Friday Five for June 29th

1. I managed to get a little writing done this week on my new project. I'm not as far along as I hoped, but I've gotten past a plot hump that was frustrating me. It was just one of those cases where I had to push through and if it sounds awkward, I'll fix it in the rewrite.

2. I've been doing a lot of reading this year. The number is nearing 70 books. I wish I had more opportunity to read ebooks, though. I have a big "stack" of them on my Nook, but I rarely use it. I can't have it on around my son, because he'll want to play with it. And when he's done for his nap or for the night, I have other things I need to do on the computer. My poor Nook would be neglected if my husband hadn't scooped it up. He takes it to work with him and already has two flash drives full of game books he reads on it.

3. I'm excited that so many people loved my cover for Fearless. As is my nature, I was really nervous about it. I debated about what to put on it. It is a paranormal romance, and it definitely isn't a romantic cover. Yet I feel it does represent my story, especially with Tawa being such an important part of it.

4. My friend and fellow writer, M. Pepper Langlinais has self-published her novella, "St. Peter in Chains." You can find it on Amazon. She promises to have it in other formats soon. She's a clever writer and has a way with words few others manage. I haven't read it yet, but I have my copy. I can't wait to read it! I hope to have her on for a guest post or an interview soon. Here's the blurb: Peter Stoller is a consummate professional--as a British intelligence agent, he's at the top of his game and has never had trouble separating his work from his personal life. But when he meets cabbie Charles Toulson, his personal life takes a turn he wasn't expecting.

5. We have no plans for the weekend other than staying out of this horrid heat. My husband recently got the adult card game, Cards against Humanity. It's like Apples to Apples but kicked up a notch! We're trying to set up a time with friends to play, but it's hard to arrange a night good for everyone.

Have a great weekend!

E-readers - your choice?

My birthday is coming up at the beginning of October. I might ignore it other than the fact I'm getting my first e-reader. I'm excited about it. I'm finally catching up to the electronic generation. I'll be so hip groovin' cool. Is cool still cool to say?

So Kindle or Nook? Kindle or Nook, hmm. I thought a long time about it. My husband is a gadget guy. We had many conversations. We did research. For just a simple, black & white e-reader, the Kindle is a good buy. Yet I wanted more to the tablet. I wanted color, net access and Angry Birds. Hey, a girl has to have her priorities! The Nook Color is more expensive than the Kindle, but it has all those things plus more.

This morning when reading the morning paper, I saw a different e-reader in the Best Buy ad: an Android Pandigital. Oh, it's got almost everything the Nook has, it's color and it's a hundred bucks cheaper. Curious and excited about this discovery, my husband did some of his techie guy searching. The Pandigital recently had an upgrade. It wasn't anywhere near in the running with either the Kindle or Nook until last month. An Android tablet with all its apps and an e-reader. Nice. Plus, the price!

We took a field trip to Best Buy this morning to get some hands on time with the tablets. While the Pandigital has a lot of the same functions as the Nook, it's slower, choppier and buggy. I don't like how it's set up. It might be able to better compete if it had another overhaul, but it was too annoying to get around on. The Nook Color, on the hand, blew me away. It's smooth, fast and sensitive. It has all its B&N apps plus Android apps. It has a new Netflix app. The e-reader is easy to use and fun. You can even have it read to you.

I can play my games on it. Yay for Angry Birds! I can surf the net and check e-mail. I can watch movies. I can use it as a learning tool with my son. Goodness knows he didn't want to leave the store that had all the techie stuff! Most importantly, it has the best e-reader.

My husband is more excited than I am about my birthday gift. He's already planning on buying extra memory cards to store the stuff he wants on them!

I know people are very loyal to their e-readers. For those of you who do have them, which one do you own? What do you love about it? What do you dislike about it?