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Just Who Is Charles Rodenbough, Anyway?

Posted By on November 24, 2011

I am Charles Rodenbough and beyond my role as husband, father, and grandfather, I suppose I can characterize myself as a writer and teacher, both capacities I have enjoyed since retiring from being a business manager.  Many years ago I was aware of what I enjoyed doing but I let others convince me of my “responsibilities” and I gave up the desire to be a college professor.  I don’t begrudge the choice nor do I regret what might have been.  In my retirement I am getting to catch up on the avocation that I had continued even while functioning as a businessman.
            History is my genre and my concentration has been associated with North Carolina.  I chaired a Sesquicentennial Celebration (Madison, NC), organized Historic Districts, county chaired the National Bicentennial, Presided for the Historical Society, planned for a county museum, and all the while I read, researched, and collected for a time when I could write.  When that time came, I was not starting from scratch but ready to compose from what I had assembled. 
            I like to structure my writing on the bare facts but I like to create beyond into the logic or lack thereof in how people, individually and collectively, accommodate to their circumstances.  History writing is always interpreting the circumstances of one time or generation to another which sees through its own prism.  The historian has to convey facts and situations in such a way that the reader begins to perceive in the historical moment.  I have written biography, history, and historical fiction.
            Most recently, I wrote a biography with my grandson that could be read and appreciated by multiple generations of readers.  Stealing Andrew Jackson’s Head was published this year by All Things That Matter Press.  My wife, Jean Rodenbough, is also a published author with All Things That Matter Press.
Currently, I am involved with a project with the University of North Carolina, studying a unique common thread of slavery from Africa, through the West Indies, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Canada over a hundred year period. 

Just Who Is Abe March, Anyway?

Posted By on November 17, 2011

Meet Abraham Firestone March…

  My mother, a very religious person and prayer warrior, took the name Abraham from the Bible. She gave me her maiden name Firestone as my middle name.
My name Abraham has been a blessing and a curse, depending on where I happened to be. When I worked in New York, it was a blessing. In some areas, it was not a plus and I began using only the nickname Abe, as in Abe Lincoln.
My feet have trodden the earth in more than 30 countries. I have seen the sun rise over the Persian Gulf and the sun set in the Canadian Rockies. I sunbathed by the Mediterranean, roasted in Riyadh and dined in Damascus. I was beggar-beseeched in Baghdad, short-changed in Saudi Arabia and saw blood shed in Beirut.
I have been called Mister, Monsieur, Herr, Sayyidi, Kirios, Signor, Sir and other names.
I have eaten with Bedouins and dined with Royalty. I have also been rich and I have been poor. I like to think that I have a world view on many subjects and that I have a certain amount of wisdom. My experiences are reflected in my writing.
 At ATTMP, my book, They Plotted Revenge Against America was inspired by America’s invasion of Iraq.  My book, Journey Into The Past was inspired by my love of hiking and exploring ancient castles in Germany.
 They Plotted Revenge Against
http://tinyurl.com/3bomrdl


Journey Into The Past
http://tinyurl.com/3ghv6xg

Just Who Is Elizaveta Ristrova, Anyway?

Posted By on November 7, 2011

With her balance of misanthropy and anthropological curiosity, author Elizaveta Ristrova travels around the world in search of interesting material. Her books consider the significance of religion, clashes between races and culture, the relationships between humans and the environment, and the creation and unravelling of human relationships. She keeps a day-job as a lawyer, focusing on environmental and international development issues. 

We in Pieces, Tales from Arctic Alaska, arose from her years living 500 kilometers north of theArctic Circle. There, she interviewed community leaders regarding traditional knowledge, cut and served whale despite being vegetarian, and read every issue of the local newspaper dating back to the 1960s. Writing was a great way to fill the three months of darkness each year.

Ristrova hails from south Louisianaand currently finds herself in MakatiCity, the Manhattanof the Philippines. She likes singing the blues, dancing tango, making soy brownies, creating kindergarten-style art, and proselytizing about the environment. Her previous books include Taking off My Sweater, Something Short of Salvation, and Small Fish in a Small Pond.

We in Pieces is available at  http://www.amazon.com/Wee-Pieces-Tales-Alaska/dp/0984651756 .

Pictures of the nineteen characters in the book and a diagram of the relationships between them are at www.facebook.com/ristrova. 

 

Just Who Is Sandy Cohen, Anyway?

Posted By on November 4, 2011

When’s the last time a novel made you laugh out loud?  When’s the last time you fell in love with a character?  In Revelations by Sandy Cohen you won’t be able to help yourself, you’ll do both.  Join Abis, trickster-god or mad man, you decide, as he guides Manny Markowitz, and you, through the wilds of Greece and the bogs and barrier islands of south Georgia, and ultimately back to life as they search for Abis’s boss, Willy Love.  Goofy, wise, and ultimately enchanting, this is the guidebook not just for anyone who has gone through one of life’s great tragedies, but for anyone who wants to return to the pure joy of living.  There are three ways to learn the meaning of life, namely reason, intuition, and revelation.  In Revelations, you’ll learn Abis’s, and your, great lesson—that life has no meaning any more than a flower has meaning, or needs to.  It is the beauty and fragrance that enchant.  Life is simply an experience to enjoy and exalt in.  For here, and now is your eternity to enjoy.

Just Who Is Anna Miller, Anyway?

Posted By on October 31, 2011

The Biography Of My Memoir

 

“Why I have the kind of vivid Technicolor memory I do has always been a mystery to me and to the few who knew of it.”

 

The above quote is the first sentence of my memoir and for the next 327 pages I explain in detail what I meant by that and the reason I believe I was blessed/cursed with so many colorful and distinct memories, both good and bad, funny and sad. Two of the worst memories drove me straight to mental hell in agony that refused to relinquish. The first time it happened in 1967 during the Viet Nam War and I chose to have six shock treatments to cure me, they did in two weeks. The second time was seven weeks after my beloved mother’s agonizing July death from Alzheimer’s. That inspiration struck on 9/11/2001 when the horror I was watching on T.V. reminded me of my Great Grandmother Fox, my mother’s grandmother I only met once when I was very young, but she instilled in me a memory that had haunted me many times throughout my life.  In 2001 I chose to cure myself by writing about why I was so distressed. That cure worked also, after a decade of edits, though it did raise a few eyebrows from family members. Oh well, not the first time I messed with their brows or the grey matter behind them.

 

I was born with a Pisces artistic nature I couldn’t ignore. I took piano lessens from second grade through twelfth. The initial inspiration for that musical obsession I got from a religious picture of St. Cecelia in my parents bedroom. I decided when I was four or five years old I wanted to play a piano in heaven when I died so I insisted mamma buy me one to practice on. Actually, my first piano became a bribe she used to get me to do something I really didn’t want to do, go to first grade at a Catholic school. I finally caved in after a lot of family persuasion and several other bribes I required, daddy’s paint quarter horse, a puppy, and five new chicken feed sack dresses. I’m sure some of those nuns wished I had not allowed myself to be bribed to go to that awful “purgatory” in 1944-45. Old unjust ladies in black I was forced to give a little piece of my mind to every once in a while. If something doesn’t make sense to me, I can become an instant rebel.

 

My unique childhood logic was always considered rather strange by adults but that never deterred me. When I made my mind up, there were few on earth who could change it, and that stubborn quirk still haunts me to this day. Oh well, after I ordered my natal horoscope in the 1970’s I found I could blame all my idiosyncrasies on the alignment of the stars above my head on the day I was born…so I still do. It’s easy to blame it on those professional astrologers who claimed my star alignment was rather strange and unusual who gave me a detailed opinion of why I was so “different.” It’s not my fault…it’s my Gods. At least that’s the excuse I’m going to use in the afterlife, if I ever get the chance.

 

At various times in my life I also became obsessed with learning how to cook, sew, paint, sculpt, and conquer fast horses. I’m aTexasnative with a few drops of Apache blood flowing in my veins. When I was six, I insisted on learning how to shoot a rifle and hit the bull’s-eye, so my legend of a superman Daddy took me out in the pasture with aWinchester30-30 and taught me. I realized that was a handy thing to know when I was seven years old guarding German POW’s on a big horse with a Federal rifle still in its saddle holster on my grandpa’s cotton farm in 1945. The “official” guards allowed me to do that while they took naps on the back porch because they didn’t think the prisoners would run off and I didn’t think they would harm me. I was their favorite entertainment on their lunch break. The guards explained to grandpa, “Where would they go, they can’t find a big enough boat to get back home on, and besides, they like earning enough to buy cigarettes and cokes and candy.” My singing and dancing was the most torture those lucky POW’s ever had to endure inAmerica…but I would peel their oranges for them.

 

See? My logic isn’t all that “crazy” compared to some adults I have known in my lifetime.

 

My adult logic hasn’t been much different than my childhood, except that I know a whole lot more about how the world works now than I did back then. After I was forced out of my church by a couple of bad apples, I decided to launch my own religion that consisted of the Creator of all that exists, with Jesus and my “spirit” as my mentors, and me as the pastor. For over two decades I researched religion until it jelled into a creed I could accept and I’m still happy with it. I doubt the T.V. evangelists would be because I quit believing in Hellfire and Damnation they charge for telling you how not to get there.

 

Motherhood was the only vocation I ever lusted for and I did accomplish that. I have five wonderful children who blessed me with eleven grandkids and they are now the focus of my senior years. I live on the outskirts of San Antonioand stay involved with my three youngest grandchildren’s projects.  I still love to write, paint, cook, and still drag out my sewing machine when they want new patches on their jeans they consider badges of honor, usually required because of another pain in their butt that rips denim and skin.

 

I never intended to become a writer or an author but destiny had plans I felt I couldn’t alter. When I chose to publish my life story, I wanted it to be as honest as I could remember and knew I was going to have to confess all my sins if I was going to write about anyone else’s…so I did. I do hope I don’t make your eyebrows too uncomfortable if you choose to read Confessions Of A Crazy Fox

 

 

 

 

Confessions Of A Crazy Fox is available on Amazon in soft cover and for Kindles

 

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Crazy-Maria-Kolojaco-Mullins/dp/0984639284/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311704034&sr=1-1

 

And in print on my Publishers Website

 

http://allthingsthatmatterpress.com/

 

It is also available as an E-book at Barnes & Nobles Nook Book Site

Just Who Is Oana, Anyway?

Posted By on October 31, 2011

“JUST WHO IS OANA, ANYWAY?”

 

Healing through laughter is not a dream, but a recipe for survival

If you were to read a book about Oana’s life, you might easily decide it was a work of fiction. 

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Oana lived twenty years under the grotesque dictatorial regime of Ceausescu. After the fall of communism in 1989 she studied languages at the University in Bucharest, then received her Master’s degree at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. English is her third language. 

She has worn many hats, working as a translator, as a teacher, and eventually caring for animals both domestic and wild. Volunteering in both the U.S. and Canada, she worked for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers.

Currently residing in Arizona, Oana continues to dedicate most of her time to her animals and to writing.  

Her first book, The Healings, debuted in November 2010. It is a hard-to-put-down, laugh-out-loud series of adventures of an eccentric duo: a man and his feline partner walking from ‘healer’ to ‘healer’ and hoping to achieve awareness.

Oana’s take on depression is simple and effective: witticism and laughter coupled with the understanding of the frailty of human nature help us heal. An animal companion, real or imaginary, can be very therapeutic as well.

Many a reader – depressed or not — will recognize the insanity of most of our daily routines and the elusiveness of Truth.

Oana’s current projects include a memoir titled, Romanian Rhapsody, a children’s book, Dr.Schnauzer and Nurse Lhassa, as well as other stories, all written in the same witty humorous style.      
She is also an active member of Central Phoenix Writing Workshop http://www.paloverdepages.com/ and a co-host of Two Unsychronized Souls Radio Show  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/monicabrinkmanandoana 

To learn more about Oana, visit her author’s website www.thehealings.net  

To read excerpts from The Healings go to http://www.thehealings.net/excerpts-from-the-healings.html

The Healings is available in paperback on Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/Healings-Oana/dp/0984615482/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289455146&sr=1-1

In Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Healings-ebook/dp/B004BSH0RI/ref=tmm_kin_title_0/192-1862715-7132302?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1289455146&sr=1-1 and Nook format

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-healings-oana/1029789781?ean=2940012775313&itm=1&usri=oana#

Just Who Is Nick Sansone, Anyway?

Posted By on October 29, 2011

Spawned in the cornfields of rural Illinoisin 1984, he grew up with a wholesome face and an uncouth mind. A love of physical challenges and lush landscapes inspired him to join a volunteer wildfire squad in 2003, and it was here that he was put on the search and rescue team for the Columbia Space Shuttle, which had broken up over Texason re-entry that February. During his month working on the Columbiamission, Nick was perplexed by the daily absurdities that came of working for a secretive, hierarchical government organization under adverse conditions in the middle of nowhere. This brought about paranoia, which in turn brought about his first novel, Shooting Angels, now available from All Things That Matter Press.

Shooting Angels is the heavily fictionalized story of a team of wildland firefighters who go to east Texas to investigate a fallen Space Shuttle. As the crew endures physical and emotional hardship, however, they soon realize that the crash was no accident: it was the result of a cosmic conspiracy, involving NASA, Mr. and Mrs. God, and a foul-mouthed, disembodied head which has taken up its residence in the cellar of an elderly rancher. Shooting Angels races from the jungles of Texas to the dark corners of undiscovered space to the smoggy streets of Central Heaven, where people, no longer cowed by the threat of mortality, are free to give in to their most detestable urges. Part science fiction, part adventure, part humor, and part philosophy, Shooting Angels is an action-driven exploration of the relationship between science, religion, and the human imagination.

Currently, Nick lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he is a writing instructor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. When not writing or selling his time to the halls of academia for a pitiable wage, he is going for long-distance runs, traveling internationally, catching up on the news, or looking for dates. (He prefers the strong, silent, immensely wealthy type.) His next novel, The Calamari Kleptocracy, is forthcoming from All Things That Matter Press.

For more information about Nick’s fiction, please visit his website: http://nicksansone.yolasite.com/

To purchase a print copy of Shooting Angels, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Angels-Nicolas-Sansone/dp/0984098488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317814951&sr=8-1

And for a Kindle edition, go here: http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Angels-ebook/dp/B004FN1VBK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1317814951&sr=8-1

Just Who Is Vic Fortezza, Anyway

Posted By on October 29, 2011

I grew up speaking English and Sicilian dialect. Don’t know which came first. At St. Mary’s I was “the boy in the third row staring into space,” tuning out the Principal, who was visiting our class. I would sleepwalk through my first 30 years, baffled by the bittersweet mystery of life. Heck, I still may be sleepwalking. AtLafayetteHigh SchoolI was #72, right guard on the ‘66 team, the weakest link on a fine squad.

AtWesternMichiganUniversityI faked my way to a degree in Education. I hid behind the persona of football coach for six years, until a November night when I began a novel, Five Cents, imagining the plight of an averageVietnamveteran, not the psycho Hollywood version. That began a 20-year jag that produced nine novels, two screenplays, two plays and about 60 short stories, more than 50 of which have been published. I am fascinated by the theme of man struggling to live a good life in a world where temptation beckons at every turn. For four years I was a teacher’s aide atJohnDeweyHigh School, where I met a woman I still think about each day. I tended bar for a year, then worked at the Commodity Exchange for nearly 25 years, a square peg learning not to be afraid of the world amidst the screaming of traders out to score big. It was there that I met the one who got away.

In 2000 I self-published Close to the Edge – ever wonder what makes someone go off the deep end? In 2008, Adjustments, which chronicles my football experiences, was published by my literary angel, Victoria Valentine, of Water Forest Press.

In 2009 A Hitch in Twilight, inspired by my fascination with the work of Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock, was published by All Things That Matter Press. These days I promote/sell my books on the streets ofBrooklyn, and continue to submit manuscripts.

Vic’s Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/

Vic’s Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb

Vic’s 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6

Vic’s 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h

Vic’s Word Press blog:  http://vicfortezza.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Just Who Is Monica Brinkman, Anyway?

Posted By on October 29, 2011

A supporter of the EBMRF Foundation, you will find many articles written by Ms. Brinkman that focus on opening people’s eyes and hearts to the E.B. Children. In fact, Monica M. Brinkman’s first authored stage play, How Lucky Can You Get, performed in San Jose, CA some twenty-five years ago and donated all proceeds to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation.  With a background in the theatre, Monica has portrayed Lucy (You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown), Dorothy (The Wizard of Oz) and numerous other characters prior to dedicating herself to full-time writing. 

As a Singing Telegram performer, she learned to stare fear in its face, never knowing what odd circumstances would occur each performance, and believe us, they did occur frequently. How about, dressed as Mae West, knocking on a hotel door, only to find a completely nude homosexual couple staring you in the face. Needless to say, her eyes never left theirs. 

Her great love of animals shows as the ‘mom’ of five cats and two dogs, all her babies. She now lives inMissouriwith her husband of 28 years, Richard. 

Monica’s novel, The Turn of the Karmic Wheel, has pleasantly surprised many a reviewer with its twists and turns of horror, the paranormal, spirituality and suspense. Indeed, not quite the story they anticipated. A story that she confesses just had to be written to give people hope, purpose and accountability for their actions in life. Ah yes, the magic of karma.

 

You’ll find Monica and co-host Oana interviewing guests who bring knowledge, enjoyment, controversy and excitement to the listeners every Thursday at 8PM ESTon their Two Unsynchronized Souls blogtalk radio show. 

 Websites:

 http://theturnofthekarmicwheel.blogspot.com

 http://tinyurl.com/237mvru

 Radio Show:

 

http://blogtalkradio.com./monicabrinkmanandoana

Just Who Is Amy Krout-Horn, Anyway?

Posted By on October 29, 2011

Amy Krout-Horn (Oieihake Win, Last Word Woman) has resided in two worlds; the world of the sighted and the world of the blind. She has been a writer in both of them. She spent time in WashingtonDCacting as a political lobbyist for the disabled, worked as the first blind teaching assistant at the Universityof Minnesota’s American Indian Studies program, and holds degrees in American Indian studies and psychology. She is a regular contributor to Slate and Style magazine and, in 2008, was awarded their top fiction prize for War Pony. Amy, with her life-partner, Gabriel Horn, co-authored the novella, Transcendence (All Things That Matter Press, 2009). Her creative non-fiction was featured in the spring 2010 issue of Breath and Shadow, and Talking Stick Native Arts Quarterly published her essay, “Bleeding Black,” in their fall 2010 issue. Her latest book is an autobiographical novel, My Father’s Blood (All Things That Matter Press, 2011). Currently, she is at work on her third novel, Dancing in Concrete Moccasins. 

A staunch advocate for social and environmental justice, she writes and lectures on native history and culture, diabetes and disability, and humanity’s connection and commitment to the natural world. For more information, to purchase books, or to contact Amy, please visit her official web site.

http://www.nativeearthwords.com/