"Finding Emmaus": an incredible read from the very first page!

Reader Views - Carol Hoyer, PhD
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Finding Emmaus (The Lodestarre, Book One)
Pamela S. K. Glasner
Emerald Book Company (2009)
ISBN 9781934572337
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (9/09)

"Finding Emmaus" is such an incredible read from the very first page! If you have ever thought about unique individuals you have come across in your life, then the story involving Katherine and Frank will certainly give you food for thought.

For centuries many individuals have been labeled as being mentally ill and have been treated with experimental drugs, inappropriate treatment and torture. Today, even with all the modern science, we still treat individuals with special talents with lack of concern or interest. The pharmaceutical companies own us- they make millions of dollars off of us and really don’t care if their medications are causing harm.

Francis Nettleton and Katherine Spencer are two such special people who lived over three-hundred years apart, but both were considered to be crazy or lunatics. Neither knew what special talents they had; their mood swings and dark days consumed them and the medical field misdiagnosed them. Each went on a lifelong search to find out why they received the ability to feel others emotions and if there were others like them. Francis had the help and guidance of many in the “special community,” but it took him until he was on his deathbed to finally come to terms with what he had learned and how to help others like him.

Katherine knew there was something different about her, but she couldn’t figure out what it was until a close friend suggested she might not really be mentally ill, but an Empaths. Empaths are individuals who through no choice of their own can tune into others thoughts and feelings in the present and past. Being an Empath is not learned, it is inherited. These individuals like Francis and Katherine are caring, compassionate people. They have the ability to tell if someone is lying or not. Much like Indigo children, these individuals have a purpose on earth.

The author has given readers a wild journey to take with Francis and Katherine. She provides historical data, romance, mystery and an insight into how we as a society now, and in the past, truly view those individuals who have been labeled with mental illness. As readers go on this journey they will learn many things and will come to be saddened and angered at how “unique” individuals are treated. The vivid descriptions of characters, time and place and events will keep readers up all night reading. This reading will certainly make you re-look at your previous thoughts about life and society in general. After reading this one will look at friends, family and acquaintances in a different life and maybe even question if they are an Empath. Very powerful reading and I can’t wait to read the second book.

Pamela Glasner has a unique talent and insight and through her writing shares her knowledge with readers in “Finding Emmaus.”

And, of course, please don’t forget to visit my website to read the previews of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.




Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

World of Prospective Meets Empaths

World-of-Prospective-radio.com will be interviewing me LIVE this coming Tuesday, September 29th @ 6:00PM Pacific Time / 9:00PM Eastern Standard Time / 2:00AM British Summer Time.

We will be talking about Finding Emmaus, Empaths, determining whether the intense emotions you’re experiencing are yours or someone else's - in other words, whether or not your are having an Empathic event.

We will also be discussing ghosts and spirits, mental illness, abuse of human rights, and BigPharma’s collusion with the FDA. You can just listen or you can chat live. If you’d like to chat, you will need to sign up in advance. Follow this link to hear all the pertinent information: http://shrvl.com/8O1Yo

I hope you can join me!

And, of course, please don’t forget to visit my website to read the previews of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.



Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

It’s Party Time!

The official release of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series, will be celebrated at a Book Launch Party on October 8th at the Wallingford Public Library from 6:30PM to 8:00PM in the Community Room.

As written on the home page of the Wallingford Library’s website:

Author Event: Pamela Glasner
Thursday, October 8th at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room.

Connecticut author Pamela Glasner's first novel, Finding Emmaus: the Lodestarre Book One has just been published. This is your chance to hear about her writing experiences and how Finding Emmaus came to print. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the conclusion of the program.

Please register in person, online, or by phone at (203)265-6754.

I would very much like for all my friends to be there if at all possible to help me celebrate one of the most exciting events of my life.

I would especially like to thank the staff at the Wallingford Library in advance for their interest, generosity and hard work - this promises to be a great night!

And, of course, please don’t forget to visit my website to read the previews of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.

Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Now That’s Weird! Glastonbury Radio - Reprise

It was my great pleasure to be interviewed by world-renowned radio presenter, Ross Hemsworth, this past Friday night, on his show, Now That’s Weird. The topic was my book Finding Emmaus, the unsettling historical fantasy. Our conversation ranged from Empaths to mental illness to the collusion between the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the out-of-control pharmaceutical industry.

I even got to answer some questions from our listeners, which I loved! The show aired at Friday night, September 18th at 6:00PM EST (that was 6:PM New York City time) and 11:00PM BST (London time). To those who were able to listen to us live, thank you very much. For those who could not, sorry you missed it - it was loads of fun!

The interview in its entirety is here:
http://www.nowthatsweird.co.uk/index1.php (at least, for the time being, until I can figure out a better way to get it onto my blog - I am SO technologically pathetic!!)

(NOTE: If you wish to bypass the intro and the music and get right into the heart of the interview, then fast forward the file to 7:54 minutes into the hour)

And, of course, please don’t forget to visit my website to read the previews of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.

Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Press Release - Sept 17th, 2009

For immediate release
Contact: Publicist, Deborah Riley-Magnus
(310) 637-1424

DARK HISTORICAL FANTASY
AUTHOR PAMELA GLASNER
SPEAKS TO THE MEDIA

September 17, 2009, Hartford, CT – Connecticut author, Pamela Glasner, speaks in several media venues to promote her first novel, Finding Emmaus, book one of the Lodestarre series. Finding Emmaus, to be released October 1, is a dark fantasy which exposes the contemporary pharmaceutical industry conspiracy, a subject about which she is passionate.

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, 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’s author events and media exposure currently include:

EVENTS
10/1 - Release of Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series
10/8 - Book Launch party, Wallingford Library, CT
10/13 - Wethersfield-Rocky Hill Rotary Club, Rocky Hill, CT
10/15 - Burgundy Books, East Haddam, CT
11/15 – Essex Books, East Haddam, CT


MEDIA INTERVIEWS
9/13 - Workers Radio Sydney, 88.9FM, Australia
9/18 - "Now That's Weird" Radio Show Interview with Ross Hemsworth, Glastonbury Radio, Glastonbury, England
9/29 - "World of Perspective" Radio Show Interview with Elizabeth Alraune
10/2 – “So Many Books” Television Show with Toni Andrews, CPTV, airing in seven states


ONLINE PROMOTION
Healing Our World http://shrvl.com/5ymb3
Xanga Blog – Monday Book Promo http://shrvl.com/5wO0x
Reflection’s Edge - Online Magazine http://shrvl.com/99414
Whispers of the Muse http://shrvl.com/vB0kP
Twitter http://twitter.com/PamelaGlasner
Facebook http://shrvl.com/58b3n
Finding Emmaus Website http://www.lodestarre.com/index.html
The Lodestarre: Finding Emmaus Blog http://lodestarre.blogspot.com/

ONLINE BOOK SALES VENUES
Amazon.com http://shrvl.com/m351C
Amazon.co.UK http://bit.ly/Iaz4a
Powell’s http://shrvl.com/PHI3V
Borders.com http://shrvl.com/kC6Na
Barnes & Noble http://shrvl.com/hp5y1
Burgundy Books, East Haddam, CT http://www.burgundybooks.net/

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 ordered now at the above-noted online book sales venues.

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

###

Please don’t forget to see the previews of my book, Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.

Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Now That’s Weird, Glastonbury Radio

I am so delighted that I’m going to be Ross Hemsworth’s guest on his radio show Now That’s Weird this coming Friday evening. We will be talking about my book Finding Emmaus, the dark unsettling historical fantasy about empaths, mental illness and the collusion between the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the out-of-control pharmaceutical industry.

The show airs at 6:00PM EST (that’s New York City time) and 11:00PM BST (that’s London time). If you want to listen to us live, then please go the show’s website which is located at http://shrvl.com/9430U

Please don’t forget to see the previews of my book, Finding Emmaus, book one of The Lodestarre Series.

Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Finding Emmaus has arrived!

If anyone had ever told me I’d consider a UPS truck to be the most the beautiful vehicle in the world, I’d have thought they were nuts. But there I was, standing in my doorway, with a smile on my face that began at the right side of my mouth and wrapped around my head three times before it ended at the left, gazing upon this dark brown truck as if it was about to deliver the Pearly Gates themselves.

Finding Emmaus has finally arrived.

It doesn’t matter that this whole thing began on a frigid wintry morning at a secluded monastery in upstate New York more than a year ago, not any more than it matters that I knew, all during the five months it took me research and write Finding Emmaus, that this moment would come. I’d been promised an October launch by my publisher and I’d been given a tracking number a week in advance and I’d had ample warning my books were on their way and when the truck was opened and the cases were lifted out, none of that mattered one bit. Nothing - and I mean NOTHING - had prepared me for what it would feel like when I held my book in my hands for the first time.

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. Finding Emmaus is a meticulously researched, deeply disturbing, suspenseful tale about love and sacrifice, the abuse of power, a multi-billion dollar conspiracy and two ordinary people willing to risk everything to save millions of people who’ve been ostracized from society and victimized because they are mistakenly labeled mentally ill.

You can read a preview of my book, the first three chapters, here.

Finding Emmaus is now available in the UK through Amazon, as well as in the US in these fine independent bookstores: Burgundy Books, Essex Books, Powell’s Books.


Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Healing Our World

I am so deeply touched I hardly know what to say - and that’s probably the wrong thing for a writer to say, isn’t it? After all, am I not supposed to be The Woman With The Words? But this one actually - and quite literally - rendered me speechless. Fortunately, not for very long.

On Monday, Sept 7th, my fellow tweeter - yes, ladies and gentlemen, a friendship born of the virtual world of Twitter! - took it upon herself to honor me with a post on her wonderful blog, Healing Our World.

But this is not just any blog post - this one has heart. And soul. And it moved me deeply. Because she believed that the message of Finding Emmaus was worthy of inclusion in a website dedicated solely to healing humanity. Beautifully formatted in her exceptionally professional-looking blog and with lovely words of her own, Dee Braun, humanitarian, visionary, healer, tweeter, mom, and writer in her own right, told the world about Finding Emmaus.

I've said it before: I'd never really seen myself as an agent for social change, but through Finding Emmaus, wonder of wonders, ready or not, I have become one. And what’s even more stunning to me is that, since the April 3rd, when I posted my very first tweet, I have been graced with introductions to a plethora of amazing women who, like Dee (and, I suppose, like me), passionately want to make this world a better place.

So, while this post of mine is partially meant as a heartfelt thank-you to this remarkable woman, it is also meant as a means to get you to check out her site, her mission, and maybe even spur you to action.


Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

My Deepest Gratitude to The British Library

To the incomparable staff at the British Library:

I am an American author who wrote an unsettling, meticulously-researched story exposing the conspiracy between the pharmaceutical industry and the US Food and Drug Administration … the latter’s abysmal failure to protect the public at large from the former’s greed and callous disregard for the sanctity of human life.

This blasé attitude is nothing new. The omnipotent have a long, inglorious history of blithely victimizing and marginalizing the one segment of society which most desperately needs help and is the least able to fight for it.

Finding Emmaus travels 350 years back in time to illustrate how we as a society historically and routinely trample the rights of the mentally ill. I never expected to uncover a conspiracy. Rather, I fully intended to illustrate how the mentally ill are disregarded and mistreated, but out of fear and ignorance, not out of malice. Imagine my surprise!

My greatest challenge was locating historic records dating back to the early 1600’s. In the grand scheme of things, US history is relatively young. Early settlers 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 local tribes for it, they did without it.

That meant they had little time for such discretionary pastimes as writing their memoirs - and of course there no newspapers. So written accounts of the settlers’ lives, their beliefs and values and pre-conceived notions are rare … HERE. But in London, within the extraordinary archives of the British Library, I was able to find scores of books, letters, essays and diaries without which, though my book could certainly have been written, would not be nearly as rich.

Finding Emmaus is a deeply disturbing story about human frailties, the abuse of power and the indisputable human right of free will. The British Library played a significant part in the development of this book and for that I am deeply grateful.


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

A Study in Contradictions and Normal as Apple Pie

At 55 years of age, I’m still searching around, trying to figure out just who and what I am and what I’m doing here. All this stuff’s been bouncing around in my head and I’m trying to sort it out, so I thought, “Maybe if you get it down on paper, Pamela, you can make some sense of it.” Maybe …

First and foremost, I love writing. It fills my heart. I’d rather write than do anything else. It’s the greatest gift God has ever given me, only I had no clue ‘til I was 54.

I go to church every week. Makes perfect sense to me: After all the incredible gifts I’ve been given, wouldn’t it just be the height of arrogance and ingratitude to not be willing to give up even one hour out of my life each week to say thanks?

"Finding Emmaus" is a fantasy, but it addresses some very real social issues, nationally and globally. Of course, like any author, I have fantasies of my book flying off the shelves and then having red carpets and rose petals beneath my feet. But what I REALLY want is to be able to look back on my life and know that the fact that I've lived and breathed amounted to something more than simply being here, taking up space and natural resources. If my writing opens the eyes of even a few people long enough to start some serious debate about these critical social issues, then I've succeeded.

Can just one person make a difference? That’s what I’m banking on …

Beyond that, I have the patience of a saint with a canvass and a paintbrush, or paper and pen, but do not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. I am a deadly negotiator, a no-bullshit business woman who just happens to cry at Harry Potter movies and even G.E. commercials. Anyone who rapes a woman or molests a child should be shot on sight … after being gelded. And yet I believe that people CAN change, that as long as there is breath in someone’s lungs, salvation IS possible. Still haven’t figured out how to reconcile those two…

I love Frank Sinatra and ZZ Top, Vivaldi and Patsy Cline, wintry afternoons in my ‘jammies’ and evenings at the theater, Harry Potter and Humphrey Bogart. Blue flowers make me stop in my tracks and oil paintings of seascapes mesmerize me. “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” is an annual must-see and I never, ever pass up an opportunity to watch “Goodfellas”. I adore cooking for a crowd and serving my guests fine red wine … and when I’m alone in the house, watching an old movie with my cat Maxi curled up around my toes, I just love eating macaroni and cheese.

What I think I've concluded is that, though I know I am a unique being unto myself, the very fact at I am a study in contradictions makes me as normal as apple pie! Whew - thank goodness!


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

Conspiracies and Social Networking

On Friday, August 21st, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Shennandoah Diaz, newly-appointed editor of Reflection’s Edge, an online magazine “for thoughtful readers and writers”, which houses fiction and posts articles to “help writers improve their writing.”

Here is that interview: http://shrvl.com/99414