CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. I stopped by Best Buy the other day and had a nice chat with a rep from Samsung. He was a pleasant bloke and he had his own display there at the store, devoted mostly to tablets. He had a thick piece of magic glass there on the counter and told me that if he hooked an I-Pad to it, that the device would sense the apps contained on the I-Pad and install the Android equivalent on a Samsung tablet, free of charge.     This is brilliant marketing by Samsung, because many people believe themselves locked into the Apple system once they have the gear and the attendant apps, music and games. Apple is King of tablets, but the competition grows more fierce as each day passes.     I walked down the tablet isle at Best Buy and marveled at the variety and prices. There were tablets as low as $47. I started to buy a new tablet myself, just for something new to mess with. My son has been showing me his new tablet ...

    Hey, everyone. Recently, boxed sets of ebooks have come into vogue in the on-line stores. The other day I bought 9 thriller novels in one set for 99 cents. Obviously a great deal. Part of my personality is similar to a five year old's in that if I see someone else with something, I want it too. So, I put all 9 of my westerns about the gunman Cedric Gant into one boxed set.  They total about 70,000 words so it is a lengthy read.In this series, Cedric starts out as young gunman, innocent in the ways of the world. He makes the acquaintance of Melon Brown, recently widowed and twice Cedric's age. She helps him along in his education and he falls for her.      As the series continues, Cedric learns that his skill with guns can not only save the lives of his loved ones, but destroy them as well. This series is hard to put down and if you can stand adult situations and language, you should enjoy it. The price is $2.99 and it is available on Smashw...

   Good morning, everyone. Just a quick note to announce a new short story I have placed on Smashwords. The ebook will also be on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and the other outlets over the next few days.      The title is The Sword of France and it is the second book in the series about the sexy, French spy named Andrea. In this story, I delve into the origin of the assassin; how spymaster Jean LaCross plucked her from the mean streets of Marseille and trained her to be the blunt instrument that France needed.      Nicknamed the spider, Andrea wears a ring which bears the image of a spider with a sword on its back. With this odd piece of jewelry, she marks her victims on the forehead.     Be advised, this book has adult content and language. It is about 8500 words and is fast-paced, action-packed and I hope, enjoyable. Here's the place to see it. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/377118 P.S. By the way, an a...

     Hey, everyone. Tonight I finished playing Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour. It is a great game and I super-enjoyed it. When we ran out of Page's Antarctica base and saw our transport settling to the ground it was a beautiful sight. Well worth the $6.99 for this game.     Carley is very quiet because she has new puzzle games. She is playing a game which is free for today only, called Mayan Mystery: Hidden Obje ct HD. As you might expect, it is a hidden object game. Ha, ha. She has another one called Clueless Crossword Party . It has crosswords, with a twist or two. For instance, I had a 3 letter word with an 'a' and an 'l' showing. The third square was blank, with a 19 inside it. I went to the list of letters below the board and tapped the 'e'. When I did, every blank square with a 19 in it had an 'e' appear. (The word was ale, by the way.) The whole thing seems more dynamic than working a puzzle from the newspaper and the graphics are nice. I had ...

    Hey, everyone. Yes, you were right. My stomach was upset yesterday after that midnight snack. That is not the purpose of this post, however.       A few days ago I read a terrific article by a lady named Alexandra Alter. I read it as an excerpt on Zite, I think, but when I wanted to reread it, I had to do a search and found it on the Wall Street Journal. The title is Your E-Book Is Watching You . It is excellent and I thought I'd share the link. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577490950051438304.html       Let me say that I love the creepy picture of the eyes on the printed page. I do hope that you read the article calmly. Like most technical things it is not as bad as it seems but could certainly be abused by governments and others. Here's the gist of the article for those gamers who popped into the site and really have no interest in ebooks.      Evidently, several of the big on-line boo...

    Author's note: This post was written a week ago but not published until today. Hey, everyone. I'm off today, (hooray!) and I am being lazy. I've been working so much lately that I almost feel guilty when I just chill out. I was up early and wanted a low-calorie breakfast so I went to Hardee's and bought a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit and the dreaded cinnamon raisin biscuit. It was good but I had to wait in line at the drive-through for 15 minutes. After breakfast is over, there is never a line. I normally don't wait in line for anything.      I was just over on Smashwords.com, reading Mark Coker's updates. He was asking for opinions on the lending of ebooks from libraries. Wow, what a complex situation! I've been involved in the ebook thing from its inception, almost, and it is an historic moment for mankind. I mean, we are changing a part of human culture that has existed for ages. From stone tablets to dusty manuscripts, people have been reading for...

       Hey, everyone, and particularly those writers that read the blog. I had occasion yesterday to do a search of my own name and discovered that certain places on the web were offering my books as a free and paid download. Places that I didn't know existed.      For instance, one return on the search was for "The Centaur Series" on megashares.com. Another return on the search was from an outfit called filestube. Another search return comes from firstload.com.     To get to the actual web pages on some of these I guess you have to be signed in to a user account. On one of these sites, I clicked a box that stated 'report abuse'. I then read through a long statement of legalese designed to scare away complainers.       I found it interesting that on one of the search results, it was specifically mentioned that it was a kindle edition. Fascinating. So, do they buy one ebook off Amazon and upload ...

    Hey, everyone. Happy pending weekend to you. If you'd like something to read this weekend, head over to Amazon and download my ebook called Climber's Reward . It is free for the next few days. Let me say that it it not for the younger folks. It has adult situations and language.      Climber's Reward is the story of the swinging sixties, an era that I am intimately familiar with. It is the story of Beck Oswald, who comes of age in California at the height of the Vietnam War. After an affair goes bad, Beck flees town by the extreme means of joining the Army. He finds himself in Southeast Asia. The Phoenix Group uses him for assassinations and these skills translate to a future career in the private sector.     This is the story of a contract killer, a man who finds solace for his tortured past in the arms of lovely women. It's a fast-paced read and I hope you like it.     From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills...

   Hey, everyone. It has been a pleasure for me to read Wilbur Smith's latest novel called Those In Peril . I consider it to be a solid 4.5 stars out of 5. It is a book I'd highly recommend. Let me say that it is not for the squeamish. It is raw, violent and disquieting. It chronicles some of the most evil men imaginable and their evil deeds. As hardened an old codger as I am, there were a couple of passages which I chose to skip. Here's the recipe for this fine book.     Hazel Bannock is the widow of the powerful founder of Bannock Oil. She is smart, beautiful and tough, yet she is a pain in the butt for her head of security, Hector Cross. She hates Cross because he doesn't kiss up to her. Yet, when her daughter is kidnapped, she turns to Hector Cross for help.    Cayla Bannock has been kidnapped by Adam Tippoo Tip, who is the leader of a band of pirates in the south seas. She is taken to a mountain fortress on the African coast and held for ransom....

    Hey, everyone. My latest novel has been published on Smashwords and Amazon. It will be on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, I-Books and the rest of the stores within a couple of weeks.      Lost Gap features the return of Miller and Mai. It is the conclusion of a trilogy. This novel, in particular, is about Americans dealing with the aftermath of World War #3. It is fast paced and action packed. It is certainly not a book for anyone under the age of 18. This is the third and final novel in the series that started with KGB Retirement Program and Karina's Journal. It is a good read for 99 cents, in my opinion. If I were you, I'd start at the first of the series.     There is a link to your right for my author pages, if you are interested.      I'm CE Wills.

    Hey, everyone. It's 35 degrees and snowing, here at the green retreat. I just came back from a walk in the woods. Our creek was overflowing its banks due to the heavy rain of the last 4 days. There was some sleet falling during my walk. Due to the temperature, the snow and sleet were melting, so the roads are fine.     We have a wet-weather spring on the back of our place. In other words, it only flows when there has been a lot of rain. I was 'tickled' (Southern for happy) to see this spring was gurgling away, an abundant flow of clean, clear water. Funny how you don't appreciate water until you have to do without it. Then, all of a sudden, you understand that it is the source of life and truly a blessing from God.      I was just looking around on the book stores. I'm talking about the on-line stores, like I-Books and Kindle. I am somewhat frustrated, as I've said before, with the high prices of e-books. They creep upward constant...

    Hey, everyone. A few days ago I dropped by Best Buy and looked at their impressive display of E-Readers.  They had an entire aisle, both sides, devoted to the devices. There were multiple Kindles, Nooks and many others that I had never heard of. I was surprised to see that the vast majority of them were 7 inch screens. I guess this is what analysts think is the coming thing. Maybe folks want to stick them in a purse or book bag. Best Buy had a display model for each of them, hooked up and ready to try out. I turned every one of them on and checked them for responsiveness, crispness of display and all that. The device with the best display was one that I had never heard of and I have forgotten the name of it.      This is going to sound dumb but I really liked the packaging for the Kindles. It made me think about people, as most things do. Isn't it funny how important appearance is for things, and for people too? Not that the Kindle is anythin...

   Hey, everyone. Cool Mushroom, huh? This was growing under my deck and it looks like a granny's hair that has been out in the Kansas wind all day. There is a bit of yellow streaks in the fuzz also.    New games came out on the app store today and I bought one. This is certainly not unusual but I rarely buy a puzzle game. Gesundheit! is a cute game with some odd characters. Most notably there is a little pig with allergies. He sneezes and blows snot around. This has been sort of an issue in his life, as one can imagine. It has cost him a few friends. It has hindered his love life. On the positive side of the ledger, it saves him from a monster. This monster has been terrorizing the community. The monster has some baggage, though. He likes to eat boogers. I know, gross. It is with difficulty that I can write about this. Feel free to quit reading at this point.      As the little green pig with the sniffles tries to negotiate mazes, the monster p...

    Hey, everyone. Remember in the Clint Eastwood movie called The Good, The Bad And The Ugly? At the end, the three gunmen stood in a triangle to shoot it out, with no one knowing who would shoot who? It was tense and cool. Tonight we stand in the shadow of another showdown. None of these gunmen are bad guys. Most people like all the companies involved and none of them are doing anything wrong. Here's the recipe.     For the past 15 months or so, Apple has allowed companies to have apps on the app store which had provisions inside the app for consumers to buy things at another site. In such instances Apple received no money for that. Anything sold through the app store nets Apple a 30% cut. All this time, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony Books and others had apps through which they sold books to I-Padsters. Apple did not profit from this. It was very nice for us, and incredibly magnanimous of Apple to allow us to use their app store to buy books from...