Search Worlds Without End

Taking a delightful departure from his more common urban-fantasy settings, this epic tale from acclaimed author Charles de Lint weaves elements of Celtic and Nordic mythology while bringing sword and sorcery to the forefront. Summer magic is waning in the Green Isles, and the evil Icelord is encasing the lands in a permanent frost while coastal towns are pillaged by snake ships. Mounting one last defense against the onslaught, a mysterious old wizard instructs his inexperienced apprentice in the art of shape-changing. Mercilessly pursued by the Icelord's army, this newfound mage gathers allies-a seemingly ordinary young woman and her protective adoptive family-and they flee north in a desperate race to awaken the Summerlord. Time is running short for the Summerborn, especially when a treacherous family betrayal is discovered.

A tale of magic and murder

The increasingly bizarre murders have baffled the police—but each death is somehow connected with the city's elusive Gypsy community. The police are searching for a human killer, but the Romany know better. They know the name of the darkness that hunts them down, one by one: Mulengro.

Out beyond the Enclaves, in the desolation between the cities, an Indian flyer has been downed. A chip encoded with vital secrets is missing. Only Gahzee can venture forth to find it--walking the line between the Dreamtime and the Realtime, bringing his people's ancient magic to bear on the poisoned world of tomorrow.

Bringing hope, perhaps, for a new dawn...

In this whimsical, original folktale, written and illustrated throughout in vibrant full color by two celebrated masters of modern fantasy, a young girl's journey becomes an enchanting coming-of-age story about magic, friendship, and the courage to shape one's own destiny.

Lillian Kindred spends her days exploring the Tanglewood Forest, a magical, rolling wilderness that she imagines to be full of fairies. The trouble is, Lillian has never seen a wisp of magic in her hills--until the day the cats of the forest save her life by transforming her into a kitten. Now she must set out on a perilous adventure that will lead her through untamed lands of fabled creates--from Old Mother Possum to the fearsome Bear People--to find a way to make things right.

He is the Songweaver, but before he was a master of song he was merely Cerin of Wran Cheaping-a seventeen-year-old orphan raised by a wildland witch. Then he encountered the Maid of the Grey Rose-the lone survivor of the war that devastated the Trembling Lands and the promised bride of Yarac Stone-Slayer, the feared and terrible Waster. The mysterious beauty captured Cerin's heart, drawing him into a world both dark and deadly, until armed with only a tinkerblade and the magic of song, he would take on a man's challenge...and choose a treacherous path toward a magnificent destiny. The Harp of the Grey Rose is award-winning fantasist Charles de Lint's first novel has been long out of print until now and it hints of the wonderful stories to come.

When folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather's cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey's life, impelling her--armed only with her music--toward a terrifying confrontation.

Come walk the mist-draped hills of Cornwall, come walk the ancient standing stones. Listen to the fiddles, and the wind, and the sea. Come step with Janey Little into the pages of... The Little Country.

On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.

Altagracia -- her friends call her Grace -- has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder, she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it'll never wash out. Grace works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling.

Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is all her world -- from the little grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes ("cigarettes can kill you," they tell her, but she smokes them anyway) to the record shop, to the library where Henry, a black man confined to a wheelchair, researches the mystery of life in death -- but she's got unfinished business keeping her close to home.

Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business -- he's haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He's never stopped feeling responsible. Like Grace in her way, John is an artist, and before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go.

Jay Li should be in Chicago, finishing high school and working at his family's restaurant. Instead, as a born member of the Yellow Dragon Clan-part human, part dragon, like his grandmother-he is on a quest even he does not understand. His journey takes him to Santo del Vado Viejo in the Arizona desert, a town overrun by gangs, haunted by members of other animal clans, perfumed by delicious food, and set to the beat of Malo Malo, a barrio rock band whose female lead guitarist captures Jay's heart. He must face a series of dangerous, otherworldly-andvery human-challenges to become the man, and dragon, he is meant to be. This is Charles de Lint at his best!

Minda Sealy is afraid of her own nightmares. Then, one night, while asleep, she meets Jan, the Lord of the Moors, who has been imprisoned by Ildran the Dream-master-the same being who traps Minda. In exchange for her promise to free him, Jan gives Minda three tokens. She sets out, leaving the safety of her old life to begin a journey from world to world, both to save Jan and to solve "the riddle of the Wren"-which is the riddle of her very self.

At turns whimsical, dark, and mystical, this extraordinary collection of retold fairy tales and new, modern myths redefine the boundaries of magic. Compiling favored stories suggested by the author and his fans, this delightful treasury contains the most esteemed and beloved selections that de Lint has to offer. Innovative characters in unexpected places are the key to each plot: playful Crow Girls who sneak into the homes of their sleeping neighbors; a graffiti artist who risks everything to expose a long-standing conspiracy; a half-human girl who must choose between her village and her strange birthright; and an unrepentant trickster who throws one last party to reveal a folkloric tradition. Showcasing some of the finest offerings within the realms of urban fantasy and magical realism, this essential compendium of timeless tales will charm and inspire.

A young artist returns to her cabin in the deep woods of Canada to concentrate on her illustrations. But somehow, strange and beautiful creatures are slipping into her drawings and sketches. The world of Faerie is reaching out to her for help--and she may be its last chance for survival.

This collection by the fantasy master has literally been over 20 years in the making! Each year, Mr. de Lint self-publishes a chapbook for private distribution. He gives copies to his wife, his friends, and colleagues, but does not offer them for sale. (The few times that copies have been auctioned for charitable purposes, they have sold for well over a hundred dollars apiece.) Some of the stories have since been reprinted, and are considered modern classics. Some (over 80,000 words) have never been printed in the U.S., made their sole appearance in a small community newspaper, or were printed in editions limited to only one copy! This mammoth collection (over 450 pages) gathers them for the first time, making Triskell Tales absolutely essential for de Lint fans.

The Subterranean Press edition of Triskell Tales -- the only edition currently under contract -- will be limited to 2000 autographed and numbered copies, bound in full cloth, with a full color dustjacket, illustrated autograph page, and interior illustrations by MaryAnn Harris.

We're pleased to announce a second printing of what may be Charles de Lint's most personal collection to date.

Contents:
*no subsequent reprint
**reprinted in foreign language only

1. The Three That Came* (1977; edition of one; 2400 words)
2. Grymalkin* (1978; edition of one; 2900 words)
3. The Oak King's Daughter** (1979; edition of 100; 6970 words)
4. The Moon is A Meadow** (1980; edition of 100; 7250 words)
5. Humphrey's Christmas* (a collaboration with MaryAnn Harris; 1981 3400 words)
6. A Pattern of Silver Strings (1981; edition of 100; 9400 words)
   Also contains poems:
   • Root of Horn
   • Meran's Stone
   • Withered Trickster
   • The Piper
   • Secret Stones, Hollow Hills
   • Days of Fading
   • They Will Come Again
7. Glass Eyes and Cotton Strings* (1982; edition of 100; 4800 words)
8. In Mask and Motley (1983; edition of 100; 6000 words)
   Also contains poems:
   • Blood to Blood
   • Telynros
   • Alken's Way
   • The Mysteries
   • Root Truths
   • Four Seasons and the First Day of the Year
9. Laughter in the Leaves (1984; edition of 100; 3300 words)
   Also contains the poem:
   • An Fear Glas
10. The Calendar of the Trees (1984; edition of 200; poem)
11. The Three Plushketeers Meet Santy Claus* (1985; 4140 words)
12. The Badger in the Bag* (1985; edition of 100; 3900 words)
    Also contains the poem:
    • The Old Tunes
13. The Three Plushketeers and the Garden Slugs* (1985; edition of 26 lettered copies; 2350 words)
14. And the Rafters Were Ringing (1986; edition of 100; 5150 words)
15. The Lark in the Morning (1987; edition of 100; 4500 words)
    Also contains the poem:
    • Bones
16. The Drowned Man's Reel (1988; edition of 100; 4100 words)
17. The Stone Drum (1989; edition of 100; 10,750 words)
18. Ghosts of Wind and Shadow (1990; edition of 100; 13,200 words)
19. Desert Moments* (1991; edition of 125)
    Collection of eleven poems and two transcribed tunes
20. The Bone Woman (1992; edition of 125; 4760 words)
21. Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery (1992; Cheap Street Press Christmas giveaway; 2500 words)
22. Coyote Stories (1993; edition of 125; 2960 words)
23. Heartfires (1994; edition of 125; 4850 words)
24. Crow Girls (1995; edition of 150; 7050 words)
25. My Life As A Bird (1996; edition of 150; 8400 words)
26. The Fields Beyond the Fields (1997; edition of 150; 2nd printing of 50; 4690 words)
27. Second Chances (1998; edition of 150; 2780 words)
28. Pixel Pixies* (1999; edition of 200; 9630 words)

Charles de Lint's remarkable novels and shorter fiction are, in a very real sense, coming of age stories. Here, for the first time, is a collection of his stories about teenagers—a collection for teen and adult readers alike. From the streets of his famed Newford to the alleys of Bordertown to the realms of Faerie, this is storytelling that will transfix and delight, with characters who will linger in the mind—many of them from his novels. Featuring an illuminating preface by acclaimed author, anthologist, and critic Terri Windling, Waifs and Strays is a must-own for de Lint fans, and an ideal introduction to his work for newcomers.

His name when he was human was Kern. Now he is the most feared of beings: a werewolf. When the change first came upon him, his parents drove him away with silver daggers. Later, he sought human companionship, but he could not hide the truth for long. And so he kept running until he ran headlong into the deadliest pursuer of all-a harper bent on stealing his life away. By chance Kern was able to find refuge at the Inn of the Yellow Tinker, and the woman he was destined to love. But can he risk both human and harper vengeance to keep her?

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Hedgework and Guessery) - essay
• 5 - Twilight Tracings - (1978) - poem
• 7 - Timeskip - [Newford] - (1989) - short story
• 25 - The Calendar of the Trees - (1984) - poem
• 29 - A Wish Named Arnold - [Ottawa and the Valley] - (1987) - short story
• 37 - Meran's Stone - [Cerin Songweaver] - (1981) - poem
• 39 - Raven Sings a Medicine Way, Coyote Steals the Pollen - (1986) - short story
• 49 - Ariane - (1983) - poem
• 53 - Into the Green - [Angharad] - (1988) - short story
• 67 - An Fear Glas - [Cerin Songweaver] - (1984) - poem
• 69 - And the Rafters Were Ringing - [Cerin Songweaver] - (1986) - short story
• 83 - The Boys of Goose Hill - poem
• 87 - The Sacred Fire - [Newford] - (1989) - short story
• 103 - The Wild Girl - (1990) - short story
• 105 - Scars - (1988) - short story
• 117 - The Gift That Was Yours - (1986) - poem

Jack of Kinrowan brings together in one volume Charles de Lint's rollicking saga of wild faerie magic on the streets of the city. In Jack the Giant-Killer, a faceless gang of bikers on a Wild Hunt through the streets of present day Ottawa hurtles Young Jacky Rowan across the threshold into the perilous land of Faerie. There, to her dismay, she is hailed as Jack of Kinrowan, a one-and-future trickster hero whose lot is to save the Elven Courts from unimaginable evil. In Drink Down the Moon, once the realm of Faerie drew its power from the Moon herself. But now a ghastly creature has stolen that power and enslaved the Fair Folk—and Jacky Rowan. Only Johnny Faw, a handsome young fiddler unaware of his magical gifts, has the power to set them free.

In his eighth fantasy novel, the author of Moonheart and Yarrow turns the stories of "Jack the Giant Killer" and "Jack and the Bean Stalk" into a contemporary tale set in Ottawa.

Jacky Rowan's boyfriend of three months has just dumped her because she has begun to bore him. Feeling empty, confused and rejected, Jacky meets Dunrobin Finn, a gnome who introduces her to a parallel reality, Faerie, which she can see and enter into by wearing a magic red cap. Having recently witnessed the murder of a gnome by evil bikers, Jacky's meeting with Finn inspires her with the renewed vitality to embark upon a quest to save the daughter of a Laird of Kinrowan, who is being held in a Giant's Keep. Jacky's best friend, Kate Hazel, agrees (at first skeptically) to help her. The pair flee and tackle all manner of bikers and "bogans" (evil entities that look like winos in non-Faerie reality), and Jacky finds a replacement for her wayward love in Eilian, the hunkish son of a Laird of Dunlogan.

This is also the 4th novel of Terri Windling's Fairy Tales series

The fate of the wild fairies that inhabit the modern world lies in the hands of a young Toronto fiddler named Johnny Faw and a handful of human and not-so-human companions in the newest contemporary fantasty by the author of Moonheart. This sequel to Jack the Giant-Killer amply displays de Lint's innate charm and compelling storytelling.

Juniper Wiles once starred as a plucky teen detective in the popular TV show, Nora Constantine. When the series ended seven years ago, Juniper made a decision to leave L.A. and return home to Newford where she joined friends at the artists' collective, Bramleyhaugh, the center of which is her pal, beloved faerie artist Jilly Coppercorn.

Now, out of the blue, the fictional world of Nora Constantine is bleeding into Newford, starting with the inexplicable murder of a young man. Juniper may have wanted to leave her role as a detective behind, but when she's accosted by the ghost of that young man everything changes. To solve this crime will require all the skills she learned training for Nora Constantine. And the effervescent Jilly, always up for a new adventure, is ready to come along for the ride.

Anyone who knows her wouldn't be surprised to learn that Jilly sees the world through a prism of faerie tales. It was years before I came to understand that she wasn't just being whimsical when she talked so easily about hobs and brownies and various kinds of faerie creatures.

They were real.

Faerieland, otherworlds, and all the denizens and creatures you might imagine to live there.

It was all real.

And so were ghosts.

I remember when I first realized this. I felt like my head was going to explode.

* * *

Juniper should have known better after her last foray into the otherworld. But when she's asked to look into a mysterious box full of poltergeists she ends up making a promise to seven teenage ghosts that puts here directly in the crosshairs of a blood witch's deadly ire.

WFA nominated short story.

Lillian is an orphan who lives with her aunt on a homestead miles from anyone, surrounded by uncharted forest. She wanders the woods, chasing squirrels and rabbits and climbing trees. Free-spirited and independent Lillian is a kindred spirit to the many wild cats who gather around the ancient beech tree. One day, while she is under the beech, Lillian is bitten by a poisonous snake. The cats refuse to let her die, and use their magic to turn her into one of their own. How she becomes a girl again is a lyrical, original folktale.

Set in the countryside north of de Lint's fictional Newford, with some of the same characters as the duo's recent, acclaimed Seven Wild Sisters, A Circle of Cats is the long-awaited first picture book by long-time friends Charles de Lint and Charles Vess, whose masterful art is as magical as the story.

Illustrations by Charles Vess.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1992. The story is included in the collections Dreams Underfoot (1993) and The Newford Stories (1999).

A Novelette set in De Lint's Newford setting. It was originally published as a chapbook by Subterranean Press and later reprintend Subterrranean Press Magazine. It can also be found in the collection Newford Stories: Crow Girls (2015).

Read the full story for free at Subterrranean Press Magazine.

WFA nominated novella in De Lint's Newford setting. It was reprinted in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifth Annual Collection (1992), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collection Dreams Underfoot (1993).

WFA nominated novelette.

Set in Newford and featuring musician Geordie Riddell, this novella about a homeless man called Paperjack is classic de Lint--a poignant, mysterious tale about love, loss and learning how to move on. A finalist for the World Fantasy Award, Paperjack is a standalone story, but picks up some of the threads of a previous tale called "Timeskip."

Paperjack originally appeared as a limmited edition chapbook and was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1993. The story can also be found in the anthology Visions of Wonder (1996), edited by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf. It is included in the collections Dreams Underfoot (1993) and The Newford Stories (1999).

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Ultimate Frankenstein (1991), edited by Megan Miller, David Keller, Byron Preiss and John Betancourt. The story can also be found in the anthology Northern Stars: The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (1994), edited by David G. Hartwell. It is included in the collections Dreams Underfoot (1993) and The Newford Stories (1999).

WFA nominated novella.

Subterranean Press is proud to announce a brand new, exclusive -- ours is the only edition -- novella/short novel by Charles de Lint. Seven Wild Sisters will be a modern fairy tale about seven sisters growing up in backwoods hill country, and how one of them finds a mystery in the forest that both endangers and will save them all.

Note: This novella was later expanded to a full novel with the same title.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien (1991), edited by Martin H. Greenberg. The story can also be found in the collections Dreams Underfoot (1993), The Newford Stories (1999) and The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010).

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Snow White, Blood Red (1993), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and was reprinted in Realms of Fantasy, February 1995. It can also be found in the anthology Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold (2016), edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the colletions Dreams Underfoot (1993), The Newford Stories (1999) and The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010).

This story was originally published in the anthology Single White Vampire Seeks Same (2001) edited by Brittiany A. Koren and Martin H. Greenberg. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and the collection Tapping the Dream Tree (2002).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

When she was younger, Ellen had seen them all the time, bouncing in the wind like tumbleweeds. She called them the Balloon Men. Now she wonders if they really exist...

Reece knows he can see things other people can't, and he's running from a nightmare that menaces people with barracuda teeth...

Somewhere between Ellen's doubts and Reece's certainties lies Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair. Laced with parables, this Nebula nominated story has much to say about the nature of Magic.

This novelette originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November 1987. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection (1988), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collections Dreams Underfoot (1993) and The Newford Stories (1999).

A charming novella about one of Newford's best-loved characters: artist and dreamer Sophie Etoile.

Lured by mystical Native American flute-player Kokopelli, Sophie opens a door in her dreams only to find herself in the wild Sonoran desert, her way back vanished. In her quest to return she gets sidetracked by Coyote, up to his usual mischief. A poignant tale touching on loss, hope and community.

First published in Worlds of Fantasy and Horror #2, Fall, 1994.

A young woman locked in rage yet seeking magic, Ash is drawn into a wondrous Otherworld of totems and dryads, living tarots and mystic charms. At the same time, Ash's cousin Nina is stalked by an Otherworld demon-a manitou who can force her mind and soul into the bodies of beasts. Ash must find the strength to overcome her own anger, learn the full power of magic, and save Nina before she becomes the manitou's weapon, turning the faerie realm into an arctic wasteland. De Lint fans will relish this urban and otherworldly fantasy, partially set in the author's trademark Newford.

Welcome to Newford. . . .

Welcome to the music clubs, the waterfront, the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.

Like Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little, Big, Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life.

Isabelle Copley's visionary art frees ancient spirits. As the young student of the cruel, brilliant artist Vincent Rushkin, she discovered she could paint images so vividly real they brought her wildest fantasies to life. But when the forces she unleashed brought tragedy to those she loved, she turned her back on her talent - and on her dreams.

Now, twenty years later, Isabelle must come to terms with the shattering memories she has long denied, and unlock the slumbering power of her brush. And, in a dark reckoning with her old master, she must find the courage to live out her dreams and bring the magic back to life.

Among Charles de Lint's most beloved creations is the northern city of Newford, a place touched by deep magic--and the setting for novels like The Onion Girl and story collections like Dreams Underfoot. Now, with the Orb publication of The Ivory and the Horn, all four of the Newford story collections are returned to print. Here, on the streets of Newford, is the magic that hovers at the edge of everyday life.

A novel of loss, identity, and, in the strangest of places, hope.

Leonard Trader is a luthier, a maker of guitars. Johnny Devlin is chronically unemployed. Leonard is solitary, quiet, responsible. Johnny is a lady-killer, a drunk, a charming loser.

When they inexplicably wake up in each other's bodies, Johnny gleefully moves into Leonard's comfortable and stable existence, leaving Leonard to pick up the pieces of a life he had no part in breaking.

Penniless, friendless, homeless, Leonard begins a journey that will take him beyond the streets of the city to an otherworld of dreams and spirits, where he must confront both the unscrupulous Johnny Devlin and his own deepest fears.

Lily is a photojournalist in search of the "animal people" who supposedly haunt the city's darkest slums. Hank is a slumdweller who knows the bad streets all too well. One night, in a brutal incident, their two lives collide--uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play in the secret drama of the city's oldest inhabitants.

For the animal people walk among us. Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they claim the city for their own.

Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war. And in this battle for the city's soul, nothing is quite as it appears.

Familiar to Charles de Lint's ever-growing audience as the setting of the novels Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and many others, Newford is the quintessential North American city, tough and streetwise on the surface and rich with hidden magic for those who can see.

In the World Fantasy Award-winning Moonlight and Vines, de Lint returns to this extraordinary city for another volume of stories set there, featuring the intertwined lives of many characters from the novels. Here is enchantment under a streetlamp: the landscape of our lives as only Charles de Lint can show it.

In the Old Country, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed...only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, called manitou and other such names by the Native tribes.

Now generations have passed, and the Irish have made homes in the new land, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the city shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselves--appearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black.

Bettina can see the Gentry, and knows them for what they are. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised by her grandmother to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in Kellygnow, a massive old house run as an arts colony on the outskirts of Newford, a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outsider her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of them--until the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand....

Ellie, an independent young sculptor, is another with magic in her blood, but she refuses to believe it, even though she, too, sees the dark men. A strange old woman has summoned Ellie to Kellygnow to create a mask for her based on an ancient Celtic artifact. It is the mask of the mythic Summer King--another thing Ellie does not believe in. Yet lack of belief won't dim the power of the mast, or its dreadful intent.

Donal, Ellie's former lover, comes from an Irish family and knows the truth at the heart of the old myths. He thinks he can use the mask and the "hard men" for his own purposes. And Donal's sister, Miki, a punk accordion player, stands on the other side of the Gentry's battle with the Native spirits of the land. She knows that more than her brother's soul is at stake. All of Newford is threatened, human and mythic beings alike.

Once again Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets.

In novel after novel, and story after story, Charles de Lint has brought an entire imaginary North American city to vivid life. Newford: where magic lights dark streets; where myths walk clothed in modern shapes; where a broad cast of extraordinary and affecting people work to keep the whole world turning.

At the center of all the entwined lives in Newford stands a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, with her tangled hair, her paint-splattered jeans, a smile perpetually on her lips--Jilly, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in the city's shadows. Now, at last, de Lint tells Jilly's own story...for behind the painter's fey charm lies a dark secret and a past she's labored to forget. And that past is coming to claim her now.

"I'm the onion girl," Jilly Coppercorn says. "Pull back the layers of my life, and you won't find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl." She's very, very good at running. But life has just forced Jilly to stop.

The city of Newford could be any contemporary North American city...except that magic lurks in its music, in its art, in the shadows of its grittiest streets, where mythic beings walk disguised. And its people are like you and me, each looking for a bit of magic to shape their lives and transform their fate.

Here are a bluesman hiding from the devil; a Buffalo Man at the edge of death; a murderous ghost looking for revenge; a wolf man on his first blind date; and many more. We're reunited with Jilly, Geordie, Sophie, the Crow Girls, and other characters whose lives have become part of the great Newford myth. And beyond Newford's streets, de Lint takes us to the pastoral hills north of the city, where magic and music have a flavor different but powerful still.

Table of Contents:

• Author's Note - essay by Charles de Lint
• Ten for the Devil - (1998) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Wingless Angels - (2000) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Words That Remain - (2000) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Many Worlds Are Born Tonight - (2000) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• The Buffalo Man - (1999) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Second Chances - (1998) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Forest of Stone - (1999) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Embracing the Mystery - (2000) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Masking Indian - (2000) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Granny Weather - (2000) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Witching Hour - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Pixel Pixies - (1999) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Trading Hearts at the Half Kaffe Café - (2001) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Making a Noise in This World - (2000) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Freak - (2001) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Big City Littles - (2000) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Sign Here - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• Seven Wild Sisters - (2002) - novella by Charles de Lint

At a popular Newford online research and library Web site called the Wordwood, a mysterious crash occurs. Everyone visiting the site at the moment of the crash vanishes from where they were sitting in front of their computers. Christy Ridding's girldfriend Saskia disappears right before his eyes, along with countless others.

To rescue their missing friends, Christy and his companions must journey into Newford's otherworld, where the Wordwood, it transpires, has a physical presence of its own...

Marking the return of the mischievous, red-headed Dillard twins, this bewitching fantasy entangles the lovely sisters in a 100-year wager in the Native American spirit world. Laurel and Bess are touring bluegrass musicians who encounter two mysterious strangers with a powerful secret in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to their animal natures, Jim Changing Dog and Alice Corn Hair have been given human forms by the powerful Coyote Woman, but in return they must both find their true human loves in 100 years or be exiled into the animal world alone. Although Alice has found her love, trickster Jim hasn't been able to commit to one woman until he sets eyes on free-spirited Bess, just before the deadline. Battling time and a meddling motorcycle seductress, the two new lovers must risk intimacy and loss in their quest for love.

Seventeen-year-old Imogene's rebellious nature has caused her more harm than good-so when her family moves to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself. She won't lose her punk/thrift-shop look, but she'll try to avoid the gangs, work a little harder at school, and maybe even stay out of trouble for a change. But trouble shows up anyway. Imogene quickly catches the eye of Redding High's bullies, as well as the school's resident teenage ghost. Then she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies. When her old imaginary childhood friend, Pelly, actually manifests, Imogene realizes that the impossible is all too real. And it's dangerous. If she wants to survive high school-not to mention stay alive-she has to fall back on the skills she picked up in her hometown, running with a gang. Even with her new friend Maxine and some unexpected allies by her side, will she be able to make it?

Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell. Since they were introduced in the first Newford story, "Timeskip," back in 1989, their friends and readers alike have been waiting for them to realize what everybody else already knows: that they belong together. But they've been more clueless about how they feel for each other than the characters in When Harry Met Sally. Now in Widdershins, a stand-alone novel of fairy courts set in shopping malls and the Bohemian street scene of Newford's Crowsea area, Jilly and Geordie's story is finally being told.

Before it's over, we'll find ourselves plunged into the rancorous and sometimes violent conflict between the magical North American "animal people" and the more newly-arrived fairy folk. We'll watch as Jilly is held captive in a sinister world based on her own worst memories--and Geordie, attempting to help, is sent someplace even worse. And we'll be captivated by the power of love and determination to redeem ancient hatreds and heal old magics gone sour.

To walk "widdershins" is to walk counterclockwise or backwards around something. It's a classic pathway into the fairy realm. It's also the way people often back slowly into the relationships that matter, the real ones that make for a life. In Widdershins Charles de Lint has delivered one of his most accessible and moving works of his career.

With the help of a mentor and an anonymous benefactor, Jilly Coppercorn has overcome abuse, addiction, and a stint in juvie. Though she still struggles to stay clean, she has found safety and love in a newly formed family that includes her loyal best friend, a lovely artist, and her caseworker. Temptation comes knocking, however, when her best friend from the bad old days rides in on a motorcycle and takes Jilly to a beautiful, mysterious city full of wonderful opportunities. It seems perfect at first, until Jilly discovers that it was a one-way trip-and she still has unfinished business in Newford. At turns playful and serious, this urban fantasy introduces de Lint's most enduring character and grapples with the realities of life-changing choices.

When fourteen-year-old TJ and her family are forced to move from their farm to the suburbs, she has to give up her beloved horse, Red-but she makes a surprising new friend. Elizabeth is a "Little," a six-inch-high punked-out teen with an attitude, who has run away from home to make her way in the world. TJ and Elizabeth-the Big and the Little-soon become friends, but each quickly finds herself in a truly life-threatening situation, and they are unable to help each other.Little (Grrl) Lost is a delightful combination of realism, magic, humor, and hope, and is sure to win Charles de Lint many new teen and adult fans.

High school senior Miguel's life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog--a real Australian dingo--she's unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There's no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her--but what price will each of them have to pay?

Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford--a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.

From the master of contemporary urban fantasy, a new collection of "Newford" stories

The city of Newford could be any city in North America, bursting with music, commerce, art, love, hate, and, of course magic. Magic in the sidewalk cracks, myth at the foundations of its great buildings, enchantment in the spaces between its people.

In novels like Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and The Mystery of Grace, and in a series of story collections, urban fantasy master Charles de Lint has explored that magic and those spaces, bringing to life a tapestry of people from all walks of life, each looking for a spark of the miraculous to shape their lives and transform their fate.

Here, in the fifth of the story collections, we reencounter old friends such as Jilly, Sophie, and the Crow Girls. We breathe in intimations of the world beyond death, and of magic beyond time. Longtime readers and newcomers alike will find themselves under Charles de Lint's unique spell.

Charles de Lint's readers have been asking him to put together story collections featuring their favourite Newford characters. The crow girls are among his best-loved characters, so de Lint obliged by gathering their stories all under one roof, so to speak. Some other members of the Newford repertory company show up here, but at the forefront of each story are these two little wild girls with their big personalities.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Joanne Harris
• Crow Girls - (1995) - shortstory
• Twa Corbies - (1998) - shortstory
• The Buffalo Man - (1999) - novelette
• A Crow Girls' Christmas - (2001) - shortstory with MaryAnn Harris
• Make a Joyful Noise - (2005) - novelette
• Afterword - essay
• Someplace to Be Flying (excerpt) - shortfiction

De Lint's first adult fantasy novel in 8 years weaves a rich tapestry of story with classic CdL elegance.

Young Thomas Corn Eyes sees into the otherworld, but all he wants to do is get off the rez. Steve Cole escaped from his rock star life to disappear into the desert and mountains. Fifteen-year-old barrio kid Sadie Higgins has been discarded once too often. Blogger Leah Hardin needs to leave Newford, come to terms with the loss of her best friend, and actually engage with her life. When these lives collide in the Hierro Maderas Mountains, they must struggle to escape their messy pasts and find a way to carve a future for themselves.

They don't just have to learn how to survive. They have to learn how to fly.

Not far from the city there is an ancient wood, forgotten by the modern world, where Mystery walks in the moonlight. He wears the shape of a stag, or a goat, or a horned man wearing a cloak of leaves. He is summoned by the music of the pipes or a fire of bones on Midsummer's Evening. He is chased by the hunt and shadowed by the wild girl.

This short story originally appeared in Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 7: Spring 1990. The story can also be found in Spiritwalk (1992), Waifs and Strays (2002) and The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010).

When Sara and Jamie discovered the seemingly ordinary artifacts, they sensed the pull of a dim and distant place. A world of mists and forests, of ancient magics, mythical beings, ageless bards...and restless evil.

Now, with their friends and enemies alike--Blue, the biker; Keiran, the folk musician; the Inspector from the RCMP; and the mysterious Tom Hengyr--Sara and Jamie are drawn into this enchanted land through the portals of Tamson House, that sprawling downtown edifice that straddles two worlds.

Sweeping from ancient Wales to the streets of Ottawa today, Moonheart will entrance you with its tale of this world and the other one at the very edge of sight...and the unforgettable people caught up in the affairs of both. A tale of music, and motorcycles, and fey folk beyond the shadows of the moon. A tale of true magic; the tale of Moonheart.

Tamson House, in modern, urban Ottawa, is a rambling, eccentric curiosity of a house--and a place of hidden Power. Built at a point where the leylines meet, upon land that was once a sacred site, it is the gateway to a spirit world where Celtic and Native American magicks mingle and leak into our own.

In the overgrown garden of Tamson House, a Coyote Man waits, green children walk, and music rises to greet the moon. From the garden, a vast and primal wood is just one spirit-step away... and in that wood is something that threatens the very existence of Tamson House, and all who dwell within.

Charles de Lint returns to the spirit-world of his bestselling Moonheart in a splendid work of urban fantasy, bringing myth, music, and magic into our modern world.

I've flirted with variations on the mystery form in other books. Mulengro, Angel of Darkness and From a Whisper to a Scream (the latter two first published under the pen name of Samuel M. Key) were all, at their heart, police procedurals, sparked mostly, I'd guess, from years of reading Ed McBain. I'd also touched on spy thrillers (the RCMP sections of Moonheart), tropes such as organized crime (the Mafia in Greenmantle), and various hardboiled characters who've shown up in the pages of various novels and stories.

But this was the first time that I sat down to deliberately write a mystery novel, with a PI as a lead character, and no fantasy elements whatsoever, hedging my bets only slightly by giving Jevon "Jake" Swann a love for Celtic music. (It doesn't matter where you put Celtic music; it always holds a touch of magic to it.) And then I set the story in Ottawa, because that's where I was living at the time and I liked having my characters walk around in the same neighbourhoods that I did, or could.

--Charles de Lint

Cat Midhir is a writer of magical fantasy novels. But Cat has a secret - her plots are not culled from the realms of her imagination but from the realms of sleep. But suddenly the dreams stop and Cat is deprived of the land of her muse - and a series of murders is experienced by the town.

Again Clive Folliot, 19th-century explorer, searches for his brother in the Dungeon, a multi-level helix of beings from distant galaxies and pockets of time. He and his fellow captives battle daily for their lives.

Clive and Neville Folliot and their companions in the Dungeon face their ultimate peril in the Ren and the Chaffri, the masters of the Dungeon maze.

Ill Met In Lankhmar:

They are the two greatest heroes ever to walk the World of Nehwon: Fafhrd, the giant barbarian warrior from the Cold Waste; and the Gray Mouser, novice wizard, master thief, and swordsman unparalleled.

The Fair in Emain Macha:

For the past six months, something has been happening to teens in Santa Feliz. Seventeen-year-old Josh Saunders has seen the news reports, but he is still unprepared when it happens to him. One minute he's arguing with his mother's boyfriend and the next, he's looming over the man, blood dripping from his claws -- he has transformed into a mountain lion.

When Josh switches back to his human body, he knows his life has changed forever. He has become a Wildling. Pursued by both government authorities and criminal factions, Wildlings must hide their newfound abilities to avoid being locked up for study and experimentation. When an accidental betrayal reveals Josh's secret, his carefully constructed cover is ripped apart, forcing his friends to intervene. They must grudgingly put their trust in other Wildlings -- and, most challenging, each other -- if they ever hope to save him.

Life is complicated in the once-quiet beach town of Santa Feliz. Over the past six months many teens have inexplicably become animal shape-shifters known as Wildlings. The town is rife with fear, and Wildlings have quickly learned to keep their animal identities hidden or face persecution.

Now that Josh Saunders has a mountain lion living under his skin, his life seems to careen from one crisis to another. His best friends have just helped him narrowly escape cruel medical experimentation, and now that he's back home Josh wants at least a few more days of living like a normal teenager. But the FBI is tailing him, a vengeful school bully is out to hurt and expose him, and a formidable Wildling Elder has secretly arranged to have him killed by the hand of one of his own Wildling friends.

In Charles de Lint's dramatic follow-up novel to Under My Skin, Josh must confront all the inherent dangers of his new life, including violent street gangs and the threat of treachery on the part of some his very best friends. His longtime confidante, Marina, is once again keeping secrets from him, and as Josh discovers how to harness and wield his newfound powers, he faces crucial decisions about the bonds of leadership, love and loyalty.

At the end of Over My Head, Josh has propelled himself into the Otherworld where he believes his former girlfriend Elzie is in imminent danger. He leaves behind his closest friends: Marina, whose fledgling romance with Theo is increasingly complicated by her undeniable feelings for Josh, and Des, who is trying to figure out his own role amongst his Wildling friends. In this unpredictable world a side-step from our own, Josh discovers more about the awesome power he holds within as he deals with hostility from certain animal clans and elders.

Back in Santa Feliz his friends are facing a huge anti-Wildling rally that threatens all Wildling teens with segregation and incarceration. In the most tense and perilous of circumstances in both worlds, Josh and his friends must rely on each other's love, ingenuity and loyalty just to survive.