In a world where dwindling populations consolidate their inhabitants into isolated city states, life is divided into the Haves and Have Nots. In one such city, Detectives Ethan Walls and Rachel Edmunds do their best to provide those outside the coveted City Core with the same justice enjoyed by those called the City's Elite. For the Have Nots, that justice was hard to find.
Suddenly, young women began disappearing off the same streets the pair of detectives had sworn to protect, a growing trend that points an ugly finger at the City Core. Can Ethan and Ray overcome centuries of class distinction and corruption to locate the mysterious Dr. Golden and expose the dark secret behind the missing girls?
He was chasing a career-making story. But this disturbing mystery has already gone viral...Freelance journalist Nathan Troy is a global citizen looking for eye-opening news. Living in Beijing, he stumbles upon a ward full of patients afflicted with an unknown deadly disease. Facing closed doors and open hostility, he won't rest until he exposes the dark conspiracy.
But as he digs deeper for answers, mysterious figures try to scare him off the trail with tortuous violence. To his horror, it looks as though there's no stopping a shadowy cabal of mad scientists and vengeful government functionaries from wielding an epidemic designed for ethnic cleansing.
Can Nathan uncover the truth, or will his shocking scoop land him in the morgue?
The Year of the Rabid Dragon is the first book in the Nathan Troy Mystery series. If you're curious about nefarious uses for CRISPR technology, boots-on-the-ground reporters, and vibrant Chinese culture, then you'll love L. H. Draken's thought-provoking novel.
Listen to The Year of the Rabid Dragon to unmask a modern-day scandal today!
His hunger for more is all-consuming. Will his drive for insatiable ambition finally be the end of him?
Nolan Banks is a man untethered. Despite his incredible prestige, wealth, and adoring family, this prominent real estate mogul wrestles with an inner void he cannot satisfy. On the precipice of a grave error, he reluctantly agrees to a mysterious invitation that promises life-altering consequences.
Transported to a bewildering, isolated homestead, Nolan faces a trio of enigmatic hosts resolved to guide him on a life-changing odyssey... if he can survive the challenging trials. But while grappling with increasingly difficult emotional, spiritual, and physical hurdles, dark temptations threaten to break him as he battles against the devil inside.
Will Nolan overcome the trials and obtain what he needs to live in true freedom?
In a brutally honest and introspective look into the hidden recesses of a man’s heart, Brett Snodgrass reveals the perils of self-destruction, while offering a hopeful path to redemption. By portraying unforgettable characters as metaphors of the Trinity in this expedition into the human soul, readers are provided an inspirational glimpse into the regenerative power of God.
The Secret War Within is a profound Christian fiction novel. If you like redemption, unflinching portrayals that deeply stir, and unearthing fervor through the Divine, then Brett Snodgrass's introspective quest will captivate your heart.
Buy The Secret War Within to illuminate your soul today!
A living legend accused of sabotage.
Three hundred years ago a liaison robot turned warrior sided with humans in the Great A.I. War. He's one of few hi-level sentients allowed to live. But all this doesn't matter now because he's on the run.
And the innocent never run.
Armed with emotion chip-fueled determination and his beloved weapons, the general flees to a nearby planet where he must unravel a tangled conspiracy to prove his innocence. But that's easier said than done.
Standing in his way are ferocious mountain beasts worshipped as ancient gods, dreaded Red Guards wielding witchfire battle glaives, and a bounty hunter with superhuman reflexes. And if that isn't enough, an ancient empire wants to annihilate him at a planet's expense.
Michael Vargas is living the life of a celebrity architect when his world collapses. He walks away from the glamorous career of the star architect and begins a quest that will take him twenty-three years back in time. The challenge his mentor presented at the time is beckoning Michael back to the South-his home, a place he loved and hated.
The road back is a road forward, filled with trials and pain, but the journey eventually leads to an artistic epiphany that Michael discovers in the people and places of the Deep South. And he finds inspiration from a woman who allows him to paint her if he agrees to one mysterious condition. Michael learns that some subjects are worth painting while others are worth pursuing even up against the greatest personal odds of success.
Leading marketing practitioner and thought leader Joe Federer draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology, neuroanatomy, and psychology, as well as more than a decade of hands-on experience, to explain why people act so differently in various online spaces and what they are seeking from participating in each one. With a framework based on Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego model of the human psyche, he demonstrates how the internet is a digital reflection of the collective human psyche and how different social networks correspond to different mindsets: platforms like Reddit to the unfiltered Id, Facebook and Twitter to the managed Ego, and Instagram to the ideal Superego.
In the same way you behave differently when you're home alone, out with friends, communicating with family, or interacting with coworkers, people act and express themselves differently in these various online spaces. Context matters. Understanding this will enable you to develop and execute effective engagement strategies to reach your target audiences on each social network. Learn: how to create content that drives sharing and word-of-mouth; how brands can fit natively into different types of social channels; how to balance branded social presences across different networks; and why authenticity will only grow in importance to consumers.
Four innovation experts from the startup world, large enterprises, nonprofits, and academia come together to reveal the secret of uncovering authentic demand to build successful innovations.
Books on innovation mostly focus on how to nurture innovative cultures and brainstorm ideas. The Heart of Innovation is the first popular book to concretely delve into what innovations really are and how to create them. Many attempts at innovation fail because customers turn out to be indifferent. The key to success is to uncover unmet authentic demand; what customers cannot be indifferent to. Through fresh case studies, ranging from how SoulCycle revolutionized the fitness industry, to how IBM built an $8 billion business on the Web, to a single mother ending abuse in a slum in Africa, The Heart of Innovation explores how authentic demand is often hidden or taken for granted.
The first half of the book explores cases where people accidentally found their way to meeting an unmet authentic demand-or failed to. The second half of the book provides a field guide to methodically identifying and building products, services, and businesses around authentic demand.
All-new fiction from Dragon Award winner and New York Times bestselling author David Weber, Dragon Award nominee D. J. Butler, bestseller Jody Lynn Nye, indie bestsellers Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, and more. Also featuring an introduction by multi-award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia.
It is 2185 CE. Humans now live throughout the Solar System, but their most ambitious adventure is about to begin. The starship Victoria will carry over 10,000 colonists to a new world outside the Solar System. The larger-than-life exploits of those colonists will become legendary. The colonists will build a new civilization, and the actions of a few individuals will become famous-and infamous-forever marking their new colony with the Founder Effect.
From B-school through the big leagues, the business world often places value on logic and analysis. But on creativity? Not so much. And this, according to Nir Bashan, is a recipe for disaster. What gets the ball rolling when we're feeling stuck in our careers? Why is my company not growing or reaching higher levels of profitability? What's the difference between a workable plan and a stroke of genius?
The answer is creativity-and it's the missing ingredient for far too many of us who feel we're not reaching our creative potential. In The Creator Mindset, Bashan shows you how to use creativity as a decision-making tool, and do so every bit as confidently as you use spreadsheets and data analysis.
Bashan demystifies the process of sharpening this ability by breaking it down into four essential sections. Discover what is meant by a 'creator mindset,' why it's crucial in business, how to see the world with this mindset, and how to sustain it. Written in plain language with real-world examples, chapters include: creativity for non-creative people; training your mind to think in a creative way; when nothing else works-creativity will; envisioning a world that can be, not the world that is; the virtues of listening-and the value of making mistakes; the 'Creator Mindset' guide to crisis; and beating the complacency conundrum.
The year 2020 was a tumultuous time in American politics. It brought a global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and a razor-thin presidential election outcome. It culminated in an attack on the US Capitol that attempted to deny Joe Biden's victory. The Bitter End explores the long-term trends and short-term shocks that shaped this dramatic year and what these changes could mean for the future.
John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, and Lynn Vavreck demonstrate that Trump's presidency intensified the partisan politics of the previous decades. Presidential elections have become calcified, with less chance of big swings in either party's favor. Republicans remained loyal to Trump and kept the election close, despite Trump's many scandals, a recession, and the pandemic. But in a narrowly divided electorate even small changes can have big consequences. The pandemic was a case in point: when Trump pushed to reopen the country even as infections mounted, support for Biden increased. The authors explain that, paradoxically, even as Biden's win came at a time of heightened party loyalty, there remained room for shifts that shaped the election's outcome. Ultimately, the events of 2020 showed that instead of the country coming together to face national challenges-the pandemic, George Floyd's murder, and the Capitol riot-these challenges only reinforced divisions.
Demographic changes promise to reshape the market for higher education in the next fifteen years. Colleges are already grappling with the consequences of declining family size due to low birth rates brought on by the Great Recession, as well as the continuing shift toward minority student populations. Each institution faces a distinct market context with unique organizational strengths; no one-size-fits-all answer could suffice.
In this essential follow-up to Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Nathan D. Grawe explores how proactive institutions are preparing for the challenges that lie ahead. While it isn't possible to reverse the demographic tide, most institutions can mitigate the effects. Drawing on interviews with higher education leaders, Grawe explores successful avenues of response, including recruitment initiatives, retention programs, revisions to the academic and cocurricular program, institutional growth plans, retrenchment efforts, and collaborative action.
Throughout, Grawe presents listeners with examples taken from a range of institutions-small and large, public and private, two-year and four-year, selective and open-access. While an effective response to demographic change must reflect the individual campus context, the cases Grawe analyzes will prompt conversations about the best paths forward.
Seize your place in a new era in commerce and industry
In Strategy in the Age of Disruption, a team of dedicated strategists delivers an exciting and practical guide to Industry 4.0, a commercial transformation that's impacting every facet of the market, the environment, and our social lives. You'll learn what Industry 4.0 is, what it means for you and your company, and how you-as a leader, manager, expert, entrepreneur, or investor-can capitalize on it and put it into practice.
This is a complete handbook on strategic execution. It's a step-by-step tutorial designed to get you to clearly see your strategic position, the choices available to you, and how to execute on those choices. You'll also find:
- Ways to move beyond outdated business models that no longer serve the companies that follow them
- Common myths about strategy and how to put them to bed for good
- Deep and insightful explanations of the fourth industrial revolution and what it means for your sector and company
Strategy in the Age of Disruption will systematically guide you through how to manage the challenges of the present and the promise of the future.
