Category: Previous Campaigns
That Voice by Marcia Menter
“‘I learned them all. At some point I bypassed my father and started buying the records myself. Ann Drummond-Grant was on six of them, in four contralto roles and two soubrette roles. In ninth grade, the last year of junior high, she was far and away the most important person in my life. I never mentioned her name to a soul. I told my parents I wanted singing lessons but didn’t say why.’”
It was winter in Syracuse, New York, and thirteen-year-old Marcia Menter was plagued with all the requisite teenage insecurities from negative body image to just feeling weird and out of place. When her father brought her a recording of the Mikado, she was unimpressed at first, but once she heard the music of Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S), her life took on a new meaning. Not only did she soon learn all the G&S operas by heart, but she also became obsessed with Ann Drummond-Grant, principal contralto of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, the preeminent British G&S troupe. The story of Menter’s quixotic dream of becoming a singer is combined with an investigative biography of her idol in her new memoir, THAT VOICE: In Search of Ann Drummond-Grant, the Singer Who Shaped My Life (Publication Date: July 2024; 978-1-64742-662-0; $17.95).
Ann Drummond-Grant rose from a working-class background to become a D’Oyly Carte principal in the 1930s—but lost her job for falling in love with the company’s musical director, Isidore Godfrey, who was married to someone else. Godfrey soon became her husband, but it was more than a decade before “Drummie” (as she was always called) was able to reclaim her place as a major player with the company. Drummie had a glorious voice, but as Menter learned over years of research, it was furious discipline that made her a beloved performer. She was a quiet, unpretentious woman whose dedication to her art was absolute, and whose early death came as a shock to fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
Menter dreamed of becoming a professional singer and joining the D’Oyly Carte, even though she knew the company didn’t hire Americans. But all through high school, and in college as a vocal performance major, Menter tried unsuccessfully to find a voice teacher who could help her develop her voice. Her stories of ineffective teaching methods and her own struggles with the physical mechanics of singing are told with wit, humor, and a gimlet eye.
THAT VOICE is at once a coming-of-age story and an account of what it takes to be a professional performer. It is also a tribute to a great singer, and a poignant reflection about the sometimes-unbridgeable gap between dream and reality. Menter’s journey is universal for people who come to understand and accept who they are. The journey itself is the point—especially when it’s as entertainingly told as this one.
THAT VOICE
In Search of Ann Drummond-Grant,
The Singer Who Shaped My Life
By Marcia Menter
She Writes Press
Publication Date: July 2024
ISBN: 978-1-64742-662-0
Original Trade Paperback
Price: $17.95 | Pages: 262
The Book of Izzy by Ben Gonshor
“‘What if we own our deepest flaws, our greatest sins, the things that God himself created in us, like you shtupping men and me just being crazy, and we embrace them openly, honestly, and purely to the point that they become the highest form of godliness? You know what happens then, Sam?’
I asked him, and I could tell by his eyes starting to widen and his head nodding that he was with me. ‘That’s right, they become Shir Hashirim, the Song of Songs!’”
Izzy is a writer who’s found himself in a series of downward spirals; between his recently failed love life, his faltering career as both a wedding planner and a novelist, and an ever-looming mental breakdown, he’s at his wit’s end. The Book of Izzy (AOS Publishing, May 2024, ISBN: 978-1-990496-46-2) is the debut literary novel from author and playwright Ben Gonshor, which picks up with Izzy right as he’s decided to take himself off his meds, against the expert opinion of the psychiatrists who diagnosed him. There are freedoms that come with it, but drawbacks as well— including a lot of fretting from his overbearing but well-meaning family. Their concerns redouble after Izzy snaps at an important client and starts being visited by a mysterious bird that no one else seems to be able to see.
Following his encounter with the ominous bird and encouraged by his family and friends, he soon finds himself agreeing to take on the leading role in an amateur production of the greatest play in all of the Yiddish theatre: The Dybbuk, a gothic tale of destiny, possession, and the triumph of love over all. The play may be just what he needs to find creative solace, stay connected with his Jewish heritage, and even reignite his dating life. But when the play’s director dies suddenly and the theatre is threatened with immediate closure, Izzy is thrust into a much greater role, one he’ll soon learn he was predestined to play.
The Book of Izzy is a story about a man trying to find his own place between two worlds as he reckons with letting go of his painful past to focus on creating a fulfilling present. In the process, Izzy embarks on a fanciful, romantic voyage that not only forces him to come to terms with his Jewish identity, but to also confront the mystifying bird that holds the key to preserving the past and ensuring the survival of his heritage. Fans of Fleishman Is in Trouble or the literary stylings of Phillip Roth will love The Book of Izzy. Filled to the brim with wit, candid discussions about navigating life with a mental illness, and an engaging cast of characters, The Book of Izzy is a captivating modern take on Jewish cultural touchstones and heritage.
“An engrossing novel about a man resurrected by the power of community, love, and Yiddish theatre. In the tradition of Roth and Richler, Ben Gonshor’s vibrant debut is full of heart and humour.”
—Ariela Freedman, Award winning novelist of Arabic for Beginners, A Joy to Be Hidden & Léa
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ben Gonshor is an award-winning writer, actor, musician and entrepreneur. A lifelong member of The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre, in Montreal, he has played starring roles in its historic productions of “The Dybbuk,” and in the original musical adaptation of Ted Allan’s Golden Globe award-winning film, “Lies My Father Told Me” and others. His play, “When Blood Ran Red,” won the David and Clare Rosen Memorial International Play Contest at the National Yiddish Theatre in New York. In his spare time, he owns and operates FLUIDS iQ, Canada’s Wellness Laboratory.
The Book of Izzy
By Ben Gonshor
AOS Publishing
Publication Date: May 2024
ISBN: 978-1-990496-46-2
Original Trade Paperback
Price: $18.99 | Pages: 330
A Family, Maybe by Lane Igoudin
“An inspiring portrait of steadfast love under pressure.”
–Janet Fitch, White Oleander, an Oprah’s Book Club selection
Public adoption is a long and uncertain process with some of society’s most vulnerable people at the heart of it. Every adult and child involved in the system has a unique story to tell. In his candid and poignant memoir, A Family, Maybe (Ooligan Press, February 13, 2024, ISBN: 9781947845459), Lane Igoudin details his and his husband Jonathan’s fraught path through the Los Angeles County’s foster-to-adopt process. A Family, Maybe offers an unprecedented look into the adoption process as it affects the lives of everyone involved, from the children taken into the system, to the suffering birth parents, to the couples hoping desperately to start a family of their own.
In the fall of 2005, after years of preparation, planning, and waiting for a chance to raise a family, Jon and Lane were given the opportunity to foster an infant named Marianna. Lane and Jon fell in love with the child and decided they would give her the best life they could. Marianna’s mother, a teenager in foster care herself, had voluntarily placed her in foster care before going AWOL. With her birth mother absent and father unknown, Marianna seemed to be on the fast-track to becoming adoptable.
The couple could not have predicted the return of the child’s mother, still in foster care, and the news that she was expecting a second child. With the second child also came the sudden appearance of the baby’s birth father, a man 10 years older than the mother, which would complicate the kids’ cases and begin to pull Lane and Jon’s family apart.
A Family, Maybe documents the ensuing spiral, rife with legal challenges, emotional blows, and no less important, political strife. In the early 2000s, with gay marriage and adoption still illegal in most U.S. states, Lane and Jon’s family would join the first wave of out LGBTQ+ families fighting for respect and equality.
A Family, Maybe is a story of hope and heartbreak; of relatable first-time parenting highs and lows, but also with the pressure of knowing the family you’ve built could be ripped from you at any moment.
“Helps to guide and comfort future parents through the challenging foster and adoption processes . . . a story of hope and perseverance.”
—U.S. Congressman Alan Lowenthal
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lane Igoudin, Ph.D., is a writer, blogger, and professor of English and linguistics at Los Angeles City College. He has written extensively on foster adoption, parenting, LGBTQ families, and spiritual growth for publications such as Adoption.com, FamilyEquality.org, The Forward, and Lambda Literary Review. He recently served as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow with the Humanities Division of UCLA.
The Daedalus Protocol by Jeff Sheckter
“Throughout the ages, humanity has fought a losing battle. Death is inescapable. All cultures have prepared their loved ones for the afterlife in one way or another. However, there are many stories of mystical healing waters with the power to give life itself…
Would this genesis-like elixir be a portent for eternal life, or the greatest weapon the world has ever known?”
As a lethal pathogen decimates livestock and destroys crops, a catastrophic famine looms large over the world. In a race against time, a shadowy figure named Daedalus gathers a group of extraordinary soldiers and brilliant scientists. Under the leadership of Gryphon Oake, a distinguished SEAL commander, they embark on a perilous journey that takes them from ancient tombs to the inner sanctum of the Catholic Church.
Their quest: To unearth a long-forgotten treasure, the key to averting impending doom. Delve into The Daedalus Protocol (Wolf Willow Publishers, 978-1-738936106, August 2023), a heart-pounding thriller where the team unravels ancient enigmas, uncovers the true essence of immortality, and races for humanity’s salvation.
Special Forces and Top Ranked Scientists
The Daedalus Protocol is Jeff Sheckter’s debut novel that follows an elite team as they work against the clock to save humanity from a plague that has been unleashed upon the world. The pathogen they’re up against is like nothing else mankind has ever seen, able to survive under even the most inhospitable of conditions and seemingly impervious to harm. This elite force must discover who the crazed zealot behind the pathogen is and secure the antidote – An elixir of life and healing, long thought to be the stuff of legends.
The search for the Fountain of Youth takes commander Oake and his colleagues on an odyssey across the globe chasing biblical riddles while trying to stay one step ahead of the group that wants to kill them. They must decipher cryptic clues from ancient texts and follow a secret trail to locate a long-lost treasure from our past that may be the only thing that can guarantee humanity’s future. With the threat of starvation imminent, will commander Oake and his team be able to find this long-lost antidote before it’s too late, or will humanity succumb to the coming apocalypse?
Action Packed Adventure
“An action-packed adventure, it takes you on an archeological journey full of centuries-old puzzles that keep you guessing. The twists and turns are dizzying, and you’ll be on the edge of your seat… The characters are diverse, well-developed, and likable.”
— Anne-Marie Reynolds, Reader’s Favorite 5-star review
Jeff Sheckter’s first novel, The Daedalus Protocol, is a thriller that brings readers along for a heart-pounding adventure. Filled with archeological mysteries and intriguing conspiracy theories, Jeff Sheckter’s excellently crafted suspense will leave readers unable to put the book down. The Daedalus Protocol is an exciting novel that will appeal to anyone looking for a new, gripping adventure told with great pacing and an entertaining cast of characters.