YOU BELONG HERE NOW
By Dianna Rostad
In this brilliant debut, three children take the orphan train from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life.
Montana: 1925. An Irish boy orphaned by Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won’t speak, and a volatile young man who lies about his age to escape Hell’s Kitchen are paraded on train platforms across the Midwest to work-worn folks. They journey countless miles, racing the sun westward. Before they reach the last rejection and stop, the oldest, Charles, comes up with a daring plan, and alone they set off toward the Yellowstone River and grassy mountains where the wild horses roam.
Fate guides them toward the ranch of a family stricken by loss. Nara, the daughter of a successful cattleman, has grown into a brusque spinster who refuses the kids on sight. She’s worked hard to gain her father’s respect and hopes to run their operation, but if the kids stay, she’ll be stuck in the kitchen.
Nara works them without mercy, hoping they’ll run off, Instead, they buck up and show spirit, and though Nara will never be motherly, she begins to take to them. So, when Charles is jailed for freeing wild horses that were rounded up for slaughter, and an abusive mother from New York shows up to take the youngest, Nara does the unthinkable, risking everything she holds dear to change their lives forever.
THE AUTHOR
Dianna Rostad was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Her parents and extended family come from the ranches of Montana and the farms of Arkansas. Dianna raised three kind human beings, and when they began to test their wings, she took to writing with a passion, completing Southern Methodist University Writer’s Path program in 2009. She has traveled extensively to pursue the last artifacts of our shared history and breathe life, truth, and hope into her novels. She lives in Florida.
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MRS. SAVILLE
By Ted Morrissey
Margaret Saville’s husband has been away on business for weeks and has stopped replying to her letters. Her brother, Robert Walton, has suddenly returned after three years at sea, having barely survived his exploratory voyage to the northern pole. She still grieves the death of her youngest child as she does her best to raise her surviving children, Felix and Agatha. The depth of her brother’s trauma becomes clear: she must add his health and sanity to her list of cares.
A bright spot seems to be a new friendship with a young woman who has just returned to England from the Continent, but Margaret soon discovers that her friend, Mary Shelley, has difficulties of her own, including an eccentric poet husband, Percy, and a book she is struggling to write.
Margaret’s story unfolds in a series of letters to her absent husband, desperate for him to return or at least to acknowledge her epistles and confirm that he is well. She is lonely, grief-stricken and afraid, yet in these darkest of times, a spirit of independence begins to awaken.
THE AUTHOR
Ted Morrissey is an award-winning author who lives near Springfield, IL. Recent novels include Crowsong for the Stricken (International Book Award and American Fiction Award), Mrs. Saville (Manhattan Book Award), and The Artist Spoke. His collection First Kings and Other Stories was released in 2020. In addition to fiction, he has also published several books of scholarship. His novel excerpts, short stories, poems, essays and reviews have appeared in more than 80 publications.
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GUT FEELINGS
By Douglas A. Drossman and Johannah Ruddy
This book is written for patients and their doctors by an internationally acclaimed gastroenterologist and patient advocate. It contains up-to-date knowledge on the science, diagnosis and treatment of all the Disorders of Gut-Brain and offers techniques to maximize the patient-doctor relationship.
For the patient, it will help you to:
Understand and manage your GI symptoms and improve the care you receive
Talk with your doctors — learn what to say, what to ask and what to do when the visit is not going well
Find the best clinical programs for treating DGBI
Understand why you have symptoms when all tests are negative
For the doctor, it will help you to:
Learn the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of all Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction
Elicit accurate information from the medical interview to make a precise diagnosis
Acquire communication skills to better connect with your patients
THE AUTHOR
Douglas A. Drossman, MD is trained in gastroenterology and psychiatry and was the founder and co-director of the Center for Functional GI and Motility Disorders at the University of North Carolina. He is an internationally recognized scientist, clinician, and educator in DGBI and communication skills training. He has written over 500 peer-reviewed scientific articles, published 15 books, and was awarded numerous federal research grants. He is the founder, former president, and current COO of the Rome Foundation. As president of DrossmanCare, he produces educational videos and develops workshops and training programs in communication skills.
Johannah Ruddy, MEd is a patient advocate with a background in education and a career in nonprofit management. As Executive Director of the Rome Foundation, she coordinates ad operations and educational programs. With DrossmanCare, Ms. Ruddy facilitates workshops in patient-centered care and is a simulated patient in videos on communication skills. She can articulate her experiences in a way that educates doctors and motivates patients to self-actuate and assume responsibility in their care.
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To learn more about Johannah, visit her website.
HOLLYWOOD TO THE HIMALAYAS:
A JOURNEY OF HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION
By Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati
Hollywood to the Himalayas is the enlightening memoir of a reluctant spiritual seeker who finds much more than she bargained for when she travels to India.
As a Stanford grad, in the midst of getting a PhD in psychology, Sadhvi Saraswati was comfortable with her life. Despite years of grappling with an eating disorder and trauma from her early childhood, she felt as if she was successfully navigating her way through early adulthood. When she agreed to travel to India to appease her husband — and because she loved the food — Sadhvi would have never imagined that she would be embarking on a journey of healing and awakening.
Hollywood to the Himalayas describes Sadhvi’s odyssey towards divine enlightenment and inspiration through her extraordinary connection with her guru and renewed confidence in the pleasure and joy that life can bring. Now one of the preeminent female spiritual teachers in the world, Sadhvi recounts her journey with wit, honesty and clarity and, along the way, offers teachings to help us all step onto our own path of awakening and discover the truth of who we really are — embodiments of the Divine.
THE AUTHORS
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, PhD is a renowned spiritual leader in India. She is President of Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education and empowerment to women and children. She is Secretary-General of Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, launched by UNICEF, the first alliance of religious leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Sadhvi is also Director of the world-famous International Yoga Festival.
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A BLEARY-EYED STRANGER
By Raven Ruthe
Raven Ruthe (not her real name) has spent more than two decades helping her daughter battle a severe drug addiction, which made life for both of them a living hell. Only as she approached her forties and with the help of her mother’s unceasing love, courage and faith in God, was Raven’s daughter finally able to settle into recovery, but the experience has left scars on the whole family. Raven has written this book to paint a vivid picture of the horrors of addiction and to help fellow suffering families to find the light at the end of a very long tunnel.
THE AUTHOR
Raven Ruthe is the pen name of a licensed psychotherapist and clinical social worker. She has a PhD in Holistic Health Sciences and for the past twenty-five years has been teaching Health Psychology Mind-Body Connection for a local college. She is a stress management consultant and has treated families and individuals and facilitated support groups for people struggling with grief, loss and addiction. She is an advocate for truth and freedom, educating people about addiction, a disease process that hijacks the brain.
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To learn more about Raven, visit her website.
THE REALITY OF THE
PHANTASM WORLD, VOL I
(The Phantom World, Vol I)
By Madelaine Chaproll
Thomas Bernhard is a talented artist who enjoys a comfortable and financially secure existence well within the bounds of social convention. Although he is aware of the superficiality of human relationships, it is not something that bothers him — he sees it rather as a sign of the fast-paced times we live in. But just as his marriage with Ellen starts heading toward a crisis, he meets Margot, a college student of his Russian friend Irina. At first glance, it seems as though the artist and student are soulmates; they feel an instant connection to one another and enter into a relationship that leads them to see and understand the world in a completely new light.
Thomas decides to invite Margot on vacation to his villa in Narbonne, where they will be able to enjoy their fledgling love in secret. Surrounded by the beautiful scenery of the South of France, the lovers experience many moments of happiness more intense than they have ever known. But fate has an awful blow in store for them: a terrible, secret illness turns the beautiful Margot into a person from whom Thomas, to his horror, finds he must separate himself immediately. Misery takes the helm from joy, steering both lovers’ lives towards a bitter, calamitous end.
THE AUTHOR
Madeleine Chaproll was born a migrant child in Romania. She was five when she first entered an orphanage. Her life was one of permanent moving: new towns, new boarding homes, new schools. But despite of all this, her childhood was an absolutely ordinary one. The tremendous power of her fantasy could transform even the saddest moments in her life into joy and hope. She would call herself a blessed child. Books and the study of ballet and music brought color and beauty into her life, allowing her to often ignore the grey reality. She studied at a commercial college and later married an ethnic German engineer, with whom she emigrated a few years later to Germany.
PARADISE RISING
By P.G. Shriver
Explore an unusual encounter, a predestined connection and two superhuman teens. 13-year-old Cheater isn’t even sure how she ended up wanted for murder. Burdened with a power she doesn’t understand, triggered by creeping darkness she can’t remember, she’s both saved and taken lives. Then she encounters a boy who might be the key to cracking the mystery. 15-year-old Jaz has survived too many tragedies to stay on the right side of the law; when he discovers that he and Cheater are connected to the same mysterious fairytale, he feels drawn to her quest for answers.
But with danger lurking around every corner and the police hot on their trail, they may not even make it past the city limits … can the pair discover why Fate linked them before they land behind bars? Discover the captivating first book in this superhero fantasy series if you like smart heroines, gritty settings and stories of hope.
THE AUTHOR
P. G. Shriver is the author of The Lonely Chair, three young adult novels, and the Texas Festivals picture book series featuring her reading puppet, Sally the Travelin’ Saddle. She’s been writing since the age of seven and currently lives in Texas with her family which includes both two and four-legged members. She works as an instructor at a local college.
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To learn more about P.G., visit her website.