Before Peter M. Moran was old enough to walk, he took a trip around the world that few people ever experience. Over the next thirty-plus years, he embarked on a journey of discovery that, although unique, many can relate to. Moran was born in Seoul, South Korea, and was adopted by an American family at the age of seven months. When he arrived at his new home in Minneapolis, he was met by an older sister, the couple’s biological child, and he later became brother to three more adopted children. Fish Heads and Folktales is Moran’s autobiographical account of growing up with dual identities as a Korean boy adopted by a Caucasian family, and the path that led him not only back to his motherland to discover his roots, but also to take a closer look at his life to discover acceptance and inner peace. A thoughtful, entertaining collection of short stories that summarize Moran’s life journey, it delves into topical issues such as race, culture, and overcoming stereotypes along with universal issues like the importance of family and falling in love. Sure to touch your heart, Fish Heads and Folktales is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt marginalized or struggled with fitting in.

From the Dust Jacket: Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving adoptive parents, she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the beauty of the British countryside.

One summer, following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine sets out—accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter, Evie—with the idea of following a river from the sea to its source. The luminously observed landscape provides both a constant and a context to their expeditions. But what begins as a diversion from grief soon evolves into a journey to the source of life itself, when a chance circumstance forces Katharine to the door of the woman who gave her up all those years ago.

Combining travelogue, memoir, exquisite nature writing, fragments of poetry and tales from Celtic mythology, The Fish Ladder has a rare emotional resonance. A portrait of motherhood, of a literary marriage and a hymn to the adoptive family, this captivating story of self-discovery is, most of all, an exploration of the extraordinary majesty of the natural world. Imbued with a keen and joyful intelligence, this original and life-affirming book is set to become a classic of its genre.

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About the Author: Katharine Norbury trained as a film editor with the BBC and has worked extensively in film and television drama. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA programme at UEA and a doctoral candidate at Goldsmiths. She lives in London with her family. The Fish Ladder is her first book.

Bettyjane Heller expresses human emotion at its greatest level in Five of Us: A Handful, a real-life autobiography of loss, love, and hope. Mrs. Heller, her two sisters, and her two brothers, unfortunately experienced the death of their young mother, followed then by heartbreaking turmoil after their father commits suicide. The children, although bonded by a strong love, are eventually separated; Betty and Shirley found their home at Bethany Orphan’s Home, their younger sister, Mae, was placed in foster care, and their brothers, Clark and Willard, were adopted to separate homes. Struggling to overcome the great distance apart, death, and the medical concerns of Shirley’s son, Clark, this fabulous five do not concern themselves with material objects. They just realize how important family really is. About the Author: Bettyjane Heller was born in Nazareth, PA, and has resided in Bethlehem, PA, for the past 26 years. Mrs. Heller has two daughters, Jonice and Kathy, and four stepchildren with her husband, Frederick. Aside from writing, Mrs. Heller’s hobbies also include traveling, collecting fine china and artwork, and watching sports games, especially the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL. She also has volunteered for the Historical Bethlehem Partnership for the past eight years. Five of Us: A Handful is Mrs. Heller’s first published book, which her children and grandchildren inspired her to write.

In April, 1975 as the Vietnam War was escalating, a brave woman, Betty Tisdale, with many government and other connections, sent a plane to rescue the children of An Loc Orphanage in Saigon. It arrived in the dead of night to whisk the children and caregivers away to the United States. This is the story of one of those children and his arrival to his “forever” family. News clips of his life and family photos are included.

From the Publisher: Flip the Script: Adult Adoptee Anthology is a dynamic artistic exploration of adoptee expression and experience. This anthology offers readers a diverse compilation of literature and artistry from a global community of adoptees. From playwrights to poets, filmmakers to photographers, essay writers to lyricists—all have joined together inside these pages to enlighten and educate. We encourage you to Flip through this book and discover what it truly means to Flip the Script!

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Contributors: Tracy Aabey-Hammond, Kevin Minh Allen, Leigha Basini, Mi Ok Song Bruining, Nicole J. Burton, Anna Cavanagh, Larry Clow, Elizabeth Cole, Laura Cotter, Joshua Crome, Amira Rose Davis, April Dinwoodie, Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman, Ph.D., Cecilia Heimee Flumé, Shannon Gibney, Rosita Gonzaléz, Sarah Elizabeth Greer, Lynn Grubb, Susan Harris O’Connor, MSW, Jodi Haywood, Meggin Nam Holtz, Susan Ito, Soojung Jo, Catherine A. Johnston, Melissa Dae Sook Kim, Mila C. Konomos, Adel Ksk, Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen, Wendy M. Laybourn, Katie Hae Leo, Stephen David Lukeson, Jamie Lynn, M.C. Maltempo, Kimberly Mckee, Ph.D., Grace Newton, Kaye Pearse, Zara Phillips, Matthew Salesses, Christine Satory, Liz Semons, Beata Skonecki, LMSW, Joe Soll, LCSW, Julie Stromberg, Anneghem Wall, Daryn Watson, Diane Wheaton, Christopher Wilson.

From the Back Cover: With his blond dreadlocks and his speed on the running track, Jamie Baulch earned the nickname “The Flying Pineapple.”

This is Jamie’s story about his life as one of the most successful athletes in Britain.

He puts his success down to his adopted parents who inspired him to be the best he could be.

Since his retirement in 2005 he has not slowed down and now, as head of a sports management company, continues to inspire a new generation of sportsmen and women.

He was recently awarded a World Championship gold medal as a member of the British relay team 13 years after the event, when the original American winners were disqualified for using drugs.

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About the Author: Jamie Baulch was born in Nottingham, adopted by Welsh parents and brought up in Newport, South Wales. From an early age he was one of the best in his school at sport. Discovered by his teacher, Mr. Atkins, Jamie became one of the most recognisable athletes in Welsh and World athletics. His first medal was gold in the men’s 4x100m relay in the 1991 European Junior Championships. He has won five World Championship medals, one Olympic Games medal, two European Championship medals, to Commonwealth Games medals and two IAAF World Cup medals. Recently, he was awarded a World Championship gold medal as part of the 4x400m relay team after the Americans were disqualified for using drugs. He retired in 1005.

Flying with Cuckoos tells the true story of a journey of discovery, as a young and naïve Michael Clark leaves a desperately unhappy adopted home, to join the armed forces, as a “boy apprentice” before transferring into one of the most ill-disciplined and disreputable units in the British armed forces. As the story unfolds, we follow his progress, from one-sided battles with school bullies in suburban England, to even more one-sided battles with the S.A.S. in some of the world’s most dangerous and exotic places. From the jungles of Southeast Asia, and the bullet-scarred shacks of Gaddafi’s “new” Libya, through the tragedy of the war in Vietnam, and the hedonistic excess of swinging-sixties Bangkok and Singapore. Funny, poignant, and at times outrageous, Flying with Cuckoos is a heart-warming story of hope and achievement, and the remarkable journal of a young man’s battle to survive and overcome. About the Author: Michael Patrick Clark was born on The Fourth of July 1950 in London, England. He spent the first few years of his life in an orphanage, before adoption brought a new home and a change of name. Unhappy at home, Michael joined the armed forces as a boy apprentice. He trained in telecommunications, and subsequently transferred to a specialist mobile-communications unit. Over the ensuing years he traveled the world; living and working in environments as exotic, hostile, and diverse as the Libyan Desert, Europe, the Australian outback, South-East Asia, and Central and South America. In the late seventies Michael moved into the high-tech industry. He worked predominantly on international consultancy, for U.S.-based communications and computer manufacturers, but after twenty-five years in the industry, made the life-changing decision to move to Spain, with his wife Pamela, and write novels.

When a young woman discovers she was adopted as an infant, she makes a bold decision to seek out and find her birth parents. Little does she realize how it will forever change her life. Follow Your Heart is an exercise in love and compassion, a must read for all who believe in the power of love, and the strength of family.

A graphic true story of the secrecy of adoption, the devastation of bereavement and my 25-year long search for the one thing that has always been missing from my life—the love of a brother.

From the Back Cover: Born the youngest of five children, Doris was relinquished to prospective adoptive parents following the death of her mother. Eighteen years later, siblings she never knew found adoptee Joan Wheeler in 1974. Shocked, Joan immediately accepted that she had two sets of real parents. Knowing her adoptive parents lied to her and didn’t want her to ever know the truth, she also learned this closed adoption was anything but private. Secrets were traded across prohibited family lines—just don’t tell Joan or her father.

Joan’s circumstances sparked her interest in the larger issues unique to adoptees. She became an activist in the International Adoption Reform Movement advocating for adoptees’ personal and civil rights in response to discrimination against, and segregation of, bastards and orphans. As Joan’s knowledge increased, her adoptive and natural families held onto stigma, myths and taboos of secrecy. No one approved of her “going public.” They labeled Joan as “obsessed” with adoption. She had to be silenced.

This is Joan Wheeler’s incredible 35-year journey.

“State Law presumed my illegitimacy, sealed my birth certificate, and issued a false one to legitimize my ‘new’ birth by adoption. I present my documents here as evidence of fraud by the State and the Catholic Church. State-by-State efforts to restore adoptees’ civil rights to our original birth certificates should continue, but are not enough. Equality-in-Access to birth records is a Federal issue. Our government must stop producing false birth certificates for adoptees—and require true birth records for the donor-conceived. Family preservation and guardianship must replace adoption. Until we can achieve that goal: 1 Birth Certificate + 1 Adoption Certificate = Adoption Truth.”

Joan Wheeler shows us both the legal and social obstacles for adoptees. She details the damaging effects of closed adoption and family rumors on first the unsuspecting adoptee, her adoptive parents, her natural family, and later, her now ex-husband and their children. Negative social stigma and personal attacks drove this author to the brink of suicide as she was terrorized by both adoptive family (because she dared to accept her natural father back into her life) and natural family (because the siblings who found her didn’t want her to go public with their intertwined lives). Neither family wanted her to publish her views on adoption reform.

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About the Author: Joan M. Wheeler’s opinion pieces have been published in The Erie Daily Times, (Erie, PA) 1975-1976, and The Buffalo News, (Buffalo, New York) since 1976. She contributed to the publication of the United States Congressional Record, Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program, 1985. Her article, “Dual Identity,” appeared in Common Ground: WNY Women’s Newsjournal, Buffalo, New York, 1985. A revised version, “The Secret is Out,” was published in Adoption and Fostering Journal of the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering, 1990, and a Dutch translation was published in the book, Kind van Andere Ouders (Child of Other Parents), The Netherlands, 1991. Joan contributed to the New South Wales Law Reform Commission for their publication Report 69: Review of the Adoption Information Act 1990, Australia, 1992. Joan presented a paper entitled “Adoptees and Children of Reproductive Technologies” to The President’s Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C., 2004. As a Social Worker, Joan worked in crisis counseling, suicide prevention, support services for the homeless, peer support for single mothers, and youth program development. In recent years, she divides her time between elder care, writing, and adoption reform advocacy.

She enjoys reading, folk-rock music and theater.

In 1978, Joan received a Bachelor of Arts from Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. In 1999, she received a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from State University of New York College at Buffalo, graduating Cum Laude. She resides in Buffalo, NY.

This is her first book.

This novel steps back to the beginning of the last century and presents a message to readers that spans over the ages. Fortress of the Heart: the Story of Anna is a non-fiction novel that embraces the incredible journey of Anna Buchanan Coleman with such insight and clarity that the reader is sure to recognize her in a strong woman they know personally. Coleman-Wells reached with both hands into the colorful tapestry that her mother, Anna, called life. As a result Ms. Wells constructed a masterpiece. This book could have gone several directions as far as theme. Anna Buchanan’s life was chock full of gender discrimination, racism, colorism, abuse, economic disadvantages, struggle for higher education being a minority ... the list goes on. Instead of focusing on negative circumstances that Anna endured, Shirley Coleman-Wells plucked the gold thread of her mother’s life to immortalize in this book as Anna’s legacy ... simply love. Out of bitter tears, loneliness, hurt, and abandonment sprang love.

Life is but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow. Discover how, “What you do today will affect someone tomorrow.” Do you know that your situation, actions, and state of mind have the power to affect everyone that you meet along your life’s journey? Forty Days of Cause and Affect is a dynamic book filled with the personal testimonial accounts of cause and affect in the life of Pastor Cory Pariseau and others, from domestic violence and abuse to receiving great love and affection from God and His anointed people. Pastor Cory began his life in the midst of a storm of domestic violence, drugs, and sexual abuse and continued as a toddler when taken from his home and placed into the foster care system and children’s homes throughout his younger years. At the age of seven, his journey through the foster care system came to an end when he was adopted into a large multi-racial family who lived in the Southern Hills of Ohio. Pastor Pariseau knows the trials and pains of going through the system from both aspects. For much of his life, he had been in the system, one way or another. By the time he was 29, he had 3 children of his own and after making bad choices and losing his marriage, his job, and everything he had worked for all his life to that point, he lost the kids to Children’s Services. He found himself in a mental institution for 6 weeks. Afterwards, God came into his life and he started on the journey of faith and getting his family back. Read what changed his heart and life and how people affected his life. Through the action of others that he met along his journey, he experienced the miraculous hand, love and leading of God, which transformed his heart and state of mind. With this renewing of his mind, he soon heard and answered the call of God upon his life. In July 2001, the kids came back to stay with Pastor Pariseau for good. If you have lost your parents, were rejected and/or suffered domestic violence, drugs, and sexual abuse, and you are desperate for freedom from hurts and pains of the past, and you want to bring change to others, this book is for you. In “40 Days of Cause and Affect,” Pastor Cory takes you on a mental and spiritual journey that will coach, encourage, and inspire you to make necessary changes, and take action steps toward touching and impacting the lives of others you meet each day in positive, inspiring, and life-changing ways. Pastor Cory reveals how, “”What you do today will affect someone tomorrow.” Besides testimonies, enjoy this life-changing book, which includes 40 devotional days to cause and affect, a guide with 40 ways to affect others. Forty Days of Cause and Affect is not just a book. It is a movement incorporating your body, mind, and spirit to empower you to cause a lasting affect in someone’s life. This challenging and inspiring book is designed to help you stop and take thought in your actions and words. Everything we do and say will cause something to happen, and affect others, either positively or negatively. You are about to go on a journey in mind and in spirit, and at the end of it, it is Pastor Cory’s hope that your being will take physical action into changing and touching other lives to which you are connected. With the person you pass on the street, the person you sit by on the bus on the way to work, the co-worker that works in the other side of the warehouse or office pool, you may interact with these people every day, and yet never connect on a human level. Even though we may not be aware of this, we affect the world around us. Forty Days of Cause and Affect is intended to empower you to change your life in ways that will not only help you, but also have an impact in your generation and generations to come. Compiler’s Note: The author claims the grammatical error in the title is deliberate.

This is the start of the story of a life filled with abuse and pain. A young girl who was wanted by no one and hurt by everyone, tries to find her way in the world. Through years of abuse and feelings of being unloved, I struggled with personal demons that nearly destroyed me completely. In this volume, the detailed abuse from various adults who I lived with as a child are presented as is the beginning of my drug abuse.

This manifesto is written by foster care alumni for foster care alumni. A declaration of principles and objectives, it is a call to action to those of us who grew up in the care of strangers. We will be silent no more! Alumni have a duty to make sure that every young person in out-of-home care enjoys a safe, stable and nurturing placement as well as a successful transition to independent living. That is our mission, the purpose of this manifesto. Government is a neglectful substitute parent, harming too many brothers and sisters and limiting too many more to lesser lives. This has to change ... now. Alumni must initiate and oversee the reformation of this well-documented failure of a child welfare system. Who else knows how to fix it? Even the most educated, caring, capable and seasoned child welfare professionals can never fully understand ¬what is in “the best interests of the child” if they have not lived in placement. Nor do they possess the moral authority to determine a child’s fate based on theory, guesswork or good intentions. This lack of personal experience restricts the understanding of even the best and brightest non-alumni child welfare professionals which, in turn, limits the dependent boys and girls they serve. Conversely, nobody cares as much as alumni do about fixing foster care. Only alumni know what placement experiences hurt or helped us ... why ... and how to eliminate the bad and emphasize the good. That is the special knowledge alumni possess; it is the reason why former foster kids must guide foster care programs, policies, practices and the allocation of resources. That is how we can use our painfully gained experiences to transform the child welfare system into a safer and healthier place in which to grow up. Although this manifesto is something of a political statement, too, it is more so a road map of how to get from mission statement to mission accomplished. The rationale, strategy and array of important roles alumni must play are detailed herein. There is a lot to do, requiring the best efforts of former foster kids committed to providing their support, wisdom and expertise in any way they can. Indeed, the shaping of this manifesto sets an example as to why this movement requires a collective effort. Nine alumni contributed to this manifesto, blending our personal experiences and professional expertise into a single vision. We are women and men, black and white, young and old. Our placement experiences include orphanages, children’s homes, group homes, foster and adoptive families, kinship care, detention centers, juvenile reformatories and mental health facilities. We are mostly college educated and work with or on behalf of children in care. Improving the foster care experience is a mission each of us had undertaken on our own but now shares as a common goal by contributing to this manifesto. There is power in numbers—and clarity of purpose as well. No one of us acting alone can fix foster care, but all of us working as one possess the knowledge and resolve required to safeguard the future for the legion of foster kids following our footsteps. The message embedded in this manifesto must become the unbroken legacy handed down from one generation of alumni to the next generation of those of us who made a personal vow to someday ... in some small way ... make foster care a more positive experience than it was for us. Now is the time to make good that promise, and this manifesto provides our perspective of how to do it.

From the Publisher: Without signing the documents that would permit adoption, young Theresa Cameron’s mother placed her little daughter under the aegis of Catholic Charities, and then the mother vanished forever.

During the 1960s and 1970s this abandoned, unadoptable child was shuttled through foster homes in the vicinity of Buffalo, NY. Insecure, desolate, and frightened, she was rotated through group homes and the houses of alien families, the victim of religious hypocrisy, racial prejudice, and insult.

Theresa remained in this bleak, shame-imposing limbo until she was eighteen. Foster Care Odyssey is her candid story.

“What little I owned,” she writes, “could have fit inside my usual moving-day luggage—a couple of shopping bags. Besides my clothing, I only had a few school supplies. Like the other girls at the group home, I attached very little sentimental value to the items I owned. ... The only thing of value that could not be taken away from me were my thoughts.”

Theresa places her narrative against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in blue-collar Buffalo, where mixed-race foster homes were almost unknown and where she witnessed a welfare system that accorded only marginal benevolence to children, particularly black children, caught in the squeeze of bureaucratic machinery.

As she passed through her turbulent teenage years, she acquired both a strong will and a tough veneer to shield herself from the many hurts in a restrictive world infused with racism and institutional segregation.

Her coming-of-age narrative voices plainspoken criticism of the pernicious system which engulfed her and other helpless abandoned children.

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About the Author: Theresa Cameron is an associate professor of planning in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University. She has been published in the Journal of Health and Social Policy, Policy Studies Journal, and Landscape and Urban Planning.

From a young child to adulthood, Chi-Chi discovers the perils of growing up with people that are of no relation to meeting people of blood relation. For the first 18 years of her life, the term “Foster Child” dictated her life. Chi-Chi wanted to trust and obey those older, but discovered not everyone she met had her best interest at heart. She was young and under the command of Mr. Lambert that would deceive her and turn visions to real life challenges that would spawn dreams of attempted murder and death. About the Author: Chi-Chi Ray-Leazer was born in Alderson, WV, and raised in Greensboro, NC. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, she served six years in the Army National Guard. While working in retail and in the military, she moved to Salisbury, NC, and maintained working a full-time job in a medical facility while completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nursing. She has a Master’s in Healthcare Administration and lives with her husband (Roy) in Salisbury.

This wildly original memoir recreates an unpredictable coming-of-age story that gives an insider look of what foster kids go through in today’s America. Though written as if it were a novel, this book is an adaption of one of the worst cases in child welfare history. Court reports, group home rules, and psychological assessments are included. Those already familiar of the child welfare system or interested in knowing more, and fans of Girl, Interrupted, Push, a Novel (Precious), and Ashley Rhodes-Courter Three Little Words, will also appreciate reading this unforgettable debut memoir.

From the Publisher: Paul grew up in Liverpool in the 1950s and spent his childhood in a succession of children’s home and foster care after the death of his mother when he was twelve. Leaving care at the age of sixteen he made a living for himself until he got his first break into show business, by accident, and a part in the musical Hair brought him to London. Best-known for portraying memorable characters on TV and the big screen, Paul Barber has now produced a memorable account of his childhood. This is a memoir written with care and honesty about growing up in care—the cruelty and confusion, the happiness and the humour, the loss and the love. This memoir is frank, funny and unforgettable.

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About the Author: Paul Barber is an actor, best known for playing Denzil in Only Fools and Horses and Horse in The Full Monty. His other film credits include roles in Porridge, The Long Good Friday, The 51st State, and, most recently, Dead Man’s Cards.

There are success stories in America’s foster care system—stories of former foster children who have beaten the odds despite overwhelming obstacles. The few who overcame the failings of the system battled tremendous odds. They now stand as a beaming light of hope, optimism, and faith for not only the hundreds of thousands of Inspiration to millions across the nation. Fostering Hope for America is a unique book in the foster care world. The authors is a former foster child and a survivor with the exceptions two advocates. These ten individuals come from a variety of backgrounds and from different places in the country. Yet, these ten authors bear one thing in common. They each grew up in the system, and suffered varying degrees of sadness, dangers, and tragedy. They have come together to share their stories with the nation in hopes of saving other children from living a life of despair. These former foster children collectively strive to provide emotional healing and support to those heroes who are currently trying to make a difference in the lives of children who have been removed from unspeakable situations and entrusted to the care of the state. The authors hope that this book will serve as an inspiration and challenge for those who work in child welfare, juvenile court intervention, residential foster care treatment centers, foster children, foster parents, agencies and nonprofits. Fostering Hope for America will take foster parents, caseworkers, and all readers through the heart and the mind of a foster child, forever opening their eyes and hearts to the many challenges, barriers, traumas and maltreatment often experienced by our children in foster care.

From the Dust Jacket: More than just one woman’s search for her biological parents, Found is a deeply moving story of loss, adjustment, and survival. Lauck’s investigation into her own troubled past leads her to research that shows the profound trauma undergone by infants when they’re separated from their birth mothers—a finding that provides a framework for her writing as well as her life.

Although Lauck’s story is centered around her search for her birth mother, it also chronicles her quest to overcome her displacement, her desire to please and fit in, and her lack of a sense of self. During her thirties and early forties, she tries to overcome these feelings of disconnection by becoming a mother herself and pursuing a spiritual path she hopes will lead to wholeness, but she discovers that the elusive peace she has been seeking can only come through investigating—and coming to terms with—her past.

Found is a powerful story of belonging, connectedness, and personal truths, It’s a memoir that speaks volumes about the many ways in which the experience of motherhood shapes, molds, and informs our lives.

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About the Author: Jennifer Lauck is an award-winning journalist and the author of the memoirs Blackbird, a New York Times bestseller, and Still Waters. Lauck has been featured in Newsweek, Harper’s Bazaar, Talk Magazine, People, Glamour, and Writer’s Digest.

Before becoming a memoir writer, speaker, and teacher, Lauck worked for eight years in television news for ABC affiliates from Montana to Oregon. Her investigative reports have appeared on CNN and the ABC Nightly News.

By the age of ten, Lauck was homeless in Los Angeles, after the deaths of her adoptive mother and father. Her writing explores the complexity of human existence as well as the depths of loss. With humor and humility, Lauck writes and speaks about perseverance, courage, and the remarkable capacity of humans to transcend the worst of losses with grace.

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By the Same Author: Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found (2000, Pocket Books); Still Waters (2001, Pocket Books); and Show Me the Way: A Memoir in Stories (2004, Atria), among others.

From the Publisher: Abandoned as a baby in a London street, the author was adopted by an unmarried woman when she was about four years old. Her parents were never traced. Foundling: An Adopted Child’s Search For Her Identity, makes the connection between what happened to the author—abandonment, her conflicts with her adoptive mother and other substitute parents—and the development of her inner life. The driving force behind the book is the need to record, analyze and explain her need for the phantom parents, and to describe her relations with her friends, mentors and, in particular, with the woman who adopted her. The flow of the writer’s daydreaming, memories and associations is expressed in the two distinct voices of prose and poetry, a technique inspired by Dante’s La Vita Nuova.

From the Back Cover: The life of 3743 is a journey, beginning with tragedy, addiction, and culminating in redemption born out of desperation.

Rob Cabitto’s story of his fractured life being redeemed is a powerful and cautionary tale of how a life can go horribly wrong. When Rob was five, he was put up for adoption because of the severe addictions of his parents. As is often the case, these early hardships helped to make the man who he is today.

Rob tells what it was like to live untethered to any spiritual, tribal, or social belief system—and the consequences associated with an amoral lifestyle. He describes exactly what it was like to be homeless, penniless, and jobless, with nowhere to go but down. However, what he believed to be his bottom was only a temporary stopping point. He had yet to fall further, and for many years, lived in the abyss of a life without meaning or direction.

This story is about overcoming immense obstacles as a child, the bad choices he made as a young adult and into adulthood, and the resilience of the human spirit. A Fractured Life of 3743 is insightful, captivating, and has a universal message for all those who have been hopeless or lost—and that message is hope.

In his startling new memoir, Mike Chalek reveals how the adoption practices of the “Baby Scoop Era” led to his fraudulent placement with an adoptive family that had purchased him for $200 from a well-known baby broker. He delves into the details of his highly charged quest to reunite with his family of origin, and we get a first-hand glimpse into the difficulties faced by many adult adoptees in the US today. Mike’s quest did not end with reunion, however. After obtaining a court order to unseal his closed adoption record, he set legal precedent by suing to have his fraudulent adoption overturned. As groundbreaking as his victory was, adoptee rights have not experienced the hoped-for boost that he thought might follow. In this book, Mike seeks to set the record straight and tell the story of the one member of the adoption triad whose voice has been broadly ignored to this point: that of the adult adoptee.

Freak: Memoir of an Outcast is the author’s improbable but true story. When only days old, an infection attacks the author’s face, destroying his nose, lower lip, eyelid, and upper palate. Abandoned at the hospital by his parents and made a ward of the state of New Jersey, he is placed under the care of a state-employed surgeon who experimentally re-builds his face. Beginning what would become decades of reconstructive surgeries and skin grafts, Howard Shulman embarks on an unforgettable journey to find his place in the world. With street smarts and humor, bullied and outcast, he defies all odds by rising from dishwasher to successful entrepreneur. An unexpected twist of fate leads him to his birth mother—a chance event that drives home the lesson of what it will cost him if he doesn’t make peace with the past. By turns heart wrenching and funny, Howard’s story is a testament to the human spirit. FREAK will resonate with readers long after the final page.

From the Publisher: Freedom from the Inside Out: A Guide for the Wounded Self is a moving true story of a young woman who, after riding a tidal wave of trauma throughout her early life, finds a spiritual safe harbor within. The author was abandoned by her parents at birth and afterward endured abuse at the hands of her adoptive family. Then, without support, she fought a solitary battle with cancer as a teenager. Nathalie grapples with the “why” of our suffering, touching upon such concepts as reincarnation, soul advancement through wisdom, and healing by unconditional love. She demonstrates how even our deepest wounds can be overcome. This unpretentious drama unfolds bit by bit, revealing the emotion of her suffering and rebirth. It will be difficult, especially for those who have known abuse or tragedy, to remain unaffected by such a heartfelt tale of universal truth. The author offers a gift of hope with a universal message of interest to others from all walks of life. Crafted in a simple, lyrical style, Freedom from the Inside Out is about the journey to transformation and wholeness. The story uses snapshots of the author’s life, ways in which balance and a proper perspective lead to new beginnings. Through examples and encouragement, readers are empowered to embrace personal challenges with courage and grace.

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About the Author: Nathalie Goldrain is a visionary counselor who combines her expertise in the healing arts with her knowledge of parapsychology. She guides people to an understanding of self-healing, helping them realign with their soul. As a survivor on many levels, she views life as an opportunity to journey where we haven’t gone before. Throughout life, Nathalie has had one experience after another with the typically unseen world. She is sensitive to what the soul is trying to express and offers insight into the meaning of our wounds. By shedding light into dark and distant places, transformation can take place. Nathalie is a certified Domestic Violence Counselor, a Clinical Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, and a passionate advocate for humanitarian causes. Born in Switzerland, she resides in California. Freedom from the Inside Out: A Guide for the Wounded Self is the first book in a trilogy, concentrating on the development of individual consciousness. Forthcoming volumes take readers on a journey into social and planetary consciousness as well as unveil the dimensions of universal consciousness. For additional information, visit her website.

From the Back Cover: At age seven, Bernadette Fahy was delivered with her three brothers to their new home at Goldenbridge. She was to stay there until she was sixteen.

Goldenbridge has come to represent some of the worst aspects of childrearing practices in Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s. Seen as the offspring of people who had strayed from social respectability and religious standards, these children were made to pay for the “sins” of their parents. Bernadette tells of the pain, fear, hunger, hard labour and isolation experienced in the orphanage.

Can a person recover from such a childhood? How does the spirit ever take flight—and gain the “freedom of angels”? This is Bernadette Fahy’s concern. Now trained and working as a counsellor, she has had to dig deeply into her past to understand the patterns laid down by her upbringing. She has had to rebuild her life, and now she helps others to do the same.

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About the Author: Now working as a counsellor in private practice in Dublin, Bernadette Fahy trained in Counselling Psychology at the University of East London, where she obtained a first class honours degree. She gained an M.Sc in Counselling Psychology from Roehampton Institute-Surrey University. She spent almost ten years of her childhood in Goldenbridge orphanage from age seven to sixteen. She writes on institutional abuse for various newspapers and also speaks at conferences on the topic.

We read about it in news papers hear about it on the six o’clock news all the time where some one threw their child away or abandon him or her at shopping centers, train and bus stations or just leave them most any where and walk away like they never existed. There are so many unwanted children in our country. This is just such a story about a small boy who was abandon on a street corner on the south side of a large city in a southwestern state. How could anyone do this to a little boy of about three years of age? To drop him on a street corner in the middle of a cold rainy February night and leave him with his mothers final words. Johnny I love you but I can not have you. I know you do not understand why we are doing this but maybe some day you will know that your father and I thought this was best for everyone. May god watch over you? I am sorry honey I will always remember you. Little Johnny stood there in the rain cold and scared as he watched through tear filled eyes the tail lights of his parents car fade into the darkness of the city street.

Jacques started looking for his birth mother in March 1992, and fifteen years later, he completed the search. From Christmas to Christmas details the many relationships, some of them good, some bad. “I think life is more adventurous when you have to rough it out a bit.”

About the Author: Jason Wood is a visionary who, with a raw and vital voice, has blended his truly unique experiences into a stunning four-part series called From Here to Half Moon Bay. As an African-American adopted as a young child by a Caucasian family, Jason has struggled with the burning questions of identity and the sense of belonging. Who he is and from where he came are questions that spurred him to write From Here to Half Moon Bay, the chilling tour de force that invites you along on his journey in search of answers to everything he is and all that he has learned. Stirred by the uncompromising need to find his birth parents, From Here to Half Moon Bay is the seed of his life-long quest to uncover the truth, his truth. Born in San Francisco, Jason grew up in the coastal community called Half Moon Bay. Located just south of San Francisco, Half Moon Bay is a friendly town; a beautiful Rockwell painting come to life, where doors stay unlocked, everyone knows everyone, and a helping hand—from either friends or families—are simply parts of the idyllic landscape. For many Half Moon Bay is the perfect place to raise a family; yet for others, perfection is subjective. Half Moon Bay may, indeed, be beautiful but like many a small town, it has its secrets. Jason knows full well the validity of secrets and the varying perceptions of “perfection.” From Here to Half Moon Bay reveals his intimate knowledge of the subjective value of perfection. Written in just 28 days, Part One is the extension of a letter drafted to his birth parents in the event they are ever found. First-hand, From Here to Half Moon Bay begins the sometimes poignant, sometimes amusing exploration and examination of the impact of adoption, racism, sexual abuse, incest, drug use, crime, maturity, love and hatred, solitude, grief and sorrow and the everlasting spirit to not only survive but to overcome. Undeniably, From Here to Half Moon Bay is a trek into a world many are forced to reside. It is also a symbol of the presence of spirit. Written from the heart by a man who, in spite of the breadth of his experiences, has never envisioned becoming a writer, From Here to Half Moon Bay is a courageous series of novels that magnify the need to unveil and heal. Working nonstop, Jason Wood placed his life and soul onto paper and in that, found an outlet—through his laughter, tears and anger—in which to begin to heal.