Ascot Media Group Blog
Welcome to the Ascot Media Group BLOG! Visit our main website at www.ascotmedia.com

Out There: From 320 Pounds to Pro Athlete. One Man’s True Story of Ultra Recovery From Alcohol, Drugs and Obesity

Lafayette, CO – It’s no surprise that, for many, New Year’s resolutions have already fallen by the wayside. However giving up won’t get us any closer to achieving our goals. Just ask David Clark, a former 320-pound alcoholic, turned pro athlete. Clark’s hard-hitting autobiography, Out There: A Story of Ultra Recovery, proves that persistence and a strong desire will pave the way for success.

Meet David Clark. He grew up poor and homeless, living out of his father’s pickup truck. With no formal education to build upon, he beat the odds. He went from being homeless to owning a chain of 13 retail stores by the time he was 29 years old. However his success was short-lived and he ultimately lost everything due to poor choices and addiction. He had hit rock bottom from reckless eating, binge drinking and popping pills.

Miraculously, reality hit him with the realization that if he didn’t change his ways on that very day, he would surely die. From that day onwards, David drew a line in the sand, leaving his addictions and unhealthy lifestyle in the past. His remarkable journey and refusal to give up, is described as “raw and riveting.”

At 320 pounds and with this new resolve, he started training for the Ultra Marathon, an extreme racing event where runners attempt a grueling 100-mile trek through the Colorado terrain. Runners are allowed a mere 30 hours to complete the race. Not only did he conquer the course in under 30 hours on his first attempt, but he lost more than 150 pounds, and beat his drug addictions. Further, he has competed in and won some of the toughest endurance events in the world. He now uses Ultra sports to help others conquer their own demons.

“If you want to see the world’s greatest athletes, watch an Ironman Triathlon,” says Clark. “The ‘ultra’ world, in contrast, isn’t about outperforming the other participants. It consists mostly of runners who push themselves to the brink of failure in an effort to measure the depth of their own strength.”

Nowadays, David Clark spends his time as a running coach, sponsored runner, inspirational speaker, and gym owner.

For more information, visit: http://thesupermanproject.org

Out There: A Story of Ultra Recovery
By David Clark
Publisher: CreateSpace
Available at Amazon.com
ISBN-10: 1499721196
ISBN-13: 978-1499721195

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Cancer Survivorship Tools: Practical Tips and Inspiration for Emotional Well-being

Stillwater, MN – Inspired by the pages of her personal journal, Barbara Tako, two-time cancer survivor shares her journey to kick cancer out of her life. Tako’s new release, Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools – We’ll get you through this: Tools for cancer’s emotional pain from a breast cancer and melanoma survivor, focusses on emotional well-being of cancer patients, caregivers and their loved ones.

Hearing “you’ve got cancer” are three words you never forget, according to Barbara Tako. For Tako, it was a powerful awakening of panic, pain and emotional turmoil aside from the fear of the treatments she would be enduring. Her words, as written in her journal during her bouts with cancer, offer a deep insight into the healing process from both physical and mental aspects.

Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools is an honest, and sometimes humorous account of Tako’s process. It features tips for emotional health to foster positivity, no matter where patients are in their personal journey to conquer cancer. The book is a useful tool for family members, friends and caregivers to provide a better understanding of the cancer experience and how they can help.

“I’ll never forget the day my doctor told me I had cancer, or rather the day my life changed forever” says Barbara Tako. “Doctors can address all of the medical aspects of your condition, but who picks you up off of the floor after you’ve been dealt the news and helps you get your ‘game face’ on? It’s my intention to fill that void for cancer patients and their loved ones with this book.”

Meet Barbara Tako. She’s a breast cancer and melanoma survivor, author, organizing/ de-cluttering genius and motivational speaker. She holds a B.A. in English and psychology and lives in Minnesota with her husband, children and furbabies.

For more information, visit: http://www.cancersurvivorshipcopingtools.com

Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools – We’ll get you through this: Tools for cancer’s emotional pain from a breast cancer and melanoma survivor
By Barbara Tako
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing (Ayni Books)
Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold
ISBN-10: 1782797750
ISBN-13: 978-1782797753

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Despite Personal Sacrifice, One Man’s Goal In The War-Torn Middle East Is To Unite People In Peace

Houston, TX – Frank Romano, PhD, has seen it all in his quest to bring sustainable peace to the Middle East. For decades, through interfaith grassroots efforts to open up communication, he has brought Jews, Muslims and Christians together from all corners of the world in support of peace.

Romano tells the remarkable story of his journey in Love and Terror in the Middle East (AB Film Publishing). A 4th edition of the book, it includes a chapter dedicated to a recent event where he was trapped in the middle of rioting Palestinians, following the killing of a Palestinian youth by Israeli soldiers, and barely escaped with his life.

Frank Romano’s story began decades ago with a move from California to France to study philosophy. He later ventured to Morocco on his way to the Middle East, where he was to participate in the interfaith peace movement. In his quest for the universal religion, which at first he thought might be Islam (meaning “peace”), he soon realized that what he found had little to do with peace and more to do with radicalism. After daring to ask questions relating to Islam and women, he was wrongly accused by Muslim extremists of being a Zionist spy and was imprisoned. This ultimately led to a spiritual awakening and, eventually, to his escape.

It was through meditation after this journey that he found truth about religion – and this truth continues to be the source of power that compels him to bring Jews, Muslims and Christians together to celebrate their shared similarities and begin to build on a platform of the belief in one God. His vision has always been about creating dialogues and breaking down barriers. “Organizing interfaith groups is critical to creating a platform for those dialogues to take place,” says Dr. Romano.

Constantly surrounded by war, his journey has been fraught with sacrifice. Friends and fellow activists have been brutally murdered. He has been attacked by settlers, harassed by Israeli soldiers and arrested by Palestinian police. In his personal life it has cost him his marriage, another long term romantic relationship, and impacted his role as a father. In spite of the danger and sacrifice, Dr. Romano – lawyer, author, speaker and professor of law, literature, history and philosophy of law – continues to be an advocate for peace in the Middle East.

For more information on Dr. Romano’s book or his ongoing drive for peace, please visit:
http://www.frankromano-loveandterror4.com (book)
http://www.frankromano363.blogspot.com/ (blog)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQ-TYRDIVI (Interview)

Available at Amazon.com and major online outlets
Love and Terror in the Middle East, 4th edition
By Frank Romano
AB Film Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-0989706865

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Capturing And Cherishing The Moments When Life Is Well Seasoned

Memphis, TN – Well Seasoned: Savoring Life’s Lessons (Inspire on Purpose) perfectly chronicles the seasons of life through the inspiring prose and the lens of photographer and writer, Rebecca Webb Wilson. When Rebecca’s parents gave her a gift of a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye years earlier, they had no idea it would lead to a lifetime of travel and a yearning to capture the perfection of nature and diverse cultures of people in faraway lands.

For Rebecca, it all began as a young woman when she used her camera to photograph hawks along the expressway in her hometown of Memphis. While her first job as a flight attendant for PanAm cultivated a love of travel, it was her innate gratitude for the unexpected joys revealed in nature’s seasons that fostered her love of photography. Sprinkled with thoughtful quotes and tidbits of poetry, Well Seasoned is about the people that touch our lives, for a moment or forever, and pairs nature’s seasons with the seasons of life allowing readers to view the aging process differently and discover their own ‘Aha’ moments within its pages.

The author’s unconventional and uplifting philosophy, paired with vibrant, full-color images of places, nature and people, easily transports readers to magical locations around the globe, sharing her journey as she climbs Mount Kilimanjaro and the Swiss Alps part of the Haute Route, or taking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Encouraged to reflect on our own memories, we Rethink, Remember, Renew.

Rebecca attended law school at the University of Memphis and served several years as an Assistant United States Attorney. She founded a youth leadership program in Memphis called Bridge Builders, which to date has had 21,000 participants from surrounding public, private, and parochial schools. Named one of Memphis Woman Magazine’s ‘50 Women Who Make a Difference,’ she also received the Legends Award from the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis in 2010.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Rebecca serves as a member of its Board of Trust and also serves on the board of directors of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. She lives in Memphis with her husband and they share their time between two sons, two daughters, and nine grandchildren. For more information on this accomplished photographer, author and dedicated humanitarian, visit: www.hawkeyenature.com.

Well Seasoned: Savoring Life’s Lessons
Publisher: Inspire on Purpose
ISBN # 978-0-9898008-6-0

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Manny Scott Speaks Healing And Hope To The Least, The Last, The Lost, And Left Out

Lawrenceville, GA, – “Mr. Scott I spent almost 45 minutes to an hour online looking up how to kill myself … I almost ended my life. When you came and you gave that speech, I was crying inside. Because I knew then and still know now that my life has meaning. I am important and I do deserve to live.”

For nearly 200 days a year, Manny Scott is on the road talking to educators, teens and young adults, illuminating their value and their potential. With Your Next Chapter: How to Turn the Page and Create the Life of Your Dreams, Manny Scott gives us all access to a powerful and transformative process, one that enabled him to overcome the incredible odds stacked against him.

Your Next Chapter is real, easy to read, and extremely practical, but not simplistic. It touches on topics relevant to all, including how the poor stay poor and the rich get richer; how to eliminate and replace self-sabotaging beliefs; how everything in life is a wing or a weight; what the difference is between being “in love” and being “in lust,” and so much more.

This book is for those who have a feeling in their hearts that they were made for something greater, and who are determined to take hold of more—more hope, more happiness, more peace, more purpose, more success, more money, and more love.

Manny Scott’s story is told in part in the 2007 hit movie, Freedom Writers; he has energized over a million leaders, educators, volunteers, and students. From inner-city youth to business executives, Manny has learned to speak, and command, the language of his audiences with relevant, riveting, and compelling messages, moving them from cheers, to laughter, to tears, and go-forward determination.

By age 14, Manny had missed 60-90 days of school every year and had dropped out. Before he was 17, he had lived in 26 places, and his best friend was brutally murdered. Sensing that the end of his life was near, Manny sat down on a park bench one day and considered how he would make others feel the depth of despair and anger roiling in his soul. Then a complete stranger sat down beside Manny and connected with him, encouraged him, and inspired him to write a different story—to create a new life.

In 2007, Manny Scott founded Ink International, Inc, an educational consulting team that is preventing thousands of suicides, raising student achievement, and improving teacher effectiveness. He is now happily married, a doting father of three, a pilot, a Ph.D. student, and one of the nation’s most sought after speakers.

For more information, visit: www.mannyscott.com

Your Next Chapter: How To Turn The Page And Create The Life Of Your Dreams
Available at Amazon and the author’s website:
http://www.mannyscott.com/products/your-nextchapter
$19.99

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

POST-ROMANTIC STRESS DISORDER (PRSD) What to Do When the Honeymoon Is Over

By John Bradshaw

Visionary John Bradshaw Offers A Step-by-Step Program for
Deepening Mature Love and Intimacy

Deerfield Beach, FL, – Most divorces could be prevented if couples knew what to do “when the honeymoon is over,” visionary counselor, theologian, bestselling author and addiction specialist John Bradshaw explains in a new book, POST-ROMANTIC STRESS DISORDER (PRSD): What to Do When the Honeymoon is Over (HCI Books, Publication Date: November 2014, ISBN-13: 9780757318139, $15.95).

Based on Bradshaw’s new research, PRSD is a very real and serious psychological disorder destroying relationships unnecessarily. In the book, however, he offers a step-by-step program for deepening mature love and intimacy, as well as an easily mastered series of exercises for becoming a better partner.

Couples just don’t know how to navigate the emotional swings that almost every marriage creates, he argues. If couples learn and understand the concepts Bradshaw presents in his book, the portrait of the family unit could have a whole new landscape. In POST-ROMANTIC STRESS DISORDER (PRSD), Bradshaw explains the brain circuitry that connects us to love and romance.

It was Bradshaw, in his groundbreaking work HOMECOMING, who helped us understand and heal the wounded and vulnerable “inner child.” His dynamic therapies are practiced all over the world. A much sought-out speaker, Bradshaw has truly touched and transformed the lives of millions. Bradshaw’s other best-sellers have included HEALING THE SHAME THAT BINDS YOU and CREATING LOVE. He has combined his exceptional skills in the role of counselor, author, management consultant, theologian, philosopher, and public speaker, becoming one of the leading figures in the fields of recovery, family systems, relationships, spiritual and emotional growth and management training.

In POST-ROMANTIC STRESS DISORDER, this great teacher opens the gate to a new frontier, tackling issues that threaten and endanger so many modern relationships. As he so brilliantly observed some time ago, “As the health of the marriage goes, so goes the health of the family.”

John Bradshaw is available for interviews. For more information, to request a review copy, or to arrange an interview, please contact Sandra Goroff at 617-750-0555 or via email at [email protected] or Kim Weiss (at the publisher) at: 800-851-9100 x. 212 or [email protected].

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John Bradshaw has combined his exceptional skills in the role of counselor, author, management consultant, theologian, philosopher, and public speaker, becoming one of the leading figures in the fields of addiction recovery, family systems, relationships, spiritual and emotional growth and management training. His dynamic therapies are practiced all over the world. A much sought-out speaker, Bradshaw has truly touched and transformed the lives of millions. Bradshaw is The New York Times bestselling author of Healing the Shame that Binds You, Homecoming, and Creating Love.
He has presented more than 500 keynote speeches, workshops and talks. He has hosted, appeared on, and been interviewed by more than 800 TV and radio shows, including: Oprah, Politically Incorrect, GMA, CNN News, the BBC, and Sirius Radio. Bradshaw has also been interviewed by, or written articles for, more than 500 publications, including Newsweek, Rolling Stone, People, Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

History’s Most Massive Airlift – The Heroic Sacrifices Of The Hump

Vienna, VA,– In a high-flying narrative flashing between the life of American pilot Ned Thomas and events of World War II, Nedda Thomas recreates her father’s dangerous mission. Lethal and capricious weather conditions, radio silence, the uncharted terrain of the “roof of the world,” and a foe who showed no quarter, meant these pilots put their lives at risk every time they took off. In Hump Pilot (The History Publishing Company), author Nedda Thomas pays homage to the flyers whose skill and courage kept Nation-alist China and Allied Forces in Asia alive. By interweaving the
story of the dashing young pilot who also won the heart of the woman destined to
become his wife, she breathes life and immediacy into these neglected pages of history.

Pilots of the Hump, as they called this critical air supply route over the Himalayas, faced the highest fatality rates of any air-war mission in World War II. The airlift was the
largest the world has ever known, setting the bar for all others to come, including Berlin and Korea.

Calm, genuine, young and courageous, Ned Thomas brings a human dimension to the epic of the Hump. The forbidding Himalayas, Sanskrit for House of Snow, tell their own tale of beauty, danger, and military significance. American climber Clayton Kuhles’
recent expeditions to recover the remains of downed Hump aircraft have helped gain for these lost pilots a new and passionate public.

“The Hump is a larger-than-life epic that deserves to be told,” the author says. “And how better than through the eyes of a man who experienced it, my father Ned Thomas, who brought me up to speed on aircraft and flying in the Asia Theater.” Here’s a story of courage and historical significance, told through the life of a brave man who takes our hearts into the sky.

Nedda Thomas has published numerous articles about creative and significant figures. She also writes poetry, and has worked as a magazine editor. Growing up in a
military/diplomatic family, living in the U.S., France, and the Far East, all expanded her world view. She holds a master’s degree in human development, and attended
seminary. Family memories help nurture her passion for history; she speaks French and English, and lectures on several different topics.

You may visit her Hump Pilot website: www.humppilot.com.

Hump Pilot
The History Publishing Company
Available in fine bookstores and online everywhere
$18.95
ISBN 978-1940773094

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail