Vann Noble did his duty. He served his country and returned a shell of a man, wounded inside and out. With a missing limb and battling PTSD, he seeks healing in an isolated cabin outside a small Texas town with a stray dog that sees beyond his master's scars. If only the white rune's magic can bring a happily ever after to a man as broken as Vann. On the run from hired killers and struggling to make sense of her unexplained deadly mission, Nakina Bird seeks refuge in Vann's cabin. She has secrets. Secrets that can get them all killed. A ticking clock and long odds of living or dying, create jarring risks. Will these two not only survive but find unexpected love along the way? Or, will evil forces win and destroy them both?
Winner of the 2000 Associated Writing Programs' Award in PoetrySelected by Li-Young LeeJoanie Mackowski's debut collection of poetry is meditative, vivid, sometimes weird. Turning an idiosyncratic eye to the inhabitants of zoos and fish tanks, cafes and cemeteries, she illuminates details that make the familiar seem strange. An egret stands "still as a glass of milk"; iceberg lettuce is a "vegetable leviathan" that "extends beneath the dinner table / an unseen, monstrous green"; a bald eagle may "love a jet?— / or worship them all, or mock them, rigid / freaks that never linger."An insistent musicality fills these poems, whether asking, "Ailing, alien, alone, / are you ill in your ear or in error?" exhorting, "Remember the Alamo, remember Armageddon, / remember the mustard and chard in your garden," or reflecting, "one does wonder what one does wonder one does." Mackowski's practical metaphysics and desperate wit puzzle the boundary between essence and ornament, revelation and disguise, reason and the loss of it.
Together in one volume, two frighteningly hilarious Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. adventures! UNNATURAL ACTS To be dead, or not to be dead... In the Unnatural Quarter, golems slave away in sweatshops, necromancers sell black-market trinkets to tourists, and the dead rise up—to work the night shift. But zombie detective Dan Shamble is no ordinary working stiff. When a local senator and his goons picket a ghostly production of Shakespeare in the Dark—condemning the troupe’s “unnatural” lifestyles—Dan smells something rotten. And if something smells rotten to a zombie, you’re in serious trouble.... Before his way of life, er, death is destroyed, Dan wants answers. Along the way, he needs to provide security for a mummified madame, defend a mixed-race couple (he’s a vampire, she’s a werewolf) from housing discrimination, and save his favorite watering hole, the Goblin Tavern, from drying up. Throw in a hairy hit-man and a bank robber who walks through walls, and Dan Shamble’s plate is full. Maybe this time the zombie detective has bitten off more than he can chew... HAIR RAISING The fur really flies when a serial scalper stalks the supernatural citizens of the Unnatural Quarter, targeting werewolves—and what's sadder than a bald lycanthrope? Dan Shamble, zombie P.I., is on the case, trying to stop an all-out gang war between full-time and full-moon werewolves. As he combs through the tangled clues to hunt down the bald facts, things get hairy fast. Shamble lurches through a loony landscape of voodoo tattoo artists, illicit cockatrice fights, body builders assembling make-your-own human kits, and perhaps scariest of all, crazed fans in town for the Worldwide Horror Convention. Yet the reign of hair-raising terror grows longer. If Shamble can't snip this off at the roots, the whole world could end up howling mad.
A shocking proposal that changes everything. Desperate to honor his father’s dying wish, Layken Martin vows to do whatever it takes to save the family farm. Once the Army discharges him following World War II, Layken returns to Missouri to find his legacy in shambles and in jeopardy. A foreclosure notice from the bank doubles the threat. He appeals to the local banker for more time—a chance to rebuild, plant, and harvest crops and time to heal far away from the noise of bombs and gunfire. But the banker firmly denies his request. Now what? Then, the banker makes an alternative proposition—marry his unwanted daughter, Sara Beth, in exchange for a two-year extension. Out of options, money, and time, Layken agrees to the bargain. Now, he has two years to make a living off the land while he shares his life with a stranger. If he fails at either, he’ll lose it all.
"The entire town is disguised," declared a French tourist of eighteenth-century Venice. And, indeed, maskers of all ranks—nobles, clergy, imposters, seducers, con men—could be found mixing at every level of Venetian society. Even a pious nun donned a mask and male attire for her liaison with the libertine Casanova. In Venice Incognito, James H. Johnson offers a spirited analysis of masking in this carnival-loving city. He draws on a wealth of material to explore the world view of maskers, both during and outside of carnival, and reconstructs their logic: covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history. This vivid account goes beyond common views that masking was about forgetting the past and minding the muse of pleasure to offer fresh insight into the historical construction of identity.
To Be Dead Or Not To Be Dead In the Unnatural Quarter, golems slave away in sweatshops, necromancers sell black-market trinkets to tourists, and the dead rise up--to work the night shift. But zombie detective Dan Shamble is no ordinary working stiff. When a local senator and his goons picket a ghostly production of Shakespeare in the Dark--condemning the troupe's "unnatural" lifestyles--Dan smells something rotten. And if something smells rotten to a zombie, you're in serious trouble. . . Before his way of life, er, death, is destroyed, Dan wants answers. Along the way he needs to provide security for a mummified madame, defend a mixed-race couple (he's a vampire, she's a werewolf) from housing discrimination, and save his favorite watering hole, the Goblin Tavern, from drying up. Throw in a hairy hitman, a necro-maniac, and a bank robber who walks through walls, and Dan Shamble's plate is full. Maybe this time, the zombie detective has bitten off more than he can chew. . . Praise for Death Warmed Over "Wickedly funny, deviously twisted and enormously satisfying. This is a big juicy bite of zombie goodness. Two decaying thumbs up."--Jonathan Maberry "A darkly funny, wonderfully original detective tale."--Kelley Armstrong "An unpredictable walk on the weird side. Prepare to be entertained." --Charlaine Harris
Part IV of THE COPPER PROMISE, the first in the exhilarating British Fantasy Award-nominated Copper Cat Trilogy. Epic fantasy for fans of Robin Hobb and Jay Kristoff's Nevernight series. 'A fast-paced and original new voice in heroic fantasy' Adrian Tchaikovsky , author of Children of Time Demons and gods, revenge and lies, and still the dragon moves slowly north. Wydrin, Sebastian and Frith now have the tools that could end the destruction, but a vast army lies between them and victory, and time is running out. The race is on to stop Y'Ruen before all of Ede is under her flame. The complete novel, THE COPPER PROMISE, is available from Headline in Paperback and Ebook
The neat thing about getting old is that you can flirt outrageously with anyone you want, and they dont take you seriously. Or maybe they do! 101 Poems and Philosophies includes poems and mini-essays about growing older. Oh, what fun it is, arthritis, dementia, and enough anxiety to see you to the cemetery and beyond. In a serious vein, some pieces present hope for end-of-life issues and, indeed, for the beyond.
This collection of fifteen papers ranges from the author's initial interest in the Tapestry as a source of information on early medieval dress, through to her startling recognition of the embroidery's sophisticated narrative structure. Developing the work of previous authors who had identified graphic models for some of the images, she argues that not just the images themselves but the contexts from which they were drawn should be taken in to account in 'reading' the messages of the Tapestry. In further investigating the minds and hands behind this, the largest non-architectural artefact surviving from the Middle Ages, she ranges over the seams, the embroidery stitches, the language and artistry of the inscription, the potential significance of borders and the gestures of the figures in the main register, always scrutinising detail informatively. She identifies an over-riding conception and house style in the Tapestry, but also sees different hands at work in both needlecraft and graphics. Most intriguingly, she recognises an sub-contractor with a Roman source and a clownish wit. The author is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at The University of Manchester, UK, a specialist in Old English poetry, Anglo-Saxon material culture and medieval dress and textiles.
