Educated Luck

Being a double merlin sucks. You’d think having power, having people treat you with respect, an insanely awesome inheritance waiting for me, and knowing you could do really awesome(awful) things would be cool. It isn’t. I’ve got strings you wouldn’t believe attached to the inheritance. Then it turns out other people want it, so instead of suing me, I mean that would be logical, right? No, they are trying to kill me. And I don’t mean a single person, a freaking country! How insane is that? Well screw them. I’m getting my degree, and getting the inheritance. Okay the house. I really want the house. But when Jo gets hurt and my familiar decides to start calling in favors, then things get even more twisted. With my luck we might all end up insane, or dead before this is over. But I refuse to give in. This is my life, and who knows, maybe I’ll survive. But with my luck, you never know what might happen. A found family, non-romantic urban fantasy with a smattering of magical beasties.

Magical house, insane killer, and life altering decisions—being an adult sucks. I did it, I've graduated and no more pressure. And I've got a house, me a house! Road trip time for Jo, Sable, and me up to Albany, New York. The house both is and isn't what I expected. Beautiful-yes. Locked rooms with mysterious stuff-yes. But it also seems alive, which isn't possible. This isn't a movie, houses aren't alive. But before I get to finish exploring the house the draft office has decided I need another trial run, and of course Agent Steven Alixant is their errand boy. Before I get a chance to figure out anything— there are some odd things about that house—I'm dragged off to New York City to help catch a serial killer. Which makes no sense. A bachelors degree doesn't make me Sherlock Holmes. Things are going well, I guess. Is it a good thing to figure out clues about a serial killer's identity? But when I get a phone call that something has happened to Jo and Sable is when things get dangerous. I'm going to have to make a bunch of decisions and I hope I can save Jo and Sable, even if it ends up costing me my life. When your luck is as twisted as mine nothing is ever straightforward. A found family, non-romantic urban fantasy with a smattering of magical beasties.

The entire Twisted Luck series in one place, with two novellas included. My Luck - Cori Munroe is a young woman with a BFF, estranged parents, and the weirdest luck you've ever seen. Hired Luck - Cori is in a new city, with a new job, and a new dead body. That she can deal with, but finding out she's a mage? Educated Luck - School is mandatory for mages, but why is there a bounty on Cori's head? No Luck - Charles has never been the popular one, but it doesn't mean he's unable to protect himself. Inherited Luck - The first part of schooling is done and Cori inherits a house with a definite personality. Drafted Luck - Government is rarely intelligent with where they put people, but did it have to involve dragons? Faded Luck - The things you do for the people you love, but being pregnant might be more than she bargained for. Unbalanced Luck - The herald of magic is supposed to fix everything, but all Cori knows it's getting worse and she still has no idea. Balanced Luck - Cori can't save everyone, but she is willing to die trying.

I hate the nickname Cori Catastrophe, it’s accurate though. In my world, magic weaves through society, seemingly giving mages the leg up. I'm no mage, yet bad luck clings to me like a shadow. Everything changed when my twin brother died in my arms. My parents never forgave me, not that I blame them. Since then, I've been on my own, except for my BFF Jo and her family. Still, trust doesn't come easy. Paying for college sucks while mages get free rides. Even if I have to work two jobs, I'm going to earn my degree and become an EMT. But my luck does weird things, like dropping dead bodies in my path. Nothing new, but this body had my name in his pocket. I don't know why anyone is looking for me, but I won't let anything stop me from getting control over my own life. Not even magic. Join Cori in these slice of life books starting with 'My Luck,' the inaugural tale in the world of Twisted Luck. Dive into a modern-day urban fantasy filled with an asexual main character, life-long friendships, found family, magic, and the unexpected. Step into a world a heartbeat away from our own, where magic is commonplace, but life remains as challenging as ever. Grab book one today and lose yourself in this bestselling series!

New city, new job, new threat? With my best friend going to college to learn how to use her magic, I'm job hunting in Atlanta. We're sharing an apartment and I've never been happier. The last thing I needed was to be involved in a murder investigation. Now the police are sure I had something to do with it. News alert: I don't. I've got a job, Jo's going school. I finally am on the track to have my own life. Working as an EMT is great, but something weird happened at work. Something I can't explain. What if I'm wrong and I am a mage? The last thing I want is to be a mage, it would mean I'd lose everything I've been working for. Even if I am a mage, I'd be a low ranking one, a hedgemage, something that means I can keep my current life. But I can't get the dead girl out of my mind. Who was she and why did she die? What good are my skills if all I do is keep finding dead people? With a serial killer out there, the police and FBI stepping in, I might lose more than the life I had planned. I might lose my life. Once again my luck holds true and I'm in the middle of something I don't know how to deal with. Get Hired Luck Book 2 in the Twisted Luck series, now! Follow Cori on her journey, it won't go where you think it will. A found family, non-romantic urban fantasy with a smattering of magical beasties.

New city, new job, new threat?With my best friend going to college to learn how to use her magic, I'm job hunting in Atlanta. We're sharing an apartment and I've never been happier. The last thing I needed was to be involved in a murder investigation. Now the police are sure I had something to do with it. News alert: I don't. I've got a job, Jo's going school. I finally am on the track to have my own life.Working as an EMT is great, but something weird happened at work. Something I can't explain. What if I'm wrong and I am a mage? The last thing I want is to be a mage, it would mean I'd lose everything I've been working for. Even if I am a mage, I'd be a low ranking one, a hedgemage, something that means I can keep my current life.But I can't get the dead girl out of my mind. Who was she and why did she die? What good are my skills if all I do is keep finding dead people? With a serial killer out there, the police and FBI stepping in, I might lose more than the life I had planned. I might lose my life. Once again my luck holds true and I'm in the middle of something I don't know how to deal with.Get Hired Luck Book 2 in the Twisted Luck series, now! Follow Cori on her journey, it won't go where you think it will.A found family, non-romantic urban fantasy with a smattering of magical beasties.

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is a lottery that awards winners from underrepresented countries the chance to apply for legal permanent residence in the United States. Most lottery winners think of themselves as lucky, viewing the win as an opportunity to pursue better lives for themselves and their families. In Structured Luck, sociologist Onoso Imoagene uses immigrants’ stories to show that while the visa program benefits many recipients, the program’s design can also lead to exploitation in their countries of origin and reduced potential once they are in the United States. Combining ethnographic observation in Africa and interviews with immigrants, their family members, and friends from Ghana and Nigeria, Imoagene demonstrates that the visa program is a process of “structured luck,” from how people hear about the lottery, who registers for it, and who participates in it to the application requirements for the visa. In Ghana and Nigeria, people often learn about the lottery through friends, colleagues, or relatives who persuade them to enter for the perceived benefits of receiving a visa: opportunities for upward mobility, permanent legal status, and the ability to bring along family members. Though anyone can enter the lottery, not everyone who wins obtains a visa. The visa application process requires proof of a high school diploma or artisan skills, a medical exam, a criminal background check, an interview with U.S. consular officers, and payment of fees. Such requirements have led to the growth of visa entrepreneurs, who often charge exorbitant fees to steer immigrants through the process. Visa recipients who were on track to obtain university degrees at home often leave in the middle of their studies for the United States but struggle to continue their education due to high U.S. tuition costs. And though their legal status allows them to escape the demoralizing situations that face the undocumented, these immigrants lack the social support that the government sometimes provides for refugees and other migrants. Ultimately, Imoagene notes, the real winner of the visa lottery is not the immigrants themselves but the United States, which benefits from their relatively higher levels of education. Consequently, she argues, the U.S. must do more to minimize the visa program’s negative consequences. Structured Luck illuminates the trauma, resilience, and determination of immigrants who come to the United States through the Diversity Visa Program and calls for the United States to develop policies that will better integrate them into society.

Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck-novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics-and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune. The Myth of Luck tells us why we have been fighting an unconquerable foe. Taking us on a guided tour of one of our oldest concepts, we begin in ancient Greece and Rome, considering how Plato, Plutarch, and the Stoics understood luck, before entering the theoretical world of probability and exploring how luck relates to theology, sports, ethics, gambling, knowledge, and present-day psychology. As we travel across traditions, times and cultures, we come to realize that it's not that as soon as we solve one philosophical problem with luck that two more appear, like heads on a hydra, but rather that the monster is altogether mythological. We cannot master luck because there is nothing to defeat: luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. By introducing us to compelling arguments and convincing reasons that explain why there is no such thing as luck, we finally see why in a very real sense we make our own luck, that luck is our own doing. The Myth of Luck helps us to regain our own agency in the world - telling the entertaining story of the philosophy and history of luck along the way.