Attention, designers, it’s time to get serious about your creative process. For too long you’ve allowed yourself to go soft, relying on your software to do all of your creative work at the expense of your craftsmanship. This book will NOT show you how to use every tool and feature in Adobe Illustrator. This book WILL, however, teach you the importance of drawing out your ideas, analyzing the shapes, and then methodically building them precisely in vector form using the techniques explained in this book. In Vector Basic Training, Second Edition acclaimed illustrative designer Von Glitschka takes you through his systematic process for creating the kind of precise vector graphics that separate the pros from the mere toolers. Along the way, he’ll whip your drawing skills into shape and show you how to create elegant curves and precise anchor points for your designs. In addition to new illustrative examples throughout the book, this edition includes an all-new chapter on how to apply color and detail to your illustrations using tried-and-true methods that you’ll use over and over again. You’ll also get access to over seven hours of all-new HD video tutorials and source files so you can follow along with Von as he walks you through his entire process. Whether you’re creating illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, CorelDRAW, or even Inkscape, you’ll be able to use Von’s techniques to establish a successful creative process for crafting consistently precise illustrations every single time you pick you up your pen, stylus, or mouse. In Vector Basic Training, Second Edition, you’ll learn: The tools and shortcuts that make up a design pro’s creative arsenal How to use “The Clockwork Method” to create accurate curves every time When and where to set just the right number of anchor points for any design How to build shapes quickly using basic Illustrator tools and plug-ins Techniques for art directing yourself to get the results you desire Fundamental methods for applying color and detail to your illustrations

An exciting new era of Star Wars history is about to begin--as fantasy and science fiction's most acclaimed authors propel the legendary epic into the next millennium, introducing us to a rich cast of characters that features old favorites--Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa Solo--along with the next generation of Jedi and never-before seen creatures, droids, and deadly agents of darkness. In Vector Prime, the launch novel for this thrilling new saga, New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatore takes the Star Wars universe to previously unscaled heights of action and imagination, expanding the beloved story of a galaxy far, far away . . . Twenty-one years have passed since the heroes of the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, breaking the power of the Emperor. Since then, the New Republic has valiantly struggled to maintain peace and prosperity among the peoples of the galaxy. But unrest has begun to spread; tensions erupt in outbreaks of rebellion that, if unchecked, threaten to destroy the Republic's tenuous reign. Into this volatile atmosphere comes Nom Anor, a charismatic firebrand who heats passions to the boiling point, sowing seeds of dissent for his own dark motives. In an effort to avert a catastrophic civil war, Leia travels with her daughter Jaina, her sister-in-law Mara Jade Skywalker, and the loyal protocol droid C-3PO, to conduct face-to-face diplomatic negotiations with Nom Anor. But he proves resistant to Leia's entreaties--and, far more inexplicably, within the Force, where a being should be, was . . . blank space. Meanwhile, Luke is plagued by reports of rogue Jedi Knights who are taking the law into their own hands. And so he wrestles with a dilemma: Should he attempt, in this climate of mistrust, to reestablish the legendary Jedi Council? As the Jedi and the Republic focus on internal struggles, a new threat surfaces, unnoticed, beyond the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim. An enemy appears from outside known space, bearing weapons and technology unlike anything New Republic scientists have ever seen. Suddenly Luke, Mara, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca--along with the Solo children--are thrust again into battle, to defend the freedom so many have fought and died for. But this time, all their courage, sacrifice, and even the power of the Force itself may not be enough. . . . Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

James Richardson is one of the finest poets now writing, and the best contemporary practitioner of the art of aphorism."--Publishers Weekly "Not since the appearance of W. S. Merwin's translations and adaptations of aphorisms in Asian Figures, some thirty years ago, has an American poet managed to put down so much delightful and compelling wisdom."--American Literary Review "No one theme or moral pervades these tesserae of specificity. Rather, Richardson's elegant compression invites the reader to fill in the blanks with personal experience... Richardson's knack for the quintessential, sustained for more than a hundred pages, left me satisfied yet hungry for more."-- Times Literary Supplement "Readers will be obsessed by this book; they will memorize passages, give copies to friends, proselytize. That's because Vectors so generously provides the best that poetry can offer. It is a masterpiece of practicality, beauty, and solace."-- Boston Review "James Richardson's Vectors... penetrates to the very heart of human nature. I stand looking in the mirror, alert to my own foibles, shaking my head as I tolerate what I know he knows about who I am."-- The Georgia Review "Almost every entry... introduces a new insight, provides a revelation, supplies a surprise... it is a book one wants to spend time with, a wonderfully friendly book, generous, witty and entertaining."-- Gulf Coast "Vectors is the kind of book you read, reread, thumb through, and pick up several extra copies because you want to share the joy you found in perusing it with friends."-- Barrow Street "James Richardson's Vectors is a book of subversive wonders. Stunningly precise, these brilliant aphorisms and ten-second essays show a mind assessing, reassessing, discovering, and interrogating assumptions in ways that feel diamond-sharp, at once good-natured, quietly sly at times, and always, always, very shrewd. 'It can never be satisfied, the mind, never,' wrote Wallace Stevens. Vectors is a remarkable testament to such questing, vivid minding, as these aphorisms alight on everything from the nature of perception, to God, success, fear, shame, self-consciousness, love and friendship."--Laurie Sheck

Joe Rush takes on a new terror, spawned in the Amazon rain forest, that threatens to bring the world to its knees in James Abel's latest bio-thriller, now in paperback. While studying new forms of malaria at an Amazon gold rush, Joe Rush's best friend and partner, Eddie Nakamura, disappears. Learning that many of the sick miners have also vanished, Rush begins a search for Eddie that takes him into the heart of darkness--where while battling for his life, he discovers a secret that may change the world. Thousands of miles away, sick people are starting to flood into U.S. hospitals. When the White House admits that it has received terrorist threats, cities across the Northeast begin to shut down. Rush and his team must journey from one of the most remote spots on Earth to one of the busiest, as the clock ticks toward a kind of annihilation not thought possible. They have even less time than they think to solve the mystery, for the danger--as bad as it is--is about to get even worse.

The author of Your Short Game Solution presents his Tour-proven putting-improvement system that can work with any stroke. In a follow-up to the industry-acclaimed Your Short Game Solution (2015), James Sieckmann presents a no-nonsense plan to making more putts. Most putting manuals focus on hard-set mechanics that even the top putters on Tour fail to achieve. According to Sieckmann, you can score even if your mechanics are flawed as long as you master four essential skills: 1) choosing the correct line; 2) starting your ball on that line; 3) matching the line with appropriate speed; and 4) believing completely in yourself and in your training. Borrowing from the same playbook he uses with his Tour clients, Sieckmann outlines a step-by-step process for perfecting these skills, which automatically boost performance.

Mutually assured destruction has led to decades of peace between humanity and the Trisolarans, but a new force is awakening and this delicate balance can no longer hold... Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early twenty-first century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle? Death's End is the New York Times bestselling conclusion to Cixin Liu's tour-de-force series that began with The Three-Body Problem. "The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder." --The Wall Street Journal "A meditation on technology, progress, morality, extinction, and knowledge that doubles as a cosmos- in-the-balance thriller." --NPR The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning (forthcoming)