Sixteen-year-old Jocelyn Nye is quick, glib, and little. As a member of the incoming freshman class at a womens college, Joss is domiciled on campus at Harmon House with a gaggle of other girls who have never been away from home before. It is not long before Joss is immersed in not just the abundance of social activities that surround Harmon House, but also the academic expectations of the university. As she eagerly looks forward to her first writing class, Joss sets a goal to create literature worthy of publication. While making friends amid costume parties, sing-alongs, and long conversations and exploring all that accompanies her venture into womanhood, Joss focuses on enlightening the world with her writing. Mocked by some, encouraged by others, and mentored by a supportive writing professor, she rents a summer cottage with an interesting history and eventually produces a novel. Now only time will tell if she can overcome criticism and achieve the resounding literary success she has always dreamed of. In this compelling historical novel, a witty teenager embarks on a unique coming-of-age journey where she learns about friendship, love, and whether she has the gumption to become a published author.

‘Beauty is only skin deep, it’s what’s inside a person that counts,’ very nice sentiments, but does anyone actually believe these little pearls of wisdom? Joss Hinchcliff was at a disadvantage from the moment he was born. You could not disguise the fact that he was a very ugly child, but he did not deserve the treatment that was dished out to him. From birth, Joss had been a figure of fun; his friends teased him mercilessly and made unkind remarks about his affliction. For years he had endured this bad behaviour because he was lonely and wanted to be part of the community, but they were only his friends because of what they could get from him. Then one day he found an abandoned vintage car which he re-built. As he was to discover, this was no ordinary car. Whilst out on a road test one day, it whisked him away to a mysterious place which would change his life forever. Book reviews online: PublishedBestsellers website.

From the cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which netted four million viewers per episode, to the summer blockbuster The Avengers, which amassed a box office of $1.5 billion, Joss Whedon has made a name for himself in Hollywood for his penchant for telling meaningful, personal tales about love, death, and redemption even against the most dramatic and larger-than-life backdrops. This biography follows his development from a creative child and teenager who spent years away from his family at an elite English public school, through his early successes—which often turned into frustrating heartbreak in both television (Roseanne) and film (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)—to his breakout turn as the creator, writer, and director of the Buffy television series. Extensive, original interviews with Whedon's family, friends, collaborators, and stars—and with the man himself—offer candid, behind-the-scenes accounts of the making of groundbreaking series such as Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse, as well as new stories about his work with Pixar writers and animators during the creation of Toy Story. Most importantly, however, these conversations present an intimate and revealing portrait of a man whose creativity and storytelling ability have manifested themselves in comics, online media, television, and film.

Spring 2012 saw the return to creative and critical success of Joss Whedon, with the release of both his horror flick The Cabin in the Woods and the box-office sensation, Marvel's The Avengers. After establishing himself as a premier cult creator, the man who gave us great television with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse and web series Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog, as well as comic books including Fray and Astonishing X-Men, finally became the filmmaker he'd long dreamed of being. Drawing on a wide variety of sources and making use of psychologist Howard Gruber's insights into the nature of the creative process, Joss, A Creative Portrait offers the first intellectual biography of Whedon, tracking his career arc from activated fan boy to film studies major, third generation television writer, successful script doctor, innovative television auteur, beloved cult icon, sought-after collaborator, and major filmmaker with Marvel's The Avengers. Film and television scholar and Whedon expert David Lavery traces Whedon's multi-faceted magic from its source - the early influences of parents and teachers, comics, books, movies, collaborators - to its artistic incarnation.

At the height of her carer, multiple Grammy and Academy Award winner, Joss Lynn is in high demand at all the major social events, rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. Rising from obscurity and poverty to wealth, power and fame. She has it all. Except for an active love life. A chance sighting of a tall mysterious man at a Formula One race event in Montreal interests her. He is a mystery. Unlike other men, not only does he pay no attention to her, he actually ignores her. Everyone in the race paddock seems to know him, but not much about him. Taking the initiative, Joss confronts this mystery man, finds he is witty, charming and courteous. Joss finds herself having feelings she has not felt since her school days. Should she take the chance?

Although it lasted barely more than a season, Dollhouse continues to intrigue viewers as one of Joss Whedon’s most provocative forays into television. The program centered on men and women who have their memories and personalities repeatedly wiped and replaced with new ones by a shadowy corporation dedicated to “fulfilling the whims of the rich.” This chilling scenario was used to tell stories about big issues—power and resistance, freedom and servitude, class and gender—while always returning to its central themes of identity and individuality. In Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse: Confounding Purpose, Confusing Identity, Sherry Ginn, Alyson R. Buckman, and Heather M. Porter bring together fourteen diverse essays that showcase the series’ complex vision of the future. Contributors probe deeply into the fictional universe of the show by considering the motives of the wealthy clients and asking what love means when personalities are continually remade. Other essays consider the show’s relations to politics, philosophy, and psychology and its representations of race and gender. Several essays explore the show’s complex relationship to transhumanism: considering the dark potential for dehumanization and abuse that lurks beneath the promise of turning bodies into temporary vessels for immortal, downloadable personalities. Though a short-lived series, Dollhouse has been hailed as one of television’s most thoughtful explorations of classic science fiction themes. As the first serious treatment of this landmark show, this collection will interest science-fiction scholars and Whedon fans alike.