When I left California after 28 years in the Bay Area, I headed to southwest Florida to retire. My youngest brother and his wife have lived in Florida for 20+ years, and I’d always enjoyed my visits to their place on my annual Spring Training trip coupled with a visit to my mother (while she snowbird’d to Vero Beach) in March. Additionally, good friends Mandra and Ben had moved near Tampa from Oregon.
After two months of checking out homes in tracts throughout Sarasota County, I finally bought my home in #VenturaVillage, in the southwestern corner of Sarasota County, in Venice. Over the past three plus years, I’ve met many of my neighbors. As I was pulling together my photobook, Cathedrals to the Glory of God, a recent arrival, Joan Creamer, was a super guide in the final production stages of the book.
Actually, there are at least 4 of us in Ventura Village* who have published books. I want to share their work and introduce them to you blog readers, as each author has works which might appeal to you or someone on your gift list.
Joan K Creamer has written a series of seven children’s books in The Magic Sceptre™ series. A graphic artist who had experience in automotive design, she has been creating designs in multiple industries over a long and illustrious career. Her books (two are sold out) are available at her website http://magicsceptre.com/ Delightful full color drawings with a great story for children, I especially enjoyed Beeula, and the coloring book.
Rollie Johnson wrote a Young Adult mystery Welcome to Skunk Hollow, A Rocky Malone Adventure. A retired teacher, he is now active as a volunteer in the Venice community as well as the HOA. Rollie’s paperback book is published by Peppertree Press and can be found online at Amazon, Goodreads, BarnesAndNoble and BooksAMillion. He is currently working on a sequel.
Len Ferraguzzi has two books on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle ebook format. His first book is Valiant the Few, historic fiction set in World War II which chronicles the lives of the brothers Luzak as they contribute to the war effort. Eyes of Glass: Lord of the Vag is his second work of fiction, this time in the sci-fi fantasy category; its reviews recommend the gripping and absorbing tale.
And then there’s me, KB Cook with my self-published luxury photobook, Cathedrals to the Glory of God. Great for the armchair traveler as well as those interested in religious architecture, the large format, hard bound book is available at my website, or can be found at Amazon and Goodreads. It is a compilation of my cathedral photos that I’ve taken over 40 years, arranged by country. I’ve started working on a second volume with new cathedral pictures from my recent trip to Britain, and to the US heartland. [Despite Ms Creamer’s busy schedule, she kindly took me under her wing and directed me to her printer, Regal Printing Limited of Hong Kong, where I had my book produced. Her invaluable assistance in getting my BookWright-produced data into printable format, as well as cleaning up my cover design efforts helped make my book great.]
* Ventura Village was featured on the front page of the December 7, 2019 Sarasota Herald Tribune’s Real Estate Section’s featured Market Snapshot. A dozen photos highlight our beautiful, safe community. The link doesn’t include the narrative, so I’ll try to get a copy and post here later.