Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Christmas Coffee Table Book Coming Soon!

by Gail Vail

Soon to be released - a full color Christmas coffee table book of humorous and poignant stories and poems by George Heiring. Appropriately titled, "The Seasonal Heart," it is a book the whole family will enjoy. The holidays are warmly set in the clear, cold months of winter and presented with both eloquence and honesty. Here is a book to help you rediscover the heart of this season, one that offers ample pause for reflection, an abundance of laughter with space left for a tear or two.
Here's a peak at the front cover:  
As an added bonus, the book is illustrated with colorful paintings by Gail Vail, Chris Ball, Shannon Candler, Cathy McIntire, Ked Murray, David Siffert, Sherry Turner and Sandra Witty. An example of the illustrations is this adorable painting by Chris Ball:
This beautiful book will be available for purchase at Art of Oconee, Genuine Georgia, Traditions Old and New, Morning Glory's and several other area shops.

Friday, October 14, 2011

In The Good 'Ol Summertime

With Georgia cooking in record heat, my wife Donna and I escaped (as usual) to our small condo in the suburbs of Chicago for the summer.  Grandkids trooped in from Minnesota to enliven our routine and    prompt us to rediscover attractions of the city, including its world-class museums, Navy Pier, and eye-popping Millennium Park. (See picture wall at left where image periodically opens her mouth and shoots a geyser of water at delighted kids) .  This time we added a laugh-a-minute performance by the zany Blue Man Group to the schedule.  Then it’s swim, eat, bike, eat, hike and--eat.  So it goes at Camp Heiring.
As for my warm-weather writing production, the award-winning regional publication Lake Oconee Living  saw fit to print two of my pieces.  Contraband” is a tongue-in-cheek story about the need to be speakeasy sneaky in obtaining a copy of the Atlanta Journal outside of Atlanta.  LOL’s fall issue featured original ghost stories, and mine zeroed in on an outlandish Nuwaubian cult that fascinated Georgia with Egyptian trappings and weird doctrine a decade ago.  Titled “The Mask of Nuwabu” (see LOL mag illustration on right) it conjured up the “to-die-for” last ceremony of the cult and its insidious  leader.  (The real dude is now serving time in a federal prison.)

The Seasonal Heart, a collection of my Christmas stories and poems, is headed for publication this month. Pardon the boast, but it is a handsome, full-color, coffee-table book with holiday and winter inspired paintings by Gail Vail and esteemed artist friends.  Watch for details on our lakecountryauthors.com website.   

Let me hear from you.  George Heiring