BUY for Your Valentine NOW!! Love is a Sexy Ebook or Print Book by Neale Sourna

"Love is an everyday affair," so surprise your partner with a new sexy book in hand to read aloud from my site to your partner. Surprise your LOVE PARTNER with new HOT STORIES in hand, a new ebook for their e-reader or paperback from Neale Sourna and PIE: Perception Is Everything, because love is everything. But, you already know that. So, see what's NEW below.

"Plus, I have a challenge for you; READ JUST FIVE PAGES of any of my STORIES, and if it doesn't LITERALLY CHANGE how you FEEL, and MAKE YOU FEEL different and MORE PULSING ALIVE (wet and warm for women, firm and hot for men) than when you started, then close it, zip it, and walk away; but, if your PULSE is racing, and the heat and the wet and the throbbing, hot blood is getting noticeable, then you need to keep my stories close to hand and bed--and BUY NOW, BUY HERE, BUY OFTEN, as ebooks and paperbacks!!"

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NORTH COAST ACADEMIES DIARY (NCAD) GO Falcons!!
[NCAD -- An Adult Serial]

ISSN 1553-8656
North Catalog/Buy

NCAD is Adult Erotic Fiction, usually one short story per issue [i.e., 5000 wds / 22 6.14 x 9.21" issue pgs], under the theme of diary / journal entries of an academic community.

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"Steve's Monkey's Paw & MORE"

[more Neale Sourna's CuntSinger: Table of Contents and more]

Printed Novel eBook

Printed Novel eBook

GAME STORIES:

Game Novels: Heartwild Solitaire, The Author's Edition* and

Heartwild Solitaire: Book Two, The Author's Edition* NEW!! Update Gifts--Sweet Bonus Levels Available NOW!

Book Two (branched novel story game)

Novel Book One

and also the mystery puzzle games of:

Neale Sourna's Game Writing and Design Store

and more at Neale's Catalog and Neale's Home Website

Character: More young people are winding up in nursing homes

AP/Chris O'Meara

Quadriplegic Adam Martin, right, works with physical therapist Wes Bower at a nursing home. More photos »

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AP – In this photo taken Dec. 13, 2010, quadriplegic Adam Martin, left, works with physical therapist Wes …

• Slideshow:Young nursing home residents

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Matt Sedensky, Associated Press – Fri Jan 7, 6:19 pm ET

SARASOTA, Fla. – Adam Martin doesn't fit in here. No one else in this nursing home wears Air Jordans. No one else has stacks of music videos by 2Pac and Jay-Z. No one else is just 26.

It's no longer unusual to find a nursing home resident who is decades younger than his neighbor: About one in seven people now living in such facilities in the U.S. is under 65. But the growing phenomenon presents a host of challenges for nursing homes, while patients like Martin face staggering isolation.

"It's just a depressing place to live," Martin says. "I'm stuck here. You don't have no privacy at all. People die around you all the time. It starts to really get depressing because all you're seeing is negative, negative, negative."

The number of under-65 nursing home residents has risen about 22 percent in the past eight years to about 203,000, according to an analysis of statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That number has climbed as mental health facilities close and medical advances keep people alive after they've suffered traumatic injuries. Still, the overall percentage of nursing home residents 30 and younger is less than 1 percent.

Martin was left a quadriplegic when he was accidentally shot in the neck last year by his stepbrother. He spent weeks hospitalized before being released to a different nursing home and eventually ended up in his current residence, the Sarasota Health and Rehabilitation Center. There are other residents who are well short of retirement age, but he is the youngest.

The yellow calendar on the wall of Martin's small end-of-the-hall room advertises activities such as arts and crafts. In the small common room down the hall, a worker draws a bingo ball and intones, "I-16. I-one-six." As Martin maneuvers his motorized wheelchair through the hallway, most of those he passes have white hair and wrinkled skin.

"It's lonely here," Martin says, as a single tear drips from his right eye.

Martin exchanges muted hellos with older residents as he travels down the hall to smoke outside. His entire daily routine, from showering to eating to enjoying a cigarette, is dictated by the schedules of those on whom he relies for help.

He usually wakes up late, then waits for an aide to shower him, dress him and return him to his wheelchair. He watches TV, goes to therapy five days a week and waits most days for his friend to bring him meals.

He mostly keeps to himself, engaging in infrequent and superficial conversations with his elders.

Martin's parents are unable to care for him at home. His father is a truck driver who is constantly on the road, and his stepmother is sick with lupus. Medicaid pays his bills; it could take a lawsuit for him to get care outside a nursing home.

Advocates who help young patients find alternatives to nursing homes say people are often surprised to learn there are so many in the facilities. About 15 percent of nursing home residents are under 65.

"When I tell people I try to get kids out of nursing homes, they have no idea," says Katie Chandler, a social worker for the nonprofit Georgia Advocacy Office.

Federal law requires states to provide alternatives to institutional care when possible, though its implementation varies from place to place. Navigating the system can require a knowledgeable advocate and, sometimes, litigation.

Not all younger nursing home residents are there for good. Some nursing homes are seeing an increase in patients who come to recover there instead of in a hospital, because it is cheaper for their insurance company.

Like Martin, many younger residents have suffered a traumatic injury. Others have neuromuscular diseases such as multiple sclerosis, or have suffered a stroke.

Brent Kaderli, 26, of Baytown, Texas, became a quadriplegic after a car accident in 2006. He hopes rehabilitation will help him gain enough strength to move into an assisted living facility and eventually, to an apartment with his girlfriend.

He shares his nursing home room with an older man who suffers from dementia. It is not ideal, but because his parents' home is not modified to accommodate his wheelchair, he thinks it's the only option right now.

"Just knowing that one day I will be better, I'm still hoping and praying for that. In the meantime, I think about my family and my friends, what I used to be able to do, and I stay sad a lot," he says. "This is probably the best that I could have at this point."

The same generational tensions that exist outside nursing homes are inside them as well, and are sometimes exacerbated by the often close confines.

Older residents complain about loud music and visitors, younger residents complain about living with someone with dementia or being served creamed spinach. Many nursing homes try to house younger residents together, though in many cases their small numbers make that difficult.

For young people who find themselves newly disabled, the psychological and social needs are often even more challenging than their physical demands. That presents a challenge for nursing homes that are used to serving people near the ends of their lives.

At Bayshore Health Center in Duluth, Minn., 34 of the 160 residents are younger people, all living in private rooms in their own wing. The staff has found that subtle changes can improve their lives.

Instead of bingo night, there are poker games and outings to nightclubs. For someone who stays up late watching a movie, breakfast can be served at 10 a.m., rather than 7 a.m. Pizza is offered in place of lasagna; Mountain Dew and Coke are poured instead of coffee and tea.

Still, many younger residents sink into depression because of their physical limitations, their loneliness and their nursing home surroundings.

"For them it's a life sentence. When you're 40 years old you know you're never getting out. This is the way your life will be forever and ever. Amen," says Diane Persson, a gerontologist who has written about the boom in younger nursing home residents.

Martin fears that may be true for him. He used to look forward to joining the Army and earning a college degree in science or engineering. Now he simply looks forward to visits from his friend Paul Tuttle, who on this day brings him nachos he feeds him along with sips of water.

"If I'm not here, he's got no one his age to talk to about football or anything," Tuttle says, wiping Martin's face.

Propped in his wheelchair, Martin says: "It makes you feel old. If that's all you're around, that's what you become."

(This version corrects Katie Chandler's affiliation to Georgia Advocacy Office, not state of Georgia.)

2,822 Comments!!

Character: Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail by Jay Goltz

The New York Times, Wednesday January 5, 2011

One of the least understood aspects of entrepreneurship is why small businesses fail, and there's a simple reason for the confusion: Most of the evidence comes from the entrepreneurs themselves.

I have had a close-up view of numerous business failures -- including a few start-ups of my own. And from my observation, the reasons for failure cited by the owners are frequently off-point, which kind of makes sense when you think about it. If the owners really knew what they were doing wrong, they might have been able to fix the problem. Often, it's simply a matter of denial or of not knowing what you don't know.

In many cases, the customers -- or, I should say, ex-customers -- have a better understanding than the owners of what wasn't working. The usual suspects that the owners tend to blame are the bank, the government, or the idiot partner. Rarely does the owner's finger point at the owner.

Of course, there are cases where something out of the owner's control has gone terribly wrong, but I have found those instances to be in the minority.

What follows -- based on my own experiences and observations -- are my top 10 reasons small businesses fail. The list is not pretty, it is not simple, and it does not contain any of those usual suspects (although they might come in at Nos. 11, 12 and 13).

1. The math just doesn't work. There is not enough demand for the product or service at a price that will produce a profit for the company. This, for example, would include a start-up trying to compete against Best Buy and its economies of scale.

2. Owners who cannot get out of their own way. [This is personal attitude.] They may be stubborn, risk adverse, conflict adverse -- meaning they need to be liked by everyone (even employees and vendors who can't do their jobs). They may be perfectionist, greedy, self-righteous, paranoid, indignant, or insecure. You get the idea. Sometimes, you can even tell these owners the problem, and they will recognize that you are right -- but continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

3. Out-of-control growth. This one might be the saddest of all reasons for failure -- a successful business that is ruined by over-expansion. This would include moving into markets that are not as profitable, experiencing growing pains that damage the business, or borrowing too much money in an attempt to keep growth at a particular rate. Sometimes less is more.

4. Poor accounting. You cannot be in control of a business if you don't know what is going on. With bad numbers, or no numbers, a company is flying blind, and it happens all of the time. Why? For one thing, it is a common -- and disastrous -- misconception that an outside accounting firm hired primarily to do the taxes will keep watch over the business. In reality, that is the job of the chief financial officer, one of the many hats an entrepreneur has to wear until a real one is hired.

5. Lack of a cash cushion. If we have learned anything from this recession (I know it's "over" but my customers don't seem to have gotten the memo), it's that business is cyclical and that bad things can and will happen over time -- the loss of an important customer or critical employee, the arrival of a new competitor, the filing of a lawsuit. These things can all stress the finances of a company. If that company is already out of cash (and borrowing potential), it may not be able to recover.

6. Operational mediocrity. I have never met a business owner who described his or her operation as mediocre. But we can't all be above average. Repeat and referral business is critical for most businesses, as is some degree of marketing (depending on the business).

7. Operational inefficiencies. Paying too much for rent, labor, and materials. Now more than ever, the lean companies are at an advantage. Not having the tenacity or stomach to negotiate terms that are reflective of today's economy may leave a company uncompetitive.

8. Dysfunctional management. Lack of focus, vision, planning, standards and everything else that goes into good management. Throw fighting partners or unhappy relatives into the mix, and you have a disaster.

9. The lack of a succession plan. We're talking nepotism, power struggles, significant players being replaced by people who are in over their heads -- all reasons many family businesses do not make it to the next generation.

10. A declining market. Book stores, music stores, printing businesses and many others are dealing with changes in technology, consumer demand, and competition from huge companies with more buying power and advertising dollars.

In life, you may have forgiving friends and relatives, but entrepreneurship is rarely forgiving. Eventually, everything shows up in the soup. If people don't like the soup, employees stop working for you, and customers stop doing business with you. And that is why businesses fail.

Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago.

Writing Character: Happy Marriage_Sustainable Love

Sustainable Love

The Happy Marriage Is the ‘Me’ Marriage

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: December 31, 2010

A lasting marriage does not always signal a happy marriage. Plenty of miserable couples have stayed together for children, religion or other practical reasons.

Heads of State

Tara Parker-Pope on Love

But for many couples, it’s just not enough to stay together. They want a relationship that is meaningful and satisfying. In short, they want a sustainable marriage.

“The things that make a marriage last have more to do with communication skills, mental health, social support, stress — those are the things that allow it to last or not,” says Arthur Aron, a psychology professor who directs the Interpersonal Relationships Laboratory at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. “But those things don’t necessarily make it meaningful or enjoyable or sustaining to the individual.”

The notion that the best marriages are those that bring satisfaction to the individual may seem counterintuitive. After all, isn’t marriage supposed to be about putting the relationship first?

Not anymore. For centuries, marriage was viewed as an economic and social institution, and the emotional and intellectual needs of the spouses were secondary to the survival of the marriage itself. But in modern relationships, people are looking for a partnership, and they want partners who make their lives more interesting.

Caryl Rusbult, a researcher at Vrije University in Amsterdam who died last January, called it the “Michelangelo effect,” referring to the manner in which close partners “sculpt” each other in ways that help each of them attain valued goals.

Dr. Aron and Gary W. Lewandowski Jr., a professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey, have studied how individuals use a relationship to accumulate knowledge and experiences, a process called “self-expansion.” Research shows that the more self-expansion people experience from their partner, the more committed and satisfied they are in the relationship.

To measure this, Dr. Lewandowski developed a series of questions for couples: How much has being with your partner resulted in your learning new things? How much has knowing your partner made you a better person? (Take the full quiz measuring self-expansion.)

While the notion of self-expansion may sound inherently self-serving, it can lead to stronger, more sustainable relationships, Dr. Lewandowski says.

“If you’re seeking self-growth and obtain it from your partner, then that puts your partner in a pretty important position,” he explains. “And being able to help your partner’s self-expansion would be pretty pleasing to yourself.”

The concept explains why people are delighted when dates treat them to new experiences, like a weekend away. But self-expansion isn’t just about exotic experiences. Individuals experience personal growth through their partners in big and small ways. It happens when they introduce new friends, or casually talk about a new restaurant or a fascinating story in the news.

The effect of self-expansion is particularly pronounced when people first fall in love.

In research at the University of California at Santa Cruz, 325 undergraduate students were given questionnaires five times over 10 weeks. They were asked, “Who are you today?” and given three minutes to describe themselves. They were also asked about recent experiences, including whether they had fallen in love.

• Well Blog: The Sustainable Marriage Quiz (December 31, 2010)

After students reported falling in love, they used more varied words in their self-descriptions. The new relationships had literally broadened the way they looked at themselves.

“You go from being a stranger to including this person in the self, so you suddenly have all of these social roles and identities you didn’t have before,” explains Dr. Aron, who co-authored the research. “When people fall in love that happens rapidly, and it’s very exhilarating.”

Over time, the personal gains from lasting relationships are often subtle. Having a partner who is funny or creative adds something new to someone who isn’t. A partner who is an active community volunteer creates new social opportunities for a spouse who spends long hours at work.

Additional research suggests that spouses eventually adopt the traits of the other — and become slower to distinguish differences between them, or slower to remember which skills belong to which spouse.

In experiments by Dr. Aron, participants rated themselves and their partners on a variety of traits, like “ambitious” or “artistic.” A week later, the subjects returned to the lab and were shown the list of traits and asked to indicate which ones described them.

People responded the quickest to traits that were true of both them and their partner. When the trait described only one person, the answer came more slowly. The delay was measured in milliseconds, but nonetheless suggested that when individuals were particularly close to someone, their brains were slower to distinguish between their traits and those of their spouses.

“It’s easy to answer those questions if you’re both the same,” Dr. Lewandowski explains. “But if it’s just true of you and not of me, then I have to sort it out. It happens very quickly, but I have to ask myself, ‘Is that me or is that you?’ ”

It’s not that these couples lost themselves in the marriage; instead, they grew in it. Activities, traits and behaviors that had not been part of their identity before the relationship were now an essential part of how they experienced life.

All of this can be highly predictive for a couple’s long-term happiness. One scale designed by Dr. Aron and colleagues depicts seven pairs of circles. The first set is side by side. With each new set, the circles begin to overlap until they are nearly on top of one another. Couples choose the set of circles that best represents their relationship.

In a 2009 report in the journal Psychological Science, people bored in their marriages were more likely to choose the more separate circles. Partners involved in novel and interesting experiences together were more likely to pick one of the overlapping circles and less likely to report boredom.

Overlap = Happy?

“People have a fundamental motivation to improve the self and add to who they are as a person,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “If your partner is helping you become a better person, you become happier and more satisfied in the relationship.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 2, 2011, on page WK4 of the New York edition.

BUY THIS TUNE: Dog Days Are Over by Florence And The Machine

A little inspiration for 2011 from Neale Sourna via the wonderful Florence and the Machine.

Album: LUNGS (2009)

Songwriters: Summers, Isa; Welch, Florence

Dog Days Are Over lyrics © Goldzeal Ltd.

Happiness hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with her drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind
You cant carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had and what was left after that too, oh
Happiness hit her like a bullet in the head
Struck from a great height by someone who should know better than that

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your loving, your loving behind
You cant carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses?
Because here they come

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

Writing Character: The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me--literal or figurative?

So, if you use this song as a character base for your writing, would you use it as a literal text or figurative to what the character feels or expresses their daily life?
--Neale Sourna

Title: The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me lyrics
Artist: The Cardigans Lyrics

Man, I've had a few
but they wouldn't quite blow me like you
you gave me your name and signed
with a halo around my eye

and it hit me like never before
that love is a powerful force
yes, it struck me that love is a sport
so i pushed you a little bit more

love, you're news to me
you're a little bit more than i thought you'd be
a mole in my well-fed lawn
you're a nightmare beating the dawn

oh, it hit me like never before
that love is a powerful force
yes, it struck me that love is sport
so i pushed you a little bit more

Blue, blue, black and blue
red blood sticks like glue
true love is cruel love
red blood's a power-fuel
sweet love, tasty blood
my heart overfloods

oh you hit me!
yeah, you hit me really hard
man, you hit me!
yeah you hit me right in the heart

lord, I've had my deal
but i never quite knew how it feels
when love makes you wake up sore
with fists that are ready for more

and it hit me that love is a game
like in war no one can be blamed
yes, it struck me that love is a sport
so i pushed you a little bit more

oh, blue, blue, black and blue
red blood sticks like glue
true love is cruel love
red blood's a power fuel
sweet love tasted blood
my heart overfloods

man, you hit me!
yeah you hit me really hard
baby, you hit me!
yeah you punched me right in the heart
and then you kissed me...

and then you hit me...

oh, you haunt me with your violent heartbeat at night
oh, you strike me with your silence baby, tonight
why you haunt me with your violence baby, come hit me!
you haunt me with your violent heartbeat...

"Love is misunderstood..."

FROM NIGHTINGALE.COM

"Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of
being in the world, a way of seeing oneself and others."

— Dr. David Hawkins: Psychiatrist, physician, spiritual teacher, lecturer

"Writing about sex is too easy and not REAL literature."

How many times have you heard this, or something like it? Or maybe I just notice it when its spoken and, sometimes, not spoken, but implied in tone and texture--because I am a writer, of erotica, both soft and hardcore.

Do they say "Writing about violence is too easy and not REAL literature," or "Writing a mystery about murdering people is too easy and not REAL literature"?

No.

Writing sexy and loving material about gentle loves and hard, physical loving and lovemaking is FUN, but takes energy and focus and SKILL. Try it sometimes yourself.

WRITING PROMPT:

1. Write a scene about two sweet people (of whatever gender and sexual persuasion) who BELONG together in every way you can imagine and admit their love to each other.

2. Now, rewrite it with one of them balking and dragging their feet about admitting true love.

3. Then, rewrite it with both of them clearly want each other, but they're hardcore about pushing each other to the edge. You pick their sexy edge: sex in the open, a little violence, some bondage, menstrual blood, cutting, etc.

Hm, not so easy now. Or do you think these characters, these realistic "real" people are just deviants and not interesting or appropriate for an general, adult audience. Hm....

--Neale Sourna

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED- Trailer at YouTube.com

A client's nonpayment is your gain.

Here's the first three (3) of five (5) short fiction titles I did for a client, who hasn't paid, so I'm publishing them to my sight as additive new title content. One day I'll expand them and print/ebook publish them.

http://stories.neale-sourna.com/TheFreelancer.html
NEW! The Freelancer

Annie’s new temp, Ryan, with the fascinating ass, is great at his job, on his first day, but he’s driving her to distraction. She can’t get anything done.

When Annie works late and alone, to catch up on work, gorgeous Ryan returns in order to show her what he’s really freelancing in. 1000 words

----
http://stories.neale-sourna.com/Rough-MeDotCom.html
NEW! Rough-Me Dot Com

Dot com queen, Lara, runs an internet site for rough sex. Her own boring romantic life has her observing the online site communications of a client, named Will. She makes contact with him, as Dennie, one of her aliases, who "works for her."

When he decides he wants to meet "Dennie" in person, Lara puts herself in the perilous position, because rough stud Will make break her company, break her, and bust her cunt to pieces. 1000 words

----
http://stories.neale-sourna.com/TangoWithMe.html
NEW! Tango With Me

Elaine left Cleveland for Buenos Aires, Argentina the home of sultry Argentine Tango to learn from the best—a man, named “K,” she’s only seen in shadow and smoke in a documentary.

He’s not the man on the screen, a fiction; this is a living, dangerous man of sensuality, and a bit of cruelty. So is the Tango he teaches her, until she’s ready and had enough of fiction and the push and shove of dance, to find herself exposed before all and doing the “Horizontal Mambo” upright. 998 words

Neale Sourna's Short and More Storygateway

Ebooks Versus Print Books

Please, people, stop confusing yourselves and denigrating the newer form. Ebooks are print books for the screen! The same file you use for your print book is the same file you can use for--and should use, barring formatting conventions--your ebooks.

The SAME FILE.

The only things that need change or things which need to be tweaked for each specific ebook software you use so that it works properly and LOOKS correct to the human eye. Check for punctuation formulas, like for curly quotes and such falling apart and displaying its codes every time a character speaks in each ebook packing. Or paragraphs not being indented and smooshing together, so everything looks like one tediously long paragraph.

Other than things like that, the text, your story, all that is what you truly wanted to say and publish remains the same. An ebook is a print screen publishing.

The ABCs of E-Reading New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak

[more info at the link above]

By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And MARIE C. BACA

(See Corrections & Amplifications below .)

People who buy e-readers tend to spend more time than ever with their nose in a book, preliminary research shows.

Radim Malnic;

A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing and Research Resources Inc. found that 40% said they now read more than they did with print books. Of those surveyed, 58% said they read about the same as before while 2% said they read less than before. And 55% of the respondents in the May study, paid for by e-reader maker Sony Corp., thought they'd use the device to read even more books in the future. The study looked at owners of three devices: Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle, Apple Inc.'s iPad and the Sony Reader.

While e-readers are still a niche product just beginning to spread beyond early adopters, these new reading experiences are a big departure from the direction U.S. reading habits have been heading. A 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts caused a furor when it reported Americans are spending less time reading books. About half of all Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books

People who buy e-readers tend to spend more time than ever with their nose in a book, preliminary research shows. Simon Constable and Marie Baca discuss.

for pleasure, it found.

Some 11 million Americans are expected to own at least one digital reading gadget by the end of September, estimates Forrester Research. U.S. e-book sales grew 183% in the first half of this year compared with the year-earlier period, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Comparing the E-Readers

Take a closer look at the Kindle, Nook and iPad

View Interactive

Among early adopters, e-books aren't replacing their old book habits, but adding to them. Amazon, the biggest seller of e-books, says its customers buy 3.3 times as many books after buying a Kindle, a figure that has accelerated in the past year as prices for the device fell.

It's too early to tell the reading lift will sustain after the novelty of the gadgets wears off, and the devices go mass market. But because e-book gadgets are portable, people report they're reading more and at times when a book isn't normally an option: on a smartphone in the doctor's waiting room; through a Ziploc-bag-clad Kindle in a hot tub, or on a treadmill with a Sony Reader's fonts set to jumbo. Among commuters, e-readers are starting to catch up with BlackBerrys as the preferred companions on trains and buses.

Experience WSJ professional

Editors' Deep Dive: E-Readers Crowd Market

• THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

  Uneasiness in the e-Reader Market

• Nikkei Weekly

  Reading Japan's e-Book Market

• Dow Jones News Service

  Opinion: The E-Reader Battle Is Just Beginning

Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More

Since getting her Kindle last year, Leslie Johnson has been reading more often and in more places—like on a kayak. On a recent trip, the 34-year-old engineer from Albany, N.Y., settled into a science-fiction novel while her husband fished. "I put it in a waterproof cover," she says.

A Writer's View

Mystery and thriller author Michael Connelly says he has about 30 e-books on his Kindle, Sony Reader and iPad, though he also still reads print books because he gets so many samples from his publisher.

"I will never stop loving the printed book," Mr. Connelly says. Yet, "I am very interested in this world. E-books are here to stay." He adds, "There is the advantage of being able to carry multiple things. I travel a lot—believe me, I notice the weight."

The first consumer e-books, which were released in the 1990s, failed to catch on among consumers who were stuck reading them on computers or tiny cellphone screens.

The Pace of Reading

Earlier this summer, Jakob Nielsen, a Silicon Valley researcher who has studied how people interact with technology for more than two decades, recruited 32 volunteers and asked them to read short stories by Ernest Hemingway in print, on an iPad and the Kindle. Mr. Nielsen timed how long it took them to read a story on each device. Compared with print, iPad readers were 6.2% slower and Kindle readers were 10.7% slower, though the difference between the iPad and Kindle results wasn't statistically significant. Mr. Nielsen suspects the slowdown is caused by the screen technology in the devices, which is still less sharp than print.

"Both devices give you a more relaxed feeling as opposed to a computer," said Mr. Nielsen, who runs research firm Nielsen Norman Group along with former Apple researcher Donald Norman.

The Future of the Book

• 51% of e-reader owners increased their purchases of e-books in the past year. Source: Book Industry Study Group survey

• 9% of consumers increased their purchases of hardcover books in the past year. Source: Book Industry Study Group survey.

• 2.6 Average number of books read by e-reader owners in a month. Source: Marketing and Research Resources

• 1.9 Average number of books read by print-book readers in a month. Source: Marketing and Research Resources

• 176% Increase in U.S. electronic-book sales in 2009. Source: Association of American Publishers

• 1.8% Decrease in U.S. book sales in 2009 from a year earlier. Source: Association of American Publishers

• 86% of e-reader owners read on their device more than once a week. Source: Marketing and Research Resources

• 51% of e-reader owners read on their device on a daily basis. Source: Marketing and Research Resources

In creating the Kindle, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, says he set out to develop technology that could encourage long-form reading, instead of just snippets.

"Everything is about getting the device to disappear so that you can enter the author's world," he said in a recent interview. "A nightmare scenario for me would be if this device would ever beep at me while I'm reading."

Gender Gap Narrows

E-readers also appear to be narrowing the gap in how men and women read. A study, released this month by the Book Industry Study Group Inc. found that men are bigger consumers of e-books than women by a narrow margin. Among e-book buyers, 52% were men compared with 48% for women—a reversal of print books, where women buy more.

E-reader users also say that 52% of their e-books were ones they purchased, while 48% of their e-books were free because they were sample giveaways or out-of-copyright.

Libraries are expanding services that let patrons virtually "check out" an e-book through the Internet, with e-book files that automatically lock down after the end of the loan period. According to the American Library Association, 66% of libraries offered e-book loans, up from just 38% in 2005.

The most checked-out adult fiction e-book at libraries is Stieg Larsson's bestseller, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," according to Overdrive, a company that provides e-book loans for more than 11,000 libraries. The same is true at Amazon, the largest e-bookstore online, where Mr. Larsson also tops e-book bestseller lists.

There are some aspects of reading a print book that e-readers still haven't been able to re-create. Digital locks on e-books make it harder to lend a book to a friend, though free works are being shared much more rapidly online than ever before. Scribd.com, a social publishing and reading website, is used to share books and documents about 10 million times each month, the company says.

ROI

• Are E-Books Worth the Money?

Page numbers are a problem for e-books, since the number of words on a virtual page depends on the size of the screen and type. Pages may be antiquated, but they're very helpful for making sure reading-club participants or students in a classroom are all on the same page. No page numbers also means there's no skipping ahead to sneak a peek at a page near the end of a book. Most e-readers have tried to replace page numbers by showing the percentage of the book read.

Range of Features

Technology has brought a range of features to books that wouldn't be possible in print. Children's author Lynley Dodd sells a title from her "Hairy Maclary" series as an app for the iPad. It lets parents or kids record themselves reading the book aloud, and a paint function lets kids color the original drawings themselves.

Journal Community

• discuss

“ The real losers in the ascendancy of e-books are public libraries who are seeing the last of their business model go out the window. ”

—Alfred Garwood

With an e-reader, readers can hold and turn pages with just one hand. Some readers hail how the devices can become large-type books with the click of a few buttons—and back-lit devices like the iPad work in bed even when the lights are off. Free sample chapters, common on most online stores, make it easier to try out—and potentially give up on—books before committing to a 400-page tome.

But paper pages do have one benefit that electronic devices don't have: They don't need to be put away during takeoff and landing on airplanes. On a recent trip to Seattle, 64-year-old Jamie McKenzie, a Bellingham, Wash.-based writer, said he felt a sense of superiority when his seatmate was asked to turn off his Kindle to prepare for takeoff.

"That guy may have had access to 10,000 books, but I was the one who was able to keep reading," he says.

Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

U.S. electronic-book sales increased 176% in 2009, while total book sales in the U.S. fell 1.8%, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Of individuals who own e-readers, 86% read on their device more than once a week, and 51% read on their device daily, according to Marketing & Research Resources Inc.

In a previous version of this article, the chart incorrectly reported the numbers, showing that e-book sales rose 1.8%, total book sales fell 51% and that among e-reader owners, 86% use their device daily and 176% read on their device more than once a week.

On Ebook Readers from Hope Clark's Funds for Writers Newsletter

Volume 10, Issue 36
September 5, 2010

WHY E-READERS ARE THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD [for authors]

I've heard it all. E-readers are too expensive...they are just another toy...e-books cost too much...blah, blah, blah.

Hey, people. E-readers and e-books are making people read more. They aren't moving their books from paper to electronic, either. Most of them are reading electronically IN ADDITION TO reading paper.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703846604575448093175758872.html -- The ABCs of E-Reading, New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And MARIE C. BACA

What does this mean for you?

1. More opportunity to land a contract.
2. More sales. [Yes!!--NS]
3. More chance to make a living as a writer. [Double, triple, quadruple Yes!!--NS]

People with e-readers seek out books. They feel entertained on those high-price electronic toys. They love the experience. Frankly, I'm not concerned with what the logic is. If e-readers
make people read more, I'm all for it! Write the books in crayon or laser beams, for all I care. I cheer for anything that peddles the written word.

11 million Americans are expected to own at least one digital reader by the end of September. U.S. e-book sales grew 183% in the first half of 2010. You can't blow off those numbers.

When I tout e-books, one or two readers fuss at me, accusing me of trying to slay the tradition of paper. I've heard "there's something about holding a book" as many times as I've read "writing is like breathing to me." It's become cliche.

I love this trend! Reading is resurging. And guess what? More men read e-books than women. It's opposite for paper books. Why is this so wonderful? Because little boys will be more inclined to read, if this statistic is solid.

This news excites me. I own a Kindle DX, and I have to admit that it's addictive. I also eye with envy the newest e-reading products. It's like buying a new phone, a new monitor, a new
laptop. You're intoxicated with the feel of that new electronic tool. You run home and open it up, maybe neglecting dinner and skipping a couple of television shows in order to play with it.

Hey, I see little wrong with reading binges. Sure beats the heck out of movie, television, video game and texting habits. It's reading back on track, on a high, and I'm all for it.

Hope Clark

Editor: C. Hope Clark
Mailto: Hope@fundsforwriters.com
Website: http://www.fundsforwriters.com
Newsletter: ISSN: 1533-1326

On "Spartacus" and 1960s Epic Writing

Rewatched the film Spartacus last week and I discovered something that many still do, as if now were forty plus years ago. Individual characters should be just that--individual. They should sound differently, use words differently, use different words and rhythmic phrases, perhaps even be more silent than some, more talkative than others.

Spartacus himself was supposedly a long-term slave, and perhaps a soldier turned slave, either way he sounds like a character, like the Kurt Russell lead in "Soldier" who speaks less than 100 words within the entire movie, but says much with his eyes and actions.

Kirk Douglas' Spartacus talks to much and speaks too well; he speaks as if educated and always talking throughout his day.

His slave wife, Jean Simmons, is even more elegant and, again, as an uneducated slave she's too snotty in tone and too verbose, although she's clearly in place to make the lead appear more a man, while her status as an unpaid sex slave prostitute is always kept to the fore, even in the promotions.

Oddly, the one slave who should talk all the time because he is educated is Tony Curtis, who seems to be mostly present to further the subtext that Romans were bisexual.

But, then again, they skipped as neatly as you please the fact that Spartacus went from virgin to husband with child expected because even though these topics clearly must have been in the novel, the subject of sexuality of male on male, or a hero being a virgin shan't be dwelled upon.

Icky Romans are bisexual and we run from them, icky Roman women are over-sexual and get a good man killed, black men are only around to make white men look open-minded and heroically deep, cute male slaves are only around so every man can hit on him for sex until his "best friend" gets the privilege of piercing him through with a phallic sword.

It's an interesting movie, but don't learn how to write or act from it, but how not to. Performances that do maintain naturalism are Curtis and Peter Ustinov and even the cryptic John Gavin, the only American ever signed to play James Bond. [see IMDB for more on that]

24 Things You Might Be Saying Wrong

by Reader's Digest Magazine, on Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:23am PDT

The Reader's Digest Version of all those confusing words and seemingly random rules you missed in English class.

You never mean: Could care less

You always mean: Couldn't care less

Why: You want to say you care so little already that you couldn't possibly care any less. When the Boston Celtics' Ray Allen said, "God could care less whether I can shoot a jump shot," we know he meant exactly the opposite because 1) God has other things on his mind, and 2) God is a Knicks fan.

You might say: Mano a mano

You might mean: Man-to-man

Why: You don't speak Spanish by adding vowels to the end of English words, as a columnist describing father–teenage son relationships seemed to think when he wrote, "Don't expect long, mano a mano talks." Mano a mano (literally, "hand to hand") originated with bullfighting and usually refers to a knock-down, drag-out direct confrontation.

You might say: Less

You might mean: Fewer

Why: In general, use fewer when you're specifying a number of countable things ("200 words or fewer"); reserve less for a mass ("less than half"). So when you're composing a tweet, do it in 140 characters or fewer, not less.

You never mean: Hone in

You always mean: Home in

Why: Like homing pigeons, we can be single-minded about finding our way to a point: "Scientists are homing in on the causes of cancer." Hone means "to sharpen": "The rookie spent the last three seasons honing his skills in the minor leagues." But it's easy to mishear m's and n's, which is probably what happened to the Virginia senator who said, "We've got to hone in on cost containment." If you're unsure, say "zero in" instead.

You might say: Bring

You might mean: Take

Why: The choice depends on your point of view.

Use bring when you want to show motion toward you ("Bring the dog treats over here, please").

Use take to show motion in the opposite direction ("I have to take Rufus to the vet").

The rule gets confusing when the movement has nothing to do with you. In those cases, you can use either verb, depending on the context: "The assistant brought the shot to the vet" (the vet's point of view); "the assistant took the shot to the doctor" (the assistant's).

You might say: Who

You might mean: Whom

Why: It all depends. Do you need a subject or an object? A subject (who) is the actor of the sentence: "Who left the roller skates on the sidewalk?" An object (whom) is the acted-upon: "Whom are you calling?" Parents, hit the Mute button when Dora the Explorer shouts, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?"

You almost never mean: Brother-in-laws, runner-ups, hole in ones, etc.

You almost always mean: Brothers-in-law, runners-up, holes in one, etc.

Why: Plurals of these compound nouns are formed by adding an s to the thing there's more than one of (brothers, not laws). Some exceptions: words ending in ful (mouthfuls) and phrases like cul-de-sacs.

You almost never mean: Try and

You almost always mean: Try to

Why: Try and try again, yes, but if you're planning to do something, use the infinitive form: "I'm going to try to run a marathon." Commenting on an online story about breakups, one woman wrote, "A guy I dated used to try and impress me with the choice of books he was reading." It's no surprise that the relationship didn't last.

You almost never mean: Different than

You almost always mean: Different from

Why: This isn't the biggest offense, but if you can easily substitute from for than (My mother's tomato sauce is different from my mother-in-law's), do it. Use than for comparisons: My mother's tomato sauce is better than my mother-in-law's.

You almost never mean: Beg the question

You almost always mean: Raise the question

Why: Correctly used, "begging the question" is like making a circular argument (I don't like you because you're so unlikable). But unless you're a philosophy professor, you shouldn't ever need this phrase. Stick to "raise the question."

You might say: More than

You can also say: Over

Why: The two are interchangeable when the sense is "Over 6,000 hats were sold." We like grammarian Bryan Garner's take on it: "The charge that over is inferior to more than is a baseless crotchet."

You almost never mean: Supposably

You almost always mean: Supposedly

Why: Supposably is, in fact, a word—it means "conceivably"—but not the one you want if you're trying to say "it's assumed," and certainly not the one you want if you're on a first date with an English major or a job interview with an English speaker.

You might say: All of

You probably mean: All

Why: Drop the of whenever you can, as Julia Roberts recently did, correctly: "Every little moment is amazing if you let yourself access it. I learn that all the time from my kids." But you need all of before a pronoun ("all of them") and before a possessive noun ("all of Julia's kids").

You might say: That

You might mean: Which

Why: "The money that is on the table is for you" is different from "the money, which is on the table, is for you." That pinpoints the subject: The money that is on the table is yours; the money in my pocket is mine.

Which introduces an aside, a bit of extra information. If you remove "which is on the table," you won't change the meaning: The money is for you (oh, and unless you don't want it, it's on the table). If the clause is necessary to your meaning, use that; if it could safely be omitted, say which.

You never mean: Outside of

You always mean: Outside

Why: These two prepositions weren't meant for each other. Perfectly acceptable: "Wearing a cheese-head hat outside Wisconsin will likely earn you some stares and glares (unless you're surrounded by Green Bay Packers fans, that is)."

You might say: Each other

You might mean: One another

Why: Tradition says that each other should be used with two people or things, and one another with more than two, and careful speakers should follow suit: "The three presenters argued with one another over who should announce the award, but Ann and Barbara gave each other flowers after the ceremony." (By the way, if you need the possessive form of either one when writing that business letter, it's always each other's and one another's; never end with s'.)


8 Confusing Pairs

leery, wary: suspicious
weary: tired

farther: for physical distance
further: for metaphorical distance or time

principle: rule
principal: of your school

compliment: nice thing to say
complement: match

continual: ongoing but intermittent
continuous: without interruption

stationary: stands still
stationery: paper

imply: to suggest a meaning
infer: to draw meaning from something

affect: typically a verb, meaning "to act upon or cause an effect"; as a noun, it's "an emotional response"
effect: typically a noun, meaning "something produced," like a special effect; as a verb, "to bring about," as in "to effect change"

NEW!! Short Story: Neale Sourna's The Freelancer [warning: romantic erotic]

NEW!
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Delia’s new temp, Mischa, with the fascinating ass, is great at his job, on his first day, at her architectural construction site, but he’s driving her to distraction. She can’t get anything done.

When Delia works late and alone, to catch up on work, gorgeous Ryan returns in order to show her what he’s really freelancing in--her! 1000 words—Read: The Freelancer

====================

Neale Sourna's North Coast Academies' Journal 1, hardcore erotica short stories NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT!

Neale Sourna's North Coast Academies' Journal 1, the compiled hardcore erotica short stories of North Coast Academies' Diary, Volume 1-3 is NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT. 122 pages of love and lust and naughty and horny student teens, parents, and teachers.

Character, Generation: Wear wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of '14

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer Dinesh Ramde, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 17, 9:24 am ET

MILWAUKEE – For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.

The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to "go ahead, make my day." Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.

These are among the 75 items on this year's Beloit College Mindset List. The compilation, released Tuesday, is assembled each year by two officials at this private school of about 1,400 students in Beloit, Wis.

The list is meant to remind teachers that cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992.

Of course, it can also have the unintended consequence of making people feel old.

[Related: America's best colleges ranked in new report]

Remember when Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Dan Quayle or Rodney King were in the news? These kids don't.

Ever worry about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.? During these students' lives, Russians and Americans have always been living together in outer space.

Being aware of the generation gap helps professors craft lesson plans that are more meaningful, said Ron Nief, a former public affairs director at Beloit College and one of the list's creators.

Nief and English professor Tom McBride have assembled the Mindset List for 13 years. They say it's given them an unusual perspective on cultural shifts.

For example, as item No. 13 on the list says, "Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation."

With far edgier content available today, such as "South Park" or online videos that push the envelope, there's something quaint about recalling the hand-wringing that the MTV cartoon prompted, Nief said.

"I think we do that with every generation — we look back and say, what were we getting so upset about?" he said. "A, kids outgrow it and B, in retrospect we realize it really wasn't that bad."

Another Mindset List item reflects a possible shift in Hollywood attitudes. Item No. 12 notes: "Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry."

A number of incoming freshmen said they partially agreed with the item, noting they were familiar with Eastwood's work as an actor even if they hadn't seen his films.

"I know he directed movies but I also know he's supposed to be sort of bad-ass," said Aaron Ziontz, 18, from Seattle.

Jessica Peck, a 17-year-old from Portland, Ore., disagreed with two items on the list — one that says few students know how to write in cursive, and another that suggests this generation seldom if ever uses snail mail.

"Snail mail's kind of fun. When I have time I like writing letters to friends and family," she said. "It's just a bit more personal. And yes, I write in cursive."

Peck did agree with the item pointing out that most teens have never used telephones with cords.

"Yes, I've used them but only at my grandparents' house," she said.

That's the sort of comment that can make a person feel old. McBride jokes that he's not immune from feeling ancient just because he compiles the items. But the 65-year-old said the lists can also reveal a larger truth about tolerance.

The "Beavis and Butt-head" item suggests that maybe parents shouldn't overreact every time a controversy arises, he noted. For example, maybe it's no big deal if college freshmen misspell words when they text, and maybe their attention spans will be just fine even though they grew up in the Internet age, he said.

"There's something about the resilience of human nature that renders these gloom-and-doom prophesies moot after a while," he said. "I can't say for sure, but it looks like the track record of these very anxious prophets has not been impressive over the years."

___

Online:

Beloit College Mindset List: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset

Character Trait: Redundant Comments on Keanu's Wood

I'm really starting to realize that all those guy's gleefully smiling and talking and quipping about Keanu Reeves' acting as "wooden" is a Freudian Slip. Hm, Keanu's wood. A man gleefully smiling about it, as if licking his lips. Hmmmm.

--Neale Sourna at www.ProjectKeanu.com

Erotica Author and Publisher Neale Sourna at Facebook, Now!

Neale's on Facebook, just search for Neale Sourna (Author).

Character Study: Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade

LiveScience Staff

LiveScience.com – Fri Aug 6, 5:25 pm ET

Our personalities stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, from our early childhood years to after we're over the hill, according to a new study.

The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.

"We remain recognizably the same person," said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. "This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts."

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Tracking personalities

Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 - 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.

They examined four personality attributes - talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one's importance).

Among the findings:

Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.

Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.

Changing personality

Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it's not an easy undertaking.

Personality is "a part of us, a part of our biology," Nave said. "Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well."

Future research will "help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality," Nave said.

• Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders
• 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain
• Personality Predicted by Size of Different Brain Regions

• Original Story: Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests

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