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The Tears of Isis: The Publisher’s Website
I’ve made a small change to the ol’ bloggie today, mainly that clicking on the picture to the right of THE TEARS OF ISIS brings you to a different publisher’s website for the collection, one perhaps a bit more informative in terms of the individual stories. Part of this is self serving (only part??!? 
) in that awards season for 2013 publications is getting underway and More Information is Good Information, whether one’s interested in such things or just wants to know a bit more about the book. So click away or, hey, I’ve quoted it all just below as well: .
“What is art? To a sculptor it may be the formation of beauty from stone, or some other material; to a writer the forming of words into poetry or prose. The creation or retelling of myths and wonders, bringing to them a new understanding – but beauty as well. To the Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney, in his DEFENCE OF POESY, ‘lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, [the poet -- or, indeed, the artist in general] doth grow, in effect, into another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, cyclops, chimeras, furies, and such like.’ And so it may be proper that the book we have here, THE TEARS OF ISIS, begins with a poem about a sculptor, a modern Medusa, and concludes with the title story of another sculptor who travels a continent for inspiration, in search of the goddess, ‘the Weeping Isis,’ and ends with discovery of her own self.
“But THE TEARS OF ISIS, the book, is a journey too, encompassing, yes, ‘forms such as never were in nature,’ as not just ‘La Méduse,’ but also a man’s soul absorbed by an octopus, vampires both physical and metaphorical, music and retellings of Cinderella, an Ancient World caper involving the Golden Fleece of legend, a far-future recasting of Sleeping Beauty — one of three stories in THE TEARS OF ISIS set in the author’s world of the ‘Tombs,’ another ‘Tombs’ tale of the origin of ghouls, cockroaches spawned by war, insects by UFOs, Lovecraftian monsters called forth by candles, a woman who takes in a rat as a pet, the ‘death planet’ Saturn and women who buy birds, the life-cycle of dragons, another ‘Tombs’ story of love and a zombie-like form of revenge, and at last to Isis – her search to create but destroying as well, as is part of her nature, and back full circle to sculptress Medusa who ‘spoke to her hair at times’ and ‘in her dreams . . . her hair hissed its/ answers.’
“Are these tales, then, her doing, the fever dreams of one who both creates and dismantles, who transmutes life itself into stone? And are Medusa and Isis the same, the goddess who, with her consort Osiris, rules over death and life at the same time, taking the form of both nurturing mother and flesh-eating vulture?
“It is for the reader to decide.”
Well, that’s most of what you’ll find. There’s ordering information and links as well, of course, but one thing more. If, on Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing’s site, you should scroll down past all the above information (the matter to the right on the site) you’ll come to a publisher’s e-address which, if you’re a reviewer or otherwise contemplate giving THE TEARS OF ISIS a review or recommendation — reviews are good, especially on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! — you can ask publisher/editor Max Booth III for a courtesy electronic copy in a choice of epub, mobi, or pdf versions. Details, such as they are, are on the site.
