Powerful True Story Inspires Others to Seek Adventure, Turn Each Day into a Gift
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Brittany Moser’s short life was not defined by how she died, but rather, by how she lived each day to the fullest and the profound impact she had on those around her. Brittany died from a rare condition, Addison’s disease, in 2017 at the age of 32. She had been a happy-go-lucky flight attendant, soaring high above reality, when her diagnosis suddenly brought her down to earth.
Rather than buckle under the weight of fear, she chose to be fearless and embarked upon the adventure of a lifetime with her best friend — her father. Free and Fearless: The Amazing Impact of One Precious Life is Brittany’s unforgettable story as told by her father, Philip Moser.
“This book is not about the grief of losing a child, but about making the most out of what we are given and living our lives positively and not out of fear,” Moser writes. “Brittany inspired me, an ordinary farm boy, to explore life, to climb mountains and to write a book.”
Free and Fearless is an honest, poignant account of Brittany’s legacy and the ripple effect that her outlook on life had on everyone who knew her. Philip hopes that by hearing her story, readers will be inspired by Brittany’s contagious spirit and unwavering desire for new adventures and experiences — even in the shadow of an incurable illness.
Among Brittany’s valuable life lessons that Philip shares with readers are:
How precious life is and how we can affect the people around us;
How an open mind and a positive attitude can inspire us to do things we never thought possible;
How to move out of our comfort zones and into a challenging existence that can turn each day into an exciting gift to be explored;
How to not let fear control us, and to use our abilities to seek unique, positive and inspiring adventures;
To embrace change as a natural part of life;
And finally, that we won’t be remembered by our things or our savings accounts, but by how we made other people feel.
“I want to share the same inspiration that I received for 32 years,” Philip added. “In the end, love truly does conquer all, and Brittany wanted us to know that.”
Author Philip Moser grew up on a farm in Angola, Indiana. After high school, he began working in different aspects of the grocery business, a career that continues to this day. He and his wife, Marilyn Wells, raised two incredible daughters, Camille and Brittany.
For more information, please visit www.freeandfearlessbook.com or connect with the author on social media at https://www.facebook.com/philip.moser.73?ref=bookmarks. A portion from the sale of each book will be donated to the National Adrenal Disease Foundation.
Free and Fearless: The Amazing Impact of One Precious Life ISBN-10: 1733086404 ISBN-13: 978-1733086400 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com and other online retailers
Trish Stevens Beth Hanner Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Undercurrents of Mortality, Forgiveness Buoy Compelling Coming of Age Story
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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
Know Your Identity in Christ and Become the Champion You Were Meant to Be
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If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and wondered who you were staring at and why you’re on this earth, you are not alone. What if you looked at your reflection and saw a champion? And what if you could display the qualities of a champion wherever you went, and everyone in the world would stop and listen?
Linda A. Olson, an international bestselling author, tells you how in her newest release, Love Your Story: Let God Define Your Story To Be The Champion You Were Meant To Be.
“Loving your story is what allows you to rise above your circumstances regardless of how painful they are,” Olson writes. “You need to know you are made for something more. You were created to be a champion.”
Olson bounced back from profoundly difficult circumstances in her youth. It wasn’t an overnight transformation; it took weeks, months and years of dedication for her to discover the tools she needed to overcome the obstacles standing in her path.
“Because of my brokenness, it took me a long time to grasp my value and discover the gifts and abilities I had been given,” she explains. “After a lengthy journey to healing, I discovered you don’t have to wait for someone to tell you who you are and what you have to offer. God has already defined your story; it’s a matter of embracing it and being the champion you were called to be.”
Olson’s Love Your Story gives you everything you need—tools, strategies and practical tips—to harness the potential of your greatest power: knowing your identity in Christ.
You will discover:
How to grasp the true gift of reflection, the mirror to see your true self
A simple pathway to your true identity, who you are in Christ
How true champions are created
Strengths you didn’t even know you had
The favor on your life
Practical tools to rise above every challenge and soar
Love Your Story is a must read for anyone who wants to truly understand what it means to be a champion in God’s eyes and how true champions are created. Tucked inside the book are value-added resources, including a coupon toward Wealth Through Stories LIVE, a two-day Story Retreat for those who are serious about finding the wealth in their story. Love Your Story, and the world will listen.
Linda Olson is the go-to story expert who helps authors, speakers and entrepreneurs impact millions with their stories. She is a TEDx speaker, multiple bestselling author and founder of Wealth Through Stories. Her mission is “To Impact a Million People a Year Through Story.” Linda and her husband, Rick, reside in sunny California. They enjoy their two married daughters and their spouses and five adorable grandchildren, who are the best part of their story.
Love Your Story: Let God Define Your Story To Be The Champion You Were Meant To Be Release Date: August 25, 2020 ISBN: 978-0-9819014-4-2 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Gifted Storyteller’s Journey with Parkinson’s and Other Challenges of a Long Life
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When Parkinson’s disease descended like a dense fog on master storyteller John J. Clayton, he was forced to pivot his perspective, change his expectations and write from a place he calls “… both alive and not alive. Like a kind of ghost …”
Parkinson’s Blues: Stories of My Life begins with the arrival of the dark unexpected. In a Monty Python skit, someone in a drab living room complains about being nagged by ques-tions. “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition,” he complains. Suddenly Michael Palin, in red 16th century costume, bursts into the room. “Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!” he shrieks.
Who expects the onset of Parkinson’s? Or cancer? Or stroke? Or the loss of a child? The terrible surprise—the life we didn’t expect—isn’t limited to Parkinson’s. It’s the existential condition of everyone’s life. In fourteen sketches, John J. Clayton links the experience of PD with the experience of childhood sickness, family battles, the struggle to make a good life out of a painful life. The sketches express the hope that we can grow spiritually in the midst of the terrible.
Through 14 eloquent stories — all of which underscore that Clayton’s gift and spirit remain fully intact — Clayton links the onset of Parkinson’s disease with other unexpected, and challenging experiences.
Parkinson’s Blues explores the anticipated pain and unexpected comedy of Parkinson’s in a manner that is deep, graceful and dignified.
Author John J. Clayton has published nine volumes of fiction, both novels and short stories. His collection of interwoven short stories, Minyan, was published in September 2016; his collection Many Seconds into the Future in 2014. Mitzvah Man, his fourth novel, arrived in 2011.
Clayton’s stories have appeared in AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, Sewanee Review, over twenty times in Commentary, in Notre Dame Review, Missouri Review and The Journal. Two personal essays have been recently published in Jewish Review of Books. His stories have won prizes in O.Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. His Radiance, a collection of stories, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
Clayton grew up in New York City; received his B.A. at Columbia, his M.A. at NYU and his Ph.D. at Indiana. For much of his career he taught modern literature and fiction writing as professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has also written two books of literary criticism: Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man and Gestures of Healing, a psychological study of the modern novel.
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Sylvia Anthony is truly a “golden girl.” At 91 years young, she remains steadfastly involved with her passion project: Sylvia’s Haven, a Boston area shelter for homeless women and children that she launched in 1987.
Sylvia herself had endured a difficult childhood that included an abusive father and a disinterested mother. Sylvia married young and remained in an abusive marriage until a divorce that left her alone to support her three children. Through her ambition and strength of character, Sylvia persevered, building a life for herself and her kids. After raising her children, Sylvia remarried — still, there was a void. She felt a calling to help young women, and her husband, Rick, encouraged her to follow her heart. Initially designed for homeless pregnant women, her shelter opened on January 25, 1987. Sadly, her husband lost his battle with cancer on March 30 of the same year, telling Sylvia before he died to “go get the girls.” And she’s been giving new hope to young, homeless women ever since.
Hers has been a lifetime woven with tragedy and triumph, but at Sylvia’s core burns a powerful source of courage and tenacity. She shares her remarkable story in Till the End of Time, which chronicles her early days as an unwanted child, born at the onset of the Great Depression; through her turbulent first marriage, which blessed her with three children; to finding love and discovering her divine purpose later in life. The book includes a chapter with testimonials from women who have been helped by Sylvia’s Haven, underscoring the impact of her unwavering dedication to others. Till the End of Time is the ultimate love story, woven with heartwarming memories, inspirational anecdotes and life lessons that will inspire readers to share their own God-given gifts with others.
Author Sylvia Anthony was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame on June 15, 2020. Invited to their museum in Seneca Falls, New York, she drove more than 350 miles for the appointment! Shortly thereafter, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Mar-quis Who’s Who.
A woman of faith, courage, tenacity and love, Sylvia firmly believes that the “golden years” are a time to get busy. As the founder and president of Sylvia’s Haven, a shelter for women and children near Boston, she has helped transform over 1,100 lives in the past three dec-ades. Sylvia refers to her organization as her “magnificent obsession.” Life hasn’t always been easy for Sylvia, but she believes that God not only gives her courage during times of hardship, but also keeps her healthy so that she may realize her dream to open up Sylvia’s Haven locations in all 50 states.
Till the End of Time rose to No.1 in four different categories when it was launched on Ama-zon and has received 5-star reviews.
Till the End of Time Publisher: Efluential ISBN-10: 1517477859 ISBN-13: 978-1517477851 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Joellen Bates Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Sweet Holiday Romance Will Have Readers Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy
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When quilt shop owner Sophie Davis sorts through a box of books that had been donated to her church, she’s surprised to find a former marine’s journal. Sophie can’t help but peruse the entries, finding herself drawn to the stranger on the pages. As the daughter of a veteran and a seamstress who sews Quilts of Valor, she feels a deep connection to the former soldier who wrote the emotional entries, and she longs to heal his heart.
The man who wrote the journal, former Marine Cole Aaron, battled to find peace after returning to civilian life, and his journal was the conduit toward a truce with his past. Always needing to protect others, Cole now fights fires and is embracing his new life in Pine Hill, Kentucky. When Sophie shows up at the fire hall with his journal, he fears digging up the demons from his past and tells her to trash it.
Their paths continue to intertwine, with both Sophie and Cole volunteering for their community. But it’s hard for Cole to let down his guard, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. After all he’s been through in the past, can he find faith in a more hopeful future — one touched by joy?
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy is the latest sweet romance from Hallmark Publishing author Janice Lynn. A sequel to her first story, Wrapped Up in Christmas, her new installment can also stand alone and is the perfect small-town Christmas romance to warm readers’ hearts during the holiday season.
Janice Lynn is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. She strives to write characters who evoke strong emotions and make readers want to go along on their journeys.
Her first sweet romance, Wrapped Up in Christmas, was a bestseller on Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Amazon (hit #13 overall in paid fiction in Kindle) and ibooks (hit number #1 paid ebook fiction); was Hallmark Publishing’s first release to hit the USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal’s bestseller lists; and was a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best Award. Janice also writes contemporary Medical Romances for Harlequin, and her books have won numerous awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill for Best Short contemporary Romance and for Best First Book, Romantic Times Magazine’s American Title, and the Holt Medallion Award of Merit.
Janice lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming, their seven kids, her vivid imagination, an adorable Maltese named Halo who’s the true princess of the house and a bunch of unnamed dust bunnies who took up permanent residence after Janice started her writing career. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, an exercise queen, a military mama and a member of and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Just kidding on the exercise queen.
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy Publisher: Hallmark Publishing Release Date: October 27, 2020 ISBN-10: 1952210038 ISBN-13: 978-1952210037 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com
Trish Stevens Karen Anderson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Doctor Uses His Profound Spiritual Journey to Inspire Others
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Now, more than ever, we need words that inspire us; words that connect us; and words that give us hope. We need Dr. Pieter Noomen’s Words For All (www.wordsforall.org).
Dr. Pieter Noomen was a man of great introspection and awareness. A minister and licensed psychotherapist, 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. When we’re able to connect with that source, we reach the highest level of existence — something he posits can be achieved by every human being who is willing to open his or her mind to the information from the universe.
Dr. Noomen freely shares the abundance of transformative messages that were communicated to him on his website, www.wordsforall.org. Sadly, Dr. Noomen passed away last year, but his Words for All will continue to inspire people throughout the world.
“Disasters happen. The media report them. Even if we’re not directly affected, the pain involved can shake us badly; at least for a while. It always reminds us of our own vulnerability. So next to sending out mental messages of compassion and love to the victims, we can check inside ourselves our own resources for dealing with bad situations. Being consciously connected with (eternal) Life itself, is being as prepared as we possibly can get here on earth.”
Trish Stevens Claire Downing Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
