If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Calliope's Castle

by Rosita Blanka Filipek

90 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1324; ISBN 1-4120-0955-3; US$13.99, C$18.17, EUR11.81, £8.18

Calliope the Muse inherits a flying UFO/castle, on which she holds a poetry contest. Romance and adventure ensue as the contestants fly from one exciting place to another.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book Calliope, one of the seven Muses, befriends a lonely, troubled mountain girl named Sasha. She flies every evening to her window to visit her and share the latest gossip. They have much fun together! One day Calliope inherits a castle. What a castle it is! It was built on planet Z and uses an advanced technology, unknown on the planet Earth. It looks like a castle but it flies like a flying saucer! It is manned by thinking computer-robots, who learned how to decode the earthling's DNA, put the information on CDs and form the personal manuals for everybody. They even discovered the age gene. Nobody in the castle gets old. Calliope decides to invite Sasha and all the young and old poetesses she knows to the castle for a poetry contest. In the castle, Sasha meets Calliope's husband Madison and his son Fred, who are learning stuff from the computer robots. They experiment with cloning and genetic engineering, sometimes with bad results... The contest starts. Time to put on gowns and jewelry! Each poetess recites her best poems. Self-help classes are being held, while the castle flies them from one exciting place to another, from Asia to India, to Europe. Outside of the castle, the girls are guarded by Holibij, Calliope's body guard. Holibij is also a computer robot, in a form of a walking stick. "He can feel all evil intention by his antennae extensions" and beware!... Sasha has so much fun on this trip! Fred becomes her best friend. She rides with him on an elephant's back in Asia, they drive a Tuk-Tuk together in India, and she watches his experiences. She inevitably falls in love with Fred... Scientific experiments (some scary), poetry contest and romance goes on, while the castle flies from one exciting place to another.

---

About the Author Blanka Filipek is a retired school teacher from the Czech Republic. She believes that while adolescent girls read romances, they should also glean something worthwhile and educational from them. She has written two other books of poetry: Singing Farm, Emotions, Science and Bible Allergy Alert Cookbook and a couple of children's books, which she hope to publish next. Besides writing poetry, she loves to paint, draw, play scrabble and chess, swim, travel and ski. She is a ski instructor in Big Bear Resort, California.

---

Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

Calliope, one of the seven Muses, befriends a troubled lonely girl, Sasha, who lives high in the mountains. Sasha feels she is "an ugly duckling".

"My nose too long, my ears too big,
I'm pitifully shy,
My tiny boobs make me sick!
I wish I would die!"

Calliope flies every evening to sit on her window sill, and shares with her the latest gossip. They have such a good time together, helping each other. Calliope is a loner too. She just recently divorced her husband No. 7, with whom she spent a few hundred years.

"She was taking long in coming,
From the distance I've heard her crying,
And when she came, her eyes were red!

As she cried, her body shaking,
Letting out sounds so heart breaking,
Tears soaked her white camisole.
She was so upset, poor soul!..."

Things change, when Calliope falls in love again with her therapist and when she inherits a castle. What an extraordinary castle it is! It was built on planet Z. It was fashioned after one of the beautiful castles of Bavarian King Ludwig, but with an advanced technology, not known on the planet Earth.

"Calli inherited a castle
Like I have never seen!
When I was in, visiting,
I thought I had a lucid dream!

A castle in the skies!
I thought I lost my wits!
UFO-like, which flies
Over the world, in minutes!"

The castle flies on solar energy and is manned by computer-robots. The computer-robots are thinking machines, which just learned how to decode the earthling's DNA, put the information on CDs and form personal manuals for everybody. They can also create from atoms. Calliope can have whatever her heart wishes for. Even the best dishes are created in the kitchen "factory" from atoms.

"Her servants, in fact, are robots.
In her "kitchen" they create
Anything you might be craving,
Serving it on a golden plate."

Calliope decides to make a poetry contest in the castle. Besides Sasha, she invites many other young and old poetesses. Sasha is amazed by all the wonderful things in the castle. She is given a grand tour of the castle and admires every room and every piece of furniture. A large, marbled, mirrored hall, paintings of Greek gods, armoured knights, ivory and ebony carvings, a bed which belonged to Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Calliope's bath she likes best of all.

"Her bath is a little thermal
Lake with tinkling waterfalls,
Water lilies, lovely orchids,
Ivy, clinging to the walls.

Hummingbirds and pink flamingos
Find here daily shady rest.
Fragrant air and bird's songs filled
This place is the very best!"

She makes friends with snow leopards, guardians of the castle.

"Escalator took us up
To those leopards; one was a pup.
He was so cute! His name was Snow,
He was not to let me go!"

Sasha also meets Calliope's new love, Madison, who relates how he met Calliope. She also meets Madison's young son Fred, a scientist.

"Forgot to tell that Madison
Introduced me to his son.
He was a hunk with green eyes,
Great body! For such one dies!"

Both Fred and his Father are learning from the computer robots and are experimenting with cloning and genetic engineering, creating chimeras. But not everything goes smoothly every time!

"Fred was sitting in the lab,
With a creature on his lap.
It was a cat, with a pair of wings,
Which could not fly. The poor thing!"

Madison and Fred are concerned about the possible misuse of this high technology if it gets into the hands of imperfect and greedy humans. Horrible things could happen!

"If people could read DNA,
As a book, as a story,
If they could find all about us,
Our medical history,

Denied love, and denied marriage
But to 'Superior race',
Denied jobs, denied insurance,
For unwanted kids no space,

Cloned soldiers and cloned servants,
Cloned babies to harvest their parts,
As for the famous and glamorous,
Body guards and cell guards?

For their cells could be stolen
And sold to the rich
Who would want to raise
Cloned celebrities as kids!"

Calliope and Madison decide not to share this technology with people on Earth. Also, they will not create their son by cloning, but by the old-fashioned method.

But it is time to start the contest! It's time to put on the gowns and jewelry! Every woman recites her best poems. Many poems are about nature, many are discussing issues common to women. Sasha learns that it is O.K. to be who you are.

..."We are all unique!
There is no one else
Like us, in the whole universe!"

During the poetry contest, the castle takes the contestants from one exciting place to another, from India to Asia to Europe.

When out of the castle, they are guarded by Calliope's bodyguard, Holibij. Holibij is a computer-robot in a form of a walking stick, who "can feel the evil intentions by his antennae extensions"

"He gets rapists in the park
Robbers, killers, after dark.
Pedophiles and child abusers,
He gets drug dealers and users.

When he makes the right deduction,
He goes straight into an action.
He flies against the bad guy's back,
Painting it all blue and black.

It really works, as these guys
Think twice about their next crimes
If it is a memory they lack,
They have his 'business card' on back."

Sasha and Fred spend much time together. They have fun riding Tuk-Tuks in the crowded streets in Madras, riding on an elephant's back together in Chiang Mai and shopping in Sumantra! Inevitably, they fall in love. The contest is ending, the wedding bells and a joyful music resound through the castle into the distant town.

"Can you see a handsome man coming,
In black tux, cummerbund red?
Single red rose pinned to his heart?
It is my husband to be, Fred!

Hummingbirds, the little gems, sparkle
Above the thermal lake;
Above the floating lilies,
Eyeing our wedding cake.

The air smells of fragrant roses
And nymphs in azure see
High above, painted on ceilings,
Smile down on Fred and me"

---

Catalogue Information

---