Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

Tragedy strikes Harry's family leaving him with nothing but sorrow, grief, and a mysterious box whose contents leave him shaken to the core. Everything he thought he knew about his father teetered on the edge of lies. Despite this, he decides to carry out his late father's final wishes: to meet up with some of his old friends whose fathers had been best friends with his own—for a traditional camping trip their fathers had taken annually in years passed.

The last Blockbuster video store in the United States is hanging on by a thread. And after a crazy night attempting to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the record-setting and internet-famous late fee, three employees, idealistic Eva, cinephile Jerry, and their tyrannical manager Randy, discover that this machine may actually have the power to change the endings of popular films, which, depending on the historical basis of the film, might also be changing the real world around them. Or could this just be an elaborate, increasingly deadly prank?

College athlete Lily Brennon has always been the piece that doesn't quite fit in the puzzle, especially in her blended family, and no amount of rule-following perfection seems to bring her any closer to the love and acceptance she desperately seeks. If not for Jackson Carter, her childhood best friend and the only boy she's ever loved, she's sure she would have run away years ago.

Lee, an urban shaman, gets tasked with tracking down a vinyl copy of the Dark Light EP by the ’80s hard rock band, Bad Obsession. The extremely rare record is said to be cursed. Nearly every copy of the album burned in a fire at Tower Records in Los Angeles the day of its release. With only one remaining member of the band alive and living in a home for those battling Alzheimer’s, Lee must return to Maine, a place where he’s battled evil forces before, and see if he can retrieve the album.

Professor Harold Berwyn has just been brutally murdered, but graduate creative writing student Skip Gershwin is too self-absorbed to care. His chief preoccupations are finding a girlfriend and becoming a famous American poet. When he meets Gudrun Frege, a brilliant Austrian au pair, it appears that his girlfriend problems are over. But he is soon lured into a torrid love affair by ultra-seductive art student Lana Fish. As Skip's romantic entanglements spiral out of control, the criminal investigation into Berwyn's murder turns white-hot.

When Japanese nature show host Daisuke Matsumori finds himself on an alien world, he hopes to rekindle his passion for his work. Traveling through a newly discovered wormhole in the Papuan highlands, he joins biologist Anne Houlihan on Junction, a patchwork planet of competing alien ecosystems.

Panic consumes the countryside as the body count rises. Whispers of an unnatural beast spread through the kingdom. When the Queen calls for her heroes, those who answer will have to make do. The best tracker in the known world. A son who follows in his father's footsteps. An investigator with nothing to lose. A Captain with everything to prove. But even once the mystery of the beast is unraveled a far more sinister plot is revealed.

Rockstar Sam Shoop has retreated to his secluded cabin in Crane Cove for some privacy. Unfortunately for him, the residents haven't gotten the memo and want to set him up with every available person they know. A fake girlfriend sounds like the answer to all of his problems, until he drops the name of a very real person-Lacey Finch, local dance teacher.

Jordy Taylor is a disaster. Over the hill by professional football standards, the veteran quarterback isn't ready to hang up his pads just yet. With contract talks stalled, Jordy retreats to quaint Crane Cove to hide from his problems. With his best friend's wedding a few weeks away, the decommissioned lighthouse is the perfect place to hide away . . . until the most off limits woman he knows almost stabs him in the shower.

When Ryan's dying father gives him a sealed shoebox with instructions to open once he's passed, Ryan can only speculate on what's inside. The last thing he expects is for his father to take his own life, or for the shoebox to contain ten thousand dollars cash. But the money isn't for Ryan; it's for someone named Jamie Norton. When Ryan learns Jamie is an old friend of the family with a shady past, he looks to his mother for answers.

Although scholars have long recognized that local American parties play an important role in elections, surprisingly little is known about the individuals who lead these typically small, volunteer-based organizations. As Small Power shows, local party leaders influence the electoral process in myriad ways. Drawing from a survey of over 850 Democratic and Republican local party chairs, a nationally representative sample of voters, and dozens of in-depth interviews, the authors describe how parties are organized, who party chairs are, and how they serve the party.

Everyone’s heard stories about ghost ships. But they’re just stories, right? On the hunt for a missing friend, Marcus and Solomon find a massive black ship in the unexplored regions. Now, they have to find a way to save their trapped friend, and defeat a galaxy-threatening danger. It won’t be easy, but that won’t stop Marcus. He never leaves a friend behind, and this time won’t be any different.

By-the-book Detective Asante Royo can only sweep up Fall River’s filth for so long without getting dirty. When he’s called to an apparent suicide at an apartment complex notorious for its prostitution racket and drug trade, he doesn’t shed a tear for the life wasted. Yet, something about the scene haunts his thoughts, and when his investigation gets swept under the rug, he has a hard time living with its stain.

Tech Trends 24/7 and the Impact of COVID-19 is a game-changing book. During this decade, we will experience the greatest change in technology innovation in history driven by massive technology disruption that has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These technology forces will have a riveting effect on our everyday personal and business lives. Tech Trends 24/7 and the Impact of COVID-19 provides a captivating, fast-paced tour on how technology innovation is enhancing our world covering important technologies.

No one is more surprised than Asher, one of the oldest vampires on Earth, that he's attracted to vamp hunter Jo Radcliffe. She's smart, a talented slayer, and she's gorgeous. Something about her pulls at him, like no one ever has before. For a man whose name strikes fear in everyone - this is something new and intriguing. And quite possibly deadly, if she discovers his secret.

It’s Halloween night in 1987. The era of fast cars, big hair, and glam metal is in full swing. A group of young friends push their appetite for destruction to the limit as they race along dark and dangerous back roads in search of a rumored epic spook night beer bash out in the boonies. But things take a tragic turn when they encounter a smirking villain in a sinister black car. They become trapped in haunted nightmare country with no obvious way out. Before long, it’s time to strap in tight, grab another cold one, and race with the devil. First to the finish line might even get to live.

Seven writers have fled to Mirror House, a picturesque mansion by the sea. Each member of the group is running from a terrible premonition of their own death on July 24th. What they don’t know is they were, in fact, prophesizing the end of the world, for on that very day, billions will die from a relentless heatwave triggered by global warming.

You steal from your heroes and you plan all you want, and yet you are still standing in the same place. Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t will outline exactly why you are more than capable and yet, fail to see your goals through to the end. Toxic friendships, negotiable goals, procrastination, and lack of deadlines - Why We Don’t Achieve Sh*t addresses why you aren’t getting what you deserve and how to opt out of this loop. That is, unless you’re seriously not sick and tired of this sh*t yet. Everyone else is.

Sebastian “Seb” McAlister has run out of luck in Vegas. Cornered by a trigger-happy gang and shot through the stomach, he makes a desperate escape in his supercharged Hellcat. Fate guides Seb safely out of Sin City and into the desert, but as his wheels fade into the horizon, he fades into darkness. He awakes among a tiny community in the middle of nowhere. A mountain range circles the hodgepodge of shacks like prison walls looming high. And the warden that resides in those mountains is big, ugly, and deadly - a creature straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare.

The time is now for you to make a change and take charge of your life. Your goals are not going to achieve themselves. You don’t want to wake up and find half your life has gone by without reaching your goals. Nobody wants to be the richest person in the graveyard. You want to achieve your goals while youth is flowing through your blood. You want an extraordinary life filled with abundance.