Emma Jenkins lives alone – a recluse in her remote home in Portland, Oregon, no longer engaged to be married. She spends her day reading books, pouring through old diaries, recalling happier times… and hallucinating twisted characters she reads about.Then Chelsea Greene comes into her life—a mysterious woman who knows far too much about Emma. The perfect stranger. But when Emma finds out something about Greene that she shouldn't, she turns to the characters in her book for guidance...

Fifteen years since the publication of its first volume, this invaluable guide to some of the most challenging aria excerpts continues with Volume II.Featuring an entirely new selection of arias, Guide to the Aria Repertoire, Volume II brings together many sources to aid the singer on their journey toward powerful, informed performances. Volume I of this guide has proven a tried-and-true resource for the developing operatic singer, with a wealth of insightful commentary f...

Truly powerful vocal performance in musical theater is more than just the sum of good vocal tone and correct notes. As experienced teacher, director, and performer Mark Ross Clark lays out in The Broadway Song, powerful performance communicates the central function of a song within the context of the surrounding narrative, or the "truth" of a song. Because unstaged performances of a song, such as auditions, are key to the success of all aspiring singers, Clark provides here the es...

Set in the year 2062, "Stupid Machine" is a gripping hard science fiction novel and cybernetic noir that explores a world where technology is supposed to be infallible. In this near-future AI dystopia, car accidents have been a thing of the past for over twenty years—until Jordan Bishop’s vehicle undergoes a fatal crash.What looks like a simple malfunction to the world is, to former police detective turned insuranc...

A Collection of Hard Science Fiction and Engineering EthicsThe opposite of love isn't hate. It's indifference.In this thought-provoking collection of Hard Science Fiction, award-winning author Mark Niemann-Ross explores the intersection of high-stakes technology and the human spirit. From the sterile corridors of deep-space outposts to the cluttered garages of future suburban engineers, these five stories ask: What happens when our inventions b...

Old Mr. Smith has a story about young John Stokerson, a boy who didn't speak a single word until he was four years old. While his parents worried, John trained his clever companion—a Border Collie named Patches.When Rusty Dunan, a fugitive cattle rustler, appears at John's home, John and Patches hatch a plan. This western adventure shows how brains beat brawn. Using a series of tricks, this duo proves you don't need a gun to stand up to a cattle rustler.Readers will love th...

Set in the year 2062, "Stupid Machine" is a gripping hard science fiction novel and cybernetic noir that explores a world where technology is supposed to be infallible. In this near-future AI dystopia, car accidents have been a thing of the past for over twenty years—until Jordan Bishop's vehicle undergoes a fatal crash.What looks like a simple malfunction to the world is, to former police detective turned insurance investigator Araci Belo, a clear case of corporate malfeasance and...

How do you prepare for your own "Golden Years" when you’re still trying to figure out how to care for those who came before you?When Mark Niemann-Ross realized he had "suddenly" become a senior, he didn't look to brochures or retirement seminars for guidance. Instead, he looked to his mother-in-law, Greta."My Favorite Mother-in-Law" is a heartwarming and often hilarious memoir that explores the complex, beautiful, and somet...

Old Mr. Smith has a story about young John Stokerson, a boy who didn’t speak a single word until he was four years old. While his parents worried, John trained his clever companion—a Border Collie named Patches.When Rusty Dunan, a fugitive cattle rustler, appears at John’s home, John and Patches hatch a plan. This western adventure shows how brains beat brawn. Using a series of tricks, this duo proves you don’t need a gun to stand up to a cattle ru...

A robotic packhorse threads between three stories, discussing dementia, war, love and ethics. Hard Science Fiction written from an engineering perspective. Originally appeared in the January / February 2011 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Stories by Mark Niemann-Ross have appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact as well as Stupefying Stories. With his co-author Rick Lovett, Niemann-Ross has twice won the AnLab Readers Choice Award.

A collection of science fiction stories from the pages of Analog magazine by the award-winning team of Richard A. Lovett and Mark Niemann-Ross, including the 2011 Analytical Laboratory (reader's choice) Award winning novella "Phantom Sense" and the 2006 Analytical Laboratory Award winning novelette "NetPuppets."Lovett and Niemann-Ross have written some of the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories I've read in years- Nebula award winner Jerry Oltion

Six years on from the worst financial crisis in history, politicians and economists offer the same old arguments. This book explains why a return to ‘business as usual’ is impossible and offers a practical, sustainable alternative. A deeper look at the issues raised by the acclaimed Four Horsemen film. As the global economy veers from crisis to catastrophe, people have finally had enough. Billions are denied effective access to an economy that has been hijacked by vested interests. The peo...