Solar Minimum

Every few hundred years, solar flares decrease to a minimum causing a substantial temperature decrease on earth (fact), but what else does the lack of solar flares effect? In 2040, the world is about to find out. Forces of good and evil learn to deal with the challenges of a changing world as the next world war will be fought with swords and magic, not technology.Every few hundred years, solar flares decrease to a minimum causing a substantial temperaturedecrease on earth (fact), but what else does the lack of solar flares effect?During the last period of nearly zero solar flares (1640), the world was ruled and ravaged by myth, magic and endless war, but what if that was due to the way the world actually was then and not due to global ignorance as the modern world assumes? Our medieval ancestors were not derelict; they simply did the best they could in a harsh and brutal world where miracles were just the tender mercies of God.In 2040, Western Europe is on the brink of war with a united Middle East and the United States has grown weary of being the world police. An obscure senate committee chaired by the most senior senator, Leroy Guiscard, accidentally discovers a global plot involving a powerful Turkish corporation, Toprak Esir, Inc. Toprak is using the Minimum conditions to advance their global agenda and they are the first to discover and use the changing natural laws to their advantage-laws that make the impossible, scientifically possible again.Both forces of good and evil learn to deal with the power and challenges of a changing world which includes the reappearance of many mythological species. The Minimum conditions have a powerful effect humans, but none more than the ancient Anglo-Saxon blood line. Opposing sides are rushing to identify and win the few pure Anglo-Saxons left in the world, which will prove to be the difference in which side succeeds.Military domination of the West is becoming meaningless due to the effects of the Solar Minimum and it appears the next world war will be fought with swords and magic, not technology.According to NASA, our sun is currently several years into a real solar minimum period, which has already had an effect on global temperatures. Modern observations have never seen the sun so quiet and there is no rebound in sight as the number of fares continues to decrease year after year. Is our world plunging into a future medieval age?- See more at: https://www.solarminimumbook.com/#sthash.XUe7Fb7t.dpuf
Views: 420

A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom

Business in North Korea: a paradoxical and fascinating situation is interpreted by a true insider. In 2002, the Swiss-Swedish power company ABB appointed Felix Abt its country director for North Korea. The Swiss Entrepreneur lived and worked in North Korea for seven years, one of the few foreign businessmen there. After the experience, Abt felt compelled to write A Capitalist in North Korea to describe the multifaceted society he encountered. North Korea, at the time, was heavily sanctioned by the UN, which made it extremely difficult to do business. Yet, he discovered that it was a place where plastic surgery and South Korean TV dramas were wildly popular and where he rarely needed to walk more than a block to grab a quick hamburger. He was closely monitored, and once faced accusations of spying, yet he learned that young North Koreans are hopeful - signing up for business courses in anticipation of a brighter, more open, future. In A Capitalist in North Korea, Abt shares these and many other unusual facts and insights about one of the world's most secretive nations. Author Felix Abt is a politically neutral businessman and, therefore, does not share partisan views about North Korea. He is, however, critical of unfair North Korea reporting and does what he can to contribute to a more objective view of a country he knows much better than the journalists and bloggers writing about it. Abt is a former investor at several legitimate Joint Venture companies in North Korea which are now being driven into bankruptcy by U.N. "sanctions."
Views: 420

The Color of Justice

"Black and White” is a complex taunt mystery/thriller bringing the past and future together as a grandfather and his grandson are defined by the two controversial cases dealing with racial prejudice. In, 1964 Coop Lindsay is a thirty-year old lawyer with a thriving practice in Lankston, Mississippi. 
When an African-American maid, who once worked for Coop’s family, asks him to defend her grandson, Martin Jennings, on charges of rape and murder, the attorney takes the case. In an explosive climate fueled by the recent integration of the school system, Coop digs for facts, faces attempts on his life and fights against all odds and wins freedom for Jennings. A few weeks later the boy disappears and Coop Lindsay is murdered, leaving behind a widow with two small children. Though most believe Miller Fallwell, a powerful businessman with supposed Klan ties, is behind the two crimes, the case is never brought to court. 
Almost fifty years later, fresh out of law school, Coop Lindsay’s grandson, Clark, returns to Lankston and opens a practice. Buying the old family home, he settles into life in a community that has changed a great deal since his grandfather’s day. Now the mayor, police chief, school superintendent and a majority of the local businessmen are African-American. 
When an African-American teen is killed after the high school prom, Miller Fallwell’s grandson is charged with murder. The elderly Fallwell has few friends left in Lankston and asks Clark takes the controversial case. The young attorney angers everyone, including his grandmother, when he accepts Fallwell’s offer. In a climate filled with racial tension. 
Clark digs for the evidence needed to prove his client’s innocence in the process attempts are made on his life. As decades collide in a courtroom finale ripe with tension, Clark reveals not just who is responsible for this crime, but what also happened to Martin Jennings as well as who killed his grandfather.
Views: 420

The Scent of Wrath (The Seven Deadly Sins, Book Two)

Ten-year-old Brian McKibben is a wanderer. Eight months ago, he wandered into the street and was hit by a truck. Olivia Richards, his newly divorced mother, was accused of neglect by Child Protection Services. She's doing her best to prove them wrong. Essential oils, a consultation with an herbalist, and an airtight schedule are only some of the things she does to keep Brian safe and help him heal from brain damage caused by the accident.Her carefully laid plans begin to unravel when it becomes apparent Olivia's CPS caseworker isn't the only one watching her. The walls of her Pilates studio seem to have eyes, especially at night. Cryptic messages of death and danger begin showing up in strange places. Someone is stalking her.Who can she turn to for help? The authorities would inform CPS, and she might never be free of the county's intrusion in her life. She suspects her ex-husband of using scare tactics to regain custody of their son. Her new relationship is complicated and old...
Views: 420

Outliers of Tirano

On planet Tirano my mother leads an order of genetically engineered women. Clones of females who died valiantly in battle guard Tirano's monarch. The aristocracy are pureblooded descendants of the leaders of the mother ship that landed two millennia ago. Imagine the inbreeding that has resulted during those two millennia. Nonetheless, in this milieu, I'm the one stigmatized as a bizarre creature.Planet Tirano creates a unique milieu for the stories of the series The Encircling Belts of Tirano Saga. Planet Tirano’s aristocracy consists only of pureblooded descendants of the leaders of the mother ship that landed two millennia ago. An order of genetically engineered women, all of whom were conceived in vitro, control Tirano’s computer network and hyperspace portals. The Vhirko, clones of women who died valiantly in battle, guard Tirano’s monarch at all times. Tirano has been at war for decades with a savage alien species that becomes sentient only if mentally linked in groups of four or more.Tirano’s King Mhikhel unleashes fundamental, and uncontrollable, changes to this milieu when he acknowledges as his child an illegitimate son of a commoner and raises the child (Tarnlot) as a prince. Despite the aristocracy’s antagonism, Mhikhel grooms Tarnlot to serve as the Lord Chancellor (the highest governmental post, which is normally held by a member of the aristocracy) when Mhikhel’s heir (Prince Zhun’Mar) assumes the throne.In A Bastard’s Oath Tarnlot must rescue the throne for Zhun’Mar’s by foiling both an aristocrat’s coup d’etat and the aliens’ coup de main. In the series’ second installment, A Dream Is A Pinhole In Time, Tarnlot and Zhun’Mar escape an ambush in deep space by entering a hyperspace fissure that strands them on a planet in an unknown galaxy: present day Earth. The third installment, Outliers of Tirano, begins the stories of Siniastra, Zhun’Mar's daughter.Even though the installments occur in chronological order, each is an independent story. Accordingly, you can read the stories in any order.
Views: 419

The Intuitionist

Verticality, architectural and social, is the lofty idea at the heart of Colson Whitehead's first novel that takes place in an unnamed high-rise city that combines 21st-century engineering feats with 19th-century pork-barrel politics. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical ideal, and Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility. When Number Eleven of the newly completed Fanny Briggs Memorial Building goes into deadly free-fall just hours after Lila Mae has signed off on it, using the controversial "Intuitionist" method of ascertaining elevator safety, both Intuitionists and Empiricists recognize the set-up, but may be willing to let Lila Mae take the fall in an election year. As Lila Mae strives to exonerate herself in this urgent adventure full of government spies, underworld hit men, and seductive double agents, behind the action, always, is the Idea. Lila Mae's quest is mysteriously entwined with existence of heretofore lost writings by James Fulton, father of Intuitionism, a giant of vertical thought. If she is able to find and reveal his plan for the perfect, next-generation elevator, the city as it now exists may instantly become obsolescent.--Joyce Thompson
Views: 417

The Last Zoo, a short story

In a not-so-different future, an old zoo tended by a single janitor stands nearly empty and peaceful until a new intern arrives. He creates a few strange exhibits and shifts a paradigm or two in the process.Ryan warned that the things in the dead-end creek were in fact slimy, fetid, space alien freaks.And any kid dumb enough to approach their dark lair had better believe in the power of prayer. For underneath that calm surface of warm water and frog belly -waited sinister incarnate! Waited monster! Waited smelly! If that kid, so determined to make his way across, might step on some stones or some green fishy moss, or perchance he should slip and step into their sludge, then his boots, snared so tightly, would no longer budge. And no matter how hard that child strained, tugged or yanked, the Mud Gullumpers pulled harder and the boots slowly sank ‘til the child screamed in fear, and by clinging to rocks, freed his feet and ran home in his wet, soiled socks.
Views: 417

The Bare Necessities (Non-Profane Edition)

Fiery naturist Paige, wins a holiday karaoke contest and together with her singing partner and upper-class Jack they form a naturist band. However, Paige's insistence that the Bare Necessities remain true to her naturist ideals causes friction with her bandmates, their struggling agent, a Christian pressure group, the Police and their families, until Jack has choose between his old life or Paige.This is an edition of my book The Bare Necessities with almost every swear word removed, as requested by a reader! Fiery, young naturist, Paige, wins a karaoke contest on holiday, and together with her new singing partner they enlist the help of upper-class Jack to form a group and record their first album. However, Paige's insistence that the Bare Necessities remain true to her naturist ideals causes friction with her band mates, their venues, their struggling agent, a Christian pressure group, a failed newspaper editor, the Police and eventually their families until Jack has choose between his old life and Paige.As much about naturism as it is about romance, will Paige manage to convince the least-suited person to her to break free from his parents, and can society cope with the most outrageous band since the Sex Pistols?Join the determined Paige on the vocals, the calm and voluptuous Claire on the guitar and the relaxed Jack on the keyboard, as the three teenagers upset the media and take the music industry by storm, with a little help from failing agent Andre and Jack's wild Aunt Lucinda.The book is around 100 scenes aggregated into chapters to make it easy to pick up and put down, or when the reader is likely to be interrupted (e.g. public transport)
Views: 416

Severed

Fate brought them together. Now it’s threatening to tear them apart. As the last in a long line of demon slayers, Evie’s destiny is to end the war that has raged for centuries between humans and demons. Lucas, the half-Shadow Warrior half-human who was sent to kill her, has betrayed his own Brotherhood and his family to fight alongside her. With an army of unhumans on their tail, Evie and Lucas are forced into an uneasy alliance with a group of rogue Hunters who offer protection and the promise of answers. As the past is untangled and the dark history of the Hunters revealed, Evie discovers that severing the realms is going to require a lot more than just fighting. It’s going to require a sacrifice – one that only she can make. …More than realms will be severed.
Views: 416

Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed

Clive Cussler is an extraordinary author whose life parallels that of his fictional hero, Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for famous shipwrecks or cruising in classic cars from his private collection, Cussler’s spirit feeds the soul of Dirk Pitt—a hero whose adventures race along at supersonic speed. Now with this truly unique insider’s guide, you can dive in and explore the worlds of both Clive Cussler, the grand master of adventure, and Dirk Pitt, the world’s greatest action adventure hero. Inside Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt® Revealed you’ll find: The prologue to Clive Cussler’s next exciting Dirk Pitt novel! An exclusive interview with Clive Cussler—including the evolution of the Dirk Pitt novels and the close ties between Cussler and his hero “The Reunion”—an original short story in which Cussler crashes NUMA’s twenty-year reunion and reminisces with Dirk Pitt and all his favorite characters A brief synopsis of every Dirk Pitt novel, including why Pacific Vortex!—not The Mediterranean Caper—should be considered the first Pitt novel A concordance for the Dirk Pitt novels—complete with A-Z listings of every major character, car, ship, aircraft, weapon, locale, and more. Complete with rare photos, dedications, the Clive Cussler car collection, and advanced Dirk Pitt trivia, Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed contains a mother lode of information every fan will treasure.
Views: 416

The Writer and the World: Essays

Spanning four decades and four continents, this magisterial volume brings together the essential shorter works of reflection and reportage by our most sensitive, literate, and undeceivable observer of the post-colonial world. In its pages V. S. Naipaul trains his relentless moral intelligence on societies from India to the United States and sees how each deals with the challenges of modernity and the seductions of both the real and mythical past. Whether he is writing about a string of racial murders in Trinidad; the mad, corrupt reign of Mobutu in Zaire; Argentina under the generals; or Dallas during the 1984 Republican Convention, Naipaul combines intellectual playfulness with sorrow, indignation, and analysis so far-reaching that it approaches prophecy. The Writer and the World reminds us that he is in a class by himself. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 416

Chester the Coyote

Chester the Coyote and his friend Hank the Hawk are in search of a new home called the oasis.Stories about Ignatius Loyola, John Bunyan, Telemachus, the twelve Martyrs of Scilla, and some frustrated fisherman. They do such things as start the Jesuit order, put an end to the gladiatorial games in Rome, and die for their faith. These are mostly biographies and are all written in creative nonfiction style, which is where you take real events and add details so that they read like a novel. The stories pop to life and will challenge you. Would you do what they did?
Views: 416

The Heart of Stone

Not everyone who turns is a victim. Not every victim needs to be turned.During the 2nd World War, Halen Marcus survived horrors and nightmares most did not. But it was the horrors at home that would ultimately lead to his damnation.A Gothic tale for vampire lovers everywhere."The Heart of Stone" is a character novella filled with action, danger and drama. We follow our main character from the dark times of World War II up through a late '90's version of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in the Gothic underbelly of society. Filled with a violent present, destined to him from the horrors of his past we learn the history of Halen Marcus from his tragic upbringing until the moment of his damnation.Dark. Violent, with sexual overtones. Not suitable for all readers.
Views: 415

What I did next does me no credit at all

The internet's safe isn't it? I book holidays and buy CDs with no problem; surely my personal life will be at no risk if I, just this once....This is a contemporary story with a French overtone about a failed romance. Colette strives to survive her broken relationship with Paul, whom she once thought to be the love of her life. She removes colour from her life and submerges herself in a sea of black. Love is lost, leaving behind an aching, broken heart and memories. Her senses let her down as smells, tastes, sights and sounds only remind her of what she no longer has. Time passes, and then there is Gerard. Colette purposefully erases all trace of her previous lover from her life. Hope looms bright before her and the possibility of a new start.
Views: 414

The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy

An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from disinformation fighters to a leader of Black Lives Matter to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more—by the best-selling author of Winners Take All and award-winning former New York Times columnist“Anand Giridharadas shows the way we get real progressive change in America—by refusing to write others off, building more welcoming movements, and rededicating ourselves to the work of changing minds.” —Robert B. Reich, best-selling author of The SystemThe lifeblood of any free society is persuasion: changing other people’s minds in order to change things. But America is suffering a crisis of faith in persuasion that is putting its democracy and the planet itself at risk. Americans increasingly write one another off instead of seeking to...
Views: 414