Download or read book How to Write Science Fiction Fantasy written by Orson Scott Card and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-09-15 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to write science fiction and fantasy from a master You've always dreamed of writing science fiction and fantasy tales that pull readers into extraordinary new worlds and fantastic conflicts. Best-selling author Orson Scott Card shows you how it's done, distilling years of writing experience and publishing success into concise, no-nonsense advice. You'll learn how to: • utilize story elements that define the science fiction and fantasy genres • build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore • develop the "rules" of time, space and magic that affect your world and its inhabitants • construct a compelling story by developing ideas, characters, and events that keep readers turning pages • find the markets for speculative fiction, reach them, and get published • submit queries, write cover letters, find an agent, and live the life of a writer The boundaries of your imagination are infinite. Explore them with Orson Scott Card and create fiction that casts a spell over agents, publishers, and readers from every world.

Download or read book The Emperor s Soul written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Dragonsteel, LLC. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER, 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novella! From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor’s Soul showcases a fascinating magic system as the clock ticks down for a condemned criminal. When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos. Shai is given an impossible task: to create—to Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai’s only possible ally is the emperor’s most loyal councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent. Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape… -------------------- “Sanderson proves to be an exceptionally talented writer in the pages of this book. Complex as some of the background is, he never gets bogged down filling in details for the reader. Instead we learn everything we need seamlessly as the story unfolds. His prose is lyrical without ever getting in its own way … His characters are fascinating and fully realized. … The Emperor’s Soul is one of those rare high fantasies that feels fresh and is filled with a sense of wonder.” —Charles de Lint, Fantasy & Science Fiction -------------------- A note from the publisher: Brandon will send a free copy of this ebook to anyone who purchased the Tachyon Publications trade paperback. See the title page in the ebook preview for details.

Download or read book Snapshot written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Dragonsteel, LLC. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sixth of the Dusk written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Dragonsteel, LLC. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating new novella in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, the universe shared by his Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive. Sixth of the Dusk, set in a never-before-seen world, showcases a society on the brink of technological change. On the deadly island of Patji, where birds grant people magical talents and predators can sense the thoughts of their prey, a solitary trapper discovers that the island is not the only thing out to kill him. When he begins to see his own corpse at every turn, does this spell danger for his entire culture? -------------------- A note from the publisher: For a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this novella, including brainstorming and workshopping session transcripts, the first draft, line-by-line edits, and an essay by Brandon, please see Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology.

Download or read book Varieties of Exile written by Mavis Gallant and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2003-11-30 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who must make their way in the world without any place to call their own. The irreducible complexity of the very idea of home is especially at issue in the stories Gallant has written about Montreal, where she was born, although she has lived in Paris for more than half a century. Varieties of Exile, Russell Banks's extensive new selection from Gallant's work, demonstrates anew the remarkable reach of this writer's singular art. Among its contents are three previously uncollected stories, as well as the celebrated semi-autobiographical sequence about Linnet Muir—stories that are wise, funny, and full of insight into the perils and promise of growing up and breaking loose.

Download or read book Don t Ever Tell written by Brandon Massey and published by Pinnacle Books. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dark Secrets. . . With a new identity, a new city to live in, and a wonderful new husband, Rachel Moore believes she's finally free of the demons in her past. But nothing could be farther from the truth. For the deadly secrets she thought were long-buried are now on the brink of being exposed. . . Have A Way. . . Someone has a vendetta against Rachel. Someone whom she betrayed a long time ago. Someone who is determined to make her pay--no matter the cost. . . Of Coming Back With A Vengeance. . . Now Rachel knows it's just a matter of time before her dangerous past meets up with her present--and destroys everything she's worked so hard for. Because if there's one thing that can be counted on--her enemy never forgets or forgives and will do whatever it takes to see Rachel suffer. . . Advance Praise for Don't Ever Tell "A taut, involving, and utterly convincing thrill ride." --Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author "The talented Mr. Massey has the rare knack of grabbing the reader early and not letting go. In this relentlessly gripping novel the hold only gets tighter as the pages turn. Massey knows how to ratchet up the suspense. Tell everyone that Don't Ever Tell is a crackling good thriller." --John Lutz, New York Times bestselling author "Put the kids to bed, let the cat out, throw another log on the fire, you will not stop turning the pages of Brandon Massey's Don't Ever Tell until you've gobbled every last morsel. A diabolical rocket sled of a book, this story is deceptively simple, carefully crafted out of lean, mean prose; but the pay-off is shattering – a tour de force of psychological suspense. Old grudges, dark secrets, and a ticking time bomb of a villain add up to an irresistible read. Highly recommended." --Jay Bonansinga, National Bestselling Author of Shattered, Twisted, Frozen, and The Sinking Of The Eastland "A razor-sharp thriller guaranteed to keep you turning pages well into the night. Start this one on your day off--you won't be able to put it down." --Douglas Clegg, bestselling author of The Queen of Wolves and The Hour Before Dark

Download or read book A Time of Dread written by John Gwynne and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed epic fantasy author John Gwynne returns with the first book in a new trilogy, perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, and David Gemmell. "A Time of Dread reminds me of why I became a fantasy enthusiast in the first place." -- Robin Hobb A race of warrior angels, the Ben-Elim, once vanquished a mighty demon horde. Now they rule the Banished lands, but their peace is brutally enforced. In the south, hotheaded Riv is desperate to join the Ben-Elim's peacekeeping force, until she unearths a deadly secret. In the west, the giantess Sig investigates demon sightings and discovers signs of an uprising and black magic. And in the snowbound north, Drem, a trapper, finds mutilated corpses in the forests. The work of a predator, or something far darker? It's a time of shifting loyalties and world-changing dangers. Difficult choices need to be made. Because in the shadows, demons are gathering, waiting for their time to rise. . .

Download or read book Grass written by Sheri S. Tepper and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the most satisfying science fiction novels I have read in years.”—The New York Times Book Review Here is a novel as original as the breathtaking, unspoiled world for which it is named, a place where all appears to be in idyllic balance. Generations ago, humans fled to the cosmic anomaly known as Grass. Over time, they evolved a new and intricate society. But before humanity arrived, another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It, too, had developed a culture. . . . Now, a deadly plague is spreading across the stars. No world save Grass has been left untouched. Marjorie Westriding Yrarier has been sent from Earth to discover the secret of the planet’s immunity. Amid the alien social structure and strange life-forms of Grass, Lady Westriding unravels the planet’s mysteries to find a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself.

Download or read book The Way of Kings written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 1013 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new epic fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time® Series

Download or read book City of Stairs written by Robert Jackson Bennett and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city--from one of America's most acclaimed young fantasy writers. The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country's most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov's cruel reign may not yet be over.

Download or read book Real Life written by Brandon Taylor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A FINALIST for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the VCU/Cabell First Novelist Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, the NYPL Young Lions Award, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award “A blistering coming of age story” —O: The Oprah Magazine Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Public Library, Vanity Fair, Elle, NPR, The Guardian, The Paris Review, Harper's Bazaar, Financial Times, Huffington Post, BBC, Shondaland, Barnes & Noble, Vulture, Thrillist, Vice, Self, Electric Literature, and Shelf Awareness A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice. Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community. Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.

Download or read book Defending Elysium written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Dragonsteel, LLC. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Brandon Sanderson’s #1 bestselling Skyward series celebrates its third volume, Cytonic, travel back in time to the origin of Cytonics in the novella Defending Elysium. Centuries before Spensa looked skyward from the planet Detritus—back on Old Earth before it was lost—Jason Write faced a crucial question: was humanity ready to join galactic society? When faster-than-light communications were discovered by a small telephone company in 2071, alien species such as the Tenasi and Varvax overheard them and came to visit Earth. Because the Phone Company controls all communications with the aliens, their operatives like Jason operate above the law. Now, on the space platform Evensong, one of the Phone Company’s scientists has gone missing before surfacing in a hospital with amnesia, and Jason is sent to investigate. Right as he arrives, the body of a murdered Varvax ambassador is discovered, sure to cause a galactic incident. Coln Abrams of the United Intelligence Bureau seizes the opportunity to investigate Jason as he deals with the crisis. This could be the UIB’s chance to discover the Phone Company’s secrets—how does FTL communication work, and what is Jason hiding? Winner of Spain’s UPC Award for Science Fiction in 2007.

Download or read book Filthy Animals written by Brandon Taylor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE STORY PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY, NPR, VULTURE, MARIE CLAIRE, THE TIMES OF LONDON, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY A group portrait of young adults enmeshed in desire and violence, a hotly charged, deeply satisfying new work of fiction from the author of Booker Prize finalist Real Life In the series of linked stories at the heart of Filthy Animals, set among young creatives in the American Midwest, a young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness. In other stories, a young woman battles with the cancers draining her body and her family; menacing undercurrents among a group of teenagers explode in violence on a winter night; a little girl tears through a house like a tornado, driving her babysitter to the brink; and couples feel out the jagged edges of connection, comfort, and cruelty. One of the breakout literary stars of 2020, Brandon Taylor has been hailed by Roxane Gay as “a writer who wields his craft in absolutely unforgettable ways.” With Filthy Animals he renews and expands on the promise made in Real Life, training his precise and unsentimental gaze on the tensions among friends and family, lovers and others. Psychologically taut and quietly devastating, Filthy Animals is a tender portrait of the fierce longing for intimacy, the lingering presence of pain, and the desire for love in a world that seems, more often than not, to withhold it.

Download or read book Social Media Is Bullshit written by B. J. Mendelson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative look at social media that dispels the hype and tells you all you need to know about using the Web to expand your business If you listen to the pundits, Internet gurus, marketing consultants, and even the mainstream media, you could think social media was the second coming. When it comes to business, they declare that it's revolutionizing advertising, PR, customer relations—everything. And they all agree: it is here to stay. In this lively, insightful guide, journalist and social critic B.J. Mendelson skillfully debunks the myths of social media. He illustrates how the notion of "social media" first came to prominence, why it has become such a powerful presence in the marketing field, and who stands to benefit each time it's touted in the press. He shows you why all the Facebook friends and Twitter followers in the world mean nothing to you and your business without old-fashioned, real-world connections. He examines popular tales of social media "success," and reveals some unsettling truths behind the surface. And he tells you how to best harness the potential of the Internet—without spending a fortune in the process. Social media is bullshit. This book gives the knowledge and tools you really need to connect with customers and grow your brand.

Download or read book Whatever It Takes written by Brandon Bornancin and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Healing Power of Mindfulness written by Jon Kabat-Zinn and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2018-11-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how mindfulness can help you with healing. More than twenty years ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn showed us the value of cultivating greater awareness in everyday life with his now-classic introduction to mindfulness, Wherever You Go, There You Are. Now, in TheHealing Power of Mindfulness, he shares a cornucopia of specificexamples as to how the cultivation of mindfulness can reshape your relationship with your own body and mind--explaining what we're learning about neuroplasticity and the brain, how meditation can affect our biology and our health, and what mindfulness can teach us about coming to terms with all sorts of life challenges, including our own mortality, so we can make the most of the moments that we have. Originally published in 2005 as part of a larger book titled Coming to Our Senses, The Healing Power of Mindfulness features a new foreword by the author and timely updates throughout the text. If you are interested in learning more about how mindfulness as a way of being can help us to heal, physically and emotionally, look no further than this deeply personal and also "deeply optimistic book, grounded in good science and filled with practical recommendations for moving in the right direction" (Andrew Weil, MD), from one of the pioneers of the worldwide mindfulness movement.

Download or read book Al Capone Throws Me a Curve written by Gennifer Choldenko and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return to Al Capone's Alcatraz with Newbery Honor-winning author Gennifer Choldenko in this charming addition to the beloved series about the son of a prison guard. Moose Flanagan's father is the assistant warden of Alcatraz--the roughest hard-time prison in America--so he and his family live on the island. It's the summer before high school, and he is desperate to get on the baseball team. The problem? The captain will only let Moose and his best friend on if they get him something from Alcatraz--something impossible. Meanwhile, Moose must keep an eye on his fragile older sister, Natalie, as well as the warden's two-faced, danger-loving daughter, Piper, who has a crush on him. He must learn to stand up to people: His parents. The warden. Piper. Even the most dangerous criminal in the country--Al Capone. And then Moose gets the pitch of a lifetime and delivers a hit no one on Alcatraz will ever forget. Don't miss the rest of the Tales from Alcatraz series! Al Capone Does My Shirts Al Capone Shines My Shoes Al Capone Does My Homework