The Raven Haired Girl Musical Version

This book contains links to youtube.com music videos that were the foundation of the style of text used in the writing of the chapter in which they are presented. These videos are essentially the only difference you will find to the originally published version of this book which is straight text. I hope you enjoy the juxtaposition of music and words which, in my experience, is the first of its kind - an effort to connect music and thought in the American novel.

For most of us, finding a perfect partner is a trial and error process filled with highs and lows, with hopes and heartache. And too often, the partner we find does not turn out to be our “soul mate.” With approximately half of all marriages ending in divorce, relationship problems disrupt most people’s lives. The Curio Shop weaves a tale of two women’s discoveries about the personal qualities that contribute to strong and healthy relationships and those qualities that destroy intimacy. Our two leading characters, Ceci and Sharon, have mystical experiences such as trances, dreams, déjà vu, reveries, story telling, past-life regressions, and empathic visions. In each of these, they have visions of people in different time periods and cultures. Each vision teaches them about the personal qualities that ensure or destroy true intimacy. Based on what is being revealed to them, they develop a practical guide to relationships (which is embedded within the stories of their lives) that allows readers to recognize strengths and limitations in their own love relationships.

Everyone but Ann thought that Carl Urbanowich was a harmless man who had lost his mind. Ann believes his fantasies of power and tries to stop him from ending the earth. She risks her life to prevent the catastrophe. Can she prevent him from smashing our planet into four individual solar systems?

The culture is out of control, everyone knows it, and Dancing to Mozart is an imaginative satire that will appeal to readers who sense that the best way to deal with the situation is to have a good laugh at its expense. Personal relationships, silly behavior, Hollywood movies, extremes in politics and religion–eccentric characters and other wacky stuff offer the reader a good deal of amusement in colorful worldwide settings that include Europe, Africa, Asia, and New York City. Of course, there is a plot to the story, and it carries the reader along to the final and sensible ending, where all is resolved and the characters come to a common sense view of themselves and the world around them.

Women have been important players in the recording industry from the very beginning, but not until 1996 did they out-chart their male competitors and pull ahead in the race for hits. Go, Girl, Go! provides a nearly 100-year history of women in music, beginning with Lil Hardin Armstrong and Billie Holiday, and continuing up to present-day artists such as Britney Spears and Norah Jones. The book features a thoughtful analysis of the 1996 revolution, along with interviews with artists such as Shania Twain, Pat Benatar, Brenda Lee, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Tiffany, and Tammy Wynette, and executives such as Garth Brooks' ex-manager Pam Lewis, BMI head Frances Preston, Stax Records co-founder Estelle Axton, and Tracey Edmonds of Yab Yum Entertainment. The only definitive history of the women who have made popular music during the past 100 years, with details and stories from over 185 different women musicians and industry executives.

This is Nick Armbrister's second volume of poetry, and follows his first book, Fade into Focus, Focus into Fade, released in 2006-bringing the number of poems he has published to over 150. Again, his subject matter varies as does his mood and outlook. Nick likes to write simple poems that convey his emotions and thoughts first hand, to be shared with his readers and audience. Music, life, aviation, gothic culture, and more besides, inspire his poetry in which he dares to bare his heart, soul and mind-in brittle, startling poems that touch the raw nerves of life, yet a life that throbs with positive energy. As one reviewer put it, he "sees the dark underbelly of the world but counterpoints it with hope and warnings about falling into the same traps" (D. J. Turner in The Supplement).