Marshall, a former gang member and new father is struggling to make ends meet with the love of his life Sarah. After he's fired from his a job an opportunity to make some extra money surfaces when he meets an old friend, the only problem is that it involve's stealing money from a Government program. When things take a turn for the worst Marshall is faced with a life-changing decision.Marshall, a former gang member and new father is struggling to make ends meet with the love of his life Sarah. After he's fired from his a job an opportunity to make some extra money surfaces, the only problem is that it involve's stealing money from a Mars exploration program. When the plan goes awry and things take a turn for the worst Marshall gets into trouble with the law. Marshall's mistake will trigger a series of events that will lead to a big decision, a decision of freedom or confinement, a decision that could change his life as well as the people he loves forever. Views: 511
A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism
Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.
In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness." Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.
With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America's penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out "negative" thoughts. On a national level, it's brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage. Views: 486
What if you came back from the dead,came back to life.What would you do?What really makes one human, is it a fact of birth, the right of passage that is growing up, is it societies' influence on young impressionable minds, or is it something else? Is Humanity and all that goes with it in fact programmed into our DNA?These are questions that have plagued Shiva all her life. For most people, for Normal people, these are questions with easy answers, after all they were born human, raised human, and have always been 'Human'. But Shiva is not 'Normal', she might not in fact be 'Human'. She is or perhaps was a Weapon, she was created as a weapon, trained to be a weapon, and she sees the world as a weapon. But all that changes one day when she meets a girl and for the very first time, she feels something that defies all logic and all reason. Can a weapon fall in love, or this something reserved only for those who are humans?But there are those in her world who have never doubted these answers, to them she is a powerful tool created for a war not yet fought, and they cannot allow that tool to slip from their grasp. So from the shadows they strike at the very thing that threatens to take that weapon from their grasp, that person who might be the key to unlocking the heart within the weapon. Views: 403
In a small country town an ancient evil is rising...Concealed, hidden in plain sight for millenia this dark force is feeding its way through the town's population, making puppets of them. For years it has been growing, biding its time, and now, it's almost ready....In the tradition of Stephen King's classic 'Salem's Lot, newcomer Paul Andrew Taylor crafts a tale of a small Australian town overcome by a dark and creeping horror.The Shadows are Coming...In the country town of Casino, a young mother hangs clothing on the old hills hoist while her toddler son plays on the lawn beside her. The sun shines brightly, painting shadows across the back yard. When her son's happy gibberish suddenly breaks off into choked gasps, his mother spins around to find him wrapped in her shadow, choked and grey and gasping for breath. The Shadows are Coming....A man sits in a park by the river, quietly feeding pigeons, shadows pooling beneath the bench. He drops some dry bread crumbs by his feet and a bold pigeon struts over to investigate. The man's shadow snaps out and drops over the pigeon like a blanket, devouring it in a puff of feathers and dust.The Shadows are Coming...When Ben Reilly returns to his home town of Casino, soured on city life after a bad break-up, he's hoping for little more than the comfort of things known and familiar and a place to clear his head. Instead, he finds a town full of strange, hungry people with jet black eyes and shadows that tug at their heels like hungry dogs.And like dogs, they need to feed...Searching the internet for answers, Ben draws the attention of a mysterious stranger with no shadow who claims to be impervious to the effects of the shadows. Known only as Shade, the stranger will lead Ben into the heart of darkness in a centuries old battle against these sinister Shadoweaters, people who are little more than appendages to the living shadows that have infected them. Views: 402
The New York Times bestselling investigation into white-collar unemployment from "our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism"--The New York Times Book Review
Americans' working lives are growing more precarious every day. Corporations slash employees by the thousands, and the benefits and pensions once guaranteed by "middle-class" jobs are a thing of the past.
In Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich goes back undercover to explore another hidden realm of the economy: the shadowy world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with the plausible resume of a professional "in transition," she attempts to land a "middle-class" job. She submits to career coaching, personality testing, and EST-like boot camps, and attends job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and--again and again--rejected.
Bait and Switch highlights the people who have done everything right--gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive resumes--yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster. There are few social supports for these newly disposable workers, Ehrenreich discovers, and little security even for those who have jobs. Worst of all, there is no honest reckoning with the inevitable consequences of the harsh new economy; rather, the jobless are persuaded that they have only themselves to blame.
Alternately hilarious and tragic, Bait and Switch, like the classic Nickel and Dimed, is a searing expose of the cruel new reality in which we all now live. Views: 402
* Attention: this is not a story about werewolves, lycans, or whatever else you want to call them * Set in a distant land, a boy grows into a man as he learns about the gifts of his ancestral blood from a mysterious mentor. And then, on one fateful day, he learns that some knowledge comes with a price.Darcy and Brigit always wanted a new start for themselves. Hearing that things in the Niobrara Valley of northeast Nebraska offered them opportunities denied them in County Mayo, they eagerly board the train bound for the new town of Randolph Nebraska with hopes and dreams in their hearts. Views: 358
When Serrel Hawthorne joined the Imperial Legion, the last thing he was expecting was to be selected for battlemage training. Now he and seven other misfits are going to have to learn how to weave the magical ether, and preferably not kill each other in the process. Of course, their gruff sergeant might just do that anyway, if they keep annoying him.Everyone has their reasons for joining the Imperial Legion. Some seek fame. Some are just running from something. You sign the scroll, take the Legion bronze, then you learn to hit things with a sword. But when Serrel Hawthorne joined the Imperial Legion, the last thing he was expecting was to be selected for battlemage training. Now he and seven other misfits are going to have to learn how to weave the magical ether, and preferably not kill each other in the process. Of course, their gruff sergeant might just do that anyway, if they keep annoying him.And the biggest threat any of them will have to face, is always going to be the one within themselves. Mages call it the Hollow. It is there, inside everyone, waiting to swallow them whole. It will kill you if you let it. But you have to climb out of it yourself. Views: 349
Welcome to Chapter City. Where the undead live alongside humans like everyday people, and where private investigator Lil Shreiber and her partner Michael Tome (ex-warlock) have been enlisted by a vampire prince to help track down a serial killer viciously murdering other vampires. Up against a powerful supernatural creature, and alongside an angry FBI agent who hates them, things soon get bloody.Welcome to Chapter City. Where the undead successfully campaigned for equal rights. Where everyday human beings live alongside zombies, vampires and half demons, and no one really cares so long as no one makes a mess, and no one bites anybody else without permission.When a serial killer nicknamed the Vampire Slayer begins viciously butchering unlucky members of the blood drinking community, a member of vampire royalty enlists the help of private investigator Lil Shreiber and her partner Michael Tome (ex-warlock) to help track down the culprit. Lil and Tome aren’t exactly strangers to the supernatural, and the money is too good to pass. But when the identity of the killer is revealed, the case takes a more personal turn for Lil.Up against a powerful supernatural creature, with the help of an irate vampire “businessman” (Don’t call him a crime lord. Just don’t) and an angry FBI agent who really doesn’t like them, things soon get bloody. If the pair are lucky, they might survive the case intact. If they’re really lucky, they may even get paid too. Views: 344
[Updated] Along with certain friends and family, Brody and Kate strive to move forward with their lives. Likewise, a few specific fae have progressive plans as well, and are sure to cause disruption. As a war party assembles to invade - unknowingly under the guise of righteousness - Brody and his loved ones struggle to understand the storm coming their way.[Updated version - dialogue revisions made, spacing and syntax modified] Along with certain friends and family, Brody and Kate strive to move forward with their lives. Likewise, a few specific fae have progressive plans as well, and are sure to cause disruption - violence is sworn against the 'rebellious' Other Crowd that holds Ballaghadaere dear. As a war party assembles to invade - unknowingly under the guise of righteousness - Brody and his loved ones struggle to understand the storm coming their way. Views: 328
