Clarity Nice attends a personal development course at Herbaline, a company reputed for its aggressive sales methods and a secretive hierarchical structure. Befriending Herbaline emotician Coley Manglove, Clarity gets hired to work on the company's secret project, an emotion scale used to elicit sales and label Herbaline employees conforming or rebellious, unrightfully deciding promotion prospects.Teleoperator Clarity Nice visits the headquarters of Herbaline in Orange County, a herbal, diet and weight prevention company, known for its aggressive marketing methods. Seeing on a corporate chart that the president of the company, Lyle Matchett, has never been seen and is not shown anywhere in the annual report of the company, she decides to explore the company's premises afterhours, and stumbles upon an area inside the company building labeled emotician office. Emotician Coley Manglove finds Clarity in her office and reveals to her the secretive project that she has been told to carry out by the head of human studies at Herbaline: A scale of emotion that can be used to describe the personality of employees and to elicit sales from a customer, even those reticent to buy Herbaline products.Clarity and her friend Lanai sign an agreement to work for Herbaline, with their duties undefined and their compensation contingent on dubious aspects of their performance. They board a plane for Cayman where the company has a sales training center, led by Herbaline motivational guru Coleman Cartmel. After looking at the poor sales performance of Clarity and Lanai, Manglove decides to send both of them to the Herbaline language facility in Palm Springs, where a company employee, Ambi Mivel, is being held against her will, because she shows signs of consistent company language refusal of the company's official sales language, 'Herbaspeak'.At the facility, Clarity gets into the 'antisale' area, the room where Mivel is being held against her will. Clarity realizes that Cartmel is manipulating the emotions of Herbaline employees, using an emotion scale that measures human emotions, assigning a subjective 'emotional tendency' number to each employee based on personality, which is used to promote or criticise the worker. The emotion scale links to a brain wave technology device known as the inducer, to prevent or cut off from employee thinking, any emotion that has to do with negative emotions, like impatience, hostility, animosity or open, overt disagreement with company sales policy. Signing off on a relational agreement with Cartmel, Clarity leaves the facility with the recluse, going to a relational board house in Nevada, 'Honey Ranch', belonging to Herbaline, in order to denounce the illegal policies of Herbaline, leave the place, and find their human blueprint, measured by the emotion scale, and shared with a shady group pulling the strings of Herbaline, known as the Privilege club.

A hard-drinking former hitwoman agrees to help catch a killer, even though the murderer might just be her. Candace Starr likes to think of herself as retired since she got out of prison. That's until society maven Kristina Corrigan tries to hire her to permanently remove her daughter's barnacle of a boyfriend, Tyler Brent, from their lives. The only catch? Tyler is seventeen years old. Even Candace usually draws the line at taking out a target who doesn't shave yet. But when Tyler turns up dead at a river gorge with a broken neck, people start asking questions. Detective Chien-Shiung Malone, the ambitious cop assigned to the case, has more than a few of her own. Candace is not about to provide any answers though — until Malone makes her a proposition she cannot refuse. Candace signs on as Malone's unofficial partner to find Tyler's murderer, despite the possibility she my have killed the boy herself. With scandalous wit and cocky satire, the first novel in...

A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong.A sampler of short stories taking place before and connected to SCALE-BRIGHT in chronological order. Chinese mythology retold from the time of humanity's creation to contemporary Hong Kong. "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (first published in BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, 2013. Ed. Scott H. Andrews). The story of Xihe, the mother of suns, when she was young and the world was new: how she met her husband, lost herself, and found it again. "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (first published in GIGANOTOSAURUS, 2012. Ed. Ann Leckie). Houyi rose in heaven, bow and arrow in hand: the hunt was her joy, the slaying of demons her delight. But most delightful was a serving girl called Chang'e. "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon" (first published in EXPANDED HORIZONS, 2012. Ed. Dash). Chang'e has been a prisoner on the moon while the world turns and cities rise. For centuries Houyi has looked for a way to free her wife, and now she has found it in a distant grand-niece: a young mortal woman named Julienne.

Long Beach homicide detective Danny Beckett returns from a year-long medical leave badly scarred and in constant pain, yet determined to prove he still has what it takes to do the job. He gets his chance when a call comes in that shocks even the toughest guys in the squad room: A California congressman’s daughter-in-law and grandchildren have been brutally murdered in their upscale home. At first glance, it looks like a robbery gone wrong, but Danny’s not so sure. Something doesn’t quite add up. With state and local law enforcement in an uproar and the media circling like vultures, the pressure’s on for Danny and his partner, Jennifer Tanaka, to solve this one. Too much is at stake…and not just politically. Even if they manage to crack the case, there’s no guarantee the stress won’t derail Danny’s recovery. Because while the doctors can treat his physical pain, no one can erase the agony of the past that haunts every step he takes—and threatens to destroy his career once and for all.About the AuthorAs a child, Tyler Dilts dreamed of following in the footsteps of his policeman father. Though his career goals changed over time, he never lost interest in the daily work of homicide detectives. Today he teaches at California State University in Long Beach, and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Best American Mystery Stories, and numerous other publications. He is the author of A King of Infinite Space, the first in the Danny Beckett series.

Theater major Eric isn't looking for love. Will's dysfunctional family discouraged his love of music, but when a housing shortage forces them to become roommates, Eric supports him. They become best friends and more, but Will is hiding big secrets.

Lynne is a young woman who once dreamed of being an artist, but whose promotion to supervisor at an insurance call centre in Glasgow is sucking the soul out of her.When Lynne hands a fiver to a homeless man on the street in town one day, she is shocked to recognise Angus - her former art teacher on whom she once had a crush. What on earth could have reduced him to life on the street? In a gesture of uncharacteristic rashness, she invites him home.So begins The Glasgow Coma Scale. Set against the gentrification of Scotland's second city, this is a taut, ticklish, tender and truly unexpected story of art, of the city, of feelings, and about the redemptive power of an unconventional kind of love.