Showing results by narrator "Ryan Burke" in All Categories

What separates great novels from mediocre ones? Story. Authors that master this vital skill keep their readers and listeners up at night, and suffer the deluge of 'when is the next book coming out' emails. Whether you are a first-time novelist, or a seasoned author, Plot Gardening will teach you the fundamentals of storytelling, delivered in a practical way. Through exercises at the end of each chapter you will build your own outline, and you'll do it without sacrificing the creativity that is so vital to telling great stories.

When a salvage job on an old battlefield goes awry, Kril's left with no crew, no food, a suspiciously absent client, and far too many enemies. Fortunately, it's a big universe, and he's got a fast ship and the best pilot in twenty light-years to watch his back. His journey to keep 'er flying and get a crew back together will take him from rescue operations in collapsing freighters to fighting dinosaurs in the sewage canals of pirate paradises and to points beyond. The odds are stacked against him, but Kril keeps it simple.

Vexx White is a down on his luck apprentice mage, recently expelled from Fallanden Magical Academy for experimenting with necromancy. With nothing to lose, he becomes a dungeoneer for hire — taking odd jobs in his home town of Cloudbury for pocket change. Nine out of 10 dungeoneers die in their first 10 quests, and to survive Vexx finds himself teaming up with a clumsy elf and a crazed succubus. When they’re not busy trying to kill each other, the dungeoneers drum up all the work they can get, from raiding dungeons to hunting down thieves.

We expected Mars to be an escape, not a trap. A crimson, blasted, frigid trap. Maybe humans were lucky to leave Earth as cowards...or maybe they should have died trying to save it from the aliens. Because what's now arrived on this red rock may be worse than death. Aliens destroyed humanity and seized Earth. Now they have sent a terrible, unstoppable disease to the last human outposts on Mars. The doomsday clock is ticking and only criminal archaeologist Ozzy Mack can decipher the clues buried in the ancient Martian ruins...clues to the cure and the salvation of humankind.

I write software at a San Francisco startup. I have my dream job, but I also have a secret. We are not alone. The last time I was taken I was 14. Three weeks ago I celebrated my 21st birthday, and I know that the grey men will soon come again. I devoted my life to technology so I'd be ready when they returned. Others have prepared too, and I will find them. Together we will harness the abilities they have given us. We are Project Solaris. It's time to fight back.

Hawke Moonsnow is a brilliant alchemist. He's a prodigy of his time. He knows it. Everyone else knows it. There's just one problem… He has the common sense of a golden retriever. After an accident leaves his old shop in smoking ruins, Hawke takes a loan from the Adventurers' Guild to open a new location in the town square. Now, he has to work to pay back that loan despite charging lower prices to guild members, inventing new cures, and trying to catch the attention of the fetching waitress at the tavern—all while continuing forbidden research into a dangerous plague.

When an ancient evil threatens the galaxy, all that stands in the way is a bounty hunter with a plan… but no plan survives contact with the enemy. Jack walks right into a trap, inadvertently giving the Predecessor Cult exactly what they want; the means to unleash a devastating new weapon. Without immediate and decisive action, death and destruction will wash across the entire galaxy, wiping out human and Tahni alike. A threat of this magnitude cannot be thwarted by a lone bounty hunter.

In the shadowed ruins of post-apocalyptic Guatemala, a critical CIA operative has vanished into silence. She possesses crucial intelligence that could halt the rampant criminal chaos sweeping across America. Time is a ruthless enemy as Captain Dominic Holland and his elite squad, the Hunters, embark on a perilous mission to extract her. Every second counts, intensifying the race against the unstoppable tide.

A dying millionaire hires historian Cameron Thorne to help raise what he claims is a Roman-era ship wrecked off the coast of Massachusetts' Plum Island. Roman coins and artifacts scattered around New England and the Ohio River Valley appear to confirm legends of early Romans crossing the Atlantic. It seems like a harmless assignment until a sultry Mossad agent threatens Cam's life. Why would the Mossad care about ancient Roman artifacts? The answer, it turns out, could destabilize the Middle East for generations to come.

An elderly recluse informs historian Cameron Thorne that he has discovered the secret at the core of Freemasonry. The next day, he is killed. Thorne quickly focuses on a mysterious stone tablet, given to Moses by God along with the Ten Commandments, purportedly passed down to the Freemasons by the medieval Knights Templar. When a sultry Mossad agent joins the search—claiming that the tablet contains ancient scientific equations and formulas lost to mankind—Thorne becomes certain of one thing: He needs to locate the tablet before he becomes its second victim.

Religious fanatics inform historian Cameron Thorne that a medieval stone tower in Newport, Rhode Island is a secret portal—built by the Knights Templar—through which the Antichrist will appear. A group of Native Americans share this belief, claiming that the shape of Turtle Island, their name for North America, was revealed to them by ancient aliens passing through this same portal centuries ago. It all seems utterly ridiculous, until Cam's teenage daughter Astarte is kidnapped and dragged into an occult ritual designed to bring about the Apocalypse.

Who is The Horoscope Writer? It’s not Bobby Frindley. He’s an ex-Olympic athlete who has fast-talked his way into an entry-level position at a dying newspaper. He’s supposed to be writing horoscopes, but someone has been doing his job for him . . . On his first night on the job, Bobby receives an email with twelve gruesome, highly-detailed horoscopes, along with a chilling ultimatum: print them and one will come true, or ignore them and all of them will.

The Borwyn remain undeterred as they gather hardware and rally their allies. It’s best not to fight from within a vacuum, unless that vacuum is space, and the fight is between starships. The crew of Chrysalis are challenged afresh when their goal is changed in light of new revelations. Jaq, Crip, Max, and the rest continue their fight against the Malibor in this fast-paced continuation of the Starship series.

The activation of the runes has the Osuna fleet mobilizing. They’re closing in, and thanks to a new class acquisition, the timeline to Judgment Day has sped up. After thousands of years in hiding, Governor Cullen refuses to believe the Cipher chose him just to watch his people lose everything. He races the clock to find and destroy the portal with the greatest loot. Problem is, every portal he opens cuts down his time to prepare. With his people’s future on the line, Cullen’s up against a war on two fronts—from the streets to the mystical beyond.

Historians Cameron Thorne and Amanda Gunn stumble upon a mysterious spiral necklace and a 12,000-year-old human skull, sparking their search for Atlantis and its true legacy. But are modern-day Knights Templar and a cabal of goddess worshipers conspiring against them? Only after a whirlwind of international travel and a violent encounter with a shadowy paramilitary group do the mysteries of Atlantis finally reveal themselves.

This guide covers my adventures in everything from storing water to purchasing solar generators. At the end of each chapter, you'll complete practical exercises that will get you, and your family, prepared for the scenarios you are most concerned with. And I'll even throw in some humor!

Pappy and his team join a large military coalition that will travel to Regime space to finally take the fight to the enemy. They have no idea what awaits them, and Pappy’s concerns multiply the closer they get to the Regime's Homeworld. Speaks-The-Truth feels lost and unbalanced. All of her traumas have led to growing feelings of disillusionment and doubt. She must find a way to regain what she’s lost, and has a pivotal role to play in the Resistance movement of her people.

The galaxy is thrown into chaos as the wrath of The Regime gets unleashed. Newly-promoted Warrant Officer “Pappy” Gunther is tasked with training the next generation of UEAF officers as the galaxy-spanning Regime gains ground. When a commander from his past shows up and asks him to join a covert black-ops unit, Pappy has a crucial choice to make. Speaks-The-Truth has a chance to live a life of peace on a world far-removed from the conflict. Yet, she’s haunted by the demons of her past and feels compelled to join the greatest struggle in the history of her people.

The Cipher ran the universe with its game-like rules, and it has chosen Cullen, an exiled bounty hunter, to be the method of its return. He's given a quest to free a telepathic mother and son from wrongful imprisonment. If he can break his targets out of prison, they'll have to level up, learn new skills, and hunt down the prophecy's clues. All while facing down berserkers and EMP-hurling tigers in a jungle that offers no succor.

A new anthology of science-fiction stories, Overruled! explores what the future of jurisprudence might well be like, with thrilling, hilarious, and downright entertaining results.