Anna Elizabeth Draeger’s book Crystal Play is a treat for beaders who are captivated by the versatility of crystals in jewelry. Stitchers will explore even more combinations of crystals, new crystal shapes, seed beads, and even some new bead shapes like Tila and peanut beads. Anna showcases these crystals using techniques that include plenty of favorite stitches such as peyote, St. Petersburg chain, herringbone, and right-angle weave. But Anna also includes a few surprise alternatives, like crossweave, fringe technique, and easy wireworking. The projects include many bracelets (which readers love as they are quick and satisfying), a few necklaces, and many bonus design variations (earrings, rings, pendants). Anna’s playful, imaginative look is what truly sets this book apart!

In this exhilarating and often hilarious book, David Crystal examines why we devote so much time and energy to language games, how professionals make a career of them, and how young children instinctively take to them. Crystal makes a simple argument-that since playing with language is so natural, a natural way to learn language is to play with it-while he discusses puns, crosswords, lipograms, comic alphabets, rhymes, funny voices taken from dialect and popular culture, limericks, anagrams, scat singing, and much more.

The reader, as the intrepid Doctor Who, must discover what power is eroding the barriers between time and space on the planet Gathwyr by confronting the dark lord of the Vortex Crystal

Refining Sound is a practical roadmap to the complexities of creating sounds on modern synthesizers. As author, veteran synthesizer instructor Brian K. Shepard draws on his years of experience in synthesizer pedagogy in order to peel back the often-mysterious layers of sound synthesis one-by-one. The result is a book which allows readers to familiarize themselves with each individual step in the synthesis process, in turn empowering them in their own creative or experimental work. The book follows the stages of synthesis in chronological progression, starting readers at the raw materials of sound creation and ultimately bringing them to the final "polishing" stage. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of the synthesis process, culminating in a last chapter that brings everything together as the reader creates his/her own complex sounds. Throughout the text, the material is supported by copious examples and illustrations as well as by audio files and synthesis demonstrations on a related companion website. Each chapter contains easily digestible guided projects (entitled "Your Turn" sections) that focus on the topics of the corresponding chapter. In addition to this, one complete project will be carried through each chapter of the book cumulatively, allowing the reader to follow - and build - a sound from start to finish. The final chapter includes several sound creation projects in which readers are given types of sound to create as well as some suggestions and tips, with final outcomes is left to readers' own creativity. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of learning to create sounds on a synthesizer is to understand exactly what each synthesizer component does independent of the synthesizer's numerous other components. Not only does this book thoroughly illustrate and explain these individual components, but it also offers numerous practical demonstrations and exercises that allow the reader to experiment with and understand these elements without the distraction of the other controls and modifiers. Refining Sound is essential for all electronic musicians from amateur to professional levels of accomplishment, students, teachers, libraries, and anyone interested in creating sounds on a synthesizer.

He parties like a rockstar. She's there to make sure no one finds out... Jess James has her eye on the prize. She is finding the money to pay for law school. Period. It doesn't matter how lonely she feels three thousand miles from home, how exhausted she is from working overtime as a cocktail waitress, or how deep the knife wound in her back cuts. She is going to be a lawyer, whatever it takes. Only she doesn't have what it takes. She can barely afford to pay her rent. Sinful Serenade bassist Pete Steele has enough to pay Jess's rent and buy her a small island in the Caribbean. The famous, talented rock star has everything... except the one thing his manager wants. Pete rose to fame as a devoted boyfriend. Doesn't matter that his ex slept with his best friend. He needs to stop screwing his way through Los Angeles to keep the record company happy. The sweet blond waitress is exactly the girl he needs on his arm if he wants to clean up his dirty reputation. Their arrangement is simple: he pays her tuition, she plays his girlfriend. They'll lie to the world but not to each other. Especially not when they're alone, in his bed, him figuring out exactly which buttons to push to get her moaning his name. Jess is good at keeping up appearances. She can play the enigmatic rock star's girlfriend. But Pete shouldn't play games with a girl who's been broken before... ***Play Your Heart Out is a full-length, standalone romance set in the Sinful Serenade universe.*** Sinful Serenade, a new adult romance series, follows the men of rock band Sinful Serenade and the women they love. Each book can be read as a standalone.

One night's infidelity sets a chain of events into motion that causes Peter and Bobby's life to implode. Set on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Wild is a play about relationships and the destructive and healing powers of love. Nominated for three New York Innovative Theater Awards and called "Funny, honest, sexy, and entertaining" by Chicago Critic, and a "A knockout" by Theater in the Now, WILD is one of Crystal Skillman's best new plays.