Complete with excitement, new beginnings, and the promise of happy endings, the Howard Books 2016 Fiction e-sampler has a great mix of debut authors and bestselling favorites for you to try out and enjoy—for FREE! Step back in time with our historical fiction, fall in love with our inspirational romance, and enjoy our contemporary stories. If you would like to learn more about any of our authors or the titles featured, please visit us at HowardBooksOnline.com, like us at Facebook.com/HowardBooks, follow us @Howard_Books, and sign up to receive our quarterly e-newsletters to stay informed of all of Howard’s new releases. With chapter excerpts from the following Spring 2016 new releases: Eve by WM. Paul Young Promise to Keep by Elizabeth Byler Younts Esther by Rebecca Kanner Come to the Garden by Jennifer Wilder Morgan The Cairo Code by Glenn Meade Bride of a Distant Isle by Sandra Byrd Brush of Wings by Karen Kingsbury Close To You by Kara Isaac Broken Ground by Karen Halvorsen Schreck Almost Like Falling in Love by Beth K. Vogt The Progeny by Tosca Lee

African American Novels in the Black Lives Matter Era: Transgressive Performativity of Black Vulnerability as Praxis in Everyday Life explores the undoing of whiteness by black people, who dissociate from scripts of black criminality through radical performative reiterations of black vulnerability. It studies five novels that challenge the embodied discursive practices of whiteness in interracial social encounters, showing how they use strategic performances of Blackness to enable subversive practices in everyday life, which is constructed and governed by white mechanisms of racialized control. The agency portrayed in these novels opens up alternative spaces of Blackness to impact the social world and effects transformative change as a forceful critique of everyday life. African American Novels in the Black Lives Matter Era shows how these novels reformulate the problem of black vulnerability as a constitutive source of the right to life in their refusal of subjection to vulnerability, enacted by white institutional and individual forms of violence. It positions a white-black-encounter-oriented reading of these “neo-resistance novels” of the Black Lives Matter era as a critique of everyday life in an effort to explore spaces of radical performativity of blackness to make happen social change and transformation.

“[Behind Howard’s stories] lurks a dark poetry and the timeless truth of dreams.” –Robert Bloch “Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.” –Stephen King The classic pulp magazines of the early twentieth century are long gone, but their action-packed tales live on through the work of legendary storyteller Robert E. Howard. From his fecund imagination sprang an army of larger-than-life heroes–including the iconic Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn–as well as adventures that would define a genre for generations. Now comes the second volume of this author’s breathtaking short fiction, which runs the gamut from sword and sorcery, historical epic, and seafaring pirate adventure to two-fisted crime and intrigue, ghoulish horror, and rip-roaring western. Kull reigns supreme in “By This Axe I Rule!” and “The Mirrors of Tuzan Thune”; Conan conquers in one of his most popular exploits, “The Tower of the Elephant”; Solomon Kane battles demons deep in Africa in “Wings in the Night”; and itinerant boxer Steve Costigan puts up his dukes of steel inside and outside the ring in “The Bulldog Breed.” In between, warrior kings, daring knights, sinister masterminds, grizzled frontiersmen–even Howard’s stunning heroine, Red Sonya–tear up the pages in stories built to thrill by their masterly creator. And in such epic poems as “Echoes from an Anvil,” “Black Harps in the Hills,” and “The Grim Land,” the author blends his classic characters and visceral imagery with a lyricism as haunting as traditional folk balladry. Lavishly illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, here is a Robert E. Howard collection as indispensable as it is unforgettable. “Howard had a gritty, vibrant style–broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life.” –David Gemmell “For stark, living fear . . . What other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?” –H. P. Lovecraft

Private investigator Jeri Howard is on vacation in New Orleans when a friend asks a favor: her sister Laurette has disappeared with a boyfriend, and Jeri’s trip turns into a case. Slade, a mercurial musician, tends to strike out when thwarted, sometimes leading to deadly consequences. Jeri’s investigation takes her from French Quarter clubs to workaday NOLA, then back to California, into jeopardy—and an explosive conclusion.

THE MOST TRUSTED GUIDE TO GETTING POETRY PUBLISHED Want to get your poetry published? There's no better tool for making it happen than Poet's Market 2016, which includes hundreds of publishing opportunities specifically for poets, including listings for book and chapbook publishers, poetry publications, contests, and more. These listings include contact information, submission preferences, insider tips on what specific editors want, and--when offered--payment information. In addition to the listings, Poet's Market offers all-new articles devoted to the craft and business of poetry, including advice for performing poems live, how to take poetry to new audiences, a schematic for sculpting language, how to collaborate with other poets, and more! You also gain access to: • A one-year subscription to the poetry-related information and listings on WritersMarket.com* • Lists of conferences, workshops, organizations, and grants • A free digital download of Writer's Yearbook featuring the 100 Best Markets: WritersDigest.com/WritersDigest-Yearbook-15 + Includes exclusive access to the webinar "Creating and Re-creating Your Poetry for Publication" from Robert Lee Brewer, editor of Poet's Market *Please note: The e-book version of this title does not include a one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com. "Whenever anyone asks me for advice about publishing poetry, the first thing I do is recommend Poet's Market. It is an invaluable resource and a great way for poets to educate themselves about the craft and business of writing poetry." --Joseph Mills, author of This Miraculous Turning and Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers "Poet's Market is an essential tool to help poets find their readers. Whether a beginning or published poet, Poet's Market will assist you in finding the best places to submit your poems and manuscripts. It's a useful and valuable resource that can help you navigate the publishing world and take your writing life to another level." --Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Hourglass Museum and The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice

A compressed, visceral novel about exile, dislocation, and the emotional minefields between mothers and daughters.

Art can be used in education to assist in engagement, comprehension, and literacy. For years, comics and graphic novels have been written off as simple sources of entertainment. However, comics and graphic novels have tremendous value when utilized in the classroom as unique texts that can be approached philosophically and cognitively. Exploring Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom highlights voices from a number of disciplines in education, showcasing research and practice using both popular and lesser-known examples of comics across time in terms of publishing history and across geographic contexts. It explores comics from multiple viewpoints to share the efficacy of these texts in descriptive, narrative, and empirical ways. Covering topics such as intersectional identity representation, sequential visual art, and critical analysis, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for educational administrators, teacher educators, preservice teachers, faculty of both K-12 and higher education, librarians, teaching artists, researchers, and academicians.