The Starting Out Years

This collection of short stories follows six generations of young women choosing their paths in life. Influenced by those who came before them and the changing world around them, these young women discover how the unexpected can affect even the best-laid plans. Inspired by the author’s own experiences and those of the women in her family, this autofictional account explores life-planning for young women from 1898 to present day and beyond, including all the shocking, and sometimes catastrophic, complications along the way. The end of high school marks a turning point in the lives of young women. This book reminds women of all ages that, with endless possibilities in an unpredictable world, ups and downs are inevitable, and how we handle them makes all the difference.

Wild parties, late nights, and lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. Many assume these are the things that define an American teenager’s first year after high school. But the reality is really quite different. As Tim Clydesdale reports in The First Year Out, teenagers generally manage the increased responsibilities of everyday life immediately after graduation effectively. But, like many good things, this comes at a cost. Tracking the daily lives of fifty young people making the transition to life after high school, Clydesdale reveals how teens settle into manageable patterns of substance use and sexual activity; how they meet the requirements of postsecondary education; and how they cope with new financial expectations. Most of them, we learn, handle the changes well because they make a priority of everyday life. But Clydesdale finds that teens also stow away their identities—religious, racial, political, or otherwise—during this period in exchange for acceptance into mainstream culture. This results in the absence of a long-range purpose for their lives and imposes limits on their desire to understand national politics and global issues, sometimes even affecting the ability to reconstruct their lives when tragedies occur. The First Year Out is an invaluable resource for anyone caught up in the storm and stress of working with these young adults.

Time off? Hardly! During their month-long suspension from Thousand Blade Academy, Allen, Lia, and Rose volunteer for some freelance monster extermination to keep their swordcraft sharp. But as the three make names for themselves in the outside world, they remain unaware that an old enemy from Allen’s past is hot on their heels and out for blood… Things don’t let up when they finally go back to class, either. From duels with the Student Council to a chance reunion with his Ice King Academy rivals, the Reject Swordsman certainly has his work cut out for him!

Now that Allen has put a stop to Raine Grad and freed Daglio from Black Organization rule, he finally has an opportunity to catch his breath. But with Claude transferring into Thousand Blade Academy, things won’t be calm for long! Later, the entire student body scrambles for Allen’s attention during Thousand Blade’s annual Christmas Party.

Dungeons? I'd rather explore none-geon. I've been killing slimes for 300 years-and now I'm finally visiting my first dungeon! I didn't really want to go at first, but after exploring uncharted ruins and collecting hidden treasure, I discovered that the whirlwind life of an adventurer...really isn't for me. Plus, between our big visit to Beelzebub's house and sending my daughters to school, things have gotten so busy, I've almost forgotten how to take it slow! (Oh, and don't forget to check out Beelzebub's short story about how she got her job at the Ministry of Agriculture!)

After managing to rescue Lia from the Black Organization, Allen is selected to represent Thousand Blade Academy in the Royal Sword Festival. As our hero uses his newfound power to score victory after victory against competitors from rival schools, however, a sinister conspiracy begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Allen and his friends finally get a moment to catch their breath when their school’s cultural festival comes around...only for his longtime rival Dodriel and a powerful new foe to launch a surprise attack on the event!

The Catholic liturgical calendar is replete with feasts and celebrations that may or may not fall on Sundays. In this volume, Fr William Grimm complements his homilies for the annual cycles (A, B and C) with homilies for feasts that occur each year. For us in the 21st Century, it is not enough simply to understand what the readings mean as those who composed them intended us to grasp. Our challenge and opportunity is to find out what they mean in our time and contexts two millennia later. Speaking the Word in our time and for our places is the challenge of preaching and, in this volume, Fr Grimm offers his considered reflections on what that task requires. Every week of the year, Fr Grimm gives visitors to www.ucanews.com (UCAN) the benefit of his learning, wisdom and experience. Each week, his homilies are seen by some 3,000 visitors to the UCAN site and with subtitles on UCAN's Vietnamese and Chinese sites. Now the texts of his homilies for the many special feasts of the year are available not only for preachers when preparing their homilies. They are also accessible in book form and in electronic formats for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of the texts or find material for fruitful prayer.