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Undercurrents of Mortality, Forgiveness Buoy Compelling Coming of Age Story

Undercurrents of Mortality, Forgiveness Buoy Compelling Coming of Age Story

(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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For Bill Smith, the end has always been in view. And perhaps, in some metaphysical way, his occasional confrontations with the inevitable end that awaits us all made Bill better equipped to emerge intact from each crisis. His life, in fact, has been a series of highly unlikely extensions. This is his story.

The Home Stretch, from award-winning author Wayne M. Johnston, features everyman Bill Smith (loosely based on Johnston himself), who, throughout his life, is confronted with extraordinary circumstances. His is a coming of age story in which the peace that allegedly comes with maturity is often shunted aside to make room for yet another crisis. It is also an uplifting story in its portrait of a man struggling to find personal integrity through challenging conditions.

From an early age, Bill grapples with depression. Raised in a religious cult, he cannot reconcile his own experience with the worldview of his parents, and although he’s bound to them by love and obligation, he rejects their beliefs. His father’s palpable disappointment in Bill leads him to contemplate suicide and to provoke his father into a confrontation with a surprising outcome that would redefine their relationship and alter the course of both of their lives.

Given to a physical, adventurous life, Bill becomes the chief engineer on a seagoing tugboat, and his tales of weathering gale-force winds and violent storms at sea provide metaphorical undercurrents for his fraught relationship with his father, his failed early marriage, his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s and his own battle with leukemia, which he is told will kill him. Just when Bill has come to believe he has put the worst of it to rest, he learns something more about his father that opens everything up again, except this time, Bill’s sister is the victim.

The Home Stretch is a poignant, ultimately inspiring coming of age story that weaves themes of mortality and forgiveness through life-defining moments of reckoning that many adults have to face head-on and learn to overcome.

Wayne M. Johnston taught English, Creative Writing and Publications at La Conner High School for 19 years. Prior to that, for 22 years he worked on tugboats, usually as chief engineer, towing freight barges between Canadian and West Coast American ports. In 2011, he won the Soundings Review First Publication Award for his essay, “Sailing,” and has published other essays locally. For his debut novel, North Fork, he drew from years of experience reading student journals to reproduce the way kids voice serious matters to a trusted adult. The Home Stretch is book two in a planned trilogy. North Fork was released in 2016 as a YA novel. The story is told through the voices of three 17-year-olds as journal entries for their English class. Bill Smith, the protagonist in The Home Stretch, is their English teacher, and The Home Stretch is his back story.

Johnston lives with his wife, Sally, on Fidalgo Island in Washington State where he is working on another book length project.

The Home Stretch
Publisher: Black Heron Press
ISBN-10: 1936364344
ISBN-13: 978-1936364343
Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, Target.com and anywhere books are sold

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

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Providence Heights Brings Renewed Hope to Seattle’s At-Risk Women

Providence Heights Brings Renewed Hope to Seattle’s At-Risk Women

(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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Seattle spends more than $1 billion per year on fragmented programs to support its homeless, according to Puget Sound Business Journal. This figure is staggering, yet offers no guarantees that these vital services will be available from one year to the next. Too much hinges on donations and government programs — dollars that hang in the balance relative to the local economy. Women and children are especially vulnerable to the dangers of living on the streets or in unsafe environments, and one woman who has survived unthinkable adversity has founded an organization unlike most others.

In 2019, Christine Soule launched Providence Heights, a Christian-based nonprofit designed to empower Seattle’s women in need through housing, employment opportunities and personal development programs. The organization’s business model includes multiple sources of revenue to generate a sustainable income, something Soule likes to call Capitalism for the Poor. Additionally, “Our unique retail space integration will secure revenue as well as provide apprenticeship, jobs and entrepreneurial skills,” Soule explains.

The initial Phase I launch will provide housing and resilient growth programs for approximately 100 women at risk of going under who simply need an opportunity to regroup and equip themselves to not just survive but to thrive. Also for those who have come out of a program such as the Union Gospel Mission and are fully prepared to commit to changing the trajectory of their lives.

Phase II aims to more than double the capacity and provide housing for more than 200 women, including those with children. Once the revenue stream is firmly established in this phase, Providence Heights will enter Phase III — the final phase — when the organization will replicate this model from city to city. They hope to also empower similar organizations to use its successful blueprint to help those they serve.

Providence Heights Founder and Chief Executive Officer Christine Soule is a lover of people and passionate about leading them toward a restored and dignified life. From her personal experience, she has great compassion for homeless and abused women. She co-founded The Purpose and is a philanthropist, author and inventor. Her recently released book, Broken and Beautiful, chronicles her remarkable journey from trauma to triumph. Christine is also a mother of five and married to Mitch, the love of her life.

To get involved or for more information, please visit www.providenceheights.org, or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUkjxJlmSP4&t=24s.

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

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Job Search Expert Delivers Proven Method to Help You Elevate Your Career

Job Search Expert Delivers Proven Method to Help You Elevate Your Career

(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

If you’re unemployed, underemployed or simply in need of a more satisfying professional path, you are far from alone. 2020 gave us a lot of reasons to take stock in our career choices and realign our priorities. Why not begin the New Year with a new strategy for success that more accurately reflects your interests, talents and goals?

“Your circumstances can be incrementally, if not exponentially, improved,” writes career development coach Helen Horyza in her new book, Elevate Your Career: Live a Life You’re Truly Proud Of. “You can design an amazing career through a comprehensive, step-by-step pro-cess that will allow you to consciously manage your transitions and grow to your full potential.”

Elevate Your Career uses true stories about people from all walks of life and education levels who have reassessed their passions, pivoted their skillsets and created careers that are the perfect fit. How? Horyza explains it all and offers valuable tools that readers can use right away to reassess their own career paths.

First, the Elevate Career Cycle method, which is explained in the book, can help readers un-cover their passion by pinpointing their interests and unique talents. Also included with the book is a coupon code for the Elevations Career Assessment, which synthesizes values, skills, interests and personality in the context of contemporary careers. Individuals who complete the assessment receive a focused report complete with valuable decision-making tools. The result is a comprehensive model for smart and healthy career development.

No matter where you are in your evolving career journey — college student, executive or someone looking to course-correct — this book will provide you with the tools and the momentum you need to elevate your career.

Helen Horyza is an expert in the fields of career development and employee development, engagement and retention. She is an accomplished trainer, motivational speaker and executive coach. She holds a Master of Science degree in Career Counseling from California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), and is a professionally trained coach through Coach Training International. She is a Nationally Certified Career Counselor (NCCC) and has over 20 years of experience uncovering talent and directing it to achieve extraordinary results.

Horyza is comfortable inspiring audiences large and small with her authentic, approachable style. She is the inventor and author of the Elevations® suite of assessments designed to assist individuals in career transition or to enhance employee engagement. Elevations® is utilized in colleges, universities and in consultant practices around the world.

She used her own advice to re-career and recently launched the Career Coach Entrepreneur Academy, a training program for people interested in becoming career coaches.

For more information, please visit www.ElevateYourCareer.com or www.helenhoryza.com. You can also connect with the author on social media at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxts0YopKzHU_dnPmcQ_NHQ
https://www.instagram.com/helenhoryza/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenhoryza/
https://www.facebook.com/helen.horyza
https://twitter.com/HelenHoryza

Elevate Your Career: Live a Life You’re Truly Proud Of
Publisher: Merack
ISBN-10: 1949635384
ISBN-13: 978-1949635386
Available from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Helenhoryza.com

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

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Words for All Shares Doctor’s Profound Connection with the Other Dimension

Words for All Shares Doctor’s Profound Connection with the Other Dimension

Dr. Pieter Noomen hoped his transformational journey would inspire others to widen their spiritual paths

(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:

The late Dr. Pieter Noomen sought to forever change the soul of humanity through meticulously chronicling the communications he shared with a spiritual presence. His website, www.wordsforall.org, is a collection of profound wisdom and insights for anyone seeking an authentic connection with our Maker.

Dr. Noomen’s own journey toward experiencing a direct, personal connection with the One Who is Life began more than 25 years ago when he studied the work of Dr. Peter D. Francuch, who communicated with what he called “the Positive State.” Dr. Noomen would go on to significantly widen his own spiritual path and have extraordinary experiences on the spiritual plane, the details of which he shares on www.wordsforall.org.

As Dr. Noomen himself explained, “I can only say that the information came from a presence on my innermost spiritual level I was in communication with for some time. The words seem the result of my spirit merging with the spirit of life It/Her/Himself.”

Visitors to Dr. Noomen’s website can read about the 12 components of life through his 12 booklets: Oneness, Love, Life, Fire, Space, Connectedness, Progression, Effect, Freedom, Joy, Differentness and Harmony. Throughout his writings, Dr. Noomen avoids using the name of any deity, such as God, and instead uses what he refers to as The Seven Names, each of which relates on a human level to the situation at hand: One Holy, Love, Truth, Proper, Healing, Manifestation and Energy.

A minister and licensed psychotherapist, Dr. Noomen was a man of great introspection and awareness. He experienced a profound transcendent journey that led him to connect on a deeply spiritual level with a higher presence. He grew to believe that, either directly or indirectly, all life stems from one common source, and when we are able to connect with that source, we reach the highest level of existence.

Dr. Noomen freely shares the abundance of life-changing messages that were communicated to him on his website, www.wordsforall.org. Sadly, Dr. Noomen passed away in 2019, but his Words for All will continue to inspire people throughout the world.

An example from Dr. Noomen’s Wisdoms of the Week at www.wordsforall.org:

“We all know that anything can go wrong anytime: in nature, parts of our body, relationships and, of course, technical equipment. Even our mind can suddenly take a dip. All these wisdoms state that Life Itself is Love; however, it may be battered and damaged. This may be hard to hold on to in days of breakdowns and misery. Yet when we do just that, holding on to all Life’s true nature being Love, it brings us ‘home’ and is healing; spiritually, mentally and perhaps even physically. How do I know? Life in me shows me. We all can have a personal relationship with Him/Her.”

Kathleen Harrison
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
832.334.2733 Direct
281.333.3507 Main
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

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Post-Traumatic Thriving Explores Powerful Ways to Heal After Heartbreak

Post-Traumatic Thriving Explores Powerful Ways to Heal After Heartbreak

(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

Just when everything seems to be going right — our jobs are stable, our children are succeeding, and the stars seem to be aligning in our favor — the floor drops out. Stunned and unable to make the simplest decisions, we shut down completely. In that moment, it’s nearly impossible to imagine things ever being “normal” again. What just happened?

“It is trauma, in all of its forms. It slaps us right in the face, and hard,” says world-renown expert on disasters and trauma Dr. Randall Bell. “When trauma hits, the most critical decision we make is to choose whether to be a victim, aggressor, survivor or thriver.”

In his new book, Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience, Dr. Bell interweaves science and academic research with stories of people who have not just survived, but have used their trauma as their fuel to thrive. Dr. Bell sits down with survivors of the Holocaust; murder-victim’s families; crime victims; suicide survivors; and those who’ve experienced homelessness, disasters, addictions, depression, death, divorce, disabilities, defeats and disease to explore the rare mindset of the post-traumatic thriver.

Through this unprecedented research, Dr. Bell shares with readers stories of remarkable resilience, including the following:

• A deaf man with a glass eye invented the electric guitar and became a household name, remarkably wealthy and most importantly, happy.
• A convicted murderer took responsibility for the damage he caused, graduated with honors from college, became a minister and turned around the hearts of the most hardened criminals.
• A girl born with cerebral palsy landed the world’s first starring role on national television and spoke at the White House three times.
• A woman hid in a basement for years and lost her entire family in the Holocaust. She eventually found true love and paints stunning artwork.
• The sister of a murder victim helped millions of women in toxic domestic relationships.
• A woman’s car crash resulted in an addiction to prescription drugs, a divorce, a loss of her children and a cot in a homeless shelter. She has rebuilt it all back and more.
• A man set to go to the Olympics had his hopes dashed by Jimmy Carter and went on to build a worldwide business empire.

Ultimately, Dr. Bell documents the science of happiness, as well as the individual styles and common thread that all post-traumatic thrivers have to emerge with a fulfilling life. When trauma hits, your most significant decision will be to dive, survive or thrive. If you choose to thrive, this book is for you.

As an economist, Dr. Randall Bell has consulted on more disasters on earth than anyone in history and is widely considered the world’s top authority in the field of post-traumatic thriving. His clients include the Federal Government, State Governments, International Tribunals, major corporations and homeowners. Dr. Bell believes that “the problem is not the problem — the problem is how we react to the problem.”

Often called the “Master of Disaster,” Dr. Bell is squarely focused on authentic recovery and resilience. His research has been profiled on major television shows and featured in numerous magazines and the international media. More information can be found at www.posttraumaticthriving.com.

Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience
Publisher: Core IQ Press
Release Date: January 1, 2021
ISBN 978-0-9967931-7-9
Available from Amazon.com and all bookstores

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

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The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America

The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America

(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

His approach is always subtle; his banter is casual and absent any pressure to respond. But when renowned pediatrician and children’s advocate Dr. Irwin Redlener casually asks his young patients, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the lights invariably come on, eye contact occurs, and the child emerges from deep inside a protective shell. “Children are essentially dreamers … undaunted by adversity or reality-based barriers to success,” Dr. Redlener writes in The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America (with updated information on helping children through the COVID-19 crisis).

Inadequate education, barriers to health care and crushing poverty make it overwhelmingly difficult for many children to realize their dreams. Finding ways to alter these trajectories is serious, grown-up business, Dr. Redlener emphasizes, and it’s time for us to act.

In The Future of Us, Dr. Redlener draws upon his four decades of professional experiences to examine our nation’s health care safety nets and special programs that are designed to protect and nurture our most vulnerable kids, but that too often fail to do so.

The book follows Dr. Redlener’s long, colorful career, from his work as a pediatrician in the Arkansas delta, to treating child abuse in a Miami hospital, to helping children in the aftermaths of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He has served on the board of USA for Africa, cofounded the Children’s Health Fund with Paul Simon (and persuaded Joan Baez to play a benefit concert) and dined with Fidel Castro. He once sat across the table from Michael Jackson, and he has traveled with presidential candidates. But his most powerful source of motivation remains the children who face terrible adversities yet dream of becoming paleontologists, artists and marine biologists. Their stories are his springboard for discussing larger policy issues that hinder us from effectively eradicating childhood poverty and overcoming barriers to accessible health care. Persistent deprivation and the avoidable problems that accompany poverty ensnare millions of children and impact the health, prosperity and creativity of the adults they become. Dr. Redlener argues that we must drastically change our approach to meeting the needs of children ― for their sake and to ensure America’s resiliency and influence in an increasingly complex world.

It is Dr. Redlener’s hope that readers will emerge optimistic about our future, with a deeper understanding of how investing in children today will increase our chances of a successful tomorrow. Fighting for our nation’s children is far from a lost cause, and nothing could be more important.

Author Irwin Redlener, M.D., is a pediatrician and founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, which works to understand and improve the nation’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. In 2020, Dr. Redlener created the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia. He is a public health analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and recently partnered with Cher in CherCares, a new program that assists communities struggling with COVID-19.

Dr. Redlener is also President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Children’s Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative that he created with singer/songwriter Paul Simon and Karen Redlener to develop health care programs in 25 of the nation’s most medically underserved urban and rural communities. He currently serves as a special advisor on emergency preparedness to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and regularly communicates with leadership in U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, as well as Homeland Security. He has been a public health advisor to democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden.

He is also the author of Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now. For more information, please visit www.irwinredlener.org.

The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Release Date: October 13, 2020
ISBN-10: 0231177577
ISBN-13: 978-0231177573
Available from Amazon.com

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

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Turn Trauma into Your Fuel to Thrive

Turn Trauma into Your Fuel to Thrive

(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

Trauma doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anyone, anytime. And in all likelihood, COVID-19 has traumatized each and every one of us to some degree. Everybody hits a low point once in a while, and ultimately, the quality of our lives depends on our ability to process heartbreaks and catastrophes successfully. So how do we do that?

In Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience, world-renown expert on disasters and trauma Dr. Randall Bell interweaves science and academic research with stories of people who have not just survived, but have used their trauma as their fuel to thrive. Dr. Bell sits down with survivors of the Holocaust; murder-victim’s families; crime victims; suicide survivors; and those who’ve experienced homelessness, disasters, addictions, depression, death, divorce, disabilities, defeats and disease to explore the rare mindset of the post-traumatic thriver.

Through this unprecedented research, Dr. Bell shares with readers stories of remarkable resilience, including the following:

• A deaf man with a glass eye invented the electric guitar and became a household name, remarkably wealthy and most importantly, happy.
• A convicted murderer took responsibility for the damage he caused, graduated with honors from college, became a minister and turned around the hearts of the most hardened criminals.
• A girl born with cerebral palsy landed the world’s first starring role on national television and spoke at the White House three times.
• A woman hid in a basement for years and lost her entire family in the Holocaust. She eventually found true love and paints stunning artwork.
• The sister of a murder victim helped millions of women in toxic domestic relationships.
• A woman’s car crash resulted in an addiction to prescription drugs, a divorce, a loss of her children and a cot in a homeless shelter. She has rebuilt it all back and more.
• A man set to go to the Olympics had his hopes dashed by Jimmy Carter and went on to build a worldwide business empire.

Ultimately, Dr. Bell documents the science of happiness, as well as the individual styles and common thread that all post-traumatic thrivers have to emerge with a fulfilling life. When trauma hits, your most significant decision will be to dive, survive or thrive. If you choose to thrive, this book is for you.

As an economist, Dr. Randall Bell has consulted on more disasters on earth than anyone in history and is widely considered the world’s top authority in the field of post-traumatic thriving. His clients include the Federal Government, State Governments, International Tribunals, major corporations and homeowners. Dr. Bell believes that “the problem is not the problem — the problem is how we react to the problem.”

Often called the “Master of Disaster,” Dr. Bell is squarely focused on authentic recovery and resilience. His research has been profiled on major television shows and featured in numerous magazines and the international media. More information can be found at www.posttraumaticthriving.com.

Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience
Publisher: Core IQ Press
Release Date: January 1, 2021
ISBN 978-0-9967931-7-9
Available from Amazon.com and all bookstores

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

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