by Alan Alda

Actor and author of Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself

A friend who had seen me in a play came backstage and asked if I still get nervous before I go onstage. She imagined I feel a little fright, being in front of a live audience with no chance for a second take. She was surprised when I told her that I don?t feel nervous; just very alert. In fact, if I?m rehearsed and focused, the performance can be like stepping into a safe place where everything goes right. Even tiny mistakes are lucky grace notes that never happened before and will never happen again.

But there is a certain fear for me in acting, and it happens much earlier than opening night: it?s when I?m in a chair, reading the script for the first time and wondering how I could possibly play such a part. When I?m faced with a kind of character I?ve never tried before, the fear can rise to the level of terror. But, it?s a terror I look forward to, and I don?t like to take on a part unless it scares me a little.

I?ve found a tremendous value in this kind of fear, because if I don?t wonder how I?m going to accomplish something, I?m in danger of doing it the way I?ve done it before, or even worse, the way I?ve seen someone else do it. Being scared can be a sign that I?m not headed toward an easy stereotype.

But, here?s where it gets weird. I don?t just scare myself with playacting. I scare myself in the rest of my life, too. Somehow, it seems to make me feel more alive. Once my name became known to a number of people, I was asked speak before groups of people where I had no business showing up. They probably asked me because my name was a drawing card, and they didn?t expect much; it was supposed to be smooth sailing. But when that moment comes that I realize people will be spending their evening listening to what I have to say, the boat turns over and I feel the heaviness of an ocean that has just gone from being under me to resting on top of me.
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William Cope Moyers, son of famed journalist Bill Moyers, paints an intimate portrait of his decade-long addiction to alcohol, cocaine and crack cocaine, describing in harrowing detail his experiences in crack houses in Harlem, St. Paul, and Atlanta. His consequent decision to make sobriety the center of his life caused him to walk away from a journalism career at CNN and follow an inner-voice that ultimately led to a vocation to help people just like himself – alcoholics and other addicted people.

AUTHOR:

Moyers is the vice president for external affairs at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. A former newspaper journalist and writer for CNN, he lives with his wife and three children in St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, please visit http://www.williammoyers.com/.

In a dusty, turn-of-the-century Catalan village, the bequest of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the unlikely path of becoming a musician. Anarchist Barcelona and the court of the embattled monarchy in Madrid teach him his first serious lessons in creativity, principle, and passion—and their consequences. When he meets up with the charming and eccentric piano prodigy Justo Al-Cerraz, their lifelong friendship and rivalry orchestrate a tumultuous course for them both. Over the span of half a century of creative struggle and international turmoil that sees them paying house calls on Picasso one year and being courted by dictators the next, they make glorious music together, and clash over virtually everything else: love, politics, and the purpose of art. When the tensions propelling a war-torn world toward catastrophe bring Aviva, an Italian violinist with a haunted past, into their lives, Feliu and Justo embark upon their final and most dangerous collaboration.

Author

Andromeda Romano-Lax has been a journalist, a travel writer, and an amateur cellist, as well as the author of numerous nonfiction books. The Spanish Bow is her first novel. For further information on the author, go to her Web site at www.RomanoLax.com

Daphne Oz’s The Dorm Room Diet garnered major media attention when it was published in September 2006 for her whole new approach to looking good, feeling great, and staying fit in college—and for life

Based on the successful principles of her original book, THE DORM ROOM DIET PLANNER (Newmarket Press, 160 pages, $12.95 paperback, Pub date: August 20, 2007) is filled with motivational tips and checklists for readers to put Daphne’s advice in practice and keep track of their progress.

This new illustrated companion guidebook helps college students and others living on their own for the first time create and follow their own lifestyle plan. Daphne provides step-by-step instructions to guide her peers through the temptations of college life. The Dorm Room Diet Planner is divided into five sections:

o Get Inspired: How can I begin?
o Get Informed: What do I need to know?
o Get Moving: Exercises and exercise logs
o Get the Numbers: How many vitamins? What’s my BMR?
o Get Going: Tips and journal pages for your first 30 days

Without the restrictions of doomed-to-fail diets, The Dorm Room Diet and The Dorm Room Diet Planner give students the tools to lose weight, think and feel better, and stay healthy. Available at Amazon and other major retailers.

Chapter One

“What do you know about art, Volk?”

Maxim Abdullaev hurls the question through the airwaves as if it were an ax, cleaving pretense.

I cram my Nokia cell phone against my ear. Clattering dishes, jostling diners, and raised voices give me an excuse to delay answering his question. “Hold on,” I say, then step downstairs to my table in the basement of Vadim’s Café near Staraya Street, where I make my office.

Maxim could be anywhere. His headquarters are in the Solsnetskaya neighborhood just a few blocks away, but he changes his personal place of business weekly, sometimes daily, so it is impossible to develop a mental picture of where he is or what he is doing.

Once I’ve moved away from the din, I take a moment to gather my thoughts. “Art? I have a master’s in art history from Moscow University.”

I’m sure that Maxim knows enough about my life to catch the sarcasm. Dead mother, disappeared father, late-era Soviet poverty, and five years of killing and worse in Chechnya unsurprisingly failed to harmonize into a world-class education. The things I have learned are not taught in universities. He barks a deep-throated chuckle that offers no comfort. A polar bear probably makes the same sound just before it eats.

“Listen,” he says. “You do something for me. Talk to Gromov. Yes?”

“Yes,” I say, as if I have a choice, and Maxim disconnects.

Two hours later, nearing midnight, Gromov clumps like a plow horse into my basement office. The flesh on his bald head and puffy face droops like a shar-pei’s skin and slits his eyes, which are shifty-nervous, with good cause. Valya lurks hidden among the shelves of café sundries behind him.

“You talked to Maxim?” he says.

I grunt acknowledgment.

He collapses into a padded roller chair that disappears, creaking, beneath his bulk. Even its silvery round feet are covered by the hanging folds of his overcoat, where one hand stays buried in a deep pocket. He likes to show off a chromed Colt .45 Peacemaker, an outdated cannon that rends great holes in bodies, a good weapon for a man whose business is intimidation.

“I got a business opportunity,” he begins. “Maxim says you’re the guy to help me assess it.”

“I don’t do partners.”

He knows this. My rule is one source of the friction between us. “Yeah, yeah.” Scarred leather biker boots twirl the chair as he takes in the surroundings.

There’s not much to see here in the basement level. Black slate floor, rows of shelves, exposed raw-wood beams, plaster walls randomly damaged to show the red brick beneath, and dusty ’60s-era slot machines. Gromov is looking for Valya, I know, but she won’t be seen unless she wants to be. He finishes his survey and grins through crooked yellow teeth ridged black with omnipresent chewing tobacco.
(more…)

Imagine God is a vegetable in a wheelchair, Jesus is the fascist CEO of a corporate Church, and a Cold War is ongoing between Heaven and Hell while America is led by a complete and utter moron whose every decision takes the world closer and closer to the brink of World War III. This is the setting for one of the most controversial novels of modern times.

For the past two millennia, there has been a Cold War between Heaven and Hell. In that time, Earth has served as the neutral zone between the two powers with humanity the pawns in a conflict whose origins remain shrouded in legend. Tonight, that all changes, as one mortal disturbs that fragile balance.

Matthew Ford is a common man, struggling through college while attempting to discover his destiny. Antisocial, passive aggressive, and immature beyond belief, this flawed person sets into motion that final prophecy that leads to the End of Days.

He travels to Heaven, is tempted by Hell, gets into a feud with Jesus, meets the moronic leader of the free world, creates a self-help movement that tears the world apart, and leads the final zombie charge on Mount Megiddo in that last conflict of all time, Armageddon.

Written by Matthew Moses, Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days takes a new look at religion and Man’s place in it. Gone are the old archetypes of biblical lore, replaced by a cast of irreverent, flawed characters. Controversial doesn’t even begin to describe the subjects this novel tackles. Self-help movements, world affairs, politics, ethnic rivalries, war, religion, and even obesity are all fair game in this epic tale of comedic world annihilation. It’s not a question of whether the world is coming to an end but how!

Bio

Matthew Moses has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Indiana University with a minor in History. He is a former cinematographer and Army Officer. He has lived on three continents as well as both coasts of the United States. He is currently hiding out in a small town in Indiana. With life experiences which have carried him through countless “adventures” across the globe, Matthew has dug a deep well from which to draw tales far stranger than fiction.

Official Site

www.anti-christ.biz

Novel Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH9PlIj4QT8