· 2006
Focusing on the Walking Purchase as the central event in the long process of dispossessing Delawares both geographically and ethnically, Steven Harper observes the transformation of a fragile, if generally peaceful middle ground, habitable by Delawares and English on negotiable terms, to an English colony determined to possess a boundless landscape by fraud and force.
· 2022
Two men become friends in a graveyard in this moving novel of love, loss, and redemption. Arthur Tor steals the dead for a living. As a resurrection man, he creeps around graveyards with his shovel, hoping to dig up corpses so he can sell them to the local medical college and pay his tuition there. He also holds a strange position in underground society. If someone is dying a slow, painful death, the family members come to Arthur and beg him to end their loved one's pain. Arthur can never refuse, and he helps the dying painlessly cross the threshold in a process he calls the Black Rounds. Unfortunately, a local judge has gotten wind of Arthur's activities and has sworn to send him to prison—or the hangman's noose. Jesse Fair has fled his corrupt family in Baltimore and landed in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he becomes the town gravedigger and undertaker, and he works hard to help grieving families through their pain with warmth and compassion. Some families make odd requests for their dearly departed, and Jesse discovers that the undertaker must often deal with the absurd side of death. But his venomous family is still searching for him. Relentlessly. And once they find him, Jesse will have to make a terrible choice. When Jesse catches Arthur in the act of robbing a grave, the two of them form a strange friendship and even stranger partnership that digs deep into social taboos—and into their own souls. In his first book since the critically acclaimed novel The Importance of Being Kevin, Steven Harper spins a heartfelt, uplifting story of suspense, life, and love against the backdrop of a Michigan town at the edge of the frontier.
· 2007
An original adventure novel based on the hit Battlestar Galactica television series, written by Stephen Harper. The Cylons release a famous singer to the fleet who acts as a Typhoid Mary, carrying a virus that causes nerve and motor tissues to deteriorate. This works to weaken the fleet for a Cylon attack, which will only come when they can no longer fight it off.
· 2024
A brave half-troll must stop an evil elf queen from destroying the world in this epic fantasy trilogy finale by the author of Blood Storm. The three Fates tend the sacred Garden, which orders all lives both mortal and immortal. But everything is thrown out of order when the evil elf queen abducts one of the fates. The future of every being, including Death herself, is now in jeopardy. There is only one hero who can defeat the elf queen: Danr the half-troll. But first, Danr must first find the fabled Bone Sword. With it, he can free the Fate and destroy the evil queen. Unfortunately, he must do so without the help of his companions, as they are busy hunting down a dangerous creature with a terrifyingly familiar face. Danr and Aisa must go it alone and they must hurry before the Garden dies and all is lost. But even if they do succeed, Danr may still need to make his greatest sacrifice yet . . . Praise for Iron Axe “Steven Harper created a world that I never got tired of exploring.” —The Qwillery “[Harper’s] reinterpretations of trolls, giants, and fae folk give this series opener a fresh feeling, while his nods to Norse mythology and folklore root it strongly in fantasy tradition. Readers will be eager to see what’s in store for Aisa and Danr.” —Publishers Weekly “The story holds all of the adventure, magic, and mystery I have come to expect from the genre. . . .[It] follows a hero’s journey . . . with energy and artfulness.” —Wicked Little Pixie
· 2019
This is the biography of a contested memory, how it was born, grew, changed the world, and was changed by it. It's the story of the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began. Joseph Smith, the church's founder, remembered that his first audible prayer, uttered in spring of 1820 when he was about fourteen, was answered with a vision of heavenly beings. Appearing to the boy in the woods near his parents' home in western New York State, they told Smith that he was forgiven and warned him that Christianity had gone astray. Smith created a rich and controversial historical record by narrating and documenting this event repeatedly. In First Vision, Steven C. Harper shows how Latter-day Saints (beginning with Joseph Smith) and others have remembered this experience and rendered it meaningful. When and why and how did Joseph Smith's first vision, as saints know the event, become their seminal story? What challenges did it face along the way? What changes did it undergo as a result? Can it possibly hold its privileged position against the tides of doubt and disbelief, memory studies, and source criticism-all in the information age? Steven C. Harper tells the story of how Latter-day Saints forgot and then remembered accounts of Smith's experience and how Smith's 1838 account was redacted and canonized. He explores the dissonance many saints experienced after discovering multiple accounts of Smith's experience. He describes how, for many, the dissonance has been resolved by a reshaped collective memory.
Battlestar Galactica, recognized as one of the most provocative, and socially relevant series of the new millennium, earned its status as a classic American drama series after its very first, Peabody Award-winning season. Here, for the first time in one volume, are all three original Battlestar Galactica novels--based on the highly-lauded TV series that took the country by storm. In The Cylons' Secret, by Craig Shaw Gardner, a ship, scavenging the outer settlements for valuable Cylon technologies after the first human-Cylon war, stumbles on a super-secret scientific outpost beyond charted space. Mere hours later, Battlestar Galactica receives a one-word distress call from the scavenging ship: "Cylons," causing the young Colonel William Adama to investigate. Sagittarius Is Bleeding, by Peter David, concerns President Laura Roslin, whose prophetic dreams have infused her people with hope that they will find Earth, humanity's cradle. But her new dreams of a galaxy overrun by the Cylons disturb her even as they energize an extremist political group. The threat of violent revolt puts Roslin at personal risk and endangers the fleet. In Unity by Steven Harper, Peter Attis, a rock star adored by all the fleet, including Starbuck, has recently been rescued from a Cylon prison ship. But after his first post-return concert, crewmembers are stricken by a strange malady that threatens to lay the fleet open to Cylon attack. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
· 2009
On a spring day in 1961, over-the-road trucker Jim Harper was en route from Mauston, Wisconsin, to his home in Minneapolis. At 70 miles per hour, with a combined 60,000 pounds of man, machine, and material, he approached a curve along the Great River Road and hit the brakes. The tractor-trailer didn't slow. Harper's brake lines had been cut. In preceding months, Harper had led an insurgency in his Teamsters' Local 544 to clean up corruption among its leaders. His efforts drew the attention of none other than Jimmy Hoffa, at the time focused on securing his right to lead the national Teamsters organization without government intervention. Jim Harper had his reasons for confronting his local's leadership--a hardscrabble childhood and a stint in Angola prison had left him seeking redemption, and Jimmy Hoffa had publicly called for union reform. But Hoffa, under federal investigation for questionable financial dealings, had deep, dark secrets; the last thing he needed was a spotlight on Minneapolis. Despite the increasing threats to his life and those of his young family, Harper continued to press his case. In this fascinating account, Harper's son traces the interwoven paths of these two men--a criminal icon and a determined vigilante--from their formative years through their unbelievable face-off.
· 2011
Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my! Writing a paranormal novel takes more than casting an alluring vampire or arming your hero with a magic wand. It takes an original idea, believable characters, a compelling plot, and surprising twists, not to mention great writing. This helpful guide gives you everything you need to successfully introduce supernatural elements into any story without shattering the believability of your fictional world or falling victim to common cliches. You'll learn how to: • Choose supernatural elements and decide what impact the supernatural will have on your fictional world • Create engaging and relatable characters from supernatural protagonists and antagonists to supporting players (both human and non-human) • Develop strong plots and complementary subplots • Write believable fight scenes and flashbacks • Create realistic dialogue • And much more Complete with tips for researching your novel and strategies for getting published, Writing the Paranormal Novel gives you everything you need to craft a novel where even the most unusual twist is not only possible - it's believable.
· 2016
A noble profession is facing its defining moment. From law schools to the prestigious firms that represent the pinnacle of a legal career, a crisis is unfolding. News headlines tell part of the story—the growing oversupply of new lawyers, widespread career dissatisfaction, and spectacular implosions of pre-eminent law firms. Yet eager hordes of bright young people continue to step over each other as they seek jobs with high rates of depression, life-consuming hours, and little assurance of financial stability. The Great Recession has only worsened these trends, but correction is possible and, now, imperative. In The Lawyer Bubble, Steven J. Harper reveals how a culture of short-term thinking has blinded some of the nation’s finest minds to the long-run implications of their actions. Law school deans have ceded independent judgment to flawed U.S. News & World Report rankings criteria in the quest to maximize immediate results. Senior partners in the nation’s large law firms have focused on current profits to enhance American Lawyer rankings and individual wealth at great cost to their institutions. Yet, wiser decisions—being honest about the legal job market, revisiting the financial incentives currently driving bad behavior, eliminating the billable hour model, and more—can take the profession to a better place. A devastating indictment of the greed, shortsightedness, and dishonesty that now permeate the legal profession, this insider account is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how things went so wrong and how the profession can right itself once again.
· 2015
In this brand new series from the author of the Clockwork Empire series, a hopeless outcast must answer Death’s call and embark on an epic adventure.... Although Danr’s mother was human, his father was one of the hated Stane, a troll from the mountains. Now Danr has nothing to look forward to but a life of disapproval and mistrust, answering to “Trollboy” and condemned to hard labor on a farm. Until, without warning, strange creatures come down from the mountains to attack the village. Spirits walk the land, terrifying the living. Trolls creep out from under the mountain, provoking war with the elves. And Death herself calls upon Danr to set things right. At Death’s insistence, Danr heads out to find the Iron Axe, the weapon that sundered the continent a thousand years ago. Together with unlikely companions, Danr will brave fantastic and dangerous creatures to find a weapon that could save the world—or destroy it.