DIY MFA


Book Description

Get the Knowledge Without the College! You are a writer. You dream of sharing your words with the world, and you're willing to put in the hard work to achieve success. You may have even considered earning your MFA, but for whatever reason--tuition costs, the time commitment, or other responsibilities--you've never been able to do it. Or maybe you've been looking for a self-guided approach so you don't have to go back to school. This book is for you. DIY MFA is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. By combining the three main components of a traditional MFA--writing, reading, and community--it teaches you how to craft compelling stories, engage your readers, and publish your work. Inside you'll learn how to: • Set customized goals for writing and learning. • Generate ideas on demand. • Outline your book from beginning to end. • Breathe life into your characters. • Master point of view, voice, dialogue, and more. • Read with a "writer's eye" to emulate the techniques of others. • Network like a pro, get the most out of writing workshops, and submit your work successfully. Writing belongs to everyone--not only those who earn a degree. With DIY MFA, you can take charge of your writing, produce high-quality work, get published, and build a writing career.




One For Sorrow


Book Description

A chilling psychological thriller by a million-copy bestselling author. Who really killed Maisie Earnshaw? Within the walls of the high-security psychiatric facility, Crowmont Hospital, reside many violent offenders. To nurse Leah Smith, no matter what, all offenders are patients first and foremost. When Leah is appointed as a nurse to Isabel Fielding, she is determined to remain professional despite the shocking crime Isabel allegedly committed in her past. Years ago, six-year-old Maisie Earnshaw was found face down in a duck pond, her body mutilated. Isabel--at age fourteen, found covered in Maisie's blood--was convicted of murder. As Leah spends time with Isabel, she comes to know her as a young woman with a sweet, gentle nature, someone she could never see as a murderer. Leah begins to suspect members of the Fielding family of framing Isabel as a young girl, and she's not the only one. True crime blogger James Gorden thinks Isabel is innocent too. Is Leah allowing her own dark past to taint her judgement as she grows closer to her patient? Or has a young woman been unjustly robbed of her childhood? Praise for the Isabel Fielding series: "I can't praise this book enough...it was one of the best books I've read this year!" "Without giving too much away the characters had me fooled! Nothing is what it seems, you need to keep reading ... just one more chapter..." "One For Sorrow is such a fabulously dark and twisted read. I knew from the opening pages it was going to be good but by heck I didn't forsee the twists and turns as they happened. It's one of those stories that you will be constantly second-guessing and jumping at conclusions only to be totally wrong." "This dark, twisty psychological thriller was totally riveting."




Falling Angel


Book Description

Edgar Award Finalist: The hunt for a vanished singer leads a detective into the depths of the occult in this “terrific” novel (Stephen King). Big-band frontman Johnny Favorite was singing for the troops when a Luftwaffe fighter squadron strafed the bandstand, killing the crowd and leaving the singer near death. The army returned him to a private hospital in upstate New York, leaving him to live out his days as a vegetable while the world forgot him. But Louis Cyphre never forgets. Cyphre had a contract with the singer, stipulating payment upon Johnny’s death—payment that will be denied as long as Johnny clings to life. When Cyphre hires private investigator Harry Angel to find Johnny at the hospital, Angel learns that the singer has disappeared. It is no ordinary missing-person’s case. Everyone he questions dies soon after, as Angel’s investigation ensnares him in a bizarre tangle of black magic, carnival freaks, and grisly voodoo. When the sinister Louis Cyphre begins appearing in Angel’s dreams, the detective fears for his life, his sanity, and his soul. Falling Angel was the basis for the Alan Parker film Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet. This ebook features an illustrated biography of William Hjortsberg including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.




Gwendy's Final Task


Book Description

The final book in the New York Times bestselling Gwendy’s Button Box trilogy from Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its eight colored buttons promised death and destruction. Years later, the button box reentered Gwendy’s life. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation the box represented. Now, malignant forces seek to possess the button box, and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them at all costs. But where can one hide something from such powerful entities? In Gwendy’s Final Task, master storytellers Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.




The Icarus Hunt


Book Description

From Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of two landmark Star Wars® series, comes an original new tale featuring a renegade space pilot, his unusual alien partner, and an unknown cargo that can change the course of galactic history. Jordan McKell has a problem with authority. Unfortunately for him, the iron-fisted authority of the powerful Patthaaunutth controls virtually every aspect of galactic shipping. In order to survive, Jordan ekes out a living dabbling in interstellar smuggling for outlaw concerns that represent the last vestiges of free trade in the galaxy. So when Jordan and his partner, Ixil--an alien with two ferret-like "outhunters" linked to his neural system--are hired by a mysterious gentleman to fly a ship and its special cargo to Earth, they jump at the job. Caution has never been one of Jordan's strong suits. But this time he may have taken on more than even he can handle. The ship, Icarus, turns out to be a ramshackle hulk, the ragtag crew literally picked up off the street, and the cargo so secret, it's sealed in a special container that takes up most of the cramped and ill-designed ship. As if that weren't bad enough, it looks like the authorities already suspect something is afoot, there's a saboteur aboard, and the Icarus appears to be shaking apart at the seams. It doesn't seem as if things could get any worse. That is, until a beautiful crew member helps McKell uncover the true nature of the cargo he's carrying. With his enemies closing in on the lumbering Icarus, the unknown saboteur still aboard, and authorities on Earth pressured to turn them in, McKell and Ixil become fugitives. Their only chance is to stay one step ahead of their pursuers as they try to make it home. A bold and epic novel filled with unrelenting action and a good dose of humor, The Icarus Hunt is a wild hyperspace romp through the galaxy.




The Good Samaritan


Book Description

"The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn't want them to hope. She wants them to die. Laura hasn't had it easy: she's survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn't love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it. But now someone's on to her -- Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together? The sinister truth is within Ryan's grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to ... Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder."--Page 4 of cover.




The Drowning Kind


Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invited and The Winter People comes a chilling new novel about a woman who returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim. Be careful what you wish for. When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie’s mental state has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax returns to the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching their family’s and the house’s history. And as Jax dives deeper into that research, she discovers that the land holds a far darker history than she could have ever imagined. In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the spring is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives. A haunting, twisty, and compulsively readable thrill ride from the author who Chris Bohjalian has dubbed the “literary descendant of Shirley Jackson,” The Drowning Kind is a modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us.




Her Last Regret (A Rachel Gift FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 9)


Book Description

Medical staff are turning up murdered, the victim of a serial killer, and FBI Special Agent Rachel Gift must race against time to save those who are trying to save others. Yet this twisted killer is too smart, and always seems to be one step ahead. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery.” —Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) HER LAST REGRET (A Rachel Gift FBI Suspense Thriller) is book #9 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller and USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose bestseller Once Gone (a free download) has received over 7,000 five star ratings and reviews. FBI Agent Rachel Gift, 33, unparalleled for her ability to enter the minds of serial killers, is a rising star in the Behavioral Crimes Unit—until a routine doctor visit reveals she has but a few months left to live. Not wishing to burden others with her pain, Rachel decides, agonizing as it is, not to tell anyone—not even her boss, her partner, her husband, or her seven-year-old daughter. She wants to go down fighting, and to take as many serial killers with her as she can, but she can feel herself slipping. She has taken a turn for the worse, and won’t be able to hide much longer. Will Rachel be able to stop one last killer? A page-turning and harrowing crime thriller featuring a brilliant and tortured FBI agent, the RACHEL GIFT series is a riveting mystery, packed with non-stop action, suspense, twists and turns, revelations, and driven by a breakneck pace that will keep you flipping pages late into the night. Fans of Rachel Caine, Teresa Driscoll and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love. Book #10 (HER LAST HOUR) is now also available! “An edge of your seat thriller in a new series that keeps you turning pages! ...So many twists, turns and red herrings… I can't wait to see what happens next.” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) “A strong, complex story about two FBI agents trying to stop a serial killer. If you want an author to capture your attention and have you guessing, yet trying to put the pieces together, Pierce is your author!” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) “A typical Blake Pierce twisting, turning, roller coaster ride suspense thriller. Will have you turning the pages to the last sentence of the last chapter!!!” —Reader review (City of Prey) “Right from the start we have an unusual protagonist that I haven't seen done in this genre before. The action is nonstop… A very atmospheric novel that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours.” —Reader review (City of Prey) “Everything that I look for in a book… a great plot, interesting characters, and grabs your interest right away. The book moves along at a breakneck pace and stays that way until the end. Now on go I to book two!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone) “Exciting, heart pounding, edge of your seat book… a must read for mystery and suspense readers!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone)




All For Me (A Nicky Lyons FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 7)


Book Description

FBI Special Agent Nicky Lyons is stunned when a cassette tape arrives in the mail, blasting a killer’s voice, taunting her to stop him from taking his next victim. In this killer’s diabolical game of cat and mouse, Nicky must ask herself: is she one step ahead of him? Or a useful pawn for his game? “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery.” —Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ALL FOR ME (A Nicky Lyons FBI Suspense Thriller) is book #7 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller and USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose bestseller Once Gone (a free download) has received over 7,000 five star ratings and reviews. A page-turning and harrowing crime thriller featuring a brilliant and tortured FBI agent, the NICKY LYONS series is a riveting mystery, packed with non-stop action, suspense, twists and turns, revelations, and driven by a breakneck pace that will keep you flipping pages late into the night. Fans of Rachel Caine, Teresa Driscoll and Robert Dugoni are sure to fall in love. Future books in the series will soon be available. “An edge of your seat thriller in a new series that keeps you turning pages! ...So many twists, turns and red herrings… I can't wait to see what happens next.” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A strong, complex story about two FBI agents trying to stop a serial killer. If you want an author to capture your attention and have you guessing, yet trying to put the pieces together, Pierce is your author!” —Reader review (Her Last Wish) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A typical Blake Pierce twisting, turning, roller coaster ride suspense thriller. Will have you turning the pages to the last sentence of the last chapter!!!” —Reader review (City of Prey) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Right from the start we have an unusual protagonist that I haven't seen done in this genre before. The action is nonstop… A very atmospheric novel that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours.” —Reader review (City of Prey) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Everything that I look for in a book… a great plot, interesting characters, and grabs your interest right away. The book moves along at a breakneck pace and stays that way until the end. Now on go I to book two!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Exciting, heart pounding, edge of your seat book… a must read for mystery and suspense readers!” —Reader review (Girl, Alone) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐




In The Dark (An Elle Keen FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1)


Book Description

When the FBI is faced with its toughest riddles, it turns to Agent Elle Keen, a genius at cracking codes and using her skill to catch the most cunning serial killers. When a new serial killer leaves behind a haunting music box after claiming each victim, FBI Agent Elle Keen must rely on her sharp instincts and sharper mind to decipher the cryptic melodies—before the next life is taken. “The plot has many twists and turns, but it is the ending, which I did not see coming at all, that totally defines this book as one of the most riveting that I have read in years.” —Reader review for Not Like Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ IN THE DARK is BOOK #1 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller Ava Strong, whose bestseller NOT LIKE US (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star ratings and reviews. An enthralling crime thriller with a captivating and complex female protagonist, Elle Keen is a riveting mystery series with non-stop action, suspense, and unexpected plot twists that are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat well into the night. Fans of Robert Dugoni, Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Gardner are sure to fall in love. Future books in the series are also available. “This is a chilling, suspenseful page turner that just might leave you scared at night!” —Reader review for Not Like Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Very intriguing, kept me turning page after page… Lots of twists and turns and a very unexpected ending. Cannot wait for the next in this series!” —Reader review for Not Like Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A roller coaster ride of events… Can’t put down until you finish it!” —Reader review for Not Like Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Excellent read with very realistic characters that you become emotionally invested in… Couldn't put it down!” —Reader review for The Death Code ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “An excellent read, lots of twists and turns, with a surprising ending, leaving you wanting to read the next book in the series! Well done!” —Reader review for The Death Code ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Well worth the read. Cannot wait to see what happens in the next book!” —Reader review for The Death Code ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Quickly became a story I couldn’t put down! I highly recommend this book!” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I really enjoyed the fast-paced action, plot design and characterization... I didn't want to put the book down and the ending was a total surprise.” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The characters are extremely well developed… There are twists and turns in the plot that kept me guessing. An extremely well written story.” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “One of the best books I have ever read… The ending was perfect and surprising. Ava Strong is an amazing writer.” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Holy cow, what a rollercoaster… Many times I absolutely KNEW who the killer was—only to be proven wrong each time. I was completely surprised by the ending. I have to say, I am thrilled that this is the first in a series. My only complaint is that the next one isn't out yet. I need it!” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “An incredible, intense, spellbinding, enjoyable story. It will keep you captivated until the end.” —Reader review for His Other Wife ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐




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