In these postmodernist episodes of high comedy, Don Webb turns Ovid's classic work, The Metamorphosis, on its head Awarded the 1988 Illinois State University/Fiction Collective Prize through a nationwide fiction competition, Webb's first book of fiction, Uncle Ovid's Exercise Book, explores the theme of change in hitherto unimagined manifestations--from the everyday to the mysterious to the miraculous. These eight dozen "metamorphoses" are widely funny, profound, and--like change itself--always surprising. With rare originality and breadth, Webb draws upon Egyptian mythology, molecular biology, classical poetry, contemporary pop culture, literary theory, Eastern mysticism, and science fiction, composing them into an offbeat fugue on the theme of transformation. "Metamorphosis No. 39" resurrects the ancient Egyptian gods, Set, Toth, and Osiris, who return to America to mastermind a plot to alter contemporary consciousness. Their scheme includes the broadcast of subliminal archetypal images during returns of "I Love Lucy." In a later metamorphosis, another ancient god--Dionysius--returns to modern day Atlantic City to recruit winos for a new band of satyrs. Ancient gods are not the only agents of change. Metamorphosis also spreads to the White House in an episode describing the clandestine life of the president's drug supplier--who risks death to satisfy the chief executive's taste for organic hallucinogens. A hilarious New Age western saga unfolds in "Metamorphosis No.5" W.B. Porter, the "Last of the Singing Cowboys"-- a hero with a degree in chemical engineering and a proficiency on the sitar--foils the Uzi-toting Mendoza gang--"tough hombres schooled in the Fourteen Mysteries of Toltec Sorcery"--in their attempt to pull a heist on a condo construction project. This theme of transformation extends even to the farming narrative of UOEB itself, which at one point unexpectedly becomes the diary of an Englishwoman who is held captive in a potting shed by a maniacal pastor. These variations on a theme are sometimes hilarious, sometimes cryptic, sometimes curiously moving--and always disturbingly provocative. With his hat off to Ovid, Don Webb pulls together high-spirited wit, eclecticism, and sheer inventiveness to make Uncle Ovid's Exercise Book a richly comic, absorbing, and singular work of a new order.

Like a caper novel as Philip K. Dick might have written it, Endless Honeymoon is a weird and wild run through the world of crime. Way back when, Robin Hood's turf for his deeds of derring-do was England. Nowadays, Willis and Virginia work the turf in Texas, righting wrongs by spotting society's nastiest creeps---the mean and bitter people who make everybody's lives worse. (A high-powered computer program allows them to identify these people easily.) Their modus operandi is to perform an ingenious prank on the nasty cuss in hopes of rehabilititating him or her. Imagine the shock when they put a prank into action on July 4th . . . only to find their victim has just been murdered for real. Someone must be one step ahead of them. And indeed, someone is, a shadowy figure. Someone else is also lurking one step behind them, and there's an FBI agent who's keeping pace with them, and it seems there are other figures in the mix . . .

"In Don Webb s ""Weird Wild West,"" Henry James avenges his brother Jesse, Robert E. Howard s serpent people are a modern gang, Satan flies a Zeppelin, and hobos liberate a zebra from a stolen train. Great weird fiction set in the west! Don Webb can write straight tales or he can go out to the fringe, where the cutting edge hasn t even cut yet, [where he] plays head-churning games and word games: [he s] a full spectrum writer. Roger Zelazny"

Philosophy of the Temple of Set.

New commentaries on Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law reveal how it is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths • Examines each line of the Book of the Law in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, Gurdjieff’s teachings, and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought • Explores Crowley’s identification with the First Beast of Revelations as well as his adoption of the Loki archetype for becoming a vessel of love for all humanity • Recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation • Includes commentary on the Book of the Law by Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996 Received by Aleister Crowley in April 1904 in Cairo, Egypt, the Book of the Law is the most provocative record of magical working in several hundred years, affecting not only organizations directly associated with Crowley such as the Ordo Templi Orientis but also modern Wicca, Chaos Magic, and the Temple of Set. Boldly defying Crowley’s warning not to comment on the Book of the Law, Ipsissimus Don Webb provides in-depth interpretation from both Black and White Magical perspectives, including commentary from Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996. Webb examines each line of the Book in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, existentialism, and competing occult systems such as the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought. Discarding the common image of Crowley formulated in a spiritually unsophisticated time when the devotee of the Left-Hand Path was dismissed as a selfish evil doer, Webb unveils a new side of Crowley based on his adoption of the Loki archetype and his aim to become a vessel of love for all humanity. In so doing, he shows how the Book of the Law is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths and reveals how Crowley’s magical path of mastery over the self and Cosmos overthrew the gods of old religion, which had kept humanity asleep to dream the nightmare of history. Providing in-depth analysis of Crowley’s sources and his self-identification with the First Beast of Revelation from a profound esoteric perspective, Webb takes his views out of the Golden Dawn matrix within which he received the Book of the Law and radically recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation.

• Explains how a Vampyre is not a blood-sucking mythical figure but a shaman who is skilled in gathering, using, and storing energy for magical power and personal liberation • Reveals how to gather and store energy from the world around you and shares magical techniques, manifestation methods, and practices to utilize the energy you have collected • Looks at servitors and familiars, vampyric runes, dream architecture, money magick practices, and sex magick techniques as well as advanced practices such as healing with vampyric magick In this initiatory guide, Don Webb explains how to learn from the myth of the vampire to gather, use, and store energy for magical power, manifestation, and personal liberation. A Master of the Order of the Vampyre within the Temple of Set, the author shares a 9-month process to awaken and initiate you as a Vampyre and allow you to actualize your hidden potential. Webb begins by explaining how to gather energy from the world around you and store it in the body, in artifacts and talismans, and in groups of people, such as a coven. Through the 9 stages of initiation, the author offers guided magical techniques, manifestation methods, and experiments to utilize the energy you have learned to gather and store. He also examines familiars, Vampyric runes, money magick practices, and sex magic techniques. Sharing more advanced practices, Webb looks at the creation and destruction of egregores and how to fight off psychic vampires--those who steal your power and energies. Achieve greater self-knowledge, a deeper connection with the energies that surround you, and the power to manifest your deepest desires by walking the path of the Vampyre.

The Cutting Edge of Modern Short Fiction A three-time Hugo Award nominated magazine, this issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine offers up ten fantastic stories by some of the best writers working in modern short fiction. No genre limitations, no topic limitations, just great stories. Attitude, feel, and high-quality fiction equals Pulphouse. “This is definitely a strong start. All the stories have a lot of life to them, and are worthwhile reading.” —Tangent Online on Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Issue #1 Includes: “When the Cows Come Home” by Keith West “Bubba and the DeLorean” by David H. Hendrickson “The Neighborhood Kook” by Don Webb “Love and the Dead in the Life of Jack Joy Merryman” by Rob Vagle “Good As Dead” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman “Planet Dungheap” by Daemon Crowe “Start Making Sense” by Robert Jeschonek “Everyday New, Bright, and Beautiful” by Annie Reed “Love and Murder” by O’Neil De Noux “The Viral Video Guy” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch “Minions at Work: Choose or Consequences” by J. Steven York

JUDAS PAYNE: A WEIRD WESTERN, by Michael Hemmingson. Judas Payne was the devil's spawn, a product of rape, a half-white, half-Indian outcast who was loved only by his pretty half-sister, Evangeline. When his father finds them naked in the barn, he takes out one of his son's eyes. Judas runs for his life, and meets up with a number of colorful characters out there in the "Weird Wild West."--Publisher description from http://www.wildsidebooks.com (Oct. 10, 2011).

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #32. This issue, we have more original stories than ever before. Editors Michael Bracken and Cynthia Ward have brought in new tales by Wil A. Emerson and the writing team of Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb, and I snagged magazine rights to Mel Gilden’s new novel, The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood. Mel’s story is a new and thoroughly modern take on the Mary Poppins theme. Wil Emerson has a study on the dynamics of detective partners. And Blachke and Webb’s story (as Cindy Ward put it) “reveals the connections between Nietszche’s abyss, Lovecraft’s god-monsters and non-Euclidean spaces, and Cordwainer Smith’s monsters of subspace.” Wow! Not to be outdone, Barb Goffman acquired Stacy Woodson’s first story, which won the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Reader’s Award. And, of course, we have a solve-it-yourself mystery from Hal Charles, a historical adventure novel from Edison Marshall, and a slew of great science fiction stories from such masters as Henry Slesar, and Edmond Hamilson. And a World War II fantasy from Malcolm Edwards. Here’s the lineup: Non-Fiction: “Speaking with Robert Sheckley,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer [interview] Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Insieme,” by Wil A. Emerson [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “An Eggcellent Equation,” by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery] “Paper Caper,” by James Holding [short story] “Duty, Honor, Hammett,” by Stacy Woodson [Barb Goffman Presents short story] The Infinite Woman, by Edison Marshall [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: It Gazes Back,” by Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb [Cynthia Ward Presents short story] The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood, by Mel Gilden [serialized novel] “Vengeance in Her Bones,” by Malcolm Jameson [short story] “The Man Who Liked Lions,” by John Bernard Daley [short story] “A Message from Our Sponsor,” by Henry Slesar [short story] Crashing Suns, by Edmond Hamilton [novel]

A Spell for the Fulfillment of Desire is a postmodern magical papyrus collecting the short fiction of Don Webb from around the globe, and presenting his unique views on sex, language, and fictioneering. Drawing from science fiction, linguistics, and the artistic concerns of post-Fluxus avant-garde, A Spell for the Fulfillment of Desire provides us tales which are sexy, funny, and thought-provoking. A cultural artifact from a different star, his work straddles many boundaries.