Books with author A. E. Parker

What makes a bird of prey so intriguing? What is so enrapturing about them? So cool? Is it the long, arched and ebony colored hooks? These are not nails, not claws, but specifically named as their primal possession: talons are the key feature for grabbing and seizing by raptors. Their coarse sandpaper foot pads, their long legs that are usually folded and hidden as part of the body, their wings and tail built for specific types of air mastery, and their eyesight keen beyond our understanding – these mystify us all in their uniqueness of design and use. The very rarity of hawk, eagle, and owl sightings causes us to wonder all the more. But perched as they are at the top of the food chain, they are also at greater risk. This relational position makes them automatically an unintended target of our careless stewardship of the wild. A natural indicator dial of our mismanagement of earth, they are also a sensible target for restoration.A Hope for Wings relates stories of relationships to eagles, hawks, and owls from the perspective of a field biologist, falconer, and student of raptor behavior. The author spent most of his professional life releasing and monitoring bald eagles, peregrine falcons, barn owls, and osprey in the Ohio Valley states. This story of their recovery is personalized by his intimate relationships to these awe inspiring birds. Their individual natures as well as their biological and behavioral characteristics are revealed in stories of incidents that occurred during the years of hacking and follow-up investigation. The book is also a clarion call for bringing the conservation movement back to the importance of relationships. When our interactions are viewed in terms of us against them, people apart from nature, and progress vs. protection dichotomies, we find no way to heal that which is injured – no means of finding a wholeness. As harm is detected in the wild world, we seek fixes from science. But science alone leaves out the heart of people – one of the key ingredients for why we want to see things made right. In our fight against irreverence and disrespect for wildlife we often forget one of those heart weapons – hope. Conservation needs hope for wholeness. In these tales, may you find your own.

"Sixteen-year-old Sam Croft is dead, but he can’t remember ever dying.Sam Croft and his parents wake up in Siele—in Earthen words, Heaven—with no recollection of their deaths. Most of their memories have been locked away since in Siele only good memories are allowed to provide the inhabitants with the most blissful existence. Sam’s bliss, however, doesn’t last long because some forbidden memories come back to him. Memories of Cara, his older sister.He can’t remember much of her, only her face, her voice and how close they were as children. His parents, however, can’t remember her at all. So, Sam goes looking for his sister but, in his search, he comes across a cliff so high that he cannot see where it ends. Ceolim—the god of Siele—convinces him Cara is down there and that he must jump. Gullible and wanting to see his sister again, Sam jumps off the cliff—And falls straight into a land festered with chaos and plagued with monsters, where humans are the bottom of the food chain. This place is Krenuo. In Earthen words: Hell.Down here, Sam loses contact with Ceolim and must ally with demons, learn to use magic and fight human-eating monsters, all to cross Krenuo and reach Cara. All to find the truth."Krenuo's Children is a fast-paced thrill-filled YA Dark Fantasy Adventure novel with a unique magic system based on death.

Follow a once lost and enigmatic secret map, and discover the long forgotten paths, sacred sites and mysterious landmarks of an enchanted and ancient woodland world.Walk in the footsteps of a powerful wizard and sorcerer, custodian of the forest and guardian of the trees and animals. Protector of the fantastic and mystical beasts and creatures of folklore, myth and legend that reside here.Standing stones, barrows and stone circles await, hidden in a bewitching and mesmerising landscape of dreams and imagination. Mist-obscured haunted battlefields and ghostly graves.Spellbound warriors stand sentinel, and watch over the wooded groves and glades, guarding streams, waterfalls, rivers, lakes and snow-capped mountains. Protecting a concealed kingdom bounded by hidden bays and wild wind and wave weathered cliffs, creeks and coves. Where only the most courageous adventurers navigate the perilous tides of the estuaries, and treacherous currents of the straits, sounds and rocky channels.Journey through a dreamscape of the other-worldly, a land of adventure and escape. Seek safe passage through a beautiful and strange wilderland of otherness, enchantment, fantasy and unearthly delights. Embracing and invoking a wild childhood, and conjuring the charms and wildest magic of the natural world. A captivating, haunting and spellbinding ode to nature, and to the cycle of the seasons.A meticulous and exquisite example of the lost words and rediscovered illuminated codex; of illustrated spellcraft in verse and rhyme. Elaborate and entrancing illustration and wordcraft, luminous with the sheen of magic, the summoning of hope, of chanting spells and the songs of invocation, the power of protection, and the promise and rapture of the coming of spring.A beautiful artistic record of magical artifacts, items of beauty and antiquity, spells, potions and healing waters. Intricate original illustrations of optical scopes, magic wands and crystal balls. Dragons, knights in armour, and mysterious longboats. Picturing the wizard’s castle towers, the full moon rising, the hooded archer hunting, and colourful renderings of books of magic, enlightenment and ancient wisdom. Buried swords, arrows and hunting horn. Jewels, gems and treasure unearthed. Cryptic carvings on a great stone monolith.Celtic-inspired artwork, Celtic knotwork and interwoven vines and branches on parchment. Insects, buds, blooms, butterflies and rosehips hide in the borders and margins. Bees, beetles and ladybirds scour the pages. A dragonfly rests amongst the leaves. Spiders spin webs, frogs and newts mingle. Nightshade and mandrake await the cauldron. Magical metamorphosis and transformation.Spells shimmer in morning mist.The wind whispers forgotten incantations, and spring wakes from slumber.In Black Dog Wood magic is stirring ...A modern faerytale.To be contemplated quietly, or read out loud. For readers of all ages.A celebration of magic, sorcery, nature, folklore and legend, and the passing of time and the seasons.