Shanty For The Soul

They’ve wounded his ship, they’ve murdered his parrot, they’ve battered his reputation, and broken his trust. Everything that matters to him has come under attack. Cap’n Silus de Senza, however, is One o’ the Eight and will fight to get it all back. Not a single soul will be safe from his wrath, not even those he’s sailed alongside for years. The only person he can trust is Billy Bird, the crow’s nest girl, a young pirate with sharp eyes who’s about to see more than she ever bargained for.In the volatile Province of Maudlin, enemies old, new and numerous await. Grand Merchant Xavier Angst bears a grudge that has simmered for eight long years, and he will spend every coin he has to ensure Silus does not escape again. Many others remember de Senza’s last visit and have not forgiven him. Running out of friends, Silus is relieved when he bumps into Cap’n Samira Dalal, another of the infamous Eight, and a pirate renowned for her cool demeanour and sharp wit. Together they learn that one of their number, Brawley the Vile, arrived two days ago and was murdered along with most of his crew. It’s too great a coincidence. The harbour town is an elaborate trap, and the more they fight the tighter it grips. Someone - or something - hunts them, and once again Silus de Senza’s arrival in Maudlin will turn the damned place upside-down.

Slapstick funny. . .the sermon on good neighbors and blessings in disguise comes just in time for Christmas. --Publishers Weekly Even feisty prayer warrior Sister Betty has never seen the kind of trouble brewing at Crossing Over Sanctuary church. The financially-struggling members have until Christmas day to pay off millions in debt to The Cheater Brothers' Piece of Savings Bank. And Reverend Leotis Tom refuses to accept any of trustee Freddie Noel's sinful mega-lottery winnings. Instead, he hopes bickering church mothers Bea Blister and Sasha Pray Onn's money-raising schemes will provide heaven-sent rewards--while he renegotiates with God. The only way Sister Betty can help Freddie save his beloved church is to open the reverend's eyes to his congregation's history of wildly unholy--but profitable--secrets. . .and stay two steps ahead of the mothers' "Geriatric Mafia." Between scandal and near-disaster, Sister Betty will need all her faith to prove that blessings in disguise are blessings nonetheless. . . "One of my favorite writers of all time." --Zane

The Soul of a Soldier: the True Story of a Mounted Pioneer in the Civil War by Myron M. Miller What happened to a soldier's soul during the Civil War as he faced the horrors of war?Why did a man leave behind a wife and two very young children to serve in the army? Who was Samuel K. Miller before, during and after the Civil War? What was the Mounted Pioneer Corps, and what was their critical role in keeping an army moving? Why was he chosen to be in that unit? When a woman was left with children while her husband went off to the Civil War, what pressures did she face because he was away? How did the women manage their homes while their husbands were away? What were the feelings of a Union soldier as he faced his “brothers” across the picket lines, the Confederates whom he came to know personally? What did they eat? Where did they live and sleep? What did they wear, and where did they get what they needed? What volunteer organizations sprung up to help the soldiers as they fought in the battlefields, either by providing physical help, or in aiding them to be in contact with their loved ones? From his vantage point, somewhat unique because of the positioning of the Mounted Pioneer Corps during battles, what did he see of the battles? What were the forces for and against the war in his community back in Pennsylvania? Who were the Copperheads? What happened to his four Ellis family brothers-in-law who also served in the Union Army? All these questions are answered in this book, “The Soul of a Soldier: the True Story of a Mounted Pioneer in the Civil War.” At age 42, Samuel K. Miller volunteered for the 211th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in September 1864 and served until June 1865. During his nine months in the service, he wrote 46 letters to his wife and, through her, to their one and five year old sons at their home in the little town of Hartstown, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, population less than 200. This book contains the 46 letters that Samuel wrote during his time in the service of the Union Army, first as an infantryman, then in the Mounted Pioneer Corps attached to the Headquarters of the Union Ninth Corps. Portions of those letters are organized into 17 thematic chapters, which provide the answers to the questions raised above. Samuel's letters provide a penetrating look into his soul, because of the highly personal nature of his letters. His letters reveal his character, values, his aspirations. Demetrius, an ancient Greek orator, literary critic, rhetorician and governor of Athens for ten years, once wrote: “Everyone reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to determine the writer's character, but in none so clearly as the epistolary [the letters].” Demetrius' words apply to Samuel Miller, for Samuel revealed his soul in his letters.

This collection from 2013 continues the intended trajectory of a lifetime's work that celebrates and posits the direct perception that The Divine Reality faces us from everywhere and in literally every circumstance of each moment of our lives. In this, the world's soul envelope has been turned inside out, revealing itself in images of light. Rather than invoking metaphors for experience, my project has been to "move from the word as symbol toward the word as reality" (as W.C. Williams said about the poetry of Ezra Pound), words not standing for an already completed experience, physical or spiritual, but in the act of writing itself revealing the core, the poem's very details being in themselves the experience, between seen and unseen, with transitive imagination the active aesthetic practice, as much as Allah inspires and allows.

Sandplay Therapy in Vulnerable Communities offers a new method of therapeutic care for people in acute crisis situations such as natural disasters and war, as well as the long-term care of children and adults in areas of social adversity including slums, refugee camps and high-density urban areas. This book provides detailed case studies of work carried out in South Africa, China and Colombia and combines practical discussions of expressive sandwork projects with brief overviews of their sociohistoric background. Further topics covered include: the social aspect of psychoanalysis the importance of play pictographic writing and the psyche. Providing the reader with clear, practical instructions for carrying out their own sandwork project, this book will be essential reading not only for psychotherapists involved with sandplay therapy but also for those with an interest in cross cultural psychotherapy, as well as all professionals working with those in situations of social adversity.

Why is the name of this composite book “Mystifying Russian soul”? Let’s apply to Wikipedia: “The concept arouse in the second part of the 19th century due to a philosophy of the leading Russian writers such as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In their popular in Europe books not ethic, but aesthetic principles as well as not entertaining, but moral needs are playing the dominant role. “Spirit” of such writings turned into “Soul” and lead to a concept “Mystifying Russian soul” popular abroad. Except Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy almost all the writers who became classics of Russian and world literature took part in this process. The composite book “Mystifying Russian soul” contains more than twenty their novels, tales, plays and poems.