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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.)

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“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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Has Humankind Ever Been More Broken Than Now?

Has Humankind Ever Been More Broken Than Now?
Writings of the Late Dr. Noomen Preach ‘Connectedness’

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Does it sometimes seem as if political parties, the country and perhaps the entire world has fallen into an unprecedented morass of divisiveness and animosity? Read the news, turn on the TV, listen to the radio or just eavesdrop on conversations. Has there ever been a time when civilization was any less agreeable? Can anything be done to help fix this rampant and dangerous antagonism?

Author and scholar Dr. Pieter Noomen wrote at length about his belief that “all is connected,” and although he passed away three years ago, his writings are still available to all, free, anytime, on his website (www.wordsforall.org). Among the 12 “booklets” he posted is one he called “Connectedness.”

“If on your inner level you do connect with the universal sphere, boundaries blur,” Dr. Noomen wrote. “You then experience that your universal links are not vague or impractical at all. You can hook up to a world that poses no threat and lets you know and feel that.”

Dr. Noomen’s writings speak largely about his belief system and often refer to messages he said he received from a higher power, but his words can resonate with all, regardless of faith. The booklet on “connectedness” is written in first-person, with the “I” being the higher power that he believed spoke to him.

He begins the booklet thus: “One of the most amazing statements I make is related to this ‘all is connected;’ not that the fact itself that all is connected is surprising, as you observe it on earth … but indirect all-connectedness makes good sense. You and, say stars, are separate worlds; yet what is in between serves as link. And so it is with everything. All that exists is acting in the same play of being. Let the word play conjure a sphere of playfulness, team spirit and adventure.”

That may sound like Pollyanna wishful thinking in 2022, but what if the Russians and Ukrainians, the pro-life and pro-choice folks, the Republicans and Democrats, and all the other so-called diametrically opposed groups could look at civilization as one big family?

“Truth has ways to overcome confusion, to a point of restoring clear vision,” Dr. Noomen wrote. “For this, you’ve the whole eternity at your disposal. So do not worry or panic. Realize the sixth component of being well-connected is already a part of you. For present humans, this connectedness is severely disturbed. And it shows. Yet, in you, ‘all is connected’ waits to be recognized and be applied positively.”

Born in the Netherlands, Pieter Noomen worked as a psychotherapist and staff member at a Los Angeles church. He completed doctoral studies in theology and pastoral psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and became senior minister of three Protestant churches.

An example from Dr. Noomen’s Wisdoms of the Week from his website, as we continue to hold out hope that better days lie ahead:

“It seems scientifically proven that laughing is good for our health. (I still regret that I can’t even tell a joke. Sorry!) Yet I know a source that always lets me smile inside. That happens when I realize how awesomely great the universe is and how tiny I am. And much more, when I realize that this Totality of all, Life in its full volume, is essentially a love reality.”

Trish Stevens
Gloria Gonzalez
Ascot Media Group, Inc.
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
281.333.3507 Main
[email protected]
www.ascotmedia.com

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What Really Matters in Love and Life? Ask a 100-Year-Old Woman

What Really Matters in Love and Life? Ask a 100-Year-Old Woman

(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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A few years ago, author Judy Gaman was writing a book on the subject of longevity, so she set up an interview with a 100-year-old woman named Lucille Fleming. There was no way Judy could know that her own life was about to take a new, healthier and happier path, thanks to the wisdom of this remarkable centenarian. You might even say that Lucille became her “mother figure,” in the sense that she opened Gaman’s eyes to what really matters in life.

Gaman shares Lucille’s secrets to living a long and meaningful life in her book, Love, Life and Lucille: Lessons Learned from a Centenarian, which has touched the hearts of readers everywhere and drawn rave reviews.

Marybeth Conley, anchor for WREG-TV News Channel 3 in Memphis, said, “Grab a tissue and strap in! This emotionally charged memoir will have you busting out laughing one minute and crying the next. Judy paints the picture masterfully and leaves the reader forever touched by Lucille’s wisdom. My listeners still talk about how charming Lucille was, even years after my interviewing her!”

In her own words, Gaman says she was so busy making a name for herself that she barely took the time to enjoy life or simply stop to breathe. She spent every day going full speed ahead without looking back. And then she met Lucille Fleming.

Gaman described Lucille as “an elegant and spirited woman who had just recently turned 100,” one who “had the fashion and style of old Hollywood, but it was all hidden behind the doors of her senior living center. What began as a quick meeting became a lasting friendship that transformed into an inseparable bond. Lucille brought incredible wisdom and great stories to the table.”

Together, the two began living life to the fullest and met many interesting people along the way, including actor and icon Suzanne Somers, who joined Lucille and Gaman on stage for an event about longevity (Somers also wrote the forward to Gaman’s book).

But then Lucille’s life came to an end at age 103 through unexpected and unfortunate circumstances ― and the very first lesson she ever taught Gaman proved to be the most important one of all.

Judy Gaman is an award-winning author, nationally sought-after speaker and CEO of Executive Medicine of Texas. She also co-hosts the Stay Young America! podcast.

As a media expert, she has appeared on hundreds of television, radio and podcast interviews. Judy recently released the pilot for Front Row to CEO, a talk show where she interviews some of the most interesting CEOs in an engaging and inspiring way.

For more information, please visit www.JudyGaman.com, or follow the author on Instagram (lovelifelucillebook) or Facebook (@jgamanspeaker).

Love, Life and Lucille: Lessons Learned from a Centenarian
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN-10: ‎ 1631528823
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1631528828
Also available in eBook and audiobook formats
Available from Amazon.com

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

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One Man’s Path to Redemption Leads Through Local Watering Holes

One Man’s Path to Redemption Leads Through Local Watering Holes

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Jack Current isn’t just hoping to drown his sorrows during his evening pub crawl through downtown Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood; he’s hoping to actually drown — in the Ohio River. But not until he has poured his heart onto paper in the dollar store notebook he’s got with him. Aptly referred to as The Drunk Log, Jack’s notebook contains the secret to his pain, and a bartender with a sixth sense will sneak a peek, just in time.

Author Mark E. Scott’s compelling story of one man’s last hurrah, Drunk Log, invites readers to follow a relatable protagonist who, in the midst of buckling under oppressive guilt, embarks on one last bar crawl before he plans to end his own life.

In his notebook, Jack documents the evening, ruminates on his existence and remembers his 7-year-old nephew, who died exactly a year earlier. It is a loss for which Jack feels responsible — a lapse in judgement for which there is no forgiveness. Jack’s plan is to jump off the scenic suspension bridge spanning the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky.

Drunk Log is a darkly humorous, deeply introspective exploration into one man’s attempt to find peace in the face of unrelenting pain. Told with a fast clip, the entire book covers about 8 hours and deftly avoids becoming an ominous dirge through relatable — and flawed — characters, unexpectedly funny situations, a budding romance and the wobbly balancing act of a man who must remain sober enough to write in his journal and finish what he started, but drunk enough to jump off a bridge.

Readers follow Jack as he begins the evening at his local watering hole, where a gregarious bartender named Aria, with whom he shares a mutual attraction, takes a surreptitious peek at Jack’s journal. Sensing Jack is headed to the same doom that claimed her sister, Aria decides to intervene.

Tracking him down in the middle of a winter storm, Aria finds Jack on the freezing, snowy bridge. Can they emerge from their individual cocoons of loss and suffering, save each other and rewrite their stories?

Drunk Log is the first 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.

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 Instagram (markescottauthor), Facebook (@markescottauthor) or Twitter (@MarkEScott3).

Drunk Log
Publisher: Speaking In Volumes, LLC
ISBN: 978-1645405559
EISBN: 978-1645405542
Available from Amazon.com

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

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Angel Faces Retreats Facilitate Emotional Healing for Women Disfigured by Trauma

Angel Faces Retreats Facilitate Emotional Healing for Women Disfigured by Trauma

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Since 2003, the nonprofit Angel Faces has helped transform the lives of adolescents and young women who have suffered severe, permanent scars and disfigurements from burn injuries and traumatic events through intensive, residential retreats, and ongoing support.

Founder Lesia Cartelli was severely burned by a natural gas explosion when she was just 9 years old, and as an adult, she recognized the psychosocial needs of adolescent girls and young women with disfigurements.

The next retreat takes place June 11-16 on a private compound (courtesy of an anonymous donor) on lake Winnipesaukee in beautiful Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

The theme for this retreat is “Let it Roll,” and sessions led by licensed mental health professionals will focus on managing healthy relationships, boundaries, post traumatic growth and understanding the impact of trauma on our lives.

Professional artist Kate Lemay will lead an art project, “Let It Scroll,” during which participants will create beautiful scrolls on canvas decorated with both words of forgiveness for their past selves and motivational messages for their budding, future selves.

Additional program elements include yoga, climbing and journaling, plus one-on-one instruction from professionals in the cosmetics industry to teach the women how to minimize scarring while enhancing their individual beauty.

“Our six-day retreat is a unique gathering of women who have been left marred by severe trauma (abuse, car crashes, bonfires, explosions, war and house fires) to find the courage to heal,” Cartelli said. “We encourage the participants to not waste their pain, and to use their trauma as a gift to discover their resilience and strength. Time at the retreat is inspiring for attendees and those who are privy to volunteer.”

Angel Faces Founder Lesia S. Cartelli has witnessed and experienced the struggle with social interactions, boundaries, and self-esteem issues that plague adolescent girls and young women with scars. In her 40 years of experience in developing educational and psychosocial programs supporting trauma victims, she became aware of the intense need for a more in-depth program. She created Angel Faces to inspire and empower adolescent girls and young women with burn/trauma injuries to reach their optimum potential and develop meaningful relationships with themselves, their families and their communities.

Cartelli is also the author of Heart of Fire (Carlyle Publishing; ISBN-13: ‎978-0990430711), in which she shares the details of her own traumatic experience and the path that led to her founding of Angel Faces.

For more information and a schedule of 2022 retreats, please visit www.angelfaces.com, or follow the organization on Instagram and Twitter at @angelfacesinc.

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

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A Biblical Recipe for Marital Success

A Biblical Recipe for Marital Success

(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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Counseling is a significant aspect of pastoring, and marriage counseling is the most common form of counseling for many clergy. To address the needs of husbands who come to him for marriage counseling, Pastor Scott LaPierre says the first thing he looks at is the man’s relationship with Christ.

“Our relationship with our wives, our relationship with our children, is a reflection or outpouring of our relationship with Christ,” La Pierre said in a recent interview. “And it’s our relationship with Christ that we need to draw on at those times when we’re upset.”

In his new book, Your Marriage God’s Way, LaPierre distills lessons from scripture, carefully examining the principles for building a strong, biblical marriage—one in which your relationship with Christ brings guidance and blessing into your relationship with your spouse.
“God is the author of marriage. He designed the roles and responsibilities for husbands and wives,” LaPierre writes in his book. “He knows what couples need so they can experience healthy, joyful, Christ-centered relationships, and He provided the principles in the Bible.”

LaPierre gives readers the tools to:

  • Understand the unique roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives
  • Recognize and resolve conflicts with a heart of hope and compassion
  • Follow God’s worthy command to love and cherish your spouse unconditionally

A companion workbook is also available (LaPierre’s Your Marriage God’s Way Workbook) to help couples apply biblical principles to their own marriage.

The workbook aims to help couples:

  • Understand the unique roles God has given each person
  • Identify ways to better help, encourage, and support each other
  • Make serving God the focal point of the marriage

“Let’s journey together, with the Bible as our guide, to experience the blessings of a Christ-centered relationship,” LaPierre writes. “Whether you’re at the beginning of your journey or you’ve been on the road together for years, Your Marriage God’s Way will provide the helpful and encouraging insights you need to experience marriage as God intends it.”

About the Author
Scott LaPierre is the senior pastor of Woodland Christian Church in Woodland, WA, an author, and conference speaker. He holds an MA in Biblical Studies from Liberty University. Scott and his wife, Katie, have nine children, and they are passionate homeschooling advocates. Scott is a former schoolteacher and Army officer.

To learn more about Pastor Scott LaPierre, please visit www.scottlapierre.org, or follow him on Twitter (@PastorWCC), Instagram (@pastorwcc) or Facebook (@SctottLaPierreMinistries).

Your Marriage God’s Way: A Biblical Guide to a Christ-Centered Relationship
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN-10: ‎ 0736983961
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0736983969
Available from Amazon.com

Your Marriage God’s Way Workbook
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN-10: ‎ 0736983988
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0736983983
Available from Amazon.com

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

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And Suddenly Life Will Never Be the Same: Almost Like Praying a Contemporary Family Drama

And Suddenly Life Will Never Be the Same: Almost Like Praying a Contemporary Family Drama

(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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What would happen if a suburban woman with a hard-as-nails façade and a detailed life plan was suddenly saddled with caring for a 6-year-old girl from the Bronx?

Such is the dilemma facing Dolores Farrell in Almost Like Praying, the intriguing new novel from author Joel Samberg. But the 6-year-old girl is just the tip of Dolores’ family-centered iceberg. When readers first meet her, she is a woman with a future all planned out: She’ll marry an attorney, have sons who will become attorneys, daughters who will become patrons of the arts, and live in the shadow of Harvard University, thereby continuing her privileged, purebred Irish-Catholic legacy.

Instead, Dolores must watch as each of her children adopts a lifestyle quite different from what she had envisioned. One daughter becomes a waitress, another a shock jock. One son becomes a cop (a troubled one at that), another a cartoonist. Much to his mother’s dismay, the cartoonist is also missing a leg due to a terrible childhood accident. That, of course, had not been part of Dolores’ original plan.

Almost Like Praying, which fictionalizes some real thoughts and memories, is told through a trilogy of stories reconstructed by a curious journalist who, as a boy, lived across the street from the family at the heart of the book. One day from his old bedroom window, the journalist sees Dolores on her front step hugging a dark-skinned little girl named Maria, and smiling—something he feels the grim-faced Dolores would never do. That’s what prompts him to research and write the stories.

“The novel sprung from my own roots,” Samberg said. “Growing up on Long Island, one of my best friends had a mother who to me seemed humorless and severe. I had always wondered about her. She became Dolores. Also, whenever my family drove through the Bronx, I’d look at the ramshackle apartment buildings and wonder how the kids who lived there would fare in my own middle-class neighborhood. One of them became Maria.”

Featuring flawed, relatable characters, Almost Like Praying offers a compelling message that likely will resonate with readers everywhere.

Author Joel Samberg decided to become a writer as a boy. He wrote a screenplay when he was 12 and sent it to MGM, and although the studio turned it down, an executive’s encouraging note suggested that he never give up on his dream to be a writer. Two years later, his English teacher sent a nasty note home to his parents falsely accusing him of plagiarizing a book report because she said it was too well-written for an eighth-grader. That settled it: from that point on, he has never given up.

Samberg has written for dozens of magazines and has published seven fiction and nonfiction books, including Some Kind of Lonely Clown: The Music, Memory, and Melancholy Lives of Karen Carpenter.

For more information, please visit https://almost-like-praying-new-novel.blogspot.com/, and follow the author on Twitter at @JoelSamberg.

Almost Like Praying
Publisher: Black Rose Writing (http://blackrosewriting.com)
Release Date: April 28, 2022
ISBN-10: ‎ 1685130097
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1685130091
Available from Amazon.com, Black Rose Writing and other online booksellers.

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

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