Sometimes you make them. Sometimes they are made for you. Kissing Jordan Hawthorne the summer before 9th grade was my choice. What he did after that was his choice, and it ruined my life. All to make himself popular. It worked, and it set off a chain of events that would tear my family apart. Choices made by others. I left Richland and I thought it was for good. Unfortunately, yet another choice made for me. I’m back. Abandoned and forced to face my demons, my dad and the dicks that destroyed my world. This time things will be different. The bullies and b*tches that kicked me from the hill are about to take a fall of their own. What I wasn't expecting was how the two biggest bullies in my life were about to change it, again. The book was previously released as The Hills This is book one of The Richland Heights High series. It contains adult language and adult situations with characters that are 17+. It also contains some sensitive scenes. There are bullies, bad boys, heroines and heroes. This series is a mix of Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and Mean Girls, with a touch of Sons of Anarchy. It is set in the fictional town of Richland where The No Regrets Ink series is also located. You can see overlapping locations and characters throughout these books. Check out the No Regrets Ink series as well.

    

    From difficult employees to demanding bosses, you never know where your next problem is coming from. What you do know is that you'll be expected to solve that problem--and solve it quickly and effectively.The New Manager's Handbook explains the rules of this new game, and gives you invaluable tips and pointers for teaming with your employees while inspiring them to breakthrough performance and results. Let the two dozen rules and guidelines in this quick-hitting manual show you the best ways to:DelegateReview performanceThink strategicallyLead great meetingsGive and get results-oriented feedbackProvide directionSpeak with powerCriticize with honesty and tactAsk the right questionsMotivate average performersPrepare for changeAs a new manager in today's no-room-for-error workplace, you will be challenged and tested every day. Unlike previous positions, however, your success will judged by the performance of others. Give yourself every opportunity to succeed, and learn how to win the respect of both your employees and your supervisors, with the time-tested and field-proven techniques in The New Manager's Handbook.

    Planning is a vital element of software development -- but all too often, planning stops when coding begins. Beck and Fowler show how to make software projects far more manageable through a series of simple planning steps every project manager and team leader can easily perform >every day. The book follows XP projects from start to finish, presenting successful planning tactics managers and team leaders can use to adjust to changing environments more quickly and efficiently than ever before. This book is full of war stories and real-world analogies, and offers actionable techniques on virtually every page. It will be invaluable for every project manager called upon to deliver reliable, high-value code in "Internet time."

    Globally accepted and written by one of the most foremost authors in the field, this is a necessary read for all managers, human resource workers, and anyone needing to understand and improve their people skills.

    Which means one thing: the world is screwed.When Headmistress Alleva arrives on campus, my life at Headquarters is thrown upside down. After sightings of werewolves close to Guild boundaries have everyone up in arms, recruits are thrust into apprenticeships with prominent teams to help move along graduation rates and get them into the field as soon as possible.While this sounds good at first, I’m starting to figure out that being a protector isn’t what I always thought it would be. At all. Increased attacks, mixed with a creepy research lab that is anything but trustworthy, leaves me desperate for answers.And if that doesn’t sound difficult enough, the members of Team Six are making my life miserable and complicated. If the monsters don’t destroy me, Atlas, Wade, Declan, and Eli just might finish the job first.Kicking ass? Easy. Navigating my new role within The Academy and deciding who can be trusted? Damn near impossible.◆◆◆ Forging the Guild is book two in The Protector Guild series and it does end on a cliffhanger. Max's story is a slow-burn why choose / poly / reverse harem urban fantasy series. Get ready for action, spice, and intrigue. ◆◆◆

    In the international bestseller, The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker explained Toyota's remarkable success through a 4P model for excellence-Philosophy, People, Problem Solving, and Process. Liker, with coauthor David Meier, provided deeper insight into the practical application of the principles in The Toyota Way Fieldbook. Now, these authorities on Toyota reveal how you can develop talented people and achieve incredible results in your company.Toyota Talent walks you through the rigorous methodology used by this global powerhouse to grow high-performing individuals from within. Beginning with a review of Toyota's landmark approach to developing people, the authors illustrate the critical importance of creating a learning and teaching culture in your organization. They provide specific examples necessary to train employees in all areas-from the shop floor to engineering to staff members in service organizations-and show you how to support and encourage every individual to reach his or her top potential.Toyota Talent provides you with the inside knowledge you need toIdentify your development needs and create a training planUnderstand the various types of work and how to break complicated jobs into teachable skillsSet behavioral expectations by properly preparing your workplaceRecognize and develop potential trainers within your workforceEffectively educate nonmanufacturing employees and members of the staffDevelop internal Lean Manufacturing expertsGuiding you with expert tips and training aids, as well as real-world examples drawn from the authors' two decades of research and field work, Liker and Meier show you how to get the most out of people who live and breathe your company's philosophy-and who work together toward a common goal.

    The authors' experiential learning approach makes it easy to put these skills into practice in any health care setting. This book helps students develop the critical thinking ability needed to apply skills on the job—from organizing patient care to motivating staff to managing conflict.

    This claim is not only false, but its presence in the debate is an insult to science." With these words, the authors begin a detailed analysis of one of the most controversial topics of the day. The authors make a compelling case against claims of a scientific consensus. The purported proof of such a consensus consists of sloppy research by nonscientists, college students, and a highly partisan Australian blogger. Surveys of climate scientists, even those heavily biased in favor of climate alarmism, find extensive disagreement on the underlying science and doubts about its reliability. The authors point to four reasons why scientists disagree about global warming: a conflict among scientists in different and often competing disciplines; fundamental scientific uncertainties concerning how the global climate responds to the human presence; failure of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide objective guidance to the complex science; and bias among researchers. The authors offer a succinct summary of the real science of climate change based on their previously published comprehensive review of climate science in a volume titled Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science. They recommend that policymakers resist pressure from lobby groups to silence scientists who question the authority of the IPCC to claim to speak for climate science. More than 50,000 copies of the first edition were sold or given away in five months to elected officials, civic and business leaders, scientists, and other opinion leaders. The response from the science community and experts on climate change has been overwhelmingly positive. To meet demand for more copies, we have produced this second revised edition. Changes include a foreword by Marita Noon, at the time executive director of Energy Makes America Great, Inc. Some of the discussion in Chapter 1 has been revised and expanded thanks to feedback from readers of the first edition. Graphs in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are now full color, and new graphs have been added.

    But it's also the subject of seemingly endless hype. Yes, social tools allow us to do things entirely differently--but how do you really capitalize on that? In "11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era," the newest in Harvard Business Review's line of digital books (HBR Singles), social strategist and insightful blogger Nilofer Merchant argues that "social" is much more than "media." Smart companies are letting social become the backbone of their business models, increasing their speed and flexibility by pursuing openness and fluidity. These organizations don't operate like the powerful "800-pound gorillas" of yesteryear--but instead act more like a herd of 800 gazelles, moving together across a savannah, outrunning the competition. This ebook offers new rules for creating value, leading, and innovating in our rapidly changing world. These social era rules are both provocative and grounded in reality--they cover thorny challenges like forsaking hierarchy and control for collaboration; getting the most out of all talent; allowing your customers to become co-creators in your organization; inspiring employees through purpose in a world where money alone no longer wields that power; and soliciting community investment in an idea so that it can take hold and grow. The strategies of the Industrial Era--or even the Information Age--will not be enough for the Social Era. Read "11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era" to get ready to meet the challenges of this new age and thrive.

    But Fate has other plans for me.Heir to the Shadow Walker pack and my father's only child, I was born to lead ... or so I thought.I've spent my whole life preparing for a future I thought was certain. For a mate I believed was mine.The Mating Games are coming up in just a few days, and this time I'm old enough to join.To finally be fated to my forever mate, Felix.When the eligible sons and daughters of the other packs arrive to join the games, I soon find out that Fate has other plans in store for me.Plans that could ruin my future.Plans that threaten the fragile alliances between our packs.Plans that involve them ...Avery, Felix's younger twin.Liam, a hardened leader.And Ryuk, the psycho playboy.The Alpha sons.Alpha Forsaken is the first book in the Fated to the Alphas series. This is a dark upper YA/NA fated mate and rejected mate wolf shifter romance with multiple love interests. Think arena-style survival games meets Werewolf mating season.CW: This series has darker themes and includes some adult scenes (slow burn) and violence, please read at your own discretion.

    They can make or break you. I would know. I’m a wolf in sheep’s clothing, except I’m not trying to eat them—I’m one of them.I’m a hunter who stalks my own kind—vicious, bloodthirsty werewolves. Even though we have the same blood, I have never been like them, never been a slave to my baser impulses. The other hunters, however, would never believe that, so I have to hide myself or risk certain death.Yet when my secret comes to light, will I be killed? Or could the hunters set their prejudices aside and accept me for who I am? I guess I’ll find out, since I really wasn’t given a choice.***This book is not recommended to readers under the age due to the coarse language within.

    With controversial ideas and funny stories, it covers topics that readers will recognize from their course and some new but equally important areas to challenge their thinking. Part of a highly popular new series this book will make you better able to question and understand this burgeoning field.

    Authors, Cameron and Quinn focus on the methods and mechanisms that are available to help managers and change agents transform the most fundamental elements of their organizations. The authors also provide instruments to help individuals guide the change process at the most basic level--culture. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture offers a systematic strategy for internal or external change agents to facilitate foundational change that in turn makes it possible to support and supplement other kinds of change initiatives.

    The complete collection books 1-4 City of Demons - Book 1 If Buffy and Angel could have banged without him going all evil, then we would have had Wilomena Bastion. Dragons suck, like literally suck the life out of you if you let them. Trick is not to look them directly in the eyes, like ever. So, the day Wila finds herself staring into the most dangerous Draconi’s pretty, emerald peepers, she knows she’s royally fucked.No one said saving a bunch of kids from being served up as treats to the dragon liege was going to be easy. Options are limited—immediate execution or servitude, and Wila prefers to have her head remain firmly on her shoulders.Now, the self-professed dark avenger must work to bring down a resistance of demons hell-bent on making life difficult for the dragon liege. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, her new position comes with a partner, the dragon liege’s favoured demon enforcer; a creature of fire, fury and washboard abs who—let’s face it—is just gonna cramp her style.With the help of a ghostly receptionist, a talking dog and the thing that lives in the basement, Wila will be forced to take on a most dangerous task. It looks like some serious brooding is on the menu, because for the first time in forever, Wila isn’t sure she’s up to the job. A city filled with monsters needs a woman who can kick ass, and Wilomena Bastion is just the gal for the job. A kick-ass Urban Fantasy with a slow burn Whychoose Romance.  City of the Lost When life gives you lemons, punch it in the face.  Time is running out for Wila and Azren. With the Lost loose in the city and several mechanical monster’s hell bent on attacking civilians in the mix, it’s going to take several slices of lemon cake for the gang to get through the week. City of Everdark Fate can't hold all the cards, not if she doesn't have any fingers. Mission objective, to kick the dragon leige’s ass and take back what she’s stolen.Getting answers means recon and lies, coercion and revelations. But Wila will do whatever it takes to get her Kindred and her draconi prince back, even if it means venturing into a place of nightmares, a place of everdark and monsters with not a pot of tea in sight.The darkness awaits, and Wila better hope it doesn’t swallow her whole. City of War Triumph always comes at a price, but paying it is a bitch. With the Voice finally by her side Wila must take the final steps to claiming back what is rightfully hers. The Triumph Games are looming, and all the pieces are almost in place, but hurdles have a way of springing up at the last minute, and a trip right now could be fatal.War may be coming, whether Wila wants it, or not...