In response to the phenomenal resurgence of the drum nationwide, Michael has completely revised and expanded the 1991 edition for all those folks discovering the power of drumming. This useful book reveals profound teachings about shamanic drumming, which is a time-honored method of healing and helping others. Trained as a ceremonial drummer in the Mongolian and Native American shamanic traditions, Michael presents the first practical guide to applying this ancient healing art to our modern lives. Through a series of simple exercises, lessons, and rituals, he teaches you the basic shamanic methods of drumming. The focus is on creating sacred space, invoking the powers of creation, journeying, power practice, initiating change through intent, power animals, windhorse (personal power), geomancy, drum therapy, drum harmonics, drum circle dynamics, archetypal healing rhythms, and the universal rhythmic phenomena that come into play whenever we drum. Whether you are an accomplished percussionist or a total beginner, this user-friendly book will help you harness the power of drumming.

Reviews

"The Shamanic Drum expresses things as they are, and it's indeed true that the drum and the proper ceremonies are the way in which we balance and harmonize the energies of the Earth, its creatures, and our relationship with all realms."
-Dhyani Ywahoo, author of Voices of Our Ancestors

"A clear and practical work."
-Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way and The Vein of Gold

"Apprenticeship would be the ideal way to learn shamanic drumming, however most of us will never be fortunate enough to have this experience. This book is definitely the next best thing."
-Lisa DiPlacido, review editor for Friend's Review.

What can you say about a book that has everything! This is the final book of a series of four and takes one from the inception of a research project through to final publishing. For a Genealogist or Family Historian it's a godsend. Sources of information are discussed that the average researcher wouldn't dream existed. Once picked up, very hard to put down. Excellent!

This book was very enjoyable to read. It was entertaining and had a good message. I would recommend it.

I love it when I read a book that makes me laugh ... think ... cry ... smile ... wonder ... reflect ... imagine ... believe. And isn't the Christmas season the perfect time to do that?

Someone gave this to me and what a delightful early Christmas gift it was!

"The Wise Man in the Checkered Shirt" was sent to me in June as a gift, after I had been discharged from the hospital, and a Christmas book was not exactly my idea of a good read. I picked it up because it was short, and was almost immediately captivated my the unlikely tale of a department store Santa who falls under the spell of two seemingly homeless girls.
Jerome may look the part of Santa, he has been the premire Santa at the Mall for years, and he takes great pride in his looks and abilities. Pride is the keyword, Jerome is proud of his perfect life, to the point of self centeredness, obnoxiousness and shutting out those closest to him. He has no need for people unless they can benefit him, and finds the neighborhood residents and church particularly annoying. His need to be the center of attention, to know and control everything takes him on a rollercoaster ride when he crosses paths with sisters Harley and Boo. He spies the oldest sister, Harley stealing coins from the mall fountain and is determined to find out where they live. The two girls live with their father who is recovering from an accident and have their own ideas of what they need to get done before Christmas. Extremely protective of her young sister Boo (Marci), Harley is also a caregiver of sorts for her disabled father as well. Though their living quarters would never meet with Jerome's approval they have an abundance of love and belief in the goodness of their neighbors. As they go about their days, the people they come in contact with are also captivated by their bright spirits and their open hearts, and even help them in some of their pursuits, such as divesting the fountain of its coins. Each day is filled with anticipation of the approaching holidays, until an unseen accident threatens their well-being. The harder Jerome tries to find out about the girls the more elusive they become and the more out of control his well ordered life becomes, leaving him to question the very things he had once valued, and to turn to a new source of strength, the neighborhood church and the people the before seemed to just annoy and clutter his well ordered life. He finds himself doing things he never would have done before, with some very unpredictable and hilarious results. A very different Christmas story with a timeless message of hope and acceptance, and a tender twist at the end that really caught me by surprise, bringing tears to my eyes. This story captures the essense of forgiveness and the hope we all have at Christmas, that we can mend fences and that we can find our way home. A wonderful, wonderful Christmas story. A wonderful read any time of the year.

This book is one of my favorite keepers. If you can get a copy, it'll be well worth it. I read this many years ago and the most memorable story is Devil's Keep by Brandewyne. This is a beautiful vampire romance with scorching text! I have never forgotten the emotions and the erotic passion I experienced when reading about Count von Reicher and his son's governess, Lenore Blakely. I have yet to find another story that evokes such intense rapture and such a good feeling at the end! I give this one 5+ stars. The other stories are very good too, and my overall rating is 4+ stars for the collection.

Bewitching Love Stories is an anthology written by four favorite authors. It is Hot, Hot, Hot!!

Devil's Keep written by Rebecca Brandewyne is a KEEPER! Count Drogo von Reicher places an ad in the London Times seeking a governess for his young son. Lenore Blakeley's ravishing beauty and gentleness immediately places her in danger. She arouses dark, sinister desires in her mysterious employer who is no man at all but a vampire.

The love scenes in this story are positively scourching!! They are hot enough to keep you warm even in sub zero temperatures. Grab a copy and enjoy!!

Shannon Drake's Vanquish The Night was another great read. David Drago is a vampire who has searched hundreds of years for his lost love, Anne Pemberton. He is not noble or gentle. He is ruthless and . . . evil. He intends to have Anne and will allow nothing or no one to stop him. Anne has encountered this vampire long ago in another life. She escaped him through death but this time David Drago is very determined to claim Anne for his own. He will not allow her to seek death.

This story was incredible. The menace, danger and suspense kept the pages turning until the very last. A Keeper!

Kasey Michael's My Aunt Grizelda was another good read. The romantic dreams of a lovely, poor nanny are made true by a well-meaning witch. Sweet story.

Lastly, is Christina Skye's What Dreams May Come. An artist risks her sanity and her heart while encountering a ghostly protector. Great story that will renew your faith in love.

Enjoy!!

Bewitching Love Stories
Anthology -
Devil's Keep Rebecca Brandewyne 5*
This was a real sensual delight and so worth the entire book - although the other stories were very, very good. Count Drago von Reicher puts an advertisement in the paper for a governess for his son. Lenore Blakely answers the ad after being turned down so many times before due to a lack of references from former employers. It seemed that wives did not look kindly towards beautiful governesses once their husbands and sons were effectively rebuked by Lenore. She is hired sight unseen and without an interview by the Count - her first inkling that something might not be right. But, considering the fact that she was close to being totally impoverished, she accepted the position. Upon meeting her employer, the extremely dark and enigmatic Count, her first instinct was to run, but after gazing into his eyes this soon became an impossibility.
The reader as well as our heroine is then hooked - pulled into this devastatingly sensual adventure to mind boggling delights of the senses. The love story here transcends all time and is truly fabulous for such a short novella.

Vanquish the Night - Shannon Drake 4*
Colonel Michael Johnston, famed war hero and Indian fighter felt the evil coming into the night on the cool breeze, but never imagined it would be a fight for the very survival of the woman he loved.
Anne Pemberton was a descendant from a very strong woman, one who committed suicide rather than live with evil. The very handsome and enigmatic, David Drago had searched for centuries to find Anne, the one woman he would take for his bride to live in the darkness and evil that was his domain. It took all the faith and love Anne and Michael had for each other to face down and destroy the vampire - proving that love and faith could conquer evil.
This was a very fast and sensually written read with this time, a very bad type vampire! Good story.

My Aunt Grizelda by Kasey Michaels 4*
I really liked this story which kind of reminded me of Cinderella and gave me visions of the very inept and bumbling witch from the TV series Bewitched . Do you remember Aunt Clara? As you read this delightful story - Aunt Clara is pictured quite vividly in my imagination. The sensuality is minimal in this story of the governess who falls happily in love with the Earl, but the laughs are numerous. Ms. Michaels witty dialog is delightful and this story is quite like reading a fairytale. But I do believe in magic and fairytales so - Yes - I liked it!

What Dreams May Come - Christina Skye 5*
Re-enter the ethereally beautiful world of Draycott Abbey, where Adrian Draycott, the resident ghost and caretaker resides with his ever faithful companion, Gideon. Once more, Adrian has been awakened with feelings of danger in the wind. He is feeling depressed, ever since he had helped his brother (in one of his many incarnations) find his way back to loving his reincarnated soul mate. With Nicholas and K.C. on their honeymoon, he is really annoyed that a woman has entered his precious Abbey. More annoying is the fact that without trying, his ghostly being has become quite real, flesh and blood! And, this woman has aroused in him feelings in his, shall we say, man-parts, that haven't been aroused in centuries!

Who is this woman, Gray Mackenzie? Why can she see him, and touch him and arouse him to such a fever? What is the secret she hides, and why can he not remember who she is? In this very, very sensual offering from Ms. Skye you are in for the treat of your life as you experience a most ghostly affair! Dynamite love scenes that will curl your toes! And of course, there is Adrian, my own personal dream of who I'd like to haunt me! Super read.

I usually love David Drake. His writing is great, his tactics fun and imaginative. This book is no different. However, he has written over 2000 pages in this series, and he needs a new direction (not a new world - characters bounce between them about every 15 minutes - which gets kind of annoying). The characters started out interesting, but they have yet to change or really DO anything. Ilna is whiny, Cashel sort of hits everything, etc. My biggest problem is the romance. Romance in fantasy is fine. Lack of romance in fantasy is fine. However, Drake made it (to me at least) very clear that certain people liked certain other people by the end of the first 100 pages in Lord of the Isles. And, despite those people switching worlds about as often as we turn the pages and even going to Hell for each other, nothing has happened. Given the sheer number of pages involved in all this, I have to give Drake the all-time Character Interaction Rut award. The series can be salvaged, but if he doesn't change people's behavior and relationships in the next one, I'm back to rereading my Belisarius books.

To start, I have to say that the Lord of the Isles series has kept me company on many otherwise boring and lonely nights. I enjoy the characters and their abilities, and I have to admit Tenoctris' constant modesty over her abilities and lack of power gets a chuckle out of me, particularly as she always seems to have just enough ability to do what is needed. None of the main characters ever fail in Drakes world. Well, it is fantasy. However, the series' attempt to be just that, a series, while also trying make each book a standalone, simply isn't working. Halfway through Servant of the Dragon, the constant backfill and reminders of a character's particulars became very annoying as I found myself saying out loud "Yes, I know, I know!" And the structure of the plot is also repetitive, as many have indicated. The reader can use more insight into the characters' darker side, as we have with Ilna, easily my favorite character. Everyone else is just a little too perfect. I would love to see Ilna lose out to the dark side of her persona, perhaps due to her jealousy of Liane, or have the others wonder that Garric is talking to himself maybe just a little too much. Garric needs to stop being so accommodating to his ancestral spirit Carus, and Tenoctris' spells need to fail significantly and at the wrong time. Maybe Cashel needs to realize what a powerful wizard he really is, perhaps too powerful. The possibilities for storylines and conflict are great given the character's current development. I hope in the future Drake may stray from his formula.

That said, I read fantasy to be entertained, and I like the characters the author has created. Overall it works for me, especially on those boring rainy snowy nights and long subway rides.

I was reading these series because I thought the only interesting character is Ilna the Weaver, and I was curious about what happened to her. I was very surprised when I read this book and found it to be by far the best one in the series. The plot was much better than the first two books. Prince Garric and Tenoctris are trying to close the bridge that opens Valles to the cosmos, letting in dangerous creatures. Same old same old there, nothing new and exciting. Sharina is taken through the bridge by a creature that serves the Dragon, turning Sharina herself into a servant of the dragon. However, the Dragon is not evil, he needs her help to recover his mummy that is being used to destroy the world. He sends Sharina through many worlds with her new friend, the birdman Dalar. Cashel goes in search of Sharina and ends up in the Underworld after killing the wizard he was supposed to ask for help. He is accompanied by the wizard's ring, which has a demon trapped in it. The demon Krias is a refreshing addition to the stories with his witty sense of humor. He reminds me strongly of the faerie Mellie that Cashel befriended in Lord of the Isles. Lastly, my favourite character Ilna has her best adventures yet, which make the book a good and interesting read. She is taking the child Merota, niece of Lord Tadia, with her on a ship to Erdin. On the way they are shipwrecked on Yole, risen from the sea again with an army of dead things. Ilna meets the best character Drake has yet introduced into the story yet, the sailor/pirate Chalcus. He actually loves Ilna, and he let's us see her softer side. His witty humour and dialogue add a lot to the story. I found myself breathlessly waiting to find out what would happen to him and Ilna next. It seems that Drake has finally figured out how to write romance. He did a very poor job with Mellie and Halphemos. I was sad about Halphemos' death, but Chalcus is much better than he ever was. Congrats Ilna!

I'm amazed! I started reading these reader comments hoping to get some insight into where these books are headed. Apparently no other reader has figured it out either. Even the people who said they liked it seemed to hit the nail right on the head: There is NO character development in this book.

The characters are dull and uninteresting. After a book and a half and some 700+ pages I had to admit that I just didn't CARE what happened to these people.

This book, more so than the first, is impossible to finish because if you lose interest and set it down for a few days (weeks, months while you read something more interesting)then pick it up again, you're completely lost because there is absolutely nothing memorable about the characters or the plot.

Sure Drake "Juggles plot lines and brings them neatly together" because in this world NOTHING makes sense, there's no cause and effect, the characters don't learn from their adventures, so he can just WRITE them back together. The books end when Drake stops writing, not when he's resolved some conflict.

Okay, his writing is clear, his ideas are fresh, inventive and fairly exciting, but basic writing techniques like story arch and character development seem to be lost on the author. Considering these are covered at length in nearly every basic creative writing class, book or magazine, one wonders how he's managed to avoid exposure to any of the above, or why he chose to ignore these basic concepts. A one-night class would do him wonders!

But then he's managed to get paid to write at lest 4 of these. Do us all a favor. Don't buy this book and maybe he'll stop writing them.

While the plot (orpahn boy is actually the long-lost king) is nothing new and most of the characters I've seen before, Drake's world-building is credible and the story hops along at an energetic pace and managed to keep me reading despite what I feel to be writing under par.

David Drake's style is replete with simile metaphor and analogy that most often is so verbose that the comparison is lost by the time I finish the sentence. The sentences themselves are clumsy and inarticulate and distract me from what is actually trying to be said. I fnd the characters to be mono-dimensional and seriously lacking in human motivation. The plotting flows like a role-playing game jumping from: scene-encounter enemy/situation-fight enemy/situation-learn piece of epic plotting-vanquish enemy/solve situation-be transported to next scene-repeat process with character number 2.

Despite all of it's flaws Queen of Demons was a marginal improvement on the first book in the series and I still read the whole thing so there must have been something about it that I liked enough to keep turning pages (though I am not sure what it is because every page kept reminding me that I was reading a story and never succeeded in "transporting me away from the mundane world" like when you see a movie with a famous actor and you are never sold on his character because you keep thinking "Oh, that's Brad Pitt"). I am not sure that I will bother to reed the next installment in the series, but I could get bored and buy it anyway for lack of anything better to read.

For some reason this book seemd familiar too me even though it was my first time reading it. I soon dicovered that this book is identical to the first book of the series. Basically this book is the same string of events with differnt names attached. Then as i continued the series i found that each book was very similar. It seemed that by 50 pages in the book each character was seperated from the group in a different and dangerous world. I'll admit that drake seemed to improve as an author but his plot is really suffering. Although this book lacks originality it is still somewhat entertaining.

I have tried several times to read this book. I even bought it on tape to listen to on the way to work. It is long and if your a fan of fantasy, you've seen it all before. The tapes were especially annoying. I didn't realize until tape three that you had to reajust the speakers to listen to that tape again. It was frustratuing, and the action was confusing. Sorry, I gave it my best. Try David Drakes "Dragon Lord" instead.

I started reading reviews of this book to give me some insight into Drake's world and where the story is heading, assuming *I* was missing something. Clearly, it wasn't just me.
I don't know, maybe Drake was thinking about old school fantastic stories like Gulliver's Travels and Arabian Tales where surprising things just happen to the main characters and they muddle through each adventure and stumble on to the next. I understand he's got a 4th book out now. Maybe he's managed to put a plot together by then? Sadly, I may never know because I can't seem to force myself through the second book!

But this is a review of THIS book. I enjoyed it well enough. It's a good time killer and moves along fairly well. If you just keep reading and don't stop to think about it, it's quite enjoyable.

If you like Drake's other books, you're heading to the beach for the weekend and have nothing else to read, you don't feel like getting emotionally involved with new characters in a new world, AND you can still order a used copy, then this is the book for you.

After reading some other reviewers' comments, I had to stop and think about their criticisms of the book. While I agree with their comments concerning character development, I found this book to be one of the more enjoyable fantasies I've read in a good while, and I've read quite a few including Jordan's Wheel of Time, Edding's Belgariad/Mallorean, Feist's Magician: series, Goodkind's Sword of Truth, Hambly's Darwath Trilogy, Reichert's Last of the Renshai and J V Jone's Book of Words series, all of which I recommend. Lord of the Isles is a quick read with relatively short chapters, each with a nice little punch at the end. When the characters split up and have separate adventures, the chapters rotate to follow each story simultaneously. I had no trouble following the story or keeping track of who's who. The chapters are often left as cliffhangers, but all the plots are excellent and the shorter chapters don't leave you hanging a long time to find out "what happened to..?". There is very little fat or excess commentary in this book. The magic is pretty mundane in theory and practice, but the narration of effects usually make up for it. If you are looking for a deep, thought provoking book you might want to skip this one, but if you are looking for a page turner with some neat variations to the usual encounters in fantasy, I highly recommend it.