My Mama Is A Mechanic

Unworthiness, fear, guilt, shame; these are just a few of the emotional bandages that people carry with them. The world tells us we should deny these harmful emotions or accept them as normal, but our loving God wants to set us free. I invite you to come along on a journey with me as I find the courage to seek out the root of these emotions in my life and embrace God's love and freedom to find a light in the darkness.

What do stories in games have in common with political narratives? This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society - such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design - of game mechanics.

A memoir of a self-made millionaire who succeeded despite being illiterate and faced with some of life's worse tragedies.

Overcoming Katrina tells the stories of 27 New Orleanians as they fought to survive Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Their oral histories offer first-hand experiences: three days on a roof with Navy veteran Leonard Smith; at the convention center with waitress Eleanor Thornton; and with Willie Pitford, an elevator man, as he rescued 150 people in New Orleans East. Overcoming approaches the question of why New Orleans matters, from perspectives of the individuals who lived, loved, worked, and celebrated life and death there prior to being scattered across the country by Hurricane Katrina. This book's twenty-seven narrators range from Mack Slan, a conservative businessman who disparages the younger generation for not sharing his ability to make "good, rational decisions," to Kalamu ya Salaam, who was followed by the New Orleans Police Department for several years as a militant defender of Black Power in the late 1960s and '70s. These narratives are memorials to the corner stores, the Baptist churches, the community health clinics, and those streets where the aunties stood on the corner, and whose physical traces have now all been washed away. They conclude with visions of a safer, equitably rebuilt New Orleans. *Scroll down for more audio excerpts from Overcoming Katrina*.

"A Little Too Familiar is a knock-it-out-of-the-park, magic on every page delight.” –Christina Lauren, NYT Bestselling authors of the Unhoneymooners "Wildly inventive, thoroughly romantic, and cozily delightful, Lish McBride will leave you head over heels for this world and her characters.” Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author of The Date from Hell “Intricate world building, sexy and smart leads who can’t live without each other, a diabolical villain you will delight in hating, vengeance pigeons, murder ferrets - all while sneaking in beautiful messages about the family of the heart. What more could you ask of a story?”—Molly Harper, author of the Half-Moon Hollow & Mystic Bayou series Love brings out the animal in you Louise Matthews has got it good. Wonderful job? Check. Loving family? The best. Roommates? Pretty fantastic, thank you. All of this helps her stay focused on what she wants: to finish out her apprenticeship and become a fully licensed Switch-an animal mage who bonds familiars to their witches. Only a problem has just moved in-a hot, occasionally wolf-shaped problem. Declan Mackenzie doesn’t want to be a lone wolf, but he doesn’t have a choice. Girlfriend? Gone. Sister? Starting a new life. Parents? In prison where they belong, thankfully. All he wants is a fresh start-new home, new job, new life. What he gets is a house full of witches, a fledgling phoenix named Dammit, and rogue ferrets who won’t stay out of his business. And he could handle all of that if it wasn’t for Louise. It’s not great to crush on your roommate. It’s even worse when you realize she wields the kind of magic that sends you running for the door. Still, Declan is no pup, and he’s not going to let this set him back. Until the past comes back to haunt him-the parents he put in jail have busted out. They want revenge. And the only thing standing between them and Declan is Louise and the very magic he vowed never to go near again.

Pops Sickles is history, mystery, and an adventurous romantic comedy set in the early 1950s. Pop, a gentle giant of a man, befriends Ted, a small boy who has lost his own father in WWII and takes him under his wing into his Harley Davidson repair shop. Not only does Ted learn mechanics but he obtains one of his own motorcycles in his senior year of high school. All goes well until romantic miscommunication between Pop and Teds mother, Thelma, results in a crazy chase by mule- back high into Georgias Cohutta mountains, a mad bus ride to a VA Army post, followed by a life threatening journey across the hurricane-washed bayous of Louisiana. You will read about encounters with people along the way that will leave you wondering what is going to happen next.

This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a celebrated filmmaker and activist and his conservative Mormon mother built bridges across today’s great divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal. • Adapted as an HBO documentary now streaming on HBO Max. “A beautifully written, utterly compelling account of growing up poor and gay with a thrice married, physically disabled, deeply religious Mormon mother, and the imprint this irrepressible woman made on the character of Dustin Lance Black.” —Jon Krakauer, bestselling author of Missoula and Under the Banner of Heaven Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California’s anti–gay marriage Proposition 8, but as an LGBTQ activist he has unlikely origins—a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. There he was raised by a single mother who, as a survivor of childhood polio, endured brutal surgeries as well as braces and crutches for life. Despite the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages, she imbued Lance with her inner strength and irrepressible optimism. When Lance came out to his mother at age twenty-one, she initially derided his sexuality as a sinful choice. It may seem like theirs was a house destined to be divided—and at times it was. But in the end, they did not let their differences define them or the relationship that had inspired two remarkable lives. This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a mother and son built bridges across great cultural divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal.