Shop Local During the Holidays

A quick update for Go Indies. This holiday season, I urge you to tell friends and family to shop digital online, but shop local otherwise.

Online is the place to buy digital, such as e-books, apps, e-games and e-music, but offline should be where you shop otherwise. Shopping in stores and locally protects jobs and the economy. Millions of jobs are on the line.

Food for thought: For every job Amazon adds to its workforce, up to 10 jobs are taken from the economy. Many of those jobs are gone forever.

Amazon’s vision of the future includes a completely autonomous robotic workforce in its warehouses filling orders replacing people. Robots are already used extensively throughout Amazon’s fulfillment system. Amazon’s vision of the future also includes drones delivering orders, replacing drivers wherever possible. If this future happens, Amazon’s impact on the economy and jobs could double or triple.

Show your support for people, the economy and jobs by blogging, tweeting and sharing:

This holiday season, shop digital online
shop local otherwise.
#shoplocal #savejobs #peoplefirst #jobsfirst

This message is not anti-Amazon; it’s pro people, jobs and the economy. Buy your digital goods wherever; buy your physical goods in stores whenever possible.

Thanks for reading,

Thanks for sharing,

Robert Stanek

Summer of Indie Begins in 1 Day

Summer of Indies Begins in 1 Day.

Summer of Indie features many of the best and brightest stars of today's indie scene.

Spread the word. Follow, post, tweet about: http://readindies.blogspot.com 

Summer of Indies biggest supporters so far: 

• Brian Bigelow
• Tammie Clarke Gibbs
• Rachel Hunter

And: GRACE GUERRA and the Book Junkies Library.

SUMMER OF INDIE -- ALL SUMMER LONG

Summer of Indie is just ahead, featuring some of the best and brightest stars of today's indie scene and many fresh new voices.

I'm Robert Stanek, and I'm IN, and here are 25 other indie authors who also are in:

A.D. Duling

Ashley Fontainne

Brian Bigelow

C. M. Barrett

Carolyn Arnold

Chicki Brown

Doreen McGettigan

Erik Gustafson

Jerry Last

Leigh M. Lane

Linda Leander

Lisa Bilbrey

Lynne Cantwell

Melissa Pearl

Michele Richard

Michelle Hughes

Nadia Scrieva

Nicole Storey

Rachel Hunter

Sharon Cooper

Staci Stallings

Suzie Welker

Tracy James Jones

Valerie Douglas

Are you IN?

So what's Summer of Indie about?

Summer of Indie is a FREE event. I'm donating my time to support it. Summer of Indie is a celebration of the indie author and the indie book. It's all about recognizing indie authors and celebrating their books.

You can support Summer of Indie by following this blog, encouraging others to follow and tweeting. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet...

#Readers, once you #GOIndie, you get Great #Books, Better Prices! #FB: http://t.co/L4JndVk0 #Blog: http://t.co/Wm8eI7ay via @RobertStanek

#SummerOfIndie #ahead #AmIn Are You In? http://readindies.blogspot.com via @RobertStanek #books #authors

Featured Author: Robert Spiller

Today, I’m talking with Robert Spiller about his book, Radical Equations.

Hi, Robert Spiller, please tell me about yourself and your latest book.

I taught mathematics for 35 years, all the while writing both Sci-Fi and Mystery.  Now that I'm retired I intend to write full time and travel for pleasure and to promote my novels.

In Radical Equations, math teacher Bonnie Pinkwater and her best friend Wiccan matriarch Rhiannon Griffith are out hiking when they stumble across the body of Bonnie's Vice-principal, only to have it disappear then re-appear seated at his desk in a tornado ravaged high school.  As Bonnie and Rhiannon begin to nose around they come across tyrannical dwarves, homicidal motorcyclists, killer tornados, high stakes poker games, suspicious evangelicals, land-grabbing CEO's, and a damaged math genius desperate for Bonnie's help.  A tasty bit of business, if I say so myself.

Can you tell us more about the book and what motivated you to publish it now?

Radical Equations is  the fourth book in the Bonnie Pinkwater series.  The first three are The Witch of Agnesi, A Calculated Demise, and Irrational Numbers.  All feature my math teacher/sleuth Bonnie Pinkwater who uses math and her knowledge of historic mathematicians to solve murders in the small Colorado town of East Plains, Colorado.

Even though this isn't my first book, it feels like a new experience.  I recently parted company with the publisher of the first Bonnie books and couldn't find a publisher willing to take on the fourth book in a series.  I was unwilling to let the series go (I have fallen in love with Bonnie Pinkwater and can't imagine not writing her).  The decision to venture into the world of managed self-publishing seemed ideal for my situation.  I am fortunate to have hitched my cart to Courtney Literary's  managed self-publishing star.


Who is your favorite character in the books?
In this series of books it will always be Bonnie Pinkwater, she's smarter than me, more caring, and feisty as hell, but I am somewhat partial to Wiccan matriarch Rhiannon Griffith who is featured in Radical Equations and The Witch of Agnesi.

Where can readers find Radical Equations?
At the moment, it's only available as an e-book.  Print copy, out next month.  It can be downloaded in all e-formats at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords and of course at my website: www.rspiller.com.

What’s next for you?
I am working on the next Bonnie Pinkwater novel, a YA Fantasy, and my first incursion into Horror (this one gives me nightmares).  I also have a historic YA mystery series with two novels in the bag.  I would love to see these in the hands of teenagers everywhere.

Go Indie Happenings -- December 2012

Go Indie (https://www.facebook.com/groups/goindie/) is the Facebook counterpart to Read Indies on Blogspot (http://readindies.blogspot.com/). Periodically, I'll feature a recap of happenings from Go Indie. Recent highlights to share follow.

Karen Docter shared details about the ‎2012 Award of Excellence contest for romance writers.

2012 Award of Excellence Contest

Sponsor: Colorado Romance Writers
Fee: $20.00
Receipt Deadline: January 13, 2012
Eligibility: Books published in 2011. Bound hard copies of e-books also eligible.

Categories: Short Contemporary (60,000 words or less), Long Contemporary (over 60,000 words), Historical, Romantic Suspense, Single Title, P/TT/F/F, Inspirational, Mainstream w/Romantic Elements, Erotic Romance.

Judges: Readers, booksellers, published authors
Top Prize: Award of Excellence Trophy and certificate; letter congratulating the editor.

For entry forms and rules see: www.coloradoromancewriters.com.

Ashley Fontainne, Author of Accountable to None, is hosting a giveaway for William Talcott's The Mission.

Make your way to Ramblings of a Mad Southern Woman December Now! -18th, to set yourself up to win a copy of The Mission. Details: ​ramblingsofamadsouthernwoman.bl​ogspot.com

Grace Guerra posted an update for Book Junkies Library

Grace welcomed new members: Alle Wells, Greg Sisco, Jeanne Starr Gater, Karen Pokra, Sibylla Nash, Suzanne Robb, and Walter Eckland. Also go by the Library to check out the new releases by Allan Leverone, Barbara Ebel. Jolea Minnick-Harrison, (Kate) Katie Fuentes, Laura Lond, Marsha Canham, Mary Findley, Nadina Boun, (R.G.) Robyn Porter, and Robert Stanek.

See: Book Junkies Library

Kai Wilson is doing a blog hop and inviting Go Indie members to participate.

When: From the 23rd of December for 12 days.

Details: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GIRxmasbloghop/ This is the author sign up.

Thanks for reading! See you @ Go Indie.