Bruce Feiler wrote a fascinating article in the NY Times He said, “The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”

In other words, the children who know the most about their family history—the traditions, the set-backs and successes of parents and grandparents—had the best odds of bouncing back from hard times.

Write and Get Books of Your Life Stories in Just 99 Days!

Classes are now forming in Pacific Grove: January 21 to March 25, 2015, (10 weeks) at the Masonic Lodge, 130 Congress Avenue. Two time slots are available: 12:30-2:30 p.m. or 4-6 p.m. Call for other class times and procedure to follow if you have to miss a class. Reservations are required as space is limited. Call 831-649-6640.

What is Guided Autobiography? A weekly 2 hour class meeting over a ten week period, based on the Guided Autobiography method developed by pioneering gerontologist James Birren. This is a proven program to help you get your life story on paper by breaking it down into short, easy-to-write themes and by turning the process into a fun, social event by sharing your stories with others in the class. No previous writing experience necessary and no computer or special equipment needed. — Only $245 – that’s less than $25 per class!.

Turn Your Class Experience into a Published Book! This option gives you the 10-week class program described above, PLUS: YOU WILL RECEIVE 5 PRINTED BOOKS BY APRIL 30, 2015. We will design, format, publish, and print 5 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your stories (up to 30,000 words) that you type into a Microsoft Word.doc, plus 2 photos per class theme that we will scan at each class.—$795.

Intermediate Writing and Book Package: All of the above, PLUS: We will professionally edit your book and publish it on Amazon. —$1495.

Premier Writing and Book Packages: All of the above, PLUS: We’ll turn your printed book into a Kindle e-book and launch a Custom Marketing Campaign that can include a press release, 100 postcards, 100 business cards, a web page for your book, a blog, and other Social Media. —Individual pricing based on choice of services you desire.

ALSO AVAILABLE: Custom design services, private coaching and instruction are available. You may add additional book pages and photos, print hardcover books, video and audio recordings and production with upload to “Keepers of Our Culture” YouTube Channel. Services priced individually for your custom package.

RESERVE NOW – SPACES ARE LIMITED TO 8 PER CLASS – RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED

Patricia Hamilton - Joyce Krieg — Class instructors/facilitators: Patricia Hamilton and Joyce Krieg.

INSTRUCTORS Patricia Hamilton and Joyce Krieg are certified by The Birren Center to teach the Guided Autobiography method developed by James E. Birren. Books will be published by Park Place Publications.

TO RESERVE or for more information, please call Patricia Hamilton at 831-649-6640 or e-mail:

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November 13, 2014

Benefits of Telling Your Life Stories ala Guided Autobiography Themes

A Brief Introduction to Guided Autobiography

By Joyce Krieg and Patricia Hamilton

Guided Autobiography is a class to assist people of all ages in writing their memoirs. Typically, it consists of ten weekly sessions of two to three hours each. The method was developed by pioneering gerontologist Dr. James Birren and has been in use for over thirty years with participants ranging from college students to residents of senior facilities.

What makes Guided Autobiography unique and powerful is that participants are writing essays on specific themes and then sharing them with others. Many people say they want to write their memoirs, but few actually follow through – usually because the project is too overwhelming, or because it’s just not fun to do alone. Guided Autobiography deals with both of those issues head-on: by writing on a specific theme, participants are able to break down their life story into small, easy-to-complete projects, and they bond with other class members and form friendships by sharing their stories.

No previous creative writing experience is necessary, and no special equipment is needed. The only requirement is to show up, and the only “homework” is a two-page essay on the theme of the week. A computer is not a must – the stories can be handwritten or spoken into a recorder.

A typical Guided Autobiography class consists of two parts. In the first hour, the instructor leads the class in a discussion of the week’s theme, plus a few fun and easy exercises to stimulate their creativity. In the second hour, the class breaks into small groups in which everyone reads aloud the two pages they have written on the theme for that session

Benefits to the participants are many, and include:

Learning more about themselves and understanding the ‘why’ they may have done the things they have done.
Understanding and appreciating others and their life story.
Greater ease and confidence with writing as they learn to tap into inner feelings.
Developing close friendships with fellow students.
Leaving a legacy for their children and grandchildren, and to the world at large.

CLICK TO Watch video of people sharing their experiences with Guided Autobiography.

Bruce Feiler wrote a fascinating article in the NY Times He said,

“The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”

Basic Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files.—$795 for writing instruction and 10 books.

Intermediate Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files. PLUS: Professional edit your book and publish it on Amazon. —$1495 for writing instruction and 10 books.

Premier Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files. Professional edit your book and publish it on Amazon. PLUS: Publish to Kindle; Marketing Package, including press release, postcards, business cards; Internet: set up blog/website and other Social Media. —Individual pricing based on choice of services you desire.

EXTRAS: Private coaching and instruction are available. You may add additional book pages and photos, hardcover books, video and audio recordings and production with upload to “Keepers of Our Culture” YouTube Channel. Services priced individually for your custom package.

For more information, please call 831-649-6640 or e-mail:

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November 5, 2014

“Walking for Our Lives” by Donna Rankin Love

“Walking for Our Lives”

a MEMOIR by Donna Rankin Love

“This child will never walk,” the doctor said. “Wanta bet?” retorted her mother. Fifty-nine years later, Donna Love walked over 5,000 miles in three peace walks in the United States and in Russia. Every step was a step toward peace. In Walking For Our Lives, Donna’s third book in the three years since she turned 80, she tells how these peace walks alerted citizens of the world to the futility of the nuclear arms race. She chronicles her evolution from a passive homemaker to an involved peacemaker, and into a life where anything’s possible and one person does make a difference. Let there be peace…

“Journalist, mother and author, in Walking For Our Lives Love captures a combination of pioneer spirit and American zeal that brings back a time when nothing seemed impossible. I felt right there through the heat, sweat and each turn in the road. This must-read book is a reminder of who we are as American women—true, strong, and tenacious. Love’s compelling story unfolds on the backdrop of an America in the midst of change that continues to this day, a reminder that individuals contributing together can make a difference.” — Marsha L. Keeffer, MBA

“Donna Love, proper society wife and mother, boldly set out to walk 5000 miles across two continents for peace. Participating in the Great Peace March across the United States and the Peace Walk in Russia transformed her life and her perspective. From page one, I was caught up in Donna’s story—watching her change from passive homemaker to passionate peacemaker. This is a story not to be missed!” — Laura Davis, author of The Courage to Heal and I Thought We’d Never Speak Again And let it begin with me.

314 pages • 6×9 • $18.00

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ISBN 978-1935530503

About the Author

Since my 80th year, I have written and published three books of stories based on my rich and varied life. I nurtured four sons born within five years. When they left for school and their father left, too, I returned to school for teaching credentials and opened a tutoring center for dyslexic students. After 15 years, I heard about the Great Peace March and walked from Los Angeles to New York to Washington, DC, then from Leningrad (S. Petersburg) to Moscow for Peace. When 230 Soviets came to the United States, for a peace walk, I joined. Born with crippled feet, I have walked more than 5,000 miles for a single cause. Then I remodeled four houses; two in Mexico, one on a farm in Oregon, and a cottage above Monterey Bay in California and married again. For a while. I am keeping the cottage. Each day I write. And speak to audiences about the pleasures in telling our stories. I believe that writing our stories gives us an opportunity to understand our families, our culture, and ourselves. That understanding often translates into forgiveness, which is fundamental to peaceful co-existence. One more step toward peace in the world. To people who are intimidated by writing, I say, “Write your lives one tale at a time. Remember, you don’t have to start at the beginning.” My first book, Tell Me a Story, is a compilation of 43 short stories that view aspects of my heritage and life. Initially, it was a Christmas gift for members of my family, but has been available on Amazon since its publication. The second book, To Make the House Complete, is about the four houses and marriage that needed work. Walking For Our Lives is twice as long as the others, about 300 pages, and gives an autobiographical perspective to the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, 1986, and to the other peace marches in the United States and in Russia. The memoir follows the journey from my life of comfortable conformity to becoming comfortable with myself. Through the tales, readers discover how my experiences walking for peace transformed my opinions of what is important and what is worth fighting for from the easy choices to the meaningful ones.

November 5, 2014

“Dearest Umeno” by Nancy Tamura Shikashio

“Dearest Umeno…”

a BIOGRAPHY by Nancy Tamura Shikashio

The life of Katsuchika Tamura, with letters to his wife, Umeno Tamura, from American Internment Camps, 1941-1946

8.5×11 • 308 pages • $17.96

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ISBN 978-1935530336

Customer Reviews

Highly recommend!!! Such a lovely book with insightful historical content. (By Shelby on August 25, 2014)
Awesome book because I’m a big fan of hstory. (By Hazel Shikashio on August 25, 2014)

November 5, 2014

“The Inherited Heart” by William Minor

“The Inherited Heart: An American Memoir”

a MEMOIR by William Minor

A boy grows up just outside of Detroit, Michigan. All he wants is to be a boy who plays hockey (a goalie, no less), likes to box (under the influence of Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson), learns to play jazz piano (under the influence of Art Tatum and Nat “King” Cole), and perhaps find a genuine girlfriend—but he is inundated, imposed upon—to his mind—by stories his parents tell of illustrious ancestors, with the implication that he has much to “live up to.” Swamped with tales of ancestors who go back to 17th century New England and Middlesex County, Virginia—Civil War heroes on both sides (Southern and “Yankee”), notable authors who wrote praiseworthy memoirs and hobnobbed with Mark Twain and Walt Whitman—it would take this boy a number of years to “reconcile discordant elements.”

The Inherited Heart: An American Memoir tells the story of that endeavor, directly, up to the age of nineteen, and indirectly—through simultaneous narration or “robbed time”—throughout a lifetime. The book tells the tale of many meaningful, invaluable discoveries made along the way. It’s a “trip,” an adventure, described in the author’s lucid, playful and purposeful prose—a book that will appeal to everyone with a family (which is all of us!), those interested in American history, American humor, boyhood adventures, adolescent agony, or just those who enjoy storytelling at its best. The book suggests that we are each linked, through inheritance, by all that surrounds us, to an extended family we may learn to love.

8.5×5.5 • 432 pages • $12.14

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ISBN 978-1935530718

William Minor was originally trained as a visual artist (Pratt Institute and U.C.-Berkeley), and exhibited woodcut prints and paintings at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and other museums and galleries. His woodcut prints incorporated the text of Russian, Modern Greek, and Japanese poetry–which he also translated. Attracted by the “multimedia” work of William Blake, e.e. cummings, Kenneth Patchen and Shiko Munakata (and the voice of Dylan Thomas)} he began to write poetry as a graduate student in Language Arts at San Francisco State, producing his first book containing poems and woodcut prints, Pacific Grove, in 1974. Bill has, since that time, published five more books of poetry: For Women Missing or Dead, Goat Pan, Natural Counterpoint (with Paul Oehler), Poet Santa Cruz: Number 4, and Some Grand Dust (Chatoyant Press), for which he was a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, as has his short fiction—-which was selected for inclusion in Best Little Magazine Fiction (NYU Press) and The Colorado Quarterly Centennial Edition. A one-act play, Contacts, was performed at Monterey Peninsula College in California, and then published in The Bellingham Review. A jazz writer with over 150 articles to his credit, Bill has also published three books on music: Unzipped Souls: A Jazz Journey Through the Soviet Union (Temple University Press), Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years (Angel City Press; Bill served as scriptwriter for the Warner Bros. film documentary based on the latter, same title as book), and Jazz Journeys to Japan: The Heart Within (University of Michigan Press). A professional musician since the age of sixteen, Bill set poems from For Women Missing or Dead to music and recorded a CD–Bill Minor & Friends (on which he plays piano, tenor guitar, and sings). A second CD, Mortality Suite, offers original poems and music. Bill was also commissioned by the Historic Sandusky Foundation to write a suite of original music and voice script based on a married couple’s exchange of letters throughout the Civil War: Love Letters of Lynchburg. In May, 2011, Bill was “first grand prize winner” in a national essay contest, “What Music Means to Me,” sponsored by RPMDA (Retail print Music Dealers Association). More biographical information and links are available at www.bminor.org.

Customer Reviews

An exciting memoir about a boy growing up in Detroit in a family with historical roots back to the 1700’s. This guy of course has talent that we can all envy. He accomplished many things in several different art venues. I laughed, I cried and I wondered. How did this fascinating family background influence these artistic skills? A great read from a talented author. Loved it. (By Vernon Lee Rexroat on June 28, 2013)

November 5, 2014

“Our Stories of Alamos” edited by Patricia Hamilton

“Our Stories of Alamos, Un Pueblo Magico: Alamos, Sonora,Mexico (Volume 1)”

a STORY COLLECTION by Women of Alamos

A collection of 81 women’s stories about their love of, and experiences in the Spanish mining town of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Learn about local customs, architecture, lodging, restaurants, locals and expats, housing, plants and animals. An excellent resource for anyone considering vacationing in or retiring to Mexico.

10×7 • 164 pages • $13.50

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ISBN 978-1483972879

November 5, 2014

“Passionate Ladies” by Barbara Perry

“Passionate Ladies”

a ONE WOMAN SHOW by Barbara Perry

One Woman Show written and performed by Barbara Perry: Five hilarious sequences, five very different but equally dazzling ladies. Everything from strip-tease to Shakespeare—from toe-shoes to tap dancing!

8×5.2 • 68 pages • $9.50

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ISBN 978-1877809088

Barbara Perry, about whom it is said, she is the only contemporary performer who can emulate both Ruth Draper and Paul Draper with equal success,” gathered the material for Passionate Ladies during a notably diversified career. Since her auspicious debut as the Baby in Madame Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of four, the dancer-actress-writer has enjoyed a career that spans from nightclub to Broadway, from ballet to tap dancing and from coast to coast. On Broadway, Miss Perry has appeared in Hecht and MacArthur’s Swan Song, opposite the legendary Eddie Foy Jr. in Rumple and Burgess Meredith in Happy as Larry. In London, she starred in the famed Café de Paris and the Palladium and in Zip Goes a Million, starring England’s beloved George Formby, which ran for two years at the Palace Theatre. Miss Perry is a recognized television performer who has been seen on many series as well as specials for Dinah Shore, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson, to name a few. She has also appeared in dozens of American national companies and west coast musical productions. Miss Perry is a member of Theater 40, Beverly Hills, Theatre East and Theater West. She won two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for writing and performing Passionate Ladies and two Drama-Logue awards and Santa Barbara’s Independent Award for her one-woman show. As a young girl, this extraordinary performer also won the RADA award at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

November 5, 2014

“Remembering Gordon Street” by William H. Wallace Jr.

“Remembering Gordon Street”

a MEMOIR by William H. Wallace Jr.

I remember a car, a red Chevy convertible. Mom said when they got it as a wedding gift, “it was as bright and shiny as a red toy top pulled out of the toe of a Christmas stocking.” They’d had some wonderful times with that car, but now the war was on, Dad was gone, everything was in short supply, especially gasoline and tires. Rationing was in effect, and you couldn’t buy a drop of gas without an “A” card, and even then Mom said you “couldn’t get enough to get around the block.” So, making a game out of it some people called “frogging,” we’d crest a hill cutting the engine coasting as far on the other side as we could.

But when they started rationing re-tread tires Mom figured the “game is just about up, without even re-treads we’ll be riding around on bald tires waiting for a blow out.” She wasn’t joking thinking of her friend Patty on her way to work having a double blowout. Patty’d limped her old Plymouth over to the curb getting out, kicking the dead tires in frustration, sitting down on the curb crying because one of the tires was her spare. She was out two tires without even a re-tread replacement, telling Mom if she’d had a gun she’d have shot her car putting it out of its misery.

So, it was a real surprise Mom taking me for a “joy ride” with the top down on the road next to the beach somewhere between Venice and Santa Monica just before sunset. Felt like we were driving faster than the thirty-five mile victory speed limit, listening to the bald tires rushing over the road with the swooshing sound of sandpaper smoothing a piece of wood. Air whistling in through the wind-wing, sounding like steam screaming out of Granny’s big teakettle. Wind tugging, pulling my hair back, Mom’s Betty Grable hairdo swirling around her head like a spider weaving a web across her face so she kept brushing her hair back with her hand trying to keep it out of her eyes. Turning radio on, Mom singing with Andrews Sisters, “I’ll be with you in Apple Blossom Time.” Me, like a dog sticking its head out the car window, mouth wide open gulping, cheeks wobbling, tongue tasting the salty air like licking the top of my Nabisco cracker before crunching it up putting it in my tomato soup. Salt-wind tears seeping from the corners of my eyes, Mom’s eyes stinging, too, tears running all the way down her face, one dropping from her chin to her lap disappearing among the white polka dots in the fold of her blue dress.

Mom told me to try and remember as much as I could like I was going to mail a penny picture postcard to myself. I think it was on her mind she hadn’t gotten a letter from Dad in a long time, and the last time she got one the censors had read it before she did, blocking out some parts making her wonder what he’d written that she was missing. I think that’s why she took me for that ride in the red Chevy convertible on the beach road that meant so much to them. The moonlight rides they’d taken together before the war. She was driving the car with me sitting beside her, thinking of my dad, scared. The sun turning color from a grapefruit to an orange at the edge of the ocean went down in a splash leaving an orange glow against the sky. Starting to get dark and cold, Mom pulled over to the side of the road, and we spotted the first evening star. Mom said we should make a wish—I think we were wishing the same thing. Putting up the tan canvas top pretending it was a circus tent, the ocean looking like a black rolling blanket with a line of silver curls before the waves crash sounding like a huge newspaper being crumpled up in the hands of a giant.

The next morning, Mom got up slipping into her slacks and Eisenhower jacket taking the car keys off the white rabbit’s foot key chain, hanging the key chain over the door “for good luck.” I asked, but she wasn’t sure why it was supposed to bring good luck, laughing and saying, “I guess it wasn’t good luck for the rabbit.”

6×9 • 262 pages • $17.10

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ISBN 978-1935530855

Customer Reviews

Bill, you’ve done it again, great stories. I thought your first book was good, but, this one was even better. It brings back memories of growing up in Pomona, California. i enjoyed all the stories you put into your book. It got so where I’m hoping there will be a series of Remembering Gordon Street. Or maybe you will venture into another type of book. Guess I will just have to be patient and see if one develops. You are truly a great writer and know we all have stories to tell. Thanks again, for sharing (By Lois Swick on Jan. 18, 2014)
This book is a must read! Wow! We are grabbed by a mystery in the very first chapter of the book. I will not give away anything except to say that I could not put it down. One minute I was thinking that I knew the outcome and the next minute I wasn’t so sure. But, I do know that I could not put the book down until I came to the end of the chapter. So, I read on. Once again as in “Ghosts”, Mr. Wallace takes us back in time to post WWII America. And, as I saw the pages that I had read growing in number compared with those that were left to read diminishing, I wanted to slow the reading down so that the story could continue and yet I was driven to keep on reading. Mr. Wallace begins by relating to the reader that a strange object floats up on Venice beach one morning, igniting fear, speculation, and wonder. At the same time, on a different beach. over 3,000 miles away, my father, then in the Navy, was patrolling for enemy submarines in the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. We are all united, often without knowing it, in a moment in time, that binds those of us who experience it together. And, once again, Mr. Wallace takes us there. He set the stage for the time by relating stories of family and friends and other residents of Gordon Street. He tells of the things they do together, their traditions, their strengths, their weaknesses, their successes, their failures, and their dreams. And, Mr. Wallace conveys all of this through his skilled way of relating stories about the characters’ individual experiences and their experiences together. I want to extend a very special thanks to Mr. Wallace for finding a way to bring “the girl in the white shoes” into “Remembering”. I fell in love with her in “Ghosts”. And, I was not disappointed. It was a very touching story. I would love another book. Perhaps, “Where Are They Now?” GREAT JOB! (By Mrs. Carol Selva on March 21, ,2014)
I enjoyed this book so much, I hated to finish it! Does this make sense? I didn’t want to see the story end, so I forced myself to read only a chapter at a time to make it last longer. Mr. Wallace’s first book, “Ghosts of Gordon Street”, told the tragic story of Dwainie, the pathetic kid that sees to be a universal character in everyone’s childhood — you know – the kid that pretty much everyone ridicules, avoids, and perhaps even fears a little. Within that story we got to see bits and pieces of other characters so intriguing that I wanted to know them better. “Remembering Gordon Street” goes a long way toward granting my wish. I loved meeting Granny, the homesteading woman who could shoot a varmint or pluck a chicken, but loved her elegant clothes and her collection of perfume bottles. Mom and Dad, Poppy, and Uncle Bill all came to life on the pages of this book. And I loved Casimer, the genius kid who’s at the opposite end of the scale from Dwainie – also ridiculed, avoided, and feared a little by all the other kids, but who had too much going for him to be bothered by it. I hope Mr. Wallace is already at work on another Gordon Street book because there are still plenty of stories waiting to be told and I can’t wait to read them. (By “rabid reader” on Jan. 24, 2014)
What a truly engaging book this is. Wallace is a gifted writer that transcends the long list of talented authors that have mastered the skills necessary for penning exquisite descriptions of people, places, things and events. By gently, gradually and seamlessly sliding the reader from the role of a remote observer into a full-fledged story participant, he clearly distinguishes himself from the pack. Get ready to meet Thomas R. Hawk, Jeremiah Stroad, Casimer, Gary, Miss Kingsley and other unique and intriguing neighbors residing in the vicinity of Gordon Street. In the process of meeting these folks, you begin to understand that most all of us have been abundantly blessed and have shared many of the same and similar experiences while living in America on our Gordon Street. Remembering Gordon Street, by William H. Wallace, Jr., is a book I highly recommend. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Wallace’s first book, Ghosts of Gordon Street, is also a must-read and comes with my highest recommendation. (By Bob R., Jan. 4, 2014)
Redefining the Inland Valley. Wallace has done it again. I loved the first book. This is even better. I did not grow up on Gordon Street or even in Pomona. I grew up in LA and Van Nuys. These stories are universal and so very moving. I went to the same Saturday matinees, had the same dirt clod fights from our forts dug out n the vacant lot. I had the same kind of quirky neighbors and saw returning soldiers suffer their night sweats and family violence. That car on the cover could have been my mom’s. I did not want this book to end. The characters are so real and their situations very touching. It is like being in a movie that you want to go on and when it ends you want to see it again. Thanks Bill Wallace for a deeply satisfying literary return to my boyhood in an urban neighborhood long long ago. (By Robert E. Smith on Jan. 6, 2014)
A MUST read. Remembering Gordon Street is the story of an era that will never be seen again in this country. Those of us who grew up in that period can identify with the times, the characters, and the innocent joys of living during that time. Remembering Gordon Street is one of the best accounts of post-World War 2 America, specifically in Southern California. We who lived it appreciate the opportunity to relive it through the eyes and words of William Wallace. And any who did not live through the time should read this book to see what they missed . . . the 1940s and 1950s . . . the BESt time ever to grow up in a much different America. Let’s hope Mr. Wallace is busily planning to continue the series. It is a MUST read. (By Lowell G. Rice on March 2, 2014)

November 5, 2014

“Tickle Me Pink, The Collection” by Molly Shoemaker Schaechtele

“Tickle Me Pink–The Collection: Lighthearted Poems about Cancer, Survival and Hope”

a POETRY COLLECTION by Molly Shoemaker Schaechtele

In the Tickle Me Pink—THE COLLECTION, the author, a four-time cancer survivor, celebrates the humor, grace, and indomitable spirit of cancer survivors everywhere.

5×8 • 134 pages • $8.96

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ISBN 978-1499653441

Customer Reviews

Molly reminds us survivors to savor every post-cancer day we are lucky enough to have. “Light-hearted poems about cancer, survival, and hope,” it says on the hot pink cover of “Tickle Me Pink! The Collection.” That sums up the 127 pages of poems that Molly Shoemaker Schaechtele wrote while dealing with cancer and many of its consequences. The poems aren’t all as rosy as the cover, but they are honest and remarkably upbeat overall. Some of them aren’t award-winning examples of poetry, but it’s the message that matters. The last poem, “Every Death Should Count for Something…” is stunningly sad, profound and, by the conclusion, uplifting. Knowing that the author lost her battle with cancer in 2013 makes her warrior attitude even more impressive. As a breast cancer survivor, I smiled and I cried with Molly as she continued to beat back the beast. I highly recommend “Tickle Me Pink,” to women currently dealing with the disease. We have laughed. We have cried. We have bonded. We can’t forget those women who didn’t make it, but Molly reminds us to savor every post-cancer day of life that we are lucky enough to have. (By Leslie N. Patino on July 27, 2014)

I love you Mom. Molly was my Mom, and now she is my angel Mom… Her poems are so inspiring and give hope and laughter to those in need. It’s her legacy. She wanted to reach the hearts of many woman who could use a little extra encouragement! I love you Mom! Thank you for these amazing poems! (By Maida Springart on Sept. 30, 2014)

November 5, 2014

“Love, Blanquita” by Blanca McNatt Schield

“Love, Blanquita”

a FAMILY HISTORY by Blanca McNatt Schield

Blanquita is descended from R. Sebastian Lopez Ruiz, born in Panama City to parents who had emigrated from Spain almost a century before Simon Bolivar’s wars of independence in South America. Dr. Ramon Maxmiliano Valdes, one of his grandsons, became the fourth President of Panama in 1916. Blanquita tells these and other fascinating family stories about growing up in Panama.

8×5.2 • 86 pages • $10.76

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ISBN 978-1502471222

Customer Reviews

Panama with Love. Each chapter stands alone, from those based on historical research to ones steeped with first-hand accounts. The author’s command and wit shine throughout. A gem! For those interested in Panama, as well as those wanting to climb into a vivid Latin Amercian family tree, this memoir gives unique insights into to eras that might make one wish for the chance to experience them once again. (By Murphy on October 3, 2014)