Billy hates swimming. It's cold and wet and horrible. And just when Billy thinks things can't get any worse, his pet Mini Monsters turn up at his swimming lesson and make one very big SPLASH... Part of the popular 'Billy and the Mini Monsters' series, now being re-launched in paperback. The first book in the series was nominated in the 'Sheffield Children's Book Award' Early Readers category in 2018. A book in the series has been chosen three years in a row as part of the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge.

A poignant and personal account of the progressive ravages of Early-Onset Alzheimer's disease, not only on Billy's memory and quality of life, but also the relationship between a husband and a wife, as the disease steadily dissolved the partnership of marriage far too soon. The transition of Billy's fiery independence into that of a childlike dependent was consistent and confounding, and a stark contrast to the vibrant personality he had always embodied. The Monster of Alzheimer's grew fierce quickly, but with determination to fill the final chapter of their love story with moments of joy, they attempted to ignore the Monster for a small bit of time and live intentionally in each gifted moment together. With defiance against the Monster's inevitable conquest of Billy's beautiful mind, and a desire to fill that final chapter with sustaining memories, the conservative boundaries of a planned out future were forfeited and Billy's natural tendency to live life with wild abandon embraced. Uprooting a life of security built together in rural Montana and transplanting it on Oregon's serene central coast, ushered in one significant summer in which to search out adventure, reconnect with distant family members, and settle into a temporary bubble to share a precious season together. The Giver allowed a whirlwind of adventure and wild abandon before the Monster could no longer be ignored and The Taker threatened to step in. The depth of love and strength often realized only through battle, teamed with frustration and panic, became weapons in this heart-wrenching war and eventually led them back to Montana where the inevitable surrender took place on the battlefield of home. Early-Onset Alzheimer's without a genetic component itself is quite rare, but a twist in the last days of Billy's war revealed a possible and yet rarer diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy. And, although Alzheimer's disease has become a research priority and has been deemed an epidemic in many articles, awareness of the lack of support and compassion for those suffering with dementia left a bruised spirit in the wake of battles fought and lost. Perhaps Billy's story will inspire the courage necessary to face one day at a time for anyone searching for answers throughout the same dark tunnels, and help them to discover God's grace and presence where they would least expect it.

Billy has always lives a hard life with her mother. She has been doing chores and errands since she was seven, because she wants to help her mother. She goes to school and waters her neighbor's small urban garden for a few dollars when she goes home. Billy doesn't have friends because she is just too busy to have fun. She is afraid that if she does have friends, they will just hate her for always leaving them to do chores or errands. One day, as she was watering her neighbor's plants, a small creature jumps inside her pocket. When Billy sees the little creature, she takes care of it. The creature becomes a monster that lives inside her closet.

A boy of ten; he was happy, funny, fun to be around, and I was smart. Then one day I was none of these. I had suffered a traumatic brain injury. I was bullied by my teachers, my good friends, and others. I moved to a corner where I placed a book up in front of me and closed the world out. I refused to give up after learning what a TBI incident was, I was accepted into three different writers schools and I am now a professional speaker. To write this book I had to see this story through the eyes of a ten year old boy. I had to overcome.

You cannot believe a word Mick Farren tells you!” John Lydon A literary life railing against the machine, in the company of Johnny Cash, Frank Zappa, Chuck Berry and more. Mick Farren has spent more than 4 decades in the thick of the culture wars as a commentator, activist, essayist, poet, performer, and rebel with multiple causes. A founding figure of the 60s underground press, he careered on through the London birth pangs of punk, the intoxicated madness of Lower Manhattan under Ronald Reagan, earthquakes and urban insurrection in LA. Here you'll meet Frank Zappa, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and Gore Vidal, and steam open correspondence between the author and Pete Townshend.

On the 200th anniversary of the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Transmedia Creatures presents studies of Frankenstein by international scholars from converging disciplines such as humanities, musicology, film studies, television studies, English and digital humanities. These innovative contributions investigate the afterlives of a novel taught in a disparate array of courses - Frankenstein disturbs and transcends boundaries, be they political, ethical, theological, aesthetic, and not least of media, ensuring its vibrant presence in contemporary popular culture. Transmedia Creatures highlights how cultural content is redistributed through multiple media, forms and modes of production (including user-generated ones from “below”) that often appear synchronously and dismantle and renew established readings of the text, while at the same time incorporating and revitalizing aspects that have always been central to it. The authors engage with concepts, value systems and aesthetic-moral categories—among them the family, horror, monstrosity, diversity, education, risk, technology, the body—from a variety of contemporary approaches and highly original perspectives, which yields new connections. Ultimately, Frankenstein, as evidenced by this collection, is paradoxically enriched by the heteroglossia of preconceptions, misreadings, and overreadings that attend it, and that reveal the complex interweaving of perceptions and responses it generates. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Magic messed up everything. It always chose the worst time to screw everything up. Billy was fine. He kept his magical life away from his normal life and he was happy. Then, everything happened at once. Billy's passion was football. It was simple. It was enjoyable. It was pure. There was only one way to play and the thought that magic couldn't corrupt it. Then someone cheated and his world fell apart. The most amazing player in decades turned out to be cheating magically. There was nothing Billy could do about it. The NFL was a fantasy place. It was on TV and it was real, but it was so far away. Yes, Billy could use magic, he had magical friends, but he was just a fast food closing manager. He couldn't do anything about anything. Then, everyone in the world suddenly spontaneously transforms into centaurs. They don't transform into the traditional equine lower body with a human upper torso, they become centaurs with the lower bodies of a variety of animals. The world is decimated overnight. People find themselves too small or too big for their vehicles. Cars and planes careen out of control and there is massive loss of life. Everything is affected from food production to transportation to football players. The whole world is in chaos. Finding out that one of his magical friends was inadvertently associated with the transformation, Billy learns that a magical event was going to take place in the near future. It's called Brianna's Call and it is the return of magic to the Earth. The only way that the world can transform back into their human bodies is for them to intercept Brianna's Call. In order to do that, Billy must join his favorite NFL team and take them to the championship game. Brianna's Call is going to touch down on Super Bowl Sunday at the Super Bowl. Along the way, Billy must confront the cheating NFL player, battle powerful wizards intent on collecting Brianna's Call for themselves, and deal with a jealous girlfriend.