About the Author:
Helen Raynes Staley has spent her life studying, teaching, and creating in the arts: from the Martha Graham Dance Studio to the The High School of Music and Art, to Queens College, to the University of Pennsylvania, to membership on faculties of universities in Paris and China. She has shown her photographs at galleries in Ireland and Albany. Now Emeritus Professor of English at the Sage Colleges, she and her husband, Harry Charles Staley, poet, and Emeritus Professor of English at The University at Albany, write and reside in Albany, New York.
About the Book:
The Paw on the Tarmac Perfect Bound; 7 x 10 inches; 68 pages, 2007 ISBN: 1-933912-74-X $12.95 "Don't trust any humans - and some cats." Such is the watchword of Charles, the cat in Helen Raynes Staley new children's book, The Paw on the Tarmac. Illustrated by Ellen Reed Driscoll, Paw on the Tarmac is the charming tale - or tail? - of an animal and his journey home - wherever home may find him. Janet and Bill, along with their feline companions Toes, Beau, and Belle, discover among their surroundings one night a mangy cat, lost and alone. After a sound cleaning, some hearty catnip-laced food, and a trip to the veterinarian for good measure, the family of five is ready and willing to accept Charles as one of their own. But always present in the gypsy cat's mind is his first human connection, Chrissie, who was cruelly forced to abandon him without warning on a dark country road. Never forgetting for a second the warmth of her friendship nor the harsh lesson of her separation, he wrestles with his necessary involvement in the human world. Also unsure of his place in the scheme of things, Toes - the fluffy diva of the house - ensures that things will be as miserable as possible for the new arrival, and that her own role is secure. Charles is a solitary breed... humans are handy to have around, but the ones he has met are fickle. Being served treats is well and good, but he knows that food can be found just as easily in other ways. Charles will take affection, but never need it. With one eye on the possibilities of human kindness, and one eye on the door, will Charles find his way into the family? Or will the manipulative and snotty Toes ruin his chances at becoming a beloved pet once again? And, if not, what's a cat to do? |
About the Book:
The House on the Rim and Other Stories Short Stories by Helen Raynes Staley Published October 2008 ISBN 978-1-933912-89-9 B&W 6 x 9 in Perfect Bound, 232 Pages $14.95 "Helen Raynes Staley is a master of atmosphere. Starting smoothly with a palette knife she is soon down to a No. 3 or 4 squirrel hair. Painstakingly she creates her scene without the tiniest trace of labor, applying her own blend of description with meticulous care, ready to receive its characters. And always, but always, her gift for suggesting decadence will have seen every space filled with the sweet smell of decay and the place already aching for intrigue, the scene then to be increasingly spattered with less harmonious hues until we are eventually presented with something pointillist and everything changed." Joe Robinson, author of A Difficult Man and Tommy Turnbull "Helen Raynes Staley crafts robust fiction infused with history, philosophy and a world view that is at once wise and deeply moving. With a sharp wit and playful command of the language, Staley creates characters and scenes that leave the reader in awe of her considerable talents and hungry for more of her haunting scenes and provocative stories". Paul Grondahl, author of Mayor Erastus Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma and I Rose like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt |