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For immediate release...

August 27, 2009, Hartford, CT – Connecticut author, Pamela Glasner, is proud to announce today that the release of her first novel Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series, is confirmed for October 1, 2009. The novel has been a heart wrenching journey of love for Ms. Glasner, culminating in this triumphant release.

“The only thing worse than having an incomprehensible, incurable illness is having an incomprehensible, incurable illness in isolation”
~ Francis Nettleton, 1739 ~

The psychiatric community has confused Empathic personality traits with mental illness with tragic results, leading two Empaths – Francis Nettleton and Katherine Spencer – who live three hundred years apart, on personal journeys to learn the true nature of Empathy. Transcending time and death to right a centuries-old wrong, they inadvertently uncover a multi-billion dollar conspiracy in which millions of Americans are being misdiagnosed and drugged for no other reason than the enormous income they generate.

Finding Emmaus, book one of the Lodestarre series, is a complex, dark, historic fantasy about human frailties and courage. It is an intricate, meticulously researched, deeply disturbing, suspenseful tale of love and sacrifice, obsession and the abuse of power and the indisputable right of free will. It is a story with an intriguing cast of characters who will keep you guessing as to what they will do and what choices they will make as they weave in and out of the story and each other’s lives.

Ms. Glasner is managed by Publicist, Deborah Riley-Magnus. Finding Emmaus is published by Emerald Book Company, an imprint of Greenleaf Book Group. It is scheduled for release on October 1, 2009, and can be preordered now through Amazon, http://shrvl.com/I35n1.

For more information, or to schedule an interview or speaking engagement with the author, please contact, Ms. Magnus at (310) 637-1424. Attachment: Finding Emmaus cover pdf.

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For more information and updates on the status of Finding Emmaus, which is due out October 1st, please visit http://www.lodestarre.com/FindingEmmaus.html

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Copyright © 2009 by Pamela S. K. Glasner, All Rights Reserved
 

Twice in this month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tony Serve of Perth, Australia, a presenter at Radio 6pr (6pr.com).  I am awed by Tony’s commitment to the rights and dignity of all those who have been (and are still being) victimized by drug companies - a multinational industry which callously pumps tons of toxic waste into millions of unsuspecting citizens. 

Unfortunately, the inappropriately drugged “mentally ill” are not the only victims in this ongoing conflict.  For every person who is being misdiagnosed and over-medicated, there are parents and husbands and wives who love them and children who desperately need them, there are sisters and brothers who miss them, there are bosses and co-workers who must deal with lost productivity, there are mounting debts that ordinary citizens wind up paying through increased insurance rates or increased taxes or increased medical charges.  One way or another, everybody loses - except the pharmaceutical industry.

In an economic environment where layoffs and firings and downsizings and closings have become the norm, this one industry - with its billion-dollar budget to spread around Washington DC - has increased its bottom line from $12 billion $69 billion in four short years!

The following video is the result of those two conversations I had with Tony:

Katherine Spencer, Empath, on Patients’ Rights

     (an excerpt from Finding Emmaus)

“Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to err in favor of patients’ rights a bit. I don’t know how much you know about the history of mental patient care, but most of what I’ve learned and all of what I’ve experienced would be enough to keep Hollywood up to their ears in horror films for a decade.

“Second only to the very young and the very old, there’s no easier target for abuse than the mentally ill. They have very few defenses and fewer advocates. Many times, particularly when they’re medicated, they have no way to express what’s happening to them, so they can’t even say something as simple as ‘Doctor, I’m having terrible side effects’ or ‘this isn’t working for me’.

Are you aware that as recently as thirty years ago, thirty-three states in this country - our country! - were actively forcing surgical sterilization on Americans who were diagnosed as mentally ill?

And keep in mind: there’s no definitive test for mental illnesses like bipolar disorder. It’s all your doctor’s best guess based on the information available and accepted medical norms at the time. So, what if they were wrong? How many people were sterilized ‘accidentally’?

“Worse than that, a few of the governors of those states, though they have apologized, claim there’s no need to even consider compensation because the victims are mostly dead and, of course, there wouldn’t be any offspring to compensate! They actually said that - using the tragic results of their abuse as a means to evade responsibility. It’s despicable.

“The pendulum will probably swing way too far to this side for a while, but maybe that’s what’s needed - not to endanger anyone - even one more lost life would be a tragedy - but it’s got to stop.”

For more information and updates on the status of Finding Emmaus, which is due out October 1st of this year, please visit  http://lodestarre.blogspot.com/

The process of writing my novel, “Finding Emmāus”, of creating and then developing each and every one of its characters, made me think deeply about what I write, about what is vitally important in my stories, made me truly evaluate what goes on in the deepest, most secretive parts of human personalities, the differences and the nuances from one human to another.  Their actions, reactions and interactions with other characters within the story had to be consistent with their personalities throughout the book.  I had to learn to really look at what makes people ‘tick’.

And in the process, I learned as much about me as I did about them - perhaps more…

I've always known that life is precious, just as I've always believed human beings to be resilient creatures.  But life is also a fragile thing and prior to this time (prior to writing “Finding Emmāus”) I never truly appreciated just how fragile.

I never really thought about what went on inside the walls of a hideous place like Bethlem Royal Hospital in the 17^th century, or what the original settlers of this country went through when they lived day to day knowing their survival tomorrow quite literally depended upon every minute they spent today - - if they couldn’t make it or grow it or trade with the Native Americans for it, they did without it.

But I also know this: life, even in its most profoundly tragic moments, gives us a break - as in the way we humans will fondly recount an amusing story about a recently-lost loved one, even at a funeral.

Fragile and resilient, heroic and terrible, determined and pitiable - Hamlet had it right when he said “What a piece of work is man!”

Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

To see more posts and articles written by Pamela Glasner, and to learn about her dark historic fantasy, “Finding Emmāus”, please visit http://lodestarre.blogspot.com/

As many of you know, I continually post articles written by my very good friend, Pamela Glasner.  Well, this is a bit different.  The following is from an email she sent me - a VERY funny story of chipmunks, chaos and Kevin Spacey:

Dear Joanne,

On Friday evening, May 15th, the following happened to me (you won’t believe this!):

As you know, I've been spending time on Twitter and I've gotten to be pretty close with a group of friends: Natalie, Al, Jake, John and Shannon. 

We were all having this very lively conversation when all of a sudden I had to run from my computer because there was a chipmunk in my living room!  My cat has his own door into the house and he brought the poor thing in! And then lost his grip on it and the terrified creature took off.

I spent the next 35 minutes chasing around the house, sometimes on my feet, sometimes on my hands and knees, trying to catch the poor panicked (and I’m certain indignant) creature and get him out.  After 35 minutes he was finally out but my house was torn apart! Just about every stick of furniture had been pushed away from the walls, ALL of the radiator covers had been removed (because he kept running behind them and hiding), lamps and vases and who-knows-what-all were on the floor (because I was moving tables), pillows and papers were all over because the cat got in on the act and, until I was able to lock him in the bathroom, he was chasing the chipmunk and not caring where his feet landed…

When I finally came back to the conversation on Twitter, Shannon asked me where I’d disappeared to and I told her.  Her reaction was funny and immediate: she said, “Where’s John when you need him? He should have filmed it. He could have gotten some great angles!”  John is, obviously, a film maker. 

And from there we were off and running!  For about the next hour we were joking about our new horror flick about a mad killer chipmunk that attacked a sleepy, unsuspecting town in Connecticut and who would direct it, who would fund it, who would produce it, where it would be shot, what the economics of each location might be, when we could start depending on all our schedules, who’d write the screenplay and the treatment, and then who’d  star in it. 

It got so detailed that others on Twitter who noticed the conversation started piping in occasionally about this new project we were all planning, wanting to know why we’d discuss something so obviously private in such an open forum, but we all just kept up the pretense and had a great time with that as well, telling people it was OK because we were holding back the real thriller part of it, the surprise elements, so it was OK!  And people were falling for it!

A slight aside: Kevin Spacey is also on Twitter and, though he has about 300,000 followers, he nearly NEVER speaks to anyone on Twitter. He will occasionally answer a question but, out of 300,000 he answers maybe 5 or 10 every few days.   So it has become almost a badge of honor to get a comment or response out of him, even to get him to clear his throat in your direction!  It’s something people talk about on Twitter occasionally.

So, during all this laughing and joking and general foolishness, someone (Natalie, I think)  said Kevin ought to be the bad buy in the film (what bad guy, Nat???) and I said the only way we could get Kevin to be the bad guy would be to FIRST get him to talk to us to begin with and the only we could do THAT would probably be to get Dana Brunetti to produce the film.  And then it happened!

Kevin Spacey wrote to me!  Hahaha!!!

He said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you but I can’t be your bad guy and this would not be the way to get me, anyway.   That’s what agents are for.” 

Well, we all went hysterical!  He actually thought it was a real project!  We cracked up!  I wrote back to him and said, “It’s a joke, silly - I had a mad chipmunk in my house for 35 minutes and we all got carried away with the story!”

I hope he didn't think I was being rude - we're limited in what we can say because we're limited to a certain number of characters per post.  Hard to explain too much in Twitter shorthand! 
 

Anyway, I thought it was great (very funny!) - I actually got turned down by Kevin Spacey! What a trip! 

Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved

In a recent article, Dr. Gloria Burgess, author, coach and spiritual leader said, "Say yes to gratitude. Research confirms that when we feel thankful, our body chemistry actually changes."

Well, I can personally attest to that.  I am an author with a new novel being published this October.

When asked how I feel about everything that is happening, all the writing, the research, the meetings and conference calls, the time away from my family and their blessed flexibility, the planning and marketing and promoting, choosing fonts and colors and jacket designs and countless other details, the one constant since the very first day I picked up my pen and put it to the paper has been a seemingly boundless feeling of gratitude. 

I may have occasionally fantasized about it, but I never believed I had a novel in me.  And I certainly never guessed there’d be a way to get it out of me! Whatever it was that lead me to create “Finding Emmaus” (and I do have some private notions!), I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

Thank you, Dr. Burgess, for so eloquently putting my feelings into words.  I honestly do pray that others get to experience what I’m feeling and what you’ve so beautifully expressed.

Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved

For more information on Ms. Glasner's dark historic fantasy, "The Lodestarre: Finding Emmaus", please visit her blog: http://lodestarre.blogspot.com/

Please follow this link (http://www.gloriaburgess.com) and get to know Dr. Gloria Burgess, a woman whom, as she so delightfully states it, dares to wear her soul on the OUTSIDE!

Pamela S. K. Glasner’s 'Live Test Show' interview about her upcoming book, “Finding Emmaus”.   The  show was recorded at the end of April. 

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/ra7bx9    

You'll need to advance the control to about 14 minutes into the show to where Ms. Glasner’s part begins...

Enjoy!

Part-way into writing “Finding Emmaus”, I came across an Alan Rickman interview on YouTube.  The topic was “Snow Cake”, a very moving film which I adore. 

The interviewer (whom I cannot remember) had asked Mr. Rickman a question about finding a balance between sorrow and humor in a movie such as this, which intertwines several stories simultaneously, all of which are profoundly sad.  Mr. Rickman’s response was, “All good writing has humor in it.”

Naturally, my brain leapt directly into its databanks, searching the already-written portions of my book for instances of humor, in fear that my readers might, after turning the final page, sink into months of depression, wishing they’d never heard of a bookstore.  But then he said something which really blew me away.  I mean really.  The long-range effect of his next two words - yes, just two words, nine letters - was a permanent shift in the way I write. 

He said, “Even Ibsen.”

Several things happened in rapid succession:

The camera never left Mr. Rickman’s face, so I never actually witnessed the interviewer’s reaction to those words.  However, based on Mr. Rickman’s subsequent reaction, I got the distinct impression those two words went completely over the interviewer’s head.  Not only didn’t he see it coming, he never saw it as it flew on by and departed.

Meanwhile, I was thinking, “Ibsen?  Humor??  Hmmmmm.  Hmmmmm?  Nah…”  I remember Ibsen from school and I don’t recall a whole lot of giggling in the classroom. 

Then I thought, “Well, maybe he was joking.”  Except he didn’t look like he was.  So then I thought, “OK, this is an educated man, probably well-read, maybe there’s another Ibsen I’m not aware of.” 

So I Googled the name and of course I came up with the one and only.  I got my hands on copies of “A Doll’s House”, “An Enemy of the People” and “Ghosts”, bound and determined to find the humor that Mr. Rickman, a man I very much respect and admire, had said would be there. 

All this happened right about the same time “Creditors” opened in London - a play Mr. Rickman was directing.  In the hopes that I’d see it, I decided I needed to read that play as well, just so I’d know what to expect once I got to the theater.  I’d read lots of reviews, most of them good, all of them claiming this play to be ‘darkly comic’. 

So there I was, pouring through Ibsen and Strindberg, becoming increasingly agitated as the pages went by.  Something was wrong.  I wasn’t laughing.  But I kept reading.  I’m sorry, it wasn’t funny to me, just pathetic.  I never even cracked a smile. 

And then my dream was realized, I made it to London and got to see “Creditors”.  And I LOVED IT!  Not only did I smile, I roared. 

And so I was forced to come to a very sad conclusion: obviously something is missing in me, some internal mechanism which would otherwise allow me to comprehend and appreciate a play with the same depth of emotion with which I understand the rolling narrative of the novel.  Must be a some defect in my DNA.  I’m missing that gene.  Just as some folks will never wiggle their ears and others will never roll up their tongues to resemble a bakery pastry, I just don’t read plays right (*sigh*).

But I also get to live with something else, something I will cherish and hold dear for the rest of my life.  Those two words, “Even Ibsen”, inspired me to think deeply about what I write, about what is vitally important in my stories.  Life, even in its most profoundly tragic moments, gives us a break - as in the way we humans will fondly recount an amusing story about a recently-lost loved one, even at a funeral. 

Mr. Rickman’s words changed the way I write, but more than that, they forever altered the way I observe when I read.

Maybe one day I’ll get the opportunity to thank him in person.
                                     ~~~submitted by Pamela Glasner, Author of "The Lodestarre: Finding Emmaus"~~~

Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved

For additional info and insights on "Finding Emmaus" - the book and the author, visit the author's blog: http://lodestarre.blogspot.com/