Can an abstract theory of Empfindsamkeit aesthetics have any value to a musician wishing to study composition in the classical style? The eighteenth-century German theorist and pedagogue Heinrich Koch showed how this question could be answered with a resounding yes. Starting with the systematic aesthetic theory of the Swiss encyclopedist Johann Sulzer, Koch was creatively able to adapt Sulzer's conservative ideas on ethical mimesis and rhetoric to concrete problems of music analysis and composition. In this collaborative study, Thomas Christensen and Nancy Baker have translated and analysed selected writings of Sulzer and Koch respectively, bringing to life a little-known confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch's appropriation of Sulzer's ideas to the service of music represents an important development in the evolution of Western musical thought.

Can an abstract theory of Empfindsamkeit aesthetics have any value to a musician wishing to study composition in the classical style? The eighteenth-century German theorist and pedagogue Heinrich Koch showed how this question could be answered with a resounding yes. Starting with the systematic aesthetic theory of the Swiss encyclopedist Johann Sulzer, Koch was creatively able to adapt Sulzer's conservative ideas on ethical mimesis and rhetoric to concrete problems of music analysis and composition. In this collaborative study, Thomas Christensen and Nancy Baker have translated and analysed selected writings of Sulzer and Koch respectively, bringing to life a little-known confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch's appropriation of Sulzer's ideas to the service of music represents an important development in the evolution of Western musical thought.

Uncaring Fae meddle with the lives of two human women, in this psychological dark fantasy by the author of The Night Inside. Generations ago, a dying empire made a deal with the Faerie Queen for their survival. Each year, the Sidiana, the ruler of the mountain city of Lushan, must travel to the high plateau to pay her people’s tribute and maintain their safety. But one year, the price is not paid. To satisfy the debt, Teresine, a former refugee slave turned advisor to the Sidiana, is forced to serve in the Faerie Queen’s court, a treacherous realm where mortals like Teresine are mere pawns in an eternal struggle for power. Years later, Teresine’s great-niece Lilit is eager to attend the trading fair that has sprung up around the tribute. She discovers that nothing at the fair—or with the fey—is what it seems, and what began as an adventure leads to unexpected consequences. Now she must delve into the secret of her great aunt’s past in the Faerie Court . . . in order to save her own future. “A very smart fantasy that does not draw the reader into the world of the fantastic but rather makes the fantastic real. . . . Cold Hillside is sure to please fans of fantasy but I would dare anyone to pick up this book and not enjoy it.” —Examiner.com

A classic fairy tale gets a horrifying, adult twist, in this suspenseful romance by the author of The Night Inside.Twenty years ago, Simon Donovan, an antiquities scholar, wronged Sidonie Moreau, his former research assistant—and she has not forgotten. Threatening to expose him, she demands he come to her remote mansion in the mountainous north to repay his debt. But she wasn''t expecting his son, Matthew, a struggling painter, to take his place.Matthew is intrigued by the mysterious Sidonie, but when she reveals what she wants, he is horrified: his blood, willingly given. No harm will come to him if he refuses, and his days leave him free to paint as he pleases, but each night she must ask and he must answer. Trapped by the vast wilderness all around them, Matthew has no choice but to submit to her terms.Although he vows to never surrender to Sidonie, Matthew cannot ignore her smile, her charm, or the sorrow in her eyes. Grappling with secrets within his heart, tempted by desire and despair, he knows one night he just might say yes . . .Praise for A Terrible Beauty"A polished and enchanting tale. . . . It is, in a word, breathtaking." —Ottawa Citizen"Baker''s prose is lush and sensual . . . she has a real gift for making the fantastic seem plausible and investing the mundane with eerie significance." —Sunday Sun (Toronto)"A Terrible Beauty is modern Canadian Gothic. . . . Nancy Baker shows her mastery of the form—the mysterious letter, the journey into the wilderness, the shadows that hide from the flickering firelight—and her real affection for a good ol'' fashioned vampire yarn." —Telegraph-Journal"Baker''s narrative is seductive and compelling. Like Rice, she transcends the horror genre." —The Province"Don''t hold your breath waiting for Disney to film this very adult and erotic version of Beauty and the Beast." —Winnipeg Free Press

In this classic vampire thriller, a serious, staid grad student embraces her darker side to escape her abductors—and a deadly conspiracy.Toronto graduate student Ardeth Alexander lives by her schedule. There is no room for excitement in between classes, papers, and research jobs. She is known for being responsible, dependable—and perhaps a little boring. But all that changes during a routine morning walk when she is abducted by two thugs.Blindfolded and taken to an abandoned asylum, Ardeth is horrified to learn the reason behind her kidnapping: she is meant to provide sustenance for a centuries-old vampire. Dimitri Rozokov has been asleep for ninety years and now finds himself pushed to insanity from torture and his hunger for blood.Breaking past his madness, Ardeth discovers the man within, and the nightly feeding sessions become less frightening and more sensuous. But she knows there are only two ways this ordeal will end for her. Desperate to escape, eager for revenge, and tempted by immortality, she boldly descends into the darkness . . .Previously published as Kiss of the Vampire"It''s almost impossible not to finish The Night Inside in one frenzied, chocolate donut munching sitting. It''s also impossible not to root for its feisty, feminist vampiress heroine." —Charles Busch, author of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom"Terrific. . . . The unrelenting tension between the monstrous and the human propels this unique tale of gripping suspense." —Katherine Ramsland, author of The Vampire Companion"In prose studded with passages of dark luster, Baker offers a truly original scenario." —Publishers Weekly"Baker has obviously thought about what surrendering to the dark side means that lifts this book up above the vast . . . morass of romantic vampire fiction." —Quill & Quire

In this sequel to The Night Inside, a vampire couple''s relationship is tested by the modern world as a mysterious stranger hunts them down.With a dark embrace from five-hundred-year-old vampire Dimitri Rozokov, Ardeth Alexander left behind her mortal life in Toronto. Now they are attempting to forge a new life in Banff, Alberta.—and They share an unspoken agreement not to feed on humans and hunt wild animals off the beaten paths of the national park instead. However, their new reality is far from easy, and elk blood can never fully satisfy their hunger. Angry and unhappy, Ardeth longs for the life she left behind and returns to Toronto.But the machinations of a century-old Japanese vampire soon reunite the couple. Once a feudal lord, now a yakuza boss, Sademori Fujiwara shares his extraordinary life story. It is a tale that can answer the questions of love, mortality, and morality threatening to tear Ardeth and Dimitri apart for good. But the price for those answers is dangerously high . . ."Baker writes about the vampires next door . . . they bicker over petty, everyday things. They are jealous when a partner flirts with someone. They worry about paying the rent . . . ''They''re Canadian,'' she says." —The Vancouver Sun"Baker evokes the various figures from Japanese culture familiar in the West—yakuza, samurai and medieval court ladies and their pillow books—but she goes beyond clichés and invests these characters with a solidity and poignancy that contrast sharply with the simpler Canadian horror of The Night Inside. This is a more contemplative offering." —Paragraph

Stop trying to become “better” by suppressing or hiding parts of yourself, and learn what it means to be fully human with this accessible guide to the core ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism. In Opening to Oneness, Zen teacher Nancy Baker offers a detailed path of practice for Zen students planning to take the precepts and for anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, interested in deepening their personal study of ethical living. She reveals that there are three levels of each precept: a literal level (don’t kill, not even a bug), a relative level that takes moral ambiguity into account (what if it’s a malaria-spreading mosquito?), and an ultimate level—the paradoxical level of nonduality, in which the precepts are naturally expressed from a state of oneness.   Full of nuance, intelligence, and compassion, the first half of the book addresses the ten grave precepts mostly from the relative level, including instructions for how to practice these precepts individually and in pairs or groups.   The second half of the book takes a deep dive into looking at the precepts from the ultimate perspective, largely through an exploration of the writings of Dogen, the thirteenth-century religious genius who founded the Soto Zen school.   At once comprehensive and innovative, Opening to Oneness will take its place alongside classics like The Mind of Clover, The Heart of Being, and Being Upright as a cherished guide to Zen Buddhist ethics.

Can an abstract theory of Empfindsamkeit aesthetics have any value to a musician wishing to study composition in the classical style? The eighteenth-century German theorist and pedagogue Heinrich Koch showed how this question could be answered with a resounding yes. Starting with the systematic aesthetic theory of the Swiss encyclopedist Johann Sulzer, Koch was creatively able to adapt Sulzer's conservative ideas on ethical mimesis and rhetoric to concrete problems of music analysis and composition. In this collaborative study, Thomas Christensen and Nancy Baker have translated and analysed selected writings of Sulzer and Koch respectively, bringing to life a little-known confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch's appropriation of Sulzer's ideas to the service of music represents an important development in the evolution of Western musical thought.

Can an abstract theory of Empfindsamkeit aesthetics have any value to a musician wishing to study composition in the classical style? The eighteenth-century German theorist and pedagogue Heinrich Koch showed how this question could be answered with a resounding yes. Starting with the systematic aesthetic theory of the Swiss encyclopedist Johann Sulzer, Koch was creatively able to adapt Sulzer's conservative ideas on ethical mimesis and rhetoric to concrete problems of music analysis and composition. In this collaborative study, Thomas Christensen and Nancy Baker have translated and analysed selected writings of Sulzer and Koch respectively, bringing to life a little-known confluence of philosophical and musical thought from the German Enlightenment. Koch's appropriation of Sulzer's ideas to the service of music represents an important development in the evolution of Western musical thought.

Uncaring Fae meddle with the lives of two human women, in this psychological dark fantasy by the author of The Night Inside. Generations ago, a dying empire made a deal with the Faerie Queen for their survival. Each year, the Sidiana, the ruler of the mountain city of Lushan, must travel to the high plateau to pay her people’s tribute and maintain their safety. But one year, the price is not paid. To satisfy the debt, Teresine, a former refugee slave turned advisor to the Sidiana, is forced to serve in the Faerie Queen’s court, a treacherous realm where mortals like Teresine are mere pawns in an eternal struggle for power. Years later, Teresine’s great-niece Lilit is eager to attend the trading fair that has sprung up around the tribute. She discovers that nothing at the fair—or with the fey—is what it seems, and what began as an adventure leads to unexpected consequences. Now she must delve into the secret of her great aunt’s past in the Faerie Court . . . in order to save her own future. “A very smart fantasy that does not draw the reader into the world of the fantastic but rather makes the fantastic real. . . . Cold Hillside is sure to please fans of fantasy but I would dare anyone to pick up this book and not enjoy it.” —Examiner.com

A classic fairy tale gets a horrifying, adult twist, in this suspenseful romance by the author of The Night Inside.Twenty years ago, Simon Donovan, an antiquities scholar, wronged Sidonie Moreau, his former research assistant—and she has not forgotten. Threatening to expose him, she demands he come to her remote mansion in the mountainous north to repay his debt. But she wasn''t expecting his son, Matthew, a struggling painter, to take his place.Matthew is intrigued by the mysterious Sidonie, but when she reveals what she wants, he is horrified: his blood, willingly given. No harm will come to him if he refuses, and his days leave him free to paint as he pleases, but each night she must ask and he must answer. Trapped by the vast wilderness all around them, Matthew has no choice but to submit to her terms.Although he vows to never surrender to Sidonie, Matthew cannot ignore her smile, her charm, or the sorrow in her eyes. Grappling with secrets within his heart, tempted by desire and despair, he knows one night he just might say yes . . .Praise for A Terrible Beauty"A polished and enchanting tale. . . . It is, in a word, breathtaking." —Ottawa Citizen"Baker''s prose is lush and sensual . . . she has a real gift for making the fantastic seem plausible and investing the mundane with eerie significance." —Sunday Sun (Toronto)"A Terrible Beauty is modern Canadian Gothic. . . . Nancy Baker shows her mastery of the form—the mysterious letter, the journey into the wilderness, the shadows that hide from the flickering firelight—and her real affection for a good ol'' fashioned vampire yarn." —Telegraph-Journal"Baker''s narrative is seductive and compelling. Like Rice, she transcends the horror genre." —The Province"Don''t hold your breath waiting for Disney to film this very adult and erotic version of Beauty and the Beast." —Winnipeg Free Press

In this classic vampire thriller, a serious, staid grad student embraces her darker side to escape her abductors—and a deadly conspiracy.Toronto graduate student Ardeth Alexander lives by her schedule. There is no room for excitement in between classes, papers, and research jobs. She is known for being responsible, dependable—and perhaps a little boring. But all that changes during a routine morning walk when she is abducted by two thugs.Blindfolded and taken to an abandoned asylum, Ardeth is horrified to learn the reason behind her kidnapping: she is meant to provide sustenance for a centuries-old vampire. Dimitri Rozokov has been asleep for ninety years and now finds himself pushed to insanity from torture and his hunger for blood.Breaking past his madness, Ardeth discovers the man within, and the nightly feeding sessions become less frightening and more sensuous. But she knows there are only two ways this ordeal will end for her. Desperate to escape, eager for revenge, and tempted by immortality, she boldly descends into the darkness . . .Previously published as Kiss of the Vampire"It''s almost impossible not to finish The Night Inside in one frenzied, chocolate donut munching sitting. It''s also impossible not to root for its feisty, feminist vampiress heroine." —Charles Busch, author of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom"Terrific. . . . The unrelenting tension between the monstrous and the human propels this unique tale of gripping suspense." —Katherine Ramsland, author of The Vampire Companion"In prose studded with passages of dark luster, Baker offers a truly original scenario." —Publishers Weekly"Baker has obviously thought about what surrendering to the dark side means that lifts this book up above the vast . . . morass of romantic vampire fiction." —Quill & Quire

In this sequel to The Night Inside, a vampire couple''s relationship is tested by the modern world as a mysterious stranger hunts them down.With a dark embrace from five-hundred-year-old vampire Dimitri Rozokov, Ardeth Alexander left behind her mortal life in Toronto. Now they are attempting to forge a new life in Banff, Alberta.—and They share an unspoken agreement not to feed on humans and hunt wild animals off the beaten paths of the national park instead. However, their new reality is far from easy, and elk blood can never fully satisfy their hunger. Angry and unhappy, Ardeth longs for the life she left behind and returns to Toronto.But the machinations of a century-old Japanese vampire soon reunite the couple. Once a feudal lord, now a yakuza boss, Sademori Fujiwara shares his extraordinary life story. It is a tale that can answer the questions of love, mortality, and morality threatening to tear Ardeth and Dimitri apart for good. But the price for those answers is dangerously high . . ."Baker writes about the vampires next door . . . they bicker over petty, everyday things. They are jealous when a partner flirts with someone. They worry about paying the rent . . . ''They''re Canadian,'' she says." —The Vancouver Sun"Baker evokes the various figures from Japanese culture familiar in the West—yakuza, samurai and medieval court ladies and their pillow books—but she goes beyond clichés and invests these characters with a solidity and poignancy that contrast sharply with the simpler Canadian horror of The Night Inside. This is a more contemplative offering." —Paragraph

Stop trying to become “better” by suppressing or hiding parts of yourself, and learn what it means to be fully human with this accessible guide to the core ethical teachings of Zen Buddhism. In Opening to Oneness, Zen teacher Nancy Baker offers a detailed path of practice for Zen students planning to take the precepts and for anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, interested in deepening their personal study of ethical living. She reveals that there are three levels of each precept: a literal level (don’t kill, not even a bug), a relative level that takes moral ambiguity into account (what if it’s a malaria-spreading mosquito?), and an ultimate level—the paradoxical level of nonduality, in which the precepts are naturally expressed from a state of oneness.   Full of nuance, intelligence, and compassion, the first half of the book addresses the ten grave precepts mostly from the relative level, including instructions for how to practice these precepts individually and in pairs or groups.   The second half of the book takes a deep dive into looking at the precepts from the ultimate perspective, largely through an exploration of the writings of Dogen, the thirteenth-century religious genius who founded the Soto Zen school.   At once comprehensive and innovative, Opening to Oneness will take its place alongside classics like The Mind of Clover, The Heart of Being, and Being Upright as a cherished guide to Zen Buddhist ethics.