Kurt Kirchmeier

Stranger Things meets The Stand in this haunting coming-of-age novel about a plague that brings the world to a halt -- and the boy who believes that his town's missing sparrows can save his family. In the small town of Griever's Mill, eleven-year-old Ben Cameron is expecting to finish off his summer of relaxing and bird-watching without a hitch. But everything goes wrong when dark clouds roll in. Old Man Crandall is the first to change -- human one minute and a glass statue the next. Soon it's happening across the world. Dark clouds fill the sky and, at random, people are turned into frozen versions of themselves. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no one knows how to stop it. With his mom on the verge of a breakdown, and his brother intent on following the dubious plans put forth by a nameless voice on the radio, Ben must hold out hope that his town's missing sparrows will return with everyone's souls before the glass plague takes them away forever.

The Absence of Sparrows

Kate Heartfield

Holly Schofield

Lara Apps

Chris Patrick Carolan

Leslie Brown

Lorina Stephens

Susan MacGregor

Colleen Anderson

Katherine Cameron

Geoff Gander & Fiona Plunkett

Bev Geddes

Mary-Jean Harris

Geoffrey Hart

R. W. Hodgson

Jason Lane

Halli Lilburn

Cat McDonald

Tony Pi

Mike Rimar

Bianca Sayan

Michael Skeet

Erik Jon Spigel

Liz Westbrook-Trenholm

Michal Wojcik

There is nothing new in the world except the history we do not know. Alchemy and Artifacts (Tesseracts Twenty-Two) is a collection of twenty-three amazing stories based on historical artifacts combined with fantastic historical fiction. The stories meld culture, concept and incident into a rich collection of 'what if' speculations that provide warnings yet revel in the cultural celebrations we continue to observe today. They are the touchstones that resonate with all who listen to and learn from the past. For, once the instigators are dead, the wars ended, and the political machines decayed, only artifacts remain. And it's through these cultural artifacts that we glimpse the possibility of what may have occurred in the past and may yet occur in the future. You are invited to delve into the motivations behind the events of the past, the quests for power, the fights against repression, and the sacrifices to a greater cause -- human dramas that reflect the worst and best of who we are -- to see what satisfaction comes from sudden insight and awe. Featuring works by these Canadian writers: Colleen Anderson, Lara Apps, Leslie Brown, Katherine Cameron, Chris Patrick Carolan, Geoff Gander & Fiona Plunkett, Bev Geddes, Mary-Jean Harris, Geoffrey Hart, Kate Heartfield, R. W. Hodgson, Kurt Kirchmeier, Jason Lane, Halli Lilburn, Cat McDonald, Tony Pi, Mike Rimar, Bianca Sayan, Holly Schofield, Michael Skeet, Erik Jon Spigel, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Michal Wojcik The stories in Alchemy and Artifacts (Tesseracts Twenty-Two) nourish those who wander in today's wilderness, and who, without the benefit of the past, are destined to plunge blindly along a path of ignorance, destroying all that has been, everything that is true and beautiful and that which nourishes our global community.

Tesseracts Twenty-Two

Alchemy and Artifacts

Kurt Kirchmeier

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