Showing results by author "A. Carpenter" in All Categories

Three decades of Illinois basketball viewed from the cheap seats at State Farm Center . . .The 200 Level: An Illinois Fighting Illini Basketball Fan’s Journey offers an in-depth look at the program’s history from the 1990s to present. Mike Carpenter reflects on his personal experience as a fan through all the eras, from Henson to Kruger, Self to Weber, Groce to Underwood, and everything in between. A lifelong townie, radio and podcast personality, and diehard fan, Carpenter charts the highs and lows of Illini basketball over the last 30+ years.

My goddess is reborn. The mouthy peacock shifter I find is not the woman I knew. She's somehow more. More human. More lovely. More sinful. And I want her more than I ever have before.

Lazarus was warned that Quinn's power might be too great, even for him, but nothing prepared him for the truth of it until she held a dagger over him, and he was powerless to stop it. Now at odds with himself, the future king of Norcasta must find a way to regain control of his house and secure an alliance with the Pirate Queen...before fate tips its hand once more, and his carefully laid plans are led astray.

Quinn Darkova made a vow from the very beginning. And now she's home. For revenge. Except N'skara isn't the same as it was ten years ago, and the person she came for is nowhere to be found. After being taken ashore by armed guards of the same Council they came to sway, Quinn knows it's up to her to uncover the truth about what really happened, while seeking the retribution owed to her. Lazarus knew she was hiding something. He knew she had unfinished business in N'skara. But never could he have known this. He hadn't predicted how set in their ways the people were.

I refuse to spend the rest of my life with my childhood bully for a mate. I may be a cursed shifter, incapable of shifting—but I wasn't desperate. Not till the Alpha Supreme cast me out of the House of Fire and Fluorite for rejecting his son. Now I'm packless. Homeless. No longer under the protection of a House. Until the dark vampire king of Blood and Beryl turns his sights on me. In return for protection from my former House, I have to become his fake mate. I'll be a queen and a fraud. It's a treacherous lie to live—and I find myself forgetting what's real and what's not.

My husband killed me. Instead of spending my immortal afterlife pissed off and angry, I moved on. I became someone. Sure, that someone was a demon with the highest track record of reform, a.k.a. punishment, in Hell. But who’s bragging? Everything was going fine...until the Risk Witches saw a terrible vision. Three men. Each scarred in their own way, born with powers that haven’t been seen in eons. Upper management sent the best to correct their path. Angels. Poltergeists. Nothing worked. These men were too stubborn. Too bad. Too untamed...so they sent me.

My husband, James, and I love living on Smith Street, with its neat houses and friendly family barbecues. Our daughter, Scarlett, can play outside with the other local kids–it’s somewhere nothing bad could ever happen. Or so I thought....

When all other processes, controls, and technologies fail, humans are your last line of defense. But, how can you prepare them? Frustrated with ineffective training paradigms, most security leaders know that there must be a better way. A way that engages users, shapes behaviors, and fosters an organizational culture that encourages and reinforces security-related values. The good news is that there is hope. That's what Transformational Security Awareness is all about.

Eight-year-old Grace is last seen in a sweetshop. Her mother, Emma, is living a nightmare. But as her loved ones rally around her, cracks begin to emerge. What are the emails sent between her husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is there more to the disappearance of her daughter than meets the eye?

In a world rife with conflict and tension, how does a great power prosecute an irregular war at a great distance within the context of a regional struggle, all within a global competitive environment? The question, so pertinent today, was confronted by the British nearly 250 years ago during the American War for Independence. And the answer, as this book makes plain, is: not the way the British, under Lieutenant General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, went about it in the American South. Southern Gambit presents a closely observed, comprehensive account of this failed strategy.

As with everything else in my life, the descent into Hell was not so simple. When I jumped into the portal, I expected to find the Sins on the other side. I expected to find my people - demons - waiting and ready. What I found were flames and fire and ash. The apocalypse hadn't waited for me. It had already begun. Hell's barriers were collapsing in on themselves - making my task of finding the Sins infinitely harder. As the Horsemen and I set out on our journey to find them, we discover that not all is what it seems.

She died protecting the man she loved. She died by his hands. And on that blood-soaked grave, vengeance grew. Quinn Darkova leads a listless existence in the dark realm. As honored guest and beloved by Mazzulah, she wants for nothing. But when Risk enters the realm to save her, the dark god can't resist a good bargain.

My dreams of retirement crashed and burned when the rogue shifter bit me. Not only have I changed into something neither world has ever seen before, but my mission just became even more impossible. To find the answers about what I am, I enlist the help of an infamous ex-poltergeist, a shifter freak, and my least favorite pigeon. What a team we make. Oh, and did I forget to mention that my mate’s bloodthirsty daughter is awake and hunting my ass now? Because that’s a thing, too. Why? I have no idea, but we have every intention of finding out.

9-year-old Nichole and her parents are evicted from their home because both of her parents are addicted to heroin. With nowhere left to turn, they are now homeless. In order to survive they must dig through dumpsters, beg, and steal. While living on the streets, Nichole struggles to understand why people treat them differently.

If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right. Maybe a few weeks at a spa resort in the Caribbean islands is just what she needs to hit the reset button…

Classical guitarist Satoshi Makino has toured the world and is at the height of his career when he first lays eyes on journalist Yoko Komine. Their bond forms instantly. Upon their first meeting, after Makino’s concert in Tokyo, they begin a conversation that will go on for years, with long spells of silence broken by powerful moments of connection. She’s drawn by Makino’s tender music and his sensitivity, and he is intrigued by Yoko’s refinement and intellect. But neither knows enough about love to see it blooming nor has the confidence to make the first move.

The topic of security culture is mysterious and confusing to most leaders. But it doesn't have to be. In The Security Culture Playbook, Perry Carpenter and Kai Roer deliver experience-driven, actionable insights into how to transform your organization's security culture and reduce human risk at every level. This book exposes the gaps in how organizations have traditionally approached human risk, and it provides security and business executives with the necessary information and tools needed to understand, measure, and improve facets of security culture across the organization.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Teresa Carpenter comes the captivating true-crime story of a Mafia moll - “the female counterpart of the pseudonymous Henry Hill, the star of Wiseguy.... An insider’s view of mob life that is by turns comic and chilling” (Los Angeles Times).

Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways.

Explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape of truth and lies in our digital world.The FAIK Files is a 10 part miniseries based on Perry Carpenter's new book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions. Each episode kicks off with a gripping dramatization that plunges you into scenarios straight out of tomorrow's headlines. Then, host Mason Amadeus and Perry Carpenter sit down for an in-depth exploration of the chapter's key themes. From deepfakes and disinformation to the art of deception and the tools to fight ...