It has been a banner year for Sarnia authors, from sports to history, and children’s books to poetry,
To help match local readers with local writers The Journal has prepared a compendium of 2014 titles. Here, in no particular order, is Part Four:
The City of Sarnia War Remembrance Project
Tom Slater, et al.
When retired teacher Tom Slater discovered in 2012 no comprehensive record existed of Sarnia war casualties he set about learning their identities.
The goal, he said, was to create a full and permanent record so their sacrifices could be forever commemorated.
The result, The City of Sarnia War Remembrance Project, second edition, is ready for release next month. It draws on old records, news stories, personal accounts, letters, photographs and other material to tell the story of the “ordinary” citizens who headed off to the Boer War, both world wars, the Korean War and Afghan Peacekeeping.
Their deaths impacted not only their loved ones, but also the whole community then and for generations afterwards, Slater said.
He credits numerous volunteers for helping with the non-profit project, especially Randy Evans and editors Lou Giancarlo and Tom St. Amand.
“Their generosity ensured that it is an accurate, comprehensive and enduring tribute to all those local soldiers,” he said.
The book will be available at The Book Keeper.
Amazing Journey
Allan Charge
Last year, at the age of 95, Allan Charge sat down to write a book.
He had never written anything before, but friends and family told him his long and varied life would make for a good read.
The result is Amazing Journey, an autobiography that begins with Charge’s birth beside a wood stove in the winter of 1917 in Kenora, Ont., and ends in Sarnia where he has lived and worked on and off for more than six decades.
The book has sold exactly two copies. And Charge couldn’t be happier.
“I feel very good about it,” he said. “Everyone I know who has read it says it’s interesting.”
The book is a personal account of his life as a miner, truck driver, sailor, business owner, real estate agent and property developer between Toronto and the Bahamas, interspersed with family photo album snapshots.
Amazing Journey is available at The Book Keeper.
The Universe Has Eyes
Lin Oliver
Lin Oliver says she wrote The Universe Has Eyes after reading hundreds of books and studying the ‘Attractor Field Technique’ with Dr. Kurt Ebert, a neuropsychologist who began developing the AFT concept a decade ago.
Until recently, she was a systems administrator and director of marketing at LEHDER Environmental Services, and left her job to focus on teaching and coaching others in the technique.
“What you think really does have an impact on your entire life experience,” she says. “If you have certain goals that seem unattainable, for instance, it could be you have a sense that you are unworthy of achieving those goals.”
The book shares 21 belief change affirmations that have the potential to transform a person’s belief system if it is holding them back, the Sarnia woman said.
“The Universe Has Eyes” will be available at The Book Keeper and is available online now at www.theuniversehaseyes.com
Canada: Becoming a Sustainable Energy Powerhouse
Richard J. Marceau and Clement W. Bowman, editors
Published in the July by The Canadian Academy of Engineering, this technical volume is the work of numerous authors, including local contributors Katherine Albion, Clem Bowman, Marshall Kern, Walter Petryschuk and Donald Wood.
Working from the premise that Canada has the resources to become an energy superpower, it lays out how nine nation-building projects could dramatically increase energy exports and create new domestic jobs.
Chapter Four, ‘Responding to the Call to Action: The Case for a Sarnia-Lambton Bitumen Upgrader Refinery,’ cites six reasons why a major new refinery built in Sarnia-Lambton using diluted bitumen from Alberta as feedstock would capture enormous Canadian wealth by turning raw resources into value-added products.
The $10-billion facility, the report projects, would create 5,000 construction jobs for two years, employ 500 ongoing staff and result in 1,000 to 1,500 high-quality direct support jobs after completion.
The book is available at www.cae-acg.ca
The Seed of Passion
Monica Royal
Monica Royal (Kalinski) is back in her hometown of Sarnia after thirty-five years in other cities and countries.
She said her first novel, The Seed of Passion, gives readers insight into discovering their own passion, without having to read a 'how to' book.
The 'how to' element is written into the story of one family's journey, whose members support each other’s dreams to succeed.
“What is your passion in life, do you know?” she asks. “Are you able to discover the single trigger of bliss, within the soul, that allows time to be non-existent and feel as if living is an illusion?”
Royal retired from nursing and counselling and now has time to pursue her passion for writing.
She has written manuals for industry, articles in newspapers and magazines, and belongs to the London’s Writers Society.
The Seed of Passion will be presented during a book signing at The Book Keeper on Dec. 7, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.