Swarm Before Me

On November 5, 1986, Rosa Becker, the estranged common law partner of a successful beekeeper in Eastern Ontario, shot herself in the head and died. That fatal shot reverberated throughout the Canadian legal system when her suicide note revealed she blamed the legal system for forcing her to do it. Despite finally winning a landmark 1980 Supreme Court decision awarding her an equal share in the couple's assets, Rosa never saw a dime of the judgment. By 1986, when it appeared she would finally receive some money after her 12-year legal marathon and the enforced sale of the bee business, the court ordered the much-reduced share of $68,000 be paid in full to her lawyer to cover her legal bills. Despite her many years of paying bills, working and helping to build a successful farm business, Rosa was left with nothing. In desperation, she committed suicide. Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, Dave Brown observed in his review of this book's original manuscript that he never thought anybody would ever be able to make sense of the truck load of paperwork generated by the case, .."but this has been done by Samuel Schwisberg...its an amazing piece of work...Wow ." Swarm Before Me is a thoroughly researched legal history that explores the social and legal issues surrounding a period of enormous changes in Canadian family law and women's rights....

Our protagonist is a college student who enjoys playing as the evil-aligned faction Arachnea in her favorite real-time strategy game. One day, she finds herself in a world similar to the one in the game; additionally, her body is now that of a fourteen-year-old girl. While things are a bit different from how they were in the game, one element has remained the same: she is the leader of the Arachnea. The insects under her control, collectively known as the Swarm, praise her and implore her to lead them to victory. In order to survive, she raises her Swarm and forms friendly relations with the elves of the neighboring forest. But after a slaver traveling through the forest murders one of her Swarm and the nearby kingdom's knights burn down the elven village and massacre its people, she prepares to launch her counterattacks in the name of revenge. However, revenge is merely a pretense for attacking the countries of this world. Her command is masterful and severe, as one who has played the game in real life...

Includes summarized reports of many bee-keeper associations

After quickly conquering the great power of the north, the Kingdom of Maluk, Grevillea and the Arachnea prepare for their next war. They set their eyes on the Dukedom of Schtraut, a country of merchants northeast of their territory that will provide a shortcut to defeating the other nations. Accompanied an elite squad of her strongest units, Grevillea sneaks into the Dukedom and begins gathering information on the country’s topography, defenses, and culture. She and her group establish themselves as members of the local Adventurers’ Guild, and they begin hunting monsters to fulfill the guild’s quests. While they work to form connections, however, Grevillea secretly prepares to bare the Arachnea’s fangs against the Dukedom...