These poems ring with humor and truth about the lives of women. --Cordelia Koplow If you have enjoyed reading Normas poems, youll love hearing them sung! Recordings of Norma performing her original music and lyrics are for sale in Compact Disc and other formats (digital downloads coming soon!). Two albums are available: Wisdom and Fortune and The Great Chicago Flood: Songs of Love, War, Politics, and other Disasters. For song lists, prices, and ordering information please send e-mail request to [email protected].

Wendy Edwards goes on a spur-of-the-moment sail on foggy Galveston Bay with her childhood friend, Bryan McClellan, and witnesses a boater toss a body overboard. As horrified as she is, she could never have guessed where the dreadful act would lead, but Kemah, Texas, the small coastal town where she has lived since birth, is smack in the middle of it. Meanwhile, the United States is close to crumbling, and domination by a globalized government is no longer a distant threat. Already wise to the menace, homegrown FURA members are holding their seventh summit in the area. Their mission is to protect the freedoms they still have while remaining focused on their vision for a new union of states. A member's son goes missing, and Bryan, who is also a member, gets Wendy involved. Together they dive an offshore petroleum platform in the Gulf of Mexico to find answers. Things heat up after a bloody knife turns up in their boat and results in Wendy's discovery of WORE. Then she learns of an unseen international force that has been using genetic warfare and propaganda for decades in order to create a subservient mutant population. As Wendy spends her forced vacation trying to figure out who dumped the body in the bay, she wears disguises, overhears of abhorrent acts, witnesses a murder, is chased, and things blow up, battles are fought, and more. And the bodies pile up. Wendy suspects a serial killer is on the loose, and her search eventually puts her in his sights. But he's not the only one after her. Wendy does everything she can to make sense of the rash of evil, and once she sees the big picture, she realizes it's not only a matter of her own survival but of the human race and man's ability to recognize the existence of God. Inspired by reality, Venus Over Kemah may spark anger at the abominations inflicted on mankind, give a few chuckles--perhaps a few tears--share the frustrations and warmth of a blossoming love, offer encouragement, and hopefully leave you cheering.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of British novelist CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) not only to literature in the English language, but to Western civilization on the whole. He is arguably the first fiction writer to have become an international celebrity. He popularized episodic fiction and the cliffhanger, which had a profound influence on the development of film and television. He is entirely responsible for the popular image of Victorian London that still lingers today, and his characters-from Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge, from Miss Havisham to Uriah Heep-have become not merely iconic, but mythic. But it was his stirring portraits of ordinary people-not the upper classes or the aristocracy-and his fervent cries for social, moral, and legal justice for the working poor, and in particular for poor children, in the grim early decades of the Industrial Revolution that powerfully impacted social concerns well into the 20th century. Without Charles Dickens, we may never have seen the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Upton Sinclair, or even Bob Dylan. Here, in 30 beautiful volumes-complete with all the original illustrations-is every published word written by one of the most important writers ever. The essential collector's set will delight anyone who cherishes English literature...and who takes pleasure in constantly rediscovering its joys. This volume contains Part II of Our Mutual Friend, Dickens's final novel, which was originally serialized in standalone installments in 1864-65. A satire on avarice and the power of money to influence human behavior, it is Dickens's most sophisticated work, and the fullest expression of the writer's authority and persuasiveness.