By TODD MCHALE
Burlington County Times

Richard Perry says he never set out to write a novel, but after 25 years of writing, that’s exactly what he ended up with.

“I began by writing a series of poems, and over the years it grew into a story,” said Perry, who is superintendent of the Palmyra School District. “It just kind of grew as I went through my life.”

The book, “The Seventh Angel of Armageddon,” is the first Perry has published.

The story follows the trials and tribulation of its main character, Joshua, who Perry described as “the Seventh Angel — you know, an archangel — (who is) supposed to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ.”

After witnessing the violent death of his mother at age 3, Joshua grows into an emotionally troubled man. He touches the souls of everyone he comes into contact with, especially Nia, a beautiful 19-year-old. Joshua, Nia and Tim, Joshua’s older brother, all have dreams they hope to fulfill, and through miraculous works, they realize their true calling as crusaders of God.

“He’s like a Rainman-like character that drives his brother crazy,” Perry said of Joshua.

Perry said the book, which he wrote using his pen name, Lance Dakota, is a spiritual novel with adult themes. It is geared for the mainstream reader.
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“It’s unique,” Perry said. “… The whole story leads up to Armageddon. In the end, you have a sense of hope.”

He said he hopes the book encourages readers to reflect on their own spirituality and faith.

While “The Seventh Angel of Armageddon” may have taken more than two decades to write, Perry is hopeful it will make a difference in readers’ lives.

“I always felt that if I could help one person realize there is hope and their dreams can come true, then it was all worth it,” Perry said.

However, Perry said he has no intention of taking so long on his next book.

“The next one, I swear, won’t take 25 years to write,” Perry said with a laugh.

The book is available on Perry’s Web site, www.lancedakota.com, and at Borders Express in the Cherry Hill Mall. It was published by Oklahoma-based Tate Publishing Co., a Christian book publishing. The novel also can be found on Tate’s Web site, www.tatepublishing.com.

Learn more about “The Seventh Angel of Armageddon“

By Mike DiCicco
January 10, 2008

Ashburn resident and author Joe Conte has money burning a hole in his pocket, or rather, burning a hole in the trust fund of his nonprofit organization, the Constance Joan Schneider ALS Group.
Conte started the nonprofit in 2005, shortly after his wife of 50 years died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His wife, he said, had been a philanthropic person. “That’s why I’m doing this. And for me, as well, but mostly for her.”

The money he has raised has come from donations and the sales of his first book, “Down the Yellow Brick Road: An ALS Victim’s Quest for Oz,” published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises in 2006. The book recounts the journey he and his wife took to China in search of a cure for her illness.

His second book, a memoir called “Flies in My Spaghetti, Chocolates over the Wall,” is due out this month, and all proceeds from its sales will also go to the ALS group. In the book’s title, Conte relates his life’s ups and downs, like any Italian would, to food, with the flies in his spaghetti representing remorse and sorrow and the chocolates over the wall symbolizing happiness that can be barred from view. An audio version of the book will also be available.

ALTHOUGH HIS organization, an officially recognized nonprofit run entirely by family, does not have as much funding as he would like, Conte has had difficulty giving the money to those in need. His original goal was to provide funding for anyone caring for family members with Lou Gehrig’s disease, “to relieve them and to get a doctor to come to their house, rather than having them hauled off in an ambulance, like my wife was three times.”

However, he said, he had a difficult time finding recipients. “People try to keep this stuff in the family,” said Conte. “They want to be the caregivers.” Having contacted organizations as far off as Canada and expanding his possible beneficiaries to include cancer patients, he now covers care-giving services for a couple of Lou Gehrig’s disease patients and a couple of cancer patients. He is still seeking other such patients.

“Meanwhile, so the money doesn’t sit still in the coffers, we made a deal to provide fresh-water systems for 200 families in Sahay, India,” he said, adding that he is now negotiating with a contractor for the project.
Until that gets underway, he has now undertaken to bring relief to the poorest parts of Appalachia. This is to include food, drinking water and children’s clothes and toys, which Conte envisions being distributed through local firehouses. The goods would be brought in and distributed by local residents. “I think our country’s gone overboard with helping other countries. They’re the people who make this country go,” he said of Appalachian residents.

PART OF CONTE’S difficulty in finding suitable recipients for his largesse may stem from his aversion to middlemen. He complained that Appalachian food banks he had contacted only asked for money and said they would take care of the rest. “They don’t want to share the work,” he said.
“The main idea is to go out to Appalachia myself,” he said, adding that he had been looking into different areas of the mountain region and talking to fire departments there. “I don’t want to order here from a company and have them ship it out.”

Conte said he had been working “day and night” to attract contributors, including contacting both Barilla and Godiva, in keeping with his coming book’s title, for promotions or contributions. To date, he has raised about $25,000, he said.

He is also editing his third book and contemplating his fourth. “I’m an old man and I’m working as fast as I can to get all these things out before I croak,” he said, noting that men in his family tended to die of heart problems relatively young. He said he is also “forcing” his six children to help him with the ALS group and be prepared to take over for him.

Conte, who worked for years in the field of meteorology, first wrote for technical publications. When working for a broadcast weather service, he occasionally read poems he had written about the weather on the air.

He has also traveled extensively. His service in the U.S. Air Force took him to Korea and he later did civilian work for the Air Force as a scientific consultant for European weather central. He made travel a priority and has also visited Hong Kong, Scotland, Austria, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and a host of other countries.

These adventures are central to “Flies in My Spaghetti, Chocolate over the Wall,” which can be ordered from him later this month and will be in stores some time in February. Anyone who donates $100 to the Constance Joan Schneider ALS Group will receive a copy of each book and the rest of the money will go to the group’s fund, with Conte even paying for postage.

Learn more about “Down the Yellow Brick Road“

By WILLIAM SMITH
wsmith@thehawkeye.com

When author and Wever resident Nancy Harless asked the packed reading room at the Burlington Public Library if they had read her book, every hand went up.

“Good. If you’ve all read it, I can tell some more behind-the-scenes stories,” she said.

Harless was at the library Saturday morning to discuss her first published book, “Womankind: Connection and Wisdom Around the World,” which is a compilation of her experiences as a nurse practitioner working around the world.

Specializing in women’s health, Harless began traveling with her husband, Norm, in 1999 to Belize, Guatemala, Peru, southeast Asia, China and war-torn Yugoslavia.

“In 1997, I saw an ad in the Fort Madison paper by the Rotary International Club looking for professionals for a study exchange,” she said. “It changed my life.”

A couple of years later, she was in Guatemala City, just three months after the peace treaty was signed that ended the 30-year civil war. The peace accord called for the incorporation of the guerilla rebel forces into the mainstream, which caused a sharp increase in crime.

“Almost every family had someone who was kidnapped by the guerilla forces, and it was always women that were kidnapped,” she said. “The family I stayed with had an aunt that was kidnapped, and they talked about it very casually. There were even negotiators in the yellow pages.”

Harless became a nurse practitioner in her late 30s but never imagined the conditions she would be working in while in Belize.

“They call them the forgotten people. They are the poorest people in the world,” Harless said.

She recalled visiting a hospital where trash lined the hallways, and the women were forced to sleep two to a bed after giving birth.

“There was a termite colony this big in the hospital,” Harless said as she held her arms in a circle that reached her forehead.

But the book isn’t about Harless. It’s about the women she met, the struggles they endured and the hope they still held as Harless left for another country. The stories are told through her eyes, but she hardly considers herself the main character.

“I tried to write myself out of it as much as possible,” Harless said.

Many of those in attendance were curious about how Harless was able to create such detailed stories.

“I keep a journal every day I’m in another country,” Harless said. “I try to keep the stories as true as I can, but you never know how memory will work. Sometimes my husband will remember things a slightly different way than I do.”

One of the most beloved stories in the book, titled “Joy in the Morning,” is about a 7-year-old girl in Belize named Cassandra who loses her jump rope.

Or as Cassandra puts it so delicately in the book, “Me rope be t’eifed it. It da be gawn!” Translation — “My rope has been stolen. It is gone.”

“They speak English over there, but it is not the kind of English you’re used to,” Harless said. “It is more of a Pidgin version.”

As Harless describes it in her book, Cassandra lived next door in a rumpled clapboard shack with three younger siblings, a teenage aunt and uncle and her grandmother. Jumping rope was the highlight of the girl’s day, and she constantly challenged herself to make more jumps.

“She’s a leader. That little girl will go far,” Harless said.

The jump rope seemed to be the only toy Cassandra’s family could afford, and it meant as much to her siblings as it did to her. Early in the story, Harless recounts how the little girl sobbed in her arms.

Despite Cassandra’s heartbreak, she was up the next morning, singing into the sunshine as she bathed. Harless called the little girl “Sunshine,” resilient to any tragedy, no matter how small, that befell her.

The one detail Harless didn’t reveal in the story was whether Cassandra got her rope back. She was more than willing to tell her captive audience at the library, though.

“She did get a rope from me, and then her rope came back the next week. Some of the other kids were borrowing it,” Harless said.

Published by Tate Publishing, an Oklahoma-based Christian Publishing House, “Womankind: Connection and Wisdom Around the World” is available at B Dalton bookstore in Westland Mall.

Harless is at work on a second book featuring women from her Asian travels, and versions of some of her essays have appeared in the “Chicken Soup For the Soul” series of inspirational books.

Learn more about “WOMANKIND”

Book came to woman in a dream

Ashley Dieterle
The Tribune

Always wanting to be a writer, Sheila Schnorr began her journey of writing her first mystery novel in her sleep.

“I actually dreamed up the beginning of my first book and started writing it,” she said.

“The Stranger in Goldrush: A Tana James Mystery” is a story of a woman, Montana James, who moves to the Colorado city of Goldrush to escape a bad marriage and the lights of Broadway in New York. She’s also going to start a business with her cousin.

Once the cast and crew of “The Stranger” show up in Goldrush, Montana gets caught up in past scandals, tabloid gossip and the show’s leading man, Travis Allen. It is not long until she becomes the prime suspect in a bizarre crime that turns her world upside down. Then her quest begins to find out who the real stranger in Goldrush is.

Schnorr, whose pen name is Sheila Bush, is a character-oriented writer. She said she hopes readers can connect with the characters in the book.

“I am very attached to my characters, and I hope people who read the book can be as well,” she said. The book is a mystery, and Schnorr said readers should not expect much gore but to be “entertained with descriptive writing, without being too wordy.”

“The Stranger in Goldrush: A Tana James Mystery” is the first of a six-book series following the main character, Tana, and Schnorr hopes to have the second installment out within the next six months.

Schnorr is a partial native to Greeley, as she lived in the city from 1972-1996. Before moving to Greeley, she took classes at the State University of New York at Brockport and said she also did a lot of crazy things, such as driving a semi-truck.

Once in Greeley, Schnorr managed nurse placement staffing for Banner staffing services, but she always had writing on her mind.

“I would bounce plot ideas off one of my good friends, and once I started the book, by the third chapter everything fell into place,” she said.

With a busy schedule and a move to Port Aranasas, Texas, in 1996, Schnorr’s writing was put on the sideline.

Finally, she made the commitment and set aside the time to finish the book. A little more than a year ago, her goal was accomplished. “The Stranger” then grabbed the attention of Tate Publishing Enterprises Co., which published Schnorr’s book in October.

Learn more about “The Stranger in Goldrush“

Young author’s book about graduation now on shelves

Roslindale – Selina Banerjee is used to talking about the book she recently penned.

For the Roslindale resident, it’s fun to read to audiences of her peers and to speak with those many years her senior. She has even signed some books for others.

While those activities might seem de rigueur for most authors, Banerjee’s case is a little different because she’s 7 years old. Her book, “My Preschool Graduation,” was written when she was only 5, and its title accurately reflects the contents.

Banerjee, who wasn’t then proficient using a computer, told the story to her mother, Sucharita, who typed it for her.

“I didn’t get to type on the computer,” said Banerjee. “I didn’t know how to type on the computer in those days.” But she was a prolific speaker, according to her mom.

“She loves talking,” said the elder Banerjee, who is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and does scientific research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Banerjee also loved to talk about her days at the Longwood Medical Area Childcare Center, but became tightlipped when asked about how the graduation rehearsals were progressing.

“We always asked her what she did every day, and she’d describe everything in great detail, but she never said a word about graduation, just that they practiced,” said Sucharita Banerjee, who was unprepared for the elaborate ceremony.

She and her husband, Pallab, who holds a similar academic position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said they were shocked to see the elaborate festivities.

“Everyone had shirts with letters. We stood in a line to spell the months. I was the letter E,” said the younger Banerjee.

In the book, Banerjee wears the special T-shirt along with a skirt she describes as “a red frock.” An artist who had never seen the budding writer created the illustrations based on conversations with Banerjee’s mother.

“He just talked to me because she was so young,” said Sucharita Banerjee.

The book was accepted for publication in 2006 and was first printed in late 2007. It’s a tale the author fondly recalls.

“We danced for each month [of the school year]. There was a song about the weather,” said Banerjee as she described her tome. The book took about four days to write, but the prose didn’t flow all at once.

“I worked for two days, then took a huge break and then worked for two more days,” said Banerjee, who said she didn’t really think about the possibility of being published. Her mother thought otherwise.

“I had never seen a children’s book like this, so I sent it off without telling anyone,” said Sucharita Banerjee.

“I didn’t have any idea at first that it would be published, and then I asked her. She already sent it to be published,” said Banerjee, who hopes to soon finish a chapter book on her recent travels to her native India.

The Banerjees also hope that their daughter explores her other abilities.

“The big question is how can we cultivate her talent before she grows up and has to study more,” said Pallab Banerjee.

Learn more about “My Preschool Graduation“