Free (Kindle KDP) Blind But Now I See [Doc Watson Grammy Awarded Musician Biography]

[ATDrake]

Well, something different from the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile today, and definitely worth a feature post. It's not often we get non-fiction, and reasonably interesting non-fiction by people with decent credentials as well (as opposed to people's amateur college essays and paranoid delusional political manifestos and totally untested cookbooks and such).

The late Doc Watson, whom I freely admit I've never heard of before now, was apparently a highly influential Appalachian/bluegrass musician who is in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and has about a dozen Grammy Awards alongside a National Medal of Arts from for US president Bill Clinton, according to his Wikipedia entry.

Blind But Now I See: The Biography of Music Legend Doc Watson by Kent Gustavson, who says that he himself is a PhD over at Stony Brook University, is exactly what it says in the title, originally out from small press Blooming Twig in 2010.

The blurb for this quotes favourable reviews from specialty bluegrass outlets.

Free with DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Before his death at the age of 89, Doc Watson was the true voice of Appalachian music. After being discovered in 1960 by folklorist Ralph Rinzler, the blind guitarist graced thousands of American stages with his down-home wit, deep knowledge of traditional songs, and his blistering flatpicking guitar. Over 52 years in the music business, Doc influenced every musician with a pulse, from Bob Dylan to Jerry Garcia, and from Gillian Welch to Pete Seeger.

The interesting bits from the slushpile which happen to still be free until at least midnight tonight, one hopes:

Fellow MR member author Libby Fischer Hellman returns with a 1st in series mystery, originally out from our freebie and 99-cent-deal-giving friends Poisoned Pen Press in 2002 and now yanked from their own e-catalogue to become a KDP Select exclusived thing, sigh.: AN EYE FOR MURDER (The Ellie Foreman Suspense Mysteries) A short story which apparently leads into this novel is however free to all via Smashwords (and you can pick up the sequels cheapest at Books on Board for $2.32 each, while they're still available in DRM-free ePub under the PPP imprint for who knows how much longer, vs. $5.99 on Smashwords after having been put through the Meatgrinder): The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared.

Stoker & Edgar award nominee and fellow MR member author Billie Sue Mosiman returns with a sci-fi novella with suspense/maybe-horror overtones: Prison Planet

Baen-published Sarah A. Hoyt returns with a sci-fi short: After the Sabines

Betty Cloer Wallace has written a public education analysis book for St. Martin's Press and offers an historical US settlement novella for which she quotes a Publisher's Weekly review: BITTERSWEET FREEDOM IN A FAR LAND: Book One of the Tuckaseegee Chronicles

Star Trek tie-in writer Della Van Hise returns with some kind of mystical new age journey litfic novel originally out from small press Eye Scry in 2005: Quantum Shaman: Diary of a Nagual Woman

Paul D. Marks has had several short stories printed in small press mystery/crime anthologies that have been reviewed by Booklist. Accordingly, he offers: Born Under A Bad Sign - A Noir Story

Shelley Weiner has had several novels published over the decades by small UK imprints, and her bio says that she has had short stories appear on BBC Radio. She offers a comedic-looking literary fiction relationship drama originally out from Constable in 1992, which quotes praise from UK newspapers in the blurb: The Last Honeymoon

Much-published Robert W. Walker returns with a new-looking short story and some writing advice (probably a repeat, but old enough I don't have it in the newer KDP-auxiliary account) and repeats some of his suspense/horror novels: Linkage for the lot

JS Holloway offers an historical-to-modern day adventure thriller which apparently switches between 14th century Africa & 1970s Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, originally out from very small press Sunpenny (which does have a handful of different authors, although maybe they're all just the same author under different names) in 2007: Dance of Eagles

Small press Siren/Bookstrand-published Lisa Greer returns with another of her gothic romance stories: Whispers beneath the Waves (Delia Daugherty Serials)

Christian fiction writer Robert Elmer returns with another installment in his WWII-set YA historical Danish Resistance adventure/thriller series, originally out from Bethany House in 2007: Follow the Star (Young Underground #7)

Lori Ann Stephen's literary fiction novel was originally out from small press Blooming Tree in 2010 and comes with a favourable-sounding Publisher's Weekly review and quote from Pulitzer prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler: Song of the Orange Moons

Jane Peart of the Ten Talents Press author consortium returns with contemporary romance originally out from Christian publisher Thomas Nelson in 1985: Autumn Encore (International Romance Series)

Barbara Bretton returns with a 1992-Harlequin time travel romance novel which she says won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award: Somewhere in Time (The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy)

Well, if you've been collecting the comics of these, the novelization based upon them is now released and free, and ISFDBed horror writer Stefan Petrucha contributes to Jazan Wild's : CARNIVAL OF SOULS (The Novel)

And if you've ever wanted to build yourself a custom delivery van out of LEGO bricks, well, this title probably "delivers" and has photos of the finished model under user-submitted pictures in the Amazon listing: Delivery Van: Custom instructions to build with your own LEGO bricks (Lions Gate Models Custom LEGO Instructions)

Some new titles among the repeats from our friends at Books We Love (assorted genre fiction & new age-y stuff), Audio Digest (medical stuff), and Xcite Books, as pointed out in kg3's thread.

Happy reading, if you happen to spot something you think you might like, or discover some interesting new music that might have influenced the music you already enjoyed.

[basschick]

whoa - doc watson's biography! thank you!!! those of us who play guitar have more than heard of doc watson - he's a very influential player and all around interesting guy. thanks again - i'm off to the acoustic guitar forum to share the link

[Blue Tyson]

The two Walkers are repeats - not sure about the writing advice one, as have no interest.

[kg3]

These two additional Shelley Weiner titles are also available for Free:

The Joker by Shelley Weiner

A Sisters Tale by Shelley Weiner

[Apache]

A friend of mine has played with Doc Watson. Bluegrass has lost a lot with the recent deaths of Earl Scruggs and now Doc Watson.
Thank you for the link.
Apache

[ATDrake]

Title feature still free, and some nice things today, including more interesting and decently credential non-fiction, and a good selection for the mystery/thriller readers with a backlist treat from an award-nominee author and all the Oceanview repeats.

Previously title-featured award-nominated Thomas Dunne-published Canadian history writer Stephen R. Bown returns with another collection of his informative, educational, and heavily-illustrated mini-essays: The Golden Age of Piracy: A Short History of Privateers, Buccaneers and Pirates in the Caribbean

R.D. Zimmerman, who also writes as Robert Alexander and has been an Anthony, Edgar, and Lambda Literary Award-nominee, returns with a 4th-in-series LGBT mystery originally published by Delacorte Press in 1999: Innuendo (A Todd Mills Mystery)

Oceanview Publishing return to offer another in Deborah Shiian & Linda Reid's ex-TV producer amateur sleuth series, for which we've previously gotten another valume earlier (this may be a repeat, but old enough I don't have it in the KDP-auxiliary account): Devil Wind (Sammy Greene Mysteries) Oceanview are also repeating half their KDP-lendable catalogue, it seems.

ISFDBed Jane Toombs returns with an historical adventure drama, offered via Books We Love alongside their usual repeats: Deception's Bride

Berkley-published Paul Clayton returns with a collection of satirical short stories, some of which have sfnal themes: Strange Worlds

Carina Press-published Robert Appleton returns to offer an omnibus edition of his previously freebied sci-fi adventure/maybe-romance starring "astronaut survivalist" Kate Borrowdale: The Eleven Hour Fall: Complete Trilogy

Zebra-published Nancy Bush returns with what looks like a contemporary romantic suspense: Dear Diary

The Wild Rose Press-published Sky Purington returns with a celebratory freebie-ization of several of her Celtic druid/highlander paranormal romances, which will be free all weekend to promote her newly-finished trilogy: Linkage for the lot

Jinx Schwartz has had several books out from apparently very small presses over the years, and says she has won the indie writing EPPIE award for a book in her mystery series starring seafaring captain Hetta Coffey, of which she offers a 2004 Treble Heart Press-published volume: Troubled Sea

Eric E. Wright has apparently written a number of non-fiction works for small faith-oriented imprints and says he has won the "Word Guild award for best Canadian Christian suspense/mystery novel" for the following journalist vs terrorist adventure thriller, originally out from Hidden Brook Press in 2007: The Lightning File (Josh Radley Suspense novels)

Well, if you were picking up the previous books in this AU Tudor series by the author of the zombie Henry VIII short, here's another for your collection: Anne the Saint (The Six Lives of Henry the VIII)

In addition to the repeats from Books We Love and Oceanview Publishing to go along with their new stuff, Xcite Books also returns with a few new erotic romance/erotica collections, and the Audio Digest people have some more new medical things.

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like or learn something informative and educational about the golden age of non-internet piracy.

[koland]

Audio Digest is an author, not publisher. working link - http://www.amazon.com/s/?search-alia...rice&price=0-0

[ATDrake]

Well, technically, according to their website which says that they are the "Audio-Digest Foundation" with a number of "brand" lines under their aegis, they're a publisher who has neglected to fill in the publisher portion of their listing (much like the Charles River Editors half the time, which is why the links in that thread run on a keyword search), thus making it somewhat more inconvenient to copy/paste & tweak the usual link for publisher-offered stuff because I have to remember to swap the fields every time.

Thanks for the correction.

[dreams]

Berkley-published Paul Clayton returns with a collection of satirical short stories, some of which have sfnal themes: Strange Worlds

I thought this name sounded familiar. He was on MR a couple of years ago announcing White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. This was a Kindle freebie the end of March 2012.

Thank you for continuing to highlight and post about those books that may be of interest to us.