There is a darker side of reality, which we often ignore. It is coming for us all. Prepare yourself, for the end is near.

Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he sees a stagecoach leave a passenger stranded. The man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the coach, drawing him into a drama he could never have imagined. On reaching the coach they discover that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell's brutal husband and his murderous brothers. Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will kill her and take their son. Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety. He is joined in this chivalrous act by two companions: the treasure hunter whose stranding began this endeavour and a restless Black Seminole who has an escape plan of his own. Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets emerge. And even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and begins to imagine a life as Tot's father, vengeful pursuers are never far behind.

You might imagine the Collision that catapulted magical creatures to Earth would make every moment miraculous. But jobs were just as dull,and life could be just as boring. Traffic still stunk, only now with dragon Flyways above highways, the stink was worse than ever.Jackson Bee Belle Elders (Bee for short) is a promising Magical Sciences major who ends up smack in the middle of the Southern home town she tried to escape. Her lofty dreams of adventure only land her under fluorescent lights as she turfs creatures to temp jobs forBeveled Star Magical Staffing (B.S. for short).But everything changes when the cautious temp meets a friend who will dramatically alter her holiday weekend and her life. Nevermind thatthe friend is a wolf working for a despicable djinn who might use him to destroy the planet and everyone in it. Nevermind that the wolf cantalk, but no human except Bee can hear him. Bee has a lot of secretssome she knows about, and some she doesn't.Fizzing with wit and adventure, Temp is a tale for anyone who has ever fantasized about a more magical life.

As a recipient of Poetry's Levinson Prize and the Ruth Lilly Prize and a nominee for the American Book Award and National Book Award, David Wagoner is one of this country's most celebrated poets. In The House of Song, he offers a hundred new poems in six parts. At turns elegiac, comic, and nostalgic, these poems venture to the seemingly infinitesimal points where people, legends, and culture collide with nature, memory, and action. With characteristic wit and brevity, Wagoner chronicles the material invasions of the natural world, reconsidering Thoreau amid ruminations on voyeurs and destroyers, slug watchers and moth collectors. The House of Song asserts Wagoner's place among the finest of American poets, past and present.

"Contents"--"Editors' Note" -- ""I Am Nothing But A Poor Scribbler": A Foreword" -- "Introduction" -- "I. Emigrant Indians And Plain Folk" -- "II. First Families" -- "The Coker Clan" -- "The Turnbo Neighborhood" -- "III. The County Seats And Outlying Settlements" -- "IV. Man And Wildlife" -- "Tales Of Buffalo" -- "Tales Of Bear" -- "Tales Of Elk And Deer" -- "Tales Of Wolves" -- "Tales Of Panther" -- "Tales Of Varlous Species" -- "Tales Of Snakes And Centipedes" -- "V. "Hearts Of Stone": The War At Home" -- "Appendix: Selected Genealogies Of The Coker And The Turnbo Families" -- "Notes" -- "Works Cited