Cindy Bauer's Blog: Authors Express Promotion, page 26
August 21, 2017
"Story Telling is not a Career - It's a Calling" - AEP interviews Award Winning Journalist, Glen Carter
Glen Carter is an award-winning journalist who has worked in the high-pressure world of television news for more than thirty years. He has covered everything from national politics and world leaders to crime and deadly disasters. He is now applying his story-telling craft and decades of fact-driven writing to the flight of fiction.Angels of Maradona is his first novel, published in 2008 by Breakwater Books. His second, Last Witness, is available online Breakwaterbooks, Amazon, Chapters and Kobo. Glen is currently hard at work on his third novel.
“Story telling is not a career, it's a calling. I've been writing true and compelling news my entire professional life. My novels are packs of lies.” ~Glen Carter
Breakwater BooksGoodreadsFacebook Twitter
INTERVIEW
Your bio starts off in reference to you as an adult. What was your childhood like?My childhood was full of political theatre. My father was a Canadian member of parliament, the equivalent of an American congressman. There were election campaigns to help out on and the excitement of the blood sport of politics. I learned a lot growing up, hanging with dad and his cronies around the kitchen table. I wasn't as enthusiastic in the classroom and that was reflected in my marks. I got into the news business as a teenager, taken under the wing of a crusty editor and taught the ropes. I was hooked.
What inspired your decision to become a journalist?
My love of storytelling inspired me to become a journalist. The art of word craft to capture someone's attention. Win them as an audience. Leave them with a head full of your thoughts. Maybe it's a control thing. Who knows.
With such a long career covering everything from politics, world leaders, crime, and deadly disasters, what inspired you to become an author and why fiction, since news involves non-fiction events?
I put it like this. News and fiction are basically two kinds of storytelling. I'll use the flying analogy. Think of an airline pilot. You have rules and regulations when you enter the cockpit, designed to keep your passengers safe, to get them from point A to point B alive and on time. Writing fiction on the other hand is like climbing aboard an aerobatic airplane. You're governed by the same physics of flight, but you can spin and roll and loop without having to worry about paying passengers and a million other things. Both are flying, but one is a lot more fun and carefree than the other.
Did your experiences in journalism help build your storylines and characters?
Fiction, I think is an amalgam of life. My characters are made up of bits and pieces of everybody I've ever met, or has caught my interest. Read enough newspapers and you'll see every story line ever developed. The best of fiction is inspired by real life, and it's my best resource. As a television journalist I'm a very visual storyteller, because that's the nature of the business, sound and video. I tend to write for the mind's eye for that reason.
Did you find it difficult to write fiction while reporting true, current events? And what was the most difficult thing to keep in mind while doing so?
Writing for news is naturally a more formal and restrictive way of communicating. Sometimes it’s difficult to shed those shackles when writing fiction. I've got to tell myself to relax and shake it up a bit when I hit the keyboard for my books.
I loved your first novel, Angels of Maradona. Being a Canadian author, what gave you the idea to write your second novel which is about the JFK assassination and to use the same character, Jack Doyle, from your first novel?
The JFK story is one of the most compelling unsolved crimes in human history. It has always fascinated me. So has the power of the American presidency. All I did was combine the two to write 'Last Witness.'
Do you have any future works in progress?
I've just completed my third novel. Publisher to be announced. I've given Jack Doyle some time off and am introducing a new hero. Let's just say it’s about murder, reincarnation and revenge in high places. There I go, spinning and looping again. Strap yourself in.
"Months before it was announced by President Barack Obama, a novel by Canadian author Glen Carter eerily mirrors the White House rapprochement with Cuba. Though, Last Witness contains an explosive conclusion and certainly a more tragic beginning - from more than 50 years ago."
A mysterious letter has reached retired FBI agent Ed Malloy. A letter bearing a name from a lifetime ago, from a woman who claims she saw what really happened on the day John F. Kennedy died in Dallas. Many were there to film the president, but Helena Storozhenko snapped a photo on November 22, 1963, that would have changed everything. Then she vanished. Until now.
From her death bed in Odessa, the Babushka Lady provides a piece of evidence that will send Malloy and network television host Jack Doyle on a desperate search for the truth. She has summoned Malloy and finally reveals what she witnessed in Dealey Plaza. Malloy and Doyle need each other to solve a decades-old mystery, and to stop an assassin who is driven by the same evil which changed the world so tragically – so long ago.
It all comes down to one place, one time, and one bullet as they race to prevent history from repeating itself – more than fifty years after a president was brutally slain – and Helena Storozhenko was The Last Witness.
"This is a sprawling thriller in the example of Jean Le Carre or Frederick Forsyth, with multiple characters, exotic globetrotting locations and a core plotline that twists and turns and cliffhangs chapter by chapter."-The Telegram
AMAZON KINDLE BREAKWATER BOOKS
AMAZON CANADA KINDLE CANADA
In the mountains of Colombia, an old man stumbles sweating and breathless into the Jaguar Forest. Cursed, he feels forced to commit a savage act, and a family is destroyed - his own. From Luis Mendoza's insanity, survivors emerge, but they will not know what their grandfather intended for them, even though they were the ones destined to die.Decades later, veteran reporter Jack Doyle is about to become his network's next anchor star. Doyle has always done his job the right way, and when eight girls, including a US senator's daughter, are brutally murdered, Doyle discovers a trail of blood and drugs that leads to Colombia. It's where the story is, even if his network bosses don't agree. Colombia is a country on fire and la violencia means no one is safe, including Doyle and his producer, the beautiful Kaitlin O'Rourke. Narco-terrorists strike.
Doyle comes home. Kaitlin doesn't. With his career and life adrift, Doyle struggles with the blame for his renegade assignment. Kaitlin was his friend. Possibly much more. Trying to rescue his soul, Jack sets sail. Alone and faltering on the Atlantic Ocean, he receives an astonishing message so bizarre it sets in motion his most dangerous assignment - a covert mission through the blood-soaked Colombian jungle to find a woman who stepped away at dinner and never came back.
Doyle is plunged into a story of deception, betrayal, and a drug lord's insane plan to deliver an apocalyptic message to the White House. To stay alive, Doyle must confront his past and untangle his future. And before it's too late, he must uncover the unbelievable truth about Kaitlin O'Rourke and the Angels of Maradona.
Breakwater Books Amazon Canada"With his taut prose, and gripping storytelling, Carter delivers a stunning page-turner."- Rick Mofina, two-time Arthur Ellis award-winning author of A Perfect Grave.
"It has energy, verve and a fresh, fierce drive to tell a story...The sentence structure is short, precise, driven and full of action, as suits an action novel."- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
"Employing his decades of experience as a veteran journalist, Carter has written a very sophisticated thriller...that stands shoulder to shoulder with best-selling thrillers."- Harold N. Walters, The Packet
"Glen Carter has mastered his debut novel like a pro...[he] is sure to become an award-winning novelist."- Cindy Bauer, www.bookpleasures.com
"You can sense the journalistic experience from the author throughout the novel...there are interesting characters, shady deals, and fast-paced action throughout."- Kevin Kelly, The Herald
Story Telling is not a Career - It's a Calling
Glen Carter is an award-winning journalist who has worked in the high-pressure world of television news for more than thirty years. He has covered everything from national politics and world leaders to crime and deadly disasters. He is now applying his story-telling craft and decades of fact-driven writing to the flight of fiction.Angels of Maradona is his first novel, published in 2008 by Breakwater Books. His second, Last Witness, is available online Breakwaterbooks, Amazon, Chapters and Kobo. Glen is currently hard at work on his third novel.
“Story telling is not a career, it's a calling. I've been writing true and compelling news my entire professional life. My novels are packs of lies.” ~Glen Carter
Breakwater BooksGoodreadsFacebook Twitter
INTERVIEW
Your bio starts off in reference to you as an adult. What was your childhood like?My childhood was full of political theatre. My father was a Canadian member of parliament, the equivalent of an American congressman. There were election campaigns to help out on and the excitement of the blood sport of politics. I learned a lot growing up, hanging with dad and his cronies around the kitchen table. I wasn't as enthusiastic in the classroom and that was reflected in my marks. I got into the news business as a teenager, taken under the wing of a crusty editor and taught the ropes. I was hooked.
What inspired your decision to become a journalist?
My love of storytelling inspired me to become a journalist. The art of word craft to capture someone's attention. Win them as an audience. Leave them with a head full of your thoughts. Maybe it's a control thing. Who knows.
With such a long career covering everything from politics, world leaders, crime, and deadly disasters, what inspired you to become an author and why fiction, since news involves non-fiction events?
I put it like this. News and fiction are basically two kinds of storytelling. I'll use the flying analogy. Think of an airline pilot. You have rules and regulations when you enter the cockpit, designed to keep your passengers safe, to get them from point A to point B alive and on time. Writing fiction on the other hand is like climbing aboard an aerobatic airplane. You're governed by the same physics of flight, but you can spin and roll and loop without having to worry about paying passengers and a million other things. Both are flying, but one is a lot more fun and carefree than the other.
Did your experiences in journalism help build your storylines and characters?
Fiction, I think is an amalgam of life. My characters are made up of bits and pieces of everybody I've ever met, or has caught my interest. Read enough newspapers and you'll see every story line ever developed. The best of fiction is inspired by real life, and it's my best resource. As a television journalist I'm a very visual storyteller, because that's the nature of the business, sound and video. I tend to write for the mind's eye for that reason.
Did you find it difficult to write fiction while reporting true, current events? And what was the most difficult thing to keep in mind while doing so?
Writing for news is naturally a more formal and restrictive way of communicating. Sometimes it’s difficult to shed those shackles when writing fiction. I've got to tell myself to relax and shake it up a bit when I hit the keyboard for my books.
I loved your first novel, Angels of Maradona. Being a Canadian author, what gave you the idea to write your second novel which is about the JFK assassination and to use the same character, Jack Doyle, from your first novel?
The JFK story is one of the most compelling unsolved crimes in human history. It has always fascinated me. So has the power of the American presidency. All I did was combine the two to write 'Last Witness.'
Do you have any future works in progress?
I've just completed my third novel. Publisher to be announced. I've given Jack Doyle some time off and am introducing a new hero. Let's just say it’s about murder, reincarnation and revenge in high places. There I go, spinning and looping again. Strap yourself in.
"Months before it was announced by President Barack Obama, a novel by Canadian author Glen Carter eerily mirrors the White House rapprochement with Cuba. Though, Last Witness contains an explosive conclusion and certainly a more tragic beginning - from more than 50 years ago."
A mysterious letter has reached retired FBI agent Ed Malloy. A letter bearing a name from a lifetime ago, from a woman who claims she saw what really happened on the day John F. Kennedy died in Dallas. Many were there to film the president, but Helena Storozhenko snapped a photo on November 22, 1963, that would have changed everything. Then she vanished. Until now.
From her death bed in Odessa, the Babushka Lady provides a piece of evidence that will send Malloy and network television host Jack Doyle on a desperate search for the truth. She has summoned Malloy and finally reveals what she witnessed in Dealey Plaza. Malloy and Doyle need each other to solve a decades-old mystery, and to stop an assassin who is driven by the same evil which changed the world so tragically – so long ago.
It all comes down to one place, one time, and one bullet as they race to prevent history from repeating itself – more than fifty years after a president was brutally slain – and Helena Storozhenko was The Last Witness.
"This is a sprawling thriller in the example of Jean Le Carre or Frederick Forsyth, with multiple characters, exotic globetrotting locations and a core plotline that twists and turns and cliffhangs chapter by chapter."-The Telegram
AMAZON KINDLE BREAKWATER BOOKS
AMAZON CANADA KINDLE CANADA
In the mountains of Colombia, an old man stumbles sweating and breathless into the Jaguar Forest. Cursed, he feels forced to commit a savage act, and a family is destroyed - his own. From Luis Mendoza's insanity, survivors emerge, but they will not know what their grandfather intended for them, even though they were the ones destined to die.Decades later, veteran reporter Jack Doyle is about to become his network's next anchor star. Doyle has always done his job the right way, and when eight girls, including a US senator's daughter, are brutally murdered, Doyle discovers a trail of blood and drugs that leads to Colombia. It's where the story is, even if his network bosses don't agree. Colombia is a country on fire and la violencia means no one is safe, including Doyle and his producer, the beautiful Kaitlin O'Rourke. Narco-terrorists strike.
Doyle comes home. Kaitlin doesn't. With his career and life adrift, Doyle struggles with the blame for his renegade assignment. Kaitlin was his friend. Possibly much more. Trying to rescue his soul, Jack sets sail. Alone and faltering on the Atlantic Ocean, he receives an astonishing message so bizarre it sets in motion his most dangerous assignment - a covert mission through the blood-soaked Colombian jungle to find a woman who stepped away at dinner and never came back.
Doyle is plunged into a story of deception, betrayal, and a drug lord's insane plan to deliver an apocalyptic message to the White House. To stay alive, Doyle must confront his past and untangle his future. And before it's too late, he must uncover the unbelievable truth about Kaitlin O'Rourke and the Angels of Maradona.
Breakwater Books Amazon Canada"With his taut prose, and gripping storytelling, Carter delivers a stunning page-turner."- Rick Mofina, two-time Arthur Ellis award-winning author of A Perfect Grave.
"It has energy, verve and a fresh, fierce drive to tell a story...The sentence structure is short, precise, driven and full of action, as suits an action novel."- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
"Employing his decades of experience as a veteran journalist, Carter has written a very sophisticated thriller...that stands shoulder to shoulder with best-selling thrillers."- Harold N. Walters, The Packet
"Glen Carter has mastered his debut novel like a pro...[he] is sure to become an award-winning novelist."- Cindy Bauer, www.bookpleasures.com
"You can sense the journalistic experience from the author throughout the novel...there are interesting characters, shady deals, and fast-paced action throughout."- Kevin Kelly, The Herald
August 20, 2017
The Man With Big Ears by Othello Bach
The Man With Big Ears
One Woman’s Journey From A Childhood Hell To An Accomplished Life & Writer – A Miraculous Story Of Triumph, Courage, & Persistence
Cry Into the Wind
“Othello Bach is a force. And this book proves it.”
--Joel Grey, Tony Award-winner
“Cry into the Wind is a page-turner from beginning to end. It is a compelling story of survival and an inspiring testament to the strength of the human spirit and raw determination.”--Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called It
“Too often, America is portrayed as fantasyland. Cry into the Wind reminds us of the hourly struggle many Americans have to survive and salutes their true grit!”
--Pat Schroeder, former Congresswoman; ex-President, Associations of American Publishers
“Cry into the Wind grabs you by the eyeballs and keeps them wide open until the end. As illustrator of four of Othello’s books, I’m sure that her hilariously inventive take on life must have helped her overcome many obstacles.”--Sandy Huffaker, nationally syndicated political cartoonist, award-winning fine artist and illustrator
Othello Bach’s debut book, a novel called House of Secrets, became a best-seller. Avon Books bought it when she was 24 years old. Her second novel, Satan’s Daughters was published by Zebra Bookstore years later and it also became a bestseller. Her first children’s book, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was another best-seller, as was her second children’s book, Hector McSnector and the Mail-Order Christmas Witch. Additionally, Whoever Heard of a Fird? led to over 100 licensing deals which included a line of toys by Remco and a television development deal with Hanna-Barbera. She also wrote three dozen songs that were recorded by stage and screen stars, including Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes, and Sandy Duncan. It’s hard to believe all of this positive, creative, and inspirational content is the product of someone who didn’t learn to read until the 8th grade.
It’s even harder to believe when you learn how this former minister, licensed hypnotherapist, motivational speaker and advocate for literacy, women, and group home reform almost didn’t survive her nightmarish childhood that was defined by loss, neglect, physical and mental abuse, rape, seeing her mother burned alive, sexually violated by her alcoholic dad and left to fend for herself in a group home while separated from her siblings.
Her stirring memoir, Cry into the Wind, recently acknowledged by the Indiana Public Library Association as being one of the ten best books, reveals her heartbreaking, yet inspirational story of how she rose out of an against-all-odds childhood, one that left her in a two-day coma after attempting suicide.
Bach has come a long way since her troubled youth. She grew into a successful author of dozens of books, launched a hypnotherapy company for 25 years, taught for over 13 years at two colleges and was an ordained minister for a decade. Along the way she’s publicly advocated for women, victims of abuse, literacy and self-improvement. She represents hope in the face of brutal odds against living a happy and successful life.
She is available to discuss:The elements of her unique recovery program that helps others grow beyond painful memories.What can be done to improve the conditions of group homes (orphanages.).How to go from victim-hood to taking control of your life.How one can rise from poverty and homelessness to succeed.How one can go from being illiterate to a best-selling author.What the keys to happiness are.“Everyone has memories that haunt and discourage them,” says Bach. “I want to make them aware of my story and show them how to use their minds more effectively – regardless of their backgrounds.”
Never having read a newspaper and unable to read until her teens, Bach learns to barter for help in exchange for others reading to her. When she discovers the “secret to reading,” she is ecstatic about her new discovery – that letters have assigned sounds – and her life is changed forever.
“The thrill of learning to read was surpassed only by the realization that words not only passed information – they created feelings,” says Bach. “With this priceless information I could literally change my life. I could create any emotion and steer my life in the direction I wanted to go – so I used it. Anyone can. Words are power tools that sculpt our future. If we know how to use them we can transform a monstrous life into a beautiful work of art. If we don’t, we generally create one monstrosity after another.”
She has many stories to share – as well as life lessons and advice.
“I want people to embrace the message of my breakthrough children’s book, which is, that we each need to learn that we can be whatever we want to be, without looking anywhere outside of ourselves.”
Contact Information: Media Connect
Sharon Farnell 518-952-4597sharon.farnell@finnpartners.com
Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 brian.feinblum@finnpartners.com
Othello Bach
A Biography
Othello Bach is an accomplished, best-selling author, song writer, and survivor of a childhood of untold loss, abuse, and horror.
Bach, who was illiterate, until the eighth grade, overcame one of the most challenging childhoods ever. She witnessed, at age seven, her mother burn to death. The night following her mother’s funeral, her alcoholic father, took her to his bed. Poor, and living out of a truck, her dad abandoned her and her three younger siblings. They were put in an orphanage where they were split up, placed in different dormitories, and never allowed to be together again. At 18, after leaving the orphanage and graduating high school, Bach attempted suicide, ending up in a two-day coma.
She has published over 30 books, including her memoir, Cry into the Wind, two best-selling novels, House of Secrets (Avon Books) and Satan’s Daughters (Zebra Books) -- and two bestselling children’s books: Whoever Heard of a Fird? and Hector McSnector and the Mail-Order Christmas Witch. (Caedmon Books).
Bach’s also published hundreds of articles, stories, and columns in the Orange County Register, The Looking Glass, The Long Beach Press Telegram, The Orange County News-Times, The Kokomo Tribune and in magazines that included Child Life. Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, True Love, and Jack & Jill.
For two decades she held over 600 workshops on Secrets of Successful Writers, and for 10 years she made over 200 speaking appearances at hotels, churches, and community centers about life after trauma and abuse for 17 years she made 230 presentations, Body Designing, a weight-loss program that uses hypnosis.
Some of her media appearances include The Joe Franklin Show on WOR and The Jim Lehrer Show, both radio.
Bach taught creative writing at the University of California for five years, and at Cypress College in California for 13 years. She also owned and operated a successful hypnotherapy clinic for 25 years and worked with hundreds of clients, using hypnosis to help them overcome a variety of problems and challenges.
Bach was a minister for a decade, pastoring her first church in Tustin, California.
She also worked for three years with Vietnam veterans at the Anaheim Vet Center in Anaheim, California. She continues to write every day, composing music, and recently has illustrated two of her latest children’s books: Albert and the Monster and Frickart the Different. She is a tireless advocate for literacy, human rights, and speaks out for reform of group homes – the same homes that were once called orphanages.
She now resides in Kokomo, Indiana. She has two sons, and was the legal guardian of a niece and nephew. They are all adults now and she considers them all “her kids.”
For more information, please consult: www.othellobach.com.
Othello Bach
Q&A
1. You witnessed your mother being burned alive. Your alcoholic dad sexually assaulted you. In an orphanage, you suffered untold abuse and mistreatment. You experienced homelessness. Eventually, you attempted suicide. What sustained your spirit?
Memories of my mother’s love and eternal optimism. She said if I want something bad enough I can have it, and I still believe it.
2. Othello, you have had one of the most challenging and troubling childhoods anyone has endured. How did you manage to overcome this rough start to become a successful writer, pastor, teacher and hypnotherapist?
When I taught myself to read and realized that the words were affecting my emotions – I knew I had stumbled on a truth I could use to control my life.
3. How does someone who couldn’t write or read until the eighth grade manage to pen so many books? How can we improve literacy in our country?
I did it because I loved doing it. I love to work out plots… develop the characters and let them speak, interact and perform for me. That’s what makes me happy, so it wasn’t hard. How to improve literacy? It needs funding! Literacy programs generally operate on donations, fundraisers, and by scrambling for grants. This is a sad situation because so many children are dyslexic.
4. Othello, you are an accomplished author of many books, including a successful line of children’s books. What is your newest one about, Frickart the Different?
Frickart is frog who is bullied because he’s different. He stands, walks, sings, eats berries and wears a vest of flowers. He is also practical; he remains kind but doesn’t try to change himself to please others.
5. What lessons will children learn from this colorful story?
Most kids feel different in some way. Hopefully, Frickart will show them that it’s okay to be different— and you must be true to yourself if you want to be happy.
6. Your debut children’s book, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was a best-seller and over 100 licensing agreements grew out of it. Did you ever expect people to react so favorably to it?
When I first wrote it, I did; but after years of rejection slips I had my doubts. After seven years of rejections, I wrote music and lyrics for it, and liked it even better. It still took three more years to sell it, and I was thrilled.
7. Why do you feel its message resonates with so many young readers?
I’ve heard that every kid, at one time or another, suspects they were sent home from the hospital with the wrong parents. Maybe that was it: the kids identified with Fird.
8. How would you reform the group home system to ensure the abuse you suffered doesn’t happen again?
Today there are 600,000 kids “lost” in group homes. I have a list of “shoulds” that need to be implemented, including some federal oversight of privately (church) funded homes. In most cases, a driver’s license and GED are all it takes to be hired as a “houseparent” for a dormitory of frightened, abandoned children.
9. You served as a pastor for over a decade. How did faith play a role in rehabilitating your life?
My rehab began when I sold my first novel to Avon Books and started to believe in myself. I’ve always been a deeply spiritual person and eventually I felt compelled to attend a seminary and try to help others.
10. What tips or advice do you have for others who are struggling with their life?
Defend yourself with thoughts you love and make you happy. The past is a memory kept alive by choice. The future is nonexistent—an illusion that changes with mere thought. Don’t be afraid to take control in the present.
11. Among your talents, you are a composer and a lyrist with 37 recorded songs by Broadway, TV and Hollywood stars. What was it like to hear Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes and Sandy Duncan sing your words?
It was glorious! I had the privilege of being in the studio when my work was recorded. At one point, Joel Grey asked me to sing along with him. As I went to him, for the first-and-only time in my life, I thought, “Momma, can you see me now?”
12. Your children’s books spark the imagination of parents as well as children. How did you develop this talent despite the barrage of loss, pain, and conflict in your early life?
I can take no credit for the talent; it is a gift. I just use it, and by doing that, it developed on its own.
13. Cry into the Wind, a Dickensian tale of triumph over tragedy, reveals your story in great detail. What do you hope readers will come away with?
The understanding that thought has power. Thought controls emotion, emotion creates conviction, conviction prompts action, and action produces results.
14. Can you tell us about the unique recovery program you developed, where you help others grow beyond painful memories?
It’s a 30-day program included in Cry into the Wind, and sold separately on Amazon as “The Happiness Option.” It gives readers the opportunity to experience the power of their thoughts.
15. As a mom - and as someone with a traumatized childhood – what advice do you have for parents today in terms of how to raise happy, healthy, successful children?
Children imitate their parents. Be loving and gentle so they will be. Don’t blame others for the ugly emotions you create—especially not your children. By accepting your responsibility to control yourself, you teach your children how to do it.
Keys To Happiness After Trauma
by Othello BachThe power of love that helps you overcome the effects of painful experiences is eternal. It cannot be taken from you, but you can forget you have it. Love cannot be felt until it is given away – and with every thought you think, you are “giving” either love or fear to yourself and everyone around you.Love will always rescue you if you remember to use it, but it cannot rescue you if you choose to remember pain and fear, instead.God is love. Love is always with us and willing to help if we remember to use it.The past cannot hurt you unless you choose to remember it.Memories have no power over you; they cannot alter your decision.Every thought creates a corresponding emotion – so think encouraging thoughts!There are two thought categories: love and fear. Thoughts that make you happy and create a sense of well-being are loving; thoughts that hurt and create doubt are fear-based and will undermine your success.You have a choice between thoughts. Choose wisely.You cannot control others, situations, circumstances, the past, or the future – nor do you need to. You only need to control your responses to them.Pain is an effect created by something that has already happened. What has happened is in the past. All pain is in the past unless we bring it into our present thoughts. Present thoughts of past pain create present pain.Fear is created by thinking of something that might happen in the future. Fear cannot exist in the present unless we are presently thinking fearful thoughts.Fearful thoughts will immobilize you. Replace them immediately with encouraging thoughts.What you believe creates the reality you experience.Denying yourself happiness does not make you “good,” it makes you and everyone around you miserable.There is a Power within you that is sufficient to overcome all obstacles. It doesn’t care what you call it, but it is there and it responds to love – your loving thoughts, your loving your life, your loving others, your loving your dreams and pursuing them. If you will remember to love your life, family, friends, the day, your work – love will empower you, and soon you will love all that you have accomplished. You will also love the truth that you – and only you – control your life.
“Othello Bach is a force. And this book proves it.”--Joel Grey, Tony Award-winner
“Cry into the Wind is a page-turner from beginning to end. It is a compelling story of survival and an inspiring testament to the strength of the human spirit and raw determination.”--Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called It
“Too often, America is portrayed as fantasyland. Cry into the Wind reminds us of the hourly struggle many Americans have to survive and salutes their true grit!”
--Pat Schroeder, former Congresswoman; ex-President, Associations of American Publishers
“Cry into the Wind grabs you by the eyeballs and keeps them wide open until the end. As illustrator of four of Othello’s books, I’m sure that her hilariously inventive take on life must have helped her overcome many obstacles.”--Sandy Huffaker, nationally syndicated political cartoonist, award-winning fine artist and illustrator
Othello Bach’s debut book, a novel called House of Secrets, became a best-seller. Avon Books bought it when she was 24 years old. Her second novel, Satan’s Daughters was published by Zebra Bookstore years later and it also became a bestseller. Her first children’s book, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was another best-seller, as was her second children’s book, Hector McSnector and the Mail-Order Christmas Witch. Additionally, Whoever Heard of a Fird? led to over 100 licensing deals which included a line of toys by Remco and a television development deal with Hanna-Barbera. She also wrote three dozen songs that were recorded by stage and screen stars, including Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes, and Sandy Duncan. It’s hard to believe all of this positive, creative, and inspirational content is the product of someone who didn’t learn to read until the 8th grade.
It’s even harder to believe when you learn how this former minister, licensed hypnotherapist, motivational speaker and advocate for literacy, women, and group home reform almost didn’t survive her nightmarish childhood that was defined by loss, neglect, physical and mental abuse, rape, seeing her mother burned alive, sexually violated by her alcoholic dad and left to fend for herself in a group home while separated from her siblings.
Her stirring memoir, Cry into the Wind, recently acknowledged by the Indiana Public Library Association as being one of the ten best books, reveals her heartbreaking, yet inspirational story of how she rose out of an against-all-odds childhood, one that left her in a two-day coma after attempting suicide.
Bach has come a long way since her troubled youth. She grew into a successful author of dozens of books, launched a hypnotherapy company for 25 years, taught for over 13 years at two colleges and was an ordained minister for a decade. Along the way she’s publicly advocated for women, victims of abuse, literacy and self-improvement. She represents hope in the face of brutal odds against living a happy and successful life.
She is available to discuss:The elements of her unique recovery program that helps others grow beyond painful memories.What can be done to improve the conditions of group homes (orphanages.).How to go from victim-hood to taking control of your life.How one can rise from poverty and homelessness to succeed.How one can go from being illiterate to a best-selling author.What the keys to happiness are.“Everyone has memories that haunt and discourage them,” says Bach. “I want to make them aware of my story and show them how to use their minds more effectively – regardless of their backgrounds.”
Never having read a newspaper and unable to read until her teens, Bach learns to barter for help in exchange for others reading to her. When she discovers the “secret to reading,” she is ecstatic about her new discovery – that letters have assigned sounds – and her life is changed forever.
“The thrill of learning to read was surpassed only by the realization that words not only passed information – they created feelings,” says Bach. “With this priceless information I could literally change my life. I could create any emotion and steer my life in the direction I wanted to go – so I used it. Anyone can. Words are power tools that sculpt our future. If we know how to use them we can transform a monstrous life into a beautiful work of art. If we don’t, we generally create one monstrosity after another.”
She has many stories to share – as well as life lessons and advice.
“I want people to embrace the message of my breakthrough children’s book, which is, that we each need to learn that we can be whatever we want to be, without looking anywhere outside of ourselves.”
Contact Information: Media Connect
Sharon Farnell 518-952-4597sharon.farnell@finnpartners.com
Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 brian.feinblum@finnpartners.com
Othello Bach
A Biography
Othello Bach is an accomplished, best-selling author, song writer, and survivor of a childhood of untold loss, abuse, and horror.Bach, who was illiterate, until the eighth grade, overcame one of the most challenging childhoods ever. She witnessed, at age seven, her mother burn to death. The night following her mother’s funeral, her alcoholic father, took her to his bed. Poor, and living out of a truck, her dad abandoned her and her three younger siblings. They were put in an orphanage where they were split up, placed in different dormitories, and never allowed to be together again. At 18, after leaving the orphanage and graduating high school, Bach attempted suicide, ending up in a two-day coma.
She has published over 30 books, including her memoir, Cry into the Wind, two best-selling novels, House of Secrets (Avon Books) and Satan’s Daughters (Zebra Books) -- and two bestselling children’s books: Whoever Heard of a Fird? and Hector McSnector and the Mail-Order Christmas Witch. (Caedmon Books).Bach’s also published hundreds of articles, stories, and columns in the Orange County Register, The Looking Glass, The Long Beach Press Telegram, The Orange County News-Times, The Kokomo Tribune and in magazines that included Child Life. Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, True Love, and Jack & Jill.
For two decades she held over 600 workshops on Secrets of Successful Writers, and for 10 years she made over 200 speaking appearances at hotels, churches, and community centers about life after trauma and abuse for 17 years she made 230 presentations, Body Designing, a weight-loss program that uses hypnosis.Some of her media appearances include The Joe Franklin Show on WOR and The Jim Lehrer Show, both radio.
Bach taught creative writing at the University of California for five years, and at Cypress College in California for 13 years. She also owned and operated a successful hypnotherapy clinic for 25 years and worked with hundreds of clients, using hypnosis to help them overcome a variety of problems and challenges.
Bach was a minister for a decade, pastoring her first church in Tustin, California.
She also worked for three years with Vietnam veterans at the Anaheim Vet Center in Anaheim, California. She continues to write every day, composing music, and recently has illustrated two of her latest children’s books: Albert and the Monster and Frickart the Different. She is a tireless advocate for literacy, human rights, and speaks out for reform of group homes – the same homes that were once called orphanages.She now resides in Kokomo, Indiana. She has two sons, and was the legal guardian of a niece and nephew. They are all adults now and she considers them all “her kids.”
For more information, please consult: www.othellobach.com.
Othello Bach
Q&A
1. You witnessed your mother being burned alive. Your alcoholic dad sexually assaulted you. In an orphanage, you suffered untold abuse and mistreatment. You experienced homelessness. Eventually, you attempted suicide. What sustained your spirit?
Memories of my mother’s love and eternal optimism. She said if I want something bad enough I can have it, and I still believe it.
2. Othello, you have had one of the most challenging and troubling childhoods anyone has endured. How did you manage to overcome this rough start to become a successful writer, pastor, teacher and hypnotherapist?
When I taught myself to read and realized that the words were affecting my emotions – I knew I had stumbled on a truth I could use to control my life.
3. How does someone who couldn’t write or read until the eighth grade manage to pen so many books? How can we improve literacy in our country?
I did it because I loved doing it. I love to work out plots… develop the characters and let them speak, interact and perform for me. That’s what makes me happy, so it wasn’t hard. How to improve literacy? It needs funding! Literacy programs generally operate on donations, fundraisers, and by scrambling for grants. This is a sad situation because so many children are dyslexic.
4. Othello, you are an accomplished author of many books, including a successful line of children’s books. What is your newest one about, Frickart the Different?
Frickart is frog who is bullied because he’s different. He stands, walks, sings, eats berries and wears a vest of flowers. He is also practical; he remains kind but doesn’t try to change himself to please others.5. What lessons will children learn from this colorful story?
Most kids feel different in some way. Hopefully, Frickart will show them that it’s okay to be different— and you must be true to yourself if you want to be happy.
6. Your debut children’s book, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was a best-seller and over 100 licensing agreements grew out of it. Did you ever expect people to react so favorably to it?
When I first wrote it, I did; but after years of rejection slips I had my doubts. After seven years of rejections, I wrote music and lyrics for it, and liked it even better. It still took three more years to sell it, and I was thrilled.7. Why do you feel its message resonates with so many young readers?
I’ve heard that every kid, at one time or another, suspects they were sent home from the hospital with the wrong parents. Maybe that was it: the kids identified with Fird.
8. How would you reform the group home system to ensure the abuse you suffered doesn’t happen again?
Today there are 600,000 kids “lost” in group homes. I have a list of “shoulds” that need to be implemented, including some federal oversight of privately (church) funded homes. In most cases, a driver’s license and GED are all it takes to be hired as a “houseparent” for a dormitory of frightened, abandoned children.
9. You served as a pastor for over a decade. How did faith play a role in rehabilitating your life?
My rehab began when I sold my first novel to Avon Books and started to believe in myself. I’ve always been a deeply spiritual person and eventually I felt compelled to attend a seminary and try to help others.
10. What tips or advice do you have for others who are struggling with their life?
Defend yourself with thoughts you love and make you happy. The past is a memory kept alive by choice. The future is nonexistent—an illusion that changes with mere thought. Don’t be afraid to take control in the present.
11. Among your talents, you are a composer and a lyrist with 37 recorded songs by Broadway, TV and Hollywood stars. What was it like to hear Joel Grey, Tammy Grimes and Sandy Duncan sing your words?
It was glorious! I had the privilege of being in the studio when my work was recorded. At one point, Joel Grey asked me to sing along with him. As I went to him, for the first-and-only time in my life, I thought, “Momma, can you see me now?”
12. Your children’s books spark the imagination of parents as well as children. How did you develop this talent despite the barrage of loss, pain, and conflict in your early life?
I can take no credit for the talent; it is a gift. I just use it, and by doing that, it developed on its own.
13. Cry into the Wind, a Dickensian tale of triumph over tragedy, reveals your story in great detail. What do you hope readers will come away with?
The understanding that thought has power. Thought controls emotion, emotion creates conviction, conviction prompts action, and action produces results.
14. Can you tell us about the unique recovery program you developed, where you help others grow beyond painful memories?
It’s a 30-day program included in Cry into the Wind, and sold separately on Amazon as “The Happiness Option.” It gives readers the opportunity to experience the power of their thoughts.15. As a mom - and as someone with a traumatized childhood – what advice do you have for parents today in terms of how to raise happy, healthy, successful children?
Children imitate their parents. Be loving and gentle so they will be. Don’t blame others for the ugly emotions you create—especially not your children. By accepting your responsibility to control yourself, you teach your children how to do it.
Keys To Happiness After Trauma
by Othello BachThe power of love that helps you overcome the effects of painful experiences is eternal. It cannot be taken from you, but you can forget you have it. Love cannot be felt until it is given away – and with every thought you think, you are “giving” either love or fear to yourself and everyone around you.Love will always rescue you if you remember to use it, but it cannot rescue you if you choose to remember pain and fear, instead.God is love. Love is always with us and willing to help if we remember to use it.The past cannot hurt you unless you choose to remember it.Memories have no power over you; they cannot alter your decision.Every thought creates a corresponding emotion – so think encouraging thoughts!There are two thought categories: love and fear. Thoughts that make you happy and create a sense of well-being are loving; thoughts that hurt and create doubt are fear-based and will undermine your success.You have a choice between thoughts. Choose wisely.You cannot control others, situations, circumstances, the past, or the future – nor do you need to. You only need to control your responses to them.Pain is an effect created by something that has already happened. What has happened is in the past. All pain is in the past unless we bring it into our present thoughts. Present thoughts of past pain create present pain.Fear is created by thinking of something that might happen in the future. Fear cannot exist in the present unless we are presently thinking fearful thoughts.Fearful thoughts will immobilize you. Replace them immediately with encouraging thoughts.What you believe creates the reality you experience.Denying yourself happiness does not make you “good,” it makes you and everyone around you miserable.There is a Power within you that is sufficient to overcome all obstacles. It doesn’t care what you call it, but it is there and it responds to love – your loving thoughts, your loving your life, your loving others, your loving your dreams and pursuing them. If you will remember to love your life, family, friends, the day, your work – love will empower you, and soon you will love all that you have accomplished. You will also love the truth that you – and only you – control your life.
Snigglefuzzle
Eleven-year-old Whitney and her nine-year-old brother, Matthew, follow a cat into an old, abandoned house where they find a tiny gold egg, and magical things happen. A Voice tells them they egg will hatch into a Snigglefuzzle, a little creature that lives on kind words, and fades and disappears around harsh, angry words. Unfortunately, they live in a small Midwestern town where everyone is out of work and grouchy. They hide the Snigglefuzzle from unhappy adults, and turn to their best friend Tug. He has an invention that will put the people back to work and make them happy again. The townspeople like the idea, but two men sneak into town and steal Tug’s computer and the plans for his invention. Now the only way to save the town and the Snigglefuzzle is to find Tug’s computer and capture the thieves—and do it all without using harsh, angry words that will make their Snigglefuzzle disappear. Can they do it? Is it possible?AMAZON KINDLE REVIEWS
August 19, 2017
An Axe to Grind
Rocky Bluff PD Series Book 6Set in a small So CA beach town, an imaginative stalker’s decapitation sends Detectives Milligan and Marshall on an investigation of the stalker’s family, his victim and her family. When Doug strikes out on his own to corner the murderer and no one knows where he went, Stacey frantically tries to find him. She almost comes to a dead end, when his beloved MG is found in the lagoon on the Santa Barbara college campus.
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Buried Threads
Rachel Lyons and her partner Chase Cohen accept a contract to recover a lost priceless treasure in the Sea of Japan. However, upon arriving in Tokyo, they soon discover their mission is more complicated and dangerous than they originally believed. In order to prevent a natural disaster from striking Japan and killing millions, they must form an alliance with yakuza members, dive into shark-infested waters and recover three ancient cursed swords before time runs out.AMAZON KINDLE AUDIOBOOK
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Albert and the Monster
August 18, 2017
Flaherty's Crossing
From Pacific Northwest's award-winning author Kaylin McFarren comes a powerful novel about love, loss, and the power of forgiveness... Successful yet emotionally stifled artist Kate Flaherty stands at the deathbed of her estranged father, conflicted by his morphine-induced confession exposing his part in her mother's death. While racing home, Kate's car mishap leads her to a soul-searching discussion with a lone diner employee, prompting Kate to confront the true reasons her marriage hangs in the balance. When her night takes an unexpected turn, however, she flees for her life, a life desperate for faith that can only be found through her ability to forgive.AMAZON KINDLE AUDIOBOOK
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