Join Me in Celebrating Lansing’s Independent Bookstore

Hello, Lansing-area Friends,

The good folks at Everybody Reads Books and Stuff have invited me back to talk about volume 4 of my Voices from the Underground Series, the final in my four-volume series. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the completion of a 25-year journey!—or rejoin me if you attended any of my other three shows.

• Date: Thursday December 6, 2012
• Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m., with reception beginning at 6 p.m.
• Location: The Avenue Café, 2021 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing (restaurant next to the bookstore)

But this event isn’t just about me. Yes, I’ll talk about my book. But I also will talk about a precious community resource that we all know and love, and don’t want to lose: Everybody Reads. I’ll call on you to share your thoughts and memories at the open mic. What better way to embarrass owner Scott Harris with compliments and appreciation?

I’m honored that Peace Education Center has chosen to sponsor the event and that The Avenue Café has offered their premises.

We know that Everybody Reads is facing challenging times. Every independent bookstore in America is. In fact, most have gone under. Everybody Reads remains, not just to sell books but to provide important space for community events like these.

But they need your help.

So please come. Come in full force. Come with your friends.  Come ready to buy books—for yourself, for your holiday gifts, to donate to your favorite library.

And come hungry because the good folks at Peace Education Center are bringing hors d’oeuvres for the 6 p.m. reception. If the spirit strikes you, feel free to bring your favorite dish to pass as well.

For my part, I’m donating all proceeds from sales of my books to Everybody Reads. I’m no hero. Everybody Reads has been real good to me in my three previous appearances. It’s my small way of giving back. So buy lots of my books. There’s no better time to get all four while helping the Lansing community’s only independent bookstore at the same time.

Please share this blog entry with everyone you know who might be interested.

Include everyone you know who values top-quality, community-minded, independent bookstores. Lansing has one of the best: Everybody Reads Books and Stuff. It needs our help.

I look forward to celebrating with you and your friends at The Avenue Café Thursday December 6.

Sincerely,

Ken Wachsberger

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Women’s Self-Defense Seminar Coming to Ann Arbor

Women can’t stop men from being aggressive with them, but they can stop being victimized by men’s aggression. “One in three women will be sexually abused in their lifetimes. It doesn’t have to be.”

So says Thomas Wright, owner of Wright’s Isshinryu Karate in Ann Arbor. On Saturday November 3 he will challenge the odds by offering a self-defense seminar for women at his studio.

When: noon to 1:30 p.m.

Where: 4597 Platt Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, around the back

Cost: only $10

The seminar will be limited to 30 participants.

According to Wright, “I’ll be teaching the ABC’s of self-defense: Awareness, Boundaries, and Combat. Isshinryu Karate concentrates on all three aspects, to increase your awareness of a developing situation and to give you the knowledge to get yourself out of the situation. Techniques that I teach are simple, intuitive, and highly effective.”

This will be a hands-on clinic, not a classroom lecture, he emphasizes. Women will be on the mats, taking falls, feeling what it’s like to be choked, and learning proven ways to escape and take the offensive.

“Wear comfortable clothing,” Wright adds.

Wright is a 7^th degree black belt who has been instructing students from the age of four to, as he says, “older than myself,” in the art and history of Isshinryu Karate for the last 30 years. As both a student and an instructor, he knows that Karate is useful in helping a person gain strength and confidence as well as physical and mental power. In addition, he recently was certified as a Mixed Martial Arts Kearns Conditioning Coach. He offers this physical fitness program for all students, but especially student athletes as a way to continue conditioning between seasons.

For more information, call Wright at (734) 678 1090, send email to info@wrightsfitness.com, or visit his website at www.wrightkarate21.com.