This lyrical debut novel celebrates the joys and tears of love lost and found, and of a life renewed--in a most unexpected place. . . At thirty-four, Brian Duncan has it all. A trendy Manhattan life, a high-powered PR job, and a gorgeous fiancée with an exciting future of her own. Then, in a single moment of deception, Brian's world crumbles. Bitterly betrayed, he decides to toss away all he has worked for. Irresistibly drawn to the road, he leaves the city's busy streets behind. . . On a hillside along New York's Hudson River Valley, Brian is transfixed by the beauty of an enormous windmill. Running toward it is a lovely little girl and her alluring mother, Annie Sullivan, who owns the windmill. The two strike a chord in Brian's heart and soon he discovers the small-town charms of Linden Corners--and of Annie, whose elusive quality matches his own questions about life. And as their relationship deepens into passion, through the force of nature and the hand of fate, Brian will learn that love comes in unexpected ways. Pittman's debut novel is a feel-good fantasy. . . a nice feel for pace and place."--Publishers Weekly

In seventeenth-century Valladolid, Spain’s new capital, Miguel Cervantes is busy writing his comic masterpiece, Don Quixote, which is being issued in installments. It is quickly making him the most popular author in the country, when three potential disasters strike: Cervantes discovers that there is a real Don Quixote, just like the character he thought he’d invented; a jealous poet concocts a scheme involving one of the novel’s other characters to make Cervantes a laughingstock; and Cervantes falls in love with a beautiful, widowed, but un-available duchess. Many duels, misunderstandings, politicking, and betrayals later, Don Quixote himself comes to Cervantes’ rescue. This sparkling tale of crazed knights, thwarted love, and literary rivalry is set against the back-ground of a mighty empire suffering from a century of reckless wars and a ruling hierarchy stultified by patronage and ritual. Peopled with an engagingly idiosyncratic cast that ranges from a Machiavellian duke to a misanthropic poacher, this charming story is imbued with the spirit, verve, and humor of the great novel to which it pays playful tribute. Tilting at Windmills is a dazzling evocation of Cervantes’ life and times, and a brilliant weave of fact, fiction, and farce.

A book that draws equally on Richard Lee Colvin's deep acquaintance with contemporary education reform and the unique circumstances of the San Diego experience, Tilting at Windmills is a penetrating and invaluable account of Alan Bersin's contentious superintendency. Between 1998, when Alan Bersin became superintendent of the San Diego school system, and 2005, when he left that post, San Diego undertook a sustained and notably ambitious effort to reform its public school system. Bersin's efforts were controversial from the start, both within San Diego and throughout the United States. Yet everyone agreed that the San Diego story was an immensely important one--and that it was a harbinger of reform efforts to come throughout the United States. As an early and ambitious instance of the types of reforms that by now have been implemented in city schools across the nation, San Diego has received scattered attention within the scholarly and policy worlds. Yet till now there has been no comprehensive account of Bersin's tenure and the reforms he undertook during those seven stormy years. Tilting at Windmills fills that gap. A book that draws equally on Richard Lee Colvin's deep acquaintance with contemporary education reform and the unique circumstances of the San Diego experience, Tilting at Windmills is a penetrating and invaluable account of Bersin's contentious superintendency. At the heart of Colvin's research are years of interviews with Bersin, who granted Colvin unprecedented insight into his experiences and thoughts about the reforms he initiated. The result is a detailed and nuanced narrative of the reform process in San Diego and its relationship to comparable school reform efforts throughout the country. The definitive account of the San Diego story, Tilting at Windmills is also a crucial contribution to our more general understanding of the education reforms that have swept the nation during the past fifteen years.

Mark had never thought of retiring. Barristers don’t retire. However, his 64th birthday was fast approaching. ‘When I’m 64’ and all that, and, beneath the wig and gown, he had always had a desire to write. Time was running out. It’s now or never. He – rather he and his wife, Helen – decided they would take a year out. Like their children had, only later. They quickly ruled out the West of Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way. For obvious reasons. And opted instead for a pueblo blanco in Andalucía. Mark could write his bestseller there. A white-washed house in a white-washed village in the mountains of Andalucía. What more could an aspiring author want? He lost no time in getting down to it. A writing room without a view and a typewriter. And no interruptions. Everything went splendidly for a day or two, when fate intervened. Followed by weeks of slow progress while he negotiated surgery and the intricacies of plot. In May, Mark carried out a quarterly review. Radical changes were called for and implemented. Ruthlessly. Beginning with telling Helen he couldn’t come home for her birthday. Summer came and went, and so did Helen. Deadlines loomed. Would Mark do it? Would he achieve his New Year’s resolution: One Year, One Novel? From the author of the Dermot McNamara series, An Eye on the Whiplash, Brief Cases and A Night at the Inns, comes a hilarious new novel which will ring familiar to anyone who has ever thought there is a book within them.

Andy Miller is a sports atheist. The beautiful game, the roar of the crowd, winning, losing, taking part - these mean nothing to him. But at thirty he is worried. He thinks he's turning into a bit of a crank. So Andy decides that he must try to love sport - and just maybe it will love him back. He shivers for a season in the stands at QPR, braves the queues at Wimbledon, stays (reasonably) sober at the Boat Race, gets his money's worth at a WWF event. But to really show his commitment, he takes up the one sport now dear to his heart - crazy golf. Dreaming of putting glory, he heads for Europe and the International circuit. No one can accuse him of being a crank now . . .

Columns the author wrote for Comics Retailer magazine.

In 1948 a desire awoke in Don Elkins to move beyond the boundaries of the known in order to grasp the greater human purpose in context of the universe itself. Seven years later Elkins dedicated his life to a long-term investigation with a single objective: to find and fit together the puzzle pieces that would disclose this picture. This is his story. This is partners' story. This is the biography of L/L Research. Those who slowly and steadily, year after year made a labor of love to build a massive library of channeled philosophy, who gave away the fruit of their labors for the benefit of others similarly seeking, and who reached profoundly into the deep unknown to achieve the Ra contact, resulting in their extraordinary offering to others known as the Law of One material. Tilting at Windmills contains the transcripts of a seven-day interview conducted by Gary L. Bean with the then two surviving original members of L/L Research: Carla L. Rueckert and Jim McCarty. It includes exploration of the Ra contact, the life story of L/L Research, personal biography of its three founding members, and examination of spiritual principles and philosophy. Along with abundant endnotes, headers, mirrored margins, complementary typefaces, exquisite indentation, line and paragraph spacing, and other absolutely splendid formatting.