A Nebula and Hugo Award-winning writer of science fiction presents a collection of essays that explores the various issues, concepts, challenges, and paradoxes that confront the science fiction writer.

     She must have been important because the mysterious client spared no expense to get her there to investigate the disappearance, making the gig too good to resist. Had Lindy known the victim’s identity, and her own financial reality were not so grim, she would have turned him down in an instant. Instead, she travels to a remote island with a man she’d rather avoid, and where the residents keep their secrets close. One of them knows the truth, and she must find it before it finds her.

    As a young woman, her worst childhood fears were confirmed when her fiance broke off their engagement without an explanation. Heartbroken and vulnerable, Sheila was easy prey to the worst type of man - a man who turned his back on her when she told him she was carrying his child. In Fifties Britain, an unmarried, pregnant girl received,not sympathy but censure and contempt. Shunned by most of her family, Sheila ended up in a Church of England home for unmarried mothers, with no apparent alternative than to give up her child for adoption. But when she held her newborn daughter in her arms for the first time, Sheila knew she had to do the unthinkable: bring up her baby on her own in a society that would condemn her for it. Sheila Tofield is a proud grandmother living in Chichester and The Unmarried Mother is her first book. Her touching story was picked up by Penguin when she entered the hugely successful life story competition with Saga Magazine.

    

    The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from ‘The Remains of the Day' to ‘White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

    His night would start out much like any other, as he stops off for a beer or two after work, and to meet up with friends if they’re there that night.But his life is turned upside down, as the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on walks into the bar scantily clad and right up to him, and he learns he isn’t quite as human as he’d always thought. In fact, he was a demigod, and the woman that’s doing his father a favor… well, she’s a goddess. The goddess of love, pleasure, beauty, and fertility in fact, and she needs a champion. It all seems pretty insane to him even as he accepts, especially the part about his godly stepmother wanting him dead. It only gets crazier from there and the insane ride never stops. He hopes it’ll slow down soon, even though a lot of it is insanely enjoyable and beyond surreal, if not his mind can always catch up when he’s dead…Author Warning: This is an Urban Fantasy adventure featuring a mixed monster girl and demigoddess harem and polyamory theme, with some MF to MFF scenes of an explicit nature. If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t read this book. You have been warned. This is also loosely based on Greek mythology. I’m sure I got some things wrong, and I know I made some changes to the myths fit my story.

    The Nephilim. Does the bible really talk about Giants? Did they really exist?The Truth and The Lie series. There are so many interesting things in the Bible that much of our modern world doesn’t even realize are there. We are going to explore many of these areas in this series. We will search for the truth and the reality of what the word of God really says, as well as addressing the misconceptions that are held about it in our modern days. The word of God contains the reality of the scientific creation that is extravagantly miraculous and still completely understandable. We will be Exploring The truth about biblical giants. The reality of fallen angels. Who is Lucifer really? Is there really good and evil? What did Jesus (Yeshua) tell us to be watching for? Can we actually know what is “truth?” If The Word Of God Is True… That Changes Everything!What if the Bible isn’t just a seemingly quaint collection of myths and self-righteous moral codes? What if it isn’t an antiquated tribal religious document like any other primitive myth? And what if it isn’t a simplistic story of primitive people trying to understand their world, a people who we judgingly suppose were without the benefit of our modern science and unable to have our modern insight? And what if this modern insight is not what it is supposed to be? We Need To Know! Where did everything come from? Who is really in charge? How old is the earth? Is there more in the bible than I’ve been told? What about the other ancient cultures?” Modern atheistic science freely admits that there is so much about the universe we don’t know, and yet can’t even conceive that there is something beyond us that is responsible for all this. Our modern science is beginning to take a peek into the unseen like never before. Quantum and dimensional physics shows us that there is indeed a supernatural realm - other dimensions of existence! The further science explores, the more it becomes apparent that the universe is more like a grand thought than a grand thing. All we see is made from what we cannot see - exactly as the Bible has maintained from the beginning. The reality of every new discovery points more and more towards a highly complex interwoven dimensional reality that is closer to a digital hologram than is comfortable to admit. We know that time is part of the space time matter realm we occupy and that it has a beginning and an end, that there is more beyond time. YHVH, Elohim God, exists outside of time. Yet science isn’t likely to offer any forthcoming admission to this possibility anytime soon.Yes, if it is true, if there is one creator God, the God of the Bible, then that changes everything! We will explore the fascinating reality that the word of God is true. It explains everything and brings our world - back - into a perspective that makes sense. It is scientifically accurate, it is realistically possible, and it is an amazing reality! You Will Learn The Truth. The truth about world history! What we have been taught isn’t all there is. The truth about ancient culture, Their legends and myths. The truth about how everything really got here The reality about the players behind world events The true existence of a supernatural world, proven by science.

    Zhivago, and why Cyrano de Bergerac is the forerunner of modern-day science-fiction writers. Learn how many odysseys The Odyssey contains, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Ovid to Pavese, Xenophon to Dickens, Galileo to Gadda, Calvino covers the classics he has loved most with essays that are fresh, accessible and wise. Why Read the Classics? firmly establishes Calvino among the rare likes of Nabokov, Borges, and Lawrence--writers whose criticism is as vibrant and unique as their groundbreaking fiction.

    Deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vie for our attention. Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon's incisive graphic guide provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing ideas and provides an essential historical context, situating these theories within tradition of critical analysis going back to the rise of Marxism. They present the essential methods and objectives of each theoretical school in an incisive and accessible manner, and pay special attention to recurrent themes and concerns that have preoccupied a century of critical theoretical activity.

    In this landmark book of twentieth-century psychology, Winnicott shows the reader how, through the attentive nurturing of creativity from the earliest years, every individual has the opportunity to enjoy a rich and rewarding cultural life. Today, as the 'hothousing' and testing of children begins at an ever-younger age, Winnicott's classic text is a more urgent and topical read than ever before.

    “It is guilty and should admit itself so.” The word, the flesh, and the devil are explored by this extraordinary intellect in the work of eight outstanding authors: Emily Bronte, Baudelaire, Blake, Michelet, Kafka, Proust, Genet and De Sade.Born in France in 1897, Georges Bataille was a radical philosopher, novelist, and critic whose writings continue to exert a vital influence on today's literature and thought.

    Built from aphorisms and reflections, he shifts in register from personal experience to the most general theoretical problems.

     After my time in the army and then finding myself in the mountains of Tibet, I was ready to lay low, to relax. It was time to go home. Or so I thought. No sooner had I set about returning to the normal life then I found myself swept up in a mission to kill the gods in order to save the life of someone very dear to me. The only problem with killing gods aside from, well, having to kill gods? First I had to be able to reach them through a ritual of intimacy and death. Yeah, you can see where that might be problematic. What follows is a tale of godly proportions with harem elements and downright dirty deeds.

    Confident America has been conquered, Satan prepares to initiate the final stage of his master plan, but it requires a willing partner—will she say yes?Convinced his demon general Lord Nefarious has successfully conquered America, Satan himself now decides it’s time for him to step out of the shadows and complete his master plan. But for it to succeed, he must find a willing partner… On the run, frightened, and alone, Rae is cornered one fateful night in a rundown motel room by the devil himself. He has a once-in-eternity offer for her—the chance to change the world forever. But to convince her to freely accept it, Satan needs to connect with Rae’s past, present, and future to prove to her he can be trusted after all. A showdown for the ages is officially on, and humanity hangs in the balance.

    When her father, who was the local Laird's groundskeeper, dies, Elspeth learns that the Laird has already made arrangements for her marriage!Unwilling to marry a man she does not know, Elspeth only accepts because this was her father's dying wish. To her great surprise, her future husband is not only the Laird's nephew but a Laird himself too. Yet, for some reason, Laird Finlay MacCowan, has spent the last six years unwed despite his family's encouragement.As soon as they meet, Elspeth sees in his eyes a brute who cares little for romance, sentiment, or frivolous things. However, Laird Finlay feels like a different man when he first touches her… Elspeth's heart fills with desire and feelings she's never felt before, and she soon realizes that Finlay's arduous character is but a fortress he built to keep his dark secrets concealed.The couple seems to think that marriage won't be as bad as they initially thought, but as soon as Finlay lays down his guard a bit, unseen forces seize the opportunity to destroy the clan.Elspeth felt a reviving fire close to Finlay that reminded her that there is more to life than suffering, but maybe she has gotten too close to the engulfing flames surrounding him and will soon be consumed by them…