The Creeper is a masterful tale of horror and suspense from one of Ireland's most talented emerging authors. Superstitions only survive if people believe in them... Renowned academic Dr Sparling seeks help with his project on a remote Irish village. Historical researchers Ben and Chloe are thrilled to be chosen – until they arrive. The village is isolated and forgotten. There is no record of its history, its stories. There is no friendliness from the locals, only wary looks and whispers. The villagers lock down their homes at sundown. It seems a nameless fear stalks the streets, but nobody will talk – nobody except one little girl. Her words strike dread into the hearts of the newcomers. Three times you see him. Each night he comes closer... That night, Ben and Chloe see a sinister figure watching them. He is the Creeper. He is the nameless fear in the night. Stories keep him alive. And nothing will keep him away... Reviewers on A.M. Shine: 'A dark, claustrophobic read.' T. Kingfisher 'Readers get an intimate glimpse into the fraying edges of each character's psyches... Will appeal to fans of Kealan Patrick Burke, Josh Malerman, and Scott Smith.' A.E. Siraki, Booklist 'An ideal read for the Halloween season, or any time you want some spookiness in your life!' Beauty and Lace

It's time for Resha Valentine to face her past. After running from her family she is confronted by both her past and her present, as well as making a new enemy. Will Red Flame be able to stand by her side?

The Red Flame gang is back and making more trouble than ever before! The twins whip up a storm when Aiden meets an old friend, Kat learns a new magic and they both have to fight to save Wizland from a dark wizards' school.

"Hi, my name is Resha Valentine, I'm a 14 year old wizard who wants to join the strongest Wizards' School, Red Flame. I meet Aiden and Kat, 14 year old twin wizards just like me. Only it turns out they're in the running for the strongest wizards in Red Flame Wizards' School!"

A spine-chilling Irish horror adventure set in the remote and sinister forests of Ireland, from debut Irish author A.M. Shine. 'A dark, claustrophobic read' T. Kingfisher, author of Paladin's Grace You can't see them. But they can see you. This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams. Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time. Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers and why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned, keen to watch their every move? 'Readers get an intimate glimpse into the fraying edges of each character's psyches, the constant hunger, the paranoia, the loss of hope, and far worse... A combination of supernatural and psychological horror, The Watchers will appeal to fans of Kealan Patrick Burke, Josh Malerman, and Scott Smith' A.E. Siraki, Booklist

Renowned composer Alison Connaught is grieving. Her high-profile, Hollywood-based daughter, Ria, has died of an overdose of the OxyContin that Alison had no idea she was taking. Despite the fact that Ria was 27, living thousands of miles away in the US, with a successful acting career, Alison blames herself. What kind of mother doesn’t even know her child is taking opiates? Alison finds that her grief has muted her. She can no longer play or enjoy her music. She has lost her daughter, and now it seems her career as an award-winning composer for some of the biggest names in the industry is over. On top of this her marriage to Ria’s stepfather, Harvey, is suffering. By travelling to the States, meeting Ria’s friends and colleagues, and gaining an insight into the gruelling challenges of Hollywood she begins to form a bridge to both her daughter and her musical muse. She learns that a docu-soap about Ria is in the making. One of Ria’s rivals will be both a producer of the programme and the star. Gradually Alison begins to make music again but this time she is insistent the music will be hers. Her album is released and advertised in the docu-soap’s commercial breaks and the accompanying publicity gives Alison the opportunity to tell her side of the story to the world. There is still one person she needs to speak to and she confronts Joshua - Ria’s inconstant boyfriend – and Alison can finally reconcile her place in Ria’s story. This is a visceral and deeply moving tale of grief and regret. Michelle Shine’s skill as a storyteller brings Alison’s thoughts and actions to life in this stunning novel.

Snakes are creatures of mystery, arousing fear in many people but fascination in a few. Recent research has transformed our understanding of the behaviour and ecology of these animals, revealed their important roles in diverse ecosystems, and discovered new and effective ways to conserve their populations and to promote coexistence between snakes and people. One of the leading contributors to that scientific revolution has been Prof Rick Shine. Based in Australia, whose snake fauna is diverse and often dangerous, his experiences and anecdotes will inspire a new generation of serpent scientists. Spellbinding stories highlight the challenges, frustrations, and joys of discovery, and give the reader a greater appreciation of these often-slandered slithering reptiles. Key Features Documents the important role played by a preeminent herpetologist. Focuses on research conducted in Australia, especially on snakes. Summarizes highly influential conservation studies. Explores the ways in which research has deepened our understanding of snakes.

Snakes are creatures of mystery, arousing fear in many people but fascination in a few. Recent research has transformed our understanding of the behaviour and ecology of these animals, revealed their important roles in diverse ecosystems, and discovered new and effective ways to conserve their populations and to promote coexistence between snakes and people. One of the leading contributors to that scientific revolution has been Prof Rick Shine. Based in Australia, whose snake fauna is diverse and often dangerous, his experiences and anecdotes will inspire a new generation of serpent scientists. Spellbinding stories highlight the challenges, frustrations, and joys of discovery, and give the reader a greater appreciation of these often-slandered slithering reptiles. Key Features Documents the important role played by a preeminent herpetologist. Focuses on research conducted in Australia, especially on snakes. Summarizes highly influential conservation studies. Explores the ways in which research has deepened our understanding of snakes.

As a young footballer, Clare Shine appeared to have it all. She won her first international call-up at age 13, and by 15 was part of the Republic of Ireland Women's under-17 squad. But the pressure of being a star striker weighed heavily on her young shoulders. By age 19, she had played in a UEFA European Championship and a FIFA World Cup, scored the winner in a Cup Final, won her first senior international cap and become a full-time professional player. But she had also become addicted to alcohol, experimented with drugs, suffered panic attacks and attempted suicide for the first time. This is the story of someone trapped in a world where the weight of expectancy and the battle with personal demons was all washed away, albeit temporarily, whenever she put the ball in the back of the net. It is the story of a girl struggling to find her true identity, a journey in search of confidence and self-belief from someone who seemingly had it in abundance, and a remarkable tale of recovery and achieving new goals.

This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing 'knowledge'? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in 'accessing' the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general.

This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing 'knowledge'? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in 'accessing' the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general.

The captivating and beautifully illustrated true story of snakes in America. 125 million years ago on the floodplains of North America, a burrowing lizard started down the long evolutionary path of shedding its limbs. The 60-plus species of snakes found in Sean P. Graham's American Snakes have this ancestral journey to thank for their ubiquity, diversity, and beauty. Although many people fear them, snakes are as much a part of America's rich natural heritage as redwoods, bald eagles, and grizzly bears. Found from the vast Okefenokee Swamp to high alpine meadows, from hardwood canopies to the burning bottom of the Grand Canyon, these ultimate vertebrates are ecologically pivotal predators and quintessential survivors. In this revelatory and engaging meditation on American snakes, Graham, a respected herpetologist and gifted writer, * explains the everyday lives of American snakes, from their daily routines and seasonal cycles to their love lives, hunting tactics, and defensive repertoires * debunks harmful myths about snakes and explores their relationship with humans * highlights the contribution of snakes to the American wilderness * tells tales of "snake people"-important snake biologists with inspiring careers Neither a typical field guide nor an exhaustive reference, American Snakes is instead a fascinating study of the suborder Serpentes. Brimming with intriguing and unusual stories-of hognose snakes that roll over and play dead, blindsnakes with tiny vestigial lungs, rainbow-hued dipsadines, and wave-surfing sea-snakes-the text is interspersed with scores of gorgeous full-color images of snakes, from the scary to the sublime. This proud celebration of a diverse American wildlife group will make every reader, no matter how skeptical, into a genuine snake lover.

The global consensus in academic, specialist and public realms is that North Korea is a "problem" its nuclear ambitions pose a threat to international security, its levels of poverty indicate a humanitarian crisis and its political repression signals a failed state.

This book examines the cultural dimensions of the international problem of North Korea through contemporary South Korean and Western popular imagination s engagement with North Korea. Building on works by feminist-postcolonial thinkers, in particular Trinh Minh-ha, Rey Chow and Gayatri Spivak, it examines novels, films, photography and memoirs for how they engage with issues of security, human rights, humanitarianism and political agency from an intercultural perspective. By doing so the author challenges the key assumptions that underpin the prevailing realist and liberal approaches to North Korea.

This research attends not only to alternative framings, narratives and images of North Korea but also to alternative modes of knowing, loving and responding and will be of interest to students of critical international relations, Korean studies, cultural studies and Asian studies."

When a young woman moves to London, leaving behind her sheltered life in Hungary, she stumbles across the world of submission. Out of a desperate need for money as well as deeper motives that become apparent, she resolves to explore this strange and often violent subculture. This is her astonishing true account of the events that followed. Under her alias, Shana Shine she reveals the reality of life as a submissive - the comic role-plays, discipline, humiliation and beatings. The centrepiece of the book is a bizarre 'love' relationship she forms with one of her clients, a well-known and respected businessman. Candid, often humorous, and sometimes disturbing, Shana's memoir is an unforgettable journey and a moving insight as to why one woman would decide on a life of corporal pain.

This collection features plays written between 1935 and 1996. This revised and expanded Black Theatre USA broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with twenty-two new selections

'an unpreachy guide [...] free of jargon and full of often surprising information.' The Times Change starts at home. In the office. Change starts with you. Your family. Your friends. Change starts with everyday things. One object at a time. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming thinking about all that needs to be done to save our planet. This book is the antidote to that feeling. Easy to read and easy to do - here's all the information and inspiration you need to make a difference, simply by making smart choices about everyday objects, tasks and habits. Environmental scientist Dr Tara Shine guides you from room to room and occasion to occasion with environmentally friendly solutions, backed by science. From swapping bottled soap to bars, to replacing cling film with a simple plate, you will reduce your environmental footprint in an instant, while saving money. This book busts persistent myths and will once and for all show that living sustainably can be both fun and convenient. Besides, it will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but your wellbeing too! 'Dr. Tara Shine is an enlightened big-picture thinker, and with this book she shows that she is equally and delightfully adept at bringing details into focus. This book is all about realising the power you have as an individual by informing yourself, asking questions and making smart choices. By getting becoming active and joining the conversation, you become empowered and you do something about the problem we face rather than feeling powerless in its presence.' Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Focusing on four Rubens paintings created between 1610 and 1620 - Prometheus Bound, The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, Juno and Argus, and The Finding of Erichthonius - this book re-examines the artist's approach to classical mythology. These theoretically-informed readings provide a fuller understanding of the dynamics of Rubens's copious visual language, and can serve as methodological templates for looking at, and reading of, many other of his complex inventions. Even by the standards of erudition commonly applied to Rubens's oeuvre as a whole, these four paintings were created during a period characterized by a particularly intense engagement on his part with questions of artistic originality and ideal style. Furthermore, the learned themes of these images clearly point to a rarefied audience that could appreciate the intertextual qualities of ancient myths. Like the artist himself, these ideal beholders cultivated a mode of viewing steeped in classical and renaissance theories of literary and rhetorical composition. Thus through these close readings, the author illuminates the manner in which the rhetorical and poetic conventions of the period, as well as the growing appreciation for the various allegorical layers of fables, lead to a better understanding of Rubens's pictorial archaeology of classical myths.

The global consensus in academic, specialist and public realms is that North Korea is a problem: its nuclear ambitions pose a threat to international security, its levels of poverty indicate a humanitarian crisis and its political repression signals a failed state. This book examines the cultural dimensions of the international problem of North Korea through contemporary South Korean and Western popular imagination's engagement with North Korea. Building on works by feminist-postcolonial thinkers, in particular Trinh Minh-ha, Rey Chow and Gayatri Spivak, it examines novels, films, photography and memoirs for how they engage with issues of security, human rights, humanitarianism and political agency from an intercultural perspective. By doing so the author challenges the key assumptions that underpin the prevailing realist and liberal approaches to North Korea. This research attends not only to alternative framings, narratives and images of North Korea but also to alternative modes of knowing, loving and responding and will be of interest to students of critical international relations, Korean studies, cultural studies and Asian studies.

Focusing on four Rubens paintings created between 1610 and 1620 - Prometheus Bound, The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, Juno and Argus, and The Finding of Erichthonius - this book re-examines the artist's approach to classical mythology. These theoretically-informed readings provide a fuller understanding of the dynamics of Rubens's copious visual language, and can serve as methodological templates for looking at, and reading of, many other of his complex inventions. Even by the standards of erudition commonly applied to Rubens's oeuvre as a whole, these four paintings were created during a period characterized by a particularly intense engagement on his part with questions of artistic originality and ideal style. Furthermore, the learned themes of these images clearly point to a rarefied audience that could appreciate the intertextual qualities of ancient myths. Like the artist himself, these ideal beholders cultivated a mode of viewing steeped in classical and renaissance theories of literary and rhetorical composition. Thus through these close readings, the author illuminates the manner in which the rhetorical and poetic conventions of the period, as well as the growing appreciation for the various allegorical layers of fables, lead to a better understanding of Rubens's pictorial archaeology of classical myths.

Most speech-language clinicians will, at one time or another, experience the frustration that often accompanies attempts to elicit new speech sound behaviors. This is especially true when a client does not have a target sound in his or her response repertoire. Clinicians and students working in clinic will often search for that one strategy, trick, or technique that will work in these challenging situations. Eliciting Sounds: Strategies & Techniques for Clinician, 2nd Edition is designed to provide the clinician and the speech-language pathology student with a quick, easy-to-use checklist of techniques for immediately evoking any phoneme targeted for remediation. Benefits: It doesn't get caught up in articulation theory and instead provides specific techniques to teach the clinician how to enable the client to produce speech sounds. Book is organized in two main sections: first a section on consonant sounds where there is a chapter on all consonant sounds and second a section on vowel sounds where there is a chapter on all vowel sounds; there is also a dedicated section on diphthongs. This organization is logical and makes the content easy to quickly reference. For Consonants, in addition to a recap of the place/manner/voicing features for a consonant, the book includes an explanation of how the phoneme is produced, common errors encountered by clinicians, phonetic placement techniques, a summary of the specific moto-kinesthetic stimulation prescribed for that phoneme, and a list of sound approximation techniques involving both progressive approximation and modification for other sounds. For Vowels, coverage includes an overview of the articulatory characteristics of vowels, discussion of common errors, a description of how each vowel is produced, and strategies for eliciting correct vowel production, including a summary of the moto-kinesthetic stimulations for each. The chapter on Diphthongs explains the articulation of diphtho

For more than a century, medical schools and academic campuses were largely separate in Texas. Though new medical technologies and drugs-conceivably, even a vaccine instrumental in the prevention of a pandemic-might be developed on an academic campus such as the University of Texas at Austin, there was no co-located medical school with which to collaborate. Faculty members were left to seek experts on distant campuses. That all changed on May 3, 2012, when the UT System Board of Regents voted to create the Dell Medical School in Austin. This book tells in detail and for the first time the story of how this change came about: how dedicated administrators, alumni, business leaders, community organizers, doctors, legislators, professors, and researchers joined forces, overcame considerable resistance, and raised the funds to build a new medical school without any direct state monies. Funding was secured in large part by the unique willingness of the local community to tax itself to pay for the financial operations of the school. Kenneth I. Shine and Amy Shaw Thomas, who witnessed this process from their unique vantages as past and present vice chancellors for health affairs in the University of Texas System, offer a working model that will enable other leaders to more effectively seek solutions, avoid pitfalls, and build for the future.

Vermeer and the Art of Love is about the emotions evoked in those elegant interiors in which a young woman may be writing a letter to her absent beloved or playing a virginal in the presence of an admirer. But it is also about the love we sense in the painter's attentiveness to every detail within those rooms, which lends even the most mundane of objects the quality of something extraordinary. In this engaging and beautifully illustrated book, Georgievska-Shine uncovers the ways in which Vermeer challenges the dichotomies between 'good' and 'bad' love, the sensual and the spiritual, placing him within the context of his contemporaries to give the reader a fascinating insight into his unique understanding and interpretation of the subject.

Skelligs Haul is a generous compilation of Michael Kirby's prose and poetry, appealing for his simple, elegant style, his knowledge of unique local lore, and his inimitable observations. Kirby, a man who spent nearly every day of his ninety-nine years on the beautiful Iveragh peninsula, apart from a brief period in the United States, knew better than most that survival demanded persistence, passion, civility and good humour. In the shadow of the World Heritage site of Skellig Michael, he eked out a living fishing and farming with intimate knowledge of every inch of sea and soil. This volume, organised thematically, demonstrates Kirby's great gift of expressing the artist's fresh, passionate insight in elegant, plain language and with the dispassionate slant of a scientist. His knowledge of local birds and fish was as encyclopaedic and forensic as his grasp of place names. Referred to as `one of the last authentic expressions of the Gaelic tradition, artlessly fusing the worlds of flesh and spirit', he was a mystic who found his God, his solace and serenity in every living thing in Iveragh. This book includes some dual texts of poems freely translated from Irish by Kirby, showing that his inward eye led to verse in both the romantic vein and the fine tradition of Irish-language religious verse. This collection also presents reproductions of his landscape paintings, an introduction by poet Paddy Bushe and an editor's preface and note.

This book is about the recent advances in the structural and functional characterization of receptors that influence intracellular signalling events through interaction with intracellular GTP-binding proteins (G proteins). Molecular cloning of members of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily has complemented pharmacological investigations in providing a realization of the structural and functional diversity of these receptors. An increased understanding of the involvement of particular receptor subtypes in normal and pathophysiological processes represents exciting possibilities for the development of highly specific and effective therapeutic agents.