Jeff Collins

Music, Mayhem, and Mystery Talented, but impetuous, Lyn Moore is an artist at heart. He's a musician who finds himself kicked out of the group he founded with his twin brother, James, and working a grungy service job on the moon. Enter the Feral Sisters, an enchanting pair of shapeshifting sisters with an act for the stars. Turns out they need a guitar player. Or at least that's what Lyn thinks. How far will he go to get the gig? And will it be far enough to break up the brothers forever?----THE INTERGALACTIC BAND OF BRILLIANCE is the way-out Cruise Brothers origin short story filled with music, mayhem, and mystery from bestselling science fiction author Ron Collins and his brother, veteran guitarist Jeff Collins.

Magical mystics, musical mayhem, and murderous mischief through space and time James and Lyn Moore-the twin brothers that make up the Intergalactic Band of Brilliance-have hits on their playlist, but now, it's Frisky-their cantankerous cat-who's got the pulse of the people, and the headliner's bill as the three play the "Magical Mystery Cruise," a specially chartered magician's intergalactic trip to five across the known universe. The gig's so popular that even big vidsie star and renowned Intelligent Kitchenware Activist Dexter Galaxy is aboard. As far as the boys are concerned, though, the big attraction is that the Feral Sisters have signed to support Altair the All-Knowing (a big-name magician's act). Things go haywire when Frisky interferes with Altair's latest spell, and the Sisters are tossed into the brig under suspicion of murder. Can the boys solve the case and save the sister's reputations. or will they be too busy trying to play everyone's gigs?----THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR is a way-out Cruise Brothers novel filled with music, mayhem, and mystery from bestselling science fiction author Ron Collins and his brother, veteran guitarist Jeff Collins.

Take a madcap cruise through interstellar space James and Lyn Moore-the talented but befuddled musicians that make up the Intergalactic Band of Brilliance-play their most important show yet, a headline gig on an interstellar cruise line. Frisky, their newly adopted cat, just wants to have feline fun. When the cruise line hosts the "Intergalactic Veterinarian of the Year" tour, a rock star veterinarian demands Frisky volunteer for his groundbreaking reveal of Smart Dust. Soon the cat and his boys become entangled in a galaxy-spanning net of intrigue, secret agents, and organized crime. Can the Cruise Brothers avoid the brig long enough to make a name for themselves? Can Frisky save the universe? Who will operate the food dispenser if he can't?----THE INTERGALACTIC VETERINARIAN OF THE YEAR is a way-out Cruise Brothers novel filled with music, mayhem, and mystery from bestselling science fiction author Ron Collins and his brother, veteran guitarist Jeff Collins.

Stowaways, happy family fun, and intergalactic crime rings Desperate for a gig, James and Lyn Moore, the talented but befuddled twin brothers that make up the Intergalactic Band of Brilliance, audition for a slot on the "Happiest Place in Space" cruise ship. Good news They get a gig. Bad news Not the one they expected. Lyn pulls his usual shenanigans, though, and before you know it the boys are in the middle of cruise line hijinks, double-identity double-dealing, and madcap machinations of a mysterious dark-cloaked man. The game's afoot, and the boys are on the case. Can the Cruise Brothers avoid being tossed into the brig, solve a possible crime, and find a way to keep the wheels on their so-called career? Then, of course, there's the cat. Did we mention the cat?----THE HAPPIEST PLACE IN SPACE is a way-out Cruise Brothers novel filled with music, mayhem, and mystery from bestselling science fiction author Ron Collins and his brother, veteran guitarist Jeff Collins.

Get your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some of the world’s best-known and loved rock albums and records, including Oasis’s What’s the Story (Morning Glory), a number of Queen songs including Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and Motörhead’s first recordings. This new edition will be fully revised and updated with new chapters on the artists who have recorded at Rockfield since 2007, including new interviews with bands such as Thunder, The Dirty Youth, Gun and YES; the Studios’ recent appearances in film and television such as the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film and the Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm documentary; and a section on Rockfield’s neighbouring rehearsal studio, Monnow Valley, which later became a recording studio in its own right and has hosted bands such as Black Sabbath. A must-read for anyone interested in rock music and music history.

In 1888, Mark Twain reflected on the writer's special feel for words to his correspondent, George Bainton, noting that "the difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter." We recognize differences between a politician who is "willful" and one who is "willing" even though the difference does not cross word-stems or parts of speech. We recognize that being "held up" evokes different experiences depending upon whether its direct object is a meeting, a bank, or an example. Although we can notice hundreds of examples in the language where small differences in wording produce large reader effects, the authors of The Power of Words argue that these examples are random glimpses of a hidden systematic knowledge that governs how we, as writers or speakers, learn to shape experience for other human beings. Over the past several years, David Kaufer and his colleagues have developed a software program for analyzing writing called DocuScope. This book illustrates the concepts and rhetorical theory behind the software analysis, examining patterns in writing and showing writers how their writing works in different categories to accomplish varying objectives. Reflecting the range and variety of audience experience that contiguous words of surface English can prime, the authors present a theory of language as an instrument of rhetorically priming audiences and a catalog of English strings to implement the theory. The project creates a comprehensive map of the speaker and writer's implicit knowledge about predisposing audience experience at the point of utterance. The book begins with an explanation of why studying language from the standpoint of priming--not just meaning--is vital to non-question begging theories of close reading and to language education in general. The remaining chapters in Part I detail the steps taken to prepare a catalog study of English strings for their properties as priming instruments. Part II describes in detail the catalog of priming categories, including enough examples to help readers see how individual words and strings of English fit into the catalog. The final part describes how the authors have applied the catalog of English strings as priming tools to conduct textual research.

Brilliant illustrated guide to the best-known and most controversial continental philosopher of the latter 20th century. Jacques Derrida is the most famous philosopher of the late 20th century. Yet Derrida has undermined the rules of philosophy, rejected its methods, broken its procedures and contaminated it with literary styles of writing. Derrida's philosophy is a puzzling array of oblique, deviant and yet rigorous tactics for destabilizing texts, meanings and identities. 'Deconstruction', as these strategies have been called, is reviled and celebrated in equal measure. Introducing Derrida introduces and explains his work, taking us on an intellectual adventure that disturbs some of our most comfortable habits of thought.

Martin Heidegger - philosophy's 'hidden king', or leading exponent of a dangerously misguided secular mysticism. Heidegger has been acclaimed as the most powerfully original philosopher of the twentieth century. Profoundly influential on deconstruction, existentialism and phenomenology, he stands behind all major strands of post-structuralist and postmodern thought. Heidegger announced the end of philosophy and of humanism, and was a committed Nazi and vocal supporter of Hitler's National Socialism. Was Heidegger offering a deeply conservative mythology or a crucial deconstruction of philosophy as we have known it? "Introducing Heidegger" provides an accessible introduction to his notoriously abstruse thinking, mapping out its historical contexts and exploring its resonances in ecology, theology, art, architecture, literature and other fields. The book opens up an encounter with a kind of thinking whose outlines might still not yet be clear, and whose forms might still surprise us.

Get your backstage pass to the world-famous Rockfield Recording Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Featuring frank and funny interviews with the artists who recorded there and studio staff, Rock Legends at Rockfield reveals the fascinating stories behind some of the world’s best-known and loved rock albums and records, including Oasis’s What’s the Story (Morning Glory), a number of Queen songs including Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, and Motörhead’s first recordings. This new edition will be fully revised and updated with new chapters on the artists who have recorded at Rockfield since 2007, including new interviews with bands such as Thunder, The Dirty Youth, Gun and YES; the Studios’ recent appearances in film and television such as the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film and the Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm documentary; and a section on Rockfield’s neighbouring rehearsal studio, Monnow Valley, which later became a recording studio in its own right and has hosted bands such as Black Sabbath. A must-read for anyone interested in rock music and music history.

In 1888, Mark Twain reflected on the writer's special feel for words to his correspondent, George Bainton, noting that "the difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter." We recognize differences between a politician who is "willful" and one who is "willing" even though the difference does not cross word-stems or parts of speech. We recognize that being "held up" evokes different experiences depending upon whether its direct object is a meeting, a bank, or an example. Although we can notice hundreds of examples in the language where small differences in wording produce large reader effects, the authors of The Power of Words argue that these examples are random glimpses of a hidden systematic knowledge that governs how we, as writers or speakers, learn to shape experience for other human beings. Over the past several years, David Kaufer and his colleagues have developed a software program for analyzing writing called DocuScope. This book illustrates the concepts and rhetorical theory behind the software analysis, examining patterns in writing and showing writers how their writing works in different categories to accomplish varying objectives. Reflecting the range and variety of audience experience that contiguous words of surface English can prime, the authors present a theory of language as an instrument of rhetorically priming audiences and a catalog of English strings to implement the theory. The project creates a comprehensive map of the speaker and writer's implicit knowledge about predisposing audience experience at the point of utterance. The book begins with an explanation of why studying language from the standpoint of priming--not just meaning--is vital to non-question begging theories of close reading and to language education in general. The remaining chapters in Part I detail the steps taken to prepare a catalog study of English strings for their properties as priming instruments. Part II describes in detail the catalog of priming categories, including enough examples to help readers see how individual words and strings of English fit into the catalog. The final part describes how the authors have applied the catalog of English strings as priming tools to conduct textual research.