New Release: Under the Sign of the Waterbearer: A Life of Thomas Merton

In an ongoing agreement with Green Hills Press, Grave Distractions Publications has released  a second edition of Western Kentucky University history professor James T. Baker's play Under the Sign of the Waterbearer: A Life of Thomas Merton. This play was originally published in the late 1970s and this edition has new material and an afterword from the author. Under the Sign of Waterbearer is perfect for high school, college, or community theater productions.

About Under the Sign of the Waterbearer: A Life of Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton, known in religion as Father Louis, was born in France, in his words "under the sign of the waterbearer," in 1915. He studied at Cambridge in England and at Columbia in New York. As a student he lived what his friends have described as a bawdy life but turned from it to become a devout Roman Catholic. As America entered World War II he entered the abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, and for 27 years he was a Trappist monk, in the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. During his early days there he wrote an autobiography which became the third bestselling nonfiction book of the year 1949 and went on to write more than 50 more until in 1968 he at last went back into the world to meet with monastic leaders in Asia.

He had entered Gethsemani on December 10, 1941, when he was nearing his twenty-seventh birthday; and on December 10, 1968, as he was nearing his fifty-fourth birthday, he was accidentally electrocuted while attending a religious conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Many in the West consider him a saint and many in the East consider him a manifestation of the Buddha. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has been compared to the Confessions of Saint Augustine No one who reads it or any other of his books is ever the same again.

The author of this play, James Thomas Baker, knew Thomas Merton and wrote the original version of the play soon after Merton's death. This completely revised and rewritten version, done as an expression of love and admiration in 2015, is to commemorate his hundred birthday.

Under the Sign of the Waterbearer: A Life of Thomas Merton is now available in print and eBook editions at Amazon and will shortly be carried by other major online retailers.


Follow Grave Distractions Publications on Twitter @GraveDistract, Facebook, Pintrest, or LinkedIn. 
 

 

 

Good for the Soul (A Father Columbia Murder Mystery) by James T. Baker, Ph.D.

Father Columba rides again in this follow-up to Dr. James T Baker's murder mystery Prior Knowledge! This time he is on leave from his abbey in Pennsylvania to do a retreat on the Holy Isle of Iona, just off the west coast of Scotland. It is the tiny dot in the ocean where his namesake, Saint Columba, took refuge and built an abbey over a millennium and a half ago. While there, the new Columba is called upon to solve a murder mystery and unknowingly follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, who had to solve a similar mystery in the distant but not so misty past. At the turn of this millennium, in 2001, author James Baker discovered a journal in the archives of Columba’s abbey in Pennsylvania which detailed Columba’s dithering attempt to solve a murder in a priory in Mississippi. That account is now the book Prior Knowledge. Five years later he discovered a second journal, which comprises half of Good for the Soul, in the Vatican Library in Rome. He learned the story of the first Columba from an Irish priest studying at Rome’s Angelicum Institute. Seeing the striking similarities in the two stories, he combined them for this book. The priest hinted several times that he knew about another of Columba’s journals concerning a murder in Rome, but Baker has not been able to track it down. Still another journal, the story of a murder in Korea which Columba helped solve and which he mentioned in the “Good for the Soul” journal, is missing. It is possible that Columba destroyed it because it was dangerous. Only last year Baker’s collaborator Cheryl Greer Reels found another of Columba’s journals in Nashville’s Convent of St. Mary Magdalene. This journal will eventually be published in book form. Look for it. For more information about Good for the Soul, visit the Grave Distractions Publication website.

Cyber Monday Deals

It's Cyber Monday and have we got some deals for you.  These offers are good Monday 28 Nov 2011 only.  Get 'em while you can.

Print Editions 25% Off

These print editions are 25% off the regular list price at our printing partner CreateSpace's site.  Use code H8N6WJCJ at checkout to get your savings:

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Graves of the Golden Bear

Prior Knowledge

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead 

Walking with the Widow's Son 

 

99 Cent Kindle Editions

No coupon needed!  These Kindle titles will be 99 Cents all day Monday!

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Holidays with Sundae: Conversations with My Cat

Northwoods Conspiracy

Peter Peacock Passes

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead

Spirits of the Border: School Spirits

When Darkness Falls

Thanks again for supporting independent publishing this Cyber Monday!

Author Signing Schedule for 2010 Southern Festival of Books

Here's a schedule of  author signings for this year's Southern Festival of books.  Come by our booth and talk to these authors about their latest works.
Grave Distractions at the Southern Festival of Books

Grave Distractions Publications Titles Available in the UK for Amazon's Kindle

As of this week, all of the titles Grave Distractions Publications represents are available in the United Kingdom via Amazon's Kindle.  "This represents a significant opprotunity for our authors and their works", said Grave Distractions CEO Brian Kannard.  We hope those in the United Kingdom enjoy our titles as much as their American counterparts!

Here's a list of the titles Grave Distractions Publications represents and the appropriate link for Kindle users in the UK:

Dogs to Men

Faith for a Dark Saturday

Going Home to Heaven

Holidays with Sundae: Conversations with My Cat

Hospice Mementoes: A Salutation to Dawn

Love Notes: Unwrapping the Gift of Intimacy

Peter Peacock Passes

Prior Knowledge

Quest

Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead

Truth: A Novel

Dr. James T Baker Releses Peter Peacock Passes

Grave Distractions Publications is happy to announce that Dr. James T. Baker's latest novel Peter Peacock Passes has been released in various eBook formats.   

Peter Peacock Passes is the tale of a Texas youth in the 1960's who has to come to terms with his desire to become a minister and find a meaningful relationship. Follow Peter's misadventures as he learns to minister to his flock and the women he meets along the way. When one adds the needs of those Peter ministers to, the path to the straight and narrow becomes complicated. The secrets of those Peter ministers to are on par with his own. Will Peter Peacock navigate the shoals of mortality and pass his final exam?

Grave Distractions Publications has provided cover art, layout, eBook conversion, and marketing support for Peter Peacock Passes. 

Preview Quest

We are born.  If we are lucky, or some would say,
“Blessed,” we live until we reach seventy or maybe eighty years of age.  And, we die.  In between these events, most of us need more than we get from others.  Interest. Understanding.  Kindness.  Loyalty.  And much more.  Most of the time, we accept the limits of their interest, understanding, kindness, loyalty, and much more, knowing that all of these things are trapped in the minds, hearts, and life spans of those from whom we need so much.  They get tired and can’t play with us.  They get hungry and irritated with us.  They go to work and abandon us.

Or, sometimes, they just disappear from our lives.  They leave us, causing us to wonder whether they will ever be with us again or whether they are alive.  They cause us to ache for their presence, to give us at least a mere nod to our existence or maybe a word that tells us that we truly matter to someone.  What’s worse, they stir doubt within us about whether we are worth the care we want.  And, maybe, they cause us to look for them, knowing that we may never find them, let alone get the precious gifts of love for which we desperately long.  They force us to make decisions about their worth to us, to tell ourselves with finality that their lives have ended, even when we know that they live
and breathe without us, as if they lived in an
alternate universe.

Naturally, the meaning of life’s QUEST is different for each one of us.  QUEST—will confirm for each of us who reads it the
significance of the quest in all of our lives:  The
quest for meaningful relationships.  QUEST reminds us of an inconvenient truth, the obligation to reckon with life as it is, when meaningful relationships evade our grasp. 

Preview Dogs to Men

Author James T. Baker recounts the escapades of a small-town football team that endures the hazards of growing up.  He follows “the Demopolis Dogs" through pratfalls on the field, on the stage, and in their relationships, and on their twisting trail to becoming men.  On its face, it is a coming of age simple story, but Baker makes you feel both the anguish and ecstasy of adolescence.  An experience that turns out to be a  muddy, painful team experience.

The group of boys , who refer to themselves as “Us Dogs” appears as a somewhat disjointed team.  They always seem to come together in an “all for one, and one for all” spirit.  As each member of the team uniquely arrives at manhood, the similarity to your own youthful struggle awaken long ago memories.  By the end of the novel, you'll be reminded that we all have come to the same end point.  As adults, we have the wisdom to realize that some complete their journey in better condition than others.
 

Preview Holidays With Sundae: Conversations with My Cat

Holidays with Sundae invites you to experience the delight of conversations with a cat. Pet owners understand that their furry companions become a part of our family. Sundae the cat comes to be as real as any person we know. As a thinker and critic of the human condition, Sundae's feline perspective might surprise you. Sundae becomes a mirror in which we can examine ourselves.

Dr. Baker brings us into the conversation with Sundae using holidays as the springboard for their dialogue. Each holiday, though familiar to all of us, is introduced in a completely different perspective. Sundae leaves us to wonder why we did not already think of each holiday in the fresh-eyed and reverent way a cat might view our festive and reflective times.  

Grave Distractions Makes Plans for Southern Festival of Books

Grave Distractions Publications has made plans to attend Nashville's Southern Festival of Books this October.  Our paperwork has been sent in for booth space, and pending final confirmation of available space, we'll be setting up shop for the three day event.  At the present time we will be representing the following authors: 

Dr. James T. Baker

Farsheed Ferdowsi

Brian Kannard
Jean Victoria Norloch

Dr. Francis Martin

Norma Tillman 

We also will have a limited space to represent independent authors at the Festival.  If  you're an author and interested in Grave Distractions representing your book, email Brian@gravedistractions.com for more information.  Hope to see you there!

Holidays with Sundae Read Through Video

The following is video of "Halloween" from the stage adaptation of James T Baker's novel Holidays with Sundae: Conversations with my Cat. Filmed on 28 May 2010, the read through was filmed at Nashville's Dark Horse Theater. Playing the part of Sundae is Starina Johnson and James was read by Phil Perry. The play was adapted from the novel by Melissa Hade. Look for Holidays with Sundae coming to the stage sometime this fall.

Holidays with Sundae Comes to the Stage.

Thanks to Melissa Bedinger Hade, James T Baker's novel Holidays with Sundae: Conversations with My Cat will be coming to the stage. On Saturday, 29 May 2010 at 7:30 PM we will be doing a read through of the stage adaptation of the novel at Nashville's Dark Horse Theater.  We're looking for your feedback. Phil Perry will be reading the role of James and Starina Johnson will be reading Sundae.  So come on down to the Dark Horse Theater and get the first look Holidays with Sundae.  For more information on this event, or to RSVP on Facebook, click here.

Synopsis:
Holidays with Sundae invites you to experience the delight of conversations with a cat. Pet owners understand that their furry companions become a part of our family. Sundae the cat comes to be as real as any person we know. As a thinker and critic of the human condition, Sundae's feline perspective might surprise you. Sundae becomes a mirror in which we can examine ourselves.

Dr. Baker brings us into the conversation with Sundae using holidays as the springboard for their dialogue. Each holiday, though familiar to all of us, is introduced in a completely different perspective. Sundae leaves us to wonder why we did not already think of each holiday in the fresh-eyed and reverent way a cat might view our festive and reflective times.

Faith for a Dark Saturday to be Re-Released

Grave Distractions Publications will assist Green Hills Press in re-releasing an updated version of James T Baker's 1973 title Faith for a Dark Saturday.  eBook and print versions will be out soon pending some final work on the title.  If you'd like to be emailed when Faith for a Dark Saturday is released, drop a line to info@gravedistractions.com with the subject line "Faith for a Dark Saturday".  We will promptly email you the release information.

Synopsis of Faith for a Dark Saturday

Everyone, sometimes in his life, experiences a dark Saturday of despair like the Saturday between the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. In Faith for a Dark Saturday, Dr. Baker imaginatively tells the stories of persons in the Bible who experienced severe testing of their faith and reached the darkest hour of despair. They were not aware of the dawn of the resurrection day that was soon to follow.  Even though they could not see into the future, their faith sustained them through these dark hours.

Grave Distractions Publications to Provide Services for Green Hills Press

Grave Distractions Publications is happy to announce an arrangement with Green Hills Publications has been achieved.   The team at Grave Distractions will be providing support for the works of authors Dr. James T. Baker and Dr. Francis Martin.  It is our goal is to bring the works of both men into the realm of on demand printing as well as the ePublication format in order to expand the readership of these gentlemen's superior works.

Dr. James T Baker is a respected historian and professor at Western Kentucky University.  Along with his historical texts, Dr. Baker is an accomplished fiction author.  Grave Distractions has been tasked with preparing Holidays with Sundae, Dogs to Men, and Quest for on demand traditional prints and various eBook formats.  Along with those titles, Dr. Baker has three previously unreleased manuscripts in which we are eagerly looking forward to bringing to readers in both print and eBook format.

Dr. Francis Martin is the head of Green Hills Publishing and has also authored a number of titles.  His works primarily deal with various religious topics and grief counseling.  Dr. Martin is busy developing previous works for rerelease.  We will keep you informed to Dr. Martin's progress and his scheduled release dates.

The team at Grave Distractions is excited to present these author's works to a wider audience of readers.