Becky Thatcher wants to set the record straight. She was never the weeping ninny Mark Twain made her out to be in his famous novel. She knew Samuel Clemens before he was 'Mark Twain,' a wide-eyed dreamer who never could get his facts straight. Yes, she was Tom's childhood sweetheart, but the true story of their love, and the dark secret that tore it apart, never made it into Twain's novel. Now married to Tom's cousin Sid Hopkins, Becky has children of her own to protect while the men of Missouri are off fighting their 'un-Civil' War. But when tragedy strikes at home, Becky embarks on a phenomenal quest to find her husband and save her family. Bold and brave beyond the expectations of her sex, the wildly conflicted Becky struggles to reconcile her womanly obligations with her fiercely independent spirit, and is haunted by the lies she's told and the love she betrayed. Can she ever forget the maddening Tom Sawyer, the boy who stole her heart as a little girl? And when she is old, and Huck and Tom and Twain only memories, whose shadow will still lie beside her?

Virginia 'Sissy' Clemm falls in love with her cousin Edgar Allan Poe when she's merely a girl of seven. Fourteen years her elder, he's dark and brooding, the picture of a little girl's romantic fantasy. He floats in and out of her childhood, as he fails his way through West Point, the military and a succession of editorial jobs where his talents aren't appreciated. Each time he returns, their odd friendship grows stronger, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer takes on new and strange dimensions. But her childhood crush takes a serious turn, when he proposes marriage at 13. Her mother objects, but Sissy cannot be swayed. She devotes her young life to Edgar Allan Poe. This provocative novel explores the curious and confounding relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy, who, before she died of consumption at age 25, was Poe's constant companion, critic and friend. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores the inner life of one of literature's most heralded and haunted figures by imagining the heart of the woman who loved him, inspired him and undid him.

Rafe is an escaped slave, shipwrecked while stowing away to Boston. Molly is the strong-willed, penniless island girl who rescues him. Their wary friendship is tested when Savage Island is raided by picaroons still loyal to England after the Revolution. The two must work together to save Molly’s wounded father, expose a traitor, find a legendary treasure to free Molly’s family from debt, and spirit Rafe away to freedom.  

"e;A gripping story with an admirable, complex heroine . . . The love and rivalry between the sisters will strike a chord with teens."e;  -- BOOKLIST"e;Lenore Hart's story of love and betrayal yields as many surprises as the sea itself."e; -- SOUTHERN LIVING"e;. . . reads like a Greek tragedy crossed with Peyton Place . . . Hart reaches surprising emotional depths with her exploration of sibling rivalry, familial commitment, and social taboos."e; -- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY"e;. . . reminds me of Edith Wharton, who in Ethan Frome wrote of an individual trapped by circumstances . . . [and] the spare, chilling creation or rural isolation."e; -- ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"e;Annie's strength carries the novel, without resorting to cloying moments or tear-jerking cliches."e; -- WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL"e;[Her] skill as a novelist lies in the respect she has for the form and for the words themselves . . . Like the watermen that people her novel, Hart has learned the tools of her craft."e; -- Salisbury NC POST"e;Annie tells her story in the hushed yet urgent voice of a sinner begging forgiveness . . . Hart throws in dramatic twists and turns that keep the reader voraciously turning the pages for more."e;  -- LUCE World Wide Web Clips"e;Pure as the waters of the pre-industrial Chesapeake . . . utterly convincing and beautifully sensual. You feel the shell cuts, the pull of the nets."e; -- BALTIMORE SUN"e;A gripping story, colorful and sensuous and easy to read."e; -- Topeka CAPITAL-JOURNAL"e;. . . Hart creates a believable world where tragedy does not always equal hopelessness, a place where you don't always get what you want , but if you're strong, you find reasons to go on living anyway."e;  -- Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL Even as a child, plain, boyish Annie Revels had everyone's role in life figured out. Everyone's, that is, except her own. Her mother was sickly and needed to be taken care of. Her little sister Rebecca was remarkably beautiful, and she was not. Her father was a waterman, a free-looking life Annie deeply envied and could've had, if only she'd been born a son.Tiny, remote Revels Island, a barrier island off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, knows nothing of the partying, gin-soaked Roaring Twenties which grips the rest of the country. The Revels family depends on the coastal waters to make a living, and tragedy is always only a bad storm away. As Annie notes, "e;In order to live on the Shore, you need to understand that good weather always follows bad."e;But when her father dies suddenly and unexpectedly, it falls to Annie to take his place aboard the oyster boat and support what's left of the family. Out there, though it came at a greater cost than imagined, she Annie falls easily into the only life she thought she could ever really fit: as a waterman. Until one day, out on the water, she meets Nathan . . .

These dark stories of fantasy, magic, and the supernatural, by eleven prizewinning authors, are linked by a secret, forbidden market which opens at midnight, closes before sunrise, and appears for one week . . . but never in the same venue each night, and never again in the same city. To enter you must be Invited.Tonight the Bazaar opens in a parking garage beneath Manhattan. In this huge subterranean fair the stories' various characters will seek love, hope, excitement, even death . . . or sometimes just a second chance. They roam narrow, crowded aisles full of costumes, alchemical treatments, palmistry, Tarot and tea leaf-reading, and water-, glass-, and crystal-gazing, medical curiosities and strange instruments, erotic favors, time travel, and body alterations. Along the way they'll encounter jongleurs, dealers in folk magic, freaks, charlatans, mountebanks, faeries, prostitutes, and acrobats. The scents of opium, perfume, tobacco, greasepaint, incense, plastic explosive, alcohol, and sex permeate the air.The Bazaar sells that which cannot be had elsewhere. Everything you've read about but thought had passed away, or never existed at all. How wrong you were! But be warned: Each fantastic object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. . . .

"e;Together the tales form a sumptuous carnival, offering a tantalizing glimpse into the mystical underworld of plague-ridden Europe. These dark flights of fancy delight."e; – Publisher's Weekly on The Night Bazaar: Venice   This second volume of the trademarked dark fantasy series is set in Venice. The Night Bazaar is a secret marketplace of the rare, strange, occult, and dangerous. Its vendors specialize in curious services or rare objects which cannot be had elsewhere, for any price. This forbidden market has operated throughout history in various locales, appearing in a city for one week only, and then never again. But how did it begin? This anthology of eerie, fantastic, and magical works by 13 authors recounts the origin of the Bazaar. Its first appearance was in St. Mark's Square, Venice, in the plague year of 1348. Some tales take place in those medieval days of fear, witchcraft, pandemic, and murder. Other, more contemporary stories center on objects from that first Bazaar –  found, inherited, purchased, or stolen during the centuries since, by the unsuspecting, foolish, and greedy (though seldom the completely innocent). Together, these linked works take readers on a fantastical journey into astonishment, dread, and dark delight. The Bazaar holds everything you've read about but thought had passed away, or perhaps never existed, at all. How wrong you were! But be warned: Each object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. . . . and one must be Invited. Now, you have been.

Becky Thatcher wants to set the record straight. She was never the weeping ninny Mark Twain made her out to be in his famous novel. She knew Samuel Clemens before he was 'Mark Twain,' a wide-eyed dreamer who never could get his facts straight. Yes, she was Tom's childhood sweetheart, but the true story of their love, and the dark secret that tore it apart, never made it into Twain's novel. Now married to Tom's cousin Sid Hopkins, Becky has children of her own to protect while the men of Missouri are off fighting their 'un-Civil' War. But when tragedy strikes at home, Becky embarks on a phenomenal quest to find her husband and save her family. Bold and brave beyond the expectations of her sex, the wildly conflicted Becky struggles to reconcile her womanly obligations with her fiercely independent spirit, and is haunted by the lies she's told and the love she betrayed. Can she ever forget the maddening Tom Sawyer, the boy who stole her heart as a little girl? And when she is old, and Huck and Tom and Twain only memories, whose shadow will still lie beside her?

Virginia 'Sissy' Clemm falls in love with her cousin Edgar Allan Poe when she's merely a girl of seven. Fourteen years her elder, he's dark and brooding, the picture of a little girl's romantic fantasy. He floats in and out of her childhood, as he fails his way through West Point, the military and a succession of editorial jobs where his talents aren't appreciated. Each time he returns, their odd friendship grows stronger, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer takes on new and strange dimensions. But her childhood crush takes a serious turn, when he proposes marriage at 13. Her mother objects, but Sissy cannot be swayed. She devotes her young life to Edgar Allan Poe. This provocative novel explores the curious and confounding relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy, who, before she died of consumption at age 25, was Poe's constant companion, critic and friend. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores the inner life of one of literature's most heralded and haunted figures by imagining the heart of the woman who loved him, inspired him and undid him.

Rafe is an escaped slave, shipwrecked while stowing away to Boston. Molly is the strong-willed, penniless island girl who rescues him. Their wary friendship is tested when Savage Island is raided by picaroons still loyal to England after the Revolution. The two must work together to save Molly’s wounded father, expose a traitor, find a legendary treasure to free Molly’s family from debt, and spirit Rafe away to freedom.  

"e;A gripping story with an admirable, complex heroine . . . The love and rivalry between the sisters will strike a chord with teens."e;  -- BOOKLIST"e;Lenore Hart's story of love and betrayal yields as many surprises as the sea itself."e; -- SOUTHERN LIVING"e;. . . reads like a Greek tragedy crossed with Peyton Place . . . Hart reaches surprising emotional depths with her exploration of sibling rivalry, familial commitment, and social taboos."e; -- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY"e;. . . reminds me of Edith Wharton, who in Ethan Frome wrote of an individual trapped by circumstances . . . [and] the spare, chilling creation or rural isolation."e; -- ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS"e;Annie's strength carries the novel, without resorting to cloying moments or tear-jerking cliches."e; -- WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL"e;[Her] skill as a novelist lies in the respect she has for the form and for the words themselves . . . Like the watermen that people her novel, Hart has learned the tools of her craft."e; -- Salisbury NC POST"e;Annie tells her story in the hushed yet urgent voice of a sinner begging forgiveness . . . Hart throws in dramatic twists and turns that keep the reader voraciously turning the pages for more."e;  -- LUCE World Wide Web Clips"e;Pure as the waters of the pre-industrial Chesapeake . . . utterly convincing and beautifully sensual. You feel the shell cuts, the pull of the nets."e; -- BALTIMORE SUN"e;A gripping story, colorful and sensuous and easy to read."e; -- Topeka CAPITAL-JOURNAL"e;. . . Hart creates a believable world where tragedy does not always equal hopelessness, a place where you don't always get what you want , but if you're strong, you find reasons to go on living anyway."e;  -- Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL Even as a child, plain, boyish Annie Revels had everyone's role in life figured out. Everyone's, that is, except her own. Her mother was sickly and needed to be taken care of. Her little sister Rebecca was remarkably beautiful, and she was not. Her father was a waterman, a free-looking life Annie deeply envied and could've had, if only she'd been born a son.Tiny, remote Revels Island, a barrier island off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, knows nothing of the partying, gin-soaked Roaring Twenties which grips the rest of the country. The Revels family depends on the coastal waters to make a living, and tragedy is always only a bad storm away. As Annie notes, "e;In order to live on the Shore, you need to understand that good weather always follows bad."e;But when her father dies suddenly and unexpectedly, it falls to Annie to take his place aboard the oyster boat and support what's left of the family. Out there, though it came at a greater cost than imagined, she Annie falls easily into the only life she thought she could ever really fit: as a waterman. Until one day, out on the water, she meets Nathan . . .

These dark stories of fantasy, magic, and the supernatural, by eleven prizewinning authors, are linked by a secret, forbidden market which opens at midnight, closes before sunrise, and appears for one week . . . but never in the same venue each night, and never again in the same city. To enter you must be Invited.Tonight the Bazaar opens in a parking garage beneath Manhattan. In this huge subterranean fair the stories' various characters will seek love, hope, excitement, even death . . . or sometimes just a second chance. They roam narrow, crowded aisles full of costumes, alchemical treatments, palmistry, Tarot and tea leaf-reading, and water-, glass-, and crystal-gazing, medical curiosities and strange instruments, erotic favors, time travel, and body alterations. Along the way they'll encounter jongleurs, dealers in folk magic, freaks, charlatans, mountebanks, faeries, prostitutes, and acrobats. The scents of opium, perfume, tobacco, greasepaint, incense, plastic explosive, alcohol, and sex permeate the air.The Bazaar sells that which cannot be had elsewhere. Everything you've read about but thought had passed away, or never existed at all. How wrong you were! But be warned: Each fantastic object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. . . .

"e;Together the tales form a sumptuous carnival, offering a tantalizing glimpse into the mystical underworld of plague-ridden Europe. These dark flights of fancy delight."e; – Publisher's Weekly on The Night Bazaar: Venice   This second volume of the trademarked dark fantasy series is set in Venice. The Night Bazaar is a secret marketplace of the rare, strange, occult, and dangerous. Its vendors specialize in curious services or rare objects which cannot be had elsewhere, for any price. This forbidden market has operated throughout history in various locales, appearing in a city for one week only, and then never again. But how did it begin? This anthology of eerie, fantastic, and magical works by 13 authors recounts the origin of the Bazaar. Its first appearance was in St. Mark's Square, Venice, in the plague year of 1348. Some tales take place in those medieval days of fear, witchcraft, pandemic, and murder. Other, more contemporary stories center on objects from that first Bazaar –  found, inherited, purchased, or stolen during the centuries since, by the unsuspecting, foolish, and greedy (though seldom the completely innocent). Together, these linked works take readers on a fantastical journey into astonishment, dread, and dark delight. The Bazaar holds everything you've read about but thought had passed away, or perhaps never existed, at all. How wrong you were! But be warned: Each object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. . . . and one must be Invited. Now, you have been.