Books published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc

Cattlemen ride alone across the open range under the deadly aim of roving desperadoes. . . . Gamblers stake their fortunes and their lives on a deck of cards. . . . Strong-willed señoritas seek independence through an enticing combination of beauty, audacity, and spirit. . . . Lawmen and outlaws walk the same dusty streets and speak a common language: Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson. Gritty, tough, and unflinchingly authentic, here is the West as it really was: a land where for every friend there is an enemy, for every handshake a fist, for every dispute a resolution—usually in an explosive showdown of blood and bullets. In these remarkable tales, Louis L’Amour—like the very heroes he depicts—blazes a trail across the American frontier and takes us on an unforgettable journey into the heart of our western heritage.

The in-your-face, no-hype guide to getting happy…Your life sucks if…• You routinely make someone or something more important than you• The life you are living on the outside doesn’t match who you are on the inside• You say yes when you mean no• You try to fix other people• You’ve forgotten to enjoy the rideWhen your life sucks, it’s a wake-up call. Now self-help guru and bestselling author Alan Cohen invites you to answer that call, change your course, and enjoy the life you were meant to live. In ten compelling chapters, Cohen shows you how to stop wasting your energy on people and things that deaden you–and use it for things you love. With great humor, great examples, and exhilarating directness, Why Your Life Sucks doesn’t just spell out the ways in which you undermine your power, purpose, and creativity–it shows you how to reverse the damage. Here is an encouraging but loud-and-clear reminder that in every moment we generate our own experience by the choices we make, and that today is the best day to begin your new life.

Nationally bestselling author Elizabeth Thornton returns with a wickedly tempting new tale of scandal, intrigue, and daring proposals. . . .From dueling at dawn to fighting at Waterloo, Jack Rigg, Earl of Raleigh, has seen his share of danger. But now he faces his greatest fear: wedlock by ambush. It began in Paris, when he rescued an alluring cardsharp named Aurora from a tavern brawl. In the safety of Jack's rooms they shared a passionate embrace. He never suspected their compromising encounter would change his life completely. . . .The idea that a poor vicar's daughter should marry Jack Rigg might be amusing-if it weren't so imperative. When she last saw Jack, Ellie Hill was disguised as "Aurora,” indulging her gift for gaming. Now she's in trouble with the law-and Jack is her alibi. She must hope he'll be more of a gentleman than he was to Aurora. But as they forge an unlikely and increasingly amorous alliance, someone with a deadly agenda wants to end their union before it begins.

"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing-though absurdly comic-meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Yes, you can write a great screenplay. Let Syd Field show you how."I based Like Water for Chocolate on what I learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story."-Laura EsquivelTechnology is transforming the art and craft of screenwriting. How does the writer find new ways to tell a story with pictures, to create a truly outstanding film? Syd Field shows what works, why, and how in four extraordinary films: Thelma & Louise, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves.Learn how:Callie Khouri, in her first movie script, Thelma & Louise, rewrote the rules for good road movies and played against type to create a new American classic.James Cameron, writer/director of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, created a sequel integrating spectacular special effects and a story line that transformed the Terminator, the quintessential killing machine, into a sympathetic character. This is how an action film is written.Ted Tally adapted Thomas Harris's chilling 350-page novel, The Silence of the Lambs, into a riveting 120-page script-a lesson in the art and craft of adapting novels into film.Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves, achieved every writer's dream as he translated his novel into an uncompromising film. Learn how he used transformation as a spiritual dynamic in this work of mythic sweep.Informative and utterly engrossing, Four Screenplays belongs in every writer's library, next to Syn Field's highly acclaimed companion volumes, Screenplay, The Screenwriter's Workbook, and Selling a Screenplay."If I were writing screenplays . . . I would carry Syd Field around in my back pocket wherever I went."-Steven Bochco, writer/producer/director, L.A. Law, Hill Street Blues

Sylvia Plath began keeping a diary as a young child. By the time she was at Smith College, when this book begins, she had settled into a nearly daily routine with her journal, which was also a sourcebook for her writing. Plath once called her journal her "Sargasso," her repository of imagination, "a litany of dreams, directives, and imperatives," and in fact these pages contain the germs of most of her work. Plath's ambitions as a writer were urgent and ultimately all-consuming, requiring of her a heat, a fantastic chaos, even a violence that burned straight through her. The intensity of this struggle is rendered in her journal with an unsparing clarity, revealing both the frequent desperation of her situation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. Written in electrifying prose, The Journals of Sylvia Plath provide unique insight, and are essential reading for all those who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.