Early Christmas Card

I received my first Christmas card of the season today, November 15. It’s from the person who delivers the morning paper, and came tucked inside the paper. It’s a generic card, with an impersonal greeting, and not signed. He did however, include his name and address.

Rather than a sincere wish that I might have a happy holiday, his greeting is simply a reminder to tip him. Even so, I think it’s a bit early.

Stores around here started displaying Christmas items well before Halloween. Mid-October, most made room for Halloween merchandise, usually crowded into aisles. The emphasis remained on Christmas.

I know that Christmas is "make or break" for many merchants, especially small businesses. But I miss Thanksgiving.

Halloween provides a nice surge in retail sales, and of course Christmas is a major sales event. Thanksgiving passes unnoticed, at least in the retail end of things. I think that’s sad.
For so many, the focus of Christmas is on giving and receiving nice gifts. That’s okay, but it puts the emphasis on what we don’t have.

Thanksgiving means "giving thanks" for what we do have.

Among a multitude of other things, I’m thankful I can afford a daily paper, I’m thankful it’s delivered promptly each morning (even if he does sometimes miss the driveway :-), I'm thankful I have the ability to physically walk outside and pick up the paper, I'm thankful for a warm house to return to, I'm thankful I have the ability to read, and I’m thankful I’ll be able to give the delivery person his tip.

I’ll wait until December, however, to send it to him.

Download and Read My Books on Your Phone!

Exciting new way to read thousands of romance books!

Here's the October 8, 2009 Press Release from All Romance eBooks, distributors for my books, titled Jenny's Legacy, Acts of Love, and A Perfect Body.

All Romance eBooks (ARe) has partnered with Aldiko to make their eBook catalog available to Google's Android-powered mobile phones.

Readers will now be able to browse, search and seamlessly download more than 10,000 http://www.allromanceebooks.com [eBooks], including free reads, to their Android phones directly from ARe without a computer, cable or subscription using the Aldiko application.

With the Aldiko app readers can easily browse ARe's extensive online book catalog, read detailed descriptions and book reviews, and quickly find the books they are looking for, using a powerful search tool right on their Smartphone. They can organize their purchases by criteria such as title, author, or subject, edit detail information, tag, bookmark and search—all on a fully customizable display. New features include a full text search that allows readers to find words globally within the book, and a look up feature, which lets users search for a word in the dictionary, Wikipedia, or on Google.

"Readers love the convenience of being able to download ARe's eBooks anytime, anywhere," said Julie Cummings, ARe's manager of Publicity and Marketing. "Earlier this year we launched an iPhone compatible catalog and it's been hugely popular with our consumers who use ATT. We're really excited to now bring that same service to customers who use other cellular carriers," Cummings added.

"Our mission at Aldiko is to provide an open platform where users can discover, access, read and manage a wide variety of digital publications instantly and seamlessly" said Tiffany Wong, co-founder of Aldiko. "The partnership with ARe will help us offer the best and broadest selection of titles to our users."

Aldiko is available worldwide and is free on the Android Market as well as available as a paid premium app for Android open platform phones. To learn more visit Aldiko athttp://www.aldiko.com and Android at http://www.android.com.

All Romance eBooks, LLC was founded in 2006, is privately held in partnership, and headquartered in Palm Harbor, Florida. The company owns All Romance, which specializes in the sale of romance eBooks and OmniLit, which sells both fiction and non-fiction eBooks.

Aldiko Limited was founded in 2009. The company has developed an ebook reader application, "Aldiko Book Reader" for use on Android-powered devices. With Aldiko, users can build and organize their digital library, read on the go, and wirelessly browse and download from a broad range of digital publications right on their Android-powered devices.

Another Great Review for Perfect Body!

Cherokee, award-winning reviewer for Coffee Time Reviews has posted a great review of A Perfect Body, and rated it 4 cups.

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/aperfectbody.html

She ends with this statement: "All the players are crafted in such a life-like form that this reader felt as if she was right in the middle of a real event going on in this delightful read. "

That definitely gives me the warm fuzzies!

Terrific Review of A Perfect Body

Fennel, of Long and Short Romance Reviews, has posted a terrific review of my third novel, A Perfect Body, and rated it as a "best book."

It's at http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/perfect-body-by-cassandra-barnes.html

I worked long and hard writing A Perfect Body and it's very gratifying to receive reviews such as Fennel's.

A Perfect Body is currently available in e-book form, including Kindle, but it's tentatively scheduled for release as a paperback in 2010.

My Dearest Wish

Recently, two women standing in line behind me at an ATM machine were discussing the fact that machines had shortchanged them in the past. After a long, involved story of what she had to do to obtain her money, one of them commented that the machines never overpaid her.

"That's my dearest wish," the second woman said. "I'd love to get extra money sometime."

"I wouldn't give it back if I did," the first woman said.

"Me either," the second woman agreed.

I finished my transaction and left them to their dreams of riches. But their conversation made me wonder what my dearest wish is. If I could have anything I wished for, what would I choose?

I do know that I wouldn't wish for a machine to spew twenty-dollar bills at me. I'd feel obligated to return the money, so that wish wouldn't do me much good. I don't think I'd wish for lots of money, in any form. What good would it do me to be rich, if I ended up like Howard Hughes?

While I'd rather be healthy than rich, I've no desire to live in poverty. I'd prefer to have more to think about than my day-to-day survival. And I certainly want the mental stability to enjoy what I have.

The trouble with wishes is that they all too often come true. And when they do, it's usually in a very literal way, with consequences we never imagined when we first wished. Wishes are like everything else--they are balanced. Yin and yang. Sunshine and shadows. A cost for every benefit. I need a comprehensive wish--one that covers health, wealth, and wisdom, with no disagreeable aftermath.

I unthinkingly wish for foolish things. I wish the person in line ahead of me would hurry up. I wish my internet connection was faster. I wish I didn't have to clean house. I wish the Sunday paper still carried my favorite comics. What if we only have so much "wish credit," and I've frittered mine away on insignificant wishes? I wish I knew.

There are few things I'd change in my life, given the opportunity to do so, and yet I'm not so foolish as to wish things would stay exactly as they are. My life isn't perfect, but it's good. Maybe that's why if a genie popped into my life right now and offered to grant my dearest wish, I wouldn't know what to wish for.

Sanchona's Review of Acts of Love

Acts of Love was my second published novel.

Australian author Sanchona (A Family of Strangers) wrote the following review:

"Ms Cassandra Barnes has published a new novel, Acts of Love which tells the story of Amanda Reed, who has made a new life for herself in a small town where she has cultivated a large group of close friends. Then two murders shake up the community. Amanda and her friends rally around to help the family of the victims. It is in this chaotic time that Michael, the son Amanda had regretfully abandoned for his own good years ago, shows up at her door. There is no great reunion. Michael resents his mother, but has only looked her up for the sake of his son, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Michael is hoping that Amanda, as the grandmother, might be that compatible bone marrow donor to save his child's life. Acts of Love deals with the question of hard decisions some people make based on love that call for personal sacrifice, then years later, they wonder if they had made the right decision. Cassandra Barnes is to be congratulated for skillfully weaving into this theme a budding romance in a murder mystery that is then complicated by a family conflict. This appealing novel makes easy reading. I look forward to her next novel."

Sometimes I Surprise Myself!

In my early 30s I became acquainted with a woman about twice my age who shared my love of reading. In talking with her, I learned that she primarily read non-fiction, and was avid about learning new things. With the arrogance of youth, I wondered why, since she was retired, and therefore "old," with no practical (meaning income-producing) way to apply that knowledge.

Now that I’m about her age, I’ve found that all I want to read is non-fiction, and that I just can’t seem to get my fill of learning something new. I now understand that people don’t have to "do" something with their knowledge, that there is great pleasure in simply discovering new information or expanding existing information.

I still enjoy fiction, although my tastes have changed dramatically over the years, but I’ll nearly always chose non-fiction first. Some of it is lightweight, and some of it forces me to really study what the author is saying. I’m very eclectic, reading from an extensive selection of authors, philosophies, and fields.

I suppose in a way that I’m looking for answers, although I’ve not formulated any serious questions. I think, though, that most of it is a matter of curiosity, of wanting to know as much as I can about everything. The older I get, the more I realize how little I really know, despite having lived a full life, with a variety of experiences.