As children, art is a way of expressing the fountains of imagination bubbling within us. Our favorite tool of the trade, so to speak, is a crayon, and our messy lines and squiggles translate into masterpieces in our parents’ eyes. Then, as we grow up, art becomes a waste of time. We say that we’re awful at art, that we can’t draw anything other than a stick figure. We don’t want to embarrass ourselves in front of other people, so we put away the crayon and pick up skills we feel will benef...

Go ahead, give it a try. Even drawing the simplest things can help relieve stress and make a bad day better. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, because there are no mistakes in art.In this book, you'll learn how to draw people (their faces, their anatomy in full body, and poses), animals (lions), landscapes (flowers, stars), and miscellaneous objects (such as a vase and house).You'll also receive many tips on perspective, depth, lighting, and drawing in general. Using step...

Race and civil rights in 1963 Los Angeles provide a powerful backdrop in Gary Phillips’s riveting mystery about an African American crime scene photographer seeking justice for a friend—perfect for fans of Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, and George Pelecanos.LOS ANGELES, 1963: Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on th...

With the clock ticking, the story jumps off in the border town of Tijuana, Mexico. A smooth cat who labels himself an expeditor must survive a gauntlet of hitters and freaks to deliver his client alive to their destination. She's a high maintenance drug queen who's made a deal with the top cop in California's state capitol, Sacramento. By all means of transportation and dodging devastation, and busting some heads themselves, the two make their way north while behind-the-scenes machinations...

Having grown up in late-sixties South Central Los Angeles, Gary Phillips vividly recalls stories of what happened to brothers who ran afoul of the “polices” of the 77th Division. Small wonder that in his teens he organized against police abuse, later became active in the antiapartheid movement, was down against the contras, did duty as a labor rep, worked for a political action committee, and taught incarcerated youth. So of course matters of race, class, and the social fabric, along with ...

In this collection, you'll find double crossers getting crossed, two-bit hucksters out to make that one last con, a long-gone revolutionary's fraught homecoming, a heist gone sideways, a dying hitman with explosive secrets, a square john taking a big step out of line, and...zombies crawling from the grave lusting for cocaine.

When Black private eye Ivan Monk takes on a case in a housing project in South Los Angeles, he finds himself facing off with corrupt police and gang members—and indicted for murder.Heat is building in the Rancho Tajuata Housing Projects—and not just because it's summer in L.A. When a Mexican family is killed by a firebombing, local rage threatens to grow out of control. The pressure is on to solve this case quickly to help deescalate the tense situation.At ...

**The mystery that launched Gary Phillips's career: Black private eye Ivan Monk investigates the murder of a Korean shop owner in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.This reissued edition features an introduction by Walter Mosley.**In 1992, Los Angeles burned. In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots, a ground-breaking ceremony at the infamous intersection of Florence and Normandie unearths the body of a Korean shop owner. Black private eye I...

Praise for The Self-Correcting Organization“A must-read for every manager! Gary’s best work to date.” Doug Moynihan – Hospital CEO“With wisdom and good humor drawn from a life well lived, Gary Phillips has written an important and timely book, full of insights to help our organizations self-correct.” Kevin Page - President of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy University of Ottawa Former Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada“The Self-Correcting Organizat...

**Black private eye Ivan Monk’s search for a connection between three Black men murdered in Los Angeles leads to the unraveling of a white supremacist conspiracy that spans the West Coast.The mystery series that launched Gary Phillips's career.**Robert “Scatterboy” Williams is a small-time hustler selling bogus Cartier watches in Pacific Shores, a port city south of Los Angeles. One day, he’s gunned down in the street, seemingly at random. Then drug dealer Ronny Aaron is sh...

Award-winning author, screenwriter, and editor Gary Phillips gathers his most thrilling, outlandish, and madcap pulp fiction in an 17-story collection that straddles the line between bizarro, science fiction, noir, and superhero classics.Aztec vampires, astral projecting killers, oxygen stealing bombs, undercover space rangers, aliens occupying Los Angeles, right wing specters haunting the ’hood, masked vigilantes, and mad scientists in their underground lairs plot...

McBleak enjoys hobnobbing with the upper crust. Yet McBleak is never more alive than when he’s extracting wealth from the wealthy. He plans to take a greedy man’s gain while wondering if his girlfriend sees through his façade. But nothing ever goes as planned, and McBleak has to think on his feet or his life might be extracted from him.