Kirjahaku

Minneapolis has long been known as the “City of Lakes.” But all the city’s major lakes are, in fact, parks. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board also owns significant stretches of the banks of the Mississippi River and tributary streams within the city. Neighborhood parks and playgrounds dot the landscape as in few other cities. Encircling them is an extensive system of parkways, the Grand Rounds. In reality, Minneapolis is not just a city of lakes, but a city of parks.This vast system of open spaces was acquired by a park board largely independent of the rest of city government. The park board was created by the Minnesota legislature and ratified by Minneapolis voters in April 1883. The vote that created a park board with extraordinary powers culminated years of effort by a handful of park visionaries-and marked the beginning of a celebrated municipal park system.City of Parks tells the stories of many people who helped create Minneapolis parks and managed the turning points in park history. Among them were Horace Cleveland, the eloquent proponent of preserving land for public use, Charles Loring, known as the “Father of Minneapolis Parks,” and William Folwell, the first president of the University of Minnesota, who was a staunch advocate of park expansion. These extraordinary men were followed by an energetic superintendent of parks, Theodore Wirth, who managed the expansion and reshaping of parks, Clifford Booth, who helped establish an active park recreation program, and Eloise Butler, who created a wild flower garden of world renown.With foresight and determination the stewards of Minneapolis’s parks have adapted to evolving public demand for parks and for recreation programs-nearly always with an eye on the future. City of Parks is the story of how the people of a city not only met their own needs, but anticipated those of future generations.

A MAN OUT OF TIMERestaurant owner Steve Beaudine is killed in a car accident and his beautiful wife, Ava is severely injured. After months of physical recuperation, she returns to AVA'S with the desire to keep the business going. But Tony Jasco, her husband's partner, has plans to sell the eatery and split the profits. Ava adamantly refuses to terminate what had been Steve's dream. She is determined to make it work no matter Jasco's opposition.Then the mysterious David Ehlert enters her life with a fantastic story, one straight out of a fairy tale. He claims to be a wizard and that Jasco is trying to have her killed to gain his own ends. Ava simply can't believe such a fanciful claim...until they are attacked by magical dark forces. Suddenly she finds herself the target of a twisted, dark magician and her only salvation is Ehlert, a man claiming to have been born in 1886 but still looking young and fit.Writer David C. Smith spins a colorful, fast paced thriller that introduces a fascinating new hero in the vein of the classic golden age pulps but with a decidedly modern day twist. It is the story of a haunted man out of time seeking redemption for past sins in a world of arcane mysteries and magiks. CALL TO SHADOWS is a masterful thriller by a veteran writer that will keep you on the edge of your chair from start to finish.

The Mystery of the Bright StarA hundred years ago, when women were fighting for the right to vote and Hollywood barely existed, Chicago was the center of filmmaking--bustling with movie studios, movie stars, and millionaires. The Windy City produced more motion pictures and had more stars than anyplace else in the world.The brightest star of the era was Catherine Farr, beautiful, intelligent, and beloved by millions. Then she vanished. In March 1920, the Bright Star of the movies boarded a train and never got off.Was she murdered? The prime suspect was her lover, movie director Toby Swanney. But she had angered many people because of her outspoken beliefs. Or perhaps she simply left everything behind to live life on her terms, like so many of the independent women in her films.A hundred years later, her great-great-nephew, a young screenwriter in Hollywood, returns to the small town where Catherine Farr was born to investigate the mystery. As Elliott Farr pieces together the clues of what happened, he rediscovers the rich history of the early movies--the explosion of talent, the remarkable personalities, and the excitement of creating a new art form for the twentieth century--while uncovering what actually happened to the Bright Star of the early movies."David C. Smith takes a long-forgotten piece of American cinema history and creates a mesmerizing story filled with unique characters. Like the movies of long ago, Bright Star is great entertainment." --Michael F. Blake, Author and Two-Time Emmy Award Winner"An engrossing tale of a fictional star's memoir and her puzzling fate."&emdash;Kirkus Reviews

Fascinating Tales from a Forgotten Era of Fantasy FictionA resurrected sorcerer grants the wishes of the desperate men who have returned him to life-but in ways none of them anticipates.A prince makes a bargain with a barbarian criminal to travel into a lost world of violence and sorcery to save the life of a woman who may already be dead.Marauders who attack a city devoted to a great goddess suffer her strange curse when she answers the pleas of her dying priestess.The last survivors of an ancient continent confront evil at every step as they march beneath skies of endless darkness to reach the haven they hope will lead them to safety.These tales and a dozen more by fantasy and adventure author David C. Smith appear in this unique collection. Out of print for more than 40 years, these stories were first published in the days of limited-circulation fanzines-the only avenue for new work created by the generation of writers who grew up in the shadow of the pulp magazines. The paperback reprints of those pulp stories in the late 1960s and early 1970s encouraged an entire generation of young writers to enlarge on that tradition of popular American storytelling. Now they are in print once more for a new generation of fantasy fiction enthusiasts.