Asperger’s and Unstoppable: Matthew Kenslow Doesn’t Let Labels Limit Him
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Matthew Kenslow is a pianist, juggler, motivational speaker and college graduate who was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (part of the autism spectrum) when he was 6 years old. In his thought-provoking book, Juggling the Issues: Living With Asperger’s Syndrome, Kenslow takes readers inside what it’s truly like for someone living with the disability.
“My main message that I tell hundreds of people is that I have not given up on my goals,” he wrote in the book’s preface. “I persevere on my aspirations. If I can do that, certainly everybody else can too.”
Told through a series of stories about his personal experiences, Kenslow sheds light on common traits found in those with Asperger’s, such as the way their minds work, their lack of social and conversational skills, and poor eye contact with others, and how those challenges have impacted his everyday life. Simple tasks take longer for Kenslow — like reading or organizing his thoughts — while remembering things like the Periodic Table or the books of the Bible come more easily.
“We find patterns in things, and that is the key,” he wrote. “… what is difficult for me can be a piece of cake for most others, but what is challenging for most others can be two-plus-two for me.”
Juggling the Issues: Living With Asperger’s Syndrome is an important read for anyone whose life has been touched by Asperger’s Syndrome. Kenslow’s insights aim to lend understanding, provide inspiration, and encourage readers to put aside differences and embrace the gifts that others have to share with the world.
About the Author
Matthew Kenslow has grown up with a form of autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Life has been an adventure as he pieced together all of his surroundings amid both praises and taunts. His mission is to teach others from a firsthand perspective about how autistic people interpret things differently from the rest of the world. He believes God has blessed him with the gifts to juggle, play piano and recall facts about the American presidents, geography, science and mathematics. He juggles at elementary schools and encourages the students to never give up on their passions.
He has earned the Gold Medal of Achievement (which is equivalent to the rank of Eagle Scout) through Royal Rangers, a program he has been in since he was 5. Now, he is giving back to children and teenagers, teaching and mentoring them in a wide set of skills and knowledge. He graduated from Orange Coast College with an Associate of Science degree in Chemistry and with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Vanguard University of Southern California. He aspires to be a middle school math and science teacher. Currently, he is a student teacher for Enhanced Mathematics at his former middle school, Ensign Intermediate School, seeking to be done by December 2022, and is an employed substitute teacher for NMUSD.
Juggling the Issues: Living with Asperger’s Syndrome Publisher: River Birch Press ISBN-10: 1951561325 ISBN-13: 978-1951561321 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and many other online retailers
Trish Stevens Clare Moore Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Dazzle Dad With a Heaping Helping of Deliciously Clever Food Puns
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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
What Really Matters in Love and Life? Ask a 100-Year-Old Woman
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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
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
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
Proactive Patient Education Empowers Consumers to Be Better Partners in Their Care
If you need an immediate response, please text or call Dr. Wilcox at 816.885.9214.
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If you’ve postponed any nonurgent procedures or doctor visits over the past couple of years, now is the time to educate yourself before wading back into the murky waters of the American healthcare system.
“Proactively educating yourself on the American Healthcare System means you will have more control over the care you receive,” said David Wilcox, a patient advocate and doctorate prepared nurse with 28 years in health care. “There are things you can do as an individual to make sure you’re getting the best health care possible.”
In his important new book, How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival, Dr. Wilcox shares a behind-the-scenes look at many facets of our healthcare system and provides insider tips to help patients and family members navigate through the morass, avoid surprise bills and ultimately achieve better outcomes.
Of note, he encourages consumers to research doctors and hospitals, and gain an understanding of the risks and benefits of any recommended procedure. Dr. Wilcox also explores what to do if you have to go to a hospital, how to handle a denied insurance claim, how to find alternatives to high-priced prescriptions and why the current pay-for-fee system is inadequate. Readers will also discover the direction the healthcare system needs to move in, to holistically care for patients — information that he says the health care entities would prefer you didn’t know.
His goal in writing this book, he said, was to level the playing field, enabling consumers of health care to understand how to avoid getting caught in the systemic net.
“Entering the American healthcare system, one has to have a basic knowledge of it to be safe,” he said. “Not being prepared and knowledgeable means you will have little control over the health care you receive.”
Dr. David Wilcox is an Amazon international bestselling author and health care professional who believes proactive patient education enables those accessing the healthcare system to be better partners in their health care. He also believes that everyone has the right to access the American Healthcare System safely. A Doctorate-prepared nurse who also holds a Master’s in Health Administration and is Board Certified in Nursing Informatics, Dr. Wilcox has nearly three decades of health care experience as a bedside nurse, hospital administrator and in health care information technology, which has helped him to develop his unique perspective on the American Healthcare System. For more information, please visit https://drdavidwilcox.com/.
How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival Publisher: Here for You Publishing ISBN-10: 0578878364 ISBN-13: 978-0578878362 Available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578878364
Trish Stevens Alex Spencer Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Dying to Survive: Not in Vain, A Promise Kept Explores Life and Death Impact of Patient Advocacy
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They were killing her mother with negligence, Melissa Mullamphy recalls. And eight months later, Mullamphy’s mother succumbed following a cancer battle fraught with frustration, medical missteps and the endless bureaucracy that goes hand in hand with navigating our complex healthcare system.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept is Mullamphy’s candid account of her mother’s journey and the family’s roller coaster of emotions. Readers will witness the mistakes that compounded their pain, the small victories that gave them hope, and above all, the love that kept them going during an indescribably difficult time.
Each chapter in Not In Vain, A Promise Kept represents one month from her mother’s diagnosis to her passing. Mullamphy recalls the experiences with vivid detail (the names of doctors and nurses have been changed), hoping to prompt others to ask the tough questions and learn by her example.
“My goal in writing this book is to keep the promise that I made to my mom … to share her story so others don’t go through what she and my family went through,” Mullamphy says. “You can have input, control and make a difference in your loved one’s healthcare.”
Mullamphy shares shocking lapses in her mother’s care, including blood clots the doctor fails to notice, the confusion surrounding her mother’s DNR order, the time she found her mother wearing another patient’s bracelet and the unspeakable heartbreak of learning that that all along, the hospital had used the wrong type of chemotherapy drug for her mother’s specific cancer.
Not In Vain, A Promise Kept is not without moments of hope, such as when the family is told the tumor has shrunk and when her mother’s last-ditch surgery to remove the tumor is declared “wildly successful.”
Ultimately, Not In Vain, A Promise Kept pays homage to a life well-lived and a woman well-loved, and it’s Mullamphy’s aim to help other patients and their loved ones find their voices, understand their rights and learn how to navigate a deeply complex, imperfect healthcare system.
“Use your voice, and remember that you are not there to make friends,” she adds. “Sometimes you have to be the biggest mouth in the room, but speaking up can save your loved one’s life.”
Author Melissa Mullamphy has a master’s degree in clinical psychology and has worked in psychiatric emergency rooms and step-down houses. Forever a student of mental health, she has also worked with many nonprofits, including those benefiting military veterans. For almost 20 years, she worked as a domestic operations manager for a major corporation. Following her experience with her mother’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, she began blogging about current events as they relate to healthcare.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept ISBN-10: 1734802634 ISBN-13: 978-1734802634 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, http://www.melissamullamphy.com and many other online outlets
Trish Stevens Corinne Walker Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
