U.S. Editors' Page
Welcome to the Editors’ Page at New England Publishing Associates. Here is a complete list of the current projects available from New England Publishing Associates. Clicking on a title will lead you to a brief description of the proposed book and a short bio of the author. If you are interested in seeing a complete proposal for a certain title, please e-mail us at nepa@nepa.com with your request. [To see a list of all the titles available for reprints, click the Reprints button below.] If you are an editor for a publisher located outside the U.S., please click Rights Information to obtain information on foreign rights.

Arts and Culture
VOICE OF THE LOBSTER: Echoes from the Deep in Our History, Art, Myths and Minds By Nancy Frazier

 Biography and Memoir
JOEL BARLOW: Citizen of a Revolutionary World By Richard Buel Jr.
I’M A DIABETIC TOO: A Doctor’s Story Rob Thompson, M.D.
BRAVO, FIGARO! BRAVO, BEAUMARCHAIS! The Spy Who Saved the American Revolution By Harlow Giles Unger
GETTING MY KICKS: A Memoir of Pro Football’s Most Unlikely Coach By Doug Blevins, with Lary Bloom

 History
THE_GREEK_IMAGINATION_AND_THE_DAWN_OF_SCIENCE By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D
THE INVENTION OF GOD: The Origins of Faith in the Rise of Reason By Colin Wells
THE EIGHT PILLARS OF ROMAN POWER By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D.
IRON ROADS WEST: The Story of America’s First Steam Railways By Andrea Sutcliffe
THE UNITED STATES OF SPANISH By Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau

 Literature
JUVENAL’S SATIRES OF ANCIENT ROME: A Modern Translation By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D.

 Quotation Books
OSCAR WILDE: A Life in Quotes By Barry Day

Religion
FULFILL YOUR PROMISE: Carry out God’s Purpose for Your Life Using the Power of the Human Trinity By Dick Lyles & Martha Lyles

Travel & Leisure
THE LIFE SWAPPERS By Mary and Wayne Christensen

 

Arts and Culture

VOICE OF THE LOBSTER: Echoes from the Deep in Our History, Art, Myths and Minds
By Nancy Frazier
Fall 2009 (Ms. Delivery) 

Lobster is a tasty though messy meal, but if you think that's all it is, think again. Listen carefully and you will hear the voice of the lobster. This strange creature speaks to us from ancient myth to new wave rock. In our own words and images it tells us who we are. The lobster is our mirror. To consider the lobster throughout history is to contemplate ourselves. The relationship of people and lobsters traced in Nancy Frazier’s VOICE OF THE LOBSTER: Echoes from the Deep in Our History, Art, Myths and Minds (90,000 words) is remarkable, enigmatic, amusing and frightful. 

Until the era of underwater exploration, the lobster’s life in the ocean was largely a matter of conjecture, but that never inhibited the imagination of artists, photographers, novelists, playwrights, poets, potters, filmmakers, fashion designers, and chefs from ancient Greece to contemporary America, not to mention  comedians. In April 1982, on “Saturday Night Live,” Eddie Murphy held up Larry The Lobster for judgment in the court of public opinion. Larry was saved by some 12,000 votes out of 500,000 cast! Then there’s Lewis Carroll’s “Lobster Quadrille” in Alice in Wonderland, a rollicking commentary on 19th century manners, and the many still lifes featuring lobsters painted in the Low Countries during the 17th century. And while many of us would question their sex appeal, lobsters carried an erotic charge for artists of the 20th century who, inspired by Freud, found many opportunities to think of them that way. As signs, symbols, metaphors, code words, myth, lore and fantasy, lobsters speak to us. And this book plunges deep into these uncharted waters to explain how and why.  

There are several books on the subject of lobsters, but no direct competition. Trevor Corson’s The Secret Life of Lobsters sold very well; it weaves the life history of the lobster into the life stories of lobster fishermen in a dramatic, interesting way. Colin Woodard’s The Lobster Coast is a fine history that covers some of the same historic and scientific information as Corson’s book. The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw is an account of her lobster fishing experiences. Fans of these books are Frazier’s ideal audience.  So too are readers of such magazines as the New Yorker, Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine and foodie publications such as Food and Wine or the journal Gastronomica, which recently commissioned Frazier to do a piece on lobsters in the works of Salvador Dalí.  

Frazier is the author of 8 books ranging from the first educational treatise on non-sexist teaching, Sexism in School and Society (1973), to museum guides, and biographies of William Randolph Hearst and Georgia O’Keeffe. Her most recent book — The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History – was published in 2000. Library Journal’s review began, “Just what we have all been waiting for! An easy-to-read, scholarly yet not lofty, fascinating, and very well-organized book written for everyone and anyone interested in art history.” She has also written numerous magazine and journal articles. Frazier holds a Master’s degree in Art History and a Ph.D. in American Studies, both from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (Proposal and sample chapter available.)

Biography and Memoir

JOEL BARLOW: Citizen of a Revolutionary World
By Richard Buel, Jr.
Spring 2009 (Manuscript is Complete)

This book will be the definitive biography of Joel Barlow (1754-1812), poet, land-speculator, diplomat, and a tireless champion of unqualified Republicanism in both Europe and America.  Despite living an extraordinary life amidst tumultuous events, Barlow has received short-shrift by both popular and academic biographers. A full-scale biography of Barlow is long overdue for several reasons. First, his life and thought served as a bridge between the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Second, his life epitomizes how the Age of Revolution released the creative energies of individuals of obscure and humble origins. Third, Barlow was something of a Zelig, showing up at just the right places and at just the right times to witness and participate in events that changed history. Fourth, Barlow’s story is intertwined with the stories of the many of the giants of the era –George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe in the United States; Napoleon, Talleyrand, and Thomas Paine in Europe.  Fifth, because Barlow was the single most important conduit through which the French Revolution shaped the evolution of America’s republicanism in the early nineteenth century.

Barlow was an adventurer in an age of adventure. He served in the War for Independence; won acclaim as the epic poet of the new nation; promoted get-rich-quick land schemes; wrote fiery revolutionary tracts in London and Paris during the volatile 1790s; plotted a republican revolution in Britain; served as American consul in Algiers, where he won the release of American seamen from a grueling captivity; and died as American ambassador to France at the end of 1812 while fleeing with the remnants of Napoleon’s Grand Armée from Russia. Barlow’s private life was as adventurous as his public one. He adored his wife Ruth, but after 15 years of childlessness, the Barlows formed a ménage-à-trois with the inventor Robert Fulton, taking him into their Paris home and scandalizing even a city not known for prudishness. The threesome remained committed to each others’ welfare for the remainder of their lives, and Fulton’s most significant accomplishments occurred during the years he was close to the Barlows.

Barlow ended his life trying to promote peace as the United States minister to Napoleon’s regime. That he lost his life in the process makes his a tragic story. But the richness and variety of the routes he pursued made his life more emblematic of the Age of Revolution than the lives of its most prominent heroes. Since Barlow led a life of intellectual, political and even sexual adventure, this book should appeal both to general readers interested in the Age of Revolution and to scholars with a special interest in the American and French Revolutions. Barlow has been the subject of several biographies, but none can be called definitive.  Moreover, the most recent was published 25 years ago..

Buel holds a Ph.D. from Harvard , where Bernard Bailyn directed his dissertation. During his forty years teaching history at Wesleyan University (1962-2002), he was the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards. He is the author of four studies about the revolutionary era: Securing the Revolution: Ideology in American Politics, 1789-1815 (1972), Dear Liberty: Connecticut’s Mobilization for the Revolutionary War (1980); The Way of Duty (Norton, 1984—with Joy D. Buel), described by the Los Angeles Times as “a fascinating miniature epic”; and In Irons: Britain’s Naval Supremacy and the American Revolutionary Economy (Yale, 1998). Most recently he published America on the Brink How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 almost Destroyed the Young Republic (Palgrave, 2005), which Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia, said “represents political history at its best." (Proposal and complete manuscript available.)

I’M A DIABETIC TOO: A Doctor’s Story
Rob Thompson, M.D.
Fall 2008 (Ms Delivery)

Written by a doctor who specializes in treating diabetes, I’M A DIABETIC TOO is the factual account of Dr. Rob Thompson’s battle with adult-onset diabetes, from the surprise of the initial diagnosis to ultimate, excellent control of the disease. The doctor gets a taste of his own medicine as he confronts the same issues his patients face. He extricates himself not by the exertion of willpower but by using new strategies based on years of experience treating patients with diabetes. Not only does the book let readers know others have experienced what they are going through, it contains all of the basic information a person with type 2 diabetes needs to manage the disease successfully.

Dr. Rob Thompson is a board certified internist and cardiologist who for the past 25 years has specialized in preventive cardiology, the treatment of conditions that cause blood vessel disease including high blood cholesterol, obesity and diabetes. He has written two health books, The New Low Carb Way of Life (M Evans, 2002) and The Glycemic Load Diet (McGraw-Hill, 2006). He is presently working on The Glycemic Load Cookbook with Dana Carpenter (McGraw-Hill). Dr. Thompson has published several articles in medical journals including original contributions in The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Annals of Internal Medicine. Dr. Thompson has acquired personal knowledge of type 2 diabetes since developing the condition himself in 1999.  (Proposal and two sample chapters are available.)

BRAVO, FIGARO! BRAVO, BEAUMARCHAIS! The Spy Who Saved the American Revolution
By Harlow Giles Unger
Sprin 2010 (Ms. Delivery)

In an age of picaresque swashbucklers, the life of Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was even more over-the-top than that of his own stage alter ego: Figaro, the swaggering Barber of Seville. As daring as d’Artagnan, as sly as the Scarlet Pimpernel, as resolute as the Count of Monte Cristo, "Figaro" leaped on and off the 18th-century French stage, alternating roles as the real-life action hero Caron de Beaumarchais and the fictional Barber of Seville, both tweaking the collective noses of the aristocracy. To some, he was a hero--a towering intellect who saved American liberty, lit the flames of the French Revolution and sacrificed his fortune for the needy. To others he was an impudent, double-dealing adventurer and spy who stopped at nothing to achieve fame and fortune. He was both...and more: a brilliant inventor, gifted musician, courtier, swordsman, diplomat, advisor to kings, canny financier, irresistible lover, doting father...and... unquestionably the greatest French playwright of his or, perhaps, any era.

The rhetoric of the American Revolution inflamed Beaumarchais’ passions for liberty. He enticed Europe’s most despotic monarchy to supply arms and ammunition to a commoner rebellion against a kindred monarchy. Arriving just in time to enable the Americans to win the battle of Saratoga, the supplies from France reversed the course of the war. By its end, Beaumarchais had sent more than $210 million worth of military supplies to the United States. After the American Revolution, Beaumarchais’ unquenched passion for liberty spawned the second play of his Figaro trilogy. The Marriage of Figaro follows the continuing misadventures of the wily Barber of Seville, a symbol of all men of high merit and low birth, struggling for liberty, equality and justice. Later, Beaumarchais became a secret agent of the French Revolutionary government. Imprisoned during the Terror, he won release through the intervention of one of the many women he loved in a lifetime of romances.

Beaumarchais’s hilarious exploits on and off stage, in and out of bed, are certain to thrill a wide range of 21st century readers with interest in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, theater, opera, adventure and romance. BRAVO, FIGARO! BRAVO BEAMARCHAIS! (85,000 words) will be the first full biography of Beaumarchais for a popular audiences since 1962.

A veteran journalist, broadcaster, and historian, Harlow Giles Unger has published 12 books, including three biographies of America’s Founding Fathers, which he discussed on Book Notes. Selling 14,000 copies, his Lafayette (Wiley, 2002) won the 2003 book-of-the year award from the American Revolution Round Table and the Fraunces Tavern Museum’s award as the best book on the American Revolution. Unger’s earlier biographies were Noah Webster (Wiley, 1998) and John Hancock (Wiley, 2000). His The French War Against America: The Birth of a Treacherous Alliance (Wiley, 2005). Unger has appeared countless times on radio and television and toured more than a dozen states to promote his books in stores and before large audiences. (Proposal and sample chapters available.)

GETTING MY KICKS: A Memoir of Pro Football’s Most Unlikely Coach
By Doug Blevins, with Lary Bloom
March 2010 (Ms. Delivery)

History

THE GREEK IMAGINATION AND THE DAWN OF SCIENCE
By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D.
Winter 2008/09 (Ms. Delivery)

The true inventors of science are echoed in the names of its branches: from physics to biology, from mechanics to psychology – all Greek in origin.  But the Greeks did not merely bequeath us words; we inherited their inquiring mind that hungered to understand the natural world and find man’s place within it.  Like their epic hero Ulysses, the Greeks dared to go where no man had gone before. Their discoveries laid the intellectual foundations of modern science.

In THE GREEK IMAGINATION AND THE DAWN OF SCIENCE (60,000 words), Professor Stephen Bertman examines the evolution of science from its primitive origins in the ancient Near East to its flowering in the Hellenic world.  An authoritative but accessible tale told with dramatic sweep, it sets the story of scientific discovery against the background of Greek civilization’s character and history, explaining both the “what” and the “why” of ancient Greek science.  Focusing on a dozen different branches of science, the book shows why the Greeks were fascinated by each science and goes on to explain the theories they developed, the experiments they did, the practical applications of their discoveries in ancient times, and the influence these discoveries have had on modern science and technology.

The book will attract a wide audience among all those fascinated by the history of science and the mysteries of the ancient world, including the millions who watch programs on these subjects on Nova, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel and read magazines such as Discover and Smithsonian. The competition is meager. Most available books on the subject are dryly academic and seriously out of date. The best recent book, T.E. Rihill’s Greek Science (OUP, 1999), has only 138 pages of text and touches upon only a half dozen scientific specialties.

Bertman, a specialist in Classical literature and archaeology, received his doctorate in Greek and Latin from Columbia and is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Canada’s University of Windsor.  While teaching at Michigan’s Lawrence Technological University in 2004, he developed a unique course in ancient engineering that won funding from a national foundation and garnered international publicity. Bertman has explored ancient Mediterranean civilizations in such books as Doorways Through Time: The Romance of Archaeology (Tarcher/Putnam, featured by the Natural Science Book Club), Climbing Olympus: What You Can Learn from Greek Myth and Wisdom (Sourcebooks/Barnes & Noble), Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Facts On File/OUP, featured by the History Channel and Discovery Channel Book Clubs) and Erotic Love Poems of Greece and Rome (Penguin).  He has been an invited lecturer on many college campuses and a frequent guest on radio call-in and interview programs, including NPR. Archaeologist Cyrus Gordon has described Bertman as “responsible in regard to factual details and at the same time a lucid writer, whose scholarship has not stifled the poet within him.” (Proposal and sample chapters available.)

THE INVENTION OF GOD: The Origins of Faith in the Rise of Reason
By Colin Wells
Summer 2010 (Ms. Delivery)

Faith vs. reason is history’s longest-running intellectual conflict, and one of today’s hottest publishing topics. "New atheism" manifestos by authors such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have hit the best-sellers charts, while books by such defenders of faith as Rick Warren, William Paul Young, Timothy Keller and Don Piper have racked up even more remarkable sales figures.

At the heart of this phenomenon lies the tantalizing puzzle that has eluded explanation for most of recorded history: the mysterious relationship between faith and reason. Whether secular or devout, all these recent best-sellers uncritically reproduce the conventional narrative about the origins of faith. It is this narrative that Colin Wells’ THE INVENTION OF GOD: The Origins of Faith in the Rise of Reason overturns forever. When it comes to the issue of faith, this book is a game-changer. It radically recasts the familiar story of the rise of monotheism in the ancient world. God, it turns out, came from the last place on earth you would have expected: not from the prophetic traditions of ancient Israel, but from the early scientific thought of classical Greece. Our culture is obsessed with the "clash" of faith and reason, two traditions we see as separate and unrelated. THE INVENTION OF GOD shows readers how, contrary to received wisdom, faith arose precisely because of reason. The evidence has been there for generations, but not until now has anyone worked out its full implications. Charles Freeman's The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason (2003) treats the same basic time period but focuses on the politics and culture of early Christianity rather the psychology of faith. Robert Wright's new bestseller The Evolution of God (2009) encompasses a much broader time span than THE INVENTION OF GOD – from the Stone Age to the Modern Age.

Although revisionist in its overall synthesis, THE INVENTION OF GOD (80,000 words) is soundly based on the best historical scholarship of the past half-century. It is a highly readable yet intellectually stimulating account that will amuse, inform, surprise, and satisfy believers and non-believers who hunger for new ways of thinking about the origins of and the never-ending conflict between faith and reason.  It will appeal to fans of Harris' The End of Faith, Dawkins' The God Delusion, and Hitchens' God Is Not Great, but also to those put off by these "secular fundamentalists" who preferred such recent titles as Jack Miles' God: A Biography (1995)Jennifer Michael Hecht's Doubt: A History (2004), Freeman's The Closing of the Western Mind (2003), Richard Rubenstein's Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom (2003), Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (2008), Russell Shorto's Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason (2008) and Wright's The Evolution of God (2009).

THE EIGHT PILLARS OF ROMAN POWER
By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D.
Spring 2009 (Ms. Delivery) 

From Hollywood to HBO, all roads perennially lead to Rome.  For over two thousand years, the epic virtues and lurid vices of the Romans have fascinated the public.  Despite the fixation of historians on explaining Rome’s fall, Rome’s rise demands equal, if not more, attention.  From its origins as a collection of mud and thatch huts overlooking a Tiber swamp to its rapid ascendancy as the political and military master of the Mediterranean, the biography of Rome is a rags-to-riches tale unparalleled in world history.  What were the guiding principles responsible for this stunning success?  

THE EIGHT PILLARS OF ROMAN POWER (65,000 words) answers this question by identifying the dynamic values that inspired and sustained Rome’s imperial growth and cultural ascension.  Each chapter will be illustrated with examples drawn from Roman history, religion, mythology, literature, law, engineering, and monumental art.  At its conclusion, the book will draw comparisons between ancient Rome and contemporary America and will invite readers to apply the constructive lessons of Roman civilization to their own lives. 

Like the popular cultural surveys by Thomas Cahill, THE EIGHT PILLARS OF ROMAN POWER will appeal to a wide audience, the same audience that avidly watches television specials about the ancient world broadcast on the History and Discovery Channels and buys books featured by their affiliated book clubs.  Because major universities offer large enrollment courses on the ancient world, Dr. Bertman will use his many personal contacts within the academic community to reach the teachers of these courses and to garner reviews in the journals they subscribe to.  In addition, the book will generate significant sales from academic and community libraries.  

Educated at NYU, Brandeis, and Columbia Universities, Stephen Bertman, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at Canada’s University of Windsor.  His books on the ancient world include Art and Romans (Coronado 1975), The Conflict of Generations in Ancient Greece and Rome (Gruner 1976), Doorways Through Time: The Romance of Archaeology (Tarcher/Putnam 1986), Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Facts On File/ Oxford University Press 2003), Erotic Love Poems of Greece and Rome (New American Library 2005) and The Eight Pillars of Greek Wisdom (Barnes & Noble, 2007).  Dr. Bertman has been a frequent guest on interview shows, including NPR.  His public addresses on the lessons of the past, and their relevance to contemporary social challenges, have regularly appeared in Vital Speeches of the Day. (Proposal and sample text available).

IRON ROADS WEST: The Story of America’s First Steam Railways
By Andrea Sutcliffe
Fall 2009 (Ms. Delivery)

Many successful books have described the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, but the dramatic and challenging early years of American railroading have been sadly neglected. The obstacles were stupendous, as amateur engineers learned their trade by trial and error laying lines through wild and mountainous terrain. Andrea Sutcliffe’s IRON ROADS WEST recounts the difficult birth of railroads as the underdog alternative to canals. In the end, speed won out. Passenger railroads, even averaging only 15 miles an hour for their first 20 years, began putting the 4-mile-an-hour canals out of business by the late 1840s. Railroads were the first technology to shrink time and space, and Americans loved them from the start. In the first decade of the 21^st century, many still do.

The narrative spine of IRON ROADS WEST (80,000 words) is the rivalry between two once-great port cities, Philadelphia and Baltimore, as they struggled to remain vibrant after the Erie Canal opened. Each took a different way west, one safe, one risky, both incredibly ambitious for their time. Philadelphia chose a canal, supplemented by rail, known as the Main Line of Public Works. Baltimore went with America’s first long railroad, the B&O. Both would stretch for nearly 400 miles, and both would be among the longest of their kind in the world. This tale of two cities begins in the mid-1820s, when New York City began stealing their trade. It ends in 1852, when both lines reached the Ohio River, just weeks apart. By then, the Main Line Canal had morphed into the Pennsylvania Railroad. The canal era was over. By the 1840s, former B&O engineers were building the Moscow-St. Petersburg railroad, and Philadelphia and Baltimore manufacturers were shipping locomotives to railroads all over Europe.

The book targets the large general audience for American history narratives, but will especially appeal to railroad and canal buffs, who number in the hundreds of thousands. There are 177 railway historical societies in the U.S., including the National Railway Historical Society (20,000 members), 132 U.S. (and 33 Canadian) websites devoted exclusively to railroad topics, 430 railroad museums, and 30+ canal parks, trails, museums, historic and recreational areas. Books on the transcontinental railroad – such as Steven Ambrose’s Nothing Like It in the World and David Haward Bain’s Empire Express – have sold very well, paving the way for a popular history on the birth of railroads in America showing how in just 20 years they replaced canals as the nation’s primary means of transportation.

Andrea Sutcliffe has written 9 books since 1994, with all but two still in print. Her last book, Steam (Palgrave, 2004) received favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, Book Page, PW, the Journal of the Early Republic, Harvard’s Business History Review, and elsewhere. Her other books include The New York Public Library Writer’s Guide to Style and Usage (1994), now in its tenth printing, and Numbers: How Many, How Long, How Far, How Much (1996). She has successfully promoted her books through Internet marketing, public speaking engagements, TV and radio interviews, and print media features. To promote Steam, she successfully pitched a panel discussion to the Virginia Festival of the Book, which drew a large audience and was shown on C-SPAN’s "BookTV." (Proposal and sample chapters available.)

THE UNITED STATES OF SPANISH
By Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau
March 2011 (Ms. Delivery)

THE UNITED STATES OF SPANISH (100,000 words) explains how the Spanish language evolved and spread throughout the Americas, why it is thriving amidst English in the U.S. and what the future holds for it.  Award-winning authors Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau follow the recipe that made best sellers of their previous works, The Story of French and Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong. Through a mixture of anecdote, personal reflections and observations and interviews, the authors draw on many months of traveling in a dozen Spanish-speaking countries to illustrate how religion, politics, the quest for profit and the dream of a better life steered Spanish across seas and spread it through entire continents. They take their readers to marvel at the works of Gaudi in Barcelona, to explore caves in the jungle of Mexico, sip tea in a former Nicaraguan dictator’ mansion and dance Cuban salsa in Havana. They celebrate the Cinco de Mayo in Menlo Park, CA and travel in the barrios of Miami. This is a book peopled by characters as diverse as Gabriel Garcia Marques, Atahualpa, Isabela la Catolica and Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, and describes the earliest examples of “Spanglish” – words like “buckaroo,” “lasso,” “stampede,” and “rodeo.” 

As the book shows, Spanish has had fantastic triumphs and disastrous setbacks. Exactly how did the obscure dialect of an minor kingdom in northern Spain survive nine centuries of Arab occupation to spawn a civilization ten times the size of Spain? More surprisingly, Spanish became the third most widely used language on the planet (425 million speakers) and official tongue of more than 20 states. Although Spanish-speaking countries were slow to adopt technological and democratic advances of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Spanish is back in the hands of a world power today: the United States. Experts predict that by 2050 the U.S. could be the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world – larger than Spain, Mexico or Argentina. What effect will this have on Spanish? And on the U.S.? Meanwhile, Americans are divided over whether to embrace, or erase Spanish. Thirty American states have declared English their official language, yet millions of Americans are learning Spanish to travel in Latin American countries. More secondary and post-secondary students are studying Spanish today than all other modern languages combined. THE UNITED STATES OF SPANISH will target these students, their parents and language teachers, organizations that promote Spanish in the U.S., and the 25 million Americans who travel abroad each year to a Spanish-speaking country.  With, Spanish is the world’s third most-spoken language, and has immense appeal the world over. 

Nadeau and Barlow are uniquely equipped to write THE UNITED STATES OF SPANISH. They each work in French and English, speak Spanish, and have proven their skill for conveying rigorously researched material in an engaging narrative. Both The Story of French (2006) and Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong (2003) were praised by The New York Times, and by newspapers and magazines across Canada and the UK. The authors speak regularly at universities and for cultural and language associations, as well as teachers’ organizations across North America and have been interviewed on many radio and TV shows in these markets, including NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. In 2010, Julie Barlow will be a Fulbright scholar at Arizona State University where she will be examining U.S.-Mexico border relations and the growing Latino community in Phoenix, one of the United States immigration hubs. (Proposal available.)

Literature

JUVENAL’S SATIRES OF ANCIENT ROME: A Modern Translation
By Stephen Bertman, Ph.D.
Spring 2009 (Ms. Delivery)

When asked why he wrote satires, the ancient Roman poet Juvenal replied: "Do I have a choice? Look at the world we live in!" Juvenal’s era – the First Century C.E. – was an age of savage despotism and gladiatorial slaughter, an age of "bread and circuses," free handouts of food to urban masses to win their votes and free entertainment to keep their minds off the hijacking of democracy. Juvenal chronicled it all, but most of all the downhill slide of a once great nation into a cesspool of greed and sexual perversion.

Americans have always been fascinated by the excesses of ancient Rome that led to its decline and fall. What better guide to have than Juvenal, a poet with a keen ear for gossip, a jaundiced eye, a razor-sharp tongue, and a nose for the smell of a rotting city. His incisive profiles of a degenerate political system and society are the precursors of the satiric monologues and sketches on television today, modern commentaries inspired by the very same absurdities that provoked the moral outrage of Juvenal 2000 years ago.

Why another translation of Juvenal? The three now in print (Oxford, 1991), (Penguin, 1967), and (Indiana University Press, 1958) do not do Juvenal justice because of their often stodgy, upper-crust British style and their dated language. What is needed is a fresh, vigorous, and entertaining translation accessible and inviting to a contemporary American audience. Steve Bertman is ideal author to produce just such a translation.

As a teacher, writer, and speaker to high-powered business audiences, Stephen Bertman has devoted his life to bridging the worlds of the past and the present, and envisioning the landscape of the future. He is Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at Canada’s University of Windsor, where he received his school’s Alumni Award for Excellence in University Teaching. A graduate in Classics from New York University, he also holds graduate degrees from Brandeis and Columbia Universities. His books on ancient civilization include Art and the Romans (Coronado); Doorways Through Time: The Romance of Archaeology (Tarcher/Putnam); Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Facts On File; Oxford University Press); Climbing Olympus: What You Can Learn from Greek Myth and Wisdom (Sourcebooks); and, most recently, Erotic Love Poems of Greece and Rome (Penguin/NAL). This 2005 anthology has been praised by Lionel Casson, Professor Emeritus of Classics at New York University, as "a gifted translation in fluent contemporary idiom." Significantly, Bertman has also explored the challenges of contemporary society. His many speeches on social issues have been reprinted in Vital Speeches of the Day, and he has been a frequent guest on radio programs, including call-in shows and NPR.

The work will consist of new translations of Juvenal’s sixteen surviving satires, accompanied by a historical, biographical, and literary introduction, a glossary, and a concise bibliography. Juvenal’s collected poems consist of 3,837 verses in Latin, yielding approximately 33,000 words in English translation. The complete manuscript will total some 40,000 words. (Proposal and sample translations available.)

Quotation Books

OSCAR WILDE: A Life in Quotes
By Barry Day
Fall 2008 (Ms. Delivery)

Religion

FULFILL YOUR PROMISE: Carry out God’s Purpose for Your Life Using the Power of the Human Trinity
By Dick Lyles & Martha Lyles
Fall 2008 (Ms. Delivery)

FULFILL YOUR PROMISE is the Roman Catholic equivalent to The Purpose-Driven Life. Rick Warren’s book has enjoyed phenomenal success in large measure because many Christians are searching for ways to integrate their spiritual and temporal lives in a more meaningful way.  Yet, most Catholics have shied away Warren’s book because they are not comfortable with its evangelical Protestant approach.  FULFILL YOUR PROMISE (46,000 words) presents a completely new and unique paradigm Catholics can use to bridge this gap between their faith and their everyday lives the way Warren’s book did for Protestants. The authors call this the “Human Trinity,” which in no way diminishes the devotion Catholics have toward the Holy Trinity. In fact, it builds on the concept of the Holy Trinity in a very practical way. In its simplest terms the Human Trinity defines a three-in-one model for looking at human fulfillment. We each have a unique set of natural gifts. We have available to us God’s supernatural grace. We also each have a unique life’s purpose. The first part of the book is devoted to those factors at work in our daily lives to separate us from God’s grace. The second part addresses factors that cause us to lose touch with our natural gifts. The third part shows how readers can overcome all these issues, identify their own life’s purpose, and then fulfill that purpose.

Dick Lyles is the former CEO of Relevant Radio™, the nation’s largest Catholic Radio Network, where he hosted his own weekly two-hour radio program. Dick’s speaking credits include more than 2,000 engagements at banquets, conferences, and conventions as well as more than 100 appearances on TV and radio talk shows. Dozens of articles have been written about his work in The National Catholic Register, Legatus Magazine, Catholic Exchange, Catholic Online, Catholic News Notes, Catholic Business Journal.com as well as in such secular publications as Inc. Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, Industry Week, Human Resource Executive, Executive Excellence, and Training Magazine. He has also co-developed a curriculum used to teach leadership to Catholic priests nationally through the Catholic Leadership Institute. He is a prominent member of Legatus, an international organization of Catholic CEOs and spouses, and of the Knights of Columbus. He is the author or co-author of 6 books, most recently Winning Ways:  Four Secrets for Getting Great Results by Working Well With People (Putnam, 2000); Winning Habits: Four Secrets that Will Change the Rest of Your Life FT/Prentice Hall, 2004; Good Leaders Good Shepherds, with Tim Flanagan, Drea Zigarmi, and Susan Fowler (Ascension Press, 2007) and Achieve Leadership Genius, with Zigarmi and Fowler (FT/Prentice Hall, 2007).

Martha Lyles is also well known and respected in the Catholic community and has been involved in Religious Education for 25 years. She was a Catechist for 18 years ((1981-1999) and served as Director of Religious Education for St. Gabriel’s parish in Poway, CA from 1999 until 2006.  She currently serves as Director of Development for St. Gabriel’s. (Proposal and sample text available.)

Travel & Leisure

THE LIFE SWAPPERS
By Mary and Wayne Christensen
Spring 2009 (Ms. Delivery)

This year the first Baby Boomers turn 60, and the Census Bureau estimates 7,918 Americans will reach this milestone every day in 2006. THE LIFE SWAPPERS has been written to appeal directly to this burgeoning Baby Boomer market. To celebrate their 50^th birthdays, Mary and Wayne Christensen walked away from high-powered jobs to start a new life as roaming house sitters and began a madcap journey that took them around the world. This book is an hilarious account of what happens to a couple who swap a life of routines, deadlines and schedules for an uncertain and vagabond life caring for other people’s houses, pets, plants and plumbing. From luxury homes in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris, to a Presbyterian Church manse, a Napa Valley vineyard and farms in Vermont and Australia, they lurched from chaos to crisis with each assignment. Their exploits will inspire everyone who dreams of escape.

THE LIFE SWAPPERS fits a unique niche within the travel book sector. Millions of people purchase travel books, but no personal stories have been published on house sitters or house swappers. Lighthearted and humorous, the 55,000-word book will be the first travel title on the adventures of house sitters. It will appeal to Baby Boomers approaching retirement, sophisticated and armchair travelers, budget-conscious travelers, and aspiring house sitters and swappers. Many travel-loving Boomers will reach retirement age looking for an affordable way to travel the world; house-sitting is an attractive and very cost-effective way to do it. The rapid growth of house sitting is attracting media attention. An article in Time last September detailed the current boom. Caretakers Gazette, an on-line magazine for people offering and seeking house sitting opportunities, claims 10,000 paid subscribers, 75% aged 50-plus, and a growing number of Internet sites link people around the world wishing to house sit or swap.

Wayne and Mary are published authors and experienced marketing pros. Mary was a CEO and Wayne an award-winning creative director before they stepped off the corporate treadmill to become roving house sitters. Together they wrote Make Your First Million In Network Marketing (Adams Media, 2001), which sold 20,000+ copies. The authors are prepared to go anywhere, anytime, and address any audience to promote the book. Both are polished, entertaining speakers. Mary has made hundreds of paid presentations across America and internationally. Wayne is a national public speaking champion. The authors will commit to purchase 2,000 books in the first year to sell at personal appearances. They will also secure coverage in the form of a review or, if necessary a paid ad, in Caretakers Gazette. The website www.thelifeswappers.com is registered. Once a pub date is set, it will be activated to promote the book. They will also write a Blog on their on-going house sitting adventures beginning just before publication. The authors have compiled a list of almost 100 people across America who have agreed to host in-home launch events for the book. These will provide sales, lead to further such events, and increase word of mouth and momentum for the book. The authors are experienced in being interviewed by all media. Both have appeared on radio and television, and Mary has hosted a radio show. (Proposal and sample chapters available.)

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