Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

It's the spring of 2000, and Alex Vane is living the dream. He's brilliant, handsome, driven, and he has just landed his first major reporting job: covering New York's biggest trials for the city's second-biggest daily, The New York Standard. As if his luck couldn't get any better, Alex befriends a top prosecutor who helps him uncover a secret about a legendary defense attorney. When he breaks the story, the trial of the East Coast's most deadly drug kingpin falls into turmoil. But as he digs deeper, the story begins to unravel. 

Learn how to tell a good story with Your Story, Well Told! Jam-packed with some of the best storytelling strategies, this manual gives creatives the confidence bump they need to make the sale, land the client, propose a toast, or impress their date. The following is (not) a work of fiction. We've all got stories to tell - but how do you make your story the best story? In Your Story, Well Told!, Moth veteran Corey Rosen inspires you to get on stage and tell your story.

On a cold, rainy night in Seattle, a legendary journalist is found facedown in the street below a posh high-rise. Local police are calling it a suicide, but Alex Vane sees signs of murder. With help from a brash young journalist, Alex pieces together clues from the dead man's extraordinary career. But an unexpected discovery leads him to believe that all those legendary scoops may have been built on a lie so great it led to his murder.

America's intelligence security is in the hands of a million private contractors. Now one hacker may bring down their entire system. Four months ago, Alex Vane's friend James Stacy was murdered by private security contractors working for the intelligence-industrial complex. Alex exposed the killers, but most of the system survived, including the amoral torturer known only as Amand. From within Cuba's internet desert, James' widow, Innerva Shah, seeks her own kind of revenge.

With the Chamber of Eternity secure, Otto must now recover the second piece of the Immortality Engine. But that task will be far from easy. For the second piece, The Heart of Alchemy, lies far to the east in the fabled Celestial Empire. Assassins, undead, monstrous beasts, and demon worshippers all stand between Otto and his prize. And even more daunting, Valtan, the last living arcane lord, is determined to stop him. The cost be damned. Can Otto overcome the forces arrayed against him and take the next step down the road to immortality? 

My name is Marek, and I hunt monsters for gold. But now, with the help of a magic beacon, I'm seeking those who are tainted. The impure. Abominations. Monster girls. But not to kill. They need my help. All kinds of help. I'm more than happy to provide it, to do all I can to keep them safe from the real monsters that exist in the world.

Early in their three decades of correspondence, Neil Peart sent Kevin J. Anderson extensive descriptions and travelogues of his adventures bicycling solo across Africa. Peart painted a vivid and unsettling landscape as memorable as the lyrics to his songs. Anderson, award-winning and best-selling fantasy and science fiction author, used those descriptions as the backdrop for plotting an intense, atmospheric dark fantasy story that followed Peart’s experiences, though with a much more ominous twist.

It's one year after the 9/11 attacks, and court reporter Alex Vane is fighting to break into the flashy world of TV news. But when he uncovers the scoop of a lifetime, his tightly controlled world is rocked: His editor buries his story, a source turns up dead, and Alex finds himself at the center of a violent media conspiracy. As he receives tips from a mysterious source, Alex enlists the help of a captivating professor, Camila Gray. 

After exposing a low-level congressman for accepting bribes, Alex attends a conference and runs into an old friend - and flame - Media Studies Professor Camila Gray. But just as they begin to reconnect, Alex's business partner disappears, leaving Alex only one clue: the name of a hacker who was recently murdered. A source hints at a vaster conspiracy, one that may reach all the way up to the fast-approaching presidential election. 

Alex Vane was once a top investigative journalist. Now he peddles celebrity gossip and clickbait listicles, watching from a distance as his wife moves on with her life - without him. But Alex's past catches up to him when he learns that an old source, James Stacy, has been killed in a random mass shooting. James left Alex one last scoop: a 50-year-old hard drive that may contain a secret worth killing for...and the name of the one person who can help him access the data. 

In Healing Your Child's Brain, child-development experts Matthew and Carol Newell arm parents with the knowledge, confidence, and tools they need to help their special-needs child flourish. The Newells have treated more than 20,000 children and are the parents of two special-needs children. They know firsthand, as both parents and practitioners, what works - and what doesn't. 

You steal from your heroes and you plan all you want, and yet you are still standing in the same place. Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t will outline exactly why you are more than capable and yet, fail to see your goals through to the end. Toxic friendships, negotiable goals, procrastination, and lack of deadlines - Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t addresses why you aren’t getting what you deserve and how to opt out of this loop. That is, unless you’re seriously not sick and tired of this sh*t yet. Everyone else is. 

Sebastian “Seb” McAlister has run out of luck in Vegas. Cornered by a trigger-happy gang and shot through the stomach, he makes a desperate escape in his supercharged Hellcat. Fate guides Seb safely out of Sin City and into the desert, but as his wheels fade into the horizon, he fades into darkness. He awakes among a tiny community in the middle of nowhere. A mountain range circles the hodgepodge of shacks like prison walls looming high. And the warden that resides in those mountains is big, ugly, and deadly - a creature straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare.

Tim's a streetwise detective, investigating the death of a homeless woman on his turf. Paired with grizzled veteran Gabe, they have to determine if the murder is a one-off, or if something more sinister is afoot. The trouble is, Tim doesn't always play by Gabe's rules. Nikki's past made her strong. Survival has been her goal since she was a girl, and it's the one thing the killer never counted on. She'll need to use everything she's learned if she doesn't want to become his next victim. Will the detectives overcome their differences and piece the grim puzzle together? 

Seven writers meet for a weekend retreat at a remote beach house. Each of the frightened men and women share the same terror: They have all prophesied their own death on July 24 and hope together they can avoid their fate. Mirror House, a rambling mansion filled with an icy wind from subterranean tunnels, appears to be the perfect escape from a record-breaking heatwave as well as their untimely deaths. 

Master your fear, build greater confidence, and crush the obstacles holding you back. The fear of failure can damage self-esteem, cripple your confidence, and trigger psychological fears leading to action paralysis. Fail Big: Expanded Edition has new content as well as combining Fail Big and Fail Big 2.

Two roommates stumble upon a mysterious and disturbing videotape. After watching it, one of them vanishes.... A heart transplant recipient gets much more than he bargained for when he digs into his donor's sinister past.... Mourning the death of their son, a young couple is plunged into madness after encountering something otherworldly in the wilderness.... Dreams in Black Static is a collection of eight terrifying stories by Ambrose Ibsen, author of The Haunting of Beacon Hill and Asylum. 

Video game sales as a whole have continued to grow, now raking in twice as much money per year as the entire film industry, and countless psychologists have turned their attention to the effects gaming has on us: our confidence, our identity, and our personal growth. The Psychology of Zelda applies the latest psychological findings, plus insights from classic psychology theory, to Link, Zelda, Hyrule, and the players who choose to wield the Master Sword. 

With the empire secure, Otto turns his focus west. The first piece of the Immortality Engine lies across the ocean in Lord Colt’s Workshop. Complicating Otto’s mission, Eddred of Markane is already in Colt’s Land, trying to persuade them to help him defeat the empire. Can Otto navigate a web of politics and intrigue unlike anything he’s ever encountered? Or, will his mission fail before he even reaches Colt’s workshop?

He didn't want to be in the game. Now, he has to save it. Killed on the first day on the job, 25-year-old police officer Nyle Maxwell finds his mind uploaded to Capes Online, the world's biggest and most popular VRMMORPG. Yet, the one-way, mind-to-game upload process means that Nyle can never return to his physical body. Now, he must become a real superhero and protect Capes Online from both hostile players and malevolent AIs and NPCs alike that seek to destroy the game itself.