Article Contributed on: 5/6/2007 11:38:41 PM
Lakewood author & Evergreen teen urge readers to "pay it forward" with
The Best Story Ever Told
.
No more Columbines! No more Platte Canyons! No more Virginia Techs!
The road to
safer schools and
safer communities starts here!
The world's best
(and funniest) self-help or gift book is dedicated to
Danielle Wieber, a student at Evergreen High School, and includes a heart-felt
In Memoriam page--a special tribute to the victims of Columbine and to Platte Canyon's
Emily Keyes.
John M. Bartosh, a 59-year-old Colorado native who grew up in Golden and currently lives in Lakewood, has just released
The Best Story Ever Told. Subtitled " The
Wacky Adventures of Sir Wantsalittle Morefromlife," and crossing the genres of humor, self-help, and inspirational fiction, this mostly amusing, thoroughly entertaining, "knight-time" tale represents the most comprehensive, most appealing, character-education book written to date.
The story line for the 224-page, heart-warming story of personal hope is this: A comical but troubled young knight from Camelot journeys into the future; his quest is to feel
and act like a king. Starring:
Tobey Maquire as Sir Wantsalittle Morefromlife and
Jessica Simpson as God--With: Mel Gibson as Willie C. Light,
Kirsten Dunst as Marilotta Light, and Helen Hunt as the Lady of the Lake--Plus: a star-studded supporting cast--
Fun, enlightening reading for all teenagers and adults!
(Excerpt from the book's "Foreword")
As long as human beings may harbor hatred in their hearts, civilized people will be at risk. Violence in schools or elsewhere has no single solution. It simply isn't realistic to think that all or even most of the weapons in the world could be eliminated. The only long-term deterrents against hostile acts of hatred and aggression are to strive to build character in people and instill a strong moral and ethical fiber within each and every culture, primarily through education. More people should put their best efforts toward trying to take
all weapons out of people's
hearts! (end of excerpt)
Although the author admits that
The Best Story Ever Told won't be a cure-all for all of the ills that are affecting society today, including all of the incidents of kids killing kids, Bartosh said, "The thought-provoking episodic narrative will boost attentive readers' self-confidence and self-esteem. Consequently, those individuals will
feel better about themselves. And anyone who truly feels good about himself or herself does
not have the personal desire or the personal incentive to smoke, drink excessively, use illegal drugs, or engage in any form of criminal activity."
Tens of millions of teenagers and adults in this country alone have experienced personal problems associated with illegal drugs, alcohol, smoking cigarettes, poor driving habits, lack of tactful or effective person-to-person communication, difficult opposite-sex relationships, abusive relationships, etc. The author insists that his book offers sound, common-sense advice and practical psychological solutions to all of these important social issues and many, many more.
Bartosh said, "Book racks in libraries and shelves in bookstores are empty in the area of comprehensive, entertaining, self-improvement literature. Generally, my book will make you laugh; sometimes it will make you cry. The self-help genre needs more interesting or more appealing books on the subject of 'character education'--ideally, fictional stories that are also rich in food for thought--books that readers can readily identify with and literature that arouses readers' personal emotions."
The author said, "Only through more appealing and more effective character education will it be possible, through time, to measurably reduce the incidents of crime and violence in America and elsewhere.
The Best Story Ever Told is one such book. Hopefully, this unique self-help book, with its fictional setting, will set a precedent that future authors will want to emulate."
Bartosh also said, "I truly believe that my book, because it will make every reader feel better about himself or herself, can save people's lives. And I am as determined as a Redbone coonhound to bring public awareness to this socially necessary book!"
"Proudly, I dedicated the book to Danielle Wieber, a 17-year-old student at Evergreen High School," Bartosh said. "The astute, perceptive-minded teenager also played an instrumental role in the book's development. Danielle offered several valuable suggestions--ideas that helped me to make the story more suitable and more interesting to teenage readers. For Danielle Wieber's inspirational, motivational, personal nature and for her many worthwhile contributions to this unrivaled literary endeavor, I will forever be most appreciative and thankful!"
In a written testimonial, delivered to the author by e-mail, Danielle said, "John and I were co-workers at the Evergreen Fitness Center in 2005-2006. On January 7, 2006, he gave me a rough-draft copy of his earlier book manuscript. After I read it, John and I discussed the book. Over a period of a few weeks, I gave him a few suggestions--ideas that might make the book more appealing to a younger, high-school-age audience."
Danielle also said, "After I read the revised sections of the book manuscript, I met with the author. I said, ' Wow! John, you have made many significant changes and valuable additions to an already terrific and publicly beneficial story. Your character-enriching book serve, as it did in my case, to build readers' self-confidence and result in their feeling better about themselves."
"I will do everything that I can personally do," Danielle said, "to 'pay it forward'--to get my friends and classmates to read and learn from this generally lighthearted but also most enlightening self-improvement literature."
Finally, Bartosh said, "In time, if enough people read
The Best Story Ever Told and highly recommend it to others, perhaps we can make every effort, through more appealing and more effective character education, to take
all weapons out of people's
hearts. At the very least, if everyone who reads this book would also 'pay it forward,' we would significantly reduce incidents of crime and violence. And our schools and our communities, in the United States and around the world, would increasingly become much safer than they are today!"
The author is pledging a large portion of his net proceeds from this book to various worthwhile public-service organizations, including twenty percent (20%) to the Columbine Memorial Fund to help in the construction and the long-term maintenance of the memorial, which is due to be completed in late June or early July of this year.
John M. Bartosh graduated from Golden High School in 1965. Then he received a B.A. degree in Psychology from Metropolitan State College in Denver in 1971. John has previously authored and successfully marketed two self-published, nonfiction books on the subject of "business leadership":
The Heart of Management and
Practicing Dynamic Leadership in the Workplace.
The Adobe-formatted e-book edition ($9.95) or the custom perfect-bound printed edition ($19.95) of
The Best Story Ever Told is available, either through the author's website at:
http://www.OneSuperBook.com or through the publisher's website. Bartosh's online storefront at Lulu, the publisher, is:
http://www.lulu.com/content/722154
Soon, approximately May 20, 2007,
The Best Story Ever Told will also be available, at least to order, through bookstores, nationwide. Soon after that, approximately June 20, 2007, the book may be ordered at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
To order now or for more information, including a preview of the book, log on to: http://www.OneSuperBook.com