Inkwater Press

Sorcery at Caesars by Steve Marantz

Thomas Hauser and Matthew Hurley, columnists for SecondsOut.com, have each posted positive reviews of Steve Marantz’s Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray’s Marvelous Fight.

In his review dated August 27th, Mr. Hurley writes, “…It was with great pleasure that I picked up author Steve Marantz’s new book Sorcery At Caesars: Sugar Ray’s Marvelous Fight – an intriguing back story on the 1987 super-fight between middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard.” Mr. Hurley concludes his review positively, writing, “Sorcery At Caesars, despite a few reservations on the portrayal of Ray Leonard’s character and career is a must read for any boxing fan. Steve Marantz has written a compelling book about two of the most important figures in the sport of boxing of the last 25 years.”

Writing roughly a month later, Thomas Hauser seconded his colleague’s assessment, writing,”Sorcery at Caesars is entertaining history. Both fighters and their careers are nicely sketched: Leonard (the 1976 Olympic gold medalist and darling of America, who made US$40,000 for his first pro fight) and Hagler (a talented amateur, who had turned pro three years earlier and earned fifty dollars for his first fight).”  Mr. Hauser also praises author Steve Marantz’s smooth writing and “interesting work in plumbing the depths of that dark side and the havoc that cocaine wreaked on Leonard’s life in the mid-1980s.”

Read the full review by Matthew Hurley here.

Read Thomas Hauser’s review here.

Order Sorcery at Caesars here.

Happy Soul Industry, Inkwater Press’ latest publication from ad man/ novelist  Steffan Postaer, has been featured recently in several advertising industry publications.

In September, Creativity featured Happy Soul Industry in their books section, writing “Former Altoids ‘Curiously Strong’ mastermind and current chairman and CCO of Euro RSCG Chicago, Steffan Postaer recently released his second book The Happy Soul Industry, the story of what happens when God hires an L.A.-based ad agency to market heaven, bringing Her into the playing field of the devil, he says.  (God is female in the book because, Postaer says, ‘I’ve never seen a man give birth to anything.’)  The book from Inkwater Press touches on the contrast between religious morality and advertising, the classic struggle of good versus evil, where evil is advertising, and industry that peddles many of the Seven Deadly Sins, he says.”

Advertising Age’s September 8th issue also covered Happy Soul Industry, and described the multidisciplinary marketing campaign promoting the book, which “involves digital and traditional billboards in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as online and social-networking efforts.”  In Mr. Weaton’s article, Mr. Postaer also mused that he and other advertising gurus “spend so much time talking about social networks, below the line, the internet, and this is a golden opportunity for me to use it.”

To order Happy Soul Industry, visit our online bookstore, InkwaterBooks.com.  To participate in the novel’s online social network, visit How-Are-You.net.  You can also learn more about the novel at its online home, HappySoulIndustry.com, where you’ll find author interviews, a preview for the book, and more.

Repeat Business by Joe Carufe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Colleen Welch
(503) 968-6777
Colleen@InkwaterPress.com

Portland, OR – September 16, 2008: Snowstorms have a way of altering love stories. Angie Torino is a young woman living in upstate New York, content with two adorable children and grounded in the passion she feels for Gianni, her soul mate and husband. Her psychic powers fail to alert her to the nor’easter that’s about to change her life forever.

In a sense, the hunt on the opening pages of “Repeat Business,” the first novel of Naples resident Joe Carufe, foreshadows the journey that follows as Torino leaves the long cold winters of the Hudson Valley behind and moves to southwest Florida. She becomes a valued employee at the Kani Lai, a beachfront hotel, and is nurtured by Sid, the caring owner who takes her under his wing and becomes a father to her children. Within a few years she opens a psychic salon, and eventually leads police to a killer who emerges from her past. Along the way she falls for a handsome stranger and in so doing rekindles the love she’d lost so many years before.

Carufe is owner of Earthtech Unlimited, a Naples company that’s been transforming landscapes in southwest Florida for 14 years. In addition to landscape contracting, Carufe has been a freelance writer for Gulfshore Life and Home & Condo magazines. A native of Cold Spring, New York, he was a sports writer in upstate New York for several years before moving to Florida. His work has appeared in the New York Daily News, and he’s been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

Published by Inkwater Press, “Repeat Business” is available online at InkwaterPress.com, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

The author is available for interviews, by telephone or in person, depending on location. For more information, contact Colleen Welch at Colleen@InkwaterPress.com.

Spirit Unbroken, by Rick and Alice Garlock

Inkwater Press title Spirit Unbroken: The Two Sides of Love was recently given five-star reviews  at RebeccasReads.com and MidwestBookReview.com.

Midwest Book Review named Spirit Unbroken a “Reviewer’s Choice” book, and says, “Spirit Unbroken: The Two Sides of Love is Alice Garlock’s recollection of trying to find her ancestral origins. A product of the intermingling of American GIs and Japanese women after World War II, Alice returns to her mother’s land in order to find the family she never knew. The tale is touching and will encourage those with estranged family to attempt to seek them as well. Spirit Unbroken is a great choice for those seeking an upbeat tale of finding home in a place so far away from it.”

Rebecca’s Reads writer Kam Aures opens her review with a recommendation:  only begin reading Spirit Unbrokenwhen you have plenty of time, “because this is a book you are not going to want to put down.” Aures deems Spirit Unbroken “an emotional, heart-wrenching memoir, [that] also shows just how strong we are capable of being.”  She concludes, “I highly recommend this incredible story.”  Spirit Unbroken was also selected as a Featured Book at RebeccasReads.com.

To order Spirit Unbroken: The Two Sides of Love, visit our online bookstore at InkwaterBooks.com. To see the Garlocks in action, view their videos at YouTube.com.

Oregon Book Award Finalist

The Sum of His Syndromes, by K.B. Dixon, is a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards’ Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.  A “collage of notes written in a sixth-floor men’s room,” The Sum of His Syndromes tells the story of a “slightly disturbed young drudge who has found himself at a personal and professional crossroads,” as the book’s synopsis reads.

This marks the second consecutive year that Inkwater Press has published an Oregon Book Awards finalist.  Last year, Jeff Mathos’ Steel Beach: My Life As A Naval Aircrewman was a finalist for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction.

According to their website, Literary Arts awards The Oregon Book Awards for the “finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature.”  All finalists are invited to participate in the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, which visits independent bookstores and libraries across the state.

The Oregon Book Award winners will be announced on the final evening of the Wordstock Festival. For a full listing of the 2008 Oregon Book Awards Finalists, visit LiteraryArts.org.

The United States of Toyota, by Peter M. Delorenzo

Inkwater Press has sold the Vietnamese language publishing rights for its book The United States Of Toyota by Peter M. Delorenzo to Long Minh Educational and Cultural Joint-Stock Company.

On the back of his book, Peter Lorenzo writes, “The core issues facing Detroit–-global competitiveness, U.S. trade imbalances, healthcare costs and pension funding–-are issues we as a nation must deal with-–right now. This is not some isolated bad tiding that will only affect the Rust Belt in the forlorn “flyover” states, as the mid-section of the country is often derisively referred to.  No, this situation spells trauma for the entire country. Between 1 in 12 and 1 in 14 jobs in this country are still either directly or indirectly related to the domestic automobile business. Think about that statistic for a moment and then insist that it somehow “won’t affect me.”

To order The United States of Toyota, visit our online bookstore at InkwaterBooks.com.

Inkwater Press has arranged for Africa Trek author Alexandre Poussin to speak at the Wordstock Festival, Portland, Oregon’s annual “Festival of the Book.” Wordstock attendees will find Mr. Poussin an endlessly energetic and uncannily charismatic speaker, as befits anyone who undertakes a three-year, 8,700-mile walking journey along the length of Africa, as Alexandre and his wife Sonia Poussin documented in Africa Trek.

Alexandre Poussin, co-author of Africa Trek

Wordstock will occur from November 7-9 at the Oregon Convention Center. Last year’s festival featured over 200 authors from every genre, including Inkwater Press’ own Roscoe Orman. Inkwater Press has been a proud sponsor of the Wordstock Festival since its inception in 2004.

As it becomes available, additional information on Mr. Poussin’s appearance at Wordstock will be posted at AfricaTrekSeries.com. To order the first volume of Africa Trek, visit our online bookstore, InkwaterBooks.com.

Africa Trek, by Alexandre and Sonia Poussin

On August 31st, The Oregonian published an excerpt from Inkwater Press publication Africa Trek, the incredible account of Alexandre and Sonia Poussin’s three-year journey along the length of Africa.

The article, titled “Africa Step By Step: Alexandre and Sonia Poussin honeymoon on an 8,700-mile trek the length of Africa,” appeared on the front page of the travel section, and included author biographies, stunning photographs, and the riveting story of the Poussin’s life-or-death search for water near the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. The online version of the article also featured the story of how Inkwater Press came to publish Africa Trek. The first volume of Africa Trek is available today, September 2nd, through InkwaterBooks.com.

To read the entire excerpt, visit oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2008/08/africa_step_by_step.html. For more information on Africa Trek, including information on the public television series, visit AfricaTrekSeries.com.