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The special arrangement with the publisher of my novel Poodie James has been extended. Rifftides readers may acquire autographed copies at a reduced price. To see a description of the book, read an excerpt and learn how to order, click on Purchase Doug’s Books on the blue border above. The special price will be in effect until the limited supply runs out. Here are a couple of comments:
Doug Ramsey is the John Steinbeck of apple country. Rich with sweet detail of the unique landscape of Washington State, Poodie James pulses with Steinbeck’s sense of character—the hurt ones, their tormentors, and everyone in between. This novel will take your heart. —Jack Fuller, author of The Best of Jackson Payne
Poodie James is a very good book. Not only is it handsomely and lyrically written, but Ramsey’s snapshots of small-town life circa 1948 are altogether convincing, and he has even brought off the immensely difficult trick of worming his way into the consciousness of a deaf person without betraying the slightest sense of strain…A quarter-century ago, Poodie James would have had no trouble finding an East Coast publisher, and it might even have made its way into the hands of a Hollywood producer, since it could easily be turned into a very nice little movie along the lines of The Spitfire Grill.—Terry Teachout, Commentary
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond has begun its new existence as an ebook. The hardcover edition sold out and won’t be reprinted. Used copies are going for as much as $150 on book and auction sites, but new hardbound copies are history. The electronic transformation is good news on several counts:
The book is available on Kindle. Malcolm Harris of 
Parkside Publications plans to have it up soon on Apple and Barnes & Noble.
The ebook edition has all of the features of the hardbound, including the nearly 200 photographs, the chapter notes, the solo transcriptions, the discography, the extensive index and Dave and Iola Brubeck’s foreword.
The ebook edition is easily portable. The most frequent complaint about the five-pound, 10-and-a-half-by-11-inch original was, “How am I supposed to read this thing on an airplane?†Now you can, after the pilot says it’s okay to fire up your Kindle, iPad, Nook or Sony Reader.
 The ebook sells for less than a third of the list price of the original hardcover edition.
Among other honors, Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award and the Jazz Journalists Association Book of the Year Award.
I think that would make Desmond (and Brubeck) happy.