CLEARLAKE, Calif. – In the first installment of her epic fantasy trilogy, “The Winged Warrior of the Gods,” Clearlake author Pamela McConnell showcases the adventures of a new Pegasus and a child princess with Amazonian ancestry.

“The Winged Warrior of the Gods” depicts the expeditions of the new Pegasus.

Raised in seclusion, the young Pegasus is groomed by his father and the spirit of his ancestor, the original Pegasus. He is being prepared to conquer the evil Bardama, who is spreading darkness across the world.

On his first mission searching for Bardama, Pegasus discovers a very young, frail girl – Caseama, the child princess.

Caseama cries out to the gods for a champion to be sent to conquer the dark forces that have taken her parents into captivity. Young Pegasus has come to answer her prayer by commission of the gods.

After the transformation bestowed upon her by Athena, Caseama is transformed into a hoyden warrior, given the courage of her mother’s Amazonian ancestors. Though her prayers were answered, she is surprised to find that she was to become the hero she so fervently prayed for.

McConnell artfully portrays the epic struggle of one horse and one girl who will fight to free their land. During their first battle, they will face their fears and learn to work together.

“The Winged Warrior of the Gods” is the first of a trilogy of the unlikely pair. They wonder why, with all the wondrous powers the gods have at their disposal, would they send two inexperienced souls to face such a powerful force.

Readers will embark on a mystical adventure with Pegasus and Caseama as they mature into their eventual responsibilities as demigods.

McConnell studied English literature at Santa Rosa Junior College. She overcame many difficulties to write the trilogy of Pegasus. She lives in Clearlake.

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is $12.99 and available through bookstores nationwide, from the publisher at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore , or by visiting www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Sanskrit word “Samsara” refers to the wheel of life, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

The term also embraces journeying in Buddhism and Hinduism.

Both meanings are evident in “Samsara,” a beautiful and enthralling non-narrative documentary from director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson.

Second Sunday Cinema will host a screening of the film on Oct. 13 at 5:45 p.m. at the Clearlake United Methodist Church, 14521 Pearl Ave, Clearlake.

The showing, as always, is free.

Fricke and Magidson were the creative forces behind the extraordinary 1992 documentary “Baraka,” an unforgettable collection of snapshots from the global family album.

In “Samsara,” the filmmakers take viewers on a quest to a greater understanding and appreciation of the human condition and a reverence for the beauty and power of the natural world.

And they help us face up to worldwide suffering, poverty, greed, violence, lust, and adoration of war and financial success. There is no dialog or plot. There is wonderful music and amazing images.

Most importantly, in the midst of suffering and death, we discover that there are paths to rebirth and human transformation. This film will be amazing on the big screen.

For more information call 707-889-7355.

UKIAH, Calif. – Mystery author Sheldon Siegel will premiere his newest thriller novel, “The Terrorist Next Door,” introducing a new series set in Chicago, on Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Mendocino College campus in Ukiah.

The reading will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 4210 upstairs at the new Mendocino College Library, 1000 Hensley Creek Road.

The Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an affiliate group of the Mendocino College Foundation is sponsoring the event and will provide light refreshments following the event.

Siegel also will be available to sign copies of his new book.

The new novel is set more than a decade after 9/11. Someone is setting off fire bombs in Chicago using untraceable cell phones. The international terror channels are silent.

An unknown group calling itself the Islamic Freedom Federation takes credit for the bombings and demands the release of Hassan Al-Shahid, a University of Chicago graduate student whose plan to set off a bomb at the Art Institute was thwarted at the last minute by Det. David Gold and his long-time partner, Det. Paul Liszewski. Their heroic efforts had cost Liszewski his life and put Gold in the hospital.

The FBI and Homeland Security believe the new bomber is a “lone wolf” – a freelancer who operates off the grid. That makes him even more dangerous.

As the explosions rock Chicago and the death toll mounts, Gold and Battle are drawn into a desperate cat-and-mouse game against a brilliant and cunning mind.

“The Terrorist Next Door” is a timely, compelling, and, at times, terrifying read by a master of suspense.

A native of Chicago, Sheldon Siegel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1976 and graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983.

He has been in private practice in San Francisco for more than 20 years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP.

Prior to writing “The Terrorist Next Door,” Siegel had released “Perfect Alibi,” the seventh novel in his series of critically acclaimed, best-selling courtroom dramas featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez.

His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into eight languages.

This is one of many several events that the Friends of the Mendocino College Library is sponsoring this fall, including an Oct. 27 event with Carolyn Wing Greenlee at the Mendocino College Lake Center and C.D. Payne on Nov. 21.

For more information, call John Koetzner at 707-468-3051 or visit www.mendocino.edu .

UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present the world premiere of “Shrewed!” Oct. 18-27 in the college’s Center Theatre.

The play, a rollicking spin off of Shakespeare’s classic “The Taming of the Shrew,” is a fast-paced comic romp set in San Francisco in 1927, and will feature music and dances of the period, as well as a modern twist on Shakespeare’s original plot.

The story involves two sisters, the attractive and pliable Bianca and the mean spirited and fierce Kate, the “shrew.”

When their mother announces that nobody may marry Bianca until a match is found for Kate, a hilarious effort ensues to “tame Kate.”

Celebrated local playwright Jody Gehrman has created an original script for this premiere production.

A professor of English at Mendocino College, Gehrman has published six popular novels, two of which have been optioned for film, most recently by Disney.

Her plays have been performed locally at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Theatre, Mendocino College, and nationally in New York, Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco.

“Shrewed!” is told in Gehrman’s contemporary witty dialogue, while the plot mirrors Shakespeare’s original.

The play is being directed by Mendocino College theatre professor Reid Edelman, and showcases a cast of 18 wonderful student performers as well as impressive scenery and costumes.

The cast includes Maheanani Phillips in the central role of Kate. While Phillips, a resident of Lake County, has performed in many local productions, this is her debut on the Center Theatre stage.

The role of Kate’s sister Bianca is played by theater major Melany Katz. Katz, an accomplished dancer as well as actor, most recently appeared in the college production of The Music Man.

Veteran local actor Jason Davis plays the role of Pete Yaccarino, a down-on-his-luck gambler who sets out to marry Kate.

The play features Amanda Baguley as the adventurous poet Lucy Woods and Maria A. Monti as the family matriarch Arista Minola.

Monique Marmon, a former recipient of the college’s prestigious John Bogner theater and music award, plays the role of the socialite Millie Masters, while Liz Johnson plays the role of Chloe Simms.

Mathematics professor Jason Edington appears in the role of famous playwright Lester Lovejoy.

The cast also includes many talented newcomers to the Mendocino College stage, including Gabriel Suddeth and Charlie Sawyer as comic suitors to Bianca, and DonMike Chilberg and Dustin Wooley as bumbling sidekicks to Pete Yaccarino.

Other members of the outstanding ensemble cast include Janet Denninger, Liana Edington, Bianca Gayton, Megan Jones, Kaitlyn Vandewarker, and Erinn Yepiz.

The action unfolds in and around the elegant Minola family residence, as created by college set & lighting designer Larry L. Lang.

The elaborate period costumes have been created by resident costume designer and instructor Kathy Dingman Katz, with the help of her crew of enthusiastic and dedicated costuming students. The play is being stage managed by Gary Hudson.

“Shrewed!” opens on Thursday, Oct. 18. Performances will run for two weekends only, through Sunday, Oct. 27.

Performances are Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m.; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27.

Tickets ($20 general; $15 students and seniors) are available at the Mendocino Book Co., at the Mendocino College Bookstore, and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org .

The performance on Oct. 24 is a special discount night, with all tickets costing only $10.

Audiences are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance, though tickets may also be purchased at the door.

There also will be a special event associated with this production, Theatre and Jazz in the Center, on Sunday, Oct. 20, at 1 p.m.

This event will include a performance of Shrewed! as well as a very special Latin Jazz performance by acclaimed local pianist Elena Casanova and featuring special surprise musical guest artists.

This event will also include delectable appetizers prepared by the college culinary arts department and pouring of fine wines and beers.

Tickets for Theatre and Jazz in the Center are $60 each. For more information call 707-467-1018.

“Shrewed!” is recommended for ages 13 and older.

The Center Theatre is located on the Mendocino College main campus, 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.

For more detailed information, visit the college Theatre Department Web site at www.mendocino.edu/theater/deptindex.html or call 707-468-3172.

Sit for an hour in any national airport and you’ll see how each of us differs from others in a million ways, and of course that includes not only our physical appearances but our perceptions and opinions.

Here’s a poem by Ada Limón, who lives in Kentucky, about difference and the difficulty of resolution.

What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use

All these great barns out here in the outskirts,
black creosote boards knee-deep in the bluegrass.
They look so beautifully abandoned, even in use.
You say they look like arks after the sea’s
dried up, I say they look like pirate ships,
and I think of that walk in the valley where
J said, You don’t believe in God? And I said,
No. I believe in this connection we all have
to nature, to each other, to the universe.
And she said, Yeah, God. And how we stood there,
low beasts among the white oaks, Spanish moss,
and spider webs, obsidian shards stuck in our pockets,
woodpecker flurry, and I refused to call it so.
So instead, we looked up at the unruly sky,
its clouds in simple animal shapes we could name
though we knew they were really just clouds—
disorderly, and marvelous, and ours.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Ada Limón, whose most recent book of poems is Sharks in the Rivers, Milkweed Editions, 2010. Poem reprinted from Poecology, Issue 1, 2011, by permission of Ada Limón and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Our sense of smell is, as you know, not nearly as good as that of our dogs, but it can still affect us powerfully.

A good writer, like Tami Haaland of Billings, Montana, can show us how a single odor can sweep us back through time.

A Colander of Barley

The smell, once water has rinsed it,
is like a field of ripe grain, or the grain held
in a truck, and if you climb the steel side,
one foot lodged on the hubcap, the other
on the wheel, and pull your body upward,
your hands holding to tarp hooks, and lift toes
onto the rim of the truck box, rest your ribs
against the side, you will see beetles
and grasshoppers among the hulled kernels.
Water stirs and resurrects harvest dust:
sun beating on abundance, the moist heat
of grain collected in steel, hands
plunging and lifting, the grain spilling back.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “A Colander of Barley” from When We Wake in the Night by Tami Haaland, 2012 WordTech Editions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Poem reprinted by permission of Tami Haaland and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.