A science-fiction short story incorporating: A downed ship. An AI sentience in jeopardy. A hostile take-over in action. When Peony sneaks out to make sure the crashed ship’s AI is okay, she has no idea of what she, and her charge, are going up against. Can they survive the coming confrontation? And will they be forgiven for the measures they have to take?

Cassius Wortham leaves all he knows behind to make it as a writer in the City, a nameless, walled metropolis at the crossroads of the world. But things are not as they seem. His roommate might have mob connections, his artist friend has addiction issues, and the waitress at the poetry club has political aspirations. Not to mention the invisible spirit of history that follows them around waiting to chronicle a looming catastrophe. An overseas turmoil brings tides of refugees to the walls of the City. Ambitious leaders play at social engineering. The loudest voices are drowned in the growing silence. Only Cas, his friends and their ghostly tagalong hold the key to the future, for in the end the silent will decide the fate of the City. Listen...and you too may hear the instruments of the Silent Symphony.

The practice and politics of the unfettered female voice--reclaiming your power through voice, song, and opera-inspired exercises. For centuries, opera has used women’s voices to convey male stories. Within an art form dominated by men, the female voice is a means to an end: controlled, denatured, and crafted to carry words and intentions that belie the true depth and complexity of the female experience. Here, author and opera singer Fides Krucker shows readers what it means to find--and use--our authentic voice, to sing wildly and uninhibited from the depths of our bodies and spirits. Part memoir, part radical vocal guide, and part feminist call to action, Reclaiming Calliope offers an intriguing look at the rarified world of opera, with fascinating behind-the-scenes details to which outsiders don’t typically have access. Through incisive critique, personal stories, and intriguing exposé, Krucker razes the male gaze that packaged characters like Carmen, Tosca, and La Traviota’s Violetta for viewer consumption--and radically envisions an empowered, new way of finding and fueling the authentic female voice. Through a series of breathing and vocal prompts that anyone--not just singers--can do, Krucker helps readers reconnect to their authentic primal voices: she takes the reader inside her vocal studio to learn new methods of breath, voicework, and embodiment to uncover and access personal and social truths. Each chapter includes a theme-related exercise--an act of expression, release, self-discovery, or resistance--that guides readers to develop voices unbound from anyone else’s storytelling, boldly and without apology.

Heres something different for your book club * A novel * The characters journals * Your journal Time to move beyond blank journal pages Calliopes Diary offers a personal journal full of ideas and questions designed to lead you to philosophize, organize, energize and ponder Calliopes Diary also tells the tales of the lives, labors and loves or interesting, modern women. Read their stories. Read their diaries and then add to this new and different type of journal. Its flirtation infidelity! Calliope declares after discovering that Mr. Amorous-Guy-at-Work has a girlfriend. Calli, as Calliope is informally called, shares her angst with her friend Clary as they alternately chit-chat and process their thoughts in their diaries. Calli is happily distracted by Clarys journal that organizes all aspects of her busy life. In Calliopes Diary, Calli connects with her seven closest friends who express their ideas and process their emotions with the help of their journals. Their other-than-blank journal pages: 1)Organize our thoughts and goals--in business ledger-inspired pages 2)Offer an opportunity to vent frustrationson pages with questions designed to pull forth the readers' feelings 3)Lead readers to discover what they are made ofby diagramming where they have been through the use of time lines and historical contexts 4)Assist journalers in further defining who they arethrough the use of lists of the readers' favorite things 5)Encourage us to be gratefulwith the help of calendar pages inviting reflections on thanks and manifesting 6)Focus our powerby using a series of tools both to define challenges and overcome 7)Help us determine life directionon divided pages that welcome both the ideas of the journal owner as well as the musings of a fellow diarist 8)Provide a place to reflect upon our beliefs--in a manifesto-type section that asks the reader to define her beliefs.

A science-fiction short story involving a lost prince, and an invading fleet. Is the starman friend or foe? The press can’t be trusted to tell the truth, and humanity’s future is on the line.

A science-fiction short story involving a werewolf child in crisis, anti-werewolf activists on the hunt, pizza, a lonely spacer, and an embarrassing request. When a schoolyard meltdown leads to his family’s true nature being revealed, Jervis heads to the spaceport, where the best pizza on Luna One comes with a side-order of spaceship crews…and the faintest chance he can get his family away before they fall victim to human intolerance. The only question is whether or not he can get them there in time.

A science-fiction short story involving: A werewolf on the moon. A kit that wants to be a human girl. A vigilante corporation with interstellar reach. And dreams of an Earth return. When Chitin decides to protect a young shapeshifter, he takes on more than he knows. Can he negotiate an ending that will see her stay free, and help him build his dream of returning to a renewed Earth?