for Weight Loss.

Buy it as an e-book and watch amazon.com for news of the print edition.