At long last, today saw the Kindle release of the History Lives series (ages 9-14) that I co-wrote with my husband.

And the publisher is kindly offering an introductory price of $2 per volume, making the whole set just $10. Our editor says the price is good for about a week, so if you’ve been waiting for the ebooks, now’s the time. Enjoy!

Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church (Kindle)
Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church (Kindle)
Courage and Conviction: Chronicles of the Reformation Church (Kindle)
Hearts and Hands: Chronicles of the Awakening Church (Kindle)
Rescue and Redeem: Chronicles of the Modern Church (Kindle)

Once a Spy is Keith Thomson’s debut thriller. I wanted to love it if only for the premise: a CIA agent on medical leave, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, is pursued by the company, who fears he will compromise (or may have already) national secrets as a result of his condition. It falls to his estranged son, a frustrated gambler who believes his father is nothing more than a simple appliance salesman, to save him from getting scrubbed out by the very men he trained. The plot is creative and the narrative well-paced. But Thomson appears to have taken a few too many writing pointers from Dan Brown. The dialogue is peppered with glib quips and cliches to rival a Bond film. Scenes are over-described with details that characters running for their lives would never notice. Fight sequences include phrases like “most likely crushing his skull” and “he was almost certainly done for.”

Once a Spy is no literary masterpiece, but it is a page-turner—and won’t require much fiddling to be translated into a blockbuster screenplay, already in the works. The sequel, Twice a Spy, came out last year—but I think I’ll wait for the movie.

George Orwell on the motives for and influences on writing:

 …I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in—at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own—but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never complete escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, or in some perverse mood: bit if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write.

Agree? Disagree?

He goes on to list four “great motives” for writing:

1)   Sheer egoism: “Desire to be clever…to be remembered after death…determined to live their own lives to the end.”

2)   Aesthetic enthusiasm: “Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement.”

3)   Historical impulse: “Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.”

4)   Political purpose: “Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after.

From Why I Write, re-published most recently in Penguin’s Great Ideas series.

1)   Once a Spy by Keith Thompson. Can an ex-CIA agent with Alzheimers be trusted by his former employers?

2)   You Believers by Jane Bradley. A mother devotes her life to searching for her missing daughter.

3)   Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Prequel to Jane Eyre, telling the story of the first Mrs. Rochester.

4)   Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton. Enough said. Releases in March 2012.

5)   Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway. In which a quiet clockmaker and octegaenarian secret agent save the world. Releases in March 2012.

6)   The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel. Loved her first two novels. Releases in May 2012.

This tribute to print books, a stop-motion video created by (and at) Type Books in Toronto, gave me a thrill. It’s ok to clap at the end—I did!

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to read more and write better? Brain Pickings has a great list of 9 books to spur your reading and writing intentions. Chances are you’ve read at least a couple of these, but if not, you’re in for a treat. I’ve been wanting to read The War of Art for about a year now and haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy—but her recommendation has me trying again. (And by the way, if you’re not reading Brain Pickings, you’re missing some great stuff.)

Do you read the epigraph and acknowledgements in every book? I do, which is why I was intrigued to see Flavorwire’s list of 25 favorite epigraphs right after I saw this piece at The Millions giving some love to the art of author acknowledgements. “At their best, acknowledgements can be finely-wrought short stories with the author as protagonist,” says the second essayist, and I agree. The latter article even inspired a discussion in today’s LitChat on Twitter. What books contain your favorite epigraphs and acknowledgements?

Off to do some reading before bed!