Memoir

“About Smuggler:

When twenty-something post-grad Nick Fillmore discovers the zine he’s been recruited to edit is a front for drug profits, he begins a dangerous flirtation with an international heroin smuggling operation and in a matter of months finds himself on a fast ride he doesn’t know how to get off of.

After a bag goes missing in an airport transit lounge he is summoned to West Africa to take a voodoo oath with Nigerian mafia. Bound to drug boss Alhaji, he returns to Europe to put the job right, but in Chicago O’Hare customs agents “blitz” the plane and a courier is arrested.

Thus begins a harried yearlong effort to elude the Feds, prison and a looming existential dead end…. Smuggler relates the real events behind OITNB.

Targeted Age Group: Adult
Written by: Nicholas Fillmore

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon
Buy the Book On Barnes & Noble/Nook
Buy the Book On Apple Books
Buy the Book On Kobo

—>

Gone Diving: My Adventures Above and Below the Waves by Andrew Heasman

“About Gone Diving: My Adventures Above and Below the Waves:

Have you ever wondered what life as a SCUBA Diving Instructor is really like?
Is it as glamorous a lifestyle as they say? Do they live-the-dream?

Follow the author as he evolves from a novice diver, to become the owner of his own dive business. Travel the world, country-to-country, as he “chases-the-sun” – from the islands of Fiji and Australia in the east, to Central America and the Caribbean in the west.

Share his adventures above and below the ocean’s surface:-
Experience the thrill of Shark encounters, the beauty of colourful Nudibranches, and the serenity of majestic Manta Rays. Embark upon marine conservation projects in the Seychelles and Belize, studying corals and exotic creatures.
Discover long forgotten Maya Temples hidden beneath dense rainforest, and climb an erupting volcano. Marvel at Uluru, live on a remote desert island, and survive a burning ship as it slips beneath the waves.

Experience the best, and the worst, of being a diving instructor…

These and many more adventures await you in, “Gone Diving: My Adventures Above and Below the Waves.”

“Gone Diving” is the third book in “The Memoir Series.”

Targeted Age Group: Adult
Written by: Andrew Heasman
Illustrated by: Andrew Heasman

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon
—>

Vagabond Nemophile by Shea Barbacci

“About Vagabond Nemophile:

Have you ever wanted to simply walk away from it all? Has a feeling of futility permeated your day to day ambition, allowing hopelessness to creep in and cripple your motivation? What happens when you yield to the realization the rewards you seek along the path you travel will not be what you wished to work towards?

Bren Dali was fed up with his studies, his work, his expressions, the burden of his possessions, Florida, and the general direction his life seemed to be heading.

He leaves it all behind in search of renewal. Bren boards a bus to the opposite corner of the United States, bringing nothing except for a broken heart, a small amount of cash, wilderness survival gear, and a freshly formed (but short-lived) friendship. The only plan is to hike in the woods, find culture, and see what happens. This is his journal.

Come, take a walk.

Targeted Age Group: 19-50
Written by: Shea Barbacci
Illustrated by: Shea Barbacci

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon
—>

Endless Possibilities by Craig Briggs

About Endless Possibilities:

Life in the Spanish region of Galicia just keeps getting better for Craig Briggs, his wife Melanie and their faithful hound, Jazz. This is the third book in ‘The Journey’ series which began with Craig’s bestselling travel memoir JOURNEY TO A DREAM.
In ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES Craig’s attempts at winemaking produce mixed results but fail to dampen his enthusiasm. Life in the Galician countryside is rarely uneventful and when Melanie is rushed to A&E it’s Craig who has to pick himself up off the floor.
Having successfully bought, renovated, and sold a property they decide to seek out a new project. After months of searching they eventually find their prize, a romantically appealing farmhouse in a ruinous condition. When the slow turning wheels of Spanish bureaucracy threaten to scupper their plans they’re forced to hold their nerve.
More adventures follow. A birthday surprise ends with Melanie in tears and a festive break to Lanzarote puts Jazz in a spin.
Tasked with preparing their friends’ house for holiday letting, Craig and Melanie find themselves in a race against time. Broken bones and blocked drains conspire to defeat their efforts. With confirmed reservations just weeks away, they have little choice but to soldier on.
Craig’s easy reading style, keen sense of humour, and attention to detail transport the reader on a journey of ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES.

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon

Featured Post: CLOSURE: based on a true story by Tasche Laine

“About CLOSURE: based on a true story:

Looking back, Tara wonders if what followed her first kiss was a warning of things to come. At the tender age of ten, her heart broke when her best friend Trey moved 1,500 miles away. Crossing paths five years later, the two teens exchange beautiful letters that cement their love. They embark on an idealized relationship, despite trauma and heartbreak on both sides, only to be forced apart shortly after.

As time marches on, Tara aches to know what could have been… until fate presents her with one last opportunity twenty years later. Will she find true love with her first love, or will she finally understand that self-esteem comes from within?

Closure is a moving, award-winning fictional memoir that features courage, raw emotions, and real-life issues.

An award-winning ‘slice of life’ tale about love and loss.

Targeted Age Group: 18+
Written by: Tasche Laine

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon
—>

Featured Post: Journey: A Mother’s Account of Love, Loss and Spiritual Healing by Mitzi Montague-Bauer

About Journey: A Mother’s Account of Love, Loss and Spiritual Healing by Mitzi Montague-Bauer

A mother’s undying love. A son’s untimely death. One woman’s journey toward healing…

When Mitzi’s college-aged son Journey, received a harrowing mental health diagnosis, she scrambled for a way to “fix” him. As she and her son bounced between prescriptions and therapists, she watched her brilliant boy move in and out of madness. In the midst of her hunt for a solution, Journey stepped off a six-story building and fell to his death.

Grieving and in shock, she poured through a collection of blog posts written by her son before his suicide. As she continued to learn more about the true recovery of mental illness, Mitzi combined her experiences with Journey’s account to create a raw, vulnerable narrative. This is their story…

Journey: A Mother’s Account of Love, Loss and Spiritual Healing is a gripping tale for anyone touched by mental illness. Through Mitzi’s shared story and her son’s brilliant, prescient writings, the book explores coping, acceptance, and the surprising possibility of embracing tragedy. Through the “Journey’s Dream” charity and this spiritual account, Journey’s legacy endures to provide inspiration, healing, and transformation.

Journey is a memoir that shines a light on mental illness and the lives of children lost too soon. If you like soul-nurturing narratives, cathartic tales of connectedness, and masterful storytelling, then you’ll love Mitzi Montague-Bauer’s vulnerable and authentic page-turner.

Give yourself the gift of Journey, a beautiful book from both mother and son.

This Non-Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print, Audiobook

Every Shitty Thing by Marcia Abboud

About Every Shitty Thing:

By the time Marcia was 15, she had been betrayed by every male figure in her life. Her father, her brothers, a boy she had a crush on, and even a group of strangers.
She grew up feeling unworthy, full of insecurity and self-loathing. As a result, she learned how to disconnect and keep her mouth shut. Except when it came to food. Her lifelong weight issues began around this time. She filled the void, like most overeaters, with comfort foods: carbs, fast food, cake and lots of chocolate.
After a dreadful incident of double treachery when she was a teenager, she resolved never to marry or have children for fear history might repeat itself. Addiction was in her family’s DNA. She wouldn’t risk passing it on.
Then she met George, a sweet Greek boy who seemed so different from all the other men she’d ever known. She agreed to marry him on condition that they would never have kids.
When she accidentally fell pregnant, she thought her world had ended. After agonizing over the decision, she knew she had to have their child because George wanted more than anything to be a father. Thank heavens they had a daughter. She still doesn’t know how she could have coped with a son.
A phone call in March 2007 changed everything. Her 19-year marriage was over in 24 hours. She found out that George had been leading a secret double life. How had she missed that? The worst part was that it wasn’t the first time he’d left them destitute. In 2001 she had uncovered his gambling habit. Despite secrets and shames of her own, somehow they had managed to keep their marriage on track.
But there was no recovery from this second stab in the back. What unravelled plunged her into levels of darkness even deeper than her shitty past. There were times she contemplated ending her life like her brother Tony, but she couldn’t bring herself to abandon her daughter.
Every Shitty Thing is a memoir of betrayal, deception, heartbreak and endurance, with humour between the threads. It’s about hope and never giving up on love. This is Marcia’s story of learning to trust again after a lifetime of betrayal, and how she came to embrace the understanding that the shit we go through – no matter how awful – leads us exactly where we need to be.

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon

Featured Post: Jezebel Redeemed by Tandy Mackal

About Jezebel Redeemed:

Tandy was a woman who loved men.
A few too many men, to her own detriment.

Tandy sees her past life as that of a Jezebel—full of wickedness, a life spent defying God, and denying Him control of her life for too many years.

Jezebel Redeemed is a memoir, a confession of those wrong deeds. Like most writers, Tandy wants to be heard and understood through her earnestly made confession, one she prays will help many others who are living life on their own terms.

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon

Featured Post: In A Flash: A Memoir by R.J. Castille

About In A Flash: A Memoir by R.J. Castille

Sometimes we experience something so traumatic in our lives, it changes us forever…

Renee Johnson has found herself in the midst of turmoil. She has made nothing but a complete mess out of her life and nothing could prepare her for the path laid out before her. An unexpected turn of events plunges her into the most challenging situation she has ever faced. With her best friend, Miah Hunter at her side, Renee must traverse a course that most would not even dare.

Chase Randall, Renee’s new love interest and her light in a dark world, has been challenged by something he never expected. A surprise situation sure to test his resolve and ultimately, his humanity. Despite the negative impact of their plight on their lives, Chase weather’s the storm, only to face the biggest tribulation in the end.

Together, Renee and Chase withstand the beating, leaving them to face a new world in the aftermath of their tragic loss.

Subjected to the indecision of medical professionals who insist on perpetuating a practice they claim is safe, every woman should learn to question them. Doctors are human too and are far from perfect, but patients tend to say nothing, never challenge their practices, and therefore things will never change. The events described in this memoir were either a direct or indirect result of a doctor’s dismissal of signs of impending difficulties, or their failure to act in a timely fashion using interventions that could have otherwise made a difference. In A Flash calls them all into question and, with any luck, will force them to at least look into what appears to be the source of devastating loss for thousands of women everywhere. End the madness: Question their motives, stand up for your rights, and never allow them to disregard even the slightest concern.

This Memoir book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

Featured Post: One Maestro’s Journey: A Celebrated Life of Music & Ingenuity by Heinrich Hammer

About One Maestro's Journey: A Celebrated Life of Music & Ingenuity by Heinrich Hammer

Shot by a cannon as a child, Heinrich Hammer’s nearly century-long life was anything but typical right from the outset. Beginning with his often troubled childhood in Germany, he had to fight from a young age with a recalcitrant uncle (his guardian) to pursue his musical goals academically. Once an adult though, his path brightened and, over the years, he encountered a seemingly endless parade of noteworthy composers, musicians, painters, and nobility—he even witnessed the infamous Wright Brothers testing their new flying machine as well as other historic “firsts” along the way.

The reader is introduced to these illustrious individuals via detailed sidebars in chronicling the journey of Maestro Hammer as he traverses two continents, multiple countries, and numerous orchestras, providing a truly unique window into a bygone era. Following a key early study period in Paris, his music-related travels throughout Europe included his founding of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, still going strong today. He also conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, with royalty in attendance at his concerts on various occasions. Migrating across the ocean to America, he performed for President Taft, resurrected and led the Washington Symphony Orchestra in the nation’s capital, and became a U.S. citizen, to his extreme delight.

After relocating to Southern California, he conducted the L.A. Philharmonic, and had a life in Hollywood which intersected with the Golden Age of film—followed by a decided change in his fortunes during WWII.

Although he was passionate about his musical pursuits right up to the end of his days, he also had a host of other interests and was remarkably accomplished at almost everything he set his hand to—from hunting, to farming, to construction. For a house he built single-handedly, he “bought lumber which was used to build the stands for President (Woodrow) Wilson’s inaugural parade.” Ingenious indeed…
In reading this remarkable memoir, penned by him at age 90 (in 1952), you’ll meet the gifted Maestro Heinrich Hammer, an acclaimed musician who could play every instrument in an orchestra, composed 9 symphonies, and spoke 7 languages. The kaleidoscope of his long life was filled with unexpected twists, turns, and arduous struggles throughout…as you’ll soon discover.

This Memoir book is available in these Formats: Print

Featured Post: Tornados, Rattlesnakes & Oil — A Wildcatter’s Memories of Hunting for Black Gold by Thomas E. Cochrane

About Tornados, Rattlesnakes & Oil — A Wildcatter’s Memories of Hunting for Black Gold by Thomas E. Cochrane

Black Gold…OIL…the magic bullet of liquid petroleum not only propels all manner of people-movers globally, it’s also a component of more than 6,000 products everything from motorcycle helmets, to vitamin capsules, to ink. But who DISCOVERS these critical and elusive fossil fuels of oil & gas?

MEET A WILDCATTER whose back-in-the-day journey from the hills of New York, to the ice fields of Alaska, to the plains of the Midwest brings the reader along on this complex quest to SEE underground. Here’s an insider’s look at the petroleum industry of the latter 20th century and what geologist Thomas E. Cochrane experienced along the way. From Oklahoma, to Texas, to rubbing elbows with iconic oilman T. Boone Pickens, his personal tales of the oil fields provide a firsthand glimpse into the art as well as the science of exploring and drilling all in the relentless pursuit of hitting the big one, every wildcatter’s dream.

From company man, to making indie deals and partnering on the fly while chasing the next hot prospect, Cochrane discloses the technical processes involved in detail…but also the thrill of the hunt including what can sometimes go very wrong. From dry holes, to blowouts, to sketchy money men among a cast of other colorful oil patch characters, his story delivers a step-back-in-time look at a bygone era in an ever-evolving global industry… and he has a sage perspective to share on its future as well.

INCLUDES: over two dozen vintage B/W photos, charts & diagrams along with helpful sidebars to introduce the uninitiated to the science of hunting for oil.

Note: Frankly, this is a man’s book with warts ‘n all tales of yesteryear and the author’s earlier [more sexist] attitudes are redeemed by the book’s conclusion when he candidly shares the key a-ha moments he subsequently experienced later in life, both personally and professionally.

This Memoir book is available in these Formats: Print

Featured Post: Living Forward, Looking Backward by Nate Nasralla

About Living Forward, Looking Backward:

If we’re honest, we’ll admit our days are filled with normal routines, like eating cereal and sitting in traffic. We often wonder, “is this it?”

But do we really have to quit our jobs and travel the world to find a fulfilling, purposeful life? Is it possible to find significance in our daily routines, right here and now?

After experiencing a rapid series of major life changes within a single year, Nate stumbled upon a reality that’s shared by us all: there’s profound meaning in our ordinary, everyday moments, but we can’t see it.

Through painfully-honest storytelling and candid conversation, Nate shares how years of mistakes and missteps uncovered a simple framework that reveals the greater purpose behind our everyday lives, and why the answers to life’s deep questions are often backward from what we expect.

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon

THE BABY FLIGHT

“About THE BABY FLIGHT:

An American teacher in Korea delivers three orphans on Christmas Eve to their new parents in USA. But there is a major problem – one of the babies. Heart-warming, illustrated and wonderful ending.
Over 400,000 copies of The Baby Flight story have been published. The Baby Flight is entirely non-fiction. Diane Ravitch Former Assistance Secretary of Education writes, “A beautiful and moving story.”

Buy the ebook:
Buy the Book On Amazon

Featured Post: A Maverick New Zealand Way: The essential Kiwi travel companion! A New Zealand adventurer’s engrossing memoir of journeys in her own land, with 625 images by Mary Jane Walker

About A Maverick New Zealand Way: The essential Kiwi travel companion! A New Zealand adventurer’s engrossing memoir of journeys in her own land, with 625 images by Mary Jane Walker

Kindle and other ebook versions on sale at US$2.99 till 11 August, reverting to $5.99 afterward.

FINALIST IN THE TRAVEL CATEGORY, INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS, MAY 2018

This is not a travel guide. Why? Because you can’t read a travel guide from cover to cover. But you can read Mary Jane’s memoir of her outdoor and urban adventures in New Zealand, from North to South. In a flowing narrative that comes with more than 600 photos and maps, Mary Jane will make you feel like you have already arrived. And perhaps even that you have known her and her country for years.

(PS: Reviews welcome!)

This Memoir book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print