What Really Matters in Love and Life? Ask a 100-Year-Old Woman
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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
And Suddenly Life Will Never Be the Same: Almost Like Praying a Contemporary Family Drama
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
What would happen if a suburban woman with a hard-as-nails façade and a detailed life plan was suddenly saddled with caring for a 6-year-old girl from the Bronx?
Such is the dilemma facing Dolores Farrell in Almost Like Praying, the intriguing new novel from author Joel Samberg. But the 6-year-old girl is just the tip of Dolores’ family-centered iceberg. When readers first meet her, she is a woman with a future all planned out: She’ll marry an attorney, have sons who will become attorneys, daughters who will become patrons of the arts, and live in the shadow of Harvard University, thereby continuing her privileged, purebred Irish-Catholic legacy.
Instead, Dolores must watch as each of her children adopts a lifestyle quite different from what she had envisioned. One daughter becomes a waitress, another a shock jock. One son becomes a cop (a troubled one at that), another a cartoonist. Much to his mother’s dismay, the cartoonist is also missing a leg due to a terrible childhood accident. That, of course, had not been part of Dolores’ original plan.
Almost Like Praying, which fictionalizes some real thoughts and memories, is told through a trilogy of stories reconstructed by a curious journalist who, as a boy, lived across the street from the family at the heart of the book. One day from his old bedroom window, the journalist sees Dolores on her front step hugging a dark-skinned little girl named Maria, and smiling—something he feels the grim-faced Dolores would never do. That’s what prompts him to research and write the stories.
“The novel sprung from my own roots,” Samberg said. “Growing up on Long Island, one of my best friends had a mother who to me seemed humorless and severe. I had always wondered about her. She became Dolores. Also, whenever my family drove through the Bronx, I’d look at the ramshackle apartment buildings and wonder how the kids who lived there would fare in my own middle-class neighborhood. One of them became Maria.”
Featuring flawed, relatable characters, Almost Like Praying offers a compelling message that likely will resonate with readers everywhere.
Author Joel Samberg decided to become a writer as a boy. He wrote a screenplay when he was 12 and sent it to MGM, and although the studio turned it down, an executive’s encouraging note suggested that he never give up on his dream to be a writer. Two years later, his English teacher sent a nasty note home to his parents falsely accusing him of plagiarizing a book report because she said it was too well-written for an eighth-grader. That settled it: from that point on, he has never given up.
Samberg has written for dozens of magazines and has published seven fiction and nonfiction books, including Some Kind of Lonely Clown: The Music, Memory, and Melancholy Lives of Karen Carpenter.
Almost Like Praying Publisher: Black Rose Writing (http://blackrosewriting.com) Release Date: April 28, 2022 ISBN-10: 1685130097 ISBN-13: 978-1685130091 Available from Amazon.com, Black Rose Writing and other online booksellers.
Trish Stevens Parker Wilson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Be Happy Without Faking It: Put These Principles Into Practice Now
(This press release may be reprinted in part or in its entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Negative social media posts. Frightening headlines. Workplace challenges. These are all things that Pamela Gail Johnson, the founder of the Society of Happy People, would label “Happiness Zappers,” and they are a fact of life. The good news is these Happiness Zappers don’t have to put a lid on our smiles.
“We will all experience at least one or more Happiness Zapper — unhappiness, stress, fear, chaos or annoyances — each day,” Johnson said in a recent interview. “Much of our happiness is based on how we manage the Happiness Zappers.”
In her enlightening new book, Practical Happiness: Four Principles to Improve Your Life, Johnson paves a pathway toward authentic joy and fulfillment, with actionable strategies, transformational techniques, and real stories about real people who have put Johnson’s principles into practice.
“The Society of Happy People identified 31 types of happiness to help you identify more happy moments when they happen,” she added. “Sometimes, we’re happier than we think we are; we just don’t notice all of the happiness we experience.” In her book, she details four happiness principles for living an authentically more joyful life:
• Happiness is Personal • Happiness Zappers Can be Managed • Happiness Changes as You Change • Happiness is Bigger Than You Think
These four principles will help readers redefine personal happiness, manage their Happiness Zappers, and become more aware of the happy moments taking place all around them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pamela Gail Johnson founded the Society of Happy People in 1998, created the first three globally celebrated happiness holidays, and is the author of Practical Happiness: Four Principles to Improve Your Life. She started her career with Junior Achievement, then worked in the mental health and substance abuse field at the Hazelden Foundation. She was an award-winning salesperson for American Express and Staples, and now helps leaders and teams create happier workplace cultures.
A frequent media guest on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, radio and podcasts, her work has been covered by magazines, newspapers and online publications.
She divides her time between Dallas, Texas, and Washington, DC.
Threatened by Rising Seas: Alaskan Village’s Culture Memorialized in Powerful True Story
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Few newlyweds would choose to embark upon married life by relocating to a remote, Inuit (Inupiaq) village with no electricity or running water. But at the age of 23, new bride Deanne Burch and her husband, Ernest “Tiger” Burch, who was conducting research for his Ph.D., did exactly that.
For months, the couple called Kivalina, Alaska, home. The environment and living conditions on the barrier island 83 miles above the Arctic Circle represent a culture that few people have inhabited, and scientists predict that Kivalina will be under water by 2025.
In Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle, Deanne pours her memories onto paper, immortalizing in vivid detail their experiences in one of our country’s most remote regions, including the ways in which the Inupiaq people supported the Burches throughout both exhilarating triumphs and agonizing tragedies.
In Kivalina, Deanne lived on the edge of two worlds — the one she left behind in the lower 48 and the one where she reluctantly participated in all aspects of the women’s lives. Skinning seals, cleaning and drying fish, and cutting beluga and caribou to store became her way of life. Plumbing, running water and electricity were not available. Loneliness was a constant companion until a few women befriended her.
During a span of six days, Deanne and Tiger narrowly escaped death during a camping trip, and Tiger suffered severe burns from a fire in their house. He spent three months in the hospital receiving treatment for seared lungs and horrific burns on his face and hands. His lungs never recovered from this ordeal.
When he was finally released from the hospital, he returned to the village with Deanne to complete the study. The life-threatening and harrowing experiences in Alaska transformed Deanne into a woman of strength who learned how to embrace challenge.
Over 50 years later, she remembers that young girl who left on an unknown journey that will live in her heart forever.
Author Deanne Burch was born and raised in Canada and attended the University of Toronto, obtaining B.A. degrees in liberal arts and social work. After the Alaska journey, she and her husband eventually settled in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where they lived until his death.
Deanne spent 30 years as a professional international photographer who taught and lectured in the U.S. and Canada. She published several articles in photography magazines and journals. Since retiring in 2014, she devoted herself to writing short stories and children’s stories. Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle was published in March 2021.
Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle Publisher: Authority Publishing ISBN-10: 1949642593 ISBN-13: 978-1949642599 Available from Amazon.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Traumatizing events like natural disasters, COVID, social unrest and random acts of violence dominate the news. But your traumatic experience doesn’t have to make headlines to be real.
“Anybody’s trauma is completely valid,” emphasized Dr. Randall Bell, who went on to explain that any circumstances a person is struggling to process and move beyond can be considered trauma.
“We may not always be able to control what happens to us, but we can control what happens to us going forward,” he added. And this philosophy forms the foundation of his latest book, Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience.
In it, Dr. Bell draws upon his decades of experience and scientific research to deliver a three-stage framework — Dive, Survive and Thrive — that can help readers process their trauma, make the conscientious decision to accept help and move forward, and eventually, tap into the energy generated by that trauma to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
In Post-Traumatic Thriving, he shares powerful, inspirational stories of real people (many of them, like TV’s Facts of Life star Geri Jewell, are familiar) who were able to move beyond trauma and thrive in the aftermath, including:
• A deaf man with a glass eye invented the electric guitar and became a household name, remarkably wealthy and most importantly, happy. • A convicted murderer took responsibility for the damage he caused, graduated with honors from college, became a minister and turned around the hearts of the most hardened criminals. • A girl born with cerebral palsy landed the world’s first starring role on national television and spoke at the White House three times. • A woman hid in a basement for years and lost her entire family in the Holocaust. She eventually found true love and paints stunning artwork. • The sister of a murder victim helped millions of women in toxic domestic relationships. • A woman’s car crash resulted in an addiction to prescription drugs, a divorce, a loss of her children and a cot in a homeless shelter. She has rebuilt it all back and more. • A man set to go to the Olympics had his hopes dashed by Jimmy Carter and went on to build a worldwide business empire.
Dr. Bell juxtaposes outcomes of scientific studies with these stories to reveal common denominators among “thrivers,” revealing to readers a healthy path toward healing and a life where post-traumatic thriving is possible.
As a socio-economist, Dr. Randall Bell has consulted on more disasters on earth than anyone in history. His clients include the Federal Government, State Governments, International Tribunals, major corporations and homeowners. Dr. Bell believes that “the problem is not the problem — the problem is how we react to the problem.”
Often called the “Master of Disaster,” Dr. Bell is squarely focused on authentic recovery and resilience. His research has been profiled on major television shows and featured in numerous magazines and the international media. More information can be found at https://www.coreiq.com/books.
Post-Traumatic Thriving: The Art, Science, & Stories of Resilience Publisher: Core IQ Press ISBN 978-0-9967931-7-9 Available from Amazon.com and all bookstores
Trish Stevens Kim Weiss Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 954.263.6827 Direct 800.854.1134 Office [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
How to Overcome Codependency and Build Healthy, Reciprocal Relationships
(This press release may be reprinted in part or in its entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Using neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality, Mary Joye shares how to conquer old habits of needing to rescue loved ones and friends. In this compelling book you can free yourself and learn that living well and giving well can occur naturally.” — Dr. Laurie Nadel, author of The Five Gifts
Are you a fixer, a rescuer or a people pleaser? Do you feel guilty — really guilty — saying no? Codependency once meant being involved with someone who was dependent upon an addictive substance. Today, the definition of codependency has expanded to encompass other unhealthy behaviors associated with relationships.
“Codependency is like narcissism in reverse,” explained licensed therapist, Mary Joye, LMHC. “Narcissists are self-absorbed, while codependents are hyper focused on the needs of others. And these two personalities can become instantly attracted to each other.”
In her new book, Codependent Discovery and Recovery 2.0, Joye helps readers uncover the traits, psychological roots, financial aspects and neuroscience behind their codependency, and more importantly, what to do about it.
As a healed codependent herself, Joye’s unique approach offers readers a holistic alternative to typical 12-step addiction models and covers the full spectrum of codependency.
She shows you what motivates your codependency and teaches you how to overcome the toxic thinking and behaviors associated with it by using evidence-based techniques of healing. Rather than merely learning how to say no to others, you will learn how to say yes to yourself and form healthy, reciprocal relationships.
For expedited and lasting recovery, Codependent Discovery and Recovery 2.0 includes meditations, affirmations, a quick-fix chapter and easy two-column Life Lists that allow the opportunity for self-reflection, offering readers an invaluable self-help experience.
By using these transformative cognitive behavioral tools, you can change no matter where you fall on the continuum. It is possible to reinvent yourself in a positive way while learning how to give and live well.
About the Author Mary Joye, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor and regular contributor to DailyOM.com. She was interviewed in O, The Oprah Magazine in an article titled “The Greatest Love” about her prior codependency and rise from it. Formerly, she was a professional singer/songwriter in Nashville at Warner Brothers. She reinvented herself as a licensed mental health counselor at 45. As a writer and therapist, she helps people get in touch with their emotions.
Renowned Photographer and Teacher Reveals Life-Threatening — and Life-Changing — Ordeals
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Deanne Burch made her mark as an internationally renowned photographer who taught and lectured through the United States and Canada, but few know that during her younger days, she survived an ordeal that changed her life forever. She decided to tell the whole story in a new memoir, Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle.
At the age of 23, Burch accompanied her husband, Ernest “Tiger” Burch, to the Inuit village of Kivalina, Alaska, a barrier island 23 miles above the Arctic Circle. Tiger was conducting a study of the natives, but Deanne, a naïve city girl, was completely unprepared for what she was about to experience.
In Kivalina, she lived on the edge of two worlds — the one she left behind and the one where she reluctantly participated in all aspects of the women’s lives. Skinning seals, cleaning and drying fish, and cutting beluga and caribou to store became her way of life. Plumbing, running water and electricity were not available. Loneliness was a constant companion until a few women befriended her.
During a span of six days, Deanne and Tiger narrowly escaped death during a camping trip, and Tiger suffered severe burns from a fire in their house. He spent three months in the hospital receiving treatment for seared lungs and horrific burns on his face and hands. His lungs never recovered from this ordeal.
When he was finally released from the hospital, he returned to the village with Deanne to complete the study. The life-threatening and harrowing experiences in Alaska transformed Deanne into a woman of strength who learned how to embrace challenge.
Over 50 years later, she remembers that young girl who left on an unknown journey that will live in her heart forever.
Author Deanne Burch was born and raised in Canada and attended the University of Toronto, obtaining B.A. degrees in liberal arts and social work. After the Alaska journey, she and her husband eventually settled in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where they lived until his death.
Deanne spent 30 years as a professional international photographer who taught and lectured in the U.S. and Canada. She published several articles in photography magazines and journals. Since retiring in 2014, she devoted herself to writing short stories and children’s stories. Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle was published in March 2021.
Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle Publisher: Authority Publishing ISBN-10: 1949642593 ISBN-13: 978-1949642599 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Jean Lungren Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
