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When a certain kind of man is needed, why not make him to order? Such things can be done, but take care: much can go wrong—but then, sometimes it can go wonderfully right. Imagine... In The Golem of Mala Lubovnya, a seventeenth century rabbi creates a man of clay to protect the Jews, and the golem lives a life his maker never imagined, gaining a name—Emet—and the love of a good man, Jakob Abramov. But their love may not survive when Emet must fulfill his violent purpose. In Watchworks, Luke Prescott lives as a gentleman in a London that never was.

A collection of short stories from one of today's most talented and challenging new writers. Eric Arvin covers everything from college love to mystical river sprites, from deep tragedy to bawdy sex comedy, in this collection that takes the everyday and finds the adventure within. It's a read sure to keep you guessing. Cover art and illustrations by HvH (http://hvhexpo.blogspot.com)

Injured in a war that has stretched on for years, Sergeant John Peterson guards a lonely border. Aside from passing contact with railship captains, the only person he sees is the enemy: the man who guards the other side of the border. A bad fall places John’s life in the other soldier’s hands. He’s wary of his rescuer, First Lieutenant Thomas Fellowes, but over time he finds himself drawn to his new companion. Both soldiers carry the war in their souls, but they might find peace in each other. A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Daily Dose package "Mended."

<p>Winner of the W.O. Mitchell/City of Calgary Award</p> <p>A debut collection, these stories are set in the corporeal world of adult endeavour: the mall, the office, the subdivision. It’s these settings that W. Mark Giles exploits—locking his sights on eerily familiar characters, excavating their fears, intimacies, and the dark machinery behind their actions. He taps into our collective longing for moments of clarity and awe, recognizes our thwarted potential for wonder, and sees our secrets played out in cruelty.

<p><i>Valery the Great</i> is a crackling, electric collection of dark humour that follows the bizarre and beautiful lives of its protagonists.

<p>”To give a feeling of Christopher Gudgeon’s new collection, let’s turn to the story that gives the book its name. In The Widow Soré, the title character finds among her deceased fiancé Guillermo’s papers what appears to be a stack of letters. Titled <i>The Encyclopedia of Lies</i>, the letters recount the romantic, outsized exploits of another Guillermo, or one whom Isabel takes to be another Guillermo, because this must be a work of fiction, unless. Isabel travels to visit another woman who might hold the answer.

<p>Fiction Pick, <i>Broken Pencil Magazine</i></p> <p><i>Suburban Pornography</i> is contemporary literature, which documents Canadian urban life in a raw and naked manner. The prose is stripped--minimalist, direct, urgent, unflinching. The stories revolve around ordinary characters and problems--people stuck in bad relationships or jobs. Some yearn for something just beyond their grasp, something authentic to knock them out of their malaise. Their frailties and obsessions are front and centre.

<p>Pamela Stewart is a self-described ?literary proctologist,? and her writing often looks into places that people generally don?t want to look. The stories in <i>Elysium</i> are about the difficulties of life we all encounter as human beings, the fragility of life?the physical, mental, and spiritual challenges we must try to overcome. They are about ordinary people, characters searching for meaning. People are rescued, but not always in the way they hoped for or expected.

<p><b>Shortlisted for the City of Hamilton book award</b></p> <p>At times comic, tender, dark, and arrestingly bizarre, Gary Barwin’s latest fiction collection marvels at the strangeness, charm, and beauty that is contemporary life in the quantum world.</p> <p>Ranging from short story to postcard fiction, Barwin’s stories are luminous, hilarious, and surprising.

<p>Montaigne Medal Finalist (Eric Hoffer Awards)</p> <p>The stories in <i>Cretacea and Other Stories from the Badlands</i> mostly take place in hot weather, where dust and sweat envelop everyone and everything. A teenage boy spends a summer with his hard-livin’, hard-drinkin’, messed up uncle and has to fight for a position in his new, temporary “family.” A recent widower gets swept up in the world of the local swingers’ scene. A band of misfits struggles to survive at a makeshift commune.