Superheroes, Anyone?

Digital Preorders Now Available! Our third volume of short stories is coming your way March 28, and you can preorder your digital edition now and save some cash. Purchase a digital edition today, and we'll email you your copy of this incredible collection on release day! Some pursue heroism, others are thrust into it.

Superheroes. They live among us, some hidden in plain sight, others as well-known celebrities. All carry a burden and a purpose: to destroy the evils of this world and keep the common man safe from harm. 

But evil is a strong thread that refuses to be cut. How much sacrifice will be demanded to destroy that which seeks to destroy us, and are there enough heroes to do the job? 

Experience a collection of short stories brimming with the struggles of heroism and the dark side of villainy, where real-world content merges with Christian fiction to produce a unique storytelling atmosphere.

Includes:

The Bald Man by Timothy G. Huguenin

The Last Call by Kristin L. Norman

sinEater by D.A. Williams

Hierro by Jen Finelli

Living Proof by Michelle Levigne

Airfoil: Hotspots by Steve Rzasa

Someone Is Aiming For You by JD Cowan

Without Blemish: A Philosophy of Preaching by Nathan James Norman

The Trojan Initiative by Clayton Webb

Fly Like A Bird by Rosemary E. Johnson

Chronostream’s Father by Adam David Collings

PREORDER!!!

Taste the Book: GROWING UP NEIGHBORLEE

April release from Uncial Press.

Thanks to that we've-got-a-secret smile from Angela, I decided I needed to practice my kinda-sorta flying, to show her what I could do next time we met up. I found a sheltered spot at the far end of the field where the older kids played baseball and soccer, in the thick clump of trees enclosed by the fence encircling the orphanage grounds. My practicing consisted of rising up as high as I could get before I got scared and then hanging there until the ground started to look a little fuzzy before I came back down. At five years old, twenty feet off the ground was the equivalent of Mount Everest. I had just worked up the nerve to try some sideways shifting when Kurt walked into the little clearing where I was practicing, and looked up at me. Fortunately, I was wearing shorts, rather than a skirt. Skirts were for church and school.

"You hum really loud." He was grinning at me.

"No I'm not." I was rather indignant, because I knew enough to keep quiet while I was practicing, so the bullies and bigger kids who might make fun of me wouldn't see me.

"Yeah, you do, but it's not the kind of humming that people can hear."

"That's stupid. How can you hear it if people can't hear it?" I came down a little faster than I intended and my knees wobbled when I hit. Kurt caught hold of me, and a funny buzzing sensation kind of shocked me where his hand touched my bare arm.

"Like that." He grinned wider, gray eyes sparkling, and rubbed the hand that had touched me on the front of his t-shirt. "It's okay, I hum too."

"Are you laughing at me?" I had already run into the two chief bullies who reigned during my time at NCH. They had overheard Miss Abby talking with another houseparent, so delighted with my reading ability, and came running to inflict their new nickname on me: Lanie Brainy.

"Nope. We're superheroes."

"Huh?"

That was my introduction to the amazing world of comic books and superheroes and mutants and super powers and saving the world.

Off the Bookshelf: STORM FRONT, by Jim Butcher

Thanks to Patrick Carr for recommending the Dresden  Files series during a workshop he taught last year at Realm Makers. Harry Dresden, private investigator and wizard, is a fascinating character you can't help rooting for -- and wincing along with -- as he deals with magical problems and bureaucracy of all kinds, and hopeful allies who might be helpful, might be a royal pain and a liability.

When the story starts, Harry needs work fast, because he's behind on some bills, starting with the rent. Then there's the constant lack of respect. People think when he advertises as wizard in the phone book that he does party tricks. Far from it. Fortunately, one police detective believes in his ability and values his talent. She's got problems of her own, starting with police superiors who don't quite respect her job of investigating the weird and dark and dangerous. Magical things. Harry's specialty. Unfortunately, Harry has some problems with other wizards that kind of tie his hands and effectively enforce a gag order on him. When he has to refuse to help and refuse to explain why he can't help, he damages a valuable friendship.

Then there's the rogue wizard using magic to kill people. The problem is that Harry is already under suspicion for being a rogue and a danger himself, and simply trying to figure out how this wizard is killing people could push him over the line, and result in a termination order. Then there's the reporter for the local newspaper devoted to the dark and magical and inexplicable, who could turn into a romantic interest, if she and Harry don't get killed at the start of a date he forgot they had.

Lots of twists and turns and I'm hooked after the first book! I'm interested enough to look into the TV series based on the books. Not sure if they're available on DVD, if I can borrow them from the library, or if I can find them on iTunes, but well worth ... ahem ... investigating. Check out STORM FRONT, and don't blame me if you get hooked immediately

Off the Bookshelf: 3-MINUTE J.R.R. TOLKEIN, by Gary Raymond

Cool concept book.

The subtitle is: "An unauthorized biography of the world's most revered fantasy writer."

How can you get the biography of a man who has had such an impact on fantasy writing and movie-making, in 3 minutes? Easy -- when the pieces are small, so each bite takes 3 minutes at a time to take in.

3 chapters: Life. Works. Influence.
Each chapter is broken down into small pieces that only take up a few paragraphs of text, accompanied by lots of photographs, maps, artwork, links to other sections in the book.

I recommend just paging through the book the first time through. Enjoy the pictures and the captions and references to other areas, other books, quotes from people. Then go through it again, studying the sections that catch your attention. Then sit down and read through leisurely, pulling it all together.

A lovely tribute to a great, influential man, and a small peek into his life and mind and the things that shaped him -- and shaped one of the most incredible worlds and works of fantasy of our time.

Taste the Book: GROWING UP NEIGHBORLEE

April release from Uncial Press.

That day in Divine's, though, I cast my five-year-old caution aside and was ready to raise myself up for a closer look at the Wishing Ball. I was still attached to Mrs. Silvestri, like a kite on a string.

Angela walked in just as my feet got about three inches off the floor. She smiled at me, winked, and gestured down at the floor with a flick of her fingers. I settled back down and she came around the counter, pulled out a four-step ladder, and put it next to the counter on the end, giving me a more ordinary path up to the Wishing Ball. Right that moment, I knew this pretty blond lady who smiled at me like we had an enormous secret--and who didn't shout in astonishment at what she saw--was going to be a very good friend. Mrs. Silvestri introduced me to Angela while I climbed up, my gaze on her the whole time, and that was when Angela told me it was called the Wishing Ball.

Angela was, is, and likely always will be, one of those ageless women, with long, oval face and sculpted cheekbones. She has an incredible, thick, long fall of hair in a dozen shades of gold, with hints of strawberry in it, and big eyes that are usually blue--different shades, depending on her mood--but can sometimes seem gray and sometimes hint at green. The day I met her, she wore her usual handkerchief print blue dress with draping sleeves and no waist, what some might call a granny dress or hippie dress. Since it was August, she wore sandals.

"Do you know what a wish is, Lanie?" Angela asked me, once I was settled on the counter, with my legs hanging off the edge, braced on one arm and gazing into the Wishing Ball.

"It's something you want really bad lots, only it's kind of hard to get." I saw her reflection next to mine in the dark rainbow swirling surface of the ball, and tore my gaze away from it long enough to meet her incredible blue eyes. "And sometimes it's something you want really bad lots for other people, because they need it a whole lots more than you."

"Really? Like what?" Her smile softened and turned thoughtful, and she glanced at Mrs. Silvestri, who was standing behind me with one hand resting on my back. Like she thought I might fall off the counter?

Off the Bookshelf: A GENTLEMAN OF MEANS, by Shelley Adina

Hurrah! Another book in the Lady of Devices series.

Honestly? The first full-length steampunk books I managed to read from cover to cover were Shelley Adina's. I took piles of them out of the library to see what the hey-ya was up with this new and popular genre, and I just couldn't get through them. Then I found Lady Claire, one tough chick and her determination to be an engineer even if it wasn't ladylike and ... *sigh*

Addiction.

This latest adventure has Claire and Andrew preparing for their wedding. Alice is under a death threat for not only resisting the unjust demands of the Venetian government, but escaping, rescuing a prisoner, and rescuing her airship from being unjustly impounded. Then there's Gloria, the American heiress and former schoolmate, who has turned from a spoiled airhead into someone with brains and ethics and an iron spine -- she vanished while Claire and Andrew and Alice were rescuing Ian from certain doom. GENTLEMAN OF MEANS wraps up several storylines, as well as commiserating with Claire as she tries to adjust to the fact that her dreams aren't shaping up quite like she imagined they would. Success and graduation and inventive brilliance haven't guaranteed her the respect of her peers or a chance to prove what she can do. She leaps at the chance to run off and rescue Gloria, but doing what she knows is right might just separate her from Andrew forever, as well as insulting various powerful friends and patrons. What's a lady to do?

Another fun romp. And I'm so glad I have a couple of new Devices books piled up for reading. When I get a chance. Never enough time to read!!

Off the Bookshelf: MAGORA, THE GALLERY OF WONDERS, by Marc Remus

Holly O'Flanigan wants to be an artist, but everyone tells her she has no talent. She is also forced to live with nasty relatives who make her sleep in the attic and do all the cleaning. Then her grandfather, the only relative who loves her, dies in a mysterious fire. Holly receives some mysterious items and before she knows it, she and her friends and some nosy busybodies have fallen through one of her grandfather's paintings into a magical world called Magora.

In Magora, painting is magic. Magical paintings provide doorways to other worlds, where the people of Magora, living under siege, obtain everything they need to survive. Prophecy says a very talented painter, a Gindar, will one day appear to defeat the enemy and save Magora. If you guessed that this savior is supposed to be Holly ...

At this point there are just too many Harry Potter parallels to go into. Maybe I'm too picky, or just jaded after having read too many "misunderstood, gifted child who is a tool of prophecy and gains entrance to a magical school where he/she trains to become a hero while facing bullies and nasty teachers" books.

However, the world-building is clever and some of the characters are fun and original, like Cookie, the troll, and the tree house -- meaning a tree that is a living house -- and the Ledesmas with their communal mind maintained by magical butterflies. If you're not as picky and jaded as me, you'll probably enjoy this, and the other books in the series that follow.