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Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson treasures an antique quilt called by three names -- Birds in the Air, after its pattern; the Runaway Quilt, after the woman who sewed it; and the Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to which its maker longed to return. That quilter was Joanna, a fugitive slave who traveled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Farm.

Though Joanna's freedom proved short-lived -- she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia -- she left the Bergstrom family a most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it falls to Sylvia -- drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt -- to connect Joanna's past to present-day Elm Creek Manor.

Just as Joanna could not have foreseen that, generations later, her quilt would become the subject of so much speculation and wonder, Sylvia and her friends never could have imagined the events Joanna witnessed in her lifetime. Punished for her escape by being sold off to her master's brother in Edisto Island, South Carolina, Joanna grieves over the loss of her son and resolves to run again, to reunite with him someday in the free North. Farther south than she has ever been, she nevertheless finds allies, friends, and even love in the slave quarter of Oak Grove, a cotton plantation where her skill with needle and thread soon becomes highly prized.

Through hardship and deprivation, Joanna dreams of freedom and returning to Elm Creek Farm. Determined to remember each landmark on the route north, Joanna pieces a quilt of scraps left over from the household sewing, concealing clues within the meticulous stitches. Later, in service as a seamstress to the new bride of a Confederate officer, Joanna moves on to Charleston, where secrets she keeps will affect the fate of a nation, and her abilities and courage enable her to aid the country and the people she loves most.

The knowledge that scraps can be pieced and sewn into simple lines -- beautiful both in and of themselves and also for what they represent and what they can accomplish -- carries Joanna through dark days. Sustaining herself and her family through ingenuity and art during the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Joanna leaves behind a remarkable artistic legacy that, at last, allows Sylvia to discover the fate of the long-lost quilter.

Picking up where The Million Dollar Deception left off, Freddy Ford knocks on Nate Kennys door, storms into the house, and shoots both Nate and his ex-wife Monica. But he doesnt stop thereFreddy manages to escape with little Nathaniel, Nate and Monicas adopted son. Though Nate is expected to survive the brutal attack, Monica is left in a coma. When Lewis WatersFreddys best friend and Laylas actual fathervisits the hospital to see Monica, Nate bargains with him: if Lewis can get Freddy arrested, Nate will give him back his little girl. Meanwhile, Daphanie Coleman, the woman Nate had planned to marry before he sought revenge on Monica, rushes to Nates side. By chance, she meets Lewis while visiting Monicas bedside, and the two devise a plan to both get what they want.

A scarred recluse, Jagr makes no secret of his disdain for others' company. But now, as a member of Chicago's powerful vampire clan, he has certain obligations to fulfill. The latest: track down a missing were pureblood and return her to her sister. The problem: Regan Garrett has no intention of complying. And though Jagr agreed not to harm an inch of this stubborn female's distractingly tempting body, he'll gladly kiss her into submission, awakening an urge he hasn't felt in years. Hell, in centuries...Regan vowed never to be at the mercy of another man. That goes double for arrogant, steel-muscled vampires with eyes of ice. All Regan wants is revenge against those who imprisoned her. She doesn't need an ally. She certainly doesn't need a mate. But soon Regan will have to choose - between a lust for vengeance, and a passion as dark and dangerous as the night...

Newspaper reported Eddy Marks thinks she knows everything about her quite hometown. She couldn't be more wrong. Turns out Evergreen, California, is the site of a vortex that allows demons to cross over to Earth, and the only one who can stop them is an unbelievably sexy fallen demon named Dax who has just crashed into Eddy's life.

A tale of a treasure hunter in the desert southwest who befriends a woman with a sixteen year old daughter whose car breaks down and is stranded. In his quest for gold, Frank Kelly discovers a cave containing human skulls which archaeologists explore and find ancient pictographs depicting fertility rites of a long-lost Indian tribe. But he is hounded by the sex hungry girl as the search for Peg-leg-Pete's black nuggets takes them through a flood, a run0in with Mexican smugglers and a suspicious mother. A Water war with Mexico, a kind hearted sheriff and a pet coyote combine with an old prospector and desert lore to add to the excitement of the girl raping Frank and getting pregnant, resulting in a statutory rape charge. But Frank finds more love than gold in the end, and as the characters fade into the sunset, the story ends on a happy note.

When Lord Rutherford arrives in Cornwall to appraise his newly inherited estate, he finds the coast overrun by smugglers and the countryside sadly lacking in amusements. But the dowdy young widow he dismisses as unworthy of his attention is not at all what she appears...To her neighbours, Merrie Trelawney is a poor widow who keeps to herself. But under cover of darkness, she leads a band of reckless smugglers to pay for her late husband's debts. When Lord Rutherford discovers her scandalous secret, he pursues her relentlessly, determined to prove that the thrills she can find in his bed will be far more fulfilling than her lust for adventure...

High school senior Frenchy has little ambition beyond hanging out at the smoking rock until his best friend, the ever-witty and conniving Stewart, gets him to try out for Man of la Mancha. To everyone's surprise, the guys are a hit. But when Stewart's antics begin to grow more obsessive he wears his costume 24/7, freaks out about little details, and displays an incessant hatred of the high-tech windmills outside of town Frenchy worries that there's something deeper going on. Is Stewart spiraling into madness, just like Don Quixote And can Frenchy battle through his own demons in time to save his friend from self-destruction before it's too late

Exploring the concept and history of visual and graphic epistemologies, this engrossing collection of essays by artists, curators, and scholars provides keen insights into the many forms of connection between visibility and legibility. With more than 130 color and black-and-white photographs, Visible Writings sheds new light on the visual dimensions of writing as well as writing's interaction with images in ways that affect our experiences of reading and seeing.Multicultural in character and historical in range, essays discuss pre-Colombian Mesoamerican scripts, inscriptions on ancient Greek vases, medieval illuminations, Renaissance prints, Enlightenment concepts of the legible, and the Western "reading" of Chinese ideograms. A rich array of modern forms, including comics, poster art, typographic signs, scribblings in writers' manuscripts, anthropomorphic statistical pictograms, the street writings of 9/11, intersections between poetry and painting, the use of color in literary texts, and the use of writing in visual art are also addressed.Visible Writings reaches outside the traditional venues of literature and art history into topics that consider design, history of writing, philosophy of language, and the emerging area of visual studies. Marija Dalbello, Mary Shaw, and the other contributors offer both scholars and those with a more casual interest in literature and art the opportunity, simply stated, to see the writing on the wall.

Renowned for his witty dialogue and macabre humor, Saki skewered the pretensions of the Edwardian age. These short stories recount the escapades of an irreverent socialite and showcase the author's mastery of comic repartee.Saki's satiric tales remain remarkably contemporary,

After a stray dog named Hobo leads former police sketch artist-turned- paranormal private eye Rory McCain back to his owner's corpse, she finds herself involved in another homicide case-not to mention the new owner of a lovable pooch, which makes Rory's ghostly partner, Zeke, more than a little spooked.