Sex in America

Amazon threatened to ban it, but Dorothee Kocks persisted, and now they've allowed it into their bookstore: drawing on the riches she uncovered in research for the The Glass Harmonica, Dorothee has created an interactive book titled Such Were My Temptations 'uncovering the surprising, secret world of America's first sexual revolution'. I had great fun checking out the teasers this morning.

Here's a four-minute video of Dorothee telling an audience how Such Were My Temptations came about. She's always a delight to listen to — the lyrical voice that sounds through her novel has its physical counterpart here.

And here's the delectable preview of the interactive book itself.

For those in the US, go straight to Amazon for your copy for US $2.99.  To read it on your computer, purchase the Kindle Edition and select Kindle Cloud Reader. For those with an iPad, it's available at the iBookstore.

"Kocks leaves no stone unturned in upsetting today's definition of 'Puritanical.' From political sex scandals to polyamorous poetry, New England's first citizens evidently had plenty in common with today's Americans. Those who think of the 1760's as an era of widspread chastity should brace themselves for surprise before reading Temptations..."

I'm still trying to access a copy, here in NZ. I'll let you know when I do. Meanwhile, we have Dorothee's gorgeous, vital and moving novel, The Glass Harmonica: a sensualist's tale, in which she makes rich use of the material she's shared in Such Were My Temptations.
 

How to turn your book into an app for iPad, Kindle Fire and other tablets.

I've been away with my parents and a broken hard drive, but now I'm home, it's spring, and everything's revving into life. I hardly know what to tell you about first: I'll write several blogs in the next day or two (where's that rat? I'll just have to start without him).

First you need to know about a fantastic opportunity from Dorothee Kocks / Beware the Timid Life: learning how to make your own book app. Packaging your own work for Kindle or the iPad might be the digital-era equivalent for writers of tidying up a manuscript and sending it to a publisher.

Dorothee's running an introductory, how-to webinar course for creating content for the iPad, Kindle Fire, or other tablets, especially intended for:

Children’s book authors Historical novelists and historians Nature writers/photographers Comic book or graphic novel writers Poets who want to read aloud or include visual content Artists Museum people and educators Or … accountants with alter-egos of any of the above

Read all about it here and sign up if you will. I'd like to sit in on the classes, starting on Saturday the 13th October (very early Sunday here in NZ, but Dorothee says we can listen to the recording later).

Dorothee knows what she's talking about. She's recently created an app that got Mamazon (now, that's an apt slip of the finger — make that Amazon) hot and bothered — they wanted to censor it. And that'll be the subject of a forthcoming blog.

A piquant new year to you, too

Since the New Zealand Listener has just published a story 'The e-book case' that includes two small paragraphs about Rosa Mira Books (with photos of five pioneering males and one female model), I've hoisted the gooseberry flag to signal that Rosa Mira Books is rousing itself from summer somnolence and reviving activity, as of now. I'm going to give the fomatter a poke, to see if he's home from holiday and able to make the very last tweak to Michael Jackson's Road Markings: An Anthropologist in the Antipodes, so that review copies can be sent out forthwith, and the book made available for sale, not as I'd thought on Rosa Mira's first birthday on January 11th, but ten days later.

I hope you're all having the kind of new year start you want. Some of you might even have a new reading device. I've begun to use the iPad for reading at last, but I think that long-term I'll be looking for something lighter on the wrists, something with the weight (and flex, please inventors) of a small paperback.

I'm not sure where the rat is. Rumour has it he and Lily got hitched in Tristan de Cunha.  Ratadillos? That'll stretch my drawing skills. I'll definitely have to sell a book or two to get in the mood for that nest of critters.