Coppell has produced a wealth of personalities that could have leapt from the pages of a novel. The town's early days brought John and Sarah Stringfellow, who helped found the town's oldest church, and Josiah and John Record, a father-and-son duo who were victims of lynching. The coming of the Cottonbelt Railroad created the mystery of town namesake George Coppell. The town was home to farmers like domino-loving Buren Ledbetter and sharecropper W.A. Ottinger. It had its own "Floyd the Barber" (Floyd Harwell), as well as Jo Jackson, the librarian known to most as the "Bird Lady of Coppell." The town has produced a wealth of heroes like Carroll Kirkland, who was killed in World War II, and Jacob Schick, a decorated veteran of the Iraq War. It is also a town that has turned tragedy into triumph through stories like Todd and Tara Storch, who transformed the pain of their daughter Taylor's death into the life-giving charity Taylor's Gift. Together their stories tell the story of Coppell, a place that at its heart will always be a small town.

A novel about escape and connection, class, sex, and queer intimacy in the American Midwest. The oldest story: an insider pretends to be an outsider and receives praise for his empathy and imagination and intelligence. Maybe some asshole even says bravery. An outsider pretends to be an insider, is exposed as a fraud, a liar, and burned to the ground. In Ripcord, Nate Lippens continues his meditations on escape and connection, class, sex, and intimacy. Stuck in Milwaukee, the narrator cobbles together a living by bartending and catering weddings, enmeshed in a semiaffair with a younger, married man. Cruising apps while tallying his youthful romantic failures, he fantasizes about disappearance but finds both solace and frustration in his friendships with Charlie, an aging punk who was prominent in the 1990s Chicago queercore scene, and Greer, a painter who never broke through but continues making work.

From one of America's last crusading newspaper columnists, Dave Lieber¿s Watchdog Nation shares tips, tools and strategies to bite back when businesses and scammers do you wrong. Save time, money and aggravation. Learn how you can overcome the pickpockets that call themselves the electric company, the phone company, debt collectors, banks, scammers, e-mail spammers, door-to-door salesmen and countless others who want to harm you and your family. This book contains real stories about real people ¿ by the ultimate authority on the subject. Dave Lieber is The Watchdog investigative columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. He has helped countless folks stand up for themselves, understand their rights, fight back and win. Consumers will understand how they can take advantage of laws, regulations and other methods that will help them overcome stubborn and uncaring customer service representatives on the other side of the world, companies large and small who ignore their complaints and the growing group of hard-core criminals who take advantage of modern technology to hurt you.

Randall (English and drama, Duke U.) demonstrates that drama lived on under the English Commonwealth despite the official ban on the theater. He describes how plays continued to be wrought, translated, transmuted, published, bought, read, and even covertly performed. He also shows how drama became more topical and political during the period. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

THE STORY: The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are anybody come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), th

Spring of 1904. An inexperienced automobile driver jumps the curb and drives into the lobby of the St. George Hotel. The mayor orders a roundup of unlicensed dogs due to a citywide outbreak of rabies. An elevator crushes the head of a young man as he retrieves a half dollar he had dropped down the shaft. Embers from a wood-burning stove transform a sleeping house into a funeral pyre. A ten-year-old boy in City Park has a spike driven into his temple by a playmate with a fence picket. All this in just a few days. Rusty Williams catalogues the heartbreaking and bizarre forms in which death stalked Dallas at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Ultimate Musical Writer's Planner is an all-in-one workbook to help you brainstorm, develop, plan and calendar your new musical. You'll find guides on outlining story structure and character development, charts for determining vocal ranges and rhyme patterns, checklists for readings and marketing, goal planning sheets, a monthly planning calendar, and much, much more. It's a 240+ page musical planner and workbook to take you from concept to stage. Sections Include: Getting Started, The Book & Story Structure, Character Development, Writing the Script, Music & Songwriting, Development & Readings, Submissions & Marketing, Setting Goals, Monthly Planner, Contacts & Important Info, Recommended Resources, and Notes & Brainstorming. Writing a musical isn't easy, and it can take years of work to successfully move it from idea to stage. This workbook will help you feel less overwhelmed and hopefully trigger some important ideas. It may even one day become a treasured memento of the journey.