In 2008 I went to Stonehaven, Scotland, for my son's wedding at Dunnottar Castle. We are Keiths, and Dunnottar was built by the Keiths, starting about a thousand years ago, on the site of a fifth-century church built by Saint Ninian. I spent four days walking around Dunnottar and the old fishing village of Stonehaven. These are the photos of this beautiful place.

The Book of Proverbs from The King James Bible. Complete book, no commentary. This is a companion volume to my edition of The Psalms.

In 1980 Ray Vincent left San Francisco because he was suffering from multiple sclerosis. He moved back to Barberton, Ohio ("Magic City") to live with his mother, who was a nurse, bringing with him a package of poems and stories. But it was in San Francisco that Ray felt at home, synthesizing his life with poetry. Most of Ray's writings reflect the events of those times, his own life's events and passions. This book is a collection of his work of more than a dozen years in those unsettled and idealistic times, and includes memories of Ray from some of his friends.

Parvum Opus (Latin for small work) is a weekly column on the English language, and more, that I've been writing since just before Christmas of 2002. I'm an English teacher, writer, and editor: one of those compulsive readers and proofreaders. In the Middle Ages, when the great universities were established in Europe, students studied the Trivium and the Quadrivium. The Trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The Quadrivium consisted of arithmetic; geometry; music, harmonics, or tuning theory; and astronomy or cosmology. Someday, I may change Parvum Opus to Trivium Pursuit. My original intention was to write a short note on one point of English usage per week. It would be not just a grammar tip, but a comment on the way language is used and misused. The first issue was on the word "actionable," in which I explain why you do NOT want to create an "actionable business plan." But since language is always about something, I wrote about the substance as well as the form of language. I could not, for instance, ignore the Iraq war. My views on that and other public issues have shifted since that first year of writing, which lost me some friends and readers in subsequent years. A few years ago I shifted most of my political comments to my Cincinnati Independent Examiner column, at www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati. Parvum Opus also includes a lot of comments, questions, information, and corrections from steady readers over the years. Sometimes they wrote the column for me, and I thank them. This volume even includes my poem about making mistakes.

Parvum Opus (Latin for small work) is a weekly column on the English language, and more, that I've been writing since just before Christmas of 2002. This is Volume II, the collected work from 2004. In editing this collection, besides correcting errors, I added a few footnotes to clarify certain points, particularly when my understanding or opinion changed. A decade is a long time not to change one's opinions, especially considering all we've been through over these years. However, a few years ago I shifted most of my political comments to my Cincinnati Independent Examiner column, at www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati. The collection of the first year of those columns is titled The Gritty Bits. Parvum Opus includes a lot of comments, questions, information, and corrections from steady readers over the years. Sometimes they wrote the column for me, and I thank them. When the great universities were established in Europe, professors taught the Trivium and the Quadrivium. The Trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The Quadrivium consisted of arithmetic; geometry; music, harmonics, or tuning theory; and astronomy or cosmology. Someday, I may change Parvum Opus to Trivium Pursuit.

NOTE ON THIS EDITION I compiled this book containing all the Psalms and only the Psalms because I couldn't find one to carry with me. All the editions I found seem to include commentary, or else contain only selected Psalms. In small New Testaments containing the Psalms the type is very small and hard to read. This book is intended to bridge that publishing gap. These are from the King James Version of the Bible, which is the most familiar and to me the most beautiful translation. It differs from the Douay-Rheims and other versions in the numbering of the verses as well as in the text. The quotes I pulled out are not intended as guides to prayer, but as page ornaments, where there is room. Now there is a companion volume of Proverbs. Rhonda Keith Stephens, 2013

The Gritty Bits is a collection of my political commentary written mostly in 2009 and 2010, as the Cincinnati Independent writer for Examiner.com. A bit indigestible, but cleansing.