As if one suspect post-mortem breakfast trip wasn't enough, AHOP returns in its second annual volume to delight the sad souls who enjoy humorous speculative fiction. We can't promise AHOP 2 will be funnier than last year's edition, but we can promise that it will be greasier. AHOP 2 will again feature four novella length works from some of today's most demented, twisted and depraved, er... rather creative and talented minds. --------- More mayhem from the folks that aren't sure of the difference between funny-haha and funny peculiar, these four new novellas are guaranteed (offer not valid where prohibited by law) to tickle, please, delight and restore you, all via the magic of humorous speculative fiction. Amityville House of Pancakes: You don't have to be dead to eat here, but it helps.
Like a phoenix gasping and wheezing from the smoke of its fiery death and rebirth, "The Amityville House of Pancakes" features the works of four deranged, but really very nice, authors blazing trails into the somewhat suspect genre of humorous speculative fiction.
The thirteenth Tarot card is Death, and he is a symbol not of the end, but of transformation and rebirth. This is the genesis and root of Thirteen: Stories of Transformation. The twenty-eight authors of this collection are voices—new and old—who are not afraid to explore what comes next. Whether it be a life after death, a life without love, a life filled with hunger, or the life shared by a ghost. These are stories of the weird, the mythic, the fantastic, the futuristic, the supernatural, and the horrific. The ghosts of the past have been eaten by the children of the future: this endless cycle of birth, death, and renewal is the magic of thirteen. Do not fear change. Embrace it. Let Thirteen be the handbook for the new you. With stories from: Liz Argall M. David Blake Richard Bowes George Cotronis Amanda C. Davis Julie C. Day Jetse de Vries Jennifer Giesbrecht Daryl Gregory Rik Hoskin Rebecca Kuder Claude Lalumière Marc Levinthal Grá Linnaea Alex Dally MacFarlane Juli Mallett Lyn McConchie Fiona Moore Gregory L. Norris Adrienne J. Odasso Cat Rambo Andrew Penn Romine David Tallerman Tais Teng Richard Thomas Fran Wilde A. C. Wise Christie Yant
Douglas Texter takes his readers on a whirlwind tour of the practice of self-betterment through the ages in this biting parody of self-help literature. He carefully explores the Big 12 myths of self-improvement, and at the same time, delivers a devastating, sardonic social and political commentary: The Myth of Planning shows you how sales-rep Tiffany Johnson secures the 2000-student adoption of the outrageously expensive textbook To Market, To Market by using the techniques she learned in Ninety Seven Habits of Really Rapacious People. In The Myth of Education, you'll attend gym class with Winston Nebbish and learn how our education system creates and unleashes over-achievers who do incredible damage. You'll also discover the secrets behind dodge ball and the fine art of giving a wedgie. The Myth of Work takes you behind the scenes at Ishmael's Caffeine Machine, America's hottest new high-end coffee retailer. Peeking out from behind the flaps of the sweat lodge that CEO Martha Little Sympathy has built, you'll witness the birth of the Moby Dick product line. You'll accompany marketing guru Lisa Jones to a focus-group meeting and the strangest worker-empowerment session you'll ever see. In The Myth of Mythology, you'll bear witness to the way in which belief in God enables medieval pickpocket Raoul, who faces a choice between a hanging and a holy war, to find the courage to lead fifteen thousand mercenaries on the First Crusade. Our world has never been the same. The Myth of Self-Actualization takes you to a meeting of "The Formula," where, along with former pot head Michael Ginley, you'll learn how to GET IT, how to BE IT, and, most important of all, how to PAY FOR IT. The Myth of Creativity gives you an advance screening of Saving Private Ryan's Credit Rating, the MFA project of Frederick P. Zalston. You'll accompany the members of the 241st Extraction Brigade as they fight their way through a barrage of product placements to deliver an overdue American Express bill. In The Myth of Self-Denial, you'll see how your favorite vampire finds the courage to take a bite out of life (and everybody else). Young Vlad the Caresser discovers that knowing how to make a good quiche doesn't cut the mustard when you're trying to protect your homeland. This is the Dracula story that Bram Stoker didn't have the stomach to tell. The Myth of Diversity lets you view the results of CEO J. B. Downing's decision to create a truly diverse workplace. Wanting to melt down human resources into ingots of profit, Downing tells HR manager Bob De Lucca to "bring me Wobblies and bring me Wookies. Bring me all of this and more." J. B.'s Worktopia initiative is diversity unlike anything you've ever seen. In The Myth of Philosophy, you'll sit one cubicle over from intern Carrie Hoofsnagle as she helps the Right Thinking Institute to engage in some of the most convoluted cognition that you're likely ever to witness. You'll discover what happens when RTI applies flawless reasoning and free alcohol to the problem of getting architect and Civil War re-enactor Joseph Legucci to build the Mall of Northern Aggression. The Myth of Social Activism shows you how Judge Jack Lovell embroils young dirt farmer Walter Smith in the War to End all Wars. Speeding off with Walter to Camp Xenophobia, you'll see how the Great War made the world safe for the American way of life and the not-very-flattering house dresses worn by J. Edgar Hoover. The Myth of Vision returns to the dawn of time so that you can see the very first "Aha " moment. You'll be standing by the flip chart when the planet's original idea man, Oog, partners up with his cave mate of indeterminate gender, Boog, to start a mastodon-extermination company. And, finally, The Myth of Sisyphus ties together everything you've learned and sends you back to your room, exactly the place where you can do the least harm.
Paul Kane - author of Alone (in the Dark) and Touching the Flame - has returned, not to terrify this time, but to tickle the funnybone. Inside this book you'll find a collection of his most outrageous humorous horror, with stories ranging from "Dracula in Love" to "The Last Temptation of Alice Crump"...and not forgetting fan favourite "The Bones Brothers." Funnybones also includes several of the adventures of Dalton Quayle, that most famous of supernatural detectives.
At a time when the expanded projection of US political, military, economic and cultural power draws intensified global concern, understanding how that country understands itself seems more important than ever. This collection of new critical essays tackles this old problem in a new way, by examining some of the hundreds of US films that announce themselves as titularly 'American'. From early travelogues to contemporary comedies, national nomination has been an abiding characteristic of American motion pictures, heading the work of Porter, Guy-Blaché, DeMille, Capra, Sternberg, Vidor, Minnelli and Mankiewicz. More recently, George Lucas, Paul Schrader, John Landis and Edward James Olmos have made their own contributions to Hollywood’s Americana. What does this national branding signify? Which versions of Americanism are valorized, and which marginalized or excluded? Out of which social and historical contexts do they emerge, and for and by whom are they constructed? Edited by Mandy Merck, the collection contains detailed analyses of such films as The Vanishing American, American Madness, An American in Paris, American Graffiti, American Gigolo, American Pie and many more.
