This memoir stands out as a beautifully written account of a mostly happy, mostly normal, fully real life at once both ordinary and extraordinary. Sheirer explores intensely personal experiences and relationships with humor, surprise, awe, suspense, and deep insight. With the depth of a memoir and the flow of a novel, Sheirer chronicles how his simple youth of farm, sports, school, nature, and family led him to an unlikely adulthood as an author and college professor.
One Bite: Stories for Short Attention Spans, Stolen Moments, and Busy Lives -- John Sheirer's short stories chronicle moments that seem ordinary. A middle-aged man sends his first text message. A simple knee surgery goes in an unexpected direction. An innocently friendly wave invites ridicule. The neighbors' dogs won't stop barking. But, in the hands of a master storyteller such as John Sheirer, these moments become far from ordinary. Sheirer's stories range from "hint" fiction of a few sentences, to "flash" fiction of one to four pages, to a few traditional-length stories. Most of the stories have won awards or been published in print and online literary journals. They are often humorous and occasionally poignant, always showing the trademark wit and wisdom that has made Sheirer's well-received memoirs so popular. Each story from this award-winning writing teacher provides surprise, delight, and an odd take on the world that only sharply written fiction can provide.
Russian immigrant Owen Heron comes to the US to make his fortune in the dotcom boom. When circumstance finds him out of work, he searches for direction in life, and wiles away the hours in the NJ Pine Barrens with his faithful dog. The chance discovery of a small fortune puts Owen back on the path to happiness - or so he thinks. Owen's unwitting & unsavory benefactors are anxious to get their money back, and will risk anything to accomplish their mission -- unless someone or something can stop them.
When Lena’s traveling nurse contract takes her back to Nashville, she’s also back under the scrutinizing eyes of her Uncle Conrad, the man who raised her. The one man too dangerous to touch… Jake's the go-to operator for Conrad’s private contracting firm and that makes Lena off-limits. But he has dreamt of her for years and now she’s at his doorstep. Can passions shared in the dark survive secrets coming to light?
No matter how long you have been saved, it is inevitable that even the most holy Christians must endure a constant battle with un-forgiveness! This inspirational book is about one man's journey through life, including difficulties of broken relationships, legal battles, and triumph over personal addictions. Against all odds, he became a pastor who uses his past to fuel his ministry in an effort to inspire others. His relationship with Jesus Christ has given his life new meaning. The story is a fanciful saga of continuous moments involving betrayal, defeat, victory, transformation, and change as the only constant. It is a Christian-based message that shows the vicissitudes of life from a more subjective angle. We believe that this original true-life experience will bless your socks off! It is a concise power pack of emotions which spring forth through articulated passion.
Siobhan Spencer is a former child movie star, but her past still comes back to haunt her. After a long string of dates who judged her because they knew who she was, Siobhan decided to take a break from dating. That is, until Juliet sets her up with Jacob, who has never heard of Siobhan. How will her insecurities and past get in the way of what could be a great relationship, and how will she make it right again?
Do you have a dream where you freely get to be creative, use your imagination or just express yourself? If you're not dead, then neither is your dream. It's never too late to jump back into or start your creative journey. It's time to start suppressing those inner voices that keep saying, "It's a waste of time" and learn the true benefits that being creative, imaginative and expressive can bring. You don't have to leave everything in your life to start this journey. You just have to accept you already have the creative virus and that is a wonderful thing. With this book, I hope to get you to embrace creativity Michael Joseph is a lifelong artist, DJ, author, dancer, performer, creator and part time robot who can't turn off the creative spark. It took over 50 years and a worldwide pandemic for him to realize he already had what he was looking for: a creative life.
The Bear Book brings together an impressive range of bear--usually big, hairy men who favor full-face beards and prefer to wear jeans and flannel shirts--viewpoints to explore this unique social and cultural phenomenon that stretches from America to western Europe to Australia! On the personal level, you learn what beardom means to different people in their daily lives, and on a broader level, its cultural implications for not only the gay community, but also society as a whole. As this book moves across the wide spectrum of bear identities, you learn about the defining forces of identity, the significance of differences among masculinities, and the shapings of the bear movement from different viewpoints. The Bear Book is the first compilation of sociological and cultural analytical investigations of the contemporary gay bear phenomenon. To this end, Editor Les Wright brings together both objective and subjective viewpoints to create a forum where bears can speak for themselves. Through their voices, you’ll learn about: bears and sexual identity gay male iconography socializing on the Internet sexual politics (gender, class, “looks-ism,” and body image) gay mass media, the single most powerful force in the current construction of ”bears” bears, power, and glamor bear-as-image vs. bear-as-attitude Gays, lesbians, lesbigay scholars, bears, and social scientists are sure to find The Bear Book thought-provoking and insightful as it broaches questions such as: Are bears caught up in a utopian-romantic impulse to reinvent themselves? What was radical lesbianism’s impact on the bear movement? To what extent are bears only another group of exploited consumers in a fragmented market system? And, is it possible to establish social liberation through enslavement to your sexual passions? For both your pleasure and your education, The Bear Book examines nearly every corner of beardom, including bear history, identity, social spaces, iconography, and its constituency abroad.
Featuring the work of photographer Paul Barbera, this book documents creativity in 32 Japanese studios. Photographer Paul Barbera presents his next volume in the Where They Create series – this time with a different approach, by exploring the theme of his series through geographical locales. Reinvigorated by his first visit to Japan in five years, he makes this country the starting point of this new volume. Through the lens of creative spaces, Barbera chronicles his journey as he uncovers how contemporary Japanese design, art and creative thinking, has influenced and inspired the world (and vice versa). Barbera's search is simple and clear: he only visits the studios of people whose work he loves and admires, and who have inspiring spaces. For this book, Barbera was invited to shoot the studios of 32 creatives like Anrealage, Kengo Kuma, Wonderwall, Nendo, Tadao Ando, Tokujin Yoshioka, Toyo Ito and many more. Interviews with these creators reveal how their daily environment influences their output. Features Successor to the first portfolio book of Paul Barbera, which was an inspiring publication created out the successful weblog (wheretheycreate.com)The subjects of this book come from all walks of life artists, architects and graphic designers to fashion designers and a flower artists – with engaging stories of how they have arrived at ‘where they create’.The book provides a rare view into the surroundings of some of the greatest Japanese creative minds of our time.Additional interviews with experts on Japanese design shed some light and personal insights on the country’s creative thinking.
