True Stories and Biographies

As touchstones to childhood, dolls validate a span of years that often seem like a dream, a few moments in time. With their life-like faces, blemished complexions, and snarled hair, dolls hold sway with a magical power that rarely wanes, and often grows.

From this charming anthology featuring more than 60 reminiscences, readers will learn that dolls can makeor breakfriendships. Dolls are enjoyed alone or with a friend; they fuel creativity and imagination. Dolls teach sharing, nurturing, and loyalty; they assuage loneliness and hurt feelings; they calm fears and keep secrets. Dolls teach values and lessonsto adults as well as children. Dolls share adventures with their owners, and without them. When one girl outgrew her favorite doll but kept it on her bed, her friends repeatedly dollnapped it. For years, the doll showed up at unlikely events.

Separately, two girls brought a treasured doll with them to America when they fled Nazi Europe with their family. Another girl lost her doll to that war. One girl disowned the doll she received for Christmas, while the same type doll was yearned for by others. More than one doll met an untimely fate. A childhood doll softened a poignant reunion between two sisters after a rift had kept them apart for several years. One woman became reunited with a childhood doll through a serendipitous circumstance.

Its not surprising that a doll representing the worlds sweetheart, Shirley Temple, was highly desired by several girls. Even people who have no knowledge of dolls can identify a Shirley Temple by her dimpled cheeks and perfect blonde ringlets. Oddly, no one offered memories about Barbie Millicent Roberts, the buxom blonde who turned 50 this year and is still as nubile as Lolita. Priced at three dollars in 1959, the doll world had not seen anything like the fashionable Barbie.

In the vignettes revealed here, not all dolls are prettyexcept in the eyes of the beholder. Not all dolls were wanted; some were disappointing; not all became favorites, but each is memorable.

Product  3	Category Historical Fiction (if added) Otherwise, Fiction

Masquerade: The Swindler Who Conned J. Edgar Hoover Madonna Dries Christensen

Authors Note: 
Some novels do not fall into a particular genre. Some books defy the mold of either fiction or nonfiction. Truman Capote is credited with originating the nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, his account of a quadruple murder in rural Kansas. Combining the techniques of a journalist with his writing style as a novelist, he wove facts into fictional scenes and dialogue.

I do not suggest that Masquerade reaches the caliber of Capotes seminal work. But like In Cold Blood, the core of my story is true and required blending fact with fiction. Like Capote making the acquaintance of people in Kansas, I have personal knowledge of the man depicted in my book. Actual people, names, places, events, statements from FBI documents, and excerpts from contemporary periodicals are used fictitiously. Fictional characters, who do not portray anyone living or dead, mingle with real people from the past, many of them public figures. Some names are altered, others are real. After years of research and writing, I have lost track of which characters were actual people and which stepped into the story of their own volition and conned me into giving them a voice and action. I hope the variegated threads are seamless enough so that, fact or fiction, it doesnt matter to readers.

* * * * *

The dismal economic times of the 1930s fostered a spree of major and minor crimes, including an army of con men roaming the country. One young Hungarian immigrants genius for masquerade extended to impersonating noted people in order to prey on industrialists and celebrities. Henry Ford provided a Tin Lizzie for the swindlers first cross-country spree. His success at plying his trade prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in the American Magazine, May, 1937:

We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was the date of the great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel, a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants and multimillionaires, and the manager of the worlds biggest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor.

After the imposters 1936 deportation, Hoover said, We havent heard of him again, and we dont want to. But you never can tell. Within months, the Bureau suspected that Gabor had returned, but they failed to find him. In 1942, a clever ruse by the swindler led the FBI to close the case. Hoover never learned that he, too, had been conned.

After a final identity change, Gabor went straight and became a successful businessman in the cable television industry. Only after his death was his secret uncovered.

A natural for the big screen, an earlier era Catch Me If You Can.

$20.95. Click here: Amazon.com: Masquerade: The Swindler Who Conned J. Edgar Hoover (9780595474646):  Royalties go to Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia.

Product  4	Category: Motivational

Hey! You Wanna Be A Writer? 
By E.P. Ned Burke

82-page e-book tells what every writer ought to know about writing and the publishing business. Includes bonus e-books. Priced to sell at $7.00. http://www.wannabeawriter.com

Product  5	Category: Motivational

How To Be An Online Magazine Publisher
By E. P. Ned Burke

30-year publishing pro reveals insider secrets of starting and maintaining your own online magazine in an informative 100-page e-book. Comes with bonus e-books. Price $17. http://www.onlinemagazinepublisher.com

Author’s Note:
Some novels do not fall into a particular genre. Some books defy the mold of either fiction or nonfiction. Truman Capote is credited with originating the nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, his account of a quadruple murder in rural Kansas. Combining the techniques of a journalist with his writing style as a novelist, he wove facts into fictional scenes and dialogue.

I do not suggest that Masquerade reaches the caliber of Capote’s seminal work. But like In Cold Blood, the core of my story is true and required blending fact with fiction. Like Capote making the acquaintance of people in Kansas, I have personal knowledge of the man depicted in my book. Actual people, names, places, events, statements from FBI documents, and excerpts from contemporary periodicals are used fictitiously. Fictional characters, who do not portray anyone living or dead, mingle with real people from the past, many of them public figures. Some names are altered, others are real. After years of research and writing, I have lost track of which characters were actual people and which stepped into the story of their own volition and conned me into giving them a voice and action. I hope the variegated threads are seamless enough so that, fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter to readers.

* * * * *

The dismal economic times of the 1930s fostered a spree of major and minor crimes, including an army of con men roaming the country. One young Hungarian immigrant’s genius for masquerade extended to impersonating noted people in order to prey on industrialists and celebrities. Henry Ford provided a Tin Lizzie for the swindler’s first cross-country spree. His success at plying his trade prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in the American Magazine, May, 1937:

“We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was the date of the great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel, a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants and multimillionaires, and the manager of the world’s biggest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor.”

After the imposter’s 1936 deportation, Hoover said, “We haven’t heard of him again, and we don’t want to. But you never can tell.” Within months, the Bureau suspected that Gabor had returned, but they failed to find him. In 1942, a clever ruse by the swindler led the FBI to close the case. Hoover never learned that he, too, had been conned.

After a final identity change, Gabor went straight and became a successful businessman in the cable television industry. Only after his death was his secret uncovered.

A natural for the big screen, an earlier era Catch Me If You Can.

Swinging Sisters is a one-of-a-kind book, because there is no other story like it.

Come along for the ride with an all-girl band as they tour the country in a 1928 Packard hearse. The Texas Rangerettes garner headlines in Variety and Billboard before taking a fork in the road that subsequently has Paramount Studio cameramen camping on their doorstep hoping to film a history-making event featuring five of the band members. Time magazine devotes two paragraphs to their unique story in the February 7, 1938 issue.

Swinging Sisters is a glimpse behind the curtain at one of many female orchestras that traveled the country during the Depression. Considered novelty acts, these musicians were applauded more for their looks than talent. Club owners claimed that when it came to canary bands men looked first and listened second. But these early feminists challenged those chauvinistic views and proved they could compete in a mans world, paving the way for hundreds of female bands to flourish during World War II.

Based on a true story, Swinging Sisters celebrates the life of a family rooted in the Irish famine who achieve success in two diverse fields. The author stumbled upon the McLaughlin and Jones families while researching her family history. She declined an offer to collaborate on a screenplay of their story and instead penned this authentic account.

Award winning playwright Larry Parr, author of Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow, says, I traveled up to see a production of Ethel Waters in Philadelphia, and what better time to read than during a day traveling. I so enjoyed your book. Its so fun, and of course, I loved the music. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. Its just great.