I'm Ayla Night, a regular girl with some seriously bad luck. When I receive a summons to the elite Dark Arts Academy, I know it has to be a mistake. I'm a human. A nobody. And yet... I have no soul. How the f-- did that happen? Once class starts, I manage to piss off all the major Clans just by breathing. The Pyros, the Necromancers, the Shades, and the Alchemists all want me dead. Because I'm a lost pupil of the Cursed Clan and it seems my luck is just about to turn. This is a reverse harem paranormal romance with steam, a snarky grimoire, and a badass FMC that will blow your mind.

My worst nightmare has come true. I'm not the Champion of Calamity. I'm the Conduit. The bad guy. The Villain. My vessels might abandon me, or they might stand by me, because they're all Dark Mages, are they not? They're used to playing the bad-guy role. It's not what I wanted, but maybe there's hope for us yet. To change this world for the better, maybe I need to get my hands dirty. Maybe... instead of running from the darkness, I need to embrace it. And in doing so, I'll become the first Malice Queen. This is a reverse harem paranormal romance with steam, a snarky grimoire, and a badass FMC that will blow your mind.

An ordinary girl, a dream to become extraordinary, and the powers that will lead her to change the world. What would you do if you were invited to study at the Magical Arts Academy? Enroll, of course! Join Isadora and her crew of magical misfits. Embark on a wild adventure today! Omnibus 2 includes books 5-8 of the Magical Arts Academy: Questionable Rescue Sorcerers' Web Ghostly Return Transformations About Questionable Rescue: Magic waits for no one. And Isadora was behind from the start. The wicked sorceress Miranda has her right where she wants her, and mercy isn’t on the menu. Isadora has no idea how to take down a sorceress. She hasn’t even had the chance to master basic magic. But that won’t stop her from trying. She’s the only one who can prevent Miranda from exposing magic to the masses and pitting the academy in a brutal war against them. Will Isadora find the way to harness her abilities in time? Or will violence engulf the magical world? About Sorcerers' Web: With magic, things are never what they seem. Firedrakes infiltrate the school, then turn out not to really be drakes at all, but humans suffering from a curse. Just another day at the academy… until breaking the curse doesn’t go so well. The Sorcerers’ dark magic is strong. Isadora might be stronger, if only she can survive long enough to figure out her powers. Will she manage to break the curse? Or will she pay the ultimate price for trying? About Ghostly Return: Sometimes magic requires the ultimate sacrifice. To do what’s right, Isadora had to die. But not even death will keep her from fighting—not when her family at the academy is under attack. Isadora knows far too little about magic, and she understands even less about the spirit world. But with the help of some unexpected friends, she intends to find the ghost with the power to turn the tides of the magical war. Will Isadora find the way to survive the spirit world? Or will it claim her forever? About Transformations: When magic is involved, the end isn’t always the end. If Isadora has learned one thing at the academy, it’s that nothing is ever simple in the world of magic. Not even death. She has a second chance. All she has to do is figure out how to come back to life. Piece of cake, right? With unexpected friends in the spirit world, she might just manage what no other magician has done before… and she might actually live to tell the tale. If anyone can do it, Isadora can, because when it comes to magic, no one’s thought to tell her what she can—and cannot—do. *** The Magical Arts Academy is a complete series and consists of 13 episodic installments, each a novella in length. These books are young adult historical fantasy and are suitable for all ages. Each book ends in a cliffhanger, but the series finale wraps up in an uplifting happily-ever-after. ***

An ordinary girl, a dream to become extraordinary, and the powers that will lead her to change the world. What would you do if you were invited to study at the Magical Arts Academy? Enroll, of course! Join Isadora and her crew of magical misfits. Embark on a wild adventure today! Omnibus 1 includes books 1-4 of the Magical Arts Academy: First Spell Winged Pursuit Unexpected Agents Improbable Ally About First Spell: Isadora is recruited to attend a secret school of magic. As she makes her way to the academy, a dark sect of sorcerers pursues her relentlessly, willing to use any spell in their vast arsenal of powers to stop her. With the help of Trixie, her horse, a dragon named Humbert, and a clandestine band of magicians, Isadora will work to overcome the sorcerers to begin her education in wizardry. What would you do if you were invited to study at the Magical Arts Academy? Enroll, of course! Join Isadora and her crew of magical misfits today. About Winged Pursuit: The Magical Arts Academy is anything but ordinary. It’s the one place Isadora can learn the forbidden craft. With mythical beasts, animals with unusual gifts, and a team of peculiar magicians, Isadora finally has the chance to embrace an extraordinary future. But is the academy really as safe as Isadora thinks? Or will the Sorcerers find the way to infiltrate its defenses? About Unexpected Agents: The Academy has a new breed of teachers. They transform into the nightmares of legend. But they aren’t Isadora’s greatest concern. The Sorcerers are always one step ahead. And the magicians at the academy are all that prevent them from crushing those without magic. It doesn’t matter that Isadora is new to the world of powers. She’s part of the fight now. She must discover those agents, who threaten them in secret, before it’s too late… or the fight will be over before it’s really begun. About Improbable Ally: When your adversaries are masters of illusion, keep your team close, and your enemies as far away as possible. New students have arrived at the Academy, and unlike Isadora and her brother, they were raised with magic. But even their knowledge of the craft might not be enough to save them from the unrelenting Sorcerers, who will stop at nothing to take down anyone who opposes them. Will Isadora and her friends avoid the traps in their midst? Or will Isadora be forced to fight for their lives with magic she never realized she possessed? *** The Magical Arts Academy is a complete series and consists of 13 episodic installments, each a novella in length. These books are young adult historical fantasy and are suitable for all ages. Each book ends in a cliffhanger, but the series finale wraps up in an uplifting happily-ever-after. ***

As technology has developed, computer hackers have become increasingly sophisticated, mastering the ability to hack into even the most impenetrable systems. The best way to secure a system is to understand the tools hackers use and know how to circumvent them. Defense against the Black Arts: How Hackers Do What They Do and How to Protect against It provides hands-on instruction to a host of techniques used to hack into a variety of systems. Exposing hacker methodology with concrete examples, this book shows you how to outwit computer predators at their own game. Among the many things you’ll learn: How to get into a Windows operating system without having the username or password Vulnerabilities associated with passwords and how to keep them out of the hands of hackers How hackers use the techniques of computer forensic examiners to wreak havoc on individuals and companies Hiding one’s IP address to avoid detection Manipulating data to and from a web page or application for nefarious reasons How to find virtually anything on the internet How hackers research the targets they plan to attack How network defenders collect traffic across the wire to indentify intrusions Using Metasploit to attack weaknesses in systems that are unpatched or have poorly implemented security measures The book profiles a variety of attack tools and examines how Facebook and other sites can be used to conduct social networking attacks. It also covers techniques utilized by hackers to attack modern operating systems, such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X. The author explores a number of techniques that hackers can use to exploit physical access, network access, and wireless vectors. Using screenshots to clarify procedures, this practical manual uses step-by-step examples and relevant analogies to facilitate understanding, giving you an insider’s view of the secrets of hackers.

In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures, edited by Wm. Michael Dunne, Jr., and Carey-Ann D. Burnham, surveys the entire field of blood culture technology, providing valuable information about every phase of the process, from drawing samples to culture methods to processing positive cultures. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is organized around several major topics. History of blood culture methods. Details the timeline of blood culture methods from manual through automated and describes the technological development of the leading automated blood culture systems (Bactec, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK). Manual and automated blood culture methods. Critiques manual and automated methods for setting up blood cultures for adult and pediatric patients. Detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens. Describes currently available CE marked and FDA-cleared commercial tests using both phenotypic and genotypic markers, including their strengths and limitations. The workflow of culturing blood. Includes best practices from specimen collection to culture system verification, processing positive cultures for microbe identification and antibiotic susceptibility determination, along with the epidemiology of positive blood cultures and the value of postmortem blood cultures. Microorganisms in the blood. Examines the concept of a blood microbiome in healthy and diseased individuals. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is a resource that clinicians, laboratorians, lab directors, and hospital administrators will find engaging and extremely useful.

David Lynch is internationally renowned as a filmmaker, but it is less known that he began his creative life as a visual artist and has maintained a devoted studio practice, developing an extensive body of painting, prints, photography, and drawing. Featuring work from all periods of LynchÕs career, this book documents LynchÕs first major museum exhibition in the United States, bringing together works held in American and European collections and from the artistÕs studio. Much like his movies, many of LynchÕs artworks revolve around suggestions of violence, dark humor, and mystery, conveying an air of the uncanny. This is often conveyed through the addition of text, wildly distorted forms, and disturbances in the paint fields that surround or envelop his figures. While a few relate to his film projects, most are independent works of art that reveal a parallel trajectory. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, David Lynch: The Unified Field brings together ninety-five paintings, drawings, and prints from 1965 to the present, often unified by the recurring motif of the home as a site of violence, memories, and passion. Other works explore the odd, tender, and mincing aspects of relationships. Highlighting many works that have rarely been seen in public, including early work from his critical years in Philadelphia (1965Ð70), this catalog offers a substantial response to dealer Leo Castelli's comment when he enthusiastically viewed LynchÕs work in 1987, ÒI would like to know how he got to this point; he cannot be born out of the head of Zeus.Ó Published in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

“Comparison to the Harry Potter series seems inevitable . . . It is a breathtakingly exciting novel.”—The New York Times A girl from the forest arrives in a bustling kingdom with no name and no idea why she is there, only to find herself at the center of a world at war. She enlists at Pennyroyal Academy, where princesses and knights are trained to battle the two great menaces of the day: witches and dragons. There, given the name “Evie,” she must endure a harsh training regimen under the steel glare of her Fairy Drillsergeant, while also navigating an entirely new world of friends and enemies. As Evie learns what it truly means to be a princess, she realizes surprising things about herself and her family, about human compassion and inhuman cruelty. And with the witch forces moving nearer, she discovers that the war between princesses and witches is much more personal than she could ever have imagined. Set in Grimm’s fairytale world and ideal for non-princesses and princess fans alike, M.A. Larson’s Pennyroyal Academy masterfully combines adventure, humor, and magical mischief. “No one rescues Pennyroyal princesses; they rescue themselves.”—Reese Witherspoon

A highly decorated veteran DEA agent recounts his incredible undercover career and reveals the shocking links between narcotics trafficking and terrorism What exactly is undercover? From a law-enforcement perspective, undercover is the art of skillfully eliciting incriminating statements. From a personal and psychological standpoint, it’s the dark art of gaining trust—then manipulating that trust. In the simplest terms, it’s playing a chess game with the bad guy, getting him to make the moves you want him to make—but without him knowing you’re doing so. Edward Follis mastered the chess game—The Dark Art—over the course of his distinguished twenty-seven years with the Drug Enforcement Administration, where he bought eightballs of coke in a red Corvette, negotiated multimillion-dollar deals onboard private King Airs, and developed covert relationships with men who were not only international drug-traffickers but—in some cases—operatives for Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Shan United Army, or the Mexican federation of cartels. Follis was, in fact, one of the driving forces behind the agency’s radical shift from a limited local focus to a global arena. In the early nineties, the DEA was primarily known for doing street-level busts evocative of Miami Vice. Today, it uses high-resolution-optics surveillance and classified cutting-edge technology to put the worst narco-terror kingpins on the business end of "stealth justice" delivered via Predator drone pilots. Spanning five continents and filled with harrowing stories about the world’s most ruthless drug lords and terrorist networks, Follis’s memoir reads like a thriller. Yet every word is true, and every story is documented. Follis earned a Medal of Valor for his work, and coauthor Douglas Century is a pro at shaping and telling just this kind of story. The first and only insider’s account of the confluence between narco-trafficking and terrorist organizations, The Dark Art is a page-turning memoir that will electrify you from page one.

In a world where werewolves rule and vampires are just the boy or girl next door, kids love anything that will scare the pants off them. But how do you separate fact from fiction? Do haunted houses, spooky ghosts, and UFOs have a place in history, or is it all just a bunch of hooey? Crawling with spine-tingly facts, eerie anecdotes, and fun information, this book is all about everything creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky. It's a perfect book for the bathroom library or to read by flashlight under the covers. Just don't tell kids how much real science and history they're actually learning!