Tahoe Hit Is Still Free

 The Kindle version of Tahoe Hit is currently available for free on a promotion. 

Here's the link to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Tahoe-Owen-McKenna-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B087ZVLS58/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tahoe+hit&qid=1609030958&sr=8-1

The free promotion runs until midnight December 29th. Feel free to spread the word to your friends. 

Thanks very much for your interest!

Tahoe Hit Kindle Book Free On Christmas

 My most recent book, Tahoe Hit, will be free for five days beginning Christmas and running through December 29th.

Tahoe Hit is regularly $4.99 on Kindle. Come Christmas, you can download it for free, and you can tell your friends to download it for free as well. 

Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/Tahoe-Owen-McKenna-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B087ZVLS58/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tahoe+hit&qid=1608162775&s=books&sr=1-1

For those of you who have so kindly said you are reluctant to download it for free because you want me to get the money, don't worry. Every book that's downloaded for free on these promotions helps me with regard to Amazon's ranking system, which boosts the sales of all my titles. I actually make more money  the more my books are downloaded for free. (I know, it seems kind of strange. But Amazon has perfected the mechanisms for promoting books.)

One more comment...

Many of you belong to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program where you pay a small fee every month and can read as many books as you want. For those of you who don't subscribe, you may want to. It's like other subscription programs (Netflix, Spotify, etc.)

You might be glad to know that all of my 18 titles are now part of the Kindle Unlimited program. So binge away! 

Oh, one more thing... Merry Christmas!

Local Food Charities Help People Who Are Hungry

One of the best ways to find help with food is check out our local charities.

In Tahoe and surrounding communities, there are multiple ways to get free food, food delivery, hot meals, and even cash for help with food:

https://placerfoodbank.org/

https://foodbankedc.org/

Tahoe Family Resource Center: Bilingual help with health card, legal system, job search, education, child care: http://tahoefrc.org/

Christmas Cheer South Lake Tahoe provides meals. Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Charity-Organization/Christmas-Cheer-161362407220754/

https://tahoecommunitychurch.org/worship-with-us/food-pantry/

https://www.tahoecatholic.com/food-pantry

http://breadandbroth.org/

If you or anyone you know is hungry, please check out these resources. Don't be embarrassed. If you don't have a computer, you can use one at the library. If you can't get to the library, ask your neighbor. People want to help. The first step is to ask.

Hiking In The Coronavirus Era

Simple adjustments for public and personal health...

My wife and I do a lot of hiking. When the pandemic began, we were like most people, wearing masks when we went inside a store or the post office and not wearing masks out on the trail. I was more resistant to wearing masks outside than she was. I reasoned that outdoor air represented so little threat that there was no comparison between hiking and shopping for groceries.

However, as the situation worsened, I realized that for everyone's comfort, it is best to wear a mask when you encounter people, even when outdoors in the mountains. Now, it is the law in many places.

Of course, hiking up a trail, breathing hard in the high-altitude air, a mask can be very frustrating. So I've developed a simple approach that has become second nature. If it's cold enough that I'm wearing a knit cap, and no one is in the area, I unhook one ear from the mask and let it dangle from the other ear. My knit cap holds the remaining ear string in place As soon as I sense someone approaching on the trail, I rehook the mask on both ears.

If I'm not wearing a knit cap, I simply carry my mask by one ear string. At the first sign of people, it's ready to go, and I can hook it into place in about one second. Yes, even describing this process feels uncomfortably prosaic, like I'm suggesting how to tie one's shoelaces. Yet, it has made my life easier. So I pass it on.

Let's hope that in the next year or so, we won't be having to think about it at all!