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Tag Archives: top ten

It’s Coming…. Seven Days

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Copper Centurion, Self-Publishing, World of Romanpunk

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Copper Centurion, Novel Publication, self-publishing, steampunk, top ten, Young Adult


One Week until Copper Centurion’s Ebook Copy is released.

One Week until the high-flying, mechaniphant riding, assassin chasing, barbarian fighting, political intrigue, and seat-of-your-pants adventure ebook novel is yours to purchase!

With just seven days left, here’s seven new locations introduced in Copper Centurion.

  1. Copendrium – (Copenhagen, in our time)
  2. Volcano Island – (Gotland Island)
  3. Sundsvall – (Sundsvall, Sweden)
  4. Nortland – (A feudal nation occupying all of the Scandinavian peninsula, as well as Finland and parts of Northwest Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland)
  5. Midgard – An invented capital city and fortress built from the living rock of a huge mountain in central Nortland.
  6. Viken Rivers – The Indalsalven rivers and tributaries
  7. Copendrium Cafeteria – don’t know what the Officers eat? Want to hear some juicy gossip? The Cafeteria is the place for you. (Just don’t try the greens, they’ve been there all week)

Be. Prepared.

Carpe Diem!

 

 

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Top Ten Gifts for the Book Lover, Continued.

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Thoughts, Top Ten

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

audiobook, Christmas and holiday season, E-book, Shopping, top ten


Hi all, so here’s the last bit of my top ten gifts for the book lover, #1-5

#5 – An audiobook of his/her favorite novel. Trust me, there’s nothing better than being able to listen to your favorite story while being stuck in traffic. It really can make the time fly. My personal favorite audiobook, Ender’s Game, is an excellent book for those of you with middle age children in the car. Zap the phones and let them listen and watch for a change.

#4 – An eReader – Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or iPad. – Please note, I’m not telling you to actually go out and buy one right now. It’s better if you ask the gift recipient two things. 1. Do they already have one? (If so, don’t get them another) and 2.) What would they do if they got one? Are they going to use it primarily to read? Play games? Do work at home? Etc. Different versions tend to be better for different things. Nook and Kobo are a bit cheaper and focus more on just reading with fewer apps, but better ‘book-reading’ software. Kindle and iPad tend to be better all around machines, even able to run some competitors programs on their hardware, but you also pay a premium for it, especially if you want things like 3G and such. So think about short and long term cost.

#3 – Brass Legionnaire of course! I had to rep my own book, but in all seriousness, buying my novel or another self-published novel would really be a boon to someone else’s pocketbook this season, like my friend Hazel West and her novel On a Foreign FieldAnd the best part is there is something out there for everyone! So take a look this holiday season!

#2 – A super special edition of their favorite book – Many authors have some sort of special edition version of their novel. If you book lover is really interested, look it up. A good alternative – find a book poster or blown up version of the cover and get it framed.

#1 – My number one gift isn’t really something you can wrap or tie with a bow. In a way, it’s something that I personally always enjoy during this very hectic holiday season.

The number one gift is the gift of alone time. Many book readers enjoy being able to sit back, relax, and crack open their favorite novel (Old or new). It’s hard to do this during a very crazy holiday season with family, friends, etc all over the place. So if there is a free moment, or your book lover wants to hide in the bedroom for a while just unwinding, let him/her. Or go even further, set aside a whole day where you have no prior engagements, jobs, cleaning/cooking duties and just enjoy the spirit of the season.

Or when in doubt, make brownies. Everyone loves brownies.

Happy Holidays everyone! Be on the lookout for a surprise holiday sale coming this weekend!

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My top ten gifts for the book lover in your life, #10-6

18 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Thoughts, Top Ten

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Tags

Books, Christmas and holiday season, Reading, Shopping, top ten


Hi all,

Are you one of these crazy, yet also very patient, people?

The holidays are right around the corner, as are the huge sales of Black Friday. With that in mind, here are my top ten gifts for the person(s) in your life who love to read.

#10 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War– This novel by Max Brooks is one of my favorites. It reads like a non-fiction documentary that you know (or hope) is simply fiction. Plus, you’ll want to read the book before the upcoming movie turns the actual piece of literature on its head.
#9 Dies the Fire– If you like the show Revolution, you’ll love the book Dies the Fire. Only exception – people who want the lights to come back on. It won’t be happening. Neither, it appears, will guns. Who thinks it’s still a good idea to make fun of the kid learning to fence now?

#8 Small Gods– Wit, sarcasm, and a slightly slow true believer holding the fate of an entire religion in his hands, what’s not to love? This book answers the question – if no one believes, do the gods still exist? Pratchett is a master, so go buy it!

#7 Some good mood music – Nothing gets me into a novel faster than some nice, calm, relaxing music. That, or a huge bottle of soda. But for real, classical music has been shown to do lots of great things, such as rising your intellect and making you understand words like Concerto. This one even claims it is The Most Relaxing Classical Music in the Universe, and you can’t argue with that!

$6 – A good journal – Why a journal? Because I firmly believe that people who are great readers have the ability to become great writers. I have one. It’s not called a journal, it’s called an idea book. Personally, Barnes and Noble has way better ones, especially in store. Check out this page if you don’t believe me.
Well that is it for right now. I’ll be posting the next chunk on Tuesday! Happy short week!

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My Top Ten Favorite Books

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in About Me

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Books, ebooks, harry potter, Harry Turtledove, Jim Butcher, top ten, top ten favorite books


Good evening everyone!

As an author, it is important to learn about your own likes and dislikes in literature so that you can create a product that you and your readers will enjoy. My own novel (soon to be published!) is actually fairly unique in the ‘world’ of the book category, but I believe that every author was, first, a reader. Here are my top ten favorite books.

10. In the Balance by Harry Turtledove – I love the entire series, but it blends together realistic characters and components of WWII with a distinct sci-fi alien invasion. Sounds unbelievable, but done so magnificently that you wonder if you should root for the nazis or the aliens.

9. Storm Front By Jim Butcher – Another beginning of a series type of book, but Mr. Butcher’s style and cynicism really bring urban fantasy into the forefront. It’s gritty, down to earth, not your teenage daughter’s type of zombie, vampire, and wizard novel. Mr. Butcher’s style of writing is one I admire and enjoy.

8. Conquerors’ Pride by Timothy Zahn – is an older novel that threw humanity against an alien force. An entire war breaks out because of a simple misunderstanding. Great read, realistic characters and plausible situations mean that you wonder if it could happen when/if we are faced with a first contact occurrence.

7. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – You know it, you’ve seen it, if you haven’t, I highly recommend checking the book out before the series. The series is awesome, but the book has way too many subplots to be included in the television show. He definitely rocked my world with his willingness to kill every single character I started to like!

6. Guns, Germs, and SteelBy Jared Diamond – It was required reading for me in my high school AP World History class, and became one of my favorite reference and support books. A great background book that describes why the world developed as it did, and why the Aztecs weren’t running around wielding muskets when the Spaniards landed.

5. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – Iconic, lovable, our childhood in a neat little box. What more can be said?

4. Off Armageddon Reef By David Weber – An excellent series that melds 17th century technology with futuristic human-know how. Nearly made the top three, but the other one edged it out because of a week book number 3.

3. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless By Jack Campbell – Yes, another sci-fi space opera – bear with me here, it’s the last one I swear! And definitely one of the best.

2. Wheel of Time Saga by Robert Jordan – This was my first epic fantasy novel, and boy did I have to persevere. But the story has stuck with me, and I’ve reread all (now 12) books of the series again… and again.

1. Percy Jackson By Rick Riordan – Young adult totally claims the top spot against the field. Mixing mythology, growing up, and lots of action, this series and the Lost Hero ‘secondary’ series are truly my favorite books (at this time in my life, who knows where I’ll be in a year!)

There you have it folks. What are your top ten books?

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