There's never been a better time to be an author. Books like the Harry Potter series create a media phenomenon, with people lining up and...... more

There's never been a better time to be an author. Books like the Harry Potter series create a media phenomenon, with people lining up and camping outside bookstores to purchase newly released titles. Yet book sales overall -- not just those of mega-sellers -- are on the rise, as more and more people seek knowledge and entertainment through reading. The Library of Congress currently registers about 60,000 new titles for copyright each year. 60,000 books by 60,000 authors. Imagine yourself as one. Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is your complete guide to realizing whatever gem of an idea you've been carrying with you. If you've ever thought, "this would make a really good book," be it the next great American novel or a guide to naming babies, here's your chance to put pen to paper and find out! Written from both sides of the editor's desk -- by a widely published writer and a HarperCollins veteran publisher -- this guide puts in your hand the advice you need to: * Pick an idea * Approach the publisher * Craft proposals and queries * Work with agents, or act as your own * Self-publish * Negotiate a contract * Create the actual book * Sell your published book Full of examples, proposals, query letters, and war stories drawn from the authors' extensive experience, Getting Your Book Published For Dummies shows you how to clear all the hurdles faced by today's writers -- freeing up precious time for you to refine your manuscript. You'll get the inside scoop on: * Titling your book * Major publishers, smaller houses, niche publishers, university presses, and spiritual and religious publishers * The 12 elements of a successful nonfiction proposal * How editors read queries * Submitting fiction * Publishing outside the box * And much more Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is the clear, A-Z handbook that makes the entire process plain and practicable. You don't need to be a celebrity. You don't need to be some kind of publishing insider. All you need to do is wri

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Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much...... more

Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much depends on how much amusement you're able to derive from a guy dressed up as a very ample woman. The setup is of the eye-rolling, only-in-Hollywood nature: Lawrence, as detective Malcolm Turner, is after a killer, and apparently the only way to capture him is to pose as the bad guy's ex-girlfriend's grandmother, who--the film cannot stress this point too much--is quite large. Apparently, Sherry (Nia Long), the young woman in question--she's as attractive as Big Momma is, well, you know--is none too bright, for she falls for Malcolm's ruse, which of course ostensibly amuses mainly because it's so transparent. She at least has an excuse--she hasn't seen Big Momma in two years--but Big Momma's oblivious friends must be functional morons. Screenwriters Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer didn't tax themselves very much, as they have Malcolm-as-Big-Momma going through fairly predictable motions--botching a meal and delivering a baby unconventionally (Big Momma's a midwife), but ruling at basketball and self-defence and protecting Sherry while trying vainly not to flirt with her. Paul Giamatti is wasted as Malcolm's partner; director Raja Gosnell's clunky sense of comic rhythm is bewildering, because he used to be an editor (he brought a similar lack of magic to Home Alone 3). Lawrence won't have anyone forgetting Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire anytime soon. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps is far more accomplished, versatile, and funny. --David KronkeBig Momma's House 2Funnyman Martin Lawrence steps back into the latex fatsuit for Big Momma's House 2, the sequel to one of Lawrence's biggest hits. Malcolm Turner (Lawrence, Bad Boys) goes undercover, turning his Big Momma disguise into a nanny for a computer company executive who may be concocting a means to hack into military databases. But that's just a pretense to get Big Momma coping with a perfectionist mum and her three kids, who are all dysfunctional in cute and easily resolved ways. Naturally, Big Momma dispenses life lessons and catches the crooks while Lawrence does his best to milk his fat drag act for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, those cheap laughs never quite pay off; the script is a wastebasket of cliches and clumsy set-ups for gags that never seem worth the effort. The movie desperately wants to appeal to women with cute kids while luring men with a spa visit featuring scantily clad Victoria's Secret models. Even Lawrence's fans will find themselves snoozing through this one. --Bret Fetzer

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There's never been a better time to be an author. Books like the Harry Potter series create a media phenomenon, with people lining up and...... more

There's never been a better time to be an author. Books like the Harry Potter series create a media phenomenon, with people lining up and camping outside bookstores to purchase newly released titles. Yet book sales overall -- not just those of mega-sellers -- are on the rise, as more and more people seek knowledge and entertainment through reading. The Library of Congress currently registers about 60,000 new titles for copyright each year. 60,000 books by 60,000 authors. Imagine yourself as one. Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is your complete guide to realizing whatever gem of an idea you've been carrying with you. If you've ever thought, "this would make a really good book," be it the next great American novel or a guide to naming babies, here's your chance to put pen to paper and find out! Written from both sides of the editor's desk -- by a widely published writer and a HarperCollins veteran publisher -- this guide puts in your hand the advice you need to: * Pick an idea * Approach the publisher * Craft proposals and queries * Work with agents, or act as your own * Self-publish * Negotiate a contract * Create the actual book * Sell your published book Full of examples, proposals, query letters, and war stories drawn from the authors' extensive experience, Getting Your Book Published For Dummies shows you how to clear all the hurdles faced by today's writers -- freeing up precious time for you to refine your manuscript. You'll get the inside scoop on: * Titling your book * Major publishers, smaller houses, niche publishers, university presses, and spiritual and religious publishers * The 12 elements of a successful nonfiction proposal * How editors read queries * Submitting fiction * Publishing outside the box * And much more Getting Your Book Published For Dummies is the clear, A-Z handbook that makes the entire process plain and practicable. You don't need to be a celebrity. You don't need to be some kind of publishing insider. All you need to do is wri

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Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his...... more

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics, see his responses below. --Daphne Durham 20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack ObamaQ: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now? A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.

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Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much...... more

Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much depends on how much amusement you're able to derive from a guy dressed up as a very ample woman. The setup is of the eye-rolling, only-in-Hollywood nature: Lawrence, as detective Malcolm Turner, is after a killer, and apparently the only way to capture him is to pose as the bad guy's ex-girlfriend's grandmother, who--the film cannot stress this point too much--is quite large. Apparently, Sherry (Nia Long), the young woman in question--she's as attractive as Big Momma is, well, you know--is none too bright, for she falls for Malcolm's ruse, which of course ostensibly amuses mainly because it's so transparent. She at least has an excuse--she hasn't seen Big Momma in two years--but Big Momma's oblivious friends must be functional morons. Screenwriters Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer didn't tax themselves very much, as they have Malcolm-as-Big-Momma going through fairly predictable motions--botching a meal and delivering a baby unconventionally (Big Momma's a midwife), but ruling at basketball and self-defence and protecting Sherry while trying vainly not to flirt with her. Paul Giamatti is wasted as Malcolm's partner; director Raja Gosnell's clunky sense of comic rhythm is bewildering, because he used to be an editor (he brought a similar lack of magic to Home Alone 3). Lawrence won't have anyone forgetting Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire anytime soon. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps is far more accomplished, versatile, and funny. --David KronkeBig Momma's House 2Funnyman Martin Lawrence steps back into the latex fatsuit for Big Momma's House 2, the sequel to one of Lawrence's biggest hits. Malcolm Turner (Lawrence, Bad Boys) goes undercover, turning his Big Momma disguise into a nanny for a computer company executive who may be concocting a means to hack into military databases. But that's just a pretense to get Big Momma coping with a perfectionist mum and her three kids, who are all dysfunctional in cute and easily resolved ways. Naturally, Big Momma dispenses life lessons and catches the crooks while Lawrence does his best to milk his fat drag act for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, those cheap laughs never quite pay off; the script is a wastebasket of cliches and clumsy set-ups for gags that never seem worth the effort. The movie desperately wants to appeal to women with cute kids while luring men with a spa visit featuring scantily clad Victoria's Secret models. Even Lawrence's fans will find themselves snoozing through this one. --Bret Fetzer

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Love Will Find Its Way represents the first time that all of Robert Owens recordings have been gathered up into a cohesive project, and covers pretty...... more

Love Will Find Its Way represents the first time that all of Robert Owens recordings have been gathered up into a cohesive project, and covers pretty much all of his major releases from the last fifteen years. Legend is a lofty accolade to bestow on an artist, but where Robert Owens is concerned, it's a must. As part of that elite crew of Chicago pioneers who invented house, his distinctive, velvety vocals have graced the grooves of many records over the years. Since the project has been overseen by Owens himself, it's constructed not as an obvious chronology but more like an emotive and organic narrative, a life story arranged by themes rather than dates. The 25 tracks remind us of exactly how much good work Owens has done in his 15-year career, illustrating not only his vocal versatility but the emotional/spiritual aspect of everything he does. All of Owens' early work with fellow Chicago legend Larry Heard (as Fingers Inc) is here including "Never No More Lonely", "Can You Feel It" and "Bring Down The Walls". His seminal work with the New York Def Mix team (Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Satoshie Tomiie) is featured too, such as truly immortal records like the euphoric "Tears" and the soaring "I'll Be Your Friend". Lesser known but often equally poignant are his solo efforts over the last decade or so (fans may remember the cult hit "Ordinary People"), and his recent collaborative work with producers such as Photek and Mr C. There are a few hot moments missing (such as his hook ups with London Elektricity and Block 16) but most of the singer's input into the world of dance music is here, and as it's as definitive as we're likely to get, this is a must-have collection from one of the scene's real life heroes.--Paul Sullivan

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Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much...... more

Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much depends on how much amusement you're able to derive from a guy dressed up as a very ample woman. The setup is of the eye-rolling, only-in-Hollywood nature: Lawrence, as detective Malcolm Turner, is after a killer, and apparently the only way to capture him is to pose as the bad guy's ex-girlfriend's grandmother, who--the film cannot stress this point too much--is quite large. Apparently, Sherry (Nia Long), the young woman in question--she's as attractive as Big Momma is, well, you know--is none too bright, for she falls for Malcolm's ruse, which of course ostensibly amuses mainly because it's so transparent. She at least has an excuse--she hasn't seen Big Momma in two years--but Big Momma's oblivious friends must be functional morons. Screenwriters Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer didn't tax themselves very much, as they have Malcolm-as-Big-Momma going through fairly predictable motions--botching a meal and delivering a baby unconventionally (Big Momma's a midwife), but ruling at basketball and self-defence and protecting Sherry while trying vainly not to flirt with her. Paul Giamatti is wasted as Malcolm's partner; director Raja Gosnell's clunky sense of comic rhythm is bewildering, because he used to be an editor (he brought a similar lack of magic to Home Alone 3). Lawrence won't have anyone forgetting Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire anytime soon. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps is far more accomplished, versatile, and funny. --David KronkeBig Momma's House 2Funnyman Martin Lawrence steps back into the latex fatsuit for Big Momma's House 2, the sequel to one of Lawrence's biggest hits. Malcolm Turner (Lawrence, Bad Boys) goes undercover, turning his Big Momma disguise into a nanny for a computer company executive who may be concocting a means to hack into military databases. But that's just a pretense to get Big Momma coping with a perfectionist mum and her three kids, who are all dysfunctional in cute and easily resolved ways. Naturally, Big Momma dispenses life lessons and catches the crooks while Lawrence does his best to milk his fat drag act for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, those cheap laughs never quite pay off; the script is a wastebasket of cliches and clumsy set-ups for gags that never seem worth the effort. The movie desperately wants to appeal to women with cute kids while luring men with a spa visit featuring scantily clad Victoria's Secret models. Even Lawrence's fans will find themselves snoozing through this one. --Bret Fetzer

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Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much...... more

Big Momma's HouseNo one tries very hard in Big Momma's House, so your enjoyment of this Martin Lawrence vehicle pretty much depends on how much amusement you're able to derive from a guy dressed up as a very ample woman. The setup is of the eye-rolling, only-in-Hollywood nature: Lawrence, as detective Malcolm Turner, is after a killer, and apparently the only way to capture him is to pose as the bad guy's ex-girlfriend's grandmother, who--the film cannot stress this point too much--is quite large. Apparently, Sherry (Nia Long), the young woman in question--she's as attractive as Big Momma is, well, you know--is none too bright, for she falls for Malcolm's ruse, which of course ostensibly amuses mainly because it's so transparent. She at least has an excuse--she hasn't seen Big Momma in two years--but Big Momma's oblivious friends must be functional morons. Screenwriters Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer didn't tax themselves very much, as they have Malcolm-as-Big-Momma going through fairly predictable motions--botching a meal and delivering a baby unconventionally (Big Momma's a midwife), but ruling at basketball and self-defence and protecting Sherry while trying vainly not to flirt with her. Paul Giamatti is wasted as Malcolm's partner; director Raja Gosnell's clunky sense of comic rhythm is bewildering, because he used to be an editor (he brought a similar lack of magic to Home Alone 3). Lawrence won't have anyone forgetting Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire anytime soon. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps is far more accomplished, versatile, and funny. --David KronkeBig Momma's House 2Funnyman Martin Lawrence steps back into the latex fatsuit for Big Momma's House 2, the sequel to one of Lawrence's biggest hits. Malcolm Turner (Lawrence, Bad Boys) goes undercover, turning his Big Momma disguise into a nanny for a computer company executive who may be concocting a means to hack into military databases. But that's just a pretense to get Big Momma coping with a perfectionist mum and her three kids, who are all dysfunctional in cute and easily resolved ways. Naturally, Big Momma dispenses life lessons and catches the crooks while Lawrence does his best to milk his fat drag act for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, those cheap laughs never quite pay off; the script is a wastebasket of cliches and clumsy set-ups for gags that never seem worth the effort. The movie desperately wants to appeal to women with cute kids while luring men with a spa visit featuring scantily clad Victoria's Secret models. Even Lawrence's fans will find themselves snoozing through this one. --Bret Fetzer

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Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his...... more

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics, see his responses below. --Daphne Durham 20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack ObamaQ: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now? A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.

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Love Will Find Its Way represents the first time that all of Robert Owens recordings have been gathered up into a cohesive project, and covers pretty...... more

Love Will Find Its Way represents the first time that all of Robert Owens recordings have been gathered up into a cohesive project, and covers pretty much all of his major releases from the last fifteen years. Legend is a lofty accolade to bestow on an artist, but where Robert Owens is concerned, it's a must. As part of that elite crew of Chicago pioneers who invented house, his distinctive, velvety vocals have graced the grooves of many records over the years. Since the project has been overseen by Owens himself, it's constructed not as an obvious chronology but more like an emotive and organic narrative, a life story arranged by themes rather than dates. The 25 tracks remind us of exactly how much good work Owens has done in his 15-year career, illustrating not only his vocal versatility but the emotional/spiritual aspect of everything he does. All of Owens' early work with fellow Chicago legend Larry Heard (as Fingers Inc) is here including "Never No More Lonely", "Can You Feel It" and "Bring Down The Walls". His seminal work with the New York Def Mix team (Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Satoshie Tomiie) is featured too, such as truly immortal records like the euphoric "Tears" and the soaring "I'll Be Your Friend". Lesser known but often equally poignant are his solo efforts over the last decade or so (fans may remember the cult hit "Ordinary People"), and his recent collaborative work with producers such as Photek and Mr C. There are a few hot moments missing (such as his hook ups with London Elektricity and Block 16) but most of the singer's input into the world of dance music is here, and as it's as definitive as we're likely to get, this is a must-have collection from one of the scene's real life heroes.--Paul Sullivan

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Darts - noblest and most physically demanding of all sports - has an illustrious history stretching back hundreds of years. Rumour has it that the sport...... more

Darts - noblest and most physically demanding of all sports - has an illustrious history stretching back hundreds of years. Rumour has it that the sport originated as a contest between bored warriors during respites from battle. In fact, darts historian Keith Talent claims that a form of darts was played in Atlantis. But some people will say anything... Darts is one of the most popular pub games, which seems slightly odd given that it involves throwing sharp projectiles across a room full of inebriated people. (Naturally it was invented in Britain.) The chrome spokes have exerted their hypnotic allure upon successive generations of sartorially challenged "dartists", yet in all this time nobody seems to have been unduly worried about the distinct possibility of "having someone's eye out" or killing the landlord's dog. Until now. Enter the brilliantly simple, yet simply brilliant Magna Darta! Magna Darta comprises a heavy-duty magnetic felt dartboard and two sets of perfectly safe, drunkard and dog friendly magnetic darts. (Unless it is a robot dog, in which case you might end up scrambling his brain, but how likely is that? A robot dog...the very idea!) The flexible board can be rolled up and stored discreetly in moments if you don't always want to have that exciting pub bar vibe in your living room, bedroom or office. You might think that the aerodynamic properties of the - admittedly stubby - magna darts would leave something to be desired, but after extensive field tests here at Firebox House we are happy to report that they fly straight and true. They also seem to be immune to the dreaded "dart bounce" as there are no pesky wires to get in the way. You will also avoid the "halo of holes" effect, which plagues many a teenager's bedroom door, much to the delight of parents throughout the land. So what are you waiting for? Roll up, roll up and experience the joys of Magna Darta, more fun that you can shake a chandelier at!

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Fans of Laguna Beach will love the first season of The Hills, which follows Laguna's Lauren Conrad as she attends fashion school in Los Angeles and works as an...... more

Fans of Laguna Beach will love the first season of The Hills, which follows Laguna's Lauren Conrad as she attends fashion school in Los Angeles and works as an intern at Teen Vogue magazine. OK, so that's the premise for this quasi-reality MTV series. But in reality, the show is an excuse to watch pretty young people make out, break up, get back together, and break up some more. The show has more in common with a daytime drama than a documentary; none of the subjects worries too much about paying rent for their glamorous apartments or designer clothes. But when it comes to dating, the Geneva Convention could learn a thing or two about negotiating from these gals. Lauren fans may be dismayed to learn that Jason, the monosyllabic Lothario who cheated on her in the second season of Laguna Beach is back. And instead of going on dates with the thousands of young men who would love to have a pretty blonde on their arms (and get the opportunity to appear on TV to boot!), Lauren allows Jason to get back into her good graces--even though he hasn't matured since high school. Or figured out how to treat a woman. Or learned how to talk better. It's actually heartbreaking watching her struggle with a relationship that we can all see is doomed. Or is it? The season finale ends with the kind of dilemma we all wish we could've faced when we were 19 or 20: spend the summer working in Paris or move into a beach house with your boyfriend and frolic on the beach for three months. Paris? Jason? Hmmmm. You'd think that'd be a no-brainer. Also on hand to offer support are Lauren's friends Heidi and Audrina. The cast always looks chic and freshly made up (even after getting out of bed) and the cameras somehow always manage to be in the right place to capture romantic moments (and drama). It's easy to make fun of this show because of the preposterous setup that this sun-kissed life is reality for a group of kids who don't seem to have to work that hard for their privileged lives. But therein lies the guilty pleasure. We know it's a fantasy created by MTV. And while we would kill for the rocking apartments, cars, and clothes, there is no way most of us would endure being publicly humiliated to get 15 minutes of fame. --Jae-Ha Kim

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Lenovo ThinkStation C20: SSD51UKWorldâ?TMs smallest dual-CPU workstations.Weâ?TMve done the math. The Lenovo ThinkStation C20 is dramatically...... more

Lenovo ThinkStation C20: SSD51UKWorldâ?TMs smallest dual-CPU workstations.Weâ?TMve done the math. The Lenovo ThinkStation C20 is dramatically smaller than same-class competitor workstations without compromising performance1. For space-constrained finance; computer-aided design (CAD) and digital content creation (DCC) users; this means:More workstations per person.Fit up to an additional four systems - up to 14 total - in a standard 42U server rack for more horsepower in the same space.SBFI furniture compatibility.ThinkStation C20 is SBFI-certified; so theyâ?TMre likely compatible with the control-room furniture you have.Safer data.Get better data redundancy by using more backup systems in the same office.Easier to move.The small size and recessed handle with soft-touch plastic make moving and racking ThinkStation C20 a cinch.Donâ?TMt let the size fool you.Inside the compact exterior is a workhorse that can handle your toughest tasks.Raw power.Crank through the most demanding applications. Intel® Xeon® processors with Turbo Boost Technology kick in additional performance during peak processing. The C20 supports up to a 130-watt CPU; which drives faster clock speeds so you can do more and do it faster. It can also house up to 12 DIMMs; delivering plenty of memory for exceptional responsiveness.See more at once.With support for up to a whopping eight monitors at once; ThinkStation C20 help you analyze more; create more and earn more - faster.Intense graphics.ThinkStation C20 supports NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics cards for high-definition 2-D and 3-D graphics.Faster startup and shutdownYouâ?TMll be amazed at how much faster our Lenovo Enhanced Experience for Windows® 7 PCs let you boot up and shut down. They ev

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Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his...... more

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics, see his responses below. --Daphne Durham 20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack ObamaQ: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now? A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.

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A Q&A with Maggie O'FarrellQ: What made you want to write this book?A: A few years ago, I attended an exhibition of John Deakin's photographs at the...... more

A Q&A with Maggie O'FarrellQ: What made you want to write this book?A: A few years ago, I attended an exhibition of John Deakin's photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Many of them were portraits of people in Soho in the 1950s: artists, writers, actors, musicians. Soho is an area of London that is famous for many things, but I hadn't known that, for a short time after the Second World War, it had been the center of an artistic movement. The bohemian, underground world that thrived there so briefly and was captured so vividly by Deakin fascinated me. I began to conceive a story about a girl, Lexie, who arrives there from a very conventional home and makes a life for herself as a journalist.Q: There are two stories in the novel, aren't there?A: The other story is set in the present and is about Elina, a young Finnish painter who has just had her first child. With Elina, I was interested in writing about new motherhood, those very first few weeks with a newborn--the shock and the rawness and the emotion and the exhaustion of it. It's something that's been done a great deal in nonfiction, but I haven't read much about it in fiction. Much of the novel is concerned with people whose lives change in an instant; a decision or a chance meeting or a journey occurs and suddenly your life veers off on a new course. Having your first child is one of those times. As soon as the newborn takes its first breath, life as you've known it is gone and a new existence begins.Q: Why did you decide to divide the novel into two time frames?A: I liked the idea of these two women living in the same city, fifty years apart. Lexie and Elina have no inkling of each other's existence, but they hear each other's echoes through time. And, as it turns out, they are linked in other ways--in ways neither of them could ever have expected.Q: As well as motherhood and the unexpectedness of life, there's a great deal about love in the book as well, isnt there?A: Love in many forms powers the book: familial, platonic, and also romantic. Lexie has many different men in her life. There's Felix, the feckless yet famous TV news reporter, and Robert, the rather more serious biographer. But the great love of her life is Innes Kent, the man she follows to London, who takes her under his wing and gives her her first job as a journalist.Elina's relationship with her boyfriend Ted is challenged by the arrival of their baby. Ted begins to recall things from his own infancy, and these things dont seem to fit. I was interested in the way having children makes you remember and reassess your own childhood, in micro-detail: things I'd never thought about or remembered before would suddenly rear their head. And this made me wonder what it would be like if the memories that resurfaced were of places and people you didn't recognize, if your own life suddenly seemed strange to you.Q: Did you have to do a lot of research for the book?A: The 1950s and 1960s are not that distant in time, and the sixties in particular are very well documented in art, film, photography, and literature. I read history books but also made sure to submerge myself in novels of the period. You get wonderful insights into the way people spoke then; it was quite different from the way English is spoken in London now. The cadences and vocabulary have completely changed. So I read Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Jean Rhys, Margaret Drabble, Margaret Forster. Novels also give you tiny details you didn't even know you needed--how a telephone worked in a house of bed-sitters, for example. Where one bought peacock-blue stockings in 1957.You have to be careful with research, though. There's a terrible temptation, once you've done all this collecting of interesting details, to shoehorn in as much of it as you can. You can sometimes find yourself writing a sentence along the lines of "She picked up the telephone, which was made of Bakelite, a substance first developed in 1907 by a Belgian chemist..." At which point you have to stop and try to forget everything you know about early plastic manufacture. Most research you have to throw out. But you still need to do it, to give yourself confidence and scaffolding.Q: London as a city has a strong presence in the book. Was this deliberate?A: I felt all the way through as if London were the third main character in the novel, along with Lexie and Elina. Most of the novel was written while I was living away from London, so I suppose I was re-creating a city with which I have had a very long relationship (a rather off-and-on one, to be honest).Q: To what degree does your own life play into your fiction?A: I don't write autobiographically. Fiction for me is an escape, an alternative existence, so I wouldn't want to re-create my life on the page. There are elements of my life that filter into my books, but they are usually recast and redrawn and reimagined to such a degree as to be unrecognizable to me or anyone else. Lexie and Elina both arrive in London as adults, as I did, and Lexie becomes a journalist, as I did. The scenes about motherhood I couldn't, of course, have written without having been a mother myself. The rest is made up.Recommended Reading from Maggie O'FarrellThe Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark: My favorite Spark, I think. A portrait of a women's boarding house in postwar London, including the spinsters, the young dormitory girls, the elocution teacher, the mercenary but beautiful Selina and the Schiaparelli dress they all take turns to wear. The Severed Head by Iris Murdoch: A devastating account of love and marriage in 1950s London. Murdoch handles her six characters with poise as their lives become ever more entangled. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns: The book I have given most as a present. It's the mesmerizingly lively story of a young artist who marries against the wishes of her family and her ensuing struggle with poverty, motherhood and her awful, self-centered husband. I make it sound gloomy but it's anything but   Dear George and Other Stories by Helen Simpson: I particularly love the story "Heavy Weather" in this collection, which documents a couple on holiday with a toddler and a baby. Nobody but Simpson can write with such heartbreaking accuracy about life with small children. The Hours by Michael Cunningham: I read and re-read this book while writing The Hand that First Held Mine. It is, quite simply, perfect. How did he do it? Any Human Heart by William Boyd: The whole of the 20th century is laid out in the diaries of Logan Mountstuart. A spectacular, astonishing novel. (Photo © Ben Gold)

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A Q&A with Helen SmithQuestion: The clever title of your book is a direct reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland....... more

A Q&A with Helen SmithQuestion: The clever title of your book is a direct reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. How has that book and its genre of smart, literary "nonsense" influenced your writing? Helen Smith: I adored Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when I was a child. I loved the clever wordplay, the absurd situations, and the strange characters--not all of them sympathetic. I have to warn Lewis Carroll fans that any direct reference to his work in my book begins and ends with the pun in the title, but I have no doubt that I have been influenced by everything I have ever read, including his books. I was lucky that I read a prodigious amount when I was younger. For anyone who is thinking about writing a book, reading is the best way to learn how to do it.Q:Alison Wonderland has been praised for its unique cast of characters. Are you particularly fond of any one character, and what was your inspiration for him or her?HS: I like all the characters, even the baddies, but Alison is the one I'm most fond of. She likes to think she has the measure of everyone else, but she doesn't have much insight about her own situation. She's flawed but funny--a grumpier version of me.Q: The idea of genetically altered food is a little scary and has been in the news a lot. What drew you to use that concept as a backdrop for the plot?HS: Most of my characters are on a mission of some kind. I'm impressed by people who are drawn to a cause, so I was very interested when I read about young people protesting about genetically modified vegetables. Many of us care deeply about the treatment of people and animals, but of all the things to get exercised about, a vegetable is not the first that most would think of. There's a very good argument that genetically modified crops, if they can be bred to be more resistant to disease, will help people in the developing world fight famine. But it's also true that we take the advances of science and use them too lightly, without considering the consequences. I love the passion and commitment of young eco-warriors who care enough to call those in authority to account.Q: Taron greatly influences Alison's actions and brings out her more adventurous side. Is there anyone in your life whom you have adventures with?HS: I traveled all over the world with my daughter when she was small, and I have been fortunate to have some very good friends who have got up to all sorts of mischief with me over the years--but there has been no one quite like Taron. If there's anyone out there like her, I wouldn't mind an introduction.Q: You are very well traveled, but you set the novel in London and Weymouth. What made you choose those locations?HS: I live in London and I love it. I wanted the city to feature almost as a character in the book, and I was keen to introduce some landmarks that readers might not be familiar with, like the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park and the eccentric little alleyways in Brixton, where the doorway to Mrs. Fitzgerald's detective agency is located. I spent my teenage years near Weymouth and my parents still live there, so I wanted to use some of those locations: the Cerne Abbas Giant, for example, and the Weymouth pier--though, sadly, that has now been pulled down.Q: Alison seems to be anti-marriage. How do you think she would have responded to the royal wedding craze in her hometown of London?HS: I think she'd probably have responded much as I did: pretended to have no interest at all, then got caught up in the pageantry and enjoyed the occasion. It was a lovely sunny day here, and almost everyone had the day off. There were street parties and house parties, and the celebrations were incredibly good-natured. Alison can be a bit curmudgeonly, but even she would have found it difficult to resist the charms of the day.Q: Alison's interaction with the baby, Phoebe, seems to affect her deeply. How has being a single mother impacted your writing?HS: A line in the book, "I never realized before that taking care of someone makes you love them more than when they take care of you," describes my experience of being a parent. I had my daughter when I was very young, and it was the strangest and still the best thing that has ever happened to me. The insights and wisdom that I gained--and my sense of wonder at having a child who just turned up in my life but was never anything less than wanted and fiercely loved--permeate my writing.Q: Is there anything else about the book you think an American reader should know? Are there really tunnels under the Thames?HS: I've been working with a theater producer to find the perfect setting for a play I'm writing, and we have investigated underground venues. There are World War II bomb shelters that have been turned into archive storage facilities, abandoned tube stations, foot passages and railway tunnels still in use under the Thames, and a Royal Mail network crisscrossing under London that was recently decommissioned. But I don't think any of them are used the way the tunnels are used in the book. I hope not, anyway!

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Book Description: John Rain is back. And the most charismatic assassin since James Bond (San Francisco Chronicle) is up against his most...... more

Book Description: John Rain is back. And the most charismatic assassin since James Bond (San Francisco Chronicle) is up against his most formidable enemy yet: the nexus of political, military, media, and corporate factions known only as the Oligarchy. When legendary black ops veteran Colonel Scott Hort Horton tracks Rain down in Tokyo, Rain cant resist the offer: a multi-million dollar payday for the natural causes demise of three ultra-high-profile targets who are dangerously close to launching a coup in America. But the opposition on this job is going to be too much for even Rain to pull it off alone. Hell need a detachment of other deniable irregulars: his partner, the former Marine sniper, Dox. Ben Treven, a covert operator with ambivalent motives and conflicted loyalties. And Larison, a man with a hair trigger and a secret hell kill to protect. From the shadowy backstreets of Tokyo and Vienna, to the deceptive glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and finally to a Washington, D.C. in a permanent state of war, these four lone wolf killers will have to survive presidential hit teams, secret CIA prisons, and a national security state as obsessed with guarding its own secrets as it is with invading the privacy of the populace. But first, theyll have to survive each other. The Detachment is what fans of Eisler, one of the most talented and literary writers in the thriller genre (Chicago Sun-Times), have been waiting for: the worlds of the award-winning Rain series, and of the bestselling Fault Line and Inside Out, colliding in one explosive thriller as real as todays headlines and as frightening as tomorrows. Personal Safety Tips from Assassin John Rain  (Written by Barry Eisler)Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA, then worked as a technology lawyer and start-up executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling John Rain thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly 20 languages. Read on for personal safety tips from assassin John Rain:All effective personal protection, all effective security, all true self-defense, is based on the ability and willingness to think like the opposition.I'm writing this article on my laptop in a crowded coffee shop I like. There are a number of other people around me similarly engaged. I think to myself, If I wanted to steal a laptop, this would be a pretty good place to do it. You come in, order coffee and a muffin, sit, and wait. Eventually, one of these computer users is going to get up and make a quick trip to the bathroom. He'll be thinking, "Hey, I'll only be gone for a minute." He doesn't know that a minute is all I need to get up and walk out with his $3,000 laptop. (Note how criminals are adept at thinking like their victims. You need to treat them with the same respect.)Okay. I've determined where the opposition is planning on carrying out his crime (this coffee shop), and I know how he's going to do it (snatch and dash). I now have options:avoid the coffee shop entirely (avoid where the crime will occur);secure my laptop to a chair with a twenty dollar Kensington security cable (avoid how the crime will occur--it's hard to employ bolt cutters unobtrusively in a coffee shop, or to carry away a laptop that has a chair hanging off it); andhope to catch the thief in the act, chase him down, engage him with violence. Of these three options, #2 makes the most sense for me. The first is too costly--I like this coffee shop and get a lot of work done here. The third is also too costly, and too uncertain. Why fight when you can avoid the fight in the first place? This is self-defense we're talking about, remember, self-protection. Not fighting, not melodrama. As for the second, yes, it's true these measures won't render the crime impossible. But what measures ever do? The point is to make the crime difficult enough to carry out that the criminal chooses to pursue his aims elsewhere. Yes, if 27 ninjas have dedicated their lives to stealing your laptop and have managed to track you to the coffee shop, they'll probably manage to get your laptop while you're in the bathroom even if you've secured it to a chair. But more likely, your opposition will be someone who is as happy stealing your laptop as someone else's. By making yours the marginally more difficult target, you will encourage him to steal someone else's. Which brings us to an unpleasant, but vitally true, parable: If you and your friend are jogging in the woods, and you get chased by a bear, you don't have to outrun the bear. You just have to outrun your friend. Except at the level of very high-value executive protection (presidents, high-profile businesspeople, ambassadors and other dignitaries), you are not trying to outrun the bear. You are trying only to outrun your friend. Let's combine these two concepts--thinking like the opposition, outrunning your friend--with an example from the realm of home security. And let's add an additional critical element: that all good security is layered. If you wanted to burglarize a house, what would you look for? And what would you avoid? Generally speaking, your principal objectives are to get cash and property, and to get away (home invasion is a separate subject, but is addressed, like all self-protection, by reference to the same principles). You'd start by looking at lots of houses. Remember, you're not trying to rob a certain address; you just want to rob a house. Which ones are dark? Which are set back from the road and neighbors? Are there any cars in the driveway? Lights and noise in the house? Signs of an alarm system? A barking dog? Thinking like a burglar, you are now ready to implement the outer layer of your home security. By some combination of installing motion-sensor lights, keeping bushes trimmed to avoid concealment opportunities, putting up signs advertising an alarm system, having a dog around, keeping a car or cars in the driveway, leaving on appropriate lights and the television, and making sure there are no newspapers in the driveway or mail left on the porch when you're away, you help the burglar to decide immediately during his casing or surveillance phase that he should rob someone else's house. If the burglar isn't immediately dissuaded by the outer layer, he receives further discouragement at the next layer in. He takes a closer look, and sees that you have deadbolt locks on all the doors, and that your advertisement was not a bluff--the windows are in fact alarmed. If he takes a crack at the doorjamb, he discovers that it's reinforced. If he tries breaking a window, he realizes the glass is shatter-resistant. Whoops--time to go somewhere else, somewhere easier. Okay, the guy is stupid. He keeps trying anyway. Now the second layer of security described above, which failed to deter him, works to delay him. It's taking him a long time to get in. He's making noise. At some point, the time and noise might combine to persuade him to abort (back to deterrence). But if heinsists on plunging ahead, the noise has alerted you, and you have bought yourself time to implement further inner layers of security: accessing a firearm; calling the police; retreating to a safe room; most of all, preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for danger and possible violence. Now another example, relating to personal protection from an overseas kidnapping attempt. Like everything else, this form of protection starts with you thinking like the bad guy. Your objective is to kidnap a foreigner. Not a particular foreigner (high-value targets are a separate problem, although again subject to the same principles), just any old foreigner. So what do you need to do to carry out your plan? First, you need to pick a target. This part is easy--any foreigner will do. Next, you need to assess the foreigner's vulnerability. Where will you be able to grab him, and when? To answer these questions, you need to follow the target around. If he's punctual, a creature of habit, if he likes to travel the same routes to andfrom work at the same times every day, you will start to feel encouraged. But what if instead, during the assessment stage, you see the target go out to his car and carefully check it for improvised explosive devices. Your immediate thought will be: Hard target. Security-conscious. Too difficult--kidnap someone else. If you're the potential target, do you see how your display of security consciousness becomes the outermost layer of your security? But suppose the would-be kidnapper wants to assess a bit further. Now he learns that you never travel the same route to and from work. You never come and go at the same times. He can't get a fix on your where and when. How is he going to plan a kidnapping now? Note that, by putting yourself in the opposition's shoes, you have identified a behavior pattern in which he must engage before carrying out his crime: surveillance. Before you are kidnapped, you will be assessed. Assessment entails surveillance. Now you know what pre-incident behavior to look for. If you were trying to follow you, how would you go about it? That's what to look for. Perhaps the would-be kidnapper will discover choke points - a certain bridge, for example--that you have to cross everyday on your way to the office. This would be a good place for him to lay an ambush. But because you know this too, you will be unusually alert as you approach potential choke points. As he watches your choke point behavior, he realizes again that you are security-conscious, and thus a poor choice for a target. Again, deterrence. If he is rash and acts at this point anyway, the inner layers of your security-locked and armored vehicle; defensive driving tactics; presence of a bodyguard; access to a firearm; again, most of all, preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for danger and possible violence--all have time to come into play. Other examples: if you needed fast cash, where would you look to rob someone? Maybe on the potential victim's way from an ATM? If so, what kind of ATM would you pick? Where would you wait? What if you wanted to steal a car? Assuming you're not a pro who can pick locks and hot-wire ignitions, where would you go? Maybe outside a video store, or a dry cleaner's, a place where people leave the keys in the ignition because they'll "only be gone for a minute"? Now, armed with a better understanding of the criminal's goals and tactics, how should you behave to better protect yourself? One common element you might see in all of this is the vital need for alertness, for situational awareness. Understanding where threats are likely to come from and how they are likely to materialize will help you properly tune your alertness. If you are not properly alert to a threat, you almost certainly will be unable to defend yourself against it when it materializes. Notice that so far the discussion has included no mention of martial arts. This is because martial arts, self-defense, fighting, and combat, while related subjects, are not identical. The relationship and differences among these areas is outside the scope of this article. For now, suffice it to say that martial arts can be thought of as an inner layer of self-defense. If you have to use your martial arts moves, then almost certainly some outer layer of your security has been breached and you are in a worse position than you would have been had the outer layers held fast. To put it another way: Thinking like the opposition; taking threats seriously and not being in denial about their existence; and maintaining proper situational awareness, are infinitely more cost effective for self-defense than is training in martial arts. Note that I have been doing martial arts of one kind or another since I was a teenager. I love the martial arts for many reasons. I do not dispute and am not discussing their value, but rather am emphasizing their cost-effectiveness in achieving a given objective--here, effective personal protection. No matter what her martial arts skills, the person who recognizes in advance and can therefore steer clear of an ambush has a much better chance of surviving it than does the person who wanders into the ambush and then has to fight her way out. So practice thinking like the opposition, and you'll have a better chance of lasting as long as John Rain. This article also appears in Crimespree Issue #4

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This Atm Style features a PIN number style protection system for your savings. If you want to make a withdrawal, you'll need to slot the...... more

This Atm Style features a PIN number style protection system for your savings. If you want to make a withdrawal, you'll need to slot the security card provided into the top of the machine, and enter a re-settable 4 digit password. This way if your somebody decides to dip into your savings they will not be able to get their hands on your hard earned cash and if somebody does decide to try, they will be warned off by an alarm should they tamper with the money bank. When you deposit coins in your ATM Money Bank , it automatically identifies them and adds them to your savings total. It records your deposits and withdrawals, and lets you set a target savings amount and timescale. If you want to check to see how much you have saved, you don't need to empty the money bank and spend hours counting it all up â?? just like an ATM machine you press a button, and your balance appears on the built-in LCD screen. The ATM money bank also has a secret password accessed vault in the side which is ideal for valuables such as jewellery or collectables. All in all the ATM money bank does everything a normal bank does without leaving the house! The ATM Money Bank

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Amazon Exclusive: Michael Connelly Interviews Lyndsay FayeMichael Connelly: I think the first question is about the challenge you gave yourself with...... more

Amazon Exclusive: Michael Connelly Interviews Lyndsay FayeMichael Connelly: I think the first question is about the challenge you gave yourself with this book. Re-creating New York City circa 1845. The question I ask is, Why then? But what I am really asking is why you took the difficult path. Why not New York in 1945, or even now? I read this book and from the writers standpoint, kept asking myself, Why did she take this path? Wow!Lyndsay Faye: Ha! Yes, absolutelyin a certain sense, the project was very difficult. My hubris in trying to write a novel set in 1845 New York was about the fact that I specifically wanted to do day one, cop one of the NYPD. Origin stories are very compelling. And when you think about how renowned the world over the NYPD is today, for reasons both positive and negative but all of them highly dramatic, you find yourself wondering what such an organization looked like at inception. Its almost mythical, the fame theyve achieved and the advances theyve made, and I was deeply curious to know how they started out. I wanted to take a historical event and turn it into a legend, in the sense of making something iconic and resonant, and when I discovered that the NYPD was founded in 1845, my time period chose itself.In another sense, I should add that I was once on a library panel where a very clever author said we dont write historicals to choose the difficult path, but rather the lazy one. Its almost impossible to commit a decent crime these days, what with CCTV and the Internet and credit-card tracking and forensics and ballistics and security cameras and such everywhere. I have a simple bachelors in English lit, not an advanced degree in criminal science, and to be honest, I find the complexity of modern-day crime solving much more intimidating when it comes to plot. I know that TV shows like CSI, etc., make it all look more magical than it is in fact, but Im interested in how people solved crimes before forensics was even a line of study. How did the first cops go about it? What tools did they employ? I greatly enjoy reading modern mysteries, but Im constantly staggered by the omnivorous technical know-how they require. MC: Whats most impressive about this work is how the world of New York is so full and real. Can you walk us through the research that goes into a project like this? How long were you putting this part together before you actually sat down to write the book, or do both things happen at the same time?LF: Thank you very much indeedI want all of my historical fiction to be an immersive experience, so to create that effect, I bury myself in the world in question for at least six months before embarking on a first draft. This time around, that meant poring over diaries, setting up my own tent shanty in the New-York Historical Society, camping out with a cookstove in the Bryant Park extension of the New York Public Librarys microfilm department, etc. Syntax and fashion and food and architecture and all the other aspects of the culture fascinate me, so I try to soak it all in like a big fluffy pancake. Its irritating for me to be constantly looking up facts or grasping at vernacular as Im writing, so Ive learned to spend half a year at research first. It saves me time in the long run.My research includes history books, always, but original sources are ultimately much more important to me. I read all of the Herald newspaper from January 1st through December 31st for 1845, for instance. Countless people wrote travelogues and social essays and satires in nineteenth-century New York, and those were invaluable. I wanted to know what the people of the time period thought about their city, their politics, their lifestyle. What did they think and say about race? Religion? Where to get the best oyster pie? How that uppity tart cousin of theirs looked at the firemans ball last night? That journey of discovery is always a fabulous one.MC: I think its easy in a historical novel to make the time and place the starto sort of wow em with your research. That usually leaves the story short on character. You escaped that pitfall with a host of characters, leading with Timothy Wilde. It seems that equal preparation went into Wilde as did into your historical research. Can you say where Wilde comes from?LF: See, this is something I love talking about, because historical fiction that shows off the research involved rather dismays me. The author presents you with a narrator who is, for example, a tavern girl. Shes plucky and wonderful and when running for her life from sinister guardsmen, she stops to tell you that the building shes racing past was erected in 1814, by whom, with what variety of stone. Im exaggerating, but I make it a principle not to include any information that my characters wouldnt find relevant. Or I try my best to avoid it.So its very fair to say that as much effort goes into my characters as into the world around them. Tim is culled from multiple sources. To name a few, when I realized that the early NYPD was inextricably tied up in politics, I determined that I wanted him to be an outsider with his own set of principles, yet I still wanted him to be highly competent. I was in the restaurant business for ten years; my husband and many of my closest friends are bartenders, and you ought to be aware that they know more about you than you suppose. Barkeeps are keen observers, and I realized that a former career in an oyster cellar would be grand training for the NYPD. Tims physical appearance is more or less based on a dear actor friend of mine I used to work with when I did musical theater. Many bits of Timothy are, of course, me. Fountains that dont work make me irrationally annoyed; they annoy Tim, too. Finally, my favorite aspects of Tim are those sort of alchemical moments when a character youre imagining takes on a life of his or her own.MC: It was pure genius to anchor this story in two significant eventsthe potato famine and the founding of the New York Police Department. There is probably substantial documentation of these two things. How do you take them and blend them into fiction? Were you a slave to drama or a slave to the facts/truths of that time? LF: The historical confluence of the Great Famine and the inaugural year of the NYPD was a gift of twenty-four-karat writerly gold. If Id found a genie on a beach and asked it for ideal dramatic material, I couldnt have done better. That was 100 percent luck, actuallyI was researching the first cops, and then I found that the potato blight had just been discovered the previous year in Europe, and that thousands upon thousands of Irish were fleeing their homeland. Native New Yorkers were up in arms about emigrants ruining their democracy in the name of the Antichrist of Rome, all that unfortunate hyperbolic political grandstanding that happens when too many people want the same resources. It was total chaos, and it changed the face New York City society.Blending the stories of the copper stars and of the emigrants was a challenge, but a riveting one for me. As you say, both the potato famine and the first police force are well documented. I was a slave to the facts in the sense that I wanted to do as much justice as possible to my ancestors, who were seeking new lives in what turned out to be a hostile environment. The influx of Irish refugees continued for quite some time, so Id copious material to cull from. It became very real for me. The chapter titles all feature a quote from the time period, for instance, to help us bear in mind that poverty and religious bigotry and corruption were rampant and real. The thin line between success and despair they walked is as shocking and relevant today as it was then, so by virtue of being a slave to the facts, I managed to be a slave to the drama simultaneously. MC: Your last novel, Dust and Shadow, also blended fiction and factJack the Ripperand historical research. Aside from these two very large, real events that we start with in TGOG, was there a smaller, true incident that inspired this story?LF: Yes, indeed. The story of Eliza Rafferty and her infanticide was entirely trueit took place in 1849 in a house at number 6 Doyer Street. When I read about her distress and incomprehension after killing her own child, I set myself the gruesome task of finding out what sort of life could inspire such an act. The neighbors were rightly shocked by the babys death, the police appalled. Today I think wed term her state a psychotic form of severe postpartum depression, but apart from lacking modern medicine to save her and her child, she probably lacked everything else as wellample space, adequate food, any sort of safety net whatsoever. As Tims introduction to the atrocities a policeman must face in order to do his job, its horrifying but also immediately brings home how high the stakes are going to be. MC: Heres one I bet you never saw coming. (Not really.) What is next for you? Will you stay with a historical project?LF: Yes, Im thick in the sequel to Gotham! It takes place six months later, in the winter of 1846. Timothy and Valentine have quite a bit of baggage to work through, after all, so I think it would be rather cruel not to give them a shot. The usual suspects will be back in force, and writing it has been a fantastic experience. Ive never written a sequel before. Wish me luck! And thank you ever so much for the truly thought-provoking questions.

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Amazon Exclusive: Michael Connelly Interviews Lyndsay FayeMichael Connelly: I think the first question is about the challenge you gave yourself with...... more

Amazon Exclusive: Michael Connelly Interviews Lyndsay FayeMichael Connelly: I think the first question is about the challenge you gave yourself with this book. Re-creating New York City circa 1845. The question I ask is, Why then? But what I am really asking is why you took the difficult path. Why not New York in 1945, or even now? I read this book and from the writers standpoint, kept asking myself, Why did she take this path? Wow!Lyndsay Faye: Ha! Yes, absolutelyin a certain sense, the project was very difficult. My hubris in trying to write a novel set in 1845 New York was about the fact that I specifically wanted to do day one, cop one of the NYPD. Origin stories are very compelling. And when you think about how renowned the world over the NYPD is today, for reasons both positive and negative but all of them highly dramatic, you find yourself wondering what such an organization looked like at inception. Its almost mythical, the fame theyve achieved and the advances theyve made, and I was deeply curious to know how they started out. I wanted to take a historical event and turn it into a legend, in the sense of making something iconic and resonant, and when I discovered that the NYPD was founded in 1845, my time period chose itself.In another sense, I should add that I was once on a library panel where a very clever author said we dont write historicals to choose the difficult path, but rather the lazy one. Its almost impossible to commit a decent crime these days, what with CCTV and the Internet and credit-card tracking and forensics and ballistics and security cameras and such everywhere. I have a simple bachelors in English lit, not an advanced degree in criminal science, and to be honest, I find the complexity of modern-day crime solving much more intimidating when it comes to plot. I know that TV shows like CSI, etc., make it all look more magical than it is in fact, but Im interested in how people solved crimes before forensics was even a line of study. How did the first cops go about it? What tools did they employ? I greatly enjoy reading modern mysteries, but Im constantly staggered by the omnivorous technical know-how they require. MC: Whats most impressive about this work is how the world of New York is so full and real. Can you walk us through the research that goes into a project like this? How long were you putting this part together before you actually sat down to write the book, or do both things happen at the same time?LF: Thank you very much indeedI want all of my historical fiction to be an immersive experience, so to create that effect, I bury myself in the world in question for at least six months before embarking on a first draft. This time around, that meant poring over diaries, setting up my own tent shanty in the New-York Historical Society, camping out with a cookstove in the Bryant Park extension of the New York Public Librarys microfilm department, etc. Syntax and fashion and food and architecture and all the other aspects of the culture fascinate me, so I try to soak it all in like a big fluffy pancake. Its irritating for me to be constantly looking up facts or grasping at vernacular as Im writing, so Ive learned to spend half a year at research first. It saves me time in the long run.My research includes history books, always, but original sources are ultimately much more important to me. I read all of the Herald newspaper from January 1st through December 31st for 1845, for instance. Countless people wrote travelogues and social essays and satires in nineteenth-century New York, and those were invaluable. I wanted to know what the people of the time period thought about their city, their politics, their lifestyle. What did they think and say about race? Religion? Where to get the best oyster pie? How that uppity tart cousin of theirs looked at the firemans ball last night? That journey of discovery is always a fabulous one.MC: I think its easy in a historical novel to make the time and place the starto sort of wow em with your research. That usually leaves the story short on character. You escaped that pitfall with a host of characters, leading with Timothy Wilde. It seems that equal preparation went into Wilde as did into your historical research. Can you say where Wilde comes from?LF: See, this is something I love talking about, because historical fiction that shows off the research involved rather dismays me. The author presents you with a narrator who is, for example, a tavern girl. Shes plucky and wonderful and when running for her life from sinister guardsmen, she stops to tell you that the building shes racing past was erected in 1814, by whom, with what variety of stone. Im exaggerating, but I make it a principle not to include any information that my characters wouldnt find relevant. Or I try my best to avoid it.So its very fair to say that as much effort goes into my characters as into the world around them. Tim is culled from multiple sources. To name a few, when I realized that the early NYPD was inextricably tied up in politics, I determined that I wanted him to be an outsider with his own set of principles, yet I still wanted him to be highly competent. I was in the restaurant business for ten years; my husband and many of my closest friends are bartenders, and you ought to be aware that they know more about you than you suppose. Barkeeps are keen observers, and I realized that a former career in an oyster cellar would be grand training for the NYPD. Tims physical appearance is more or less based on a dear actor friend of mine I used to work with when I did musical theater. Many bits of Timothy are, of course, me. Fountains that dont work make me irrationally annoyed; they annoy Tim, too. Finally, my favorite aspects of Tim are those sort of alchemical moments when a character youre imagining takes on a life of his or her own.MC: It was pure genius to anchor this story in two significant eventsthe potato famine and the founding of the New York Police Department. There is probably substantial documentation of these two things. How do you take them and blend them into fiction? Were you a slave to drama or a slave to the facts/truths of that time? LF: The historical confluence of the Great Famine and the inaugural year of the NYPD was a gift of twenty-four-karat writerly gold. If Id found a genie on a beach and asked it for ideal dramatic material, I couldnt have done better. That was 100 percent luck, actuallyI was researching the first cops, and then I found that the potato blight had just been discovered the previous year in Europe, and that thousands upon thousands of Irish were fleeing their homeland. Native New Yorkers were up in arms about emigrants ruining their democracy in the name of the Antichrist of Rome, all that unfortunate hyperbolic political grandstanding that happens when too many people want the same resources. It was total chaos, and it changed the face New York City society.Blending the stories of the copper stars and of the emigrants was a challenge, but a riveting one for me. As you say, both the potato famine and the first police force are well documented. I was a slave to the facts in the sense that I wanted to do as much justice as possible to my ancestors, who were seeking new lives in what turned out to be a hostile environment. The influx of Irish refugees continued for quite some time, so Id copious material to cull from. It became very real for me. The chapter titles all feature a quote from the time period, for instance, to help us bear in mind that poverty and religious bigotry and corruption were rampant and real. The thin line between success and despair they walked is as shocking and relevant today as it was then, so by virtue of being a slave to the facts, I managed to be a slave to the drama simultaneously. MC: Your last novel, Dust and Shadow, also blended fiction and factJack the Ripperand historical research. Aside from these two very large, real events that we start with in TGOG, was there a smaller, true incident that inspired this story?LF: Yes, indeed. The story of Eliza Rafferty and her infanticide was entirely trueit took place in 1849 in a house at number 6 Doyer Street. When I read about her distress and incomprehension after killing her own child, I set myself the gruesome task of finding out what sort of life could inspire such an act. The neighbors were rightly shocked by the babys death, the police appalled. Today I think wed term her state a psychotic form of severe postpartum depression, but apart from lacking modern medicine to save her and her child, she probably lacked everything else as wellample space, adequate food, any sort of safety net whatsoever. As Tims introduction to the atrocities a policeman must face in order to do his job, its horrifying but also immediately brings home how high the stakes are going to be. MC: Heres one I bet you never saw coming. (Not really.) What is next for you? Will you stay with a historical project?LF: Yes, Im thick in the sequel to Gotham! It takes place six months later, in the winter of 1846. Timothy and Valentine have quite a bit of baggage to work through, after all, so I think it would be rather cruel not to give them a shot. The usual suspects will be back in force, and writing it has been a fantastic experience. Ive never written a sequel before. Wish me luck! And thank you ever so much for the truly thought-provoking questions.

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