Showing results by author "Scott James" in All Categories

There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast...You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down...Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.

Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered. It is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees.

After training off-planet with a deceptive god and her vicious cat, Lucas is thrown off balance by how quickly things have changed upon his return. The Tower has merged several floors and become a series of islands among a vast ocean. Danger is everywhere now. Elemental storms, bio-engineered monsters, and creatures from the deep abyss roam the area. Amongst this chaotic region stands the Golden Door Quest. An open competition offering a grand prize to whoever solves it first. For Lucas and his friends, it could mean a true escape from the Tower.

When the Ornu came, they took Earth in a single night. Humanity never stood a chance. Now, they force us to crew their ships and fight their wars for them. They hold Earth hostage, and if we refuse to do their bidding, they’ll lay waste to our precious blue marble. Slaughtering the billions who live there. But when Captain Bill Henderson is sent to claim a small moon for his masters, he finds something they never accounted for. An ancient warship – a behemoth abandoned for millennia by a species that reached its peak at the dawn of the universe.

Canary in a (Post) Covid World: Money, Fear and Power is the powerful second volume in the bestselling Canary in a Covid World series. It is a rich, varied and disturbing story, told by many of the world’s bravest and most qualified voices, of how health care, information and financial systems have been compromised in the name of profit and control. While the first volume, Canary in a Covid World: How Propaganda and Censorship Changed Our (My) World, looked closely at the pandemic and how we were all fed a diet of propaganda, while the media prevented the dissemination of truth and ...

For two thousand years, the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia—a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries—have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them: slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless.

In a false city built on lies, the factions prepare for war. The orcs awaken primeval curses. The cultists collect on ancient debts. The goblins fuel their war rigs. None of it will be enough for what’s coming. After the Golden Door incident, Lucas and Hugo have never been in more danger. Their allies are gone, the gods want them dead, and their new patron who caused all of these problems is more of a hindrance than a benefactor. But the Climb must continue.

Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: "If we lose the war, we'll be tried as war criminals."

What are the secrets for writing a great ending for your novel? How do you leave readers so satisfied that they'll want another book by you, right now? What tools and techniques can shape your last 50 pages into a powerful, unforgettable experience? Listen to this audiobook, and you will come away with a thorough knowledge of why great endings work and how to create them for every novel you write.

Another group has claimed the Wolf system and is willing to fight for it. Alex and Jay have to defend the system they migrated to while saving the other colonies from themselves.

Alex has decided they must be stopped and takes steps to do just that. Meanwhile, Earth runs up against the Imperium again and they don't like what happens next.

Now, learn the master key for writing great short stories, and the strategies for using them to advance your writing career As most writers will tell you, the hardest fiction form to master is the short story. To be successful, a short story needs to have "emotional wallop," and in under 7,000 words. Not easy to do. In this book, #1 bestselling writing teacher James Scott Bell explains the essential ingredient for a successful short story, no matter the genre. He shows how any writer—whether planner or "pantser"—can use this key to unlock infinite story possibilities. And turn readers ...

This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors shows that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run.

Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deception—the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed.

The Imperium does not take it lightly when its slaves revolt. Earth's population has been decimated, and Captain Bill Henderson is fleeing imperial attack dogs with his crew and two million refugees—the last of humanity. Starship Omega could be the answer to turning the tide and finally ending the Imperium's tyranny. But not in its current form. The Omega is capable of so much more—but to unlock the enormous ship's true power, Bill must lead those under his command into the heart of empire space.

Jemma Redgrave, Clare Higgins, Nicola Bryant and Dan Starkey are among the readers of this exclusive collection of nine original audio adventures. Join the Twelfth Doctor, as played on TV by Peter Capaldi, as he meets friends and enemies new and old on these journeys in Time and Space. In the...

Young, idealistic law clerk Rachel Ybarra has just been handed a career-making opportunity - helping in the prosecution of an infamous leader of the Russian Mafia. But when the star witness turns up dead, Rachel discovers the case is not merely a battle for the truth - it's a battle for her life.

The courtrooms of 1904 Los Angeles . . . Clarence Darrow . . . President Teddy Roosevelt . . . William Randolph Hearst . . .and one young woman determined to crack the walls of the legal profession dominated by an old boys’ network . . . The bestselling, inspirational historical series continues. When an old enemy of Kit Shannon is arrested on suspicion of murder, he insists Kit is the only one who can represent him. Refusing at first, but moved by his desperation, she agrees. His possible guilt tests Kit’s resolve to represent only the innocent. Step-by-step, she discovers there is ...

James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing - one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.

The courtrooms of 1903 Los Angeles are a man’s world––until Kit Shannon arrives With shoulders squared and dreams set high, Kit Shannon arrives in Los Angeles feeling a special calling to the law. Yet under the care of her socialite aunt, Kit quickly comes to realize that few understand her burning desire to seek justice and practice a profession known only to men. When her aunt adamantly refuses to support her unconventional career aspirations, Kit questions whether she is truly following God's will. And when her growing love for a man pledged to another threatens scandal, Kit knows ...