Charles Ferguson's hilarious, hard-boiled journey into the heart of high-tech darkness has become the signal book of the start-up generation. Charles Ferguson started Vermeer Technologies and turned his very big idea into FrontPage, the first software product for creating and managing a website. Ferguson took a good idea, started a company, and sold it to Microsoft for $133 million -- all in less than two years. High Stakes, No Prisoners is both a blistering inside account of how he did it and a brilliant tour of the brutally competitive and utterly unique world of Silicon Valley. - Publisher.

A bit of magic, a sprinkling of adventure, and a whole lot of heart collide in All the Impossible Things, Lindsay Lackey's extraordinary middle-grade novel about a young girl navigating the foster care system in search of where she belongs. "Wise and wondrous, this is truly a novel to cherish.” —Katherine Applegate, New York Times–bestselling author of Wishtree An Indies Introduce Selection Red’s inexplicable power over the wind comes from her mother. Whenever Ruby “Red” Byrd is scared or angry, the wind picks up. And being placed in foster care, moving from family to family, tends to keep her skies stormy. Red knows she has to learn to control it, but can’t figure out how. This time, the wind blows Red into the home of the Grooves, a quirky couple who run a petting zoo, complete with a dancing donkey and a giant tortoise. With their own curious gifts, Celine and Jackson Groove seem to fit like a puzzle piece into Red’s heart. But just when Red starts to settle into her new life, a fresh storm rolls in, one she knows all too well: her mother. For so long, Red has longed to have her mom back in her life, and she’s quickly swept up in the vortex of her mother’s chaos. Now Red must discover the possible in the impossible if she wants to overcome her own tornadoes and find the family she needs.

Presents a narrative analysis of the federal budget that reveals how funds were actually spent in 2011, evaluating the roles of such contributors as Jacob Lew, Douglas Elmendorf, and Pete Peterson.

Brave, clear-eyed, and passionate, Stakes Is High is the book we need to guide us past crisis mode and through an uncertain future. The events of the past decade have forced us to reckon with who we are and who we want to be. We have been invested in a set of beliefs about our American identity: our exceptionalism, the inevitable rightness of our path, the promise that hard work and determination will carry us to freedom. But in Stakes Is High, Mychal Denzel Smith confronts the shortcomings of these stories -- and with the American Dream itself -- and calls on us to live up to the principles we profess but fail to realize. In a series of incisive essays, Smith exposes the stark contradictions at the heart of American life, holding all of us, individually and as a nation, to account. We've gotten used to looking away, but the fissures and casual violence of institutional oppression are ever-present. There is a future that is not as grim as our past. In this profound work, Smith helps us envision it with care, honesty, and imagination.

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.

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."

Make your story a page-turner; make a living as a writer. Wouldn't it be great if readers stayed up all night to finish your screenplay or novel? After such an intense emotional experience, when they're done with your story, these readers won't quickly forget about it and reach for another spec script or novel in their TBR pile. Nope. They'll transform into raving fans who'll tell everyone they know about your work. That's how you get onto Hollywood's radar and eventually make the big spec sale. That's how you get the word-of-mouth recommendations that propel a novel to the top of the best-seller lists. It's how you finally achieve your writing dreams through your creativity. Sounds nice, right? But how do you make it happen? How do you keep readers glued to your screenplay or novel? At first, you might use your writing skills to create a likeable hero or craft a high-concept premise. Sure, these things are important. They entice readers to give your story a chance. But they only go so far. They don't keep readers engaged till the very end. To accomplish this, you need something more. You need stakes. Because of stakes, your hero can't walk away from his problem. As a result, readers won't be able to walk away from your story. See, when stakes are in play, readers will be wondering if your hero will succeed or fail at his goal. Then, they worry about him. Then, they're under tension. To relieve this tension, they MUST stay up all night and finish your story-and when they have, they'll rave about the amazing page-turner they couldn't put down. They'll rave about you. Master story stakes, and your screenplay or novel will stand out in a crowded marketplace. This writing skills guide will show you how. Specifically, you'll learn about: 11 Types of Story Stakes Which Increase Tension and Reader Engagement Some of them you already know. A few will be new. At the very least, you'll have a convenient list to check the next time you need a new reason for your hero to save the day, trick your leading lady, or chase down a suspect. Plus, we'll cover best practices. That way, you'll get the most mileage out of the stakes you choose to include in your story. 8 Modulating Factors Which Affect the Emotional Impact of the Stakes Think of modulating factors like the knobs on a stereo system. They can either turn up the emotional "volume," or...they can mute it. Oftentimes, modulating factors are the secret to wringing out the extra drop of emotion that will give your story an advantage over others in its genre. The Story Stake Matrix This is where we put everything together. It's a tool which will show you: how to use stakes to craft a premise with more commercial appeal how to to raise the stakes (even when they're already high!) how to avoid an anticlimactic ending Let's focus on that second benefit for a minute. Several writing guides will tell you that to keep readers interested, you've got apply your creativity and raise the stakes. But, these books are frustratingly vague on how to accomplish this. This book is not vague. This book will give you specific strategies you can use right away to make high stakes feel even higher. Buy this writing skills guide today and take a step closer toward enthralled readers, raving fans, and killer sales! Also available (in ebook): Inciting Incident: How to Begin Your Story and Engage Audiences Right Away Trough of Hell: How to Wrap Up the Middle of Your Story with Maximum Impact Story Climax: How to Avoid Disappointed Audiences and Craft a Screenplay or Novel Climax that Thrills and Delights