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Turn Your Intellectual Pursuits into Fun, Profit, and Recognition
by Michael R. Wing, Ph.D.

Today’s workforce is highly educated and underemployed, and many of us are in jobs that don’t fully use our skills, talents and interests. Passion Projects for Smart People is a unique career guide that shows how to do serious intellectual work in your spare time — and turn side projects into career-building opportunities.

Written by a high school science teacher who has done field work in six countries, published in professional journals and worked with NASA, Passion Projects for Smart People provides a blueprint for leveraging your intellectual interests to develop your career and earn professional recognition.

Passion Projects for Smart People shows how to become an intellectual entrepreneur and launch your own academic, scientific and artistic projects. Author Michael R. Wing dives into the nuts and bolts of how he created his own research projects in marine biology, high altitude gardening, astrobiology and archaeology.

Wing also profiles others who have created fascinating projects in backyard science, nature surveys, history, art, anthropology, poetry, conservation and more. These projects have also earned their creators substantial conventional success: book publishing deals, museum exhibits, art commissions, opportunities to teach and lecture, paid positions on scientific expeditions, and even full-time employment.

Passion Projects for Smart People provides specific strategies for making your project a success: how to form alliances with institutions, collaborate with others, apply for grants and travel opportunities, publish your work, and teach and mentor others.

The perfect career guide for the era of the Ph.D. barista, the underpaid adjunct and the gig economy, Passion Projects for Smart People will help you take charge of your career and your life.

Audience: Career advice readers, aspiring and established professionals, and anyone seeking fulfilling work.

About the Author: Michael R. Wing, Ph.D., is a high school science teacher in Anselmo, California. He has done field work throughout the world and worked in collaboration with NASA, the University of California, the Mars Institute, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Park Service.

$14.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 180 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-306-9

by Pat Hunter and Janice Stevens

The best loved and most spectacular drive in California is documented in a beautifully illustrated artistic and literary journey. A fantastic drive comes to a stunning conclusion in An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South. Completing the trilogy started in An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 North and continued in An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 Central, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South is an enchanting exploration of California’s State Highway 1 from Point Hueneme Lighthouse to the Mexican border.

Lavishly illustrated with over 130 original full-color Pat Hunter watercolors depicting gorgeous landscapes and architectural treasures, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South is a thinking person’s travel guide for people who want to explore the history, culture, and architecture of the Southern California Coast—as well as experiencing the best in dining, lodging, and unusual experiences along the route.

Going far beyond the usual travel guide, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South is a literary and artistic collaboration that captures a very personal experience of a journey, illuminated by a deep cultural awareness of the places, people and history of California.

A personal memoir of the Hunter and Stevens’ personal journey along the great highway, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South records the authors’ explorations off the beaten path, their serendipitous discoveries, and their personal reactions to the places they encounter.

Along the way, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South explores the greatest sights and experiences
along the great highway, giving readers tips on the major points of interest, sights to see, places to stay and the best seafood restaurants on the coast.

A satisfying and contemplative mixture of captivating artistry and personal essay, An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South is a triumphant conclusion to a unique travel trilogy.

About the Authors: Pat Hunter is a widely recognized regional artist whose work has been shown in museums and galleries throughout California. Janice Stevens is an author and teacher of English literature and creative writing. Hunter and Stevens have collaborated on numerous books on California architecture and history.

$26.95 • Trade Paperback • 11” x 8½” • 128 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-297-0
Travel/California / Art • BISAC TRV025130 /ART016010
Over 130 Original Full Color Illustrations

A Woman’s Journey in 1898–1899
by Josephine Knowles

When Josephine Knowles left for the Klondike gold fields with her husband in 1898, she didn’t know she would be facing a constant battle with cold, disease, malnutrition and the ever-present possibility of death.

Gold Rush in the Klondike is Knowles’s true story of her year in the Yukon territory, a revealing, never-before-published personal memoir of day-to-day life at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Written in a clear, forthright, nineteenth-century style, Gold Rush in the Klondike presents terrifying struggles against a hostile environment, picturesque descriptions of an untouched Arctic wilderness and Knowles’s keen observations of men and women on the frontier.

A Victorian gentlewoman of refinement, Knowles found herself among swearing, whoring, sometimes violent miners, whom she won over with her grit and compassion. Deciding to never moralize or condemn, Knowles writes frankly of the intense hardships that drove miners into lives of drink and dissipation and the frontier women who were forced to make stark choices between prostitution and starvation.

Knowles’s adventures include encounters with author Jack London (Knowles firmly disapproved of London’s cruel mistreatment of his sled dogs), nursing miners during a typhoid outbreak until she fell ill herself, witnessing savage fights among the miners, dangerous travel through the mountain passes and river rapids of the Yukon, and a daring surreptitious visit to a gambling saloon. Amid all hardships, Knowles formed warm relationships with the mining community, for, as she put it, “All the diseases and other troubles had knitted us into one large family.”

Illustrated with period photographs, Gold Rush in the Klondike is an invaluable historical document of a lost time and place and an admirable portrait of one woman’s determination in the face of danger.
Audience: History readers, women’s history readers and nineteenth-century history readers.

About the Author: Josephine Knowles was born in Illinois in 1864. She lived in Nebraska and California before her extraordinary year in the Klondike in 1898–1899. She returned to San Francisco in the spring of 1899 and spent the rest of her life there. Knowles died in Berkeley, California, in 1936, at the age of 71.

$22.95 ($28.95 Canada) • Hardback • 6″ x 9″ • 172 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-270-3

How the Occult Haunted Music, Movies and Pop Culture, 1966–1980
by George Case
Publication Date: March 18, 2016

In 1966, secular rationality seemed so dominant that Time magazine ran a cover story that asked, “Is God dead?” No one could have anticipated that mysticism, the irrational and the Occult would rule American popular culture for the next 15 years.
Here’s to My Sweet Satan is the first book to fully document the Occult craze of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Devil, demonic possession, and magic became the dominant themes of music, books, movies, and even Saturday morning cartoon shows.
A sweeping and masterful cultural history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan tells how the Occult conquered the American imagination, weaving together topics as diverse as the birth of heavy metal, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, New Age cults, Bigfoot, Scooby-Doo, Count Chocula cereal, the serial killer Son of Sam, and more.
Here’s to My Sweet Satan is both a fun, nostalgic look at some of the campier aspects of 60s/70s pop culture  (remember Dark Shadows, pyramid power,  In Search Of … and Chariots of the Gods?) and a serious inquiry into the origins of the dark, disturbing phenomena of the era, from the Manson Family murders to the Jonestown massacre. Cultural critic George Case gives a superb account of the crisscrossing artistic and cultural influences that intersected between the Occult, rock music, paperback fiction and pop culture of the period. (Case’s account of how Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band led to heavy metal is a must-read for all rock fans.)
Here’s to My Sweet Satan ties the many manifestations of the Occult craze into a single cultural movement, a crucial turning point that permanently changed American society, creating the cultural framework for the political power of the religious right, false accusations of Satanic child abuse, and today’s widespread rejection of science and rationality. An insightful blend of pop culture and social history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan lucidly explains how the most technological society on earth became enthralled by the supernatural.

About the Author: George Case is a writer on ideas and popular culture, and an acknowledged authority on the band Led Zeppelin. He is the author of Led Zeppelin FAQ, Calling Dr. Strangelove and several other books.  Case has also contributed several articles to the social science journal Skeptic.

$18.95 ($23.95 Canada) • Hardcover • 6″ x 9″ • 196 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-265-9

Here’s to My Sweet Satan Media Kit

The Pressured Past and Precarious Future
of California’s Coast
by Kim Steinhardt and Gary Griggs

The Pacific coast is the most iconic region of California and one of the most fascinating and rapidly changing places in the world. Densely populated, urbanized and industrialized — but also home to wilderness with complex, fragile ecosystems — the coast is the place where humanity and nature coexist in a precarious balance that is never perfectly stable.

The Edge: The Pressured Past and Precarious Future of California’s Coast  is a dramatic snapshot of the California coast’s past, present and probable future in a time of climate change and expanding human activity.

Written by two marine experts who grew up on the coast, The Edge  is both a celebration of the coast’s natural and cultural uniqueness and a warning of the many complex changes that threaten that uniqueness.

As ocean levels rise, coastal communities are starting to erode, and entire neighborhoods have been lost to the sea. Coastal ecosystems and wildlife that were already stressed by human settlement now face new dangers, some threatening their very survival. The combined impacts of climate change, housing and commercial growth, commercial fisheries, oil drilling and production, along with environmental advocacy, all come together to define the future of the region.

The Edge  examines the current state of the coast’s natural and social environments, gives the historical causes for the coast’s present endangerment and offers informed projections on possible scenarios of the coast’s future.

A masterful and sweeping synthesis of environmental and social science, The Edge  presents a comprehensive portrait of natural and cultural history — the story of the people, communities, industries, ecology and wildlife of the California coast.

Audience: Readers interested in environmental issues, marine wildlife, climate change and California history.

About the Authors: A widely recognized marine wildlife photographer, former administrative law judge, and a long-time conservation advocate, Kim Steinhardt delivers popular lectures and photographic programs on coastal conservation and ocean stewardship issues for aquariums and marine centers, universities, state parks and other audiences. Gary Griggs has written or co-authored nine books about the coast and coastal issues both in California and globally. As a Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he is known for his expertise in oceanography and coastal geology. He serves as the director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 300 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-309-0

Explore the Famous Sites, Neighborhoods, and Vistas in 17 Enchanting Walks
by Kristine Poggioli and Carolyn Eidson
Every visitor to San Francisco has seen the classic roadside signs showing a seagull that beckons motorists to follow the famous 49 Mile Scenic Drive. Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive shows how walking—rather than driving—San Francisco’s famous scenic route gives both tourists and natives an active, funway to enjoy and fall in love with the most beautiful city in the world.

Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive invites readers to explore quirky locales face-to-face, so they can fully savor the City’s beauty and cultural riches — while also enjoying a healthy urban hike.

Written by two long-time San Franciscans who have explored every nook and cranny of the 49 Mile Drive, Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive presents 17 bite-size walks, complete with turn-by-turn instructions, maps, and historical facts and information. Each chapter introduces the sights, landmarks and secret treasures of a specific San Francisco neighborhood, while leading the reader along a route that will pro vide healthy  exercise for both brisk and sedate walkers.

Each chapter includes detailed maps, points of interest, info on bus routes and parking, recommendations for visiting hidden gems and must-see museums, plus plenty of tips and stats to help walkers, such as step counts and mile distances, hill steepness rating, weather tips and more.

The perfect guidebook for today’s urban enthusiast who values walkable neighborhoods, hyperlocal culture and the pleasure and health benefits of walking, Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive is the most intimate way to explore one of America’s greatest cities.

Audience: San Francisco Bay Area residents, visitors to San Francisco, urban enthusiasts and hikers.

About the Authors: Kristine Poggioli is a native San Franciscan, copywriter and storyteller. Carolyn Eidson is an award-winning filmmaker and comedian. Together, they are the first people to have walked the entire length of San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive, resulting in a combined 75-pound weight loss.

$16.95 ($21.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 180 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-279-6

Available for pre-order. Will ship upon publication.

The History of California’s Main Street
by Stephen H. Provost

Before it was a modern freeway, California’s State Highway 99 was the main street of California, a simple two-lane road that passed through the downtowns of every city between the Mexican border and the Oregon state line.

Highway 99: A History of California’s Main Street turns back the clock to those days when a narrow ribbon of asphalt tied the state’s communities together, with classic roadside attractions and plenty of fun along the way.

Illustrated throughout with historical photographs, Highway 99 documents the birth and development of the great highway, from its beginnings as a dream project by a handful of early motorcar enthusiasts to its 1920s incarnation as a narrow trail over the Grapevine to the modern superhighway of today.

Along the way, Highway 99 chronicles an amazing amount of history: the invention of basic highway equipment such as the center stripe and the road sign; the great Dust Bowl migrations of the Okies; the origins of California landmarks like Griffith Park and Magic Mountain; and the network of beacon towers for airplanes that briefly paralleled the highway in the 1920s; and numerous other stories.

Above all, the story of Highway 99 is the story of classic American roadside culture. Highway 99 witnessed the birth of the motor court motel, the drive-thru window, the theme park, and the truck stop, and Highway 99 unearths detailed histories of the innumerable gas stations, hotel, restaurants, amusements, and whole communities that developed to cater to the motorist.

From the foundations of America’s fast-food culture to the birth of the Bakersfield Sound, the history of California has happened around Highway 99, and Highway 99 brilliantly depicts that history.

About the Author: Stephen H. Provost is a journalist, author, and editor of The Cambrian  newspaper. His previous books include Fresno Growing Up: A City Comes of Age 1945—1985, a history of his hometown. Provost  lives with his wife on California’s Central Coast, where he blogs at his website, stephenhprovost.com.

$20.95 US • Trade Paperback • 8.5″ x 10″ • 350 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-296-3
HISTORY / California • BISAC HIS036140
Over 300 black and white plus 33 color photographs• Index

Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction
by Gary Rogowski

“Gary Rogowski leads us gently but surely upon the path to a type of success we may not have previously considered. (Hint: it involves blisters.)” —Nick Offerman, author of Paddle Your Own Canoe

A new classic in the tradition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Shop Class as Soulcraft, Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction will help creative people in any field reconnect to the source of their creativity and revitalize their creative energy.

In Handmade, master craftsman Gary Rogowski confronts the greatest obstacles to creative focus in the modern age: distraction; pointless busyness; fear of failure; and the devil of self-doubt that tells you your work doesn’t matter. Handmade shows that the path around these obstacles is the act of creative work itself. The discipline of working with one’s hands, mind and heart to create unnecessarily beautiful things shapes the builder into a more complete human being.

Handmade tells the story of how the young Rogowski, an intellectual college graduate with no formal training in woodworking, became a craftsman through years of persistent labor, which taught him patience, resilience, tolerance for failure, and a love of pursuing beauty and mastery for their own sakes.

Rogowski punctuates the story of his growth as a craftsman with accounts of his hiking and mountaineering expeditions with his friend Wheaton, who taught him a different kind of perseverance and patience in the face of danger, discomfort, and the wild beauty of nature. In telling his stories, Rogowski reflects deeply on the lessons he has learned and presents a series of profound meditations on the eternal value of work, creativity, human fallibility, and the stubborn pursuit of quality.

Part autobiography, part guide to creativity, and part guide to living an authentic life, Handmade is a book for craftspeople, artists and anyone who seeks clarity, purpose and creativity in their work.
Audience: Artists, craftspeople, woodworkers, creative professionals, and anyone developing their creativity.

About the Author: Gary Rogowski is a furniture maker, designer, teacher and author. He is also a playwright, essayist, and novelist. His previous books include the best-selling Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery. Rogowski is the founder and director of The Northwest Woodworking Studio, A School for Woodworkers.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 180 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-314-4
Self-Help / Creativity • Crafts & Hobbies

by Daniel Stallings

“An Agatha Christie cast of characters seen with a modern eye, and with startling moments of both insight and compassion.” —Anne Perry

The traditional murder mystery collides with an entirely different kind of detective hero in the new mystery novel Sunny Side Up. An engaging mixture of Agatha Christie–style intrigue and Millennial snark, Sunny Side Up takes a fresh approach to the traditional murder mystery with a modern sensibility and a working class amateur sleuth.

For 20-year-old Liam “Li” Johnson, a job as a cruise ship waiter was supposed to be a way to get over his father’s death and earn enough money to go back to college. Instead, Li is struggling to maintain his sanity while coping with the demands of a sadistic maître d’ and a boatload of entitled rich jerk passengers.

Li just wants to keep his head down and survive his job from hell, but when he finds a passenger sunburned to a crisp on the Sunbathing Deck, something about the scene just doesn’t add up. Li starts asking uncomfortable questions … and gets some forceful pushback, including a whispering campaign suggesting that Li himself may have had something to do with the victim’s death.

Before he knows it, Li is on the track of a murder … and if Li doesn’t find the real killer soon, or he might just get framed for the crime — or worse, lose his crappy job.

A brand-new classic in the amateur detective genre, Sunny Side Up is a traditional murder mystery for the 21st century, with a glamorous setting, a gallery of suspects, clues that will keep readers guessing to the last page, and a delightful new hero in Li Johnson, the millennial minimum wage manhunter, who brings sleuthing to the service economy.

Audience: Lovers of traditional murder mysteries.

About the Author: Daniel Stallings’ love of Golden Age detective fiction inspired him to bring the style of the classic murder mystery to modern audiences. In addition to writing mysteries, Stallings works in theater as a producer, director, and actor. He currently serves as President of the Eastern Sierra Branch of the California Writers Club. Stallings lives in the city of Ridgecrest in California’s Mojave Desert.

AVAILABLE NOW!

$12.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ × 9″ • 206 pages

ISBN 978-1-61035-311-3

How to Craft and Publish Flash Fiction for a Booming Market

by Fred D. White

Writing Flash is a fast and informative guide for writers who want to develop their skills in one of fiction’s most challenging genres. Acclaimed creative writing teacher Fred D. White gives a fast-paced and in-depth introduction to the fascinating genre of flash fiction, the art of the ultra-short story that is 1,000 words or fewer.

White shows that mastering flash fiction is an indispensable skill-building challenge for any writer. Learning how to compress a story to its most essential elements will make your writing vigorous, evocative and full of emotion — invaluable skills for any kind of writing, including writing novels and longer short fiction.

Writing Flash presents a comprehensive introductory course to the techniques of flash fiction, beginning with a rigorous analysis of the mechanics of effective flash stories that will give you new insights into the bones and sinews of all literature. Each chapter also contains challenging exercises that will strengthen specific writing skills, extend your abilities and give valuable practice in the craft of flash fiction.

But flash fiction is more than just an exercise. It’s also an elegant art in its own right that can produce stories of startling depth and feeling. White illustrates flash fiction techniques and strategies by giving numerous examples of some of the best flash stories from great writers.

Writing Flash also includes fantastic resources for aspiring flash writers, including tips on publishing and marketing your own flash fiction to build your writing career, plus extensive lists of flash fiction literary journals, award contests and resources for further study.

Writing Flash won’t just help you become a better flash fiction writer; this book will help you become a better writer, period.

Audience: Professional and aspiring creative writers.

About the Author: Fred D. White received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. For nearly 40 years White has taught writing courses at Santa Clara University, where he is now Professor of English, Emeritus. White has published several books on writing, as well as dozens of stories, essays, poems and plays.

$14.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 150 pages

ISBN 978-1-61035-317-5

Creative Writing • LAN005000

Bibliography • Index

The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady

by Robert W. Bly

Charles Proteus Steinmetz presents the amazing life story of a forgotten genius who created the fundamental infrastructure that powers the modern world.

Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla have the glory, but the greatest electrical wizard of them all was Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923). Revered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a genius, but largely forgotten today, Steinmetz made the modern world possible through his revolutionary work to develop AC electricity transmission, the technology underlying today’s power grid. More than just a great scientist, Steinmetz was also one of the most colorful characters in American life. Standing just four feet tall with a pronounced spine curvature, Steinmetz was as well known for his unconventional political opinions, his fierce advocacy for social progress and education, his unusual home life and his private menagerie as for his technical achievements.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz gives a full appreciation of both the scientific achievements and remarkable personal life of this extraordinary man. Author Robert W. Bly, an acclaimed technology writer, gives a complete but reader-friendly account of the science of generating and transmitting electricity that will both educate readers and help them fully understand the importance of Steinmetz’s work.

Bly also writes sensitively of the struggles and joys of Steinmetz’s complex private life. A socialist and a political exile from Imperial Germany, Steinmetz overcame physical challenges and poverty to become one of the most influential scientific leaders of the United States. Steinmetz refused to marry or have children to avoid passing on his hereditary disabilities, but he created a family for himself by adopting his lab assistant and being a grandfather to his adoptive son’s children.

The first full biography of Steinmetz in many years, Charles Proteus Steinmetz brings the life, passions, and achievements of a great man to a new generation.

Audience: Science and technology enthusiasts, high school and college students, biography and history readers.

About the Author: Robert W. Bly has nearly four decades of experience as a science and technology writer. He is the author of more than 95 books and numerous articles on a variety of technical and nontechnical subjects. His science website is www.mychemset.com and his writing website is www.bly.com.

Available now!

What Cops Know About Crime, Community and Violence

by Adam Plantinga

Publication Date: December 1, 2018

A veteran police officer gives his thoughtful, balanced views on police shootings, racial profiling, community relations, and every other aspect of policing in Police Craft: What Cops Know About Crime, Community and Violence.

Written by Adam Plantinga, the author of the acclaimed 400 Things Cops Know, Police Craft is a thought-provoking and revelatory examination of policing in America, as seen by a working police officer.

Plantinga, a police officer for 17 years and a serving sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department, gives an inside view of the police officer’s job, from handling evidence and conducting interrogations to coping with danger, violence, and death.

Police Craft explores a wide range of topics related to police work, from the techniques of policing to the culture of the profession, the sociology of crime and criminals, and the psychological toll on police officers.

Not hesitating to confront controversial issues, Plantinga presents a police officer’s views on police shootings, racial profiling, and relationships between police and the community — and offers reasoned proposals on what the police and the public can do better.

Hard-boiled, humorous, and compassionate, Plantinga wrestles with the complexities and contradictions of a job he loves in which he witnesses so much suffering. Transcending today’s strident pro-cop/anti-cop rhetoric, Police Craft will give every reader a greater respect for the police and greater understanding of the job they do.

Audience: True crime and mystery readers, readers interested in police work, readers interested in current events and public policy related to policing, and active, retired and aspiring police officers.

About the Author: Adam Plantinga has been a police officer for 17 years and is currently a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department. Plantinga’s first book, 400 Things Cops Know, received rave reviews from star crime writers such as Lee Child, Edward Conlon, and Joseph Wambaugh and was hailed as “the new bible for crime writers” in the Wall Street Journal. Plantinga lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughters.

$16.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 280 pages • Index

ISBN 978-1-61035-331-1

Available for pre-sale. Will ship on publication.

Beat by Beat to a Better Script

by Jim Mercurio

Publication Date: February 1, 2019

No one comes out of a movie talking about script structure. What audiences love and remember about a movie are great scenes, the meaningful moments in a film that reveal character and emotion.

While previous screenwriting guides emphasize story structure at the macro level, The Craft of Scene Writing: Beat by Beat to a Better Script is the first book for screenwriters that focuses entirely on the micro level of writing powerful scenes. Story structure alone does not make a successful screenplay; it is the detailed craftwork of scene writing that breathes life into a story.

In The Craft of Scene Writing, accomplished screenwriter and master writing teacher Jim Mercurio explains the nuts and bolts of how to write emotionally resonant scenes that will elevate a script from ho-hum to extraordinary.

The Craft of Scene Writing analyzes and systematizes the individual elements that create dynamic scenes: beats, conflicts, character moments, specific actions and lines of dialogue. Mercurio demonstrates that every single scene in a script needs to be a story in itself that creates a surprise or reversal. And when a scene incorporates both a twist in the plot and a change in the characters’ internal states, it has the greatest potential to profoundly engage an audience.

The Craft of Scene Writing cites specific examples from popular classic scripts, old and new, to show how great scenes reveal character and advance the story. The Craft of Scene Writing also gives readers practical tools to immediately improve their scenes and scripts.

Writing amazing scenes won’t just make a screenplay a better work of art. Great scenes also make a script more attractive to producers, directors and actors — making a script more likely to sell.

An incredibly detailed exploration of screenwriting technique, The Craft of Scene Writing will help beginning writers to write great scripts and experienced writers to gain a more complete mastery of their craft.

Audience: Professional and aspiring screenwriters, playwrights, fiction writers and other creative storytellers.

About the Author: Jim Mercurio is a writer, author, screenwriter and filmmaker. He has directed or produced five feature films and has helped countless writers as a teacher, story analyst and script doctor. Creative Screenwriting magazine ranked him as one of the top screenplay consultants in the country.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 400 pages • Index

ISBN 978-1-61035-330-4

Available for pre-order. Will ship upon publication.

subtitle: “How to Write Accurately about Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior”.

Writers frequently write about mental illness and psychological motivations, but all too often they use terms and concepts that are clichéd, outmoded or just plain wrong.

Written by a clinical psychologist who is also a professional writer and writing coach, The Writer’s Guide to Psychology is an authoritative, accessible, fun, and easy-to-use reference to psychological disorders, diagnosis, treatments, psychotherapists’ work and what really makes psychopathic villains tick.

The only reference book on clinical and counseling psychology designed specifically for the needs of writers, The Writer’s Guide to Psychology presents specific writing dos and don’ts to avoid the psychobabble clichés and misunderstandings frequently seen in popular writing. The book’s extensive sidebars include Q&As from real writers, information on controversial treatments and issues, tips for using realistic psychology to create complex and compelling characters, and Don’t Let This Happen to You! boxes that humorously expose mortifying mistakes in fiction, film and TV … and teach readers how to get it right in their own writing.

Subtitle: “How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure”

Using examples from actual cases, as well as fiction, movies and television, Books, Crooks, and Counselors answers real writers’ questions on over 160 separate topics, including: criminal and civil law; differences between federal, state, and Native American jurisdiction; legal aspects of police and private investigation; criminal sentencing, including the death penalty; wills and inheritances; legal terminology; and the written and unwritten codes that govern the public and private conduct of lawyers and judges.

Winner of the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year. 

2012 Anthony and Macavity Nominee for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year.  

Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman

By Adam Plantinga

400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint of the regular cop on the beat —  a profession that can range from rewarding to bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of a single eight-hour  shift. Written by veteran police sergeant Adam Plantinga, 400 Things Cops Know brings the reader into life the  way cops experience it — a life of danger, frustration, occasional triumph and plenty of grindingly hard routine  work.

In a laconic, no-nonsense, dryly humorous style, Plantinga tells what he’s learned from 13 years as a patrolman,  from the everyday to the exotic — how to know at a glance when a suspect is carrying a weapon or is going to  attack, how to kick a door down, how to drive in a car chase without recklessly endangering the public, why you  should always carry cigarettes, even if you don’t smoke (offering a smoke is the best way to lure a suicide to  safety) and what to do if you find a severed limb (don’t put it on ice — you need to keep it dry).

400 Things Cops Know deglamorizes police work, showing the physical, psychological and emotional toll of  the job. Plantinga shows what cops experience of death, the legal system, violence, prostitution, drug use, the  social causes and consequences of crime, alcoholism and more.

Sometimes heartbreaking and often hilarious, 400 Things Cops Know is an eye-opening revelation of what life  on the beat is really all about.