An intimate look into the life of a legendary mythical villain who has so often been stripped of her voice and humanity in this debut novel, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe and the works of Jennifer Saint. You know how Medusa’s story ends, but you’ve never heard her tell her own story… until now. The only mortal daughter of two sea gods, and a priestess of Athena, Medusa was a woman who thought she had found her place in the world. But when Medusa suffers a horrific violation at the hands of Poseidon, Athena is outraged over the desecration of her name and sends a message by transforming Medusa into the snake-haired monster of legend. With one look, any who meet her gaze is turned to stone. Word of her monstrosity travels fast, igniting a king’s fear so greatly that he commands the boy-hero Perseus to bring him her head. With a power that will spare no one, Medusa begins to wonder if this is a blessing or a curse. Medusa only knows that she must leave the city she has come to call home before she harms another soul. Searching for a haven free from mortals, anger buoying her every step, Medusa journeys across ancient Greece. Her eyes are hidden beneath a blindfold, with nothing but the snakes for company. Through her travels, Medusa discovers solace and understanding in the mythical figures she stumbles upon: A debaucherous wine god, an alluring nymph, and a three-headed dog. But one cannot escape fate forever. As Perseus closes in, Medusa faces a choice: become the monster everyone expects her to be, or cling to the last piece of her humanity.

I grew up the daughter of Ceto and Phorcys, the ancient sea god of the hidden dangers of the deep seas and gods of the sea creatures. Unlike any other offspring of a god I was born mortal, an outcast from my family. I left to go to the city of Akitiki to become a priestess of Athena’s temple, only to get stuck in between the feud of gods. For years there have been stories about Medusa, coming and going in different versions. Finally the truth of Medusa’s life is revealed; another tragic mythology story of a human stuck in between the feud of gods. This is a story from Medusa’s perspective, explaining parts of her life never spoken of before. Her life started being born from immortal gods as a mortal herself, then a beautiful priestess of Athens temple, then an outlaw monster wanted dead. Figuring out who Medusa is and what her real purpose is, she’s set on a journey to find herself with the help of the people around her—struggling with the realization of who she really is and fighting to her controversial end.

This is a story of alien invasion set 300 years in the future. The fifteen to twenty meter diameter silver Globes were first thought to be a fleet of spaceships, but as it turned out they were creatures so different from Mankind that Humans could not communicate with them on any level. They could travel in space, and discharge destructive energy bolts that could destroy Human built spaceships. As part of their breeding cycle they infested planets with their offspring, nine foot long, voracious killing machines that devoured every living thing they encountered. The Globes soon became an unstoppable force that quickly destroyed the first two colonies they found. Although the third colony offered more resistance, it too was rapidly losing the battle for survival. Undetered, the Globes swept on and eventually reached the abundant Earth. Once there they moved in for the long haul. The early part of the story centers around a twenty-eight year old Medic fresh out from the Centaurus Colony. Samantha Wilson had taken a medical contract with the Star Patrol and arrived on the Lastchance Colony just in time to witness the first invasion. Within days she found herself alone and surrounded by lethal Slimers on a strange new world. Then came salvation in the form of the Star Patrol's Starship Orion, which, as Samantha's luck would have it, needed a Medical Officer. Samantha and Orion's crew follow the invading Globes from Lastchance and finally to Earth where Humans are totally unprepared for this new threat to their existence. Space battles with Globes, and planetary encounters with Slimers are all a part of the mix. Along the way Samantha finds lifelong friends and even love in places she never expected to be, even in her wildest dreams. Then while on a medical mission she and her Medical Technician become separated from Orion and the man she has fallen in love with. The unlikely pairing of Samantha, the doctor, and Mary Como, the soldier, acquire an ancient Starship and then find themselves on a planet hopping quest to find their missing ship and crew mates. They soon discover that even with aliens threatening mankind, there are still humans conspiring for dominance of the species. Although it is a story of alien invaders, the Earth and it's colonies, the thinly stretched Star Patrol, and human conspiracies. It is ultimately Samantha's story.

A new collection from one of the most exciting voices in American poetry. For many years, Melissa Monroe has been assembling one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary American poetry, drawing on all different kinds of writing, from technical manuals to books of spells to dictionaries of slang, to explore the many ways—poetry is, after all, one of them—in which we human beings seek to know and control the elusive realities of the world around and within us. Her subject is both the strangeness of things and the strangeness of the things we think, and she has an unsurpassed eye for the wilderness between them that we inhabit. The poems collected in Medusa Beach include “Planetogenesis,” recording the life of an imaginary planet; “Whiz Mob,” a sequence of haikus composed in the criminal argot of 1940s America; “Frequently Asked Questions About Spirit Photography”; and the title poem, which interweaves an account of the life and thought of the great German philosopher and marine biologist Ernst Haeckel with a meditation on the many historical and natural historical avatars of the figure of Medusa. As formally adventurous as they are rigorous, disconcertingly comic, and deeply strange, the poems in Medusa Beach are the work of a true American original.

Chic Sparks is a clinical psychologist, famous tenor, and part-time investigator. After his beautiful, red-headed girlfriend, Suzy, convinces him to pursue a search for his former friend, notorious crime boss Ken Renfroe, he is soon pulled into the heart of a criminal enterprise that stretches from silk stalking bankers in Boston to the charismatic underworld leaders of the Sinaloa Mexican cartel. As a wild sea battle between two warring Mexican drug cartels ensues, Chic must navigate through constant conflict as he penetrates deeper into a dark world and searches for clues he hopes will lead him to Renfroe. After he uncovers a money laundering operation infusing billions of dollars of drug money into the world economy, the lair is revealed as bloody conflicts between the cartels come to a head in an ultimate battle for domination. Now only time will tell if Chic can escape the lair, bring the truth to light, and complete his mission to find Renfroe before it is too late. In this gripping tale, a modern day crime fighter on a quest to find a crime boss uncovers an international money laundering enterprise that places him in grave danger.

Kiki, the son of a twice-ex-president, has inherited his father's thirst for power and the presidency. But to become president of Tinieblas takes a Machiavellian intelligence, for one must outwit not only political foes but the strong American interests. An insightful, furious, and funny depiction of twentieth-century Latin America, The Prince is an essential novel for readers of history and magical realism alike.

Of all of the stories told about ancient Greece one story has been told and retold many times and in many ways. That is the story about Medusa the evil woman who was cursed by Athena. But is this the real story of Medusa? No, it is not. I know the real story of Medusa. Medusa Rising is the third and final chapter of the Dark Metropolis Trilogy