Search results for ""Secant Publishing""

A dog's antics can make you laugh. Its cuddles can melt your heart. Its mischief can push your buttons. In short, a dog is rather like a well-written story. With little warning, it can sneak up on your emotions and take you to an unexpected place. In this volume, The Year's Best Dog Stories 2021, Secant Publishing of Salisbury, Maryland, and The Greyhound-An Indie Bookstore, of Berlin, Maryland, present slightly more than two dozen stories, by two dozen writers, which we believe are worthy of their canine heroes and heroines. hese winning submissions were selected by our panel of independent judges following an international competition in which we asked writers to illuminate some aspect of communication between dogs and humans. The stories in this collection include drama, humor, and suspense. Readers will find a dog and a tale for every mood and stage of life.

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In a collection of memories resembling pages snatched from a scrapbook, a leading physician and academic researcher reflects on the unpredictability of life. Medical school at Vanderbilt led to a series of life-altering experiences. A brief stint collecting blood samples from freshly slaughtered cattle in a Nashville abattoir left him with bespattered shirts and a dark apprehension of the closeness of death. Throughout his career, the polarity and inseparability of life and death have haunted him, a platform for savouring good times and exotic destinations when they came his way. This tragic sense has also fuelled Dr Brigham's avocation of writing fiction, including several published novels in which university hospitals provide the backdrop for tales of mystery, ambition, and suspense. Now retired, the author looks back at a life that carried him to a series of academic pinnacles -- The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; the CDC in Atlanta; the University of California, San Francisco; once more to Vanderbilt, in Nashville; and then, finally, to Atlanta's Emory University.

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Environmental scientist Constance Roy is one of forty-nine refugees rescued from Earth's destruction and transported to the ark spaceship Orb by an automaton race called the Curators. Twelve months have passed since their rescue. But now, with the ship's orbit decaying, the refugees seem doomed to crash into Jupiter's fiery belly. In a parallel universe on present-day Earth, another version of Constance seeks answers to the questions that have haunted her since childhood: How and why did her mother die? The head of a mysterious corporation housed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility can give her the answers, but not without a price. Two timestreams collide when the Constance on Earth discovers that Nicolas, her son, has the ability to save the Orb and its inhabitants. Now she must battle treacherous Curators wishing to destroy Nicolas, while on the Orb, another Constance must fight to save the ship from Jupiter's fatal pull. Only together can they save their son - and future generations of humankind.

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Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore. One-hundred years of moviemaking on Delmarva, from Easton to Ocean City and Wilmington to Chincoteague. This is the first comprehensive history of the stars of stage and screen who called the Eastern Shore home during (or after) their lives ... as well as major motion pictures produced on location here. Written with meticulous care and infectious joy by Brent Lewis, a tenth-generation Eastern Shoreman known for his mastery of regional history and lore.

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This is the first-ever biography of Elisabeth Gilman, a largely forgotten Marylander born to privilege in the nineteenth century who became an irrepressible force for social justice in the twentieth. As the second daughter of Daniel Coit Gilman, founding president of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Elisabeth was raised in well-to-do, influential circles. Privately educated by tutors, she eventually earned a bachelors degree at Johns Hopkins. But unlike many who shared Elisabeths elevated station, she was possessed of a restless and critical spirit. As a strong devotee of the Social Gospel, she campaigned on behalf of the poor, African- Americans, women, and laborers exposed to harsh conditions. After her fathers death, Elisabeth joined the Socialist Party and was nominated as a candidate for governor of Maryland, United States senator, mayor of Baltimore, and even sheriff of Baltimore. Never married, Elisabeth fell under the spell of a charismatic, progressive Episcopal priest named Mercer Green Johnston, and followed him and his wife to Paris during World War I, where she helped to support homesick American doughboys under the aegis of the YMCA.

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At fifteen Blanche Nero watches the electrocution of her Italian immigrant father, punishment for the inexplicable brutal murder of his recently acquired friend Old Man Flaherty. She resolves to do something with her life that values humanity over justice, mercy over sacrifice. But she is forever haunted by the mystery of her father. She is also drawn irresistibly to the bigger human mysteries of violence and death. After a gruelling but successful academic career at some of the nation's finest university hospitals, Blanche is almost sixty. Her long career as a trauma surgeon at Charity Hospital in New Orleans has been abruptly ended by Hurricane Katrina. She takes a year sabbatical from the medical school and leases a small flat in Venice, seeking an understanding of her father in the place where he lived his formative years--and of herself by reliving and recording her own remarkable life. On a cold morning in Piazza San Marco, Blanche meets Count Lorenzo Ludovici (Ludo), an aging, elegant, and charming Venetian who is dying of AIDS. Blanche is drawn to him and is uncharacteristically self-revealing. As he introduces her to his beautiful city as their relationship develops and is health deteriorates Blanche becomes ever more fond of the count. As she relives her past by writing down what she remembers, she sees the girl she was and the woman she became with new eyes; the mystery of her father's death; her distant mother; her sometimes misguided adolescent efforts to grow up. And then discovering the thrill of medicine, especially the sensual trill of trauma surgery and losing herself in in that career, immersed in violence. She recalls her attempts at relationships, especially with Jesse Pinto, the one man whom she has ever loved, and how she ended that. She remembers her love affair with the Big Easy and Charity Hospital (the Big Free) that came suddenly to a violent end. Through a series of painful and revealing conversations, Blanche and Ludo discover that each of them has private knowledge of interlocking pieces of their history. Blanche feels sadness of a depth that she has not felt before, but also a strange sense of freedom. Perhaps, at last, she is ready to begin her life.

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This book is the personal memoir of a daughter who discovers and tries to manage the onset of Lewy body dementia in her mother. Written in clear English by a layperson, it is not technical or scientific. Instead, it highlights the daughter's own experiences and lessons learned -- as well as mistakes -- as she embarks on an unwelcome journey. The aim of the book is to help others who suddenly find themselves in the role of caregiver, especially those who have little training or experience with dementia patients. It discusses issues such as recognising the early symptoms of dementia, how to adapt the home to support the person suffering from dementia, and how to secure and manage the services of medical doctors, home health care workers, and hospice nurses. It describes coping with the frightening symptoms of the disease, such as psychotic episodes, as well as some of the less serious side effects, such as brief memory losses. It also emphasises the power and the importance of humour when one is faced with a deadly disease. Lewy body dementia kills about 250,000 people a year in the United States. There is no cure. This book is candid and supportive in its discussion of how to prepare for the end.

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Ohio housewife Sherry Shriner grew to prominence as a social media cult leader, flourishing in the era of conspiracy theories and the 9/11 Truther movement. She preached the virtues of mysterious orgone energy and Christian prayer as defensive shields against the forces of darkness, including: Lucifer and his demons; reptilian shapeshifters masquerading as human elites; the New World Order; cell phone towers; even hostile UFOs that flamed out over her home, visible only as shooting stars. Amazingly, she built a coterie of passionate devotees. The more outrageous the lie, the more fervent their belief. In 2017, she told follower Steven Mineo that his girlfriend, Barbara Rogers, was a witch who would kill him. A month later, Steven was dead, and Barbara was in jail charged with his murder. Steven's death proved Sherry's divinity to her followers, but in reality, he was just the latest casualty in a string of online trolling attacks that had left an earlier believer dead of suicide and still more cast into the outer darkness of cyberspace.

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Ninth Grade Blues follows four teens through the adventures and misadventures of the first year of high school. Interweaving first person stories are told by: Luke: a shy, poorly dressed boy from the wrong side of the tracks. But he has hidden talents in science -- and he is even appealing to some girls. Elly: sociable and friendly, Elly worries about getting a boy to like her. She has frizzy hair, and a few excess pounds. However, she is also a top notch student. Elly has her life mapped out, all the way through a big church wedding and a house in the suburbs. Marcus: a freshman superstar, Marcus plays football and basketball at the varsity level and has his sights on a D-I college scholarship. He worries about having to choose between the NBA and the NFL. Mia: a smart, dedicated girl who gets straight A's. Her Mexican-American parents are intent on matching her up with a nice Hispanic boy. But Mia and Luke begin studying together, and very soon, Mia develops other opinions.

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This book is a reprint of a classic work of Virginia history. It is the story of religion on the Eastern Shore of Virginia from Colonial times to the late 1970s. Here in microcosm are many of the same forces and movements that moulded the religion of the entire nation: the Colonial establishment, the camp meetings and revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the bitter battle over slavery, the emergence of the black churches, the Holiness movement, Pentecostalism, and the rich diversity of the 20th century. Among the well-known figures are Francis Makemie, founder of the first American presbytery, Francis Asbury, the pioneer Methodist bishop, James Cannon, Jr., the controversial temperance leader and power in Virginia politics. Revival's Children includes a catalogue of every religious congregation known to have existed on the Shore, Christian and Jewish, Protestant and Catholic, black and white, since 1624. Over 300 separate congregations are traced individually.

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The 19 short stories in this collection by award-winning author Barbara Lockhart are set in the small towns and fields that stretch across the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the land between the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean where evidence of long history and present-day struggles abounds. In this slice of rural America, there can be seen and appreciated a sense of the raw humanity of neighbors and strangers alike, as their choices and actions reverberate over days, years, and generations.

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When the aging Nashville artist Bechman Warren Fitzwallington is discovered dead in his own bed, the question for detective Hardy Seltzer is simple: natural causes, or murder? Clues are scant, and an autopsy finds no signs of homicide, but no one is grieving. The number of strangely-acting suspects seems to be multiplying as rapidly as the artists florid late canvases. Galleries in Nashville and New York are quickly fighting for the rights to sell any paintings that Fitzwallington left behind. Hardy has avoided involving his friend, former detective Shane Hadley, in his cases since the Bonz Bagley murder. But now a national spotlight is shining on him, and he needs help. At the same time, Dr. Katya Karpov, Hadleys brilliant neurologist wife, is directing a 20-year study of the aging brain. To her dismay, the confidential data in her possession turn out to reveal unsuspected relationships that will only complicate the mystery.

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Altered Seasons: Monsoonriseis a top recommendation for cli-fi (climate change fiction) readers seeking more depth than the usual approach to life-threatening environmental changes. - D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review. A few weeks with no sea ice in the Arctic Ocean are enough to trigger a chain reactionthat alters the Northern Hemisphere beyond recognition. Isabel Bradshaw, an engineer, tries to find security for her family in an increasingly chaotic world when they are driven out of their home on the Chesapeake Bay.

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In her private memoir, Theresa Alston Crandall reflects on family secrets she has held for forty years. Her duplicity has created a life of uneven rewards as she begins to hear footsteps from the past sneaking up on her. Is it too late to start over? Revealing the truth of her missteps would shatter the present and demand answers to painful questions. She has betrayed her husband and sons, causing them to be unsuspecting players in her orchestrated deception. Theresa spends time at Whimsy Towers, the oceanfront home she inherited from a grandmother she never knew. Poetry, parties, good food, and gratitude fill the summer days, allowing Theresa to maintain a careful charade. Whimsy Towers holds her secrets, until her safety from exposure gradually unravels. The mysterious death of her son requires Theresa to confront a host of unresolved problems, a twisted accumulation of love and lies. From Cape Cod to Alexandria, Virginia, and St. Michaels, Maryland, new relationships develop.

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Environmental scientist Constance Roy is one of forty-nine refugees rescued from Earth's destruction and transported to the ark spaceship Orb by an automaton race called the Curators. Twelve months have passed since their rescue. But now, with the ship's orbit decaying, the refugees seem doomed to crash into Jupiter's fiery belly. In a parallel universe on present-day Earth, another version of Constance seeks answers to the questions that have haunted her since childhood: How and why did her mother die? The head of a mysterious corporation housed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility can give her the answers, but not without a price. Two timestreams collide when the Constance on Earth discovers that Nicolas, her son, has the ability to save the Orb and its inhabitants. Now she must battle treacherous Curators wishing to destroy Nicolas, while on the Orb, another Constance must fight to save the ship from Jupiter's fatal pull. Only together can they save their son - and future generations of humankind.

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Named one of the Best Indie Historical Novels of 2015 (Kirkus Reviews). Also honored by the Catholic Press Association, the Independent Book Publisher Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. Set in the English Dark Ages. A warrior gives his son to a monastery that rides the border between two rival Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Growing up in a land wracked by war and plague, the child learns of the oath that binds him to the church and forces a cruel choice upon him. To love one father, he must betray another. The decision he makes shatters his world and haunts him forever. This quietly exotic novel places us compellingly in another time, another place, where chieftains fear holy men, holy men fear the world, and prayer has the primal force of fire. While entirely a work of fiction, the novel's background is historically accurate. Readers will find themselves treated to a history of the Dark Ages unlike anything available today outside of textbooks and original source material.

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Former Nashville detective and Rhodes Scholar, Shane Hadley, hasnt been involved in a murder case since a stray bullet transected his spinal cord, ending his career and stranding him in a wheelchair. One Sunday morning, the familiar pop,pop,pop of gunshots draws Shane like a magnet. He wheels himself onto the balcony of his apartment overlooking Printers Alley, the once-beating heart of Music City USA. There, he sees Bonz Bagley, proprietor of Bonzs Booze and Music, lying dead in front of his club. Shanes wife, neurologist Katya Karpov, is doubly alarmed by the murdershe was fond of the old man, and also, she knows that he was taking an experimental drug for Alzheimers disease that was invented by Katyas boss at the university. Hardy Seltzer, the police detective assigned to the case, knows Shane as a department legend from before the accident that sidelined him. When fate brings them together, Hardy takes advantage of Shanes uncanny intuitions as they race to find the murderer.

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Tenth Grade Angst (a sequel to Ninth Grade Blues, 2017) continues the story of four teens as they negotiate the roller-coaster ride of high school. Now sophomores, they grapple with growing independence and changing dreams and ambitions. Luke: a shy, hard-working boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Luke continues to come out of his shell with the friendly encouragement of Mia. His love for hunting, fishing, and all things nature-related keeps him sane and grounded, while ongoing problems with his dad worsen. Elly: a bit overweight and a lot insecure in her freshman year, Elly joins her mom at the gym, sheds a few pounds and discovers she can set her cap for star football players. But is that always a good idea? Marcus: a football and basketball star, Marcus comes down to earthdiscovering that there are limits to his athletic career. And, a series of rebuffs lead him to reflect on the best way to a girls heart. Mia: a straight-A student who looks like a good bet to be the class valedictorian, Mia is also on track to realize her dream of becoming a pediatrician. But just how angry will her poppa get if she insists on dating Luke?

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At fifteen Blanche Nero watches the electrocution of her Italian immigrant father, punishment for the inexplicable brutal murder of his recently acquired friend Old Man Flaherty. She resolves to do something with her life that values humanity over justice, mercy over sacrifice. But she is forever haunted by the mystery of her father. She is also drawn irresistibly to the bigger human mysteries of violence and death. After a gruelling but successful academic career at some of the nation's finest university hospitals, Blanche is almost sixty. Her long career as a trauma surgeon at Charity Hospital in New Orleans has been abruptly ended by Hurricane Katrina. She takes a year sabbatical from the medical school and leases a small flat in Venice, seeking an understanding of her father in the place where he lived his formative years--and of herself by reliving and recording her own remarkable life. On a cold morning in Piazza San Marco, Blanche meets Count Lorenzo Ludovici (Ludo), an aging, elegant, and charming Venetian who is dying of AIDS. Blanche is drawn to him and is uncharacteristically self-revealing. As he introduces her to his beautiful city as their relationship develops and is health deteriorates Blanche becomes ever more fond of the count. As she relives her past by writing down what she remembers, she sees the girl she was and the woman she became with new eyes; the mystery of her father's death; her distant mother; her sometimes misguided adolescent efforts to grow up. And then discovering the thrill of medicine, especially the sensual trill of trauma surgery and losing herself in in that career, immersed in violence. She recalls her attempts at relationships, especially with Jesse Pinto, the one man whom she has ever loved, and how she ended that. She remembers her love affair with the Big Easy and Charity Hospital (the Big Free) that came suddenly to a violent end. Through a series of painful and revealing conversations, Blanche and Ludo discover that each of them has private knowledge of interlocking pieces of their history. Blanche feels sadness of a depth that she has not felt before, but also a strange sense of freedom. Perhaps, at last, she is ready to begin her life.

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The James River is Virginia's premier river for recreation, and The James River Guide is the key to enjoying it, whether you are an angler, kayaker, rafter, or bird watcher. Twenty-nine locator maps provide vital information on the river, all the way from its headwaters near Iron Gate to the dramatic fall line at Richmond. The longest river in the Old Dominion, the James offers some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in the state. Spring blossoms, fall color, and the fascinating history of the batteaux era s canals lend the James a unique charm. There is something for everyone. River runners will face everything from placid stretches of calm water to white-water rapids that should only be tackled by the most experienced paddler. This new edition for 2015 includes updated and expanded information on favorite float trips, including new coverage of the marvelous Maury River, the main tributary of the Upper James; favorite fishing spots; updated access points; classic fishing lures; and directories of river guides and other resources.

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