Twin Destinies: The True Story of the Pappas Twins

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by Kathy Pappas Angelos

Preview the book here!

A nostalgic look back at the exciting teen music and dance craze of the 50s through the classic hits era of the 60s, 70s, and 80s

“Twin Destinies is a book about facing and building on adversity. It is about a vision and determination. There is a lesson here beyond the dinner table. It is the lesson of what it means to succeed and what it takes to do it.”
—James Ardaiz, author of Hands Through Stone

Twin Destinies tells the story of Pete and Mike Pappas, the twin sons of Greek immigrants who defied predictions of failure and worked their way to the top of the broadcasting business in the exciting and glamorous classic hits era of 1950s radio and television.

Pete and Mike pitched the idea for a show dedicated to teens, “Pete and Mike’s Dance Time,” in their hometown of Modesto, California, and, due to their talent and charismatic personalities, quickly found themselves local celebrities. Soon the twins entered the burgeoning television industry with their own half-hour program, “Pete and Mike’s Variety Show,” airing on KTVU in Stockton.

Fame followed Pete and Mike even after they enlisted in the military. While in the service, bags of fan mail arrived weekly, and love letters from fans followed them wherever they were based.

After returning from the service, Pete and Mike’s strong, loving bond as identical twins found them pursuing broadcasting careers and living their lives together, overcoming obstacles in the business world and achieving the success their immigrant parents had dreamed would one day be theirs.

Twin Destinies is a story of hard work, perseverance, and the love between twin brothers that was the foundation of their American success story.

More about Kathy Pappas Angelos

Kathy Pappas Angelos is a business writer turned author. Her career as a creative professional has included writing and editing content for online and print publications. A native Central Californian, she was on-air talent for the family’s radio station as “KGEN’s Kathy” at the age of three. Kathy lives with her husband and family in Central California. Learn more about Kathy at her website: KathyPappasAngelos.com.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 300 pages • 45 photographs

ISBN 978-1-61035-423-3

DIY Public Relations: Telling Your Story on a Zero-Dollar Budget

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by Dan Shortridge

Publication Date: October 4, 2022. Click here to preview the book.

Getting good PR is easier—and cheaper—than you think!

“A hands-on storytelling map—detailed, useful, and practical.”—Beth Macy, New York Times bestselling author

If you want to get media attention, you don’t need to spend a dime—and you definitely don’t have to pay someone to do the work for you. Here’s how to do it yourself.

In DIY Public Relations, PR and marketing expert Dan Shortridge lays out a roadmap for your local organization, small business, or nonprofit to tell its story and spread the word. If you don’t have a communications and marketing staff, if you’re just getting started in your PR career, or if you’ve just been told to “get us on the news,” this is the book to read.

Full of hands-on advice scaled to the local level, it draws on the author’s more than 20 years of experience in community journalism and state-level PR to show how to ace a media interview, organize a successful press event, and steer your organization through a crisis.

“Getting your news out there isn’t about making friends with reporters or having a giant list of contacts—it’s about having a good story and telling it in the most effective way possible,” says Shortridge, who’s helped advise nonprofits, small businesses, and government agencies. “You don’t need a lot of money—or any money—and you can do it all yourself with some simple tools and by following these techniques.”

Business owners, PR and marketing professionals and nonprofit leaders will share their insights and tips to maximize positive publicity. You’ll learn about how to research targeted media outlets, pick the best time for reaching out, handle all the tiny details with confidence, and write a news release so an editor will run your story without changing a word.

With field-tested advice on every page drawn from newsrooms and PR people from around the country, readers will get practical guidance on how to:

  • Pitch a story and stick the landing for success
  • Adapt one of 14 specific story angles perfect for local organizations
  • Make those first connections with local reporters
  • Use bridging statements to handle a tough question
  • Write well and clearly using seven simple steps
  • Avoid saying “no comment” even when you don’t want to comment
  • Attract and take care of elected officials and other VIPs
  • Define, research, and reach your audience
  • Be consistent with your media outreach
  • Build a crisis communications plan that will let you sleep at night

One key chapter focuses on repurposing materials for the media into content for annual reports, social media, website copy, and newsletters—showing how PR can fit seamlessly into an overall marketing plan. Another chapter contains 16 tried-and-true tips on what not to do when working with the media, including playing secretive games or falling for scams.

As a bonus, it features a toolkit with examples and templates for writing a hard news announcement, event preview, media advisory, calendar item, staff promotion or hiring news, and crisis statements. DIY Public Relations is your complete guide for media success.

More about Dan Shortridge:

Dan Shortridge is a communications and marketing consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the trenches of local public relations and daily newspaper journalism. He has worked for state and local government agencies, helping support private businesses and regional nonprofit organizations, and as an agency consultant. He’s also managed communications and marketing for a countywide school district.

Before moving into public relations, Shortridge worked for 11 years as a reporter, copy editor, and designer at newspapers in Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio. A national award-winning reporter, he was part of a team that won a national Sigma Delta Chi award for Public Service Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists and was an Ochberg Fellow with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. His writing on crisis communications, social media marketing, and recruitment marketing have been published in national B2B magazines and statewide business publications. Shortridge is also the co-author of several local-interest travel and history books. He resides in Delaware. His website is danshortridge.com.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 232 pages

ISBN 978-1-610353-94-6

Wanderings of a Wayward Woodcarver: Stories from a Life in Wood

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by Gerry Holzman

Publication Date: August 16, 2022. Click here to preview the book.

 

Charming, humorous, sometimes tragic, and always fascinating vignettes from a life spent in craftsmanship.

They say life is a merry-go-round—for Gerry Holzman, this has been literally and figuratively true. A master figure carver who has restored over 100 pieces of antique carousel art, created 250 pieces of original carousel carving, and was the head carver and executive director of New York’s landmark Empire State Carousel Project, Holzman has devoted the past 50 years to woodcarving, and his skill has taken him around the world as a student, teacher, craftsman, and artist. Throughout this giddy merry-go-round of a career, he has encountered many intriguing ways to use our brief time on earth and invites us to accompany him as he strives to understand and appreciate them all.

Wanderings of a Wayward Woodcarver is Holzman’s record of a lifetime spent in the craft and the many lessons it has taught him about what it means to be a carver and what it means to be a human being, plus a recounting of the many memorable characters he has met along the way.

From master carver Gino Masero, who taught Holzman much about carving, life, creativity, and decency, to Holzman’s students who touched his life deeply, to a sign carver who could not read, a witch who invited Holzman to visit her coven, and the mafioso who showed Holzman how to prevent his carvings from being stolen, Wanderings of a Wayward Woodcarver shows how a life in craft is the perfect viewpoint to see the whole of the human condition.

More about Gerry Holzman:

Gerry Holzman has been a professional woodcarver since 1971. During his career, Gerry has restored over 100 pieces of antique carousel art and has created approximately 250 pieces of original carousel carving. His commercial clients include Disney World, Cunard Cruise Lines, and the South Street Seaport.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 250 pages

ISBN 978-1-610353-84-7

Yes! Your Child Can: Creating Success for Children with Learning Differences

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by Victoria Waller, Ed.D.

Publication Date: June 7, 2022. Click here to preview the book.

Help and hope for parents of children with learning differences.

Every child can succeed in school and life, but some children need more help than others. For over 40 years, internationally acclaimed reading specialist and student advocate Dr. Victoria E. Waller has helped children who have trouble reading, who can’t sit still in class, who don’t feel like they can participate—children whom teachers have all but given up on. In Yes! Your Child Can, Dr. Waller shares with parents, teachers, and therapists her proven techniques to create success for children with learning differences and draw out the singular genius within your child.

In compassionate, nontechnical, easy-to-understand language, Yes! Your Child Can gives step-by-step guidance on how to help your child achieve in school and build lifelong intellectual confidence. Drawing on the latest science and her own wide-ranging experience, Dr. Waller explains why it’s important to pay attention to your first gut feeling that your child may need extra help and shows how to navigate testing, medication, and choosing a team to help your child.

Most importantly, Yes! Your Child Can shows you how to use your child’s natural strengths and passions to build their academic, social, and personal confidence. Dr. Waller empowers parents to let their children follow their own interests, whether that’s learning about sharks, reading to the dog, or building with Legos and writing about their creations. With Dr. Waller’s help, learning can be motivating and fun. Dr. Waller’s techniques are smart, caring, and effective with any child, no matter their current or past educational difficulties.

Respectful, compassionate, and offering real help, Yes! Your Child Can is the first book every parent of a child with learning differences should read.

$18.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6″ x 9″ • 220 pages

ISBN 978-1-610353-86-1

Murder This Close

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by Timothy Cole

Publication Date: June 7, 2022

In the wealthy Gold Coast enclave of Westport, a feud between mystery writers turns deadly—and retired spy Dasha Petrov must find the real killer to clear her name.

Once one of the most lethal secret agents in the world, Dasha Petrov has hunted Nazis, Communists, and one common murderer (in The Sea Glass Murders, the first Dasha Petrov thriller). But now it’s 1991, two years after that unpleasantness, and Dasha is living a sedate life appropriate to an elderly widow in wealthy Westport, Connecticut, spoiling her grandchildren and innocently flirting with two of her neighbors, the rival mystery novelists Barnaby Jayne and Michael Aubrey.

The two writers, both wildly successful and many times married, cordially despise each other. Dasha thinks they’re just two silly men with big egos, but the writers’ feud boils over into a bizarre series of attacks that starts with a blowgun dart and escalates to booby traps and car bombs. And when Jayne and Aubrey both turn up dead, the evidence points to one suspect—Dasha herself.

Now Dasha has to once again call upon her cunning mind and capacity for extreme violence, honed by her younger years as a Nazi-killing partisan and a top-rank CIA agent. Teaming up with her old allies, Westport police chief Tony DeFranco and local TV reporter Tracy Taggart, Dasha sets out to clear her name, find the real killer, and figure out why she was targeted—while dodging jealous wives, a sleazy tabloid reporter, child spies, and a fearsome Mafia hit man, leading to a tense and dramatic confrontation.

Fast-paced and filled with intriguing characterization, Murder This Close is a stunning murder mystery with a twisty cerebral plot and plenty of hard-hitting action.

$16.95 US • Trade Paperback • 5.25″ x 8″ • 246 pages

ISBN 978-1-610353-85-4

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Returns and Exchanges

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