Outsiders seldom understand the curious amalgam of artists, galleries, misfits and hangers-on known as the Santa Fe Art Scene. In this collection of stories, we witness a group of Santa Fe painters confronting their art and life in creative ways, solving the ages-old problems of painting the perfect canvas, making that obstinate muse smile. Julia Brownell is a patrician beauty whose exhibition of gold-leafed paintings sells out on its opening night and creates an envious discord among her peers. As Parsley Tiddle approaches the end of his creative life, he will not give up his randy ways, to the delight of his younger friends and the wrath of his socialite sister. The narrator of the title story jeopardizes his friendship with Donald Strether, a painter of small abstractions and a devoted rascal, by his disclosures to the guests at a summer luncheon party in the foothills. Robert Fenwick, a New Mexico plein air painter of note, discovers that a commission for landscapes of the Barbados cane fields is a more upside-down proposition than he bargained for. There is a keen sense of irony and suitable punishment for the crime in Atwill’s stories, light-hearted views of the obstacles and the ever-present challenges to making a living from art. Several of the stories are concerned with goings-on in the studio of Alabaster Prynne, a wellborn, Philadelphia spinster, now in spattered coveralls, who befriends artists fresh from school and offers them her encouragement and cautions. The sprawling compound of adobe studios called Casa Marchment is the setting for a tale of earnest, untried artists as they find out that all is not what it appears in the estate of Victor Marchment, a brilliant landscape painter from the early years. Each story contains the secret to a Santa Fe painter, facing craft and life, and how he or she confounds the conventional view of what it is to be an artist. DOUGLAS ATWILL was born in Pasadena, California, earned a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps. After a long sojourn on a Piedmont cattle farm in Virginia and on the move throughout Europe, he settled in Santa Fe to pursue painting full-time. From a studio on Canyon Road, he paints landscapes and paintings of his own gardens. His work is shown in galleries throughout the West. Atwill’s avocation of restoring adobe houses and building them anew has earned him a reputation for excellence in taste and design, and his houses have been featured in many magazines and books. This is his first collection of short stories.

A summer on the California coast calls to Mattox Williams, a writer wanting quiet days to do the finishing work on his novel. He leases his Santa Fe house for three months and finds an ocean-facing room at Glitter Bay. While meeting the other people of the beach community, a love affair develops as well as the surrounding strife. He makes a deep emotional mark on the neighbors, particularly on Hayden Danning and his sister, Sylvan. A surprise offer from a film producer opens his horizons and requires trips south to Hollywood and Laguna Beach. At the end of summer, Mattox tries to find a way to keep alive the love he has found.

Wanda the wanderer, practitioner of the movable feast, barroom pick-up artist, skilled technician at electronics and seduction, is a sexual adventuress who works as a repair and installer technician for a major telephone company. At an earlier age, just at the physical developmental stage where she was entering into puberty and her hormones are starting to run away with her, while on a road trip with her parents, staying in her own room at sleazy motel, she overhears a couple going at it hot and heavy in the next room over on the other side from her parents room. As Wanda listens, captivated, she longs to join the couple in the next room in their thrashing orgasmic encounter. These experiences have transformed Wanda’s life. As the second stage of her life opens, Wanda is now a mature women in her early thirties. Wanda has become fully dedicated at and skillful in the art of seduction and the quick get away without complications. Electronics is her profession and seduction is her hobby - she is dedicated to excellence in both her profession and avocation. She has no desire or intention to fall in love or get married. Both would de-rail her chosen life pattern. She is fully aware that she might find herself alone at the end of her life but she does not care. Wanda is fully ready to end up alone at the end of her life. It is a price she is willing to pay to live her life the way she prefers and wants to live it. Wanda and Chuck met each other under an assumed identity. Chuck's assumption and Wanda's carefully crafted procedure to avoid complications are both blown apart when they meet the next day on the installation project. Chuck is pleasantly surprised to find his lover again. Wanda is totally rattled by the unexpected complication. Things go smoothly. The two grow to like each other. More than just like each other. They make love (on the top of the completed relay tower - fresh roof tar end up on their backs). Wanda violates her rule of not having sex with a man more than once. Chuck is falling in love with Wanda. This is the kind of complication Wanda wants to avoid. Though she likes Chuck enough to violate one of her cardinal rules, Wanda still doesn't want to give up her lifestyle. Will Wanda give up her hedonistic lifestyle to be with Chuck forever? Will true and deeper love will emerge on Wanda's part and whether she and Chuck will come to be together for life or will Wanda's love of the open road triumph over love and take her away from real love and leave her on the road forever moving toward a horizon that keeps receding from her?

Cupid's Little Helpers UNEXPECTED GUARDIAN… Alexandra Reynolds thought Willie was the most adorable male to come into her agency in years. And when the towheaded tyke's mother suddenly disappeared, Alex found herself his unexpected guardian. But then Chase Mainwaring showed up to claim his long-lost nephew and barged right into Alex's life. The ruggedly handsome man had the most amazing eyes—and more charm than was legal. Alex wasn't sure if Chase was Prince Charming or the devil in disguise! But Willie liked him, and soon the little matchmaker had Alex convinced she had lost her heart…and Chase had found it! CUPID'S LITTLE HELPERS… These matchmaking kids come with a happily-ever-after guarantee.

A fun yet thought-provoking modern reimagining of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Eighteen-year-old Beatrice has never been a fan of her neighbor Bennie, but when Beatrice's beloved younger sister starts dating one of Bennie's closest friends, Beatrice is drawn into their social circle. As Beatrice wrestles with increasingly confusing feelings for Bennie, her usually close relationship with her sister is fraying, her grief over their mother’s death is simmering in the background, and she’s overwhelmed by looming senior-year decisions about what she wants to do with her life. But after a crisis arises, Beatrice must figure out how to process past traumas and open up to the possibilities of the future.

James Williams is an SP (special person) - he was diagnosed with autism in childhood. His mother, Joan Matthews, is an NP (normal person). As James grew up, his different perception of the world created problems. Together, he and his mother met the challenges with ingenuity and humour. This is a book of their practical solutions to those problems.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

What if insidious evil flourished in the one place where you feel most safe: your very own home? The chilling answer comes from New York Times bestselling master of suspense John Saul–in a new novel that makes terror a household word. The sudden, tragic death of her husband leaves Carolyn Evans alone in New York City to raise an eleven year-old son and a twelve-year-old daughter on little money and even less hope. But then she meets and marries handsome, successful Anthony Fleming, who wins her heart and embraces her children. When Carolyn settles her family into Anthony’s spacious apartment on Manhattan’s Central Park West, her fears of an uncertain future give way to a sense of abundant happiness. But soon, new terrors will come home to roost in the luxurious, exclusive building named The Rockwell. Midnight voices whisper of a cruel and hungry presence that also calls The Rockwell home. First, Carolyn’s daughter begins to suffer from recurring nightmares of strangers in her room at night. Then her son insists that a neighbor’s recently deceased child isn’t dead at all–but being held captive somewhere in The Rockwell. And when Carolyn discovers a startling secret about Anthony’s past, it seems she, too, is falling victim to the creeping paranoia infecting her family. Should she doubt her perfect husband, their kindly fellow tenants, or her own sanity? Does someone–or something–in her new home have sinister designs on Carolyn and her children? Is her new life charmed or cursed? Step across the threshold of The Rockwell–and into the dark realm of John Saul . . . in a spine-tingling novel that will haunt you wherever you live.