'Original Echo, ' by Nels Hanson and illustrated by Rees Nielsen, considers "first things," those words and sounds whose echoes can still be heard, the real and legendary voices of history and nature that shaped our world and remain as living if often unremembered guides. Hanson has received numerous awards for his writing, and Nielsen's painting, poetry and fiction have been widely published in literary magazines.

Two California Central Valley natives and former farmers have produced this vibrant book of poetry and art about the San Joaquin Valley they love, where they learned to accept both the bounties and the hazards of the changing seasons. Nels Hanson has received numerous awards for his writing, and Rees Nielsen's painting, poetry and fiction have been widely published in literary magazines.

'Last Trick, ' by Nels Hanson and Rees Nielsen, considers through word and image the magical and the miraculous, those things inexplicable - alluring presences, and their shadowed opposites, that are both unlikely and real, whether inhabiting earthly form or about to. Nels Hanson has received numerous awards for his writing, and Rees Nielsen's painting, poetry and fiction have been widely published in literary magazines

The Blue Flower Case is a love story, a mystery novel and a Western, a ghost and sci-fi tale, about a beautiful blue flower at a California crime scene, and the hunt for a notorious cattle thief and mutilator in Western Montana. Police Lieutenant Philip Lambert takes on the most challenging case of his long career, as he journeys from loneliness to love, from despair to reassurance and faith, searching for the secret of the strange flower that fascinates him and whose secret will change his life--and the lives of the people he meets--forever.

Perpetual Motion and Other Stories explores the sudden intrusion of the unexpected and uncanny into our world of daylight consciousness, and what happens when we're confronted with events that shouldn't be but inescapably are. An aged inventor and a failed musician, a young baseball player, an outlaw, an escaped prisoner, a ladies' man, a realtor, a farmer, a newspaper reporter, and a witness to an ongoing crime spanning 30 years each confront the impossible but real and transform their private vision to include the miraculous that may be a special gift or a terrifying judgment.

The Toy and Other Stories presents 25 short and longer "takes" on reality - some true, some partly true, others wholly fictional - which describe past and present events, and possible futures that may be unwinding in new or recurring directions. Several stories investigate the "underside" of history, examining alternative explanations for accepted fact, while others explore more private worlds as characters confront uncharted and mysterious situations that disobey our normal expectations of the real. Perhaps things are not as we were told and led to believe, and our lives are far stranger and...

Travis Jackson Had A Wife chronicles the struggles of singer-songwriter Buck Cole and his wife, Jodie Cole, who become adored country-western stars, beacons of hope in a dispirited America, and intimates of a U.S. President and First Lady. Buck's story is a celebrity confession, a Western, a mystery of detection, and a country idyll, told by a man in search of his soul. Buck traces his path from a Nevada ranch to Nashville and back again as he contrasts fame and obscurity, romance and love, illusion and reality, and discovers that his losses are the secret to his discovery of a new and better...

Sleeping Child Lake follows two crucial weeks in the life of 32-year-old Bill Ryder, who since a divorce has been wandering as a day laborer in a diminishing West. When his boat nets a tropical fish off the Oregon coast, a chain of meaningful coincidences starts to unfold -- leading Ryder to western Montana and finally to nearly fathomless Sleeping Child Lake, sacred to American Indians who await a suffering redeemer who will begin the salvation of the Earth. With trepidation and hope, Ryder follows the turquoise lake's strengthening call and will meet Emma Little Bear and Charles Two Hats as...