Charles Kelly

A tuna-can mishap sends Dundee Blinky rocketing into oblivion...or does it? Apparently dead to the world from this and other catastrophes, he returns to earth again and again. His near-death experiences transform him, in turn, into a basket case, a feline blowhard, and a cat on the run from himself. In the end, though, he finds peace, learning a life lesson from what lies beyond.

As a navigator/bomb aimer in a Hampden bomber, Jack was shot down during a daring low level raid on the "Admiral Sheer" in 1940. This is the story of that raid and of his subsequent internment in Stalag Luft 3 POW camp made famous by the "Great Escape". It includes Jack's own story of his experiences and his time spent on the "Long March" to eventual release, five years later. All profit from the sale of this publication is being donated directly to the 'Help for Heros' military charity.

It's 1917 in New York City, and lawyer Grace Humiston has made her reputation as a sleuth by saving a falsely-convicted man from death row. Now she is hired to probe the disappearance of high school student Ruth Cruger. The search will take her and Transylvanian private investigator Julius Kron through the sewers of New York police corruption, into the darkness of the international prostitution trade, and onto the high seas. Grace Humiston and the Vanishing is a novel based on the greatest triumph of America's most remarkable forgotten woman detective.

Dan J. Marlowe (1914-1986), author of The Name of the Game is Death, was one of the finest paperback suspense novelists of the 1960s and 1970s, so good that Stephen King dedicated a book to him. But Marlowe's life was full of strange drama, some featuring his friendship with bank robber Al Nussbaum, a partner of the murderous sociopath Bobby "One-Eye" Wilcoxson. This biography interweaves the stories of Nussbaum, who became a mystery-story writer, Wilcoxson, who committed a savage murder after being released from prison, and Marlowe, who, stricken with amnesia, was haunted by the ghosts of his past, some of whom roamed the world of kinky sex. Book contains 16 photos. "Fantastic... This biography is almost as wild, compelling, dark and surprising as one of Marlowe's books... Highly recommended "-Lee Goldberg, author and TV writer/producer who has scripted Diagnosis: Murder, Monk, Hunter and Spenser: For Hire. "A brilliant biography of the great noir and hardboiled paperbacker Dan J. Marlowe, written with novelistic flair by Charles Kelly."--James Reasoner, celebrated western/mystery writer and author of Texas Wind. Reasoner called Gunshots in Another Room one of his ten favorite books of 2012. "I still remember buying The Name of the Game is Death on a metal spin rack when I was in college. No novel except They Shoot Horses, Don't They? had ever shocked me to the same degree. Marlowe had created a masterpiece. So has Charles Kelly."--Ed Gorman, legendary mystery writer and editor of The Big Book of Noir. "Kelly relates (the details of Marlowe's life) with a sharp and sympathetic eye and a hardboiled style. Informative and well-written, Gunshots in Another Room makes for quite a story."--Woody Haut, author of Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War, Neon Noir, and Heartbreak and Vine: The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood. "For anyone interested in the history of crime fiction, or the evolution and devolution of the paperback original industry, Gunshots in Another Room is an indispensable volume."-Cullen Gallagher, in the Los Angeles Review of Books. "(The book) demonstrates impeccable (and imaginative) research, perhaps not surprisingly since Kelly is an award-winning journalist."-Marvin Lachman, author of A Reader's Guide to the American Novel of Detection. "Kelly's delight in his subject is so palpable that we feel his excitement as if we're handling the material ourselves... His biography unfolds like the best stories; truth that reads as fiction, containing narrative drive, setups and plenty of payoffs along the way, satisfying and literate."-Jessica Argyle, author of Arrest Me (before I write again), on KeysNews.com.

A First Course in Game ProgrammingMost of today’s commercial games are written in C++ and are created using a game engine. Addressing both of these key elements, Programming 2D Games provides a complete, up-to-date introduction to game programming. All of the code in the book was carefully crafted using C++. As game programming techniques are introduced, students learn how to incorporate them into their own game engine and discover how to use the game engine to create a complete game. Enables Students to Create 2D GamesThe text covers sprites, animation, collision detection, sound, text display, game dashboards, special graphic effects, tiled games, and network programming. It systematically explains how to program DirectX applications and emphasizes proper software engineering techniques. Every topic is explained theoretically and with working code examples. The example programs for each chapter are available at www.programming2dgames.com.

The Wild Bunch, the confederation of western outlaws headed by Butch Cassidy, found sanctuary on the rugged Outlaw Trail. Stretching across Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, this trail offered desert and mountain hideouts to bandits and cowboys. The almost inaccessible Hole-in-the-Wall in Wyoming was a station on the Outlaw Trail well known to Butch Cassidy. To the south, in Utah, was the inhospitable Robbers' Roost, where Butch and his friends camped in 1897 after a robbery at Castle Gate. Charles Kelly recreates the mean and magnificent places frequented by the Wild Bunch and a slew of lesser outlaws. At the same time, he brings Butch Cassidy to life, traces his criminal apprenticeship and meeting with the Sundance Kid, and masterfully describes the exploits of the Wild Bunch.