A novel based on the true story of the struggle Charles Dickens faced during the winter of 1843 while writing his now-classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol 1843, London. Though the approaching Christmas looks bleak at the home of the Dickens family, Charles and his pregnant wife Catherine try to maintain a good cheer for their four young children. Debts are mounting, food is scarce, and Charles' books—according to his miserly publisher—are no longer selling. Then Charles has an idea, which comes to him in the ghostly form of Oliver Cromwell, the long-dead, spirit-crushing, Lord Protector of England. A Christmas Carol will be Dickens' most brilliant work yet, both for its mass appeal and underlying political message. But many sinister forces oppose the success of this literary gem; and it is only through faith, kindness and the innate goodness of mankind that A Christmas Carol will become a timeless classic—and that the young writer Charles Dickens will truly save Christmas for all of England... Find the true story in A Midnight Carol by Patricia K. Davis, sure to become a brand new Christmas classic.

"Henry James' Midnight Song is so exciting that I got up in the middle of the night to finish it--I couldn't sleep wondering what would happen next. Yet it is so intellectually complex that repeated readings only reveal richer meanings and more subtle shades of thought. In its virtuosity, as well as its themes and techniques, this novel puts Carol DeChellis Hill among postmodern masters such as Thomas Pynchon, E. L. Doctorow, and Umberto Eco. She may even be better." --Judith Caesar, Philadelphia Inquirer

Listen to the sounds of yesteryear as you travel back in time on a journey through the 1950's, which would be unimaginable to those of us who never lived through it. Based on the inspirational true story of some of life's unbelievable twists of fate, and the bittersweet reflections of a youngster growing up in the '50s, whose life had been touched by tragedy that could have taken many different paths. As the veil of secrecy is slowly lifted and removed, you'll become aquatinted with the guardian angels that are placed here on earth to protect, and watch over us. Witness the awakening of an understanding that began when a ten-year-old child, survives from a spiritual death with the help of a valiant spirit who guides her through life, and into a spiritual journey of acceptance. Finally, journey on a spine-chilling ride in the "Phantom Car of German Church Road," to one of the most horrific murders in Chicago's history, and even after four decades, still remains undiminished in its brutality and horror, as it mesmerized the entire city, of the unsolved murders of two teenage sisters who were last seen near the Brighton Park Theater, on the evening of December 28, 1956.Credit for graphic: Carol Jon, design by Rebecca D. Brown

The acclaimed author of Home Schooling returns with a timeless tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, and survival that spans two world wars. In 1927, as Natalia Faber travels from Berlin to Prague with her mother, their train is delayed in Saxon Switzerland. In the brief time the train is idle, Natalia learns the truth about her father—who she believed died during her infancy—and meets a remarkable woman named Dr. Magdalena Schaeffer, whose family will become a significant part of her future. Shaken by these events, Natalia arrives at a spa on the shore of Lake Hevíz in Hungary. Here, she meets Count Miklós Andorján, a journalist and adventurer. The following year, they will marry. Years later, Germany has invaded Russia. When Miklós fails to return from the eastern front, Natalia goes to Prague to wait for him. With a pack of tarot cards, she sets up shop as a fortune teller, and she meets Anna Schaeffer, the daughter of the woman she met decades earlier on that stalled train. The Nazis accuse Natalia of spying, and she is sent to a concentration camp. Though they are separated, her friendship with Anna grows as they fight to survive and to be reunited with their families. “An original and compelling story, told with vivid detail and a richness in setting that I absorbed in one sitting.”—Ellen Keith, bestselling author of The Dutch Wife Praise for Homeschooling “Carol Windley’s writing has a unique power, a perfect combination of delicacy, intensity, and fearless imagination.”—Alice Munro “Startlingly lovely.”—Seattle Times

Cousin Wilma's visit coincides with several subtle, disturbing changes in the Bridgeport household.

Meeting Midnight is a collection for young readers by one of the most exciting poets writing today. These poems will blow your head away. An exuberant mix of the funny, the sinister, the tender and the ridiculous, they will transport you to worlds half magical, half eerily familiar. The boundaries between real and imagined lives are blurred to sometimes disturbing effect; this is a place where graves are liable to open up before our feet, where we can be plunged into quicksand one minute or left with sinister strangers the next. Among the many characters we meet there's an inveterate liar, a boy who thinks he's Elvis Presley, a girl infatuated with a tree and two outrageously matched Queens.

The New York County Courthouse, in Lower Manhattan, has its own rules and traditions. When a judge dies, the members of his staff keep their jobs until the end of that calendar year. So when Judge Alvin Canter quietly expires in his chambers on December 31st, his loyal clerk and secretary find themselves in a difficult situation. Their jobs will vanish at closing time-- unless they can conceal the judge's death until after midnight.