Local hand lettering artist Jamie Lang is an unlikely amateur sleuth. When a friend, desperate to save an inheritance, asks for her help, she must put her hand lettering skills and powers of deduction to work in the charming small town of Cedar Valley, WA. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with something new, or if you're a fan of hand lettering, pen and ink art, graphic design, watercoloring, typography, calligraphy, and creative inspiration, this series is for you! Indulge your inner artist and sleuth. Welcome to Cedar Valley, a thriving tourist town and popular wedding venue. Once you slip into town, you'll want to stay and grab a cup of coffee with Jamie while she solves crimes. Please Note—This is a short story, not a full-length novel.
It's time for hand letterer Jamie Lang to pay up on her bet from last fall to handsome, wealthy Kit Perry and finally go out to dinner with him. As Kit takes her to the pre-opening of a new high-end Nordic restaurant in downtown Seattle, snow begins falling. Never a good thing in Seattle. The evening begins on a lovely note. The setting is romantic. The food is delicious. Everything is perfect - until a fellow dinner guest apparently chokes to death a few tables away. And it looks like murder. Now Jamie, Kit, and the rest of the diners and staff are snowed in with a dead body. The police are delayed. Everybody has a motive. It's up to Jamie and her hand lettering, sleuthing, and murder-solving skills to stop the killer from striking again…
This book examines the extraordinary changes that technology brings and how these affect all of us and our families—at home, at school, and at our work places—with profound consequences for society. Twenty-first-century technology opens up fabulous opportunities, but also changes how we relate to each other and warps our sense of time, reality, duty, and privacy. Technologies and time-saving devices make everything happen faster, with the result that we feel busier than ever before. "Free time" seems in danger of extinction. So Much, So Fast, So Little Time: Coming to Terms with Rapid Change and Its Consequences provides fascinating insights about how our changing world is changing our families and our personal relationships; how we travel, behave as consumers, and communicate; and how we entertain ourselves and deal with our anxieties. Written in a popular, accessible style, this book describes seven areas of significant societal change, providing concrete examples and engaging stories to illustrate how drastically our right-now mindset has shifted our perception and experience of the world. In the last chapter, the author makes some practical suggestions on how to take thoughtful action to respond to the onslaught of inevitable change.
At any time, public schools labor under great economic, political, and social pressures that make it difficult to create large-scale, 'whole school' change. But current top-down mandates require that schools close achievement gaps while teaching more problem solving, inquiry, and research skills, with fewer resources. Failure to meet test-based standards can produce consequences such as school closure or staff replacement. With this real-world challenge to education foremost, this book presents pertinent research and instructive case studies of two 'good' high schools. It advocates a proven strategy of small-scale, incremental change, small wins, which increases the likelihood that schools will improve despite a climate of 'do more with less.' Chapters describe the current societal context; the history of major change projects since the 1970s; the organizational and social characteristics of schools and classrooms; human factors that encourage and support improvement; the effects of technology; forces affecting teachers and principals; commonplace components of and vehicles for change; and practical 'levers and footings' for change that can have a high positive payoff.
What is art? The arts establishment has a simple answer: anything is art if a reputed artist or expert says it is. Though many people are skeptical about the alleged new art forms that have proliferated since the early twentieth century, today's critics claim that all such work, however incomprehensible, is art. A groundbreaking alternative to this view is provided by philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand (1901–1982). Best known as the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand also created an original and illuminating theory of art, which confirms the widespread view that much of today's purported art is not really art at all. In What Art Is, Torres and Kamhi present a lucid introduction to Rand's esthetic theory, contrasting her ideas with those of other thinkers. They conclude that, in its basic principles, her account is compelling, and is corroborated by evidence from anthropology, neurology, cognitive science, and psychology. The authors apply Rand's theory to a debunking of the work of prominent modernists and postmodernists—from Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, and Samuel Beckett to John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and other highly regarded postmodernist figures. Finally, they explore the implications of Rand's ideas for the issues of government and corporate support of the arts, art law, and art education. "This is one of the most interesting, provocative, and well-written books on aesthetics that I know. While fully accessible to the general reader, What Art Is should be of great interest to specialists as well. Ayn Rand's largely unknown writings on art—especially as interpreted, released from dogma, and smoothed out by Torres and Kamhi—are remarkably refined. Moreover, her ideas are positively therapeutic after a century of artistic floundering and aesthetic quibbling. Anyone interested in aesthetics, in the purpose of art, or in the troubling issues posed by modernism and post modernism should read this book." —Randall R. Dipert Author of Artifacts, Art Works, and Agency "Torres and Kamhi effectively situate Rand's long-neglected esthetic theory in the wider history of ideas. They not only illuminate her significant contribution to an understanding of the nature of art; they also apply her ideas to a trenchant critique of the twentieth century's 'advanced art.' Their exposure of the invalidity of abstract art is itself worth the price of admission." —Chris Matthew Sciabarra Author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical "Rand's aesthetic theory merits careful study and thoughtful criticism, which Torres and Kamhi provide. Their scholarship is sound, their presentation is clear, and their judgment is refreshingly free from the biases that Rand's supporters and detractors alike tend to bring to considerations of her work." —Stephen Cox University of California, San Diego
Who knew handwriting could be so much fun? Noted author Rachelle Doorley, the creative force behind Tinkerlab, presents 22 fun step-by-step projects that guide kids in cursive creativity using an array of different materials—piper cleaners, yarn, aluminum foil, polymer clay, icing, and more. As many educators will attest, writing in cursive provides cognitive benefits in spelling, memory, reading comprehension, language skills, and overall academic confidence. Practicing cursive carries similar benefits when drawing; once you learn the basic shapes, you can play with it by creating your own personal style. Creative Adventures in Cursive shows you how to use cursive as a wonderful means of self-expression with these and more photo-illustrated projects: Create your own bullet journal Embroider initials on a cloth napkin Paint inspiring messages on rocks Write your name in 3-D with yarn and pipe cleaners Craft a foil doorplate with repousse (pushed up) letters Make a pop-up greeting card Cursive is fun, and the adventure begins here.
