
The “away” was a trip to San Diego to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.
We basked in the company of fifty—count ‘em—fifty siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and assorted spouses! Youngest son, Tom, and his beautiful and creative bride, Becky, hosted one fantastic weekend. We met for the first time five of the great-grandchildren—and learned of the imminent addition of two more, for a total of seventeen. WOW!
New ventures? We’ve established a new publishing company to augment the work of my regular publisher, Patriot Media, Inc., Florida.
Marlene and I founded the ToMar Associates in 2002 as a consulting, counseling and teaching activity. Now the ToMar Associates, Publishing is a natural outgrowth—and we have three projects working already. In addition we have established an Audio Book Recording Studio and are working on the second production (the first, MEAD’S TREK, is out on Audible, Amazon.com and iTunes).
The first publication projects are quite a variety of works: FORCE THREE RISES is the fourth book in the Amos Mead Adventure Series. It is being rolled out Saturday, April 11, locally at a signing event at Margie’s Book Nook, the premier book source in Susanville, CA. We did the morning show with Chris Montgomery on KSUE/KJDX this morning, and Susanville Stuff.com has a featured article today. We can’t thank our local supporters enough for helping us to roll out our new offerings.
There’s more coming: We have worked with David Teeter at Margie’s Book Nook to publish a children’s book of short stories and verse for the holidays. Titled Pumpkins to Holly, it features stories by Tom Gauthier, children’s author Connie Faust, and poet Cora May Preble, plus a lot of that guy “anonymous,” gleaned from old English folk tales.
Do you know where the name “Jack O’Lantern” originated? The kids will when they read this book.
The third project is close to my heart. If you read the first story in the Amos Mead Adventure Series, Code Name: ORION’S EYE, you’ll remember the WWII US Army Air Corps unit, the 1st Fighter Control Squadron. Real soldiers were woven into the fictional story based on historic events.
Now we have written a book to honor these departed heroes in a history/memoir to tell their story from inception in 1942, through the harrowing experiences of a sinking at sea, and on to their island beachhead landings in New Guinea and the Philippines. As we get closer to publication we’ll share the sources of the personal memories of these men, obtained through the generous cooperation of their families. It is scheduled to be published in May.