Fiction

In a town nestled between magic and miracle, snuggled between dream and deja vu, Mary Jane Higgins embarks on a series of perilous journeys, determined to resolve the riddle of Christmasville. Although it's forbidden, she crosses train tracks, approaches the bottomless abyss, travels through a wilderness "that operates according to a different set of rules". Along the way she encounters a mysterious donkey, a shepherd boy with his lamb and three riders on ... camels?

'... but camels only exist in myths and fairy tales, like unicorns and giraffes, dragons and elephants.' On the changing checkerboard of Christmasville, buildings and homes are re-shuffled annually. The calendar consists of only two pages: December and January. But no one gets any older. And the worst of ailments are poison ivy, color blindness, and signs of that most harrowing of conditions: partial baldness. It's a town perennially covered in new fallen snow, perpetually decorated in yuletide trimmings. It's a town that in many ways is typical, or evocative - one that we might dream of - but one which operates according to three, notably different, phenomena - time, space and memory. And no one - save one - suspects that something is askew."

The Tree Museum
by Kathleen Kaufman

To Whom It May Concern:
In order to live harmoniously
And avoid conflict, we have
Devised these simple guidelines for survival.
Those who choose not to follow these guidelines
Will risk permanent removal if they decide
Not to correct their error…

With these simple roadside signs, an unseen force is reshaping the fabric of society and Nate has had enough. But all Rosemary wants is a peaceful life with the man who used to put her first.

When Rosemary goes in search of her simple life, Nate is forced to choose between rebelling against the ominous forces changing his world and the woman he loves.

As Nate and Rosemary travel across an unrecognizable new landscape, internal and external forces build to an explosive climax in a lyric examination of one couple’s place in today’s world, the power of words to change our lives and the ultimate personal cost of Utopia.

Devil In The North Woods: A Novel Based On The 1908 Metz, Michigan Wildfire
by Walt Shiel

In October 1908, a wildfire swept through northeast Michigan and consumed 900 homes and two million acres of farms and forest. Despite the valiant efforts of the farmers, lumbermen, and shopkeepers, only Lake Huron could quench the flames. With no fire watch towers, spotting aircraft, telephones, or organized firefighting and only limited telegraph, warnings were too few and too late. The conflagration left 43 dead and 4,600 homeless as the relentless winter loomed.

Devil in the North Woods contrasts the terror of nature’s destruction with a chronicle of family, love, sorrow, and recovery. The story leaves the reader buoyed by faith in the resilience of the human spirit and belief in love’s ability to germinate amid the ashes of ruin. The book includes a map and five historical photos.

Lord of the Dead
by Lisa A. Shiel

Lord of the Dead, Book Two in the Human Origins Series (begun with The Hunt for Bigfoot), launches Katy and Rick on a continuation of their quest for the truth about human origins, this time through the pages of the enigmatic Book of Thoth.

The story affords a chance to explore the real debate between Egyptologists, who believe the Book of Thoth contained scientific knowledge largely reproduced elsewhere, and New Age enthusiasts, who assert the book held magical power and wisdom.

Once again, this imaginative series blends author Shiel’s in-depth knowledge of archaeology, anthropology and alternative history into an entertaining and fast-paced tale of mystery, UFOs, Bigfoot, murder and mayhem.

Pilots and Normal People
by Walt Shiel

Is it really possible to forget a prejudice ingrained during war?
Does death really close the door to life?
Can a grounded pilot find another way to return to the sky?
Are physical laws the same throughout the universe?
Is aviation mostly intellect or mostly emotion?
Are criminals just as smart as the law-abiding?
Can one man fight back against society's increasing crudeness?
Do space explorers really need a spaceship?

These and many other intriguing questions are explored in Walt Shiel's eclectic short fiction collection, which includes the award-winning "Remember" about a WW II veteran still haunted by memories of violence. Pilots and Normal People presents 21 tales of mystery, science fiction and humanity, six involving pilots and aviation.

Edges: O Israel, O Palestine
by Leora Skolkin-Smith, Grace Paley (Editor)

"Edges takes the reader to an Israel before high walls formed a border, when, instead, metal wires hung "like hosiery lines" across the land. Liana Barish is fourteen years old when the suicide of her American father forces her mother, mourning, in despair back to her family--to Jerusalem where she grew up. For Liana it is the place where the powerful interdependence of mother and daughter--physical and spiritual--ends. It is the place of her sexual awakening."
--Grace Paley, author of "The Little Disturbances of Man, "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute"

Who's Got Skills
by Tyrenna Tolbert

From Harlem to Brooklyn, a killer, is on the loose, riding a motorcycle, wiping out high profile executives with a horrible past they must confront before dying. Skilz knows the real secret but enjoys the lust, passion, money and heat on the New York City streets daily to be dealt with. There are many secrets, but Skilz is not sharing any information. Patience a consultant and business owner in Manhattan knew she found trouble when she met Chin, a fine and sexy man who quickly wanted to be her future. Patience determined to find out about her stranger hoped her motorcycle skills kept her alive long enough to find out his dark secrets? Chin had no family and no worries. He was a hired killer to remove the filth from the earth as a favor to society, and got paid well to do it. After losing his career by helping out a friend, everything about him that was ever good, was now malicious. Was there any good left in his heart? Shy loved being a young detective riding a motorcycle as a part of his case looking for the killer. Shy sacrificed his family, especially his sister Rachel to become the youngest detective at a Brooklyn police station. Shy's sacrifices come back to haunt him when Shy doesn't expect to find the killer is closer than he would ever realize.