Acts of Love Update

Acts of Love, my second published book, has been available as an e-book for several months. It will soon be released in paperback.

A brief description:

Acts of Love is a cozy mystery/ romance, featuring Amanda Reed, an aromatherapist with two cats and a secret past. Her love interest is homicide detective Santiago Yazzi (Yazz), a man with Apache, Chinese, Italian, and Navajo ancestors. The story is set in fictional Dos Rios, at the southwestern tip of Arizona, a land that Yazz's forebears tamed. Drugs, murder, and kidnapping rip open the shameful pasts kept carefully concealed by Amanda and Yazz, forcing them to forgive old and new betrayals before they discover the secret love hidden deep in their hearts. Amanda and Yazz are supported by a mixed cast of characters, including Naomi, a saucy retired nurse; Quincy, an organic farmer; and Lily, a feisty octogenarian.

Excerpts are on my web page:

http://cassandrabarnes.com

Click on "excerpts" in the navigation box. Since Acts of Love is my second published book, you will need to scroll down the page past A Perfect Body to get to the excerpts.

My Dream Home

My dream home includes a central room with floor to ceiling bookshelves on all walls. In the middle of the room, there’s the most comfortable chair in the world. Beside the chair is the lamp, with the bulb at the perfect angle and emitting the perfect intensity of light for reading. There’s also a small table. I’m sitting in the chair, reading, my favorite activity.

Sometimes there’s a cat purring of my lap. Other times, a dog lies sleeping at my feet. Depending on how I feel, there’s either a mug of hot chocolate or a snifter of brandy on the table, within easy reach. Most of the time, there’ll be string music softly playing—piped in, of course, since I won’t give up book space for a sound system.

My dream home has the usual complement of other rooms—kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc. I have no idea what they look like, because I’ll spend only the minimum amount of time in them. I’ll be in my reading room, enjoying my books, my music, and my animals.

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.