Showing results by narrator "Eric Michael Summerer" in All Categories

An insightful and actionable guide to creating a hero that readers will fall in love with, from the author of The Secrets of Story The hardest yet most essential element of writing great fiction is character – specifically, creating a central hero who is relatable, compelling, and worth the...

Have you ever loved anyone so much that you’d give them up at the expense of your own happiness? No? Well, I did. Okay, that’s not the first lie I’ve ever told myself. I fought tooth and nail for the only man I’ll ever love, but in the end, I had to concede defeat. Even now, seven years later, the cruel words Ryker uttered the morning after he took my virginity still wield the power to shatter the remains of my heart. Yet fate has a way of shaping our lives. No matter how hard we fight for a different outcome.

Nathanial Kane had read it all before. It said they had centuries. The demons arrived in ten years. He'd been counted among the strongest. It had all been for nothing. He'd witnessed Earth's end. While dying, Nathan reviewed the only unique spell he'd ever found in the tower. He cast Rebirth.

When Malia Kwan exhibits unusual abilities, government agents show up at her home to apprehend her and her twin brother, Jaden - and all hell breaks loose. After their parents are killed, Jaden and Malia flee into the night, becoming fugitives. Before long, they discover their true identities are tied to the lost city of Atlantis - and to the origins of humanity itself. And now a threat emerges that could wipe out the entire human race - unless Jaden and Malia can stop it! 

Ryan's life sucks. His brother is a jerk, his mom is sick, and his legs are next to useless thanks to a neurological disorder. Plus the world ended two centuries ago from nuclear war. Now the only escape from reality being the massive VR world of Crystal Shards Online. But even in the game, Ryan's life sucks. He works as a miner, earning not nearly enough to afford the operation that will save his mom. When Ryan discovers an item that grants the ability to dodge any attack, however, he has the chance to become one of the game world's most elite and sought after players: a Dodge Tank.

While his home rebuilds, Valian finds himself in chains, headed to the imperial capital, Soltar. There, he's to either die in the sands of the arena or stand trial for the death of an imperial princess. Not all is as it seems, though. A dark shadow moves while corruption eats away at the heart of the greatest city in the empire. Can Valian escape the dark machinations in which he finds himself surrounded, or will he become the tool by which the empire falls?

How do you define yourself when others have already decided who you are? Six years ago, when Camden Daniels came back from war without his younger brother, no one in the small town of Alba, Colorado, would forgive him - especially his father. He left, swearing never to return. But a desperate message from his father brings it all back. The betrayal. The pain. And the need to go home again. But home is where the one person he still loves is waiting. Willow. The one woman he can never have. Because there are secrets buried in Alba that are best left in the dark.

Fifty million dollars. That's how much my sister's freedom cost. She's moved on. I haven't. I think about the horror of her kidnapping every day. Every hour. Every goddamn second. Someone has to pay. Yet despite my relentless searching, each road leads to a dead end. Until a chance meeting with my secret high school crush changes everything. She promises answers where I only have questions. She vows to support me on my quest for justice. Except I'm on a path to self-destruction, and if she's not careful, I'll take her down with me.

The Secrets of Story is a revolutionary and comprehensive writing guide for the 21st century, focused on clever ways to get an audience to fully identify with an all-too-human hero. Authors will learn to how to cut through pop culture noise and win over a jaded modern audience by rediscovering the heart of writing: shaping stories that ring true to our shared understanding of human nature.

Zeke Blackwood wields mana beyond imagination. A human/demon hybrid, he walks the path of arcane destruction, slaughtering monstrous and mythical creatures in one conflict after another. With every victory, he's becoming more powerful—and less human. But despite the devastation he's left in his wake, he's also saved lives and become the reluctant king of a diverse community of beastkin, elves, kobolds, and other species. He protects them even as he follows the will of the god Oberon toward his destiny as a warrior in a forthcoming battle that could destroy the very fabric of reality.

When eighteen-year-old Ian Bedloe pricks the bubble of his family's optimistic self-deception, his brother Danny drives into a wall, his sister-in-law falls apart, and his parents age before his eyes. Consumed by guilt Ian finds the hope of forgiveness at the Church of the Second Chance, and...

The board is set for an incredible conflict that will determine the fate of the world. Can Ben and his friends assemble enough strength to save Alcott - from the demons and from itself? Ben returns in book five of the popular Benjamin Ashwood series. 

Benny White had been having a rough couple of years, and the approaching apocalypse wasn’t exactly helping. Pulled from the point of death and thrust into a horde-mode-style survival game, Benny’s odds weren’t looking too great. To make matters worse, an eldritch god… entity… thing named ‘Dave’ tasked him with destroying the very System that now controls his fate. But hey, it's not all bad news. Benny’s experience as a lab tech grants him a rare Splicer Class that lets him repurpose the genetic material of slain enemies into augments for himself.

In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he had done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

The Terran Commonwealth has proved a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut in its war against the smaller Castle Federation and her allies, but an almost accidental victory by Captain Kyle Roberts of the carrier Avalon has opened a chink in its armor. Desperate to change the course of a war they are rapidly losing, the Federation assembles a new forward fleet with orders to retake the systems that have fallen to the enemy.

The Man's Guide to Women offers the science-based answers to the question: What do women really want in men? The book explains the hallmarks of manhood that most women find attractive and helps men hone those skills to be the men women desire.

Marty Friedman's upbringing was as atypical as his career. Growing up in a Jewish household in Maryland, the son of an NSA executive, he lacked motivation until he discovered the guitar. Enjoying a hazy adolescence overflowing with partying, music, and teen antics, he achieved local stardom in Deuce, then burst onto the national scene by pioneering a radically new style of playing, bringing attention to the guitar aficionado label, Shrapnel Records. Friedman moved to California and scored a gig in Megadeth.

Endless Flight continues the epic saga of Benjamin Ashwood. As Ben flees from powerful forces, the course of political alliances and a war hinge on information he and a friend possess. To save that friend's family, and countless other lives, they must stay one step ahead of danger and warn others. Along the way, Ben finds new allies, but also learns of a deadly threat to all humanity. Only Ben and his companions have the skill, knowledge, and courage to defeat the threat.

Why can't he commit? Many women find themselves asking this question when in love with a man who won't get married, won't stop womanizing, or refuses to give up his sex addictions. Often this kind of man is bound by an unhealthy attachment to his mother. This phenomenon is called mother-son enmeshment. In When He's Married to Mom, clinical psychologist and renowned intimacy expert Dr. Kenneth M. Adams goes beyond the stereotypes of momma's boys and meddling mothers to explain how mother-son enmeshment affects everyone: the mother, the son, and the woman who loves him.

Two people from completely different worlds are about to be thrown together...in more ways than one. She wants to keep her scholarship. He wants to stay on the team. An awkward alliance doesn't even begin to cover Rimmel and Romeo's relationship. But that's about to change.