Inspirational essays on writing and the writing life by experts in the field. For writers at all levels. Contributors include Desiree Cooper, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist. Topics include "Becoming My Own Best Advocate" and "Writing During the Lean Times."

“Are you his forever? The river will tell.”These chilling words will change Isabelle Fontaine’s destiny. A celebrated Canadian pianist in 1836, Isabelle inherits the historic Fontaine, the last French ribbon estate of the 1700s. Crossing the Detroit River to claim the house, she finds herself in a fight for her sanity. Isabelle learns that she bears an uncanny resemblance to Celeste, her great-grandmother. Ensnared by visions of a doomed love affair between Celeste and a man named ...

One hero will risk it all to save the world . . . and the woman he loves. In late World War I France, disillusioned American soldier and musician Sgt. David Pierce fights the German enemy and tours the French countryside with the famed Harlem Hellfighters Band. These “Men of Bronze” ae not only brave soldiers, but talented musicians who are conquering Europe with a secret weapon—Jazz.In a cruel irony, David and his fellow soldiers are forbidden to serve in the war as Americans; ins...

Part surrealism, part humor, and part affectionate guidance, Blame the Stars is a wild adventure into a world of uniquely alternative zodiac signs.Welcome to the world of Horror Scoops: a weird and wonderful twist on classic zodiac signs. Meet passionate and wild Lemo (a.k.a. Leo), kind Lehbrah (Libra), steadfast Clopricrumb (Capricorn), Germini the Twrnnns (take two guesses), and others—signs which, although slightly silly, reveal more ab...

This textbook serves as a current and comprehensive resource on effective Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for TESOL practitioners in various contexts around the world at various stages in their careers. The practices described by language teachers, teacher educators and professional development providers in this book offer a vision of critical issues to consider when designing and evaluating professional development opportunities.Effective professional development require...

The Routledge Handbook of Materials Development for Language Teaching is the definitive resource for all working in this area of language and English language teaching. With 34 chapters authored by leading figures from around the world, the Handbook provides an historical overview of the development of language teaching materials, critical discussion of core issues, and an assessment of future directions.The contributions represent a range of different internation...

Anxiety is a natural part of life – but what happens when everyday anxieties start to dominate our lives, or when we become overwhelmingly anxious about a particular object or situation? In this friendly and engaging introduction, the authors consider these questions by discussing a range of specific and social phobias, along with their symptoms, effects and treatment. Whatever your level of study, this book will help you to develop your understanding of phobias, why they develop and the e...

Now a “provocative” and “impressive” (Variety) film from director Gia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter)—starring Emma Roberts, James Franco, Nat Wolff, and Val Kilmer—the fiction debut from James Franco that Vogue called “compelling and gutsy.”James Franco’s story collection traces the lives of a group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive...

From an emerging master of short fiction and one of Canada's most distinctive voices, a collection of stories as heartbreaking as those of Lorrie Moore and as hilariously off-kilter as something out of McSweeney's.In Better Living through Plastic Explosives, Zsuzsi Gartner delivers a powerful second dose of the lacerating satire that marked her acclaimed debut, All the Anxious Girls on Earth, but with even greater depth and darker humour. Whether she casts her eye...

The “cool and scary”(San Francisco Chronicle) New York Times bestseller from the author of Pattern Recognition and Neuromancer.• spook (spo͞ok) n.: A specter; a ghost. Slang for “intelligence agent.”• country (ˈkən-trē) n.: In the mind or in reality. The World. The United States of America, New Improved Edition. What lies before you. What lies behind.• spook country (spo͞ok ˈkən-trē) n.: The pl...

Everything was set. Seventeen-year-old Marina Lu had even ordered custom-made gowns for the ten bridesmaids who, in several months' time, would have preceded her down the aisle at her storybook wedding.There isn't going to be a wedding. Marina lies dead, alone in her shiny status car in a suburban shopping center parking lot, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another abruptly shattered Los Angeles dream. Was her death merely a carjacking gone bad? Or is there more to ...

These 23 stories take us on a twisted fun ride into some future times and parallel universes where characters as diverse as a one-legged International Actuarial Forensics specialist, a pharmaceutical guinea pig, and a far-sighted fetus engage in their own games of the survival of the fittest. From a new short story by William Gibson in which a teen disassociated from his body haunts his neighborhood through the decades, to Douglas Coupland’s balls-out satire of a slightly futuristic Surviv...