Inspector Gary Wagner hated getting called out at night. The only thing he hated more was the senseless, sudden death of an innocent human being. He didn’t know the woman lying in the filthy, blood-soaked alley – but it was his job to learn everything about her, her family, and her killer.A crime novelist, David Corey was used to plot twists, police investigations, and the wheels of justice. He wasn’t used to real-life police work or the massive effort that goes into an Oklahoma Cit...

In Experiencing Jazz: A Listener’s Companion, writer, teacher, and renowned jazz drummer Michael Stephans offers a much-needed survey in the art of listening to and enjoying this dynamic, ever-changing art form. More than mere entertainment, jazz provides a pleasurable and sometimes dizzying listening experience with an extensive range in structure and form, from the syncopated swing of big bands to the musical experimentalism of small combos. As Stephans illustrates, listeners and jazz ar...

The Flats is a delightful, humorous romp through the lives of a coal miner’s patchwork family in the early 1950s. Tucked away in a secluded area of Pennsylvania’s majestic Allegheny Mountains, Michael Stephanic learns to navigate the many obstacles of a dysfunctional family. Together with his stepfather John, his mother Julia and his sister Turtle, life is nothing less than one amazing adventure after another. Even when dark clouds gather and dangerous, physical and emotional storms roll i...

"Beyond the Flats" is an exciting rollercoaster ride through the lives of Michael Stephanic, his mother Julia, and sister Turtle. After Julia’s frantic flight from The Flats and her abusive marriage, she finds herself in another small coal-mining town. Michael and Turtle quickly learn the difference between a dysfunctional family and a broken family. As Julia strives to rebuild their lives, Michael and Turtle struggle with the many changes they face. Seen through the eyes of a young boy in...

Saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Ornette Coleman, along with pianist Cecil Taylor, was one of the founding forces of the Free Jazz movement which took the music world by storm in the 1950s and 60s. His brilliance as an instrumentalist at first positioned him as a polarizing figure, but eventually brought him recognition as an American original and international jazz treasure.Jazz drummer Michael Stephans explores the personal challenges Coleman faced, the...

Food.Shelter.Digitized life after death.Companionship.Identity.Love without monsters getting in the mix.We all have needs. We all know that, too, we just don't know what it means to say so. Generally speaking. Day in, day out, we mine a lot of gold about what it means to be who we've decided we think we are. And that's what this collection is about. What do we need? How do we find it? What would we do to keep it? It's strange, it's w...

When the Black Door opens…Mankind responds to extraordinary crises when the wall between universes crumbles and falls. Giant spiders. Dragons. Demons. Monsters from the depths of our subconscious. This isn't fantasy, it's a frightening reality. It's also a Black Door scenario, deep blue end-of-the-world stuff. And while scientists of the National Security Agency's Nightwatch division rush to understand and mitigate the dangers rolling over us, elite response teams close with and co...

In a country in which teachers are demonized as incompetent, where everyone wants quality schools but no one wants to pay for them, what becomes of those who stand for principle, who know what to do to teach young minds, but are prevented from doing so by their own supposed leaders? Guardians at the Gate is a satirical examination of the plight of public education. It is a no-holds-barred gut shot to the myths and underhanded purposes that threaten this uniquely American instituti...

In the mid-twenty-first century, the United States goes through a fundamental change. White people are now only the largest minority in America. Will they surrender power to the coalition to follow, or fight “to keep what’s theirs”? So begins a terrible, violent game of chess played for the heart and soul of a nation.Welcome to the world of Steve Tallman, the driven producer of a celebrated news program watched by avid millions over TV, the Net, and cellular. He comes across a docu...

NIGHTWATCH, Book 6Clayton Hostetter, US Marshal, makes his living rousting out range agitators, fence cutters, them that mutilate the cattle and make the circles in the crops, and general uncivilized folk. Just now, he's ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt himself to bring in Ehnrich Boehm, aka The Dark Man, the most ornery outlaw you ever did know. Wanted for murder, mayhem, terrorism, and conspiracy to destroy the eighteen contiguous universes (also blasphemy and vandalism), ...

It's the Mid-World Arts Spooky Season Spectacular! Thirty-four tales of the uncanny, the weird, the disturbing, and the silly. Ghost stories, monster mashes, vamp vignettes, spirit scares, and a whole bunch more. It's All Hallows Eve. The trick-or-treating is done. You've collected mountains of candy. Now it's time for the monster show marathon on TV! (Swing with it, youngsters. This is something we used to do.)This is that marathon. The independent artists of Mid-World Arts present...