FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE DALAI LAMA , JANE GOODALL, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, BUZZ ALDRIN, JANE FONDA AND DOZENS MORE

LOS ANGELES, CA– The World is Just a Book Away is an anthology that represents a 15-year journey by USC professor James Owens to capture the stories of how books and reading inspired some of the world’s most prominent people. Owens’s earliest memory is of reading The Encyclopedia of World Travel with his mother. The many books they shared opened his eyes to the wonders of the world. The legacy of literacy and love of books his mother left behind after her tragic death by suicide when he was just 9 years old provided the guiding hope in his life that ultimately led to The World is Just a Book Away.

Recognizing the life-changing nature of reading, Owens set out in 2002 to create this unique and deeply moving book. At first glance, the 60 people in this anthology may not seem to have much in common—yet they all share their personal love of books and reading in The World is Just a Book Away. This book provides readers with unique insight into the personal stories of 5 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, actors, royalty, world leaders, scientists, humanitarians, and many more, including:

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Liam Neeson
Natasha Richardson
Vanessa Redgrave
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Yo-Yo Ma
Jude Law
Miep Gies
Jane Goodall
President Mikhail Gorbachev
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Susan Sarandon
Martin Scorsese
Lisa Ling
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Jane Fonda
Her Majesty Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan
Ted Turner
Buzz Aldrin

James J. Owens is a professor of management communication at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. James is Founder and CEO of the international children’s charity The World is Just a Book Away (WIJABA), which promotes literacy by developing libraries and educational programs. Since its inception in 2008, WIJABA has built 90 libraries, touching the lives of more than 70,000 children in 3 countries. James collected and edited the 60 essays in this book over the course of 15 years. His profit from this book will benefit the charity. James is also a writer, a corporate leadership coach, and a motivational speaker. He lives with his son Alexander in Santa Monica, CA. For more information please visit www.wijaba.org.

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As James Owens began the labyrinthine process of contacting and coordinating the 60 contributors, he recognized the profound need for children the world over to have access to books and educational programs. After visiting the world’s worst mudflow disaster in Indonesia in 2008 and realizing that none of the schools had a library, Owens founded The World is Just a Book Away (WIJABA) the charity, which will receive his profits from the book.

In just 9 years, WIJABA has reached 70,000+ children through 90 libraries worldwide with mobile libraries serving 100 additional schools. WIJABA has also created an environmental education program in partnership with Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, which is being introduced at more than 350 schools in Indonesia and Mexico. WIJABA currently builds libraries in Indonesia, Mexico and the U.S., to ensure that children have access to reading materials and programs that complement their education and inspire their dreams.

“WIJABA libraries play a vital role in children’s lives. Books impart knowledge, build understanding, and set imaginations free. They are among the great joys of life.” —Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace laureate

“This resource that I had taken for granted was not available to other children and that made me want to get involved and help change that reality.” –Cybella Maffitt, a teen funding 3 libraries by selling baked goods, lemonade, and handmade jewelry

“I feel honored and humbled that the 60 people in this book who have inspired the world in so many different ways have entrusted me with their stories. My most heartfelt aspiration is that The World is Just a Book Away will inspire you to explore books you might have never considered, embarking upon journeys into new worlds and magical realms of knowledge, imagination, endless possibilities, and hope.” —James Owens, Founder and Editor, The World is Just a Book Away

The World Is Just A Book Away
James J. Owens
November 1st, 2017
USC Libraries Press
ISBN: 978-0-9991348-0-1
$29.99
Nonfiction

In an interview, James Owens can discuss:

• Why this book is so special in its unique constellation of prominent people involved
• The impact access to books can have on children’s educations and opportunities
• Why James decided to found WIJABA the charity and partner with USC Libraries on this book
• What WIJABA does internationally and in Los Angeles
• The story of how books inspired and comforted him during this darkest and loneliest moments
• Why he would spend 15 years creating a book and giving the profit to WIJABA
• The story behind this book—about how reading and books inspired prominent people—that will ultimately buy books for children who have none
• The unique and inspirational stories of how reading and books have affected the lives of each contributor to The World is Just a Book Away
• The process of getting 60 prominent people to contribute to The World is Just a Book Away and the remarkable, unlikely results of that work
• The inspirational stories of people from all walks of life who have raised or donated money to buy books and build libraries for children who have none.

An Interview with James Owens:

What do you hope readers will take away from the experience of reading The World is Just a Book Away?
How do you hope it will make readers feel, what do you hope it will inspire them to do?
The World is Just a Book Away offers readers insight into the unique and unexpected ways that books inspire and even directly change the lives and work of all these remarkable people. I hope that The World is Just a Book Away will inspire people to read books and explore ideas and places they might have never considered.  I also hope this book creates a deeper appreciation of just how important reading is to our lives, creativity, work, and intellectual curiosity.

Each contributor to this book shared something special about reading and books. What are some of your favorite discoveries?
I feel incredibly blessed that each of the participants, whose lives have impacted the world in so many ways, entrusted me with their stories. It is very difficult for me to single out stories from this book as my favorite because each is unique and inspirational in its own way.

It was deeply moving for me to learn about how books about Dr. Doolittle and Tarzan contributed to Jane Goodall’s determination to go to Africa, learn more about animals, and become one of the world’s leading voices on the importance of conservation. Simon Wiesenthal found a book that led him to seek justice for the rest of his life. Miep Gies’s bravery saved Anne Frank’s diary, which has become one of the most widely read books in the world. Queen Noor’s submission is a wonderful reminder to consider what we all share. Senator Kennedy describes the seminal role that his brother’s book, Profiles in Courage, played in his life, which is a touching reminder that words live on and have great influences long after the deaths of the people who wrote them.

So many children today still do not have adequate access to books. How does building libraries through WIJABA change their lives? How will the publication of this book support the work of the WIJABA organization?
The publication of The World is Just a Book Away is the culmination of a 15-year-long journey for me. My profit from the book will be donated to WIJABA to help advance our work. I also hope that the book itself will increase awareness about the importance of children’s literacy and inspire people to consider supporting WIJABA’s efforts to provide underprivileged children around the world with access to books, libraries and educational programs. To learn more about opportunities that can forever change the lives of children please visit our website (www.wijaba.org).

As a child, what did you find most inspiring and hopeful about books after the death of your mother? How did that set you on your journey toward this book?
I can’t imagine my life without books. My earliest memory is of reading a book about travel with my mother. Her love of books and reading sustained me after her death when I was 9 years old and continues to sustain me now. No matter how sad I was or how alone I felt, I could always escape into the magical world of books, which sparked my imagination and inspired many of my dreams and adventures.

Reading was also always a source of hope in my life. My own experience with books shaped my desire to share the stories of how books and reading inspired others.  This love of books also ultimately inspired me to launch the international children’s literacy charity, WIJABA, to promote literacy by providing books, libraries, and educational programs to children as a ray of hope in lives all too often shrouded in darkness.

How did you inspire and persuade so many prominent people in so many walks of life to join you in creating this book? After working on the book, do you see bigger connections between reading, imagination, and the ability to accomplish great things in the world?
The World is Just a Book Away feels like a miracle to me. I have always loved getting to know people through their stories, and I am extremely persistent. At the same time, creating this book has taught me that having a vision that speaks to people’s hearts will draw them to a cause. This project has also reinforced my fundamental belief that anything is possible, even the seemingly impossible.

For me, this book truly highlights the connection between reading and books to imagining possibilities and creating possibilities in one’s own life and the world.

www.JKSCommunications.com
237 Old Hickory Blvd., Suite 201, Nashville, TN 37221
Ellen Whitfield
(616) 258-5537
ellen@jkscommunications.com

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Debbie Wooldridge helps businesses learn to work with the majority generation

SAN DIEGO, CA – By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be part of the Millennial generation born between 1980 and 2000. Few companies are accommodating the different work styles of this massive power behind American business, but Debbie Wooldridge, founding president and CEO of ttcInnovations, had an idea for helping businesses improve their performances. She created The Millennial Project, an interactive, two-day workshop that provides companies with the tools and strategic roadmaps needed to alter workforce processes and increase productivity in regard to their Millennial employees, who have a different working profile from generations prior. Her previous book, Unleashing the Intrapreneur, focused on supporting Millennials in creating livable career goals and working effectively to achieve them.

In her new book, A Manager’s Guide to Unleashing the Intrapreneur, Wooldridge builds upon her expertise, providing engaging learning experiences to companies by zeroing in on the majority demographic in American companies today—and certainly in the years to come—Millennials. Debbie’s company partners with learning and development organizations in the financial sector to help them scale at a moment’s need through staffing solutions, large-scale project support, and innovative approaches to evolving for the emerging workforce.  ttcInnovations has helped businesses enhance on-the-job performance, improve their customers’ satisfaction, deliver significant business results, and achieve their goals.

Debbie Wooldridge is the founding president and CEO of DW Training and Development, Inc., dba ttcInnovations, which provides businesses with engaging learning solutions that adopt a host of performance support options. Debbie’s company has also created The Millennial Project. Debbie currently lives in Carlsbad, California, with her husband and is a mother to twin Millennials.

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About the Book

In an interview, Debbie Wooldridge can address topics such as:

• The importance of treating Millennial employees differently from generations past
• Why changes must be made by many companies to accommodate Millennials
• The difference between intrapreneurs and employees
• Debbie’s own experiences as both a business owner and mother to Millennials and her observations about this generation’s work styles
• The most important changes most firms can make to work with Millennials
• The most desirable perk any company can offer a Millennial employee
• he importance of personalized professional development plans for Millennial employees
• How companies can attract and engage Millennial employees
• Why Millennials don’t place the same value on a paycheck as previous generations
• What Millennials look for in a manager

A Manager’s Guide to Unleashing the Intrapreneur
Debbie Wooldridge | October 26, 2017 | ttcI Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9981075-1-6 | Price: $14.95 Paperback
Business (Non-Fiction)

An Interview with Debbie Wooldridge

Why are we still talking about Millennials? They have been in the workplace for a long time now—why is still an issue?
Until just now, Millennials were but one part of the equation of the workforce. Millennials now make up about 35% of employees. So, while this is more than a third, and is now the largest generation in the workforce, we haven’t seen anything yet! By 2025, Millennials (born between 1980 and 2004) are expected to comprise a whopping 75% of the workforce. Millennials are taking over, and the survival of a company will depend on the ability to attract and retain top Millennial talent.

Why do we need to make any changes? Shouldn’t Millennials be able to just jump into the company like every other generation?

Well, previous generations have approached work from their own perspective, shaped by the world they were born into—Millennials are doing the same. Traditionalists grew up during the

Great Depression so it’s no wonder that they worked hard for job security. Baby Boomers, however, grew up in a time of idealism—a TV and car for every family—their focus in the workplace was to climb the corporate ladder—family time wasn’t a priority. Gen Xers grew up in a time of change politically and socially—they do not want to repeat their Boomer parents’ workaholic lifestyles. And Millennials grew up in the digital era; their core values include being globally minded and optimistic. They have an expanded view on work/life balance including time for community service and self-development. Companies have grown and changed as the world and the employees have grown and changed—it’s time to do so yet again for this newest generation.

Has being the mother of your own Millennial children in the workforce helped you shape your platform?

Definitely! My perspective of Millennials is very much biased by being a parent. I’ve watched this generation evolve and have such a respect and admiration for how open and honest this generation is! They are very comfortable forming and expressing opinions. This is so different from previous generations – my generation (end of Boomer, beginning of Xers) was so much of a valued worker-bee mentality – doing what is asked of us and then going home at the end of the day. This generation is ready and eager are taking the workforce by storm! It’s an exciting time!

What is the top change that most firms need to make to better accommodate the changing work attitudes of their Millennial employees?

Millennials desire to be autonomous, be creative, and live meaningful lives. But because most current company landscapes impede this, Millennials are truly looking for companies that support their priorities. They are looking for companies that welcome and provide them intrapreneurial opportunities to help the company move forward. Millennials will dedicate futures to companies that stake their confidence in and allocate resources to them. The future of corporate America belongs to the individuals and the companies that embrace the idea of the intrapreneur.

What is the number 1 priority of most Millennial workers when they job-hunt?
According to a recent study from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, opportunities to learn and  develop new skills is the number one perk Millennials seek when evaluating prospective employers. This generation is clamoring to advance professionally, and they don’t want to wait for the slow climb up the corporate ladder—they want to take a rocket ship.

www.JKSCommunications.com
2819 Vaulx Lane, Nashville, TN 37204
Angelle Barbazon
(615) 928-2462
angelle@jkscommunications.com

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GOVERNMENT ISN’T THE ONLY ANSWER TO OUR PLANET’S BIGGEST THREAT

NASHVILLE, TN – Discussions about environmentalism often focus exclusively on the government, politicizing the issues, and often end in fruitless argument. Tired of watching debates run in circles while the situation worsened,  Michael Vandenbergh and Jonathan Gilligan began research 15 years ago to confirm their belief that the private sector holds the potential to affect serious progress in the battle against climate change. The result is Beyond Politics: A Private Governance Response to Climate Change, a book designed to shift the conversation away from political deadlock.  Beyond Politics draws on law, policy, social science, and climate science to demonstrate how private initiatives are already bypassing government inaction in the US and around the globe.

Michael Vandenbergh is a leading environmental law scholar whose research explores innovative ways to avoid the gridlock that has dominated national and international environmental law and policy over the last several decades. Vandenbergh began his legal career as a clerk to Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has served as Environmental Protection Agency chief of staff and as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins, a global law firm. Since joining the law faculty at Vanderbilt University, his research has tackled the gridlock problem by examining the roles of private environmental governance and behavioral science-based approaches to environmental law and policy.

Jonathan Gilligan is Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. His teaching and research focuses on drawing connections between human behavior and the environment to understand how people’s decisions and actions affect the environment, and how the changing environment affects their quality of life. He is a member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment and the Vanderbilt Initiative for Smart-City Operations Research, and is a founding member of the Erdos Institute for Collaborative Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.

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About the Book

In an interview Michael and Jonathan can discuss:

• The importance of focusing on the private sector’s response to climate change
• Will private sector action on climate change just displace government action?
• The role that private sector action plays in ultimately solving climate change problem

“Beyond Politics:
The Private Governance Response to Climate Change”
Michael P. Vandenbergh & Jonathan M. Gilligan | 11/30/2017 | Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13: 978-1316632482 | Paperback $29.99
ISBN 13: 978-1107181229 | Hardback $89.99

An Interview with Michael Vandenbergh and Jonathan Gilligan

How did you two start working on this project together?
We started working together around 2004 on a project studying how Evangelical Christians in the American South were thinking about and responding to environmental problems. In the course of this project, we met with and talked at length with many people who were deeply politically conservative and who also felt a strong moral obligation to care for the environment as a way of respecting and honoring God’s creation. During the course of this work, we spent two years meeting together every week or two for lengthy discussions and each of us powerfully influenced the other.

Jonathan taught Mike about global warming and convinced him that it was by far the most important environmental problem facing humanity.

Mike taught Jonathan that a surprisingly large fraction of pollution, including greenhouse gases, originated with things that individuals and households do that can’t be practically regulated by the government, and that even for big business and industry, private governance can have powerful effects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can do so even without government regulation.

What are conversations concerning climate change in the scientific community starting to look like?
Within the scientific community, there is very broad and strong agreement among scientists that there is overwhelming evidence that human activity is changing the climate by emitting greenhouse gases, and that these changes are very likely to cause serious damage to the global economy and to people’s quality of life around the world. While these basic ideas are solidly established at a global level, scientists have much less confidence in their ability to predict exactly how and when climate change will affect specific places. Current trends in research involve some scientists working on improving the detailed understanding of climate in order to improve the ability to predict specific regional and local impacts of climate change while other scientists work on studying how people can both limit the severity of climate change and also adapt to a changing climate, so changes in temperature, rainfall, and sea level will not have as great an impact of economic activity, health, and quality of life.

Among lawyers and policymakers, the issues are much more divisive.  We find that experts who support doing something about climate change too often assume that government must the actor and that anything short of a complete solution is not worth pursuing.  In the process, they often overlook the role that the private sector – whether corporations, civic or religious organizations, or households – can play in buying time for public opinion to catch up to the climate science.

Is a private sector response something that moderates, conservatives and libertarians can find attractive?
Yes, a private sector response is something that moderates, conservatives and libertarians – and people across the political spectrum – can agree on. Two thirds of the American population think that big government is the biggest threat facing the country, so if responding to climate change seems to require a big government response, it is easy to see why they might be reluctant to accept the climate science. If liberals, conservatives, and libertarians can say, “Let’s put our disagreements about big government aside and ask whether there is a useful role for the private sector right now,” then they should be able to support private sector climate actions. For liberals, private governance can bypass political gridlock and reduce greenhouse gases quickly. For conservatives and libertarians, successful private sector action can show how big government regulation is not the only answer to environmental problems and can reduce the ultimate scale and intrusiveness of the government climate response. If private governance proves wildly successful, then it can convince both households and private businesses that they too can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions without breaking the bank or having to give up their comfortable lives (which everyone will like), and it can also reduce pressure for intrusive regulations (which conservatives and libertarians will like).

Is it plausible that private actions can achieve a billion tons of carbon reductions each year over the next decade?
Yes. We have carefully analyzed the potential for households to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and are confident that in the U.S. alone, practical incentives and marketing can inexpensively reduce household emissions by almost half a billion tons per year through purely voluntary actions. If we consider the additional potential for savings by households in Canada, Australia, Europe, and other parts of the world, we are very confident that well over half a billion tons per year of emissions reduction are very possible from the household sector alone. It is much more difficult to quantify the potential for emissions reduction by the business sector, but we have collected examples from many corporate initiatives and programs operated by nongovernmental not-for-profit organizations, which have produced substantial reductions in emissions, and several studies over the last several years have concluded that the potential from the private sector is in the billions of tons. Although we cannot provide a conclusive, detailed analysis comparable to our household analysis, we are confident that there are ready opportunities for well over half a billion tons per year of emissions reduction from the corporate sector. In this book, we focus on the figure of one billion tons per year of emissions reductions as a very cautious, conservative estimate, and we believe that there is a good change that much larger reductions may be possible, once people begin to look for them more energetically.

Who should act in response to this book?  What should they do?
The most important action that all readers of this book can take is to take the conceptual leap from assuming that only governments can respond to climate change to understanding that private organizations of all types, and even households, can play an important role.  Once this conceptual shift occurred for us, we began to see for the first time the breadth and depth of the private climate governance actions that are going on around the world and we began to think of new ways in which private organizations and individuals can act. We are confident that readers of this book, once they make the conceptual leap, will do so as well.
We hope to this book speaks to scholars, business and advocacy group managers, philanthropists, policymakers and anyone interested in climate change.

– For scholars, shifting the focus from “What can government do?” regarding climate change to “What can any organization do?” can produce multiple productive new lines of theoretical and empirical inquiry.
For business managers in firms that are already taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, the book demonstrates the importance of existing efficiency and climate activities and points to many new approaches underway across multiple sectors.

– For business managers in firms that have not taken initial steps on climate change, the book demonstrates the value of doing so and the reputational and other risks of delaying action.

– For philanthropists and managers of environmental advocacy organizations that are focused on pushing governments to act but are worried about the prospects for success, the book identifies a parallel track that may be far more important now than ever before.  For those who are already engaged in private climate initiatives, the book provides ideas about new areas for expansion and where to place priorities in existing efforts.

– For those philanthropists and managers who are conservative or libertarian, the book provides a way to respond to the possibility that the climate scientists are correct without abandoning core values.

– For the managers of religious, civic and cultural organizations, the book demonstrates the importance of viewing your organization as a source of emissions, not just as part of the effort to induce governments to act, and it provides ideas drawn from what other organizations have already done.

– For policymakers who are motivated to do something about climate change, the book identifies a variety of ways in which government can enhance the prospects of the most promising private initiatives.

Last, but certainly not least, for the general public the book demonstrates the importance of household actions and identifies dozens of specific steps that individuals can take to contribute to the fight against climate change.

www.JKSCommunications.com
2819 Vaulx Lane, Nashville, TN 37204
Angelle Barbazon
(615) 928-2462
angelle@jkscommunications.com

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK CITY – Acclaimed portrait photographer Karen Haberberg is turning her lens on families raising children with rare genetic conditions in a stunning new book. Intimate photographs and honest voices make “An Ordinary Day: Kids With Rare Genetic Conditions” the first of its kind. With sales benefiting genetic research, the book releases Oct. 17, 2017 by powerHouse Books.

Rare genetic diseases are actually fairly common – one in 10 Americans is affected, while 95% do not have an FDA approved drug treatment. “An Ordinary Day” connects families with children who have rare disorders to one another – and to the world. Through dozens of powerful images and candid interviews, readers will fall in love with these children, sharing in their struggles and celebrating their victories. Despite the complexity of their individual circumstances, the book captures family life in all its simplicity and humanity. Haberberg finds beauty in the common threads that unite us all.

Poignant and revelatory, “An Ordinary Day” illuminates the meaning of family.

Karen Haberberg is a New York City-based portrait photographer. Her photography has been shown in numerous gallery exhibitions, magazines, and newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Daily News, Huffington Post, Time Out NY, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, New York Family, and Fit Pregnancy. Her work was recently featured on ABC News and NY1. In addition, Haberberg teaches photography at the 92Y and JCC of Manhattan. For nearly a decade, she served as the Director of Photography and Digital Media at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, where she spearheaded photography related programming for children and adults. Haberberg has also curated numerous exhibitions and collaborated with well-known photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Elliot Erwitt, Joyce Tenneson, Gillian Laub, Bruce Davidson, among others. Haberberg holds a BA from Brandeis University and earned her MA in Art and Photography from the ICP. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children Maya and Liam. For more information, visit her website at http://www.karenhaberberg.com.

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About the book

“An Ordinary Day: Kids With Rare Genetic Conditions”

“An Ordinary Day” displays photographs set against intimate conversations, presenting the stories of 27 courageous families living with children with rare genetic conditions. Readers will fall in love with each child while celebrating the life-affirming spirit captured in every image. Throughout the pages, a trove of treasure is revealed, a narrative of struggles failed and battles won. These brave children include Ethan, a mute child, as he learns to make his first sound; Jonathan, a 9-year-old, as he finally is able to eat with a spoon and; Maddy, a 5-year-old, as she takes his first step after years of crawling. These are all tasks that are taken for granted by families and children without these disorders, but are immense accomplishments and triumphs for children with rare genetic diseases.

The every day moments captured in “An Ordinary Day” hope to inspire awareness and empathy, while highlighting the commonalities between families with rare genetic conditions, and more deeply between us all.

“In these moving photos and narratives, Karen Haberberg locates the joy and beauty in children whose lives are too easily relegated to darkness. Her images are not only humane, but also celebratory. They proceed from a great generosity of spirit and an intuitive sense of human dignity.” – Andrew Solomon, PhD professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, Pulitzer nominee and author of “Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity”

“An Ordinary Day: Kids With Rare Genetic Conditions” by Karen Haberberg
October 17, 2017 • powerHouse Books
ISBN: 978-1-57687-861-3 (hardcover) • $45
Photography • Health • Children

An Interview with Karen Haberberg

How did you decide to photograph families raising children with rare genetic conditions?
“An Ordinary Day” was a labor of love for me. My parents lost a child to Tay Sachs Disease before I was born and almost 50 years later, they still suffer from the loss of my brother, Rafi. More recently, my best friend’s son was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. Hearing her struggles and victories made me realize how little attention families who have children with rare genetic conditions receive and how common it actually is. One in 10 families in America has a child with a rare condition and 95% of those conditions do not have one single FDA approved drug treatment

In your book, you captured some incredibly intimate moments between parents and their kids. How did you gain their trust to tell their personal stories through photography? 
All the families in the book are extraordinary. I am incredibly fortunate to have been allowed into their intimate world. I am in awe of their strength, optimism and perseverance.

 I was there to tell their story as authentically as possible, and I think they felt that, which is what enabled them to open up to me. I deeply care about each family represented in the book, and find found them to be incredibly inspirational.

You ran a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $25,000 to get “An Ordinary Day” off the ground. Why do you think there was such overwhelming support for this project?
One of the goals of this project was designed to get the word out on a population that is often overlooked and sometimes even shunned from society. People recognized the need for the book as an effort to raise awareness on a variety of genetic conditions, to help fund research for treatments, and to connect families with kids who have rare genetic conditions to each other and the world at large. In addition, the profits of the book go to genetic research and the Kickstarter video explains my goals clearly.

What was the best and most difficult parts of working with the kids and families featured in your book?
It’s been an honor and privilege to work with each of the families, but given the topic, there were some difficult moments emotionally during the interviewing process. While we may have shed a few tears together, their honesty and my empathy was a beautiful thing. I only want the best for these kids, and I think the parents recognized that.

Have your own kids shown interest in photography? What did they think about the project?
My kids are at the age that they most appreciate photographs of fuzzy animals or landscapes. The most important thing I want my kids to come away with from this project is how important it is to accept all kinds of people. They know that no one is perfect and we are all working on things. It’s critical that they don’t judge, shy away from, or exclude kids who are different. I think they got that message now.

What is something you would like to communicate to people who have not spent a lot of time around kids with special health needs?
Many of the parents in the book comment that most of the people they socialize with since their child was diagnosed are from the rare genetic disease community. Their friends with typical kids no longer invite them to parties because they worry that if the kids with a rare condition attends the birthday party and the kid has an outburst or a behavioral issue, the party will be ruined. It’s a shame because the families who have kids with rare genetic conditions already feel isolated. They are already struggling with medical care, insurance companies, schools and everyday life. People who haven’t been closely exposed to families like these are often ignorant and fearful, which is what causes them to step away rather than lean in. It’s time we lean in. We need to teach tolerance to all ages.

Outside of this project, you are also an award-winning portrait and commercial photographer. Did you approach your work for “An Ordinary Day” with a different mindset?
In all of my work, I assess the situation at hand and figure out the best way to present the person or project. “An Ordinary Day” was challenging on a lot of levels, but from an aesthetic sense, I couldn’t plan too much because I wasn’t very familiar with the situation I was entering. Fortunately, it always ended up authentic, beautiful, and individual.

Deep emotion radiates through the images you captured. Were you ever emotionally overwhelmed during the project? How did you handle that?
There were definitely more than a handful of moments when parents were talking to me candidly that I choked back some tears. Watching these kids and families repeatedly work as hard as they do to learn basic skills and move forward, which could be as simple as eating, was heartbreaking at times. These families persevere because they have to, but they do it with such profound grace that it’s astonishing; I deeply respect them. 

A handful of the families have started their own organizations to raise money and awareness for their child’s condition and have really helped propel forward research in their specific areas.

What surprised you about the project?
What I did not expect was how connected I would feel to the families. Now, I am constantly following them on Facebook and I now have 27 more people to worry about!

Rare Disease Day will be observed on Feb. 28, 2018, to help spread worldwide awareness of uncommon health conditions. What are some ways people can show their support and make a difference in their own communities?
Global Genes does an amazing job at advertising different ways to spread the word about rare genetic conditions and support the cause. 

What’s next for you?
While I continue to expand my commercial work, I will be working on my next photography book on adoption, photographs and stories of people with their birth family and adopted family. I am currently looking for interested participants and sponsorship. 

In addition, I am working with an Emmy Award-winning team to raise money to create a documentary film on kids with rare genetic conditions.

Last thoughts!
When I returned home after each shoot I always gave my kids an extra strong hug and reminded myself – don’t sweat the small stuff. Be grateful, and I am.

www.JKSCommunications.com
2819 Vaulx Lane, Nashville, TN 37204
Angelle Barbazon
(615) 928-2462
angelle@jkscommunications.com

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLUMBIA, MO. – They could be out there, you must know, those heretofore unknown bipedal hominids commonly called sasquatch. Owing to a complete accident, youthful widower Jake Holly shoots and kills a female sasquatch and takes her back to town only to be charged by the local prosecuting attorney with murder, because the creature is so human-like. This imaginative, hard-to-classify and tightly woven tale explains up front, in a prologue that soars from the creation of the universe to the present day, just how these creatures came to be traipsing around in the big trees surrounding Mount St. Helens. With intricate details and bursts of literary language, Jeffery Viles offers a fast-moving narrative of events that shock the Pacific Northwest town of Aurora, Washington, then reverberate around the world and into the White House, thanks to the Internet. Hee-Haw’s tavern is ground zero for local oddballs and elbow benders to posture, talk Bigfoot, and offer their peculiar yarns in colorful idiom, while Jake and Jessica O’Reilly are falling in love despite an age difference that Jessica’s powerful father, the prosecutor, cannot abide. But when Sasquatch enters the picture, a tripwire is broken and every preconceived notion is instantly upside down.

After graduating from the University of Missouri, Jeffery Viles had stints at “Die Welt,” a world-wide and highly regarded German newspaper and the Columbia Daily Tribune. When he left journalism, he bought and built up a small petroleum distribution company, then became a hotel owner and restaurateur; went on to start a construction/design company which eventually segued into ownership of commercial real estate. Throughout all of his ventures, Jeff occasionally worked on short stories and eventually began to work on a novel in earnest, which turned into “The Sasquatch Murder (A Love Story).”

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About the book

On a quiet but rainy horse ride through the big woods, youthful widower Jake Holly is surprised into accidentally shooting a female sasquatch. The prosecuting attorney in the small town of Aurora,Washington, is startled by the creature’s human-like appearance and charges Jake with  murder. The prosecutor also happens to be the father of Jake’s 15-years-younger girlfriend, Jessica. Despite the hurdles facing them, Jake and Jessica only grow closer as the concrete discovery of a sasquatch reverberates via the internet throughout the nation and the world.

 Jeffery Viles evokes the city of Aurora with small-town charm and memorable characters that you’ll feel you’ve known forever. He’ll make you question where you stand on creatures such as sasquatch, and pull you into a tale that’s not quite mystery, not quite love story and not quite science fiction, but some fantastical combination of the three.

“The Sasquatch Murder (a love story)”
Jeffery Viles | July 25, 2017 | Beaver’s Pond Press
Hardcover | 978-1592987696 | $19.95
e-book | 978-1592986750 | $7.99
Science fiction/fantasy

An Interview with Jeffrey Viles

What inspired you to write about sasquatch?
We humans have always been fascinated by mysterious monsters, from Grendel in “Beowulf,” one of the oldest examples of English literature, right down to “Frankenstein” and the “Wolfman.”  The notion of a novel unveiling sasquatch just wouldn’t go away.

What are your beliefs regarding the legendary creature? 
I’m truly a sasquatch agnostic.  But if it doesn’t exist, there are a lot of sightings by normal people and other credible evidence to explain away.

This book is a combination of several genres – did you plan it that way or did it just morph into that as you were writing? I didn’t give a single thought to genre while writing this novel.  I simply wanted to tell a good story that would sometimes employ literary language and make a good read.  Many people seem to think it succeeds.

Are any of the characters based on real people? Does Hee-Haw’s have a nonfictional counterpart?
Hee-Haw’s is a conglomeration of every good bar and pub I’ve enjoyed in America, Ireland, Great Britain and even Germany; the kind of place where you’ll find yourself chatting and joking with the locals within five minutes of arrival.  The characters are also composites of many colorful people I’ve known, and they often are embellished with my imagination.    

What makes the Pacific Northwest the perfect setting for this kind of story?
Many of the sasquatch sightings, oversized footprints, unexplainable tufts of hair, etc., take place in that quadrant of the country.  To quote page 87 of the novel:  “if such a thing is real, it should, it must, live among the Pacific Northwest’s impossibly grand forests.”

Do you think your background in journalism affected how you write?
Certainly.  You learn to write by writing.

If you were able to have a roundtable with three authors, who would you include and what would you ask them?
It’s very hard to boil it down to three.  I could easily name a dozen I especially admire. But to answer the question, maybe Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel García Márquez and Raymond Carver would make a good roundtable. I’d ask them everything I could think of, but especially the details of how they work day to day.

Who would play Jake, Jessica and Sasquatch if the book were turned into a movie?
Matthew McConaughey, Jeremy Renner or Edward Norton would all make a good Jake.  They are in their 40s. For the younger Jessica, I’d nominate Jennifer Lawrence. As sasquatch, you’d think of the crazy side of Jeff Bridges. But I imagine the movie folks would do a great sasquatch with CGI.

When you get in a writing funk, is there a certain book or author you read to get re-inspired? 
No. A glass or two of good Chardonnay and I’m ready to ramble.

The book’s ending is ambiguous – it could be a set up for another book, but it could just as easily let the story lie. Any chance we’ll see more from Jake and Jessica?
A couple of Amazon five-star reviewers have asked for that so I’d have to consider it.  But I’m more likely to complete something quite different.  I’m playing with that very different story right now.

www.JKSCommunications.com
2819 Vaulx Lane, Nashville, TN 37204
Angelle Barbazon
(615) 928-2462
angelle@jkscommunications.com

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/