She keeps to the shadows and is everywhere and yet nowhere. She keeps watch, and protects. She was chosen because of her ability to become a puff of air brushing a cheek or a ripple in the sand of a beach. Her movements are almost imperceptible—dismissed as a trick of light, a figment of the imagination… So many coming, it is hard for her to keep watch. But, she is swift and can be anywhere, faster than a frightened, indrawn breath. She is Lusca.

She keeps to the shadows and is everywhere and yet nowhere. She keeps watch, and protects. She was chosen because of her ability to become a puff of air brushing a cheek or a ripple in the sand of a beach. Her movements are almost imperceptible—dismissed as a trick of light, a figment of the imagination… So many coming, it is hard for her to keep watch. But, she is swift and can be anywhere, faster than a frightened, indrawn breath. She is Lusca. Discover the magic of the otherworld in this collection of stories. Meet predators that prowl the night and cannot be stopped by locks or bars; heroes with fangs and backward turned feet. Wonder at a celestial being with the power to bring light to dark lives. Through the creative genius and cultural knowledge of Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, LUSCA and Other Fantastic Tales animates and preserves several of the unique, legendary, but mostly forgotten creatures of Bahamian folklore.

Patricia Glinton-Meicholas received her Bachelor of Art degree (Hons) in French and Spanish from the University of the West Indies (Mona) and a M Sc. ed. from University of Miami. She spent an aggregate of 17 years as a lecturer and administrator at The College of The Bahamas (now the University of The Bahamas). She is the VP of a leading Advertising/Marketing firm in The Bahamas; VP of Creative Nassau and co-hosts a weekly radio show on 102.9 FM Island Radio. She was the first recipient of the Bahamas Cacique Award for Writing. She has given lectures at the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Centre, Washington, D.C.; the Heritage and Leadership Symposium at City Hall, London (by invitation of the Mayor’s Office); “Narrating Caribbean Nation” at Leeds Municipal University, U.K.; “The Bahamas at 40”, the College of The Bahamas and the Keva Bethel Distinguished Lecture, the College of The Bahamas. Glinton-Meicholas’ essays on Bahamian art appear in the Macmillan Dictionary of Art. She contributed to Oxford University Press’ Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography and has written, directed and produced several historical documentaries. Her story, “The Gaulin Wife” is included in the Penguin anthology Under the Storyteller’s Spell. Her monograph on Bahamian folktales was published by the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Centre, Washington, DC., and her poetry has appeared in local and international literary journals.