Books published by Open Road Media

In the middle of a deep forest is an enchanted valley and a castle where only shadows live, shadows of kings and queens who have waited for hundreds of years for the spell cast upon them to be broken. One day, a girl named Lucy follows a little dog through a tunnel into the valley and meets the mysterious red-haired Michael, who takes her into the shadow world to meet Prince Mika and his mortal wife Gloria, their children and their children''s children, and to learn the magic that will lift the spell. This new expanded edition contains additional chapters not published in the original 1946 edition.

An IRA/CBC Children's Choice Could master spy Gargoyle be back? And what would he want with an innocent fish? In a second story, Chicago shuts down and penguin detective Mr. Pin brings his chocolate expertise to the case.

';The rock hopper penguin chuckled softly to himself, turned away from the diner, and disappeared into the fog. A moment later the lights in Smiling Sally's Diner went out.' Could famous penguin detective Mr. Pin be involved in a crime? In another case, Cubs manager Walter Wavemin needs Mr. Pin's help. Chicago sees double in the two pun-filled mysteries.

An IRA/CBC Children''s ChoiceWill Mr. Pin survive a "case" of bad chocolate? Can priceless dinosaur eggs be found? And just who is Mort Chisel? In a second story, an opera conductor with a mysterious name disappears in a cloud of blue smoke.

An IRA/CBC Children''s ChoiceCan a rock hopper penguin save Smiling Sally''s Diner from extortion? Meet Mr. Pin, just arrived from the South Pole, who has a sharp eye for clues, unusual talents, and a strong taste for chocolate.

';Pat Toomay has mixed fact and fiction to produce a story that will make every armchair quarterback laugh and winceand worry at his exposition of ';the game's' most insidious reality: the prospect on any given Sundayof a fix.' John Seigenthaler, USA Today ';Toomay, for many years a lineman with the Cowboys and the Raiders, gives a sinister turn to the old saw that ';on any given Sunday, one team can beat another'.... He writes knowledgeably about football: its strategy, the pain, the respect and hatred between the men in the trenches.' Publishers Weekly

Discovering the midlife progress novel, Gullette finds in recent fiction a pervasive tension between decline and a new ideology of aging.

Winner of the University of Missouri Breakthrough Book Competition, chosen by Joy Williams.

More and more women and girls are discovering the joy and relishing the fierce competition of team sports. Their increasing participation in sports is influencing all aspects of women's-and men's-lives. Playing Like a Girl explores the ramifications of this sports revolution, such as the change in male-female relationships, the impact on women in the workplace, the long-term effects of Title IX, and the phenomenon of men coaching women. These ideas are explored through stories of women from grandmothers playing basketball in the Senior Olympics, to working women who get up before dawn to row on the Potomac River. Robert Lipsyte, writing in The New York Times, said, "For a wider look at the obstacles and opportunities facing the emergent female athlete, read, Playing Like a Girl." Jo A. Hannafin, MD, PhD, founder of the Women's Sports Medicine Center Hospital for Special Surgery and team physician, U.S. Rowing Team, called the book, "A wonderful compilation of personal stories and hard facts, which provide compelling evidence for the power of team sports in the development of strong and successful women.

Explorers of the Black Box is a scientific adventure story. The ';Black Box' is the brain. The ';Explorers' are neuroscientists in search of how nerve cells record memories, and they are as ruthless and dauntless as any soldiers of fortune. The book centers around the early, often-controversial research Nobel Prizewinner Eric Kandel. It takes readers behind the scenes of laboratories at Woods Hole, Columbia, Yale, and Princeton to create an absorbing account of how the brain works and of how science itself works.

“Donaldson’s skill is really a rare and fine art everyone who is interested in twentieth-century fiction or in the art of biography or in the mysterious relationship between the temperament of an artist and the work he produces should have By Force of Will within arm’s reach. In its way it is a masterpiece.” —Walter Sullivan, The Sewanee Review “Not the least of its virtues is the way in which it allows its reader to play along with a masterly scholarly detective.” —San Francisco Examiner

When the eye of the cosmic storm passes over Earth, the Impals—visible spirits who can’t cross over—disappear. But, an ethereal void opens, releasing the lost souls of murderers, rapists, and genocidal maniacs. As darkness and chaos overtake the Earth, people everywhere face horrific fates. No one is safe who falls into the shadows. General Ott Garrison is immune to harm, which he feels is a sign from God— He is meant to lead. His son, Cecil, fears the opposite—that the general is a kindred spirit with the evil infesting the world. On the run, Cecil and members of the Myriad Resistance become trapped in a secluded cabin in the Virginia wilderness. The only thing keeping what lies in the shadows of the thick woods at bay is a gasoline-powered generator, which is running dangerously low on fuel.Soon, the device feared to destroy the soul—The Tesla Gate—may be the world’s only option for salvation.

Three generationsthey would know the splendors of Imperial Russia, the terror of exile, the Japanese occupation of China, the promise of America, and proof that sometimes a woman must love more than once to find true happiness. Winds Over Manchuria was awarded second place in Biennial Awards of the National League of American Pen Women, who called it ';a thrilling odyssey.... The plot is vivid and intrinsic.'

Ragtime, the jaunty, toe-tapping music that captivated American society from the 1890s through World War I, forms the roots of America's popular musical expression. But the understanding of ragtime and its era has been clouded by a history of murky impressions, half-truths, and inventive fictions. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History cuts through the murkiness. A methodical survey of thousands of rags along with an examination of then-contemporary opinions in magazines and newspapers demonstrate how the music evolved, and how America responded to it.

It's 1949 in Tennessee Smoky Mountaincountry, and everything in twelve-year-old Salina's life seems suddenly different. Her sister is engaged, her brother Paul is absorbed in caring for his foal, Sugar-Boy, and Salina feels she has nothing in common anymore with her best friend. This novel for young people captures the insular spirit of the mountain people, the breathtaking country itself, and a girl's struggle to accept the inevitability of change.

An intimate, moving, dramatic story about the musicians in a great orchestra who make music come alive in performance and recording. The musicians here are members of the fabled Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Seiji Ozawa, during a season highlighted by Mahler’s Second Symphony, The Resurrection.

';A wry, witty look at life with the Dallas Cowboys during the heyday of Tom Landry and Roger Staubach, The Crunch shows the real life that makes legends and lacerates the Cowboys mechanistic corporate image, revealing a world that is both more and less than we expect, yet funnier than we could image.' Peter Gent, author of North Dallas Forty ';More characters than War and Peace. More laughs than Laugh-In.... A pro football classic!' Frank Luksa, The Dallas Morning News

An epic novel based on the failed Russian revolution attempted by noblemen in December 1825. The leaders were executed, the others exiled. Irina Dolvina follows her husband to Siberia, where she nurses him back to health. Enduring a primitive life through privation and hunger, Irina suffers a shocking betrayal, but her love survives and with it, the promise of a new beginning.

They were natural enemies but for one stolen moment, Svetlana Ozerova found refuge and love in the arms of her captor, the son of a legendary Chinese warlord. They dared to defy tradition and break every rule. Her rescue made them forbidden allies, which brought him a sentence of exile and disgrace. But time forces Svetlana to choose between love and honor, discover the mystery of the Legacy of Amber, and find unexpected happiness.

An epic novel of a woman caught in the turmoil and suffering of the Russian Revolution. With indomitable courage, she would survive the savage ordeal of the Siberian Ice March to find love and make a new life in a world utterly changed. East Lies the Sun was awarded the Gold Medal Award by the West Coast Review of Books.

Yorath, the son of a royal prince, was born with a deformity that marks him for death. The court physician saves him by convincing his family that he died shortly after birth and takes him to a distant forest where he thrives, unaware of his birthright and the dark prophecy that looms over him. But as he grows to manhood, Yorath can''t avoid being drawn into the violent conflict that plagues the land. Becoming a soldier, he rises through the ranks until he becomes a reluctant combatant in the struggle for the throne. Even as Yorath wields the power of a kingmaker, the ways of the court are as much anathema to him as the brutality of war. If he is ever to escape the violence and machinations he so despises, he has but one choice: He must confront his heritage or lose the land he has come to love and the peace he so cherishes.

With a new afterword by Jeff Gomez Originally published during the literary ';Brat Pack' phenomenon of the 1980s, this new edition of Lisa Pliscou's acclaimed first novelwritten when she was 24roars through ten riotous days in the hilariously tangled life of a Harvard senior who, as the heroine of her own story, must find a way to set her world to rights.

Remembering: Joan Williams'' Uncollected Pieces illustrates again that rediscovering an admired author-especially through his or her later works-is every bit as engaging as discovering a new literary voice. Joan Williams, an accomplished and prize-winning southern novelist, published a number of short stories and nonfiction pieces in the later years of her life; a life complicated early on by the influential men with whom she was involved, namely American author William Faulkner and independent publisher Seymour Lawrence. For years these literary gems were scattered and virtually unattainable to readers. Remembering: Joan Williams'' Uncollected Pieces unites the formerly published but never collected material. The book''s title piece, "Remembering," features a 1981 essay on Byronic Mississippi-born poet, Frank Stanford-known to Joan from his infancy until his tragic suicide-whose collected poems What About This (2015) appeared thirty-seven years posthumously. Skillful, nuanced, and altogether approachable, these mature efforts by a seasoned writer will surprise and reward. Remembering is a lovely testament to the craft of writing and Joan Williams'' indelible style.

The parents of a happy, blended family with two teenagers, a successful winery in Mendocino County, and a vibrant open-air theater (plus a hot sex life as a couple), Lily and Tom Langdon seem to have re-invented paradise. That is, until Lily's ex-husband shows up to star in her and Tom's production of Most Happy Fella... and suddenly no one is remotely happy offstage.

Consummate journalist Maggie Devlin has a rule: never get involved with the men she interviews. It's never been an issue and shouldn't be one this time around; her subject, the egotistical filmmaker George MacDonagh, holds zero appeal for her. But on-site in misty, magical County Cork, the faeries can bewitch even the most level-headed of women...

Possibly the only romance ever set in a high-end Montreal kosher restaurant, A Taste of Heaven layers spicy love scenes with directions for making velvety pte and musings about babies. Will Dena and Richard Klein's marriage overheator will they find more savor and sweetness?

Can Carrie Delaney find a man good enough to be both a father to her six-year-old, Dannie, and her own second chance at love? During a summer singles week at a Vermont ski resort, Carrie meets two men and is instantly attracted to one of them: a slick, gorgeous ';Mr. Impossible.' She tries earnestly to fall in love with the other, a teddy bear of a pediatric dentist and a sweet guybut not her destiny.

Evelyn Harbinger is a heck of a lot older than she looks. At 149 years of age, Eve can still iron out the wrinkles on a Saturday night, turning heads and taking more than phone numbers as the foxy, dark-haired girl she used to be. She and her sisters have spent the better part of their lives using their powers for only the highest good-Eve herself spied for the Allies in Paris and Berlin-but in their golden years, the beldames are free to enjoy themselves however they please. When Eve meets Justin at her favorite curiosity shop, though, her games are over. Justin looks and acts uncannily like Jonah, her partner on the most dangerous mission of her career-and the great love of her life. Experts in espionage, Eve and Jonah gave up their one chance at happiness to advance the Allied cause, and no man has measured up ever since. Justin is unsuspecting but equally smitten, and Eve is much too headstrong to listen to the common-sense warnings of her coven. Meanwhile, another beldame has accused Eve's sister Helena of killing her own husband sixty years before, and Eve, disguised as her younger self, spends more and more time with Justin to take her mind off the growing pile of evidence that suggests her sister isn't the pure-hearted matriarch she appears to be. Eve knows her family has every reason to disapprove and that falling in love with an ordinary man can only end in despair, but she can't give up the boy who might be Jonah-because this time, she just might be able to keep him. A delightfully romantic adventure set between a supernatural version of present-day New York City and the epic backdrop of World War II, Petty Magic proves that the real fun starts when beldames and mortal men dare to fall in love.

Richard Stirling is a successful lawyer who specializes in defending the rights of the underprivileged. He falls in love with the pianist Rebecca Pennant, and as their romance develops, a tragic event takes Rebecca out of his life. In the wake of this dramatic misfortune, Richard re-encounters an heirloom, an astonishing mirror. This is a vampire story unlike any other, a tale of this contemporary world reflected from that other land where the dead are more alive than any dreamer.

Collector Benjamin Byrd has added a new and eerie item to his archives: a set of fangs embedded in silver. As he grows more and more obsessed with his new treasure, he finds himself experiencing dreams and visionary adventures. Soon, Benjamin''s normal, successful routine is transformed beyond anything he ever imagined; he has to confront the truth that he is no longer simply human. This powerful and lyrical story brings into our own day-to-day lives the story of the werewolf.