The Black Sparrow By: R. K. J. Sprock The Black Sparrow is a great adventure of hardships and tales of a young man coming into manhood in a land so much like our own but different in many ways. Read all about the mythical creatures of many origins and a power in the land that provides for all.
Poets who can write prose that equals their poetry are rare. With this collection of thirteen new short stories, Wanda Coleman, Los Angeles's unofficial poet laureate, proves an exception to the rule yet again. The characters in these stories lead lonely lives full of longing, of potential stifled by racism, poverty, and absurd accidents of fate. And yet, even though they are trapped by the present moment, their inner lives are lush, a mirror of the city of angels in which they live, a metropolis, always simmering, as Coleman writes in the final story, ever waiting to be borne on that balmy promised crescendo. Coleman applies a poet's economy of words to her fiction, setting a scene with lightning-quick strokes, letting a detail, a dialogue, or the brisk vernacular speak for itself. .
Does God really hate homosexuals? Do people really go to hell because they happen to love someone that society says isnt the right sex? Would Steve have eaten the forbidden fruit? Black Sparrow is a candid autobiographical narrative that chronologically surveys the life and times of an internally conflicted black gay male. This book dissects the experience of growing up gay in a conservative Episcopalian church and family and the harrowing, self-destructive pursuit to find happiness, love, acceptance, and spiritual peace. Black Sparrow is written to inspire and to evoke laughter, tears, and deliberation
At Heathrow airport, a hired assassin is boarding a plane to Paris. On the same plane is young Uzma Rafiq, heading for a new life with her French lover. The passengers carry identical suitcases, but their motives for traveling to the European city couldn't be further apart. When they accidentally pick up the wrong luggage on arrival, a deadly series of events is set in motion. As a sinister twist brings them together, they will dictate each other's destinies. Against a backdrop of The City of Lights, who will survive? A thriller full of twists and turns, A.J. Griffiths's 'Black Sparrow' is a riveting story of love, murder and deadly secrets.
A team-up set up by SWORDS OF SORROW's Gail Simone, featuring the writer that she hand-picked: Erica Schultz! Lady Zorro and The Black Sparrow, two women from different times, join forces to fight Prince Charming's Shards of Chaos in a prehistoric land. With their Swords of Sorrow, they fight to keep an ancient stone with mystical abilities out of the Prince's grasp.
'Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will love Scotty Elliott's Sibanda series' Sunday Times (SA) When a skinned body is discovered on the side of the railway line deep in the Matabele bush, Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda, along with his sidekicks, Sergeant Ncube and the troublesome Land Rover, Miss Daisy, is back on the trail of a murderer. As more girls go missing and more bones are discovered, Sibanda realises they are dealing with the signature of a vicious serial killer who chooses the train as his killing field. Suspects abound, and the trio pursues the leads relentlessly, but the warped psychopath is elusive. Has Sibanda met his match? To complicate matters, his unrequited love interest, Berry Barton, is back on his radar, Gubu police station politics are as partisan as ever and Sgt Ncube, in an attempt to equal the brilliance of his boss, has discovered the wonders of the Oxford English Dictionary, to hilarious results. With winter tightening its grip, and drought and hardship threatening the population, Sibanda uses a risky strategy to trap his nemesis. Can he pull it off? Praise for C. M. Elliott: 'Her plot keeps readers guessing right to the end, when the monster meets a truly satisfying fate . . . Elliott's skill as a writer lies in her ability to create and flesh out characters that are so lifelike, they thrum in your head for days after finishing her books' Business Live 'Will have you hooked' The Gremlin 'C.M. Elliott has created a lively cast of characters and an intricate, clever plot' Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness 'A thrilling detective yarn and a finely-drawn picture of the counterpoint between the gentle music of the bush and the harsher notes of poachers' deadly gunfire' The Citizen
Metropolitan Tang is Linda Bamber's first book of poetry, a debut that is erudite, urban and urbane. Whether she is examining the breakup of her marriage or watching bulls in a field, considering Derrida's concepts of "presence" or her hairdresser's less theoretical philosophy, Ms. Bamber turns over images and ideas until she finds their proper relations, making meaning out of random juxtapositions, sense out of chaos, or, if nothing else, a good joke out of a bad situation. Her voice, sensitive and, at the same time, wry, is clear throughout, uniquely hers.
Meet the man behind the myth in the only full-fledged biography of the American novelist, poet, and legend by a close friend and collaborator. Neeli Cherkovski began a deep friendship with Bukowski in the 1960s while guzzling beer at wrestling matches or during quieter evenings discussing life and literature in Bukowski’s East Hollywood apartment. Over the decades, those hundreds of conversations took shape as this biography—now with a new preface, “This Thing Upon Me Is Not Death: Reflections on the Centennial of Charles Bukowski.” Bukowski, author of Ham on Rye, Post Office, and other bestselling novels, short stories, and poetry collections only ever wanted to be a writer. Maybe that’s why Bukowski’s voice is so real and immediate that readers felt included in a conversation. “In his written work, he’s a hero, a fall guy, a comic character, a womanizing lush, a wise old dog,” biographer Neeli Cherkovski writes. “His readers do more than glimpse his many-sidedness. For some, it’s a deep experience. They feel as if his writing opens places inside of themselves they might never have seen otherwise. Often a reader comes away feeling heroic, because the poet has shown them that their ordinary lives are imbued with drama.” Full of anecdotes, wisdom, humor, and insight, this is an essential companion to the work of a great American writer. Long-time Bukowski fans will come away with fresh insights while readers new to his work will find this an exhilarating introduction. “A treasure trove for Bukowski fans . . . Cherkovski’s access to his subject allows him an intimacy otherwise impossible.” —John Rechy, Los Angeles Times
'Fear makes me a writer, fear and a lack of confidence' Charles Bukowski chronicled the seedy underside of the city in which he spent most of his life, Los Angeles. His heroes were the panhandlers and hustlers, the drunks and the hookers, his beat the racetracks and strip joints and his inspiration a series of dead-end jobs in warehouses, offices and factories. It was in the evenings that he would put on a classical record, open a beer and begin to type... Brought up by a violent father, Bukowski suffered childhood beatings before developing horrific acne and withdrawing into a moody adolescence. Much of his young life epitomised the style of the Beat generation - riding Greyhound buses, bumming around and drinking himself into a stupor. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including the novels Post Office, Factotum, Women and Pulp. His novels sold millions of copies worldwide in dozens of languages. In this definitive biography Barry Miles, celebrated author of Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats, turns his attention to the exploits of this hard-drinking, belligerent wild man of literature.