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From the Hugo Award-winning hosts of the Writing Excuses writing advice show comes a collection of all-new stories of the fantastic, with beautiful illustrations and a behind-the-scenes look at each story’s creation. 

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about increasing productivity without having to work longer and harder. Soon, you’ll be more productive in the workplace, and at home, you’ll feel energized, optimistic, motivated, and ready for everything life throws your way!

You could be projecting a wrong image of yourself by not using your body language properly. Nonverbal communication is a huge part of any communication process. The good news is, nonverbal language is like any other language, can be taught. This book will transform the way you act and react with your body and improve your confidence. You’ve probably heard many times someone being described as charismatic. While some people truly are naturally charismatic, the idea that you have to be born with it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Waldo, a onetime LAPD superstar, now lives in solitude deep in the woods. He has left behind his career and his girlfriend, Lorena, to pay self-imposed penance for an awful misstep on an old murder case. But the old ghosts are about to come roaring back. Alastair Pinch is a onetime Royal Shakespeare Company thespian who now slums it as the 'wise' Southern judge on a tacky network show. He's absurdly rich, often belligerent, and typically drunk - a damning combination when Alastair's wife is found dead on their living room floor and he can't remember what happened. 

In The Left-Hand Way, the second book of Tom Doyle's contemporary fantasy series, the American craftsmen are scattered like bait overseas. What starts as an ordinary liaison mission to London for Major Michael Endicott becomes a desperate chase across Europe, where Endicott is both hunted and hunter. Reluctantly joining him is his minder from MI13, Commander Grace Marlow, one of her majesty's most lethal magician soldiers, whose family has centuries of justified hostility to the Endicotts. 

The Devil and Tom Walker is a classic short story by Washington Irving. When you make a deal with the devil you have to shake his hand. At the time Tom made his deal, it seemed like a good idea, but as Tom aged and death approached, he became very pious and even carried two Bibles with him. But a deal is a deal as Tom would discover.

Rome, 268 AD. In an age of tyranny and turmoil, an eternal love story ignites a revolution. Valentine, a once-fearsome warrior reborn from the brink of death, sheds his violent past for a new destiny inspired by his blind lover, Agatha. Amidst the ruthless rule of a merciless emperor, Valentine undertakes a clandestine mission: to unite lovers in secret ceremonies, defying imperial decrees that threaten to obliterate the Christian faith.

Half-white, half-Cheyenne Yakima Henry has been ambushed and badly injured. Bleeding to death, he doesn't know who'll get to him first: the gunslingers or hungry wolves. Thankfully, comely widow Aubrey Coffin comes along and drags Yakima to safety. But as he heals, lawless desperados circle closer to finish the job they started by putting his innocent savior in the cross fire.

Cotton Pickens got where he is by virtue of a quick draw and slow wit. He knows the difference between lawbreakers you have to lock up...and the kind you might as well just let go. Deputy Rusty Irons, though, ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. Someone kidnapped Rusty's mail order brides. They were probably doing Irons a favor, but a deputy in love is blind.

When Kelvin was a child, his mother read to him from the Book of Prophecy and he asked what the poem meant. Now he was about to learn. The Kingdom of Rud languishes under the heel of a usurper; an evil sorcerer has taken the throne in the name of his wicked daughter. Even deep in the forest, away from all power, the people tremble and await the day of prophecy's fulfillment. It cannot come too soon: Charlain and her children are soon to lose their home to the tax collector. But Kelvin and Jon have other plans. 

There are very few days off when you're on an epic quest. Believe me, I know. I'm Hedi Peacock - one half Fae, the other were - and if being a half-breed with one foot in each world isn't tough enough to manage, there are the four chambers of my heart to consider. The one who holds the strings? Robson Trowbridge, the Alpha of Creemore. If I had my way, he and I would be locked in a bedroom, for eternity, but a pressing family matter needs my attention. It's true what they say: A woman's work is never done.

Three years ago, an archaeological expedition led by Vatican scholar Juan Vargas discovered something unusual on the shores of the Dead Sea. Early the next morning, Father Vargas, and the artifact he uncovered, disappeared without a trace. Until now. An injured and badly dehydrated Father Vargas wanders out of the New Mexican desert, telling a wild story about a secret research installation and bloodthirsty demons hunting men through its halls.

Seven centuries in the future, the sport of American football has never been bigger, never been faster, never been more lethal. Trillions of fans from all over the galaxy watch six unique races battle in contests so violent that deaths are part of the stat sheet. Star quarterback Quentin Barnes has led his beloved Ionath Krakens to glory on the gridiron and become the most-recognized individual in history, but it is off the field where his world crumbles around him.

John Thomas Rourke, ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer, weapons expert, and survival authority, is pursuing the trail of his wife and children from whom he was separated when World War III began. As he sets out from his retreat, he meets a beautiful woman scientist, who has learned that the nuclear bombing on the Night of the War has created an artificial fault line. Within days, perhaps hours, it will cause one of the most massive quakes in history — separating the Florida peninsula from the US mainland. 

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, “the master of the legal thriller” (Associated Press) teams up with Jim McCloskey, “the godfather of the innocence movement” (Texas Monthly), to share ten harrowing true stories of...

Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they’d grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher’s adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives.

The last time the racist dictator known as the Archon came to Arcadia, he mistook X for an old nemesis and beat him to within an inch of his life. Now the Archon is back, along with his actual nemesis, a mysterious figure called the Mark--and their ancient battle threatens to tear Arcadia to the ground! Even if X can halt a superpowered grudge match, can he rescue his beloved city from the scars it leaves?

The Founding Fathers were never ones to pass up a good weapon. America’s first line of defense has been shrouded in secrecy, magical families who have sworn to use their power to protect our republic. But there are those who reject America’s dream and have chosen the Left Hand Path. 

Abandoned by her allies, the Republic of Venice holds out as the last beacon of resistance against the hobgoblin armies. Armed with new weapons the Southern Horde drives upon the floating city by land and sea. The Northern Horde drives deep into the heart of Europa and all fall before it. The Horde is vast beyond measure. Assassin daggers lurk in every shadow. Necrotic evil seeps and infects.

Abandoned by her allies, the Republic of Venice holds out as the last beacon of resistance against the hobgoblin armies. Armed with new weapons the Southern Horde drives upon the floating city by land and sea. The Northern Horde drives deep into the heart of Europa and all fall before it. The Horde is vast beyond measure. Assassin daggers lurk in every shadow. Necrotic evil seeps and infects.