Arts Mart
 Sedona: City of Refugees
By Geraldine Birch
Set amid the scenic red rock beauty of Sedona, Arizona, Sedona: City of Refugees is the story of a widowed middle-aged newspaper reporter searching for God and herself amid the rubble of her life. Kathleen Sullivan Buckley writes profiles for a small community newspaper about the various characters that inhabit the community— those who are homeless or enlightened, or simply a worn movie star grasping for her lost beauty. Running parallel to her articles is Kathleen’s own story: She is a fallen-away Roman Catholic attempting to deal with her loss of faith. She feels spiritually buffeted by her married lover’s born-again Christian beliefs and the persistent philosophies of the New Age that constantly swirl about Sedona.
The novel is a biting look at a modern-day American tourist community caught in the throes of change. Considered by many to be more stunning than some of America’s national parks, Sedona draws more than four million tourists a year. But beneath the surface splendor of the scenery, Sedona is torn by deep conflicts with each political and spiritual faction hustling their individual philosophy. Sedona: City of Refugees brings into focus the reasons why the area draws spiritual seekers such as those who recently died in a sweat lodge, followed by the indictment of a well-known New Age guru.
To download the book, CLICK HERE.
 Amalie in Orbit
By Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer
Meet Amalie Price, overeducated, coddled, and sharp-tongued--a sudden widow at 40 facing eviction, a newly alienated teenage son, and the need to find work that pays more than her secret French porno translations. In record time she takes on the New York City bureaucracy, lands a job, and fights off — or succumbs to -- a variety of men in hot pursuit. Set in the 1980s, Amalie in Orbit is an insightful tale about one woman’s miraculous transformation.
... Heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. Kirchheimer’s book celebrates the grit and determination of everyday folks who struggle to shape their world into something meaningful.
―Internet Review of Books
... an array of entertaining characters. Amalie in Orbit is a fine pick for fiction fans looking for a laugh.
― Midwest Book Review
... a rollicking antidote to our hard times ... Kirchheimer continually caught me by surprise with hilarious observations set against dark truths of grief, economic plight, social action, and parenting.
― Marnie Mueller, author of My Mother’s Island and The Climate of the Country
Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer is the author of the story collection, Goodbye, Evil Eye, and co-author of the nonfiction We Were So Beloved: Autobiography of a German Jewish Community. Her work has been published in magazines, widely anthologized, broadcast on National Public Radio, and showcased by Symphony Space on “Selected Shorts.” Her story, “The Ash Tree” appeared in the Fall 2007 of Persimmon Tree.
To order, CLICK HERE.
 At the Copa
Short Stories
By Marisa Labozzetta
A Winner in the John Gardner Fiction Book Award 2009!
Labozzetta infuses her stories with a wry wit and a nuanced feel for the shifting emotional currents underlying seemingly placid lives of middle-age…characters in these engaging stories…. A funny finely wrought collection.
—Kirkus
...What it does do is gnaw at your soul, makes you stand back and do a personal assessment...Believe me, Marisa is on the mark.
—Front and Center
And praise for the Marisa Labozzetta’s novel Stay with Me, Lella
I haven’t seen another writer capture with more accuracy the way sex cemented certain…marriages of the old school. A small classic.
–Anthony Giardina, author of White Guys
…Blood, sex and betrayal…a passionate and compelling tale of family politics.
–Tandem
…I came out of it feeling like the DiGiacomos could be my own crazy, complicated, and wonderful family.
–The Women’s Times
In paperback wherever books are sold
To order, CLICK HERE
 The Love Ceiling
By Jean Davies Okimoto
Women, aging and creativity...a book club favorite!
In The Love Ceiling you'll meet sixty-four year old Anne Kuroda Duppstaad, who after the death of her Japanese American mother, confronts the toxic legacy of her father, a famous artist and cruel narcissist, to become an artist in her own right.
The Love Ceilingis wonderful, touching, funny. Jean Davies Okimoto writes with literary perfect pitch.
–– Christiane Northrup, M.D., host PBS television’s Mother-Daughter Wisdom
A lovely book, full of wisdom and compassion. With keen insight, the author examines the problems of achieving fulfillment as both a woman and an artist.
– Barbara G. Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
A book so compelling that once you begin you cannot put it down.
– Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz, Camp Days: 1942-1945,; artist
Any woman who has ever wrestled with a difficult father will find inspiration and solace in these lucid pages.
– Leza Lowitz, former Tokyo correspondent for Art in America; editor, Other Side River/A Long Rainy Season: Contemporary Japanese Women’s Poetry
The Love Ceiling won a 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Award in fiction. Jean Davies Okimoto has won numerous other awards including the Smithsonian Notable Book Award, the
American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the Washington Governor’s
Award, the Green Earth Book Award, and the International Reading Association Readers
Choice Award. Okimoto’s books and short stories have been translated into Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Turkish, German, and Hebrew.
To order, CLICK HERE
 My Dreaming Waking Life
An Anthology of Poetry
By Elaine Starkman, S. Solomon, Joe Chaiklin, Dave Holt, Florence Miller, and Marc Hofstadter
In the San Francisco Bay Area, readers are talking about the new anthology, My Dreaming Waking Life. It features a writing group of six poets from different backgrounds who began meeting about four years ago to share and discuss their work. Their mutual aim: to hone one another’s craft until its greatest possible beauty and meaning could shine forth.
Elaine Starkman, teacher in the Contra Costa County Schools for many years, founded the group with S. Solomon, former bookseller and famous Clayton Pioneer book reviewer; Joe Chaiklin, former University of Connecticut Lit magazine editor; and Dave Holt whose own book was inspired by his Canadian/Chippewa ancestry. Not much later they were joined by Florence Miller, former high school creative writing teacher in Oakland, and Marc Hofstadter, already established poet with four published books of his own. Last year The Six Poets published their compilation gleaned from a collective effort to give voice to life experiences in a post 9-11 era.
[There are] enough poems from each writer to allow the reader a strong sense of each poet’s range, while maintaining the pleasurable variety that comes from turning the page and discovering another new poet.
--Jannie Dresser, Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review
Even in the Bay Area where there are so many gifted and dedicated poets, it is rare to find a selection as diverse as this!
--Mary Rudge, Poet Laureate of Alameda
… Sixty-six fine-tuned, time-honed poems filled with perceptive imagery and wisdom.
—James LeCuyer, Poetry Flash
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