New Gold City

I've been experimenting with the pricing of my Kindle stories this past month. My book of short stories ( Trying to Care ) is currently for sale through the Kindle Publishing Direct system. The collection is written for people interested in questions of marital fidelity, mature love, and caring for family members at many stages of life. The title story is about a guy who watches his mother on closed-circuit video instead of visiting her at her senior housing complex. There's a story about a husband who thinks his wife murdered the family pet; another about weirdness taking care of the neighbor's house; and then others about love and quitting cigarettes, visiting a mom in high rise housing, and a Pakistani father and son working at a gas station on 9/11. Each of the six stories can be purchased separately for $0.99 just like a basic song on iTunes. Originally, I'd intended to make just four stories available separately. If you wanted all six you could by the book for $2....

I'm a strong proponent of digital reading. I also believe that when folks talk about healing our economy, the key is for consumers to step up and consume. There is no question in my mind that part of the gentle plus side of the growing economy of 2012 is the development of the digital reading/electronic tablet/iPad markets. It is likely that you saw Apple's phenomenal sales figure of 3 million new iPads sold in the past week. Do you know as well that studies are now indicating that roughly one-third of American households now has at least on electronic reader/tablet? Digital reading is more than just here. It is a dominant new experience for all of us. The arguments against e-reading or the notion that this is just a bubble (ie, those of us reading nuts are on spending sprees but will be satiated soon) are specious. In five years most college students will be doing all of their reading with iPads. In ten years all students from age 5 - 85 will do 95% of their work on iPads (or...

There's a lot of talk about Great American Writers these days. Jonathan Franzen got branded with a version of that moniker (Great American Novelist) a number of years ago when he published The Corrections (and then made the Oprah Follies). Freedom , his latest, still gives the dude buzz 2 years after it came out (and gave him a chance to make nice with Big O). I've read as much of both books as I possibly can, and I'm sorry: Franzen is a great writer, a monster writer in fact, if you will let me invent such a term. Both novels are gargantuan stories about what it means to live in America here in the future. But there are many more profound and touching books out there that the press, Oprah, and Time Magazine don't seem to be aware of. My favorite writer over the past decade has been Anthony Doerr. I read his book of short stories, Memory Wall , back in early 2011 and was blown away. It's out in paperback now. You should read it. See a short video here where he tal...