Showing results by author "Joseph Santiago" in All Categories

YOU DIDN’T BUY THIS BOOK. YOU PICKED UP A NODE. In New Orleans, a “normal” lunch turns into an intake line—forms, name tags, and rules that start acting like they’ve always been true. When the room tries to file people into permanent categories, Mara does the only thing that works: she makes reality messy again. Today. Right now. This weather. This shift. No forever-words. But the storm doesn’t stop at the door. A service entrance peels open into the City of Echoing Pages—a metropolis built from book spines, ink-lamps, and sentences that rearrange themselves when you blink. ...

You didn’t pick up a book. You picked up a Node—a pocket doorway into a set of worlds where stories don’t describe reality. They shape it. In Sector Folio-7, a catastrophic cascade has begun. Worlds are bleeding into each other, rules are breaking, and a city built from living pages is starting to collapse from the inside. Streets repeat out of order. People forget who they are mid-sentence. And “plot holes”—literal voids—open in the ground and swallow entire blocks. Mara Keene is a Scriptor tasked with keeping this place intact. She enters the City of Echoing Pages to recover...

When numbers and neighborhood stories meet, something powerful wakes up. Parish Stories: Data-to-Story Labs is a field guide for cultural creatives who want to work with data without losing their voice, their humor, or their community in the process. This book was built in and for places like New Orleans—and for every parish, county, borough, and neighborhood that knows it is more than a statistic. It treats “cultural creative” broadly: not just artists and writers, but anyone who carries culture into their work and connects it back to the people they serve—teaching artists and ...

You picked up a Node—an ordinary-looking object with an unfair advantage: it turns everyday life into a readable map. A Pocket Universe is a room you can enter without leaving your life. The world outside stays the same—work, family, love, money, hunger, pride—but the noise stops pretending it’s neutral. You start noticing what was always there: who gets rewarded, who gets punished, who benefits when you stay confused, and what it costs to accept the role you’re being offered. That pattern is the Great Game: the invisible trade of attention, status, fear, desire, and control. It ...

Are you passionate about building thriving and inclusive communities? Do you want to make a positive impact on the lives of people around you? Look no further than "Community Development Frameworks: Building Thriving and Inclusive Communities." This comprehensive guide is specifically crafted for individuals actively involved in community development and planning, regardless of their level of experience. Whether you are a beginner or an expert in leading groups, this book offers practical insights and frameworks that can be readily applied to your own community development projects. The ...

What if fate came with a settings menu… and you’ve never checked what’s turned on by default? Subscribe to Fate drops you into the Great Game—a universe where gods argue over neural nets, lunar engineers discover their survival is a televised challenge, economies run on reputation, and a tiny gray “smudge” can derail a perfectly calibrated season of conflict. Inside this pocket-sized book you’ll find: An All-Father who wakes up to discover mortals have patched the code of creation. Moon colonists fighting for water, oxygen, and the right to be more than someone else’s ...

✶ Somehow I Got Lost Along the Way ✶ A Side Quest from the Pocket Universe of the Great Game This isn’t the main storyline. This is the secret passage. The detour you weren’t supposed to find. The cosmic margin notes that refused to stay quiet. Somehow I Got Lost Along the Way is a collection of reflections, dialogues, confessions, and tangled myth-fragments from the Pocket Universe of the Great Game—the same vast, layered world explored in the Gate of Aesir series. Here, the rules of the Game twist. Gods trade bets on mortal choices. Emotion itself becomes currency. And ...

Toad’s Terrible, No-Good, Very Excellent Adventure (How Not to Quest Properly) What happens when an imp with the self-preservation instincts of a sock in a tornado, a wizard who can’t stop turning things into chickens, a ghost rabbit with a talent for bad decisions, and a knight-turned-frog who just wants some peace get tangled in a fate-woven disaster? Well… this. Toad, an imp with a talent for absolutely the wrong kind of mischief, has been "banished" (read: promoted) to the Mortal Realm. Osric, a wizard desperately trying to master magic without creating more poultry, has somehow ...

You’re not just reading—you’re stepping through. On the train with a lukewarm coffee. In a hallway outside a meeting that’s already running late. At the sink while the group chat invents a new crisis. Players and Powers: Pocket Worlds in Play is the kind of book you crack open mid-day and the room tilts—just enough for the next move to appear. Think of each page as a small doorway: you touch the line, and a pocket world opens. In one, the conversation starts differently and people relax. In another, the schedule slides twenty minutes and the whole evening lands softer. Somewhere ...

Make your work easier to find—and harder to erase. Algorithms may open doors, but people decide what matters. Navigating an AI-Driven World is a practical guide for culture-makers, technologists, nonprofits, and healthcare teams who want their work to travel farther without losing the heart of it. This book bridges traditional craft with modern tools so your stories, services, and programs stay clear, credited, and community-led. You’ll learn simple ways to choose what stays private, what you preview, what you invite others to build on, and what you release as the official version. With...

Dear Diary, It Got Weird Again The Works of Mr. Joe This isn’t a diary. It’s a legacy stitched from the strange, the sincere, and the sentences that refused to stay quiet. Inside are fragments that became foundations—moments of insight, humor, heartbreak, and clarity gathered over years and held together by a single thread: the need to make meaning in a world that doesn’t always offer it freely. This collection speaks to those who feel everything a little too deeply, think a little too sideways, and laugh in the middle of their most serious questions. It’s for anyone who’s ever ...

Open Anywhere: Be the Player — Pocket Worlds for Busy Days is a book for people with too much life and not enough day. Part story, part sly nudge, it treats everyday reality like the Great Game—not a competition, but a living system that reacts when you do. Open to any page and you’ll drop into a tiny “pocket world”: a short scene, a sharp idea, and a way to press on your world so it presses back in a better shape. This isn’t a manual or a pep talk. It’s the opposite of homework. You’ll find the hidden axis in a stubborn conversation by moving a chair six inches. You’ll ...

Before you find yourself—you’ll have to wander through the stories that shaped you. In the fourth volume of The Creative Works of Mr. Joe, Joseph Santiago invites you into a space where memory, myth, and imagination blur—where genre bends, and the self reveals itself in unexpected ways. Told through a kaleidoscope of flash fiction, short stories, and lyrical essays, these works explore the invisible threads that shape our lives: the fears we silence, the joy we nearly miss, and the rituals we invent to stay human. With a voice both vulnerable and sharp, Santiago weaves sci-fi ...

This Kindle document is the culmination of a three month action research (AR) project. It was undertaken with the purpose of getting the unheard voice heard in a writing and dialogue group in the Northeast. This work describes the transformation of the group in that three month time span under which the study took place. AR utilizes a four cycle process of discovery, measurable action, reflection, and action, in order to strategically work towards a goal with data constantly informing decisions. It is these qualities of AR that make it ideal for social justice and educational equity work. ...

Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey toward mastering the art of conflict resolution and effective communication? "Navigating Life's Conflicts: Strategies for Effective De-Escalation and Communication" invites you to step into the heart of true-to-life scenarios where tensions rise, emotions flare, and understanding seems out of reach. In this immersive and scenario-driven approach, you'll not only learn invaluable conflict resolution skills, but you'll also apply them in these true-to-life situations, challenging yourself to navigate the complexities of human interaction. ...

Become a Culture Catalyst: Transform Communities, Facilitate Change Opportunities, Shape the World! Discover the power to make a lasting impact with Catalyst Culture, your comprehensive guide to becoming an agent of transformation in an ever-evolving world. Whether you're a leader, influencer, entrepreneur, or an individual passionate about change, this groundbreaking book equips you with knowledge, frameworks, and strategies to create meaningful and lasting transformations. Practical Frameworks for Swift Implementation: Catalyst Culture offers concrete tools and strategies that seamlessly ...

Unlock the transformative potential of nonviolent activism and become a catalyst for positive social change with this comprehensive training manual. Rooted in the principles and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this guide empowers individuals to embrace the powerful philosophy of Kingian Nonviolence and create a more just and compassionate world. Prepare for action by understanding the importance of education, research, and strategic planning in driving effective nonviolent campaigns. Gain insights into successful coalition building and advocacy efforts while embracing the values of ...

Dive into the heart of New Orleans, a city where every street corner whispers a story, every gust of wind carries a melody, and every moment is a verse waiting to be written. "67 Days of NOLA Poetic Exploration" is more than a book; it's a journey through the soul of one of America's most vibrant cities, captured in the intimate dance of poetry and prose. In this mesmerizing collection, you'll explore the mysterious allure of Saint Joseph's Table in NOLA, unravel the enigmatic presence of Gods in The Gymbo, and voyage with Zeus into the realms of space. Feel the pulse of New Orleans after ...

Between Here And There: Week 1 - The Experimental Certainty of Exploration Through Social Distance Dive deep into the vibrant heartbeat of New Orleans with a poetic journey that transcends time and space. Over 67 days, experience the magic, mystery, poetic inquiry, and musicality of NOLA, as each day unfolds with a series of poems capturing the essence of morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night. In this first week, delve into the "Experimental Certainty of Exploration Through Social Distance." As the world finds itself distanced, NOLA's spirit remains undimmed, her stories waiting to ...

MASTER THE FRAME Every situation is a game. See it. Read it. Win it. This pocket book is a survival kit for real rooms—HR traps, budget ambushes, grant boards, ER intake, hire–fire meetings, and “we just want to talk” surprises. When the door closes, this is the playbook you wish was in your pocket. What you get inside—fast, no fluff: Live drops: You’re thrown into the scene with only what a real person gets—voices, posture, timing, and pressure. Power Map: Who’s performing “nice,” who holds the lever, and who writes the record that sticks. Motive Read: What each player ...