Spell Heaven: and Other Stories

Product Information

In the opening story of Spell Heaven, a fishwife asks the narrator, 'Do you know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story?' . . . This artful collection of 23 linked stories, a sort of 'Cannery Row' of Northern California, is both. The hardscrabble characters tell their sea stories, but the sea that surrounds the inhabitants of the small town of Seaview is like a capricious character in a fairy tale. It tosses boats, drowns with rogue waves, yet sometimes washes up treasures." —Thaisa Frank, San Francisco Chronicle Deeply evocative, Toni Mirosevich’s Spell Heaven is a compelling collection whose narrator ponders memory, time, and lost worlds. With lyrical insight, she explores the mystery and the margins, the people and places, of the hardscrabble seaside town where she and her wife have made home. A gem." —Vanessa Hua, Forbidden City In Spell Heaven , a linked story collection, a lesbian couple moves to a coast town and unexpectedly finds a sense of belonging with a group of outsiders. Meet Beth Love, a gifted content creator at Bible Hint. From a young age, Beth was raised in a strong Christian family where faith and family values were a top priority. She learned the importance of daily Bible reading and prayer, and as she grew older, these practices became an integral part of her daily routine.

I would like to wrap myselfinside of ToniMirosevich'swords, so that their warmth, vitality, and haunting insights into our humanity will somehow absorbinto my thoughts and skin, and I will become a better person. The characters in these unforgettable stories are clever, at times peculiar, but always full of heart. Their experiences stay with you long after you close this book. This is a beautiful collection." —Aimee Phan, author of We Should Never Meet and The Reeducation of Cherry Truong Deeply evocative, Toni Mirosevich's Spell Heaven is a compelling collection whose narrator ponders memory, time, and lost worlds. With lyrical insight, she explores the mystery and the margins, the people and places, of the hardscrabble seaside town where she and her wife have made home. A gem." - Vanessa Hua Deeply evocative, Toni Mirosevich’s Spell Heaven is a compelling collection whose narrator ponders memory, time, and lost worlds. With lyrical insight, she explores the mystery and the margins, the people and places, of the hardscrabble seaside town where she and her wife have made home. A gem.”—Vanessa Hua, Forbidden City heaven, in many religions, the abode of God or the gods, as well as of angels, deified humans, the blessed dead, and other celestial beings. It is often conceived as an expanse that overarches the earth, stretching overhead like a canopy, dome, or vault and encompassing the sky and upper atmosphere; the Sun, Moon, and stars; and the transcendent realm beyond. Overview Jewish and Christian conceptions of heaven developed side by side, drawing from shared biblical and Greco-Roman sources. The liturgy of Temple, synagogue, and eucharistic service informed images of heaven, for in worship the community symbolically ascends to the heavenly Jerusalem, a realm of perpetual adoration and intercession for the needs of the world, where angels never cease to sing “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” ( Isaiah 6:3).In the title story, a child’s note found on the pier gets Mirosevich musing on different meanings of “heaven.” Hear it about halfway through our talk. While belief in a heavenly afterlife became widespread in the Hellenistic Age (323–30 bce), no single model predominated, but rather a profusion of images and schemes, including resurrection of the dead, immortality of the soul, and transformation into an angel or star. Visionary journeys through the heavens (conceived as a hierarchy of spheres) became a staple of apocalyptic literature, and Jewish mystics produced a vast theosophical lore concerning heavenly palaces, angelic powers, and the dimensions of God’s body. Traces of this heaven mysticism can still be found in the Jewish prayer book ( siddur). During the period of the early Upanishads (800–500 bce), a group of itinerant sages turned from the sacrificial ritualism of Vedic tradition to develop the rudiments of classical Hindu soteriology (the theological doctrine of salvation). These sages taught that the entire phenomenal world is caught up in an endless cycle of birth and death ( samsara) propelled by desire. A person’s station in life is determined by actions performed in previous lives ( karma). To be reborn in heaven ( svarga) is pleasant but impermanent; even the gods must eventually die. The ultimate goal is to escape this perishing life and attain union with the infinite spirit ( brahman). Mirosevich indulges in the smell, the stink, and the happy-making of these character interactions . . . [She] knows how to look and how to be generous with her observations. She's not profiling these characters to exploit them and their quirks for our amusement, though she knows we will be amused. They are not a sideshow for the narrator. She shares their stories because they have taught her something about herself, to presume nothing . . . After reading Spell Heaven, I'm left with this impression: who we become has more to do with how we accept our lives than how we plan them. We are always changing, always in some kind of flux . . . With this collection, Mirosevich has done it. In truth, she is a sea captain, standing at the helm, scanning the horizon line, that seam between what we see and what we know." —Miah Jeffra Milla, Bay Area Reporter

Cantonese: 天堂 ( tin 1 tong 4 ) Mandarin: 天國 ／ 天国 (zh) ( tiānguó ), 天堂 (zh) ( tiāntáng ), 樂園 ／ 乐园 (zh) ( lèyuán ) I wonder what your idea of heaven would be—A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably be an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze... To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on 9 different floors... For many people, Heaven is a spiritual concept, a place that is spoken of often, but which is not visible to the physical eye. Heaven is said to be a place where, upon our death, we can join the souls of those who have gone before us and live in an eternal state of joy and happiness. It is a place that many people of faith strive to reach, having faith that there is a place beyond our physical world, a place of infinite peace and joy that we can be with our loved ones, even in death.NOW SPELL"- [ S I N ] -[ F_R_I_E_N_D ]- wrong the correct answer was Y. O. U. 2023-10-16T21:06:10Z Comment by [×~Suky~×] I love these stories - the delicious humor, the unvarnished exchanges, the characters in all of their wonderful, painful complexity, and Toni's gift for finding meaning in the most ordinary moments of a life. Spell Heaven triumphs again and again." - Patricia Powell Before the resurrection, the souls of the dead are thought to dwell in an intermediate state, experiencing a preview of their future condition of misery or bliss. On the Day of Judgment, heaven will be split asunder, the mountains will crumble to dust, the earth will give up its dead, and each person will undergo a final test. The righteous, with faces beaming, will pass the test easily, passing through hell with ease. In gardens of bliss they will recline on royal couches, clothed in fine silk and shaded by fruit trees of every description. Immortal youths will serve them cool drinks and delicacies, and ever-virgin companions with lustrous eyes will join them. They will also be reunited with their faithful offspring, and peace will reign. We send our amazing followers of Jesus Christ, just like you, daily text messages from the Holy Bible.

To read Spell Heaven is to be swept away to the sea, and fish and neighbors, and a small town on the California coast; to be swept away along through associations and stunning imagery; to be pulled in close by the intimate voice of a good friend who knows how to swear and spool shimmering reams of language." —Nina Schuyler, author of the award-winning novel The Translator Nevaeh is a trendy name, though there’s nothing wrong with this category. They’re fresh, modern, and often unique, straying away from the beaten path with a new spin on things. Little Nevaeh is no different, a name unlike any other seen on the charts.Korean: 하늘 (ko) ( haneul ), 하늘나라 (ko) ( haneullara ), 천국(天國) (ko) ( cheon'guk ), 천당(天堂) (ko) ( cheondang ), 낙원(樂園) (ko) ( nagwon ), 락원(樂園) (ko) ( ragwon ) ( North Korea ) From a wide variety of Middle English forms including hevene, heven, hevin , and hewin ( “ heaven, sky ” ), from Old English heofon, heofone ( “ heaven, sky ” ), from Proto-West Germanic *hebn ( “ heaven, sky ” ), of uncertain origin. [1] Cosmologists regarded Heaven as a force—composed of qi 氣, which was divided into yin 陰 and yang 陽 aspects—that kept the cosmos moving. in the beginning without the lyrics, I thought it said "THEY SAY. MURDER. IS CRUEL." 2023-11-20T02:06:22Z Comment by [×~Suky~×] Stories include the tale of an undocumented boy’s drowning when a wave pulls him out to sea, an ex–FBI agent’s surveillance of a man who leaves chocolate bars at a tree in a weekly ritual, a mother on meth who teaches a lesson on mercy, and Kite Man, who flies kites from a fishing pole and sells drugs on the side. His motto: When the kites fly, you can buy.