Showing results by narrator "Alan Carlson" in All Categories

Their mothers told them monsters weren’t real, but mothers don’t know everything.

It was, maybe, the first job I'd ever had where people were happy to see me. An odd feeling indeed, to wield this kind of power. To be this kind of force. As near to magical as any mortal should stride. A technician of unspeakable joy. Braving the neon mountains to return with blue raspberry concentrate. Tearing out sundae cone fangs from the mouths of snow beasts. And so on.

After two daughters of a wealthy railroad baron are abducted, they hire a famous bounty hunter and a couple Pinkerton detectives to find them. As they investigate, it’s discovered the girls’ abduction wasn’t random but part of a larger conspiracy that will propel them on a deadly hunt to rescue the girls before they’re lost forever. 

What secrets do the Las Vegas storm drains keep? What discoveries wait in the dark? What's beneath the neon? Armed with a flashlight, tape recorder, and expandable baton, Las Vegas CityLife writer-editor Matthew O'Brien explored the Las Vegas flood-control system for more than four years. Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O'Brien's adventures in subterranean Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a flood. He parties with naked crack-heads. 

Some worship him and some want him dead, but either way, tensions run high when “Ray Boy” Calabrese is released from prison. It’s been 16 years since Ray Boy’s actions led to the death of a young man. The victim's brother, Conway D'Innocenzio, is a 29-year-old Brooklynite wasting away at a local Rite Aid, stuck in the past and drawn into a darker side of himself when he hears of Ray Boy’s freedom. But even with the perfect plan in place, Conway can’t bring himself to take the ultimate revenge on Ray Boy, which sends him into a spiral of self-loathing and soul-searching.

Amy was once a party girl, but she now lives a lonely life, helping the house-bound to receive communion in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. She stops in at one of the apartments on her route, where Mrs. Epifanio, the elderly woman who lives there, says she hasn’t seen her usual caretaker, Diane, in a few days. Supposedly, Diane has the flu - or so Diane’s son, Vincent, said when he first dropped by and vanished into Mrs. E’s bedroom to do no-one-knows-what. Amy’s brief interaction with Vincent in the apartment that day sets off warning bells.

Millionaires, a mini dachshund, and dreams of old Manhattan inspire a writer to leave monotony behind and follow a 1930s murder mystery. Rick Gordon is accustomed to losing. He decides it’s time for a change after finding himself single and out of work again with no one for moral support but his two meddling friends and a precocious dachshund. A box of old family photos reveals an odd mystery his deceased uncle had tucked away for him.

Jack Winters is in a bit of a pickle. Things started out just fine. He had a decent job and a few friends. Then he met the woman of his dreams. They go out on a date and things go really well. That’s when things go south. The morning after turns out to be a week later and the world went ahead and ended itself while Jack was far away in dreamland. Along with his friends and some other random tag-alongs, Jack will journey cross-country to find the woman of his dreams against zombies, heavy metal horsemen, pirates, and an immense, evil power.

Some people will do anything for money. Take Brian Zembic, recipient of the world's most notorious boob job. After a fellow gambler bet $100,000 that Brian wouldn't subject himself to the breast implants he so admired in women, Brian found himself going under the knife to become a 38C - and $100,000 richer.

When Jason returned home from competing on Beached he'd lost weight, couldn't sleep, and felt more alone than ever. But, he expected those changes. Jason had no way to predict that one of his fellow competitors would fling himself from a cliff. Unless he didn't. Jason can't believe it, but the network broadcasts the alleged suicide to the world, so he pushes forward in his own amateur investigation.

A disgraced royal guard who failed in protecting his king hunts down those who cost him more than just his honor.

The life most of us experience today is much different than the past. The realities of work and life have changed rapidly, and our busyness has made matters worse. Professional and entrepreneurial burnout, as well as, diminishing employee engagement are costing us and our organizations and creating fewer winners at work and in life. The old approaches to employee retention and corporate culture no longer work, and greater corporate social responsibility is quickly moving to the forefront.

 Gods of the Valley downs the businesses and big problems with Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, examining upcoming market trends and potential disruptions that impact today’s tech giants and rating the businesses accordingly.