Zack S Tale

"But I don't look like a Jewish Negro or a black Jew. I look like a black. I am of average height, of average build, with wavy hair that I wear very short, and very dark skin. Talk about an identity crisis." Ten years after Crabbe, Bell returns to the theme of a young man wrestling with his identity. Zack Lane is uncomfortable with his mixed racial origins. He knows much about his father's side, the descendants of Romanian Jews, but his mother broke all ties with her family before Zack was born. Why she did so is the "family mystery." Zack has recently been uprooted when his parents moved from the largest city in Canada to the outskirts of a small town. Friendless, unsuccessful at school and at the lowest point in his life, he undertakes a research project into the life of Richard Pierpoint, former African slave, soldier in the War of 1812, and the pioneer farmer who cleared the land on which Zack's house now stands. Pierpoint's story inspires Zack to go to Mississippi to look for his maternal grandfather. What he discovers shakes the foundations of all he has believed in.

After breaking up with his first love and losing his only family member, Zachary Valentino has his heart set on taking revenge on Alta Williams, the wicked queen of the Underworld, for the irreversible damage she inflicted on him. As he joins the Otherworld, however, his life is far from peaceful. The Elders mock, ridicule, and demean him for his lack of potential, with his mentor and only ally, Helen Edmunds, as an exception. One day, fortune smiles upon him and grants him a miracle that brings him and Helen closer to each other, and he develops an infatuation for her. When King Patrick and Queen Marianne send Helen on a mission to the Underworld, Zack risks his life and volunteers to accompany her through the unknown trials that await them. What neither of them are aware of is the sobering fact that this quest may determine their rise or fall in more ways than one, for their demise may not be as far away as it seems….

“An awe-inspiring, helter-skelter journey through mind-blowing SF, western dime novel, noir mystery, and near-future dystopian horror” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The debut novel from Zack Parsons, editor of the Something Awful website and author of My Tank Is Fight!, is a mind-bending journey through time and genres. Beginning in 1874, with a blood-soaked western story of revenge, Liminal States follows a trio of characters through a 1950s noir detective story and twenty-first-century sci-fi horror. Their paths are tragically intertwined—and their choices have far-reaching consequences for the course of American history. It’s a remarkable mashup that “somehow manages to become a cohesive, thought-provoking whole . . . There’s no way a novel with this many moving parts should hold together, but it does, and even readers initially daunted by the jumble will soon be glad to go wherever Parsons takes them” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Parsons’s debut is a tour-de-force, a justifiably showy demonstration of the author’s chameleon-like ability to write in several genres all at once, and it emerges as one of the scariest and bleakest tales I can remember.” —Cory Doctorow

When Zach lies to his father about breaking an expensive camera, Aristotle the prairie dog reads him the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree to illustrate the importance of honesty.

Zack struggles with being a new Christian, a new husband and a new father all at once. Will he and Kemi survive his unreal expectations and the maelstrom of their marriage?

This book is a collection of short stories about water-related happenings with pets, written by their owners and contributed for publication in Wet Pets to help support the Camden-Rockport Animal Rescue League (CRARL) and its no-kill shelter in Rockport, Maine. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to CRARL. The editors of the volume are volunteers, each with writing and publishing experience. Most of the 50 stories in the collection include photographs of the subjects described. Animal lovers everywhere will be drawn to these recollections of watery adventures with beloved pets. Those passionate about sailing will be rewarded with images of boats, sea, and shore. Children and adults alike will appreciate these tales of cats, dogs, and ducks and the glimpes they provide into the lives of their people companions. This project reflects volunteerism at its best. It is a tribute to all who care about animals. It ensures that the pets of the contributing authors will be held in loving memory into the future. Most importantly, these stories will help to support shelter animals until they can be adopted into loving homes.

When Zach lies to his father about breaking an expensive camera, Aristotle the prairie dog reads him the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree to illustrate the importance of honesty.