Kevin McLaughlin

Writing in the Time We HaveWe all have twenty four hours in a day, 365 days in a year. And in theory, how we spend that time is entirely up to us. In practice? Not so much! I bet you find that most of those hours are filled in for you. We have childcare, and work, and food prep, and bill paying, and housework, and yard work, and myriad other tasks that eat up bits and bites of that precious time, until there is very little left. And so most would-be novelists never write their books, because they “don’t have time”. They simply cannot figure out how to add anything else in. Many of us have trouble finding the time to brush our teeth more than once a day - fitting in a novel, too? It looks too big. Looms too large. It’s a mountain of a task, and there seems to be no way to confront something that will chew up that many hours in the small bits of time we have available. In this book we'll address that lack of time, and we’re also going to look at the novel as a set of smaller bites. By the time you are done, you will have all the tools you need to finish your novel - to fit that important work into your already busy life. Are you tired of not having the time to accomplish your dream of writing a novel? Have you written a book before, but it took forever, and you don't know how you'll ever finish the next one? This book is for you.

Writing the Book You Want in the Time You Have

The Coffee Break Novelist

Michael Anderle

Dragons used to rule the world; those days are over. But humans, mages, and dragons have just begun learning to co-exist without conflict. Kylara Diamantine has never met another dragon. Raised by her mother apart from the rest of their society without any idea why, she's always been curious about the rest of their species. She wants to get out there, to meet other dragons, to explore! To stretch her wings. Literally. Be careful what you wish for, they say. They're right. After a devastating magical attack on their home leaves Ky's mother missing, she's placed at a special school for her protection. A school for dragons - but this year, for the first time, mages will be attending alongside their scaley fellow students to learn more about magic and draconic powers. The attacker who stole away Kylara's mother isn't finished yet and turns up the heat on the school. Ky's dragon powers keep growing in mysterious ways, but will even that be enough to save her? Ky is a stranger in a place she doesn't know, under attack and desperate to find her missing mother. She'll need all her courage and strength to survive the tests ahead of her. Scroll UP and click Read Now or Read for Free to begin the story of The Dragon's Daughter!

Never A Dragon

Pixies are disappearing, and not in a good way. The flighty little creatures are made of pure magic, making them both extremely powerful and vulnerable. For a mage with the right knowledge can capture and drain them, becoming a wizard of near-godlike power in the process. It's happened before, and it's happening again. But no one will believe the pixies. That same flighty reputation means nobody is taking the abductions seriously - except Kylara Diamantine, the only mage who can transform into a dragon. When a pixie comes to her for help, Ky risks everything to bring the missing pixies home. But why do they keep calling her the 'big pixie', anyway? Ky doesn't mind, but it has her worried... Scroll UP and click Read Now or Read for Free to continue the story of The Dragon's Daughter!

Dragon Fire and Pixie Dust

Samantha's world is turned upside-down when she arrives in Valhalla, surrounded by warriors, mages, and monsters! But it gets worse, because she learns that Valhalla Online is a virtual afterlife, and she isn't dead. At least...she hopes she isn't. Now Sam must solve the mystery of her own abduction - or murder! - while trapped inside a vitual world, cut off from communication with the outside. To do this she must do more than simply survive Valhalla - she needs to win the game! An exciting LitRPG adventure from the imagination of USA Today bestselling author Kevin O. McLaughlin! More than just a game, Valhalla Online was designed as a permanent repository for the uploaded minds of mortals afraid of death, an artificial afterlife. Sam will need all her wits, some good allies, and a whole lot of leveling up if she's going to find out why she's there, and how to get back home.

A LitRPG Adventure

Valhalla Online

War over energy resources devastated the Earth and her colony on the moon. A new agreement was reached between the nations of the world: The Lunar Accord. Designed to end the possibility of war in space for all time, it bars nations or individuals from arming ships in space. Twenty peaceful years have passed since the Accord was signed. But someone has broken the rules, and now armed ships are attacking freighters and kidnapping their crews. One man saw the danger, all those years ago - Admiral Nicholas Stein, hero and villain of the last war. He argued against the Accord and was ridiculed for it. Now he and his son Thomas are all that stands between humanity and a ruthless enemy who will stop at nothing to control space - and from there, enslave us all.

Accord of Honor

Die Magier treiben die Erde näher an einen Krieg, den niemand gewinnen kann. Kristen und ihr Team sind alles, was zwischen ihnen und der völligen Vernichtung aller, die sie liebt, steht. Aber die Magier sind vielleicht nicht die schlimmste Bedrohung, der sie sich stellen muss! In den Schatten lauert jemand, der andere zu seinem eigenen Vorteil manipuliert. Die Magier-Assassinen geben sich nicht länger damit zufrieden, sich in den Schatten zu verstecken. Ihr Tag ist gekommen, und sie werden sich erheben, um die Welt in einen Ort ohne Drachen zu verwandeln. Aber bevor sie sich mit dem verborgenen Gegner befassen kann, muss Kristen die Magier davon abhalten, einen Krieg auszulösen. Sie sind entschlossen, die Menschen und die Drachen in einen Konflikt zu bringen, koste es, was es wolle. Sie hat das Team. Sie hat ihre Drachenkräfte. Kristen hat sogar die Rückendeckung des Rates. Aber um die Schlacht zu gewinnen und den Krieg zu beenden, braucht sie alles, was sie aufbringen kann, und noch viel mehr! Und selbst das könnte nicht genug sein. Alte Feinde werden zu Verbündeten. Neue Freunde werden entdeckt. Und das Geheimnis hinter der Spinne, die das Netz der Intrigen um Kristen spinnt, wird in diesem epischen dritten Buch des vierten Zyklus der Stahldrachen-Serie endlich gelüftet!

Drachengefängnis

Ein neuer Fall für das Drachen-SWAT: Ein weiterer Drache ist ermordet worden. Die junge Drachenpolizistin Kristen Hall hat allerdings das Problem, dass ihr Vorgesetzter immer noch nichts von ihren Theorien hören und somit in die entsprechende Richtung ermitteln möchte denn zu groß wäre der Aufruhr, wenn diese Theorien öffentlich bekannt würden. Allerdings taucht dann ein weiteres Problem auf: bei allen Mordfällen an Drachen war Kristen vor Ort, zum Teil allein und die DNA-Spuren an den tödlichen Wunden deuten auf eine gewisse junge Polizistin und sie wird zur Zielscheibe der Drachenjustiz. Wird Kristen, der Stahldrache, genug Vertrauen in das Rechtssystem des Drachenrats haben, nachdem sie mitbekommen hat, wie einfach Drachen, die ganze Dörfer niederwalzen und dabei Menschenleben fordern, mit minimalen Geldstrafen davonkommen?

Drachenrecht

Kristen setzt sich mit den Delegationen der Magier, Drachen und Menschen an einen Tisch, um über die Zukunft der Rassen zu verhandeln. Die Zwerge und schließlich auch die Elfen laden sich selbst ein, um auch ein Mitspracherecht zu haben. Der Maskierte intrigiert natürlich weiterhin und will die Verhandlungen mit allen ihm zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln torpedieren, um den Stahldrachen in einem schlechten Licht dastehen zu lassen. Wird es dem Stahldrachen gelingen, einen Konsens zu erarbeiten?

Drachenverhandlungen

Drachen beherrschen die Geschicke der Welt seit Jahrtausenden. Ihre Klauen stecken in jedem Aspekt des menschlichen Lebens, von der Regierung bis zur Industrie, manchmal offen, manchmal verdeckt. Aber Kristen Hall ist dabei, einen Schraubenschlüssel in das ganze System zu werfen. Denn sie ist auch ein Drache. Sie weiß es nur nicht... noch nicht! Ein Drache, der von Menschen aufgezogen wurde, in der Welt der Menschen, mit menschlichen Werten. Nach ihrem Abschluss an der Polizeiakademie wurde sie direkt in die Reihen der Spezialeinheit SWAT der Detroiter Polizei versetzt. Eine Anfängerin bei SWAT? Das kam bisher noch nie vor. Aber was die Drachen wollen, bekommen sie. Die Gründe für ihre Machenschaften werden klar, als ihre Drachenkräfte langsam an die Oberfläche kommen. Wird sich Kristen den Herausforderungen ihres neuen Lebens stellen? Welche Pläne haben die Drachen für ihre Zukunft? Und vielleicht die mysteriöseste Frage von allen wie ist sie ein Drache mit menschlichen Eltern geworden.

Drachenhaut

Ryan Blackwell has faced the darkness and won. He beat the monster, saved the day, and his magic has never been stronger.But he's never felt so alone.He hoped to leave his magic behind by going to Northshield University. Instead, he found a nexus of magic, and more supernatural danger than he'd thought existed in the world. Again and again, he's been forced to use his magic just to survive.And that magic turned him into an outsider all over again.Now danger looms over Northshield once more. Elemental fire is running wild on campus, and only Ryan has a chance of standing against it. He finds himself in the midst of terrible choices - choices that will put his life and the lives of everyone he dares to care about on the line.Ryan has no idea what true loneliness is... But he's about to find out.

Blackwell Magic Book Two

Ashes Ascendant

Dan Wynn wanted to explore space more than life itself, but a tragic accident left him too injured for NASA's space program. Second chances don't come along every day, so when an old friend offered him one, he grabbed on with both hands. The next thing Dan knew, he was on the moon, piloting humanity's first starship while fighting his way through one peril after another. Little did Dan know that simple offer was anything but, and would lead him to the stars far beyond our own. The risks are great. But if life knocked you down, what would you gamble to have one more shot at your dreams? Excerpt: "Dan - ad astra!" Dan heard the order. Ad astra. To the stars. It was a toast the two of them had shared back in college, when they first stepped onto the roads which would lead them into space. It had been John's idea to use the toast as a code word now. Dan didn't even take a deep breath before executing the order. He'd practiced this with Majel enough times in the simulator - not the part about having a gunman in the bridge, but if that order was ever given, it would be a true crisis. He checked the screen again. Visual range in only fifteen seconds. No time for anything else. He rapidly initiated the program, said a quick prayer, and pressed the Enter button on his keyboard. Immediately, the ship began to shudder. This book is a heavily revised second edition of the original volume. The story length has been increased by about 60%, adding enormously more background to the characters and deepening of the personality of the world and crew. If you've already read the first edition, you won't need to read this version to catch up - but fans of the series are sure to enjoy this expanded and improved "Author's Preferred Edition"!

Ad Astra

Kristen verfügt mit Amy nun über ihre eigene Magierin, die allerdings das Unterdrückungsarmband tragen muss. Die Drachenmorde haben für Furore unter den Drachen gesorgt, sodass sich der Weltrat der Drachen trifft, um über einen möglichen dritten Krieg zu verhandeln. Das Treffen findet im Geheimen statt, doch die Technomagier sind den Drachen auf der Spur. Kann Kristen mit ihrer neu ernannten Ermittlerrolle die Hinrichtung der wichtigsten Drachen vermeiden? Tatkräftig unterstützt wird sie von ihrer Magierin Amy, dem Detroiter SWAT und dem Drachen-SWAT, die unter ihrer Führung zu einem neuen Team zusammenwachsen.

Drachenermittler

"The Paper Age" is the phrase coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1837 to describe the monetary and literary inflation of the French Revolution—an age of mass-produced "Bank-paper" and "Book-paper." Carlyle's phrase is suggestive because it points to the particular substance—paper—that provides the basis for reflection on the mass media in much popular fiction appearing around the time of his historical essay. Rather than becoming a metaphor, however, paper in some of this fiction seems to display the more complex and elusive character of what Walter Benjamin evocatively calls "the decline of the aura." The critical perspective elaborated by Benjamin serves as the point of departure for the readings of paper proposed in Paperwork. Kevin McLaughlin argues for a literary-critical approach to the impact of the mass media on literature through a series of detailed interpretations of paper in fiction by Poe, Stevenson, Melville, Dickens, and Hardy. In this fiction, he argues, paper dramatizes the "withdrawal," as Benjamin puts it, of the "here and now" of the traditional work of art into the dispersing or distracting movement of the mass media. Paperwork seeks to challenge traditional concepts of medium and message that continue to inform studies of print culture and the mass media especially in the wake of industrialized production in the early nineteenth century. It breaks new ground in the exploration of the difference between mass culture and literature and will appeal to cultural historians and literary critics alike.

Fiction and Mass Mediacy in the Paper Age

Paperwork

Philip Rosen

The Arcades Project is the unfinished, final work of influential cultural theorist, critic, and historian Walter Benjamin. Until 1999, this huge, unruly manuscript, which provides a more complete picture of the diversity of Benjamin's work than formerly available, had not been fully translated into English. Benjamin Now is the first collection of essays in English to focus on The Arcades Project. While this essential text's title refers to its ostensible subject—the nineteenth-century shopping arcades of Paris—The Arcades Project is a mass of cultural, political, and social material presented in the form of a vast montage. Benjamin Now reconsiders the significance of his theories and writings in light of this final project. The contributors gathered in this special issue—several of whom participated in the translation of The Arcades Project—include leading scholars from modern culture and media studies, comparative literature and literary studies, art history, philosophy, cultural studies, and film studies. Contributors. T. J. Clark, Howard Eiland, Peter Fenves, Tom Gunning, Michael Jennings, Claudia Brodsky Lacour, Kevin McLaughlin, Philip Rosen, Henry Sussman, Lindsay Waters, Samuel Weber, Peter Wollen

Critical Encounters with The Arcades Project

Benjamin Now

Kylara and her friends are back at the Lumos School, but Cassandra still holds her mother prisoner, and Ky will stop at nothing to rescue her. The School's mission is to help dragons and mages train their magic and learn new powers. But when an experimental trip to the pixie realm goes awry, a student ends up with a new magic that's as powerful as it is disturbing. And when that student loses control, everything is at risk. But Kylara is growing stronger, too. She's gaining new powers and learning to use them better. But will that be enough to stem the tide rolling in against her family and friends? And beneath all of that, someone who has slumbered a very, very long time is waking up... Scroll UP and click Read Now or Read for Free to continue the story of The Dragon's Daughter!

Kevin McLaughlin

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