Son’s Quest for Father’s Buried Treasure Leads to Unforgettable Journey
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John “Blackie” Rinaldi had been dead for more than six years before his enigmatic letter surfaced. In it, Blackie described a cache of stolen money — hinting at its origins and its whereabouts — and prompting his son to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
Fool’s Errand from Jeffrey S. Stephens takes readers on a fast-paced quest for riches that skillfully explores the complexities of father-son relationships through the eyes of Blackie’s son, who feels compelled to unravel the mystery his father left him to solve. Why hadn’t his father simply told him about the hidden treasure before his death?
It’s just one of many questions as Blackie’s son follows the letter’s trail of breadcrumbs from the mean streets of New York to the Las Vegas Strip, and ultimately to the South of France. Along the way, he is confronted by dangerous mobsters, dishonest relatives, suspicious friends, a mysterious woman and the risks of a journey his father may or may not have planned for him.
Each secret revealed leads to more questions, as his life-altering pursuit for answers takes thrilling twists and perilous turns until the very end.
Fool’s Errand is poignant and entertaining, humorous and exciting, romantic and mysterious — an adventure that convincingly explores the dynamic between a father and son, and the events that will eventually lead a young man to discover both the treasure and himself.
Author Jeffrey S. Stephens lives in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is also the author of the Jordan Sandor espionage thrillers, beginning with Targets of Deception and, most recently, Rogue Mission. He is also the author of the recent thriller, Crimes and Passion, the first in a planned series featuring Lieutenant Robbie Whyte.
Fool’s Errand Publisher: Post Hill Press ISBN-13: 978-1642937381 ISBN-10: 164293738X Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 954.263.6827 Direct 800.854.1134 Office [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Impractical Jokers Star Survives Shark Attack at New Virtual Theme Park
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James “Murr” Murray, one of the stars of TV’s Impractical Jokers, told his social media followers in a new post that he recently visited Sea Monster Cove, a spectacular, five-star aquarium-themed resort as a guest of friend and fellow bestselling author Steve Alten, when things “got out of hand.” “I was in the Devonian Aquarium watching a 10-foot prehistoric shark circle by when this massive 30-foot Dunkleosteus comes out of nowhere and rips the thing in half! Thank God the tank wasn’t made out of double-paned glass like the one in JAWS 3D.” The incident was recorded and posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1vbrZNyoK8.
Visitors can expect the unexpected at www.SeaMonsterCove.com, a revolutionary new multimedia entertainment concept. The site will serve as the central hub for several prehistoric shark and sea creature ventures, including a remote learning platform and museum, and will soon add a video game where members piloting submersibles can track and capture apex marine predators inhabiting a 380-million-year-old prehistoric aquifer located 2.1 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean. The website will feature an original episodic TV series called Where Sea Monsters Roam, written by Steve Alten, the website’s creator. If you saw the blockbuster movie, The MEG, starring Jason Statham, then you may be familiar with the author’s work. Of his soon-to-be 20 published thrillers, eight are part of his best-selling MEG series and three more are from a Loch Ness trilogy (Alten is currently working on book 3, The LOCH: Heaven’s Lake which can only be purchased by pre-ordering signed hardbacks at www.SteveAlten.com). The LOCH movie as well as MEG 2: The TRENCH are expected to go into production in 2021. All of the action and virtual visits at SeaMonsterCove.com take place on Maug, a remote (and very real) island in the Western Pacific. Maug’s volcano erupted 5 million years ago; today all that remains are three uninhabited islets that had been the volcano’s rim and a flooded magma chamber that serves as its lagoon. Why place a virtual island resort here? That’s where Alten’s research and storytelling take over. Eight years ago, French marine biologist Dr. Maxime Rostand discovered superheated mineral water rising up through Maug’s lagoon. Through a series of events, including an emergency C-section which saved two pups of a deceased pregnant prehistoric Mako shark, Rostand discovers the source of the hot mineral water to be a primordial aquifer located 2 miles beneath the sea floor — its inhabitants dating back 380 million years.
Having established the backstory about how these toothy creatures managed to escape extinction (the “home videos” of the two surviving pups growing up is MUST-SEE), it’s time to meet and interact with the critters. Imagine the greatest aquarium-themed park ever conceived, holding the most terrifying prehistoric sharks and sea monsters that ever lived. It’s not hard to do. At Sea Monster Cove, the special effects are motion picture-worthy, and the wildlife doesn’t just swim around in benign circles; in fact, they seem quite aware that you are watching them, and they clearly do not like it, especially when you enter their domain to do a little “cage diving.” In each of these heart-pounding, 360-degree experiences, the user controls the viewing angle, attempting to track the attacks as they happen (there are day and night versions available). The action is nonstop and the creatures so real that it is easy to lose yourself in a two-hour reprieve from reality.
The adventure is retold and advanced in Alten’s original TV series, Where Sea Monsters Roam, the episodes of which will be posted at SeaMonsterCove.com. Most unique: what happens in the series also happens during your aquarium visits. As an example, if Snowflake, the park’s 63-foot, 25-ton prehistoric albino Mako drags a crane into her tank in the opening episode, don’t be surprised to see it lying on the bottom of her tank in your next visit!
One of the most popular features may just turn out to be CELEBRITY CAMEOS — the first one featuring James “Murr” Murray. The Impractical Jokers star’s new novel, DON’T MOVE (Blackstone Publishing), co-written by Darren Wearmouth, recently made its debut.
Steve Alten, the founder and director of the nonprofit Adopt-an-Author teen reading program, considered by many educators to be the most effective tool to get reluctant readers to read, said DON’T MOVE will be added to the AAA program. “It’s a fun, action-packed read; teens will definitely love it.” For more on the program, go to www.AdoptAnAuthor.com.
The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America
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His approach is always subtle; his banter is casual and absent any pressure to respond. But when renowned pediatrician and children’s advocate Dr. Irwin Redlener casually asks his young patients, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the lights invariably come on, eye contact occurs, and the child emerges from deep inside a protective shell. “Children are essentially dreamers … undaunted by adversity or reality-based barriers to success,” Dr. Redlener writes in The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America (with updated information on helping children through the COVID-19 crisis).
Inadequate education, barriers to health care and crushing poverty make it overwhelmingly difficult for many children to realize their dreams. Finding ways to alter these trajectories is serious, grown-up business, Dr. Redlener emphasizes, and it’s time for us to act.
In The Future of Us, Dr. Redlener draws upon his four decades of professional experiences to examine our nation’s health care safety nets and special programs that are designed to protect and nurture our most vulnerable kids, but that too often fail to do so.
The book follows Dr. Redlener’s long, colorful career, from his work as a pediatrician in the Arkansas delta, to treating child abuse in a Miami hospital, to helping children in the aftermaths of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He has served on the board of USA for Africa, cofounded the Children’s Health Fund with Paul Simon (and persuaded Joan Baez to play a benefit concert) and dined with Fidel Castro. He once sat across the table from Michael Jackson, and he has traveled with presidential candidates. But his most powerful source of motivation remains the children who face terrible adversities yet dream of becoming paleontologists, artists and marine biologists. Their stories are his springboard for discussing larger policy issues that hinder us from effectively eradicating childhood poverty and overcoming barriers to accessible health care. Persistent deprivation and the avoidable problems that accompany poverty ensnare millions of children and impact the health, prosperity and creativity of the adults they become. Dr. Redlener argues that we must drastically change our approach to meeting the needs of children ― for their sake and to ensure America’s resiliency and influence in an increasingly complex world.
It is Dr. Redlener’s hope that readers will emerge optimistic about our future, with a deeper understanding of how investing in children today will increase our chances of a successful tomorrow. Fighting for our nation’s children is far from a lost cause, and nothing could be more important.
Author Irwin Redlener, M.D., is a pediatrician and founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, which works to understand and improve the nation’s capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. In 2020, Dr. Redlener created the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia. He is a public health analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and recently partnered with Cher in CherCares, a new program that assists communities struggling with COVID-19.
Dr. Redlener is also President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Children’s Health Fund, a philanthropic initiative that he created with singer/songwriter Paul Simon and Karen Redlener to develop health care programs in 25 of the nation’s most medically underserved urban and rural communities. He currently serves as a special advisor on emergency preparedness to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and regularly communicates with leadership in U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, as well as Homeland Security. He has been a public health advisor to democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden.
He is also the author of Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now. For more information, please visit www.irwinredlener.org.
The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America Publisher: Columbia University Press Release Date: October 13, 2020 ISBN-10: 0231177577 ISBN-13: 978-0231177573 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Judy Frost Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
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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
The Great Rupture Explores Impact of Information Age on Humanity
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Imagine that by the 2040s, Harvard College is shuttered, its hallowed halls impenetrably overgrown with miles of vines — closed for lack of demand in Ivy-League education. It’s just one jarring possibility suggested in Viktor Shvets’ thought-provoking deep-dive into the challenges facing today’s world: The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free?
“The lessons of the last five centuries were unequivocal — without freedom, there could be no prosperity or happiness. However, does this still hold true in the Information Age?” Shvets asks.
He expertly and compellingly distills the lessons learned over the last five centuries, and projects these into the future. Could the Information Age be rewriting the recipe for individual and national success?
According to Shvets, modern technologies are disrupting the structure of our societies, altering every facet of our lives, from the nature of work and what we intrinsically value to how we are informed, entertained and educated — it promises to be a far deeper disruption than Industrial Revolutions. Humanity is at a major turning point, and how we respond to the merger of technology and financialization will decide our future. Will it be capitalism or communism, feudalism or despotism?
The Great Rupture explores the weakening nexus between freedom and prosperity and what that means for the future of humanity. From the birth of our modern world, pivotal events have led to the collapse of non-Western civilizations — Mongol warriors sweeping across Eurasian steppes; the Black Death and a re-awakening of human spirit; Zheng He’s voyages and the collapse of Novgorod republic; and finally, the ban on printing in Arabic. What can we learn from these historical events to better prepare ourselves for the future?
As we hurtle toward that uncertain future, Shvets writes we must decide whether our cherished individual freedoms are still necessary for success and prosperity, or if in adapting to new technologies, non-Western civilizations are now better positioned for this new world, creating highly illiberal and possibly brutal orders that might no longer suffer from stagnation of ideas or wealth. For the first time in at least five centuries, we have an opportunity and tools to build a different society and economy. The book explores specific policy choices that might help us navigate this treacherous transition. Will we embrace the challenge?
Author Viktor Shvets is a global strategist at Macquarie Bank. In his almost four-decades-long investment banking career, he worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London, New York and Moscow at a number of global investment banks, such as Baring Securities, Deutsche Bank, DLJ, Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Over the years, he has been a highly rated analyst across various disciplines, head of research and is now recognized as one of the more innovative global market strategists, working on the intersection between finance, technology, politics and history. He is a prolific writer on key global trends and is a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets.
Viktor was born in Kiev, which at the time was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine. He attended Kiev University of Trade before immigrating to Australia, where he completed a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney and a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He is married with two sons and currently resides in Hong Kong.
The Great Rupture – Three Empires, Four Turning points and the Future of Humanity – Do we need to be free? Publisher: Boyle & Dalton ISBN-10: 163337386X ISBN-13: 978-1633373860 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo.com and iTunes
Trish Stevens Margot Cunningham Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Locked in the Endless Loop of Foster Care, One Desperate Boy Struggles to Break Free
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Silas Dillon enjoys a full life now. At 40 years old, he’s a married father of four, foster father of six and minister to his church’s devoted flock. The joyful background noises of his houseful of children is a stark contrast to his lonesome beginning, when his birth mother, in the throes of heroin withdrawal, abandoned him the day after he was born.
Silas Dillon of Cary County is the sobering story of Silas Dillon, who ping-ponged between eight foster homes and two attempts at re-placement with his birth mother by the time he was 14 years old.
Told with gripping authenticity by author Cliff Schrage, Silas Dillon of Cary County begins with Silas’ birth on a frigid winter night in the fictional suburb of Cary Island in the New York Bay. His life becomes a series of glimpses into different realities — some harsh and grossly neglectful; some unapologetically abusive; and some well-intentioned but unprepared. Each one serves as a gross reminder of the fractured, overwhelmed foster care system. Silas is repeatedly transplanted from house to house, but none of them becomes a home. And occasionally, his mother does just enough to satisfy a lenient judge, and he’s returned to her world of drug abuse and prostitution
Damaged, fragile and without hope, he draws the attention of conscientious young social worker Molly Fresh, and this sets the stage for Silas to one day find the nurturing family and promising future that every child deserves.
Silas Dillon of Cary County is a candid look inside a typical foster care system that outwardly champions for the best interest of the children, but in reality, caters to the see-sawing whims of biological parents. Readers will witness Silas’ growing loneliness, alienation, anger and self-destructive nature, as he struggles to cope through his youth and early adulthood. Silas Dillon represents hundreds of thousands of young ones locked in a broken system. Will he be one of the lucky few who break free?
Author Cliff Schrage is a two-time published novelist — A Fruitful Field and Silas Dillon of Cary County — and published poet: Broken Prose, Spoken Poems. He has worked as a chaplain, and he taught high school English for 33 years. He is the father of eight children — two biological and six adopted (foreign and domestic) — and has endured the trauma of losing a child to a terminal illness. He has been married to his wife, Sherry, for more than 40 years.
Silas Dillon of Cary County Publisher: Morgan James Publishing ISBN-10: 1683502833 ISBN-13: 978-1683502838 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and MorganJamesPublishing.com
Trish Stevens Sophie Carter Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer’s: The Answer Can Be Found In Med-itation, Yoga And Music
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There are currently 5.8 million people in the U.S. today suffering from Alzheimer’s – a number that is expected to double by the middle of the century. Is it possible to stop or slow down this disease? Award-winning physician, scientist and author, Dr. Shuvendu Sen, says “Yes! It can be reversed, and even stopped altogether.” Dr. Sen shares expert advice and discusses the success being achieved through yoga, meditation and dancing/music therapy in Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer’s: A Holistic Treatment Approach through Meditation, Yoga and the Arts.
As the population of Americans with this disease continues to increase, so does the burden of caring for them. The cost of Alzheimer’s is staggering! This year alone, the cost for healthcare, long-term care and hospice services for those age 65 and older with dementia are estimated to be around $305 billion. Researchers in top institutions around the country indicate that the contributing factors to the disease (stress/hypertension) can be improved with holistic approaches, such as yoga, meditation, music and virtual reality therapy. We need an innovative breakthrough in order to make a difference; Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer’s is the guide that can help make these necessary, far-reaching changes in medical care.
“How can meditation and yoga stop or even reverse Alzheimer’s?” he asks. “They set the mind on an inward journey, built on a novel microenvironment where stress and its damaging inflict are permanently thwarted. This bridging of the old and new creates an imperative paradigm shift in our perspective toward managing this disease.”
Listed in the US Top Physician’s list, Dr. Sen is the author of the bestselling book, A Doctor’s Diary, and is the recipient of the Nautilus Book Award, Men of Distinction Award from the New York State Senate, the Oscar Edwards Award from the American College of Physicians, and has been thrice nominated for the Pushcart Award for his columns and other works of fiction.
He has been an invited speaker to address United Nations officials, the New Jersey Senate, the Indian Consulate in New York, the World Book Fair, City University of New York, Harvard University and World Parliament of Religions. He has also been featured on many major television and radio stations.
Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer’s: A Holistic Treatment Approach through Meditation, Yoga and the Arts HCI Publishers Also translated into French by the prestigious Hachette Foundation ISBN-10: 0757319947 ISBN-13: 978-0757319945 Available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Trish Stevens Teresa Hinojosa Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 832.569.5773 Direct 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax [email protected] ascotmedia.com
