He is nobody's hero... Wyoming rancher Riley Stratton has nothing in common with his newly discovered young nephew Jake’s imaginary “stardust cowboy”—the one who makes dreams come true. Riley’s own dreams died so many years ago, he doesn’t even think about them anymore. Now he just works hard, doing his duty by the family ranch. He knows it’s only fair to buy out Jake’s half. Trouble is, Jake has dreams too. After inheriting half a ranch, Jake's boyish dreams of becoming a cowboy are alive and well. Which means Riley's world is about to expand to include Jake's fiercely determined, seriously tempting mother, Dori Malone, too. And much to Riley's dismay, Dori stirs his dormant dreams to life. But Riley doesn’t trust those dreams. He doesn’t trust Dori. He gave his heart once and won’t do it again. Some men are made for love. Others, like Riley, are made for duty. And some dreams not even Jake’s "stardust cowboy" can make come true. Or can they?

Outsider musicians can be the product of damaged DNA, alien abduction, drug fry, demonic possession, or simply sheer obliviousness. This book profiles dozens of outsider musicians, both prominent and obscure—figures such as The Shaggs, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Harry Partch, and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy—and presents their strange life stories along with photographs, interviews, cartoons, and discographies. About the only things these self-taught artists have in common are an utter lack of conventional tunefulness and an overabundance of earnestness and passion. But, believe it or not, they're worth listening to, often outmatching all contenders for inventiveness and originality. A CD featuring songs by artists profiled in the book is also available.

Against his better judgment, Hollywood-hating private investigator Nate Ross takes on a Tinseltown case in the spring of 1938. It sounds like a milk run: find an alcoholic screenwriter whose absence is stalling production on Republic Pictures' latest Western. But when the missing rummy turns up dead, and Nate learns that somebody's going to lethal lengths to keep Stardust Trail from being made, his simple case becomes far more complex, and deadly. He finds himself traveling in unfamiliar territory: the world of B-movie cowboys, and the lines between the "reel" West and the real West begin to blur as Nate wrangles a twisted case of murder and sabotage pointing back nearly forty years to a bloody, real-life "Wild West" crime.

Who doesn't like Surf and Turf? Well, what do you do when Surf and Turf doesn't like YOU????????? The Eisner Award-losing and winning, drawing-room talkfest The Shaolin Cowboy returns and will try to answer those questions as the titular hero of the series finds that his road to hell is paved not with good intentions but old nemeses hellbent on bloody revenge ... AGAIN!!!! He fought an army of the shambling dead, but can the Shaolin Cowboy survive a sinister desert town filled with guns, prostitutes, and white supremacists, all run by a crustaceous mafia? Collects Shaolin Cowboy: Who'll Stop the Reign #1-4.

A Hugo Award-winning author and music journalist explores the weird and wild story of when rock ’n’ roll met the sci-fi world of the 1970s As the 1960s drew to a close, and mankind trained its telescopes on other worlds, old conventions gave way to a new kind of hedonistic freedom that celebrated sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Derided as nerdy or dismissed as fluff, science fiction rarely gets credit for its catalyzing effect on this revolution. In Strange Stars, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel cultural forces that depended on one another to expand the horizons of books, music, and out-of-this-world imagery. In doing so, he presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-obsessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cosmos, to Pink Floyd jamming live over the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing; from a wave of Star Wars disco chart toppers and synthesiser-wielding post-punks, to Jimi Hendrix distilling the “purplish haze” he discovered in a pulp novel into psychedelic song. Of course, the whole scene was led by David Bowie, who hid in the balcony of a movie theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, and came out a changed man… If today’s culture of Comic Con fanatics, superhero blockbusters, and classic sci-fi reboots has us thinking that the nerds have won at last, Strange Stars brings to life an era of unparalleled and unearthly creativity—in magazines, novels, films, records, and concerts—to point out that the nerds have been winning all along.

Sometimes tragedy is a second chance in disguise... He was the one. The one she loved but couldn't have without revealing the truth of her past. That's why she left, why she's stayed away, and why she has to return... Paralyzed by a riding accident, Seth Rowland doesn't want physical therapist Grace Korbit to see him like this. Of all people, why her? But Grace is the best. Maybe if he cooperates, he'll be able to walk again, get her to reveal the truth of why she'd left--and convince her to stay.

Jace Tucker Always Gets What He Wants! Well, not this time. Celie O’Meara has had enough of the boy who was once her teenage crush, and then the devil-may-care rodeo cowboy who inspired her fiancé to jilt her. Now, working alongside him every day is driving her crazy. She needs a new job, a new life, a whole new world that Jace is not a part of. She left! One day Celie was blushing at Jace’s teasing, the next she’s halfway around the world! So much for going slow, giving her space, letting her realize she’s the one woman who matters to him—and always has. Jace has waited—through the years she blamed him for her being stood up at the altar, through her misbegotten infatuation with that Hollywood actor, through that ridiculous singles’ cruise she took to “broaden her horizons”. He’s had enough of waiting for Celie to come to her senses. But can he convince Celie that he’s the man for her?