Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’

The Orphan Trilogy (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory / The Orphan Uprising)

The Orphan Trilogy (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory /
The Orphan Uprising)

A box set of our international thriller series, The Orphan Trilogy, is out now and available on Amazon at a discounted price.

The set includes:

Book One: The Ninth Orphan
Book Two: The Orphan Factory (prequel to The Ninth Orphan)
Book Three: The Orphan Uprising (sequel to The Ninth Orphan)
Plus a free bonus chapter of our historical adventure, Fiji: A Novel

The Amazon link for The Orphan Trilogy is: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGGM05U/

For more background info on this series go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/SterlingGateBooks

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

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“The Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon probably wouldn’t have happened if e-books didn’t exist…”

So says Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, in an article in the January 5 US edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Carr goes on to say:

…Readers of weightier fare, including literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, have been less inclined to go digital. They seem to prefer the heft and durability, the tactile pleasures, of what we still call “real books”—the kind you can set on a shelf.

E-books, in other words, may turn out to be just another format—an even lighter-weight, more disposable paperback. That would fit with the discovery that once people start buying digital books, they don’t necessarily stop buying printed ones. In fact, according to Pew, nearly 90% of e-book readers continue to read physical volumes. The two forms seem to serve different purposes…

…Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute…

…The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration. The technology’s early adopters, a small but enthusiastic bunch, made the move to e-books quickly and in a concentrated period. Further converts will be harder to come by. A 2012 survey by Bowker Market Research revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book and that a whopping 59% say they have “no interest” in buying one…

…e-book purchases have skewed disproportionately toward fiction, with novels representing close to two-thirds of sales. Digital best-seller lists are dominated in particular by genre novels, like thrillers and romances. Screen reading seems particularly well-suited to the kind of light entertainments that have traditionally been sold in supermarkets and airports as mass-market paperbacks.

These are, by design, the most disposable of books. We read them quickly and have no desire to hang onto them after we’ve turned the last page. We may even be a little embarrassed to be seen reading them, which makes anonymous digital versions all the more appealing…

For the full article go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323874204578219563353697002.html?KEYWORDS=print+books#articleTabs%3Darticle

WHO AGREES WITH MR CARR? LET ME KNOW. I’D BE INTERESTED TO LEARN YOUR OPINION.

For what it’s worth, I suspect we’ve only seen the tip of the e-book revolution iceberg and I believe Mr Carr and, indeed, the rest of us will be amazed by the monumental changes coming in the publishing industry and in the literary world.

Publishers who don’t adapt won’t survive.

All power to the lowly writer!

–Lance

 

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Introducing…White Gold

In our new release, coming-of-age spy novel The Orphan Factory, we explore a fascinating scientific discovery called Ormus, also known as White Gold.

What is Ormus?

From http://www.bewellbuzz.com/ website: Ormus, often referred to as ORME (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Element or M-state element), is made from water and other substances and is also known as monoatomic gold, white gold, white powder gold, M-state, AuM, micro clusters, and manna.

ORMEs have the same number of protons and electrons as their mineral counterparts that are found on the Periodic Table of elements. These are chemically identified as a separate class of substances, as is the case with halogens. They, however, have separate placements on the two-dimensional Periodic Table. Such elements are similar to silicon-type, ceramic powdery substances that appear to be isolated forming micro-cluster bits of atomic materials.

This observation was first made by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose in the 1920s, due to which is it now known as the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). This was later confirmed in 1995 by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman in a laboratory.

Ormus is believed to be a precious metal element in a different atomic state. Gold, silver, platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, mercury, rhodium, ruthenium, copper, nickel, and cobalt were identified by Davidson as Ormus elements. He also stated that all these metals were available in abundance in their Ormus form as compared to their actual states. Ormus elements are embedded into the DNA structure of plants and animals and are thought to be an integral part of our skin, nails, hair, blood, brain, and all the organs of our body.

Since Ormus elements have the same number of protons and electrons as their mineral counterparts, it is very difficult to distinguish between the two categories. The only difference lies in how these elements spin. Ormus elements are known to respond to the magnetic forces of attraction and repulsion. They are superconductors at room temperature and exhibit other quantum physical behaviors on a visible scale.

ORMEs are also known to exhibit the quantum physical behaviors of super fluidity, anomalous responses to gravity, Josephson tunneling, and magnetic levitation.

Below is an excerpt from The Orphan Factory, which features White Gold prominently in its plot:

As the White Gold dissolved under their tongues, not one of the orphans gave the substance a second thought. They’d been taking the powder all their lives and gave it no more consideration than they gave drinking water or breathing air.

Doctor Pedemont, however, remained fascinated by the extraordinary substance even though he had been working with it for over a decade. He knew it as ORME, or Orbitally Rearranged Monoatomic Elements, a complex concentrate of chemical elements. The nonscientific name White Gold Powder referred to the fact that when processed its appearance was reminiscent of cocaine powder, although it was many times more expensive than cocaine, and even gold for that matter.

Like most of the substances and technologies Doctor Pedemont employed to perfect his orphan creations, the produce was not known to official science. Although the scientific community was aware of Arizona cotton farmer David Hudson’s accidental discovery of ORME back in 1975, they had been denied the opportunity to test the latest strains. Indeed, they never knew of their existence.

Pure White Gold Powder, the rarest and most effective strain, had been completely withheld from mainstream scientists and from the public at large. That way, elite groups like the Omega Agency could use it in total secrecy to profit from its unquestionable benefits and to further their own agendas.

Prepared by extracting and isolating elements from sea water and volcanic soil, then vortexing them with magnets, the substance had been shown to assist in a variety of diverse fields including agriculture, engineering and aeronautics. However, it was the superconductor’s effects on humans that Doctor Pedemont and his Omega superiors were focused on.

The agency had hired physicists, chemists and biologists to conduct laboratory experiments and design a version of ORME specifically for the orphans. They used various technologies to monitor the effectiveness of the powder, including dark-field microscopy of the blood and EEG tests on the brain.

ORME’s biological results were outstanding. As well as balancing both hemispheres of the brain, the product had also been proven to activate so-called Junk DNA, and the orphans’ regular consumption of it allowed them to move, fight and think as efficiently and effectively as almost any adult. Regular, carefully controlled contests between the orphans and Omega’s veteran field operatives demonstrated this fact beyond any doubt. Contests ranging from math and speed-reading tests to chess and martial arts tournaments saw the orphans always pushing their elders to their limits, often holding their own and sometimes even winning.

As he watched his manufactured orphans consume their prescribed allocations of the substance, Doctor Pedemont pondered its scientific make-up. Besides gold, he knew it contained a number of other metals including rhodium, iridium, copper and platinum which, like the gold portion, all existed in their non-metallic states.

Dispensing a phial to the last of the orphans, the doctor then handed another to Kentbridge who promptly emptied its contents under his tongue. As the biological effects were known to be similar for everyday people like him, Kentbridge thought it couldn’t hurt.

He’d been consuming it for over a decade – ever since Doctor Pedemont had assured him it would correct most of his damaged DNA and keep his body in shape. White Gold also had anti-aging benefits, something Kentbridge figured he would need in future if he was to keep up with the orphans.

Find out more about the mysterious substance known as White Gold in the The Orphan Factory – available now on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2)

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=210035

Making waves

Tevita Vuibau
Saturday, August 25, 2012

Fiji: A Novel - the book that is making waves online. Picture: BALJEET SINGH

Fiji: A Novel – the book that is making waves online. Picture: BALJEET SINGH

A BOOK on Fiji written by a father and son team is making waves online and cracking Amazon.com’s best selling list over the last couple of weeks.

The book titled Fiji: A Novel was co-authored by Lance Morcan and his son James and was published late last year.

Mr Morcan said he had been inspired by the work of American author James Michener, adding he wanted Fiji to have a story that did justice to its beauty.

Set in the early 1800s, the novel follows protagonists Susannah Drake and Nathan Johnson as the pair travel from Levuka to Momi Bay.

He said the two-year journey to write the novel was a challenging one as he had to co-author long distance with his son.

“He is based in Sydney and I’m based here in New Zealand, so we had to do the whole thing through Skype and emails,” he said.

Mr Morcan said they were both strong-willed which made the writing of the novel an interesting exercise.

He said they were in the process of taking the book to the silver screen.

“James and I are also screenwriters and film producers, and have put Fiji into development as a feature film with our production company, Morcan Motion Pictures,” he added.

Mr Morcan said the book was available at the USP Book Centre, however, they were looking at ways to get more people to access the book.

“We want to put the book in hotels and resorts for them to use as giveaways to their most valued customers and then in this way we can get more locals as well reading the book,” he said.

Critical acclaim for Fiji: A Novel has been pouring in.

Susan M Heim, author and editor of the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series heaped praise on the novel.

“If you’re a fan of adventure, history, even romance, you’ll want to pick up a copy of Fiji: A Novel and brace yourself for the ride,” she said.

“It’s an intense story that will have you turning the pages long into the night.”

Historical author Joan Mcgrath gave the book a four star rating calling it “a wonderfully entrancing read”.

Fiji: A Novel

Fiji: A Novel is available from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Fiji-A-Novel-ebook/dp/B0057YCZM0/