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Now in paperback, the third installment in the classic tales of the Legend of Drizzt. When a lone drow emerges from the Underdark into the blinding light of day, the Forgotten Realms world will be changed forever.

Vermont isn't just beautiful mountains, farms, maple syrup or horses; it's also a state of mind that many experience, others merely dream of. For Richard Talbot, successful law partner from Stamford, Connecticut, it's the latter.

At the age of fifty-two, Richard had it all: the big house, the membership at an exclusive country club, the stunning wife. Yet on a random spring Sunday morning he found himself parked outside The Country Girl Diner in Chester, Vermont, wondering why he was so unhappy.

Serendipity brings his past back into his life through perfect strangers and a series of seemingly magical coincidences. He once knew joy, and was determined to recapture it.

Over the course of one week, the things that this man holds most dear in life become, like the mountains of Vermont, stunningly obvious. He can't go back in time, but love turned out to be timeless.

Richard's heart had waited long enough...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's note:

This is my third novel. Of all my stories, this one turned out to be more "literary fiction" than even I planned. A full year and a half after finishing, I still found surprises I didn't consciously know I wrote. It's as if the story was always right there, just waiting for me to act as a channel in the typing.

The goal in my writing is to make people think, reconsider, look at life through a different lens. I try to instill hope and trust through my characters, making them learn the same lessons as the stories progress.

The only part I disliked about writing Vermont Sojourn was finishing. All those characters, the animals...I became so close to them it was painful to let them all go. But like our own children we must set them free, into the world, to fly on their own.

Two years after finishing the writing, I was hiking here in Kent, CT, next to the Housatonic River with my dog, Dixie. It was late fall, and the river was white with its rushing water over all the rocks. My thoughts went right to my old story, despite the fact that I was currently writing my fifth. I rushed home with my emotions pumping to write this poem:

The pines and maples whisper in the wind
Calling to me, in their serene, same voice
In bygone years their message was sent
Did I heed their wisdom in my choice?

The boughs do bend low with time
Some do break, falling down to ground
Can time forgive my own limbs' reach?
Will life, its harshness, leave mine sound?

That wind, the very same I knew
Its secrets rolling o'er valleys green
Return! Thou shant deny this soul
Imprints of the truths thou hath seen

Blow away, but oh, please now return
This heart doth promise this time!
One chance, one more, I do beseech
I promise you, my love can learn!


I hope you fall in love with my characters as I did, and cherish this story forever.

~ jlg

P.S.: I set the cost of all my books at the lowest possible figure because I want everyone, in this scary economy, to be able to enjoy my stories.

Other books by James Griffin on Kindle: "The Special One" and "Josh's Ocean"

Vermont isn't just beautiful mountains, farms, maple syrup or horses; it's also a state of mind that many experience, others merely dream of. For Richard Talbot, successful law partner from Stamford, Connecticut, it's the latter.

At the age of fifty-two, Richard had it all: the big house, the membership at an exclusive country club, the stunning wife. Yet on a random spring Sunday morning he found himself parked outside The Country Girl Diner in Chester, Vermont, wondering why he was so unhappy.

Serendipity brings his past back into his life through perfect strangers and a series of seemingly magical coincidences. He once knew joy, and was determined to recapture it.

Over the course of one week, the things that this man holds most dear in life become, like the mountains of Vermont, stunningly obvious. He can't go back in time, but love turned out to be timeless.

Richard's heart had waited long enough...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's note:

This is my third novel. Of all my stories, this one turned out to be more "literary fiction" than even I planned. A full year and a half after finishing, I still found surprises I didn't consciously know I wrote. It's as if the story was always right there, just waiting for me to act as a channel in the typing.

The goal in my writing is to make people think, reconsider, look at life through a different lens. I try to instill hope and trust through my characters, making them learn the same lessons as the stories progress.

The only part I disliked about writing Vermont Sojourn was finishing. All those characters, the animals...I became so close to them it was painful to let them all go. But like our own children we must set them free, into the world, to fly on their own.

Two years after finishing the writing, I was hiking here in Kent, CT, next to the Housatonic River with my dog, Dixie. It was late fall, and the river was white with its rushing water over all the rocks. My thoughts went right to my old story, despite the fact that I was currently writing my fifth. I rushed home with my emotions pumping to write this poem:

The pines and maples whisper in the wind
Calling to me, in their serene, same voice
In bygone years their message was sent
Did I heed their wisdom in my choice?

The boughs do bend low with time
Some do break, falling down to ground
Can time forgive my own limbs' reach?
Will life, its harshness, leave mine sound?

That wind, the very same I knew
Its secrets rolling o'er valleys green
Return! Thou shant deny this soul
Imprints of the truths thou hath seen

Blow away, but oh, please now return
This heart doth promise this time!
One chance, one more, I do beseech
I promise you, my love can learn!


I hope you fall in love with my characters as I did, and cherish this story forever.

~ jlg

P.S.: I set the cost of all my books at the lowest possible figure because I want everyone, in this scary economy, to be able to enjoy my stories.

Other books by James Griffin on Kindle: "The Special One" and "Josh's Ocean"

She was the last surviving member of the glorious Eighteenth Dynasty, a dynasty that had produced many of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs: Ankhsenamun, daughter of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaten, founder of the world’s first monotheistic religion, and his Great Wife, the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. Now her brother-husband, King Tutankhamun, was dead, killed in a chariot accident while on a hunting expedition.
In this massively inbred family, after many generations of brother-sister and father-daughter marriages, the royal couple had never succeeded in producing a living heir – only a pair of stillborn babies with terrible birth defects. Now, with the news that her husband was dead, Ankhsenamun was faced with limited choices, none of them good: allow her dynasty to die out; marry Egypt’s strong man, General Horemheb, and face being murdered by his scheming wife; or marry a son of Egypt’s arch enemy and risk the wrath of her people. Could she find another way?
Her grandfather could take the throne and protect her for a while, but he was an old man whose own heir was dead. Who could she turn to? Certainly not the General, a power-hungry commoner she considered her “servant”! The King of the Hittites, with his many marriageable sons? Or the handsome Habiru trader Amram, one of the Children of Israel, who had long acted as a royal spy in the lands of foreign kings?
Amram had served her loyally for many years, as a purveyor of exotic foreign goods and international espionage. He had served as her clandestine messenger to foreign kings, guarding both her secrets and her safety. Could he now serve her in a more personal and intimate way to extricate her from her dynastic quandary? Her heart beat faster, even thinking about it....
But in the end, she would have to choose between her heart and her throne.

She was the last surviving member of the glorious Eighteenth Dynasty, a dynasty that had produced many of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs: Ankhsenamun, daughter of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaten, founder of the world’s first monotheistic religion, and his Great Wife, the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. Now her brother-husband, King Tutankhamun, was dead, killed in a chariot accident while on a hunting expedition.
In this massively inbred family, after many generations of brother-sister and father-daughter marriages, the royal couple had never succeeded in producing a living heir – only a pair of stillborn babies with terrible birth defects. Now, with the news that her husband was dead, Ankhsenamun was faced with limited choices, none of them good: allow her dynasty to die out; marry Egypt’s strong man, General Horemheb, and face being murdered by his scheming wife; or marry a son of Egypt’s arch enemy and risk the wrath of her people. Could she find another way?
Her grandfather could take the throne and protect her for a while, but he was an old man whose own heir was dead. Who could she turn to? Certainly not the General, a power-hungry commoner she considered her “servant”! The King of the Hittites, with his many marriageable sons? Or the handsome Habiru trader Amram, one of the Children of Israel, who had long acted as a royal spy in the lands of foreign kings?
Amram had served her loyally for many years, as a purveyor of exotic foreign goods and international espionage. He had served as her clandestine messenger to foreign kings, guarding both her secrets and her safety. Could he now serve her in a more personal and intimate way to extricate her from her dynastic quandary? Her heart beat faster, even thinking about it....
But in the end, she would have to choose between her heart and her throne.

Memoir has become the signature genre of our age.

In this collection of essays, Patricia Hampl attempts to explain the lure of the memoir. It is today one of the most popular literary genres, but not long ago, readers would have been hard-pressed even to find memoir sections in their favorite bookstores. Hampl, who herself is a memoirist of note (A Romantic Education and Virgin Time) opens the book with some of her own memories. She recalls a bus trip during the Vietnam War era to visit her "draft resister" boyfriend in jail. When the bus stops along the way in a small town, she notices a large, middle-age woman passionately kissing a very handsome, much younger man, or is it the other way around? The woman boards the bus while the young man runs along outside, blowing her kisses. She takes the seat next to Hampl and says with a sigh, "I could tell you stories."

This small event sets the stage for the rest of the book--it draws a narrative out of a mostly mundane moment and underscores the complicated nature of remembering events as they actually happened. She writes that because "everyone 'has' a memoir, we all have a stake in how such stories are told. For we do not, after all, simply have experience; we are entrusted with it." In the balance of the book, Hampl examines the autobiographical writings of St. Augustine, Anne Frank, Sylvia Plath, Edith Stein, and Czeslaw Milosz. In each instance, she attempts to uncover the writer's intentions and reveal the true secrets that lurk in the shadows of what's on the page. I Could Tell You Stories is an excellent investigation into what makes a story essentially worthy of being told and ultimately read--a good companion to whatever book is currently in your hands. --Jordana Moskowitz

Through past-life stories, Sojourn illustrates how karma and reincarnation work, and how the soul delivers lessons, heals psychological wounds, and develops talents over the course of our many lifetimes. Sojourn also describes the stages of evolution and the unique perceptions, lessons, and contributions of each stage, and how soul age affects how we parent, what we enjoy doing, our choice of work, and our relationships. The stories and information were given to Gina Lake in 1997 by her inner teacher.

Two years out of college and with a degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Victoria Riccardi left a boyfriend, a rent-controlled New York City apartment, and a plum job in advertising to move to Kyoto to study kaiseki, the exquisitely refined form of cooking that accompanies the formal Japanese tea ceremony. She arrived in Kyoto, a city she had dreamed about but never seen, with two bags, an open-ended plane ticket, and the ability to speak only sushi-bar Japanese. She left a year later, having learned the language, the art of kaiseki, and what was truly important to her.

Through special introductions and personal favors, Victoria was able to attend one of Kyoto’s most prestigious tea schools, where this ago-old Japanese art has been preserved for generations and where she was taken under the wing of an American expatriate who became her mentor in the highly choreographed rituals of this extraordinary culinary discipline.

During her year in Kyoto, Victoria explored the mysterious and rarefied world of tea kaiseki, living a life inaccessible to most foreigners. She also discovered the beguiling realm of modern-day Japanese food—the restaurants, specialty shops, and supermarkets. She participated in many fast-disappearing culinary customs, including making mochi (chewy rice cakes) by hand, a beloved family ritual barely surviving in a mechanized age. She celebrated the annual cleansing rites of New Year’s, donning an elaborate kimono and obi for a thirty-four-course extravaganza. She includes twenty-five recipes for favorite dishes she encountered, such as Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl, Japanese Beef and Vegetable Hotpot, and Green-Tea Cooked Salmon Over Rice.

Untangling My Chopsticks is a sumptuous journey into the tastes, traditions, and exotic undercurrents of Japan. It is also a coming-of-age tale steeped in history and ancient customs, a thoughtful meditation on life, love, and learning in another land.