Cindy Bauer's Blog: Authors Express Promotion, page 17

It's In The Eyes by Dr. Charles N. Toftoy

A PSYCHOPATH IS STALKING CO-EDS IN WASHINGTON, DC

It's spring in Washington, DC - a beautiful time of year in the nation's capital, yet its citizens are uneasy. Their heightened restlessness is reminiscent of the recent 9/11, sniper, and anthrax scares. But this time the enemy is a psychopathic killer responsible for the deaths of four local university co-eds - raping and murdering them using rituals practiced by the Thuggees, killers for the Goddess Kali who were responsible for the deaths of more than two million travelers in India in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It's up to Lars Neilsen, a college professor and part-time sleuth, and his highly skilled Alpha Team to find out who is committing these atrocious murders. But Lars and his team are in for a few nasty surprises along the way...
AMAZON          KINDLE          REVIEWS

Mary Jo Nickum Receives Two Awards on New Releases....

Author Mary Jo Nickum has won two
more awards. The first is Book Excellence Award Finalist for a Girl Named Mary.
The second is OWAA Excellence in Craft Award for Looking at the Cat, an Eye on
Evolution.

Nickum is a retired librarian and
project manager, who is now an editor and freelance writer. Her primary focus
is on science for the public, especially topics related to natural history. She
has chosen to extend her science for the public outreach to children.

She earned a B.A. degree in English
education at Northland College, Ashland, WI, a Masters in Librarianship (M.
Lib.) at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and a Masters in
Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS) from Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. She
worked as a science librarian at the US Environmental Protection Agency,
National Water Quality Laboratory in Duluth, MN, as Oceanography/Zoology
librarian at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, as Project Manager of the
Fish and Wildlife Reference Service in Rockville, MD, and as a Division Manager
for the Maxima Corporation, a Washington, DC firm that specialized in
information services for Federal and County governments. She is a former editor
of The Progressive Fish-Culturist, Editor-in-Chief of the Intermountain Journal
of Science, and currently edits the World Aquaculture magazine. You can learn
more on her website at: http://marynickum.com .

Mary’s articles on aquaculture
topics are published in: Hatchery International, Aquaculture Magazine, Northern
Aquaculture and Fish Farming News. She is currently working on several
nonfiction books and articles for children. Her website for children is http://www.asktheanimallady.com . Mary has been writing science for the public since 1995
and a member of: OWAA, SCBWI, PTP, PWC, and SSWW

Nickum's books are available at
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and in digital (e-book) formats.

A GIRL
NAMED MARY

A Girl Named Mary tells the story of Mary, the Mother of
Jesus as a young girl. Though she has a much older sister, she’s raised as an
only child. Her cousin, Rebekka, is her closet friend and confidant. Together
they grow and learn how to maneuver in a culture that is steeped in tradition.
One that looks backward instead of forward for solutions to problems. Mary
cares about others, helps the sick and disadvantaged and is a voice, albeit a
young voice, for women.

At twelve, Mary was betrothed to an older man who had sons her age. She
resisted this arrangement strongly. She argued with her parents against the
betrothal with every bit of logic and strength she had but found this tradition
beyond her ability to fight. The marriage took place and she was rewarded by
the birth of a beautiful baby boy, Jesus.

LOOKING AT THE CAT

“The history of
the domestic cat may stretch back even further, as 8,000-year-old bones of
humans and cats were found buried together on the island of Cyprus.”

The history of
the cat goes back much further than the Egyptians, as the reader will find out
when reading “Looking at the Cat, An Eye on Evolution”. This book is an
overview of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as it relates to the cat. The student
not only is exposed to the concepts of evolution but, at the same time, is
shown examples of how evolution has progressed and the timeframe during which
these changes have taken place. The book contains 44 pictures, photos and
graphs along with 10 sidebars to further supplement the text. 

More books by this author:

THE COELACANTH

The
primitive-looking coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have
gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But its discovery in 1938
by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler fascinated the
world and ignited a debate about how this bizarre lobe-finned fish fits into
the evolution of land animals. There are only two known species of coelacanths:
one that lives near the Comoros Islands off the east coast of Africa, and one
found in the waters of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Many scientists believe that the
unique characteristics of the coelacanth represent an early step in the
evolution of fish to terrestrial four-legged animals like amphibians.

WHO WAS MACHO B

Although jaguars
are native to Arizona, little is known about the population segment that
resides in Mexico and uses southern Arizona and New Mexico as the northern
extent of its range. It was thought the species had been extirpated from the
state until 1996 when the first jaguar documented since 1986 was photographed
by a southern Arizona rancher/mountain lion hunter. After capture, collar and
release, a web of intrigue surrounded death of the only jaguar in Arizona, Macho
B.

FIRE IN THE TREES

Find
out how some fires in the forest can help trees. Given additionallight, new
trees can sprout from seeds and grow to be saplings. Believe it or not, some
cones need fire to open and spill their seeds. Conifers are different from
other trees, though. Would you like to work in the forest, among the trees?
This book will tell you how you could be a forester.

MOM'S STORY

Mom’s
Story; A Child Learns About MS tells the story of a young girl who sees her
mother with some frightening health problems and learns she has MS but she will
not die from it. This book is a compassionate, accessible and easy to
understand account of symptoms, search for help, diagnosis and adaptation to
this heart-wrenching disease. Amy fears the worst, which is common when one is
confronted by the unknown. Her best friend, Kayla, doesn’t quite understand why
Amy is so worried. Amy’s older sister, Kelly is concerned and does her best to
help, while older brother, Tony, tries to deny the whole situation. Information
is the key to allaying much of her fear along with understanding from parents,
adult friends and her older sister.

Ten percent of
the net proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the National
Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Fire in the Trees (The Aquitaine Reluctant Readers Series) (Volume 4) By Mary Jo Nickum

Find out how some fires in the forest can help trees. Given additional light, new trees can sprout from seeds and grow to be saplings. Believe it or not, some cones need fire to open and spill their seeds. Conifers are different from other trees, though. Would you like to work in the forest, among the trees? This book will tell you how you could be a forester.

AMAZON

Who Was Macho B and What We Know About Jaguars (The Aquitaine Reluctant Readers Series) (Volume 3) by Mary Jo Nickum

Although jaguars are native to Arizona, little is known about the population segment that resides in Mexico and uses southern Arizona and New Mexico as the northern extent of its range. It was thought the species had been extirpated from the state until 1996 when the first jaguar documented since 1986 was photographed by a southern Arizona rancher/mountain lion hunter. After capture, collar and release, a web of intrigue surrounded death of the only jaguar in Arizona, Macho B.

AMAZON

Interview with Dr. Phyllis A. Langton

What fields did you teach at George Washington University for over forty years? In 1968, after I completed my PhD, at UCLA, in Medical Sociology and Management of Complex Organizations, I moved to George Washington University in Washington, DC to teach undergraduate and graduate students. For many years, I taught in Columbian College and in the Business School; directed many dissertations in these fields; and received multiple research grants in both fields. I retired as Professor Emerita, one of the first women.

What inspired you to become a nurse?
In 1948-1950, I worked after high school and summers, at the Free Hospital for Women in Brookline Massachusetts. My jobs ranged from cleaning up the kitchen, serving food to patients, making beds, and helping patients with simple tasks. My patients keep telling me I should be a nurse because I made them feel better. One patient’s husband bought me a book on nursing. At that time, nurses had to be eighteen to enter nursing school because the law required nurses to be twenty-one to practice. I was sixteen.

Because there was a crucial shortage of nurses in the country in 1950, the Methodist Hospital in Los Angeles proposed an experimental three-year program that would admit students under eighteen. When my Methodist minister heard of this, he offered to sponsor me for that program. He knew of my need for a job after high-school graduation, and of my nursing experience.

I was accepted and moved from Boston to Los Angeles after I graduated high school. I had no parents to pay for my college. But the nursing school offered me a scholarship. This changed my life. I graduated in 1953 and have been active since then. For many years I was a Red Cross Disaster Nurse, and Volunteer Chairman of the Nursing and Health Services, Washington, D.C. I take my required credits to renew my license which is valid until 2019. I will be a nurse forever giving back to my community when needed.


What do you hope your reader takes away from reading your first memoir: Last Flight Out?
We aren’t comfortable talking about death and dying, but these topics are always there, including hiding death from children. George was told he had six months to live after being diagnosed with ALS-also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He lived three years. To live well with a fatal illness, we have to know the quality of life and death we want and how to talk about these wishes with our families. Only then can we share the care.

George wanted to die at home. Grandchildren visited and wanted to care for Grandpa George. Our love grew to a more intimate place than could be imagined, by sharing the journey of facing death together.;

What kind of books do you like to read?

Memoirs, Health and Illness, Historical novels

Do you have any hobbies?
I have devoted my life to two hobbies that have been the joy of my life for many years: rescuing and improving the lives of abandoned children and animals. I was abandoned at birth by my mother at a Salvation Army Home in 1933. I was raised motherless, fatherless and homeless. But for the great care and support of the churches and other community groups, I would not have survived: the subject of my memoir SWEET ABANDON.

I used to find abandoned and hurt animals when I walked home from school. I would take them to neighbors, ring doorbells and give them the animals. Some people would take them. Others would close the door in my face. As a child, I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t help a sick animal.

What was your memorable moment in your teaching career?
One of the many memorable moments in my teaching career was my retirement party. It was hard for me to retire because I loved my work so much, my colleagues, and the many students who had become family as their careers progressed. So many former students travelled from afar with their families to celebrate the over forty years of some of the greatest experiences I have had in my life.

During those years with them, we developed lasting friendships and new family bonds that continue to grow today as I attend weddings, births, other gatherings that reinforce our bonds. From an orphan with no family, I have been deeply blessed by the associations I experienced, and continue to experience as Professor Emerita at George Washington University.
Do you have any pets?
I just finished volunteering at the Asheville Humane Society for two years. I was not able to have a pet where I was living. At this time I am in the process of adopting a two year old, 67-pound English Bulldog. He is a rescue dog from Hurricane Harvey. Our family is a great pet family, and volunteer with several organizations.

Where can readers reach you to ask questions or purchase signed copies of your books?

They can reach me on my gmail: phyllis.langton@gmail.com . I don’t have signed copies. The book is available at Amazon in paperback and kindle formats.

Do you have a website?
Yes. phyllisalangton@gmail.com
How do you live the rest of your life when your doctor says, “You have Lou Gehrig’s disease, you probably have six months to live. Go out and have fun, do all the things you’ve wanted to do while you still can and prepare to die?”

Americans continue to fear death and dying. Comedian Woody Allen said, “I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Phyllis Langton’s memoir, Last Flight Out: Living, Loving, & Leaving, is a passionate love story, one that deepens as she and her husband George Thomas live their way into the experience of ALS, its unremitting losses and its surprising gifts, with dignity, keen humor, a fighter pilot’s courage and a nurse’s unsentimental pragmatism.
“I know what’s going to be on my death certificate. That’s more than you can say,” George tells her after receiving his diagnosis. How they are going to live the time that remains to them as a couple is also not in question, for they are equally committed to savoring every minute, respecting George Thomas's choices about what makes for a meaningful life, a meaningful death.

Supporting her husband's wishes is a moral as well as emotional choice on Langton's part, and definitely not always an easy one. As a medical sociologist, she invites her readers into an open discussion of some of these choices through a thoughtful discussion guide.

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Flight-Out-Living-Leaving/dp/0982726228/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424020775&sr=1-1&keywords=last+flight+out+by+phyllis+langton

BARNES & NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-flight-out-phyllis-a-langton/1104535346?ean=9780982726228

PUBLISHER: http://www.universaltable.org/bookstore.html

Advance Praise for Last Flight Out

"Phyllis Langton has had as illustrious a career as anyone in academia, but she has taken infinite pains now to write a different kind of book. Her story of her husband's life with and death from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) yields many a valuable lesson, but this lesson above all: that dying, whatever its pains, can be both a negative and a positive experience. Here love and mortality, laughter and sorrow are all but inseparable, and their inseparability may help lessen a reader's fear of death and dying. Anyone who enjoys a deeply moving story will want to read this wondrous, indispensable book, and anybody who faces adversity, that is to say everybody, will need to read it."

Jeffery Paine––author of Father India, Re-enchantment, Adventures with the Buddha, and Tales of Wonder (with Huston Smith). Judge for the Pulitzer Prize and former vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle.

"Like many others, I've not been comfortable with the subject of death––the death of my loved ones or myself. How lucky we humans are to have Phyllis Langton's story as part of our lives. This moving book has allowed me to look death in the eye, and even find a way to laugh about it. Langton shows us that deep love and laughter make the sorrow and loss bearable, paving the way for this ultimate journey and beyond. . . ."

Jill Breckenridge––author of The Gravity of Flesh and Miss Priss and the Con Man.

"I couldn't put Last Flight Out down. I wanted it to go on so I could learn more about Phyllis and George and their story about facing ALS together. George had a terminal disease and he and Phyllis chose to live and love to the fullest! What an incredible message to read especially with a disease that takes and takes."

Sharon J. Matland, R.N., M.B.A.––Vice-President of Patient Services, The ALS Association

"Who would have thought that disease can be a page-turner? But Phyllis Langton's bittersweet memoir of her fighter-pilot husband's last years shows that a good marriage can be as joyous in sickness as it is in health. Last Flight Out is a vivid, sparkling story about facing death with grace and high spirits."

Mark Weston—author of Giants of Japan and Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia From Muhammad to the Present.

"Last Flight Out really touched my heart. As the hospice physician who cared for George, I found the description of the denial of his symptoms extremely compelling and riveting and it taught me to appreciate more deeply the psychological defenses which patients use to protect themselves against the perception of their own vulnerabilities. In addition, this memoir reminds all who read it of the paramount need to honor and respect a patient's wishes to control the conditions of care and medical treatment. George achieved a wonderful peace of mind as his disease relentlessly progressed. Everyone should be so fortunate to have such a resourceful and loving advocate for their partner."

Dr. Henry Willner––Hospice Physician and Palliative Care Consultant, Capital Hospice.

AEP Welcomes Author Mary Jo Nickum

Mary Jo Nickum is a retired librarian and project manager, who is now an editor and freelance writer. Her primary focus is on science for the public, especially topics related to natural history. She has chosen to extend her science for the public outreach to children.

Mary earned a B.A. degree in English education at Northland College, Ashland, WI, a Masters in Librarianship (M. Lib.) at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS) from Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

She worked as a science librarian at the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Water Quality Laboratory in Duluth, MN, as Oceanography/Zoology librarian at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, as Project Manager of the Fish and Wildlife Reference Service in Rockville, MD, and as a Division Manager for the Maxima Corporation, a Washington, DC firm that specialized in information services for Federal and County governments. She is a former editor of The Progressive Fish-Culturist, Editor-in-Chief of the Intermountain Journal of Science, and currently edits the World Aquaculture magazine.

Mary’s articles on aquaculture topics are published in: Hatchery International, Aquaculture Magazine, Northern Aquaculture and Fish Farming News. She is currently working on several nonfiction books and articles for children. Her website for children is http://www.asktheanimallady.com.

Mary has been writing science for the public since 1995.

Member of: OWAA, SCBWI, PTP, PWC, SSWW

Awards:
OWAA Excellence in Craft Award 2009 (Technical Contest, Magazine category)OWAA Outstanding Board Member, 2010

Website: http://marynickum.com

The Path: A Literary Magazine by Mary Jo Nickum

A literary magazine produced semi-annually by The Path to Publication Group, Inc. It is a themed literary magazine available in paper and ezine formats featuring essays, short stories, poetry, humor, interviews and book reviews. The theme of this issue is ‘Wish upon a Star.
AMAZON         

Coelacanth: The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told (The Aquitaine Reluctant Readers Series) (Volume 2) By Mary Jo Nickum

The primitive-looking coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But its discovery in 1938 by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler fascinated the world and ignited a debate about how this bizarre lobe-finned fish fits into the evolution of land animals. There are only two known species of coelacanths: one that lives near the Comoros Islands off the east coast of Africa, and one found in the waters of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Many scientists believe that the unique characteristics of the coelacanth represent an early step in the evolution of fish to terrestrial four-legged animals like amphibians.
AMAZON

Looking at the Cat: An Eye on Evolution (The Aquitaine Reluctant Reader Series) (Volume 1) by Mary Jo Nickum

“The history of the domestic cat may stretch back even further, as 8,000-year-old bones of humans and cats were found buried together on the island of Cyprus.”
The history of the cat goes back much further than the Egyptians, as the reader will find out when reading “Looking at the Cat, An Eye on Evolution”. This book is an overview of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as it relates to the cat. The student not only is exposed to the concepts of evolution but, at the same time, is shown examples of how evolution has progressed and the timeframe during which these changes have taken place. The book contains 44 pictures, photos and graphs along with 10 sidebars to further supplement the text.
AMAZON          KINDLE

A Girl Named Mary by Mary Jo Nickum

A Girl Named Mary tells the story of Mary, the Mother of Jesus as a young girl. Though she has a much older sister, she’s raised as an only child. Her cousin, Rebekka, is her closet friend and confidant. Together they grow and learn how to maneuver in a culture that is steeped in tradition. One that looks backward instead of forward for solutions to problems. Mary cares about others, helps the sick and disadvantaged and is a voice, albeit a young voice, for women.
At twelve, Mary was betrothed to an older man who had sons her age. She resisted this arrangement strongly. She argued with her parents against the betrothal with every bit of logic and strength she had but found this tradition beyond her ability to fight. The marriage took place and she was rewarded by the birth of a beautiful baby boy, Jesus.