There are certain experiences in life that affect us tremendously. A lot of people will never forget the day they graduated from high school, their first concert or their wedding day.

The experience that sticks with Justine Jones of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England is the visit she made to a charity thrift store when she was 11 or 12-years-old.  “I thought it was exciting to rifle through piles of stuff and search for genuine bargains,” she says.

Fast forward a couple of decades and that memory would surface again as inspiration for the novel Jones would start writing in 2006 and complete five years later. Genuine Bargains, published by eBooksforPleasure.com in the summer of 2011, is the story of Margaret Manley, a widow who moves to the

What is it about hunting that draws people in? Some say the attraction is the thrill of the chase. For others, it’s the satisfaction of knowing they outsmarted their prey.

But what if the tables were turned and it wasn’t an animal, but you being hunted? In the new futuristic novel, Trophy, set 500 years in the future, Martin Bucklann is on the run after realizing the dark figure in the forest is after him.

Without warning, he was thrown to the ground with a deafening roar from behind. Martin struggled to bring up his rifle but it was gone, fallen in the snow. A tree stopped his slide and he lay there motionless.

A short time later Martin hears a rich, deep voice with an unusual accent say,  “We meet again young hunter.

J.K. Rowling has created Pottermore, a free to use Web site taking readers right into Hogwarts, as a way of thanking her fans and paying them back for their contributions to the book. Rowling announced the news in a press conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on Thursday. To be launched on July 31, Harry Potter’s birthday, the site gives users access to roam in Harry's world, to uncover back stories and other additional material written by Rowling from notes of hers from the time of first writing the stories as well as those written subsequently. “Find your house by answering random questions posed by the sorting hat” and “choose your own wand from Ollivander’s" are just two of the activities. Fans can join in by submitting comments,

Sales of the three adult trade segments had a steep decline in April, hurt no doubt by Borders and its going out of business sales. The major houses, who are among the publishers that report to AAP’s monthly sales report, were shipping selectively to Borders on a cash basis during the month and received no money generated by the GOB sales of existing inventory. As a result, sales of adult hardcover fell by 22.7% in April from the 19 companies that report to AAP, while trade paperback sales at 21 houses fell 25.4%. Sales of mass market paperback, for which Borders is an important outlet, plunged 41.6% for the 11 reporting houses. Sales in the children’s/YA segment rose 1.5% in April from 18 houses, but children’s/YA paperback sales declined 7.2%.

E-book sales

Amazon is slated to enter the tablet market with its own Android-based tablet PC as soon as August or September, reported Digitimes.com yesterday. The article reports that Taiwan-based component makers have said the online retail giant is targeting global sales of 4 million units in 2011. 

"Amazon adopts processors developed by Texas Instruments, with Taiwan-based Wintek to supply touch panels, ILI Technology to supply LCD driver