At a gas station in the middle of nowhere, late at night, his wife Jenny appears… no car… no coat and looking older than when he saw her last. That’s because this is not the woman he received a good-bye kiss from this morning. This woman has been a widow for over four years and has made an impossible journey back in time to try to stop her husband’s murder.

Will they be able to escape the killers or does fate only have one plan… one possible outcome… ONE WAY?

* Finally set your goal of practicing the language
* Learn how to relax at will before speaking Italian
* Relax while learning new empowering words and techniques as well as the Italian language that conveys them
* Have fun with five key lessons in mental training where the main character is YOU!

Awaken Your Italian features:

* in this podcast only the Italian version, in the textbook English and Italian parallel texts
* accelerated learning methods to help you absorb the language faster!
* No memorization exercises!
* Especially suitable for intermediate learners!

YOU can find all the texts of this podcast in your nearest bookstore, as paperback and as ebook!

Music used in this podcast is Royalty free Music by Kevin MacLeod.

E se tu potessi imparare qualcosa di utile per te stesso e per la tua vita mentre impari una nuova lingua? Con Risveglia il tuo italiano! TU:
* fisserai il tuo obiettivo di praticare la lingua
* imparerai come rilassarti volontariamente prima di parlare l’italiano
* ti rilasserai imparando nuove parole e tecniche potenzianti nonche l’italiano che le trasmette
* ti divertirai con 5 lezioni chiave di allenamento mentale dove il protagonista sei TU!

Risveglia il tuo italiano ti offre:
* in questo podcast solo la versione italiana, nel libro testi bilingue in italiano e in inglese
* metodi di apprendimento accelerato per aiutarti ad assorbire la lingua piu velocemente!
* nessun esercizio di memorizzazione!
* Specialmente indicato per studenti di livello intermedio!

Puoi trovare tutti i testi di questo podcast nella libreria a te piu vicina, sia in versione cartacea sia come ebook!

La musica usata in questo podcast e Royalty free di Kevin MacLeod.

Even though the ACX website clearly states they offer non-exclusive terms and are actively seeking authors who narrate their own books, Nicole painted a different picture of the “intent” of ACX. She stated that they never really wanted indie authors, and instead only wanted the top few hundred titles from big publishing houses that weren’t already available as audio books. So much for this nugget also found on their website:

“The result: More audiobooks will be made.
Too many authors have been left out of the quickly growing and culturally repositioned digital audio market. Until now.”

But not, it turns out, if you’re an indie author who’s taken the route of offering up a free podcast version of your work. You, my friend, can take a flying leap as far as ACX is concerned. You are not welcome in ACX’s playground.

Someone look up the definition of “exclusive”. I am not sure that word means what ACX thinks it means.

According to Nicole, Audible members get their panties in a wad when they find a free version of the audio book they were overcharged for. On the surface, I can understand that. Audible’s terribly outdated “book of the month club” model doesn’t make it easy to enjoy more than one title each month, and their prices beyond that are notoriously high. So if I found a more-friendly alternative, I’d be a little pissed, too.

But that’s where Nicole’s argument breaks down. You see, the parent company of ACX and Audible is Amazon.com. And Amazon.com happily shows multiple formats of books at different price points side-by-side. Here’s a shot of Scott Sigler’s Infected:

Multiple formats & multiple prices on Amazon.com

Ebooks, hard cover, paper back, audio books… and even from other retailers and individuals. I count 12 different price points, ranging from eighty-one cents to about thirty-five bucks. That’s a healthy delta. In fact, it’s such a delta that I asked Nicole a point blank question: If we sold the podcast version for a penny, would ACX have a problem with that?

You can imagine how stunned I was when she said something along the lines of “No, that would be OK.”

So there you have it, overcharged Audible member; Audible thinks that you are so stupid as to not be able to tell the difference between a penny and thirty-five dollars. Do you also think that as long as you still have checks in your checkbook, that you have money in your account?

I tried to explain to Nicole (who, in fairness, seemed to understand what I was saying), that a free podcast version is very different than a fee-based downloadable audio book version. The former takes many many clicks to listen to. It takes listening to repetitive intros and outros. It requires patience to listen to some chatter from an author about a convention they attended three years ago or a now-defunct contest you can’t enter. And it requires exposures to commercials and special offers.

Contrast that with a one-click download for a complete and self-contained audiobook, where the only thing heard is the contents of the audio book itself! Sounds like a convenience some (though obviously not all) people will pay for, yes?

But not on ACX, it seems. Because even armed with that information — I like to call it logic — Nicole stuck to policy. She even admitted to hearing from a handful of authors from Podiobooks.com who tried to explain the difference.

Some of what I said got through, and Nicole tossed the ball higher up the food chain to Jennifer, whom I just got off the call with. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t any substantive change in the official ACX position. Jennifer doesn’t see how multiple price points for ebooks are relevant for audio books (“An ebook is just a photocopy of a book in a different format,” she said. No, not kidding.) and doesn’t understand how free and for-fee play together (“I don’t get what authors get from giving away free content“.)

It’s hard to argue someone away from that position. So I stopped trying.

The only slightly positive takeaway from the call with Jennifer was her comment that ACX does have plans to let authors who have already created audio version in their sand box in the near(?) future. But not if that author gives a different audio version away for free. Even for authors who don’t want to play in the free-space, they run the risk of having their content taken down if the alternate audio version is priced too low. So if you were thinking of selling your podcasted version for $0.99, think again.

Jennifer would like to keep the conversation going. I’m OK with that. As much as I’d like to ignore ACX and Audible — I can’t. They remain the near-monopoly in the space. I stand behind Cory Doctorow’s concept of giving people every possible chance to buy an author’s work, and that means getting books on every possible marketplace. (Side note: When I brought up Cory, Jennifer said something along the lines of “Yeah, we’ve talked to him. We won’t put his books up on Audible.“)

Many authors are wondering what they can do to turn the tide in their favor. Here’s one option: Call Nicole. Her office line is 973-820-0400. Tell her you are a rights holder who’d like to take advantage of ACX, but you’re not willing to burn the bridges you’ve established with your audience. Try (perhaps in vain) to tell her that a free podcast version isn’t all that competitive with a downloadable fee-based audio book. Tell her that authors like Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi provide .pdf versions of their books for free and still manage to sell tens (or hundreds) of thousands of their books in print and ebook form for their publishers. Tell her how hard you’ve worked to build your platform, and would like to give that platform one more chance to purchase a fee-based product. And that you’re willing to do the work to make the best possible product for sale.

In the mean time, there are other distribution outlets. If ACX won’t play, there are other market places who will. And who will pay a better royalty. Authors on Podiobooks.com have been extremely good about building their own audience without a powerhouse behind them. I think we can do it again. I recommend BackMyBook.com as an alternative. If you’re interested, reach out to Tay (tay@backmybook.com). He’s got a great model that gives you more than 80% of sales — and you set the sale price. We’ll work to fully integrate with them to make a seamless experience for those who want to pay you for your work.

And maybe, just maybe, ACX will change their minds and open up to the indie author who knows the power of using free to bolster for-fee. Here’s to hoping.

Derrick claims Chad has broken his father’s proprietary hand held game player. The price to replace it can’t be paid in dollars and cents, but in lives.

Chad must travel across dimensions and learn the ways of bending time and space by manipulating sound.

The mysteries pile up as he meets the residents of the dimensions and learns the responsibilities inherited from the father who disappeared shortly after Chad’s birth. Who will help him rescue his friend, and who can he trust in a world of strangers and strange allegiances? The beautiful Amanda, four years older than Chad and a hundred miles out of his league? The manipulative recluse, Brendan Thrush? Or the dangerous and powerful Commander Lorantelle?

What will be the final price Chad must pay to prove his friendship?

A series of events unfold, and he is transported to the kingdom of Teruvisa. After entering this remarkable world of awesome technology, Jared, together with two other newcomers his age, discover that they’ve been entrusted with a mission to succeed where an entire civilization has failed.

That’s a lot of responsibility for three twelve-year-olds who haven’t ever used a laris, seen a jobalich, experienced hypertravel, played ketauro, or spoken Amatay … yet.

This book you are about to hear shares Tolstoy’s thoughtful commentary on where TRUE Christianity lies and why and how the Church has gotten Christ’s teaching so wrong.

Special thanks to JewelBeat.com for the theme song, “Russia, Russia, My Love.”

The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy is in the public domain. The coverart is by Russian portrait artist Ivan Kramskoy. Produced and narrated by Vic Zarley

Travel with Alibi from Earth to the asteroid belt – from the human colony of Cat’s Eye to the alien water world of Kee’Ere – from a lost, unnamed orb on the fringes of explored space to a planet that should not be called Paradise.

Alibi Jones is a mediator for the SAIF – Solar Alliance Interplanetary Force – but that doesn’t stop trouble from coming his way!

The Salem Concord, the treaty that has kept peace between Folk and Wizardry since the Salem Wars, has been breached causing the return of the Witch Hunts. Jesse Alexander takes it upon himself to end the war by embarking on an adventure against the Cadre and deliver two young Wizardry to the Secretary of Magic before it’s to late.

Secret wizard agent Ch-U-Ch races against time to stop Lord Alex from becoming the most powerful sorcerer and ultimate ruler of the world.

Meanwhile, the Mahgo brothers, Andrew and Brendan, exiled from the Folk world, hurry to mature into their new powers as they embark on a heroic quest against Lord Alex and his dark sorcerers to find the four elements and the Sorcerer’s Secret.

The Last Sorcerer is a spellbinding fantasy adventure that returns the reader to Alivan’s Wizards and Witches Corner Store to battle dragons, dark wizards, evil witches, zombies and witch hunters. In the world of magic nothing is ever what it appears to be.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe to Podioracket’s feed.

INTERVIEWS

TM Nielsen on her Heku Series

T.M. Nielsen is the author of Amazon.com’s Bestselling books, the Heku Series. After spending a lifetime reading about the paranormal, and coming up short, she decided to fix the legends and came up with the heku.

The 8 book series is full of action, adventure, romance, humor, and drama.

Website : http://www.hekuseries.com

E-Mail : info@hekuseries.com

Twitter ID : http://twitter.com/#!/TheHekuSeries

Facebook Page :
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/groups/140395936002360?ap=1

Seth Kenlon’s Private Property

Seth Kenlon is a multimedia artist, a Unix geek, and a
free software enthusiast. Sometimes, he
writes esoteric science fiction.

Official Book Site: http://aesdiopod.com/books

Author Site: http://straightedgelinux.com/seth

NEWS

Basil Sands Contest

Basil Sands is giving away a winners choice of either a new Kindle 3 or Kindle Touch eReader ($99 value) to a lucky winner who leaves a comment on the Amazon pages of his ebooks 65 Below, Karl’s Last Flight, Faithful Warrior, or Geeks Rule. If you have listened to the podcast novels and have an Amazon account, you can leave a comment too (without even having to buy the book) for any or all stories. Each comment left from July of this year until 12/23/11 gets one entry into the drawing.
Details on the drawing are at http://www.basilsands.com.
Visit Amazon.

John Mierau on Indigogo

John Mierau is raising money for his new book Enemy Lines. Here’s the his campaign as it’s listed on the site:

I’m an independant artist. I’ve never had an advance, a publicity budget or an editorial staff. I do everything myself or I have to find someone who can help.

To me, IndieGoGo feels like the best way to reach out to my readers to fund what I’m creating *for* them. I don’t believe I need a publisher to commission beautiful covers and pay for editng and printing costs. That just drives up the cost for you, and the profits for another company.

Check out indiegogo.com for all the details and a list of the perks he’s awarding to contributors.

Thanks!

Next Christmas in Girouette is a full-length novel for people of all ages—nine to ninety-nine—who want to share a heart-warming literary adventure at Christmastime.

Set on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, this is the story of a brother and sister—Autry and Oxana Quinn—who find themselves stranded in a Girouette, a virtual ghost town, from Thanksgiving through Christmas when their father is taken ill. Their grandfather, a Marine Captain long retired, plus an eccentric old café owner, a Blackfeet Indian horse trader who was once the town’s mayor, a couple who published the local newspaper and an ancient deaf-mute trapper are the only remaining inhabitants of Girouette. These self-styled “diehards” all seem to have one thing in common. Thanks to a mysterious event 60 years earlier, they still believe in Santa Claus.

Next Christmas in Girouette features something for everyone: carefree cowboys who race their horses over snow-covered country roads, a team of wolves trained by a mountain man to pull a sleigh, a stroll that nearly turns tragic on a treacherous buffalo jump, a serialized newspaper story titled “The Adventures of Rocky Mountain Santa,” a desperate attempt to escape from an abandoned copper mine, a night-time journey through the mountains on a frozen river and finally the miracle that delivers wayfaring strangers to Girouette during a white-out on Christmas Eve.

The book revels in the solitary beauty of winter in Big Sky Country, the enduring wisdom of the elderly citizens of Girouette, the excitement of frontier history coming to life, the inspiration of a family healing itself and the magic of an old-fashioned western Christmas. Read Next Christmas in Girouette with your family this year, and you’ll want to revisit it for years and years to come at holiday time.

In Broad Daylight by Seth Harwood

Seth Harwood is now 13 episodes into a new crime novel on Podiobooks.com.

Blurb: FBI Agent Jess Harding always gets her man… or woman.

In this thriller, Harding returns to the scene of her first years as an FBI agent to track the still-at-large killer from her first case. Back in 2006, as a young, inexperienced agent, Harding chased leads across Alaska for a full summer without catching up with this killer. Now, after 5 years of honing her skills, she’s back and ready to try again.

But when she starts to see that the killer knows a little something about her, the heat turns up and Harding realizes she may not be the only one getting chased. Listen to it on Podiobooks.com for free. Due out in Febuary 2012 as an eBook.

Hit Seth up on his websites: www.sethharwood.com and www.crimewave.com

Friend him on twitter and facebook, or join in the fan discusions on his website forum.

Giving an E-Reader for Christmas? Why not fill it with Harwood’s Crime Fiction. Click the get them all link and fill’er up! The pricing is sweet and for under 25 bucks you can have them all!

Get them all
!

In the world of Panamindorah, fauns build castles, cats raise armies, and wolflings craft legendary weapons. It is a world of magic and shape-shifters, inhabited by griffins, pegasus, and centaurs. Sometimes they live in harmony. Sometimes they wear each other’s pelts.

Crossroads is a collection of six stories. These stories tie into two series of novels – The Prophet of Panamindorah and The Guild of the Cowry Catchers. Whether you’re a fan of the books or a newcomer, these tales of devotion, betrayal, love, and lust will entertain and surprise you. These are stories about characters at crossroads in their lives, making decisions that define them.

The stories were recorded under a variety of circumstances, with the oldest going back to 2009. An author’s note is included with each story, providing a behind-the-scenes peek at its context and creation. Four of the stories were released previously in Abbie’s Panamindorah feed. Two of them were paid content and are available for the first time for free in this anthology.

Synchronicity machines. Difference engines melded with the iChing. Geomancy: the art of making stone float with sound. The hacker collective ‘Anonymous’. Secret societies …

This is the world of ARMAND PTOLEMY, a new action-adventure hero. Facing an enemy armed with the Golden Aleph — a mystical device that allows its wielder to see holographically into every point in time and space, Ptolemy must use every trick of his Oxford-educated mind and circus-trained body to succeed.

But how do you fight an enemy that knows your every move … even before you do?

When Armand Ptolemy is called to investigate strange tremors plaguing an old wing of the New York public library, he finds himself enmeshed in a series of events that began in 1912. Yet Ptolemy himself is rumored to be from the past himself — and the world’s Elite lust after the secret of how he seemingly jumped forward over one hundred years in time. Most keenly interested in this secret is Octavio Veerspike, head of the Veerspike banking dynasty.

When the Commission — a secret society of the world’s most powerful people — suddenly call a conclave in the tropics, Ptolemy has to figure out what they’re up to, and fast.

But the Elites have other ideas. Putting into a motion the capstone of a hundred-years old plan, the Commission wants Ptolemy out of the way. And with the Golden Aleph giving them very potent powers of prediction, they just may succeed.