Imagining the Future

As part of the special celebration giftbook series, Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have produced a poetry chapbook focusing on fathers, husbands, and men in general. Imagining the Future: Ruminations on Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions makes a wonderful gift for Father's Day or anytime you want to say something unique to a special male in your life as only poetry can. The authors coauthor the Celebration Series of chapbooks from two different hemispheres. Magdalena Ball, an Aussie, runs The Compulsive Reader. Her short stories, editorials, poetry, reviews, and articles have appeared in a wide number of printed anthologies and journals, and have won local and international awards for poetry and fiction. Magdalena holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from CCNY (New York), an MBA from Charles Sturt University (NSW), and has studied literature on a postgraduate level at Oxford University (UK) and marketing at Newcastle University (NSW). She lives in on a rural property in New South Wales with her husband and three children. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed novels Black Cow and Sleep Before Evening, a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment, and two poetry books, Repulsion Thrust and Quark Soup. Carolyn Howard-Johnson lives in California. Her first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her book of creative nonfiction, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, won three. She was an instructor for UCLA Extension's world-renown Writers' Program for nearly a decade and her book The Frugal Book Promoter, now in its second edition, was named USA Book News' "Best Professional Book" and was given the Irwin Award. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor. It is also a multi award winner including nods for the second edition e-book from Next Generation Indie Awards and Dan Poynter's Global Ebooks Award. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Award of Excellence. Carolyn is the recipient of the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, Her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing and the Arts and Culture Commission gave her their coveted Diamond Award. She was named to Pasadena Weekly's list of fourteen "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen," and she qualified as a published poet for Poets & Writers' distinguished list.