Showing results by narrator "Sonja Field" in All Categories

When Sydney Rye's good friend and fellow Joyful Justice council member, Merl, goes missing in Shanghai, she and her dog, Blue, rush to the People's Republic to track him down. Following Merl's trail leads Sydney into the darkest corners of China's corruption, where she witnesses atrocities that make her already cold blood freeze.

Inspiration is a slippery thing at the best of times. But as a writer, you can't afford to wait around on Madam Muse's goodwill. In this encouraging audiobook, award-winning author K.M. Weiland shows you how to nurture creativity and put it at your summons, rather than the other way around.

The dog’s howls echo the mechanical whine of the sirens blaring from the speakers. The sounds undulate, rising and falling like the jungle-draped topography around us. The airfield we stand on is a swath of ochre in a sea of riotous green—the sky above a cerulean dome hazed in tremulous clouds. Sunlight beats through them, baking the dirt, mixing with the moisture of the jungle and wrapping itself around us in a heavy, sweaty embrace. My arms tighten around my son.

Standing at the edge of the gateway, I understand two things. One, I have no idea what I’m doing. Two, the gateway to Hell is not closing. Now, there may be only one option left to me, to all of us. I may have to enter the one place I’d hoped to avoid throughout this journey. I may have to enter Hell. Unfortunately, a change in events takes the choice away from me.

Ten years ago, I adopted Blue after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning, I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you to never buy a dog on impulse. Going to the pound because you need something in your life that's worth holding onto is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I asked the man at the pound to show me the biggest dogs they had. He showed me some Rottweiler-German Shepherd puppies that he said would grow to be quite large.

Ready to take your story's character arcs and themes to the next level? This latest book from veteran writing teacher and story theorist K.M. Weiland ventures far beyond the popular and pervasive Hero's Journey to explore six important archetypal character arcs, representing key moments of initiation in the human experience.

Blue and I sit in the cockpit of a sailboat. My eyes scan the open ocean while female Peshmerga fighters sleep all around me—below deck, across benches on the bow, and one curled up on the stern.

It has been 13 years since the war started, the bombs were dropped, and the central states became a thing of the past. When the war ended, a wall was erected to divide the surviving states from those destroyed. I never expected to go beyond the wall, but unlike all the others who volunteered to go, I wasn't given a choice. With a dim knowledge of what I could do, the soldiers came for me. They took me beyond the wall where I learned that the truth is far more terrifying than I'd ever dreamed.

A cold wind rushes across the fallow corn field, pulling at my cargo pants and dipping into the open neck of my long overcoat. It's too large for me, drooping off the shoulders and buttoned around my son, James, as he sleeps against my chest in his baby carrier. Blue's nose taps my hip. My son's breath warms my chest. This is home. They say you can’t ever go home again–but I think they're wrong. No matter where I stand, as long as I have these two with me, I am home.

Theme—the mysterious cousin of plot and character. Too often viewed as abstract rather than actionable, theme is frequently misunderstood and left to chance. Some writers even insist theme should not be purposefully implemented. This is unfortunate, because in many ways theme is story. Theme is the heart, the meaning, the point. Nothing that important should be overlooked. Powerful themes are never incidental. They emerge from the conjunction of strong plots and resonant character arcs.

Trouble finds Rye when she stops the attempted rape and murder of Anita, a reporter working on a story of corruption and child trafficking. The atrocities Anita describes send Sydney and Blue on a quest that takes them across India after a dangerous and, up until now, untouchable, figure.

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the nutshell technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story.

Master the art of crafting workshops that not only educate but also inspire lasting transformation in participants, with this time-tested and user-friendly guide. This comprehensive guidebook equips you with everything you need to successfully facilitate personal growth and collective wisdom in workshops, retreats, and trainings. Featuring a range of ready-to-use exercises, templates, worksheets, and checklists, this results-driven guide empowers you to confidently create and fine-tune your workshops with confidence and skill.

Let outlines help you write a better book! Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal.

When I find myself face-to-face with Lucifer, I realize what he wants from me could annihilate Hell and Earth. I would do anything for those I love, but with the fate of the world resting on my shoulders, I’m not sure I can stop him from destroying us all.

River: As the perilous journey across a country I’d long thought destroyed begins, I don’t know who I am anymore or what I’m becoming. My abilities grow stronger with each passing day, as does the fear of what comes next. All I know is that I will do anything to avoid becoming like Lucifer, and to protect those I love, even if that means protecting them from me.

Special agent Sophie Ang's emotions are battered by a child kidnapping case that goes badly wrong. In tracking the criminal ring, her rogue data analysis program D.A.V.I.D. identifies an anomaly that leads her into a cat-and-mouse game Online with a deadly enemy whose motives are unclear. The chase lures her through dark corridors of cyberspace into a confrontation with the violence from her past that sent her fleeing to the United States. She'll need every skill she's learned to defeat her worst nightmare - and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Help clients overcome chronic feelings of not being good enough and debilitating negative thought patterns that may have begun in childhood. Combining 40 years of experience as an educator, child development specialist, and clinician, Dr. Patti Ashley created Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self to help clinicians crack the code on the often unseen and unspoken aspects of core shame, and develop more effective treatment for even your most resistant clients.

BEFORE THE KILLING: After 19-year-old Cassie returns home from her first year away at college, her boyfriend, Julian, is implicated in a brutal killing. Seven years later, a freak occurrence gives Cassie a unique time-traveling ability, allowing her to re-live that earlier time with the benefit of foreknowledge. But in witnessing the truth, she inadvertently reveals herself to the killer, who begins to pursue her in past and present both. “Once I started I couldn’t put it down!” -Bookshelf Adventures

Gia Santella is all about the fast life. Ever since her parents died in a tragic accident, she’s been burning through her inheritance, chasing desperate highs in the hopes of forgetting her past. But when an unexpected letter arrives, the past finally catches up to her. Because her parents’ death was no accident...and now their killer is coming for her.