The twenty-four essays in this book cover a variety of topics, from films like Blade Runner and the Private Snafu propaganda film series of World War II to examples of classic literature from England and the United States to a smorgasbord that includes an epic hitchhiking adventure, a 1968 Doors concert, and a humorous drug smuggling incident on the Rio Grande. What connects these diverse topics is the author’s treatment of the shared humanity and inhumanities inherent in Western culture. By turns serious and humorous, Dow leads the reader through an examination of issues both subtle and obvious to bring home his point that humanity is a condition best shared.

Despite the best efforts of theologians, philosophers, and scientists to delineate consensus reality, the uni- verse is as mysterious today as it ever was. Hu- mankind might think it knows what is going on, but tantalizing glimpsed of nonordinary reality occa- sionally pierce the veil of our perceptions, illustrat- ing the limits of human knowledge and understand- ing and hinting at an underlying order, if not pur- pose, to the apparent randomness of creation.
In Book of Curiosities, Christopher Dow recounts his personal encounters with a wide range of paranor- mal occurrences and unusual beings, including ghosts, shadow people, vampires, reincarnation, channeling, superstitions that proved true, and more. These experiences have challenged him to think more inclusively about the nature of reality— perhaps they will challenge you, as well.

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume VI: Tai Chi Chuan Instruction Manuals

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume V: Overviews of Taijiquan and the Taiji Classics

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume IV: Overviews of the Internal Chinese Martial Arts, Xingyi & Yiquan, Bagua, Other Internal Styles, Push Hands & Ap- plications, Wudang Weapons, Narratives

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume III: Overviews of the External Chinese Martial Arts, Shaolin & Other External Styles, Weapons Forms

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume II: Chi Kung, Meditation, Yoga, Archery, Research Re- sources, Film & TV, Booklets & Pamphlets

The reader of martial arts literature enjoys a unique opportuni- ty to learn from books written by acknowledged masters and experts in their fields. The reader also might waste a lot of time and money on books that are either inadequate, repetitive of knowledge already gained, or just plain bad. But how to know beforehand if what you’re buying is worthwhile? Leaves on the Wind: A Survey of Martial Arts Literature is here to help. In this series, Christopher Dow reviews books on the martial and movement arts, each review categorized by subject to help the reader find the type of book he or she is looking for.

Volume I: Books on the Background of the Asian Martial Arts and the Martial Arts of Japan, Okinawa, Korea, and Malaysia

From the author of City of Dreams, The Trip Out, and Texas White Line Fever.

Drawn from Christopher Dow’s first four volumes of poetry, Puzzle Pieces reflects the diversity of his work over the span of forty years and presents some of his strongest work under one cover. Ranging from the philosophical to the spiritual to the personal and heartfelt, his poems explore his interest in worldly concerns juxtaposed against a background of metaphysical considerations.

More poetry from the author of City of Dreams, The Trip Out, Texas White Line Fever, and Networks.

Poems from the author of City of Dreams and The Trip Out

Poetry from the editor of Phosphene and Dialog magazines.

Poetry from the editor of Phosphene and Dialog magazines.

Out of the ordinary entertainment from the author of Devil of a Time, Jumping Jehovah, Lord of the Loincloth, and other curious and unusual books.

A werewolf who meets his match in a wraithlike girl. An artist whose paintings might be a little too real for comfort. An adolescent girl who races a train to a dangerous crossing. A boy who must make a harrowing climb out of the only world he knows to discover the world within himself. A man who learns that the missing step he seeks might not be one he really wants to find.

These are just some of the characters in this col- lection of distinctive and unusual stories that delve into the mysteries of compulsions to lose oneself, and perhaps, to find oneself anew.

Since prehistoric times, peoples the world over have believed in a creative force that inspires life. Throughout history it has been known by many names: mana, prana, ka, and chi, to name only a few. Much has been written about this energy and the ways in which it can be strengthened to enhance life and well-being as well as to provide the basis for many of the Eastern martial arts, particularly tai chi chuan.

But if chi is real, why is there so little scientific evidence for its existence or for the physiological structures that generate and channel it throughout the body? Moreover, what is the exact nature of chi, and how can it interact with physical reality in the sometimes esoteric ways that are reported?

The Wellspring draws together, for the first time, two significant but disparate lines of scientific research that not only identify the physiological structures that produce and channel chi but that point to the true nature of this mysterious power.

Five years after taking part in a disastrous raid to rescue a cruise liner from modern-day pirates, Alex Brant has begun to discover peace for himself driving an eighteen-wheeler across the American Southwest. He even finds time to protect a mysterious desert rat and the mute kid who travels with him. But he can’t defend himself against a vicious band of road pirates and their brutal leader, T-Bone, who shoot him and leave him for dead at a roadside rest stop. T-Bone needs Alex’s truckload of electronics to realize his mad scheme of revenge against the Las Vegas hoods who killed his wife and son. Only one thing stands between him and the incendiary hell he plans, and that’s Alex, who discovers that T-Bone’s gang has left him with more than one score to settle.

It’s World War I, and the fate of Africa lies in the hands of a madman— an eccentric Royal Navy commander who sank his two previous commands in the most ridiculous ways possible.

Geoffrey Spicer-Simson is ordered to destroy two ships that give the Germans military control over the continent, but that may be easier said than done. The ships are on Lake Tanganyika, and to get there, Spicer- Simson and his men will have to drag two 40' gunboats over desert torn with ravines, through tsetse-infested swamps, and across a 6,000' range of mountains. Undaunted, Spicer-Simson forges ahead, but can his men accept the leadership of a pretentious braggart who names his gunboats Mimi and Toutou, is completely covered with tattoos, and wears a leather skirt instead of a uniform?

And if the journey to the lake isn’t bizarre enough, imagine what happens when they get there and meet the Germans in mortal combat on high seas in the middle of Africa!

Lord of the Loincloth is the humorously adventurous account of one of the 20th century’s strangest heroes and his extraordinary quest for redemption.

Holy smokes, Bob is back. Well, no.... Let’s just say he’s passed on to a higher plane.

In this satiric follow-up to Devil of a Time, corporate climber Bob, a recent inmate of the infernal regions, takes his shenanigans to a whole new level as he seeks to worm his way into Heaven’s graces—and the good life that comes with it. But what’s a middle-man to do when Heaven’s labor force is completely unionized and his potential customers have all their heavenly desires—even contradictory ones—met instantly?

But all is not well behind the Pearly Gates. Heaven’s infrastructure is collapsing, and Paradise just isn’t as blissful as it ought to be. Worse, the Boss is nowhere to be found, leaving Archangel Michael overseeing a situation rapidly growing impossible. Faced with a ponderous, out-of-date infrastructure—and no end in sight—what’s an Archangel to do but ally himself with a wily go-getter with devious organizational experience?

Before he knows it, Bob is on a mission to fix Heaven, and he plans to leverage his position to the hilt. Will Bob get his company off the clouds and gain permanent Residency? Will he get his heavenly desires? Will he get Nanookie?
To find out, he will have to go to the edge of reality, itself.

In this raucously satirical take on the dangers of believing your own fictions, a corporate climber named Bob is just about to pull off the sweetest deal of his corrupt career when it’s snatched from his grasp. Worse, in the middle of cursing his unknown nemesis, Bob suffers a fatal heart attack that sends him plummeting into the pit of Hell. A flea-bitten Cerberus meets him at the door, a snot-nosed demon gives him a book of impossibly complex rules that all inmates in Hell are supposed to follow, and he’s sentenced to an eternity in the pit of boiling...well, let’s just say his punishment isn’t pleasant.
But eternity is a long time—too damn long for someone as ambitious as Bob—especially after he finds a way to get around the rules and work his way to the top of Hell’s hierarchy. Besides, he has a secret weapon: a beautiful and mysterious but insistently tedious young woman who has attached herself to the Devil like a white shadow. Will the Devil manage to repower the faltering volcano that is the physical symbol of his potency? Will Bob wrest Hell from him and turn it into an amusement park? Will the Devil’s white shadow redecorate everything in sight?

Whatever happens, you can be sure that all hell is gonna break loose!

When Clay Guthrie is sent by his mysterious employer to track down a missing man, he finds not just the object of his search, but a town in turmoil and on the brink of destruction. What will it take to learn the cause and remedy it before it’s too late? And who—or what—will get in the way?

When a frightened railroad employee tells Clay Guthrie that a monster in a boxcar ate his co-worker, Guthrie finds himself drawn into a web of corrupt and warped ambition and wanton violence. Traveling to far West Texas in search of the monster, Guthrie and the trainman encounter an organization whose goal is the total destruction of social order and whose weapon is an abomination from the past. Waging a guerrilla war against their enemies beneath the harsh Texas sun, they quickly discover that the nights hold a mortal danger more terrible than their human enemies. With the fate of civilization in the balance, they must eliminate the humans who stand in their way before they can root out and confront a canny and clever inhuman foe.

"Who better to send into a grave situation to find out what lies buried there than one who has known death? Such as you."

With those words, mysterious old Tereba set Guthrie on the trail of a missing artist. Having to deal with a witch from an ancient lineage and the ultimate hunter seeking the ultimate prey didn't bother him, but the doorway to another world was a different matter. Out there an unknowable predator waited, and it wanted nothing more than to lay waste to everything in its path.

But Guthrie couldn't refuse. He knew that anything Tereba directed his way would be as interesting and important as it might be dangerous, and those were lures he couldn't resist. Besides, when he set a trap for his nemesis, the bait wasn't the only thing that had disappeared into the unknown along with the artist.

Now Guthrie's client had vanished, too.

Teetering on the edge of the gutter, ex-cop Clay Guthrie is offered a way out of his bitter isolation. All he has to do is locate a stolen sculpture. The task seems simple enough, but Guthrie quickly finds himself enmeshed in a series of unreal events that push him to the breaking point. His employers, more disturbingly dangerous than the suspect, threaten him with pain and death if he fails, while their antagonist, a mysterious old man, forces Guthrie to act on his behalf, warning that worse horrors will greet his success. The only way Guthrie can survive is to find the sculpture and help the old man destroy the terrible power that lives within it. But before he can do that, he must endure a series of trials that test his physical endurance and drive him into the core of his own corruption.

Returned after nearly thirty years to the town over which he once held sway, John Stroud learns that no matter how many trails he’s had to tread and how many obstacles he’s had to overcome on his journey to achieve the ultimate in power, more wait ahead.

Armed with a ruthless ambition coupled with deadly knowledge, he begins regaining command over his former empire. In his way stand those who now control what once was his as well as the daughter he’d never known. His first act is murder.

Effigy is the story of a man obsessed by power and the desire to manipulate reality for his own ends—a man who will do anything necessary to ensure that he gets what he wants. But all his desires lie thwarted and latent until fate presents him with the means to transcend not only his own past, but death itself—if only he can lay his cruel hands on it.

Growing up in a poor mill town in southern Louisiana taught John Stroud one thing: There’s no point in caring about a world that doesn’t care about you.

Unfortunately for Stroud, the world of Woodville was always there, undeniable, oppressive, and inescapable, with absolutely no means of satisfying the ambitions bursting inside him.

Effigy is the story of a man obsessed by power and the desire to manipulate reality for his own ends—a man who will do anything necessary to ensure that he gets what he wants. But all his desires lie thwarted and latent until fate presents him with the means to transcend not only his own past, but death itself—if only he can lay his cruel hands on it.