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The Twisted Saga of Jack and Aria: First Date Leads to Second Chances

Jack Current had a plan. Just not a good one. And ending up in the river with the woman who may or may not be his soulmate certainly wasn’t part of it.

In First Date, the darkly humorous follow-up to Mark E. Scott’s debut novel, Drunk Log, readers witness the immediate aftermath of Jack’s failed attempt at ending his life and follow him as he spends the next 8 hours getting a free ambulance ride to the hospital, being watched by the deputy who tased him, avoiding a psyche exam and maybe falling in love with the bartender responsible for his second chance at life, love and redemption.

It all began on a dark and snowy night, when Jack executed his plan to take his own life without knowing Aria was right behind him. Instead of dying, they find themselves shivering on a riverbank, having survived a fall from a suspension bridge into the currents and debris of the Ohio River. Lucky enough to slam into an anchored barge, they emerge from the water stunned, bruised and still somewhat drunk. Now, they must work their way through the muck of the riverside to solid ground. Fully intent on ending it all just minutes before, Jack finds himself clinging to Aria for dear life — a life he feels just might be worth living after all.

First Date is a story of individuals haunted by suicide, remorse and unanswered questions: questions whose answers are not to be found in the bottom of a bottle. Secrets are revealed and souls are bared, but answers are still elusive. For now, they only have each other, a dollar store notebook and a teddy bear.

First Date is the second installment in Scott’s three-part, Day in the Life series, in which the unexpected, twisted saga of Jack and Aria unfolds over a combined period of 24 hours. Book One, Drunk Log, was released in 2022 and traces the first eight hours of Jack’s unsteady march toward his intended demise.

 

About the Author

Born in the small manufacturing town of Galion, Ohio, author Mark E. Scott lived in various burgs in Ohio and Michigan before joining the Navy and spending four years traveling the world aboard the USS Mount Whitney. Upon returning home to southwest Ohio, he enrolled at Miami University and completed a degree in Education, only to become a banker soon thereafter. Scott now lives happily in a condo in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. In his free time, he enjoys writing, finding new and creative ways of tricking his children into answering their phones, and anything related to travel and outdoors, of late including tumbling down snow covered mountains while dragging otherwise perfectly good skis behind him.

For more information, please visit www.markescottauthor.com, or connect with him on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/markescottauthor) and Instagram (markescottauthor).

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/First-Date-Life-Mark-Scott/dp/164540840X/

 

First Date

Publisher: Speaking In Volumes, LLC

ISBN: 978-1645408406 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1645408390 (e-book)

Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and Goodreads###

Reviews, photos, links to previous interviews and Q&As are available upon request.

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Dazzle Dad With a Heaping Helping of Deliciously Clever Food Puns

Dazzle Dad With a Heaping Helping of Deliciously Clever Food Puns

(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.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Saba creates and photographs food that is both whimsical and downright playful.”
— Bon Appétit

This Father’s Day, give your favorite father figures the gift of food and laughter with Don’t Worry Be Ha-PEA: 101 Deliciously Clever Food Puns from cookbook author and social media sensation Marie Saba.

Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA is a perfect gift or coffee-table book for anyone who appreciates good food and clever wordplay. Saba’s compilation of family-friendly, quirky and creative food puns will have dads everywhere testing their knowledge of pop culture (think Celine Dijon and Robert Brownie, Jr.), tourist attractions (St. Peter’s Basilica), cartoon characters (Elmer Fudge) and much more. Saba’s tasty visual puzzles are as intriguing as they are appetizing and beautifully photographed.

Entertaining and light-hearted, Saba’s puns aim to inspire creative thinking, connection and laughter that will leave readers craving more.

“Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA reminds us all that we can find humor in the most unlikely of places — the back of the pantry or the bottom of the veggie drawer,” Saba said. “It’s just the book we need right now.”

About the Author
Marie Saba is a former lawyer, cookbook author and freelance content creator. Her playful creations have been featured in numerous media, including Bon Appetit and Food & Wine, as well as on The Rachel Ray Show and Martha Stewart Show. Marie lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, John, and their two children, Jack and Elaine.

Marie was recently named by Country Living Magazine as one of the top 100 creative people in the country.

For more information, visit https://mariesaba.com/, or follow her on Instagram: @MarieSaba; TikTok: @MariesKitchenTikTok; and YouTube: Marie’s Kitchen.

Don’t Worry Be Ha-PEA: 101 Deliciously Clever Food Puns
Publisher: Familius Publishing / Distributed by Hatchet
ISBN-10: ‎ 1641704640
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1641704649
Available from Amazon.com, Target.com, BN.com, Booksamillion.com and bookstores nationwide

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

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True Tale Of Not-So-Ordinary Upbringing Will Inspire Others To Live Life Courageously

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

(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)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

True Tale Of Not-So-Ordinary Upbringing Will Inspire Others
To Live Life Courageously

Meet Michaela: She’s the girl next door, except that “next door” happens to be a rickety 27-foot Fifth-Wheel Trailer with no electricity or running water parked in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It all went south — or north, technically — in the summer of 1992 following an economic collapse that left her family on the brink of broke.

Teetering on Disaster from Michaela Renee Johnson is the often humorous, always brutally honest, true story of a family of five that must give up any reality they’ve ever known to carve out a new one they’ve never imagined. Caught in the middle is pre-teen Michaela, and for her, the timing couldn’t be worse. As she navigates her way through adolescence — shaving her legs for the first time in the frigid water of an irrigation ditch — she gains profound wisdom about her family, the world around her and her own ability to thrive in the face of life’s inconveniences.

But the effects of her unorthodox upbringing don’t end at adulthood, and Teetering takes readers along as a grown Michaela stumbles upon a few “Mr. Right Nows,” gets divorced in her twenties, and ends up right back where she started: a small mountain town in the middle of nowhere.

Teetering on Disaster is a candid, authentic tale that will make readers laugh out loud and cry — sometimes at the same time.

Award-winning author Michaela Renee Johnson is a licensed psychotherapist and small business owner who hosts the weekly podcast, Be You Find Happy, which features real conversations about life and happiness. She lives in Northern California with her husband and son. Her homestead includes fish, chickens, ducks, a Golden Retriever (Dennis), an Australian Shepherd (Walter) and a rescue cat named Stilly.

She enjoys traveling and has visited 19 countries; she loves the ocean and everything in it. She rarely finds herself without an activity, whether it be hiking, yoga, tinkering in the gar-den, golfing, reading or spending time outside. She loves poetic quotes and all things meta-physical. To learn more about the author, visit www.michaelarenee.com or connect with her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/usjohnsons/.

Teetering on Disaster
Publisher: MJ Innovations
Release Date: January 2019
ISBN-13: 978-0578430805
ISBN-10: 0578430800
Available from Amazon.com

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A Runtamuffin Tale: Where Everyone Learns To Get Along And Respect Our Differences

Monica Foster
Senior Publicist
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
Direct: 713.446.8815
Phone: 281.333.3507
Fax: 832.569.5539
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

(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)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Runtamuffin Tale: Where Everyone Learns To Get Along And Respect Our Differences

West Palm Beach, FL ― Life’s a real zoo at Legacy Farms, where 14 chickens, a couple of dogs and an assortment of horses with diverse temperaments learn to share their days on the sprawling homestead.

Based on the true life adventures of author Melissa Taylor’s charming chickens, A Runtamuffin Tale is a delightful new children’s book that follows the life of Runtamuffin — or Runti — a tiny chicken with a big personality. Runti becomes the first chicken brave enough to form a bond with one of the farm’s largest inhabitants — a beautiful horse named Mariett.

All the animals on the farm soon learn that differences in size and outward appearances don’t mean a thing in this colorful tale that subtly interweaves valuable life lessons on sharing, believing in yourself, love, friendship, anti-bullying and mutual respect.

The 57-page book, wonderfully illustrated by Marc Beauregard, targets children ages 6 to 12 and would make a treasured addition to any family’s home or elementary school library.

Author Melissa Taylor was born and raised in the small town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Melissa’s mom filled her childhood home with animals, which cultivated Melissa’s love and desire to surround herself with all types of four- and two-legged creatures. She currently lives, owns and runs a farm with her husband in South Florida with 14 chickens, 34 horses, 5 dogs and a cockatiel.

For more information about Melissa and her children’s book, please visit:
www.runtavision.com.

A Runtamuffin Tale
Release date: 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9989887-0-2
Hardcover and digital download available from www.runtavision.com.

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Can A Man Write A Chick-Lit Novel?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety)

Can a man write a chick-lit novel that will keep women turning the pages? Reviews for the just-released romance comedy, Dog Training the American Male, have women howling for several reasons – first, it’s hilarious, second because it is touching – but the biggest reason is because they assumed author L.A. Knight is a woman.

Wrong.

Somehow this married man, father, and grandfather (and best-selling author of 16 thrillers under his real name) has penned a romance novel that women love. Maybe it’s because he figured out (after a major fight with his wife) that men and dogs are both simple creatures that need to be trained… and the book tells the ladies how to do it.

L.A. Knight will have your audience in stitches over his rollicking “tail” of a relationship counselor’s attempt to domesticate men through dog training techniques. Please read the following press release and watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNKbGI0Lsa0&feature=youtu.be, and let me know if I may schedule an interview with L.A. Knight or forward a review copy of the book. Thank you.

Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
281.333.3507 office
832.569.5539 fax
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

Can A Man Write A Chick-Lit Novel?
New release has the ladies howling for more

Boca Raton, FL – Twenty-five years of marriage and the experiences of working with both male and female dog trainers provided the inspiration for L.A. Knight’s laugh-out-loud new chick-lit romp, Dog Training the American Male, the story of a female relationship counselor who can’t seem to make her own relationships work… until she discovers that the techniques used to train her boyfriend’s dog can also be used to train her boyfriend.

At the heart of the romance is the inability of men and women to communicate. We may speak the same language but our brains are wired completely different. Conversely, the author is convinced that men and dogs are far more alike than men and women and that men, like dogs, can be trained in order to bridge the communication gap and improve a couple’s relationship.

How does this new chick-lit writer know how the male mind works? Maybe it’s because L.A. Knight is a man.

That revelation has shocked many female readers… and reviewers. KIRKUS REVIEWS stated, “…the central characters transcend their stock roles and grow into legitimately compelling subjects. Incident by unlikely incident, we are pulled deeper into their lives until it is their fates (not merely their quips) that keep us turning the pages. Knight is a naturally comic writer; what is more, she is a talented storyteller.”

She?

Says the author, “I came up with the concept for the story after a bad argument with my wife. I couldn’t understand how my simple, innocent statement had become so misunderstood; it’s like I was speaking another language. Then, in the middle of our argument, the wife says something to the dog… and the dog obeys her command… zero communication problem. Later (while sleeping in the guest room), I thought about that. How is it that a dog understands a woman but as a man I’m completely befuddled? Then I realized the dog understood because it was trained how to please in order to earn its treat. Since men are also simple creatures that just want to be rubbed and left alone, I realized we’d be far happier if our women trained us.”

Knight is not surprised that women assumed ‘he’ was a ‘she.’ “In writing the voices of the characters, I injected 25 years of marriage, including all of my dumb-animal, ego-driven responses to my wife’s button-pushing attempts to get me to realize that she doesn’t want me to resolve the situation, she just wants me to shut-up and listen – even though I have no clue what she’s talking about… just like a dog.”

For information, please visit the website at: http://laknightentertainment.com and see the book trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzkXbmoIgDE.

Available in bookstores and all online outlets
Dog Training the American Male
A&M Publishers
September 2016
Paperback
ISBN-10: 1943957002
ISBN-13: 978-1943957002

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Dog Training The American Male: Take The Test To See Who Is A Member In Good Standing Of The Canine Club

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety)

Most women would describe the perfect male as domesticated and well trained, but author L.A. Knight knows that most men are happiest relaxing on the couch, scratching their privates, and watching sports! I’d like to send you a copy of Dog Training the American Male ― his hilarious new book described as Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In meets a funny Fifty Shades of Grey ― in consideration of an interview or review. Says Knight: “Men are dogs… and we like it that way. I say ‘bring it on’ but just go easy on the electric shock collar!”

This best-selling author makes a dynamic guest who will have your audience in stitches over his rollicking “tail” of a relationship counselor’s attempt to domesticate men through dog training techniques. Please read the following press release and watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNKbGI0Lsa0&feature=youtu.be, and let me know if I may schedule an interview with L.A. Knight or forward a review copy of the book. Thank you.

Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
281.333.3507 office
832.569.5539 fax
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

Dog Training The American Male: Take The Test To See Who Is A Member In Good Standing Of The Canine Club

Boca Raton, FL – L.A. Knight’s own marriage and the experiences of two different dog trainers he hired to train his German Shepherd, provided the unique inspiration for his laugh-out-loud book, Dog Training the American Male. Realizing his wife often treats him like a dumb animal (deservedly so, he admits, since most men are simple creatures who essentially want sex, food and to watch football), he jokes: “Give us what we want and domestication is possible. After all, who among us hasn’t performed for a treat, peed on a tree, dry-humped a woman’s leg, howled at the moon, or stuck his nose in a groin or two.”

At the heart of this hilarious tale is Dr. Nancy Beach, a relationship counselor who hosts a local radio show in South Florida called Love’s a Beach. Sadly, since this relationship guru can’t seem to make her own relationships work, her credibility and ratings are in the toilet. She is set up on a blind date with Jacob, a casualty of Lehman Brothers, who lost his job and swagger and now yearns to be a stand-up comedienne/ventriloquist. Since he’s already a walking thesaurus of phobias and now he’s dating a psych major― these two are either the perfect match or the relationship is a ticking time bomb.

Their siblings, for different reasons, don’t care ― they just want to be rid of them! Jacob’s brother (gynecologist Vinnie) and Nancy’s lesbian sister (Lana) encourage the young couple to move in together. When the honeymoon stage abruptly ends, Lana convinces Jacob to buy her sister a little white foo-foo dog ― a pet she enjoyed as an insecure child. Being a “typical man” Jacob doesn’t listen and instead goes to the dog pound, returning home with Sam – a 120-pound German Shepherd.

Needless to say, chaos ensues and Nancy flips out. But after hiring a dog trainer she has an epiphany … what if the dog trainer’s techniques can be used to housebreak Jacob? What follows is a wildly hilarious, social experiment that every couple and dog owner can identify with.

Kirkus Reviews states “Dog Training the American Male is funny in the best way: the humor propels the action rather than pausing it . . . prose flows like a jocular babbling brook. L.A. Knight is a naturally-gifted comic writer; what is more, she is a talented storyteller.” What is also funny is that like many readers, Kirkus assumed L.A. Knight is a woman. In fact, the author is NY Times best-selling author Steve Alten whose riveting hit series MEG was recently optioned by Warner Brothers for a movie to be directed by Jon Turtletaub and starring Jason Statham.

For information, please visit the website at: http://laknightentertainment.com and see the book trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzkXbmoIgDE.

Available in bookstores and all online outlets
Dog Training the American Male
A&M Publishers
September 2016
Paperback
ISBN-10: 1943957002
ISBN-13: 978-1943957002

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If You Give A Donkey The White House: Fast Relief For Political Tension

Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
(281) 333-3507 Phone
(832) 569-5539 Fax
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

If You Give A Donkey The White House: Fast Relief For Political Tension

Teaneck, NJ – As this election year moves towards a close, some of us may feel like we’ve had enough politics to choke a horse. Political satire is one viable option. Since the stone ages, whenever there is organized government, political satire is not far behind. David E. Levine’s colorfully illustrated book, If You Give a Donkey the White House (Dog Ear Publishing), will have right-leaning readers in hysterics from beginning to end!

If You Give a Donkey the White House, modeled after Laura Numeroff’s vastly popular children’s series If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, is riddled with wit and loaded with sarcasm. Levine’s book blends political humor into a meaningful story with a clear and indisputable message: “People need to be careful where they put their trust because even one well-intentioned act can create a chain of events that leads to disastrous results!”

The story begins with a boy and his dog opening the gates of the White House to let in an arrogant donkey, believing it’s a good idea. “Unfortunately, once the donkey gets in,” says Levine, “he’ll want to expand the government and in no time at all, the boy gets taken on a misguided adventure that ruins his life.”

What makes bashing bureaucracy so popular? If we went back to the oldest example of political satire around 400 BC and asked Aristophanes, there’s a very good chance that his answer would be the same today: It’s entertaining, and it’s a satisfying outlet that provides a good chuckle at the expense of government blunders.

David Levine lives with his wife and four children in New Jersey, where he finds ample opportunity to make fun of donkeys.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ifyougiveadonkeythewhitehouse.com/

Available at Amazon.com and all major online outlets
If You Give a Donkey the White House
Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN-10: 1457530279
ISBN-13: 978-1457530272

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