Ruby's finding out that life is all about improv...Small–town girl Ruby Madden has moved to Marin County, California; home of high–dollar homes and green living. The girls wear shoes that cost more than her entire paycheck at the Underground Coffeehouse & Theater, and the students are well–traveled and full of life experiences that Ruby can only dream of.All the stresses of adjusting to her new life have put a strain on her ability to trust God. Yet when mysterious and eye–catching Kaden invites Ruby to join the school's film group, the puzzle pieces start to fit. Her love of art finds perfect expression and the film friends seem to really get her. When a major Hollywood director hosts an amateur film contest, Ruby and her friends are stoked.But Ruby's old life is tugging her backward and her frantic balancing act throws her new life totally off track. To top things off, Ruby makes a mistake that could cost her the chance of a lifetime.Life would be so much easier... Views: 59
The Exaltarch rules the Tyranian Empire through force and a network of spies known as the Brotherhood. In Kardiastan, Tyrans has forced out the Magor ruling class and imposed their own leaders. Ligea Gayed, one of the top agents of the Brotherhood, is ordered to find a Kardiastan rebel leader and bring him to justice. A straightforward enough assignment for her, but all Ligea finds is mystery upon mystery. The rebels seem able to come and go at will and any attempt to pursue them across the desert ends in disaster. Ligea has to face her own demons and her own violent past to discover the secrets of Kardiastan ... Views: 59
The War Between Tops and Bottoms. Not Your Average Down Low Story Views: 59
"Sims, editor of this brilliant collection, gathers stories of the undead written during what he loosely terms the Victorian era.... the bloodsuckers presented here are predators who can be turned away only by Christian symbols, garlic, and little else. Do not expect sparkling Twilight vampires or even the good-guy types that sometimes appeared in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. An excellent addition to popular fiction and literature collections." --Library Journal (starred review)"*Dracula's Guest invokes the dangerous shadows of Victorian culture, those dark places where passion, terror, pathos, and sorrow mingle and merge. Gathering together canonical works along with less familiar knock-out masterpieces, Michael Sims has produced an anthology designed to keep us all up at night."--Maria Tatar, professor and chair of the program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, author of The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales and *Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood"In this fine new anthology, Michael Sims brings to bear his extensive knowledge of Victorian tales and their tellers on the vampire genre. Despite the title, Sims's nets have caught fascinating material that pre-dates Dracula and the Victorians. Some will be familiar (excerpts from works by the Abbé Calmet, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Varney the Vampire, for example), but other authors and stories will be new to many, revealing an unexpected depth and breadth to the thrall of the undead. With a thoughtful introduction to the volume as well as each story, this book belongs in the crypt of every student of the creatures of the night!"--Leslie S. Klinger, editor of The New Annotated Dracula and *The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes*"Everyone loves a good vampire story, but it takes a true aficionado with an insatiable thirst for knowledge to ferret out the roots of these monsters' enduring appeal. There is no better guide to the natural history and mythology of the Undead than Michael Sims."--Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Physics of the Buffyverse and *Black Bodies and Quantum Cats*About the AuthorMichael Sims is the author of the acclaimed Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination, Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form, and editor of the recent The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime: Con Artists, Burglars, Rogues, and Scoundrels from the Time of Sherlock Holmes. He lives in western Pennsylvania. Views: 59
Some say that outlaws no longer
exist, that the true spirit of the American West died with the legendary bandits
of pulp novels and bedtime stories. Charlie Hood knows that nothing could be
further from the truth. These days he patrols vast stretches of the new American
West, not on horseback but in his cruiser.
The outlaws may not carry six-shooters, but they’re strapped all the same.
Along the desolate and dusty roads of this new frontier, Hood prefers to ride
alone, and he prefers to ride at night. At night, his headlights illuminate only
the patch of pavement ahead of him; all the better to hide from the demons—and
the dead outlaws—receding in his rearview mirror.
But Hood doesn’t always get what he wants; certainly not when he’s assigned a
partner in Terry Laws, a County veteran who everyone calls Mr. Wonderful. And
not when Laws is shot dead in the passenger seat and Hood is left to bear
witness by someone who knew Mr. Wonderful didn’t always live up to his nickname.
As he sets out to find the gunman, Hood knows one thing for sure: The West is a
state of mind, one where the bad guys sometimes wear white hats—and the good
guys seek justice in whatever shade of gray they find it. Views: 59
