In the tradition of Blade Runner and stories like Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," acclaimed science-fiction author Norman Spinrad explores the depths of what it means to be human; more accurately, he delves into the nature of the soul in our increasingly computerized technological age. Featuring a poignant new Afterword by Spinrad, this reprinting of one of Spinrad's most cherished works is more timely than ever before. Can human consciousness exist within the framework of an electronic "brain" and still maintain its humanity? In Deus X, a dying priest's consciousness is uploaded into the most advanced computer of the day - and what ensues is a thought-provoking, entertaining and overly intriguing clash between the various characters surrounding the experiment, a female Pope and a computer guru who'd rather be sailing and smoking pot, for example. Spinrad is author of over twenty novels, including Bug Jack Baron, The Mind Game, The Void Captain's Tale, Journals of the Plague Years, Little Heroes, Pictures at 11, Greenhouse Summer, The Druid King, and Mexica.

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Reel Rebels examines major films by directors who have been called auteurs by some and hacks by others. 'Rebel' is a word that is tossed around too flippantly these days. Who is truly a Reel Rebel? Someone who creates cinema that is original, timely and critical of a historical period and citizenry; someone who paints with celluloid in a way that sets him/her apart from others in the industry; someone whose films elicit love or vilification from audiences; someone whose cinema entertains moviegoers and makes them think - and feel ashamed, guilty, happy, and saad. A Reel Rebel is someone who challenges men and women to reevaluate the way we label and treat each other; someone whose motion pictures rouse viewers to action; someone who keeps making movies regardless of whether or not s/he has major studio backing. Reel Rebels features insightful criticism by Thomas J. Morrissey, Kelly L. Goodridge, Tracie Church Guzzio, Lou Orfanella, Kathy Davis Patterson, and Oscar De Los Santos.

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The city of Fenward, perpetually storm-blasted on the edge of the Great Salt Desert, passes into a season of curses. It begins as a wandering blacksmith arrives out of the sea of dunes. The only work he will take on is the forging of chains, linked into a web-work map of the city, which he carefully cuts apart like a slow torture as Fenward devolves into carnivals of violence and rebellion. No sword-girt hero arises to end the storm, so who else is left to handle the mystery of the hammer-wielding sorcerer except Fenward's beggars led by Tenna the Blind, with their ancient tradition of solving riddles and their strange game called chlab? But no rest for Fenward as the second curse begins work, this time not through an external entity but now a monster taking shape from the city's own chain of sorrow and guilt, a thing that slips through the cracks between bricks and the gaps between cobblestones to reach and slay. Rilla, the young prophetess whose home is the hard stone chair in the Square of Truth, and her unlikely ally, a broken, cynical soldier, will have to pool their strength to cut the final links of the curses. Their way leads to a shunned house whose history no one can quite recall, as if it hid a crime willingly erased from memory.

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Like colliding space rocks and supernovas, science fiction is infinitely varied and exciting. Fans, scholars and authors celebrated SF's creative adaptability at the Science Fiction Research Association's 37th Annual Meeting in White Plains, New York, June 22-25, 2006. The conference theme was "When Genres Collide." Science fiction has often dovetailed with fantasy, mystery, and horror, and it is alive and well on television and in the movies. Even in hard SF, readers might encounter variations of "ghosts" and "gods" in the stories. With the ever-evolving cyberpunk movement, the rise of slipstream fiction and tales that hover somewhere between mainstream and the fantastic, the boundaries between science fiction and related genres seem to be increasingly blurred. The conference brought together noted speculative fiction writers and critics, among them Guest of Honor Norman Spinrad, Nancy Kress, Nalo Hopkinson, R. Garcia y Robertson, William Sleator, and Bruce Taylor. Their plenary session reflections on colliding genres and the current state of science fiction are featured in this volume, together with a generous selection of conference essays by noted science fiction scholars.

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The author of Excursions: Poetry and Prose, Allurements and Lamentations, and Composite Sketches is back with a new collection of memoir poems that capture the spectrum of experiences and emotions of growing up and growing older. In part one he looks back at his undergraduate years at Columbia University with nostalgia and longing. In part two he muses on the passage of time with awe and wonder.

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Katharine works as a writer and actor in both New York and Los Angeles. Her poetry has appeared in various literary publications including Written Pulse and Vox and her award winning poem "Cocodrilo" recently appeared in The Occidental Literary Annual. She has performed at numerous theatrical venues in the tri-state area, including the Westchester Broadway Theatre, The Irvington Theatre, and the 92nd Street Theatre Workshops. At the International Models/Talent Association 2003, she was awarded honorable mention for her performance in cold read and appeared in the independent film, Buddy System, under Crazy 1 Productions. She migrates bi-coastally with her two cats, Fat Willow and Gemini.

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 Limboland by J.E. Deegan ISBN: 978-0-9768856-5-8

Every large city has its LIMBOLAND, a seedy, squalid netherworld where the bizarre and the horrific are commonplace. It is a wicked place inhabited by the dredges of humanity - by hookers, winos, potheads, and psychopaths, and by wretched souls who have chosen depravity over decency. Things inhuman reside there, too - hellish creatures that prey on the weak and the unwary. A journey into LIMBOLAND will lead you into the dark labyrinth of your own fears.or, perhaps, desires.

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 Excursions: Poetry and Prose  by Lou Orfanella 
     ISBN: 978-0-9768856-9-6

 Darkscapes by Steven E. Wedel  ISBN:  978-0-9768856-3-4

In this collection of thirty-four short stories, acclaimed author Steven E. Wedel explores the worlds of ghosts, mutants, vampires, magic, madness and despair. Visit the "Reunion" at a small rural church. Venture down the slippery stairs beneath "The House Beside Soldred Quarry." Listen to the insane song of "Warren Pepper's Victory Choir." Plug your ears "When the Lady of Byblos Calls." The diverse stories contained herein, blood-curdling stories of revenge and spine-tingling yarns that twist remnants of old trite tales into narratives of horrific delight and wondrous terror, are sure to entertain and genuinely scare.

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 Allurements and Lamentations by Lou Orfanella  ISBN: 978-09768856-6-5

Lou Orfanella, the author of Composite Sketches and Scenes from an Ordinary Life: Getting Naked to Explore a Writer's Process and Possibilities returns with a new collection of poems that both preserves the past and looks to the future. Through memoir, collaboration, and keen observation, the poet inspires readers and celebrates life's little moments.

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 Border Canto Trilogy: Book I  by Chuck Etheridge  ISBN: 978-0-9768856-1-0

A literary tour de force. Like the Rio Grande itself, Chuck Etheridge's Border Cantos winds beautifully through the ethnically rich wold of El Paso, Texas and through the poignant terrain between innocence and experience. This book captures the bi-lingual, bi-racial texture of a region where both Anglo and Hispanic adolescents are forced to come to terms with the culture as they search for identity. This novel tells a captivating story, but it is the author's insight into forces that shape both border life and adolescent boys' psyche that makes Border Cantos exceptional fiction.

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"The New Goddess: Transgender Women in the Twenty-First Century is a special and valuable book because it will be viewed differently in different circles. This quality is its strength. To be clear, it will not necessarily be "all things to all people'" but, rather, will speak to those different audiences associated with transgendered women. The academic, for instance, will have much primary source material in the contributions from transgendered women, whose personal histories are, at once, emotionally honest, at times frightening, and always compelling reading. These personal accounts help throw light on a number of intellectual questions, such as the role of nature and nurture among those interested in explaining transgender, and whether gender is more a process than a property. By contrast, for transgenders, especially those genies who have not escaped from the bottle, and for those professionals who work with them, this book will provide a number of fine-grained, realistic and honest snap shots of the social world. In approaching transition to living as a woman, for example, transgenders will have a clear picture of the difficulties to be faced and their diversity." - Frank Lewins, excerpt from the Foreword

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 Looking for a Face Like Mine by William H. Foster  ISBN: 0-9766652-4-7

Superman, Spiderman, and the X-Men. To Professor William H. Foster III, comic books are serious stuff and definitely not just for kids. Though many fantastic tales have been told through the pages of comic strips and comic books, some of the most interesting and least told stories, according to Foster, are about the changing image of Black people in American society. If art imitates life, cartoon and comic art might seem an unusual mirror in which to view society. But to Professor Foster, a long time historian, lecturer, and fan, comics are a source of scholarly research and just plain fun. This book represents a collection of his published essays, articles, and interviews that explore the historical portrayal of people of color in the world of comics.

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Dark specters lurk in spaces unseen. Countless persons are abducted by these beings with nefarious designs on the human soul. Two young girls dabble with a Ouija board and one disappears. Decades later, the mystery continues as Angela Miller, PhD, a respected university professor, discovers her childhood friend calling for help from beyond. Have you ever caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye, only to turn and find nothing there? Or sensed that someone was standing behind you, whirled around, and stared at empty space? How about the touch on your shoulder that made you jump when you knew you were alone? If you have had any of these or similar experiences, then you have met The Shadow People.

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The Last Miles by J.D. Scrimgeour  ISBN: 0-9768856-0-3

"The intelligence, sensitivity and humor of these poems are a gift to the reader. In the tradition of Langston Hughes, J.D. Scrimgeour writes with the pioneering spirit of a jazz musician. His work travels from Normal, Illinois to Greece to Salem, Massachusetts and takes place over one hundred years. The poems are precise and powerful, but it is the range that is extraordinary; there has never been a wider cast of characters in a book of poetry. We meet adolescent baseball players, a Greek grandmother, a father who is a poet, street people in Salem, two infant boys, and many more. Wasn't this Whitman's dream: to reveal the miraculous power of the ordinary man? J.D. Scrimgeour's America is composed of people we might walk past, unless, like this poet, we stop and listen to what they have to tell us." - Charlotte Gordon, author of Mistress Brradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet

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In and Out of Their Elements by John M. Miller  ISBN: 978-0-9766652-8-1

The poems in this collection possess all the "elements" expected of Miller's work-the hard, uncompromising vision of Robert Frost for whom "anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak," the wit, the fecund imagination, and the courage to chronicle a way of life both personal and cultural as it vanishes. The poems in this volume grow stronger as we read more deeply into them, especially those in the final section, where the poet unflinchingly confronts his own mortality with wry humor and grace. In and Out of Their Elements is a volume which should not be overlooked.


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Birds, moons, words, water, skies: with these basic elements Donna Kuhn creates a voice swirling down a hypnotizing stream of thought, thought addressed to "u", which could well be the "I" of these poems. Or of this single long poem which seems to wrap a conscious presence in a veil of motion, as if to hide something, but revealing all. Outside a "geometric beauty salon" she is "shaving inside birds"; a "typical girl" dreaming from the outside in. A beautiful and mesmerizing book.
 

A Poet's Guide to Divorce by David Breeden  ISBN: 0-9766652-9-8

Dad, JJ Wade, is a used bookshop owner. Son Buck is a screenwriter trying to make it on the west coast. Between them is the long shadow of a divorce. When Hollie Ivie, a Goth grrrl, becomes the obsession of JJ's life, Buck steps in with shock therapy-he steals Hollie. Mixing journals, email, and third-person narration, this novel tells the story of a wasted, bitter artist who still might pull it out, his son headed in the same direction, and a woman who doesn't intend to be owned by anyone. Where does Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher fit in? A frumpy professor and email, of course.
 

A well-known writer, lecturer, teacher, and workshop facilitator, Lou Orfanella, the author of Composite Sketches, now takes his readers inside the creative process with Scenes from an Ordinary Life: Getting Naked to Explore a Writer’s Process and Possibilities. In this unique combination of informative essays, personal anecdotes, writing samples, and thought provoking prompts, he combines instruction, inspiration, and memoir to create a literary scrapbook and a portable writing workshop for both novice and veteran authors.

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Trespass  by Craig Wolf  ISBN: 0-9766652-0-4

Meet Charlie. He's not the nicest person you'll ever run into. In fact, you may wish you'd never met him at all. Because Charlie isn't like other guys. Charlie is a human monster. With inhuman power.

Meet Melanie. Young, vibrant, a woman who has overcome great pain to find a measure of happiness. A woman who is about to discover just how fragile that happiness is, and the terrible price she must pay to try to recover it.

Behind Charlie stretches a trail of sorrow and pain, a ghostly parade of victims. Melanie is just the latest . . . but if she can help it, she'll be the last.

                                     Hunger wears a human face, and Hell lies within the human heart.

Ginger Akana, an experienced and intrepid private insurance investigator, journeys into the extraordinary, lush tropical island of Maui on a case that will make or break her career, and which could end her life.  The mystery, the mystical, the captivating and the dangerous collide in this thrilling adventure where every phone call, every note, every knock on the door could signal death.

"Death, seduction and nail biting tension..."                                



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Joshua Tyler Brown's Partielles: Incomplete Solutions touches the reader with an innate sense of earnest anxiety coupled with a robust joy for life. Brown's rhythmic short lines burst from the page like shots from an old Gattling gun, a weapon revisited in the poem "Wounded Knee," one of the more profound offerings herein. Readers will recognize themselves along this partial journey that offers that in this world there are only incomplete glimpses and few answers to life's greatest questions.

James Scrimgeour’s Balloons Over Stockholm takes the reader on dual trips – across the globe and into the heart and soul of the artist. The poet’s visit to Sweden is born out of necessity: he and his wife go to say goodbye to a dying relative. In the midst of the pain, we find Scrimgeour at work and, in so doing, affirming life. As never before, Scrimgeour explores the world of creativity and imagination, as well as the vast range of emotions in the human spectrum. Read this new collection by the author of The Route, We Are What We Have Loved, and Monet in the Twentieth Century.

 

Trickster Tales  by JP Briggs ISBN: 0-9753388-4-6

Irony's back. Coyote. Crow. Lear's fool. Traditional trickster figures cross boundaries, incite chaos, and turn the world on its head. Trickster Tales, by well-known chaos writer JP Briggs (Turbulent Mirror; Looking Glass Universe; Seven Life Lessons of Chaos; and Fractals) updates the ancient trickster idea. In this funny and disturbing new collection of flash fiction and longer stories, we follow a psychiatrist as his sanity is devoured by a woman who dreams herself a panther; an airborne bow tie; an engineer visiting a prostitute, becoming stripped of his science; a magician conjuring up a devil both fictitious and real. Declared dead by the pundits, old fashioned literary irony returns in Trickster Tales.


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This collection examines memory and awareness of what has been, where we are and where we might be going. Using wit and steering clear of sentimentality, Orfanella’s poems deliver a plethora of gritty, reality-infused observations contrasted with delightful whimsy and pop-cultural references. The poet explores decades-long change across America, in his heart, and in his family with honesty and reverence. His conclusions will both startle and move the engaged reader.

In the vividly imagined stories comprising White River - written in a prose of lyrical clarity and sparseness - Will Bless evokes the stony uplands and rocky glacial streams of Vermont, divining the inner lives and sometimes haunted dreams of its inhabitants, and their search for meaning on uniquely American landscapes. These tales span from the mid-nineteenth century to modern day, illuminating both the lives of soldiers and the historical soul of the central Green Mountains.

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How thick is your skin? Think your nerve endings are safe? This baker’s dozen of dark delicacies from a rising voice in fantastic literature begs to differ. Meet the strange, wonderful and truly frightening in a music pirate’s worst nightmare, a god whose vengeance knows the patience of ages, a woman with a fearsome weapon in her mind that wants out, a school bus of children that may be bound for a terrible fate, a man returned from the grave to confront his killer — his own dead father, and more. From divine madness to desire unchecked, these stories aim for your soft spots with an intensity and fury that will both shiver and simmer by your side when you turn out the light.
 

Take a journey through landscapes where the strange and sinister collide with the poignant and tender – countries of blinding lights and tarnished (k)nights. Here, magical realism shatters doors marked Ordinary. Hardboiled Egg will satisfy the lover of gritty mysteries, but these short stories also probe dark hidden niches of the human soul. Included in these travels are glimpses of love, sex, spirituality and the supernatural. Disc jockeys and nude bars, medieval werewolves and time travelers, damsels in distress and distressful damsels, ghosts and midnight masses, stop-motion animation, Hollyweird actors, dead rats, lost fathers, and masked Mexican wrestlers: Do you dare bite into this hardboiled egg?
 

In Spirits of Texas and New England, Oscar De Los Santos, Ph.D. chronicles over one hundred authentic cases of paranormal phenomena in and around Texas and New England homes, neighborhoods, ranches, roadways, schools, apartments, and condo complexes. 

Texas and New England are two of the most haunted regions in the United States.  The author has spent a lifetime living in both locations and collecting these true encounters with the unknown.  Some of these tales are inspiring, while others are disturbing.  A few may best be described as horrifying.

From the American Library Association's 2004 Award Nominated Author of The Life and Deaths of Carter Falls comes the latest Claire Daniels mystery: The Massabesic Murders, set in 1935 New England.  This gripping mystery serves up Nazi’s, organized crime lords, drugs, guns, murder and suspense enough for the hardest of the hard-boiled reader.  Once again it’s Claire Daniels and her assistant Rachel Jackson (from The Life and Deaths of Carter Falls and Two's Company, Three You Die!) against secret, dark forces.  On a lonely, snow covered city street in Manchester, NH, Claire and her cousin, Federal Agent Danny St. Claire, are viciously gunned down.  Danny is killed and she is forced to unravel the mystery of cryptic clues he left for her before she joins the dead.  If this were a movie it would be black and white.  If you love Chandler, Spillane, Hammett, and Gardner, you'll love this historical mystery.
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Beating a dead horse is easy.  It's dead.  Hit it all you want, it won't hit back.  Watch out for these stories, though.  They bite and scratch and put you face to face with your darkest nightmares.  Meet a reporter who knows too much about a sinister crime, a woman obsessed with a dead serial killer, a hitchhiker with a magical gift, a tooth-fairy who won't take no for an answer, a loner who gets his blow-up doll pregnant, and an abortion nurse who has a plan for those unwanted fetuses.  From a basement turned into a torture chamber to a Nebraska highway you'd beg not to be stranded on, these twelve stories and five stage plays will lash out at your imagination and leave you whimpering for more.