I saw this super cool announcement in my Daily Lunch email from Publisher’s Lunch today: A company called Plastic Logic is about to unveil a brand new, revolutionary eReader, which will go on sale in early 2009. The details are it will be the same size as a sheet of paper (see pic), is thinner than a pad of paper, and will download content wirelessly much like the Kindle, plus it will have a screen made out of plastic which is more durable than the easily cracked eReader screens we have now.

Here’s a direct link to the Plastic Logic website and their announcement:

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They say it will be competitively priced with other eReaders. Personally, I’m hoping this means they will undercut the Kindle by a decent amount. The larger size of this new eReader seems to be more geared towards those who want to read electronic magazine or news content. I don’t think I want to read a book on an 8.5×11 sized screen. But if they came out with a smaller book eReader that would be cool. OR if their pricing forced the Kindle to lower their prices a bit, that would be nice.

Personally, one reason I don’t have an eReader right now is the price. I want to buy a good one, but some of them are just so dang expensive. I would only use it for reading books, not carrying around other contest or web surfing/email. Because I spend the majority of my time at home. I want an eReader purely to read books.

However, to spend $400 on a gadget to do that is just too much money. I would love to see something in the $99 range someday. That would be worth it to me.

Anyway, what does everyone else think about this new device? Interested?

Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve made some changes to my website. Updates, improvements, what have you. I joined the Twitter revolution and am hoping I can keep up with that. Wish I had a cell phone to do on the fly updates, but considering I spend the majority of my time at home, it’d be kinda silly.

(Um, yes, no cell phone really. We live in the mountains and get ridiculously bad reception. You have to walk out on our lawn about 30 feet away from the house to get even 1 bar. My husband has one that he uses only when a great distance from the house.)

The Twitter updates are in my sidebar. I’m not sure how many will be listed there. I really only want the latest one to show, but I don’t think I get a choice in that. Oh, well. I also added cover art with links on my homepage. It’d be nice to think that someday there will be many many covers there. Sigh…

I’m also considering redoing my books page–shrink the text and make the cover art smaller, so you don’t have to do so much scanning down. I have a hard time with the HMTL on that particular page for some reason, so nothing looks as consistent as I’d like it. This tells me I need to just start over from scratch and do it differently. I think I will check out some author sites to see how they do it.

I like including quotes from reviews, but I need to make them smaller or different somehow. Have to think over that one.

Hope you like the changes/updates.

I am in the middle of a horrible lull in my writing career right now. Several books are sitting with various publishers…and most of the last 4 months or so have been spent working on my mainstream full-length novel.

No room for anything else until I’m done with that and have my queries out the door.

So, I have a lull in my career, which was not in my ‘big plan’ for 2008. But sometimes publishers aren’t on your schedule.

How dare they! Don’t they know I had a plan??

I’m hoping that soon I will just have an avalanche of information to give you. That would be nice.

Meanwhile, I’m editing away behind the scenes so that I can start work on something new ASAP. Of course, I haven’t even really thought about what I want to do next. Erotic romance? Urban fantasy? Paranormal Suspense?

I’ll have to open up my various idea folders and see what strikes my fancy. And then focus, focus, focus. I do NOT want to take a YEAR+ to write my next full-length book.

My main reason for taking so long was fear. Or maybe what some would call ‘writer’s block.’ I get to a point in a longer book where I just panic that I can’t finish it and it’s all falling apart. It takes time for me to mentally push myself to get through it. But I haven’t given up on a book once. I always finish things that I start. At least I have that to keep me believing in my writing skills.

This summer I had great success with online word wars. (through IM or chat rooms) That really helped me finish those last 40 pages that were alluding me. Every time I finish a new book, I figure out my process a little bit more, I figure out how to avoid one more pitfall in writing that may hamper the completion of the final book.

Keep an eye on this space. I’m hoping soon I may have some news to report.

I will admit it, I’m a fan of “Prison Break.” The first season was excellent. Last year? Not so much. But yet I came back for a third season with a dead woman brought back to life, a guy who survives in the desert by eating his compadre, and a brother who goes from arrested in Panama to free in the U.S. within seconds.

It’s like crack, I tell you.

Crack.

I can’t stop watching! Even when I’m laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, why call a show “Prison Break” when there is no more prison?

The more I watch this show, the more I notice how much it resembles a night time soap opera. Dead people who come back to life. Revenge fantasies that just don’t die. Killing sprees to get rid of unwanted actors. Oh, yeah, and the guy who EATS someone in the desert.

I can’t believe I still TiVO this show. I can’t. But last night, they drew me right back in…and, in fact, the reason I was drawn back in was the silliness of it all. I was laughing for most of the show. And if that isn’t entertainment…

So what is a tv show you watch that’s so bad it’s good? Confess!

I found this truly fascinating article on tvguide.com over the weekend:

CSI Creator Developing ‘Digital Novels’

For a short recap, the CSI guy is planning to start a series of eBooks based of off the CSI franchise. The books will be tied into online video. The plan is to release several chapters at once…so not a whole book. And to have some kind of MySpace/Facebook interaction with the readers.

As a writer with eBooks to my name, I like to read about power players who see the value in electronic books. Any attention this guy can bring to eBooks and ePublishers would be fabulous.

I’ve seen the debate on many blogs about ‘real’ books vs. eBooks. And I wonder: Do we really need to decide which is better? I don’t think so. They are both books, aren’t they? With stories and characters and all that good stuff.

I like eBooks for several reasons, but my main one is this: accessibility to different books. We all know that the print publishing world is ruled by the tastes of a very few. Some great books will never see the light of day, because print publishers don’t want to take a risk on something that is too different or not genre-specific.

But ePublishers *will* take that risk. And thank goodness they do. ePublishers have given us readers access to some great, original storytelling. Also, we can read books with the “hot” factor we are looking for. Not until the success of Ellora’s Cave and the like, did New York take notice and start their own erotic romance lines.

I don’t think print and electronic publishing are in competition for readers. I really don’t. I think readers choose books from both types of publishers and will continue to do so. Readers are looking for a good book. That’s it. And if they happen to find the book they like online…they’ll buy it.

So, I look forward to this CSI development. If he can bring attention to the uniqueness of eBooks and their power to draw an audience, that will mean good things for other ePublishers and their writers.