Showing results by author "J.J. Michael" in All Categories

The AI Literacy Playbook for Hoteliers provides a clear roadmap for leveraging artificial intelligence to save time, mitigate burnout, and deliver enhanced guest experiences. Written for hotel leaders who need results, not buzzwords, this guide shows how to move from scattered experiments to practical, lasting change. Inside, you’ll learn how to audit your team’s real work, pinpoint AI-ready tasks, and build habits that lead to measurable impact.

In Resolute Japan, Waseda University's Jusuke J. J. Ikegami and the Wharton School's Harbir Singh and Michael Useem reveal a new leadership model that has led Japan's corporations to make a stunning comeback. In the process, they share what they have learned from interviews with more than 100 CEOs and top executives of Japan's largest and most influential companies, including Hitachi, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, NTT, and Panasonic.

Peculiar Monstrosities is packed with 14 exquisitely crafted stories from new and established authors of Bizarro fiction.

Many of us assume that who we really are is something deep inside us, an inner sanctuary that contains our true selves. In Who You Are, Michael Spivey argues that the opposite is true: that you are more than a brain, more than a brain and body, and more than all your assumptions about who you are.

Images of U.S. Marines assaulting Pacific beaches in World War II have stereotyped the service's roles and personnel for more than 50 years. This frank firsthand account of Marines sweeping over sands of a different sort in fast armored vehicles retires that popular legend and recasts the Corps as the modern, professional fighting force it was in Desert Storm. Battling a savage environment; an unknown enemy brandishing threats of nuclear, gas, and biological attacks; and a host of technological and tactical snafus, Alpha Company of the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion pushed forward at the "tip of the spear".

Uncover the stark realities tearing apart the antiwar movement worldwide: dark money from nefarious regimes run by nefarious dictators has corrupted the peace coalition that was once united in opposition to the Second Iraq War. As Alexander Reid Ross and others have uncovered, pundits and media outlets such as Russia Today have had a disproportionate level of influence on left-wing public opinion. That once-controversial claim has now become mainstream: Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio have called for investigations which, however, raise the issue to an inappropriate level and threaten free ...

When is a story more than just a story? When does it become a myth? When it holds a piece of truth about our history, our morality, and the cosmos. Throughout history, humankind has used stories to explain the unknown. From the cycle of the moon to the changing of the seasons, tales about supernatural beings and events have served to account for the purpose of the cosmos. But mythology isn’t entirely fiction. These stories have been passed down for generations for a reason.

Rafi is an 8 year old child living on a volcanic island who becomes trapped in a cave when a volcano unexpectedly erupts and covers the child's home and village with lava. On the 77th day, Rafi awakened to tears again, waking up every day crying. Rafi was sad and disillusioned and was beginning to give up hope. One day, Ifar appeared and rescued Rafi. They lived together for a while, fought vultures, constructed a glider based upon the great thinker Leonid's drawings and prepared to fly to a new life in the green land.

A wide-ranging journey through atheism and its surprising digressions by Michael J. Vaughn, author of the best-selling atheist novel, The Popcorn Girl. The book goes from the author's lightweight California Methodist past into the rethinking that inspired his call for the human species to drop religion like a bad habit. Steps along the way include a visit to the radical Deists who founded America and the radical fundamentalists who intend to tear it down, as well as humorous takes on the Catholic church's new cannibalism and the Ten Commandments on a pizza box.

Few artists have captured the unsettling beauty of the fusion between flesh and machine as hauntingly as Hans Ruedi Giger. His biomechanical visions, cathedrals of bone and chrome, embryonic nightmares suspended in steel wombs, eroticism bound in cold circuitry, have etched themselves into the collective unconscious. Giger unveiled a world that feels eerily familiar, as if drawn from the depths of a shared ancestral dream or a post-human future already unfolding. Born in Chur, Switzerland, in 1940, Giger studied architecture and industrial design, disciplines that would later inform the ...

House on Fire! follows Sophie, a young investigative journalist searching for answers, whose sources for a story on leadership principles in a high-purpose organization get mixed up in a series of mysterious fires around Pittsburgh. Listeners follow Sophie as she explores the intersection of faith and servant leadership in high-purpose organizations and discover how to put serving leadership to work in their own high-purpose organization today.

To produce a single pound of honey, honeybees will visit as many as 2 million flowers and travel a distance equal to three trips around the Earth. As they work, danger lurks along the way. Natural and environmental threats, coupled with an exhausting workload, make their lives challenging. Yet, despite despairing circumstances, the bees persevere. Through their inspirational example, bees teach us about hope. Hope & Honeybees is written by a local beekeeper and pastor. It explores the fascinating life of honeybees as a powerful Biblical analogy of hope. Exploring topics such as community, ...

Dexter meets Secretary in Michael J. Seidlinger's provocative, disturbing literary thriller that reinvents the serial killer genre, exploring the psychology of desire. Claire studies forensic science, Victor is the gentleman killer. Subverting expectations, Clair seduces Victor and keeps him in her apartment as her pet, her darkest secret. Beautifully written and provocative to listen to, Seidlinger delves into Claire's motivations and impetus to present a compelling psychosexual portrait of a woman obsessed with performance, power, sex, and gore.

A family - a mother, a father, and their 10-year-old son - have come all the way from Florida to the Appalachian foothills to experience the wonder of a snowy weekend. But when a blizzard suddenly descends, the family finds themselves trapped outside, disoriented in the whiteout and the waist-deep snowdrifts. Panicked, exhausted, and freezing, they cry out for help.

In a near-future America reeling from corruption, censorship, and a broken federal system, one state dares to reclaim its soul—Texas. When a devastating false flag operation shatters the public’s trust, a diverse group of patriots, politicians, veterans, and everyday Texans must decide: submit… or rise. Follow Ethan Jacobs, a principled war hero turned political outsider, and Bo Ramsey, a no-nonsense rancher with deep Texas roots, as they navigate betrayal, media manipulation, and rising tensions.

“…There was a sudden flash, and two large, yellow, cat-like eyes appeared before him in the darkness. Rami stumbled backward, unable to see in the jet-black surroundings. “You killed them Rami, their blood is on your hands …” Rami felt something warm and wet dripping from his hands, and he frantically wiped them on his tunic as he continued to stumble blindly, desperate to escape the eyes. He pitched backwards as the stone give way beneath him, and he tumbled into the darkness. The voice dissolved into harsh laughter, echoing all around him. Then he woke up, screaming…” Alone ...

An ancient evil has returned to threaten the world of magic and mortal alike. Keegan Whitestone has become the Guardian - protector of the magical barrier known as the Veil - but he cannot yet control his powers. He must find and destroy the legendary Bloodstone, a jewel used by the powerful necromancer, Sava, to ensnare and devour the souls of others. In a bid to save the soul of the woman he loves, Keegan faces a terrible choice. 'Bloodstone - The Guardian's Curse' is a twenty chapter novella of 32,000 words, and is the sequel to 'The Guardian's Apprentice'. Also included are the short ...

Sakkara, Egypt. The birthplace of magic in our world. On the thirteenth hour, of the thirteenth day, of the thirteenth month after their death, an old enemy returns from the abyss with the aid of the Shadow. Keegan Whitestone must unravel a mystery and stop a murder before it happens - five thousand years in the past! Rise of the Shadow is the third book in the Beyond the Veil series, and is a novella of approximately 30,000 words.

Callen is a beautiful young woman who tries to see the best in everyone. Cursed with a cruel, overbearing father, she struggles to find balance in her life. When an injured dragon crashes near her home, she must disobey her father to follow her heart. Scale of a Dragon is a short story of 5,600 words set in the world of The Guardian's Apprentice.

Keegan Whitestone doesn’t believe in magic. A disillusioned young man drifting through life without purpose, he almost welcomes the unexpected delivery of his father’s signet ring and a mysterious note. Estranged from his father before the man’s death, Keegan knows nothing of his family heritage, or of the world awaiting him on the other side of the magical barrier known as the Veil. Summoned by the grandfather he never knew existed, Keegan must travel beyond the Veil to become the older man’s apprentice. With his grandfather, known as the Guardian, they must safeguard the barrier ...