The main theme of my book is that the afterlife is real and substantial and that all of us, when we arrive there at some point, will soon realize this. Our spiritual bodies are very much like our natural bodies, except that the spiritual bodies are in perfect shape. Life in the afterlife is, at least superficially, very much like life on Earth. People in the spiritual world live in real places: beautiful cities or country locations in heaven, and noisome slums in hell. People there work as they do on Earthwillingly and joyously in heaven, not so in hell. They also enjoy time off from work, which is marvelous in heaven and, within strict limits, somewhat enjoyable in Hell. We are full human beings in the afterlife, up to and including that dreaded word for most religionssex. But in the spiritual world, time and space function differently, being fluid and connected to our thoughts and emotions; deception is nearly impossible, and the economy is a moneyless one.

This book proposes a fundamental relationship between exile and mapping. It seeks to understand the cartographic imperative inherent in the exilic condition, the exilic impulses fundamental to mapping, and the varied forms of description proper to both. The vital intimacy of the relationship between exile and mapping compels a new spatial literacy that requires the cultivation of localized, dynamic reading practices attuned to the complexities of understanding space as text and texts as spatial artifacts. The collection asks: what kinds of maps do exiles make? How are they conceived, drawn, read? Are they private maps or can they be shaped collectively? What is their relationship to memory and history? How do maps provide for new ways of imagining the fractured experience of exile and offer up both new strategies for reading displacement and new displaced reading strategies? Where does exilic mapping fit into a history of cartography, particularly within the twentieth-century spatial turn? The original work that makes up this interdisciplinary collection presents a varied look at cartographic strategies employed in writing, art, and film from the pre-Contact Americas to the Renaissance to late postmodernism; the effects of exile, in its many manifestations, on cartographic textual systems, ways of seeing, and forms of reading; the challenges of traversing and mapping unstable landscapes and restrictive social and political networks; and the felicities and difficulties of both giving into the map and attempting to escape the map that provides for exile in the first place. Cartographies of Exile will be of interest to students and scholars working in literary and cultural studies; gender, sexuality, and race studies; anthropology; art history and architecture; film, performance, visual studies; and the fine arts.

The Wanderer was born out of words and urgency. They seem to be human, they try to find out what that means, but in order to do that, they have to become animal, river, object, equals and opposites, the same in their differences. In the beginning there were ideas. They were dwelling places. The Wanderer spent time in all of them, slowly growing, changing, becoming. Moving from one to the other, mirroring them, absorbing them. They became a map. A map for the future.

Drawing on a thousand years of European travel writing and mapmaking, Dym suggests that after centuries of text-based itineraries and on-the spot directions guiding travelers and constituting their reports, maps in the fifteenth century emerged as tools for Europeans to support and report the results of land and sea travel. With each succeeding generation, these linear journey maps have become increasingly common and complex, responding to changes in forms of transportation, such as air and motor car ‘flight’ and print technology, especially the advent of multi-color printing. This is their story.

The warrior woman known as Infidel is legendary for her superhuman strength and skin tough as chain mail. She’s made few friends during her career as a sword-for-hire, and many powerful enemies. Following the death of her closest companion, Infidel finds herself weary of life as a mercenary and sets her eyes on one final prize that will allow her to live out the rest of her days in luxury, the priceless treasure trove of Greatshadow. Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire. His malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every flickering candle, patiently waiting to devour victims careless with even the smallest flame. The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the quest who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who dream only of Greatshadow’s vast wealth. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire? Greatshadow is the first book in an exciting new adventure series, blending superheroes and epic fantasy into a unique take on both genres.