Ascot Media Group Blog
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Top Military Man Appears on Fox News to Tell What Really Happened With Civilian Killings in Afghanistan

Alexandria, VA. – Former Brigadier General Anthony Tata, U.S. Army (retired) who spent thirteen months in Afghanistan, was invited to speak on Fox News last week on a variety of topics in two separate venues, America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, and Fox and Friends weekday edition. BG Tata provided in depth analysis on controversial Taliban tactics, which led to civilian casualties and U.S. blame. He also provided concise viewpoints on the prisoner abuse photo release flap, Afghanistan strategy, and intelligence sharing with the Pakistan government.

Tata is no stranger to this type of action as evidenced in his action-packed military thriller Sudden Threat (Variance Publishing), which undoubtedly shows he has personally ‘walked the talk.’ His premiere novel was called “Riveting entertainment at its best” by the Military Writers Society of America, and named, “One of my must read authors,” by New York Times bestselling writer, Brad Thor. Master paratrooper, ranger qualified, Combat Action Badge and Bronze Star are just some of Tata’s bona fides that make this novel so credible. Sudden Threat is the prequel to Rogue Threat, his latest book in the Threat series, which will be released on October 13th by Variance Publishing.

Tata’s novel is a story about two brothers, Matt and Zachary Garrett, CIA paramilitary operative and U.S. Army officer respectively, who get caught in the crossfire of competing Beltway conspiracies. Matt is abruptly re-routed to an obscure assignment in China and the Philippines just as he was about to close in on al Qaeda senior leadership in Pakistan. Later, sifting through the wreckage of a C-130 aircraft in the Philippine jungle and finding a dead Special Forces paratrooper, Matt is forced to question why he was placed on the edge of the global war on terror. As he is pursued by Muslim insurgents, he stumbles upon a weapons factory guarded by Japanese soldiers in Mindanao’s uncharted rain forests. At the same time, and unknown to Matt, his brother’s infantry company is deployed to guard an ammunition stockpile near Manila. As the two brothers fight their elusive enemies overseas, they do not realize they are pawns in a game of chess played by a powerful band of men inside the DC Beltway trying desperately to forestall the Iraq invasion while keeping the country focused on the fight against Islamic terrorism. The beautiful Meredith Morris challenges the conspirators, but events take a lethal turn when a member of the Beltway group decides to go solo.

Brigadier General Tata is a contributing writer to www.Breitbart.com and also begins as Chief Operating Officer of Washington, DC, Public Schools on 1 June 2009.

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TIP SHEET

A. J. Tata’s novels have already been compared by U.S. News and World Report with the works of Tom Clancy. With top acclaim and praise as “A pulse-pounding, military thriller” coming from Brad Thor, NY Times #1 best-selling author of The Last Patriot, definitely makes A.J. Tata and his ‘Threat’ series an exciting addition to the Thriller genre.

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Millions wonder why religion is not satisfying their life questions – one man provides answers.

Brackenridge, PA. – It is obvious that worn-out, archaic religious doctrines are no longer cutting it for fifteen percent of the U.S. population – this equates to about 45,000,000 people who are not finding fulfillment in organized religion. Truly understanding real life requires letting go of certain misleading beliefs and explanations we were taught during childhood that formed the preconceived notions of truth we carry with us through life as these only tend to mask life’s real flow. Beliefs and understandings that formed each and every one of our views are merely mental creations to the conscious – they tend to distort how reality works.

The Essence of Reality: A Clear Awareness of How Life Works (O-Books/John Hunt Publishing) illustrates the “Oneness” with which life works – how we can change the life patterns we have created by our western mindset that is full of invalid, illusion-inducing beliefs. These religious beliefs actually interfere with seeing that inner-outer flow. This insightful book gives the reader the necessary tools through meditation, dream analysis, and self-hypnosis to look inward to identify how these life patterns in health, success, and relationships were created, offering step-by-step guidance to regain power over our own quality of life.

The Essence of Reality, by Thomas Daniel Nehrer, is a unique compilation of the author’s own experiences studying many religions, visionaries and philosophers from the Greeks into modern times. Coming to see the inner-outer flow of life and achieving ‘Clear Awareness’ helped him objectively recognize the limitations and inaccuracies of philosophers throughout time. Please visit his informative website at www.nehrer.net

Nehrer has traveled over 26,000 miles to make some eighty appearances across the United States, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands, all without charge. Revenue from book sales is only used to cover expenses – not enrich him personally. “If you really understand how life works, you needn’t extract money from those who ostensibly don’t.” People want to hear what he has to say – they are ready to open their minds and learn not to fear introspection.

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Move over Sam Spade – Make Room for Your Hawaiian Counterpart

San Juan Islands, WA. – High acclaim is coming from every literary corner for One Big Itch (ArcheBooks), the latest novel by Sara Williams.  As Eileen Goudge, NY Times best-selling author of The Diary, expounds: “Sara Williams channels her inner Raymond Chandler ….an addictively readable tale set in Hawaii and featuring detective John Spyer … abounds with local color and Hawaiian lore…the story moves along at a fast clip as it builds toward the cliffhanger climax.  You won’t see the end coming.”  This character-driven thriller is filled with hair-raising twists and turns that will have the reader flipping pages so fast in this modern-day “whodunit” they will probably end up with paper cuts!

Readers of One Big Itch will discover: 

  • A cryptic plea tucked into a Honolulu party invite from the new bride of    an old friend puzzles Hawaiian P.I. John Spyer and sets things in motion.
  • Spyer’s internationally-renowned old friend ends up dead and Spyer asks himself if the wife found out his buddy was a world-class womanizer.
  • As Hawaiians know, Honolulu is rumored to be haunted and Spyer is warned by Madam Pele, mercurial fire goddess, not to take the case.
  • Spyer’s investigation takes him to a familiar ancient valley, opening his own psychic wounds and testing his love for his mainland girlfriend.
  • The P.I. uncovers a frightening tale of obsessive love and learns his old buddy was charisma on steroids – way too popular with the ladies for his own good.
  • The local police believe his friend was killed by his own son, but the current wife and ex-wife believe he was killed by one of his crazed lovers.Police find an erotic manuscript at the deceased’s house and uncover his    involvement with seedy characters in an erotic book club. 
  • A wild ride of unexpected twists and turns follows all the way to the story’s suspense-filled climax!

Sara Williams and her husband lived in Hawaii for ten years, lending authenticity to her book through her own experience of this magical paradise.  Her first novel, The Don Juan Con, was optioned in Hollywood by producer Robert Evans for Paramount Studios.  Her second novel, The Serenoa Scandal, was the prequel to One Big Itch. 

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TIP SHEET:

Don Bruns, author of Bahama Burnout: “If you love characters, One Big Itch has plenty of them…if you love location, you’ll fall in love with Sara’s Hawaii, and if you love a suspenseful race to the finish plot, One Big Itch will give you all you want.  What a great read!”

Diana A.S. Stuckart, author of Portrait of a Lady, second in the Leonardo da Vinci mystery series: “One Big Itch is one wild ride!  With her quirky characters and rollercoaster plot, Williams weaves a slyly entertaining tale …combines lush Hawaiian landscape of travelogues with gritty reality of its urban streets…alive with authentic native voices, this fast-paced mystery will leave you wanting to hop the next plane for a tropical adventure of your own.”

Rodger Nichols, editor The Dalles Chronicle: “Spyer is an appealing mixture of John D. MacDonald’s Travis MaGee and Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer with an exotic locale thrown in for spice.  Williams has caught the rhythm and feel of the Hawaiian life…her characters are real, three-dimensional…whose actions grow naturally out of their characters, not some arcane plot demands….the plot is a gem, with layer upon layer unfolding as Spyer investigates the murder of a childhood friend.”

John Kachuba, author of Ghosthunters: “One Big Itch is one great book, yeah?  It kept one ghost-hunting writer turning the pages wikiwiki Mahalo for one fun read.”

Barrie-Louise Switzen, The Woman’s Connection: “I love a good mystery that keeps me on the edge and One Big Itch fits the bill…just when I thought we couldn’t have another twist, P.I. John Spyer comes up against one more.  The added benefit is all the Hawaiian culture woven throughout and makes me yearn to return to Hawaii.

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Author gives book proceeds and devotes her life to helping forgotten strays on island paradise

Isla Mujeres, Mexico – If it were not for the kindness and generosity of spirit of people like Alison Sawyer Current and her team of amazing volunteers, dogs and cats on this beautiful island and in the neighboring mainland community of Rancho Viejo, would believe that this was their idea of hell!  The prospect of a happy life for many of these sweet animals would be impossible if left to the local government whose archaic idea of reducing the animal population is to tragically end their life right there on the street.  Thankfully, there is an organization of hope, dedicated to decreasing the pet population the humane way – through ongoing spay/neuter programs, education, vaccinations and adoption.  Isla Animals took over this wonderful project, originally started by Amigos de los Animals, in 2002 and they work relentlessly to provide a happy future for these deserving animals.

Alison Sawyer Current divides her time between Colorado and Mexico and is the operator of this unofficial humane society.  In 2005 she received The Doris Day Animal Kindred Spirit Award for her work, and she consulted in Mexico City for the Forum on Small Animal Overpopulation in Mexico.  For the past seven years, Alison and her faithful volunteers have worked diligently with other rescue groups in the Yucatan, U.S. and Canada on behalf of thousands of neglected animals to ensure they get the basic care that every loving animal deserves.

It is an even more amazing feat that this compassionate woman has found the time and energy to write a novel, and is using a portion of the proceeds from the sale of her book to further the care of her beloved extended feline and canine family.  Her intriguing novel, No Urn For The Ashes (Bayfire Press Publishing) is a composite blend of adventure and thrills, compassion and grief, showing an incredible psychological insight into human nature in the writer’s choice of dynamic characters.  Please visit her website at www.islaanimals.org to see the fine work being accomplished by Alison and her team.

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Journey to Hell to Catch Monstrous Creatures to Stock the World’s Largest Aquarium

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water …think again …unless you want to become an afterthought on the food chain!  Carcharodon Megalodon (MEG for short) was a 70-foot, 70,000 pound Great White shark, a monster that could eat the shark in JAWS and still have room for dessert! The most fearsome creature that ever lived is still lurking in the depths of the ocean and has no natural enemy – it is the predator of all predators.  Steve Alten, renowned NY Times best-selling author, takes us on a heart-stopping thrill ride of adventure in his latest novel, MEG – Hell’s Aquarium (Variance Publishing).  Make sure you are strapped in and ready for the journey of your life!

This amazing story begins in the western portion of the sixty million square miles that make up the Pacific Ocean.  Hidden deep beneath the surface is the Philippine Sea Plate – home to the nightmarish species of sea creatures believed to be extinct!  Jonas Taylor had been the best deep-sea submersible pilot in the Navy until his last dive in these waters when he panicked and launched the Navy’s vessel into a rapid emergency ascent that cost the lives of two scientists on board.  No one believed Jonas’ claim of seeing a monster shark with a head bigger than the entire sub.  His career over, his confidence shot, Jonas sets out to prove the giant does exist.  Jonas ultimately finds the giant and has to kill it but captures one of its surviving pups and brings it home.

The Tanaka Oceanographic Institute in Monterey, California, is home to the now 76 foot, 100,000 pound Carcharodon Megalodon that has returned to the lagoon to give birth to five female pups that are already proving too aggressive to keep in one pen.  A Dubai royal prince, building the world’s largest aquarium, wants to buy two of her ‘runts,’ if Jonas’ son David will be their trainer.  Jonas reluctantly agrees and David sets off to Dubai – never realizing his recruitment was for another purpose.  The prince knows that under the Philippine Sea Plate is a lost purgatory for the most terrifying sea monsters in history – and he wants them in his new aquarium!  To get a taste of what is to come, watch the trailer below or at: www.youtube.com/ascotmediagroup

MEG: Hell’s Aquarium, the fourth installment of Alten’s best-selling MEG series, proves to be the greatest yet with a major motion picture already in the works.  Visit this imaginative author at his website: www.stevealten.com.  

TIP SHEET  

Noteworthy past accomplishments of this acclaimed author in the previous three MEG novels include being on numerous best-seller lists, published in over twenty countries, and reaching best-seller status in France, Germany, Spain and Mexico, as well as becoming a popular radio series in Japan.

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A new approach to healing a nation’s cultural obsession with food, sex and spiritual fulfillment.

What a Body Knows: Finding Wisdom in Desire (O-Books) by Kimerer LaMothe combines the author’s knowledge and experience as a philosopher, dancer, partner and mother to call our attention to a source of wisdom we have learned to ignore. Rather than blame our desires for food, sex, and spirit for our cultural and psychological ills, this book urges us to learn from these desires how to move in ways that will grant us the pleasure, health, and well being we seek. With each desire, the author describes what this wisdom is, how to find it, and why it works. Through a compilation of her own personal experiences, philosophical reflections and cultural analysis, we learn that our desire for food is guiding us to follow the arc of eating pleasure to a sense of enough; that our desire for sex is guiding us to ask our partners for what we need in order to help us give and receive a life-enabling touch, and that our desire for spirit is guiding us to create the network of relations that will support us in becoming who we are.

Finally, here is a book that shows how to find the wisdom in each of these desires – engaging people in the moment-by-moment ways they relate to their own sensations of desire. Like a breath of fresh air – it offers a different idea of what it means to be aware of one’s own self – an idea that aligns mind, body and spirit rather than promoting the kind of ‘mind over body’ sense of self that diverts us from what our bodies know.

What a Body Knows might be called “a mother’s philosophy,” since it has the author’s own experiences with her children woven through its words. Part of her motivation for leaving the Harvard world of philosophy and theology and moving to a farm was to live life in a way that would allow her to tell a different story about who we humans are. She accomplishes her goal in What a Body Knows by offering a healing, liberating perspective on what it means to be a bodily self, complete with concrete practices that support it. Please visit her imaginative website at: www.vitalartsmedia.com .

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One unhappy housewife wonders if the best part of marriage begins after the fairy tale ends

Lizzie Buckley knows she should be happy as a lark in her picture-perfect world.  She loves her country estate, her precocious three-year-old twins, and her handsome husband – but why, oh why didn’t somebody warn her about the effects of postpartum depression and the toll it would take on her marriage?  She knows it isn’t normal to fantasize about chucking it all in for a good box of chocolates and an uninterrupted bath!  Your Roots Are Showing (Grand Central Publishing), the debut novel of Elise Chidley, has been nominated in two categories of the 2009 RITA© Awards for Best First Book and Best Single Title Contemporary Romance.

Lizzie, constantly tired, bored, and misunderstood by her husband James, questions whether her ‘perfect’ life really is all that perfect.  When she decides to vent by airing her problems in an email to her sister, Lizzie does the unthinkable; the dreaded millisecond beyond the point of no return, she accidentally sends the email to her husband.  And then, as the old adage goes – the ‘you-know-what’ hits the fan!  James hastily packs his suitcase and takes himself and his ruffled feathers out of her life.

Your Roots Are Showing is the very real story of a young woman forced to uproot her children and start life over as a single mom in a dilapidated garden cottage.  In a desperate attempt to reinvent herself, she takes up running, loses weight, and manages to finish writing a children’s book.  Even a temporary distraction created by an attractive gardener doesn’t help her regain her sense of self-worth or stop her wondering whether James might not have left her if she had only been thinner, better dressed and as well-bred as her upper-crust mother-in-law, Your Roots Are Showing is an excellent character-driven story that is inspiring, humorous and insightful, with each person contributing in their own unique way towards helping Lizzie come to realize that she and James can only find their way back to each other when she is strong enough to cope on her own.

 

TIP SHEET:

Elizabeth Buchan, NY Times best-selling author of Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman: “Look no further for a delicious, romantic story, written with wit and a light touch.”

Gemma Townely, author of The Importance of Being Married: “Toe-curlingly observant and wonderfully heartwarming – I loved it!”

Jane Porter, author of Flirting with Forty: “Absolutely wonderful…a charming debut, not to be missed.”

Romantic Times Book Reviews: “Chidley hits it out of the park with her debut novel…finds humor in the mundane and absolutely nails Lizzie’s character arc…spot-on writing, Chidley has created a heroine readers will care about.”

Eastern Daily Press: “A page turner, Lizzie Buckley has a life many women would dream of but lately she’s been fantasizing about swapping lives with a single woman.  When Lizzie hits ‘send’ on the wrong email everything starts to unravel.”

Prima: “This is full of colorful characters and is the ideal holiday read.”

ArmchairInterviews.com: “Elise Chidley presents…an amusing yet poignant tale… Her characters are vibrant and colorful, and her writing passionate and personal.”

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