Picture This Dant Roenik creates ad campaigns, reveling in the fine art of rendering his concepts on million-dollar canvasses financed by big-budget clients. Intoxicated by the sheer power of directing public opinion, he dares wage war against the conglomerate behind a worldwide anti-depressant increasingly associated with sporadic violence. To juxtapose his images with reality, he enlists a mixed palette of business tycoons, his fianc e/attorney, a team of corporate-spy soldiers of fortune, one resurgent news anchor, and the best TV-production crew in Chicago. But the sharp lines dividing perception from truth begin to blur when the darker motives shaping mass media come to light. Forced to re-examine the ethics of designer pharmacology, Dant is painted into a corner, his future about to be erased as patients die, clients lie, and unhealthy doses of murder prove too hard to swallow. Too late to whitewash the stain of deceit, Dant must decide who deserves to appear in his picture, the true subject an unfinished self-portrait way past its own deadline. It's not what you see, not what you get . . . But all you could ever imagine. Let Dant show you how . . . With a Fantasy Patch

The boy looked back.A simple pencil drawing, this depiction of a child watching from the reeds of a country pond frustrates and angers Geoffrey, unexpected reactions that stir Phrekka's lifelong passion for understanding the elusive power artists infuse in their creations.Their only clue a "Sara" signature, the unemployed graphic designer persuades the enchanting Korean-American curator to help him discover more images by this enigmatic artist. From her world of privilege and mystical spiritualism to his of heartland farms and fundamentalist values, they will cross the country in search of the meaning in Sara's sketches, an odyssey to divine one extraordinary person's singular secret for touching people's souls.

A Tennessee teen in the mid-1990s, Eugene Weisman enjoys pretending to defend a so-called "alien"-until the game turns deadly and his life depends on what others believe. Hand-picked to helm Program Invigil, Colonel Chester McGovern takes responsibility for detection, isolation, and eradication-then unleashes enormous inter-military power cloaked in black-helicopter secrecy. Tiring of the clandestine wet-work biz, soldier of fortune Flynn Durbett settles down to run a weapons-smuggling ring for governments and underground patriots-but then old obligations renew, and his own opinions matter less than standing up for others'. As Eugene attracts followers who declare him the true savior, McGovern lays siege to American citizens while searching for the missing black box in his obsessive mission to preserve life as we know it. Do we really need to be protected? And who will deliver us?-the military, or a loosely organized rag-tag militia? Is it all fantasy, or a threat greater than we ever imagined? Everybody has the right to believe, but only one can be the Invigilator.

Frank relishes fast success and early retirement, but struggling to preserve his life's work thrusts him into a desperate battle to protect the people he cares about most. Beverly seeks a new beginning in Tarpon Springs-until those she trusts steal control of her destiny, forcing a fight for her very survival. All twelve-year-old Kevin wants is attention from the only man he respects, yet murder and the wrenching indifference of a callous legal system toward one vulnerable child proves even friendship might never be enough. Riven by tragedy, consumed by grief, all three must confront the wondrous possibility that our indelible bonds may somehow transcend even death, that a cherished soul truly can find the way back. Only together might this improbable family dare embrace their own brand of unexpected love, that infinite potential to achieve more than any one person can alone. Through it all, they are teased by the mystery of those dancing lights, a million pinpoints in every imaginable color swirling to form brilliant images of extraordinary lives.

Been There, Noted That: Essays In Tribute To Life *Observations, Inspiration, Remembrance, & Noteworthies To Share The simple lives of everyday people in a mundane world prove extraordinary in this collection of 54 personal-experience essays by novelist Stephen Geez. The eclectic mix of memoir, commentary, humor, and appreciation covers a wide range of topics, each beautifully illustrated by artists and photographers from the Fresh Ink Group. Geez catches what many of us miss, then considers how we might all share the most poignant of lessons. Been There, Noted That aims to reveal who we are, examine where we've been, and discover what we dare strive to become.

Chicago native Rochelle DuFortier likes to imagine the future, her world a series of picture postcards so vivid they sometimes seem real. When a foolish mistake at thirteen causes her mother's death, she's sent to a secluded Hawaiian valley, an outsider "haole-girl" among pidgin-speaking boys who hurl flaming papala spears under the full moon to summon her mother's spirit. After boarding school and a prestigious university back east, the ambitious young woman is torn between chasing new career opportunities, discovering her mother's heritage in a remote French village, and meeting obligations pulling her back to Hawaii. On this island steeped in ancient mythology and modern superstition, Rochelle tests the possibility of sharing pieces of her life with those whose beliefs she barely understands and never intends to embrace. She dives the depths of a pristine coral lagoon, conceals bodies in a subterranean lava tube, and challenges the eruptions of a living volcano, even as she deciphers the truth about her mother's death and struggles to satisfy new debts born of old betrayals. Papala Skies is the story of a young woman who makes all the right choices, only to find herself living an unexpected life. It is about the need to belong, and seeking one's own version of truth amid such differing cultures' responses to wrenching loss and abiding grief. It is about yearning for a sense of place, yet having to confront new ways to honor the love of family and friends. Will Rochelle lose what matters most, or might she learn what the smart octopus already knows?

How can I kill my own kids? Purple-skinned Sullrob could never imagine taking his loved ones' lives, be they racially contaminated or not-but others prove all too eager to seize that honor. Am I risking my children's future? Peach-faced widower-dad Brog Pawligan tries smuggling to build a better life ground-side for his own "orbiter brats"-but what will happen to them if he gets caught . . . or worse? "Abig big big peoples an' li'l peoples," says big brown-bodied Heilen Hewed about his burgeoning community, "peoples of ev-ree colors, afrom all over th'galaxy "-but will the lethal aspirations of an interplanetary corporation steal this stellar chance to reclaim his wife and boy? There where fuzzy weenshuggers sing in the pink light of dual moons, where prejudice and fear threaten to out-kill a deadly global plague, how can the ascension of one squeaky-voiced little Seeliot lad save billions of souls scattered among the stars? It might just be time for a new breed in myriad colors to transform the ancient Celebration of Life-the recitation, ritual water, and tiniest pinch of pungent sweet granules from the exquisite purple plant that everybody adores served up . . . Zhasou Pure

The town of Halifax is full of magnificent buildings designed by famous architects such as Sir Charles Barry, John Carr, Sir George Gilbert Scott and other buildings designed by the town's own talented architects. The town has altered quite dramatically during the last 150 years. Some of the earlier views dating from the Victorian period would be unrecognisable without more recent pictures to compare against. Changes to transport from the days of horse and carts, to trams and motorisation have brought other more noticeable changes in terms of traffic schemes and street signs in abundance and of course, the 'one way systems'. Halifax Through Time brings these changes to life contrasting the 'old' and 'new' and if the reader was so inclined, by following the structured sequence of photographs, provides a fascinating reference for a stroll around the town.

This fascinating collection of over 200 old photographs illustrate scenes of people and events in the Parish of Halifax, one of the largest parishes in the country, from a period of more than one hundred years. One of the earliest photographs in the book shows the opening of the Borough Market in 1896 and there are scenes too from the early days of the Halifax Zoo, Sunny Vale Pleasure Gardens and Halifax rugby and football clubs. Early transport in the town is featured, including steam trains, trams, buses and motor cars and a host of people going about their daily activities. Also included are scenes from the neighbouring communities of Sowerby Bridge, Ripponden, Elland, Brighouse and Hebden Bridge, making this the largest sequence of old photographs of the area ever to be seen in print. Local people will not be surprised to hear that all of the images included here have been drawn from the author's own well-known and extensive collection of old photographs, ephemera and memorabilia of Halifax.