Myla Alvarez, novice, walks into the Sonoran Desert and begins telling stories about the Old Mermaids who washed ashore onto the New Desert when the Old Sea dried up. In this mystical new world, they lived, created, and walked in beauty. Myla finds sustenance and meaning in their lives and stories. But she worries that Homeland Security may discover the undocumented migrants she harbors at the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. When an old friend reenters her life, Myla begins to doubt herself and the wisdom of preserving the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. Will the Old Mermaids come to her aid? Church of the Old Mermaids celebrates its fifteenth birthday with a brand new edition of this beloved novel. A glorious celebration of life, love, friendship, and the power to change, Church of the Old Mermaids challenges us to find the good in others and ourselves. This edition is fully annotated by Kim Antieau and Mario Milosevic, illuminating the sources of the Old Mermaids and bringing new understanding and depth to this classic novel of souls adrift seeking a secure shore in a world of peril and uncertainty. Full of magic yet rooted in the cruel and beautiful realities of the border and those who live near it, this new presentation of Church of the Old Mermaids is sure to please both new and old readers of this unique and still timely novel. A special book deserves a special cover and we are fortunate to have an exclusive and stunning  image by the extraordinary artist Charles Vess for this edition of Church of the Old Mermaids.

Everyone knows Brooke McMurphy as the mastermind behind the monster hit zombie movies starting with Beauty and the Zombie. Most people don’t know the incredible story of Brooke’s battles with demons both personal and natural. In this complete edition of the threeWhackadoodle Times novels, we see Brooke’s genius in action as well as her courageous side as she copes with a movie exec dressed only in fishnet stockings dead in her bungalow, an earthquake, a blackmailing arsonist daughter, a tsunami, her own addictions, grief that just won’t die, and a possible zombie uprising. An outrageous mix of high tragedy and high humor, the Whackadoodle Times trilogy provides more than a peek into the movie business. It will make you cheer and cry and thank your lucky stars that you got to know Brooke McMurphy.

Disasters both natural and unnatural plague Brooke during the week she must deliver the script for the latest installment of her zombie movie franchise. Epic lightning storms strike the landscape, her intimate life is made public, her daughter may be trying to ruin her, she discovers she has no place to call home, and she finds solace in an old friend: the bottle. As her life melts down, with no prospects for relief, Brooke turns to the one thing that has any possibility of saving her: her epically dysfunctional disaster of a family.

Unfinished is the worst kind of business, and newly minted ex-cop Katie Kelly can do without the reminders of a shocking crime from 30 summers ago. Katie’s return to Beauty Falls triggers a round of soul-searching and painful memories of the time when she and five other teens went into the forest and only five came out alive.  Questions remain about what exactly happened that night and why. But Katie has to put those concerns on hold. A young girl is kidnapped, and a woman from Katie’s past claims to have just shot and killed her own children in that same forest they all entered 30 years earlier. Past and present collide as Katie employs all her skills in a race against time to save the endangered children of Beauty Falls.