Master storyteller, Lana Skauge, invites us to travel to fantastical worlds where courage is essential to meet change and move forward. This emotionally uplifting and thought-provoking collection of stories and poems is Lana’s fourth in the much-loved constellation of her works. Stories/Poems: Prelude by Sally V Truss Introduction by Lana Skauge The Pruner Because I was There Sacred Nobody’s Business Busana Interlude She Walked Away Sanali Interlude The Path Pax Interlude The Dance Drag, Shuffle, Bump The Teller About the Author: Lana Skauge has been a professional actor/singer since 1979. Twenty-three one woman shows later with eleven plays to her credit, Lana continues to paint her visions with a unique style combining ritualized gesture and words that are both spoken and sung. She has toured throughout Canada and the UK, is a recording artist and devotes her life to the creation of story. And it is all possible because long ago Glad Skauge (Lana’s Mom) told her that she could. Advance Praise: I devoured Lana’s book. It is wonderful. - Jim Brewer, writer/director Through masterful storytelling, Lana transports us to a new world, Lunasun. A fresh take on the role of mother, sister, and mentor - I highly recommend it. - Samantha Whelan Kotkas, producer/musician May her stories live in the Hall of Records forever. - Winn Bray Rathbun, playwright ... at times mythical, yet always recognizable, she nourishes the soul, never afraid to lay the heart open. - Weyman Chan, poet

She was lost and she struggled. But through the quicksand of life that sucked her in, she pulled herself out, found her ground and walked away stronger. ‘She Walked Away Stronger’ is a collection of poems penned over 20 years. Every poem is an emotional testament to the meandering paths of the journey of life. Some are hauntingly poignant, and the others will find a deep resonance of feelings most choose to suppress. The book is an expression of a life which is fought, survived and conquered.

Estranged from her abusive parents as a teenager, Taraneh Pourani overcame poverty, isolation and self-hatred to build a happy home with her loving husband and children. Triggered by her young sons’ annual visit with their grandparents, Taraneh becomes psychologically distressed. She begins to doubt her memories and question her decision to remain distanced from her aging parents. A journey into Taraneh’s family history reveals three generations of unaddressed mental illness and unresolved childhood trauma. Due to poverty in early twentieth-century Iran, Taraneh’s grandmother, Batoul, is married at the age of nine and sent to live with her husband’s family. Ashamed and traumatized, Batoul raises her children to expect hardships and to endure them in secret. The seeds of dysfunction are planted in Mojegan, Taraneh’s mother. Mojegan is a nurse in Tehran in the 1960s when she marries the charming, but alcoholic and impulsive, Reza. She stands by Reza throughout their marriage, even after he abruptly kicks out their teenage daughter, Taraneh. A powerful and beautiful debut novel by Kimia Eslah, The Daughter Who Walked Away explores the lives of three Iranian women, across three generations, as they struggle to love and be loved unconditionally.

In a trance-like state, Albert walks-from Bordeaux to Poitiers, from Chaumont to Macon, and farther afield to Turkey, Austria, Russia-all over Europe. When he walks, he is called a vagrant, a mad man. He is chased out of towns and villages, ridiculed and imprisoned. When the reverie of his walking ends, he's left wondering where he is, with no memory of how he got there. His past exists only in fleeting images. Loosely based on the case history of Albert Dadas, a psychiatric patient in the hospital of St. André in Bordeaux in the nineteenth century, The Man Who Walked Away imagines Albert's wanderings and the anguish that caused him to seek treatment with a doctor who would create a diagnosis for him, a narrative for his pain. In a time when mental health diagnosis is still as much art as science, Maud Casey takes us back to its tentative beginnings and offers us an intimate relationship between one doctor and his patient as, together, they attempt to reassemble a lost life. Through Albert she gives us a portrait of a man untethered from place and time who, in spite of himself, kept setting out, again and again, in search of wonder and astonishment.

Sometimes life is hard. We walk through loss, heartache, and disappointment. But thankfully we don't do it alone. God is with us every step of the way, just as he was with the women of ancient times whose lives, struggles, trials, and triumphs are recorded in Scripture. Drawing on her extensive research into women of the Old Testament, novelist Jill Eileen Smith shows us how we can glean wisdom and strength from our trials just like women such as - Miriam - Rahab - Deborah - Ruth - Hannah - Abigail - Bathsheba - and more You'll discover what these ancient women did right, what they did wrong, and how God used the hard things in their lives to make them into the women he always meant for them to be.

Miles is back for another round of hard-boiled urban fantasy action in the two-fisted sequel to The Man Who Crossed Worlds. Freelance Tunneler Miles Franco is having a bad time of it. He's facing a trial that could see him spend the rest of his days in prison. Hallucinations of dead men haunt him day and night. And to top it all off, one of his bandmates has been poisoned by a toxin from another world. Miles doesn't take kindly to people killing his friends. Now he'll have to walk the darkest road he's ever been down. With corrupt corporations on one side and fanatical interdimensional gangsters on the other, he doesn't hold out any hope he'll come out of this alive. But he has a promise to keep. And Miles will burn every last world to the ground if it gets him answers.

I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Val Lewton's second feature for RKO Radio Pictures, was described by critic Robin Wood as 'perhaps the most delicate poetic fantasy in the American Cinema.' Following immediately in the wake of the groundbreaking Cat People (1942), Zombie pioneered an even more radical narrative approach yet proved to be the critical and commercial equal of its predecessor, cementing the reputation of both Lewton and his director, Jacques Tourneur. Despite the lurid, studio-imposed title, I Walked with a Zombie is a subtle and ambiguous visual poem that advanced a daring condemnation of slavery and colonialism at a time when such themes were being actively suppressed by government censors. Clive Dawson charts the complex development and production of the project, essential to understanding the concerns of the filmmakers in the context of wartime Hollywood, then analyses the film in detail, referencing a broad range of academic studies of the audio-visual text and distilling new insight into its layers of meaning. Finally, he explores the film's reception, and the influence it exerted on the horror genre and beyond. Extensive primary research has uncovered a wealth of previously unpublished new material that solves many unanswered questions and dispels various myths about this utterly unique film.

1595. Puerto Rico. The Aquino Plantation is a world of wealth, tradition, and loyalty to Spain. For sixteen year-old Soledad it is a world of empty rituals and hypocrisy. Until the night she is captured by pirates. The night she meets Captain Luna Negra. Luna Negra is a pirate. He lives in a world of violence and betrayal. His life has been dedicated to the destruction of the Spanish rule. Until he meets Soledad. Now, their lives can no longer be the same. Soledad must face what it means to be a lady of Spain, the fiancee of headstrong Captain Rodrigo de las Rosas, and a silent member of a society trapped in the past. Luna Negra must question his place as the leader of his men, his part in a society that shuns him, and his blind desire for revenge. United in their search for freedom, Soledad and Luna Negra must find their true destiny.

The elves have fled to Calius, seeking to escape the overwhelming power of the demonic Garonin. A desperate last stand in their own dimension saved the race, at the cost of 100,000 elves lost to the Garonin. The elf who led that fight, Takaar, is blamed for the losses and has gone into hiding. Now the weakened elf race is tearing itself apart in civil war, human mercenaries have arrived in Calius and are ripping the continent apart. Only one elf can unite the elves. And only one elf believes in him. A young warrior named Auum sets out to bring back the shamed hero and save the elven race. James Barclay's ELVES trilogy will tell the whole story of his immortal elven race, and will appeal to all fans of Tolkien and fantasy - this is a uniquely entertaining take on a fantasy staple perfect to bring new readers to Barclay. And old readers of James Barclay will welcome a return to one of their favourite creations and will also love seeing one of their favourite characters again - the Tai Gethan warriror Auum destined to be one of the Raven.

This story takes place in a typical small college town in Illinois that holds a long time dark secret. By a mere chance several college students are connected in a way they would never have thought possible. As a string of "accidents" occur that are soon to be discovered murders, the secrets and lies begin to unravel the small town and some of its oldest residents. New relationships are beginning to form as old ones are revisited or tested. Among the fight, confusion, truth and lies a struggle to save lives, may cost more than anyone is willing to give.