Equal parts Western, high fantasy, horror, and sciencefiction, the series is one of the wildest pastiches ever putbetween covers. All through the series there are references and tips of the hat to iconic works of pop culture,includingJ.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, filmslike The Seven Samurai or the spaghetti Westerns popu-larized by Clint Eastwood, and even L. Frank Baum's Ozbooks King brilliantly juggles all the plot elements.

Susannah Dean is possessed, her body a living vessel for thedemon-mother Mia. Something is growing inside Susannah"sbelly, something terrible, and soon she will give birth to Mia"s"chap." But three unlikely allies are following them from NewYork City to the border of End World, hoping to prevent theunthinkable. Meanwhile, Eddie and Roland have tumbled intothe state of Maine--where the author of a novel called "Salem"sLot is about to meet his destiny....

1st Stanza: Beamquake

2nd Stanza: The Persistence of Magic

3rd Stanza: Trudy and Mia

4th Stanza: Susannah’s Dogan

5th Stanza: The Turtle

6th Stanza: The Castle Allure

7th Stanza: The Ambush

8th Stanza: A Game of Toss

9th Stanza: Eddie Bites His Tongue

10th Stanza: Susannah-Mio,Divided Girl of Mine

11th Stanza: The Writer

12th Stanza: Jake and Callahan

13th Stanza:“Hile, Mia, Hile, Mother”

Coda: Pages from a Writer’s Journal Wordslinger’s Note