Local Voices
A hate crime strikes the house of Max, Brian, and their newly adopted son Donte. Clinging to his idealism, Max helps his family navigate this difficult time with grit, faith, and acceptance. This novel was written by Malcolm Varner of Grove City, Ohio who is a social worker and mental health advocate. He received his undergraduate degree from Oberlin and his MSSA from Case Western Reserve University.
In The Beautiful Journey, Andrea takes you on an emotional rollercoaster as she chronicles her journey through cancer. You'll laugh (yes, laugh), cry, and cheer her on as she battles to become victorious over this disease. Andrea shares her raw, honest experiences as she is forced to make heavy, life-saving decisions.
However, The Beautiful Journey is more than a story about cancer. Andrea includes many valuable lessons she learns as a result of facing this adversity, including:
- How to overcome fear
- How blessings can be found in adversity
- The difference between living a successful life vs. one of significance
- The importance of living...on purpose
- Finding the beauty in all things
- The importance of listening to your body
As you follow Andrea's story of how she claims victory over cancer, you'll be able to go on your own "beautiful journey" of self-discovery and awareness.
Many are asking, what is wrong with teaching, learning, schooling, and education, and what can be done? You will get the answers (panacea) from the letters of a mad public school teacher: intrepid, irascible, cantankerous, provocative, passionate, thought-provoking, iconoclastic, and enhanced with vitriolic demagoguery.
As a grad student / colleague said, Thanks for an enjoyable class on education issues in society. I also enjoyed your letters to the editor. I've been told that I say what other people think. Well, you write and publish what we're all thinking.
Chasity Strawder, a Black woman in northern Ohio, recounts her high risk pregnancy and healthcare disparities in this urgent memoir. She also tells stories of kindness, such as when her chiropractor gave her free treatments and herbs to assist with her pain. Her memoir is a powerful call to action for Black women’s maternal health and a universal story of motherhood. Strawder is a well-known advocate for black women's maternal health through Cuyahoga County.
Listen to an interview with Chasity on Lines of Loganberry on Spotify.
Our country is divided in so many ways, with a growing chasm between men and women.
The news cycle is discouraging. Emotional and physical toxicity is at an all-time high. We're all starting to feel it in some shape or form, and many of us are struggling with how to keep our children protected from it all.
The problem is we're suffering from an empathy deficit.
But the really good news is there's a way out.
Healing starts with re-examining our modern myths about how we work, what "quality time" at home really means, and why the age-old battle of the sexes persists.
We can't continue down the path of least resistance. We need to carve a new way.
Currency of Empathy sets the stage for that new way by tackling disturbingly common issues like:
But here's the real kicker - it's not about gender - it's about nurturing empathy in our children and ourselves so we can help shape and mold happier, healthier, more productive communities and societies.
What is the hope of this book? That we all start valuing caring - especially parenting - in a way that helps us reprioritize how we spend our time, grow the superpower of affective empathy in children and adults, and heal our empathy deficit.
It's that simple, even if it doesn't seem easy, but we're willing to bet this book is the motivator you've been waiting for.
Currency of Empathy already at work:
"The revolution of the future will hinge on the empathy-inducing "co-creation" explained so masterfully and entertainingly in these pages."
"If someone feels that they could use some advice on improving their quality of life - this book is an answer."
"This book is academic without being dense and warm without being overly sentimental or new-agey."
"... an uplifting, inspiring book. It makes you think. It makes you smile. And it makes you feel more hopeful than you did before you picked it up!"
"The book will cause you to self-examine. It will provoke you to think, and think again."
DESTINY’S DARK LIGHT by Sara Dobie Bauer is contemporary adult paranormal romance focusing on Cyan Burroughs, a white witch whose birth has been prophesied to save the world in a battle with the dreaded Dorcha, a dark and powerful sorcerer. It is a story of magic, power, witches and love.
When a recent college graduate with a smoking habit is called to serve on the board at his local church, he immediately struggles with separating his public and private lives. His fantasized ideas of religion suddenly become dangerously real as he's enmeshed in a perfect storm of events which leads to, of all things, spending three extremely paranormal days behind bars. When it's all said and done, it seems as though he has entered through the gates of hell and been released to the flip side of life.
There, friends and family often appear as enemies and everyone speaks using a strange, coded lingo. With a mind full of problems, but no solutions, he tries to navigate in this bizarre new world, experiencing strange phenomena on the highways, unnatural episodes during house visits and hospital stays, and futuristic visions while at sea. He journeys across the United States trying to get home, veritably touched by a host of eclectic men and woman along the way.
Hades' Melody is a remarkable coming-of-age memoir which unabashedly explores abandonment, solitary spirituality, prophecy and the dark songs of language. It's a spectacular narrative that delves into the psyche of an individual searching for answers during the subtly explosive dawn of a new era.
Something had to change. Two parents challenge one another to find balance between work and family life. Their stories are both uproarious and poignant as they raise children and strive to leave their mark on the wider world. Filled with tender moments and plenty of laughs, Here Be Dragons recounts the adventures of a family trying to stay afloat, and offers a life raft to the rest of us in choppy waters.
Hidden in Plain Sight is a down-to-earth subjective account of the author's abbreviated brush with cancer. An abrupt melanoma diagnosis threatens to unhinge an otherwise unproblematic orientation. There is an unsettling role reversal as the author, a registered nurse, becomes the patient.
Past and present intertwine as vivid examples of God's provision are illuminated during a crisis that seemingly surfaced out of nowhere. The universal themes are thought-provoking and relatable, regardless of one's status or circumstances.
May 9, 2019 marks the ten-year anniversary of the author's cancer-free status!
It is entertaining to be anti-Masonic and perpetuate conspiracy theories and stories based on satanic worship rather than join Freemasonry or any other private organization primarily structured with improving the individual in society. The Masonic term "making good men better" is the desire of the craft concerning all people living in a multicultural society to better themselves. This is masonry in a nutshell. To achieve this betterment takes a great deal of work and self-introspection, which the critics of the craft refuse to endure and fail to examine the important historical esoteric symbols associated with the craft. This book is dedicated toward neutralizing such superficial negative ideology pursued by critics who have a personal interest in negating the significant works of the greatest fraternal organization in the world. Contained herein are chapters on women in Freemasonry, the Catholic Church, and Freemasonry (which contains an addendum relating to over one hundred cardinals and bishops who, under pseudonyms, were Freemasons), a chapter on the 133rd Psalm (providing a line-by-line interpretation of a work which provides the important ideological, humanistic basis for both society and Freemasonry) with an important chapter analyzing the final end-period of a man's life as it related to Ecclesiastes Chapter 12. Men join Freemasonry because in their hearts, they seek to improve themselves. In a reality, any can start living as principled individuals, exercising the same values without being a Freemason. All that is required is desire and work effort, with a foundation from the Holy Bible to betterment of himself. However, the Masonic Craft assists an individual in this journey by providing defined structure, support, and a roadmap that helps focus the advancement and, as such, increases the probability of a successful outcome. Freemasonry centers on learning how to charge one's self with thought and physical conduct. However, in order to improve, one must read, study, and understand the true nature of reality in life, buttressed by the role of oneself and those with which one socializes. This philosophy underlines why the most important virtues of Freemasonry are symbolic and teach us to be better humans. Freemasonry gains its structure and foundation through an inherent love of an adherence to the Holy Bible and would not exist without that devotion. The foundation of Masonry is predicated on the fact that the craft and the Bible are intricately interconnected, just as other holy books around the world are central to their Freemason organizations. Much of Masonry's symbolism is taken from biblical sources, especially Genesis and the stories surrounding the building of King Solomon's temples. Great emphasis is placed on the development of moral and ethical virtues and the building of character, with truth being the guiding principle of our lives. Thus, brotherhood and charity are natural outcomes and further define one of Masonry's major tenets. Masonry uses proven methods to enhance the lives and spirits of members in a tangible way. In every Masonic lodge, upon its altar, there is a Holy Bible supporting the square and compasses. This old familiar book, so beloved by so many generations, is our Volume of the Sacred Law and represents the Great Light in Freemasonry. The Bible is open when the lodge opens; the Bible is closed when the lodge closes. No lodge can transact its own business, much less initiate candidates into the mysteries of the craft, unless the Book of Holy Law lies open upon its altar. It is the true responsibility of each individual Mason to seek out and understand the true nature of reality through the teachings of Freemasonry discovered in the symbols of the craft. The individual must learn to recognize and interpret the footprints of the deity and the sublime methods that he uses to reveal his message. So mote it be. May the mystery begin
'I Used to Be Racist is about my life growing up in NYC pre and post-9/11. I never discriminated or judged anyone based on their religion and/or race until that tragic day and the weeks that followed. At 10-years old, I loaded up on the information being shared by the local news stations about what the terrorists looked like, and how they could be potentially lurking in various parts of the city. After moving to Ohio, I experienced racism for the first time, which opened my eyes on my own ignorance. Eventually, I became brave enough to encounter the "enemy."
Sometimes it takes going back to finally BREAK FREE.
After fleeing the Theosian authorities and acclimating to their new home, teenage aliens Joshua and Mani have at long last carved out lives for themselves on Earth. With a circle of human friends more supportive than they ever imagined, Joshua and Mani discover true friendship is universal. And, for Joshua, so is true love, in the form of an Earthling named Emma.
But the Theosian authorities are not so easily thwarted. The decree of no first contact with Earth must be upheld. A spy sent to Earth aims to find, capture, and return Joshua and Mani to Theos for prosecution.
To protect Mani, safeguard his human friends, and preserve his idyllic existence with the love of his life, Joshua risks going back in order to finally BREAK FREE.
Get your copy today!
Joshua: Life After Theos (Book 1 in the series) was a finalist in the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Competition in the category of Young New Adult (ages 17+).
The government of Theos prohibits contact with Earth, having deemed it a hostile and unevolved planet of inhabitants. Two of their leading scientists have worked for years to prove Theosians can successfully survive on Earth, but not before a deadly and fatal explosion takes their lives. Their son, a young, scientific phenom, vows to defend his parents' theories as he disobeys law and escapes his planet, plummeting his craft toward Earth's surface with his ex-girlfriend secretly stowed away.
On Earth, their personality differences erupt causing them to live separate lives. However, an unknown atmospheric anomaly, results in a break-down in body strength, requiring them to meet yearly to perform a regenerative ritual for survival. Despite each being 17 years of age, one chooses to regress to high school for fun, games and no responsibilities, while the other takes on the identity of a college freshman, for a life of logic and pure reason.
Despite their differences, they each struggle to acclimate and find themselves up against deadly illness and evil forces, aimed at exposing their secret existence. But nothing poses a greater threat than a battle against the heart.
A gardener tends her vegetables and flowers while devising a way to manage her burgeoning chipmunk problem. A daughter pens a letter to her dead father. Jesus saunters into hot yoga and dazzles the assembled practitioners. Three sisters play on their swing set in the middle of the night. In these-and other-poems from Just the Girls: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees, women support, cheer, challenge, and, ultimately, sustain each other. Just the Girls celebrates women and what it means to be connected to the female whole.
"We're in the presence of a poet with an ear for how language shapes our worlds, and an eye alert to the details that make those worlds real to us. What a splendid, moving collection of lyrics!" Dr. Steven Reese, authorExcentrica: Notes on the Text
"Anderson gives our everyday lives a voice that is rich and cuts to the quick. She has a gift for articulating the beauties and mysteries of our lives in poetry that will leave you wanting more." Diane Laney Fitzpatrick, author and social media strategist
"These poems are a poignant catalog of what we learn from girls and women, inspiration and cautionary tale, and our complicated memories of domestic life." Karen Schubert, author of The Compost Reader
Medium Brave is the poignant story of what it was like growing up transgender in 1950s Ohio-the challenges, the confusion, the struggle of growing up different twenty years before the term that defines that condition has even been created. Told with gentle humor, insight, and heartbreaking honesty, Medium Brave will touch the heart, inspire the mind, and encourage any soul still struggling with their authenticity and freedom to find out what it means to be medium brave.
Set in Cleveland, Ohio, from its earliest beginnings as a forested frontier to the urban blight of modern times, Mistakes by the Lake is a collection of ten thematically linked stories spanning the many faces of the city's history: A motorman navigates his 1920's back-and-forth trolley until he snaps; A stockyards knocker encounters the Virgin Mary during the 1954 World Series; A wannabe wrestles his unruly mind along the flammable 1960's Cuyahoga River; In a reinvention of Henry IV, a young man must either stick with his bumbling criminal crew or uncover legit ways to support his mother and transgender Gramps.
The collection and its stories have garnered numerous accolades: Finalist: Nilsen Prize (Southeast Missouri State University); Winner: The Lake Prize in Fiction (Midwestern Gothic); Shortlisted: The Novella Award (Liverpool John Moores University); Shortlisted: Munster Literature Centre's Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition; Honorable Mention: Family Matters Contest (Glimmer Train). Praise for the novella, Mistakes by the Lake: "Full of action, movement, tension and shocks. T he world of the Cleveland stockyards and its denizens is brought to life with verve, skill and command" (Vulpes Libris).
Singing specters, secret passageways, unsolved clues, abandoned mansions, old photo albums and hidden motives are all found in the four stories making up this unique collection, Mysterious Tales of the Unexplained. A young sleuth solves a mystery surrounding a creepy, community theatre in Break A Leg & Knock 'Em Dead. She then goes on to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy factory owner in House up on the Hill. In Picture on the Wall, a mother/daughter restoration team experience ghostly encounters in an old, abandoned mansion. And six young friends go on a mystery weekend at a spooky inn, deciphering clues and exploring the mysterious property, only to find much more going on than they thought.
Georgia Pritchard's dream house has a dead child in the attic and a monster in the basement but she can't tell her husband because she's not sure it's really him anymore.
"Dark and absolutely riveting...flawlessly paced and suspenseful. This taut tale of horror provocatively keeps the reader waiting for final revelation as an eerie juxtaposition of good and evil is revealed. This is a winner." -The Prairies Book Review
"A Gothic tale of horror with a touch of fantasy, Roseneath reads like a beloved book from your childhood that you've just rediscovered in your mother's attic. McSwain's prose is poetry, smooth jazz, and oftentimes charming even when describing the darkest terrors. In the tradition of The Yellow Wallpaper, Flowers in the Attic, and Rebecca." -James Renner, author of The Man from Primrose Lane
"...an unsettling, psychological terror that slowly builds into a nightmarish crescendo... a deft blend of deeply human horror and personal internal conflict...Replete with lyrical prose and bone-chilling horror, Roseneath is a twisted, grotesque haunted house story." -Indie Reader
"...a solid literary horror page-turner... exceptional... more than just heart-stopping surprises and supernatural encounters." -Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"Amazing... McSwain uses her poetic voice to paint a portrait of a couple... and the true demon they have to fight...." -Brendan Whitt, screenwriter and author of A Summer in Harlem
Charles Ellenbogen has been teaching for a long time. He moved into his first classroom when Bill Clinton moved into the White House and has been teaching long enough to see Hillary Clinton lose an election and to hear a student point to a picture of the Clintons and say, "That's Hillary Clinton and. . . and her husband."
That doesn't mean he's especially good at it; it just means that he's been doing it a long time. It doesn't mean he has 38 Recipes for Great Teaching; it does mean he has a lot of stories. And these are some of them. You will laugh at some and get frustrated or even angry at others. But they all are real, and some of them don't end well because, after all, this isn't the movies.
Lonely and broke, Cleveland divorce-survivor Allie Harper believes all her problems would be solved if she could find a nice, smart, hot guy and enough money to get her car fixed.
The hot guy arrives first: he's in a crosswalk clutching a bag of groceries while a blonde in a Hummer is learning hard on her horn, sending the man's groceries and white cane flying. How has this woman missed that fact that the man is blind? From the curb, an outraged Allie jumps to his rescue, rebagging the groceries as well.
The money is in the bag. Literally - Thomas Bennington III, for that's who the handsome guy proves to be, has bought a MondoMegaJackpot ticket along with canned tomatoes. Allie takes him home and turns his groceries into dinner for two. Later that night, Tom hears the numbers announced. He's won. And he's less than thrilled. PhD Tom had gambled on the odds of losing (175 million to one) to prove a point to Rune, a kid from the projects he's befriended, that only losers buy lottery tickets. Instead, Rune, who'd helped pick the Mondo numbers, will share Tom's jackpot.
Allie and Tom grasp two things: one, they're hot for each other, and two, the ticket is a hot target, and now so are they. Every scheming weasel in Cleveland will be after Tom's millions. $550 of them. Yes, once the Mondo ball drops, it's game on with killers and kidnappers as players.
Allie and Tom need to get smarter about the threats all around them. On the run from one fancy hotel refuge to another and from one danger moment to the next, with only Allie s feisty landlady, Margo, and a couple of Cleveland cops for back-up, Allie and Tom evolve a strategy. First, turn in the ticket and claim the jackpot. Second, set up accounts to manage the millions. Third, stay alive to the end of the week...if they can.
Too Lucky to Live debuts a talented writer in Annie Hogsett and a couple in Allie and Tom, a modern Nick and Nora Charles, who can power a compelling, amusing series with an excellent future.
Saddled with the grim inheritance of a bankrupt Russian teahouse in a Detroit slum, Alex Winters' life is filled with more misfortune than a Tolstoy novel. Using her knack for observation and the songs playing on the radio, Alex passes the time by writing quirky backstories for the parade of inner city characters that drift in and out of her teahouse, each one inspired by her love of music. But all that changes when an enigmatic stranger walks though her door. Tall, dark, and grumpy, ex-Marine Frank Brennan's daily visits to the teahouse defy any plot twist Alex can imagine. Frank's mysterious behavior leaves her wondering who he really is and why he keeps trying to improve her bleak situation. But when Frank's unique brand of tactical chivalry slams head-on into a mob payment gone bad, Alex finds herself on the run in an epic cross-country road trip with a twitchy veteran who acts like his mission objective is to get as far away from her as possible...
...which would be fine if Alex hadn't the misfortune to fall hard for the rough-around-the-edges Gunner. Getting Frank Brennan to admit he feels the same is a risky gambit, but Alex Winters has four days, two thousand miles of road, and a strategy for unconditional surrender that could bring even the most battle-hardened soldier to his knees.
Winter Unscripted
Meet Frank Brennan, a veteran Hollywood action hero who meets his match in smart-mouthed screenwriter Alex Winters...
Nope, scratch it. That rom/com crap has been done to death. And I can't even picture Mr. Name, Rank, and Serial Number in hair and makeup.
Brennan's Lament
Meet Frank Brennan, highly-trained government spook and international hit man on the trail of a mysterious Russian assassin named Alex...
Hmmm...maybe not. I mean, he's tall, dark, and smoking hot but he's not like "international man of mystery cosmopolitan." I bet he eats his steak well done. With ketchup. Oh well, let's try again.
Bangkok Vengeance
Meet Frank Brennan, husband, father, vinyl siding salesman...
Oh, he's going to hate this one. But it's still not quite right. It needs something. Let's see... add some Russian mobsters... maybe change the location from Detroit to umm...Argentina? Albuquerque? No, wait... Bangkok! That's it! I've got it now.
... but when his secret past as a disavowed double agent catches up to him, Frank finds himself on the run from something even more terrifying than the Russian goons sent to kill him: his furious wife, Alex.
From the mixed-up files of Alex Winters comes three high-octane, adrenaline-packed, hyphen-heavy adventures in deciphering the mystery that is Frank Brennan: Winter Unscripted, Brennan's Lament, and Bangkok Vengeance.
Bombarded by voices of fear and failure, how do you move past them to become all God designed for you? Our thoughts, and those of our parents, cloud our thinking. They feed us positive and negative images based on past hurts, telling us we're not good enough.
Unfortunately, our children can inherit those voices and adopt them.
Do you feel controlled by fear and circumstance? You are not alone. As an award-winning journalist, Romona Robinson heard thousands of women share feelings of entrapment. Waiting to hear from God about their career, finances, their children, relationships or health, they grow weary, searching for answers. Why hasn't God come to their rescue?
Controlled by pain, Romona almost missed God's purpose. In Your Voice is Your Power, she shares agonizing and triumphant stories of women and painful personal lessons about living in fear and listening to negative influences. Those voices threatened to take her down and out, until she learned to take back her life. "Now that God is in charge, I am finally living the abundant life He promised--and so can you."
Middle grade fiction. Marcy is in for a ride when she keeps a rock. Little does she know what Zoody the Rock is up to when he goes on one doozy of an adventure come nightfall. He tells all the animated critters his own perspective. Marcy brings out his natural glow which gets noticed.
Read Together (Ages 3 and up)
Ida Finds Her Voice is a children's picture book written by Cleveland author and educational consultatnt Dr. Kate Anderson Foley. The story recounts a day in the life of Ida, a multiracial elementary school girl, who encounters people being unkind to other people. In the end, she embraces love over hate. Foley wrote the book to help parents talk about hard topics like prejudice and intolerance.
Be sure to listen to Loganberry's conversation with Dr. Foley and co-author Jenifer Anderson-Smith on the Lines of Loganberry Podcast on Spotify.
