Newburyport, October 28 | The Dragon’s Nest, 31 Market Square, announces its upcoming book launch for the new children’s picture storybook, Satchi and Little Star, by Donna Marie Seim and illustrations by Susan Spellman, on Saturday, November 5th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm.

In “Satchi and Little Star,” a young island girl watches as a herd of eight wild horses trot past her gate. One little horse has a white star on his forehead. She yearns to have a horse of her very own. But, when she asks her mama and papa they both say, “Satchi, wild horses are meant to be wild.”

Satchi decides that she will catch and tame Little Star all by herself. Through joys and trials, the reader follows her down the path that leads Satchi to understand what true friendship really is.

Inspired by the beautiful wild horses in the Caribbean and around the world, author Donna Seim weaves the story of a young girl, a wild horse, and how they touch each other’s lives. Susan Spellman’s masterful illustrations capture the essence of a young girl’s emotions of the heart. Her colorful watercolor paintings sweep the readers away to the island world of Satchi and Little Star.

Satchi and Little Star is the second children’s picture book written by Donna Seim and illustrated by Susan Spellman. Where is Simon, Sandy?, about a little donkey that wouldn’t quit, also takes place in the Caribbean and is the recipient of the Mom’s Choice Award for 2009 in the category: Children’s Picture Book, Peoples, Places and Cultures and a Finalist in the children’s picture book category for the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2010. Seim is also the author of Hurricane Mia: A Caribbean Adventure for 8–12-year-olds, 2010.

In 1982, Donna and her husband Martin opened The Dragon’s Nest, a specialty toy store in downtown Newburyport. The store is now owned and operated by their daughter Kristin.

Susan Spellman has a studio workshop in Newburyport where she pursues a dual career as a fine artist and as an illustrator with extensive experience in painting, portraiture, and children’s book illustration.

Come join in the fun! Color “Satchi and Little Star” and win a gold coin from the Dragon’s Nest, enjoy tasty treats, and at 2:00 pm, listen to the author read a selection from “Satchi and Little Star.” Donna Seim, author, will be on hand to answer questions and sign copies of her book. While supplies last, patrons will receive a free Schleich action figure of Little Star with each signed copy of the book, “Satchi and Little Star.” A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the TCSPCA – Grand Turk Chapter of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

For more information about the book, visit http://www.donnaseim.com.

ONE WITH THE SEA
AN INSPIRING RAGS-TO-RICHES SAGA OF THE SON OF AN IRISH IMMIGRANT

An interview with Richard Daniel O’Leary ~

Here is the sweeping story of one man’s remarkable life. Born into humble circumstances, the only son of an Irish immigrant, Richard Daniel O’Leary’s love of the sea inspired him to attend the Maine Maritime Academy, serve as an officer in the Navy, as well as on the SS United States, and the Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY.

He went on to create an illustrious business career based in Norfolk, Virginia. The company he founded, Cruise Ventures Inc., grew from a one-person operation to a national company with 2500 employees headquartered in fifty-five offices in twelve states, which built and owned a fleet of thirteen 600-passenger harbor cruise vessels. This is a grand story, not just about a man, but also about the opportunity that America still offers to those with vision and determination.

Richard O’Leary has drawn on a wealth of life experiences to contribute to his memoir. In this special interview, he discusses his philosophy of a strong work ethic, his distinguished military career, his successful cruise ship industry and the importance of family and friends.

Skye Wentworth) How does the title of your book, “One with the Sea” translate as a metaphor for you and for your life’s work?

Richard Daniel O’Leary. One with the Sea aptly describes how I spent my life. More than ten years of my life as a younger man was spent actually sailing on ships of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Merchant Marine. I decided, at a very young age when I first saw the ocean that I wanted to be on it or near it for the rest of my life. My entire career has been ship or maritime related and I have always lived by the ocean. I feel very fortunate to have found the interest and love that has given me so much fulfillment and pleasure.

SW) Tell us a little about your Irish heritage, upbringing and some life lessons you learned along the way. How did your father’s work ethic help you persevere and become successful in your careers?

RDOL) In many ways my father, an Irish immigrant, had a difficult life but he taught me, through example, to never ever give up on situations or people and to give your all to everything you attempt. He was the most unselfish human being I have ever met. His only thought was to do the very best he could to take care of his family, with very little regard for himself. When you grow up living with someone like that who also loves you dearly, it is hard not to develop some good traits that are applicable to many of life’s situations.

SW) What was the most thrilling and important adventure for you in your life as an officer at sea?

RDOL) Just being assigned as an officer on the bridge of the SS United States at 25 years-of-age was a thrilling event for me. I stayed for five years and crossed the Atlantic about 250 times. Each one of those crossings made at speeds no other ship could attain was an adventure. But one of the most exciting or at least most memorable was a negative experience. Two days out of New York, in 1962, I believe, we ran into a ferocious North Atlantic gale. The ship was actually “hove to” or stopped because of the ferocious seas. This is something we had never had to do in spite of a great deal of bad weather. The green water from the mountainous seas were breaking right over the bow which was about 70-feet above the waterline. The water would then break as it came aboard the foredeck and sheets of heavy spray and water would break against the bridge windows about 150 feet above the sea. I had seen a good deal of rough water but had never felt fear. When the water would hit the bridge windows I would duck down and I remember having the floating thought, “Is it possible it is all going to end like this on the greatest ship in the world?”

It didn’t but we did some damage to this huge vessel including knocking a navigation range light off the main mast, which was about 170 feet above the sea. I later heard that we also cracked a structural beam in the main deck. As it always turns out, the wind abated the seas moderated, and we arrived in France only about 14 hours late. The Whole event reminded me of a well-known Mariner’s prayer, “Oh Lord the ocean is so great and my ship is so small.” – even the SS United States.

SW) How did you decide to “jump ship” and begin a civilian career? What do you mean when you say that you embarked on “An Adventure in Capitalism?”

RDOL) The U.S. Maritime Services is a civilian entity much like the commercial airline business. My military service was comprised of my Active Duty Naval Service and 28 years in the Naval Reserve.

Because of the extensive business studies I had completed it was logical to think about a business, but my only real interest was the Cruise Ship business. I started with the Norfolk Port and Industrial Authority a quasi public-private entity. The work I did in attracting Cruise Ships to Norfolk led quite naturally to the founding of Cruise Ventures Inc.

I am a very strong believer in capitalism. I think our company represented capitalism at its very best. We took some new ideas and sold them to a group of people willing to take a risk for the potential of profiting. This is classic capital foundation. We nurtured and developed the ideas through adversity and good fortune, then took steps to transfer ownership, in our case, to the wonderful people who had done the work.

SW) Tell us a bit about the business, Cruise International Inc, which you founded.

RDOL) Cruise International was founded to market large ocean going cruise ships from ports where they did not normally operate. New York and Miami were the traditional homeports. We eventually operated ships from Norfolk, Baltimore, Boston, Wilmington, NC and Charleston SC. We sold cruises through travel agents and operated like a Shipping company that didn’t own ships. We developed the niche business of operating in different ports on Off Season dates into a good size business. We then expanded into the air and travel businesses and then added a fleet of 13 six hundred-passenger harbor cruise vessels in major ports throughout the United States. Those ships had two live bands, served meals, and featured a Broadway revue. We were moving about 17-thousand people per day and 1.5 million per year.

SW) In your book, you talk about family and friends. How are they important to your success and wellbeing?

I think family and friends are important as a stabilizing element in a person’s life. If you can find success in life or business and combine it with the contentment of having good friends and a great family you are fortunate indeed and are likely to be even more successful.

SW) Do you have a website? Where we can people purchase your book?

RDOL) Yes, folks can find me at http://www.onewiththeseabook.com and purchase One with the Sea at amazon.com. Wholesalers can contact Baker and Taylor or Ingram.

Book Review by Lois Henderson for Book Pleasures
 
Discard the marriage manuals and read Ellen Graf’s poetic memoir, The Natural Laws of Good Luck: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage, instead, is the best advice that you can possibly offer any friend who is considering tying the knot. In this delightful and honest tale, Graf reveals the intimate details of her relationship with her Chinese tai chi teacher’s brother-in-law, starting with what basically amounted to a blind date and leading to a marriage that crosses cultural bounds with poignancy and blended (ir)reverence. With literally no holds barred, she shows how they managed to overcome their differences in all areas of their life together. In their exemplification of creativity and positivity towards each other, Graf shows how they were able to capture the true spirit of convivial joy in tackling life’s challenges. By conveying their mutual learnings and yearnings to each other and the world, despite at times having to work through what might seem to other, more ordinary, couples insurmountable odds, Graf indicates how they were able to grow and develop together in a loving and empathic union.
 
In an age that frowns upon matchmaking and prearranged marriages, The Natural Laws of Good Luck: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage shows how one can grow to love a partner whom one hardly knows at the start of consanguineous relations. Tenacity and will power are two of the key ingredients required for such a partnership to succeed, with the artistic and sensitive nature of Ellen and Lu Zhong-hua being an added blessing in this case. What Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm has done for agrarian living, The Natural Laws of Good Luck is likely to do for cross-cultural marriage, with the added benefit of the fact that this is a true life tale and not a fictional encounter with the weird and eccentric in life. Humor is definitely a keystone of both works, however. The clear and detailed descriptions of how to overcome marital difficulties through evolving ways of communicating across linguistic barriers (neither Ellen nor Lu Zhong-hua can speak more than the most basic of expressions in each other’s language when they first start out) are a lesson to us all.
 
Both human and humane, The Natural Laws of Good Luck: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage should find a place on all marriage counselors’ shelves, as well as be recommended reading for any prospective couple. Even those who have been married for years would stand to benefit from accessing the essential nobility and integrity that underlies the respect for each other’s value systems that permeates this volume.

Reviewer Lois Henderson has a MA General Linguistics, BA (English) Honors, Higher Education Diploma, Higher Diploma in Library and Information Science – indexer of more than 130 books; editor of dozens of theses and study manuals at university and college level.

LA Talk Radio’s Two Talk Books with Starla Faye, host.
You can listen to us on streaming radio at http://www.latalkradio.com/.

Take a listen to me (Skye Wentworth) on Saturday, June 11 at 11:00 am, PST/2:00 pm, EST on LA Radio as I talk to Starla Faye, host, on Two Talk Books. We’ll be talking about book publicity — how to craft pitches and press materials, establish contacts with the media and discuss information about social networking and marketing trends — all the stuff that will help you promote your book!

What works best for you?

Join us at http://www.latalkradio.com/

Click on the link above to listen to author Mike Weiss discuss his new book, Double Play: The hidden passions behind the double assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk on KGO with John Rothmann, host.

Why did White kill Moscone and Milk? How did he literally get away with murder? An exciting and true crime thriller, Double Play provides often-shocking answers based on years of research and hundreds of interviews. The book earned the Edgar Award as Best True Crime Book of the Year.

This expanded and updated edition reveals for the first time White’s life after his release from prison, why and how he committed suicide, his secret plan to kill two more politicians, how his defense attorneys feared losing the trial over an unnoticed piece of evidence, what happened to the major characters in the 30 years after the assassinations, and how the killings catapulted a discouraged politician named Dianne Feinstein into national prominence and changed San Francisco irrevocable. This edition also includes 80 photographs and 10 illustrations, most never before published.

A companion DVD provides television interviews with Moscone and White, police dispatch recordings of officers responding to the murders and hunting for the killer, Dianne Feinstein telling how she found Harvey Milk’s body, and the never-before-available recording of White’s gut-wrenching confession.

Does love ever die? Will we ever be reunited with loved ones? Heartfelt testimony to the eternal nature of the human spirit can be found in this collection of eighty-eight true stories from people who have seen, heard, and felt love from their family, friends, and acquaintances in spirit. The author, a hospice nurse, shares the wisdom she has gained from nearly twenty years of working with the dying and bereaved.

Llewellyn Worldwide, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-2122-4, Body, Mind & Spirit/Bereavement

http://www.elizabethatkinson.com

DOUBLE PLAY
The hidden passions behind the double assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk
by Mike Weiss

Why did San Francisco Supervisor Dan White kill Mayor George Moscone and fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk? How did he literally get away with murder? What happened to the main “players” 30 years after the assassinations, and how the killings changed San Francisco irrevocable. Double Play provides often-shocking answers based on years of research and hundreds of interviews. This edition includes dozens of previously unpublished photos, plus a DVD providing television interviews with Moscone and White, police recordings and the never-before-available recording of White’s gut-wrenching confession.

Vince Emery Productions, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0-9825650-5-6, Non-fiction, Mystery

http://www.emerybooks.com/

TERMINATION ORDERS
Code Name Cobra
by Leo J. Maloney

Leo J. Maloney, a former Black Ops contractor, penned his first-time action thriller, Termination Orders: Code Name, Cobra, as a quasi-memoir about the dark but arguable necessary side of intelligence that the government officially denies. The book spans the late sixties through 2001, depicting events witnessed first hand by the author embodied in the hero, Dan Morgan. The result is a masterly blend of Black Ops intrigue interwoven with imaginative sequences of fiction.

The storyline is comprised of counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and target reconnaissance, in a crescendo of events set across three continents from a fireside ambush at a Kandahar village pig roast, to the vast inner halls of the CIA, to a window-ledge view through a sniper scope aimed at Kaddafi in Libya.

Independent Publishing House, 2011, ISBN-13: 978-0-615-41988-6, Fiction, Action Thriller.

http://www.terminationorders.com

If you would like to book an author on your show:
CONTACT
Skye Wentworth, Book Publicist
Newburyport, MA
978-462-4453
skyewentworth@gmail.com

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The holidays are often a difficult time for those of us that have experienced a loss of a loved one. Many individuals suffer through bereavement over a family member, friend, and/or pet because they know that their holidays will never be the same again. We welcome Elissa Al-Chokhachy, our guest blogger, as she brings us comfort with her message of hope and miracles.

Holiday Hope and Miracles: A Time of Remembrance

By Elissa Al-Chokhachy

Winter holidays are filled with joy and celebration. During this time, millions of people reverently pay homage to the miracles in their faith traditions and heritage. Others celebrate meaningful relationships with loved ones, family and friends. From festive gatherings, thoughtful exchange of cards, notes and presents to charitable gift giving, these activities bring much hope, anticipation and promise. Holiday music magically transports us back through time to cherished moments and memories. And, for those who have lost loved ones, this season is a time of remembrance. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the special loved ones in our lives who have died.


Holidays often evoke sadness for those who are bereaved. Deceased loved ones are noticeably missing, and their absence trigger palpable grief, loneliness and sometimes despair. Some grieving individuals need to talk about what they are feeling. Others prefer to grieve privately. Respecting the needs of each is important. Rather than getting over a loss, the bereaved need to learn how to live differently in an altered world. Things have changed. Providing a supportive, nonjudgmental environment encourages the validation of thoughts and feelings. Working through the feelings of loss and grief is a necessary step in the healing process.


During this holiday season, look for ways to honor beloved family members and friends who have died. Light a candle in remembrance. Say a prayer. Share funny stories. Look at photographs. Listen to favorite music. Hang a stocking and invite guests to place messages inside. Make a charitable donation. Visit special places where memories were shared. Journal thoughts and feelings. Offer thanks for blessings and lessons learned. If needed, ask for forgiveness or say “I’m sorry.” Give thanks for your loved ones’ presence in your life.

Never be afraid to cry. Tears are good. They are a physical release of grief and sadness. Remember, it is important to work through the pain of loss in order to return to happiness again. Take it one day at a time, one hour at a time or one minute at a time, if necessary. Pray for strength, guidance and clarity. Be gentle with yourself. Get plenty of rest. Don’t forget to laugh and have fun.
According to Robert Frost, “Hope does not lie in a way out but in a way through.” Enjoy this season as an opportunity to move deeper into emotions where the miracle of hope can be found. May the warmth and caring of others bring you comfort. May the winter bring you rest and renewal. May the miracles of this holiday season bless you with healing, hope and peace.

Elissa Al-Chokhachy, MA, RN, CHPN, FT is a certified hospice nurse with Merrimack Valley Hospice in Massachusetts and the author of Miraculous Moments: True Stories Affirming That Life Goes On.




]]> http://skyewentworth.org/wordpress/2010/12/19/holiday-hope-and-miracles-a-time-of-remembrance-by-elissa-al-chokhachy/feed/ 0 http://skyewentworth.org/wordpress/2010/11/26/455/ http://skyewentworth.org/wordpress/2010/11/26/455/#comments Sat, 27 Nov 2010 02:12:17 +0000 skyewentworth http://skyewentworth.org/wordpress/?p=455

See: http://www.sfbaytimes.com/

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