High points (and pun slightly intended) were the lighthouses. Sigh. First, Point Cabrillo, just north of Mendocino, California. Darlingest little beacon. No tours (the tower was chained off) and the main floor is now a gift shop. DD and I romped around taking photos and complained because I’d left my wallet with DH, down the road.

Next was Battery Point in Crescent City. We stayed at (where else?) The Lighthouse Inn. Lovely people, and a lobbyful

The Glamorous, Success Author at Battery Point

of lighthouse pictures and artifacts. INCLUDING a huge wall mural of St. George Reef Lighthouse, which figures prominently in my new book, CAPE SEDUCTION! How hauntingly apropos. Staff was lovely. They agreed to display my rack cards!

Battery Point is a beautiful lighthouse, accessed only at low tide. DD and I took a tour. The docents were volunteers who get a month of lighthouse keeping at a time, and the waiting list is LONG. I passed out bookmarks and postcards to two very giddy lighthouse loving ladies.

Last was one of my favorites, Heceta Head Lighthouse in Yachats, Oregon. One of the most photographed beacons in the U.S. Another tour, lots of good info.

The Astonishing Heceta Head

Great gift shop (had my wallet this time!!) Could have stayed here all day. This lighthouse is on the cover of POINT SURRENDER. Heceta Head, by the way, is on tap for a major facelift next year. Needs it, badly.

Couldn’t see them all. Passed several up on the way, hopefully to be visited another time. I’ll be traveling back to my brother’s house in late August, at which time we’ll visit Point No Point Lighthouse. Can’t wait!

St. George Reef inside The Lighthouse Inn!

Evidence of decay. Still beautiful

• Small press month
• Women’s history month
• National Nutrition Month
• National Kidney Month
• American Red Cross Month.

See anything interesting yet? Maybe you’re not up to a whole month of anything, so consider this: it’s Read an ebook week! Yes, those annoying tree-huggers are back, admonishing you for still reading paper books! I’ll admit to reading both, although I prefer the “e” variety and have for many years. Do I have a dedicated ereader? Yes, and no. My ereader is the granddaddy of all ebook reading devices, the Rocket eBook, and it’s like 8 years old already. Heavy, clunky, but adorable.

On Monday, I noticed the woman on the next treadmill was jogging while reading a Kindle, placed on the magazine deck of her machine. She had to reach up every few seconds to press the spot that would turn the page as she ran. Very jazzy. Poor me, trying to read about Johnny Depp in Entertainment Weekly, while the overhead fan kept blowing the magazine’s leaves. Hrmph.

To celebrate REBW, my niece and I went to B & N yesterday and she scraped up $280 in cold, hard-earned cash (she’s 18) for a nook™ ereader. (Yes, it’s lower case. Go figure.) We were both so excited and spent quite a while playing with it later. While I am enamored with the upcoming Apple iPad, I am so not enamored with the $500+ price tag. So I’m going to wait a bit, get the feedback from my niece on the nook and see if I get a chance to test drive the iPad when it comes out. In the meantime, I’ll play with her nook. Say, look what she’s reading!

POINT SURRENDER is available for your nook, your Kindle, your Sony reader and even your Rocket eBook. Read it on your computer, your iPhone, your MACBook. Your Pocket PC, your Blackberry, your Palm Pilot. And even (shhh! – don’t tell everyone) available in dead-tree version! (On sale at B&N.com for $11.69!)

Happy Reading!

I'm All Packed!

It’s going great. A LOT more fun than I thought it would be! And it’s forcing me to write on-the-fly. I offered these topics, now I must make good on them. (What was I thinking??? LOL).

Monday kicked off at Life of a Publisher. Confession, my actual article got lost in cyberspace and never made it to host Karen Syed’s hands. Karen, ever the fix-all wonder that she is, dredged up a pretty darn decent replacement blog about me. The original article will go up at the end of the tour, to wrap things up!

Tuesday found me jabbering about photography and writing at Beth Fish Reads. What fun! And what a great bunch of readers she has!

Wednesday I stopped in at Write First, Clean Later with L.J. Sellers. By the time I finished talking about how to find more time for yourself, I was convinced I need to take my own advice! L.J.’s site is a wealth of information for any writer. Great blog!

Today, I get a break from writing and instead got to sit back and read a review of my middle grade reader, LOCKER SHOCK! by Mitali at Alley of Books. Felt like a reward! This 18 year old reviewer is articulate and thoughtful, and I couldn’t be happier with her well-written review.

Tomorrow ends my first week with My Friend Amy, where I’m talking all about lighthouses. And guess what: August 7th is actually National Lighthouse Day! What a treat!

My line up for next week:

Monday - Writing & Life, hosted by Nick Valentino:  Taking the Mystery Out of EBooks

Tuesday - Twiga Tales, with Regina Leake:  Haunting Lighthouses

Wednesday - Vintage Cookbooks, cooked up by Amy Alessio:  Living the Romantic Life

Thursday - Nisha Sharma is on the calendar to review me!

Friday - Candid Canine (Cute name!) led by Christine Verstraete: Keeping Young Readers Motivated!

Hope you’ll stop by for a visit!

Pam:     Well, Case McKenna. Or is it Casey?

Case:     Just Case. (Shakes dark, shaggy locks away from his face.) But yeah. Casey’s my given name. Just got a bit worn.

Pam:     Case it is. Let’s see. You own a lighthouse?

Case:     (Shakes head, grins) Oh, no. Not me. You’re talking about Point Surrender, right? Nope. Not mine. Thank God. It belongs to my girlfriend’s brother and his wife.

Pam:     I see. But you have a connection.

Case:     Well, yeah, you might say that.

Pam:     You don’t want to talk about it.

Case:     Can I buy a vowel, Vanna?

Pam: (laughing) Can you tell us anything about this famous lighthouse? I heard it was haunted.

Case: (chews bottom lip, thoughtful) Yes. Yes, I’ve seen…a ghost there.

Pam:     Scary!

Case:     Not really. He’s a benevolent type. He had a … message for us.

Pam:     Us. You and ?

Case:     Amy. My lady love. My cohabitant. My significant other.

Pam:     What kind of message?

Case:     He wanted us to know about some…important events that occurred in the lighthouse. To clear up some things. You know. He couldn’t rest… all that stuff.

Pam:     Do you know who he was?

Case:     Yes.

Pam:     And?

Case:     Just—yes.

Pam:     Is it true that the last keeper died in the lighthouse?

Case:     Yes. And no, it wasn’t him. (Chuckles).

Pam:     Well thank you for that, at least! Now, you are a veteran of the Marines?

Case: (Shakes head, again) I’m a marine veterinarian. I take care of sick sea mammals and birds.

Pam:     But do you visit Point Surrender?

Case:     Not if I can help it.

Pam:     Did anyone ever tell you you are a tough interview?

Case: (Blue eyes twinkle) You want to talk about whales or sea otters?

Case McKenna and Amy Winslow are both characters in POINT SURRENDER by Anne Carter, from Echelon Press, Amazon and available for your Kindle, iPhone or other ereader from Fictionwise.

I'm All Packed!

Okay, it’s a blog tour, but it’s still going to be a real trip… !

I’m blogging all over the place anyway, so why not hand pick a variety of entertaining spots to visit while I’m at it? The entire schedule can be found on the Book Tour calendar on my website.  I hope you’ll join me on my tour and leave a comment here and there—there’s bound to be some reward for the fans who visit all of my stops!  More details on that CONTEST to come!

On the first week of the tour—between August 3 and August 7th—you can find me at the following websites with lots of fun and reading matter. Thanks to my fab publisher, Ms. Karen Syed, for helping me get this off the ground!

August 3: Life as a Publisher with host Karen Syed

• Tour kicks off with an article about a subject near and dear to my heart: Kids & EBooks
• How EBooks Will Increase Literacy

August 4:          Beth Fish Reads

• Read how photography can enhance your writing in
• A Story’s Worth a Thousand Pictures

August 5:          Write First, Clean Later interview with host L.J. Sellers

• Ever had a conflict between your professional life and your true self?
• Finding Time to Be Yourself (and Stay Sane)

August 6:          Alley of Books review post by Mitali Dave

• What did Ben find in his school locker?
• Mitali will be reviewing LOCKER SHOCK!

August 7:          My Friend Amy hosted by… Amy!

• What do lighthouses have to do with romance? Find out in
• Living, Loving and Lighthouses

Come along for the ride and let’s have some fun!

Yes, my book is on Kindle

Lit Agent Nathan Bransford’s post this morning got me thinking. (Note: I still like Nathan even though he turned down my query in a NY minute.) Nathan’s a smart guy, and if anyone is keeping his finger on the pulse of the pub industry, he is. Today he is talking about the squabble over releasing hard cover books in advance of ebooks, because the fear seems to be that the less expensive electronic editions will hurt sales of paper versions. This is particularly amusing to me, because my small press publisher does just the opposite; ebooks first, paper books only if the e-version does well.

I was glad to see that, for the most part, Nathan and I are on the same proverbial page. I see book purchasing consumers as two very different breeds, at least for the time being. The ebook market is still in the throes of a painfully slow evolution. True, the advent of the Kindle and Sony readers has given the process a good shove, but I still believe that the same people who want those hard backs (I never buy them, myself) aren’t the same folks who will gleefully download the same book instead simply due to cost. Save for a small percentage of enlightened mainstream book buyers, most of those clamoring for ebooks would not likely buy the expensive paper version to begin with. Likewise, paper-only-pundits wouldn’t be caught dead with a USB cable in hand.

What I see are missed opportunities for publishers to mine both camps. Maybe part of the problem is that these big, mainstream publishers don’t really know how to market the digital versions of their new releases. Or, they are so focused on the low price of the ebook, they fail to see how any sale is better than no sale.

I’m no expert–although I’d like to be–and I’m still trying to figure out how best to promote ebooks myself. I see my own readers as divided. Clearly, for me, most of my fan base prefers the trade paperback–and I’ve been touting ebooks for ten years. But I can be patient. Ebooks have come farther in the last year than in the previous five, in my opinion. And I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times before: paper books will not go away; there will be, however, a shift in reading toward their electronic cousins. A market share for both.

Coquille River Lighthouse as it looked to us in 1990.

Some friends of mine are traveling to Oregon tomorrow, and our discussion about their trip led me to recommend visits to the state’s many beautiful lighthouses. As it turns out, their travels will take them along a good portion of the Oregon coastline, leading them past several of these marvelous beacons. Heceta Head, of course, is a favorite of mine, being the inspiration for (and gracing the cover of) my latest romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER.

Yaquina Head, Yaquina Bay, Umpqua River, Cape Arago and others are all on the route. However, I gave my friends specific instructions to visit Coquille (Koh-kel) River Lighthouse in Bandon. With Google’s help, a quick search of this distinctive, octagonal beacon reveals that it has been refurbished since my visit in the early 1990’s. LighthouseFriends.com seems to have the most updated info, and they mention some discord concerning the paint colors on this 113 year old station. Seems some folks feel it should be all white. Personally, I’m just thrilled it’s been restored.

When my family visited Bullards State Beach Park in 1990, my young sons delighted in playing amount the rocks on the jetty. The younger, just 4, managed to plop himself down into the cold waters of the Coquille River! He thought it was a riot until I had to strip him down in the parking lot, behind our open car door, and redress him in dry clothes.

“Amy Winslow isn’t looking for a mystery, and she doesn’t even like secrets. In fact, secrets have nearly destroyed her life. But when her brother’s accident forces her to take over a mysterious California lighthouse in his place, Amy finds herself immersed in its shocking past and uncertain future.

“Case McKenna hasn’t quite reconciled his own painful history when he sails his crippled boat into Newburg Harbor. Despite an overwhelming urge to flee, Case follows intrigue and passion, as he too is drawn in by Point Surrender…”

So goes the blurb for my lastest novel, POINT SURRENDER. As you can gather from the copy, there’s a lighthouse, and two people who may or may not be destined to uncover its long-held secrets. PS is the first in a trilogy of lighthouse-mystery-romantic-ghostly books with a broad appeal.

As much as I love ebooks and advocate them at every turn, I am hesitant to accept my publisher’s challenge that I can sell 100 copies within 30 days. She’s even making it easier this week, by offering 25% off any ebook that retails for over $3.00. Read about it here. I think that makes it around $4.50, which is a super price for any full-length novel, and especially for mine. $12.95 in paperback, mind you. CLICK TO BUY!

So how do I go about selling 100 more ebooks? Offer autographed cover flats? (Yes.) Run a contest? (Nah.) Beg? (Why not.)

If you buy it from Echelon, you can get it in PDF or HTML, readable in any computer and most hand-helds (including your iPhone.) If you need it in another format, check out Fictionwise (where it is not on sale but is still only $5.25, and is available in MS Reader, Kindle, Mobipocket, eReader, Sony Reader and others.

I hope you choose to help me out. Prove to me that it can be done!

There is a lot to write about with regard to digitally formatted books. Right now, my focus is on how to sell more of them. I buy almost exclusively ebooks myself, most of them from on-line bookseller Fictionwise. And no, I don’t read them on my computer. I have a small PDA (”Personal Data Assistant”) device — you may recognize the pioneer name “Palm Pilot” — that I download books onto and read at night in bed. I love it, and now have difficulty changing back to paper books on occasion. Since I read in bed, paper books don’t work because they require light, space and they make noise. Not to mention that they take up space on the shelf when they should still be standing in the forest. But that’s another issue.

By now, you’ve probably heard of the Kindle, Amazon’s offering in the digital book arena. Two of my friends own them and I must say, they are pretty nice. Kindles, along with their nearest competitor, the Sony Reader Digital Book, work for a variety of different scenarios. However, as they both utilize the revolutionary “eInk”, they don’t light up at night, and they don’t display in color.

Nonetheless, either of these (and several other) ereaders work  just fine for the reading of any of my seven available ebooks. Fictionwise, in fact, makes my titles available in no less than thirteen different formats for different readers. Prices range from 85 cents to $5.95 for my latest, full-length romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER. Is that a bargain, or what? The paperback sells for $12.95 plus shipping. The savings is about $8.50, and it wouldn’t take too long to make back the price of the ereader, would it?

I believe that once the price on the ereader comes down to under $100, we will start to see greater momentum on the ebook front. The fact that California, Texas and other states are experimenting with digital textbooks is a good sign.

I’d like to know what others think. Others who are still on the fence, or starting to think more about going green with ebooks. What would make you switch?

Signing!

It’s so nice to meet new fans at a book fair. One lady hugged POINT SURRENDER to her chest and said she couldn’t wait to read it! Is that cool, or what? I sold a lot more books than I thought I would, especially with all the competition and the state of the economy. I regret that I didn’t get to see Michael J. Fox; he has a new book out and I can’t wait to read it.

Lots of fun hanging out with the other Echelon authors and the Fairy people, Bobbie and Harry Hinman. They have a new Fairy book coming out this summer, The Belly Button Fairy!

Always nice seeing my publisher, Karen Syed, and fellow authors Jenny Turner and Jeff Sherratt. New this year was Gayle Carline and Teresa Burrell, both with brand-spanking new releases. What a thrill for them! Another delightful person, Melinda Richarz Bailey was beside me, offering up the humorous and entertaining “WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty.”

A surprise was meeting radio show host Megan Willingham. I appeared on Megan’s “Writers, Authors N’ More” program last fall. She is just the most gracious lady, and she is excited about my upcoming release, CAPE SEDUCTION. A real thrill to meet her in person!

Happily, teen author Alyssa Montgomery arrived midday on Saturday, selling her teen ebooks and impressing everyone with her wit and charm.

On Sunday, I took a break from the Echelon tribe and headed over to Sisters In Crime, where I signed for 2 hours and enjoyed meeting many new mystery fans. All in all, a fabulous weekend! Maybe soon I’ll get my voice back.