There is a secret world that very few people know exists, yet it takes place before our very eyes. I am one of the biggest players in this world and I have been on the arm of just about every top celebrity in Hollywood. I am a Celebrity Escort - friendly, attractive, platonic support at high stakes events.

Arm Candy is a nonfiction story about how I made a career out of accompanying Julia Roberts, Christina Aguilera, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Pamela Anderson, Queen Latifah, Paris Hilton and dozens of other stars to glamorous events. The book also tells the behind-the-scenes story of red carpet events from the Daytime Emmys to the Academy Awards. This fascinating job has given me ALL ACCESS to every award show imaginable.

In this celebrity obsessed world, my see all, tell all story should be a reader's dream come true. Follow my ten year adventure through this star studded world. Imagine getting not only a glimpse of your favorite celebrities, but having an opportunity to get to know them as I spend an evening or an entire day with them. Whether I am hanging out in the dressing room with Celine Dion, running through a casino with Cyndi Lauper, sneaking out the back door with Paris Hilton or rushing Tom Hanks to his seat, my job is always exciting.

Arm Candy gives you a deeper look at the sensational awards shows you see on television and the outrageous parties I have attended with my fabulously famous clients.

About the author:

Christopher Laslo is the #1 Celebrity Escort in the world! For over a decade, Chris has being thrown in the spot light has rubbing elbows with the most elite in Hollywood. He has escorted celebrities on over 100 award shows and benefits. Shortly after graduating from American University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in Communications and another in Pre-Law, he moved to New York City to work for MTV as a temp, where he landed his first gig as a Celebrity Escort. He has such a rapport with the clientele that he is continually asked to work show after show. He sometimes escorts celebrities 3 days a week! Even during his battle with cancer in 2001, he continued to work. Shortly after his recovery, he took the gamble and moved to Hollywood. Upon his arrival he was welcomed with open arms and continued his busy schedule escorting celebrities.

Because of this unique career he has been able to meet people from all walks of life and has established relationships with the press, publicist and producers in addition to his celebrity clients. Chris is excited to tell the world his amazing story and to enthusiastically promote his book.

When the diapers come off, mothers trade poop for a whole new set of issues that are a whole lot harder to dispose of. Molding little minds is a challenging journey that parents undertake without the help of a map, a GPS, or even a flashlight. We wade through complex issues like religion, diversity, and body image with little people who have little use for political correctness and who often disagree with our world-views.

Girls Gone Child is about the transition from raising babies to raising children and all that it entails. It is a real, honest, and often bawdy examination of what kids say, what they think, and how we as perpetually imperfect parents handle their foibles as well as our own. It is also about what we as adults learn about ourselves in the process of molding little minds. It forces us to re-examine our own views, our own prejudices, and our own shortcomings.

Amanda's youngest daughter regularly points out "large" people in public, forcing her to make dramatic evasive moves with her shopping cart. He older daughter has developed an unnatural fascination with "little people" (a.k.a. midgets). They are unfiltered and unapologetic as they announce to anyone who will listen that they fart, that black people are really "brown," and that their grandmother might be pregnant because she has a "round tummy."

Amanda Lamb takes a laugh-out-loud view on parenting in Girls Gone Child. It is the natural continuation of the journey. Mothers who are balancing children, career, and the demands of home will relate to her raw, tender and hysterical stories about those moments where we simply don't have the answers and know we should.

About the author:

By day Amanda is an award-winning television reporter covering the crime beat for WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is a published author of three books. Her second book, Deadly Dose (Berkley/Penguin Putnam, June 2008), a true crime based on a murder case she covered as a journalist, has received excellent reviews and sold more than forty thousand copies. Her third book, another true crime entitled Evil Next Door (Berkley/Penguin Putnam, April 2010), recently hit bookstores. She writes a weekly parenting blog called Go Ask Mom for WRAL. She also shares her parenting insights on her Author Website, and writes a another blog for WRAL called Dispatches from a Reporter's Notebook.

Amanda makes her home in North Carolina with her husband of more than a decade and her two young daughters. They keep her on her toes and keep providing her with new material so that she is forced to keep on writing. www.ALambAuthor.com.

It’s currently estimated that some three thousand religion-based cults are operating in the United States.
One of the longest running religious cult scams was perpetrated by a diabolical couple known as Tony and Susan Alamo (aka Bernie Lazar Hoffman and Edith Opal Horn). Even though over the years numerous federal, state and local law enforcement entities were made aware of the horrors perpetrated on members of the Alamo cult next to nothing was done to stop the forced slave labor, the bloody beatings of children, the polygamy, the underage marriages or the routine rapes of girls as young as eight years of age.

Thirty years after the Alamo con began, decades after countless thousands of people had been victimized, the FBI finally engaged in a determined investigation. In September 2008 raids on Alamo’s headquarters rescued dozens of children. In November 2009 Tony Alamo was convicted on 10 felony counts of taking young girls across state lines for sex. He was sentenced to a 175 year prison term.

The story began in the late 60’s in a seedy Hollywood, California bar and a chance meeting of two characters desperate to make money. Bernie and Opal concocted a plan to change their names to Tony and Susan Alamo and start a street ministry called the Alamo Christian Foundation. Their first disciples were disfranchised, drug-hazed hippies plucked off the grimy boulevards of Hollywood who responded to the offer of a free meal. They quickly succumbed to the sermons and the promise of sure salvation and the ever growing group of faithful morphed into a free labor force for a multitude of Alamo controlled businesses. Millions of dollars poured in for the couple while their followers continued to live frugal, labor intensive lives for the Lord.

After Susan’s death at their compound headquarters in Dyer, Arkansas in 1982 followers say “Poppa Tony” lost his grasp on reality. The followers were ordered to kneel in prayer at Susan’s coffin 24/7 for her “certain resurrection.” When her body turned to bones Tony’s mentally stability snapped and the strict discipline of the ‘church’ turned to raw brutality. An air of paranoia swept the compound, parents were separated from their children and followers reported each other for the slightest misdeeds to Poppa Tony who meted out the cruelest punishments. Children were savagely beaten with boards until bloody. Tony, by then calling himself “The World Pastor”, began to take multiple and very young brides. He ordered other girls to be married off to much older churchmen. Knowing no other life members stuck together in a siege mentality seeing the adversity as a test of their faith.

This book is a timeline of the terror as seen through the eyes of those who had no choice but to endure this savage and terrifying life - the children – born to the original members. Their exclusive stories, told only to investigative journalist Diane Dimond, hold a mirror up to our society which purports to have safeguards for our youngest citizens. But if children live with a master who thumps a bible they are likely trapped, as the Alamo children were, in a life lacking education, medical attention, adequate food and housing and parents who stand up for their well being.

This book is a wake-up call for everyone but especially for those who deal with cults. From police, prosecutors, judges and social workers to families who’ve lost a loved one to a cult. It’s also for those trying to heal from similar cult victimization.
It’s a story of what America has allowed to happen in the name of God..

About the author:

Diane Dimond is best known as an investigative TV reporter specializing in stories of crime and justice. She’s worked as a Correspondent/Anchor for outlets as diverse as National Public Radio, WCBS-TV New York, the syndicated program Hard Copy, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC’s Dateline and Today Show and the Fox News Channel.

Dimond is also an accomplished writer. Her groundbreaking book, “Be Careful Who You Love – Inside the Michael Jackson Case” (Simon and Schuster/Atria Books, 2005) is widely seen as the definitive work on the downfall of the King of Pop. Dimond is a frequent long-form contributor to the popular internet site The Daily Beast. Her weekly Creators Syndicate column on crime and justice appears in newspapers nationwide and on the Huffington Post.

Dimond is currently a Special Correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and she’s frequently seen offering her unique insight to the day’s headline news stories on the network morning news shows and on prime time cable. Dimond’s long standing relationships and popularity with a wide variety of media entities insures maximum exposure for her future work.

For more information see: www.DianeDimond.com

As the Bitch stood there at 49 hating her age, she knew she wasn't alone. She was joining the 35% of the 23 million American women between the ages of 45 and 55 who experience a period of self-doubt and fear as they face the second half of their life. In other words, she was scared out of her mind to turn fifty. How the Bitch Stole Fifty is a comical parody based on her transformation from a grouchy and terrified Bitch to a confident fifty year old woman; a journey that was nothing less than miraculous because this Bitch hated the idea of turning fifty.

How the Bitch Stole Fifty is a 1,369 word story which parallels, verse by verse, the familiar 1,394 word How the Grinch Stole Christmas book by Dr. Seuss beginning with "But, whatever the reason, her body or her wage, she stood there at 49 hating her age" and ending with "Maybe Fifty . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!" The similarities between the two stories cannot be denied. Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) was fifty-three years old when he created the Grinch, and he was hoping to "rediscover something about Christmas he had obviously lost." Likewise, many women facing fifty lose life's sense of excitement and laughter because they're suddenly filled with fears of bone loss and heart disease, and they are beginning to feel professional regret and loneliness. They also need to "rediscover something" they've lost.

How the Bitch Stole Fifty is amusingly entertaining but it is also a powerful message for women who want to live the second half of their life with satisfaction and control. Its core objective is communicating what's important to women and saying it with clarity and humor while using the fewest words possible. It flawlessly intertwines the seriousness of turning fifty with the lightheartedness of laughter. The result is a unique, time-efficient way to learn and laugh. Just as the Grinch realized the true Spirit of Christmas, women will realize that strong bones, a healthy heart, a clear mind and connectedness are the keys to the Fountain of Youth.

Green Peas and Bran, Mrs. Brown can Move! Can you? and The Man With a Tan are three potential spins-offs for women who have reached that inevitable age of changes, challenges and wisdom and who want to laugh while they learn.

About the author:

Diane Lash Decker is the Bitch who stole fifty; her bones are strong, her heart is healthy, her mind is clear and she's having a hell of a lot of fun with her friends. She also has a Master of Science Degree in Human Nutrition and has written articles on health for over 25 years. Her writing career began in 1984 when she wrote and self-published a health newsletter called Health Flight - The Health and Nutrition Newsletter for Frequent Travelers. She currently writes articles on children and women's health for the local newspapers. She is also an experienced lecturer; she lectured at the University of Southern California Institute of Safety and Systems Management Symposium on "Nutrition and The Stress of Flying," and she regularly presents health programs to students of all ages.

Diane is the author of the health blog entitled A Teaspoon of Sugar which can be found at www.sugarpolice.net. This is a simple blog with a big objective: to educate and empower readers using a common sense approach for making smart sugary food/beverage choices, i.e., converting the unfamiliar gram amount to the well-known teaspoon amount. This blog is a tool, a visual guide-blog, an educational aide, and a practical support method for determining, without a doubt, whether or not a consumable has too much sugar in it.

Even during the Great Recession, wedding bells continue chiming loudly in America, with more than 2 million tying the knot each year. The pageantry of the ceremony and reception is a cultural imperative.

Three more wedding realities that have stood the test of time:

• They're expensive - averaging about $25,000, but frequently running two or three times that sum.

• They're exhausting to plan - typically taking about a year, and proving to be one of the most trying events in a couple's life.

• They're mine fields for explosive faux pas - which can bruise feelings and damage relationships with relatives and friends.

In the words of celebrated wedding planner Samantha Goldberg: "Weddings are beautiful, and can be one of the best days of your life, but planning them can be one of the biggest pains in the ass!" And no one knows that better than she. Sam's company plans 50 to 80 weddings a year from coast to coast and abroad - from four-figure affairs to seven-figure extravaganzas.

From her years up close and personal with couples, Sam has seen it all: budgets ballooning like dangerous dirigibles, brides morphing into hysterical Bridezillas, families and friendships torn asunder by conflicting demands (such as the insistence by one bride that the wedding party get spray tans for a Hawaii-themed reception). But Sam has great news:

• Couples can have a platinum wedding on a brass budget, instead of going broke.
• They can preserve their sanity by adopting coping mechanisms, instead of morphing into Bridezillas and Frankengrooms.
• They can create an event protected against the endless assortment of agonies - from pushy relatives to crazy bridesmaids to food catastrophes.

In Disaster Proof Your Wedding: Planning the Big Day without Going Bonkers or Broke, Sam shares her tried-and-true methods for cutting costs, adding critical elements, and tactfully addressing crises that could sabotage the special day. She also shares hilarious (and occasionally horrifying) stories from her nearly two decades as a planner, letting couples know they're not alone.

Consider the bride whose spending doubled to $80,000 in two months and had to be dragged back to the stores to return items for cash to salvage her wedding. Or the groom who insisted the affair be held in an under-ventilated basement - practically suffocating the guests. Or the pushy parents, insulted that the couple fired their deejay (with his list of Old World folk songs), and who scrawled "Love Mom and Dad" across the couple's faces on the sign-in board photo.

"This book delivers reality," Sam says. "You can afford a princess wedding on a thrifty budget. You can foolproof your wedding against the pitfalls that can spoil it. You can enjoy your big day without unnecessary worries about whether everyone liked the food, whether the music was played too loud, or whether all the guests got along. "Besides saving couples money, I hope I save a bit of their sanity, as well!"

About the authors:

Samantha Goldberg, a celebrity wedding planner, television personality and columnist started her highly successful business in Chicago in 1999 before moving with her family to New Jersey, where she oversees a staff of 15 planners who coordinate events across the country and in key travel destinations abroad.

Sam's success and magnetic personality have caught the attention of TV producers, and she's been featured as the go-to wedding expert on "Fox News," "Geraldo at Large," "Good Morning America," CNBC, and Better Homes and Gardens Television. In 2010, she is in her seventh season with the Style Network's hit series, "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" airing in 40 countries. She also has been interviewed by journalists with the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Modern Bride, Bridal Guide, and many other widely circulated publications.

As a writer, Sam dishes out expert advice in her regular column, "Savvy Samantha's Nuptials," in New Jersey's largest newspaper, the Star Ledger. She also pens a column, "Samantha Goldberg's Red Carpet Weddings," for Bridal Guide's website, and authors the Hilton Family Brand Hotel's "Guestiquette" web column. Sam is Hilton's celebrity spokesperson.

Sam recently became national celebrity spokesperson for Party City, the largest retail party-supply store in the United States, with nearly 700 locations. The corporation's management has offered that Party City sponsor Sam's book tour for Disaster Proof Your Wedding. The tour would include book signings at Party City stores, and media interviews promoting the book as well as Party City.

Michael Sion has written, co-written, ghostwritten or edited more than 90 books in the past 15 years, and penned thousands of magazine or newspaper articles. Coming from a newspaper background as a columnist and award-winning investigative reporter, the Seattle native has written on subjects as diverse as methamphetamine abuse and gambling addiction, Burning Man (as the first journalist to cover that event) and the legal prostitution industry of his adopted state, Nevada. Recently, he coached native Ukrainian Gregory Popovich in writing the book, You CAN Train Your Cat: Secrets of a Master Cast Trainer, published in 2009 by St. Martin's Press.

The Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii is a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike along sun scorched lava flats, and after that a full 26.2-mile marathon. A difficult task for even the best of athletes.

Now imagine taking on the Ironman with an artificial hip and shoulder. Doing it with lungs that have been scarred and compromised by years of radiation and chemotherapy. Imagine doing the Ironman with someone else's heart in your chest, after four life-defining battles with cancer. This is Kyle Garlett's reality.

Actually, those four battles with cancer did more to prepare Kyle for the Ironman than any of his early morning bike rides or ocean swims. He knows real physical and emotional pain. He knows fear, and how to move forward in its face. And he knows what it takes to remain determined and dedicated in a long hard fight, be it for one of the most famous finish lines in all of sports, or simply to live another day.

In SHAKE THE SOUL Kyle's journey begins in 1989 with a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma as a high school senior. He achieved remission with radiation, but lost it when the cancer returned in 1991. Chemotherapy followed, as did another remission. But in late 1994 the Hodgkin's disease came back for a third bout.

At that point doctors decided an experimental bone marrow transplant would be Kyle's best bet to once and for all cure his Hodgkin's. They were right. The bone marrow transplant was the end of Kyle's ongoing fight with the Hodgkin's. But the severity of the chemotherapy drugs left him battered and bruised and facing an entirely new set of challenges.

Prolonged use of the steroid prednisone resulted in the need to have his right hip and left shoulder replaced. Two years after the bone marrow transplant, Kyle was diagnosed with a secondary acute leukemia, caused by earlier chemotherapy. Three more years of chemotherapy were the result. And in his final fight to save his life and regain his health, in 2006 Kyle underwent a heart transplant - again, because of side effects from the chemotherapy used during his bone marrow transplant.

And all of this was going on while Kyle was still trying to forge for himself a normal life. After high school he went on to graduate from college, start a career as a writer for Fox Sports, and meet and marry his wife, Carrie. He changed, he grew, he loved, and he lived, even as he faced the uncertainty of life and a meaningful future.

That is why SHAKE THE SOUL is so much more than a battle with cancer and the nuts and bolts of a heart transplant. And it goes well beyond the triumph of a triathlon finish line. This is about the strength and determination that all of us possess within. It is about love and commitment, surrounded by moments of despair. There is agony, but there is joy. There are tears, but there is laughter. And most assuredly there is the triumph of the human spirit.

About the author:

As a writer Kyle Garlett has written for two of the biggest names in sports, Fox Sports and ESPN. He has also previously published two sports books, The Worst Call Ever (Harper Collins, 2007) and What Were They Thinking? (Harper Collins, 2009). But it's as an in-demand motivational speaker, including clients with names like Boeing, Novartis, and Morgan Stanley, where he is perhaps best known.

Kyle regularly speaks to groups of marathoners and triathletes on the eve of their events, with many of these engagements involving 5,000 or more athletes. He's a national spokesperson for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Donate Life America. And along with becoming a recognizable face for the cause of organ donation thanks to his 2009 Ironman quest, Kyle was profiled by NBC Sports, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, The New York Times, CNN.com, and ESPN, as well as appearing as a guest on the syndicated television talk show The Doctors.

In addition, Kyle and his wife Carrie were the featured couple on the pilot episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Wedding Edition. From time-to-time that show still airs worldwide on the Style Network and Kyle regularly receives emails from people across the globe who see it.

To learn more, visit: www.ironmankyle.com

In fall 2009, the business pages of the world's newspapers were chock-a-block with stories of the looming acquisition by Chicago-based "cheese company" Kraft of one of England's most storied firms, Cadbury. As the news and spin played out, other major players also waded in: Hershey's, Ferrero, Nestlé. Then, the big financial guns: J.P. Morgan, Lazard, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UPS, Goldman Sachs. And, too, the best financial brand around, Warren Buffet, got his share of the story.

News, rumors and opinions filled headlines, websites and blogosphere. Top reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the business weeklies - everyone focusing a laser beam of global attention on the this story. It was fascinating in its own right, of course, but doubly so for the harbinger of hope it implied: The global exhale as a big company swallows a smaller one, buoyed by the financial markets. Is business returning to usual?

The sub-text is an equally crucial story: the dissonance between what we were reading in the papers and the buzz from the blogosphere - and the distance between that and the deep background reporting from those who were one or two degrees removed from the front lines. The goal of the book is to bridge the gap between the "news" and the "fly on the wall" perspective as each morphed and moved in real time.

Just as Barbarians at the Gate provided an unprecedented view of the RJR Nabisco debacle in the "greed is good" decade, Dark Chocolate brings a "Roshômon" perspective to the Kraft/Cadbury tale. This can be the definitive account of this remarkable global candy quest.

About the author:

Kate Newlin, principal of Kate Newlin Consulting, is a business strategist working with senior executives at critical crossroads in the development of their brands, categories and portfolios.

She authored Shopportunity! How To Be A Retail Revolutionary (Collins, 2006), which was selected both as a Harvard Business Review book to read in 2006 and an Oprah Selects for the Christmas Issue, 2006 of O magazine - illustrating the wide spectrum of appeal for her grasp of business issues facing a consumer society, as well as her "eminently readable" (Bloomberg review) style. In 2009, her book Passion Brands (Prometheus) helped launch her speaking practice with retailers, consumer brand and luxury marketers.

Mad Skilz: The Seven Secrets to Discovering Your Strengths for Teens is wholly original, hip advice book for today's teen. Using a rich blend of manga/Harry Potter/Twilight illustrations with a deep hued cotton candy palette, Mad Skilz utilizes cartoons, photographs, illustrations and jokes to make its serious points about how today's youth can create the future they desire by playing to their strengths.

Created as a multi-platform publication, Mad Skilz also comes with ready made, high production video examples of the advice in the book, documentaries, animations, as well as online quizzes, checklists and activities.

Based on her book, Your Child's Strengths, Jenifer Fox speaks directly to teens about how to seize their futures, live happily and prosper doing work they love by simply being true to what makes them unique.

MadSkilz meets youth where they-non-condescending, nothing hokey-- and reveals seven solid secrets for using their strengths to create the life they dream of living. Flip open to any page and meet real-life stories of teens who have overcome obstacles to succeed. Mad Skilz is fresh, creative, original and part of a growing brand. Today more than ever, young people can use a positive proactive guide to their future. (Ages 13 and older)

About the author:

Jenifer Fox, M.Ed is considered the international leader in the educational movement, the Strengths Movement for Youth. As the author of Your Child's Strengths (Viking, 2008, Penguin, 2009), and co-author of Stories of Excellence Case Studies of Exemplary Teaching and Learning with Technology (NAIS, 2009), Jenifer is also an accomplished public speaker who speaks to a broad base of parents, teachers, nonprofit organizations, and schools about the need to transform education by teaching young people to develop their strengths and talents. Her books are published internationally and the audience for her break-out strengths curriculum Strong Planet is growing in proportion to the growing concern over the quality of the current educational system. Fox is the founder of the not-for-profit, The Strengths Movement in Schools and President of Strong Planet, a media distribution company focused on creating interactive, media rich, technology-based curriculum for youth to discover their strengths. Jenifer has made numerous appearances on television and radio. Ms Fox holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. from The Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, and an M.Ed from Harvard University.

www.strengthsmovement.com

Adventures of a Detour Queen (70,000 words) reveals how you can take a dark childhood and, armed with an alternative take on life, a loose spirituality, and a sense of humor, transform it into a guidebook for good mothering.

Each chapter is an autobiographical essay that builds to the next to tell Bliss's story, while providing inside-out mothering mantras along the way, such as:

• Saying No Is Holy
• Spinning the Dreidel Sets You Straight
• Anxiety Is Your Friend
• What's Invisible Helps You See

Basically, Bliss compares a life worth living to the curls springing from her head. If you expect life to lie in a straight line from basinet to coffin, you'll be sorely disappointed. If, however, you open your eyes to the detours, you'll find your way. Acknowledging such counterintuitive truths, along with finding a really good hair conditioner, has made all the difference in her life.

In this coming-of-midlife tale, Bliss writes about her biggest realization: that in order to become the mother she never had, she needed to break up with her own abusive beauty queen mother. But she didn't know if she could. Or how she would.

Adventures of a Detour Queen will appeal to women looking at how they've been mothered and trying to figure out the kind of mother they want to be. Every woman has a mother tale to tell, some pretty hair-raising. The read, though, instead of going down an angsty path, serves up humor with the horror. In the end, "Detour Queen" provides readers with the wisdom to take them from surviving to thriving in the maternal role, as well as the courage to take a few side roads to get there.

About the author:

Bliss Goldstein has written for newspapers such as The Jewish Bulletin, along with publishing essays in the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle, where she was a Two-Cents columnist. She has also published stories in magazines such as Spider and Parents. She is founding editor and a contributor to Tangents, a literary journal at Stanford University. Bliss holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.L.A. degree from Stanford.

Bliss has been featured in magazines and newspapers such as People, USA Today, and Psychology Today for her take on anything from women in the workplace to the darker side of beauty. She's also appeared on numerous radio and television shows sharing her quirky perceptions. Bliss is eager to hit the media trail again with a book to promote and a message to spread. You can find Bliss at www.blissgoldstein.com

In 2000, suburban mother Christine Myers faces a family and personal crisis: how can she raise her three children to reflect her values when their community is teaching them the opposite? She knows she cannot stand by, watching her family dissolve. She decides the answer is to take a family cruise around the world, despite little sailing experience. Over the fierce and relentless objections of thirteen year-old Drew, they buy a boat in France and move aboard.

She has no idea how cruising might transform them, only a conviction that the decision is the right one. Conviction can only carry novice sailors so far, though. THREE KIDS BEFORE THE MAST is the fast-moving story of a learning curve steeper than the face of a rogue wave.

Plenty of adventure finds them: forty-foot waves, hurricane-force storms, stealth rocks and freighters that can sink a boat in seconds. Yet the threat of pirates pales in close quarters with a sullen teenager, and a troubled marriage can scuttle a cruise more decidedly than a collision with an abandoned container. Then, just as they are getting comfortable, 9/11 pitchpoles their sense of what it means to be Americans abroad.

From Turkey to Norway to the Cape Verde Islands, they pursue global citizenship. They face down a crisis in their marriage and a child jumping ship. They learn to live sustainably, then how to contribute to a global community. Eventually, they even learn to sail.

About the author:

Christine Myers has captained a sailboat for 40,000 sea miles. Her articles about cruising with children have appeared in Blue Water Sailing, Cruising World and Stanford. She contributed a sidebar to the most recent edition of The Voyager's Handbook. She holds a BA in Journalism and MA in Communication, both from Stanford University, and an MFA in Creative Non-fiction from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.

http://www.bychristinemyers.com/