Have you had trouble sifting through all the Amazon Kindle books looking for just the right one? Are you looking for only a certain genre, keyword, rating, and /or price (like FREE)?

Do it easily from Jungle Search: http://www.jungle-search.com/. If you want to go directly to search for Kindle eBooks, click here:  http://www.jungle-search.com/US/kindle.php

Bookmark it, remember it, use it–have fun!

BRAINSTORM Cover Contest Instructions:

1. Review the covers in this post.

2. Go to the bottom and click on ”>BRAINSTORM EBook Cover Poll!<”.

3. On the “poll page” vote by selecting the “radial button” corresponding to the cover you like most.

4. In comments at the bottom of the poll, leave your name (as well as email contact info if you wish to be contacted by email) and specify clearly which cover you voted on, i.e., “O-1,” “J-4,” “M-7,” “M-8,” “M-10,” ”T-13,” etc.

5. That cover must eventually win as the most popularly selected in this contest in order for you to be entered into the final drawing.

From all the votes for the winning cover, I’ll randomly choose one lucky (9- pc Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates) winner. Voting is now open, and will close at midnight on June 15. The winning voter’s name will appear in this blog and will receive notification on June 16.

For more about the my thriller novel BRAINSTORM, click here.

Here are the covers. Please carefully consider all fourteen and chose only the very best one. Although you may discuss any and all in your comments, you must clearly state which one is your choice by it’s corresponding name, i.e.”O-1,” “J-4,” “M-7,” ”M-8,” “M-10,” ”T-13,” etc.

Click to view slideshow.

Click on any of the images below to see a larger version.

Click below to take the poll and be counted:

>BRAINSTORM EBook Cover Poll!<

(polls)

That’s right. Poor ol’ E Z Knight has been stuck down in Norlins (New Orleans) for the past two and a half months (my writing time, that is). He’s in the Big Easy trying to stop some really mean bastards from killing a whole bunch of people, including Billie, the son of E Z’s parole officer, Tamara White Cloud.

Leaving Smokey and his buddies Beautiful and Booger behind in Southern California, he’s working with Black Zack, an old jazz trombone player, and beautiful redhead FBI Special Agent Poo Dooley (Poodoo), who’s working undercover in more ways than one. They’re chasing and being chased by a couple of despicable villains named Papa Legba and Sheriff DePue. These two lowlifes are playing God over the lives of 500 children.

This is the wildest ride E Z’s been on yet, and if you’ve read Knight’s Ransom, you know I’m not talking about Disneyland amusements. With eyes popping, necks breaking, stabbing, shooting, choking, and even a little alligator chomping, E Z is working his way to the bottom of this, his deadliest of all capers yet. And staying alive and among the living has been especially difficult with a Voodoo queen doing everything she can to make him a zombie, and his new ally Jazz player Black Zack hauling something a little more illegal than plain fescue clippings in back of his pickup.

Time is running out–500 kids’ lives are at stake. Find out what happens in Knight’s Big Easy coming at the end of June.

I’ll also be updating Jazzy Brass’s Missing Scenes very soon. Knight’s Big Easy is Jazzy’s debut, and she’ll accompany E Z in every episode from its time forward.

Happy reading!

What’s this got to do with writing thriller novels, my new “The E Z Knight Reports” series, BRAINSTORM, DEAD RECKONING or JEZEBEL? Very little–except…well, you’ll see if you read further.

The newly crowned 2012 American Idol winner Phillip Phillips has had a few bouts with kidney stones, as well. He seems to be a really good guy and a great singer. I hope he can gain control of these troublesome “little” things and they don’t get in the way of his career. From news accounts, I’d guess he has what is known as medullary sponge kidneys (MSK), not a disease, but a condition in which the passages in the kidneys are larger than normal, and thus allow for sediment to build up and create stones. If he is cursed with this condition, he has company.

I was diagnosed with MSK back in 1991 when x-rays revealed that I had over two dozen stones in my kidneys. I had a number of stones before that, and have had literally hundreds since. After numerous lithotripsy surgeries of various types, I’ve finally gotten this condition somewhat under control. Lithotripsy surgery doesn’t cure stones, it just removes them. Most times, these procedures are out-patient, occasionally requiring an over-night stay in the hospital ($30,000+).

For this procedure, they’ll either:

1. make a small incision and go after the stone (rarely done anymore from what I’ve read);

2. go after the stone with a long, thin catheter-type tool that has a tiny water nozzle, some tiny extractor arms and a camera on it (don’t worry, it’s not a 35 mm—all that stuff is really quite small). This is neat to watch as the camera passes through your body (but hey, this is personal stuff—make them promise the video won’t be posted on YouTube the next day!);

3. blast the stones with sonic waves (extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy or ESWL). They’ll either put you out or use a drug called versed. They’ll tell you versed won’t put you to sleep in order to keep you from feeling the pain. Instead with versed, you just won’t remember the pain you have! I don’t know about you, but this makes me feel a bit uncomfortable — lying naked and in pain on a table, surrounded by people in masks, all the while being video-taped. If there’s ever a porn movie made from it, I want royalties!

If you’re lucky, you won’t need a stent—a tube that is temporarily inserted into the ureter on the affected side that makes the passageway larger so that the bigger stones and particles will pass more easily. These things will make you howl–hurt nearly as bad as the stone would when you go pee (I happen to be a freak with two ureters on my right side–which doubles the fun with stents inserted into both). Then you have to come back a month later and have the stent yanked out (and I do mean yanked).

When you have the first stone, you might think you’re dying (click here for symptoms)—especially if you don’t know what’s happening to your body. Don’t worry, you’ll probably live. Following that first one, it gets a little easier for the sole reason that you know what’s twisting your gut so badly. After passing a couple dozen, it becomes somewhat routine. When you’ve passed a couple hundred, with the help of the right pain reliever and/or nausea medication, it’s barely more than a mild inconvenience.

Many folks think that the pain is only in the passing of the stone when it leaves the body. For some crazy reason, they think that the only time you feel the pain is when it shoots through the urethra (penis if you prefer, guys). This is relatively painless compared to the dull but intense ache some sufferers feel in the back and flank, or the intense twisting agony most experience in the lower gut.

Something to watch out and be prepared for: some radiologists will tell you that you won’t feel back pain from a stone because the kidney doesn’t have the right nerve receptors, or some such nonsense. DON’T believe them! Although some stone sufferers never experience this discomfort, you might. The back pain isn’t from the kidney itself, but from the tissue surrounding it due to the kidney lobes swelling and adding pressure to that entire area of the back (can you guess that I’ve been told this before and that it really “pisses” me off?).

There are a number of different types of kidney stones and they’re formed by different things. The most common are the calcium type, followed by uric acid stones and several others. Diet is really the key to controlling these little bastards. Drinking lots of water is imperative with any type of kidney stone, as well.

Specifically for uric acid stones, what I understand the best thing you can do to reduce stone formation is to cut down on your animal protein intake—especially red meat (I know, guys and gals—ARGH!).

With the mean little sticker-bur calcium stones, reducing oxalates is the key (oxa-what?). Yeah, oxalates. This salt compound binds with the calcium being filtered out by your kidneys in order to pass from your body in your urine. Oxalates cause calcium to build up, eventually looking something like a very horny little quartz rock.

Generally, anything larger than 5 mm (about 3/16″) won’t pass without surgery. But even the tiniest of stones can cause you just as much trouble as the bigger ones that pass. They’ll scrape the lining of your ureter and may even block it. This creates pressure in the vessel from the build up of urine, stretching the canal and causing colic (spasms) that will…well, let’s say “rock” your world.

Here’s the problem with trying to limit oxalate intake. Oxalates are in all the good food you eat! That’s right, you can watch your diet and eat healthy according to most medical standards and still be literally plagued with kidney stones. Why? Because that healthy diet isn’t necessarily the best diet for calcium kidney stone sufferers.

Get this: oxalates are in chocolate (damn it!). They’re in nuts (sorry, I can’t help it: “nuts!”). They’re in spinach (okay, no big deal—just kidding, moms!). They’re in berries, many green vegetables, all kinds of really good and healthy food!

From over twenty years’ experience of dealing with these little hell-raisers, here’s my suggestions for if you suspect you’re having symptoms of a kidney stone passing, or think you might have MSK:

1. See a doctor, but not just any ol’ MD. Find a good urologist (pee-pee doctor) to take a look at your parts, as well as a good nephrologist (kidney specialist), who can tell you more about what kind of diet you need to follow.

2. If you’re diagnosed with calcium stones, and he/she doesn’t’ prescribe potassium citrate, ask for it—it truly works wonders for calcium stones. There are other meds like allopurinol and hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic that makes you pee a lot), that might be prescribed as well. If you need pain meds, they’ll probably give you some kind of opiate like hydrocodone, oxycodone or Lortab as well. If you get sick from the stone pain, like many do, ask for ondansetron (generic for Zofran)—I’d much rather have the pain than that damn nausea.

3. Drink tons of water! Revised: But not just any water. Only drink purified water WITHOUT “minerals added for taste”. It’s those minerals you want to stay away from in the first place. Aquafina (this is not a commercial–and I don’t get paid for this mention!) is one of the many brands that don’t add minerals.

4. If you have calcium stones, learn how to identify foods with high levels of oxalates and limit your intake. If you have uric acid stones, lay off the red meat.

5. Okay, here’s a no-brainer, but since I obviously went without a brain for nearly twenty years until I did the ol’ V-8 slap…don’t drink cranberry juice. If you’ve been diagnosed as a calcium stone former, it might just be the worst thing you could do! Yes, I thought the little bit of oxalate in cranberry juice wouldn’t hurt me, and that the positive effect of drinking kidney-healthy cranberry juice would far outweigh the oxalate concerns in cranberries. WRONG! I’ve had stones, sometimes as many as two or more a week for over twenty years.

a. I drank cranberry juice about that long because I thought it’d help keep my kidneys healthy and happy considering all the Hell that the stones were putting them through. A few months ago, I ran out of cranberry juice and kept forgetting to get more on shopping trips to the store. I went for a week without the cranberry juice that I had been drinking at least twice a day. No stones. I went for a month without it. No stones. It’s been four or five months now and, although I have had some minor flare-ups since, there hasn’t been nearly as many as I had before I went cold cranberry—er, uh, turkey.

b. The conclusion? Drink more orange juice and/or lemon juice. The citric acid in these juices help break down and slow calcium stone formation.

So, you say, “What’s all this got to do with fiction writing, novel-writing, thrillers, etc.?” Well, guess what condition I’m going to give my protagonist E Z Knight from my new men’s action/adventure thriller series? That’s right! He’s going to suffer from MSK right along with me! Coming out in June in Knight’s Big Easy, tough-as-a-starving-grizzly-bear E Z Knight is going to be given kidney stones by a very wicked Voodoo queen.

I ain’t no doctor…(but I’ve written in their POV before, and it’s very scary), so don’t believe me or follow any of my advice without consulting your own physician. And, for a much more in-depth look at this condition and what you can do to reduce or maybe even eliminate kidney stone troubles, check out the resources below.

Books: No More Kidney Stones (this is my favorite), but Amazon lists a whole bunch here: (click!)

Websites: You’ll find a number of really good sites here: (click!)

You can find the whole scoop at Publisher’s Lunch: http://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2012/05/standoff-ends-ipg-and-amazon-agree-to-terms-on-ebooks-and-titles-are-restored/ Check it out!

Actually, I personally think I’m a laid-back sort of guy, very accepting of others—a kind of do-your-own-thing-as-long-as-it-doesn’t-hurt-anybody-else kind of person. Still, I find myself cringing throughout my day from obvious, rampant rudeness. Typically, it’s me wishing people were more thoughtful and considerate of others when I see something happen that goes against what I feel is proper.

So, here’s my basic list of Pet Peeves. Do you have some you’d like to add, or would you like to comment on mine? Please do.

Language and Rudeness:

1. People who substitute “No problem” for “You’re welcome,” “My pleasure. Please come again” or “Anytime. Let me know if I can do anything else.”

If you’re going out of your way to help someone, sure, saying “no problem” is courteously telling someone that it was not a problem—no trouble at all—to lend a hand.

Now, if you’re a fast food engineer with a paper hat and name badge that has a happy face on it, it’s your job to serve the public—of course it’s no problem…that’s what you’re getting paid for (if you’ve read Knight’s Ransom, you understand exactly how I feel)!

2. The use of the extra word why when saying “the reason why I…” instead of “the reason I…”

3. People who don’t answer when you say “Hello”—and don’t make eye contact

4. People who interrupt, especially in the middle of your answer to their question

5. Negative people with nothing positive ever to say

6. Bosses and other people who are liars and/or without integrity

7. Men who cuss publicly, in crowds and around women and children

8. People who feel that cigarette butts are so small that it’s not really like littering when you leave them on the sidewalk or along a walkway

TV, Movies & Video Games:

9. TV shows with explicit language and content that are obviously not for children, but purposely have elements that attract children to watch

10. Video games for children that contain sexual or very violent content and excessive depictions of sex, horrific injuries, deaths, severed body parts and blood

Driving & Cars:

11. Drivers who don’t use their turn signals to turn or change lanes (usually due to not having a free hand because of the cell phone to their ear)

12. Drivers who carry their little doggies on their laps while they drive

13. Drivers who text while they drive, especially in heavy traffic and when first in line at stop lights

14. Drivers who eat and drive with their knees

15. Drivers who block a second stall when parking

16. Drivers who stop at a four-way before you and then insist that you go first (especially when they’re on the right side)

Pet Owners:

17. Dog owners that let their dogs beat up on less aggressive ones, using the excuse “they’re just being dogs”

18. Dog owners that do not clean up after their dogs in public places, especially sidewalks and bike trails

19. Dog owners that don’t restrain their animals

20. Dog owners that put their animals in situations where the dog barks all day (especially apartments or back yards)

Rudeness & Put-downs:

21. Women and men who live in glass houses and tease others who have big noses, ears, are balding, overweight, flat chested, short or in some way less than perfect, and in ways that are beyond their control

Phones & Usage:

22. People who text in the theater during movies, especially when they’re seated toward the front of the theater

23. Long phone menus when all you want is to speak with someone or leave a message

24. Loud background music while on hold

25. Phone menus that list nothing that applies to your needs

26. Phone menus that take you in circles

27. People who answer their phones during a meeting and just sit there and talk while the meeting continues

Writers:

28. Elitist writers who think they are “authentic,” “literary,” more “real” or someway above others—especially those who poopoo “commercial,” or “popular (pulp)” fiction

29. New writers who have just learned a standard writing convention and who make it their crusade to ensure every writer, experienced and novice alike, strictly abide by this rule as if it is to never be questioned

31. Writers who think they’re experts at their craft after only three or four years of writing

My Pet Peeves about Readers?

I have no pet peeves concerning readers. They’re all absolutely perfect—the reason I write!

32. Oops, there is one: Readers who read the last page before the rest of the book, and readers who don’t read the prologues or the epilogues of books that have them. Okay, sorry–that was two.

All right, now that I’ve told you of all these little annoyances I find in my life, I need to ask, “If I know I’m a hypocrite, does that make me not one?”

Come on! Get mad! Tell me some of your pet peeves!

As for myself, I’ve had a total of over 16,000 downloads of my books since January 4, 2012. Of those, a bit less than 10% were “paid,” the rest being “free” downloads. Although that ratio of free to paid seems a bit high, I feel that most of the folks who downloaded my books for free were looking specifically for free books and wouldn’t have been my readers, otherwise. Although free, with that many downloads, my titles became much more visible, which in turn helped get them more “paid” sales.

Don’t get me wrong, I like getting paid for my work, but I also like the idea of having my work out in front of so many readers, as well. If you figure that it takes the average reader twelve hours to read my average novel, and if all 16,000 books downloaded were actually read during that three-month period, on average, 75 people would be reading my books, 24 hours a day, every day.

When I think of this, in my mind I picture a large college classroom with 75 filled seats in which each person is reading one of my books on their Kindle. Then, at the 12-noon shift change, everyone gets up, finished with another one of my novels, and 75 new readers come in to begin reading. Okay, I’m a bit nuts. Still, just the thought of entertaining so many people for 12 hours is really neat!

Finally there is data available on the first three months of the Kindle Select program. On the link below you’ll find some of the numbers as well as endorsements from several authors. I believe this blog article I’ve linked to tries to be objective, but it’s hard to look that way when most everything you read is positive.

Readers and authors alike, check it out: http://www.publishyourownebooks.com/kdp-select-results-after-3-months/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056A2MGO/

dead reckoning Kindle ebook is only $2.99 on Amazon.com!

It seems a bit like double talk to me, but it sounds like Apple is taking the US DOJ to task, claiming they don’t have anything to do with the publisher industry’s eBook pricing.

However, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and News Corp’s HarperCollins agreed to settle citing that they didn’t want to be involved in a costly legal battle, but none are admitting to wrongdoing or collusion.

On the other hand, Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin Group have not only denied collusion and price-fixing but will likely fight the US DOJ charges.

More on this story is at: http://bit.ly/HHSamK

Google books announced that they’re quiting their program directed toward helping the small brick and mortar bookstores to easily sell eBooks. This program was anticipated by many to be a much-needed shot in the arm for indie bookstores. With the Google Books’ eBook program, the mom and pop independents would have been able to supplement slumping paper book sales created by the consumers’ ever-increasing trend to purchase eBooks online and, in a small way, would have helped fill the large hole in their retail business caused by Internet sales.

I don’t know about you, but as an indie author, I won’t miss this program. Months ago, I tried to publish my books in eBook form with Google Books, and found their process so tedious and confusing that I gave up.

So how will this affect indie bookstores? How about indie authors?

Here’s an article that explains more:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/google-to-nix-ebook-sales-via-independent-stores-20120406-1wg1r.html