BVS Reader's Blog

Each week from July 16, 2010 – September 14, 2010 Barnes and Noble will release a new collection of classics in ebook format for readers to download free. Check out the new collection each Friday at http://www.bn.com/freelibrary

Enjoy!

A short time ago I shared with you how excited I was when Kindle released its Kindle application for the Android. Now Barnes & Noble has released the Nook application for Android phones as well. This may make reading ebooks much easier for many people who already own Android phones or who are considering them as an upcoming purchase. You can check out Nook for Android here.

There were already Nook applications for iPad, iPod Touch, Blackberry, PC’s and Mac’s. You can check out the various Nook applications and find instructions for downloading the software to your desktop, laptop, or Mac here.

Please join Cara Bristol at her Cyber Launch Party at Author Island where she will be answering questions about her newest release Secret Desires.

Secret Desires is a steamy hot domestic discipline and menage story with a happy ever after ending. Be sure to visit the Cyber Launch Party for more information and chances to win Cara’s earlier release Intimate Submission.

Here it is another Saturday and time for another recipe free for all. I’ve heard from a lot of people (both on and off the blog) that they like to bbq during the hot summer months…so I thoughts I would ask everyone to share a favorite suace or marinade if you have one. If you don’t have one, you can of course share anything else you want to.

What have you fixed this week that the rest of us might enjoy?

Please share your recipes.

Here’s one that we enjoy–even though it is a bit off the sauces and marinades topic.

Deluxe Pork Steak (or Pork Chops)

Combine: About 1/2 -3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Pour mixture into gallon sized zip top bag.

Pour about 1 cup milk into bowl large enough to accomodate pork steak or pork chop pieces. Moisten all sides of pork in milk. Then add one piece at a time to zip top bag, shaking to coat pork piece with flour mixture. Remove pieces from bag and set aside.

Pour enough oil to cover bottom of pan into large skillet. Heat oil over medium high heat. When oil is heated sufficiently for frying add pork pieces to pan. Fry until the pieces are golden brown and cooked through.

The pork can be eaten at this point…and we like it very much made like this.

For colder days when you don’t mind the oven being on:

Arrange cooked pork in bottom of 13×9 pan. Pour two cans of chicken rice soup (undiluted) over the top of pork pieces. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.

This is a family favorite. Very easy and very tasty. Does it get any better than easy and tasty?

Here are this week’s winners:

For the free paperback given away on Saturdays to someone who has left a comment here on the blog:

cyndelouwho22

The Six Book A Day Winners for this week are:

ashleycc
lindahl
ayreann
pancake642002
maxwellopemipo
staceypayne842

If you’re one of the lucky winners please visit http://www.blackvelvetseductions.com/Claim-A-Prize.html and follow the instructions there for claiming your prize. Please be aware that I have a house full of out of state guests this weekend so I have very little time at the computer, which means it will likely be early next week before I am able to entirely catch up with the email and get all of the prizes out.

In an article appearing in The Washington Post on Tuesday Amazon was quoted. Amazon reported that sales of their Kindle reader grew every month during the second quarter. Even more striking is the statement that they are now selling almost twice as many ebooks as hardbacks. In july sales of ebooks climbed to 180 ebooks for every 100 hardback sold through Amazon.

This news naturally has ebook publishers jumping for joy and industry insiders wondering whether ebooks have finally reached a tipping point where they will be considered as viable as paperbacks and hardbacks. 

Ebook sales are on the increase at Amazon as well. According to the same article, ebook sales at Amazon tripled in the first half of the year over the same period last year. Kindle ebook sales also increased over broader ebook sales.

The bottom line…Amazon’s Kindle Reader and Amazon’s Kindle formatted ebooks are doing just fine amidst competition from other reading platforms including Sony Reader, iPad, and a number of smaller name ebook readers that are not as well known.

One reason the sale of Kindle ebooks might be outpacing broader ebook sales is that Amazon Kindle has been proactive in releasing the Kindle ebook reading software for devices other than Kindle ebook reading devices. The recent release of the Kindle app for Android phone made the Kindle ebooks attractive to the many users of that device. Other applications for desktop and laptop computers, iPod Touch and iPod phone, and some models of Blackberry had already made Kindle formatted ebooks attractive to users of those devices. 

Barnes and Noble appears to be in the process of doing much the same with their ebook reading software which works on devices other than the Nook ebook reader. I already have the Barnes & Noble ebook reading software on my iPod and I read that Barnes and Noble was going to release its ebook reading software in an app for the Android phone soon.  

Though ebooks certainly have a ways to go before they overtake paperback sales they are most certainly making strides in that direction.

We’re celebrating our first release of a story featuring a menage a trois with Cara Bristol’s newest short story Secret Desires. If you like your domestic discipline stories hot and spicy with plenty of after spanking lovemaking you are in for a treat with this new release. Cara really turns up the heat in this one.

In Secret Desires Morgan Moran knows there are good surprises and bad surprises. A good surprise is getting into the hairdresser on a cancellation or being treated to a luxury spa day by your boyfriend. A bad surprise is having that boyfriend pop THE question before you’re sure you’re ready to commit. 

As her thirtieth birthday approaches, Morgan fears her boyfriend of two years will ask her marry him. She loves him—but she’s not sure that she can love him until death-does-she-part. Jack is kind, gentle, thoughtful and built like a sex god, but he’s boring in the sack. She’s just not sure she can settle for a lifetime of vanilla sex when she really craves thirty-one flavors.

In his younger days, thirty-five-year-old Jack Hudson sowed some wild oats. Really wild–the kind of oats that he knows would shock his girlfriend. He’s cleaned up his act and become a responsible, respectable veterinarian. He’s ready to settle down and ask Morgan to be his wife. He’s crazy about this sexy, sassy spitfire. She keeps him on his toes. Unfortunately, she also keeps him waiting. And waiting. She’s late to everything. It’s almost as if she’s trying to push his buttons. He’s decided if she’s late one more time…he’s going to spank her.

 When Morgan shows up three hours after own birthday celebration begins, she forces Jack to take a very firm stand, unleashing a night of passionate discovery that fulfills all of Morgan’s secret desires. But in the harsh glare of morning, she’s forced to wonder if the price she paid for fulfillment was too high, and if Jack will want a future with her at all.

Read the free excerpt here.

It has been quite a long time since I have announced winners of Free Books Every Day, and Free Paperbacks on Saturday winners. I’m also behind in posting the winners of the incidental prizes awarded randomly to people who post on the blog. Because it is quite  a task to keep up with the many prizes we give away — and because we don’t want to reduce the number of prizes to make keeping up easier — I am going to begin posting new winners on the blog and website once a week — on Saturday. This will coincide with the Recipe Free For All that is also on Saturdays. I will only be keeping winners up on the website for one week. At the end of the week the winners will come down and the next week’s winners will go up. It doesn’t mean you’ve lost your prize if you don’t claim the prize by the end of the week. I will still have the master list and will post unclaimed prizes periodically on the blog, the website and on Yahoo Groups. I will no longer be emailing individual winners…other than via the readers newsletter. Please check the blog or the website each week to see if you are a winner. Be sure to check the lists of unclaimed prizes posted periodically to make sure you haven’t missed claiming a prize. This should make prize posts more regular because each announcement will require less time. If you are one of the lucky 98 below please visit http://www.blackvelvetseductions.com/Claim-A-Prize.html and follow the instructions there to claim your prize. Be sure to include all of the information requested…and email from the same email address that won the prize or tell me which email you won the prize under so I can find you in the master list. The following list of winners is in alphabetical order (bet you appreciate that.) Congrats to all the lucky winners.
amber@amberp	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
amdrane2	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
ameliad98	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
angeka_astandan6967	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
angelwolf_storm	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
anurag_asom	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
aresia	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Armiefox	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
ashurlight	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
audie@wick	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
augustbaby0878	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
bakersman1	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Battiann	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
bauerjenna	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
beka328	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
blackroze37	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
blacksnake	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
booklover0226	Amazon $10 gift certificate
caity_mack	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
carmichalracing1	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
carolcobun	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
carolynhinds12	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
cateros	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
cdyates	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
chielom	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
coastewife	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
CynnieHoney	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Dannyfiredragon	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
darkangelct	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
demetra_byrd	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
dianetolley	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
dietter00	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
dirl96	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
dreier.uwe	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
emilyby	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
emmaspringlake	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Faith4w	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
firecat7411	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
frs40	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
gpet789	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
gypsiprincess	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
heidijohnjeff	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
hnryhnda	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
jmay_40	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
johannasnodgrass	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
joheavens	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
kalisto	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
kelly_scott22	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
kissinoak	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
kissinoak	book thong
kissinoak	used paperback from Laurie’s stash
kpelli1972	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
KWPELZER	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Lauren41x	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
lin.jennifer.s	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
lori_t11	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
loveandsqualor	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
Lrwirum	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
maitreencuir	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
mclover	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
meingee	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
meingee	lace bookmark
melusine6619	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
mitzihinkey	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
mrswolfe	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
mschent	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
nicolesquilts	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
one6ylady	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
one6ylady	Free Saturday Paperbacks From Saturday Blog Drawing
one6ylady	used paperback from Laurie’s stash
ot_kari	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
PRNena71	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
ptyner	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
quiltingvickie	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
sbaa	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
sdsayow	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
ShirlyAnn	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
snowl3prd	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
squidwich	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
stelselv	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
stephanie.nagy	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
suzanamike	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
TAMMI08	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
TAMMI08	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
tammig8	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
thaack	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
valeri48	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
vhelenbont	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
vzn1614b	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
wednesday1977	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
whitestarliss	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
wilmstagemgr	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
wordwork	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
young@ms	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
zel316	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day
zita@da	Free Ebook From Free Books Every Day

Here it is…time for another Recipe Free For All.

Here in Indianapolis it is hot, hot, hot. That leads me to ask…what are your favorite hot weather treats?

Anyone have a recipe for homemade ice cream? Hot weather always makes me think of homemade ice cream. When I was a child we used to visit my father’s parents in Oklahoma. There it was a tradition to make homemade ice cream when the weather was hot. I still think about making ice cream when the weather is hot.

I find myself cooking outside on the grill more during hot weather too. It’s hot out there, but at least the heat from cooking stays outside. Anyone have a favorite bbq recipe they want to share?

Here’s one of my faves:

BBQ Boneless Chicken Thighs

1 package boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1/4 cup white wine
1 bunch green onions sliced (onion part plus about 1 inch green part)
2 teaspoons chopped garlic

Mix all ingredients except for chicken thighs together in small bowl. Pour into large plastic bag. Add chicken thighs. Put bag containing marinade and chicken thighs in refrigerator several hours or overnight.

When ready to grill prepare fire in bbq grill. When fire is ready remove thighs from the marinade. Cook over hot coals or gas fire until thighs are cooked through. We like these with white rice or canned peaches.

I thought I would share the announcement I received from 1Romance Ebooks this morning. 

1Romance Ebooks is 1 year old. To celebrate they have put together a blog tour with lots of great blogs to explore and a great grand prize for one lucky winner.

According to the email I received, and the rules listed at the 1Romance Ebooks Blog Tour Page there will be up to two blog stops per day for readers to enjoy. To participate you go to 1Romance Ebooks Blog Tour Page to register and pick up your participant number. At each blog stop leave a comment (being sure to include your participant number.) Many blogs are giving away prizes and your comment enters you for those, but you also earn a point for each comment you leave (limited to one comment per blog). The more points you earn the more entries you have in the drawing for the Sony Reader.

You can earn additional points by signing up for the 1RomanceEbooks Newsletter, friending 1RomanceBooks on FaceBook, Following 1RE on Twitter, Friending 1RE on MySpace or joining the 1RE NING.

Have fun and good luck. If you win a blog prize or the Sony Reader be sure to tell us about it. We’d love to know.