Do you know what it takes to be a great teacher-coach? Hadley Hicks knows. He was mentored by five collegiate Hall of Fame coaches, he was a teammate of well known professional football players on a National Championship military team. He even had a ''cup of coffee'' in professional baseball. Hadley was successful as a high school and college coach. Yet, he never reached the greatness he felt was due him. Hadley Hicks shares his heart in his search for significance. His poignant, humorous, and down to earth writing style makes an enjoyable read. He is candid in his heartbreaks, the sin of divorce and the death of his eldest son. He survived a parental petition for his dismissal as football coach. He livened up his teaching experiences with an accidental shooting and a premeditated murder. He kept his fellow faculty alert with numerous practical jokes. Among student-athletes he mentored was a Cy Young Award winner and three professional football players. Hadley's marriage to a Godly woman who is his spiritual teammate, provided impetus for finding eternal significance in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Mob know-it-all and popular New York City radio jock Goumba Johnny gives readers everywhere the lowdown on what it takes to be a wiseguy. Illustrated.

An energetic, interactive YA novel about five solo pop artists navigating drama, finding their sound, and discovering what it truly takes to chase their dreams of music stardom after being forced into a pop group together. Everly Brooks knows she has what it takes to be the next big singer-songwriter. At least, that's if she could get her onstage presence to stop feeling so wooden and blossom like her rich, moving lyrics. The reality signing competition, SO YOU WANNA BE A POP STAR? is her chance at proving to the world—and herself—that her talent and artistry can mean something more than just live streams and online videos. Vinny Vecchi thought he was heading toward a life full of makeup, wigs, and werking it on the drag stages of NYC. But a powerful diva voice is a precious thing to waste and, in need of money to make his drag dreams come true, SO YOU WANNA BE A POP STAR? is the next best thing. However, surrounded by competitors with clear brands and sharpened musical identities, he wonders if he can break through while still discovering himself. When a group performance on the show goes viral overnight, Everly and Vinny find their careers unexpectedly tied together. Along with their competitors—influencer Dea Seo, pop-punk CeCe Winnifred, and heartthrob Stern Green—these five artists are forced to become the newest pop super group: Jeweltones. You, the reader, get to make choices that will make or break Everly, Vinny, and the group’s meteoric rise in this interactive novel. Will you mend the cracks to help Jeweltones shine bright, or will they burn out under pressure? The choices are yours to make!

If there is a place where the ghosts of baseball players come at night to relive their glory days, it is Warren Ballpark in the old copper-mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. Warren Ballpark has been in use as a sports facility since 1909longer than any other ballpark in the United States. Some of the most colorful and notable figures in baseball history have stepped onto its field as barnstorming big leaguers or as minor-league players hoping to make their way up to the Big Show. Several players implicated in the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal played in an outlaw league at Warren Ballpark during the 1920s. In 1917, it was the holding facility for 1,500 striking copper miners rounded up during the Bisbee Deportation. It is also the site of one of the longest-running and most bitterly contested high school football rivalries in America, between the Bisbee Pumas and the Douglas Bulldogs.

Robin Bailey talks about his long-serving career as a police officer and the challenges and triumphs that came with the job, letting readers see beyond the badge and uniform and glimpse the lives of real people navigating their way through the front lines of law enforcement. Bailey joined the police force in Victoria when he was just 22 years old. In the next 29 years, he rose through the ranks, becoming chief inspector and expert consultant for complex cases. He would cross paths with dangerous criminals and interact with members of the United Nations Police. Bailey's journey also came with its own set of pitfalls as he became embroiled in several life-changing and life-threatening situations. In his book, he talks about all these with equal measures of candor, humour and clear-minded common sense.

Set sail for high-seas hijinks and nautical nonsense with those paragons of Pirattitude who invented the famous International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Whether readers are old hands at pirating or hopeless landlubbers, the Pirate Guys will have them pirate-savvy in no time with sure-fire pirate pickup lines for any occasion, tips on how to make their pirate party a buccaneer ball that even Martha Stewart would be proud of, and help determining their true pirate monicker.

A hilarious inside look at the real business of popular music by the drummer of Semisonic that does for rock and roll what Jim Bouton's Ball Four did for baseball. After years of working day jobs and making music in his basement, Jacob Slichter wondered if his dreams of rock stardom were a vain illusion. Then he was recruited by two of his successful musician friends to form a band that became Semisonic. Who could forget the smash single “Closing Time,” a runaway hit in 1998 that thrust Jake and his bandmates into the international spotlight and helped them sell over two million albums worldwide? But along the road to fame and success came bewilderment and personal chaos: How will we ever get a record deal? Which record company is the best? The worst? Do I really have to wear these ridiculous boots? Why isn’t radio playing our song? What if I have a panic attack right here on stage? What should I write on this fan’s CD? Am I famous? Why isn’t the video director getting more shots of me? Did I say the wrong thing during that interview? Help! So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star is a telling and witty look at what happens just before and during one's time in the spotlight. Jake takes readers on a step-by-step journey of his evolution from fledgling drummer to globetrotting performer and proves to be the perfect guide—feisty and humbled—to the inner workings of the music industry and instant celebrity. So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star speaks to all of us who dream again and again of rock superstardom and shows how one kid can go from picking up a pair of drumsticks to picking up a platinum record.