MUSICAL CHAIRS, by Jen Knox, has hit the memoir scene with a splash. The book has many great reviews which point to the great writing style, honesty, courage and inspiration displayed by Jen
Musical Chairs explores one family's history of mental health diagnoses and searches to define the cusp between a '90s working-class childhood and the trouble of adapting to a comfortable life in the suburbs. In order to understand her restlessness, Jennifer reflects on years of strip-dancing, alcoholism, and estrangement. Inspired by the least likely source, the family she left behind, Jennifer struggles towards reconciliation. This story is about identity, class, family ties, and the elusive nature of mental illness.
Excerpt
(Prologue)
Throughout the summer of 2003 I repeatedly underwent what psychologists have since diagnosed as post-traumatic stress and panic disorder. A spiritually-inclined friend refers to the same summer as my rebirthing period. Still others, who claim to have had similar experiences, tell me that such episodes were probably a warning, my body’s way of telling me to adopt healthier eating habits, exercise more or quit smoking. At the time, all I knew was that the onset was swift.
Review: Alvah’s Book Reviews (to read the entire review, click here).
“[Musical Chairs is] well-written, which means Jen Knox knows how to string words together into comprehensible sentences. And her ‘voice’ is honest, unapologetic and – vital! – likeable. In other words, she’s like the Apostle Peter in the Bible. She’s a weak, frail, vulnerable human being, who makes lots of mistakes. Which means – thank God – that she is human. Which means that despite all her flaws and failures, she is not a fraud or a charlatan. She’s not pretending to be someone who has their ‘shit’ together.
Jen and most of her family are gloriously dysfunctional – just like most families. And they have a tendency toward mental illness. And – shockingly – she talks about it. Which is what makes her story and her book so wonderful. It’s downright refreshing to read a book that acknowledges what most people know is true, but are afraid to confess: Most people are one brick short of a load. Which is what makes them and life so interesting.”
To watch the Musical Chairs Trailer, go to Knoxworx Multimedia.
To purchase Musical Chairs, go to Amazon, ATTM Press, or Barnes & Noble.
For more information about Jen, go to www.jenknox.com or http://jenknox.blogspot.com/
For more information about ATTMP, go to http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/ or http://allthingsthatmatterpress.blogspot.com/
BUY NOW FROM AMAZON AT: http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Chairs-Jen-Knox/dp/0984259422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268347842&sr=1-1
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
MUSICAL CHAIRS
MUSICAL CHAIRS, by Jen Knox, has hit the memoir scene with a splash. The book has many great reviews which point to the great writing style, honesty, courage and inspiration displayed by Jen
Musical Chairs explores one family's history of mental health diagnoses and searches to define the cusp between a '90s working-class childhood and the trouble of adapting to a comfortable life in the suburbs. In order to understand her restlessness, Jennifer reflects on years of strip-dancing, alcoholism, and estrangement. Inspired by the least likely source, the family she left behind, Jennifer struggles towards reconciliation. This story is about identity, class, family ties, and the elusive nature of mental illness.
Excerpt
(Prologue)
Throughout the summer of 2003 I repeatedly underwent what psychologists have since diagnosed as post-traumatic stress and panic disorder. A spiritually-inclined friend refers to the same summer as my rebirthing period. Still others, who claim to have had similar experiences, tell me that such episodes were probably a warning, my body’s way of telling me to adopt healthier eating habits, exercise more or quit smoking. At the time, all I knew was that the onset was swift.
Review: Alvah’s Book Reviews (to read the entire review, click here).
“[Musical Chairs is] well-written, which means Jen Knox knows how to string words together into comprehensible sentences. And her ‘voice’ is honest, unapologetic and – vital! – likeable. In other words, she’s like the Apostle Peter in the Bible. She’s a weak, frail, vulnerable human being, who makes lots of mistakes. Which means – thank God – that she is human. Which means that despite all her flaws and failures, she is not a fraud or a charlatan. She’s not pretending to be someone who has their ‘shit’ together.
Jen and most of her family are gloriously dysfunctional – just like most families. And they have a tendency toward mental illness. And – shockingly – she talks about it. Which is what makes her story and her book so wonderful. It’s downright refreshing to read a book that acknowledges what most people know is true, but are afraid to confess: Most people are one brick short of a load. Which is what makes them and life so interesting.”
To watch the Musical Chairs Trailer, go to Knoxworx Multimedia.
To purchase Musical Chairs, go to Amazon, ATTM Press, or Barnes & Noble.
For more information about Jen, go to www.jenknox.com or http://jenknox.blogspot.com/
For more information about ATTMP, go to http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/ or http://allthingsthatmatterpress.blogspot.com/
BUY NOW FROM AMAZON AT: http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Chairs-Jen-Knox/dp/0984259422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268347842&sr=1-1
SAL'S UNDERWEAR?
NO, NOT REALLY. But Sal's "Shorts" are great: witty, insightful, sad, funny and every other emotion can be found in his creative genius.
Flashing My Shorts by Salvatore Buttaci is a collection of 164 flash-fiction stories that runs the gamut from humor to horror with everything in between. These quick but thought-out writes have become quite popular today. They tend to accommodate readers on the go who lack the luxury of sitting down for long periods of reading. Like patrons at a smorgasbord, they can taste a little of this fine dish and a little of that and not go hungry. The stories Buttaci flashes in his book can, on one page, make readers laugh, and on the next, cry.
Excerpt
Encounter
Years of hard drinking had driven him to seed. He slept under cardboard on the coldest New York City nights, and his days were taken up begging for spare change.
One morning a passerby stopped to look at him. He turned his unshaven, toothless face away. But the woman continued staring. “Is your name Thomas?” she asked. He shook his head. “Thomas Cole?” she persisted. Again he gestured no. He could see the tears wetting the woman’s face. She could not see his.
Leaning against the streetlight, he watched his daughter lose herself in the rush hour of pedestrian traffic.
Reviews
These Stories Are Short, But They Pack A Punch
Salvatore Buttaci masters the short form in his new collection Flashing My Shorts. The stories here are spare but powerful, and each is injected with Buttaci's quick wit, sharp insight, and the sort of emotional depth that causes a reader to pause, for just a moment, before reading on, wanting more.
Buttaci has a delicate touch with his pen and he's fantastic at telling stories, stories with wide range and the commonality of insight, humor and strong resolution. Buy the book for yourself, buy a copy for a friend and get ready to enjoy what a strong short story collection can offer: utter entertainment in bite-sized bits. I like to think of these stories the way I think of those portion-controlled, pre-packaged desserts: when I'm done with one, why not another? (J.L. Knox, Musical Chairs)
Drawing on his dry sense of humor and a deep sense of irony, Salvatore Buttaci has delivered a book of sparkling gems. These quick stories make us laugh, think, and at times cry. They take us to the core of reality and at other times to the wonders of fantasy. This is a book that I would highly recommend to the reader who enjoys the art of flash fiction and to the reader who likes a quick laugh. (Kenneth Weene author of Widow's Walk)
FLASHING MY SHORTS by Sal Buttaci is a fabulous book with so many brief stories that stay with you long after you've moved on. Love, danger, passion, and alternate histories in sci-fi appear in these fiction pieces under 1,000 words. Their brevity is an advantage, making it great to pick up and stop for readers and commuters who do the same kind of long and short reading, too.
Yes, each piece is a complete short story and with many you want to know what happens next but what happens next is an all-new story that will keep your eyes focused on the page. You'll want to take a break to absorb the skill with which these pieces are crafted.
Here is a very talented writer in a brave new writing format. If you're familiar with Buttaci's other work, you'll be pleasantly surprised here, no, not pleasantly surprised, delighted. I urge you to add Flashing My Shorts by Sal Buttaci to your collection of must-read volumes. This is a book I shall read again and again.
To read more customer reviews, go to
http://www.amazon.com/Flashing-My-Shorts-Salvatore-Buttaci/dp/0984259473
To order Flashing My Shorts, go to
http://allthingsthatmatterpress.com or
http://www.amazon.com/Flashing-My-Shorts-Salvatore-Buttaci/dp/0984259473
For more information about Salvatore, go to http://salvatorebuttaci.wordpress.com or http://sambpoet.webs.com/
For more information about ATTMP, go to http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/ or http://allthingsthatmatterpress.blogspot.com/
Tags: Flash, Shorts, Fiction, Humor, 164 stories
Monday, August 23, 2021
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Monday, July 5, 2021
Friday, June 5, 2020
We Are God by Jordan Mund
We Are God by Jordan Mund: We Are God is a sort of deathbed confessional of a man who lived to see the beginning of the Eternal Era. The Old Man narrating the story has lived for hundreds ...
We Are God is a sort of deathbed confessional of a man who lived to
see the beginning of the Eternal Era. The Old Man narrating the story
has lived for hundreds of years and has been both a witness to and a
participant in a great deal of controversy. The controversy surrounds
scientific advancements that render death obsolete for some. Although
the Old Man grew up among mortals, his obligations to the Overman
Project, which gave him immortality, cannot be shunned. As a result, his
loyalties are divided. His friends, fighting for the dwindling rights
of mortals, prove themselves to be proponents of a revolution against
the powerful Overman Project and its political goals.
“Immortality is a bore and a curse… but death doesn’t seem entirely
pleasant, either.” In a life filled with loathsome diseases and other
infirmities that cut far too many lives short, it is difficult to
imagine immortality as a curse. But perspectives shift when you consider
outliving all of your friends, and for the Old Man, this results in
constant struggles with his choices and his ethics. Jordan Mund
demonstrates an excellent grasp on the narrative with readers slowly
coming around to the Old Man’s point of view and, in the end,
understanding his life-altering decisions. We Are God is an fascinating
dystopian tale that will really make you think deeply and live life more
fully.
We Are God is a sort of deathbed confessional of a man who lived to
see the beginning of the Eternal Era. The Old Man narrating the story
has lived for hundreds of years and has been both a witness to and a
participant in a great deal of controversy. The controversy surrounds
scientific advancements that render death obsolete for some. Although
the Old Man grew up among mortals, his obligations to the Overman
Project, which gave him immortality, cannot be shunned. As a result, his
loyalties are divided. His friends, fighting for the dwindling rights
of mortals, prove themselves to be proponents of a revolution against
the powerful Overman Project and its political goals.
“Immortality is a bore and a curse… but death doesn’t seem entirely
pleasant, either.” In a life filled with loathsome diseases and other
infirmities that cut far too many lives short, it is difficult to
imagine immortality as a curse. But perspectives shift when you consider
outliving all of your friends, and for the Old Man, this results in
constant struggles with his choices and his ethics. Jordan Mund
demonstrates an excellent grasp on the narrative with readers slowly
coming around to the Old Man’s point of view and, in the end,
understanding his life-altering decisions. We Are God is an fascinating
dystopian tale that will really make you think deeply and live life more
fully.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Monday, March 2, 2020
PARA//EL LIVES
NEW RELEASE!
The story, which begins in an assisted-living facility in New Hampshire, leads to 18th century Boston and London, where there may be unfinished business that residents, through mirror selves, must take care of. As Abe, Mercy, and their friends come under the influence of forces they don't understand, they adopt antique attire, get drunk on two-hundred-year-old wine, and become experts in the lives of their other selves. In their alter egos, Mercy is Mercy Otis Warren, playwright and historian from Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution; and Abe is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, the general who at Saratoga lost the battle that led to England losing the war and who then became one of the most popular playwrights on the London stage.After dreams of what their other selves did and could have done, Mercy and Abe discover a tunnel in the basement that leads to other places and other times, where they could accidentally or deliberately change the course of history.
ORDER FROM AMAZON
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1734685506?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
The story, which begins in an assisted-living facility in New Hampshire, leads to 18th century Boston and London, where there may be unfinished business that residents, through mirror selves, must take care of. As Abe, Mercy, and their friends come under the influence of forces they don't understand, they adopt antique attire, get drunk on two-hundred-year-old wine, and become experts in the lives of their other selves. In their alter egos, Mercy is Mercy Otis Warren, playwright and historian from Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution; and Abe is Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, the general who at Saratoga lost the battle that led to England losing the war and who then became one of the most popular playwrights on the London stage.After dreams of what their other selves did and could have done, Mercy and Abe discover a tunnel in the basement that leads to other places and other times, where they could accidentally or deliberately change the course of history.
ORDER FROM AMAZON
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1734685506?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Sunday, January 5, 2020
SUNDOGS AND SINNERS
SUNDOGS AND SINNERS
Sundogs and Sinners is a tale of love and hate, nurture and neglect,
traditions and taboos that shines cold light upon the dangers of chasing
what cannot be caught.Jasmine is the daughter of opposite worlds:
Angela, her mother, the white privileged debutant from the upper
echelons of Fargo’s wealthiest and politically empowered and Jasmine’s
biological father, Dave, the eighth of nine children of a Minneapolis
single Ojibwe mother. Driven by the death of her elder teenage brother
and her resentment at having always resided in his shadow, Angela looks
for her missing emotional pieces in Dave’s “otherness” which results in a
torrid, tumultuous, but temporary, bond and the unplanned birth of
their child. A decade later, Jasmine lives in the affluent Fargo fold of
Angela’s and Angela’s husband, Lars’ socially prominent families.
Though Jasmine seems to have everything, she now is the one in search of
missing pieces. Angela never speaks of Dave; Dave hasn’t had contact
with their daughter since she was two-years old, and Jasmine wants to
know why. The larger looming question is what, if any, part does Dave
being Ojibwe play in Jasmine’s identity.When Rosella, an Ojibwe girl
adopted at infancy by non-Native parents, moves to town, she and Jasmine
become fast middle school friends. Together, they face off with mean
girls armed with racial slurs, confront the complexity of first crushes,
and, inevitably, explore Jasmine’s ever-growing need to know the truth
about her mother, her legally adoptive father, and, most of all, Dave.As
Jasmine pushes the search forward, Angela pulls back from her daughter
and husband as the trauma and twisted urges of her youth re-awaken, and
Angela pursues the elusive missing pieces she has yet to find. As mother
and daughter unwittingly move closer to the same destination, secrets,
lies, and raw realities threaten to destroy everyone involved. While
some pieces are discovered, others will be lost forever, and Jasmine
will be left to build who she truly is out of the ones that remain.
Friday, January 3, 2020
NEW RELEASES FROM #ATTMPress
The Scientific Sleuths: ATHEROSCLEROSIS ATTACK:
Traffic Jam in Your Arteries
Twelve-year-old Victor Valens and his eleven-year-old cousin Sal Sultus
live on opposite sides of the country, until Sal and her mother move
next door to the Valenses. Victor is a tech-savvy know-it-all. Sal, a
science geniusin her own right, is dealing with the death of her father
while adjusting to a new home. Victordoesn’t make the move any easier
for Sal. In fact, their relationship is tumultuous to say the least.
When their grandpa gets sick, their world is shaken. They try to
understand the disease that has struck him and determine that
theunderlying cause is a deadly disease with a big word,
atherosclerosis.“Atherosclerosis Attack by Dr. Cate Moriasi and Dr.
Kathleen Coughlan is a fun, light-heartedread on a very serious and
important topic. The story is well laid out, with a fun,
futuristictechnological twist. The authors do a great job taking a
complex subject with detailed medicalcomponents, and frame it in an
understandable and relatable way."~Caitlin, Community Outreach Director
WE ARE GOD
BY
JORDAN MUND
The Old Man, as he’s now known, was born during a time when Mortals and
Immortals coexisted. He knew many of them, but that was 400 years ago.
Before the revolution. Before they were all exterminated. Since then
he’s been living day to day, trying to maintain the memories he has of
them. His world, in what has been dubbed the Eternal Era, is one that
never changes. No one dies, but no one is born, either. A world frozen
in banality. Eventually, the Old Man takes matters into his own hands
after discovering a way to reverse his immortality. Now nearing the end
of his life, he sits down to write his memoir, to tell about all those
friends he loved so dearly, to explain why he did what he did and what
it means for humanity’s future.
THE BETTER ANGELS
BY
BETTE BONO
Aggie May, newly and unhappily retired from teaching, fears dementia
when she begins to see visions from the past, like a 1950s-era Super
Constellation at JFK airport and World War II soldiers at Grand Central
Terminal. Then she gets a recruitment visit from Abe Irving of the
American Association of Remarkable Persons (“the other AARP”) who
explains she has developed the ability to travel through time. Soon
Aggie joins other “Remarkables” on a mission to nineteenth-century New
York City in an effort to locate a missing photographic portrait of
Abraham Lincoln created by the Civil War photographer Mathew Brady.
While learning the rules and limits of time travel, Aggie faces the
possibility that she may have both extraordinary power and extraordinary
vulnerability. Aggie and Abe, two stubborn and independent people, must
struggle to come to an understanding over how and when to take risks,
including emotional risks.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
AMERICAN QUEEN
NEW RELEASE!
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Thursday, April 25, 2019
The Operator
INTRODUCING
THE OPERATOR
BY HOWARD GERSHKOWITZ
While on vacation in historic Prescott, Arizona, Harold and Laura try to jump-start their marriage. Instead, he finds himself swept through a squirmhole to 1929, and into the arms of the beautiful Talia Sanders. Together, they scheme to prevent the Great Depression but, before he can put their plan to the test, he re-emerges in the present.
He discovers nothing changed, except for the billion-dollar fortune Talia left him with instructions to derail an imminent, nation-wide, financial collapse. He’s attacked by Talia’s son, who will stop at nothing to gain control of the money. Meanwhile, he must navigate the murky backwaters of Washington, DC, guided by a power broker with his own traitorous agenda. Caught in a web of greed and deceit, Harold is forced to find his way back in time to enlist Talia’s assistance. When their combined attempts backfire, his world teeters on the edge of disaster.
With his life on the line, he must rely on the one he loves to save him...
Phoenix temperatures are on the rise; 100-degree days are on the horizon. Beat the heat!
Visit Talia and The Operator as they travel around the state to make new friends;
May 4, 2019 at Bright Side Bookshop 18 N San Francisco St, Flagstaff, AZ (928) 440-5041
Book signing by the author from 5-7pm
May 11, 2019 at Peregrine Book Company 219 N Cortez St, Prescott, AZ (928) 445-9000
Presentation and Book Signing by the author from 2-4pm
June 1, 2019 KJZZ Arizona Storyfest & Authors Showcase, Mesa Convention Center, Building C
201 N. Center St., Mesa, AZ 10am-5pm
July 20, 2019 at Payson Book Festival Mazatzal Hotel & Casino Highway 87, Payson, AZ 10am to 5pm
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press October 2018
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