In the heart of Boston in the 1980's—a city engulfed in turmoil and racial tensions, an unlikely friendship develops between two students at Cathedral High School. Patrick is an Irish-Catholic born leader. His friends follow him with blind allegiance. Nate is a young, disciplined, black athlete—focused on finding his way out of the neighborhood alive. The two young men find themselves on hectic school grounds, in a culture that shuns friendships like theirs. Through a tragic turn of events...

In Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (1979), Syd Field first popularized the Three-Act Paradigm of Setup, Confrontation and Resolution for conceptualizing and creating the Hollywood screenplay. For Field, the budding screenwriter needs a clear screenplay structure, one which includes two well-crafted plot points, the first at the end of Act I, the second at the end of Act II. By focusing on the importance of the four essentials of beginning and end, and the two pivotal ...

Focused on faith and woven with Christian, ecumenical, and patriotic themes, Our Immigrants' Son is an exploration and celebration of family.The genres of prose poetry and historical fiction very cleverly takes you through the author's rich Irish American history. It begins in misty Ireland and takes you through generations of the Murphy clan while also teaching you how to write your family story.The storyteller is US Navy Captain, John Francis Patrick Murphy, Retired, a di...

Montague Rhodes James authored some of the most highly regarded ghost stories of all time—classics such as “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” that have been adapted many times over for radio and television and have never gone out of print. But while James is best known as a fiction writer and storyteller, he was also a provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton College, and a legendary and influential scholar whose pioneering work in the study of biblical texts and medieval ma...

Today's global media sustains a potent new environmental consciousness. Paradoxically, it also serves as a far-reaching platform that promotes the unsustainable consumption ravaging our planet. Patrick Murphy musters theory, fieldwork, and empirical research to map how the media communicates today's many distinct, competing, and even antagonistic environmental discourses.The media draws the cultural boundaries of our environmental imagination--and influences just who benefits. Murp...

A Divided Union delves deep into ten pressing political challenges that former US Representatives Patrick Murphy (D) and David Jolly (R) have identified over their multiple terms in Congress and that continue to plague the American electorate today. In an introduction describing their unique paths to Congress, Murphy and Jolly focus in detail on key institutional barriers they faced in Washington in attempting to do the job voters elected them to do. They introduce us to geographi...

The purpose of NATO: From Regional to Global Security Provider is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Alliance’s new vision (the new Strategic Concept) and common security impact – associated tasks to be undertaken within a short and longer term time horizon. The book serves as a relevant and timely study of the most pressing issues facing NATO today – including recent lessons gained. It provides recommendations for consideration and further discussion (i.e., the “what” and the “how...

In his book, The How of Wow!, award-winning author John J. Murphy challenges you to differentiate your s service.When was the last time you were “wowed” by the service you received?Maybe you were “wowed” while buying groceries, resolving a problem with your bank, checking into a hotel or flying across the country. Or maybe you were not. It seems that the secrets behind world class service are often just that—secrets! But in The How of Wow!, award-winning author John J. Murp...

Want to Start a REVOLUTION?Revolution is an anthology that unites fourteen Rockford Area writers. This collection spans poetry, essays, and short stories, each echoing the call for change and introspection. This anthology is more than words on a page; it's a reflection of a transforming community. Each piece is a catalyst, igniting conversations and inspiring personal revolutions.Be part of the Revolution.Grab your copy and join th...

Twenty-two nightmarish stories for your reading enjoyment! Prepare for the terrifying.Sara Jordan-Heintz selected a perfect blend of tales from a talented list of authors. You might just find your next favorite horror writer in the listStories byBrooke MacKenzieJohn HaasEvan BaughfmanJohn GroverD.C. PhillipsH.K. SladeC.A. VerstraeteLindy SpencerPatrick F. MurphyK.T. TateKay Hanifen

This book focuses on zero hours and on-call work as an extreme form of casual and precarious employment. It includes country studies of the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand and Ireland, where there has been increasing concern about the prevalence of such work, and working time uncertainty, as well as varying levels of public policy debate on regulation. The book incorporates a comparative review of zero hours work based on the findings of the country studies. This pays particula...

The sweet smell of licorice and the giant candy bar painted on the factory wall at the Eads Bridge remain locked into the collective memory of generations of St. Louisans. Candy Men: The Story of Switzer’s Licorice tells the story of how two Irish-American families began a candy company in the kitchen of a tenement in St. Louis’s Irish slum and showed the world how the American Dream can be built upon a foundation of candy.In a story that passes through three generations, ...