This is a needed book. In all the writing classes I was in the teacher asked for people to write short stories and eighty percint of all people in the classes had no idea of what to write, "Maybe I'll see something." This book is needed to give people ideas of what to write for the class. It's not for people to write novels about, but most people have other classes to think about and they're always looking for anything that will make their lives easier.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller Your personal goals need a long-term strategy. It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe. How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek? Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game. As top business thinker and Duke University professor Dorie Clark explains, we all know intellectually that lasting success takes persistence and effort. And yet so much of the relentless pressure in our culture pushes us toward doing what's easy, what's guaranteed, or what looks glamorous in the moment. In The Long Game, she argues for a different path. It's about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard. In The Long Game, Clark shares unique principles and frameworks you can apply to your specific situation, as well as vivid stories from her own career and other professionals' experiences. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours—but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.

When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile...and no legs. Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition -- no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can't see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it's the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again. Tessa spurns Weston's "obnoxious optimism", convinced that he has no idea what she's going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him -- and Weston can't imagine life without her. But he still hasn't told her the truth, and when Tessa's sight returns he'll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa's world...or overcome his fear of being seen. 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by author Abbie Emmons. If you like sweet contemporary romance and strong family themes then you'll love this touching story of hope, healing, and getting back up when life knocks you down.

Discover the secrets to crafting a successful novel in this guide by a master writer & instructor and New York Times–bestselling author. Bestselling author David Farland taught dozens of writers who went on to staggering literary success, including such #1 New York Times Bestsellers as Brandon Mull (Fablehaven), Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time), James Dashner (The Maze Runner) and Stephenie Mayer (Twilight). In this book, Dave teaches how to analyze an audience and outline a novel to appeal to a wide readership. The secrets found in his unconventional approach will help you understand why so many of his authors went on to prominence. Hailed as “the wizard of storytelling,” Dave was an award-winning, international best-selling author with more than fifty novels in print, and a tireless mentor and instructor of new writers. His book Million Dollar Outlines is a seminal work teaching authors how to create a blueprint for a novel that can lead to bestseller success.

An unforgettable collection of fairy tales for grownups—from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession. • “A delight.... provoking and alarming, richly yet tautly rendered.... [She] has the sheer narrative skill to raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make your pulse race.” —The New York Times Book Review Like Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, Isak Dinesen and Angela Carter, A. S. Byatt knows that fairy tales are for adults. And in this ravishing collection she breathes new life into the form. Little Black Book of Stories offers shivers along with magical thrills. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women, childhood friends reunited by chance, venture into a dark forest where once, many years before, they saw–or thought they saw–something unspeakable. Another woman, recently bereaved, finds herself slowly but surely turning into stone. A coolly rational ob-gyn has his world pushed off-axis by a waiflike art student with her own ideas about the uses of the body. Spellbinding, witty, lovely, terrifying, the Little Black Book of Stories is Byatt at the height of her craft.

What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?Every night, a woman on a black warhorse gallops through the mist in Chris Redston's dreams. Every night, she begs him not to come to her. Every night, she aims her rifle at his head and fires. The last thing Chris expects--or wants--is for this nightmare to be real. But when he wakes up in the world of his dreams, he has to choose between the likelihood that he's gone spectacularly bonkers or the possibility that he's just been let in on the secret of the ages.Only one person in a generation may cross the worlds. These chosen few are the Gifted, called from Earth into Lael to shape the epochs of history--and Chris is one of them. But before he figures that out, he accidentally endangers both worlds by resurrecting a vengeful prince intent on claiming the powers of the Gifted for himself. Together with a suspicious princess and a guilt-ridden Cherazii warrior, Chris must hurl himself into a battle to save a country from war, two worlds from annihilation, and himself from a dream come way too true.

A cracking good story idea requires five critical elements.Until you have all five, you'll struggle to plot. You'll write a few scenes and run out of gas. You'll feel like the story just isn't going anywhere. And that's because it isn't. It can't. A story won't do what a story needs to do without all five elements.However, once you develop these things, your story will suddenly roar to life. Brown cuts through all the confusion and clearly explains what those five elements are with an abundance of examples. He also reveals the down-to-earth, practical secrets to developing ideas. That means when you finish the book, not only will you'll know exactly what you need to develop, you'll also know how to get it done.No more wasting time. No more struggling, wondering what to do. No more thinking you just don't have what it takes. Humans are built for story. It's wired into our brains. You can develop terrific story ideas on purpose instead of on accident. All you need is a little illumination. Create Story Ideas that Beg to Be Written provides that light, including: The real key to creativity (and you've got loads of it) Why "show, don't tell" causes problems How to make readers care about your characters What really drives your plot And much more. Don't wait another minute. Become a story idea machine today.

The first book in the award-winning Shadows of Time series introduces John Roley, Tim Jackson, and 2 inteligent computer prototypes known as ISAC-9. During their vacation, they are surprised to find that they have been proclaimed to be the guardians of time, a confusing situation since none of them had even been aware they were up for consideration. Before they have a chance to fully absorb this information (or decline the offer) they are thrown back in time to a point near the end of Mayan civilization. Immediately John is captured by Mayans, Tim is rescued by a group of people whose technology has no business existing anywhere, and both discover that real history is considerably more messed up than anyone could have imagined.

The Snowflake Method-ten battle-tested steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story.

Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure takes you step-by-step through finding and developing ideas, brainstorming stories, and crafting a solid plan for your novel--including a one-sentence pitch, summary hook blurb, and working synopsis. Over 100 different exercises lead you through the novel-planning process, with ten workshops that build upon each other to flesh out your idea as much or as little as you need to do to start writing. Find Exercises On: - Creating Characters - Choosing Point of View - Determining the Conflict - Finding Your Process - Developing Your Plot - And So Much More! Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is an easy-to-follow guide to planning your novel, as well as a handy tool for revising a first draft, or fixing a novel that isn't quite working.