Author Archive
Posted on December 26, 2009 - by admin
Book Review : Beaded Colorways (BellaOnline)
More info…
A review of the book Beaded Colorways by Beverly Ash Gilbert
Posted on April 4, 2009 - by admin
History provides terrorizing truth to new work of fiction…
Infinite Exposure
ISBN 978-0-9770866-8-9 is an e-book by Roland Hughes, published by Logical Solutions in 465 pages.
{mosimage} The story begins with a secret international team of al-Qaida fighters following and apprehending an offshore web master who is part of an al-Qaida cell, which, in turn, is part of a far-ranging network. From here, the scene shifts to the financial districts of the United States, and their never ending search for ways to save money. The CEO of a huge American bank, with large branches in France and Germany, is approached by a marketing company to offshore their operations. Such a move will save millions of dollars and, in the thoughts of the executive, produce a lucrative advancement. He is more concerned with this personal gain, and does not think through the proposition, even when given hints by his second in command, who is most knowledgeable. A software company becomes involved and contributes further to the maneuvers, and the story progresses to a horrendous financial debacle, and many associated reactions. A third element enters the picture – a group of traders who deal with insider information, have ties to Account Executives in Russia, with the Russian Mafia, with China, and with the coordinator of the occult al-Qaida fighters.
To provide more details would spoil, for the reader, a most interesting and thought-provoking proposal of a possible future American agenda.
With respect to the writing, Roland Hughes quite masterfully juggles the various elements, as they shift from one to the next. His characters are interesting, and the story’s progression is at a fine pace. I read an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of this book which contained spelling and grammar problems. However, I understand the author has since had the manuscript fully edited and corrected. With removal of this jarring note, I should like to say that Roland Hughes has provided added enjoyment to a highly recommended read that presents some very serious thoughts to ponder, as well.
Purchase this exciting new book!
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
The Memoir of a Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
This is a story of Alan F. Kay, a man who dared to do. Kay, 82, developed the idea for a shared information exchange for the financial services industry in 1968, well before the Internet and the Bloomsburg news services made it commonplace. His name might be confused with another man; Alan Curtis Kay who conceived the Dynabook, a 1970’s predecessor to today’s laptops, notebook computers and E-books as well as the graphical user interface that we use to work in a Mac or Windows environment. Alan F. Kay is no less inventive, nor his scientific contributions less important. But his contributions to the public interest may be more noteworthy.
{mosimage}In the early 1980’s after, leaving AutEx, a company he had co-founded and led for sixteen years, Kay became one of the national leaders in the nuclear arms freeze movement. While at odds with the Reagan Administration, Kay joined with billionaire Armand Hammer, among others, to found a non-profit institute for U.S.-Soviet relations. His more recent accomplishments are in public interest polling; those had the most interest to me. (Full disclosure: my wife is a programmer for a market research company that conducts public interest polls.)
Kay was trained as a theoretical mathematician, earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a doctorate from Harvard. From reading this memoir, Militant Millionaire Peacenik, Memoir of a Serial Entrepreneur, I got the impression that Kay tried to take a rational approach to survey research, at least to the point where questions were carefully designed, as not to be politically biased.
One of his surveys, conducted in 1991 through an entity he created called America Talks Issues (ATI), was quite relevant to today; it was a survey on solutions that could lead to energy independence. This survey asked respondents to consider eighteen proposals for improving the U.S. energy supply. These ranged from expanding fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to conservation measures. Each respondent was asked to determine if each proposal had the potential to improve the economy as well as the environment.
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Plunder
Plunder:
Investigative Insight into a Financial Meltdown
Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar
These days I have to ask myself if book publishers and Wall Street make connected decisions on the release of business profile books. Is it mere coincidence that stories about AIG and Bear Stearns have appeared scant weeks after their failures were fait accompli with the business press?
{mosimage}Investigative journalist and television producer Danny Schechter asked that very same question in a new book: Plunder, Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. He explained that only a small press was willing to take on the title because Plunder did not fit the template for traditional business books where, in his own words, story telling trumps analysis. While Schecter has been part of news establishment himself—he produced ABC News’ 20/20 for seven years, part of an extremely long resume of credits—he prides himself on being an independent thinker.
Schechter’s experience shines throughout Plunder. He takes you step-by-step not only through the debt crisis that brought on the most recent federally-backed bailout, but also shows how the regulators and the national business news media were tacit collaborators with Wall Street and the Bush Administration. He does a better job at posing the pointed questions than someone like Michael Moore, who does not have either the education or professional journalistic experience. Nor does he take sides with the Democratic Party, as Moore does. Schechter holds them equally to blame, though he shows some hope for Barack Obama in this story. He does, however, show materials from academic allies, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as well as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who calls Schecter a “human rights activist.” And his writing style is less dry than Al Gore’s.
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Posted on October 24, 2008 - by admin
Initiation Into The Vampiric Arts
Posted on September 10, 2008 - by admin
Considering SomeplacElse
Armageddon Meets Carl Hiaasen
By Stuart Nachbar
After finishing this story, I was reminded of a line from All in the Family: people who live in communes are communists (the small c is mine—not Archie Bunker’s). It’s not that people who choose communal living want to overthrow the government; they prefer a society where everyone shares equally in the fun and the work, and no one person prospers more than the others. And everyone must join in to protect the commune when it is attacked by outsiders who don’t understand it or consider the place to be too different to be “acceptable.” Too many wars and vocal sparring matches have been fought over communities who desired to be different and left alone to be different.
{mosimage}SomeplacElse is a communal place in Arizona, founded by Michael Allen, a formerly homeless person who was allowed to win a $200 million lottery. The community is guided by a Biblical verse, First Timothy which says: “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you.” After 12 years, SomeplacElse has garnered incredible wealth, not only money, but in scientific knowledge. But the community has also reached critical mass, employing 12,000 people.
Norm Larson, the main character, is a computer systems engineer who has been down on his luck in the job market for some time. He comes onto a Web site: ConsiderSE.com and is invited to take part in an extremely unique interview process. He not only gets a lift to the interview in a Prius stretch limousine, he gets to interview the company. SomeplacElse guarantees life-long employment and health care, freedom to choose projects, paid relocation, an interest-free loan, and free food and housing. This all comes at a price—a fixed salary of $20,000 a year per family member and a requirement to change tasks every 10 years. Larson not only gets hired on at SomeplacElse, he gets the top job as Advocate—because 253 people in the commune know he’ll always do the right thing!
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Posted on April 30, 2008 - by admin
101 Accessible Vacations
An Interview with author, Candy Harrington
another exclusive interview with the Virtual Book Review Network
The Virtual Book Review Network is pleased to interview Candy Harrington, author of 101 Accessible Vacations; Travel ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers, which is the first guidebook dedicated exclusively to wheelchair-accessible destinations, lodgings and recreational opportunities. Organized by activity and interest, the chapters help illustrate the wide variety of accessible vacation choices for over 101 cities, lodging options, national parks, tourist attractions and recreational activities around the world.
{mosimage}About the author: Candy Harrington is the editor of Emerging Horizons, and the award-winning author of several accessible travel books who has been covering accessible travel exclusively for 14 years. For more information visit http://www.101AccessibleVacations.com. Candy also blogs regularly on accessible travel issues at http://www.BarrierFreeTravels.com.
LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to focus on accessible travel?
Candy Harrington: Well, I’ve been a travel writer all of my life, but 14 years ago I decided to change my focus a bit. Looking back, I was tired of writing what I considered “fluff” and I wanted to do something that was more of a challenge. A friend suggested accessible travel. Nobody was doing it at the time so I definitely saw it as a challenge. To be honest, I had to spend a few years just learning the laws and the realities of accessible travel, before I ever wrote a word about it. Shortly thereafter I founded Emerging Horizons, a magazine about accessible travel. And today I write columns for other publications, provide internet content, pen books, host a radio show, and even write features for other magazines — all on the subject of accessible travel. I guess you could say things kind of snowballed (in a good way) for me.
LAUREN SMITH: Can you tell us about a couple of your favorite accessible vacation spots?
Candy Harrington: Well personally, I love Yosemite. I’m a mountain girl and I grew up not far from there, so it’s just a favorite place of mine. It’s changed a lot over the years, and part of those changes include improved accessibility. Just a few years ago they unveiled a great new accessible trail to the base of Yosemite Falls. The trail they had before was a bit dicey for wheelchair-users, but some folks could do it with a lot of assistance. The new trail is beautiful, and not only is it very accessible, but it also blends in with the natural environment. It was designed by the same landscape architect who did the FDR Memorial in Washington DC, and he did a great job.
Posted on February 1, 2008 - by admin
Fables from the Mud
An Interview with author, Erik Quisling
another exclusive interview with the Virtual Book Review Network
{mosimage}Lauren Smith: What inspired you to create a work of fiction?
Erik Quisling: I initially came up with the idea for Fables from the Mud shortly after I graduated college. In the course of my soul searching and trying to figure out my place in the world, I was struck with the idea of a clam who was trying to do the exact same thing. For some reason it struck me as extremely amusing. This is how The Angry Clam, the first fable in my book, was born.
Lauren Smith: Do you see Fables From the Mud as a satire, cultural commentary or something more?
Erik Quisling: Fables From The Mud is about three little creatures – a clam, an ant, and a worm – all of whom are struggling with very human problems. The stories are satirical but in many ways are simply a cultural commentary on the human obsession with finding meaning in the world. All in all, they are designed to be amusing and to get you to see somewhat the absurdity of taking life too seriously.
Lauren Smith: How did you develop each of the fables?
Erik Quisling: Each fable was born from its own separate bout of inspiration. In each case, it was a single line of text that came to me that was like lighting a fuse that set the story on its course. Once the fuse was lit, the stories pretty much wrote themselves – I simply had to go back and edit them a little bit.
Lauren Smith: Are any of the characters based on anyone – or any type of person – you know?
Erik Quisling: I can say that the more I read the stories, the more I learn about myself. But I truly think each character is a reflection of some deeply common human experience – not of any human in particular.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
