Words have their own lives independent from their function as describers of real worlds. They hold time and place but also can help us imagine new worlds. They preserve our experience against the dismantling force of death ... This is why Im fascinated with words. As well as a writer, I am a painter and a poet. I teach college art and film classes and work at a variety of tasks looking for satisfaction.

Over the past decade, Japan has become a key player on the contemporary horror scene, producing some of the most influential and critically respected genre movies of recent years. Whether it's the subtle chills of Ring, the graphic brutality of Audition or the zombie-fuelled mayhem of Versus, leading Japanese horror has had a major impact throughout the world. From its origins in the mid-80s to the multi-million dollar franchises of today, Flowers from Hell traces the evolution of this consistently inventive and influential horror phenomenon.

This gorgeous and empowering picture book from award-winning author-illustrator Evan Turk paints the portrait of Marietta Barovier, the groundbreaking Renaissance artisan who helped shape the future of Venetian glassmaking. Marietta and her family lived on the island of Murano, near Venice, as all glassmakers did in the early Renaissance. Her father, Angelo Barovier, was a true maestro, a master of glass. Marietta longed to create gorgeous glass too, but glass was men’s work. One day her father showed her how to shape the scalding-hot material into a work of art, and Marietta was mesmerized. Her skills grew and grew. Marietta worked until she created her own unique glass bead: the rosetta. Small but precious, the beautiful beads grew popular around the world and became as valuable as gold. The young girl who was once told she could not create art was now the woman who would leave her mark on glasswork for centuries to come.

A comprehensive collection of classic texts, contemporary interpretations, guidelines for activists, issue-specific information, and materials for environmentally-oriented religious practice. Sources and contributors include Basho, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gary Snyder, Chögyam Trungpa, Gretel Ehrlich, Peter Mathiessen, Helen Tworkov (editor of Tricycle), and Philip Glass.

Originally published in 1972, this anthology examines death through the eyes of great Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu and Western masters. Instructions and specific rites are set forth to enable people to guide the mind of the dying through death and the Intermediate stage which follows. The sections of Rebirth and Karma deal succinctly with these complex and often mis-understood doctrines.

This standalone portal fantasy transports unsuccessful rockstar Theo Vilmos from modern California to a land of magic and mystery Returning to the fantasy genre that made him a coast-to-coast best-selling phenomenon, Tad Williams writes this stand-alone contemporary fantasy novel, set in Northern California—and also in the strange parallel world that coexists in the farthest reaches of the imagination.Theo Vilmos is a thirty-year-old lead singer in a not terribly successful rock band. Once, he had enormous, almost magical charisma, both onstage and off—but now, life has taken its toll on Theo. Hitting an all-time low, he seeks refuge in a isolated cabin in the woods. While there, he reads an odd memoir written by a dead relative who believed he had visited the magical world of Faerie. And before Theo can disregard the account as the writings of a madman, he, too, is drawn to a place beyond his wildest dreams...a place that will be, and has always been, his destiny.