A poignant coming-of-age story set in the early twentieth century, Heaven in a Wildflower explores the timeless question: Where is home?Kristin Thorsen struggles to put down roots on the Kansas prairie after she is sent to live in a country parsonage with her father, a pious Lutheran pastor so consumed by religion that he barely notices his only child. To avoid thinking about her mother's nearby grave, Kristin retreats into her imagination where she finds solace in books, ...

This second volume, together with the first of a two-volume set, probes the lived experiences and subjectivities of music performers in the western art music tradition, using phenomenological, hermeneutical, empirical and historical inquiry.The two volumes widen this research area through close investigations of a variety of rich, complex, and nuanced experiences classical music performers have qua performers, as they interact with musical scores, instruments, performance ...

One by one, the mercenaries who raised Loren fell in a terrible, bloody battle. No one else survived. Alone in a hard world with his wits, his sword, and no coin to his name, he hires himself out as an adventurer. But Loren's new party proves all too willing to run headlong into danger using him as their meat shield. Only Lapis, the party's sly priest, sees his true worth, just as Loren sees hers. Soon, they must rely on each other, or neither of them will live to see the end of their firs...

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1885.This is a popular novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. It is the first English adventure novel set in Africa, and is considered to be the genesis of the Lost World literary genre."I can only say that it does not pretend to b...

Loren and Lapis accepted a quest to escort Scena, daughter of the chief of state, to her hometown of Hansa. Mid-travel, several of their fellow adventurers mysteriously lost consciousness, and the group encountered a horde of undead, including a dragon. The remaining adventurers barely manage to escape and reach their destination. Unfortunately, their troubles continue, as all fifty thousand of Hansa's city folk have vanished without a trace. With the undead threat fast approaching, Loren,...

Former mercenary Loren survived his first adventure by the skin of his teeth. Now he's bound to Lapis the priest by an ever-growing debt. In the middle of his first attempt to repay her, they stumble on a young high-born girl, alone and unconscious in the woods. Her name is Scena, and she's a long way from home. The reward for her safe return will be substantial, but the road is full of dangers--including Scena. Her escorts keep dying, and if Loren and Lapis don't find out why, they may we...

Having made it to Lapis's home, Loren finds himself tasked by her mother, Demon Lord Judie, to destroy a dangerous artefact by throwing it into a nearby volcano. Unfortunately, an old foe has his sights on the artefact in question. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the volcano just so happens to be occupied--by an ancient dragon!

Loren spent years fighting for the highest bidder, drifting from one battlefield to the next as part of a mercenary band. All that changes when a battle goes horribly wrong, and Loren barely escapes alive. Alone and without so much as a coin to his name, Loren resolves to start a new life as an adventurer. The adventuring trade is a world unto itself, and Loren's cynical common sense clashes with the foolhardy courage of his new comrades. Meeting the enigmatic and beautiful priestess Lapis...

Despite Loren's seemingly unending string of losses, the adventurers' guild has noticed his promise. They offer him a chance to take a test to prove his mettle and raise his rank. The only complication is that he's also caught the attention of a young woman of strange abilities--a vampire. Even stranger, she's not the only one of her kind eyeing Loren...and some of them may have a connection with the long-lost captain of his old mercenary company.

Loren knows better than to share Lapis's excitement when she brings him a new quest. It sounds easy enough--proctoring students from an adventuring academy on their final exam--but he knows his partner. Lapis has an ulterior motive. Sure enough, she claims that one of her missing parts is hidden within the labyrinth the students are delving into. She'll stop at nothing to reclaim it, even if it means endangering their charges. Worse, something's gone wrong with the labyrinth, and Loren soo...

Desperate for a job that actually results in success, Loren agrees to Lapis's newest suggestion: instead of a quest, they'll partake in a monster hunt. But fate seems to have it in for Loren. The moment they hit the road, they come across a bandit army from whom they rescue a kidnapped elf child. The child leads them to the discovery of dark things afoot in the elven forest. Worse, there may well be a connection between these strange happenings and the darkness Loren and Lapis uncovered be...

Now that the party knows the names of all the evil gods, it's clear there's something fishy about one of their acquaintances--namely one Ivy Bridgeguard, humble receptionist at the adventurers' guild. Might she hold the key to reviving Scena?