Rohit Shetty Indian Literary Industry has come up with many authors who have received both national and international acclaim but amidst this, poetry has been sidelined and publishers do not publish poetry stating the lack of market, and as a result many talented writers or I must say poets fail to get their books out or get their poems published. First Step Publishing realises this situation and has come up with a collection of poems from poets across India, poets coming from all walks of life, Doctors, Engineers, Bankers, Students, Homemakers, Previously published poets, many to be published for the first time. Minds@Work is an annual book by First Step Publishing. Minds@Work 2 had no topic or content to be printed till I had a casual discussion with one of the entrants over coffee and realised that an anthology of poems can be done for this edition, so an online campaign was started calling in for entries. We were overwhelmed with the kind of response we received and had a tough time in selecting poets as every entry deserves to be a part of Minds@Work2. I would like to thank the entire team of First Step Publishing for making a casual talk a working reality and also Design Fishing for the beautiful cover and our associates, Speak Out Newspaper for Branding and Promotions and First Step Corp for designing and developing our Android App. In the end my love and warm regards to all the readers

These thirteen strange stories will transport you into worlds both unique and horrifyingly familiar. They range from a disco fairytale to a dystopian immigration office in space. What binds these horrors together is a humanity desperately seeking hope, only to find a seemingly endless pit of cruelty. If it is not man being cruel to his fellow man then it is man's cruelty toward the natural world that brings to life vengeful and forgotten monsters.

Dun Lady’s Jess–once a horse, now learning the ways of the human heart: love, betrayal, and deadly revenge. Jess, once a horse called Dun Lady’s Jess, is still struggling to integrate her human and equine selves when the wizard Arlen discovers someone in Camolen is callously turning wild creatures into bewildered and maddened human slaves. It’s unsettling enough that Camolen’s wizards can’t find the rogue magic user–but the trouble has just started. A dangerous wizard escapes, Arlen’s hold comes under attack, and an entire company of peacekeepers disappears. Jess soon realizes that she and her friends are at the center of events that threaten to leave her trapped helplessly in equine form while her friends fall victim to revenge and the Council of Wizards slowly loses control of Camolen.

Dun Lady’s Jess–all horse, all woman, all heart…and the only one left who can save her disintegrating world from magic gone awry. Arlen of Anfeald is dead–or so his friends believe, for Camolen’s Council of Wizards has been cut down in a treacherous ambush of twisted magic…and the only surviving witness is a palomino stallion named Ramble. Convinced that the twisted magic is a threat to all of Camolen, Carey–Anfeald’s Head Courier–plans to question the palomino, using the now-forbidden spell that can change a horse into a human. This is the same spell that once turned Dun Lady’s Jess from horse to human as it took her from one world to another–from Camolen to the American Midwest. But once Cary, Jess, and the palomino leave Camolen, racing to obtain the crucial information that can save their world, the damaging magic spreads, blossoming to engulf the unwary and corrupting even the simplest of spells. Even the spell that can take them home…