Martha Alderson

Jordan Rosenfeld

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Florida

Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion, and Theme

Take a Deep Dive into Plot and Scene and Improve Your Writing Whether you're planning your first novel or have already written a first draft, you need to master the concepts of plot and scene to truly realize your story's potential. Writing Deep Scenes teaches you how to write strong, layered, and engaging scenes--the secret to memorable, page-turning plots. It's filled with practical tools for building layers and nuance into your scenes, employing the right scene types at the right junctures, and developing a profound understanding of how plot and scene intertwine. Inside you'll learn: • How scenes are comprised of three key layers: action, emotion, and theme. • How to recognize each layer and weave them seamlessly into a scene. • How to develop an intricate relationship between the action and emotion in every scene. • How thematic imagery embedded in scenes increases a story's tension and contributes to the story's meaning. Using contemporary examples from a variety of genres, Writing Deep Scenes provides an effective method for plotting at the scene level. Use these techniques and enrich your fiction and memoirs with page-turning suspense and pathos, and explore new depths in every story you write.

Writing Deep Scenes

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Jamie Nash

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Reading & Language Arts

How Writers Turn Ideas into Stories

The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Workbook is the writing partner you always wanted--the co-writer who asks all the right questions, helps you dig deep into every aspect of your story, and keeps things inspiring and easy to manage. This workbook will serve as your interactive guide to:?Idea and Concept Brainstorming - Unlock your idea engine with a series of exercises and prompts geared to help you find your best story idea.?Meaningful Themes - Explore yourself, matching your story to something that speaks to your soul and represents your tastes and personality. ?Story Genre Identification - Nail down that pesky question of "What is your story?" with the Save the Cat! Story Genres. ?Create Fully Developed Characters - Give life to main characters who have wants, needs, and flaws. Surround them with a supporting cast that provides opportunities for conflict and thematic tension.?The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet - Discover the tools and detailed exercises to give your story the structure to succeed.They're calling it a workbook, but I see it more as a PLAYbook-both in the sense that it provides a schematic for generating compelling, intimate stories, while also making a sometimes brutal, unwieldy process PLAYFUL and FUN. A book that can do all that has certainly earned its place on any screenwriter's shelf. - Curtis Gwinn, Writer/Producer, Stranger Things, Narcos, The Leftovers, The Walking Dead As an actor (and clandestine writer), it's always hard to put my finger on why I get excited by a particular role or can't put down a particular script. The Save the Cat! Workbook solves these personal mysteries while providing a detailed, fun, and easy roadmap to telling a great story. - Anna Faris, Actress/Producer, The House Bunny, Smiley Face, Lost in Translation, Mom

Save the Cat!® Beat Sheet Workbook

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Paula Munier

How to Build Unforgettable Stories Scene by Scene

Build an Exceptional Plot, One Scene at a Time! Think of your favorite story--the one that kept you turning pages late into the night, the one with a plot so compelling, so multilayered, so perfect that you couldn't put it down. How can you make your own plots--in your novels, short stories, memoirs, or screenplays--just as irresistible? Plot Perfect provides the answer. This one-of-a-kind plotting primer reveals the secrets of creating a story structure that works--no matter what your genre. It gives you the strategies you need to build a scene-by-scene blueprint that will help elevate your fiction and earn the attention of agents and editors. Inside, literary agent, editor, and author Paula Munier shows you how to: • Devise powerful plots and subplots and weave them together seamlessly • Organize your scenes for the greatest impact • Develop captivating protagonists, worthy antagonists, and engaging secondary characters • Use dialogue, setting, tone, and voice to enhance your plot • Layer, refine, and polish your storyline • Define your story in terms of its theme Filled with writing exercises, plotting templates, and expert advice, Plot Perfect helps you dive into the intricacies of plot--and write a compelling story that readers won't be able to resist.

Plot Perfect

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Cheryl St.John

Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel

Craft an Emotionally Charged Story That Will Resonate with Readers Emotional impact shouldn't be dropped into your novel as an afterthought or forced upon your story with a pair of pliers and an iron grip. It should be carefully sewn into the fabric of the story to create tension-filled moments that will keep readers turning pages. In Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict, you'll learn how to layer emotional moments and deep connections to create a tapestry filled with conflict, pathos, and genuine feeling. • Create emotional depth, conflict, and tension in your novel by carefully crafting your plot, characters, setting, word choice, and more. • Learn what makes readers "tick"--and what will elicit the strongest emotional responses. • Write believable, emotional scenes and dialogue--and trim away the sappiness. When writing a novel, your ultimate goal is to make readers smile, weep, rage, and laugh right along with your characters. Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict will show you how to evoke a multitude of feelings in your readers--and keep them coming back for more.

Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict

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Chris Bohjalian

A Novel

In the winter of 1981, trapped by unpassable roads, midwife Sibyl Danforth makes a life-altering decision when she performs an emergency cesarean section on a woman she fears has died of a stroke

Midwives

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W. Michael Gear

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The third book in the thrilling Donovan series, a sci-fi action adventure set on a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the colonists. Corporate assassin Tamarland Benteen's last hope is the survey ship Vixen. With a load of scientists aboard under the supervision of Dr. Dortmund Weisbacher, Vixen is tasked with the first comprehensive survey of the newly discovered planet called Donovan. Given that back in Solar System, Boardmember Radcek would have Benteen's brain dissected, he's particularly motivated to make his escape. The transition that should have taken Vixen years is instantaneous. Worse, a space ship is already orbiting Donovan, and, impossibly, human settlements have been established on the planet. For Dortmund Weisbacher, this is a violation of the most basic conservation tenets. Donovan is an ecological disaster. Down on Donovan, Talina Perez takes refuge in the ruins of Mundo Base with the wild child, Kylee Simonov. But the quetzals are playing their own deadly game: one that forces Talina and Kylee to flee farther into the wilderness. Too bad they're stuck with Dortmund Weisbacher in the process. Back in Port Authority, Dan Wirth discovers that he's not the meanest or deadliest man on the planet. Tamarland Benteen is making his play for control of PA. And in the final struggle, if Benteen can't have it, he'll destroy it all.

Pariah

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Jane Corry

Resolving to leave her secrets behind when she gets married, a young lawyer is strangely drawn to a convicted killer during her first murder case in ways that shape her psychologically charged relationship with a young neighbor years later.

My Husband's Wife

6fc84767-adf0-49f6-a103-219e030983fd-1

Luis A. Miranda

Richard Wolffe

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America

Essential reading from an expert voice our country needs: Luis Miranda's personal and political memoir reveals a deep understanding of Latino culture and building community to change our world for the better. A veteran of New York and national politics, Luis Miranda embodies the relentless spirit of progress of American immigrants. There is nobody on the Latino, New York, and national political scene with the breadth of experience, passion, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In Relentless, he shares the poignant narrative of his life and career--from his early days as a radically minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of political advice and problem solving. We experience the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel. And we experience the family's suffering after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs, challenges, and ongoing hard work, Miranda examines what his experience reveals about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society.

Relentless

3b588d0c-94be-4be2-964e-dc304cf5c93c-0

Workman Publishing

English

The Complete Middle School Study Guide

It’s the revolutionary English language arts study guide just for middle school students from the brains behind Brain Quest. Everything You Need to Ace English Language Arts . . .takes students from grammar to reading comprehension to writing with ease, including parts of speech, active and passive verbs, Greek and Latin roots and affixes; nuances in word meanings; textual analysis, authorship, structure, and other skills for reading fiction and nonfiction; and writing arguments, informative texts, and narratives. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOK™ series is built on a simple and irresistible conceit—borrowing the notes from the smartest kid in class. There are five books in all, and each is the only book you need for each main subject taught in middle school: Math, Science, American History, English Language Arts, and World History. Inside the reader will find every subject’s key concepts, easily digested and summarized: Critical ideas highlighted in neon colors. Definitions explained. Doodles that illuminate tricky concepts in marker. Mnemonics for memorable shortcuts. And quizzes to recap it all. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOKS meet Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and state history standards, and are vetted by National and State Teacher of the Year Award–winning teachers. They make learning fun, and are the perfect next step for every kid who grew up on Brain Quest.

Everything You Need to Ace English Language Arts in One Big Fat Notebook

6921b967-5215-4a98-9a9a-d3c9b313e141-1

Sharon Madanes

Science

It’s the revolutionary science study guide just for middle school students from the brains behind Brain Quest. Everything You Need to Ace Science . . . takes readers from scientific investigation and the engineering design process to the Periodic Table; forces and motion; forms of energy; outer space and the solar system; to earth sciences, biology, body systems, ecology, and more. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOK™ series is built on a simple and irresistible conceit—borrowing the notes from the smartest kid in class. There are five books in all, and each is the only book you need for each main subject taught in middle school: Math, Science, American History, English Language Arts, and World History. Inside the reader will find every subject’s key concepts, easily digested and summarized: Critical ideas highlighted in neon colors. Definitions explained. Doodles that illuminate tricky concepts in marker. Mnemonics for memorable shortcuts. And quizzes to recap it all. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOKS meet Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and state history standards, and are vetted by National and State Teacher of the Year Award–winning teachers. They make learning fun, and are the perfect next step for every kid who grew up on Brain Quest.

Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook

c09809f9-64d1-45d3-af4e-502b65e98615-1

Altair Peterson

Math

It’s the revolutionary math study guide just for middle school students from the brains behind Brain Quest. Everything You Need to Ace Math . . . covers everything to get a student over any math hump: fractions, decimals, and how to multiply and divide them; ratios, proportions, and percentages; geometry; statistics and probability; expressions and equations; and the coordinate plane and functions. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOK™ series is built on a simple and irresistible conceit—borrowing the notes from the smartest kid in class. There are five books in all, and each is the only book you need for each main subject taught in middle school: Math, Science, American History, English Language Arts, and World History. Inside the reader will find every subject’s key concepts, easily digested and summarized: Critical ideas highlighted in neon colors. Definitions explained. Doodles that illuminate tricky concepts in marker. Mnemonics for memorable shortcuts. And quizzes to recap it all. The BIG FAT NOTEBOOKS meet Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and state history standards, and are vetted by National and State Teacher of the Year Award–winning teachers. They make learning fun and are the perfect next step for every kid who grew up on Brain Quest.

Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook

5ee8f8f4-a074-41fb-9e74-ec03d6ee80c8-1

Britney Spears

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

The Woman in Me

15512b77-8ff2-4964-8d20-ade2cc64f106-1

Lisa Scottoline

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Rosato and Dinunzio Novel

Damaged

6fa94d80-29c2-4c63-bed4-ca65d6ad6092-1

Corey Ann Haydu





From the critically acclaimed author of Eventown comes a hopeful and empowering tale set in an enchanting world of magic and mysterious family secrets--perfect for fans of Anne Ursu, Rebecca Stead, and Wendy Mass.

Magic is like a dream. Delightful. Terrifying. Unreal.

Rose Alice Anders is Little Luck. Lucky to be born into the Anders family. Lucky to be just as special and magical as the most revered man in town--her father. The whole town has been waiting for Rose to turn twelve, when she can join them in their annual capturing of magic on New Year's Day and become the person she was born to be.

But when that special day finally comes, Rose barely captures one tiny jar of magic. Now Rose's dad won't talk to her anymore and her friendships have gotten all twisted and wrong. So when Rose hears whispers that there are people who aren't meant for magic at all, she begins to wonder if that's who she belongs with.

Maybe if she's away from all the magic, away from her dad telling her who she's meant to be, who she has to be, Rose can begin to piece together what's truly real in a world full of magic.

* An SLJ Best Book of the Year * A CCBC Choices Pick of the Year *

One Jar of Magic

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Jesse Andrews

Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition)

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Elise Bryant

Jane the Virgin meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this charming debut romantic comedy filled with Black Girl Magic. Perfect for fans of Mary H. K. Choi and Nicola Yoon, with crossover appeal for readers of Jasmine Guillory and Talia Hibbert romances. Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She's rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she's a true leading lady is in her own writing--in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader. When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she's excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just...gone. Fortunately, Caroline has a solution: Tessa just needs to find some inspiration in a real-life love story of her own. And she's ready with a list of romance novel-inspired steps to a happily ever after. Nico, the brooding artist who looks like he walked out of one of Tessa's stories, is cast as the perfect Prince Charming. But as Tessa checks off each item off Caroline's list, she gets further and further away from herself. She risks losing everything she cares about--including the surprising bond she develops with sweet Sam, who lives across the street. She's well on her way to having her own real-life love story, but is it the one she wants, after all? --Becky Albertalli, bestselling author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Happily Ever Afters

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Mystery Writers of America

A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America

From 70 of the most successful mystery writers in the business, an invaluable guide to crafting mysteries—from character development and plot to procedurals and thrillers—“this is a writing guide that readers and writers will turn to again and again” (Booklist, starred review). Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is known for providing unparalleled resources on the craft, art, and business of storytelling, helping writers of all levels improve their skills for nearly a century. Now, this handbook helps authors navigate the ever-shifting publishing landscape—from pacing, plotting, the business side of publishing, to the current demand for diversity and inclusivity across all genres, and more. Featuring essays by a new generation of bestselling experts on various elements of the craft and shorter pieces of crowd-sourced wisdom from the MWA membership as a whole, the topics covered can be categorized as follows: —Before Writing (rules; genres; setting; character; research; etc.) —While Writing (outlining; the plot; dialogue; mood; etc.) —After Writing (agents; editors; self-pub; etc.) —Other than Novels (short stories; true crime; etc.) —Other Considerations (diverse characters; legal questions; criticism) Also included is a collection of essays from MWA published authors—including Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, and Charlaine Harris—selected by bestselling authors Lee Child and Laurie King and arranged thematically answering, “What piece of writing advice do you wish you’d had at the beginning of your career?” “Everything you wanted to know about how to plan, draft, write, revise, publish, and market a mystery” (Kirkus Reviews), this inclusive manual provides practical, current, easily digestible advice for new and established authors alike.

How to Write a Mystery

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Writer's Digest Writer's Digest Books

Steven James

The Complete Guide to Populating Your Fiction

Create characters that leap off the page--and into readers' hearts!

Populating your fiction with authentic, vivid characters is a surefire way to captivate your readers from the first sentence to the last. Whether you're writing a series, novel, short story, or flash fiction, Creating Characters is an invaluable guide to bringing your fictional cast to life.

This book is a comprehensive reference to every stage of character development. You'll find timely advice and helpful instruction from best-selling authors like Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Sims, Orson Scott Card, Chuck Wendig, Hallie Ephron, Donald Maass, and James Scott Bell. They'll show you how to-

.Effectively introduce your characters
.Build a believable protagonist
.Develop strong anti-heroes and compelling villains
.Juggle multiple points of view without missing a beat
.Craft authentic dialogue that propels the story forward
.Motivate your characters with powerful objectives and a believable conflict
.Show dynamic character development over the course of a story
No matter what your genre, Creating Characters gives you the tools necessary to create realistic, fascinating characters that your readers will root for and remember long after they've finished the story.

Creating Characters

886ea6d5-c503-48b0-826e-acc0d043a658-1

William Kenower

How to Create Boldly and Write with Confidence

Find the courage to create your best writing life.

Whether you're a fledgling writer or a veteran with years of experience, fearlessness--that elusive blend of self-acceptance, confidence, and curiosity--is the defining quality of those who find fulfillment and success. Truly fearless authors banish writer's blocks with ease, receive critiques gracefully, and infuse their passion for the craft into every word they write.

Filled with insightful wisdom and practical advice, Fearless Writing teaches you how to thrive as a writer, no matter your genre or career path. You'll learn how to:


   * Find and enter a Flow state in which writing is a natural, deeply satisfying process.
   * Quiet both internal and external critics and embrace the inherent value in your work.
   * Use love, emotional engagement, and curiosity as the guiding principles for what you write and how you share it with others.
   * Overcome rejection, procrastination, and other obstacles that stifle your creativity.
From the blank page to the first draft, and from querying to marketing, the writing life is filled with challenges, roadblocks, and new experiences. With Fearless Writing, you'll find the inner strength to embark on a bold journey--and build a lifelong career in the process.

Fearless Writing

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Nancy Ellen Dodd

From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages

Map out your idea and finish your story in 7 stages!

This book will show writers how to develop their ideas into a finished novel by working through it in 7 stages, while learning how to mapping out their story's progress and structure so they can evaluate and improve their work. It teaches writers to visualize their story's progress with a story map that helps them see all the different components of their story, where these components are going, and, perhaps most importantly, what's missing.

The book simplifies Aristotle's elements of good writing (a.k.a. that each story should have a beginning, a middle and an end) into easily applicable concepts that will help writers improve their craft. The author helps readers strengthen their work by teaching them how to focus on one aspect of their story at a time, including forming stories and developing ideas, building strong structures, creating vibrant characters, and structuring scenes and transitions. Thought-provoking questions help writers more objectively assess their story's strengths and weaknesses so they may write the story they want to tell.

The Writer's Compass

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Anne Stilman

The Essential Guide to Spelling, Style, Usage, Grammar, and Punctuation

How does good writing stand out? If its purpose is to convey facts, findings, or instructions, it need be read only once for its content to be clear. If its purpose is to entertain or to provoke thought, it makes readers want to come back for more. Revised and updated, this guide covers four essential aspects of good writing: • Individual words - spelling variations, hyphenation, frequently confused homonyms, frequently misused words and phrases, irregular plurals and negatives, and uses of capitalization and type style to add special meanings • Punctuation - the role of each mark in achieving clarity and affecting tone, and demonstration of how misuses can lead to ambiguity • Syntax and structure - agreement of subject and verb, parallel construction, modifiers, tenses, pronouns, active versus passive voice, and more • Style - advice on the less hard-and-fast areas of clarity and tone, including sentence length and order, conciseness, simplification, reading level, jargon and clicheÌ s, and subtlety Filled with self-test exercises and whimsical literary quotations, Grammatically Correct steers clear of academic stuffiness, focusing instead on practical strategies and intuitive explanations. Discussions are designed to get to the heart of a concept and provide a sufficient sense of when and how to use it, along with examples that show what ambiguities or misinterpretations might result if the rules are not followed. In cases where there is more than one acceptable way to do something, the approach is not to prescribe one over another but simply to describe the options. Readers of this book will never break the rules of language again - unintentionally.

Grammatically Correct

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Carmine Gallo

The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century. In order to succeed, you need to be able to sell your ideas persuasively. This ability is the single greatest skill that will help you accomplish your dreams. TED Talks have redefined the elements of a successful presentation and become the gold standard for public speaking. TED—which stands for technology, entertainment, and design—brings together the world's leading thinkers. These are the presentations that set the world on fire, and the techniques that top TED speakers use will make any presentation more dynamic, fire up any team, and give anyone the confidence to overcome their fear of public speaking. Public speaking coach and bestselling author Carmine Gallo has broken down hundreds of TED talks and interviewed the most popular TED presenters, as well as the top researchers in the fields of psychology, communications, and neuroscience to reveal the nine secrets of all successful TED presentations. Gallo's step-by-step method makes it possible for anyone to deliver a presentation that is engaging, persuasive, and memorable. Many people have a fear of public speaking or are insecure about their ability to give a TED-worthy presentation. Carmine Gallo's top 10 Wall Street Journal Bestseller Talk Like TED will give them the tools to communicate the ideas that matter most to them, the skill to win over hearts and minds, and the confidence to deliver the talk of their lives.

Talk Like TED

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Mojang AB

The Official Minecraft Team

The official Minecraft: Guide to Creative will teach you all you need to know to create builds more impressive than you could've dreamed of. The world of Minecraft is so varied and limitless that incredible creations can often be daunting to think about, never mind to build. With insider info and tips from the experts at Mojang, this is the definitive guide to creation in Minecraft.

Minecraft: Guide to Creative (2017 Edition)

b3e36a83-90b9-4325-9b57-d89793ef7424-1

Lucy Knisley

(a Graphic Novel)

"Jen moves out to the country and has to put up with her mom and her mom's new boyfriend, as well as his kids. Suddenly part of a larger family in a new place, Jen isn't sure there is a place for her in this different world"--

Stepping Stones

8977da71-99f3-471d-8a97-5e61ca98a6c2-1

Mayda Belen

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Martha Alderson; Jordan Rosenfeld