Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Oscar, Oprah and Obama!

May 24, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 24 is … National Escargot Day, it could be a slow day.

It appears Oprah is moving at a snail’s pace. Her last show was to be recorded Monday but at 7:00 a. m. it was switched to Tuesday. Doesn’t it seem like Oprah has been doing her last show for over a year? Do the show, broadcast it and go to California. I, for one, will not miss you. This celebration of Oprah retiring has consumed half of her career. Get over yourself, already.

President Obama is in Ireland, a bastion for African-Irish citizens. He is visiting a small town where his great-great grandfather allegedly lived. I assume this was on his mother’s side. Why are we paying for this vacation? He has a few bucks, he could afford to pay for this trip himself. Hopefully he will be free in late January of 2013 to vacation all he and the Mrs. Want to. Shouldn’t our President be in this country showing concern and respect for the Joplin, Missouri tornado victims?

What a world we live in. A Salt Lake City woman has been charged with offering her 11-year-old daughter's virginity to a man in exchange for $10,000. The woman was charged Monday in Utah's 3rd District Court with two counts of aggravated sex abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. KTVX Channel 4, of Salt Lake City, reports that court documents claim she made the offer after the man asked about oral sex with the girl.
Oscar De La Hoya is looking for the biggest knockout of his life. Addiction may be the toughest fight Oscar De La Hoya has seen -- the boxing legend is currently seeking help for substance abuse at a California rehab facility. "Stop finding excuses not to live," he tweeted. "Life is controlled by what you make of it and not of what it makes of you." De La Hoya reportedly entered the facility several weeks ago to battle his demons.
This story is reprinted from Aol Small Business, written by Tamara Schweitzer Raben. This is good news for authors like me.  Sales of electronic books for Amazon’s Kindle have now officially surpassed the sale of print books -- hardcover and paperback combined – the e-commerce site announced Thursday. To date in 2011, Amazon has sold more than three times as many Kindle books as it did during this same period last year, the company reported in a statement. Overall, Amazon is seeing the fastest year-over-year growth rate for book sales in all formats -- print and digital -- than it has in the past 10 years.

Amazon's first indication that e-book sales were taking off was in July 2010, when Kindle book sales surpassed hardcover book sales on the site, just shy of the 3-year mark of the Kindle's release.

According to a report released in late 2010 by Forrester Research, the e-book market is now a $1 billion industry, with sales expected to reach $2.81 billion by 2015. Small-business owners have had an opportunity to capture a slice of that market through Kindle's Direct Publishing program, which allows anyone to self-publish a book through the Amazon Kindle Store without requiring the backing of a publishing house.

The U.S. Kindle Store currently has more than 950,000 books for sale, and a search turns up more than 5,000 small-business titles. A good portion of the titles listed in the Kindle Store include the work of indie writers like 26-year-old Amanda Hocking, who began self-publishing her work on Amazon and is now one of the top-selling independent authors on Amazon. Hocking, who sells about 100,000 copies of her books a month, charges between 99 cents and $3, and through Amazon's royalty program, she brings in 70 percent of those sales.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger is divorced by Maria Shriver, it could cost the former governor and action-movie star millions. It is estimated that he could have to pay up to $200 million dollars for the privilege of not living with Maria anymore. Kennedy women have a history of coming out on top in these types of situations. It might be worth it for some women but not Shriver. Arnold has the hope any prenup is valid but the length of the marriage, number and age of the children and the way the marriage collapsed might invalidate any prenup and that hope. He better pin his hopes on her Catholic background preventing a divorce but many Kennedys have divorced over the years. Money trumps religious doctrine every time.

Buy an ebook today, start with one of mine. Let’s see if I can dethrone Amanda Hocking.
Just a couple of thoughts I had.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011

VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.

www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.

Book Titles:

Holmes the Ripper

A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction

"The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity" - Ludwig Wittgenstein