A Diversity of Dragons , a partly-fictional history of dragons I co-authored with Anne McCaffrey has been lavishly illustrated by Canadian artist John Howe, and appeared in U.S. bookstores late last September from HarperPrism. ( The English edition is published by Simon and Schuster .) Illustrating the book added two years to the project, but John’s art is so compelling, I think you will agree that it was worth the wait. (It was released simultaneously in the U.S., England, and France.)

Diversity traces the origin and development of the myth and symbol of the dragon from its earliest manifestations to its latest appearance in recent fantasy literature and science fiction. The large-format book also explores a current manifestation as Anne herself, Sean Evans, and a diminutive Irish dracologist named Epiphanius Tighe set out to investigate some mysterious events in County Wicklow. It’s available from bookstores and from Amazon.com . (The sequel, Epiphanius Tighe and the Dragon of East South Water Street , is now available from IUniverse.com’s Writer’s Choice Press. See above! )

A 3-hour tape cassette series, Angels: Faith, Theology, and Experience , originally recorded for Credence Cassettes, is now available directly from the Center for Religion and Society, 6418 N. Lakewood Ave., Chicago IL 60626, at $15.00 plus &3.00 for postage (within the continental U.S.). It takes a detailed look at the origin, history, and place of angels in Scripture, Christian traditions, and contemporary experience.

Available from the Center for Religion and Society for $10.00 plus $3.00 for postage in the U.S. This 1993 tape series interprets Eckhart’s extensive preaching on the importance of original justice in people’s lives and the achievement of inner (and public) peace.

In the area of fiction, “Choices,” a short story about Meister Eckhart and the trial of the Templars, is one of the Tales of the Knights Templar edited by Katherine Kurtz and published in June, 1996, by Warner Books . It is also available from Amazon.com .

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. —H. L. Mencken

Take care, then, not consciously to do or say anything which, if all the world were to know it, you could not acknowledge and say, ‘Yes, that was what I did or that was what I said.’ —Louis IX of France

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence. —Edith Sitwell

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. —Will Rodgers

Every time history repeats itself the price goes up. —Anonymous

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.—George Bernard Shaw