This small collection of poems was written in the course of a decade by an Episcopal priest approaching retirement. The inspiration for them came from the "metaphysical poetry" of the Seventeenth century English priest poets, Donne, Herbert, and Traherne. They were first used in his teaching and spiritual direction and continue to inspire readers. James Delmont, of the National Book Critics Circle, offers the follow description: Michael Tan Creti’s To Make Myself a Word is a marvelous collection of free verse poems and poetic prose reflections that provide a running commentary on life, faith and history – history that is both collective and personal. From the point of view of a pastor in the American Episcopal Church, the author muses, with irony and sensitivity, on ethics, memories, relationships, expectations, disappointments and the daily search for God in our lives. There is a skein of faith stubbornly running through these often exquisitely crafted word portraits that reward the reader with wisdom, continuing questions and even some answers. It is well worth reading – and not all at once.” Recently the text one of the poems, "The Father's Face," has been set as a cappella anthem by the composer Michael McCabe and is available from Parachlete Press, under the title "Seek God Face."

Seeking Love in Modern Britain charts the emergence of the modern British single through an account of the dating industry that sprang up to serve men and women. It shows how – amid a period of unprecedented sexual and social change – 'the single' became a key unisex identity and lifestyle. From around 1970, a growing, cottage-style matchmaking industry in Britain was offering the romantically solo a choice between computer dating firms, such as Dateline or Compudate, introduction agencies and the lonely hearts pages of Private Eye, Time Out and others. Zoe Strimpel reveals how this rapidly expanding landscape of services was catering to a new breed of single people, and how – by the late 1990s – singleness had become the culturally mainstream, wholly expected part of the romantic life cycle that it is today. Refuting the widespread idea that the Internet invented modern dating, this book uses an eclectic and engaging range of first-person accounts and snapshots from the time to show that the story of contemporary romance, mediated courtship and singleness began in a time long before Tinder.

Inspired by the experiences of Richard Starr Dana, author David T. Dana III's great-grandfather, Into the Tiger's Mouth offers new perspectives on a turbulent period. As a young man, Dana lived in three vastly different Chinese cities--Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Hankow. Now, his letters and reminiscences come to life. Starr begins his adventure as an expatriate American merchant, living a life of luxury in the British colony. His curiosity pulls him deep within China's foreign culture, where he fights greed and corruption. As the British and French fight the opium wars, and the Chinese Taiping Rebellion ravages the land. Along the way, Richard Starr faces death, illness, moral conundrums, and profound loneliness in a culture he is worlds away from truly understanding. Nothing is as he expects. Conniving Chinese merchants help him with one hand and cheat him with another while China is threatened by violence and foreign invasion. Amid rebellion, war, corruption, poverty, and opium, conditions deteriorate around him. Dreams of his own fortunes ebb and flow, and he questions his identity. Back at home, Civil War tears America apart. Nothing is as it should be. "An exciting story based on an ancestor. From the shoot 'em up fights, to the very subtle love story, to the quest for money and conflict of values." --Phyllis Forbes Kerr, editor, Letters from China "Moving and interesting stories in this fascinating novel bring the reader back to the days of the old China trade." --Yong Chen, History Department, University of California-Irvine

She has a secret… Fancy Flambeau is many things: the eldest in a family of seven sisters, a talented opera singer, and the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman. No one knows her father’s identity, including her sisters. And Fancy wants to keep it this way. She refuses to end up like her mother — a broken woman who gave up everything for the man she loved. Fancy is determined to make her own way in life and provide for her family without the interference of any man. He has a plan… Stepan Kazanov is many things: the youngest in a family of five brothers, a wealthy prince, and the son of a mother who suffered at the hands of a cruel husband. Stepan is a determined man who goes after what he wants. And he wants the magnificent Fancy Flambeau. But can he make her see that not every aristocrat is like her father? And with a killer on the loose in London, whose victims are opera singers, dancers, and actresses, can Stepan convince the strong-willed Fancy to trust his to protect her from this deadly danger?

Elizabeth Taylor is one of our last great movie stars. An Oscar-winning actress, she has lived her entire life in front of the spotlights, and her glamour and smouldering, sensual charisma are the stuff of legend. In Elizabeth, Alexander Walker presents the story of a life that was lived, on and off camera, with a passion rarely matched by even today's outspoken celebrities. From her privileged childhood, the influence of her strong-willed mother, and her rise to stardom in films like National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, and Cleopatra, to her husbands, her obsession with jewelry, and her amazing resilience in the face of public scandal and personal tragedy, Walker shows us the real Elizabeth--as an actress and as a person determined to live on her own terms.

Welcome to the Sectors, the interstellar civilization where my science fiction adventures take place! In this volume I’ve gathered three stories set in the Sectors which have previously only been available in anthologies (which are no longer on sale), plus a bonus Sectors short holiday story that I originally wrote for my blog. Star Cruise: Stowaway: A novella of 22K words, previously in the ‘Pets In Space’ anthology. Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly. Star Cruise: Rescue: A short story of 9K words, previously in the ‘Romancing the Stars’ anthology. When a shore leave excursion goes terribly wrong for Mira Gage, a member of the Nebula Zephyr’s crew, Security Officer Clint Miltan races the clock to find her before the ship leaves orbit and abandons Mira to her fate. Clint’s got more than a professional interest in Mira, but will he be able to save her from the aliens holding her prisoner? The Golden Token: A short story of 13K words, previously in the limited edition ‘Dealer’s Choice’ paperback anthology handed out at the 2016 RT Booklovers Convention Interstellar Bar & Grille event. Sectors Special Forces operator Charlie McBrire had a few days to kill on a layover at Space Station 47. He never expected to find himself in the middle of a miners’ rebellion, fighting to save the life of a casino dancer he just met but can’t imagine living without. BONUS: Star Cruise: Thanksgiving: A short short story of 3K words, originally published on my blog The crew of the Nebula Zephyr arranges a holiday feast for one of their members.

Their world is not what it seems… Dylan Jones planned for this solar eclipse for two years. He got a prime site at one of the best locations in Oregon, and he intends to savor his last taste of freedom before he has to settled down and finish his Ph.D. thesis. He’s at the festival for sun pictures and maybe some all-night sky watching. And if he can manage it, some much needed time in his leopard form. He’s not there for a weekend fling. But the sexy genius in the site next to his proves too tempting to ignore. Something about Cat’s scent calls to his leopard, pulling him in like catnip, and he just can’t resist her. Catalina Donovan came to Oregon for the solar eclipse, and only the eclipse. Getting away from New York and the constant pressure from the tiger shifter males to choose a mate only increases her determination to enjoy the festival. And the super hot guy in the camp site next to hers only adds spice to her vacation. There’s something about Dylan that draws her, something she can’t quite put her finger on. For someone like Cat, unraveling the puzzle of him is as tempting and enticing as his sexy voice. But there’s more to Dylan than Cat knows. And more to their new relationship than Dylan wants to admit. As they countdown to the eclipse, and things between them heat up, Dylan must decide how much to admit to Cat, how much he dares tell a human. When tiger shifters show up to lay a claim to her, Dylan realizes he might just have to fight for her. And a future neither of them expects. Keywords: Paranormal romance; shapeshifter romance; tiger shifter romance; tiger shifter paranormal romance; paranormal romance series; contemporary fantasy romance series; cat shifter paranormal romance; leopard shifter romance; cat shifter romance

Romancing the Novel examines the ways in which romance forms characteristic of boys' books - as exemplified in the novels of Scott, Dumas, Verne, and Stevenson - influence narratives not generally put in the same category - both psychoanalytical accounts of the psyche and novels by authors as diverse as George Eliot, Ursual Le Guin, Joseph Conrad, and W. G. Sebald. Adventure has been most recently studied largely as a symptom of imperialism's ideological apparatus. But as an intensely familiar story available from the earliest reading, adventure conditions the narratable - its influence is felt from the nursery bed to the analyst's couch. By reading Maurice Sendak with Melanie Klein and Peter Rabbit with Daniel Deronda, Romancing the Novel argues that the power and depth of the generic constraints of the adventure form have not been recognized simply because they are so ubiquitous. Adventure fiction is not merely summer reading whose ephemeral effects dissipate, but rather a pervasive code that exerts powerful effects on the imaginable.

Alan Neff wrote movie and book reviews and interviewed Hollywood stars for the Seattle Gay News from 1983-1993; he has been published in the Advocate. Movies, Movie Stars, and Me boasts Jim Henson, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Spike Lee, Lily Tomlin, John Waters, Pauline Kael, Rita Mae Brown, and other exciting personalities caught unguarded and exposed. Reviews of Labyrinth, Top Gun, No Way Out, Dirty Dancing, The Whales of August, Pretty Woman, The Grifters, Switch, George Cukor: A Double Life, Tales of the City, (and much more!), are lively reading and can be used for reference or as a guide to picking videos. And included in this format are Alan Neff's politically-charged "letters-to-the-editor," re-printed from major periodicals.

As Christopher Nolan’s Batman films and releases from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have regularly topped the box office charts, fans and critics alike might assume that the “comic book movie” is a distinctly twenty-first-century form. Yet adaptations of comics have been an integral part of American cinema from its very inception, with comics characters regularly leaping from the page to the screen and cinematic icons spawning comics of their own. Movie Comics is the first book to study the long history of both comics-to-film and film-to-comics adaptations, covering everything from silent films starring Happy Hooligan to sound films and serials featuring Dick Tracy and Superman to comic books starring John Wayne, Gene Autry, Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello, Alan Ladd, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. With a special focus on the Classical Hollywood era, Blair Davis investigates the factors that spurred this media convergence, as the film and comics industries joined forces to expand the reach of their various brands. While analyzing this production history, he also tracks the artistic coevolution of films and comics, considering the many formal elements that each medium adopted and adapted from the other. As it explores our abiding desire to experience the same characters and stories in multiple forms, Movie Comics gives readers a new appreciation for the unique qualities of the illustrated page and the cinematic moving image.