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By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1966 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
OUR MISSION: to help authors get their books into print and worldwide retail distribution; to provide inspired solutions for editing, design and layout; and to maintain the voice of the author and the integrity of the concept.
The Little Bach Book by David Gordon
160 pages, 6 x 9, softcover, 82 illustrations, maps, bibliography
Bach specialist David Gordon has created a richly illustrated and amusing collection of his favorite anecdotes, historical explanations, timelines, bits of pathos, gritty vignettes of everyday realities, and colorful stories about J.S. Bach and everyday life around him in early 18th-century Germany. There’s no other book like it. Learn More…
The Soup Kit
by Ginna BB Gordon
color photos by the author, 208 pages,
8.5 x 8.5, softcover
Everything a cook needs to know about soup: a little history, a lot of spice and herb combos borrowed from other cultures, notes about thickeners and other additions, the right vegetable cut for the right end result, when to add which ingredient, 55 recipes, and more. Learn more…
WHAT WE DO
All our services are available for print books and ebooks. We edit and proof manuscripts, design books from cover to cover, acquire ISBNs and deal with other book registration duties, process and edit photos and images and prepare the material for uploading to the distributor. Throughout the entire process we work closely with you by phone, email, snail mail and text to make sure your book has the look and feel you imagined.
Released in 2016
Released in 2018
Coming Sept. 2020!!
Ginna BB Gordon’s Lavandula Series
Set in Carmel Valley, California in the 1960s, The Lavandula Series is based on the fictional journals of Stefani Michel. It’s the life stories of Stevie and her two cousins. Learn More…
Soul Companion: A Memoir
by Judy Hilyard
230 pages, 6 x 9, softcover, hardcover, ebook
After a 47-year career as an ICU nurse, Judy Hilyard took a completely different road and became an Anam Aira, a soul companion, for those who have died or are in the final stages of dying.
Soul Companion is the story of what Judy has learned as she cares for souls on both sides of the Veil. Learn More…
AT LVP YOU ARE THE PUBLISHER
With digital print-on-demand publishing you have complete control over your book before and after it is released.
We provide all necessary design, account management and pre-press services and we partner with you every step of the way from the preliminary editing stages through the actual release of the book for international retail distribution.
OUR FEE is based on the length of your manuscript and the ultimate complexity of your book. After an examination of your manuscript and a discussion with you about your goals and ideas, we prepare a multi-page Project Evaluation with a detailed breakdown of services and costs and a project timeline. We also discuss the book size and retail price and explain how the book size, paper and price will affect your revenue.
Aunt in the Amazon
La Tia en la selva Amazónica
A True Adventure Coloring Book by Diane Wallace
Illustrations by the author, 80 pages, 8.5 x 11, softcover
This coloring book story in Spanish and English takes you on an expedition down the Amazon by canoe. It’s the perfect book for bilingual families with kids of all ages. The engaging and true story will inspire curiosity about the world, interest in other cultures and a desire to travel without fear. Learn More…
Scherzo’s Magical Musical Adventure
by Nancy E. Bennett
This is a story about a little dog, Scherzo, with a great desire to sing. If a child is musical and loves animals, this humorous book will educate and inspire while providing an intuitive understanding of musical terminology. This is the perfect book for little ones and grown-ups to share. Learn More…
54 pages, 11 x 8.5, softcover,
with 23 oil paintings by the author.
Penitentiary Tales: A Love Story
by EA Luetkemeyer
404 pages, 6 x 9, softcover
Illustrations by the author
In the 1980s, Dean Davis, a 30-something, educated, straight white male from affluent Sausalito, California, is sent to an Illinois prison filled with inmates from the mean streets of Chicago. What challenges does he meet? How does the experience affect his social and political consciousness? Learn More…
GINNA has been reading two or three books at a time ever since she can remember. Her love of books led her to a life as writer, editor and publisher, while her love of cooking led to a parallel career as chef and cookbook author.
At Lucky Valley Press, Ginna is project manager and art director. With her artist’s eye she creates the look and personality of each book, cover to cover.
An experienced editor, she has worked closely with more than 30 authors to help them develop and refine their work.
Ginna’s first book, A Simple Celebration, the Nutritional Program for the Chopra Center for Well Being, was published in 1997 by Harmony Books, a Division of Random House.
Since then Ginna has published nine more titles including cookbooks (First You Grow the Pumpkin and The Soup Kit), memoirs about cooking (The Honey Baby Darlin’ Series), and novels (The Lavandula Series, the story of three girls growing up in the 1960s in Carmel Valley, California.)
DAVID is a life-long professional musician, writer, lecturer and historian.
At Lucky Valley Press, he is the layout and typography designer and manager of tech and pre-press. He likes to design with type and has typeset the interiors of nearly all the books we’ve produced during the past decade.
He and Ginna collaborate on the concept and design of book covers.
In 2015 David published Carmel Impresarios, a 400-page cultural biography of the two extraordinary women who helped establish Carmel, California as a major hub for the arts. It is the definitive history of the growth of music and theater in Carmel’s early years.
His second book, The Little Bach Book, describes daily life in the era of J.S. Bach. To date, it has sold more than 1,500 copies worldwide.
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1966 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
BODY WISDOM Secrets for Achieving Health, Happiness and Longevity Dr. Gerald Senogles, D.O.M., L.Ac.
BODY WISDOM gives you important information about your body and your health.
“Every feeling that doesn’t seem right, or isn’t what it used to be, is a sign that your body isn’t working correctly in some way. You might think these problems, which may have developed over a considerable period of time, are a natural result of the aging process and are just part of the natural order of things, and are therefore unfixable. I am here to tell you that there is NO PROBLEM that you have to have just because you have reached a certain age! I have worked on patients in their 90s who came to me with a problem, and when I fixed it they didn’t have any problems at all. BODY WISDOM will teach you how your body works, why problems can develop, and things you can do RIGHT NOW to prevent many issues from developing, or work to correct them if they have already occurred.”
~Dr. Gerald Senogles
Read what some independent reviewing agencies have to say about BODY WISDOM:
“…health expert o ffers alternative health wisdom…shares his wealth of disease prevention knowledge…makes this o ften complicated
information comprehensible to the average person.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“…guide to help readers understand their bodies…and put down the book “a lot more knowledgeable” than when they picked it up… the author writes in a conversational and accessible tone… BODY WISDOM is a useful read…the black and white artwork is stirring and well worth a look.”
~ Indie Reader
Dr. Senogles’s wife, Katy Cauker, provided beautiful illustrations.
Body Wisdom
Secrets for Achieving Health, Happiness and Longevity
I build Shrines to the Divine entirely for my own enjoyment. There is no goal, no show in mind, no beginning, middle or end of the project. I am just creating temples, exploring the skills learned, both as an artist as well as a human.
And what amazing discoveries I make along the way. So far with the Tibetan construction, I have learned how to: make a tiny tile floor out of polymer clay, a
When I first met Sharon Mehdi, I thought she was a stand-up comic. She made me laugh until my jeans burst at the seams.
Then I discovered all kinds of interesting things about Sharon: labyrinth walker, healer, teacher, writer, public speaker.
She told me she wrote a book, so I ordered it and, after I read A Curious Quest for Absolute Truth, my respect for this woman grew. Not only was she funny, but she could write, and express deeply felt things.
As the Board Member in charge of books and authors at Art Presence
Art Center & Gallery in Jacksonville, I asked Sharon to read from Curious Quest
several years ago. It was such a hit, we ask her back every year.
Not only that, Lucky Valley Press (David & Ginna) helped Sharon re-publish A Curious Quest for Absolute Truth, as well as the Great Silent Grandmother Gathering and, my favorite, Eleanor Bobbin.
One morning, over coffee at the Good Bean in Jacksonville, Sharon asked if she could read this little manuscript to me. “It’ll only take a few minutes,” she said
I love to be read to. And she’s so funny. And, Eleanor Bobbin really does have the potential to save the world.
Here’s what Sharon wrote for the back cover of Eleanor Bobbin and the Magical, Merciful, Mighty Art of Kindness:
“As this book goes to print, the world is once again in chaos. Rancor and retribution rule the day. Greed, fear and demagoguery have been crowned Kings of All That Is.
“And yet… and yet… hidden beneath the helplessness there is a glimmer of light. So faint it can be seen only in the darkest of dark night.
“If this tiny flicker had a name, it might be called forgiveness, compassion, kindness or love. Such little words. But the one thing I know for sure is that they can create miracles. They can make the impossible possible. They can heal lives. And sometimes, whole communities. Just ask Eleanor Bobbin.”
If you’re looking for a book to send to all your friends
around the world to remind them, Eleanor Bobbin is it.
Buy all three books. The ride inside the mind of Sharon Mehdi
is worth it. She should be President.
Love, Ginna
P.S. Eleanor Bobbin kindly includes an uplifting Apple Dumpling recipe.
“Without Sam Morse, Pebble Beach would be a West Coast Coney Island.” – Bing Crosby
“A newspaper dubbed my grandfather “The Duke of Del Monte” and although he pretended to be embarrassed by the title, I believe he liked it. Del Monte was more than a chunk of some of the most beautiful land on the planet. It was a style of life that included golf, tennis, polo, beautiful mansions and beautiful people having a good time. He enjoyed being in charge of that. In fact he wanted people to damn well know he was in charge. Damn was one of his favorite words.
“He died when I was 22 years old while I was studying art at the University of California at Los Angeles, living above a merry-go-round on the Santa Monica Pier and working as a cue-card boy at NBC, none of which really met with my grandfather’s approval. Still, the man was a big influence in my life and in the lives of many others, a benevolent despot who ruled the Monterey Peninsula.
“His friends called him Sam and his employees called him Mr. Morse. People referred to him as S.F.B., and that is how he stylishly signed his paintings and documents.
“The family called him Boss.” – Charles Osborne, from the dust jacket of Boss
I am not well-set, nor do I have the bandwidth for, taking pictures of my hands while creating.
Following are all the photos of my Buddhas over the course of three days. All the facial features are exaggerated, not on purpose.
The top not and hair aren’t right proportionately and you can see from this side view, he has a flat face.
This guy looks like a cross between a British peer (doesn’t it resemble a powdered wig?) and Deepak Chopra. The bindi on his forehead helps the overall look.
Last night’s sculpture looks like Yul Brynner as Mongkut, King of Siam. And my latest student still doesn’t have much of a face, and without armature, she’ll always have to be sitting down.
The week’s work. Self-imposed Polymer Sculpture Class 101.
In the interest of keeping my self-imposed sculpting lessons simple, I scrunched up a ball of foil and rolled out some clay to cover it for a head. (I learned the hard way not to bake any polymer clay thicker than about 1/4 inch; it takes forever, you’re never quite sure if it’s baked all the way through and it smells if it gets scorched.)
I stuck a quilter’s straight pin into a cork for something to hold onto. I scrunched the foil head down over the pin with a dollop of hot glue. With a small ball of clay, I pressed out a disk to cover the foil and form a head, making it slightly oval in shape.
I marked the lines for eye, nose, lips and chin, and made about 24 little pieces for these additions.
Polymer clay is so forgiving. After its warmed up (conditioned) it stay supple for a long time an can be worked over and over again before it is baked.
These eye sockets turned out to be a bit much. The instructions called for little clay eyeballs, but I toned them down with Tibetan slits for eyes.
The facial features on my first Buddha turned out a little exaggerated; next time I’ll make my tiny body part pieces tinier.
In typical DIY style, I took up the challenge of building my own Buddha for the Tibetan Shrine to the Divine. Ah, well, more of a dare, really.
It was my girlfriend, Eunice.
She said, “You’re going to make it yourself, right?”
I laughed. “No, no,” I said. “I draw the line at sculpting a Buddha.”
“I dare you,” she said.
Well. To the left here is my very first attempt at modeling polymer clay, beyond rolling balls and sticking holes in and calling them beads.
Once again, I followed a YouTube video. Everything here was made with little logs of clay – legs, arms, torso, head.
I was pleasantly surprised. Although these two figures (the teacher and his student) have no discernible faces, they do have shapely bodies and good posture. If you get too close, the student looks like a cat and the teacher resembles a Martian from a 50s movie, but I like the wrinkled pants and the fat cushions on which they sit.
I modeled these two little figures while listening to an audio book in front of the fire. Everything I needed fit on a paper plate. I have abandoned knitting until the fall, imagining spring is around the corner and soon I will be planting seeds, but meanwhile, why not teach myself to sculpt?
Now, Buddha here looks more like Caspar the Friendly Ghost with a bad Gibson Girl hair do. Holding an empty cereal bowl.
Even though I did not complete this Buddha head out of Basswood, I am posting the idea to show the sacred geometry of drawing a Tibetan Buddha.
Just the geometry itself is beautiful to me. These images are posted all over my studio. They calm my spirit.
I have been attracted to Tibetans and their teachings, as well as their good-natured selves, since the early 90s, when I first heard Lama Tarchin Rinpoche speak on a friend’s houseboat in Sausalito. One of my most memorable stories (another post) is about the daily goings on at Steven Seagal’s home during the year I was his personal chef. I used to say I was “surrounded by monks, music and poetic musings,” as a steady selection of starlets, stars and sycophants sat down to table with Steven, his family, his entourage of assistants and his monks.
