Old Friends New Enemies

"Originally published in single magazine form in Secret Origins 13, Action Comics Weekly 613-618, 627-634."

It has been thirty years since Jake and Arr settled down and gave up the mercenary trade. Arr's life is falling apart. During a spice delivery to Gamma 12 Jake's life is threatened. At the same time in a distant corner of the Rigil galaxy Arr's daughter and her partner are thrust into a situation where they must depend on each other in order to survive, but they may need Dad's help to get through their ordeal. Meanwhile, Targus has lost Damion Mitchell to retirement. Targus' search for a new medical officer for his crew leads him to a newly graduated Galactic Forces Academy officer, Terrell Sterling. Terrell has an unexpected connection to the Henu and enough personal baggage to choke a Tuldavian Swamp Lizard. All three plots collide in a spectacular finale that will leave you seeking more Star Traveler adventures.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Barbara Amiel's much-talked-about life has been a subject of endless fascination for the media, many unauthorized biographies, as well as screen depictions. An instinctive feminist and now a foe of feminism's political correctness, she covers a formidable array of experiences--political, sexual, marital, and material--in these memoirs. Born in London during World War II's Blitz, the only consistent strains in her life were a fierce belief in her identity as a Jew, even as the Jewish community disowned her, and an unquestioned view that women were free to do anything in any arena they chose without the need to win society's approval. Which she very often did not. Her rise to the senior rungs of journalism began in Canada after the emigration of her family and continued in the United Kingdom on her return. With four marriages and an assorted number of beaus, some famous, some infamous (some rather young, some rather elderly), she moved through different worlds, encountering problems made more intractable on occasion by her own faulty choices. Though her views on political and social issues were controversial and unpopular, it is a measure of her writing skill that she held down plum jobs for many decades in Canadian and British journalism, as well as appearances in U.S. publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to the National Enquirer and Vogue. When Barbara Amiel's family life broke apart in her early teens, she faced problems solved without the benefit of parental guidance in moments that are often hilarious as well as touching. As an adult and a writer of unabashedly libertarian views, she was derided as much for her wardrobe as for her ideas. Promoted by Maclean's magazine with the slogan "Love her or hate her," she was philosophical. "I love liberty, opera, sex, and fashion," she once told an interviewer. "But life would have been easier if my passions had been for trainspotting and stamp collecting." Her life has an operatic quality played out against a backdrop of physical and mental difficulties with a wildly diverse cast including Elton John, Henry Kissinger, Anna Wintour, Oscar de la Renta, Princess Diana, Tom Stoppard, Brooke Astor, Margaret Thatcher, Gianni Agnelli, David Frost, and an array of the aristocrats of Manhattan and the stately homes of England. All handled, she writes "with my fatal combination of naiveté and self-absorption." The epic battle with the U.S. justice system leading to the trial and imprisonment of her husband, Conrad Black (eventually substantially vindicated), became a litmus paper for sorting out friends from those who were quick to judge and brutal in their dismissal. Friends and Enemies is not a book of vengeance but an attempt to fi nd her own truth: a life that reads like a novel--eloquent, surprising, written with deeply personal candour and utterly unputdownable.

In the Swiss Alps a teenage girl is thrown from a helicopter and her boyfriend is brutally abducted to Trieste, a city filled with undercurrents of past hatreds. Ruari, son of Irish media owner J J Breslin, is in desperate danger, at the mercy of ruthless kidnappers making impossible demands. His terrified mother contacts the only person she knows can help her son: Harry Jones, her former lover, who she walked out on many years ago. Now memories of their passionate affair, the guilt, hurt, anger and humiliation, come flooding back. Time is running out for Ruari and Harry, torn between his loyalties, is quickly drawn into a political game played for high stakes. Far higher than he realizes...

When Jessica's best friend goes off with new-girl Amelia, Jessica is hurt but determined not to take it lying down. She has a plan, and a secret weapon - her felt-tips. The pen is mightier than the sword, after all, and having a sense of humour wins Jessica far more friends than she loses. A funny, wise story that will touch a nerve with everyone who reads it from author and stand-up comedian, Catherine Wilkins.

In December 1941 Japan set out to seize South-East Asia and the western Pacific to complete the building of a self-sufficient empire. The rapid loss of all of Britain's possessions in the Far East was the culmination of a failed attempt to deal with the rise of Japanese imperialism. Britain's bluff was called and millions of Britain's 'protected' subjects in Asia fell into the hands of a brutal occupying power. The British fought the Second World War in Burma and India against the backdrop of nationalist unrest and revolt. The appalling Bengal famine of 1943, brought about by the loss of Burma's rice crop and the dislocation of government, would cause the deaths of many. Alan Warren provides a new study of the series of battles that made up the Burma campaign, including first-hand accounts of the conflict and a fresh examination of the armies and commanders of the major combatants. Burma 1942 powerfully demonstrates how victory or defeat in particular battles altered the trajectory of the conflict, affecting the lives of millions.

Do you feel stuck in life, not knowing how to make it more successful? Do you wish to become more popular? Are you craving to earn more? Do you wish to expand your horizon, earn new clients and win people over with your ideas? How to Win Friends and Influence People is a well-researched and comprehensive guide that will help you through these everyday problems and make success look easier. You can learn to expand your social circle, polish your skill set, find ways to put forward your thoughts more clearly, and build mental strength to counter all hurdles that you may come across on the path to success. Having helped millions of readers from the world over achieve their goals, the clearly listed techniques and principles will be the answers to all your questions.

Friends broaden our children’s horizons, share their joys and secrets, and accompany them on their journeys into ever wider worlds. But friends can also gossip and betray, tease and exclude. Children can cause untold suffering, not only for their peers but for parents as well. In this wise and insightful book, psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., and children’s book author Catherine O’Neill Grace, illuminate the crucial and often hidden role that friendship plays in the lives of children from birth through adolescence. Drawing on fascinating new research as well as their own extensive experience in schools, Thompson and Grace demonstrate that children’s friendships begin early–in infancy–and run exceptionally deep in intensity and loyalty. As children grow, their friendships become more complex and layered but also more emotionally fraught, marked by both extraordinary intimacy and bewildering cruelty. As parents, we watch, and often live through vicariously, the tumult that our children experience as they encounter the “cool” crowd, shifting alliances, bullies, and disloyal best friends. Best Friends, Worst Enemies brings to life the drama of childhood relationships, guiding parents to a deeper understanding of the motives and meanings of social behavior. Here you will find penetrating discussions of the difference between friendship and popularity, how boys and girls deal in unique ways with intimacy and commitment, whether all kids need a best friend, why cliques form and what you can do about them. Filled with anecdotes that ring amazingly true to life, Best Friends, Worst Enemies probes the magic and the heartbreak that all children experience with their friends. Parents, teachers, counselors–indeed anyone who cares about children–will find this an eye-opening and wonderfully affirming book.