Finishing Touches

On an extended holiday in London, Dr. Tom Sutherland befriends the genial but mysterious Dr. Nordhagen and falls into a wild love affair with his assistant, the exotic Lina Ravachol. Bewitched by her sexual sorcery, Tom follows her deeper and deeper into forbidden fantasies and dark pleasures. But fantasy turns to nightmare when he discovers Dr. Nordhagen's basement laboratory, a secret chamber where cruelty, desire, and madness combine to form the ultimate evil. This new edition of Thomas Tessier's Finishing Touches (1986) features a new introduction by Will Errickson and the cover painting by Chris Moore from the original UK edition. "Seductive and compulsively readable." - Publishers Weekly "Splendidly evocative - even mesmerizing." - Booklist "Thomas Tessier is one of those writers who can find the unexpected poetry and subtlety in horror." - Peter Straub

When aspiring L. A. interior designer Jesse Holtz loses her dearest friend, Cecile, in a car accident, she's sideswiped by grief. Cecile was always the most beguiling girl in the room--the kind of girl Jesse always wished she could be. With no manual for how to mourn when you're a 29-year-old with an eye for flea market finds but terrible taste in men, Jesse turns to the only person who understands--Cecile's widower, Zach. But life takes an unexpected turn: Is Jesse's friendship wth Zach the beginnings of a romance? Or is Jesse just losing perspective as she juggles her grief and her condescending boss? And what if she and Zach got together--is that so unforgivable? A tragic comedy that makes for a breathtakingly optimistic read, this is the story of a woman who just might learn that life, like any good interior, can always use a little rearranging.

If you're primarily interested in finishing touches--the million creative ways you can use your favorite software to improve, polish, and add pizzazz to your images--this is the book for you! The first book devoted exclusively to the topic, Finishing Touches for Photoshop CS2 offers a treasure chest of creative finishing techniques. With chapters on frames and border effects, color and artistic effects, presentation, sharpening, and printing, this full-color guide covers everything from creative cropping to dramatic lighting, stock photos, collage ideas, combining black-and-white and color, selective blurring, storybook layouts, PDF presentation, and more. Each technique is a stand-alone tutorial, so you can jump in at any point without weeding through a lot of info that's not relevant to the task at hand. Even better, author Dave Cross' two-column format--with simple instructions in one column and lavish, full-color photos and artwork running alongside--makes the techniques instantly accessible. You'll also find several variations for most techniques as well as instructions for creating reusable templates.

*** THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR *** Finishing Touches is an engrossing story of schoolmates and soulmates, of shared secrets and desires - and how one young woman dared to make her impossible dream come true. Warmth, wisdom and love on every page - if you treasured Maeve Binchy, read Patricia Scanlan. Number 1 bestselling author Patricia Scanlan is set to capture the hearts and enchant the minds of a whole new generation of readers who will fall in love with her sublime storytelling. A trailblazing women’s fiction author, all of her novels have been #1 international bestsellers, most recently With All My Love, A Time for Friends, Orange Blossom Days and A Family Reunion. She writes multi-generational family dramas with compassion and authenticity, and a hint of comforting escapism. ‘If you love Maeve Binchy, you MUST try Patricia Scanlan' Woman & Home 'Utterly magical and wonderful... warmth and compassion shine through' MARIAN KEYES 'Like being enfolded in a hug from the great writer herself: warm, comforting and full of love' CATHY KELLY 'There can be little doubt that Patricia Scanlan is the prolific queen of contemporary Irish popular fiction' Sunday Times 'There is a heartbreaking authenticity in her observations' Irish Times 'The ultimate comfort read' Glamour ‘If you love Maeve Binchy, you will love Patricia Scanlan’ Mirror

After retirement from his 42-year career as a research scientist in the Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories in Rochester, NY, the author notes that "I got into creative short stories by way of writing short memoir segments. I had sent one of these to a cousin, who commented, 'Daan, you write well, but you are pretty short on the facts.' I had thought I was on safe ground there, since, at my advanced age, there are now few people around who can challenge my versions of family history. "In retaliation, I wrote a 'memoir' completely devoid of 'facts', and sent it to my cousin. He believed it, even to the extent of asking me, 'How did you get off that island?' (It is the story in this small volume entitled "Rex.") After that, there was no stopping me."

A fading English finishing school gets a twenty-first-century makeover in this "modern-day fairy tale" (Romantic Times Book Reviews) from New York Times bestselling author Hester Browne, whose sparkling novels are "charming and feel-good" (Cosmopolitan). Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the doorstep of London’s esteemed Phillimore Academy for Young Ladies. Now, Betsy Phillimore returns to the place where she was lovingly raised by Lord and Lady Phillimore, only to find the Academy in disrepair and Lord P. desperate to save his legacy. Enter Betsy with a savvy business plan to replace dusty protocol with the essentials girls need today: cell phone etiquette, eating sushi properly, handling credit cards, choosing the perfect little black dress, negotiating a pre-nup, and other lessons in independent living. But returning to London also means crossing paths with her sexy girlhood crush . . . and stirring up the mystery of who her parents are and why they abandoned her. Will the puzzle pieces of her past fall into place while Betsy races to save the only home she’s ever known?

Every girl should know what the finishing touches are. That dash of gloss on the cheekbones to lift your complexion. High heels for poise, and a luscious lipstick for the perfect pout. It's the spritz of perfume on the pulse points and the . . . . . . ability to stand on your own two feet? When 21st-century girl Betsy is called in to rescue an exclusive finishing school from financial ruin, she knows she must change the school drastically, if it's ever to survive. So it's out with debutante decorum and in with modern manners and man-management. But before she can teach the girls how to walk in high heels, Betsy may just have to remember how to wear them herself. With the added bonus that her gorgeous friend Jamie and the surprisingly hunky bursar Mark both seem to rather approve of her new stilettos . . .

Seeking comfort in traditional family culinary practices after the early deaths of her parents, twenty-six-year-old Asperger's patient Ginny struggles with her domineering sister's decision to sell the house, troubling secrets, and the ghost of a dead ancestor.