Midwest Book Review: Judith Fein's Taboo-Busting Book of the Dead

Book Reviews, Book Lover Resources, Advice for Writers and Publishers

Reviewer's Bookwatch

Volume 19, Number 9

September 2019

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http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/sep_19.htm#marlanwarren

Marlan Warren's Bookshelf

"Communicating with the dead has been a secret part of my life for many years." –Judith Fein

Judith Fein’s fourth deep travel memoir, HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD AND HOW CULTURES DO IT AROUND THE WORLD, invites us along on her decades of investigations and explorations of the final frontier: Death.

For most of her life, Judith Fein has seen and heard dead people. Not all the time, thank goodness, or it would not leave much time for this prolific journalist to write about her soul-searching globetrotting with her ever-skeptical photojournalist husband, Paul Ross. "Judie and Paul" are the "Nick and Nora" of the travel adventure-supernatural set. She can see a ghostly figure in the middle of nowhere and believe it to be a specter. He can be right next to her, eyes huge, and afterward admit “maybe” it was real. Their yin-yang bonding and love adds to the delightful humor of this Odyssey.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD signals a coming out of the woo-woo closet for Fein. The Oxford dictionary defines "woo-woo" as "unconventional beliefs regarded as having little or no scientific basis, especially those relating to spirituality, mysticism, or alternative medicine…" Throughout her illustrious career as a journalist, Fein has occasionally penned articles about seeking healers and rituals in “exotic” locales; although mostly she has flown under the radar as a gifted intuitive herself. This book puts the spotlight on Fein’s spiritual truths as she has lived them, revealing how she has embraced and been embraced by others around the world who perceive those truths without shame.

There is no navel-gazing in these stories that take us from her father’s untimely death (and her first stunned awareness that she could hear him beyond the grave) to her late mother’s skepticism that she and her daughter could communicate after her transition (and how wrong that turned out to be) to various vortexes of cultures and religions that accept death as a fact of life that does not end the soul.

Fein’s passion to communicate with her living readers shines as an honest desire to help others move through their grief and fears to an understanding that death itself is not the final word on existence.

A discussion guide ends the book with such thought-provoking gems as:

"Would you like someone to contact you after you die? Why or why not?"

No matter what the answer, I’m willing to bet it won’t be boring. Fein invites readers to discuss the most taboo topic in America, as if to say:

"Hey, it couldn’t hurt!"


#JudithFein #TravelJournalist #Death #CommunicatingWithTheDead #GlobalAdventure #AuthorJudithFein

Author Marlan Warren reads from her memoir "Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged" at the Annual Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference (8/16)

Los Angeles, CA, August 16, 2019 --(PR.com)-- Marlan Warren will read from her fictionalized memoir, “Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged [All’s Not Fair in Love or War]” as a featured speaker in a workshop entitled “Writing a Best-Selling Memoir” on the first day of the Annual Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference (AGLAW), Friday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. “It’s an honor to be included,” said Warren. “This will be my first public reading of this book.” The e-book debuted as a "novel" on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2015. "Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged" is set in Los Angeles in the mid-90s with the O.J. trial in the background and plenty of steamy sex. The story follows the hot romance of a divorcing Jewish American woman with a Japanese American man who still bears the scars suffered by his family during World War II. As both are on the rebound, the woman's girlfriends cheer from the sidelines, while issuing small craft warnings. “A paperback second edition will be coming out this Fall,” said Warren, noting that the story has its roots in diary entries, which qualifies it as a fictionalized memoir. "I altered reality here and there, including scenes that let me say what I wish I had said.” Warren is also a documentary filmmaker and playwright whose topics often involve couples of mixed races or cultures: “As a film writer/producer, I tried for years to bring racially mixed couples to the screen, and hit the wall every time in Hollywood." Her “Japanese American Internment” documentary “What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama’s Crusaders” is in post-production. Two years ago, her play, “Bits of Paradise: Kochiyama’s Crusaders” debuted at Rogue Machine Theatre in Hollywood. The panel will be moderated by writer/editor Robin Quinn, and also feature readings by authors Madeline Sharples and Herbie J. Pilato. AGLAWC runs Friday, Aug. 16 through Sunday, Aug. 18, featuring best-selling authors, editors, publishers, literary agents, publicists, and film industry experts. ### AGLAWC Info: Venue | DoubleTree by Hilton | 6161 West Centinela Avenue, Culver City, California, 90230 Registration Details: http://www.wcwriters.com/aglawc/index.html Program Details: http://www.wcwriters.com/aglawc/program.html Contact: E-Mail: info@wcwriters.com | Phone: 310.379.2650 Book / Author Info: Title: Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged [All's Not Fair in Love or War] Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TYKV5ZG Author Website: http://roadmapsforthesexuallychallenged.blogspot.com Video Author Interview: "How a Memoir Evolves into a Work of Fiction" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuTSVEGcuVQ Marlan Warren’s Film IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9545796/ Contact Information Roadmap Girl Publications Marlan Warren 323-347-6762 Contact       memoircity@gmail.com http://roadmapsforthesexuallychallenged.blogspot.com

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I'll be giving Tips & Tricks re #BookPublicity at #GLAWS Meeting 7/20 2:00 p.m.!

"APOCALYPSE BOOKS TALKS" AT PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY (7/1/19) (7:30p) #LosAngeles

Event: Book Talks and Signings Program

Apocalypse Blues: Two Authors, Two Views

Date: Monday, July 1, 2019

Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm

Place: Philosophical Research Society, Auditorium

3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Phone: (323) 663-2167

Website: http://www.uprs.edu/events.html

In the mood for a "Zombie Talk"?

Three days before Independence Day, on Monday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m., the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) of Los Angeles will host book talks by authors Thomas Allbaugh, author of the dark humor novel, Apocalypse TV, and Dahlia Schweitzer, author of Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World, in the PRS auditorium.

Playfully entitled “Apocalypse Blues: Two Authors, Two Views,” the program will feature two views—one fiction and one nonfiction—of “Apocalypse Anxiety” in the 21st Century.

Apocalypse TV was recently named to Judd Apatow’s “Best Reality TV Show Books of All Time” list. The novel focuses on a mild-mannered intellectual professor at a Christian college who has to fight for his life as a participant in the reality TV game show, Race to the Apocalypse. Forced to struggle with reality, religion, and his own authenticity, will he take up arms against the troubles unleashed upon him by unseen production forces or end up slaughtered as the show's designated "sacrificial lamb"?

Going Viral considers how fictional outbreak narratives and official sources have influenced the ways Americans relate to their neighbors, perceive foreigners, and regard social institutions. This book examines how outbreak narratives both excite and horrify us, conjuring our nightmares while letting us indulge in fantasies about fighting infected Others. Going Viral raises provocative questions about the cost of public paranoia and the power brokers who profit from it.

The evening will include a Power Point presentation by Dr. Schweitzer, and Q&A session.

The books are now on sale at the PRS Bookstore, as well as at Vromans in Pasadena, Barnes & Noble in Rancho Cucamonga, and online at Amazon.

Reviews:

“Apocalypse TV argues against the extreme notion that only members of a certain faith are favored by God, while making a case for spiritual salvation through love, faith, hope, service...and the willingness to persevere." - Midwest Book Review


"Going Viral explores how popular cultural narratives in official media sources heighten and perpetuate the fears created through the outbreak narrative." – Rebekah Buchanan, New Books Network Review

YouTube Clip:




Apocalypse TV: http://apocalypsetv.blogspot.com

Going Viral: http://www.thisisdahlia.com

Tickets: FREE or $10.00 donation. Available at EventBrite or at the door.

To Book Book Talks:

Publicist | Marlan Warren | Book Publicity By Marlan | (323) 347-6762 | E-Mail memoircity@gmail.com

Women of Color: Registration almost over! “Womb Doula” Cindy Bonaparte awarded grant from L.A. Department of Mental Health

Reiki teacher and womb doula, Cindy Bonaparte, will facilitate a free Reiki Level I certification class for lower-income “women of color” on Sunday, June 9 at Women’s True Healing (WTH), a center for holistic therapies for female reproductive wellness in Redondo Beach, Calif. The class is made possible by a Community Engagement Grant for Mental Health Awareness awarded to Bonaparte by the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health.

The class is entitled “Ubuntu-Care Reiki I: Mending the Heart-Womb Connection.”

Bonaparte (aka "The Womb Doula") credits a recent trip to Egypt with inspiring this project: “’Ubuntu’ is a South African word that means ‘I am because we are.’ This class is all about healing traumas that affect the womb, and healing that comes through mutual caring.”'

To Be or Not To Be: "Apocalypse TV" (My Midwest Book Review)

His whole life has been a sham because he can’t accept responsibility for his failure to live by his own convictions.—APOCALYPSE TV

What do reality TV game show contestants, religious fanatics, true believers, atheists, zombies, quarreling siblings, an FBI agent, Elvis impersonator, and an almost-fired English professor at a Christian college have in common?

They all come together to interlock as essential players in Thomas Allbaugh’s tightly wound, often hilarious, debut novel, APOCALYPSE TV.

Shakespeare today might muse that “All the world’s a reality TV game show, and all the men and women merely players in their quest for prizes amid layers of illusions and media hype.” It is upon this slippery platform that Allbaugh has built a metaphor for our contentious world as viewed through the lenses of good vs. evil, secular religion vs. spirituality, and love vs. indifference. 

The story kicks off when Christian intellectual, Walter Terry, takes a leave of absence from his conservative college in California to visit his dying father in Michigan. Walter has just been put on notice for allowing students to express non-conservative viewpoints, and fears his job is on thin ice. 

Walter and his sister are approached in a Midwestern diner by a talent scout for a new reality TV show that claims to be “an investigation into American religious ideas.” He describes himself to the pretty interviewer as an “outsider in terms of religion,” but sees her write down “soft and vulnerable.” This pigeon-holing is exactly what makes these shows maddening, but also makes them fun for the fans.

Seduced by the promise of money and his own rationalization that perhaps a show like this could use an educated analytical thinker, Walter embarks on what will turn out to be a character-building odyssey. After he is entrenched in “Race for the Apocalypse,” Walter hears the producer refer to him as the show’s “sacrificial lamb.” And after that…all bets are off.

I'm on Panels This Weekend for Genre-LA Creative Writing Conference (3/29-31)(Culver City)

Marlan Warren at GLAWS Special Speaker Event

WC2 Presents Genre-LA Creative Writing Conference
(Culver City) (3/29-31)

Now in its 22nd year, WC2 West Coast Writers Conferences presents the Genre-LA Creative Writing Conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Friday, March 29 through Sunday, March 31. The conference features best-selling authors, editors, publishers, literary agents, publicists, and film industry experts.

Life After Hollywood: Artemis Craig's Firewalk Back To Salvation ("Inspirational Verse" Book Review)

Title: Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst
Subtitle: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul
Author: Artemis Craig

Genre: Inspirational and Religious Poetry

(Sale Sheet Info Below)

Reviewer: Marlan Warren

I have respect for anyone’s spiritual journey. And I have a lot of respect for the poet Artemis Craig, whom I met at USC, while we were both in film school studying screenwriting. We only met once, in the changing room of the gym, but her feisty humor made a lasting impression.

“Before they’re done, this school’s gonna own the drawers on my butt!” she said. I don’t know about her, but that school does own the drawers on my butt. The one thing I do know that we share is post-film-school depression. A not uncommon affliction in L.A.

Now, a couple decades later, Craig has risen out of the ashes of Hollywood as an evangelical poet who has walked through fire, and lived to tell her story in the form of Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul.

With straightforward honesty and a gift for storytelling, Craig has arranged the poems in this anthology as an odyssey washed in the blood of heartaches, losses, and disappointments after returning home as the Prodigal Daughter. All the elements that make  “inspirational verse” inspirational are there (finding and praising the Grace of God), woven into searing moments from Craig’s life, told with her flair for dramatic prose and metaphor.

Is that a Confederate Flag Scarf or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: United Daughters of the Confederacy Tried to "Mend Fences" with Slavery History (2006 Picnic)

UDC Picnic at Pennytown: Photo by Marlan Warren

March 2006: Unpublished Feature for Newspaper in Marshall, Missouri by Marlan Warren
 

United Daugthers of the Confederacy visit first black settlement site in Missouri:

"Our mother told us if there was ever a fire, grab a box of records and run..."

   There isn’t much left of Pennytown anymore. But when Virginia Huston looks at its vacant landscape, she sees more than just meadows, a church and a house. She sees memories that must be preserved.

   Huston was the last person born in Pennytown, a black settlement located eight miles southeast of Marshall that was started by Joe Penny in 19871 when he managed to purchase eight acres for $160.

   “What is unique about Pennytown is that it was started by a freed-slave,” Huston said.

L.A. Artist Violetta Antonia Sorcini Will Show At La Galeria Gitana (4/21-6/1) Before Italy Art Trip For New Book

Echo Park DipTic by Violetta Antonia Sorcini

Violetta Antonia Sorcini

Artist: Violetta Antonia Sorcini
Gallery Website: http://galeriagitana.com/
Artist Website: http://www.sorcini.com/

If you've never experienced Violetta Antnoia Sorcini's passionate artwork, you will have this exciting opportunity starting Saturday, April 21 at La Galeria Gitana in the San Fernando Valley. The show, which features local artists, closes Friday, June 1.

Sorcini is a veteran artist whose paintings, photography and collages often show at local galleries, including ChimMaya.

Born and raised in East L.A., the half-Latino artist is now preparing for what she anticipates will be a life-changing Art Odyssey to Central Italy to meet and live with the Italian side of her family for a month.

"The whole reason I'm going to Italy is to create an art book about my experiences with my relatives and the communities that I'll be visiting,"

Violetta explained during our interview in her charming studio. Although she and her Italian relatives have often been in touch, they have never met in person.

Mixed Media Collage by Violetta Antonia Sorcini

The central theme of Sorcini's non-abstract paintings, photographs and collages is "story."

Señor El Sereno by Violetta Antonia Sorcini

"My artwork is composed of allegories that make statements about how I see the world," said Sorcini. "I invite contemplation while staying positive."

"BITS OF PARADISE: KOCHIYAMA'S CRUSADERS" VIDEO CLIPS OF STAGED READING

Yes, it was in July 2017, and no, I don't know why I didn't  post any video clips or the gorgeous photos I received in January 2018 from actor/playwright/producer Ariel Kayoko Labasan's father before now. But they should not be invisible to the public.

For more video clips and photos of the play and the documentary that grew out of it, please visit:
BITS OF PARADISE WEBSITE

SUMMARY:
Excerpt from staged reading of the One-Act Play "Bits of Paradise: Kochiyama's Crusaders" by Marlan Warren with Ariel Kayoko Labasan at Rogue Machine Theatre (July 2017) featuring Labasan as human rights activist, Yuri Kochiyama, and Warren as a filmmaker who wants to document the little-recognized war effort of girls and women behind the barbed wire of the "Japanese American Internment" who called themselves "The Crusaders" as they embarked on a letter-writing campaign to boost the morale of the Japanese American soldiers who were fighting to prove patriotism while their families were held in U.S. concentration camps.

Warren adapted verbatim the letters and circulars sent out to "any soldier missing a letter" (the en masse correspondence was all written by Yuri) from The Crusaders scrapbooks in the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

Videographer: Michael J. Labasan

These scenes from the play will be integrated into Warren's documentary film, "What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama's Crusaders" -- currently in post production.

NOTE: This show was also performed as a benefit for Founders Metropolitan Community Church at the invitation of Rev. Kevin Downer and FMCC Board. (July 2017).

[This play was originally produced in 2008 at The Marsh in a Reader's Theater version, "Bits of Paradise" by Marlan Warren.] Director: Marlan Warren Producers: Marlan Warren and Ariel Kayoko Labasan Special Thanks to Rogue Machine Theatre (Hollywood, CA) and to Founders Metropolitan Community Church (Los Angeles).

Cast: Ariel Kayoko Labasan............Yuri Kochiyama and Mary Nakahara
Douglas N. Hachiya..............Bill Kochiyama & Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Jacky Jung..............Various Crusaders
Zoe Jean Kim..........Various Crusaders
Scott Shima............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Mack Wei...............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Marlan Warren.......Filmmaker
Theater Sound: Amanda Bierbauer (Tech) and Roger Owens (Sound Design)
Website: http://bit.ly/2tSXRto
Facebook: @YuriKochiyamaPlay and @CrusadersFilm

#YuriKochiyama #RogueMachineTheatre #TheCrusaders #JapaneseAmericanInternment #AsianAmericanStudies #JapaneseAmericanWomen #WorldWarII #442

"Better go and doublecross yourself / Turn tail and run / In sickness and in health / Something wicked this way comes..."

Monty Warren & The Friggin' Whatevers tune "Doublecrosses" was aired by Steve Kelly on his Kelly's Heroes show on Fylde Coast Radio (U.K.) on March 14, 2018. It was an honor to be included in the 2 hour / 48 song lineup! "Doublecrosses" was penned by Monty Warren and John Beemiller, for album #3: "Far Out Close Up." Monty Warren leads a motley group of "Whatevers" who hail from the South Florida / Raleigh, NC area -- all veteran musicians who just plain love rock 'n' roll. If you like us, won't you please get in touch or follow us? Here's some more info: Website: http://www.montywarren.com EPK: http://montywarrenmediakit.blogspot.com Facebook: @montywarrenandthefrigginwhatevers CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/montywarrent..

. iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/tt/artist/mo... Video by Marlan Warren.

Category

Film & Animation

WOMEN'S MARCH REVISITED: Because Flicker deleted my photos on this blog

Because I didn't get out to the Women's March 2018, I'm posting the music video I made of the "first" Women's March that happened after Trump's "election." Music is by Monty Warren & The Friggin' Whatevers. Anger and Humor and Desire for Positive Change is by the wonderful people--women, men and children--who gave their all for Democracy.

Remember: "Power never concedes without a Demand. It never has and it never will."

L.A. Photo Blog

Master Au, Chinatown L.A.

Neuvo Generacion Mariachi

Archangel Raphael (LACMA)

Fumito Nagasu, Sushi Guy (Ai)

Ai Japanese Restaurant

THE POEM OF YES

The Poem of YES

Gave up

Air pressure like an anvil

Forcing me to stop

Lie on floor

Wondering if my heart would stop

Cat there

Flattened

Why go on?

If you can't stand the Heat...

Then what?

A show of hands, please.

Who fucking knows?

Just lying there

Pretending it was good for me.

Then it came to me

After how long I don't know

"THE YES IS WHAT MATTERS"

And I saw

My Week

had too many

No's.

No, you can't do that.

No, I should do that.

No, we don't want that.

No, because she hates us.

No, because we hate him.

No, because I'm afraid of you.

No, because I just

can't.

Then I remembered a text from my friend

sent from his favorite place on Earth:

"I am always happiest when I am here..."

And I felt what it feels like to feel free.

Even just for a moment.

Because you feel loved.

And you are giving love.

You are wanted. And you are glad to be wanted.

I thought, "I need to write this down."

THE YES IS WHAT MATTERS.

I got up.

Rumbling.

Outside rain.

Sun shining.

Thunder.

So so hot still.

But wet.

And the lady across the street

Watering her lawn.

But I made it back.

And I am not afraid anymore.

Marlan Warren, August 2017, Los Angeles, California