Get the Knowledge Without the College! You are a writer. You dream of sharing your words with the world, and you're willing to put in the hard work to achieve success. You may have even considered earning your MFA, but for whatever reason--tuition costs, the time commitment, or other responsibilities--you've never been able to do it. Or maybe you've been looking for a self-guided approach so you don't have to go back to school. This book is for you. DIY MFA is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. By combining the three main components of a traditional MFA--writing, reading, and community--it teaches you how to craft compelling stories, engage your readers, and publish your work. Inside you'll learn how to: • Set customized goals for writing and learning. • Generate ideas on demand. • Outline your book from beginning to end. • Breathe life into your characters. • Master point of view, voice, dialogue, and more. • Read with a "writer's eye" to emulate the techniques of others. • Network like a pro, get the most out of writing workshops, and submit your work successfully. Writing belongs to everyone--not only those who earn a degree. With DIY MFA, you can take charge of your writing, produce high-quality work, get published, and build a writing career.

A quick look at any fiction bestseller list reveals that thrillers make up most of the titles at the top. HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER will help the aspiring novelist or screenwriter to design, draft, write, and polish a thriller that is sure to grab readers. Frey uses examples from both books and movies and addresses the following hot topics: *Germinal ideas *Breathing life into great thriller characters *Crafting a gripping opening *Maintaining tension *Creating obstacles and conflicts *Writing a mean, lean thriller scene *Adding surprise twists *Building a smashing climax and many more. In his trademark approachable and humorous style, Frey illuminates the building blocks of great thrillers and gives the reader the tools to write his or her own.

Counting from one to ten has never been so thrilling in this Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book and recipient of the Mathical Book Prize from Kate Read! One hungry fox with two sly eyes is on the prowl . . . three plump hens had better watch out! Rich and colorful illustrations plunge the reader into a dramatic and exciting story set in a moonlit farmyard. With something different to count on each page, this gripping tale introduces page-turning tension to young readers in an age-appropriate way. Great for early education and read alouds, this fun numbers introduction has a hugely satisfying ending that’s sure to delight! Pluck up this one up for your little math enthusiast today and check out the available activity kit online. Also by Kate Read: Hey! A Colorful Mystery, a perfect selection on color vocabulary for budding artists. "Stunning... Count on requests for many readings." —School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book Recipient of the Mathical Book Prize Charlotte Zolotow Award (Highly Commended) Parents’ Choice Gold Award Recipient An ALSC Notable Children’s Book A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens Cybils (Fiction Picture Books) A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year A NYPL Best Book for Kids A CCBC Choice

The late 1950s and early 1960s were the golden years of horror television. Anthology series such as Way Out and Great Ghost Tales, along with certain episodes of Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, were among the shows that consistently frightened a generation of television viewers. And perhaps the best of them all was Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff. In Thriller the horror was gothic, with a darker, bleaker vision of life than its contemporaries. The show's origins and troubled history is first discussed here, followed by biographies of such key figures as producer William Frye, executive producer Hubbell Robinson, writers Robert Bloch and Donald S. Sanford, and Karloff. The episode guide covers all 67 installments, providing airdate, production credits, cast, plot synopses and critical evaluations.

“Thor tops himself again and again.” —Bookreporter “Feels like the TV show 24 on the page.” —Associated Press #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor presents his greatest thriller ever—an action-packed literary tour de force! Hidden deep within one of the world’s most powerful organizations is a secret committee with a devastating agenda. Its members are afforded incredible protections—considered elites, untouchables. But when four seconds of video is captured halfway around the world and anonymously transmitted to DC, covert wheels are set in motion, and counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is tapped to undertake the deadliest assignment of his career. What begins as a favor will evolve into a globe-spanning drama of highly personal stakes played out against a backdrop of stunning international intrigue, duplicitous political gamesmanship, and the darkest, most clandestine fears of the espionage world. With razor-sharp plotting, richly rendered characters, and heart-stopping surprises on every page, Thor isn’t just at the top of his game—he owns the entire genre.

WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult). The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story ?works? or ?doesn't work. 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story'the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.

THE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER “One of the more surprising double-reverse plot twists...in some time.” —The New York Times In this “propulsive, page-turning, compelling, fragmentation grenade of a debut thriller” (C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a deadly plot against the president’s life emerges from the shadows of the Deep State. Recently elected President Richard Monroe—populist, controversial, and divisive—is at the center of an increasingly polarized Washington, DC. Never has the partisan drama been so tense or the paranoia so rampant. In the midst of contentious political turf wars, the White House chief of staff is found dead in his house and West Wing intern and ex-Army grunt Hayley Chill is positive that it’s not from natural causes. Determined to find the truth, Hayley uncovers shocking evidence that a wide-ranging conspiracy is running beneath the surface of DC in an effort to undermine the rule of law—and democracy itself. Soon, Hayley is in a race against time to reveal the truth and save the life of the next victim: the president. “Deep State rings eerily true [and] will keep you turning pages well into the night” (Jack Carr, former Navy SEAL and author of The Terminal List).