Aurora Award Finalist Best New Horror Selection Cath, a beautiful young sidewalk artist, is driven by a mysterious hunger that feeds from the portraits she draws of her victims. Joe loves Cath still, but as Cath’s hunger grows, so does Joe’s fear--fear that one day she may draw him down. "The best of the bunch...a haunting variant on the vampire legend with an understated and brutal ending." —Publishers Weekly “Highlights among the stories include Douglas Smith's delightfully creepy ‘By Her Hand, She Draws You Down,’ about a young woman who is driven by a mysterious hunger to sketch people and steal their life force as her horrified lover looks on.” —Booklist "I was reminded of the tone of some of Harlan Ellison’s best work...where many of the protagonists seemed to be the unwitting victims of dark, irrational forces.” —The Fix “...a title that rules. ...psychic vampirism, creepy street performers, the horrors of small coastal towns. And Smith took the story somewhere that surprised me. The twist is sustained.” —Jay Lake, Tangent Online “...examines vampirism from an unusual and genuinely horrifying angle.” —SF Site Review "Well done and with a nice twist..." —Fantasy Book Critic "Haunting passages and scenes..." —Strange Horizons “...a chilling, weird tale of an artist with a great hunger.” —The Haunted Weblog “Familiar subjects...dealt with in an original form and with a final turn that will surprise you.” — Bibliopolis
Sunburst Award Finalist | Aurora Award Finalist | CBC Bookies Award Finalist Chimerascope [ki-meer-uh-skohp] — a story of many parts... A young artist hungers to draw you. A dinner conversation takes three lifetimes to finish. A geologist faces a planet-sized, eons-old puzzle to save her crew. The hero of the Fall of Earth must choose between love and revenge. A mysterious dancer leads a businessman to a most exclusive nightclub. A man is born each day into a new life — only to die each night. A sentient aurora threatens the last of humanity. A Norse god’s bar in Toronto hosts an unplanned family reunion. A woman descends into insanity — or is it the end of the world? A house as big as the world. Chimerascope is the first full collection of short fiction from the multi-award winning Douglas Smith, containing sixteen of his best stories, including an award winner, a Best New Horror selection, and eight award finalists. Sixteen stories of fantasy and science fiction that take you from love in fourteenth-century Japan to humanity’s last stand, from virtual reality to the end of reality, from alien drug addictions to a dinner where a man loses everything.
A charming novel about sisterhood, self-identity, and friendship from the author of Flutter Indie Lee Chickory knows she's not as cool as her older sister Bebe. Bebe has more friends, for one. And no one tells Bebe she's a fish freak, for two. So when Indie accidentally brings her pet lobster to school, makes a scene, loses him in the ocean and embarrasses Bebe worse than usual, she makes a wish on a star to become a better Chickory. She tries to do this by joining the stage crew of the community's theater production, The Sound of Music. (Bebe has a starring role.) But Bebe is worried that Indie will embarrass her again, so she gives her a makeover and tells her who she should be friends with. That means Owen is out. But he's fun and smart, so Indie keeps her friendship with him a secret. At night, Indie and Owen rebuild a tree house into a ship in the sky to catch Indie's pet lobster. But during the day, Indie has to hide her friendship with Owen. When things come to a head, Indie realizes that being true to yourself is more important than being cool. But what's even more surprising is that Bebe realizes it, too. Praise for TRACING STARS * “This improbable plot and spunky protagonist are appealing bait for a heartfelt, memorable story.”--Kirkus Reviews, starred review * “This timeless story perfectly captures the growth that summer affords kids when, after endless days and nights, they emerge truer versions of themselves.”--Booklist, starred review “Moulton’s sensitivity to her characters’ emotions extends this quiet tale’s mood and setting. (8–11 years)”--The Horn Book
The second novel by Robert Penn Warren, author of the Pulizter-Prize-winning All The King's Men, is a tour de force and a neglected classic. At Heaven’s Gate, Robert Penn Warren’s second novel, is a neglected classic of twentieth-century fiction. First published in 1943, it grew out of the author’s years in Nashville during a period of political and financial scandals much like those later so memorably portrayed his Pulitzer-Prize-winning All The King’s Men. Other formative elements, as he has said, "came originally out of Dante by a winding path." During the winter of 1939-40 in Rome, where the first half of the book was written, one of the most touching characters, a "Christ-bit mountaineer," and his part of the story literally came full-blown to the author in a typhus-induced delirium. At Heaven’s Gate is a novel of violence, of human beings struggling against a fate beyond their power to alter, of corruption, and of honor. It is the story of Sue Murdock, the daughter of an unscrupulous speculator who has created a financial empire in the South, and the three men with whom she tries to escape the dominance of her father and her father’s world. The background is the capital of a Southern state in the late twenties and the promoters and politicians, the aristocrats and poor whites, the labor organizers and the dispossessed farmers, the backwoods prophets and university intellectuals who are drawn into its orbit. Warren’s picture of the South is as fresh, dramatic, and powerful today as it was when the book was first published. Its plot structure is a tour de force.
Ever since Salinger, nine seems to be a magic number when it comes to rendering debut short story collections. Frederic Colier’s A Memoir of Absence is no exception. Embarking on an evocative journey through the heartland of our own delusions, Colier’s terse prose guides us beyond the barren cultural plane of our all-too-malleable American dreams taking us into a realm of intellectual urgency, linguistic renewal, and eventual hope. Here – where relativist cant, contemporary platitudes, and even shocking news become no more than the white noise of a fleeting civilization – there is nothing more alarming than the ensuing silence left by those collisions that never get the chance to take place: In the title story, an estranged father and son are each relegated their own brand of dystopia only to find that it is their respective torments that ineffably bind them to one another. While one pursues impossible love around the globe, the other tries making sense of the void surrounding him. Oddly, it is their parallel misfortunes that find shelter in the harmonious space of absence recalled. Similarly, Lipstick on the Fishbowl depicts how grief often blinds one from seeing the object of loss. As a bereaved businessman searches for the proper way to express loss for his departed wife, he begins to overlook the significance of her passing. As for those in throes of jealousy misreading even the best of intentions, The Depth of Swimming Pool is a somber portrayal of a woman who – in her state of constant apprehension – ends up undermining that which she most desires. But whether it is observers dreaming of becoming participants, or the emotionally alienated hordes for whom pain becomes a final solace, the terrain traversed by Colier’s nine stories is neither one that would fill a postcard nor one that sports the trendy wasteland so readily employed by our time’s countdown artists. As the lonely overweight opera singer Josephina considers the abject proposals of a sexless man, or the abused young woman in Cristianos y Moros finally returns home to confront her dismissive parents, we note with relief that Colier’s intention is not to flesh out some vague musings about our era but to attend to those who straddle the crossroads of a world where choosing a direction is no longer a value in itself. If there is a poignancy to be had, A Memoir of Absence says we’re to find it in those uncertain moments when event is temporarily subsumed by interpretation. This does not mean that observations made by characters are lucid or objective. On the contrary, it is our vulnerability to catch phrases, our compromised visions, and our pathos while estimating our own suffering hearts that bring integrity to our lives. Colier’s short stories are the fragments of a lost anthem – the disparate melodies that once made up what we mystically referred to as, the human spirit.
The ex-military pilot. The bewitched single mother. The plane crash that saves their lives. Getting pregnant by the wrong man and trying to make it right didn’t serve me well. It’s been years and we’re not any closer to where we should be. Working night and day in an I.C.U. doesn’t bode well for a relationship, either, but I’m doing my best. Tonight, the most beautiful man walks into the hospital. He’s here for his father, who was just rushed in with a massive heart attack. If the man lives through the night, I’ll be surprised. His son, Garrett Ford, is a pilot, and he’s dressed like one. It’s difficult to focus on my job with a man who is larger than life, and dressed to kill, with piercingly blue eyes and full lips. What’s more, he’s very polite and professional, which gets me. When his father wakes up for just a second and thinks I’m his estranged wife, Garrett looks at me in a way that I’ll never forget. *** She’s hands down the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Nora could stop traffic. What’s more, she’s smart, hard working, independent, and she’s the best single parent I’ve ever met. Her kid’s dad is a pill, but I have to turn the other cheek with him around, even though I know he’d rather see me crash and burn than see Nora and I together. I soon learn what lengths he’ll go to to remove me from the picture. We’ll see how far he gets. Trouble is, Nora sees him through a different set of eyes, and there is no convincing her that he is what he is. It’s tough being the outsider in this three person relationship, and sometimes I feel like Nora’s daughter Missy just puts up a front for me. I mean, what kid wouldn’t want her natural father and mother to be together? Soon, it’s clear just how much that is true… HEA (Happily Ever After) Second chance romance Medical romance Military romance Medium heat Course language Mild cliffhanger ending Third book in a complete 5 book standalone series "An emotional story that grabs you from the beginning. The subject matter was dealt with brilliantly. I love the Ford brothers and their sense of family. Looking forward to reading Dalton's story." - 5 Stars from Belinda, Amazon reviewer "I am so in love with these books!! Great read, well written. Just enough drama and romance to keep you interested the ENTIRE TIME!!!" - 5 Stars from Brooke, Amazon reviewer "This book is another demonstration of the close relationship between the Ford brothers. Garrett finds the love of his life only to lose her due to a lie. His brothers support him through his pain." - 5 Stars from @rdcorder1, Bookbub reviewer "I LOVED this story about a second chance at love. Full of passion, heartbreak, misunderstandings and family togetherness through tough times. It also touches on the effects of mental illness too. I really couldn’t put it down." - 5 Stars from Bella Gwyn, Goodreads reviewer "So many twists and turns, the depth of emotions as the story explores many issues faced by couples and families, especially when adding in mental health issues and estranged parents. The power of family strength shines through all the Ford brothers books and this is another incredible read!!!" - 5 Stars from Mandy Foley, Goodreads reviewer
From the bestselling author of Jewel and The Difference Between Women and Men comes a haunting novel of home, family, and the pursuit of lost dreams. Ancient Highway brilliantly weaves together the hopes and regrets of three characters from three generations as they reconcile who they are and who they might have been. In 1925, a fourteen-year-old boy leaves his family’s farm and hops a boxcar in a dusty Texas field, heading for Hollywood and a life in the “flickers.” In 1947, a ten-year-old girl aches for a real home with a real family in a wide-open space, far from the crowded Los Angeles streets where her handsome cowboy father chases stardom and her mother holds a secret. In 1980, a young man just out of the Navy visits his elderly yet colorful grandparents in Los Angeles, eager to uncover his family’s silent history. For the Holmeses, a longing for something else–another place, a second chance–seems to run in the family DNA. From Earl’s journey west toward Hollywood glory, to his daughter Joan’s wish for a normal existence away from the bright lights, to his grandson Brad’s yearning for truth, this deep-rooted desire sustains them, no matter how much the goal eludes them. But ultimately, in each generation, a family crisis forces a turning away from the horizon and the acceptance of a reality that is by turns harsh and healing. Inspired by stories of his own family, Bret Lott beautifully renders the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary faith in a mesmerizing and finely wrought tale of love and letting go.
