Discover Amazon Daily

I am not at all surprised that my newest find in the blogosphere has a tradition steeped in books and showcasing people with something to say and share: Amazon Daily has quickly become a very addictive favorite for me.

I discovered it when fooling with my own author's/seller's account there and making a long-overdue update to my profile page. There was a new (well, new to me) field that asked if I had any feed to add to their blogger's aggregator. I did, and voila, my own Managing with Aloha Coaching now shows up on both Amazon Daily and on my own profile page.

• A side note on this if you are interested: You need an Amazon Advantage sellers account to start with, and there is an extra step where Amazon will verify your status as a published author with a third-party agent or publisher - you can specify who they can contact. If you are an author and a prospective reader happens upon your book title, this is a great way for them to know more about you. The program is called AmazonConnect- search for the link via your Advantage account.
  

In addition to the authors feeds, Amazon Daily is fed by a contingent of their own editors from all over the company. From their About Page:

Whether you're a die-hard fiction lover, a gadget geek, an avid collector of classic films or just a fan of what we sell, you'll find all sorts of entries that will interest you. Amazon Daily's home page contains all editorial posts (sorted so the most recent entries appear at the top); in the sidebar, they're sorted by topic, so you can browse one concept at a time instead of taking all of it in at once! Each post gives you the opportunity to provide private feedback to the editor as well as leave public comments for other customers to see.

However take note that the non-editor, independent authors feeds are not automatic: As a reader, you customize which authors you want aggregated for you, using a link at the top of the far right column of the blog's home page. You can scroll through their very lengthy address book, but I've found that tedious, and instead have added those authors whose books I have already read and am now following; a recent one for me is Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There. When I add them, I delete the dupe from my other feed reader.

In that respect I have been somewhat disappointed by the authors who are not taking advantage of this with Amazon (happily, Goldsmith does!) for I'd love to hear more from them, but I can certainly empathize, for look how long it took me to catch on!

The very pleasant surprise: My addiction to Amazon Daily is coming from their company of editors. Over this past Christmas season some terrific holiday recipes were shared by Amazon Al Dente and I learned about the latest and greatest gadgets and gear from Amazon Current's Bloggers. As you would hope, Omnivoracious is "hungry for the next good book" and regularly contributes book reviews. (Each of those last three links feature group blogs by at least a half dozen writers.)

Check it out: Whether you regularly order from Amazon or not (and it's no secret that's why they have Amazon Daily in the first place) you'll really open your horizons to different writer's interests with this single feed.
~ Rosa Say

Feed for Amazon Daily.
Lemme see the blog first.

Five for Friday

From the "Billy Collins" trail today we find these Five for Friday:

1 - Today I am happy (interpret that ecstatic if you want) to bring you my interview with Linda Urban. She is the author of A Crooked Kind Of Perfect, a novel that was so so so good, that I had to read it TWICE within the same week. You can read my review of A Crooked Kind of Perfect here. It has been nominated for a Cybils. And it appeared on the Amazon's Best of 2007 list. Be sure to visit her official site and her livejournal site.

Read the interview and then cruise around the rest of Becky's site

2 - I think it is time for me to accept the fact that 2007 will become the last year I read without reading glasses. My vision has always been 20/20 and is still good. However, during my last few annual eye exams, I seemed to "qualify for" reading glasses. I think I got my first pair 4-5 years ago. I'd wear them once in a while, mostly for fun. This last year, I noticed that I needed glasses to read small print directions, etc. Lately, I have noticed that reading in bed lasts about 10 minutes before I fall asleep.

Read the remainder of this post then cruise around A Year of Reading.

3 -Last night was our staff party. We normally have some sort of gift exchange with a theme to make it funny or thoughtful or whatever, like last year it was bring something to show what kind of super power you would like to have. The year before the theme was bring something that tells us something we don't know about you. These were fun and provided lots of laughs. However this year we were all talking about how we just wanted something easy. I suggested a book exchange. We did it and it was great. I am a friggin genius.

Everyone had to bring one of their favorite books. We did one of the ridiculous games to figure out who drew when. When you unwrapped the book you had to guess who brought it. When the person was guessed correctly they had to say why it was one of their favorite books.

Read the remainder of the book exchange and then more at Vindauga.

4 - I don't give out a wish list to friends or loved ones for myself. I share lists of needs my kids have, and one or two "wishes" b/c we just don't really do the Commercialized Christmas thing. My extended family is too huge, now...we all just get together for a family reunion, and that is a blessing in and of itself. The family has grown so that my Mom and Dad have 21 grandkids and 15 great grandkids, now.

Read the remainder of the 'wish list' and then more at Take Time to Smell the Coffee.

5 - Since I wrote why I don’t put a price tag on my poems and that I believe if people want to have a job full of monetary reward, the role of “poet” may not be the best job for you, I want to write the other side of this—that while I believe that if you are writing poetry *solely* to make money, you may have boarded the wrong train—I honestly do believe poets and all artists should be paid better AND well for their work.

What? You ask, You just wrote a whole post how you give away poems and you aren’t in this to make money. Yes. That is true. But do I believe a poem is worth as much as “The Break-Up” starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Yes, I do. In fact, I think poets *should* be paid as much those two, and especially as much as Cameron Diaz—actually *I* should be paid for having to sit through a Cameron Diaz movie, but that’s another issue.

Read the rest of this posting and then more at First Draft: Leonardo likes Gulls

Merry Christmas

1 - This Christmas enjoy the holiday trains from South Station:



2 - follow this link to a great Christmas story (be patient for the first commercial, the story is worth waiting for)

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4003490&affil=wpvi

3 - and to recognize our countrymen and women serving in the military:



Merry Christmas to one and all!


PS - thanks to Joan at Songs of Experience for the link to ABC News

To Persevere - Eugene Huo

On the Twitter trail this time, we find Eugene writing about himself:

I’m a media producer. I’ve been a music recording engineer and producer for 10+ years. When I’m in the studio, a day seems like an hour. I track and mix, I produce artists. I’ve had the good fortune to work on Juno and Covenant award winning albums.

I make photographs and create images.

I write, and you can read it right here.

I’m a music pastor. I sing in front of people not to entertain, but to lead them in an experience of responding to the mind-blowing grace of God.

I’m a husband and a dad. My amazing wife is the love of my life. I have two daughters that keep us busy. And I love every minute of it.

Nice photography. Cool nick names for his kids. Cool website name. He is a media maker. I am sure if you explore a little more you'll find something you have in common too!

Between the Miles - Kara

I found Kara and her blog via one of my"vanity feeds". She follows my Passionate Runner blog. She is a masters runner from Oregon!

She has a cool feature on race t-shirts every Thursday. Click on over to view them. If you have a good one from a prior race, send her a picture or link and she'll include you in a future post.

Enjoy!

Five for Friday

1 -

At heart, Extensis is still a company where font geeks and design aficionados reign supreme. But nowadays, our ‘reign’ just happens to be subject to oversight by the likes of our Corporate Solutions folks, our General Manager, and so on. OK, so we admit we’ve grown up a bit over the last 14 years. But we’re still doing what we set out to do from Day One – make the lives of creatives easier (i.e., equip creatives with better tools to work faster and smarter.) So, how are we doing that exactly? Well, simply by making it easier to organize, find, select, share and distribute fonts and digital files. After all, in today’s age of digital workflows, these are the building blocks for creative design work. And with the average creative professional having to manage thousands of digital files and fonts, our font management and creative assets management software has never been more critical to ensuring that creatives still have that all-important time to… well, simply create.

Check out the Extensis blog

2 -

Paris Romance is a result of one of the most challenging times of my life. At seventeen, a high school drop-out, eighteen living on my own, in six months I was pregnant, by nineteen I was married, and at twenty a dignified mom. The whirlwind has left me feeling like I need to clear my throat and tell my honest story to the world- I decided that the blogosphere would suit me just fine. I find catharsis in knowing that I have put “it” out there. My ideas, thoughts, rants, and that somebody has scooped it up and acknowledged them. It’s like therapy without eye contact. You can judge me silently, in the privacy of your own space. I won’t have to see it. The name Paris Romance signifies the relationship I am ever searching for… the one that is perfection.The one that doesn’t exist. This blog is my middle finger to the reserved wallflower I can be in person. I also write a column for the successful womans online publication whoisisabella.com. Both outlets have quickly become my alter egos. When I thought I had the world in my palm, life began leading me down a path I never imagined going. So here I am, ripe with life experience, ready to speak volumes.

Click through to read Paris Romance.

3 - Recent posts are titled:

• Already Thinking.... Spring?
• Long Sleeve Tee's Sold Out!..New Shipment comes in...
• Rain or Shine!!! We Are Still Celebrating!!!

Click through to read Prairie Home

4 -

Back in 2005, Heather and I got pregnant. We decided to create an audio baby book, so that our great, great grandchildren could listen to how nuts we were (and understand why the family is so weird).

We both decided that it would be fun to turn the baby book into an Internet radio show, or podcast, so that we could share our trials and tribulations with all of you.

So, without further ado. Please sit back and relax and have a listen. You just might even learn something, or at least have some laughs at our expense.

Click through to listen to and ultimately subscribe to Two Boobs and a Baby!

5 -

Hi! My name’s Rich. Online I go by Rich G. and by simplerich. Both are names I’ll answer to online and in real life. I’m the oldest of three and I live within a couple hours of my parents now. I’m single, almost forty, and like watching the Riverkings (hockey). I’ve lived in Alabama first, then Germany until I graduated high school, then Iowa for the longest, and I live outside of Memphis, TN right now. I like geocaching and riding motorcycles (cruisers, not sport bikes).

I’ve been online steadily since the early 90’s. I was online briefly in the late 80s on Compuserve with an Atari and a 300 baud modem if you can believe it. I loved it even then at those speeds.

I’ve been in management for around fifteen years all together at one level or another. Currently I’m a supervisor of sorts with supervisors and managers under me. It’s not my favorite position, but if I ask those under and over me they say I’m doing it well. I guess that’s all I can go by right?

Click through to read more about Rich at SimpleRich

That's five for today, enjoy!

Read my Mind: Elaine Vigneault

Elaine admits that she is a

"compulsive writer. I write about changing the world: politics, philosophy, social commentary, feminism, veganism, animal rights, environmentalism... I write about changing the woman myself: egoism, a diary about my life, where I document my travels and adventures as well as my heartaches and depressions... I write about changing the web: blogging, social networking, internet trends and memes, new and useful technology, beginner tutorials, and more."

Her current posts highlights a fresh voice from London, check out Holly Hates Everything.

All things digital

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for the The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

For all things digital, you'll have a choice of feed to subscribe to. Click on over and pick the one for you.

Know It Alz!

Yes, approaching a serious problem (Alzheimer's) with a little sense of humor is a good thing!

Karen found my posting on Caring.com and left me a comment about her site, Know It Alz. In a recent post she writes:

Dad spent about two hours outside talking to each and every fireman as they walked by. I cannot imagine how many times he must have asked them what was going on (he asked me ten times before I suggested he go check it out), At least if he ever wanders off, every fireman in the county knows what he looks like!

Check out Know It Alz. It has good info and humor, a double treat!

Lookybook!

Found this site from a posting on one of the previously hitchhiked sites: Drawn.



Parents, grandparents, teachers, anyone wanting to look into a book to see more than the cover before choosing to purchase, should register (free) on this site.