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Guitar concert to benefit St. Vincent De Paul Kitchen

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Annette Barbini, pioneer in local women’s athletics, dead at 75

<p>Authors from Northeastern Pennsylvania are letting creativity flow from the tips of pens, but area publishers are also taking center stage in this week&#8217;s Local Author Spotlight.</p><p>Here&#8217;s a look at some of the written creativity by local authors.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>&#8220;Simple. Natural. Healing: A Common Sense Approach to Total Health Transformation&#8221;</strong></p><p style="text-align: left;">Author: Donna LaBar</p><p>Hometown: Tunkhannock</p><p>Page count: 148</p><p>Publisher: Morgan James Publishing</p><p>Local connection: LaBar, a lifetime resident of Tunkhannock, has been a real estate broker in NEPA for 32 years and has coached people in nutrition for decades.</p><p>About the book: It offers information and nutritional support for cancer recovery, arthritis, weight loss and more. LaBar writes about the body&#8217;s ability to heal itself when given the right nutrition, alkaline/acid balance, enzymes and environment. The book highlights LaBar&#8217;s nutritional and healing guidance which is <ins>recognized for its effectiveness and</ins> illustrated through stories in &#8220;Simple. Natural. Healing.&#8221;</p><p><ins>&#8220;I love science and nutrition. I am passionate about helping people dramatically improve their health by optimizing their body&#8217;s ability to heal itself,&#8221; LaBar said.</ins></p><p>Buy it: <a href="http://donnalabar.com/" target="_blank">donnalabar.com</a> to see a full list of links for purchasing. Also available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>&#8220;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8221;</strong></p><p>Author: John J. Zelenski</p><p>Hometown: Scranton</p><p>Page count: 136</p><p>Publisher: Tate Publishing</p><p>Local connection: Zelenski was born and raised in Scranton, where he experienced supernatural occurrences that inspired his writing.</p><p>About the book: James Cooper is on the run from mistakes he has made, from God and from himself. He ends up in Walker&#8217;s Vale, a fictional town in Pennsylvania, with his wife and daughter. Cooper faces evil and begins a journey of redemption as he fights for the safety of his daughter.</p><p>&#8220;The story was partially inspired by paranormal events I encountered as a child, having then moved into a new home with my family,&#8221; Zelenski said. &#8220;Drawing from some of my own personal experiences, my novel, &#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale,&#8217; was born.<ins> I suppose from one perspective, &#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8217; has been in the making since I was a child.</ins>&#8221;</p><p>Buy it: <a href="http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore" target="_blank">www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore</a>, amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Walk, Don&#8217;t Run: A Rockin&#8217; and Rollin&#8217; Memoir</strong></p><p>Author: Steven Jae Johnson</p><p>Published by Anthony R. Michalski</p><p>Publisher&#8217;s hometown: Wilkes-Barre</p><p>Page count: 260</p><p>Published through: Kallisti Publishing</p><p>Publisher&#8217;s local connection: Michalski lives in Wilkes-Barre. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been around. Not much compares to ye olde NEPA<ins>. We&#8217;re a short shot from New York City and Philly</ins>,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have the best pizza. We have amazing talent in the area. And we&#8217;ve had great books coming from here for the last 10 years.&#8221;</p><p><ins>At Kallisti, Michalski publishes personal development/self-help/business/inspirational books. &#8220;I&#8217;m small and growing. I&#8217;ve had quite a few successes,&#8221; he said.</ins></p><p>About the book: &#8220;Walk, Don&#8217;t Run&#8221; is a memoir that takes place on Hollywood&#8217;s Sunset Strip in the &#8217;60s. It&#8217;s the story of Steven &#8220;Rusty&#8221; Johnson and his friends, one of whom was actor Edward James Olmos, as they search for rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll stardom. Michalski describes the book as &#8220;an amazing story that is glamorous, inspiring, and gritty &#8212; a marvelous fusion of the ups, downs, and in-betweens of life and music and passion in the 1960s Hollywood, California, the place where dreams are made and chased and, sometimes, die.&#8221;</p><p>The book has its own soundtrack, featuring songs Johnson recorded with Olmos in 1968.</p><p>Buy it: <a href="http://www.kallistipublishing.com" target="_blank">www.kallistipublishing.com</a>, www.amazon.com. Purchase comes with a free soundtrack download. The soundtrack is available at <a href="WalkDontRunTheBook.com." target="_blank">WalkDontRunTheBook.com.</a></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><strong>&#8220;Life Lessons from a Total Failure&#8221;</strong></p><p dir="ltr">Author: M.J. Dougherty</p><p dir="ltr">Hometown: Chinchilla</p><p dir="ltr">Current location: West Hollywood, Calif.</p><p dir="ltr">Page count: 218</p><p dir="ltr">Publisher: Hodge Podge House Publishers, LLC</p><p dir="ltr">Local connection: Dougherty is a graduate of the Abington Heights School District and is from &#8220;a little village between Scranton and Clarks Summit.&#8221; He said, &#8220;You can take a man out of NEPA, but you can&#8217;t take the NEPA out of the man. <ins>Most of my family still lives in the area and I have really great friends scattered all throughout NEPA.</ins> Even if I didn&#8217;t know anyone here anymore, the pizza would always keep me connected!&#8221;</p><p dir="ltr">About the book: It is the story of the darkest part of one man&#8217;s life, chronicling how he made the worst decision and how he came to realize those times were the best things that happened to him. <ins>Dougherty takes the reader on a ride of self-examination and exploration.</ins> <ins>By thoughtfully reflecting on his life, what was important to him, and how he existed in the world around him, Dougherty gained clarity and fulfillment.</ins> <ins>His story is a journey from the homeless and hopeless to finding purpose and a sense of self in the most unlikely of places, Hollywood.</ins>&#8220;Life Lessons from a Total Failure&#8221; aims to show people there are always ways to improve the things you don&#8217;t like in life and the importance of reconnecting with the person you were always meant to be.</p><p dir="ltr">Buy it: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/" target="_blank">www.barnesandnoble.com</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/" target="_blank">www.amazon.com</a> or at his upcoming signing.</p><p dir="ltr">Book signings: At noon Oct. 8, Dougherty will be at the Valley Community Library, 739 River St., Peckville. He will speak at 4 p.m. For more information visit: <a href="http://www.mjdougherty.com/" target="_blank">www.mjdougherty.com</a>.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Donna LaBar, author of &#8216;Simple. Natural. Healing&#8217; is from Tunkhannock. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Donna-LaBar.jpg</photo0><caption0>Donna LaBar, author of &#8216;Simple. Natural. Healing&#8217; is from Tunkhannock. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Healing.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Donna LaBar, author of &#8216;Simple. Natural. Healing&#8217; is from Tunkhannock. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Healing.jpg</photo1><caption1>Donna LaBar, author of &#8216;Simple. Natural. Healing&#8217; is from Tunkhannock. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_John-Z.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8217; is a fictional story about James Cooper, a man who is trying to outrun his past and the mistakes he made. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_John-Z.jpg</photo2><caption2>&#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8217; is a fictional story about James Cooper, a man who is trying to outrun his past and the mistakes he made. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Steven-Jae-Johnson.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Steven Jae Johnson wrote &#8216;Walk, Don&#8217;t Run: A Rockin&#8217; and Rollin&#8217; Memoir&#8217; which comes with a soundtrack of songs Johnson performed with James Olmos in the &#8217;60s. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Steven-Jae-Johnson.jpg</photo3><caption3>Steven Jae Johnson wrote &#8216;Walk, Don&#8217;t Run: A Rockin&#8217; and Rollin&#8217; Memoir&#8217; which comes with a soundtrack of songs Johnson performed with James Olmos in the &#8217;60s. </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Walker-27s-Vale.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8217; is a fictional story about James Cooper, a man who is trying to outrun his past and the mistakes he made. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Walker-27s-Vale.jpg</photo4><caption4>&#8216;Walker&#8217;s Vale&#8217; is a fictional story about James Cooper, a man who is trying to outrun his past and the mistakes he made. </caption4><photoCredit4></photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_walkdontrun.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_walkdontrun.jpeg</photo5><caption5></caption5><photoCredit5></photoCredit5></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Michalski.jpg">
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>NEPA writers share natural healing tips, a rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll memoir, a man running from his fears and one big mistake</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dorothy Sasso</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dorothy Sasso is a former Soap Opera Digest writer and a private school teacher. She is busy reading books and raising her two daughters.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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Local authors, local books: NEPA writers share natural healing tips, a rock ‘n’ roll memoir, a man running from his fears and one big mistake