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Books by Savannah authors a good fit for your Christmas list

With the holidays just around the corner, shopping has gone into overdrive.

 

Books make great gifts that can be reread and enjoyed time and again. Currently, there’s a whole crop of books written by authors who live in Savannah, are native to Savannah or who write about Savannah.


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Here are some local books to stuff your stockings:

 

‘My Lemonade Stand Can’t Stand Me’ Mark Lawton Thomas

Who could resist a biology lesson like this one?

 

When a crocodile

swims up the Nile

and crosses the equator,

he turns into something else

called an alligator.

 

Mark Lawton Thomas’ new children’s book is kid-friendly poetry, and it contains some real gems.

Thomas also is the author of “When Farts Had Colors,” which is billed as “The Kid Friendly ‘F’ Book.” The book has proven wildly popular with middle schoolers, and the Savannah Children’s Theatre is turning it into a play.

A sixth-grade language arts teacher at Sutton Middle School in Atlanta, Thomas writes books he knows children will want to read in an effort to interest them in writing.

“We do a lot of poetry in class,” he says. “We do a poem every day and I put one on the board. I just like to collect them.”

The book was illustrated by Jeehyun Hoke and is published by Peak City Publishing, which also published Thomas’ first book.

“My kids helped me edit both books,” Thomas says.

“They are my harshest critics.”

‘Bonaventure Cemetery: Savannah, Ga.’ Chuck St. Arnaud

Chuck St. Arnaud is far too busy to write a book, but he hasn’t let that stop him.

A retired Army general, founder of Systems Connect, adjunct professor of marketing at Savannah State University, columnist for the Savannah Morning News and dedicated volunteer, he’s also a history buff and photographer.

“I’ve been a volunteer out at Bonaventure Cemetery for about a year and a half and am now on the board,” St. Arnaud says. “I would post pictures on my Facebook page and a couple of friends said, ‘You’ve got to write a book.’”

Armed with 320 photographs, St. Arnaud put together “Bonaventure Cemetery: Savannah, Ga.”

The book is available at Amazon.com. Some of the proceeds are going to the Bonaventure Historical Society, and eventually all of the proceeds will, after St. Arnaud has recouped costs of publishing the book.

“I didn’t realize the impact that Bonaventure Cemetery had on the growth and the history of Savannah,” St. Arnaud says. “During one of the bloodiest battles, the Siege of Savannah in 1779, the plantation house was used as a hospital.”

French and Haitian soldiers who fought in the battle landed on the Wilmington River at Bonaventure.

“More than 300 wounded soldiers were treated in the house,” St. Arnaud says. “We know some died, but we don’t know where they are buried.”

Bonaventure is the city’s third oldest cemetery.

“The way people perceived death became different over time,” St. Arnaud says. “Death became a renewal, and there was something greater than being dead.”

‘A Piece of Paper’ TyRone Brown

When he was 9, TyRone Brown saw the Harlem Globetrotters for the first time.

“I sat in front of the television and was mesmerized,” Brown says. “I said, ‘Mom, I want to become a Harlem Globetrotter.’ I wrote down on a piece of paper, ‘I want to become a Harlem Globetrotter.’

“That piece of paper reminded me to do all the necessary things to become a Harlem Globetrotter,” Brown says. “I kept on persevering and doing everything to try to accomplish that goal.”

Eventually, the Savannah native became famous as TyRone “Hollywood” Brown. He played with the Harlem Globetrotters for 11 years before retiring in 1996.

Brown’s book, “A Piece of Paper,” was written to provide inspiration for children to dream big and work hard to accomplish their goals.

“I have a company called P.R.O. Kids and Youth Communications Group,” he says. “We provide motivational speakers in schools. I myself speak at 150 schools a year, and we utilize other Globetrotters to go into schools to speak.”

When Brown was in third grade, the Globetrotters visited Derenne Elementary School.

“It was amazing to see one guy do all kinds of things with a basketball,” he says. “It’s just a unique skill. A Globetrotter has to actually stand there and share a message and at the same time entertain.”

Though fun, Brown’s presentations tackle tough issues, such as literacy. “There’s a huge problem with literacy, a huge gap in ages 18 to 35,” he says.

“There’s a page in my book that says try to read 100 books yearly,” Brown says. “I’m promoting that in every school I visit.”

 

‘Would You Read Me to Sleep?’ George E. Edenfield

George E. Edenfield wanted to create the type of children’s book he loved as a child, so he wrote “Would You Read Me to Sleep?”

“The idea came to me when I was sitting in church,” Edenfield says. “The thought just popped into my mind. I used to read my children to sleep every night. My mother read me stories when I was little.

“I started thinking about the advantages, the relationship, that is generated between children and parents when they spend intimate time together,” he says. “It helps form a closer bond when you have that time together.”

That’s especially important today, Edenfield says.

“I have heard it stated the average parent today in our culture spends less than 5 minutes a day speaking with their children,” he says. “As fast as we move, it’s really easy to believe that.

“I started thinking about how much fun I had with my children when they were little and how I used story time to instill in them values and morality and teach them about life. The storyline came into my head about using this theme of reading to sleep and it’s centered around a father and daughter and goes through their lives from when the daughter is very young to when the daughter is reading to her father at the end of his life.”

Reviews from readers have been very positive, Edenfield says. “It was issued as an e-book first,” he says.

“Right out of the gate, we won an eLit Award — the Gold Award for children’s books of all ages. I was so shocked when I got the notification. It was really encouraging.”

 

‘A Girl, a Guy and a Ghost’ Patricia Mason

Patricia Mason of Savannah is a lawyer turned bestselling author.

“I’ve been writing seriously since about 2005,” she says. “Writing definitely was my first love, as far back as my childhood.”

But in college, Mason didn’t see writing as a practical profession. “I went into law instead,” she says. “I got to the point of life where instead of doing that, I wanted to pursue my dream. I moved away from law and am now writing full-time.”

The first book Mason completed is “A Girl, a Guy and a Ghost,” inspired by the novels she read as a teen and a college student. “It’s a kind of a romantic comedy, a story about the hero and a reporter with a parapsychology magazine,” she says. “She has to find a ghost and write an article or she’s going to be fired. She decides Savannah is the place because it’s so haunted.”

Mason considers it humorous romantic suspense, in the vein of films starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. She also writes mysteries for her “Shitake Series,” which includes “In Deep Shitake” and “Shitake Happens.”

“They are the most popular, and all the books have ‘shitake’ in the title,” Mason says. “The heroine is trying to stop swearing, so she substitutes food for swear words.”

Frequently landing on the Amazon bestseller lists is a surreal experience, Mason says.

“The first time I saw my book next to Janet Evanovich and other people I’ve read and loved was so exciting and strange,” she says.

“I look at it and say, ‘I can’t believe my book is there, my book cover is there. They are magical beings and I shouldn’t be with them.’”

‘Savannah Shadows: Tales from the Midnight Zombie Tour’ Tobias McGriff

Tobias McGriff keeps some curious company, as reflected in the title of his book, “Savannah Shadows: Tales from the Midnight Zombie Tour.”

The book is billed as “your guide to zombies, hags, voodoo and more in Savannah, Ga.” A successful telecommunications engineer, McGriff had his own paranormal experience in America’s Most Haunted City, and it changed his life.

After moving to Savannah, McGriff set up a ghost tour company, Blue Orbs Tours. His book includes his own experiences and those of the participants in his tours. A participating member of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, N.C., he has studied supernatural phenomena and the haunted history of the Deep South.

“I’ve done some national spots with the book and gotten good publicity,” McGriff says. “We have a lot of voodoo and hoodoo in the Lowcountry.”

There is so much material, it’s impossible to get it all into a two-hour tour, McGriff says. “We are getting a ton of follow-up questions about things we talked about on the tour,” he says.

“There’s a lot of background in the book on why we chose those particular stories,” he says. “Because there’s not enough room for everything in the book, we added barcodes so people can scan them and find further information.”

Further books are planned, with a book on either the state of Georgia or Bonaventure Cemetery up next. “I’m leaning more toward a book about Bonaventure because there are good books out there, but almost all of them concentrate on photos,” McGriff says. “I’d like to do a Bonaventure book with more text, more meat.”

 

‘Liquid Lies’ Lois Lavrisa

Lois Lavrisa decided to give herself some time to write, and it’s paying off, big-time.

“My debut novel made the Top 100 when it was released on Amazon Kindle in March,” she says. “It’s a mystery/suspense thriller.

“I was a journalist in college days and I did teach at Armstrong Atlantic State University, but I’m taking a little break while I concentrate on writing,” Lavrisa says. “I was teaching, taking care of the house, taking care of four kids and there was zero time to write.”

In addition to her novel, “Liquid Lies,” Lavrisa has published five short stories for four anthologies. “I’m a control freak,” she says.

“I can put words in my characters’ mouths, I can make them say what I want them to say. My real life is chaotic, so writing serves a lot of purposes for creative energy,” Lavrisa says. “It also gives me a sense of control I don’t have in life.”

She is now planning a young adult trilogy. “I have to get a book out every four months in 2013,” she says. “It’s going to be a very ambitious schedule. Once you become a bestseller, you want to keep readers interested, you want them to wonder what’s next.”

“Liquid Lies” is available online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon and at some local bookstores, including CJ Hallmark on Skidaway Island. Kindle versions are available at Amazon.com.

‘The Christ Accounts’ Terrence Polcari

Terrence Polcari, in his book “The Christ Accounts,” takes a different look at Jesus than other authors.

Written in free verse poetical prose, it concerns the unrecorded years and events in the life of Jesus Christ told from the perspective of a father telling his daughter about “Yeshua the Anointed.”

“It deals with the life of Jesus, but it’s from his point of view and the human point of view, too,” Polcari says. “It follows him from infancy to how his mind is growing.

“A lot of this is speculation. The whole thing is about the father telling his daughter the life of Christ brought down into a humanistic point of view.

“We all look at Him as more god than man,” Polcari says. “When you look at the human side of it, He felt and lived the way we did. When you look at Him as a human being, it brings Him closer.”

Although Polcari grew up in a Christian church, he says his book isn’t really a Christian book. “It explains some things in a light that doesn’t coexist with what the Bible says,” he says.

For example, when Polcari writes about the Sermon on the Mount, he believes the story is really about sharing. “He broke His bread and loaves and shared them and the multitude also broke out food and shared.”

Not only has Polcari studied every major religion of the world, he has incorporated them into his book. “If I were Christ and had a sense of God beyond all others, I would not have hung around Jerusalem for 30 years,” he says.

“I would have wanted to see God’s handiwork, so I have him walking to China and back,” Polcari says. “He experiences Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, the Bon of Tibet, and these culture’s teachings helped shape Him and His way of thinking that was reflected in His own ministry and teachings.”

 

‘Cockspur Island: A Novel of the Coast Guard’ Bradley K. Adams

When Bradley K. Adams was in the Coast Guard, he had an unusual passenger on his ship.

“An author asked to ride on one of our boats,” Adams says. “I decided to ask her about publishing and showed her some of the work I’d done.”

The mysterious passenger turned out to be none other than bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. “She was nice enough to mentor me,” Adams says.

“She helped me develop my story. She’s a wonderful lady who really took a lot of time out of her day to shepherd me along.”

Adams, who recently retired, was a one-time member of the crew at Station Tybee. “I have extremely fond memories of my assignment in Savannah, made even better by the birth of my daughter, Jordan, at Candler Hospital,” he says.

Adams’ book, “Cockspur Island: A Novel of the Coast Guard,” was released Sept. 1. Savannah and Tybee Island are both settings in the book, which is the first in a series of thrillers centered around a character named Hank Morgan that will focus exclusively on the Coast Guard.

“It’s action/adventure and thriller rolled into one,” Adams says. “I had written a book several years ago and went through the vanity press. I loved the book personally and a lot of people loved it, but it was more a learning experience than anything and something I needed to cut my teeth on.”

For now, Adams is planning five Hank Morgan books. “He’s not based on me, but I think there are personal feelings no author can completely divorce themselves from,” he says. “There are elements of things that happened during my career and lifetime,” Adams says. “It’s important to write what you know and remain real.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘A Single Drop of Ink’ Carla Ramsey Weeks

Carla Ramsey Weeks’ novel “A Single Drop of Ink” stretches from Haiti to North Carolina.

“Most of it takes place in Savannah,” Weeks says. “It was inspired by the Sorrel family.”

Weeks also is the author of “The Sorrels of Savannah: Life on Madison Square and Beyond,” a history of the Sorrel family. The books can be purchased separately or as a set.

“I did the history of the family after I met some descendants,” Weeks says.

“It’s turned out to be a good companion piece. After people read the novel, they like to know how much is true.”

A former teacher from North Little Rock, Ark., Weeks began her quest after a visit to Savannah.

“My sister had died and I quit teaching,” she says.

“I had been toying with writing all my life. I went to Savannah to get away and toured the Sorrel-Weed House.

“They have quite a story,” Weeks says. “It inspired me to do research. I got all kinds of neat information from the courthouse and I went to the archives.”

Many local tours tell the story of Francis Sorrel and his wife, Matilda Moxley Sorrel, and one of their slaves, a Haitian named Molly.

In the legend, Sorrel has an affair with Molly, which causes Matilda to commit suicide by jumping off the balcony outside her bedroom window.

“It turned out that the truth of the family was more interesting than the hype of the house,” Weeks says. “I got to know one of the great-great-grandsons, who gave me inside stories and told me all kinds of things.”

Although Matilda killed herself, it isn’t known why.

There are no records of Molly, so she may not have even existed.

“It opened up some very interesting questions about why Matilda committed suicide,” Weeks says.

The novel is available locally at Cinnamon Bear, Factor’s Cottage, Southern Exposure and Art Emporium. It also is available at Amazon.com and in Kindle and Nook versions.

‘Fifty Ways to Greater Well Being and Happiness’ Dr. Robert Pawlicki

Dr. Robert Pawlicki wants everyone to be happy.

Pawlicki is a retired psychologist and former university professor.

His column, “Finding Happiness” appears in This Week at the Landings and has proved so popular, he decided to write a book, “Fifty Ways to Greater Well Being and Happiness: A handy and inspirational guide.”

“I’ve been doing the column for four years and it’s been really fun,” Pawlicki says. “I was a licensed therapist and psychologist in three states — Ohio, West Virginia and New York — and headed here in retirement.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to go through that licensing process again.’ I am a coach, but I don’t have an office, I go to people’s homes.”

Throughout his career, Pawlicki treated thousands of patients who were living with chronic pain.

He noted that there are personality, attitude and behavioral differences between those who can manage and learn to deal with extreme challenges and those who have a more difficult time.

These observations led to his first book, “Success by Another Measure: Recognizing and enhancing your character.”

His new book provides practical, everyday advice, based on research from the field of positive psychology.

While most people say they are happy, attention to a few easily understood changes can significantly increase their happiness, Pawlicki says.

He will host a book signing and lecture, “A Road Map to Happiness,” at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Landings Club on Skidaway Island that is free and open to the public.

The book is available from Amazon and through the author’s website, www.fiftywaystogreaterwellbeingandhappiness.com.

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Sun, 05/21/2017 - 11:51pm

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