The result of careful research, this stylish biography of infamous blues musician Robert Johnson reveals the real story behind the mythical talent that made him a musical legend. According to some, Robert Johnson learned guitar by trading his soul away to the Devil at a crossroads in rural Mississippi. When he died at age 27 of a mysterious poisoning, many superstitious fans came to believe that the Devil had returned to take his due. This diligent study of Johnson’s life debunks these myt...

Award-winning author and journalist Tom Graves in "Louise Brooks, Frank Zappa, & Other Charmers & Dreamers" collects the best of his long-form journalism articles and profiles as well as his in-depth interviews with a variety of curious personalities. The lead piece is "My Afternoon with Louise Brooks" about Graves's encounter in 1982 with the reclusive silent film legend Louise Brooks. He was the last journalist ever to sit bedside with Miss Brooks, who allowed very few people into her li...

Colin Hay, the former frontman for the best-selling Australian rock group Men At Work, narrates his first audiobook with Aesop’s Fables with Colin Hay, published by Devault-Graves Digital Editions. Hay, who has toured the world as a solo performer and achieved critical acclaim as a raconteur along with his intimate songs, has also acted in films and done voicework for the Disney organization. Award-winning author Tom Graves wrote new translations of 24 classic Aesop’s tales that instantly ...

One of the hardest tasks strategists and enterprise architects face is mapping an enterprise in a form that creates and supports making sense of the whole. This book introduces an alternate approach to create consistency at every level by modelling the enterprise as services with the Enterprise Canvas.This new model type that can be used to describe just about anything in any area and at any level of the enterprise, and that acts as a consistent frame for all the other models that ...

White Boy is one man's unvarnished story of love, loss, race, Memphis, and a dark past. Everything is laid bare when Memphis author, journalist, and university professor Tom Graves takes a vivid and deeply introspective account of his life. Certainly no one can accuse Graves of looking back through rose-colored glasses as chapter after riveting chapter he confronts his family's racist past, shares his eye-witness memories of the integration of Memphis public schools, details his dating esc...

How To Publish Your Book is a simple but lively guide that tells you exactly what you need to know about preparing and publishing your book, in both hard copy and the exciting new ebook format. Author Tom Graves, who has published two award-winning books through traditional publishing means as well as five well-received ebooks, tells aspiring authors precisely what they need to do to get through the gauntlet of publishers, literary agents, print-on-demand services, and ebook providers to g...

A service-oriented architecture is fundamental to many new IT applications, from web development to social software and cloud computing. The same principles can be applied to every aspect of the service-oriented enterprise – not just in IT. In this book, you’ll explore how an enterprise architecture and viable services can link together to create a simpler yet far more powerful view of the enterprise, as a dynamic, unified whole.You can use the ideas, principles and methods describ...

During the summer of 2016 author and journalist Tom Graves was exasperated after ruining his third batch of fried catfish that season. Recently divorced and having to cook for himself he thought he'd like to get cooking lessons from an elderly African American lady who would teach him her kitchen secrets. His favorite food by far was soul food which he found similar to the Southern country cuisine he'd been raised on. He did not want a chef to give him lessons; he wanted a kitchen cook, so...

Pullers, the first novel by author Tom Graves, defines the genre of Southern Grit Lit. Readers who admire the gritty worlds of authors such as Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiaasen will find Pullers' look behind the curtain of professional arm-wrestling at least as wild and bizarre as anything those other authors have written. With a slate of wild and woolly characters with names like Steve Strong, Scud Matthews, and Snack Pack Harris, Graves puts you right across the ...

I'm not a powerful witch, just a fortune teller making ends meet.When my grandmother, the leader of the Rathmore Coven, summons me, I have no choice but to answer her call. To reach her, I must cross the Wood, the realm of Wotan, lord of the hunt. Rumors of his cruelty and brutality precede him, but nothing prepares me to meet the monster face to face.Because Wotan is more than a monster. He's a predator, a bully, and now he's claimed me as his pawn in his ...

As a pixie, I'm a rule-breaker and master of mayhem.I've played matchmaker to all four of the Syndicate Lords, but somehow, I never seem to find my own match. That changes when I meet a handsome stranger and fall hard. Vale Gentry may be tall, dark, and devastatingly charming, but I should have known better than to get tangled up with an elf. Everyone knows they're the snobs of the magical world. I'm nothing more than dirt under their gilded shoes.That's ne...

As the heir to a powerful vampire gang, I should be a master thief by now.But my abilities have always been flawed. I'm good at one thing, though—stealing. When my uncle sets his sights on a prized possession owned by Gothel, the ruler of the Sky Syndicate, I'm tasked with the job of taking it.Everything changes when I meet the captivating gargoyle. He offers to fix my broken magic, and his smoldering touch and commanding presence make me feel alive for the...