Dec 28

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ivoryr.jpgDo Pantyhose Lie? is an intimate collection of poetry about life, love, emotions, creativity, sensuality and spirituality. With an unorthodox yet contemporary style, Vincent Ivory engages the timeless questions of purpose and passion while admiring the tangible and intangible beauty of mature women in pieces like Women & Wine.

Every reader will find themselves in at least one of the creations as they discover a collection of poetry that definitively makes you go … hmmm.

Do Pantyhose Lie? is also a book that examines the truth versus how things look or appear and our ability to answer difficult questions about various areas of our lives. Hence, the cover, a woman with what appears to be a good looking pair of legs in fishnet stockings next to the question, “Are your legs that good looking or … Do Pantyhose Lie?”

Listen to the author discuss his book.

In those stockings, her legs appear to look great, but only she knows the truth about the scar from shaving in the shower or other imperfections.

I have performed some of my own marketing test and have taken the book with me into restaurants and simply laid it on the table while waiting to be seated. The cover and title always grab attention and starts a conversation. Without fail, a woman will read the title aloud “Do Pantyhose Lie?” She then leans over to me and answers, “Yes! They do.”

On the other hand, any smart man will never answer the question in front of a woman. The cover and the title are definitely a contrast.

Pantyhose are simply a small component of the makeup that is used everyday. Some of the makeup we apply to our lives goes beyond cosmetic. Everyday, the foundation of a fake smile is applied just before leaving home and its not just women who are using these products. There are people who are fit physically and appear to have it all together yet their emotional health is bordering death. The lies they live only add to their disdain. Contrary to popular belief, some of the best actors do not reside in Hollywood. They are the people that you meet and work with every day. In the poem entitled, “Skipping Emotions” the charade is uncovered concerning the inability to deal truthfully with one’s self.

About the Author
Unique, innovative and thought provoking are just some of the words used to describe Vincent Ivory and his literary work.  A poet, author and screenwriter, Vincent provides a telescopic view into aspects of his own life and others in his new book entitled, Do Pantyhose Lie?

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Vincent has always been a lover of books, writing and reading.  At the tender age of six, his enthusiasm for reading was rewarded when he was removed from one of his regular first grade classes and placed in a unique program called Junior Great Books.  In this venue, reading and vocabulary skills were honed as well as exposure to other great literature.

“As a child I loved Curious George and the normal kid stuff but Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi and classics like Beowulf and Grendel always captured my imagination.”  Vincent also grew up as an avid comic book reader.  “We didn’t have a lot of money so brand new comic books were out of my reach at the time.  But in Detroit they had a three pack of comics in plastic and the covers were cut off so they were not worth as much and sold for cheap.  I had stacks of those.  I started working at age eleven sweeping and mopping floors at a hair salon with my Dad and a significant portion of that money went to comics.  This trend continued well into my teens and twenties.”

Today, Vincent is happily married, has three children and resides in a suburb of Columbus, OH.  He works on his books, screenplays and marketing every single day (sometimes to his wife’s dismay).  Vincent has always loved and written poetry throughout his childhood and adult life.  “Writing is very therapeutic for me and I believe it can be that way for everyone.

Never say I can’t write.  That is simply not true.  You can write.  You may not write up to other people’s expectations or standards but you can write and you should.  Journal your life, your feelings and experiences.  Writing is a great way to express joy and relieve anger or unhealthy emotions and thoughts because you can then look at how you are feeling and thinking. You literally release those thoughts and emotions onto paper instead of keeping them in.”

Dec 19

By Janet Grace Riehl
Sightlines: A Poet\'s Diary
A beautiful collection filled with 90 poems, 190 pages, 25 photos and tribute to a loved family.

Sightlines offers a frank portrait of a family not only coming to terms with its grief, but also celebrating its past and difficult present. Although deeply personal, these poems strike poignant and universal chords. They offer a vision of life filled with little treasures that carry us back to what is truly important in our lives.

As the author of this book, I want to share some of the creative process behind writing Sightlines. The book evolved over a year, following a secluded retreat, in response to my sister’s death in a car accident.
Continue reading »

Oct 18

Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even In My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSDE. Everett McFall offers his own tragedies and illness and gradual recovery from the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the result of giving medical aid to the living and the dead during his tour of duty in Vietnam, 1966/1967.

Responding to a therapist’s advice to commit the unspeakable experiences to a written journal was the impetus to launch his slow and terrifying road to recovery, a journey that in his own words persists to this day. The results of that initial journal are here in this collection of thoughts, reflections and poems he has appropriately titled I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even In My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSD.

It is a book that would be well for all of us to read and experience as, despite the horrendous accounts of war’s disabling effects on the human mind, it is also one of the books that will be considered a retrospective first in the exploration of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - a ‘new’ disease state dramatically brought to light by the experiences of Vietnam Vets.

McFall may not be trained as a poet, but he is more than sophisticated as a communicator. Continue reading »

Dec 02

By Janet Grace Riehl
Sightlines: A Poet\'s Diary
A beautiful collection filled with 90 poems, 190 pages, 25 photos and tribute to a loved family.

Sightlines offers a frank portrait of a family not only coming to terms with its grief, but also celebrating its past and difficult present. Although deeply personal, these poems strike poignant and universal chords. They offer a vision of life filled with little treasures that carry us back to what is truly important in our lives.

As the author of this book, I want to share some of the creative process behind writing Sightlines. The book evolved over a year, following a secluded retreat, in response to my sister’s death in a car accident.
Continue reading »

Dec 01

How did “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” –an inspirational down-home family love story beyond death–come to be written? Author Janet Grace Riehl shares the tragic events that triggered “Sightlines” and how “Sightlines” continues to heal and bless.

 

Nov 27

Janet Riehl reads “Praising Mother” from “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary,” an inspirational down-home family love story beyond death. “Praising Mother” traces the mother-daughter relationship as her mother moves from matriarch to stroke survivor.

 

Nov 23

Janet Grace Riehl, author of “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” –an inspirational down-home family love story beyond death told in poems–shares insights and quotes from her talk, “Mememto Mori: Life and Death, Moment by Moment.”

 

Nov 02

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your blog, Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends. We would appreciate a link back to BloggingAuthors.com. If you would you like to review this book for your site, blog, or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Sightlines
by Janet Riehl

From the author: “On August 16, 2004, my sister Julia Ann Thompson, 61, was killed in a car wreck. Julia’s work as a world-class physicist coupled with her far-reaching efforts for equality and justice made a profound difference in the world.

SightlinesJulia’s husband, Dave Kraus, and my mother, Ruth Thompson, were severely injured in the accident. Julia and Dave’s grandson, Cody, was pulled out of the car by a Good Samaritan. Dave, through skill, care, and willpower, slowly traveled from hospital bed to crutches to cane to walking unaided to driving a car. Mother, after escaping death by a hairsbreadth in the hospital, spent several months in a nursing home mending her broken shoulder and ankle. Cody appears to be back to a relatively normal boyhood.

In the year following my sister’s death, I spent the bulk of my time in Southwestern Illinois at Evergreen Heights, the home pioneered in the 1860s by my Great Grandfather Riehl, and our homeplace still. I wanted to come closer to the family core, and be part of building a fire we could warm our hands around.

For my 56th birthday in December 2004 I went into a small retreat at King’s House, run by the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate in Belleville, Illinois. During this time, I came to a strong sense that the world is charged with meaning, and that is a poem. Not could be, but is. The only trick is to tease out the meaning. Continue reading »

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