Ophelias Winter

After an owner's death, many companion animals are abandoned or forgotten. They are given to friends or relatives of the deceased who may or may not want to care for them. More often, they are surrendered to an animal shelter. Every person who owns a pet should be concerned with what will happen to them when we die. This is a growing problem that needs to be addressed in one's lifetime. Ophelia G. McMahon was an American Brown Tabby cat who was adopted from the Clearwater, Florida Animal Shelter. During the "Big Snowstorm of 1993" she became an orphan and ended up in an abusive home. The first time I saw Ophelia, she had been confined in a small bedroom for several months, sharing her home with a ball python. Cowering in a chair beneath a table, she looked up at me with her sad green eyes as if to say, "Help me, please." There was no way I could leave without her. A growing area of law today in estate planning for pets is the care of one's pet upon the owner's death or incapacity. People are always concerned with passing on wealth to children or other relatives with as little consequences as possible, but what about taking care of a pet! If you die and your pet survives you, the issue is not going to be just leaving enough money for the pet to be cared for in the long run. Who is going to take care of your pet today and tomorrow? Back in 1946, humorist H. Allen Smith wrote the fictional tale of a cat named Rhubarb who inherited all his owner's wealth and a baseball team. His story contained more truth than fiction. Benny, Betty and Rambo's owner left a will so detailed that it included instructions for the disposition of her Seiko watch. What about her beloved pets? Philanthropist Jenny Smith's pets ended up in the very animal shelter she'd established a trust fund for. Most recently, JFK Jr's dog Friday and cat Ruby weren't even mentioned in his Last Will and Testament.

“A stunningly atmospheric fantasy that doubles as an exceptional character study . . . we can’t wait to see where Dabos takes it next.” —Entertainment Weekly (“The 10 Best YA Books of 2018”) One of Publishers Weekly’s Best YA Books of the Year A National Indie Bestseller Lose yourself in the fantastic world of the arks and in the company of unforgettable characters in this French runaway hit, Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor quartet. Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima and, what’s more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. Ophelia must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, Ophelia slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world. The World of the Arks Long ago, following a cataclysm called the Rupture, the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands, now known as arks. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides. The inhabitants of these arks each possess a unique power. Ophelia, with her ability to read the pasts of objects, must navigate this fantastic, disjointed, perilous world using her trademark tenacity and quiet strength.

Shakespeare’s adolescents examines the varied representation of adolescent characters in Shakespeare’s plays. Using early modern medical knowledge and an understanding of contemporary theatrical practices, the book unpacks complexities that surrounded the cultural and theatrical representations of ‘signs’ associated with an individual’s physical maturation. Each chapter explores the implications of different ‘signs’ of puberty, in verbal cues, facial adornments, vocal traits and body sizes, to illuminate how Shakespeare presents vibrant adolescent selves and stories. By analysing female and male puberty together in its discussion of adolescence, Shakespeare’s adolescents provides fresh insight into the age-based symmetry of early modern adolescent identities. The book uses the adolescent’s state of transformation to illuminate how the unfixed nature of adolescence was valued in early modern culture and through Shakespeare’s celebrated characters and actors.

In her diary entries for one year, charming Parisian shop co-owner Ophelia discusses her many friends and their activities.

Ophelia's Burden is a collection of poetry I have written over the past fifteen years. Many of these poems were written around the time that my mother was murdered, they are the expressions of someone trying to deal with an impossible tragedy.

"Previously published in the anthology Performed the here and now: an introduction to contemporary theater and performance edited by Chris Danowski ... and also in the independent literary journal CallReview (issue #2, 2004)"--T.p. verso.