Adding Narrative to Life
Personal Histories
FORTHCOMING:
Mention tear gas, and everyone has an opinion. But few know about one man who played a key role in the development and marketing of tear gas, now used worldwide by police, prisons, banks, governments, jewelers, and more.
Gas Man and Great White Hunter tells the story of Colonel Byron C. Goss, who collected intelligence about gas munitions during World War I, then made a fortune selling tear gas around the world. In the second half of his life, he led several hunting expeditions to far-flung, often inhospitable, venues around the world. A remarkable man, who led an extraordinary life.
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By Nancy Burkhalter, PhD, and Dixie R. Havlak
Available Now:
A Voice for the Working People
Chuck D. Hansen spent his career working in tough, demanding, menial jobs. Workplace Rebel: A Voice for the Working People, provides an inside look at the life of the working stiff. Despite giving his all for employers and even earning a master’s degree, managers failed to acknowledge his contributions and superhuman efforts. He demonstrates that everyone—managers, employees, and customers—lose when employers neglect to give what each worker needs most of all: respect. Workplace Rebel gives tribute to workers everywhere who give their best and sends a wake-up call to corporate America.
Stories from My Past
Pauline Burmeister tells stories of her childhood in rural Arkansas for her family. She was 97 at the time she was interviewed. Pauline recalled stories that happened over 90 years ago. She was so moved by seeing her story in print that she kept the book on her nightstand for frequent review.
On Wings of Gold
by Robert Wilkes
A fighter pilot in Vietnam recounts the drama of his life in the military and afterwards as a successful graphic artist in Seattle, Washington.
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I interviewed Robert Wilkes for this book about his life for his family. He is quite proud of his service in the Navy. A lot of the book as well as the cover were devoted to those days and his experiences. Today, he works as a graphic artist. He included some of the product labels he (re)designed to showcase his artistic chops.
Stories from the Classroom
A teacher gets schooled in the art of teaching when she takes her inaugural position in Australia and learns a thing or two. She returns home and spends the rest of her career in the classrooms and libraries of elementary schools in Washington state. In the end, she gives readers a lesson on what it means to dedicate—really dedicate—one’s life to teaching.
Credo
Lee Gallaher is a real estate agent, painter, and poet. He uses many media to paint, including the computer, as well as oil and acrylic paints. It was challenging to shrink the paintings into the smaller size of the pages and still retain their drama and clarity, but he is quite proud of the results. He hands it out to clients to introduce them to his passions.
The Alaska Fur-Seal Islands
This book was a reworking of an 80-year-old draft manuscript by historian G Dallas Hanna, who had exhaustively recorded the fur-seal business that dominated Alaska's Pribilof Islands in the early 20th century. I edited the text and worked closely with a graphic designer to place photos and charts throughout. The manuscript was presented to the people of the islands as partial reparation for the destructive presence of the rapacious fur-seal hunters in their Aleut homeland.