Showing results by narrator "Des Fitzgerald" in All Categories

Lainey Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband, Callum. Prone to hallucinations and erratic behavior, it’s only a matter of time before he puts Lainey’s life—and that of their daughter, Beatrix—in jeopardy. A divorce and full custody is out of the question. In Callum’s words: Over my dead body. Lainey’s sympathetic friend Adelaide has a wild solution. They’ll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lainey’s life for good. Nothing too over the top: strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the windowsills.

Lark Chadwick is back. The scrappy reporter for The Pine Bluff Standard is embroiled in another tale of intrigue. While doing battle with an unscrupulous real estate mogul—and against the advice of her friend and mentor Lionel Stone—Lark impulsively flirts with diverting her career into broadcast journalism. But, as Lark quickly learns, the line between being famous and notorious is a thin one.

In early 20th-century Belfast, working class Meg Preston struggles to accept her own sexuality and yearns for forbidden love. Battling the customs and hardships of their time, Meg pursues a relationship with her childhood friend Lillian Watson. But soon, tribulations of war, violence, and emigration threaten to tear everything apart.

In August 1944, the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place—106 Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces.

While estranged twins Oliver and Theo Wingfield are identical in appearance, they couldn't be more different. Theo, an extrovert verging on arrogant, was always a drifter, a nomad, operating on the fringes of the law. Oliver, intense, creative and introspective, was destined to become a winemaker. Each vintage, every bottle from Oliver's Mudgee-based label, Four Dogs Missing, sells out. And now, after fifteen years without contact, Theo unexpectedly turns up at his brother's vineyard, bearing an invitation that his twin knows nothing about.

Dublin, 1816. A young nursemaid conceals a pregnancy and then murders her newborn in the home of the Neshams, a prominent family in a radical Christian sect known as the Brethren. Rumors swirl about the identity of the child’s father, but before an inquest can be held, the maid is found dead after an apparent suicide. When Abigail Lawless, the 18-year-old daughter of the city coroner, by chance discovers a message from the maid’s seducer, she sets out to discover the truth.

Veteran war historian Paul Ham embarks on a journey that has never been attempted: to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind have driven human history. The Soul tells the story of the inner 'I', the strange essence of ourselves, and how it has been animated, immortalized, loved, armed, inflamed, enslaved, illuminated and enlightened over 250,000 years.

In the era of “fake news”, when facts are suspect and reporters are targets, popular First Lady Rose Gannon dies suddenly during an interview with White House Correspondent Lark Chadwick. Still reeling from the death of her photographer boyfriend, Lark is thrust into the midst of a media-bashing frenzy while covering a grieving president trying to defuse a looming nuclear war.

Cat Wright can almost handle dogs, but she finds the delicate balance bitterly disrupted when two opposing Cavalier King Charles Spaniels disappear and the mayor’s wife is murdered.

Emmy Davis, the world's most famous fox shifter, went missing two years ago. And I've just been hired to find her. If only things were that simple. The cops have no leads. Other PIs haven't fared any better. The trail is colder than an arctic winter. And to make matters worse, a mysterious creature from Javy Diaz's past has taken an alarming interest in the case. But all that might be the least of my problems. Because you know everything you've heard about the pitfalls of social media? Yeah. Turns out it's worse than that.

Izzie Mallon will be shutting herself away from the festive season, and the snowstorm that has brought the city to a standstill, in her apartment on Henrietta Square - the beautiful home she shared with her beloved husband, Sam, until his tragic death a few months ago. Then, there’s a knock at the door - a stranger, stranded by the bad weather. He tells Izzie that he’s Eli Sanders, her husband’s long-time friend. Izzie has never met him in person, but feels she owes it to Sam to welcome Eli into her home. Even though her instincts say otherwise....

Everything is changing for eleven-year-old Alex, and as an autistic person, change can be terrifying. With the first day of middle school only a few months away, Alex is sure that having a friend by his side will help. So he’s devised a plan: impress the kids at school by winning a trophy at the PAWS Dog Show with his trusty sidekick, Kevin. This should be a walk in the park … right? If only.

Jock Serong reimagines in urgent, compelling prose the ill-fated exploits of George Augustus Robinson at the settlement of Wybalenna. On the windswept point of an island at the edge of van Diemen’s Land, the Commandant huddles with a small force of white men and women. He has gathered together, under varying degrees of coercion and duress, the last of the Tasmanians, or so he believes. His purpose is to save them—from a number of things, but most pressingly from the murderous intent of the pastoral settlers on their country.

Have you ever failed? Hit a roadblock that felt impossible at the time? Learn how these author-entrepreneurs hit a wall, pivoted, built even stronger businesses, and now have million dollar stories making a difference and changing lives. Each author gained valuable experience and expertise and shares that with you in their sections. Best of all, these authors show you how you can pivot and profit, too! You’ll have to listen to Million Dollar Story so you, too, can pivot successfully and be inspired to profit and win with purpose!

Beginning with the seemingly simple question "what is human?" Fr. FitzGerald investigates the implications of modern science. Several lectures are devoted to stem cells. What are they, where do they come from, and how are they used? Does it matter if a stem cell comes from an embryo versus bone marrow, the placenta, or skin? Examine the promise and dangers of stem cell research. The world marveled at Dolly, the first cloned sheep, and now cloning is widespread. What is cloning, how is it done, and are humans being cloned now?

An elderly gentleman checks into a B&B in a small village in rural Ireland where he knows nobody. Four days later, his body is found in the lake. The identity of their unknown guest raises questions for one family in particular, twin sisters Liv and Marianne, and their mother, Ethel, each of whom is searching for her own place in the world. The Ghostlights brilliantly evokes the lives of the people in the town and explores the aftershocks of a stranger’s tragedy.

A comedy-drama about the good-hearted workers at North Shore Fish, a seafood processing plant in Gloucester, Massachusetts. When a government inspector lays down the law, their jobs and lives face irrevocable changes. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Kristin Ace, Karen Caplan, Laura Sigrid Crook, Heidi J. Dallin, John Fiore, Melissa Fitzgerald, Mary Klug, Marina Re and M.H. Rogers. Directed by Grey Johnson. Recorded before a live audience in March 1993.

We do not see the ocean when we look at the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a world hostile to humans, yet critical to our survival. The first divers to enter that world held their breath and splashed beneath the surface, often clutching rocks to pull them down. Over centuries, they invented wooden diving bells, clumsy diving suits, and unwieldy contraptions in attempts to go deeper and stay longer.

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave a televised address informing the American public that the Soviet Union had installed missiles in Cuba. Kennedy announced a US naval blockade around the island to prevent further delivery of such weapons, essentially declaring that any missile launched from Cuba against the Western Hemisphere would be considered an attack by the Soviet Union, and would prompt a full US retaliatory response. Kennedy demanded the removal of the missiles from Cuba and warned of serious consequences if the Soviets did not comply.

The world is overheating, and despite good intentions and significant efforts, emissions increase nearly every year. The challenge is immense, but there are solutions. In this lucid, inspiring essay, Alan Finkel maps Australia’s path forward. He explains the solar and wind revolution and addresses the challenge of intermittent supply. He introduces hydrogen, the energy hope of the future. He traces the rise and rise of the electric car. He shows how we can build a zero-emissions world.