Hi! In honor of banned books week, I am posting a short reading of Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I read from the 1929 Tauchnitz edition. The bottom of the cover of this edition is printed with the words, “Not to be introduced into the British Empire.”

The reading is also available on You-Tube.

Hope you enjoy the reading!

Banned Books Wk Candice Hughes Orlando

As promised, Amazon has now made Kindle Books available in libraries. This means you can now read “Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue” at your local library. I know my library has Kindles that you can borrow as well so you can get the whole package there. If your library doesn’t have my book, be sure to ask if they can get a copy.

Happy Reading!

PS: Here’s the link to Amazon’s announcement:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_dp_rft_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx2DJ89JW5QORC8

A new lawsuit has been filed by the Author’s Guild and allied partners to stop digitization and free distribution by a university consortium of hundreds of books published by non-US authors. The university consortium feels these are orphaned books, but Author’s Guild states that authors haven’t been notified or given the chance to withhold their books from the project.

This is part of the push/pull between authors asking for fair payment for their work and those wanting access to information that began with the Google lawsuit. The tension clearly shows that agreement has not yet been reached on how to balance these needs. These decisions will set the course for the future of information and entertainment communication. I say communication because books as they are created as enhanced e-books will overlap more and more with other media. This is a critical juncture. If authors are not fairly compensated or able to assert adequate rights, future authors will be discouraged from creating new works and information flow will be reduced in quality and quantity as skilled communicators exit the field. If information is too closely guarded it may be hard for readers/viewers to access it. The courts will be strongly challenged to create a Solomen-like solution.

Here is the link to the article:

http://news.yahoo.com/authors-guild-sues-universities-over-online-books-233911504.html

Around me, the cars rush-

shoosh shoosh shoosh-

wind puffs ruffling the butterflies.

Rising gently each one tries

to escape muscle and bone,

as each one seeks its way home.

Afternoon sun stains everything gold-

except the sky, blue and bold.

By the side of the road

I imagine I see

men with scythes swinging free-

shirt sleeves rolled tight on brown arms-

gathering corn stalks and orange pumpkins.

Instead I grip the steering wheel-

riveted like steel into steel-

something solid to hold

as butterfly wings unfold.

I will my eyes to look

straight ahead. I will not crook

my head up to the mirror.

The heat creeps up my neck like a fever.

Behind me melting steel curling around a bloody gash-

slowly crumpling in a shroud of lava and ash.

Dreams on white paper drift through the town

gently fluttering down-

fragile wings of desire

crumple into extinction in the fire.

Hold fast to blue and gold-

today butterfly wings unfold

around me silently,

souls finally

free.

I have been wondering how to sign books for my readers since my new book (Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue) is currently available as a e-book only. To my surprise I found two companies have recently been started to allow authors to sign e-books for their readers. The first is Authography and the second is Kindlegraph. Authography has no pricing information on it’s web site but seems to be focusing on deals with publishers. Kindlegraph is free, but requires authors to allow Kindlegraph access to their Twitter accounts including reading their tweets and monitoring who they follow. This seems a bit “big-brotherish” to me. I got to thinking how could authors just sign on their own like they used to do with paper books.

How to get your Autograph: I came up with a solution that allows the communication to be solely between my readers and myself. Any one who has purchased my book (Small Business Rocket Fuel) can e-mail me using the address shown in the “About the Author” section. (You can find it easily by clicking on the link in the Table of Contents at the beginning of the book). After I receive your e-mail requesting an autograph, I will create a personalized page for you digitally signed by me. Your page may contain a short poem, digital images, colors and various design elements along with my autograph. I will then e-mail you the page to whatever e-mail address you provide.

All it takes to create these digital signatures is MS Word, Adobe Writer and some imagination. Shhh, don’t tell anyone else or they may decide to skip Kindlegraph and Authography too.