Urban Tales are about us, at least some of us. They are about us being funny and about us loving, lusting, and sexing. Only us could have "Dozens" players in our Christmas story. Only us know how to tip over on the down-low. These stories are streetwise, but yet will make you think and won't shortchange you. These are long and short stories. They are gritty and heart touching. Characters speak in elegant voices and raw urban tongues. The raw truth can make you uncomfortable, and maybe make you cry. But the truth will never bore you. After you've read this book, feel free to check out the big books: Maura and Her Two Husbands, Minister Q, Ebenezer Jenkins' Christmas in Chicago, and much more to come.

n these glimpses of suburban life, Pete Court's gentle yet sharp observations of the human condition manage to be both sardonic and compassionate. In language that sings with inventiveness and a joyfully grim humour, each tale is woven through with touches of the magical, little sparkling surprises that add a thread of mystic wonder throughout the whole. At the end of it all I was left contemplating just how well I was living, loving and being a Light in the Darkness. - D.M.Cornish, author, Monster Blood Tattoo series Court's prose is a world of its own. In these stories he gets into the minds of some desperate and 'unbelievable' characters. While the stories are gruesome, they make a case for our common humanity. Above all, they have verve and incredible energy. - Phillip Edmonds, author of Tilting at Windmills and Leaving Home with Henry Court's precise evocative writing gives us troubling stories, inviting the reader into challenging worlds of grotesquerie and distortion. In scenes reminiscent of Kafka, all three novellas are a search for elusive threads of meaning, with the Dark as a linking motif. . . . Intriguing and compelling reading. - Valerie Volk, author of Even Grimmer Tales and Bystanders P.H. Court's Sub Urban Tales navigate that mysterious territory where time, place and eternity meet. At once intriguing, sometimes gruesome, often hilarious and always relatable, these cunningly interwoven tales remind us of the extraordinary in the ordinary, the grace reflected in all surfaces though dimmed by the Dark of human conceit. - James Cooper, Head of Creative Writing, Tabor College P. H. Court is co-host of the popular Breakfast with Kit and Pete on Adelaide's 1079 Life and is creative writer for the radio station. He is an adjunct lecturer at Tabor College and a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at University of Adelaide. He has published numerous award winning short stories and satires.

A collection of oft-repeated urban legends brings together the best of modern myths, from the stoned baby sitter who mistook a baby for a turkey to the fabulously expensive recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Talk about a bad-hair day! Sophie Garou is a master at taming her inner beast, which comes in handy since she’s a werewolf. With a big promotion at work and a supersexy boyfriend, Heath (whom she recently spotted leaving a jewelry store with a beguiling ring box), she’s one happy girl. But when Heath starts spending long nights at the office with his new associate–a dead-ringer for Career Day Barbie–Sophie smells trouble. And when her professional relationship with her big new client–who also happens to be Texas’s brilliantly blue-eyed most eligible bachelor–begins to sizzle, she wonders if her animal instincts are leading her in the wrong direction. Just when it seems that things can’t get any more complicated, they do. The Houston werewolf pack has sniffed Sophie out, and their message is chillingly clear: you’re either with us or against us. And unless she can prove that she’s with them, the next full moon may just be her last. From the Paperback edition.

Urban Legends is a remarkably complete collection of the modern myths that make the rounds in offices, college dorms, and every other place where people tell the stories that spring from our deepest fears and fascinations. Every culture has its folktales including ours. Except, instead of involving gods and goddesses or princes and princesses, ours involve "some guy my sister's best friend knows" or "someone who woke up in a motel room." They happened, supposedly, to real people, usually recently, in a particular place. And they touch the most sensitive nerves of our psyches with ironic twists, gross-out shocks, and moral lessons learned the hard way. From the classic tale "The Mexican Pet" in which the "dog" turns out to be no Chihuahua to the more unappetizing story of condoms as fast-food burger garnish, from surgically skilled kidney thieves to sexual experiments that end in the emergency room, Urban Legends relates more 300 of the most enticing, macabre, and unforgettable tales. Expertly told, they are arranged in such chapters as "Crazy Little Thang Called Sex," "Oh, Scare Me," "Campus Capers," "Corporate Convolutions," and "So Much For Comfort Food." Fascinating, chilling, and occasionally repulsive, Urban Legends has all your favorites and hundreds more.

THE BLACK ROSES AND THE URBAN TALES chronicles three tales set deep in the urban society,dealing with men of color and all ages,some as sweet and appealing as roses but having metaphorically speaking thorns just as well.One tale involves a loyal handsome man whose welcomed a beautiful baby boy whom he conceived with his girlfriend into their lives,but chaos breaks out when he discovers she's been keeping a deep dark secret that could affect their entire family.The man discovers that his loyalty in putting off his own secret urges and desires for others of the same sex and the opposite sex may not have been enough.Warning:Strong sexual content and violence,nudity and language.