Curse of the Richard Valance Writings

Curse of the Richard Valance Writings
Author: Drac Von Stoller
Publisher: Drac Von Stoller
Total Pages: 2
Release: 2014-02-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 131027505X

What was supposed to be an upcoming author's dream would turn into a night of hell and become a curse to anyone who happened to glance upon the last writings of author Richard Valance from the unfinished horror novel titled “A Blast from Hell.” It all started when Richard and his jealous publisher got into a heated argument over the phone about finishing his book that went months overdue. Richard's publisher said in an angry voice, "If you don't finish that book tonight you're a dead man, and just to make sure, I'm coming over until you finish the last pen stroke. I've got too much money invested for this novel to die from someone who made a promise to me and did not deliver." "Calm down, it will be finished," said Richard in a voice of confidence. The publisher said, “I'll be right over." The publisher arrived moments later wearing a trench coat with something inside his coat that would be used when the moment was right. The rain was coming down pretty hard, and the thunder, and lightning were intense. The publisher entered Richard's home keeping his jealous thoughts to himself. Richard said, "Come to my study, I only have a couple of pages left, then you can take the manuscript and have it published." "Good, I was hoping this wouldn't take all night," replied the publisher in a mellow tone. As Richard was penning away at the manuscript, the publisher asked Richard, "What kind of paper is that?" "It's human skin," replied Richard. "Why human skin?" asked his publisher. “I was desperate and thought talking to this Witch a friend recommended to me could help keep my mind framed on the right path to finishing this book. The only downside to the fame this novel will bring is after the reader is reading it they will die under mysterious circumstances," explained Richard in a nervous tone. "You believe that?" laughed the publisher. Richard said aloud, "Just a few more pen strokes, and my masterpiece will be done."

31 Horrifying Tales from the Dead Volume 5

31 Horrifying Tales from the Dead Volume 5
Author: Drac Von Stoller
Publisher: Drac Von Stoller
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2014-12-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 149434467X

More haunting tales of Ghosts, Aliens, Science Fiction, Western, Zombies, Headless Ghosts, Haunted Graveyards, Urban Legends, Curses and Vampires.

The Cursed King

The Cursed King
Author: Abigail Owen
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1682814912

Airk Azdajah, the rightful King of the White Clan of dragon shifters, spent half a millennium being tortured by the false High King Pytheios. The only reason he’s alive is a curse: the man who kills Airk will be consumed in his own fire. So Airk was kept alive—barely—and unable to shift in his prison cage, driving the creature half of him into madness. Airk escaped, but he'll never be truly free. Because what good is a king who can never let his feral dragon loose, never fly, and never lead his people? Angelika Amon is the last unmated phoenix. The problem? She has no powers. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Angelika hates being dormant, especially now that her three sisters are blissfully mated to powerful dragon shifter kings and are very much part of the fight to take down the rotting king Pytheios. What good is a completely powerless phoenix in a battle to save the dragon kingdom? Desperate to find some way to help, she offers herself to Airk as a mate—just for political leverage. Now a dormant phoenix is mated to a dragon who can't shift. But the balance of power is about to change when Pytheios decides to claim Angelika for himself... Each book in the Inferno Rising series is STANDALONE: * The Rogue King * The Blood King * The Warrior King * The Cursed King

The Spell of the Sensuous

The Spell of the Sensuous
Author: David Abram
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2012-10-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0307830551

Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

Holy Sh*t

Holy Sh*t
Author: Melissa Mohr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2013-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199742677

A humorous, trenchant and fascinating examination of how Western culture's taboo words have evolved over the millennia

Reinforcement Learning, second edition

Reinforcement Learning, second edition
Author: Richard S. Sutton
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 549
Release: 2018-11-13
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262352702

The significantly expanded and updated new edition of a widely used text on reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence. Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives while interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a clear and simple account of the field's key ideas and algorithms. This second edition has been significantly expanded and updated, presenting new topics and updating coverage of other topics. Like the first edition, this second edition focuses on core online learning algorithms, with the more mathematical material set off in shaded boxes. Part I covers as much of reinforcement learning as possible without going beyond the tabular case for which exact solutions can be found. Many algorithms presented in this part are new to the second edition, including UCB, Expected Sarsa, and Double Learning. Part II extends these ideas to function approximation, with new sections on such topics as artificial neural networks and the Fourier basis, and offers expanded treatment of off-policy learning and policy-gradient methods. Part III has new chapters on reinforcement learning's relationships to psychology and neuroscience, as well as an updated case-studies chapter including AlphaGo and AlphaGo Zero, Atari game playing, and IBM Watson's wagering strategy. The final chapter discusses the future societal impacts of reinforcement learning.

Minions of the Moon

Minions of the Moon
Author: Richard Bowes
Publisher: Lethe Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2013
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1590215117

A novel on a man who has a phantom double. He is Kevin Grierson, a bookseller in New York whose shadow takes over his body, sometimes getting Grierson in trouble, other times saving him from trouble.

Ma'am You Have Been Uncovered

Ma'am You Have Been Uncovered
Author: Road of Flowers
Publisher: Cloudary Holdings Limited (Webnovel)
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2020-07-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

[Webnovel provides the latest update of Ma'am You Have Been Uncovered novels] [Two-faced Languid Rich Male Lead vs. Deeply Hidden Beautiful Female Lead] Qin Ran had grown up in the countryside. She disappears in the third year of high school and ends up suspended for a year. One year later, she is brought to Yun Cheng by her mother to attend First Middle School. Her mother tells her: "Your stepfather is from a prestigious family, your brother is a genius, and your younger sister is a top student. Don't be an embarrassment to them." Anybody who is anybody in Beijing all receives a warning from Master Juan of the Cheng family: Master Juan's wife is from the countryside and doesn't know how to socialize nor make connections... her temper is also really bad, so please be tolerant of her. One day, when Master Juan is investigating a certain big shot, his subordinate stares at the sockpuppet—an online identity used for purposes of deception—he had accidentally revealed. It's from the wife that supposedly doesn't know anything... He falls into silence. The two bigshots has probably been hiding their sockpuppets from each other in order not to make the other party feel inferior.