Bücher veröffentlicht von Deer Run Press

Short Cat Tales" includes thirteen stories not only about cats but the lives of some eccentric characters, many of them cat owners but not always! One story, 'Cat Lady" is a bittersweet drama, whose protagonist realizes at the end, she may be related to the helpless young widow to whom she delivers meals and who appears to be a cat hoarder but is actually unwantedly "given" the cats. Dark humor can be found in "Here, Kitty, Kitty," which involves a young woman who is ill-equipped in more ways than one to try and catch a stray cat, and the result shows how pitiful she is. In the humorous story "The Cat Writer," the main character, a children's book author, doesn't even own a cat but has a cat she created for her books, to thank for her "fame and fortune." She must therefore rectify the situation.

When is a family vacation more than a family vacation? The classic lake cabin, beyond being an iconic vacation genre, becomes a home away from home when the visits are regular, when they are a set piece in the year's calendar, when they bracket generations of a family's trajectory. As much a natural history as a memoir, Lake Effect delves beneath the surface of a rather ordinary lake - a reservoir, really - to examine the region's origins, and its unclear future. Viewed through the lens of classic, family cabin vacations at California's Lake Almanor, the narrative explores the author's fond remembrance of times past at the lake, and his affinity for its natural environment. Beyond being a tale of memory and nostalgia, Lake Effect examines the genesis of the lake and region, focusing on the shock-and-awe geologic force of volcanism, evident at nearby Lassen Peak (the volcano on the horizon, the southern-most of the volcanic Cascade Range), and the natural history, the biota that wraps itself around the geology, at this confluence of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. Overwhelming this is the inexorable advance of human civilization, economic interest, and resource extraction in the area, including a Chinatown-like subterfuge to grab water rights and build a dam, an effort that just maybe included a little arson. Lake Effect details the fate area's natural resources during the evolution from a lush, Native American-inhabited meadow through timber extraction and dam-building to the proliferation of lake vacation rentals. Overlying this all is the new kid on the block, catastrophic fire exacerbated by climate change, a force that threatens the character of the lake vacation itself, if not the very existence of the lake. How long can the lake be a refuge, a respite from the world? Maybe you can't go home again, or at least back to the lake. On the other hand, life finds a way, and perhaps humans can exhibit an adaptiveness, a resilience, like some of the area's furred and feathered residents.

It's summer at the famous Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York. Chautauqua is about to open its Main Gate to 100,000 visitors who enjoy plays, operas, lectures, symphonies and the "Chautauqua Experience."This real-life setting on Chautauqua Lake welcomes Maggie Michaels Wood, a third-generation Chautauquan, in what the Chinese call one's most important year: sixty. There is Paul Rains, a handsome singer performing in South Pacific at the famous Amphitheater. There is the concert itself, performed by singers of diversity within the Zeitgeist of America. Maggie and Paul: two different backgrounds, two different lives attracted to each other after hours at the Backstage Cafe.Chautauqua After Hours weaves a spellbinding story into a vibrant mosaic of a time, a place, and a summer giving birth to moments of love and sadness that will endure forever.

This latest short story collection of Amy'sruns the gamut of dark humor to comedyand science fiction/fantasy. Although thestories vary greatly, each one is entertainingand has a surprise ending. They're notcalled "twisted" for nothing!Amy has written several novels and short storycollections, including Only in a Small Town andOther Twisted Tales, published by Goose RiverPress. She resides on a farm in Indiana with herdogs, cats and horses. A former hunter-jumpercompetitor, she also played drums for the originalrock band "Sculpture." She still woodsheds and isa licensed Realtor®. For links to past titles go towww.AmyKristoff.com.