Ghost Quartet is a stunning exploration of love and ambition, sexual identity, and spiritual purpose. Set in the contemporary classical music world of New York and Tanglewood, the novel centers around the Faustian struggles of Ray Stoneson, a thirty-two-year-old composer, talented yet unrecognized. When Ray meets Perry Green, an internationally renowned, considerably older gay conductor and composer who is desperately attracted to him, both of their lives change inexorably. Perry offers to further Ray's career in exchange for a relationship; Ray eventually complies, but his secret sexual encounters with Perry threaten his relationship with Joy, the beautiful singer he longs to marry, and with Bobby, the idealistic but troubled young actor who is in love with Perry. With relentless suspense and profound psychological insight, Ghost Quartet moves toward a surprising, ironic, and powerful conclusion. Ghost Quartet is a compelling novel of aspiration and moral compromise, a finely crafted exploration of the boundaries that preserve the psyche and the damage that results when those boundaries are breached.

An anthology of four original ghost tales includes Orson Scott Card's "Hamlet's Father," Marvin Kaye's "The Haunted Single Malt," Tanith Lee's "Strindberg's Ghost," and Brian Lumley's "A Place of Waiting."

Do you believe in ghosts? You will after reading these original short novels from four of today's best writers of the fantastic. Brian Lumley, a Grand Master of Horror and author of the popular Necroscope series, opens the collection with the tense "A Place of Waiting." The moors of Devon, England, are home to many ghosts, but none as fearsome as the red-eyed specter that refuses to accept his death. His only chance of release, however, comes at a terrible cost. Orson Scott Card puts a new spin on one of literature's most famous ghosts in "Hamlet's Father." What if the former King of Denmark was not killed by his treacherous brother for his crown, but by someone entirely unexpected as punishment for the darkest of crimes? Would his troubled son still seek revenge? The patrons of an Edinburgh tavern are introduced to a beverage with an unusual history in "The Haunted Single Malt" by Marvin Kaye, a clever and spooky story about ghost stories and the people who love them. Tanith Lee offers "Strindberg's Ghost Sonata," a chilling tale set in an alternate Russia. When a poor man is rescued from certain death by hospitable strangers, he discovers that he is not a guest in their haunted tenement building--he is a prisoner destined to become a sacrifice. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Say It Hot Volume II: Industrial Strength is a collection of essays on American poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and issues of interest to artists and academics. A companion volume to Say It Hot, these essays are brutally honest and acutely intelligent. From the book: “Literary authors these days no longer make livings off their work. Their books are not to be found in bookstores, and the books are rarely printed by major New York publishing houses. No one reads their works except for other literary authors and the professors who are evaluating their tenure and promotion folders at the colleges and universities at which they are employed, and it’s a minor miracle if a literary book from a small press sells a thousand copies. Fiction writers from wealth write about writing or they write about the ridiculous “sufferings” of the rich. Fiction writers from the lower classes write about the primordial filth from which they’ve physically escaped but from which they’ll never mentally be able to leave behind. Like war veterans, people who’ve fought it out in the miasma of poverty and blue- collar hell can never get the stink out of their skins, try as they may. Just like people who haven’t been to war can spot vets who have, middle-class people and the rich can spot people who’ve grown up poor, no matter what their position in life or the quality of their designer suits. Those suits just don’t fit right, and the neckties make them fidget and sweat. What the well-heeled authors and the working-class writers have in common is that they’ve been trained not to pronounce moral judgment.”

A unique guide to enhance and enrich your enjoyment of classical music, this book is for music lovers who want to better understand the works of the masters.

"Ancient ideals and modern musings rub up against each other in Blue Wizard / Black Wizard, a philosophical musical fantasia. Two referees adjudicate the proceedings as the Black and Blue Wizards battle to save themselves and humanity from the Great Mediocrity. Warping the conventions of musical theatre and classical art song to intersect with the sensibilities of electronic music, Blue Wizard / Black Wizard is a pop culture smash-up of fantasy language and contemporary parlance. What unfolds is a ritualistic sporting event, the likes of which audiences have never seen"-- Back cover.

FEATURES: The weird animation of Bill Plympton; Viktor Koen's biomechanical visions; Exclusive excerpt: The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia. INTERNATIONAL FICTION SPOTLIGHT: "First Photograph" by Zoran Zivkovic; "The Gong" by Sara Genge; "The Dream of the Blue Man" by Nir Yaniv; "The Wordeaters" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz; "Out of Sacred Water" by Juraj Cervenak; "Time and the Orpheus" by chiles samaniego; more. POETRY: "The Monster With the Shape of Me" by Brian J. Hatcher. NONFICTION: The Library: Elizabeth Genco talks with author Lauren Groff about writing The Monsters of Templeton; The Bazaar: Jessica Joslin's crazy steampunk critters; Weirdism: Robert Isenberg on the cinema's latest obsession with apocalyptic futures; Lost in Lovecraft: Kenneth Hite dives literarily into the Pacific Ocean and pulls up H.P. Lovecraft; Harvey Pelican & Co.: special offers from the esoterica king.