Books, reading, writing and MySpace

Kids Need To Read
Do you know a child who is a reluctant reader? Me too. If so, The Softwire books by P J Haarsma could be the answer. I've been meaning to order the first book (The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1) for a while and now the second one has just been released (The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2) so I've done the Amazon thing and ordered them. Of course, if I had thought about it I could ordered them direct from the author's website, but you live and learn! P J Haarsma has also developed an online game called 'The Rings of Orbis' that children can play (for free) that is set in the world of the softwire books. He also happens to be the co-founder (with Nathan Fillion) of Kids Need To Read. The great auctions for KNTR I mentioned are still on so visit the site and make a bid. You get a the chance to win brilliant items and you also know you are supporting an organisation that's helping lots of children to access books and enjoy reading.

When did you last get a free book?
I got one this morning. And before it was released to the rest of the world. Guess I must be special. If so, you can be special, too. Buffy Between the Lines put me on to the wonderful free PDF of Scott Sigler's new book 'Infected'. You can download it complete from the site from now until March 31st - how great it that? I've started to read it and it looks to be a great read, it grabs you on the first page. In fact, I had to close Acrobat down completely and not even leave open. I've got things to do today and if it was there, minimised, I'd have to go back and carry on reading. Download it now - what's to lose?

Question answered
And in great link from Whedonesque (I have to look there everyday, it's my way - don't knock it 'til you've tried it) I have one of my submitted Paley questions answered. Sort of. I wanted to know what Joss thought of fan fiction and the article from the ClickZ Network quotes the great man as saying "'I'd like to see fan fiction for Firefly,'". See, if you wish hard enough, you get the truth. Sort of.

Fanfictabulous

And the recent fanfic I read for Firefly was pretty darn good. 'My Own Kind of Freedom, A Firefly Novel by Steven Brust, PJF' is also a free book that's available to download from Dreamcafe.com. Even if you've never watched an episode of Firefly (and if you haven't, shame on you!) I think you will appreciate the writing style. There are no wasted words and the action sweeps you along. A Good Read (and I picked that one up from a link on FireFlyFans.net, just to prove it's not all Whedonesque...!).

Slinky-linkies
No, I can't think of a way to now add the fact that yes, I have got a MySpace account. I set it up a while ago. I haven't gone down the route of changing the background etc because I just can't decide on one - there is a lot of choice. Plus, I've seen some pretty horrible 'custom' MySpace accounts out there. Remember, the secret word to use is 'cybergeekspace' and then you can be a friend, too.