Part memoir, part handbook, part survey of the contemporary literary scene, Joan Frank’s Because You Have To: A Writing Life is a collection of essays that, taken together, provide a walking tour of the writing life. Frank’s aim is to form a coherent vision, one that may provide some communion about realities of the writer's vocation that have struck her as rarely revealed. Frank offers what she has learned as a writer not only to other writers, but to those to whom good writing matters. Her insights about "thinking on paper" are never dogmatic or pontifical; rather, they are cordial and intellectually welcoming. Original, witty, and practical, Frank ably steers us through the journey of her own life as a writer, as well as through the careers and work of other writers. Her subjects range widely, from the “boot camp” conditioning of marketing work to squaring off with rejection and envy; from sustaining belief in art’s necessity to the baffling subjectivity of literary perception and the magical books that nourish writers. Frank’s personal journey is wonderfully told, so that what in these essays is particular becomes useful and universal.

BRAVE Books partnered with Missy Robertson to write "Because You're My Family," a Christian children's book that teaches kids about the importance of family and unconditional love.

Remember when you could hear yourself think? Imagine returning your mind to its original clear and healthy voice. This practical, inspirational guide will help you think and reason with a clear mind. It continues to help you with physical and mental exercises to keep your thoughts focused and your productivity level up! All of us have accumulated a life time of mental impressions, beliefs and opinions. We have not always been diligent in discriminating between right and wrong. We have been negligent in choosing the right attitude, thoughts and paths, and we have been avoiding dealing with painful issues. The list goes on and on...

I am trying to share some lessons learned in life and corporate America so that others can avoid the same mistakes I made along the way and enjoy a more successful and balanced life. How did a regular guy competing around peers with the highest of educational pedigrees in the country rise to the top levels of corporate America? What skills did it take for him to earn millions of dollars working in a company rated "Most Innovative" by Fortune Magazine for six consecutive years? How did he maintain his personal values while sitting on the executive committee of a company that succumbed so spectacularly to scandal and downfall? In Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should: Keys to a Successful Life, author and former Enron employee Mike S. McConnell shares his unique tips for success. He combines specific personal and business lessons, experiences, affirmations, and actions that have made him the person he is today, including: Keeping a journal; writing down thoughts and keeping perspective. Living with an attitude of gratitude and keeping it. Living with passion in everything you do. Keeping a positive attitude in difficult times. Using goals and objectives to achieve success

This is what your coaches would have said to you if you were a boy, told through the story of a small-college soccer team that won more games than it ever had a right to win. It’s an inspiring and straightforward look at the qualities that define the most competitive females, and what separates the ones who get it from the ones who don't. Everything Your Coach Never Told You is the instruction manual for female athletes who want to do more than just play. It's for those girls who want to win, win big, and never apologize for it. It's the call-to-arms for competitive female athletes who dare to color outside of the lines. Not recommended for readers under the age of 13.

The ring shout is the oldest known African American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent. Performed for the purpose of religious worship, this fusion of dance, song, and percussion survives today in the Bolton Community of McIntosh County, Georgia. Incorporating oral history, first-person accounts, musical transcriptions, photographs, and drawings, Shout Because You're Free documents a group of performers known as the McIntosh County Shouters. Derived from African practices, the ring shout combines call-and-response singing, the percussion of a stick or broom on a wood floor, and hand-clapping and foot-tapping. First described in depth by outside observers on the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia during the Civil War, the ring shout was presumed to have died out in active practice until 1980, when the shouters in the Bolton community first came to the public's attention. Shout Because You're Free is the result of sixteen years of research and fieldwork by Art and Margo Rosenbaum, authors of Folk Visions and Voices. The book includes descriptions of present-day community shouts, a chapter on the history of the shout's African origins, the recollections of early outside observers, and later folklorists' comments. In addition, the tunes and texts of twenty-five shout songs performed by the McIntosh County Shouters are transcribed by ethnomusicologist Johann S. Buis.Shout Because You're Free is a fascinating look at a unique living tradition that demonstrates ties to Africa, slavery, and Emancipation while interweaving these influences with worship and oneness with the spirit.

Life: Why Live if You Have to Die? is a unique work that shares principles and illustrations that you may not have thought of. Some of us just live. We take life for granted, and we move according to what we must do or should do. As humans, we have to put up with life because we are here, and we have no choice. Life to me is like reading a good mystery book. You keep wondering what the next thing will be or how it will end. A problem arises; you solve it. You find joy in attending classes to improve yourself, and it brings excitement and entertainment. This book is full of poetry, quotations, instructions, and illustrations. Its all about living, and if the living is right, enjoyment, excitement, and fulfilling achievement follows. Life: Why Live if You Have to Die? is written to enlarge your vision about life and to further guide you through the maze and entanglements that life throws at you every day.