The Extra is set in a future California where members of a desperate populace sign contracts to participate in reality death films, knowing that less than twenty percent of them will survive. It’s a view of the future—and Hollywood—as delightfully cynical as Kurt Vonnegut, with sympathetic characters, Hollywood executive sleazeballs, and much more.

Upon hearing of his estranged father's death, Tommy Shea returns to the funeral home that drove his family apart. Tommy must learn to balance his newly inherited responsibilities, assistant, and whimsical mentor while preserving family traditions and secrets. The book is filled with memories of locked doors, ancient relics, mysterious magical awakenings, and unconventional funeral home practices. Its a haunting tale of family, secrets, and the darkness lurking beneath.

The influence of the preconception and prenatal period on child development and parent-child relationships.This book presents recent knowledge, research, and theory about the earliest developmental period—from conception to birth—which holds even greater consequences for the health and development of the human organism than was previously understood. Theory and research in multiple disciplines provide the foundation for the exploration of how experiences during con...

A 22-year-old Theodore Roosevelt first spotted the ducks as black specks on the horizon as his small sloop passed the mouth of the bay. Elliott, his younger brother, worked the tiller, fighting to keep the sails full as they pushed down on the birds. T.R. sat forward in the ready, shotgun in hand. The birds rafted tight together as the boat approached before “an old ‘pigeon tail’ took the alarm and rose,” T.R. would later write. He picked up his own gun, “and just as the great clump of bir...

Provides examples to show how wedges are simple machines that make pulling apart, stopping, and moving easier. Includes an activity.

Provides examples showing how screws are simple machines that make joining things together and moving, easier.

Few songs have captured the contradictions and ambiguities of the 1960s as memorably as "California Dreamin'," the iconic folk music single that catapulted the Mamas & the Papas into rock and roll history. In All the Leaves Are Brown, author Scott Shea details how John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips, and "Mama Cass" Elliot became standard-bearers for California counterculture, following their transformation from folk music wannabes to rock sensations and chronicling th...

The pressures of contemporary electioneering force political professionals into 'campaign mode'-a state of mind that merges a visceral drive to win elections with a deep-seated habit of strategic thinking. Wise political professionals know the basic rules of electoral strategy and how to read the political terrain. Campaign Mode examines the strategic histories of five successful congressional candidates-Ohio's Ted Strickland, Georgia's Bob Barr, California's Loretta Sanchez, Tennessee's H...

Catch the buzz — before the buzz catches you! Britt Reid, daring young publisher, masks up against organized crime and urban corruption as The Green Hornet! Join our hero and his stalwart valet Kato for another collection of twenty classic adventures from the 1948-49 seasons, including several previously uncirculated episodes not heard since their original broadcast.Jack McCarthy hunts “the biggest of all game” as Britt Reid, alongside Lee Allman as Lenore Case, Gilbert Shea as Michael Axf...

By dint of a mispronounced spell, Cugel the Clever finds himself once again unceremoniously dumped by a winged demon onto the bleak far northern shores of the Sea of Cutz — the location of a fierce battle aeons past between the archmagician Simbilis and the hordes of the subworlds league. Vowing to exact comprehensive revenge from Iucounu, the Laughing Magician, Cugel sets forth on the long journey back to Almery.Expecting potent magical gifts in recompense, Cugel swears fealty to ...

In the title story “Polyphemus,” an exploration team on a desert planet faces death when it encounters a terrifying alien monstrosity. In “The Angel of Death,” a serial killer who has a city on edge may finally have met his match in the form of a powerful interplanetary traveler. In the blackly humorous “Uncle Tuggs,” a series of grisly and bizarre deaths may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of old Uncle Tuggs. “The Horror on the #33” tells of a man’s struggle with a deadly and...

So youre approaching retirement whats next? As an over-sixty today you are likely to be very much healthier than previous generations of retirees and youre close to outnumbering the younger age group. So why should they have all the fun? The grey pound is particularly strong, and the so-called Third Age, holds the largest proportion of the countrys disposable income. Long-term, empty-nesters have more money and leisure time than ever so cannot be ignored, but finding the smoothest way to c...