Showing results by author "James Ward" in All Categories

2019. Russia's Web Brigades have created a divided West, but both the European and the American intelligence services are getting wise to their tactics. When Stanislav Kuznetsov, the FSB’s Director of Overseas Strategic Affairs, entrusts a group of young idealists with the task of devising the next phase in the disruption of Russia’s enemies, little does he suspect that six weeks later, they’ll come up with a plan to suborn the British Broadcasting Corporation. His first reaction is mingled incredulity and exasperation. Have they taken leave of their senses?

When Ruby Parker, head of MI7’s Red Department, is hospitalized by a burglar, all is not as it seems. Her removal coincides with a series of catastrophes for British spies in hostile territories abroad, and some very shifty behavior by the new acting head of Red Department, Patrick Atherton. Atherton dislikes Red’s established hierarchy, which includes all its officers without exception, and possibly John Mordred in particular. The idea that there’s something fishy going on, and that all this is linked, seems intuitively obvious, and probably worth investigating.

MI7 is expecting an eccentric new recruit in the person of Chasha Jones, self-described (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as "the most intelligent woman in London". She's hard-working, insightful, and fun to work alongside. But the day she's due to begin, there's no sign of her. It turns out she's joined forces with an eccentric Brit called Hector Raynebow. Raynebow used to be an environmentalist, but he's rejected all that on the grounds that humanity, in its present form, is incapable of saving the world. He has the perfect solution: Humankind 2.0.

Ruby’s Parker’s retirement hangs like a dark cloud over MI7. She herself has only a vague idea what the future might hold - both personally, and in terms of national security. But for many on her team, she’s irreplaceable. To cap it all, there’s a massive organizational overhaul on the cards at Thames House. Everyone’s nervous, and with good reason. In the middle of all this uncertainty, there’s an assassin at large.

Great. Just what the world needs - another KISS podcast! Though we are unabashedly KISS nerds, we are also AWOL from the KISS Army. Objectivity is a rare quality in the KISS fan base, but join us as we retrace the history of the band, album by album, year by year. Along the way we hope to differentiate the fact from the fiction and the good from the bad. So hang on tight, it's gonna be a wild ride. Whoa my god, no time to turn!

India, The Netherlands, the Philippines - What is it with the Hoosier state that inspires authors from all over the world to dredge up their darkest visions to make readers tremble and shudder? Could it be the ghost towns that dot the landscape? Or do we fear the living ghosts that walk its cities, large and small, that breed and fester on dashed hope and creeping dread? Or do their dark writings mirror the thoughts we thought we had buried deep beneath layers of civility, exposing them for what they are, reflections of the darkness all around us.

Join James Ward Kirk for a guided tour through a nightmare exhibition of misanthropy, murder, and mayhem. Dreams for some, nightmares for others, these stories explore an impressive variety of thematic territory and make the perfect accompaniment for your next involuntary commitment.

What if, to save thousands of lives, you had to trigger the destruction of the only person you’d ever loved? In Afghanistan, British secret servicewoman Marcie Brown, posing as the third wife of one of ISAF’s most trusted operatives, is killed in a drone strike. Or at least, that’s what the official report states. Deep inside enemy territory, what remains of her body is deemed irrecoverable. Seven thousand miles away, her grieving husband, MI7 officer Nicholas Fleming, joins a police investigation which stumbles onto an Islamist plot to bomb central London - and he uncovers evidence that one of the bombers is his wife.

Monica McDowney thought her life had hit a new low when she discovers her jerk-of-a-boyfriend failed to mention one tiny detail of his personal life - his marriage! You can't even trust a police detective these days. But that was before she stumbled upon a woman's obscenely mutilated corpse and the victim's heart-broken Chihuahua. Soon Monica finds herself crossing paths with serial killers - some insane, some coldly calculating - and their evil leader.

Packed with humor and insight, Safe to Say explores the gut wrenching absurdities of life in corporate America. Set in the 1980's amidst the decline of an iconic company, the story centers on the eventful careers of two characters - Harmon Wolcott and Riley O'Brian. Despite their differences in background, Harmon and Riley share the traits of intelligence, ambition and an aching desire for approval.

Recorded for the first time ever in the history of this 90-year-old organization, here are 10 of the funny, inspirational papers that were spoken at the annual meeting of the Texas Folklore Society. Hear members of this legendary organization "talk fancy" about Texas peddlers, funeral homes, possums, babies, grandparents, cow chips, crazy women in the rafters, dogwood hoops, windmills that "steal air," early radio DJs, and...talking fancy!

After a chance skirmish with an armed killer in central London, agent John Mordred ends up in hospital in a critical condition. Six weeks and a full recovery later, he’s persuaded it’s purely a police matter, so one he should forget about. But nothing in MI7 is ever that simple. There’s more to this particular incident than meets the eye, and unnamed people in high places want it investigated. They believe Mordred’s the man for the job.

A cabal of Russian oligarchs instigates unrest in the Far East of Russia as the first stage of an attempt to unseat Vladimir Putin. Britain offers covert support in the form of five MI7 agents. The disturbances mirror those in Eastern Ukraine and, if pushed far enough, might persuade the Kremlin to retract its territorial interests in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhia. However, once the five operatives are shipped east, events take an unexpected turn. One by one, they begin to disappear.

No-frills discussions between Bruce Eckel and James Ward about programming, what it is, and what it should be. Buy the Happy Path Programming t-shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products