Excruciating pain on the left side of her body wakes Kathryn from her trance of loneliness, stress, and exhaustion. She has pushed her mind and body beyond their reasonable limits; now she is paying for it. She has ignored her physical and emotional needs and brushed aside her sadness while compulsively caring for others. Now her body is screaming, "Enough! Stop!" But no matter what she tries, the pain does not stop. Unable to work, sleep, or escape from the suffering, and desperate for relief, she goes to see Dr. White, a pain management specialist. Their year of therapy transforms her life. The setting for her metamorphosis is The Blue Room, an imaginary inner sanctuary where she discovers how the past has molded and imprisoned her and how she can set herself free.
On paper, they’re a disaster. In the sheets, they’re a perfect match. Kent Lester is proud of the joyful, thriving learning community he’s created as principal of Lear Elementary School. But seven years after his divorce, he’s ready to focus on his personal life. Things get off to a rocky start when Kent’s first date is an uptight control freak. Vincent Manda never seems able to move past the friend zone. But that night with the bearded, older Kent revealed a side of Vincent he’d never experienced before. And he’s equal parts scared of and desperate for a repeat. Forced to implement new software to monitor and collect school data, Kent is horrified to discover that Vincent is working on the project. With his last install ending less than ideally, Vincent’s job depends on this one succeeding—and butting heads with the principal won’t help.
Aventurine on the Border
Anne Britting Oleson
Encircle Publications
Recovering their balance after their adventures in Lincoln and the discovery of their secret sister, Aventurine Morrow and her twin Micheline are holed up together in Hay-on-Wye. There, they receive several coded messages indicating the possibility that Mick’s husband, Shep, lost at sea, might actually have died by suicide. When her twin disappears, Avi must join forces with the always-suspicious policeman Dominic Burroughs to decipher those clues and attempt to find Mick. They seek the help of former SOE agent Genevieve Smithson, but that wily old spy might know more than she’s letting on.
An enigmatic invitation lures tech genius Avery Turner and thrill-seeker Carter Mosley away from their recent groundbreaking discovery of the General's Gold, offering them a chance to join an expedition on the cutting edge of science. Drawn into the heart of Antarctica, they pursue a legendary shipwreck fabled to house the long-lost crown jewels of Norway. As they plunge into the quest, chilling tales of centuries-old curses and an unsolved murder emerge, hinting at connections more profound and perilous than they ever imagined. With a stolen treasure worth millions at stake and the fate of the scientific expedition in question, Carter must complete the most dangerous dive of his life in the harshest conditions on the planet. As suspicious sabotage cripples their equipment and unforeseen dangers intensify, the duo depend on Avery's innovative technology and their unwavering trust in each other to survive.
Paths Through the Year: A Year-long Exploration into Place, Creativity, and Self
Corinne Cunningham
Corinne Cunningham Publishing
Paths Through The Year takes the reader on a year-long exploration into place, creativity, and self. It is a story of how the natural world and its rhythms inspire and impact a creative life, told through a seasonal lens of introspection encompassing daily life on a multi-generational homestead in the woods of Maine. In documenting four seasons of joys, challenges, and sorrows, Paths encourages others to examine their own lives and to see the value of a thoughtful, seasonal, quiet life.
Are you ready to start writing the stories that live inside you? Open the pages of this handy guide to gain practical and accessible insights to help you put pen to paper and fingers to keys! Whether you're a budding author or a seasoned wordsmith looking to enhance your craft, use this comprehensive roadmap to unleash your creativity. In these pages, discover how to cultivate a creative mindset by establishing and nurturing your writing practice, overcome writer’s block, unmask fear by neutralizing your inner critic and allowing self-expression to flourish, keep going though identified obstacles with new strategies, and trust your voice, leaning into the storyteller within. WRITE! Your Guide to Revealing the Writer Within is your trusted companion to help claim the major milestones of your unique and transformative journey.
The search for the perfect rooster to save a struggling farm from chaos will leave readers howling—and trying out their very best cock-a-doodle-doo! A farm. Bucolic beauty, barns, and. . .sleepy animals everywhere? This farm needs a rooster, and Cow is determined to find the perfect candidate. One rooster, who wakes up first thing in the morning, with a resounding cock-a-doodle-do—is that too much to ask? YES! This tale of a frenzied farm and the beleaguered cow trying to keep it all together packs more than laughs. As each enthusiastic candidate learns: roostering isn’t what you are, but what you do. And there’s room for everyone. As long as they wake up early—er, I mean brew strong coffee—or is it press the big button?—oh never mind. All are welcome!
In Dorson Plourde’s authorial debut, two brothers seek adventure and change from the sprawling emptiness that is the town they’ve always known. When you’re too big for your pond, you find an ocean. The fastest way there is through the clouds. . .Garbage Gulls introduces a whimsical world in which two brothers embark on a sun-soaked adventure amidst the discarded treasures of a strip mall parking lot. A story fueled by the power of 1000 scavenging seagulls and a bag of fries. Isabella Fassler's illustrations bring this imaginative tale to life, capturing the essence of the landscapes that shape us and the magic found in unexpected places. Without access to a beach or summer camp, with only fries and a stretch of asphalt, the brothers dream themselves to the sea the only way they can. “A dazzling debut. Lyrical, absurd, and full of wonder” —Kirkus Reviews.
This Moment and the Next
Edited by Jude Marx
The Telling Room
In This Moment and the Next, a literary anthology of stories and poems by forty-two Maine authors, you’ll find writing about an “unfortunate dragonfly,” tiny creatures in red hats, a school for clouds, metaphorical peaches, a sister’s shoes, a cow named Horse, a snowman in a snowsuit, insomnia, and an unsolvable Rubik’s cube. The pieces will take you along journeys into outer space, through unknown jungles, to the middle of the ocean; through illness, loss and grief, back to New York City in 1985, and even into the future. The writing in this book is a call to memory, joy, connection, and action, offering us explorations of family, growing up, transformation, identity, racism, learning, and the always-unfinished understanding of what it takes to be seen.
Explosions of the Suppressed: An Anthology of Poetry from SHS Students
Edited by Michelle Ok Su Shupp
Independently Published
A creative collaboration of Scarborough High School students with Portland Poet Laureate Maya Williams has produced two poetry chapbooks, [Redacted for Monetary Purposes] and Born But Not Alive. This Anthology comprises both books whose poets are primarily Black and Brown students and all from historically excluded populations. In addition to the Anthology’s 100 poems, four extraordinary pieces of visual art are showcased, created by Scarborough student Teddy Ngalamulume. All proceeds from the chapbook will go directly toward a scholarship to a senior poet(s) in the class of 2025.
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