Bryn's family has moved to a farm, and Bryn is not especially pleased about it. In particular, he is not impressed with the bull named Drago. Everyone else thinks Drago is sweet, but Bryn thinks he is mean, even when Drago seems to becoming friendlier. Then one day, Bryn finds Drago stuck in the dam and, with the help of his family, hauls him out of the mud and saves his life.
Darcy Devlin is an amateur private investigator. One day, he sees a boy acting strangely, and decides to follow him. He discovers the boy, Tai, is living alone while his grandmother is in hospital. Tai does not know which hospital his grandmother is in, and is afraid he will be taken away if the authorities find out he is alone. Darcy uses his investigative skills to track down Tai's grandmother.
Jono has saved some kittens from drowning, but does not know what to do with them. He tries to give them away, but nobody wants them. Even though his mother is allergic to cats, Jono takes the kittens home and tries to hide them. However, his mother's allergic symptoms start to appear, and Jono desperately looks for homes for the kittens before she discovers the truth.
Pili is tired of her brother Kondo bragging that boys are tougher than girls. But when the monsoon rains cause a flood that sweeps away Kiondo, Pili rescues him, and helps to save the other villagers by guiding them to a cave in the hills.
All is not what it seems as Rosie and Jed meet their new neighbour Larry. Jed listens as he hears Larry planning a great robbery. He is disapointed when his parents show little interest in his problem, believing Larry is a cleaner. Do the children really have something to be worried about or has Jed let his imagination take over?
Joss can't believe she's become such good friends with Hannah - and they've never met! When Joss wins tickets to the Raging Bandits concert, she invites Hannah to go with her. Joss is in for a few surprises when Hannah arrives to spend the weekend. She discovers she doesn't know her pen pal as well as she thought.
In Broken Crown, Chris Bell gives readers a fresh look at the ancient account of King Saul's tragic reign and the valuable lessons it holds for us today. No one looked the part of a valiant leader and courageous warrior more than Israel's first King. But Saul's impressive facade masked a dark inner reality that would ultimately lead to a tragic downfall. Although chosen and transformed by God to lead the nation, Saul refused over and over again to allow God to mold him into a man worthy to wear the crown. In his first book, Bell examines the often-neglected story of King Saul and reveals how the inner struggles that led to his broken crown and kingdom are the very issues that threaten to destroy our lives today. In Broken Crown, discover how to confront your own brokenness and embrace the life of wholeness and freedom found only in the One True King.
"Songshifting occupies a unique place in modern fiction: a simple, elegiac story, fierce and uncompromising, it is at once a love letter to a forgotten era, a richly evoked dystopia, and an examination of memory, longing, and music itself. Speculative fiction needs more writers like Chris Bell, ready and able to interrogate our world on their own terms, and probe the darker recesses of our minds. Songshifting demands to be read" ROBERT DINSDALE, GINGERBREAD"Part rock memoir, part densely-textured journey into a dystopian world as rich as Terry Gilliam's] Brazil, Songshifting is wise, elegiac and compelling. It speaks deeply to what music means to us - not just as an art form but as part of our emotional landscape. Wonderful stuff." DAVE HUTCHINSON, EUROPE IN AUTUMN (shortlisted for the John W. Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke and BSFA Awards); EUROPE AT MIDNIGHT, Solaris BooksReader comments: "Bell writes excellently. It's particularly rewarding to see that done around the subject of music because it's such a hard thing to write about well""Songshifting has the authenticity so many attempts at capturing rock music in a novel lack""The music scene that provides the backdrop to most of what happens is beautifully fleshed out. I love the slang Bell invented as well as the sense of history he invokes. The setting is excellent""A day with no soundtrack is a wasted day." Can music journalist Rarity Dean prevail against the impresario's mind-control drug and ban on recorded music?Dean writes for music paper the Grid but her familiar world of bands, promo photos, recording and gigs is being systematically erased by powerful forces: a shadowy body called the impresario that has prohibited recordings and decreed home entertainment to be treasonous. Instead, its Affable DJ Hologram provides the 'punters' with a sense of freedom through a stylised form of entertainment. Meanwhile, the 'musos' have developed what seem to be supernatural abilities. An ability to songshift - a benign but elusive form of time travel that enables listeners to slip into the relative safety of their pasts with the help of their chosen music - is prized and jealously guarded by punters and musos alike."Music has been central to my existence for longer than I can remember. It's not just music; songs are magnets that over the years attract particles from our history, creating a pattern unique to every listener. Music makes you feel happy and sad and a roaring cascade of emotions all at once - and you're never really sure why. A day with no soundtrack is a wasted day."The Books Go Social Fiction Quality Mark combines the machine analysis of AutoCrit and the human analysis of an experienced editor to verify the quality of a written manuscript. The Quality Mark was established not only to help authors gain valuable feedback on their work but also to help readers find well-written, quality books. For further details, see: thebookpromoter.com/fiction-quality-mark.
"'Songshifting: Requiem For Stage Diver & Bass Guitar' is a work of urgent and fascinating beauty, sparking with frenetic energy. I was lost in Bell's colourful Pynchon-meets-cyberpunk dystopia from the first page. A real joy." Paul M.M. Cooper, 'River of Ink'The Dirty Birds, Poodlefaker, Jackass Morwong, Bizarre Avocado Crimewave and Cheeto Jesus are bands touring with a live show called Dangerous Mixture. The Dirty Birds' singer Sam Ratcliff devotes much of her band's set to stage-diving into the punters. One night, at the club Everything That Ever Was, she's returned unconscious to the stage and dies of apparent asphyxiation. Unemployed music journo Rarity Dean sets out to investigate her death.Dean wrote for music paper the 'Grid' before being fired for criticising the brutal regime of the mysterious impresario following a live event at which bands like Scrooch, the Dust Bunnies and the Dirty Birds made a stand against the state's ban on recorded music.As Dean attempts to unearth the truth she begins to question everything she once considered sacred. She's soon on the trail of Teasel Fuller, a former security man with a violent past. But can this odd crime really be as simple as that? Other clues appear to suggest a grassroots rebellion is afoot - one systematic enough to unite punters and street gangs to rise against the impresario.The sequel to 'Songshifting' and the second book in the 'Songshifting' trilogy."Music that's gone in the moment, that's what the impresario wanted music to be in its entirety: a moment that could be covertly manipulated, dosed up with something mind-altering. Not an emotionally variable moment the impresario had no control over, no stake in, not a moment that could be replayed in secret by punters with effects unknown. The impresario gave the insidious impression that music was just entertainment, which was precisely why it was our best means of resistance."
For the first time, the Songshifting trilogy as a single edition with a new cover and specially designed endpapers.Rarity Dean is a freelance music journalist who writes for the Grid, a music paper published by an unseen impresario, ostensible leader of a shadowy, repressive regime in a city that's a blend of past, future and alternative present. Recordings are prohibited and the public is manipulated using Sentimental Hygiene, a psychotropic drug that's administered secretly and en masse at impresario-sanctioned concerts. The state-sponsored Affable DJ Hologram provides the public with a false sense of freedom via this stylised, controlled form of live entertainment. Meanwhile, musos have developed what seem to be supernatural abilities. An ability to songshift - a benign but elusive form of time travel that enables listeners to slip into the relative safety of their pasts with the help of their chosen music - is prized and jealously guarded by punters and musos alike.Rival bands Scrooch and the Dust Bunnies unite to promote Imprimatur, a live, multiple-band event meticulously organised to draw attention to the ban on recorded music - provided they can distract the impresario's agents Raguly and Nebuly for long enough to stage it. The two bands' alliance is complicated by the fact that Scrooch bassist Fraser Carlyon and Dust Bunnies frontman Jacky Shannon are competing for the affections of Dirty Birds singer Sam Ratcliff.In part two, Requiem For Stage Diver & Bass Guitar, the Dirty Birds are touring with a show called Dangerous Mixture. Singer Sam devotes much of the band's set to stage-diving among the punters. One night, at a club called Everything That Ever Was, she's returned unconscious to the stage and dies from apparent asphyxiation. Rarity Dean attempts to unearth the truth about Sam's death, which turns out not to have been a straightforward case of misadventure.In part three, An audience with the impresario, the stakes are raised when musos, journos and punters unite for their most audacious protest yet against the recorded music ban. Rarity is arrested and taken to the barge, the impresario's headquarters, where she suspects she's to be tortured by agents Raguly and Nebuly. Her muso friends resort to unusual firepower in an all-or-nothing rescue attempt. Meanwhile, Rarity must harness all her initiative to try and convince the Affable DJ Hologram that indoctrinating audiences with a new crowd control drug, Deludol, is misguided. Her experience as a songshifter proves invaluable as she masterminds a musical movement with the express aim of defying the authorities."Music has been central to my existence for longer than I can remember. It's not just music; songs are magnets that over the years attract particles from our history, creating a pattern unique to every listener. Music makes you feel happy and sad and a roaring cascade of emotions all at once - and you're never really sure why. A day with no soundtrack is a wasted day."
At school, Philip is writing to his new penfriend Anna. He is upset that he has to write to a girl because girls don't like anything that boys like. Anna writes back to Philip. Both Philip and Anna try to make their families and their homes sound more exciting than they really are. Then Mrs Tam tells Philip's class that she has organised a picnic with their penfriends. Philip is worried that Anna might ask awkward questions. On picnic day he hides in the kitchen until the soccer match. When the match starts, a girl tackles Phillip to the ground. It's Anna!
In the third and final Songshifting novel, musos, journos and punters unite to protest the impresario's ban on recorded music. Former music journo Rarity Dean is arrested and taken to the barge, the impresario's headquarters, where she suspects she's about to be tortured by agents Raguly and Nebuly. Meanwhile, her muso friends are resorting to unusual firepower in their rescue attempt. Rarity must harness all her initiative to try and convince the Affable DJ Hologram that indoctrinating audiences with the crowd control drug Deludol is misguided. Her experience as a songshifter proves invaluable as she rallies a new musical movement with the express aim of defying the authorities."There's a component of songshifting that allows us to zoom in on details from our pasts, but there's also a dreamlike quality to it. Once you get good at it ... songshifting allows you to access a node in a grid-like structure that interconnects all of your dreams and suddenly you're in there, a dream inhabitant...""Songshifting: An audience with the impresario delivers everything a reader wants from the best of speculative fiction: a coherent world at once richly textured, vividly painted and centred on an idea that is both surprising and relatable - in this case the transporting power of music. Bell's vision at once entertains and entrances. He has achieved that rare thing: a dystopia you don't want to leave." OLIVER HARRIS, DEEP SHELTER, THE HOLLOW MAN, THE HOUSE OF FAME"Songshifting occupies a unique place in modern fiction: a simple, elegiac story, fierce and uncompromising, it is at once a love letter to a forgotten era, a richly evoked dystopia, and an examination of memory, longing, and music itself. Speculative fiction needs more writers like Chris Bell, ready and able to interrogate our world on their own terms, and probe the darker recesses of our minds. Songshifting demands to be read" ROBERT DINSDALE, GINGERBREAD"Songshifting is wise, elegiac and compelling. It speaks deeply to what music means to us - not just as an art form but as part of our emotional landscape. Wonderful stuff" DAVE HUTCHINSON, EUROPE IN AUTUMN, EUROPE AT MIDNIGHT, EUROPE IN WINTERWhat readers said about Songshifting " Songshifting is] as good about rock music as Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad - and in my eyes that's high praise indeed. It's extremely well-written ... Chris Bell does a great job of showing how much Rarity Dean cares about the music under her outer shell of journo cynicism, and he also does the even more difficult job of writing about music, musicians and the touring life interestingly ... Bell really knows his stuff when it comes to music, and he is able to convey that very well ... he] does a great job of communicating the growing fear, paranoia and dread that the impresario's actions cause" Tim Jones, Beattie's Book Blog "Bell writes excellently. It's particularly rewarding to see that done around the subject of music because it's such a hard thing to write about well. There's a real and plausible sense of the future musical landscape despite all the bands being fictional, and the characters are well drawn""Songshifting has the authenticity so many attempts at capturing rock music in a novel lack""The music scene that provides the backdrop to most of what happens is beautifully fleshed out. I love the slang Bell invented as well as the sense of history he invokes"
Timtal av klurigt kul i juletid! Sudokun, labyrinter, prick-till-prick och annat knep och knåp – samt massor av motiv att rita och färglägga själv. Alltihop i sällskap av tomten, Rudolf och alla nissarna! En riktigt god jul!
Human illness attributed to foodborne pathogenic microorganisms has been prominent in the mass media in recent years. The Practical Food Microbiology Series has been devised to give practical and accurate information about specific organisms of concern to public health. The information is designed for use by those in the food industry working in manufacturing, retailing and quality assurance, those in associated professional sectors e.g. public health, and students in each of these areas. The series is unique in its practical approach as it draws on real life situations to highlight practical means for controlling the organism in foods. Salmonella species are arguably the most commonly reported food associated human pathogens in the developed world. They are zoonotic agents and many different animal reservoirs are known. They can be found widely in the environment and may also establish in food processing environments. Over 2000 serotypes of Salmonella have been identified to-date, some of which cause very serious illness in humans particularly in vulnerable populations such as the elderly. Although rare, illness may result in fatality or long term debility and sequelae. Salmonella spp. are so widespread in raw foods and food source environments that the food industry has to maintain constant vigilance regarding contamination in raw materials, effectiveness of food processing systems and control of finished product characteristics for assuring food safety with respect to this important pathogen. This book details the causes of selected outbreaks and assesses the lessons that can be learnt from them. It examines the characteristics of Salmonella spp. and identifies factors that make foods susceptible to contamination and growth of these organisms. Specific product sectors are used to indicate practical measures that can be applied to control Salmonella spp. in foods and minimise their potential to cause harm to the consumer. It also provides guidance in selecting effective sampling plans and test methods to monitor and detect the organism and offers pragmatic advice on action to be taken when the organism is detected during monitoring programmes.
The Practical Food Microbiology Series gives practical and accurate information about specific organisms of concern to public health. The information is designed for use by those in the food industry working in manufacturing, retailing and quality assurance, those in associated professional sectors e.g. public health, and students in each of these areas. Clostridium botulinum produces a toxin which causes the severe, often fatal illness, botulism. It is a potential hazard associated with a wide range of both ambient stable and chilled foods. Foodborne botulism still occurs all around the world. As new outbreaks are reported implicating yet more food types and food processes, so the food industry needs to regularly review processes and product characteristics to assure safety.
