October 2009 Archives

Just in time for National Shelter Dog Month, "Darby's Story: The Life of an Adopted Dog", the colorful new children's book by Martha Steward, shares the story of Darby, an adorable dog that only wants to find a loving home to take him in.

Based on the true story of an adopted dog who finally found his home, "Darby's Story" is a heartwarming family tale for readers and listeners alike. For Christmas one year, a single mother and her 5-year-old son decide to visit a local pet store chain to see whether any rescued dogs would be the right choice for them to adopt. Upon arrival, they saw many dogs in need of a good home and lots of love, but they were looking for that one special dog that would be perfect for them. Upon seeing Darby, they knew he was the right one. Steward writes:

        The other dogs were nice and friendly, but there was a special
        connection between Darby, Drew, and myself. I was seeking a specific
        temperament -- a combination of a certain kind of personality and
        behavior. For our household, a relaxed temperament was ideal. The
        looks of the dog or the special breed did not matter. After many
        licks, Darby just brushed up against me, as if he were giving me a
        hug. Drew, almost the same height as Darby, gave Darby a hug. In
        return, Darby gave a very wet lick up the side of Drew's face. Those
        watching laughed at the surprise on Drew's face and at the warm
        connection we seemed to share with the dog. We knew he was the dog to
        bring home.

Once settled into his new home as a part of the family, Darby's family discovers his many likes and dislikes, including his love of Swiss cheese and frozen grapes and his dislike of leaving his family unprotected. Join Darby on his many adventures in "Darby's Story: The Life of an Adopted Dog," a wonderful story about the joys that an adopted dog can bring to any family.

Martha Steward lives in Northern California with her adopted cats Bear, Mim, Goober, and Widdle One and her horse Picabo. She enjoys writing her children's book series, which follows her adopted pets. She has a passion and love for unwanted animals, and throughout her stories she encourages her readers to be aware these animals need love and a home.

AuthorHouse is the premier book publisher for emerging, self-published authors. For more information, please visit http://www.authorhouse.com.

SOURCE AuthorHouse

Tor Books is proud to announce the release of The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, Book Twelve of The Wheel of Time and the first of three novels to conclude the beloved and international bestselling fantasy series.

The Wheel of Time series has sold over 14 million copies in North America and over 30 million copies worldwide with translations into 28 languages. The last four books in the series were #1 New York Times bestsellers, and readers have been eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the epic story that first began in 1990.

The release of The Gathering Storm is especially memorable, as it honors the legacy of the late great Robert Jordan. The conclusion to the series was partially written by Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, the bestselling author of the Mistborn trilogy, was then chosen by Jordan's editor -- his wife, Harriet McDougal -- to complete the series based on the notes and materials left behind.

Brandon Sanderson begins a 25-city national author tour with special appearance by Harriet McDougal at select events. Events kicked off with a lively midnight release party in Provo, UT with several hundred people in attendance and continue later today with a special launch event in Charleston, SC, the home of Robert Jordan. This year also marks the inaugural Storm Leader program, for which the largest Wheel of Time site hand-selected a dedicated team of fans to head up community outreach in each tour city.

The Wheel of Time comic books debuted this year from the Dabel Brothers, and the comics will later be collected and published as graphic novels by Tor books. A New Spring graphic novel with bonus material is scheduled to release next year.

Universal Pictures acquired the movie rights to the Wheel of Time in August 2008 and plan to adapt The Eye of the World as the first movie. A video game is in progress and a documentary on Robert Jordan is in post-production.

The final two books in the Wheel of Time series will be titled Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light. The Gathering Storm marks the beginning of the dramatic conclusion to an amazing series, one whose journey began almost twenty years ago.

SOURCE Tor Books

On the 80th Anniversary of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 (October 24-29th), regardless of the gyrations in the current stock market, there will be hope for anyone who loved the movie TITANIC and enjoyed reading THE GREAT GATSBY. Beginning in the last decadent days of the roaring twenties, 1929 AN UPPER CLASS AFFAIR is a riveting love story that poignantly recreates the Stock Market Crash and ends as America emerges from the Great Depression.

"Whether you are looking for a book to read on the subway, train, bus, or airplane, in the bathroom, or even under the covers with a flashlight, once you get into the story, you will find it hard to put down," states Alice Jacobs, Founder and CEO of IntelligentMDx.

Given the economic turmoil of the past year and comparisons to the 1929 Crash and ensuing depression, after doing significant research that involved conducting oral histories as well as going through traditional documented accounts and published works, Margaret Chai Maloney wrote 1929 AN UPPER CLASS AFFAIR primarily for a female audience in the hope of generating interest in the period while providing light entertainment and strong role models.

According to Terrence Yang, who has had 15 years experience as a Wall Street bulge bracket investment bank officer, "If you work in the financial services sector, 1929 AN UPPER CLASS is the perfect gift for your girlfriend, wife, mother or any family member who you'd like to understand more of what happened. It's a light, fun read but also explains what happened financially." He adds, "Even for finance people, there are some little known fascinating facts."

Chai Maloney, who studied history at Mount Holyoke College and Oxford University, meticulously remains true to the period in terms of the lifestyles, attitudes, events, places, music, books, movies, stores, clothes and of course people. The fictional main characters interact effortlessly with the famous real people of the period. The heroine watches the Stock Market Crash from the New York Stock Exchange with Winston Churchill, who did in fact witness the first day of the carnage. Readers also get a chance to mingle with the famous at Texas Guinan's New York City speakeasy and meet the infamous cross-dressing prohibition agents Izzy Einstein and Mo Smith, watch Helena Rubinstein, the beauty industry doyenne, lose millions on board Cunard Liner's Berengaria, which had the first online brokerage and was steered by Captain Ronston, who had rescued surviving TITANIC passengers and see Joseph Kennedy slighted by Jack Morgan and then wisely pull out of the market before the crash.

"This is a must read, especially if you're a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austen. You'll be completely enraptured by Josie and her feisty and engaging personality as you follow her through her various adventures and love triangles that are a behind-the-scenes look into a New York socialite's life during the roaring 20s and Crash of 1929. You'll get an insider's view into the differences between the greed and naivety that fueled that period which also happens to be rather pertinent to today's environment. In addition to the character complexities, I particularly enjoyed the New York architectural references and the level of detail behind the Crash itself and those who saw it coming (e.g., JP Morgan, Joe Kennedy)," states Suzanne Messere, Director of Investor Relations, at Organogenesis and former investment banker.

Chai Maloney has also developed a website with resources for those interested in learning more about the period as well as the opportunity to document one's own family histories from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Great Depression. The author is most interested in encouraging everyone to record their family stories before they are forgotten or lost.

For more information visit: www.1929anupperclassaffair.com or pre-order "1929 AN UPPER CLASS AFFAIR" at amazon.com or via Kindle.

SOURCE 1929 Productions

The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) announces the launch of PARK AVENUE POTLUCK CELEBRATIONS (ISBN: 978-0-8478-3344-3; $35.00; OCTOBER 2009), the highly anticipated sequel to its best selling cookbook, PARK AVENUE POTLUCK. Created and authored by members of The Society, the cookbook is released nationwide by Rizzoli on October 20, 2009 and offers advice on how to celebrate in style with a compilation of 80 sensational recipes, entertaining ideas, party-planning tips, and personal anecdotes, with 150 color photographs shot in the homes of Society members. Award-winning food writer and contributing New York Times columnist, Florence Fabricant edits as well as contributes to the book.

"We are so grateful for the success of our cookbooks," said Heather Leeds, President of The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering. "They provide invaluable funding for The Society's programs for patients and their families who come to the Center from all over the world. CELEBRATIONS is another labor of love by members of The Society and sends a message of hope to our readers everywhere."

Organized by season, CELEBRATIONS serves-up a year's worth of 14 special occasions including Valentine's Day dinner, Easter and Mother's Day brunch, July 4th potluck, Kentucky Derby parties, summer beach parties, family holiday dinners, tree-lighting cocktails, and much more! Released just in time for the Holiday season, the book will be this year's ultimate guide to elegant and affordable entertaining.

More than a cookbook, The Society's illustrious hostesses include an indispensable Source Guide featuring over 100 national listings and go-to resources for readers to easily recreate each recipe and celebration in their own homes.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of CELEBRATIONS will provide funding for The Society's patient care, research and education programs at MSKCC. Founded in 1946 by a group of pioneering women, The Society works to bring comfort and care to improve the quality of life of patients treated at the Center. For more information, visit www.parkavenuepotluck.com

SOURCE The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

In his groundbreaking new book, "Your Better Self: A Simple Guide To Where You Want To Be", Ken Wallace offers readers a resource designed to help them cultivate fulfilling lives of significance and positive attitudes.

"This book helps you answer the question, 'What do I want most?'" Wallace writes. "It's about achieving more than you ever thought you could and having more than you ever thought you should by guiding you to manifest your worthy aspirations in your daily life. It will make you unstoppable in living the life you've always wanted."

Focused on helping readers integrate their perspectives on their past, present and future into a peaceful wholeness, "Your Better Self" is filled with useful, immediately applicable tips, techniques and strategies. But rather than providing an inflexible set of directions, the book guides readers to make their own decisions about what is most important to them now and how to use these tools to quickly improve their lives.

Wallace also warns readers of the challenges that they will encounter on the journey to their better selves. Self concern, unfocused thinking, procrastination, perfectionism, rushing, poor planning, misunderstandings, unhealthy desires and lack of empathy are just a few of the barriers that can stand in the way. "Your Better Self" examines these obstacles, and many others, and offers practical ways to deal with them so that the resources of your better self quickly emerge to help you live your "whole" life.

Full of seasoned advice, fresh ideas and inspirational stories, "Your Better Self" is sure to motivate readers to realize their full potential and not only find the answer to "What do I want most?" but also know precisely how to experience everything they are truly worthy of.

About the Author: Ken Wallace is a professional speaker, consultant and executive coach specializing in personal and organizational development. For more than 20 years, Wallace has spoken and consulted in various industries, helping his clients improve their performance, productivity and profitability. Since 2000, he has been one of only nine certified business process and systems coaches for General Motors worldwide. A professional member of the National Speakers Association since 1989, Wallace is also a member of the International Federation for Professional Speaking and is an ordained United Methodist minister.

For more information, visit http://www.YourBetterSelfBook.com.

SOURCE AuthorHouse

George Cloutier's book of hard-hitting advice for small business owners, PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING, has hit the major national bestseller lists, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today's bestseller lists. This follows upon its performance on Amazon.com, where it went straight to the top of the online retailer's business bestseller list and was the #1 book across all business categories upon its release in September.

Cloutier is the founder and CEO of American Management Services Inc., a firm that specializes in turning around small and mid-sized businesses. Tagged as the "The Turnaround Ace" by Business Week, Cloutier says the response to the book indicates a real need on the part of small business owners for help and guidance. "America's small businesses employ almost 40% of the workforce and generate 70% of new jobs," he remarks. "They are the key players in the financial recovery, yet they're getting virtually no help from the government. The response to PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING shows that they've decided they must be self-reliant and take decisive action on their own to save their businesses and survive this recession. My book provides some practical tools to do that."

The buzz around PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING has been building, and the book has stirred some controversy, including Reuters describing it as a "literary slap in the face to small- and medium-sized business owners." Still Cloutier is regarded as one of the country's leading advocates for small business with Reuters going on to acknowledge "Cloutier's impressive track record. [He] has made a successful career out of digging hapless businesses out of debt and mismanagement by demanding his clients fire dead weight, own up to their laziness and stop making excuses. And it works." Case studies of these successful turnarounds can be found in Cloutier's new Business Week column.

Other major reviewers have been receptive to Cloutier's hard-knock lessons for small business owners. Publishers Weekly calls the book "a forceful debut" and says "Cloutier's book is loaded with valuable advice on how to get back on track and stay in the black in any economic environment." Booklist noted that "many of his regulations will amaze, shock, and awe small business owners. . . Harsh ways to work? Yes, yet all his principles are founded on a success that's hard to argue with." Fortune Small Business says the book is "invaluable reading for anyone in business. . . . The author's larger message -- that success in business requires relentless focus on the bottom line -- is worth hearing in these hard times."

PROFITS AREN'T EVERYTHING, THEY'RE THE ONLY THING: No-Nonsense Rules from the Ultimate Contrarian and Small-Business Guru, by George Cloutier is available in all major bookstores and online retailers. It is published by HarperCollins. See www.turnaroundace.com for more details.

SOURCE Planned Television Arts Ltd.

The mystery of the Black Plague -- its origin, its carrier, the speed of its dissemination -- continues to puzzle historians and epidemiologists today, summoning fearsome images of a disease that devastated Europe, killing off one-third of the population, and the possibility of its reoccurrence. In his new nonfiction book, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" (published by AuthorHouse), Todd Richardson draws upon his background in medicine and history, as well as his fascination with oriental rugs, to uncover an astonishing relationship between the wool trade, weather change and the advent of the bubonic plague in Europe.

Engrossing, thought-provoking and comprehensive, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" argues that the connection between the plague, the Little Ice Age and increasing wool trade with the East are not just coincidental, but vital to our understanding of this worldwide endemic plague. Richardson brings together myriad primary and secondary sources to form the foundation of his research, from firsthand accounts from the 14th century, statistical information and specialized knowledge about wool fibers, germs and bacteria.

Most importantly, Richardson illuminates for the first time the inherent link between the plague, wool fibers as an insulate against the cold and the icy spell of cold that struck Europe and sent the population clamoring for sheep's wool from the Great Steppe of Asia. He writes:

        Moving disease around had suddenly become an easy process in 1300,
        expressing itself in the delivery of primary plague pneumonia from
        Kaffa to Europe. Once it contaminated textiles, it could escape into
        the air and become aerosolized from dead animal tissue and textiles,
        including wool or silk. It did not need an enormous crowd once it
        became involved in cold weather. Freezing temperatures with high
        relative humidity favor transmission, since pulverized and frozen
        sputum and cough droplets retain infective and virulent bacilli for
        long periods of time. This is almost an exact description of the
        conditions present in Europe awaiting primary pneumonic plague.

Addressing current manifestations of the bubonic plague, as recently as 2002 in New York, Richardson accounts for the sporadic events through the presence or absence of the three key factors of plague, weather and wool. In a world where rapid, global climate change has become a frightening inevitability, "Plague, Weather, and Wool" serves as an ideal reference for historians, epidemiologists and climatologists.

Todd Richardson was born in Muscatine, Iowa, and currently lives in Louisville, Ky., after retiring from over 40 years of practicing medicine as a physician. He is married with two daughters and three stepsons.

SOURCE AuthorHouse

A mysterious legend of the Pemon tribe in the Caribbean islands tells of a gate between the divine and the Canaiman jungle, and it is up to a group of adults, orphans and an ancient dog to fulfill the legend and their destiny. Journey through time in Captain Atlantis' new novel, "Murata Tek: A Journey Through Legends, Time and Adventure" (published by AuthorHouse), as these unsuspecting tropical adventurers push the boundaries of humanity and unlock ancient secrets.

"Murata Tek" follows two young orphans, a couple, a 400-year-old dog called Marco Polo, a mute man, a toucan aptly named "Two Cans" and a "millennium-old" man called Xklixmls through the Amazonian land of Venezuela. The misfit group encounters endless dangerous pitfalls on their quest to discover the truth to the Pemon mystery. Throughout the book the reader is introduced to Caribbean and South American culture and landscape. Murata Tek shares an exotic story of magic, love, curiosity, compassion and adventure in the steamy Amazonian jungle reminiscent of the strength of humanity:

        "We need to surface, and I mean right now. That's a Sea King
        loaded with MK46 torpedoes. They can crack this sub like an
        eggshell. Pull that wheel toward you. We need to nose up real
        quick," she informed Jimmy. "Simon! Get on the other wheel and
        pull it too!" she ordered.

        ...A bright blue light exploded from Marco Polo's necklace and
        spread like a giant ring throughout the submarine.

        Marina sighed and said, "Impact!"

Captain Atlantis is originally from the fishing port of Juan Griego in the Caribbean island of Margarita, where tourists would visit to see its castle and famous sunsets. He came to the U.S. 25 years ago, but has since traveled the world. "Murata Tek" began as a musical in his home country, including 14 original songs composed by Captain Atlantis, and then was published years later. He is now a tour guide and author and enjoys traveling, water sports, cooking and playing the ukulele and piano in his free time. Captain Atlantis plans to keep writing and traveling in the future.

"Murata Tek: A Journey Through Legends, Time and Adventure"

Available from: http://www.authorhouse.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com and http://www.amazon.com.