This week, March 5-11, 2017, is the annual Smashwords’ “Read an E-book Week” during which readers can get free downloads or deeply discounted books by participating authors. This includes four of the authors who have published with my company. I cannot imagine it, but  there are some people who still have not tried reading e-books. I do understand that most of us enjoy the feel of pages in our fingers, yet e-readers offer very enabling advantages, such as ability to change font and size for eye convenience,   ability to read in the dark, the feature of looking up word definitions and Wikipedia information without leaving the page, the purchase of additional books from online stores without moving, and the ability to store your entire library safely backed up on a cloud…no worry of fires destroying all!   Now you can see why Smashwords likes to celebrate this week. It offers a chance to acquaint readers to another way of enjoying books, magazines and stories. As you read this blog post, click on any of the photos to download the free or discounted books or short stories. The photos are links.

Parent’s Playbook by Bill Holland, PhD, is a mini-book that is spot-on with seven rules for parents about teaming with their child to complete the steps that guarantee success in finding a lucrative job and career after college graduation. Bill’s book, while slanted to parents of student-athletes, is perfect in general for parents of kids of all ages, especially those in ninth grade and up. Handy and specific, this playbook helps student and parent avert the disasters of under-employment after college. Bill is an award-winning college professor, business executive, nationally recognized career management guru, author of four books on career management and the principal founder of College to Career Catalyst, LLC. Parent’s Playbook is on sale this week for $2.50, a fifty percent discount.

Sharon Dillon’s offering is Echoes of Your Choices (Laughter, Peace and Joy). Sharon is an author, blogger and humorist who has been a multi-year participant in the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop in Ohio. Her stressful life of marriages, living all over the world as a military wife, raising children, graduating college at age 47, working as newspaper columnist and managing career led her to search for the path to peace and laughter and joy. Several years ago, Sharon began consistent blogging and developed a following of people attracted to her common-sense, tranquilizing and universal style of guidance to a balanced life. This blog, “Thoughts to Ponder,” became the basis for her humorous and calming book. Echoes of Your Choices is on sale this week for $1.50, a fifty percent discount.

M. J. Scott is author of four non-fiction books with a fifth book, a novel called Sport’s Alien Fantasy, about to be published by Daniel Wetta Publishing. Marilyn has two sale offerings this week: Power Steering and Power Steering 2. Marilyn has written most of her life, and her writing style has been described as narrative poetry. A self-described “country girl,” she has traveled in all fifty states, many of them for years via an Airstream travel trailer. Always fascinated with spirituality and destiny, Marilyn developed the concept of “power steering” which she uses in a car analogy to describe higher power working in people to enable them to find their best destiny. To rely on “power steering” is to learn to meditate and quietly hear the speaking of intuition and then to trust it. Her career as an educator and her inspirational works have been factors in her receiving the Excellence Award by “Women of Distinction” online. The two Power Steering volumes are on sale this week for $1.50 each, a fifty percent discount.

Master artist and author Dan Wetta, now 89 years old, continues to astound with his prolific painting and story-telling. Dan (my father) has now published 7 illustrated e-books and 3 illustrated books in print through Daniel Wetta Publishing. His lifetime collection of paintings, cartoons and stories are documented in these works. They fill a canvas of the artist’s life, an interesting journey through time and the old South that begins with a childhood in New Orleans and education in a Benedictine Seminary. Normally $2.99, his offering this week is FREE on Smashwords. One of the seven e-books, New Orleans in my Mind goes deep into recollections by the author of his childhood in New Orleans and his high school and early college education at St. Joseph’s, a Benedictine seminary and monastery, during the 1930s and 40s. You will love seeing his color illustrations and cartoons in the book that highlight his stories.

Finally, I would feel so honored for readers to download my two short stories, “Awakening from the Golden Sleep” and “Nightfire!” from Smashwords. I wrote these as prequels to my two novels but constructed the stories to stand alone and apart from them. They are always free on Smashwords, but please try them this week and see if I whet your appetite to read the novels. Now ask yourself, “Is there any better week to read an e-book?”

There are tens of thousands of books on sale this week on Smashwords. You can visit their page to browse and search here: Click this link to Smashwords’ special week sales here.