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Archive for September, 2020

How Our Government Really Works—What Every Teenager Should Know

How Our Government Really Works—What Every Teenager Should Know

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

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Whether you’re a student, parent, educator or engaged citizen seeking the truth, You Call This Democracy? How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People from public policy expert Elizabeth Rusch paves the way for every citizen to not only understand the flaws in our current democracy but to also fix them.

“We think we live in a democracy. One person, one vote. But how democratic is our government really?” Rusch asks. “The hard truth is that political power is not shared equally among all citizens. It shouldn’t matter if you are rich, poor, urban, rural, Democrat, Republican, old or young when you mark your ballot. Your race and gender shouldn’t matter either. But they all do.”

You Call This Democracy? gives an honest view of how our democracy truly functions, who really has the power and why (and how that power impacts politicians and policies) and how we can work together to make our democracy more responsive to the will of the people.

Consider the following:

  1. Presidents can take office without winning the popular vote.
  2. Voting districts are drawn by politicians for their own benefit.
  3. Millions of citizens—young, old, poor, people of color, women—are blocked from voting.
  4. Money wields much more influence than the wishes of ordinary Americans.

You Call This Democracy? offers insightful solutions to undemocratic elements plaguing our government, with inspirational examples of citizens already working to make change. International comparisons, extensive sources and resources prompt readers to dig deeper ― and take action.

Supplementary materials to the book include Rusch’s “50 State Democracy Report Card” (https://www.youcallthis.com/your-state), where people can check to see how democracy fares in their state overall and on specific metrics, and how they can strengthen democracy in their state; and a series of short, fun, informative videos on the issues covered in the book, called Flash Course on Democracy, available free at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUOGZlteO6dRY7aQV1uqpddW1C1maGLxP.
Additionally, discussion guides and debate questions are available at www.youcallthis.com.

Elizabeth Rusch is the author of 20 award-winning books, and more than 100 magazine and newspaper articles. She is also the creator of the “50 State Democracy Report Card” and the video series Flash Course on Democracy. You Call This Democracy?, an Amazon Bestseller, was featured in the New York Times Book Review and received a starred review from Kirkus, which called it “a riveting must-read.” Rusch and her work have also been featured in The Discovery Channel, Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud, The Wall Street Journal, Teacher magazine, Parenting Magazine and Working Mother, among many others. Rusch has a master’s in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and has served as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow in the U.S. Senate. Visit her at www.elizabethrusch.com, www.youcallthis.com and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUOGZlteO6dRY7aQV1uqpddW1C1maGLxP.

You Call This Democracy? How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN-10: 0358176921
ISBN-13: 978-0358176923
Available from Amazon.com and wherever books and audiobooks are sold

Trish Stevens
Anna Jones
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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Sweet Holiday Romance Will Have Readers Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy

Sweet Holiday Romance Will Have Readers Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy

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When quilt shop owner Sophie Davis sorts through a box of books that had been donated to her church, she’s surprised to find a former marine’s journal. Sophie can’t help but peruse the entries, finding herself drawn to the stranger on the pages. As the daughter of a veteran and a seamstress who sews Quilts of Valor, she feels a deep connection to the former soldier who wrote the emotional entries, and she longs to heal his heart.

The man who wrote the journal, former Marine Cole Aaron, battled to find peace after returning to civilian life, and his journal was the conduit toward a truce with his past. Always needing to protect others, Cole now fights fires and is embracing his new life in Pine Hill, Kentucky. When Sophie shows up at the fire hall with his journal, he fears digging up the demons from his past and tells her to trash it.

Their paths continue to intertwine, with both Sophie and Cole volunteering for their community. But it’s hard for Cole to let down his guard, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. After all he’s been through in the past, can he find faith in a more hopeful future — one touched by joy?

Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy is the latest sweet romance from Hallmark Publishing author Janice Lynn. A sequel to her first story, Wrapped Up in Christmas, her new installment can also stand alone and is the perfect small-town Christmas romance to warm readers’ hearts during the holiday season.

Janice Lynn is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. She strives to write characters who evoke strong emotions and make readers want to go along on their journeys.

Her first sweet romance, Wrapped Up in Christmas, was a bestseller on Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Amazon (hit #13 overall in paid fiction in Kindle) and ibooks (hit number #1 paid ebook fiction); was Hallmark Publishing’s first release to hit the USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal’s bestseller lists; and was a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best Award. Janice also writes contemporary Medical Romances for Harlequin, and her books have won numerous awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill for Best Short contemporary Romance and for Best First Book, Romantic Times Magazine’s American Title, and the Holt Medallion Award of Merit.

Janice lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming, their seven kids, her vivid imagination, an adorable Maltese named Halo who’s the true princess of the house and a bunch of unnamed dust bunnies who took up permanent residence after Janice started her writing career. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, an exercise queen, a military mama and a member of and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Just kidding on the exercise queen.

For more information, please visit www.janicelynn.com. You can also connect with the author on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/janicemarielynn;
https://twitter.com/janicemarielynn; or https://www.instagram.com/janice.lynn.author/.

Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy
Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
Release Date: October 27, 2020
ISBN-10: 1952210038
ISBN-13: 978-1952210037
Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com

Trish Stevens
Karen Anderson
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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Ordinary People Extraordinary God Shares 17 True Stories of Everyday Heroes

Ordinary People Extraordinary God Shares 17 True Stories of Everyday Heroes

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

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Children may never learn their names and hear their stories in Sunday school, but there are plenty of “ordinary people” all around us who have accomplished God’s remarkable work in their own individual ways. In Ordinary People Extraordinary God: 17 Personal Stories of Lives Transformed by the Love of God, author Rick Schatz shares inspirational true stories of eve-ryday people who answered God’s call to service.

“Most were not raised in Christian homes but have made a commitment to Christ and are serving him in various ways around the world,” Schatz explains. “Few, if any, would be considered superstars in the eyes of the world, but each of them is serving others in life-changing ways.”

Ordinary People Extraordinary God profiles personal friends and contacts of Schatz’s who have served Jesus in a variety of capacities, such as becoming a hospice nurse later in life, writing books, developing resources to help others in need and serving in churches. The honest accounts don’t hide the flaws and struggles that these servants endured. In fact, it’s through pointing out the insecurities and the ups and downs that Schatz underscores the fact that God can and does use “ordinary people” to reach others with His love and grace. This book also shares that all God needs from His followers is their availability because He will supply everything else that is needed to get His work done.

As readers follow the 17 journeys featured in the book, it is Schatz’s hope that the stories will encourage and challenge people to first seek God and then to serve Him for His glory.

“The goal of the book is to encourage others to seek a personal relationship with God and for those who already have such a personal relationship to dream bigger and reach for the stars in serving Him,” Schatz adds.

Author Rick Schatz earned a BS in chemical engineering and an MBA from Harvard, where he became a Christian during his second year. In addition to a long career as an executive for several major corporations, including as the founder and part-owner of Creative Waterworks, Schatz has been a deacon, elder, Bible teacher and preacher since 1969.

He has also served on the board and leadership teams of On Target prison ministry, Spiritual Counterfeits Project and the John Guest Evangelistic Crusade in Cincinnati.

Schatz officially left the business world in 1990 and served with pureHope ministry as COO and president/CEO from 1990 until 2014. He joined The Prayer Covenant in 2014, where he served as president and currently serves as COO.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Schatz married his high school sweetheart, Sharon, in 1967. They have three grown sons and 11 grandchildren.

For more information, please visit www.rickschatz.com.

Ordinary People Extraordinary God: 17 Personal Stories of Lives Transformed by the Love of God
Publisher: High Bridge Books
ISBN-10: 1946615455
ISBN-13: 978-1946615459
Available from Amazon.com

Trish Stevens
Julia Vaughn
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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Sea Monster Cove Offers Visitors Unforgettable Virtual Adventures

Sea Monster Cove Offers Visitors Unforgettable Virtual Adventures

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

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The doors have now opened to a virtual island getaway where you can take in breathtaking underwater views, explore futuristic aquariums, and enjoy five-star accommodations and endless entertainment—all from the COVID-friendly comfort of your own home. There’s just one tiny catch.

The star attractions at this particular resort are the most terrifying prehistoric sharks and sea creatures that ever lived.

Sea Monster Cove (located at www.seamonstercove.com) is the latest creation from The Meg author, Steve Alten. And this time, he’s taking fans of man-eating prehistoric creatures even deeper into his imagination. Sea Monster Cove is a groundbreaking concept of storytelling that will immerse you in every aspect of an adventure like nothing you have ever experienced before. This multifaceted, interactive entertainment platform features an unfolding episodic web series, Where Sea Monsters Roam; heart-pounding aquarium and cage-diving interactions with the nastiest sea creatures on the planet; and an adrenaline-fueling (and quite addictive) video game.

The setting is Maug, a remote island in the Mariana Archipelago where eight years ago, French marine biologist Dr. Maxime Rostand and his team discovered hot mineral water feeding into Maug’s lagoon from somewhere below. When a listing Filipino fishing trawler enters the cove hauling an immense whale in its deep sea net, the scientists discover that the dead beast is actually a pregnant, 60-foot, 50,000-pound undiscovered prehistoric spe-cies of Mako, related to the Black Demon shark. An emergency C-section saves two of her 15 pups (and the future stars of Sea Monster Cove): Snowflake (an albino) and Layla (pure Black Demon). Through a series of events (which will unfold through monthly episodes of Where Sea Monsters Roam), Dr. Rostand discovers the source of the hot mineral water to be a primordial aquifer located two miles beneath the sea floor—its inhabitants dating back 380 million years.

All of the attractions at Sea Monster Cove are created using major-motion-picture-worthy 3D animation. The sharks and sea creatures look and act just like the real thing. And unlike the species housed in typical aquariums, these critters don’t just swim around in serene circles. These beasts know you’re watching them, and some clearly don’t like it.

The subscription-based site (priced well under the cost of a movie ticket) also includes an education center with tons of background information, a private library featuring enhanced versions of Alten’s novels (including curriculum materials for distance learners) and a collec-tion of Alten’s original screenplays. There’s even a PG13 membership option for younger viewers.

And the waters surrounding Sea Monster Cove are anything but stagnant. The designers tweak the animals’ behavioral patterns on a regular basis. Plus, each month a new Prehis-toric Sea Aquarium will open, containing its own menu of super predators that will appear in the web series and video game. The animals will also age from the moment you first encoun-ter them, and you won’t want to miss a single milestone. So come for a visit; stay for a bite—or two. Welcome to Sea Monster Cove!

Sea Monster Cove creator Steve Alten is the NY Times and international best-selling author of 20 thrillers, including The MEG series (with a major motion picture starring Jason Statham and the sequel, MEG-2: The TRENCH, in pre-production). Two more of his series have also been optioned as movies: The LOCH and one other underwater feature, which cannot be announced just yet (but the enhanced version of the novel is featured in the website’s private library). Alten is also the founder and director of the nonprofit Adopt-an-Author teen reading program.

Visit www.seamonstercove.com to begin your adventure! Or, for more information about the creator, please visit https://www.stevealten.com/, or connect with him on social media at:
https://www.facebook.com/SteveAlten; https://www.instagram.com/stevealtenofficial/;
and on Twitter @Meg82159.

Trish Stevens
Mike Dempsey
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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The Great Rupture Explores Impact of Information Age on Humanity

The Great Rupture Explores Impact of Information Age on Humanity

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)

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Imagine that by the 2040s, Harvard College is shuttered, its hallowed halls impenetrably overgrown with miles of vines — closed for lack of demand in Ivy-League education. It’s just one jarring possibility suggested in Viktor Shvets’ thought-provoking deep-dive into the challenges facing today’s world: The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free?

“The lessons of the last five centuries were unequivocal — without freedom, there could be no prosperity or happiness. However, does this still hold true in the Information Age?” Shvets asks.

He expertly and compellingly distills the lessons learned over the last five centuries, and projects these into the future. Could the Information Age be rewriting the recipe for individual and national success?

According to Shvets, modern technologies are disrupting the structure of our societies, altering every facet of our lives, from the nature of work and what we intrinsically value to how we are informed, entertained and educated — it promises to be a far deeper disruption than Industrial Revolutions. Humanity is at a major turning point, and how we respond to the merger of technology and financialization will decide our future. Will it be capitalism or communism, feudalism or despotism?

The Great Rupture explores the weakening nexus between freedom and prosperity and what that means for the future of humanity. From the birth of our modern world, pivotal events have led to the collapse of non-Western civilizations — Mongol warriors sweeping across Eurasian steppes; the Black Death and a re-awakening of human spirit; Zheng He’s voyages and the collapse of Novgorod republic; and finally, the ban on printing in Arabic. What can we learn from these historical events to better prepare ourselves for the future?

As we hurtle toward that uncertain future, Shvets writes we must decide whether our cherished individual freedoms are still necessary for success and prosperity, or if in adapting to new technologies, non-Western civilizations are now better positioned for this new world, creating highly illiberal and possibly brutal orders that might no longer suffer from stagnation of ideas or wealth. For the first time in at least five centuries, we have an opportunity and tools to build a different society and economy. The book explores specific policy choices that might help us navigate this treacherous transition. Will we embrace the challenge?

Author Viktor Shvets is a global strategist at Macquarie Bank. In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Over the years, he has been a highly rated analyst across various disciplines, head of research and is now recognized as one of the more innovative global market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets.

Viktor was born in Kiev, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kiev University of Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He is married with two sons and currently resides in Hong Kong.

For more information, please visit viktorshvets.com.

The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free?
Publisher: Boyle & Dalton
ISBN-10: 163337386X
ISBN-13: 978-1633373860
Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo.com and iTunes

Trish Stevens
Margot Cunningham
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone

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Academic Mediocrity of American Students Examined in Thought-Provoking Comparison of Educational Approaches

Academic Mediocrity of American Students Examined in Thought-Provoking Comparison of Educational Approaches

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

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East Asian students have always gained higher scores on the international comparative tests than American students. How can this be explained?

In A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel, Dr. Cornelius Grove provides the explanation. Distilling 50 years of anthropological research into East Asian primary classrooms, Grove offers insights into East Asian teaching methods and, more significantly, into the societal values that shape East Asian teaching.

But A Mirror for Americans, about teaching, provides only half of the explanation. The other half is about East Asian families and parenting, revealed by Grove in his 2017 book, The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel.

“The purpose of my books,” explains Grove, “is to convey to the general reader the research findings from East Asia, where societal values unlike ours shape child-rearing and primary school teaching. There’s an ‘Aha!’ moment: If only we could think differently about children and their classroom learning, we could raise the level of our own youngsters’ performance.”

A Mirror for Americans concerns itself with preschool through grade 5, comparing the culture of teaching in East Asia and the U.S. Among the research-generated facts revealed are these:

• In preschool and grade 1, East Asian children are taught, and they practice, individual and group behaviors that promote their own learning and their teacher’s efficient lesson deliv-ery.

• Teachers design lessons based on the internal logic of the content they are teaching, not on factors such as a need to motivate, have fun learning or draw out pupil creativity. But they do strive to present content so that all their pupils – slower and more advanced – will benefit.

• Whether a lesson is student-centered or teacher-centered doesn’t concern East Asians. Grove’s conclusion is that East Asian lessons are knowledge-centered, a key explanation for why East Asian students outperform their American peers on those international tests.

Explains Grove, “Attitudes toward learning brought from home, plus methods of teaching encountered at school, mold East Asian youngsters into superior students. These research-generated facts can serve as a mirror for Americans, enabling us to examine our approaches to children’s learning – and to the values that drive our approaches – from a fresh perspective.”

Author Cornelius N. Grove holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Johns Hopkins and a Doctor of Education from Columbia. An independent scholar, his “day job” since 1990 has been as the managing partner of the global business consultancy, GROVEWELL LLC.

Grove has had a decades-long fascination with the cultural factors that affect children’s ability to learn in school. At a 2005 conference in Singapore, he delivered a paper on the two instructional styles found around the world. In 2013 he wrote The Aptitude Myth: How an Ancient Belief Came to Undermine Children’s Learning Today, a historical study of why most Americans believe that inborn ability determines school performance. For two recently published encyclopedias (2015 and 2017), he contributed entries on “pedagogy across cultures.” And now with A Mirror for Americans and The Drive to Learn, he is revealing the complementary roles that home and school potentially play in building young people’s mastery of school learning.

For more information, please visit www.amirrorforamericans.info.

A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland)
Release Date: September 2020
Hardback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4460-3
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4461-0
eBook: ISBN 978-1-4758-4462-7
Available from Rowman.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Amazon.com

Trish Stevens
Maria Jenson
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax

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True Story of Survival Opens Minds and Dialogues about Mental Health

True Story of Survival Opens Minds and Dialogues about Mental Health

(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)

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Mark Henick stood precariously on the wrong side of the railing on a crumbling, concrete overpass. The bridge spanned two realities and, for Henick, had become a symbol of escape — in one form or another. A voice behind him tried to help. A crowd gathered. Siren lights flashed in his peripheral vision. Surrounded but still alone, Henick let go.

So-Called Normal: A Memoir of Family, Depression and Resilience from Mark Henick is a vital and triumphant story of perseverance and recovery by one of North America’s foremost advocates for mental health

Henick’s near-death experience on the overpass that night would alter his emotional orbit just enough that his exit from a psychiatric ward following that suicide attempt in 2003 would be his last. His transformation didn’t happen overnight — it was a gradual process punctuated with new challenges and setbacks — but slowly, his patterns reversed and he began a profound, “upward” spiral toward recovery.

So-Called Normal chronicles Henick’s youth and the events that led to that fateful night on the bridge and the experiences and transformation that followed. It is a vivid and personal account of a boy who had to deal with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage, an abusive stepfather, bullying and trauma — all while trying to navigate his progressively worsening mental health. In the backdrop is a community that didn’t talk about mental illness, one where silence and maintaining the comforts of “normal” was paramount. So-Called Normal is not a “misery memoir” about suicide — it’s a gripping, inspirational story of survival.

Author Mark Henick’s TEDx talk about being saved from death by a stranger is one of the most watched in the world and has been viewed millions of times. His search for “the man in the brown jacket” whose bravery and strong arms kept him from falling to his death went viral around the world (and was successful!). Henick has been on television and radio and has written many articles on mental health. He has hosted more than 60 intimate conversations about mental health with notable public figures and celebrities on his podcast, So-Called Normal, and has executive produced and hosted the Living Well podcast for Morneau Shepell. Henick has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Commission of Canada, and was the president of a provincial division of the Canadian Mental Health Association — the youngest person in either role. He has worked as a frontline clinician, a program manager and the national director of strategic initiatives for CMHA. Currently the CEO and principal strategist for Strategic Mental Health Consulting, Mark Henick is in high demand as an international keynote speaker on mental health recovery.

To watch Henick’s powerful TEDx talk, please visit . For more information, please visit www.markhenick.com or connect with the author on the following social media sites: www.facebook.com/markhenick/; https://twitter.com/markhenick; and www.youtube.com/markhenick.

So-Called Normal: A Memoir of Family, Depression and Resilience
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: January 12, 2021
ISBN-10: 1443455032
ISBN-13: 978-1443455039
Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Audible and others

Trish Stevens
Teresa Hinojosa
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
832.569.5773 Direct
281.333.3507 Phone
800.854.2207 Fax
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

 

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