Did you know that many of the Better Said Than Done storytellers are also published authors? If you are looking for a gift for the reader in your life, go no further. One of these books should appeal to them! Full descriptions and links below, but here’s a list of storyteller/author and genre.
Richard Barr – Action/Thriller
Noa Baum – Memoir
Solveig Eggerz – Literary Fiction
Joanne Lozar Glenn – Memoir Writing Guide
Susan Gordon – Poetry
Kristin Pedemonti – Education
Jessica Robinson – Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Jeremy Strozer – Historical Fiction
The Port Director, by R.P. Barr
The Port Director is about a terrorist plot against the U.S. and the verge-of-retirement Customs port director of a tiny crossing point on the Canadian border, who with his Russian-speaking immigrant wife races around the country to thwart the attack. It is a suspenseful fast-paced, often humorous reality-based adventure.
Purchase The Port Director here.
A Land Twice Promised, by Noa Baum
Noa’s book, A Land Twice Promised – An Israeli Woman’s Quest for Peace, is an introspective memoir that mines the depths of the chasm between the Israeli and Palestinian experiences, the torment of family loss and conflict, and the therapy of storytelling as a cleansing art. With her storytelling background, Noa captures the drama of a nation at war and her own discovery of humanity in the enemy. More about Noa on her website.
The book can be purchased here.
Seal Woman, by Solveig Eggerz
The novel Seal Woman is about Charlotte, a German woman who tries to escape the past and start a new life on an Icelandic farm after World War II . Not only does she struggle to adapt to farm work in a harsh land, but she is also haunted to the point of madness by the memory of the husband she lost to the Holocaust and the daughter she “misplaced” in Berlin. Based on a documented migration to Iceland of 351 Germans, the story is set in Iceland, Germany, and Poland.
Published in 2014 by Unbridled Books, Seal Woman is available at East City Books on Capitol Hill and on Amazon.
Memoir Your Way, by Joanne Lozar Glenn and other contributors
Memoir Your Way (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2016) inspires family storykeepers to create a memoir using a craft they already know. This accessible, first-of-its-kind book extends memoir beyond the written memoir form to cookbooks, scrapbooks, quilts, and other forms of storytelling, making memoir creation accessible to everyone, including those who don’t see themselves as writers. A valuable sourcebook for quickly and easily celebrating family stories and ancestry, Memoir Your Way is a must for those who want to turn memories into memoir and in so doing, build the bridge between past and future.
Available from Amazon.
There is a Doe in the Winter Hayfield, by Susan Gordon
Susan Gordon is a storyteller, writer of memoir and fiction and the winner of the 2015 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Competition for her long poem There Is a Doe in the Winter Hayfield. Jo Radner has written of this just published chapbook, “Susan Gordon’s extraordinary language conveys us through death to dissolution and transfiguration, as she bears careful, caring witness to the body of a belly-shot doe day after day, week after week, month after month, through all the seasons of the weather and the soul.”
There Is a Doe in the Winter Hayfield is available through Amazon and two independent bookstores,
The Curious Iguana in Frederick, MD and Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown, WV.
A Bridge of Story: Risking it All to Connect Classrooms and Cultures in Belize, by Kristin Pedemonti
In 2005, Kristin Pedemonti sold her home and most of her possessions to create/facilitate volunteer literacy project in Belize, Central America. She traveled village to village and school by school she donated programs for 33,000 students and trained 800 teachers in storytelling and how to use their own indigenous legends to teach creative writing. Kristin’s book: A Bridge of Story: Risking it All to Connect Classrooms and Cultures in Belize shares her journey of project creation, pitfalls to avoid, tips for your own success and step-by-step blueprint of the creative writing project for readers to replicate. A selection of stories written by Belizean teachers and students is included. Kristin is available for book signings, author visits and teacher training based on the book. Currently, you may purchase directly from Kristin via her website store or, starting January, you can purchase on Amazon.
Caged, by J.P. Robinson (Jessica Piscitelli Robinson)
A scientist and the federal agent who is hoping to keep her alive are trapped in a building with a horde of hungry vampires. It wouldn’t be that unusual of a night, if it weren’t for the zombies. Caged takes place in an alternate version of modern-day Northern Virginia, where vampires, commonly known as vees, are considered our greatest threat. Cate, a scientist who works for the National Vampire Intelligence Agency (NVIA), is researching a vaccine to immunize humans against vees. Daniel, one of the vees set to be part of her experiments, has other plans. Mason, a special agent with the NVIA, would rather be anywhere else than in the research facility, especially once the zombies break out.
Caged is available for purchase in paperback or kindle version here.
Threads of The War, by Jeremy Strozer
Threads of The War, Volumes 1-3 collects and shares personal narratives during real events across the span of The 20th Century’s War. From the private study of the Kaiser in the summer of 1914, through the almost empty trenches on the last day of World War I, across the frosty Icelandic landmass in 1940 into the hills of Korea in 1951, these short easily-readable, yet emotionally compelling, bursts of truth-based first person accounts of multiple facets of war open the door to the facts, fictions, and fallacies of armed violence. Following each story, the reader is provided specific and revealing facts about the events narrated, offering both entertainment and education within the time it takes to read a blog-post.
Threads of The War: Personal Truth-Inspired Flash-Fiction of The 20th Century’s War, Volumes 1-3, available here.
