Each story in Time for Bedlam features something new and something familiar, from tales based on the myths of your childhood to brand new morality plays. These are stories designed to recall the emotions you felt when your parents warned you about the Scissorman, who would chop off your thumb if you kept sucking on it, or the monster under the bed, who would pull you down with it if you wet the mattress one more time. From a post-apocalyptic journey through the land of the Wolves, to a hard-learned lesson for a princess of the deep seas, to a bit of strong therapy for a disobedient child, Time for Bedlam will delight you with its twisted reflections of the stories you know, and enchant you with original tales from some of the most thoughtful fantasists now writing.

HEAVEN IS A PRISON. HELL IS A PLAYGROUND. Ross Baker is an overworked scientist developing medical technology for corporate giant Neurosphere, but he'd rather be playing computer games than dealing with his nightmare boss or slacker co-workers. He volunteers as a test candidate for the new tech - anything to get out of the office for a few hours. But when he emerges from the scanner he discovers he's not only escaped the office, but possibly escaped real life for good. He's trapped in Starfire - a video game he played as a child - with no explanation, no backup and, most terrifyingly, no way out.

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet Welcome to the depths of chaos. After exploring themes of humanity and destruction in the previous two installments, Antwan Crump furthers the A Collection of Things series with six thrilling new tales that redefine life, death, desire, and consequence. Do we dare to face the darkness or will it devour us before we can question its purpose?

Follow a young therapist as he fights to work with troubles teens in a modern psychiatric hospital. In his war against mental illness he faces battles with abuse, lies, violence and incest. This is a huminizing, intimate and entertaining coming of age journey of a shrink through the moral and administrative morass of a mental hospital.

The 22nd century, 150 years after the Dust War destroyed America's Mid-West, and much else besides. California is a last outpost for survival and reclamation during a long epidemic of all-purpose despair. The extraordinary cult of 'Tumbonde,' a former taxi driver its prophet and leader, predicts the imminent arrival on earth of 'Gods' from the stars. The movement grows daily. Tom O'Bedlam, an apparent madman, prey since childhood to visions which seem to confirm 'Tumbonde,' goes even further. He can, he will, help others to make the Crossing. If the world doesn't go too man too soon. If well-meaning 'rationalists' don't lock him away . . .

A compilation of urban fantasy tales by some of the genre's leading practitioners features works by Roberta Gellis, Dave Freer and Eric Flint, Diana Paxson, Mercedes Lackey, and Rosemary Edghill.

Mystical Bedlam explores the social history of insanity of early seventeenth-century England by means of a detailed analysis of the records of Richard Napier, a clergyman and astrological physician, who treated over 2000 mentally disturbed patients between 1597 and 1634. Napier's clients were drawn from every social rank and his therapeutic techniques included all the types of psychological healing practised at the time. His vivid descriptions of his clients' afflictions and complaints illuminate the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. This book goes beyond simply analysing mental disorder in a seventeenth-century astrological and medical practice. It reveals contemporary attitudes towards family life, describes the appeal of witchcraft and demonology to ordinary villagers, and explains the social and intellectual basis for the eclectic blend of scientific, magical, and religious therapies practised before the English Revolution. Not only is it a contribution to the history of medicine but also a survey of some of the darkest regions of the mental world of the English people of the seventeenth century.

Book of Poetry

A Druid looks at quality control for product and service industries, amplifying from his earlier book Right first time . Some highlights: Quality is a religion, with the same trappings and pitfalls as other religions; humanity can be distorted, but not abolished, by managerial decree and organizatio

Born in a shabby tenement in Victorian London, young Tom Bedlam is employed stoking the furnaces in a massive porcelain factory; he is son to a father he has never met, and sibling to a baby who vanished at birth. But in spite of these disadvantages, he is a positive spirit, cunning in his pursuit of love, unflinchingly loyal to his friends, and possessed of a deep, passionate soul. More than anything, he wishes to bring the loose strands of his estranged family together. After Tom’s mother dies, a mysterious family benefactor appears who offers to pay for the boy’s education. For a factory urchin this is good luck indeed, and Tom is whisked away to an exclusive private boarding school called Hammer Hall. The school is a crucible of variously privileged, predatory, meek, and noble boys, and although Tom gathers crucial clues there about his lost brother, he finds himself caught between warring forces and makes a Faustian pact that will haunt his adult life. As Tom becomes a man, his quest assumes grander proportions, a search for his lost innocence but an attempt to create the family he dreamed of in childhood. His experiences will challenge his decency and force him to weigh his character against the pitfalls of loyalty, patriotism, love, and familial duty. Tom Bedlam shows how small deeds in childhood can resonate for a lifetime, and how the bonds of family ultimately prevail against the devastating march of progress and human folly. Most of all, it is a journey with a good friend. Charming, whimsical, passionate, and funny–there’s no better companion than Tom Bedlam.