From the solitary confines of a forgotten Arctic outpost arrives the world's final hope for its own salvation. What follows is an unlikely string of events that brings together a diverse group of players in the culmination of what may very well be the last days of the world as we know it. With the impending apocalypse upon humanity as a whole, it is up to the efforts of one unknowing woman to save us all from what is potentially to come and, moreover, ourselves. Beings that have long lain dormant and shrouded in secrecy have now awakened and are walking the Earth once more; many are...

A collection of short stories, interspersed with the odd poem (and a pair of non-fiction works at the tail end for good measure), 'A Twist of Fate' is an offering of storytelling hors d'oeuvres to meet many tastes and to satisfy myriad appetites. From the simple to the complex, the tragic to the triumphant, the philosophical to the existential, this work provides a glimpse inside the range and depth of ideas, emotions, and inspirations experienced by authors the world over.

Contributor Jenny Mathews once said that when everything else was lost, when all else was gone, that the makers would remain. Rockford does, indeed, possess an abundance of such individuals: the makers, the dreamers, the writers, the poets, the musicians, the artisans, the craftspeople, and the volunteers. It is through their generosity of spirit that this book came to be. A small group of Rockford's makers came together as one to share some of the city's historic tales, as well as some of their own stories, poems, art, and photography. All of this, in an effort to create a gestalt - an...