Surprising new family members. A hidden talisman. Deadly curses. Murder. Months after tragically losing a loved one, Kellan learns his relative's death wasn't an accident. Someone has discovered a cursed talisman, and a rogue government agent will stop at nothing to retrieve the heirloom. Unfortunately, it has already changed hands and found its way on campus. Moments before Braxton's controversial art exhibition opens, Kellan stumbles upon another murder victim, and it appears he might be next on the avenger's list. Can Kellan protect the talisman's true heir and prevent the killer's nefarious plan? Given all the suspects have ties to prominent Braxton citizens, he's uncertain whom to trust. Together, Kellan and Sheriff April are determined to solve the mystery - via legal means or blind luck.

Contains more than one million alphabetically-arranged synonyms grouped in related clusters.

Have you ever wondered about luck? What is luck? Is it blind force that hits randomly and changes people's lives for the better or worse? Is it rational energy with conscious purpose? The Holy Book of Luck is ''fascinating'' the first of its kind book challenging the outdated notion that hard work is the only way to success, It is not. Luck plays a major role in your success, and you can't do anything about it The Holy Book of Luck is the book which takes you on a pleasant journey to really change your perspective forever about luck and hard work.

A personal story of the ways in which persistence, chance, and creativity interact in biomedical research. This first book by the author of Zen and the Brain examines the role of chance in the creative process. James Austin tells a personal story of the ways in which persistence, chance, and creativity interact in biomedical research; the conclusions he reaches shed light on the creative process in any field. Austin shows how, in his own investigations, unpredictable events shaped the outcome of his research and brought about novel results. He then goes beyond this story of serendipity to propose a new classification of the varieties of chance, drawing on his own research and examples from the history of science—including the famous accidents that led Fleming to the discovery of penicillin. Finally, he explores the nature of the creative process, considering not only the environmental and neurophysiological correlates of creativity but also the role of intuition in both scientific discoveries and spiritual quests. This updated MIT Press paperback edition includes a new introduction and recent material on medical research, creativity, and spirituality.

Hope is hard to come by in the hard-luck town of Willow Creek. Sam Pickett and five young men are about to change that. Sam Pickett never expected to settle in this dried-up shell of a town on the western edge of the world. He's come here to hide from the violence and madness that have shattered his life, but what he finds is what he least expects. There's a spirit that endures in Willow Creek, Montana. It seems that every inhabitant of this forgotten outpost has a story, a reason for taking a detour to this place--or a reason for staying. As the coach of the hapless high school basketball team (zero wins, ninety-three losses), Sam can't help but be moved by the bravery he witnesses in the everyday lives of people--including his own young players--bearing their sorrows and broken dreams. How do they carry on, believing in a future that seems to be based on the flimsiest of promises? Drawing on the strength of the boys on the team, sharing the hope they display despite insurmountable odds, Sam finally begins to see a future worth living. Author Stanley Gordon West has filled the town of Willow Creek with characters so vividly cast that they become real as relatives, and their stories--so full of humor and passion, loss and determination--illuminate a path into the human heart.

This is a collection of Blake Parkers songs. Blake was a spoken word artist, performance poet, writer, lecturer, graphic designer, multi media artist and collaborator, known for his improvisation and evocative voice. As a teenager in the 50s, Blake was strongly influenced by the Beat poets who came before him. His lively, experimental spoken word projects reflect a mature yet quirky genre that is one of the predecessors of todays rap and hip hop. As part of the populist spoken word movement, his work aspires to an integration of high art & low entertainment. Blake worked with many musicians using his words and voice as instrument. At home, Blake played guitar, mostly the blues, constantly making up songs which were rarely part of his performance poetry. There were many variations and improvisations, the music was fluid and only some had more fixed ideas with chords. During the last years with a terminal diagnosis, Blake started to collate the songs, in hopes that other musicians and singers would keep them in the world. Blake Parkers blues, country and gospel songs are a mixture of profound, inspiring, and humorous lyrics ready to be put to music and sung. Check his website www.blakeparker.ca

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.