Collecting my Thoughts
Former educator and avid volunteer, Connie Evans, has compiled a broad array of essays in her new book COLLECTING MY THOUGHTS. She tackles sixty-five diverse topics, including politics and religion. Her writing is rich with humor and reflects a life well lived. She hopes these thought-provoking pieces will prompt her readers, young and old, to share their stories and points of views with others.
To purchase, visit: www.cothoughts.com
Ozzie and the Island / Ozzie y la Isla
written and illustrated by Amelia K. Wyatt, Davidson, NC
In this bi-lingual book for preschoolers that explores the immigrant experience, a funny-looking bird named Ozzie is looking for a new home. Hungry, tired, and thirsty, he lands on a little island in the middle of the ocean. There he encounters strangers who are not very friendly. Like many immigrants adapting to new surroundings, Ozzie finds himself frustrated and confused. One small gesture, however, provides hope for friendship and acceptance.
More information about this book can be found at www.ameliakwyatt.com. Or to purchase: www.amazon.com.
100 Love Notes and The #100 Love Notes Project
Flying socks, Spanish anchovies, origami butterflies, and tarot cards comprise just a small part of the collaborative efforts that produced 100 Love Notes, the book. Here, author Hyong Yi and the 17 artists he commissioned to illustrate his 100 three-line poems share some of the insights behind their work. Together, they have illuminated a story that captured the hearts of people around the world, giving it even greater meaning and purpose.
The initial version of Hyong Yi’s 100 Love Notes launched on the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina on November 21, 2015. To honor his wife, Catherine Zanga, on the one-year anniversary of her death from ovarian cancer, Hyong and his two young children gave strangers 100 handwritten love notes, notes that chronicled Hyong and Catherine’s life together, from their first meeting, to dating, marriage, children, and her death, which came far too soon.
To purchase this title please click on this link: 100 Love Notes
THE STORYTELLER’S APPRENTICE
This story began with one artist inviting another to collaborate. “I’ll paint some backgrounds; you add characters,” said Brit. “Well sure, I’d be delighted,” replied Jen. A dozen boards and a year later, the artists decided the characters needed their own stories. In stepped Dana, who accepted the challenge of writing a story after the illustrations were already done—a backwards process. The resulting collaboration tells the story of a young girl, Arella, and her new mentor, Samira, the storyteller.
In Arella’s village of Loden, coming of age means becoming an apprentice. Though all of the villagers expect Arella’s sister to become the storyteller’s apprentice, Samira chooses the shy and quiet Arella. When Arella is forced to leave her childhood home and face her biggest fears, she follows an unexpected path of adventure, hardship, and enchantment. She learns to appreciate the power in a name and the importance of stories. Along the way, Arella comes to value her own talents and learns to see the beauty and magic that surrounds her. All she had to do was LISTEN.
The book incorporates a series of inner stories that help Arella grow into her gifts, and will inspire readers to do the same—to own their talents while being brave and kind and accepting that sometimes, accidents happen.
For Sales, visit thestorytellersapprentice.com
Destination: Charlotte
Greg Greenawalt and Paul Purser have explored neighborhoods, workplaces and play spaces — from parks, churches, and colleges, to sports venues, cultural festivals, and arts organizations. Hundreds of beautiful, full-color photographs celebrate Charlotte, NC as a great place to live, work, and play. Through interviews with Charlotte’s movers and shakers, a year’s worth of photo shoots, and historical research, Destination: Charlotte captures the area’s diverse, progressive mood as well as the traditional Southern charm that sets it apart from other metropolitan centers.
To purchase this title please click on this link: Destination: Charlotte
IF WORDS COULD SAVE US
Anthony Abbott’s most recent collection of poetry is stunning in both craftsmanship and sensibility. In poem after poem he forges a compassionate pact with the world, and like all enduring pacts, it is one that sustains and confirms—the poet’s life, ours, and the great healing powers of language.
– Robert Hedin, Author of “Old Glory” and Co-Editor, “Great River Review”
To purchase this title please click on this link: If Words Could Save Us
Luck: A Collection of Facts, Fiction Incantations & Verse
A compendium of essays, interviews, poems, memoir, fiction, recipes, art and anecdotes by Avery Caswell with contributions from a host of writers and artists from across the United States and around the world.
To purchase this title please click on this link: Luck
Liberating Dixie
Liberating Dixie, a collection from Williams’ half-century of journalism, is an exhilarating tour through life as seen by a provocative and insightful Southern writer. The characters range from Jesse Helms to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, with Bill Clinton, Ross Barnett, Eudora Welty, and William Faulkner’s cow also making appearances. The topics provide a panorama of Southern life – politics, religion, race, gay rights, artistic freedom, school reform, college sports, the joys and challenges of family life, as well as Ed Williams’ rules for living.
For 25 years Ed Williams was editor of the editorial pages at The Charlotte Observer, where his columns and editorials were part of projects that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1981 and 1988. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Mississippi, where he edited the Daily Mississippian. He served two years in the U.S. Army and in 1967 joined Hodding Carter’s Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Mississippi, as a reporter. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a writer for the Ford Foundation before coming to the Observer as an editorial writer in 1973. He retired in 2008 and was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, Marylyn.
To purchase this title please click on this link: Liberating Dixie