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The Great Cookbook Giveaway - Everyday this week!.. Dr. Harold Shinitzky of Your Mind: An Owner’s Manual for a Better Life.. Survey 2 Winners.. Interview with author Bruce Boston..
Contents:
The Great Cookbook Giveaway - Everyday this week!
PBS Cooks is brand new– it just hit shelves in October 2009. Now you have a chance to win your very own copy just in time for Thanksgiving! We’re giving away 1 cookbook a day for the rest of the week. (Nov. 17th - 21st)
To Enter: If you’ve tried one of the recipes from the cookbook already, let us know which one and how you liked it! If you don’t have a cookbook already, post one of your own favorite recipes. We will randomly pick a winner each day from ALL comments posted. So you only have to comment once to be eligible all week long.
1. The cookbook winner for day 1 (Nov. 17th) is Dana L. (daltonryan) -Congratulations Dana!
2. Day #2 (Nov. 18th) Winner is “T.” with the Pinto beans and cornbread recipe!
3. Day #3 (Nov. 19th) Winner is Debra H. with Crumb topped Blueberry Muffins!
Be one of the lucky members to get the first edition of the PBS Cookbook! Over 200 pages of recipes submitted by PaperBackSwap members bound in linen-finish laminated hardcover with a comb binding. Authors: YOU. Edited by Sherry N. (royaltech). Assistant Editor: Elizabeth B. (Cattriona). Illustrator: Jeff & Carolee P.
In addition to all the great member recipes, there is a special collection of recipes by PBS’ favorite authors, including:
Angela Hunt, Barbara Delinsky, Bertrice Small, Beverly Lewis, Carla Neggers, Charles David, Christopher Moore, Dave Barry, David Anthony, Diana Gabaldon, Elmer Kelton, Joy Nash, Judith Tarr, Julie Garwood, Karen Dinino, Ken Follett, Laura Fitzgerald, Linda Rosencrance, Linda Woods, Lisa See, Lisa Shearin, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Weis, Mindy Klasky, Philippa Gregory, and Rob Palmer!
Want a small taste of the Author Recipes?
Dave Barry’s extremely challenging recipe
David Anthony’s Crunchy Dragonscale Delight
Ken Follett ’s Hot Dressed Vegetables
Margaret Weis‘ Pink Potato Salad
…and many more!
Good Luck on the giveaway, but make sure to get your order in before we run out!
Did you know we also swap recipes on PaperBackSwap.com? Check it out… www.paperbackswap.com/recipes
Dr. Harold Shinitzky of Your Mind: An Owner’s Manual for a Better Life
Knowing Your Own Mind
If you’ve ever felt that something was preventing you from living life to the fullest, two Florida psychologists have a prescription that might be just what the doctor ordered. Doctors Chris Cortman and Harold Shinitzky have combined more than 80,000 hours of clinical experience into Your Mind: An Owner’s Manual for a Better Life — 10 Simple Truths That Will Set You Free, a new book that will help readers understand how the mind works by examining “ten simple truths that will set you free.”
 Dr. Shinitzky & Dr. Cortman A special thanks to Dr. Shinitzky for taking time out of his busy schedule and allowing us to ask him a few questions about his new book. We would also like to thank him for agreeing to send us a couple of signed copies to give away to our blog participants at the end of the week. For more information on this powerful duo, please visit their websites: drshinitzky.com (Dr. Shinitzky) and srqshrink.com (Dr. Cortman). The Winners of the books are: Amanda G. & R Wentz Congratulations! Thanks again everyone!
We asked Dr. Shinitzky:
Who should read your book & why?
This book is a must read for all humans. If you walk upright, then its for you. After decades of providing clinical services for individuals, couples and families, my co-author (Dr. Cortman) and I summarize the top ten issues (or truths) that people struggle with in life and present in therapy. Before moving to Florida, I was on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Director of Prevention Services (AIT). My goal has always been to address issues before they become problems. This makes me a Preventionist. Most people acknowledge that they have struggled with a couple of these truths during their lives. Whether it applies to their own individual life (goals, self-worth, negative self-talk, making poor choices or trauma) or if the struggles are with relationships, work or family (boundaries, sabotaging, compulsive behaviors), we decided to share our experience with the general population. The obvious audience would be adults. It would be great for these adults to then share this wisdom with their children. We have been asked to translate, “Your Mind: An Owner’s Manual for a Better Life” to a high school population. So, we are in the process of taking the same 10 Truths and organizing the material with clinical stories that are age appropriate. The reviews of the book have been fantastic. One suggested that the book is a great self-help for adults, a wonderful prevention road map for children, and will be a perfect book for providers to keep on their bookshelves and hand out to their patients as an adjunct to their therapy. I have a specialty in Sports Psychology, and players have greatly appreciated this information. They are able to apply the material into their lives and their sport and see immediate results and progress.
If you had to choose, which of the 10 Simple Truths do you value the most?
That’s a great question. The reality is that each one of the 10 Truths stands alone. From the start, the reader discovers that their feelings are not some alien experience that occurs without reason, but rather are statements about their own values, attitudes, beliefs and perspective. Later, we discuss the reality that your behaviors are not as impulsive as one might think. There is not a single voluntary behavior that you engage in which you have not given yourself permission to do. Understanding boundaries is rather key in life. One has to learn where is it that I end and you begin. I don’t have to personalize or internalize your behavior. Your behavior is a reflection of your thoughts, values, attitudes and beliefs. Understanding my needs and values, along with being able to assert these in a productive manner is healthy for each of us. In the last chapter, Time Does Not Heal Any Pain, the reality is that the only thing that time does, is pass. We all know someone who experienced some trauma or painful event in their life many years earlier and yet they have not been able to truly move forward in their life since that occurred. We take the traditional five step model of grief and expand the final step into five new constructive steps to achieve internal peace. To answer your question, the reader will discover that all of the information is helpful. Some of the truths will validate what they have accomplished, while other truths will help develop and foster the strength, insight and awareness needed to live a more successful life.
It looks like you’re already working on a young adult version of the book. When can readers look for that to be released?
That is correct. We have been asked by Venice High School to adapt, Your Mind: An Owner’s Manual for a Better Life for a young adult focus. Not only do the 10 Truths also apply to children and young adults, it would be more prudent to learn these skills at an earlier age. We have a series of focused topics and audiences which we are in the process of creating. Hence, we hope that we will have the younger version in the next year. But, as we say, the truths are applicable to all and therefore a parent could discuss and encourage the development of each of these truths so that their child is well equipped and ready to deal with life’s stress in a healthy manner. A great quote comes from Confucius; “Catch a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”. It is far more rewarding for me to help foster the development of adaptive coping skills that will invariably address issues before they ever become problems.
You’re a successful psychologist with 3 offices in South Florida, how did you find time to write a book?
As a Psychologist, I am always considering how to help facilitate the growth and progress of the individuals, couples and families that I work with in my practice. For years, my patients have been asking me if I have written my thoughtful interventions down in a book form. For years, patients have asked if they could write down some of the therapeutic suggestions that we come up with in treatment. Some have audio-taped our sessions so that they can review the information at a later time. I have been the Mental Health Correspondent for ABC and FOX, which provided me with a forum to disseminate my clinical experience to a large viewing audience. Throughout my career, I have frequently been asked to be the keynote speaker nationally and internationally on a multitude of topics. Again, as a Psychologist who focuses on Prevention, I always knew that I would organize my clinical information into a book form. During one of my presentations, one of the audience members found what I discussed to be compelling enough to introduce himself and compare our mutual clinical interests. As it turned out, that audience member turned out to be my co-author, Dr. Cortman. We both have successful and busy practices. We live in two separate regions of the state, but we both were driven to create a manuscript which could take lessons from the years of experience and proactively share them with the general population. Though, writing the book required a significant commitment, the time we spent on this work turned out to be very energizing and rewarding. We have been asked to co-present at many Grand Rounds, conferences and symposium. As co-presenters, we share the ability to be informative and entertaining. We will see, but it appears that we are being recruited and groomed for some larger television opportunities.
Survey 2 Winners
We invited a random sampling of members to take part in a survey about PBS. We want to thank everyone that participated. Your responses will help us continue to be the best book club in America.
We held a drawing from all those that completed the survey. These are the lucky 10 members that won 5 credits and $5.00 PBS Money:
Survey 2 winners:
Erica S.
Sonya S.
Jim C.
Elizabeth H.
Darin D.
Shannon T.
Marcia R.
Rachel D.
Wendy D.
Nicole Z.
Interview with author Bruce Boston
A special thanks to author Bruce Boston for taking the time to let us interview him and get to know him a little better. Bruce was nice enough to send us signed copies of the following books: covers in post below
- Pitchblende (dark poetry, Bram Stoker Award winner, Dark Regions, 2003)
- The Nightmare Collection (dark poetry, Bram Stoker Award Winner, Dark Regions, 2008)
- Flashing the Dark (speculative flash fictions, Sam’s Dot, 2006)
- The Guardener’s Tale (sf novel, advance reading copy, Stoker Award finalist and Prometheus Award Nominee, Sam’s Dot, 2007)
And the 4 Random Winners from the comments are! Janet M. (BookwormMoucha), Jennifer C. (mrscasler), Carla G. (readragon), Shondra W. (shoni). Thanks again everyone!
 Author Bruce Boston Bruce Boston was born in 1943 and attended U.C. Berkeley, in the sixties, where he was active in political protest and psychedelic exploration. Bruce Boston has written over 40 books, more than 100 short stories and hundreds of poems on speculative fiction. He describes his work best saying it “stretches from broad humor to literary surrealism, with many stops along the way for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and noir.” Boston has received many awards including the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times and the Asimov’s Readers’ Award for poetry a record six times. He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, the Bram Stoker Award for his poetry collections Pitchblende, Shades Fantastic, and The Nightmare Collection, and the first ever Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, “Return to the Mutant Rain Forest,” received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem. For more information please visit his website, BruceBoston.com
Your work has been classified as ”Speculative Fiction & Poetry”. What does “Speculative” mean in this context?
Mainstream fiction and poetry deal with the rendering and exploration of the here and now, reality as we know it, internal and external. Speculative writing has more to do with imagination, the world of dreams and the world as it could be. The genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, all of which I’ve written, fall under the speculative umbrella. However, the best speculative writing resembles mainstream in that it not only explores imaginary worlds, but in so doing, reflects and comments upon the real world.
 You’ve held a lot of different jobs in the past, including computer programmer, gardener and movie projectionist! Did any of those inform your writing?
All life experience inform one’s writing: love affairs, friendships, failures and successes, books read, movies seen, lands visited, and of course, the jobs one holds. Though the influence isn’t always a clear and direct one, and often becomes transformed in the process of writing. For example, I’ve never written about a character who is a gardener, but my science fiction novel The Guardener’s Tale takes place in a future dystopian society that views its citizens as if they were plants in a garden and attempts to nurture and control them to create the perfect garden, the ideal society. Images of flowers, plants, and weeds occur throughout the book, embodying the themes of the novel. If I hadn’t worked as a gardener, the book might never have been written, and if it had, would have probably taken a very different direction.
You’ve been writing and publishing for over 45 years. Do you see any major changes in your work over time?
I think my writing has become more accomplished over the years in terms of mastery of language. It has also changed stylistically and to some extent in content as my interests as a reader have changed. When I was younger, I read mostly what is considered literary fiction and poetry, and my writing reflected that. In the early 1990s I began exploring mysteries and noir, and as a result, I think my writing voice, at least in fiction, has become more populist and less literary, available to more potential readers.
Do you have a favorite work (book, short story, poem), one of which you are particularly proud?
I have several. My poetry collection Pitchblende, assembled by fellow poet and writer Michael Arnzen, is probably my best poetry collection. It garnered me my first Bram Stoker Award and contains what I consider two of my three best long poems: “Pavane for a Cyber-Princess” and “She Was There for Him the Last Time.”
With regard to fiction, I would single out three books. My first novel, Stained Glass Rain, a coming-of-age novel set in the drug culture of the 1960s, is an attempted literary tour de force, combining narrative, diary entries, along with poems and stories written by the characters. Its language is the most dense and poetic of any of my fiction. The aforementioned sf novel, The Guardener’s Tale is probably my most entertaining and compelling work, rich in adventures and surprising plot twists. And finally, my story collection Masque of Dreams brings together the best of my shorter fiction, including six novelettes and seventeen short stories.
You are married to Marge Simon, also a writer and artist. How is it living with a fellow writer?
It’s worked out pretty well for us because we have similar aesthetics and tastes. It has also led to collaborations on poems and short stories that we’ve subsequently sold, but would have never been written if we weren’t living together. Another advantage of living with a fellow writing whose opinion you respect is that when you are working on a story or poem or have just finished one, there is always someone there to give you feedback and respond to questions about it, all the way from the construction of individual lines and sentences to how well it works as a whole.
You’ve been an active member of PBS for a while. How did you hear about us? If you could change one thing about our site what would it be?
Periodically I do an online search on my name to see if anything of interest pops up: raves or pans of my work, websites or foreign publications that have posted or translated and published something of mine without permission, etc. During one of these searches I came upon comments and a rating on some book of mine, don’t remember which, that had been made on PBS. I began exploring the site, and soon joined.
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