Prepare to think as you explore these wildly disparate literary short stories by author, composer, and producer Stephen Geez. Avoiding any single genre, this collection showcases Geez’s storytelling from southern gothic to contemporary drama to coming-of-age, humor, sci-fi, and fantasy—all finessed to say something about who we are and what we seek. Some of these have been passed around enough to need a shot of penicillin, others so virgin they have never known the seductive gaze of a reader’s eyes. So when life’s currents get to pulling too hard, don’t fight it, just open the book and discover nineteen new ways of going with the flow, because NOW more than ever Comes this Time to Float.
Picture This! Dante Roenik creates ad campaigns, reveling in the fine art of rendering his concepts on million-dollar canvasses financed by big-budget clients. Intoxicated by the sheer power of directing public opinion, he dares wage war against the conglomerate behind a worldwide anti-depressant increasingly associated with sporadic violence. To juxtapose his images with reality, he enlists a mixed palette of business tycoons, his fiancee/attorney, a team of corporate-spy soldiers of fortune, one resurgent news anchor, and the best TV-production crew in Chicago. But the sharp lines dividing perception from truth begin to blur when the darker motives shaping mass media come to light. Forced to re-examine the ethics of designer pharmacology, Dante is painted into a corner, his future about to be erased as patients die, clients lie, and unhealthy doses of murder prove too hard to swallow. Too late to whitewash the stain of deceit, Dante must decide who deserves to appear in his picture, the true subject an unfinished self-portrait way past its own deadline. It's not what you see, not what you get . . . But all you could ever imagine. Let Dante show you how . . . With a Fantasy Patch!
Been There, Noted That features 54 personal-experience essays by novelist Stephen Geez. Written from 1994 to 2010, all are based on true experiences, observations, and opinions. Each features original artwork or photography by contributor-members of Fresh Ink Group, including many fan favorites. The majority of the essays and the full-color versions of their images have appeared at StephenGeez.com. Some were published elsewhere—often in varying versions—including magazines, newspapers, journals, other websites, and a Chicken Soup book. Many of these essays and their art are have never been posted, appearing in this anthology for the first time. Some of the images used in earlier editions have been replaced with new ones for this 2018 re-issue and the new first-time hardcover edition. All 54 essays have been assembled in response to loyal readers asking for a collection in book form. Some essay topics may well resonate with you more than others. Some likely will remind you of people who might appreciate your thinking of them as you pass along these sentiments. Three essays convey direct messages you could bookmark and share: appreciation for friendship, birthday wishes, and graduation congratulations. Four offer remembrance, tributes to people Geez has lost, a way to share our search for meaning as we grieve. If you enjoy this collection, please visit the website and refer your friends and family. Look for the latest material and encores of older classics at the site. Discover Geez novels, heartfelt tales in a variety of genres, all crafted to make us think. Share your thoughts on these essays and other Geez projects via the Contact form through the site. Learn more about Fresh Ink Group’s writers, artists, photographers, experts, and more books at FreshInkGroup.com. Authors can find information and support at GeezWriter.com and GeezandWeeks.com. These narratives range from cautionary tales to poignant pokes at our uniquely human foibles, but all offer chances to celebrate who we are and how much we mean to each other.
Observations, Inspiration, Remembrance, and Noteworthies to Share: Essays in Tribute to LifeObservations, Inspiration, Remembrance, and Noteworthies to Share
Observations, Inspiration, Remembrance, and Noteworthies to Share: Essays in Tribute to LifeObservations, Inspiration, Remembrance, and Noteworthies to Share
The simple lives of everyday people in a mundane world prove extraordinary in this collection of 54 personal-experience essays by novelist Stephen Geez. The eclectic mix of memoir, commentary, humor, and appreciation covers a wide range of topics, each beautifully illustrated by artists and photographers from the Fresh Ink Group. Geez catches what many of us miss, then considers how we might all share the most poignant of lessons. Been There, Noted That aims to reveal who we are, examine where we've been, and discover what we dare strive to become.
The boy looked back.A simple pencil drawing, this depiction of a child watching from the reeds of a country pond frustrates and angers Geoffrey, unexpected reactions that stir Phrekka's lifelong passion for understanding the elusive power artists infuse in their creations.Their only clue a "Sara" signature, the unemployed graphic designer persuades the enchanting Korean-American curator to help him discover more images by this enigmatic artist. From her world of privilege and mystical spiritualism to his of heartland farms and fundamentalist values, they will cross the country in search of the meaning in Sara's sketches, an odyssey to divine one extraordinary person's singular secret for touching people's souls.Staggering revelations entangle them with issues of mortality and faith, sexuality and family violence, obligation and responsibility, deception and truth. Only by looking close at the dark and profane will they have any chance of coming together to create a legacy more beautiful than either ever imagined.What Sara Saw paints exquisitely vivid portraits of two young people who must follow their hearts to recapture that innocent grace long lost to the whims of circumstance and fate.
Chicago native Rochelle DuFortier likes to imagine the future, her world a series of picture postcards so vivid they sometimes seem real. When a foolish mistake at thirteen causes her mother's death, she's sent to a secluded Hawaiian valley, an outsider "haole-girl" among pidgin-speaking boys who hurl flaming papala spears under the full moon to summon her mother's spirit. After boarding school and a prestigious university back east, the ambitious young woman is torn between chasing new career opportunities, discovering her mother's heritage in a remote French village, and meeting obligations pulling her back to Hawaii. On this island steeped in ancient mythology and modern superstition, Rochelle tests the possibility of sharing pieces of her life with those whose beliefs she barely understands and never intends to embrace. She dives the depths of a pristine coral lagoon, conceals bodies in a subterranean lava tube, and challenges the eruptions of a living volcano, even as she deciphers the truth about her mother's death and struggles to satisfy new debts born of old betrayals. Papala Skies is the story of a young woman who makes all the right choices, only to find herself living an unexpected life. It is about the need to belong, and seeking one's own version of truth amid such differing cultures' responses to wrenching loss and abiding grief. It is about yearning for a sense of place, yet having to confront new ways to honor the love of family and friends. Will Rochelle lose what matters most, or might she learn what the smart octopus already knows?
How can I kill my own kids? Purple-skinned Sullrob could never imagine taking his loved ones' lives, be they racially contaminated or not-but others prove all too eager to seize that honor. Am I risking my children's future? Peach-faced widower-dad Brog Pawligan tries smuggling to build a better life ground-side for his own "orbiter brats"-but what will happen to them if he gets caught . . . or worse? "Abig big big peoples an' li'l peoples," says big brown-bodied Heilen Hewed about his burgeoning community, "peoples of ev-ree colors, afrom all over th'galaxy!"-but will the lethal aspirations of an interplanetary corporation steal this stellar chance to reclaim his wife and boy? There where fuzzy weenshuggers sing in the pink light of dual moons, where prejudice and fear threaten to out-kill a deadly global plague, how can the ascension of one squeaky-voiced little Seeliot lad save billions of souls scattered among the stars? It might just be time for a new breed in myriad colors to transform the ancient Celebration of Life-the recitation, ritual water, and tiniest pinch of pungent sweet granules from the exquisite purple plant that everybody adores served up . . . Zhasou Pure!
Been There, Noted That features 54 personal-experience essays by novelist Stephen Geez. Written from 1994 to 2010, all are based on true experiences, observations, and opinions. Each features original artwork or photography by contributor-members of Fresh Ink Group, including many fan favorites. The majority of the essays and the full-color versions of their images have appeared at StephenGeez.com. Some were published elsewhere—often in varying versions—including magazines, newspapers, journals, other websites, and a Chicken Soup book. Many of these essays and their art are have never been posted, appearing in this anthology for the first time. Some of the images used in earlier editions have been replaced with new ones for this 2018 re-issue and the new first-time hardcover edition. All 54 essays have been assembled in response to loyal readers asking for a collection in book form. Some essay topics may well resonate with you more than others. Some likely will remind you of people who might appreciate your thinking of them as you pass along these sentiments. Three essays convey direct messages you could bookmark and share: appreciation for friendship, birthday wishes, and graduation congratulations. Four offer remembrance, tributes to people Geez has lost, a way to share our search for meaning as we grieve. If you enjoy this collection, please visit the website and refer your friends and family. Look for the latest material and encores of older classics at the site. Discover Geez novels, heartfelt tales in a variety of genres, all crafted to make us think. Share your thoughts on these essays and other Geez projects via the Contact form through the site. Learn more about Fresh Ink Group’s writers, artists, photographers, experts, and more books at FreshInkGroup.com. Authors can find information and support at GeezWriter.com and GeezandWeeks.com. These narratives range from cautionary tales to poignant pokes at our uniquely human foibles, but all offer chances to celebrate who we are and how much we mean to each other.
A Tennessee teen in the mid-1990s, Eugene Weisman enjoys pretending to defend a so-called "alien"-until the game turns deadly and his life depends on what others believe. Hand-picked to helm Program Invigil, Colonel Chester McGovern takes responsibility for detection, isolation, and eradication-then unleashes enormous inter-military power cloaked in black-helicopter secrecy. Tiring of the clandestine wet-work biz, soldier of fortune Flynn Durbett settles down to run a weapons-smuggling ring for governments and underground patriots-but then old obligations renew, and his own opinions matter less than standing up for others'. As Eugene attracts followers who declare him the true savior, McGovern lays siege to American citizens while searching for the missing black box in his obsessive mission to preserve life as we know it. Do we really need to be protected? And who will deliver us?-the military, or a loosely organized rag-tag militia? Is it all fantasy, or a threat greater than we ever imagined? Everybody has the right to believe, but only one can be the Invigilator.
Ever walked into a restaurant and seen an attractive couple in the back talking excitedly, their hands gesturing wildly, their expressions changing swiftly from joy to sadness and back again? Ever wondered what they were saying? Well, we have no clue about that, but if you want a really funny and touching play about men and women in restaurants and bars looking for love and finding much more than they bargained for, then check out THIS IS NOT WHAT I ORDERED. The LA Weekly raved that it "mines the bottomless pit of male-female partnering." Backstage West chimed in that "a startled deer in an SUV's headlights has nothing on these love-phobic characters. In the sure hands of a relationship-savvy playwright, an evening of charm and humor is bound to follow.
Ever walked into a restaurant and seen an attractive couple in the back talking excitedly, their hands gesturing wildly, their expressions changing swiftly from joy to sadness and back again? Ever wondered what they were saying? Well, we have no clue about that, but if you want a really funny and touching play about men and women in restaurants and bars looking for love and finding much more than they bargained for, then check out THIS IS NOT WHAT I ORDERED. The LA Weekly raved that it "mines the bottomless pit of male-female partnering." Backstage West chimed in that "a startled deer in an SUV's headlights has nothing on these love-phobic characters. In the sure hands of a relationship-savvy playwright, an evening of charm and humor is bound to follow.
The first novel in Stephen Sobotka's "Sin-City Walker" series, welcomes you -- the reader -- into the life of John Walker; a former street tough and card hustler from Old Chicago, now a professional gambler, who is facing a period of doldrums prior to his arrival in Las Vegas. Here, he'll find action and perhaps romance . . . but danger also lurks in the shadows between the neon lights. Join John on a romp through casinos and a den of danger, as he struggles with life, death and love . . . as only a unique 'man of the night' can in "Two of a Kind!
John and his circle of friends, wanted dead by the new ruler of the world, suddenly have their one and only sanctuary infiltrated and destroyed. Yet this catastrophe is also an opportunity for the group of teenagers to do what their elders have so far failed to do, and topple the tyrant once and for all. With the Woodward Base destroyed by Arnold Hammerson and his soldiers, John and his friends must take what little magic they have and put it to most effective use. But a problem remains: how to do what they know must be done? The problem is far too big to be solved with a single stroke of spellwork, as our heroes soon discover. Their only real chance is to put to use a piece of knowledge which almost no one in the world knows about, even though it would result in certain death for all of them if they fail.
The choices we make are often in response to things unseen. Initiated by those we donżt know, and may never meet. Conversely, our actions can also unwittingly influence the courses others take. The past moves quickly into the present when Gordon begins to search for his biological family. His dreams evoke questions, which lead to more questions, until a powerful vision sets him on a path laid out for him nearly a hundred years earlier. He quickly becomes the prey when he is unknowingly sought by those who believe he is the key to a powerful secret, which in turn pulls another into the mix who is convinced he must make amends for a past mistake. Hearts are torn when the desire to save one, threatens to supplant a promise made by others.
This comprehensive analysis traces Sam Shepard's career from his experimental one-act plays of the 1960s to the 1994 play Simpatico. Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child, True West, Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind are all examined in depth. Concentrating on his playwriting, this book charts Shepard's various developments and shifts of direction, and the changing contexts in which his work appeared. Engaging, informative, and insightful, The Theatre of Sam Shepard is the definitive source on the works of this innovative and original writer.
The second instalment in the Magic Crystals series, immediately following the events of 'The Seventh Sorcerer'. The original villain is back, only this time he is on a different mission, taking orders from the evil and cunning Hammerson Sorcerers, and his path will intersect those of John Playman and his friends on Rock Haulter. A desperate race must ensue, Moran and the powers of the Hammersons against the Chopville teens. The prize will be the most powerful of all the Magic Crystals and a control over the balance of life, but such extraordinary power is heavily protected. There is no guarantee that all will live to see the end. The danger faced this week will be greater than anything faced in 'The Seventh Sorcerer', but that won't stop the teens from having a good time, as only teenagers can. But beneath all that, a far more serious situation is simmering. It is only those closest to the Sorcerers who understand how delicate the peace between the Woodwards and Hammersons is, and how quickly that could change.
Seven stories of love and impending doom. What happens when… Escaped demons threaten prom? An energy drink breaks the fabric of space-time? A smug VR gamer is forced to team up with her last-choice player? The pursuit of the perfect university application goes way too far? A first date turns into a chase across alternate universes? A wizard fanboy accidentally becomes a hero? Death’s secretary tries to save her favorite human from dying? Bad ideas—that’s what. One prompt. Seven writers. Seven wildly different stories. Monday Night Anthology is a multi-genre collection featuring unique interpretations of the same idea. From romance to satire, fantasy to humor, this volume brings fresh narratives and surprising twists that will make you believe in the brilliance of bad ideas. Featuring stories by Kristina Horner, Stephen Folkins, Jennifer Lee Swagert, Katrina Hamilton, Shay Lynam, Sunny Everson, and Maria Berejan.
A chilling anthology of 18 short stories in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson, collecting today’s best horror writers. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand and more. A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by, and in tribute to, Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and readers. This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, will bring together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, and Genevieve Valentine.
Prepare to think as you explore these wildly disparate literary short stories by author, composer, and producer Stephen Geez. Avoiding any single genre, this collection showcases Geez’s storytelling from southern gothic to contemporary drama to coming-of-age, humor, sci-fi, and fantasy—all finessed to say something about who we are and what we seek. Some of these have been passed around enough to need a shot of penicillin, others so virgin they have never known the seductive gaze of a reader’s eyes. So when life’s currents get to pulling too hard, don’t fight it, just open the book and discover nineteen new ways of going with the flow, because NOW more than ever Comes this Time to Float.
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