Free on Amazon Today

Hope there is something in here you enjoy!
Note: If you are reading this on your Kindle and want to get a book from the Kindle store now, type the title with your Kindle, then toggle your 5-way switch to the right until the word store is highlighted. Press in on it to search. When the title comes up, use the 5-way toggle switch to move around the book info area to read more about the book. Make sure it is still free (or an acceptable price) before finally pressing in on the 5-way switch to "buy" it. You can always press the back button (before you press buy) if you change your mind.

And remember... what is FREE today may not be FREE tomorrow, so get it while you can! 

	Unwrapping Christmas ~ Lori Copeland Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today's Profit and Drives Tomorrow's Growth ~ Inder Sidhu Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Asia & Pacific*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Conspiracy in Kiev ~ Noel Hynd Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Reengineering Health Care: A Manifesto for Radically Rethinking Health Care Delivery ~ Jim Champy Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Asia & Pacific*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	How to Make Money Marketing Your Business with foursquare ~ Scott Bishop Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Asia & Pacific*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Jed and Roy McCoy, A Christmas Story ~ Andrew McDonough Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Natalie Wants a Puppy ~ Dandi Daley Mackall Available for free in the following regions: United States

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard.

Kindle Skills - Contacts on your Kindle

I just read a message from someone who read the Contacts on Your Kindle article and was wondering if he or she could use something other than Word to make the working file. They were referring to a .wpd file which is a WordPerfect file.

Kindle will only recognize certain file types, and if you want to keep your pictures (if you want to use any) in your file you will need to save it as a .doc file or a .rtf file (rich text format) to retain the images etc. WordPerfect will do this... just click the word File at the top of the main window, then the words Save as, and choose the format you want to save it in. You can convert the file to a .pdf file if you like but I think you may prefer the a doc or rtf file conversion for your Kindle at the end of the day. Experiment though... that is what it is all about, and what makes this all so much fun!

Then you can take that saved file and use something like Mobipocket Reader or Calibre to convert it finally to a Kindle file for you. Choose the file type (only available ones will show) you want to save it as, then make sure you know where your final saved file is going so you can easily find it later. Take your time. Your computer isn't going anywhere.

Ask Mrs. Wizard: Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard - A Kindle Blog

When you care enough to give the very best...

An Amazon Gift Certificate is always welcome, and can be sent to anyone via email or snail mail, anywhere on the planet.

Now you can even purchase Kindle books (gift a book) for anyone with an email address. No Kindle is necessary. They will certainly want one, but Amazon has FREE Kindle software for their Windows or Mac PC, iPhone/iTouch, Android and Blackberry. I am so glad Amazon got this going a few weeks ago!

Any Amazon Kindle book can be given as a gift, but if your friend doesn't like or already has read the book, it can be exchanged for an Amazon gift certificate. Either way, shopping is a breeze, and your friend will be sure to have something he/she wants. Personally, I would lean more toward a gift certificate, but I do have a few close friends who would appreciate a great read.

If you have your Kindle in your hand, do a search in the Amazon Store for Wordoku. I received an email from the folks who made this nifty game yesterday letting me know it was available in the Kindle store. I did a little checking and read a little more about it and thought the price was fair, so I purchased it. It is going to be a real brain exerciser, that's for sure! I got that and a Mahjong matching tiles game (similar to one I am addicted to on the computer) for less than $10. Can't beat that for some long term fun!

Let's face it, you can't read all the time, but chances are your Kindle is always close.

Free on Amazon Today

Note: If you are reading this on your Kindle and want to get a book from the Kindle store now, type the title with your Kindle, then toggle your 5-way switch to the right until the word store is highlighted. Press in on it to search. When the title comes up, use the 5-way toggle switch to move around the book info area to read more about the book. Make sure it is still free (or an acceptable price) before finally pressing in on the 5-way switch to "buy" it. You can always press the back button (before you press buy) if you change your mind.

And remember... what is FREE today may not be FREE tomorrow, so get it while you can! 
Looks like we have a few free short stories we can pre order for FREE... don't know for how long though!

	Retro Demonology ~ Jana Oliver Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Remedial Magic ~ Jenna Black Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Beasts and BFFs ~ Shannon Delany Available for free in the following regions: United States
	The Backstory to Think Twice: A Special Bonus ~ Lisa Scottoline Available for free in the following regions: United States

A Santangelo Story ~ Jackie Collins

Available for free in the following regions: United States

Ask Mrs. Wizard:
Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard.

Kindle Skills - About Free Books

Note: If you are reading this on your Kindle and want to get a book from the Kindle store now, type the title with your Kindle, then toggle your 5-way switch to the right until the word store is highlighted. Press in on it to search. When the title comes up, use the 5-way toggle switch to move around the book info area to read more about the book. Make sure it is still free (or an acceptable price) before finally pressing in on the 5-way switch to "buy" it. You can always press the back button (before you press buy) if you change your mind.

And remember... what is FREE today may not be FREE tomorrow, so get it while you can! 


I try to remember (but don't always) to put the above message on every blog I post that contains free book offerings from Amazon. Some of the freebies lately had very (and I mean very) short shelf lives as free ebooks. It is really important to make sure you double check the price before you "purchase" the book by clicking the "buy now" button. That is the quickest way to find out if it is still free. Look for a price of $0.00 and if you see anything else, think twice and read what the book is about before you ultimately decide.

I did check some of the pre order books that were listed as free for only a short time. They are still showing on my "manage your Kindle" area as soon to be delivered, and still showing free, which they were when I pre ordered the things. I hope you all are able to get the free books you want, when you want them, and wish there were some way I could tell myself and let you know, but all I can do is arm you with ideas to protect yourself and your pocketbooks.

So... don't be shy with the freebies, but certainly look before you leap!

Oh... a little side note... I have had lots of emails from people who are hoping to receive their first Kindle for Christmas. Word is spreading more and more and when people ask me about a Kindle, they refer to it like it is the Cadillac of e-readers. I just love it! This is going to be a very good year for Amazon, I think.

Kindle Skills - Converting files

Don't Expect every file to convert perfectly every time. Some conversions (and conversion programs) are better than others. Some files are better than others, and lend themselves to conversion for your Kindle better than others.

Pdf files, for example. While you can "read" them on your Kindle, they look a lot better on a Kindle DX. The larger screen makes all the difference in the world. If the pdf file is mostly text, you can try converting it to .mobi or .prc for your Kindle using either Calibre or Mobipocket reader. It doesn't hurt to try it to see if it is an acceptable conversion.

What I'm really trying to say is don't blame yourself if a book just won't convert perfectly. It isn't you at all. It could be any number of things totally out of your control. Finding and converting books is actually fun. You never know what you will end up with, and there is nothing more exciting than not knowing what you will end up with. Hehehe.

Kindle Skills - File Management

Renaming a file:
Some times you just have to do it...rename a file, an ebook file so it makes more sense to you. Some of the Gutenberg books you can download from Manybooks.net have numbers instead of titles for the file names. This can make it rough when you are digging in a folder looking for a specific book. So rename the thing. It is yours after all.

One thing to remember is to never change the part of the file name to the right of the dot unless you know exactly what you are doing. This is the extension and tells your computer what kind of file it is, and what software needs to run in order to open it.

Actually, all is not lost if you do accidentally change the extension. You can always rename it back to what it was, as long as you can remember what it was exactly. Ain't life a bugger!

To rename a file, right click on it and choose rename. Highlight the file name (if it isn't already) and type the new name to replace the original. Click anywhere else to lock in your changes.

Mac:
Control+click the file to see your choices. Choose get info. A new window will appear with the file name in a box. Highlight the file name and type the new file name. Close the info window and you will see your file name has been changed. Remember if you have your file extensions showing (and you should), be sure to NOT change the part of the file name to the right of the dot (the extension).

Another Way: Works most of the time (if you hold your face just right) on Mac, as well as Windows. Click the file name (slowly) two times...not to be confused with a double click. You will see the file name highlighted. Type the new file name and it will replace the old one. Click anywhere else on the screen to lock in your changes.

Ask Mrs. Wizard:
Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard.

Free on Amazon Today

Note: If you are reading this on your Kindle and want to get a book from the Kindle store now, type the title with your Kindle, then toggle your 5-way switch to the right until the word store is highlighted. Press in on it to search. When the title comes up, use the 5-way toggle switch to move around the book info area to read more about the book. Make sure it is still free (or an acceptable price) before finally pressing in on the 5-way switch to "buy" it. You can always press the back button (before you press buy) if you change your mind.

And remember... what is FREE today may not be FREE tomorrow, so get it while you can! 

	Travellers' Rest ~ James Enge Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Asia & Pacific*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Jackson Jones, Book 1: The Tale of a Boy, an Elf, and a Very Stinky Fish ~ Jenn Kelly Available for free in the following regions: United States
	A Gift of Grace: A Novel ~ Amy Clipston Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Last Light ~ Terri Blackstock Available for free in the following regions: United States

	Ted Kennedy's Leadership Lessons ~ New Word City Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Merlin's Harp ~ Anne Eliot Crompton Available for free in the following regions: Africa*, United States, Asia & Pacifi c*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	The Root of Thought: Unlocking Glia-the Brain Cell That Will Help Us Sharpen Our Wits, Heal Injury, and Treat Brain Disease ~ Andrew Koob Available for free in the following regions: United States
	The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing ~ Natalie Canavor Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Watchlist ~ Jeffery Deaver Available for free in the following regions: United States, Asia & Pacific*, Europe*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Heart of the Wolf ~ Terry Spear Available for free in the following regions: Africa*, United States, Asia & Pacific*, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times, New and Expanded Edition ~ Jon M. Huntsman Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Fire Lord's Lover ~ Kathryne Kennedy Available for free in the following regions: Asia & Pacific*, Africa*, United States, Australia, Canada, Europe*, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*

Kindle Skills - file searching

If you have quite a few books in a folder on your computer, sorting a folder may not be enough to help you quickly find a file. Windows and Macs have a search box at the top of every folder window that is just for helping you find a file.

Windows PC:
Windows wants to search the contents of files, as well as file names. This can be time consuming if you have to search a lot of files. If you know just part of a file name, you can type the word name: then a space, then type the word in the file name, and Windows will just search for a file with that word in the file name alone.

Mac: 

When you open a folder window on a Mac, you will see a similar search box in the upper right corner.

Be sure to click the list view button so you can see your files listed straight up and down instead of those darn icons. Once you begin typing in the search box, you will see a few other choices appear, This Mac, the name of the folder you are in, Shared, Contents and File Name. I like to choose File Name and the name of the folder I happen to be looking in at the time to narrow my search. 

These search tips also apply to files you may need to search for on your Kindle when it is connected to your computer via the USB cable. At that point you can treat it just like any other external hard drive. File management is the same.

Ask Mrs. Wizard:
Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard.

Kindle Skills - The Adult View

File Extensions: 
You may never have seen one. Mac users I have known over the years really didn't give file extensions a thought, unless I asked about a file they sent. My mother once said, "I don't need them, so my Mac doesn't show them. If I can open that file, you should be able to too!"

I used to hate that. She figured if her Mac didn't display it, she didn't need it.

File Extensions are the definitive clue to what kind of file you are dealing with, what software you need to open it, and even if you are able to open it with some alternate software application. This applies to Macs as well as PCs.

Not to neglect PC users. The default view on a PC right out of the box (as long as I can remember) is to not show the file extension. You have to guess (just like on a Mac) what kind of file it is by the little icon (picture) representation when you view the file name in a folder. I still hate this. I resent these blasted machines treating us humans like we don't have enough brains and need to be coddled.

Kindle files:
As far as your Kindle is concerned, there are certain file types that are "Kindle friendly," meaning you can simply place these file types directly into the Documents folder of your Kindle, then see them listed on your Kindle home screen. They don't need to be converted. They just work.

• Text files (.txt)
• Unprotected Mobipocket files (.mobi, .prc)
• Kindle files (.azw, .azw1, and .azw2)
• Adobe pdf files (.pdf)

If you want to see .txt at the end of a file name, you need to make sure your computer is set up to show the file extensions to you. 

PC:
Open your Documents folder on your computer. Click the Start button, then Documents. Click the word Tools, then Folder Options. You can also click the Start button and type the words Folder Options in the search box. This will open the Folder Options window.

Once you have the Folder Options window open, click the View tab, scroll down and make sure there is not a check next to the words Hide extensions for known file types. Click OK and you are done. Whenever you view a file from now on, you will see the dot and extension after the file name.

View file extensions on Mac:

I'm not sure how this was done on older Macs, but the newer ones (Tiger operating system and newer) seem to understand how valuable knowing what the file extension of a file is and made it quite easy to set up so you will see them from then on.

While Mac OS X hides file extensions by default (just like Windows), you can choose to show all file extensions by clicking on the desktop to activate the Finder if is not already active and select "Preferences..." from the Finder menu.

Then click the Advanced tab and make sure to put a check next to the words Show all file extensions.

Voila!

Ask Mrs. Wizard: Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard - A Kindle Blog

Kindle Skills - Sorting files

Each time you click a column header, your files will be sorted by that header (name, date, etc). Click the same column header again and the same files will be resorted, only this time in reverse. Sorting your files can make it a lot easier to find the one you are looking for. If you can't remember the name of the file, sort by date and browse.

What you want to remember is never change the name of a book file, unless it is one you downloaded from somewhere other than Amazon. And then, only change the actual file name, not the file extension (the last three or four letters after the dot).


Can't see the file extension? Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the Adult View.

Kindle Skills - Sort those files

When you connect your Kindle with the USB cable to your computer, you have the option to view the files on the device. The Documents folder is where any and all of your ebook files (compatible with the Kindle of course) should go.

If you want to browse those files, or are looking for a particular file, sifting through all those file names can be a pain. It can help sometimes if you can sort the files so the one you want will be easier to spot.

In this image, you can see I circled the top row where the names of the columns are. This is on a Mac, but is very similar on a PC, and clicking each top column once will accomplish the same thing on both.

Click the name column once and your files will be sorted by name. Click the date column and the same files will be sorted by date. This should make it much easier to find what you are looking for.

If you don't see the columns:
Look in the menu bar just above the column names... you will see 4 buttons on the left side. The second button from the left is the details view button. If you just see icons or pictures instead of your files and columns, click this button so you can see the files lined up and down in the window.  On a PC, click the word view at the top of the window, then click the word details to see your files listed in this view.

Free on Amazon Today

Heaven's!  The expression "Gettum while you can!" has special meaning to me now. A couple of days ago I found a whole list of books (free for the taking) that weren't available yet, but could be pre ordered for free. Just a few hours after I posted them on this blog, I noticed most of them were no longer free. I sure hope some of you at least were able to take advantage of that short window. I "ordered" 4 or 5 promising sounding titles and did get acknowledgment emails from Amazon that they were indeed on preorder and were also free (at that time). We shall see when the delivery dates arrive. I don't think I will see any odd charges, but will definitely be alert to the possibility.

Here are some more. Gettum while you can! hehehe

	English-Hebrew Hebrew-English: Conversational Dictionary/Romanized ~ David C. Gross Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Nile Style: Egyptian Cuisine and Culture: Ancient Festivals, Significant Ceremonies, and Modern Celebrations (Hippocrene Cookbook Library) ~ Amy Riolo Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	A Question of Upbringing: Book One of A Dance to the Music of Time ~ Anthony Powell Available for free in the following regions: United States, Latin Am. & Caribbean*
	Raising Jake ~ Charlie Carillo Available for free in the follow ing regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Old Havana Cookbook: Cuban Recipes in Spanish and English (Bilingual Cookbooks) ~ Rafael Marcos Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Blood of the Wicked ~ Leighton Gage Available for free in the following regions: United States, Canada
	The Great Secret ~ L. Ron Hubbard Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Fine Filipino Food ~ Karen Hulene Bartell Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	India: An Illustrated History ~ Prem Kishore Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, La tin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Cooking from China's Fujian Province: One of China's Eight Great Cuisines ~ Jacqueline M. Newman Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Norse Warfare: Unconventional Battle Strategies of the Ancient Viking ~ Martina Sprague Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*
	Understanding the Americans: A Handbook for Visitors to the United States ~ Yale Richmond Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*, Middle East*

Stupid Christmas ~ Leland Gregory

Available for free in the following regions: United States, Africa*, Australia, Canada, India*, Latin Am. & Caribbean*

Free on Amazon Today - Christmas

Note: If you are reading this on your Kindle and want to get a book from the Kindle store now, type the title with your Kindle, then toggle your 5-way switch to the right until the word store is highlighted. Press in on it to search. When the title comes up, use the 5-way toggle switch to move around the book info area to read more about the book. Make sure it is still free (or an acceptable price) before finally pressing in on the 5-way switch to "buy" it. You can always press the back button (before you press buy) if you change your mind.

And remember... what is FREE today may not be FREE tomorrow, so get it while you can! 

	Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas ~ Ace Collins Available for free in the following regions: United States
	Sophie's Secret ~ Nancy Rue Available for free in the following regions: United States
	The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger ~ Lee Strobel Available for free in the following regions: United States
	The Christmas Story from the Family Reading Bible ~ Jeannette Taylor Available for free in the following regions : United States
	25 Days, 26 Ways to Make This Your Best Christmas Ever ~ Ace Collins Available for free in the following regions: United States
	A Horse to Love ~ Marsha Hubler Available for free in the following regions: United States

Ask Mrs. Wizard:
Please send me a personal email (mrswizard@mrswizard.com) if you have any questions. I answer all my emails and am more than happy to help any time I can. Your questions mean a lot to me, and may even inspire an article that will help others and make this a more valuable resource to anyone who reads it. 

If you are reading this on your computer and would like to have this blog delivered to your Kindle wirelessly every day, click the link below. New subscribers will get the first two weeks free! If you know of a fellow Kindle owner, please share a good word and let them know about From the Desk of Mrs. Wizard.