Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.Inspector Ian McFergus had not been satisfied; not in the least satisfied. He had inspected Marley's body using all the due processes and checklists upon which the polic...

The songs are brand-new, and include titles like "Grandma's Chicken Soup", "The T-Rex Song", and "Play in the Garbage". They are designed to be sung to folk tunes such as "Home on the Range." Basic guitar chords are provided.

The first story starts, "Hubby?" she said. "I'm sliding off the mattress again. And something's biting me on the neck."The second beginsIt was getting on past midnight, the wind had picked up, shaking the tent, and I knew I'd have to kill the guy in the next sleeping bag.If you've ever shared a pup tent with your wife or a friend, you'll recognize the situations in these two camping stories.

Win Szczedziwoj, a man known for photographing subjects in the rain, is on a vacation. Just him, his camera, his canoe, and a small, dark lake well away from civilization.That solitude comes to an end when his fishing line drags up a body from the lake. It looks like the usual canoeing accident, but the police suspect murder, and Win is suspect number one (I mean, what are the chances of actually snagging a body with a fishing line?)But Win wants to know why the dead guy was ...

A man with an indigo guitar lived in the church basement, at least for the winter. One day he met a woman at a coffee place. Or maybe she found him, his indigo guitar, and his church-basement sanctuary, that cold November night. She made only one promise: that she would stay until the first crocus of spring. During that time, they made a collection of their musings on topics for poems or songs that would probably never be written. This is their collection of those "Thoughts That are not Po...

Did you ever want to write a novel, or even a novella, but the generation of a viable plot and the creation of characters and motives seem like an insurmountable task? Well, this little set of instructions can be an invaluable start. It analyzes the basics of Agatha Christie's novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (her first Hercule Poirot novel, which now in public domain), and shows how you and amend, tweak, or change her characters, her overall plot, and the basic plot twist to create ...

You'd think if a guy wanted to die in peace on the shores of some isolated lake, people would just let him do it. No such luck.The poor schnook is followed by a student looking for an interview, a reporter looking for a really good story, and the local nut case.

These 18 poems express a love for canoeing at a season when canoeing's barely possible. I look out the window and the breaking away of frozen waters stirs my heart. Then, finally, the first excursions into river and lake.

This little guide notes that "Hyphens are seldom really important. Everybody screws up the rules all the time and few airplanes are falling out of the sky because of it."Then it tells you how hyphens can be used and abused. It also has a nifty illustration of a man-eating fish attacking a man eating fish.

For people who have read the novel, Marley Was Dead, and have questions, this is a short, helpful guide.Marley Was Dead is linked to Dickens's A Christmas Carol, but the descriptions of mid-Victorian London are more fascinating than the mystery, This guide answers some questions about the sociology of the book, including the mud larks, markets, and daily mayhem of the city. For example, being a mud lark, sifting through the mud of the Thames with bare feet for lost items, was indeed...

This is a short discussion paper listing possible solutions to the question, "Why haven't alien civilizations contacted us?" It tosses up a range of possibilities, from the idea that there is no other life to the idea that predator aliens roam the galaxy.

This little guide tells you how colons and semicolons can be used and abused. It notes that "nobody's going to hang you for a comma splice." But it does drift into the part where the rules wander into that dark borderland between logic and outright silliness. And it includes a picture from a plastic privy in Maine.