George Marino, a practicing CPA and Mindfulness Coach, explores the possibilities for sustainable positivity in one’s work-life through mindfulness principles and practices in his new book, Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life.
It would be difficult to find a profession more fraught with detail, deadlines, and distress than a typical CPA. Applying to that particular realm the idea of mindful meditation is a challenge that author Marino has taken on because it is a process he has lived. He opens his book by comparing two CPAs and their approaches to life and work-life.
Larry wakes up early, already stressed by the problems facing him at the office. Whenever he’s alone, he reaches for the nearest device to fill the silence; he is a Type A personality, driven and competitive. However, work increases his inner anxieties, fears, and self-doubts. Amy, by contrast, wakes at her usual time, feeling rested, starting the day with a positive mantra, enjoying breakfast with her family, and looking forward to the possibilities of helping others through her work skills, focusing on the client’s needs and feelings. Through these examples and many others, Marino illustrates basic tenets and techniques of mindfulness, a practice that, among other benefits, can reduce physical symptoms of stress.
Marino has designed his mindfulness-based template around the phrase “beyond balancing the books,” or the three B’s.
“Beyond” signifies the stillness and peacefulness that result from reining in the thought process by simply becoming aware of one’s surroundings. “Balancing” refers to the blending of “human” and “being,” that is, of one’s typical human physical state and the possibilities of a mental or spiritual realm that exists and can intermingle with, and enhance, one’s physical existence. “The books” represents our “accounting for what really counts” – finding higher purpose. Simple exercises, such as three minutes of deep breathing, provide a start in the right direction. Marino expands the practices to help readers examine their true feelings about troublesome situations. Doing so helps his clients to accept and allow their feelings to meld into larger, positive goals.
Marino has a second career as a life coach, where he counsels those in his own profession and those outside of the accounting world. At One Heart Coaching, LLC, he employs images of the accountant’s crucially essential work tasks of preparing taxes and assisting in business management. His book is filled with a wide variety of wisdom, from the classical – Sufi poet Hafiz, Shakespeare, modern writer Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now). Discovering and practicing mindfulness changed Marino’s life, and he desires to help as many individuals as possible.
Readers will benefit from the many supplemental resources such as a “Mindfulness at Work Questionnaire for Professionals” and a reading list for further study. Marino’s guidebook is a rich mine of helpful advice for anyone seeking a calmer, more spiritually focused approach to life’s dilemmas. Highly Recommended!
Nancy Thorne weaves a brilliant story that encompasses all of the outrageous and contradictory emotions of two young women in her YA novel, The Somewhere I See You Again.
Set in eastern Canada, Thorne takes us back to the early 1970s when the Vietnam War was headlining the news. Hannah has her own war, though, and she has given it a name, Luke. It stands for leukemia, which has changed her life and colors her world as her mom battles cancer.
Hannah lives on Sloan Hill, the wrong side of town, where her family struggles to survive. Her mother’s battle with Luke leaves her weak and bedridden. Hannah must find a job to help out and pick up some of the lost income. To make matters worse, Hannah’s high school is being torn down, which means she and her best friend Stacy will attend Carver High and hobnob with the Burgess aristocracy. Hannah rides on Stacy’s social coattails as her friend’s quiet beauty opens doors and gains them entrance into the homes of the wealthy.
One of the many goals on Hannah’s list is to get inside her dream house, a mansion where her father works as the groundskeeper. Hannah learns that Christopher Holding lives in her dream house and thus begins her mission to set Stacy up with Chris and get invited to his big party. Once inside, she takes photos to share with her father but unwittingly captures images of Chris dealing drugs. Oops.
Stacy has her own set of problems.
It’s only been a year since her father’s death, but her mother decides to become involved with a real creep – Mr. Callaghan, whose interests seem to expand beyond the attentions of Stacy’s mother and onto Stacy. When Mr. Callaghan becomes her mom’s fiancé, Hannah and Stacy know she’s marrying him for the security he brings, not for love. Stacy goes along with Hannah’s plan and becomes Chris’s girlfriend, even though she’s in love with Danny, a short-order cook who dreams of being a chef. She keeps Danny a secret because she knows Hannah would never approve.
When Stacy needs money to help her mom, Hannah devises a plan to blackmail Chris for his drug money with the photos she took at his party. Because his dad is on the fast track to being a judge, pictures of his son dealing drugs would destroy his chances. The photos, it turns out, become leverage. The day the two girls decide to approach Chris, he is already gone. His father accepted a job across the continent in Vancouver, BC.
Nancy Thorne delivers her characters in high-resolution.
Thorne develops a real schemer in Hannah, who goes into overdrive. Mr. Callaghan finds them both jobs in a swank hotel in Jasper and even gives them train fare. Instead, they hitchhike across Canada straight to Vancouver. Along the way, they meet a young American trying to avoid the draft. Things go from crazy to insane as Hannah and Stacy maneuver the travails of hitching cross-country to blackmail Chris. They survive a bear attack, forest fires, and scorching disappointments that will keep readers on the edge of their seats, all to the backdrop of music from the time. Hannah learns who her real friends are, and she comes to understand something more about the complicated world in which she lives.
Nancy Thorne’s The Somewhere I See You Again will have readers laughing and crying and rooting for Hannah and Stacy as they brave the open roads of Canada during the Vietnam crisis era, searching for salvation and a better life. What they find, however, is so much more fulfilling. Highly recommended.
Sandra Wagner-Wright’s Saxon Heroines: A Northumbrian Novel is a rich history of four women many centuries ago.
During a time of constant shifts in power across Northumbria and what would later become England, Christianity begins taking over as the religion of choice in the region. Kings from the area renounce Woden and embrace the new faith, which gives them the divine right to rule.
Part of a series that tells of lesser-known women in history, Saxon Heroines concerns itself with the stories of four women in seventh century Northumbria. The novel splits into three parts, each part focusing on a different woman (women) of early Saxon history. First is Ethelberga of Kent, who becomes the new Queen of Northumbria in 624 and must convert the king to Christianity. The story shifts to Ethelberga’s daughter, Enfleda, in the second part; Enfleda’s daughter, Elfleda, in the third. Throughout the book, we witness Hildeburg’s role in King Edwin’s court to her holy life as the Abbess of Streoneshalh. Each of these women lived and died long ago, but they arguably changed the world.
Wagner-Wright transports her readers to a much more challenging way of life.
With few detailed historical records of seventh-century Northumbria, Wagner-Wright does the impossible task of fleshing out the little-known stories contained in the historical record. She takes what the ancient historians have recorded about these four women and tells their stories as accurately as possible. The women were, as Wagner-Wright writes, “present but not visible,” thus, the only things recorded about them were their titles, who they married, and who their children were. With these few facts, Ethelberga, Enfleda, Elfleda, and Hildeburg have unique voices – ones that have been silent for far too many years.
In her author’s note, Wagner-Wright adds historical context to the story’s events and reveals what happens in the years following the last chapter. Readers will do themselves a favor by reading through the front and back matter before digging into the meat. Just as important as the story itself, these portions will aid in the overall understanding of the text. A tale like Saxon Heroines based in history needs added material for readers to reference.
For lovers of historical and Christian fiction (and non-fiction), Saxon Heroines: A Northumbrian Novel could be the perfect book. Set in a time in which Christianity was taking hold across the region, the women of Saxon Heroines each play a pivotal role in the making of history.
May 6th – 12th kicks off National Nurses Week which recognizes and honors Nurses around the world. And after the last year we’ve had and the healthcare struggles we continue to deal with at home and worldwide, we want to show them our appreciation and gratitude!
While Nurses Day was proposed twice to different administrations, it wasn’t until 1974 that Nixon recognized it, and in 1982 President Reagan officially proclaimed National Nurses Day in the US to celebrate those in one of our most trusted and important of professions.
This Thursday isn’t just the day in the US to recognize nurses, but it launches Nurses Appreciation Week, which culminates on May 12th, International Nurses Day! Why the twelfth? Because it’s the birthday of famous nurse, Florence Nightingale.
Who Is Florence Nightingale?
Also known as “The Lady of the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale is a statistician who revolutionized the field of nursing.
During the Crimean War, many people died in horrible hospital conditions. The care facilities lacked sanitation, and straw was often left on the floor to soak up excess blood. Nightingale brought in a regimen of cleanliness, cleaning the hospital for the wounded from top to bottom, and enforcing several hygiene practices, such as handwashing. In practicing these measures, the death rate of the injured reduced from 42% to 2%, an incredible achievement.
Improvements made to the field hospital at Üsküdar by British nurse Florence Nightingale revolutionized the treatment of wounded soldiers and paved the way for later developments in battlefield medicine. Britannica
We can see the effect of measures meant to maximize health today, as in the last year with the emphasis on mask wearing and handwashing that led to a steep drop in flu cases. This last year was the lowest hospitalization rate for people with the flu ever recorded (recording began in 2005), and only 1 pediatric flu death has been reported this year compared to the 196 in the 2019-2020 flu season. You can read more of what the CDC has to say about flu cases in the past year here.
Remember, when washing your hands you can count out 20 seconds by singing “Happy Birthday” twice, but we prefer to recite the intro from Star Trek, The Next Generation.
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!
Back to Nightingale, after the Crimean War, she continued to advocate for sanitary conditions in hospitals and for living situations generally, lowering the death rate in peacetime by an impressive amount. In 1860, she also founded the first secular nursing school in the world, which is still a part of King’s College London.
On top of all of this, Nightingale was a prolific writer, which we always love to see at Chanticleer. We’re proud to have done our part with two virtual conferences to encourage social distancing and safety to care for both ourselves, and also be responsible for the larger community that we are a part of. As we say for our Non-Fiction Awards, “Truth matters now more than ever.”
We have book recommendations, of course, to support the nurses in your life, but before we move to that, we’d like to quote from “Santa Filomena” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which refers to how Nightingale received her nickname through her tireless efforts to care for troops during the Crimean War:
Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room.
We would like to introduce you to some of our favorite novels written by or about nurses.
Passage Home to Meuse
by Gail Noble-Sanderson
It’s 1923 and character Marie Durant Chagall is now 27 years old as she tells about her life-altering events in The Passage Home to Meuse, thanks to author Gayle Noble-Sanderson. This is the second historical novel in the Meuse Trilogy. The world around Marie is still reeling from the devastation of World War I. She and the other characters in the book are learning how to continue living, and perhaps more importantly, wishing to find joy once again in life.
Marie is at home in France, seeking peace within, as well as for those around her. She looks for ways to help others who are in need, and her nursing skills come in handy to help this farming community. Nearby she’s found a sense of belonging with the Sisters at the Chapel, and her friendships continue with Henri and others.
The first novel in a series of novels about war-time nurses written by travel nurse, Janet K. Shawgo.
A lantern, a medicine pouch, and a bell to stop the gunfire: That was all nurses took into the Civil War battlefields as they sought out injured men, boys, and women disguised as men. Among them is Sarah Bowen, a young healer from Georgia, whose use of herbal medicine brings her scorn from most field doctors even as it saves countless lives.
Look For Me begins with young, affluent New York-er Samuel White, who has just embarked on his career as a war correspondent. Through an early incident between their fathers, he is also Sarah’s longtime pen pal.
Meanwhile, Mack, a teenage girl traveling as a boy, delivers a letter from the youngest Bowen son to the family farm, lingering long enough to be tutored by Sarah and to fall in love with brother James before leaving to pursue her goal of becoming a Confederate spy. Soon after her departure, a band of traveling nurses comes looking for the local healer, and it doesn’t take much persuading for Sarah to realize her destiny. This is when all of the primary story-lines begin to intersect.
The Particular Appeal of Gillian Pugsley
by Susan Örnbratt
Irish-born Gillian McAllister knew she was meant for bigger things than a quiet life among her large extended family. Leaving home at seventeen against her protective father’s wishes, Gillian is looking for adventure – and that’s exactly what she finds. She was a nanny for a maharaja, a caretaker for WWII internees, and a nurse on the Isle of Man before finally becoming a wife, mother, and grandmother in London, Canada, where she spent the majority of her eighty-nine years.
However, with only weeks to live after being stricken by cancer, she knows her time with her beloved granddaughter and namesake is truly precious. Before she goes, she wants to pass on the poems that capture her long, adventurous life to the junior Gilly in hopes the girl will use the poems to write about her adventure – her hidden love story.
Our Dutyopens with a group of nursing students sunbathing on the roof of their apartment. Pauline Garrity, aka Polly, has a little bit of fun and decides to sunbathe sans robes. While this stirs some of the girls up a bit, others know Polly is only being Polly. When a fighter plane does a fly-by on a training mission, Polly has a little more fun.
Here’s a story of World War II with a slightly different bend. Rather than focus on the horrors of what was happening in the trenches, Gerri Hilger centers her novel around Polly and her close-knit group of friends who are attending nursing school together. Our Duty is a novel for fans of lighthearted historical fiction with a sprinkling of cozy romance and a thread of Christianity.
Five young friends from then-English Newfoundland and Ireland together join a regiment to serve in the war, as does a young nurse from Dublin. At first, a reader might be lulled into thinking this is a light-hearted Irish dialect-filled romp a la Finian’s Rainbow, but the novel takes us deep into the lives of its characters as they serve in the bloody trenches, convalesce, and try to live normal lives despite the physical and emotional damages they suffered.
Diedre, the tough but emotionally scarred nurse, Jack, who left “bits” of him on the battlefield, Will, with his invisible yet no-less devastating wounds—these are a few of the complex yet wholly identifiable characters who become alive through this novel’s pages. These are no simplistic people. Their humanness, their frailties confronted by the awfulness of the war, gives the book its special heart.
When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.
Also remember! We’re hosting our 2020 CIBA Ceremonies for First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners June 5th at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Attending the June 5, 2021 VIRTUAL Ceremonies for the 2020 CIBAs is Free. However, registration is required. We will have the link posted on our website after the Finalists are announced.
Author Robert Scott Thayer and illustrator Lauren Gallegos bring to life another beautifully told tale in the fourth book in the series, Kobee Manatee® – Climate Change and the Great Blue Hole Hazard.
In the engaging and increasingly popular Kobee Manatee®children’s book series, the lovable sea cow and friends are off to help Cousin Quinn clean up the plastic that’s littering the ocean area around her new underwater eating establishment. The 500-mile journey across the water turns into an enlightening adventure, as these characters face unexpected challenges and dilemmas, many brought on by the harmful effects of climate change and ocean pollution.
Kobee Manatee®is always ready to lend a hand – and make a new friend.
Fresh from their latest adventure in the Cayman Islands, Kobee, along with Pablo, the hermit crab, and Tess the seahorse, swim to Belize, where they find the home of the Great Blue Hole. En route, Pablo rescues a spotted turtle ensnared in plastic, so the long-lashed loggerhead, Tameeka, happily joins the trio. Venturing on, these friends circumvent dangers, from the whip-like tentacles of a man-of-war to the poisonous intentions of a scorpionfish.
But these are not the only dangers the friends face.
The friends’ excitement upon reaching the expansive Great Blue Hole phenomenon quickly fades as Pablo tumbles into its dark depths. Luckily Tameeka’s deep-diving skills help save the day. After everyone pitches in with the ocean clean-up, they enjoy a fun gathering at the café, including an offering of seagrass subs and Kobee’s guitar accompaniment.
Conversations between Kobee Manatee®and his cohorts are lively and animated, with an ever-present focus on the beauty, dangers, and casualties witnessed within the ocean environment. As a clever educational component, the book is accented throughout with small images of Kobee Manatee®ancient treasure map-type scrolls that reveal informative, fun facts relevant to the narrative. These range from the knowledge that nearly 8 million metric tons of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year and insight that warming climates cause sea coral to fade to a list of conservation organizations fighting the destruction of our oceans and coastlines.
Lauren Gallegos’ illustrations further bring the pages to life and provide a wonderful complement to the story.
The backdrop of a pale blue ocean world lends a perfect contrast to the vibrant colors of the central characters and surrounding marine life. Whether a plump, gray Kobee sporting a fluorescent yellow jacket and purple cap, a seahorse with a violet body and raspberry bouffant mane, or an orange-shelled crustacean with his green bug-eyes, the vivid hues and expressive details are sure to attract a young reader’s attention. Shades of mauve and purple, turquoise, green, and tangerine highlight visuals of kelp, coral, sea fans, and fish life, while the dark saturation of royal blue emphasizes the far-reaching depths of the ocean’s monstrous Great Blue Hole.
For young readers who enjoy imaginative tales surrounding affable and heroic sea creatures, as well as parents and/or teachers looking for a way to introduce youngsters to the importance of marine conservation, Kobee Manatee® Climate Change and The Great Blue Hole Hazard offers a perfect blend. Highly recommended!
Elizabeth Jeffett delivers a hot, steamy second book in the Alex Sheridan Thrillers, Crude Intent.
Alex Sheridan, the androgynously-named heroine of Crude Intent, just about has it all: a gorgeous body and face, millions of dollars, and a business acumen enabling her to match wits and wiles in the male-dominated oil wildcatting business. And let’s not forget the cadre of powerful and sexy men who love her.
It would be more “all” except for the close people around her who keep getting brutally murdered. The scheming competitors and/or psychopaths who work hard at ruining her life and nearly succeeding, and the dangerous circumstances that almost end her life several times even when the intentional murderers fail.
In this second book, Alex Sheridan has survived more than her fair share of trauma.
The grisly murder of her previous business partner, Christine Welbourne, weighs on Alex. The steamy affair with oil worker Colt Forrester that began in the first novel, Silent Partners, continues. But when a fire breaks out at one of her fracking wells outside Denver, polluting the air and threatening to burn down pristine forest lands surrounding the installation, all hell breaks loose as fracking opponents launch media-friendly protests. TV coverage is everywhere, and business opponents can smell an excellent opportunity to leverage the disaster as a means of acquiring Alex’s valuable oil leases and putting her out of business.
Then comes the terrible news.
Colt Forrester is missing and might be a murder victim. With the very public knowledge of their rocky affair, Alex becomes the prime suspect in Colt’s suspected death.
This is only the beginning of Alex’s troubles in this fast-paced, romantic thriller. The sheriff and the district attorney investigating the case come after her. A giant competitor uses many operatives inside and outside the law to bring Alex down. The press, sensing a newsworthy scandal, start to portray Alex as a villain in her oil well fire disaster. Critical suspicious characters emerge at different times in the chess-like game against her.
Elizabeth Jeffett takes time to develop Alex into a believable hero.
Losing Colt and the murder of her partner Christine take their own substantial toll on her emotions as she fights against the seen and unseen forces moving against her. It is up to a loyal cadre of friends and associates, as well as a new love interest, Angus “Bull” Hawthorn, a Red Adaire-like oil well firefighter, to help keep her together in the series of disastrous revelations that threaten to destroy her. Yet Alex is no shrinking violet. As calamity after calamity engulfs her, she still finds the guts to vigorously confront the forces arrayed against her and uses her formidable personal and professional powers in the good fight to save her empire.
A subtle but interesting sidelight of the book is its well-researched focus on the fracking industry, the powerful but controversial method of extracting oil from oil shale that has helped the U.S. become a leading exporter of crude in the 21st Century. While most contemporary books portray fracking as an environmental villain, this book takes a somewhat neutral approach to the practice.
Not every strand wraps up at the end of Crude Intent. A third book is in the offing, according to an endpaper in the novel. Unlike many books designed as a series, this novel can be read from start to finish as a complete experience. Readers wanting to know what happened to certain storylines left as cliffhangers in this volume will still find satisfaction in the many unexpected twists and turns in this swift-paced engaging novel.
In his biographical work, Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness, Bedri Cag Cetin, Ph.D. explains his version of “The Golden Key,” a phrase he uses to formulate an “Inner Guide” which seeks above all else “…peace, happiness and harmony for all involved.”
Cetin uses his advanced education, world travels, failed and then healed personal relationships, business dealings, and training under spiritual leaders to formulate his thoughts. According to Cetin, decisions based on or that cause fear, chaos, or blame reflect Ego-driven actions in one’s journey toward inner peace; whereas using one’s Inner Guide to make decisions will result in peace and harmony.
Each chapter in the book reflects a chapter in his own journey. Cetin illustrates the times in his life when he either caused chaos from Ego based actions or eventually found peace due to trusting and surrendering to his “Inner Guide.” At the end of each chapter, the author offers insights and comments that further explain his ideas. The organization of each chapter, premise, personal example, realization, acceptance of the Inner Guide, ultimately make Sacred Life easily understandable and therefore valuable.
Sacred Life falls into a loose category of “spiritual self-help” books.
Throughout the book, the author’s casual voice makes it very easy for the reader to grasp these universal and sometimes ethereal truths. Similar in tone to Tosha Silver’s Outrageous Openness, Sacred Life offers neither pretentious nor overly complicated phrasing. Rather, the path created in the book may deliver a great journey for those seeking to learn the first steps toward a more enlightened life. At the end of the book, Cetin encourages his readers to ask their Inner Guide, “What is it that I really want?”
Reminding his audience that Healing, a return to Wholeness, requires a total surrender of the illusions and barriers that obstruct the way. The Ego’s chronic addiction to “feel good” behaves much like a drug addict’s dependence on drugs. The resulting action unravels into spiritual numbness.
Cetin refers to this “numbness” as the “dark night of the soul,” but he encourages readers not to despair. Through work and attention to the Inner Guide, one can be unburdened from carrying years of accumulated baggage and find true freedom and happiness.
Universal truth points to peace and harmony.
Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness reflects and explains a universal truth: That peace comes from awareness, and conflict arises from dependency on the Ego. Training one’s thoughts and desires to be satisfied with peace, happiness, and harmony could ultimately end all discord and create a balanced, peaceful life.
Thomas Wideman, the author of this dynamic self-help manual, Welfare Cheese to Fine Caviar: How to Achieve Your Dreams Despite Your Upbringing, rose from poverty and dismay to a life of security and personal achievement through techniques he shares with readers who can incorporate them into their own life plans.
Wideman came from an impoverished African American family wracked by confusion, chaos, and, at times, criminality. His mother had three sons by three fathers, and he would come to know his own father only peripherally, eventually learning that the man murdered people and subsequently died in prison. The boy grew up in tough neighborhoods and ate “welfare cheese” (a block of pre-sliced heavy American cheese that supposedly melted well). Every month, making ends meet became more and more difficult. In an early chapter of this finely woven chronology, we see him taking food from trains parked along the railroad tracks and running from the authorities. In this, as in each new chapter, he speaks of confronting severe issues and finding ways to resolve them. In the case of the theft and other childhood incidents of fighting, experiencing bullies, and battling racism, he speaks of making up his mind that “my circumstances need not be my limitation.”
A math whiz, Wideman found his strengths through schoolwork, striving for A’s instead of merely accepting B’s.
He excelled academically and attained many honors by the time he graduated from high school. After joining the military, Wideman realized that if the military machine could not break him, nothing could. He met and cautiously courted his sweetheart, and with her and their two sons, established a happy home life, a sensible financial plan, and new dreams for the future. He can afford to eat caviar now – though he doesn’t choose to.
Each section of his book comprises a personal recollection, frank and realistically drawn, followed by a “Reflection” to help the reader examine feelings and reactions related to their own, comparable experiences. Wideman helps his readers by following up with an “Application” section. Wisdom gleaned by experience seems to stick the best. Wideman ends with a section cleverly termed “Caviar Time,” in which readers talk to themselves in a mirror, giving creative, inspiring advice and encouragement based on the guidance contained in the segment. Wideman’s well-organized, intelligent parables cover a wide range of issues: family stresses, drug and alcohol abuse, racial divisiveness, financial planning, and complex situations faced in the workplace.
Wideman’s Welfare Cheese to Fine Caviar offers hope and realistic, replicable strategies to anyone who, like himself at earlier phases of his life, faces what seems like insurmountable barriers. His general message focuses on positives: do your best, and keep meaningful goals for success always in sight. Highly recommended.
Thinking of submitting to the Chanticleer International Book Awards for Earth Day? While we don’t have a specific category for environmental work, you can find all sorts of eco-focused work in our Global Thriller Awards, Journey Awards, Little Peeps Awards, and our Cygnus Awards.
The origins of Earth Day…
Can be traced back to Rachel Caron’s book Silent Spring which caused people to sit up and begin taking seriously the concerns that had been brought up for centuries about how the land was treated by imperialist powers. Carson’s book is cited as inspiration for the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Nixon administration. After the book’s publication, she was hounded by those who promoted pesticides like DDT who said Carson’s would return us to an era where insects and vermin ruled the world.
Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring
Earth Day’s foundation was a bipartisan venture in the United States, supported by both major political parties at the time of founding. By 1990, it became an international holiday around the world for all people to celebrate! It is now the largest non-secular holiday celebrated worldwide.
What is considered environmental writing?
Environmental writing or eco-fiction is most often described as a sub genre. Some people will claim that it just doesn’t exist, probably because of how nebulous it can be, but there definitely is a market for any book that examines the environment at large. From Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Terry Tempest Williams, to Annie Dillard and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the variety of people and forms for writing about the environment is endless.
So What is Eco-Fiction?
Eco-Fiction, at a minimum, needs to highlight the environment in some way. With that definition, something like Moby Dick could even count as eco-fiction because it features a whale and lots of time at sea, including the impact of whaling at large. What almost all eco-fiction does though is look at the world through a syncretic lens.
What we mean by syncretic is that it crosses borders. For a long time, the unrecognized leaders of environmental writing have been Indigenous thinkers and writers. This, by necessity, ties up the question of environmentalism with economic policy, racism, and colonialism in fascinating and important ways that draw in readers.
While Non-Fiction Environmental work often looks at the questions of where we are and what can we do, Eco-Fiction will ask what is happening and what will the world look like when we continue on this path? Work like that of Octavia Butler and NK Jemisin (renowned scifi writers) show us, using cross-cultural syncretism, the worst paths our current choices could lead us down.
Whether we decide to accept Eco-Fiction as real or not, no one can say that environmental fiction and non-fiction can’t be marketed.
Join us in looking at some of the wonderful books that draw inspiration from our Earth and environmental themes.
The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People by Amy Stross
5-Star Book Review
1st Place Winner in the Instructional & Insightful Awards
Author, educator, and urban farmer Amy Stross offers a comprehensive look at how to repurpose a small yard in the city for basic sustenance and so much more.
Award-winning writer Stross has composed a thoroughly practical guide to everything a reader would need to know to do what she did: transform a yard into a farm. Acknowledging that the ground surrounding a town dwelling is hardly what one thinks of when one thinks farmland, Stross draws from her personal experience to show precisely how the transformation can take shape. Her colorfully illustrated manual gives the basics for managing an ample garden space, or micro-farm, almost down to the minute (in fact, seven minutes twice a day).
Genetic engineering, murder, corporate-conglomerate profiteering, Interpol, and a plot to control humanity make Dark Seed, by Lawrence Verigin, a suspenseful thriller novel.
When jaded journalist Nick Barnes learns that Dr. Carl Elles has contacted him to say that Barnes’ recent article about the positive contributions of Naintosa Corporation is all wrong, Barnes feels compelled to educate the scientist about information laundering—the strategic planting of false information in the media so the planting organization can quote the media later for their own benefit. “It makes total sense,” Dr. Elles replies. “Naintosa employs that strategy on a regular basis.” Nick was about to explain to the scientist why he needed to check Dr. Elles’ information, when the scientist soon proves to Nick that the journalist is the lazy dupe who just published Naintosa’s propaganda in a complimentary article.
WANDERS FAR by David Fitz-Gerald
5-Star Book Review
First Place Winner in the Laramie Awards
In the early 1100s, in a region now known to us as the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, a small band of tribal people is living in longhouses, growing crops, fishing, hunting, and enjoying certain rituals such as face and body painting, occasional migration for food survival, and even seasonal “vacations,” all while willingly obeying a simple form of governance with elements of basic democracy. In this tribe, we meet Wanders Far, a child who earns his nickname after showing a propensity to disappear and explore since he could walk. His mother, Bear Fat, is the recognized chieftainess of their group, mother of a large brood, one of whom is stolen as the book opens. Wanders Far would be considered an unusual child in any society, gifted with a highly accurate memory and the ability to visualize future events. He can also run like the wind, and with his love for travel, he is often the first to see and warn his people of danger, such as a cadre of warriors from a hostile tribe heading towards his home settlement.
BLOSSOM — The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury (Audiobook Review) by Anna Carner
5-Star Book Review
Author Anna Carner lived in a horse-friendly farming area of New Jersey in 1999, when she encountered a newborn fawn, barely breathing, near her home. The animal seemed to be communicating its need to her, and, with some experience of animal and human care, Carner set out to revive the fawn. She took the baby deer into her house and nursed her back to health. When she and her husband, Pino, saw the fawn curled up asleep with the family dog, the couple knew they had a new pet. Her name, Blossom, seemed suited to her sweetness and soft, gentle beauty.
The ONLY ONE LEFT (The Neema Mysteries, Book 3)
by Pamela Beason
First Place Winner in the Clue Awards
While spending some time with his sweetheart, animal behavior scientist Grace McKenna and her adopted family of gorillas, Detective Matthew Finn finally endures a kiss from Neema while keeping an eye on the huge silverback Gumu. He accepts a ‘toy’ from their baby, Kanoni. But upon further inspection, Matt and Grace believe the object might be part of a human finger bone. Where did it come from? How did it get in the gorillas’ remodeled barn? The homicide detective knows he’ll need to investigate, but just then, his cell phone chirps.
Desk Sergeant Greer of the Evansburg, Washington, Police Department tells Matt to get back on duty and head directly to the Gorge Amphitheatre, where the Sasquatch Festival has just ended. A car belonging to a 17-year-old girl, last seen by her parents in Bellingham, Washington, three days earlier, has been found abandoned next to a tent in the Amphitheatre campground.
In this engaging children’s tale by author Gloria Two-Feathers, a young colt named Buck will learn how to obey, how to defend, and how to strike out on his own.
The scene is set in the Great Plains, where a river named Minisose divides a sea of tall green prairie grass. Many animals call that grassland their home, and the most magnificent is the herd of wild horses led by a dark stallion named Plenty Coups and his chosen mate, the lovely cream-colored mare, Cloud. By tradition and instinct, Plenty Coups protects the herd from attackers, while Cloud leads them to safety.
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Conchobar wakes, barely alive and in a world he does not know.
When he’s found by the tribes who call this land home, he’ll become caught by the ties of family, violence, and love, none of which he’s ready to face.
Conchobar lives in the house of Spits Teeth, the patriarch of his adoptive family. He struggles to learn their way of life, still tied by memory and longing to his home at the monastery of Skellig Michael. But he must learn to hunt, fish, and fight if he wants to survive and belong.
Despite his struggles and the language barrier itself, Conchobar begins to care for the new family around him. But an endless cycle of battle and bloodshed roars between his new tribe and their neighbors. Soon, events will rise and test his peaceful nature and put his beloved family in great peril. Beyond the threat of warclubs and arrows, a dark curse threatens to swallow all the good that he might find in this new world.
Conchobar’s life amongst the tribe of Spits Teeth is defined by his distance from them, his sense of being a fish out of water.
No matter how much he learns to live as the people around him do, he never quite understands them, always somehow on the outside looking in or yearning for his past life. He spends much of his time in his own head, musing on the world around him as he faces new and strange things. The world is interesting and alive through his eyes. The dynamic villagers show their place in the world with every word and action; as Conchobar grows close to them, they show more of who they are, what they want, and what they fear. Conchobar offers his love to his new family and his grave concern as he realizes the danger they’re in.
Fitz-Gerald takes time and great care with Conchobar, sitting with his thoughts and sorrows and joys.
His growing sense of doom becomes one with the story, as cruel twists of fate begin to unfold upon his new family. But between this dread, the people of the village open up as Conchobar learns their language, and the action of their battles and hunts together flows smoothly across the page. Their material world slowly mingles with the supernatural and mystical, spurred by Conchobar’s strange place between the two. But he doesn’t have the time to unravel his curse and his connection to the natural world, as the longer he stays in the midst of battle, the more personal it becomes to him.
The Curse of Conchobar is a tale of violence begetting violence, of the perseverance of faith and hope in the face of grief and fear. Conchobar’s dreamlike connection to nature becomes a religious experience, showing him wonders of the world, cut off by the approach of a people who never needed to be enemies.
Throughout the story, Conchobar’s voice remains strong. Fitz-Gerald breathes life into his Spits Teeth characters. In love, loss, and anger, the emotion is palpable to the reader and will remain long after the book is read. The Curse of the Conchobar – A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series scratches the itch for rich character exploration, historical fiction in a time and place often underrepresented, and a love story marked by tragedy and transcendence. In other words, Fitz-Gerald delivers a worthy prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series.
Thomas Wideman, the author of this dynamic self-help manual, Welfare Cheese to Fine Caviar: How to Achieve Your Dreams Despite Your Upbringing, rose from poverty and dismay to a life of security and personal achievement through techniques he shares with readers who can incorporate them into their own life plans.
