Blackchurch is not the sort of place where folks are inclined to be up in each other’s business, and strange house guests at a neighbor’s pad are not likely to be noticed, let alone remarked upon. So on a day in early October, when two beat-up-looking crackers, a pregnant teenage whore, and a small, androgynous Japanese woman in a large-brimmed sombrero, sunglasses, and wrapped in a patchwork down comforter came to call on D’antre Philips with heads full of prophetic visions and tales of the apocalypse already in progress, nary an eye was blinked. When the end times do come to Blackchurch, it’ll be a day like any other day. And the next day will be too. Blackchurch Furnace is a scathing satire of faith, family, and all that we hold dear, where the only thing you can believe in are the voices in your own head…and they are every bit as crazy as you are. Praise for BLACKCHURCH FURNACE: “Blackchurch Furnace is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It reads like an underworld testament, groaning with ghost histories, clanking and burning with all the shuffling grandeur of its subject, Cincinnati. It’s haunting, it’s furious, it’s beautiful, it’s a book only Nathan Singer could have written. He’s the kind of writer who’ll just destroy you, in all the right ways.”—Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father “Similar to author Victor LaValle (The Ecstatic, Slapboxing with Jesus and Big Machine), Nathan Singer is an urban wordsmith that blisters the pages with a language only he can scribe. Blackchurch Furnace is an apocalyptic head-scratching mystery laced with hip-hop, Louisiana metal, 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Characters scour to LA and back to where the story is rooted amongst the struggling class of Ohio with Gothic saviors, saints and prophets searching to redefine what was once moral and just. This book is loud, comical, witty, and comes with a soprano-shriek that screams ‘read me!’”—Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook “Reading Nathan Singer’s Blackchurch Furnace is like coming across a lost book of the Bible, equal parts profound and profane. Singer’s work has beauty and brutality in a balance no other writer can match. Blackchurch Furnace is a brilliant story of loss and struggle, pushed by an unrelenting momentum and characters of such power, such precision, that their impact will leave a sacred mark on the devout reader.”—Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball “Blackchurch Furnace is a relentless, visceral, and black-humored ride through America’s alternately pious and depraved id. It turns a keen and tender eye to bars, churches, porn mansions, and boiler rooms. Singer has managed a finger-trap of a story that weaves together realism and apocalypse, heavy metal and children’s books, redemption and the lack thereof.”—Tyler McMahon, author of How the Mistakes Were Made

Introducing Political Philosophy explains the subject’s central concepts and presents the major political theorists from Plato to Michel Foucault. How did governments get started? Why should they be obeyed? Could we live without them? How much power should they have? Is freedom a right? Which is the best form of government?

African American spirituality was forged in the fiery furnace of slavery, segregation, and ongoing racial discrimination in both church and society. But African Americans are a people who are strengthened rather than weakened by their experience. This volume traces how African Americans have articulated their faith and love of God in language, song, and daily living. Beginning with its spiritual roots in Africa, Hayes shows how African American spirituality encompassed and incorporated the experience of slavery and the encounter with Christianity. Remarkably, African American slaves were able to find in the religion of their oppressors a message of hope, affirmation, and resistance. Through stories, song, distinctive forms of prayer, celebration, and prophetic witness, Hayes shows how the spirituality of African Americans has nurtured their survival as well as promoting action on behalf of the community and the greater society.

Cooper and Davis are a couple of jam band-obsessed Texas ex-pats growing some of Denver’s finest organic cannabis and living the good life on tour. Or, at least they were, until legal weed put the squeeze on their market and cramped their playboy lifestyle. When their last out-of-state distributor gets busted by an Illinois task force, they're left with no choice but to turn to their reckless former associate Elroy “Sancho” Watts to unload one last crop down in Teller County, Texas. But Sancho Watts has troubles of his own in the form of Texas Ranger Russ Kirkpatrick, tasked under the table with nailing Watts for anything that will stick because of his involvement in the drug-induced suicide of a state senator's son. Not to mention his infamous new business partner, Heisman quarterback and NFL burnout Bobby Burnell, a man working to rise from the ashes of his self-destructed football career by making a name for himself in his criminally inclined Teller County family, no matter who he has to double-cross to get there. What ensues is a pine-curtain criminal jamboree where everyone involved keeps their cards close to their vest, and all the high-stakes two-stepping is sure to result in bloodshed.

Dustin loves to rob banks. Dustin loves to drink. Dustin loves his women. Dustin loves loyalty. He might even love his adopted nephew Jeremy. And, he sometimes gets a little too enthusiastic in his job doing collections for local bookies—so, sometimes, he loves to hurt people. Told in the first person, Uncle Dust is a fascinating noir look inside the mind of a hard, yet very complicated criminal. Rob Pierce has been nominated for a Derringer Award for short crime fiction, and has had his stories published in Flash Fiction Offensive, Pulp Modern, Plots With Guns, Revolt Daily, Near to the Knuckle, and Shotgun Honey. The editor of Swill Magazine, he lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and two children. He is equally comfortable taking romantic walks on the beach or dumping the body elsewhere. Praise for UNCLE DUST: “The story and dialogue in Uncle Dust capture much of the circumstance of prison life in all its squalid glory. Made me wish I’d done time with tough guy Dustin. I thoroughly enjoyed our criminal hero’s mind as he observed the world, and himself, through a cynical thief’s lens. And I think you will too.” —Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber

In the bloody aftermath of Suicide Lounge, Selena is lying low and putting her life back together. When the freedom she has fought hard to secure is threatened, Selena is forced to take on a new enemy—an elusive young man who holds her fate in hand, a man with connections to the nastiest criminals in the south. In a desperate attempt to protect herself and those she’s grown to love, Selena blazes a blistering, high-octane path through the southeast leaving blood-drenched carnage in her wake. Road Carnage is the fourth book in the Selena series. Praise for the SELENA SERIES: “Greg Barth cooked up something mean and served it up and I hope none of you choke on it because it’s mighty tasty.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “It’s like the wildest of the men’s adventure novels of the ’70s, updated for the new millennium. Definitely not for the faint of heart.” —Bill Crider “Reminiscent of Larry Brown’s Fay, but less innocent and more violent, Selena combines fine writing and an indelible character to help fill the gap of female protagonists in the world of noir.” —Vicki Hendricks, author of Miami Purity “Greg Barth writes with a knife-like edge…A fast, crazy read.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “Greg Barth writes a hell of a book. He steps on the gas and doesn’t let up for a second.” —Michael Finamore “Mister Barth writes well—hard charging and fast paced.” —Tony Knighton, author of Three Hours Past Midnight “This book had me turning pages and gritting my teeth…a total punch to the gut, and it hurts so good.” —S. W. Lauden, author of Crosswise “Selena is a visceral pulp thriller that had me gripped from the outset.” —Tom Leins, of Dirty Books Blog “This series is a literary legend in the making” —Will Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me “Selena is a tour de force of unapologetic sex and violence, not for the faint of heart but definitely for hardcore fans of fast paced, unrelenting pulp-noir in the fashion of nobody except Greg Barth.” —Shane D. Keene

Dya is a girl from the deepest end of the ocean. Though likely nearing one hundred years old, she nonetheless looks to be—and for all intents and purposes is—a sixteen-year-old girl. Once, while very young, Dya ventured too close to land and found herself on a pebble beach off the coast of Maine where she came face to face with another young girl named Mary Louise. Though from completely different worlds, Dya and Mary Louise became very close (and secret) friends. Dya returned often over the years to visit Mary Louise, each time spending more and more time on land, and wanting less and less to return to her home in the deep. However, it was starting to become clear to Dya that she could not keep splitting her time between the two worlds, as it was literally, physically, tearing her apart. Soon she would have to decide—will she give up the sea once and for all and live out the reminder of her now shortened life in a world in which she’ll never truly belong…or will she remain in the deep and pine forever for the life she truly wanted? Back home beneath the sea, Dya is torn about what to do. For as much as she loves and misses her friend on land, and has fallen madly in love with the land itself, she’s afraid to leave the ocean world. This is not only because it is all she has ever known, but because her people are feral and aggressive folk by nature (particularly the men), besides being ferociously secretive and isolationist. They will not take kindly to having one of their own abandon the deep for the land, and there may very well be brutal and devastating consequences. The world of her people is an ancient culture, largely unchanged for thousands of years. And like any young immigrant caught between the modern world and that of her people, she fears what could happen if these very different worlds were to collide. Finally she decides to make the commitment once and for all, come what may. And with that, she makes the journey upward, and casts her fate to the whims of the coastal winds… Praise for THE SONG IN THE SQUALL: “The Song in the Squall is a unique and musically-charged tale of wanderlust, growing pains, and bonds that run deeper than the sea.” —Jessica McHugh, author of Rabbits in the Garden and the Darla Decker Series “Great young adult literature often explores the power of friendship. Add a component of magic, and the quest to find out what is really important in life, and you have the basic elements of a great story. Add a sharp, focused writing style and you have Nathan Singer's The Song in the Squall. Original and compelling—do not miss it!” —Carolyn Haines, USA Today bestselling author of the Sarah Booth Delaney and Pluto’s Snitch mystery series. “Nathan Singer’s The Song in the Squall is a glorious book, redolent with the taste of the salt sea and the sharp odor of an approaching thunderstorm. Dya is a young girl making the difficult transition from the depths of the sea to the land, finding friendship as well as conflict along the way. Dya, Molly, Malik, Mary Louise, and the other characters are drawn with emotion and an unflinching honesty that grips the reader’s heart and refuses to release it until the final, bittersweet conclusion. Open this book and follow the shimmering footsteps in the sands. You won’t regret the journey!” —Stephen Leigh, author of Crow of Connemara and A Fading Sun