California, the Magic Island


Book Description

Summoned by Queen Calafia to the island of California, twenty-six animals of the state of California introduce themselves, their homeland, and the people who dwell there.




Aesop in California


Book Description

A collection of Aesop's fables, retold and illustrated to feature places and creatures in California. Includes historical notes about Aesop and the tales, and facts about the animals and locations photographed.










The Magic Island


Book Description







Magic Island: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Box Set, Books 1-4


Book Description

Wren Winters is utterly, painfully ordinary. The most boring job on the planet? Check. A boyfriend of eight years who still hasn’t put a ring on it? Double check. A squirrel that can’t stop gorging itself on her tomato plants? Make that a triple. But on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Wren can’t shake the feeling that things are about to change. And they are. Just not in the way she planned. After a series of unexplainable events makes her question her sanity, a strange little man arrives to deliver an even stranger message: Wren isn’t so ordinary after all. She’s a witch, and in order to claim her powers, she must leave everything behind and journey to a place she never even knew existed. Suddenly, Wren is thrust into a fantasy world come to life, where taxis sprout wings and take to the skies, merwomen teach sold-out water aerobics classes, and scent-challenged ogres panhandle on street corners for unusual delicacies. Add in a new job, a hunky coworker, and a full schedule of magical lessons, and Wren’s formerly boring life is nothing but a distant memory. But before she’s able to even test out her training wand, Wren is confronted with a murder she feels compelled to solve, a list of suspects with plenty to hide, and a mysterious man in black who seems to be tracking her every move. Turns out even fantasy worlds have their dark sides. Book your ticket to Magic Island, where the potions are brewed fresh daily, the beaches are perfect for creature-watching, and the fangs and fur are on full display. This box set includes the first four books in the Magic Island Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series by Emery Belle.







California Gothic: The Dark Side of the Dream


Book Description

California Gothic explores the California dream and its dark inversion as a nightmare, as illustrated in fiction, poetry, and film. California began as a literary invention, a magic island, in a Spanish romance before conquistadors first visited the land. From early days to the present, the California dream of happiness in a land of new beginnings has been maintained by suppression of disturbing realities: above all, the destruction of native peoples; and by events and facts such as the tragedy of the Donner Party, the persistence of poverty and crime in the golden land, disturbing crimes such as the Black Dahlia; and pandemics and ecological disaster. This book explores a rich Gothic tradition that exposes the repressed past and imagines the fates awaiting a failed California.




The Magic Island


Book Description

Adventures and emotional experiences of an American author in Haiti.