Unfortunately, our society can be shallow; it worships and rewards youth and beauty over accomplishment and character, and labels anyone over the age of 30 as old. Jim Rodgers believes this mindset contributes to his generation getting a raw deal (which he considers a real shame considering how much they have to offer), so he wrote his new book as a way of giving both men and women reasons to feel good to be alive and the confidence to never look at age again as anything but a number!
The Old Guy Rules (Small Dogma Publishing, Inc.), by Jim Rodgers, is an enlightening, inspiring and entertaining read that encourages everyone to take stock of their life and then make the first steps toward positive and healthy lifestyle changes. The Old Guy Rules (using ‘guy’ as a generic term for male or female), has something for everyone; both men and women will benefit from the diet and exercise regimens, time management tips, and a whole lot of encouragement to reinforce the belief that you don’t have to be in your 20’s to make a difference! This book actually celebrates the aging process as a time to show the rest of the world that you are still a force to contend with; which leads us to the bigger question: “Do you have what it takes to be an Old Guy?”
So why would Rodgers want to call himself an ‘old guy?’ He lives by a code that he calls “The old Guy Rules” – rules that remind him daily to make the most of the rest of his life, never taking himself or the world around him too seriously. Believing that by middle-age most of us have at least gained wisdom, experience and resources (and yes, maybe a few extra pounds!), the author’s hope is that all the Old Guys (and Gals) will stand together and make the world a better place by utilizing their talents to help and serve others. What an incredible legacy to leave the next generation.
Jim Rodgers believes he has had a blessed life and wants to share with others the lessons he learned. That’s not to say Jim’s life has always been easy – far from it. Growing up poor in a small town in southern Illinois, he overcame numerous obstacles to get into college through sports, and lived his dream when he made it into the Eureka College Athletic Hall of Fame. At a point when Jim thought life was going well as a high school teacher and football coach, his marriage ended abruptly and he was left to raise two small children alone – a role, incidentally, that he counts as his greatest achievement. He believes this experience, and the near-loss of his son to spinal meningitis as a baby, shaped many of his attitudes and strengthened his resolve to make the very best of his life. Jim has now been a high school English teacher for twenty-four years and lives happily in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and three children.
Jim Rodgers is donating a portion of the proceeds from his book sales to one of his favorite charities, Feed the Children. To learn more about this fascinating man whose ‘glass is always half full,’ please visit: www.theoldguyrules.com .
Understanding that all great artists never get the recognition or reward their craft deserves was the inspiration for Lisa A. Miles to write This Fantastic Struggle: The Life & Art of Esther Phillips. This biography but unique cultural essay creatively weaves together a fascinating, multi-faceted story from graphic long-hand letters, interviews with aging bohemians and from art work– giving readers an absorbing glimpse at just what it means to be an artist.
Raised in Pittsburgh by a family that could not appreciate her artistic identity, Esther Phillips headed to Greenwich Village in the 1930s and never looked back. Though she achieved early critical success, she would find herself institutionalized for over six years as a result of starvation and stress; fortunately, correspondence with close friends kept her art alive. When she returned to the Village, her struggles continued and she gradually fades into obscurity once again– but not before stating she lived the best possible life. This Fantastic Struggle is a remarkable story written to educate and captivate general audience.
Lisa A. Miles’ Resurrecting Allegheny City: The Land, Structures & People of Pittsburgh’s North Side was sponsored by the PA Historic & Museum Commission and tells the tale of Allegheny City, forcibly annexed by the City of Pittsburgh one hundred years ago. Allegheny’s identity remains indelible to land owners today, and Lisa paints a portrait of a place from earliest time through modern transformation– connecting the history of this lost city to the work of every current resident, employer and visitor. Resurrecting Allegheny City was written to educate and entertain general audience of ways to stimulate their communities via history.
Lisa Miles has been interviewed on NPR and East Coast radio, as well as television across Pennsylvania. Besides being a highly praised author, she is also sought-after as a teacher and keynote speaker on a variety of cross-disciplinary creative and entrepreneurial topics.
Especially unique is that Lisa Miles is also a musician and conceptual artist who writes original music with classical and punk influences. She composes and performs on acoustic/electric violin and mandolin, collaborating with film, theater and movement artists. Her music, as well as performance piece Presence (on ‘finding authentic self’) are heard and viewed on her site. Lisa has gotten funding from Meet the Composer and the Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music and looks forward to her national upcoming release on the PARMA recording label.
Please visit Lisa’s website at www.lisamilesviolin.com to learn more about her body of interconnected work. She is an extremely talented woman who would make for an engaging interview!
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TIP SHEET: On This Fantastic Struggle:
Robert Henkes, author of American Women Painters of the 30’s and 40’s: “A remarkable book…both educational and provocative…(it) will arouse attention.”
On Resurrecting Allegheny:
Jerry Ellis, PA State Archives: “What is true of personal papers is equally true of those of a community…Miles has opened the trunk…like papers in the attic, (it) resurrects this partly forgotten city, progressive in its era, and deserved of remembrance.”
On Lisa’s Original Music:
Bill O’Driscoll, Pittsburgh City Paper: “Original compositions for solo electric violin and mandolin [that are] ‘intense, edgy and ethereal’… drawing on both indie-rock and classical influences…, [they’ll] send your night off on a different tack.”
Anne LeBaron:“Compositions inventive and richly textured… Lisa possesses the motivation and energy to continually realize her visions.”
With roughly 37 million female ‘boomers’’ in the country today who have either gone through, are going through, or will shortly go through menopause, they will welcome Dr. Lovera Wolf Miller and Dr. David C. Miller’s Womenopause: Stop Pausing and Start Living (O-Books) with open arms – a distinctly fresh voice offering solutions that come from years of proven success. No longer will women have to feel this is the ‘beginning of the end’ of their femininity or worth as a woman – something that society has imposed on them for generations. Instead, both doctors agree that since peri and postmenopause encompasses more than half of a woman’s lifetime – she deserves to get the crucial help she needs in order to enjoy her life to the max!
In the past, even some of the most self-assured women anticipated menopause with dread; not fully knowing what to expect in the changes that were about to take place in her body. Wanting to help women look and feel their best provided the inspiration for Dr. Lovera and Dr. David to write their insightful book. Womenopause is a virtual guide filled with solutions and advice learned during thirty years of experience as a gynecologist. It provides women with something akin to a ‘menopause makeover’ that covers everything from hormones and hot flashes to bone preservation, breast health, improved mood, smooth skin, good sleep, real food, improved intimacy, and so much more! A woman can absolutely be healthier and happier at sixty than she was at forty.
Reviews from readers have been overwhelmingly positive; they no longer feel alone and are welcoming this book as they would a dependable and loyal friend who is sharing the intimate conversations that take place between a woman and her gynecologist. The outstanding credentials of both doctors authenticate how they have devoted their lives to guiding women through menopause to feel fit, feminine, and fabulous – all in four weeks!
Dr. Lovera is a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist, a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and a certified menopause practitioner. Dr. David Miller is boarded in pain and anesthesiology, taught neuroanatomy at UCLA, was an instructor of courses in physiology and neurophysiology, and is also a certified menopause practitioner. Please visit their informative website at: www.womenopausebook.com and www.womenopauseinteractive.com
Sharon J. Parish, M.D Professor of Medicine, Albert Einstein School of Medicine: “…it’s a fabulous book. Womenopause is a very well-rounded, comprehensive compendium on the female transition commonly termed menopause. …offer a refreshing look at a natural process that affects every aspect of the midlife woman’s health and well-being. They challenge standard social concepts of menopause as well as provide a new paradigm that focuses on vitality and wellness. The book offers a clear and understandable, yet thorough and scientifically sound explanation of the physiology of menopause and the anticipated physical, psychological and mental changes. The authors offer a well-balanced view of available remedies for symptoms including hormonal, non-hormonal-pharmaceutical, and alternative treatments. Also, they nicely discuss behavioral and lifestyle approaches. This book is a tremendous resource for any woman seeking to employ an intelligent and multifaceted approach to the Womenopause transition.”
While criminal profilers in the movies look like models, spend days in the lab and hunt down their killer as a finale, real life is anything but that glamorous! The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths (Hyperion Voice Publishing), a memoir by Pat Brown, written with Bob Andelman, is a first-hand look into the bona fide world of one of the most famous criminal profilers in our country today. It is a riveting compilation of her actual case files that takes readers behind the scenes for a chilling look at bizarre sex crimes, domestic murders and mysterious deaths – bringing them face-to-face with rapists, killers and their brutalized victims.
Brown embarked on her career following a personal experience nearly twenty years ago while a stay-at-home mom who had a boarder to help pay the bills. After a young woman is found strangled in her neighborhood – the first homicide her small town had ever known – Brown approached local police with what she believed to be compelling evidence against the boarder, but her allegations were rejected. Six years later, when her former boarder was finally brought in for questioning and became the number one suspect, her life’s work began and the rest, as they say, is history….
Not one to mince words, Brown tells it as she sees it, believing that her role is to inform people and help them understand how criminals operate – and how they get away with their crimes when no one connects the dots. While she doesn’t sugar-coat the details of a crime, she still remains sensitive to the victim’s loved ones.
By outlining the deficiencies in the criminal justice system, Brown hopes her book will inspire readers from all walks of life to step up, get informed, and fight to change the things that need changing. In this country’s overworked system, many homicide cases remain unsolved or unprosecuted – leaving violent killers free to kill again! If profilers are brought in at the beginning of the investigative process, this injustice can hopefully be changed. It is the author’s goal, by taking readers through the step-by-step process with her, that they will gain a better understanding of deductive criminal profiling and how this scientific analysis, based on physical and behavioral evidence, can be one of the most beneficial tools available to law enforcement officers today.
Pat Brown has a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University, and is the Founder and CEO of The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency and the Sexual Homicide Exchange (SHE) which provides pro bono criminal profiling to law enforcement agencies and training in criminal profiling and investigative analysis. Possessing a dogged determination to uncover the true motives and perpetrators of crimes that have confounded others, Brown has earned her recognition as one of the top criminal profilers in the nation.
Brown’s expertise has made her a frequent guest on Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell, and for four seasons she profiled crimes on the weekly Court TV crime show I, Detective, as well as interviewing a child murderer inside one of Florida’s maximum-security prisons for the Discovery Channel series, Evil Minds. To learn more about this top profiler, please visit her informative website at: www.criminalprofilerpatbrown.com.
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TIP SHEET:
Nancy Grace, host of Nancy Grace on HLN and best-selling author of The Eleventh Victim: “In her new book, The Profiler, Pat Brown takes us into the very minds of cold blooded killers. Most people can’t comprehend the ‘why’ behind murder. Pat, utilizing her background as one of the country’s leading criminal profilers, coaches the readers as to how a killer thinks, reacts, and kills! Incredible!”
Agent Derek VanLuchene, President and Founder, Ryan United: “Anyone who has ever had a passion to make a difference should read this book. Pat’s insight into these cases takes profiling to a whole new level. From her work and wisdom comes the hope we all need to end the viciousness of killers who prey on the innocent.”
Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., author of Inside the Criminal Mind: “In her new book, Brown takes the reader along with her as she works to solve grisly crimes that have baffled others. In her relentless pursuit to illuminate what seem to be hopeless cases, she shows just how deep an investigator must dig and all the details that must be absorbed and interpreted.”
The Laura Recovery Center for missing children was awarded this year’s US Department of Justice Missing Children Non-Profit Organization of the Year Award. The award was presented to Gay Smither and Bob Walcutt at the annual Executive Director’s Conference of AMECO (Association of Missing and Exploited Children’s Organizations) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The award recognizes “… outstanding contribution and commitment to missing and exploited children” and was presented by Katherine Darke Schmitt, an Associate Deputy Administrator with the US Department of Justice.
The Laura Recovery Center was nominated for the award by Captain Shari Burrows of the Friendswood Police Department. In her nomination letter, Captain Burrows noted that “This organization has upheld high standards of professionalism and demonstrated noteworthy leadership in protecting children while forging positive relationships with local partners.” In addition Captain Burrows praised “the extraordinary effort they display contributing to the protection of children.”
Gay Smither, co-founder and president of the Laura Recovery Center, stated “It is an honor to receive this prestigious award. We are pleased to be recognized by the Justice Department for the work of our dedicated staff and volunteers. Being a warrior for missing children is often difficult, but we know that one missing child is one too many!”
The Laura Recovery Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, that was founded in Laura Smither’s memory. The Center focuses on Education, Search, and Prevention in the area of missing children, has offered free abduction prevention programs to over 200,000 children throughout the greater Houston area, worked with approximately 1,450 families with missing loved ones, and has organized 95 community searches for abducted children nationwide. The Center trains law enforcement at the Houston Police Department training academy and other agencies in Texas, and distributes educational materials and child ID kits.
Laura Recovery Center at 906 Anna Lane, Friendswood, Texas 77546 – 281-785-1268 – or 281-482-5723, www.LRCF.org
Alexandria Lowitzer, Ali to her friends, is an active 16-year-old who loves to text on her cell phone and play softball. She has been missing since April 26 after getting off the school bus near her home in Spring, TX.
SPRING , TX – Alexandria Lowitzer seems to have vanished without a trace.
No phone calls, no text messages, no good-bye letter to indicate she was upset and wanted to get away from things. No obvious reason, anyway, for her to be upset.
The last time anyone saw the 16-year-old teen from Spring, she was getting off the school bus April 26, only a few feet from her home on Low Ridge Road.
Since Saturday, May 1, the Laura Recovery Center for Missing Children, a non-profit organization based in Friendswood, has organized a massive onsite search effort that has so far drawn approximately 200 volunteers to comb the extensive wooded area behind the Lowitzer residence.
“We had a horse team out in the woods through the Greater Houston Search Dog Team, and they also brought a dog to do some tracking and trailing,” said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the Laura Recovery Center, which was contacted by Ali’s family. “So far we have nothing to hang our hat on. We had some tips, different leads, but nothing concrete.”
The Houston Police Mounted Patrol covered a large portion of the wooded expanse, assisting Precinct 4 Constable’s deputies and Harris County Sheriff’s officials in the recovery effort, Walcutt said, and two men volunteered to search the area on ATVs.
“We’re literally covering areas where someone could take a person, commit a crime and [leave] them – large wooded areas, ponds, creeks,” he said. “Around here, there are a lot of places like that and so far we have found nothing. We’re still no further along than we were on the first day.”
RUNAWAY – OR NOT?
Walcutt said his organization generally doesn’t get involved in runaway cases, which was still the current status assigned to Ali’s disappearance by law enforcement as of Friday.
“If we knew for sure this was a runaway, we would not be physically here right now,” he explained. “But Alexandria apparently lives on her phone, uses her text messaging all the time. When she left, everything stopped once she got off that bus. Everything. There has been no activity on that phone since then, which leads to the possibility that something may have happened to her at that point.”
Shaye Vaught is a friend of the Lowitzer family. Her own daughter and Ali are good friends, and over the years Ali had become a part of Vaught’s family as well.
“I love Ali to death; she’s like a third daughter to me,” she said. “She used to be in my Girl Scout troop, and it was nothing to have Ali come in the door behind my daughters after school and stay for dinner.”
Vaught, who volunteered at the Laura Recovery camp all week long, described Ali as a good kid, very sweet – a kid who would never run away to leave everything, and everyone, she loves behind. Those who know the teen say for her to miss her softball team’s season tournament and her best friend’s 16th birthday party is out of character.
“She’s a teenage girl, sure, but she’s not in any way a troublemaker,” she explained. “She was very excited about her job at Burger Barn. I think she really liked the work. She constantly called them to pick up extra shifts.”
In fact, officials believe Ali was on her way to pick up her paycheck from work, only half a mile from her home, after she got off the school bus.
Vaught said law enforcement could dedicate more resources to the search for Ali if her status were updated to “endangered.”
“It’s disheartening that she’s still listed as a runaway,” she said. “It would step things up a notch.”
Walcutt said law enforcement continues to conduct its investigation and at this time there is no hard evidence that foul play is involved. At the same time, he said, the complete lack of activity on Ali’s cell phone was enough to convince the Laura Recovery Center to get involved.
“My best hope is that she is a runaway,” he said. “In that case, she can come home and be safe and well. If she’s not a runaway, then all bets are off. In 99 out of 100 cases, everything turns out fine, but it’s that one percent that’s worrisome. Bad things do happen.”
If you have any information concerning Ali please contact: Contact: Dawn Davis – Laura Recovery Center at 906 Anna Lane, Friendswood, Texas 77546 – [email protected]”>[email protected] – 281-785-1268 – or 281-482-5723, www.LRCF.org
The Laura Recovery Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, that was founded in Laura Smither’s memory. The Center focuses on Education, Search, and Prevention in the area of missing children, has offered free abduction prevention programs to over 200,000 children throughout the greater Houston area, worked with approximately 1,450 families with missing loved ones, and has organized 95 community searches for abducted children nationwide. The Center trains law enforcement at the Houston Police Department training academy and other agencies in Texas, and distributes educational materials and child ID kits.
John Shors is the kind of author who wants to give back. It is his belief that when someone buys one of his books he ought to do something nice for them in return, so when the paperback version of his bestselling novel Beneath a Marble Sky was published, he put a letter in the back that invited book clubs to invite him to their events. Shortly thereafter, Shors was pleasantly surprised to get asked to join a couple of book clubs a week.
Readers were, and continue to be, amazed that an author would provide his personal email address to invite them to join him in a book discussion, and were deeply touched by the gesture. Needless to say, word travels, and within a few months of launching his program, Shors was speaking with up to ten book clubs a day. Such exposure greatly increased the sales of Beneath a Marble Sky, which is now an international bestseller and is available in twenty-five languages.
To date, Shors says he has spoken with about 2,500 book clubs – most certainly a record in the publishing industry – and the feedback is that everyone is thrilled to get an opportunity to actually chat one-on-one with the author of a book they have read. A modest man, Shors feels he is just trying to do a tiny part in making reading fun again on a group level.
John Shors lived for several years in Kyoto, Japan where he taught English and later traveled throughout Asia. His best-selling novels, Beneath a Marble Sky, Beside a Burning Sea, Dragon House, and his soon-to-be released, The Wishing Trees, are all set in Asia. He continues to talk with several book clubs a night, these days chatting about all of his books. His program has been so successful that it has inspired countless other authors to create similar platforms. Please check out this intriguing author at www.johnshors.com.
