From the FORGOTTEN REALMS series, a fantasy novel in which a petty criminal who tries to pass himself off as a wizard discovers that he has attracted the attentions of an assassin.

What are the implications of teaching phonics via a systematic direct intense program that mandates all children to experience the same scripted lesson at the same time?This book addresses the question through an in-depth play-by-play description of a phonics lesson as it occurred in a real classroom, followed by chapters that look at it from different angles by "zooming in" on one facet to analyze it closely:*Reading. What is reading? What definiti...

Happiness: Just Add Genitals is a book of poems, aphorisms, and comics focused around relationships, fantasy, pop culture and the like with a humor focus.The typical genital contains the following: rainbows, kittens, awesomeness, gooy-fun-time, joy, and POWER! The secret to happiness is clear, genitals. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to trick you so they can horde more happiness for themselves. Happiness is a contest and only so many people can win. Everyone who loses wil...

A "superbly written, richly illustrated" guide to the animals who lived 450 million years ago—in the fossil-rich area where Cincinnati, Ohio now stands ( Rocks & Minerals).The region around Cincinnati, Ohio, is known throughout the world for the abundant and beautiful fossils found in limestones and shales that were deposited as sediments on the sea floor during the Ordovician Period, about 450 million years ago—some 250 million years before the dinosaurs l...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...

Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, with the highest percentage of Black people and a history of vicious racial terror. Black resistance at a time of global health, economic, and climate crisis is the backdrop and context for the drama captured in this new and revised collection of essays. Cooperation Jackson, founded in 2014 in Mississippi’s capital to develop an economically uplifting democratic “solidarity economy,” is anchored by a network of worker-owned, self-managed cooperat...

A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’. This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories.Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex.Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunit...

We love reason, advancing through facts to reach a conclusion that explains exactly where we are at.When literary masters create their stories on this theme we are left with some quite brilliant and riveting works that help us gain fascinating insight into both author, story and the world beyond.1 - Philosophical Stories - An Introduction2 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka3 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville4 - Bartleby the Scriv...

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...

Love. Perhaps the one word solution for everything. An emotion, a state of mind that we strive for, search for. A wondrous force that binds, inspires, and a force that can spin out of control; unbalanced and fragile. Love reflects, changes and embraces us all.In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country.Love has many forms, many needs. Some fall into the dark, into the shadows. Forbidden love has connotations of ...

It is a common quality amongst us that we all have imagination and dreams. These are positives with which to embrace life and move forward. Unfortunately, our classic literary scribes including Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf and a host of others also bring forth narratives which not only include a darker, more venal side but those of a lighter flavour.1 - Stories about Imagination and Dreams - An Introduction2 - The Horla by Guy De Maupass...

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...