Richard Ballo, Coming Soon

Death in Vietnam: the last letters of Spec 4 Byron S Johnson by Richard Ballo

"Hi! How are things at home? Well, Friday when I was sworn in and they told me I was in the Army. I believe them. Some of the stupid things we do, like at the reception station (first week) got up at 4:30 a.m., get ready and out in formation at 5:00 a.m. so we won't be late for breakfast at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. Out of all the things we did that week, we could have done in one day if we didn't have to 'wait'!!! Know what I mean dad? I guess you must have gone through the same thing in the Navy."

So begins the series of letters from Byron 'Steve' Johnson to his family as he entered into the Army's basic training in September 1966. Twenty months and thirty-six letters later this 20 year old man became one of 498 U.S. service men killed in action in Vietnam during January 1968.

This non-fiction book is based on the actual letters Steve wrote home, his personal induction notices and U.S. Army telegrams his family received, as well as various headlines of the era.

Saved by the Princess Phone by Janice Riddle and Richard Ballo

This memoir reveals a mix of desperation, romance, love and horror, as one woman's strong determination and humor makes the best of the bad situations she lived through, situations so profoundly challenging they would have killed most people.

Janice was married and had her first baby at the tender age of 16. At age 32 with 4 kids under the age of 15, her second husband, Ron, accidentally shot her. Six months later she returned home in a wheelchair; Ron abandoned her and became an alcoholic which sent her spiraling into a depression so dark and hopeless that she decided suicide was her only option. This story is more than just her life’s events. It is the story of the spirit, faith and determination of a woman required to face whatever situation came her way with strength and independence. She sought to be the best mother to her children, from her first as a teenager mother, and later raising the four of them alone while in a wheelchair.

Thirty years later Ron returned clean and sober to make amends - finally vowing to stand by her.

It is a story that will inspire and encourage women and men because no matter what happened to Janice, it didn't diminish her faith in God or herself. Because of her faith, she was able to forgive her cold, emotionless father, and to forgive the man she loved for shooting and abandoning her, and, in the end, to forgive herself.