The Dynamic 2-5-14 Strategy to Defeat the Darkness Within "This book is for the tired, the defeated, the frustrated, and the ashamed. For the hurt and broken, those walking in powerlessness and fear. For all who have found truth but are failing miserably at living it. For those walking in bondage and limitations imposed by forces over which they seem to have no control. For those secretly wondering why their lives don't portray the overcoming reality God has purposed. For those to whom it seems a strong unseen hand holds them to a course they feel incapable of changing." (From Chaper 1) The 2-5-14 strategy gives answers to the 2 ways the enemy has access to your life, the 5 doors to legal ground that gives Satan his rights and the 14 spirits that are the roots of common human problems.

COMMENDED FOR THE 2011 KATE CHALLIS RAKA AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2006 QUEENSLAND PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARDS — AUSTRALIAN SHORT STORY COLLECTION ‘Change for us came so unexpectedly. One day my father was stalking the family as he had done for most of our lives, skulking from room to room, accompanied by a menacing silence that we had long ago accepted. And then he was gone.’ Shadowboxing is a collection of ten linked stories in the life of a boy growing up in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in the 1960s. A beautifully rendered time capsule, it captures a period of decay, turmoil, and change through innocent, unblinking eyes. Michael’s family, led by his long-suffering mother, live as though under siege, surviving his father’s drinking and rage as well as the forces of ‘urban renewal’. Their neighbourhood is a world of simple pleasures as well as random brutality; of family life and love as well as violence and tragedy. As Michael experiences all this with a combination of wonder and fear, he matures into a sensitive adult who can forgive but never forget. Shadowboxing is a riveting story of loss and permanence, power and weakness, stoicism and resistance. PRAISE FOR TONY BIRCH ‘Stunning series of linked stories about growing up in '60s Fitzroy.’ The Age ‘There's a Hemingwayesque minimalism about this writing, but in Hemingway the pathos was reined in more. In the 10 linked stories in Shadowboxing, the pathos is often barely contained and the effect is quite shattering ... Birch’s descriptions of the lower socio-economic world of inner Melbourne in the ‘60s are brilliant and he evokes, with a curious nostalgia, a claustrophobic world that anyone would be lucky to escape from unscathed. He has a great ability to pare down his prose, laying bare the raw flesh of the matter in the process. Despite their rigours, the stories are engaging, with flashes of larrikin humour. The book is even something of a page-turner at times, although the calamity of one page often leads only to heartbreak on the next.’ The Australian

A mashup of poetry and theater collaged from the overlooked voices of California's labor class

Shadowboxing presents an explosive analysis of the history and practice of black feminisms, drawing upon political theory, history, and cultural studies in a sweepingly interdisciplinary work. Joy James charts new territory by synthesizing theories of social movements with cultural and identity politics. She brings into the spotlight images of black female agency and intellectualism in radical and anti-radical political contexts. From a comparative look at Ida B. Wells, Ella Baker, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur to analyses of the black woman in white cinema and the black man in feminist coalitions, she focuses attention on the invisible or the forgotten. James convincingly demonstrates how images of powerful women are either consigned to oblivion or transformed into icons robbed of intellectual power. Shadowboxing honors and analyzes the work of black activists and intellectuals and, along the way, redefines the sharp divide between intellectual work and political movements. A daringly original study, this book changes what it means to be American.

Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018 On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. The bridge was closed for a month for repairs and then reopened to traffic. But what ensued over the next 25 years is the extraordinary story that Karen Trapenberg Frick tells here. It is a cautionary tale to which any governing authority embarking on a megaproject should pay heed. She describes the process by which the bridge was eventually replaced as an exercise in shadowboxing which pitted the combined talents and shortcomings, partnerships and jealousies, ingenuity and obtuseness, generosity and parsimony of the State’s and the region’s leading elected officials, engineers, architects and other members of the governing elites against a collectively imagined future catastrophe of unknown proportions. In so doing she highlights three key questions: If safety was the reason to replace the bridge, why did it take almost 25 years to do so? How did an original estimate of $250 million in 1995 soar to $6.5 billion by 2014? And why was such a complex design chosen? Her final chapter – part epilogue, part reflection – provides recommendations to improve megaproject delivery and design.

Unique in approach and content, this book presents specific definitions of the subgenres of creative nonfiction--memoir, the personal essay, literary journalism, nature writing, biography and history, and the nonfiction novel. KEY TOPICS: Providing model readings to illustrate these definitions, this First Edition also offers practical writing exercises and strategies for readers to apply what they are learning in each subgenre. MARKET: For professionals with a career or interest in writing, journalism, education, publishing, and/or media.

A late night, a dark alleyway, a cry for help-and two unlikely men, a taciturn boxer and a young man with cerebral palsy, see a chance to reach for love. Shadowboxing is a sweet, contemporary gay romance about difference and acceptance.

George Dixon was the finest boxer of his generation and arguably among the finest boxers ever. His accomplishments in the ring were extraordinary: the first black boxing champion, the first Canadian boxing champion, the first boxing champion of multiple weight classes, and the first boxing champion to lose regain his title. He defended his title more than any other champion - then or since - and he reportedly fought in an unprecedented 800 bouts. Making these achievements more astonishing was the context within which these achievements were earned: George Dixon publically fought and beat hundreds of white boxers in an age when black men were routinely lynched for simply being black.Boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer once said of Dixon, "For his ounces and inches, there never was a lad his equal. Even in the light of the achievements of John L. Sullivan [the first heavyweight champion in boxing, the critics of his days referred to 'Little Chocolate' [George Dixon as the greatest fighter of all time. I doubt there ever was a pugilist who was as popular during his entire career."Simply put, said Fleischer, "He had everything."Sam Austin, the larger-than-life sports editor at America's first tabloid newspaper, the Police Gazette, described George Dixon as "The Fighter Without a Flaw." Said Austin, "The fact cannot be disputed that the greatest fistic fighter, big or little, that the world has ever known is George Dixon."Still, despite his extraordinary accomplishments, effusive adulation, and spectacular riches, George Dixon died a beggar, in the alcoholic ward of New York's Bellevue Hospital - homeless, forgotten, and alone. And yet, ironically, while George Dixon was being forgotten, his story was becoming a familiar archetype - the tale of a young black man who uses his fists and wits to fight his way against unrelenting challenges to become Champion of the World. He becomes famous, rich, and loved by all. But then he overreaches. He lives the life of the "sport" - he gambles, carouses, and drinks - until he stays in the ring one fight too many.And he loses it all.But George Dixon's story is singularly different. George Dixon followed no one. And for this reason, his story - his triumphs and tragedies as well as his rise and fall - transcends cliché.So who was George Dixon? And what motivated this genuinely modest man, born in Africville, Nova Scotia, to achieve what no other black man had achieved before him? What strength of character earned him, against all odds, true greatness? And what failure of character, in the end, took that greatness away? Before Mohammad Ali and Joe Louis, before Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Johnson, before Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, before all the great black boxing champions of every age and every weight class, there was George Dixon.He was the first.He was the greatest.And this is his story.