"Music is life. Music is a reflection of who we are as humans. Music tells us things that words can’t, it ignites feelings in us that we didn’t know we had, and it can reach a depth that nothing else can.” —Susan Graham, renowned American mezzo-soprano

Music has existed as long as there have been people to listen. It takes on many forms and is many things, providing entertainment, emotion, storytelling, and most of all, magic for all who hear.

In revealing and genuine interviews, Larry Ruttman converses with world-renowned musicians of the 21st century and engages them in an approachable manner. Dive into the recesses of their minds to discover the influences and inspiration behind classical music and other popular genres such as pop, jazz, folk, Americana, and many other genres impacting today’s musical culture.

Perfect for dedicated fans, determined students, and the casually interested listener to music of all genres, Intimate Conversations: Face to Face with Matchless Musicians is sure to inspire, fascinate, and entertain.

Jacob Hart has always been convinced there is an answer to any problem. That belief propelled him to a successful engineering career at corporate giant, GoldOrb Diversified. But following an abrupt retirement and his wife's untimely death, Jacob suffers an existential crisis. The man who once believed that anything could be solved becomes all consumed with uncovering the role of a higher power in his seemingly crumbling world. Plagued with prophetic visions, he travels to Lake Paradise in pursuit of his coveted answer to life's mysteries.

Joined in his quest by a kind Rabbi who has lost his faith, an unruly Ivy League professor, and the powerful CEO of GoldOrb, Jacob enters into a philosophical pursuit for the ages. But the troubles of the real world follow the friends to paradise, and soon they are ensnared in a high stakes political scandal that threatens to destroy everything.

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart tests the bonds of friendship, family, and country and infuses existential questions from time immemorial with modernity, intrigue, and sheer excitement.

In a kill or be killed world, The Reaper does whatever it takes to survive.

Following the murder of his half-brother, legendary Army Ranger Luke Foster returns to the United States from fighting terrorists. His brother’s history with a prominent New York Mafia family was no secret, so it’s no surprise his life was cut short. But the Mafia enforcers don’t know about Foster, his reputation as The Reaper, or that he’s coming for them.

FBI Special Agent Calico Hayes is determined to stop Luke Foster from leaving a trail of bodies across the U.S. in his unsanctioned quest for vengeance. But stopping Foster’s revenge proves more difficult than she expected, and sparks fly in more ways than one when the two cross paths.

While investigating his brother’s murder, they uncover a sinister plan to assassinate a populist presidential candidate. Hayes and Foster must put purpose before passion in order to stop the diabolical plot that could trigger a World War.

When Medusa and Tiresias rise from the Underworld as twenty-first-century teens and meet through Persephone and Hades' new dating app, it seems like a second chance. Dating is hard when you turn everyone to stone, but dating a blind prophet may be a loophole … even if he does occasionally spout dire prophecies.

But not everyone is pleased with an app designed to kindle romance between mortal enemies. As distrust grows between the heroes, monsters, and gods making up the app's user base, it’s easier to fall into old habits than fall in love. With pressure building on both sides, Medusa and Tiresias accept their task: kill their date, no matter how much they bond over their love of dogs or the way the gods have wronged them in the past.

Caught amongst meddling gods, murderous heroes, and a classic Greek bet, Medusa and Tiresias may have signed up for more than a dating profile. With war brewing at the hands of the gods, working together may be the only way to save mortals and monsters alike.

Told entirely through instant messages and transcripts, this is one mythically funny romantic comedy you don’t want to miss.

When Scott Terry was ten, he embraced the Jehovah's Witness faith and their prediction that the world would soon end. As an adolescent, he prepared for Armageddon and prayed for God to strip away his growing attraction to other young men. By adulthood, Terry found himself no longer believing in the promised apocalypse. Over time, he left the Witness religion and became a cowboy, riding bulls in the rodeo. He overcame the hurdles of parental abuse, religious extremism, and homophobia and learned that Truth is a concept of honesty rather than false righteousness.

Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth: How a Gay Child was Saved from Religion offers an illuminating glimpse into a child’s sequestered world of abuse, homophobia, and religious extremism. Scott Terry’s memoir is a compelling, poignant and occasionally humorous look into the Jehovah’s Witness faith-a religion that refers to itself as The Truth—and a brave account of Terry’s successful escape from a troubled past.

Celine Arceneau was admitted to the hospital for food poisoning and declared medically stable before her physician, Ellen Smythe, left for the evening. When she died the next morning from an unknown cause, Chief Detective Stefan Jablonsky suspects foul play and eyes Dr. Smythe, Dr. Kate Chambers’ friend and mentor, as his prime suspect. Pittsburgh’s amateur sleuth quickly joins the fight to prove her friend’s innocence.

Chief Detective Jablonsky and Kate Chambers have worked together in the past; he finds her and her university friends to be elitist and annoying, but grudgingly effective, and she finds him to be a stodgy, old-school detective, but one who always gets the killer. Jablonsky and Kate must put aside their differences to catch the culprit before the body count rises.

This psychological mystery will hold you captive until the very end. Locked Box is the third book in the Pittsburgh Murder Mystery series: however, each book can be read as a stand-alone or in order of publication.

Recent college graduate Joel Howard, former bench warmer for his small town college team, is optimistic about his future with his out-of-his-league girlfriend and a job prospect with a local insurance agency. But things don’t work out the way he plans when his girlfriend dumps him and he remains stuck at his unfulfilling position at the local shoe store in the mall.

Desperately seeking a change of pace from his father’s unrelenting nagging, Joel hatches a plan to rob the mall’s bank on the night of Black Friday, 1987.

Joel has always been lucky, despite the current string of bad luck. Has his luck run out? Or will it return in time to get him out of trouble?

Lucky Duck is a comedic crime novel perfect if you’re looking for something with the flavor of a John Hughes film from those 80s and 90s tomes like Risky Business or Breakfast Club.

There’s an app for everything, even meeting a new nemesis.

Up-and-coming teen superhero Cortex is on top of the world—at least, until his villain dumps him. If he’s going to save his reputation, he needs a new villain to fight, and fast. Meanwhile, the villainous Vortex has once again gotten a little overeager and taken out a hero prematurely. Will any young hero be able to keep up with her? Maybe she should work on finding a steady relationship with an enemy she won’t kill in the first round.

Enter Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains. The two match right away, and after throwing punches at each other behind coffee shops, practicing their fight choreography, and hiring henchmen to do their bidding (mostly just getting them coffee), they realize they have a lot more in common than names that annoyingly rhyme. After all, they're still rising through the ranks in their respective circles, and their reputations need good press.

But not everything in the superhero world is as it seems. Can a hero really trust a villain to do the right thing? And can a villain trust a hero not to screw them over? As darkness from the past threatens them both, they may need each other for the fight to come—one with much higher stakes than their choreographed meet-ups on weekends.

Told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages, this darkly humorous chat fiction rom-com goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

Kevin and Himari didn't plan to be heroes.

Henchmen and sidekicks aren't supposed to fall in love. Or save the world. They're supposed to brew coffee, take pics of their hero or villain for social media, and stay in the background.

That was the plan for sidekick slash frat boy Kevin and henchwoman slash tech genius Himari, until a taxidermy-collecting villain robs Kevin's hero of his powers and leaves Himari's villain wounded. Now it's up to the sidekicks and henchmen to save the world.

Without powers, they'll go up against the Shadow Assassins (a deadly organization that can't work a PowerPoint to save their lives), road trips slash kidnappings, and weird initiation rituals that may or may not involve singing campfire songs. Himari and Kevin will battle the odds, their insecurities, and a strangely polite Midwestern villain as they discover if they have what it takes to profess their love through Mexican food metaphors—and save the world from a nuclear disaster.

The sequel to Dear Hero, this darkly humorous chat fiction novel told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

Para el niño que es curioso por naturaleza, este libro para colorear es una introducción divertida y educativa a las múltiples formas en que la codificación afecta nuestra vida cotidiana. Desde los coches a control remoto hasta las videollamadas, pasando por las lavadoras y el riego por goteo, la codificación hace que el mundo moderno funcione. Presente a los más pequeños las maravillas de la codificación con 30 ilustraciones originales en un libro de colorear que alimentará su curiosidad.