New Releases by M. Christian

By knowing the past, you can understand the present and predict the future. This is a tale of amazing horses, and unbelievable human behavior. A rare breed’s struggle for identity is at the core of this story. Lifted, by an American couple in the 1990’s, from an environment steeped in cultural prejudice, the horses’ thirty year journey to be understood and proclaimed a new standardized breed has been riddled with every possible obstacle the horse industry could present. Joyce M. Christian, “The Gypsy Vanner Lady” takes you on that thirty-year journey; unravels the twists and turns and makes the bold prediction that if finally understood as a standardized breed this horse will make its mark on the horse industry at large. Join the author as she presents the horses, the people, the events, and you, the reader, be the judge, does she make the case for the Gypsy Vanner Horse?

When powerful siblings discover a terrifying truth, will they embrace a new destiny or turn to darkness? Ashaya Blacksun has had a weight lifted from her shoulders. Freed by her father''s abdication of his crown, the former princess''s delight over choosing her own path is barely dimmed by her strange and haunting dreams. But when her beloved twin brother doesn''t return home from a ranging expedition, the unconventional young woman fears something has gone terribly wrong. Born into royalty, Sirich Blacksun quietly seethes that he''s no longer heir to the throne. Still determined to maintain a position of leadership, he sets out to investigate the disturbing news of carnage in the south. But when he crosses paths with a powerful figure straight out of lore, the temptation to ignore his beloved father''s bold vision in favor of his own ambition becomes increasingly difficult to resist. Defying tradition by sneaking off to find her missing twin, Ashaya''s travels over deadly terrain are plagued by intensifying visions that point to a dark fate. And as Sirich''s strange new companion shows him a new way forward, the frustrated would-be king faces a frightening choice. As these scions of nobility grapple with a new reality, will their quest for truth end in tragedy? The Crimson Gods is the first book in the sweeping Crimson Gods medieval fantasy series. If you like fierce characters, ancient fables, and stunning twists, then you''ll love Chris M. Christian''s breathtaking epic. Buy The Crimson Gods to taste the blood of deities today!

What happens to us does not have to define us. In The Red Geranium Sisterhood, women will find the inspiration to believe in and embrace their inherent worth by discovering and embracing the Creator’s radical love. Author Shelley M. Christian encourages women to discover their unique design and quit comparing themselves to others. Through her personal story, real-life accounts of others and the lens of Jesus’ esteem for women, Shelley gives readers the tools to rise above the injustices they have suffered and overcome bitterness, self-hatred and despair. Sharing her personal struggle with low self-worth, emotional hurdles and being bullied as a teen, Shelley uses techniques inspired from God’s Word to stop believing the lies, break free from negative influences and thrive. When women believe their own worth and celebrate the colors within each other, they will shake off the shame, reclaim their true identity and step up to the plate with courage. The goal of The Red Geranium Sisterhood is to inspire women to fully love and esteem themselves and then extend that same kindness to others until their surrounding culture is transformed into a sisterhood of friends. Instead of I and me, Shelley hopes we become a culture of us and we.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This Workbook is a necessary review tool of the whole of English Grammar building blocks to help foreign language learners from the Far East, the Middle East and South American pre-college students-as the selected names in the title of the book represent- review and consolidate what they have learnt in their EFL learning process as they prepare to pursue college education or apply for a job in today''s competetive job market. I have specifically targeted the pre-college applicants, with whom I have spent years of my life teaching, in addition to offering consultancy work in programm development and I know exactly what those young men and women need in order to establish themselves as successful candidates for acadamic, industrial training and for the job and business market.In addition to a sufficient number of Grammar Review Exercises, the Workbook also contains a large number of vocabulary exercises that will help the user to review, consolidate and enrich his or her vocabulary repertoire, also with an answer key provided at the end of each review exercise. The review exercises were not haphazardly written, but were the result of many years of personal involvement in program development, text and test writing, research and note-taking in order to decide which item must come in each Review Level, based on necessity and ease or difficulty. The user will, therefore, find at the beginning of each level a list of the items reviewed. This does not mean that the items may not re-appear later on as many may re-surface every-now-and then in an interesting cyclic way for consolidation, unity of topic, necessity and coherence. The journey into this workbook begins with a self- assessment that contains two exercises of 50 grammar questions each, the results of which should act as a guide to the Workbook user as to how much effort he or she may have to put in reviewing the grammar rules. The Assessment exercises are a gateway to the Workbook and a gateway to success in career and life. Admittedly, the workbook containsa some material of interest and benefit to different users, such inserts include a brief section of business and banking related exercises to provide a student of business, or a banking career seeker the chance to assess his or her level of understanding of some business and banking language expressions, which is by no means comprehensive; another insert emphasizes some common mistakes made by foreign learners. In addition to this, in Section Five of the workbook, the user will find a few vocabulary enrichment exercises derived from lively day-to-day conversations.Finally, Whether the user of this Workbook is a high school student, a university student or a job seeker, the Workbook is an excellent tool and ''A Road to College and Career Success'' only if the exercises are given the time and the effort required! My piece of advice to users is not to look at the answers provided until he or she has done the exercise, then to compare their own answers with the answer key provided at the end of each Exercise.Good luck in your journey, Leila, Ling & Linda!

Despite the fact that I would like to address this book to Donald Trump as an example of the most arrogant but foolish xenophobes, I must say that the book is intended for all people whom the only acceptable religion by the Lord, Islam, calls

Have you encountered a Gypsy Vanner horse? If you can answer yes to that question, whether you are a horse person or not, you have, if for only a moment, been captivated. The out-of-the-box beauty of these horses has been turning heads since the late 1990s when they were first introduced as a breed. The horse is a lifetime achievement of the Gypsy culture in Ireland and England. However, given the nature of this culture, the world of the internet and the horse industrys driving force, horse trading, confusion rather than understanding has appeared in the form of multiple breed names, multiple registries, and variety rather than consistency in breeding. Stealing Gypsy Treasure offers food for thought and clarity for those who have been drawn to these mysteriously magical and enchanting animals. If you are new to these horses, this will be a welcome introduction to the Gypsy people and how nature chose this intriguing culture to create one of its most remarkable works of art.

The orders and decorations of Old Austria are a fascinating field of study and research to this day, not only reflecting the continuity and turning points of the Habsburg Monarchy from the mid-18th century to the end of 1918, but also directly linked with the Medieval secular and chivalric orders and their extremely ideological and spiritual character, particularly through the Order of the Golden Fleece. The orders founded in the 18th and 19th centuries later also took into account a recipient?s achievements but they still largely retained the nature of fellowships, loyal to their sovereign and ruler. Although these ?orders? were originally intended only for certain social and professional groups, throughout the 19th century the system of awards was increasingly expanded, with decorations commemorating various historical events or personages and later honouring general merit, military achievement or long service. This resulted in a system that was not only comprehensive but complex and had its own peculiar characteristics, distinct from those of other nations.0There were for example privileges and monetary gratuities as well as ennoblement attached to some awards, a recipient?s social background was taken into account and there was a strict hierarchy amongst the orders and decorations themselves.0.

Carlos M. Christian made bad choices at a young age. At thirteen, he became involved with the distribution of illegal drugs and eventually served ten years in prison. From nineteen-years old until he was twenty-nine, Christian was locked away from society with nothing to do but think. All that time could have been wasted...but Christian took an unusual path: he graduated from Marion Technical College for business management with a 3.83 GPA and dedicated himself to improving his own life and the lives of those around him. Upon leaving prison, he beat the odds. Instead of returning to his old life of crime, Christian got a job, bought a house, and got custody of his son. An alarming 76 percent of American prisoners are rearrested within five years-so how did Christian buck the trend? The truth is that he found strength and purpose within himself...and the rest followed. In 2011, Christian founded the Starts Within Organization (SWO) to help other convicts become positive, restored citizens. And in Prison without Bars, a guide for those who want to take value from prison time, Christian shares practical advice about prison education, support groups, and some deeply moving personal revelations. Remember: when healing and personal development start within, no one is beyond redemption.

This article examines the structure and health implications of two industries, chicken and tomatoes, that play prominent roles in US food and agricultural competitiveness. Both industries have become more concentrated over time, with powerful “lead firms” driving geographical, technological, and marketing changes. Overall, a processed food revolution has taken place in agricultural products that transforms the types of food and dietary options available to consumers. The nature of contemporary food and agricultural value chains affects the strategies and policies that can be effectively employed to address major health goals such as improved nutrition, food safety, and food security.

In this paper I address how the ideology of Costa Rican exceptionalism and whiteness has maintained racial inequality with the growth of global tourism. Whereas scholars of whiteness in Latin America typically ignore how the ideology has supported racial inequality in structural forms, I explore how discursive racial discourses influence how structural inequality practices in the tourism industry take form. I examine the narratives and symbols from public and private Costa Rican tourism actors who use Costa Rica''s racial ideology of exceptionalism and whiteness to position the nation''s cultural wealth. Two narratives to define Costa Rica are promoted: (1) environmental uniqueness; and (2) rural democracy traditions. These narratives support white inclusionary and black exclusionary practices in tourism economic activity. Because Costa Rica is perceived as ''white'' and represents a ''white habitus'', it distinguishes itself as a ''democratic'' and ''safe'' place to visit, while negatively racialized Afro-Costa Rican locations in the southern Atlantic coast are framed as ''dangerous'' or ''different'' and non-representative of the exceptional characteristics.

We show that extremely poor, war-affected women in northern Uganda have high returns to a package of $150 cash, five days of business skills training, and ongoing supervision. 16 months after grants, participants doubled their microenterprise ownership and incomes, mainly from petty trading. We also show these ultrapoor have too little social capital, but that group bonds, informal insurance, and cooperative activities could be induced and had positive returns. When the control group received cash and training 20 months later, we varied supervision, which represented half of the program costs. A year later, supervision increased business survival but not consumption.

The capacity to mentally transcend the present moment affords the opportunity to relive former pleasures or preview the perils of things to come. According to the theory of embodied cognition, these imaginary events are made possible by the reactivation of the modality-specific sensory-motor components that accompany interaction with the environment (Barsalou, 1999, 2008; Wilson, 2002). But what happens when our mental simulations deviate from veridical experience? Guided by the observation that imagining the self from an outside point-of-view is a regular occurrence in the mental world (Nigro & Neisser, 1983), this thesis explored the sensory-motor activities that accompany first- and third-person imagery. As first-person (cf. third-person) simulations are closer in character to actual experience, it was anticipated that events imagined from this point-of-view would be accompanied by more pronounced embodied effects than those imagined from a third-person perspective.

For all that we know about Sherlock Holmes there is much that is a complete and total mystery about him - and, as he would say himself, a that is a puzzle that should be addressed. Is it any wonder that so many of us have scratched our much-smaller craniums and pondered his relationships, trying to use his own maxim of "when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" to peer down deep into those mysteries? This timely collection focuses on his unmentioned private life. In short, the great detective''s amorous inclinations, the part of life Victorians were so silent on, but so profligate in its practice. And the authors don''t stop there - you will also find stories about the sexual side of other key characters who make up the canon: Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson, Dr. Watson, and even that most infamous of villains, Professor Moriarty. Included are many of today''s most popular authors including Michael Kurland (American Book Award and the Edgar Award finalist), Angela Caperton (Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica), M. Christian (Lambda Award finalist), and such other distinguished practitioners of the short story and novelette as Cesar Sanchez Zapata, Kate Lear, Wade Heaton, Dorla Moorehouse, Ivo Benengeli, Billierosie, Zachary Jean, PM White, Violet Vernet. As Holmes himself said: "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"

Verborgene Botschaften in den Märchen? - In unsrer hypermodernen Gedankenlandschaft steht das Märchen wie eine einsame Blume. Wer sieht die Schönheit und atmet seinen Duft? Wer ahnt, dass seine Bilder und Symbole die universelle Botschaft aus dem Reich des Geistes an die Menschenseele verschlüsseln, den königlichen Weg der Seelenbefreiung, den göttlichen Schöpfungsplan der wahren Menschwerdung? Der tiefe Sinn unseres Daseins liegt in alten Märchen verborgen. Sie haben die kosmische Botschaft vom Weg und Ziel der Seele, den universellen Schöpfungsplan zur neuen Menschwerdung, als einen königlic.

The relationship between religion and human rights is both complex and inextricable. While most of the world''s religions have supported violence, repression, and prejudice, each has also played a crucial role in the modern struggle for universal human rights. Most importantly, religions provide the essential sources and scales of dignity and responsibility, shame and respect, restraint and regret, restitution and reconciliation that a human rights regime needs to survive and flourish in any culture. With contributions by a score of leading experts, Religion and Human Rights provides authoritative and accessible assessments of the contributions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Indigenous religions to the development of the ideas and institutions of human rights. It also probes the major human rights issues that confront religious individuals and communities around the world today, and the main challenges that the world''s religions will pose to the human rights regime in the future.

The author takes you on her personal journey to fulfill a childhood dream. One that leads to a redirection of her life, and the beginning of helping introduce, preserve and promote a rare new breed of horse - The Gypsy Vanner Horse.

The main purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the construct of playfulness in school aged children by examining associations between playfulness and adaptive behaviors, humor, and temperament. A secondary aim of this study was to explore the predictive role of early pretend play ability on current playfulness. It was hypothesized that playfulness would positively relate to the capacity to problem solve, regulate affect, and effectively communicate emotions. In addition, playfulness was expected to positively relate to humor and adaptive temperament styles. Pretend play processes were expected to predict playfulness four years later. Forty three children in fourth through sixth grades were administered validated measures of coping, emotion regulation, emotion expression, sense of humor, and temperament. Playfulness was assessed using both parent and teacher report forms of the Child Behaviors Inventory of Playfulness (CBI; Rogers, et al., 1998). Pretend play was assessed with the Affect in Play Scale (APS; Russ, 2004) four and five years prior to data collection. As hypothesized parent reported playfulness significantly related to active coping, emotion regulation, a willingness to express emotions, and the affiliation category of temperament. Inconsistent with hypotheses, teachers'' perceptions of playfulness related to low use of coping strategies and were not associated with adaptive behaviors. The CBI teacher report form was not considered an adequate measure of playfulness for school aged children. It remains unclear how the construct of playfulness relates to early pretend play abilities. As expected, imagination and organization in early pretend play predicted current emotion regulation abilities. The best predictors of parent reported playfulness were affiliation and verbal intelligence. For teachers, the best predictors of playfulness were grade level and lack of using avoidant coping strategies. Parent and teacher ratings of playfulness were not related to one another. Teachers were not adequate reporters of playfulness among school aged children. Results support early pretend play as a predictor of later emotion regulation abilities and variables of humor. Recommendations are made to develop a self-report measure of playfulness for school aged children.