A green-hued, dark-fantasy, old-school mini-setting and bestiary set in a twisted middle-England. Situated in the middle of Havenland is an area known by the ancestors as the Middle Havenlands. They don't use that name much anymore, preferring to talk lazily, and skip letters. In strange accents, often misheard and little understood by those outside of the central region, they call it 'The Midderlands', and themselves 'Midfolk' or 'Midderlanders'. Everywhere though, the Midderlands is tainted by a green-tinged menace that rises from 'Middergloom', the deep and mysterious realms beneath the surface. It affects nature and order. Sometimes subtly and sometimes catastrophically. Middergloom is often described as hell bathed in green fire and flames. Green-tinged, viscid slime; noxious, acrid vapours; and miasmas of hopelessness creep upwards from below. Amongst them, viridian-coloured demons, lime-green tentacles, and other malachite horrors claw their way to the surface to wreak havoc. The Lords of the land are always working to keep things at bay. They fight endlessly as if holding back a torrent of despair. Things stir in this viridian-hued landscape. Evil eyes blink and watch. Teeth and claws scratch and sharpen. Gaping maws slobber and drool. All is not content in the Midderlands.

The full story of the infamous double murder featured on Discovery’s FBI Files—includes photos. In this book, former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) forensic photographer Lt. Rita Y. Shuler recounts twenty-eight days of terror and shocking developments in one of the most notorious double murders and manhunts in South Carolina history. Shuler shares her own personal interactions with some of the key players in this famous manhunt and investigation. Also included are Bell’s chilling calls from area phone booths to the Smith family, along with his disconcerting interviews and bizarre actions in the courtroom, which show the dark, evil, and criminal mind of this horrific killer. This is a comprehensive account of the case that has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s FBI Files, in the CBS movie Nightmare in Columbia County, and on Court TV’s Forensic Files.

Stars Without Number is a science fiction role-playing game inspired by the Old School Renaissance and the great fantasy and science-fiction games of the seventies and eighties. * Compatible with most retroclone RPGs * Helps a GM build a sandbox sci-fi game that lets the players leave the plot rails to explore freely * World building resources for creating system-neutral planets and star sectors * 100 adventure seeds and guidelines for integrating them with the worlds you've made * Old-school compatible rules for guns, cyberware, starships, and psionics * Domain rules for experienced characters who want to set up their own colony, psychic academy, mercenary band, or other institution

This volume will provide a comprehensive yet accessible description of East Midlands English, an area of neglect in linguistic research. Existing publications, which aggregate the findings of earlier surveys and more recent localised studies presenting an overview of regional speech in the UK, are either lacking up-to-date research data from the East Midlands or simply ignore the region. A coordinated survey of dialects of the East Midlands was part of the Survey of English Dialects (SED) in the 1950s. This data is now over sixty years old and focuses almost exclusively on broad rural dialect speakers. This book will fill the knowledge and literature gaps by comparing vernacular speech in different urban and rural locations in the East Midlands, and examining whether the East Midlands is a 'transition zone' between the North and South. Recordings held by the British Library will be used, and will be supplemented with recordings made with local speakers. Language in the East Midlands is distinctive and there is considerable regional variety, for instance, between speech in the major urban centres of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. Bringing out this regional variation will also improve our wider understanding of language variation in English. The concept of the East Midlands in itself is not a clear one, and this volume aims to address such issues and to examine what makes the East Midlands an area of itself and what this area includes.

Broken Heartlands is an essential and compelling political road-trip through ten constituencies that tell the story of Labour’s red wall from Sebastian Payne – an award-winning journalist and Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times. The Times Political Book of the Year A Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail and FT Book of the Year 'Immensely readable' - Observer Historically, the red wall formed the backbone of Labour’s vote in the Midlands and the North of England but, during the 2019 general election, it dramatically turned Conservative for the first time in living memory, redrawing the electoral map in the process. Originally from the North East himself, Payne sets out to uncover the real story behind the red wall and what turned these seats blue. Beginning in Blyth Valley in the North East and ending in Burnley, with visits to constituencies across the Midlands and Yorkshire along the way, Payne gets to the heart of a key political story of our time that will have ramifications for years to come. While Brexit and the unpopularity of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn are factors, there is a more nuanced story explored in Broken Heartlands – of how these northern communities have fared through generational shifts, struggling public services, de-industrialization and the changing nature of work. Featuring interviews with local people, plus major political figures from both parties – including Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer – Payne explores the significant role these social and economic forces, decades in the making, have played in this fundamental upheaval of the British political landscape. 'Impressive and entertaining' - Sunday Times 'A must-read for anyone who wants to understand England today' - Robert Peston

Safire has lived within a community of dragons for five years, ever since a band of raiders wiped out her village. When the King of Argrisia declares war on all remaining dragons, her community is forced to flee and she finds herself traveling with a small band of warriors to seek an oracle. Each of the five companions has their own secrets, which are revealed one by one as they travel. Safire finds that she is a changeling and has already developed the ability to transform into a dragon at will. When they reach the oracle, Safire is told that she can play a role in bringing the burgeoning conflict between dragons and humans to a peaceful conclusion. But her first step will be convincing her companions she can still be trusted in spite of her frightening abilities. In the course of their journey to the dragon king's mountain home on the orders of the oracle, all five travelers become united in their desire to see peace restored in the Midlands. But even peace will require sacrifice.

Featuring cartoon-like illustrations that aim to capture the warmth and humour of the East Midlands, this work is a celebration of the dialect spoken in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and South Staffordshire.