Mixed Words is a book with a mission. A giving mission. 

When you buy a copy, you will support the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction of Laconia, New Hampshire, a nonprofit that offers annual grants to organizations that support children in need and their families—across the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

You will also support the nine authors who have excerpts in Mixed Words.

I have always supported nonprofits with a mission to serve families in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where I have lived for over three decades. And I continue to support organizations such as The Care Center, Northampton Survival Center, and United Way.

Now that my husband, Steve, and I own a home in Laconia, I want to be an active and giving member of the community there as well. I serve on the communications committee for the auction and help with PR and blogging support, too. 

This year, I formed a team to help fundraise, following in the footsteps of my big brothers, who have long been fierce and mighty auction supporters; an annual event at my brothers’ restaurant, Patrick’s Pub & Eatery in Gilford, New Hampshire, raised $2.3 million over the past 11 years.

COVID-19 decimated their event, called Pub Mania, but it’s been transformed into a new fundraiser—called It’s for the Kids Community Challenge—and I’m proud to be a part of it. 

The Janice Beetle Books team is ready to raise!

My teammates are Steve, friends from this area and up north, and four clients. It represents my mixed world, and the book’s title, Mixed Words, represents the blend of talent within.

The excerpts in Mixed Words are taken from works written by adults, for adults. There are passages from memoirs, a work offering social inspiration, a work of fiction based on a real-life story, and poems for adults and children. 

These authors and works are represented: 

Nonfiction: Thomas Zink, Seasoned: A Memoir of Grief and Grace; Vincent Valetutti, If I Were President: 29 alternative ideas for solving global problems; Charlene Moses, working title, A Soul in Bondage is Saved; Judith A. Lundh, Last of the Matriarchs; Judith Kelliher, A Wartime PH.D: One Soldier’s Story of Vietnam and Learning to Live Again; Claire Hebert-Dow, Saving Mama; and my works, Divine Renovations and Willful Evolution: Because healing the heart takes strength.

Fiction: Peter Cichon, Flight of Integrity; and JM Charles Merida, The 151.

Poetry: Works by me, which were featured in Poem Pods, and work by Charlene Moses.

Definitely engaging, the book may entice you to buy some of the books the samples are culled from! 

Proceeds from sales will benefit children in need in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, via the Greater Lakes Regional Children’s Auction. 

Funds are raised all year long for the auction. Over the thirty-eight years the nonprofit has been in existence, over six million dollars has been raised for philanthropic good, all through volunteer efforts, community donations, and corporate sponsorships. Help our authors help the Auction—and provide a boost for people who need it most. 

It’s for the Kids!

The post New Book Has a Giving Mission appeared first on Beetle Press.

Through Janice Beetle Books, I had the privilege to stand up in public and talk about Flight of Integrity with my client, Peter Cichon, in the audience with his wife and family. It was a thrill second only to the privilege of helping Peter tell his story in the first place.

As I explained to an audience of about 40 at South Hadley Public Library—which graciously hosted the talk—Peter came to me about four years ago, referred by my friend and colleague Fran Fahey of Fran’s Fine Editing in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Peter sat down in my office and told me the story of a trauma he experienced while working for an airline at Bradley International Airport in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

At the time I met Peter, those events were at least a decade behind him, but I could see the angst and turmoil still on his face and in his body. He said he needed to tell the story because that would help him to feel some sense of closure and peace. I felt honored that he chose me to be his storyteller.

We agreed early on that we would tell the story as a work of fiction based on fact to protect Peter and his family, his colleagues, and the airline itself. My friend and colleague Judith Kelliher helped me interview Peter several times, and Judy also interviewed Peter’s wife and some of his friends and colleagues.

Peter delivered to me several large cartons filled with documentation that included transcripts of court depositions, police reports from the Connecticut State Police, personnel records from the airline, and recommendations and commendations about Peter.

Together with the material gathered in interviews, the information informed my writing. I prepared a manuscript, which Peter and I subsequently edited together, until it fully resonated with him. (Since Jacques is an air traffic controller, I had him read the book as well, and took his good feedback into account.)

Then, my friend and colleague Lisa Stowe of Florence, Massachusetts, designed the book’s jacket and inside pages, and it was printed by Off the Common Books in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Flight of Integrity is the story of a different time in our history and focuses on troubled race relations and incidents of sexual harassment at the airline for which Peter worked as a ramp agent, or baggage handler.

The ongoing drama centered around three employees who had been known to harass female employees and intimidate other colleagues. Peter took on the role of advocate and defender for those employees who were targets. It was his belief that he could make the airline a better place, where people would want to work. Instead, the situation went in a direction Peter never could have seen coming.

At the reading, I heard feedback from people who have already read the book and described it as a page-turner they could not put down. I particularly appreciated that a woman who worked with Peter, speaking directly to me, said I had done a good job in the writing because the book rang true for her. 

Peter talked about how hard it was to feel persecuted and misunderstood, and he thanked me for bringing his story to light. He said he feels relief now, as if he has had his day in court.

Read Peter’s story, and see what you think!

Contact me if you’d like to plan a cozy reading for a book group or at a public venue in your area.

The post Flight of Integrity Takes Flight appeared first on Beetle Press.