Touch the Devil ́s Tail Touch the Devil ́s Tail a new novel from Terry A. Burgess Now Available from Xlibris.com Contact: [email protected] Sheila Myhra is an animal loving veterinary assistant with a special touch; she has the amazing ability to cure animals with just her hands. But as the movies are so insistent to state: with great power comes great responsibility. And after Sheila inadvertently heals a hit-and-run victim she is suddenly very aware of her responsibility. Sheila is trying her best to understand her power and at the same time keep it hidden from prying eyes. But now she has the victim following her around and after everyone at her vet clinic is brutally murdered a very determined detective is watching her every move. Sheila ́s quest to discover the truth about herself leads her from the ancient shores of the Mediterranean to the State Capital of Texas to the Gulf Coast. While dodging a hit man, a detective, and a fanatical minister, Sheila must struggle with who she is, who she was, and who she has the potential to become. As Sheila uncovers the truth about herself, a deeper, bigger truth about the origins of Christianity looms in the distance. What she discovers has the potential to destroy faith itself. Will Sheila sacrifice herself to hide the truth, or will the greatest lie in history set her free?

Literary spins on the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres—from Karen Joy Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Lethem, China Miéville, and many more. Over the past three decades, the most adventurous practitioners of the literary arts of science fiction, fantasy, and horror have been transforming those genres into something all but unrecognizable. In Conjunctions’ game-changing New Wave Fabulists issue, guest editor Peter Straub has put together an anthology of innovative literary reinventions of traditional “pulp” forms. Contributors range from Jonathan Lethem to Neil Gaiman, from John Crowley to Kelly Link, from Elizabeth Hand to China Miéville. Gary K. Wolfe and John Clute contribute essays on the ongoing evolution of genre, while the brilliant cartoonist Gahan Wilson has created the cover and original frontispieces for each story.

Sheila Myhra just wants to know why. Why no one had ever prepared her for the responsibility of possessing incredible powers. Why no one had ever told her how to use those powers to battle her renegade father and his pet Demon, Malphas. So when a legendary lost explorer, a painted buffalo hide, a haunted antique desk, a cursed spear, a vengeful woman, earthquakes, a warrant for her arrest, and picking out wedding invitations all start vying for Sheila's attention, she seriously considers throwing in the towel. Sheila longs for the normal life she led before she was drawn into the dark world of Demons, power-hungry humans, and her own incredible legacy. And when the Spear of Longinus the fabled Roman spear that pierced Jesus' side on the cross leads her father to a secret Christian society double-cross, Sheila's wish may come true sooner than she wants. As Sheila and Driver's blessed day draws near, so do those that wish to see Sheila exposed and eliminated. Calling in favors from old and new friends alike, it will still take all of Sheila's power, cunning, and determination just to survive her wedding day.

When Sheila Myhra receives a mysterious message from her dead mother, all hell breaks loose, especially since the message was written in Navajo twenty-one years before Sheila was born. Because of a recent tragedy, Sheila has vowed to stop using her powers, but when her best friend is kidnapped all bets are off. Using herself as ransom for her friend, Sheila becomes mired in a plot as thick as oil and as old as evil. While trying to solve her mother's message, Sheila is pulled deep into the Arizona desert where the power to end the fuel crisis lies hidden and protected by an ancient spell; a power that has been used by the armies of the Israelites, Nazi Germany, and even al-Qaeda. Hot on Sheila’s tail is a Fort Worth businessman hell-bent-for-leather to use that power for his own profit. When he learns of the true treasure Sheila is hiding, things really heat up. Breaking her vow may not be enough to stop the madman and prevent global disaster. And in the struggle to protect her friends Sheila must make the ultimate decision—who will live and who will die.

The Devil is known by many names: Serpent, Tempter, Beast, Adversary, Wanderer, Dragon, Rebel. His traps and machinations are the stuff of legends. His faces are legion. No matter what face the devil wears, Sympathy for the Devil.

This is a first-person account of Patrick Michael Mooney's life of crime and his failed attempts to redeem himself by becoming a police informant. With unusual honesty and a quirky sense of humour he relates how his father's harshness and his teenaged rebelliousness led him into heavy drug use and bizarre drug-induced behaviour. A judge sends his to a Massachusetts psychiatric assessment unit from which he escapes repeatedly until he is placed in a secure ward housing seriously psychotic patients. His heavy drug use and drug results in him being confine in some of the harshest prisons in the U.S. and Canada. His romance with a beautiful model ends tragically when a Toronto Metro policeman shoots her 'accidentally'. Upon his release Patrick launches into a crime spree that ends with him being charged with multiple crimes. He skips bail and hides in a remote work camp north-eastern British Columbia. He is recaptured and while awaiting a court hearing in Calgary he masterminds a daring escape, steals a car and begins a cross-Canada crime spree with an increasingly dangerous fellow escapee. They are recaptured and both sent to Dorchester Penitentiary where his dangerous fellow escapee plots to have him killed. Upon his release from prison he finds it difficult to adjust to life outside prison until he undertakes dangerous assignments as a police informant. His story ends with him being pursued by those seeking to claim contract money from the same criminals that he worked to put into prison.