An international award-winning author who wrote a novel about cloning Jesus is among the featured authors signing books from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in University Town Centre, Granville.
Don Stansberry, author of “Secret Blood,” won an Indie Book Award for Best Religious Fiction, was a Winner at the London Book Festival, a Finalist in the E-Book: Mystery/Thriller/Adventure category of the International Book Awards, and earned Honorable Mentions for Best Fiction from the Great Southeast Book Festival, the Paris Book Festival and the San Francisco Book Festival.
From the Beatles, Central Park, and Cleveland to a TV evangelist and the Oval Office, this remarkable story about the CIA cloning Jesus Christ hits home with real questions about current technology and the men who control it. Headline Books has also published Stansberry’s four award-winning children’s titles, “Crusty; Inky, Oglebee and the Witches”; “Inky and the Missing Gold” and “Skipping Through the ABCs of History.” Stansberry lives in Vienna, Wood County.
Other West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania authors who will be signing at Barnes & Noble Saturday are:
Stanley Toompas, an optometrist in Philippi, with his twin brother, Stephen, a pharmacist who lives in Bridgeport, compiled 31 short stories of their childhood growing up in Clarksburg, in two books titled “I’m the One the Other Isn’t” and “I’m the One the Other Isn’t Book Two, More Stevie-Stanley Stories.” Their atypical childhood includes being raised in a metal house where they constantly shock one another, and continually running away from storms with their mother. The text will rekindle your own childhood memories of shopping “in town”, visualizing childhood toys you may have forgotten, and riding a stingray bike with the neighborhood kids.
Debra Benedetti, a professor of English at Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont, brings back outdoor games from the 1950s and ’60s in an effort to get kids off the couch. In “Season of Play,” Benedetti’s collection of games and rhyming text are complemented by the soft pastel drawings of award-winning illustrator Ashley Teets to make this a fun book for summer. The book won a Silver Mom’s Choice Award for Best Craft/Activity Book Ages 5-8, and was an Indie Book Awards Finalist for Best Children’s Juvenile Non-Fiction and a Creative Child Magazine Book Awards Finalist.
Barbara Smith of Philippi is a free-lance writer/editor, and medical ethicist, Emerita Professor of Literature and Writing and former Chair of the Division of the Humanities, Alderson-Broaddus College. She will sign copies of her novel, “Through The Glass,” an upbeat, poignant story about a stained glass artist whose studio faces a cul-de-sac in the outskirts of Logan. This riveting mystery will keep you turning the pages.
Colleen Driscoll of Harrison County wrote “Piper the Elf Trains Santa” to teach children that they can get exercise without even knowing it – just by playing their favorite active games. The audio book version has a song that Driscoll wrote. All her children play an instrument so they wrote and perform the song.
Uncle Dave Howard of Waynesburg, Pa., wrote “Lady’s Day to Play” about his Jack Russell-Cocker Spaniel-Poodle. Children adore his hand-drawn computer-aided illustrations and rhyming verse as he takes them through a typical day in Lady’s life. Howard, who writes his books as Uncle Dave, gives a portion of his sales to research about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which claimed the life of his niece’s baby. He wrote the book as a baby shower gift for his niece. This week, his book won a Mom’s Choice Silver Award for humor books for children ages 5-8.
Patsy Pittman of Vienna will sign “Pocket Change,” her newest collection of short stories, and “Blood Kin & Other Strangers,” which was named an Award Winning Finalist in the USA Book News Best Books Awards and an Award Winning Finalist in the Indie Book Awards.
Melissa Ridenour of Morgantown penned “What Would You Do? A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers” to instruct young readers in a gentle question-and-answer format that shows them how to make good decisions about their safety, empowering children in a non-threatening way to take a proactive role in staying safe from predators and harm.
Cindy Bandy O’Brien of Morgantown wrote “Agitated” to help children relate to everyday situations that push their buttons and learn some strategies they can use to deal with unpleasant feelings. The book won a Mom’s Choice Silver Award for Best Juvenile Level 1 Ages 5-8 Self-Improvement.
Barbara Myers of Morgantown wrote “Lily & Nana” with her then-5-year-old granddaughter Lily Hamilton about the everyday things the pair likes to do together. Myers, a retired early childhood educator, saw the genre of children’s literature lacked books on intergenerational subjects.
Founded in Terra Alta 28 years ago, Headline Books is the 2011 International Independent Publisher of the Year.
More information about these books can be found at www.headlinebooks.com, www.publisherpage.com and www.headlinekids.com.
