![]() ![]() Hopefully, postponed isn’t a precursor to cancelled. Well, the Grossmont College Literary Arts Festival has been postponed this year due to COVID-19. And many years, there is a light-hearted talent show where anyone from the community is welcome to get on stage and belt out a song. There are open readings for faculty and the general public. Since 1997, the LAF has brought dozens of prominent authors, scholars and poets to El Cajon’s “Harvard on the Hill.” It’s created a space where local student writers have honed their craft. One of the rites of spring in San Diego’s East County is the Grossmont College Literary Arts Festival. So, if you’re going stir crazy, never fear!!! Here are some ways to beat cabin fever… ![]() However, we can still enjoy reading, watching movies and videos, and connecting online. The world situation of spring 2020 has made it impossible to attend live music shows, practice with band mates in person, and conduct face-to-face music lessons. San Diego, April 12: Born of necessity and the COVID crisis, this column is devoted to staying connected to music and the arts while confined in our own homes. ![]()
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![]() Dracula in love was told from Mina's perspective, and I loved it just as much as the original. Karen Essex did an incredible job retelling Bram Stokers Dracula. What this flesh and blood woman has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than the Victorians could have expressed or perhaps even imagined. Now, for the first time, the truth of her secret history, and of vampirism itself, is revealed. Stoker’s Dracula offered one side of the story, in which Mina was a victim bearing no responsibility for the unfolding events. ![]() Time falls away as she is swept into a mythical voyage far beyond mortal comprehension, where she must finally make the decision she has been avoiding for almost a millennium. Mina’s version of this gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into Victorian England’s dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and terrifying asylum chambers, revealing the dark secrets and mysteries locked within. ![]() From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept Yorkshire coast, Dracula’s eternal muse-the most famous woman in vampire lore-vividly recounts the joys and terrors of a passionate affair that has linked her and the Count through the centuries, and her rebellion against her own frightening preternatura. ![]() ![]() ![]() “However you charm people in the world, you should do so on the page,” wrote Mary Karr. Hum goes the tea kettle, clank goes the spoon, and you are propped on your elbow listening, as if around a campfire. Her apartment is a welcoming vintage chic and her fashion is inspired as ever (part girly, part goth), but to sit and be with Carmen is chiefly to be in relationship with a voice. ![]() Everyone we know seems to be having bad dreams right now. “Look how scary! It gives me bad dreams.” I empathize. “Look,” Carmen says, opening the glossy pages to an image of a girl and an enormously frightening tentacle. Some way of mapping a feeling or bringing intensity.” On the table, beside the drawing supplies and her wife’s several tarot decks, lies a copy of Emily Carroll’s graphic novel Through the Woods. “I think there is something that happens with drawing that I’d like to explore. “I’m thinking about drawing,” she says, running her fingers over a notebook of crisp, heavy stock and a package of new drawing pencils. When I arrive-I live in the same neighborhood full of cracked sidewalks and leafy oaks-Carmen greets me wearing a fuchsia satin turban and shows me into the kitchen. ![]() Carmen Maria Machado lives on the first floor of an old Victorian building in West Philadelphia. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Farmer then produced two novels, both of which were accepted for publication but neither of which actually saw print at the time, the first due to the folding of Startling Stories (it eventually appeared as Dare ). "Rastignac the Devil" (May 1954 Fantastic Universe) was a further sequel. His second short novel, A Woman a Day (June 1953 Startling as "Moth and Rust" rev 1960 vt The Day of Timestop 1968 vt Timestop! 1970), was billed as a sequel to The Lovers but bore little relation to the earlier story. After publishing such excellent short stories as "Sail On! Sail On!" (December 1952 Startling) (see Flat Earth) and "Mother" (April 1953 Thrilling Wonder), Farmer became a full-time writer. It concerned Xenobiology, Parasitism and Sex, an explosive mixture, certainly for the Genre SF of that era transgressive mixtures of this sort would feature repeatedly in Farmer's best work. Although originally rejected by John W Campbell Jr of Astounding Science-Fiction and H L Gold of Galaxy Science Fiction, it gained instant acclaim when it did appear, and won Farmer a 1953 Hugo for Most Promising New Author. ![]() A part-time student at Bradley University, he gained a BA in English in 1950, and two years later burst onto the sf scene with his novella The Lovers (August 1952 Startling exp 19). ![]() (1918-2009) US author whose active career extended over half a century, though he was a comparatively late starter as an author, and his first story, "O'Brien and Obrenov" for Adventure in March 1946, was nonfantastic and promised little. ![]() ![]() ![]() Miss Polly has lots of hired help at her home, including general helper Nancy, Gardener Tom, Driver Timothy, and Miss Durgin the Washer Woman. ![]() She knows it is her duty to take in her niece, though she really doesn’t want to. ![]() In her prime, she was a lovely young woman but over the years she has become stern and arrogant and likes to be alone. Polly Harrington is a forty-year-old wealthy woman who lives alone in a large white house with green shutters. The only family she has left is her Aunt Polly who lives in Vermont in a big house on a hill. Her mother died a few years ago and now her Minister father has tragically died too. Porter’s 1913 bestseller – the first in a long series of Pollyanna novels by the author and other writers – is a beautiful story with a powerful moral message.Įleven-year-old Pollyanna has been through such heartache. But when tragedy strikes, Pollyanna finds her optimistic attitude tested and she must learn to find happiness again.Ī heartwarming tale that has become one of the most loved children’s stories of all time, Eleanor H. ![]() Despite being unwanted, Pollyanna’s exuberance and positivity affect everyone who meets her, and she spreads joy and love wherever she goes. The orphan girl Pollyanna moves in with her miserable aunt in New England. Released – 22nd June 2017 (First edition 1913) ![]() ![]() Can Zoann ever be forgiven for all the pain she's caused? Will Val overcome his own demons and have a future with her and their son? Who will survive in an MC filled with lust and revenge, love and hate?"- of cover. Violence and bitter betrayal forces her to ignore her feelings and distance herself not only from the sexy RC, but her beloved brother, too. Val determines to change his ways and be the man Zoann Donovan should have and the father their son deserves. ![]() Until the night the only woman he's ever loved is almost killed. Saved from the streets by the club's Enforcer and President years ago, Val now lives for women and the open road. "Matthew "Val" Taylor, the Road Captain in the club, was introduced to sex at an early age. Violence and bitter betrayal forces her to ignore her feelings and distance herself not only from the sexy RC. Until the night the only woman he’s ever loved is almost killed. Saved from the streets by the club’s Enforcer and President years ago, Val now lives for women and the open road. Val determines to change his ways and be the man Zoann Donovan should have and the father their son deserves. Kelly 4.03 1,111 ratings109 reviews Matthew 'Val' Taylor, the Road Captain in the club, was introduced to sex at an early age. ![]() ![]() ![]() It's romantic, sweet and not too saccharine. If Isaac is just a normal person, regardless of his eyesight, that shouldn't be such a big achievement, should it? I also thought the book got a bit obnoxious on pointing out how brave, awesome and independent Isaac is for living a normal life even though he's blind. They are really sweet together and all that, but it was just all a bit too careful, too soft for me. Carter always seems to be the one to instigate, cajole and decide, while Isaac just goes along for the ride. ![]() The relationship felt rather muted and a bit one-sided. ![]() It's not one of Walker's strongest books, I thought.Ĭarter is a bit too perfect but I liked him and I even liked Isaac's pride and occasional grumpiness but I thought the book could use a bit more passion and intensity. Carter and Isaac gravitate to each other fairly quickly, but Isaac has trouble to rely on his dog or show him any affection. Starting as the new veterinarian in an animal hospital, Carter gets to know the withdrawn, moody Isaac and his guide dog Brady. ![]() ![]() There she recalls watching her ex-husband argue with a fellow academic at Oxford about Sergio Leone, whose films For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly became a passion for me at a time when most “serious” film people were dismissing the director as a maker of Spaghetti Westerns. After being alerted to it by a friend, my wife introduced me to The Last Samurai, which I’d have read even without her recommendation had I seen a September 2022 interview with Helen DeWitt on. You could say that I met Helen DeWitt, the person, in the prologue to her novel The Last Samurai (New Directions 2016), having read the introduction to the first edition (Miramax/Talk Books 2000), which is included in the reprint. ![]() ![]() …when we read a book, it is as if we were with a person. ![]() ![]() So, for me, this book validated that we do, indeed, have a lack-of-outdoor-time epidemic and that it is absolutely affecting our mental, emotional and physical health as human beings. I probably really started to notice it when my nephew – now 18 - was growing up glued to an electronic screen, instead of playing outside and looking UP and OUT. I don’t review a great number of nonfiction on Goodreads, but to those who know me (and my penchant for fiction writing that includes sensory nature descriptions), it’s probably no surprise that THE NATURE FIX: WHY NATURE MAKES US HAPPIER, HEALTHIER, AND MORE CREATIVE by Florence Williams had been on my radar for a long while.įor years, I’ve grown increasingly alarmed at the rapid rate at which humans have disconnected from nature. ![]() ![]() The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners interested and working in the fields of Scandinavian politics, European politics, comparative politics and international relations. Methodologically and theoretically pluralistic, the handbook is in itself a reflection of the field of political science in Scandinavia and the diversity of the issues covered in the volume. It brings geographical scope and depth, with comparative chapters contributed by experts across the region. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, as well as researchers producing new material in the area and beyond. Coherently structured with a multi-level thematic approach, it explains and details Scandinavian politics today through a series of cutting-edge chapters. ![]() I THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SCANDINAVIAN POLITICS The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics is a comprehensive overview of Scandinavian politics provided by leading experts in the field and covering the polity, the politics and the policy of Scandinavia. ![]() |