LaJolla, California – Publishing Gurus announced today from their USA offices located in LaJolla, California that Percy’s Special Gift is the Winner in the Children’s Fiction category of the 2011 Indie Excellence awards, sponsored by the National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

Percy’s Special Gift, written by first-time author, MaryAnn DeSalva of Green Bay, Wisconsin is the first Children’s book published by the Independent Publishing House.

DeSalva states:  “I am so appreciative of the National Indie Excellence Book Awards for this marvelous honor.  Working with Publishing Gurus and their team made my dream come true after so many rejections from traditional publishing houses.  The personal service and commitment from the staff at Publishing Gurus was of the highest caliber – from development of the illustrations to professional editing and assistance with marketing; all done with my input and an actual commitment to success for Percy’s Special Gift.”

This is Percy’s second award. It bagged USA Book News Finalist Award Last year.

What forces, either emergent or centrally planned, have subtly shaped modern American life? With all our wealth and technological progress, are we still free? These questions and more are explored in William Reynolds’s new novel, Sanctify. Sanctify is a passionate love story, interwoven with what is perhaps the most tantalizing murder mystery in American history.

James Ortega was fifteen when his Cuban half-brother Jesus became a buried casualty of Vietnam. Not until he meets his brother’s fiancée, the beautiful and enigmatic Kathy Shine, does James begin to believe his brother is still alive, and the buried casket empty.

James contacts his friend Paul Deland, who has a high position in Naval Intelligence. So begins the search into the past for the mysterious Jesus—a search that forces us to examine our own disturbing times in light of tenuous, yet highly evocative, connections with history. Sanctify interfaces past and present. Paul becomes obsessed with the World War II diaries of James’s father—a thread that runs throughout the novel, as he discovers hints of Jesus’s presence in various places other than Vietnam. Jesus’s trail ends in Laos, where he disappears. James takes Paul through a revisiting of the “Love Generation” and the Sixties, since mixed in the dreamlike experiences of that age are rumored sightings of Jesus. Meanwhile, Paul drives his own identity to an impasse, culminating on September 11, 2001.

Laced with high suspense, Sanctify is at once a comedy, a haunting love story, and a romantic journey into a lost past which, however distant, still exercises its implacable influence on a volatile present.

If you enjoy reading mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, or suspense novels, don’t miss Sanctify, by William Reynolds. See Sanctify’s promotional video on YouTube, and get your copy today on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanctify-1-William-Reynolds/dp/8190969315

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About the Author

William Reynolds was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1951. In 1983 he co-wrote THE MURDER OF CHE GUEVARA. In 2001 he wrote the critically acclaimed World War Two novel THE REICH MUTINY. Mr. Reynolds received his B.A. at the University of Tennessee and holds a Masters degree in English. Mr. Reynolds resides in Tennessee.

After 2 months of non-stop hard work, we have completed the basic designing of our game. The first stage is almost ready.

Creating a basic moving bridge was easier but once confronted with coding a moving lift with vanishing ropes, it became a bit tiresome, but we managed it perfectly at the end.

Graphics took a lot of time, where we combined 3d graphics and a bit of opensource textures to create stunning graphics.

Still few animation and sfx are left before we move on to the hero and enemy modeling and animation in 3d. Oh Yeah, health Bar and life are left too.

Music is composed by Wicked Sunny and is just a mere demo of what we are going to compose. Its not even complete yet. Sunny needs to buy a workstation now for animation and music composing, hopefully within a week.

Next video will be on character modeling.

We still have to name our game.

PGS PLATFORMER GAME –  stage A – Programming.mp4

At Publishinggurus.com we are currently creating a free platformer  game like Mario for Viral advertising of our next book using Flash. This is current video, where most of the basic programming is completed by Wicked Sunny.

We still have to add enemies, enhance our graphics and decide on the game name.

Our Target, Platforms include PC, online browsers and Facebook first.

Later we might shift to Android and Apple as well.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2010

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA - Publishing Gurus announced today from their USA offices located in La Jolla, California that Percy’s Special Gift is an Award-Winning Finalist in the “Children’s Mind/Body/Spirit” category of the “Best Books 2010” awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

USABookNews.com, the premier online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE “BEST BOOKS 2010” AWARDS (BBA) on October 26, 2010. Over 500 winners and finalists were announced in over 140 categories covering print and audio books. Awards were presented for titles published in 2010 and late 2009.

Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Putnam, Rodale, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Moody Publishers, American Cancer Society, Sourcebooks, and hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding BBA competition.

Percy’s Special Gift, written by MaryAnn DeSalva of Green Bay, Wisconsin is the first children’s book published by the independent publishing house, Publishing Gurus, with over 250 copies sold through online and local bookstores.

DeSalva says: “I am truly amazed and overwhelmed in receiving this honor as a first-time author. I sincerely am indebted and grateful to the staff at Publishing Gurus for providing the outstanding illustrations, professional editing, and creative marketing techniques and ideas to help Percy fly. They were always available to me.”

Sunny Kapoor, aka “Wicked Sunny”, Director of Publishing Gurus, stated:“Becoming a finalist was accomplished by our focusing on publishing fewer books, and only those that are meaningful and of high quality.” Sunny illustrated and designed Percy’s Special Gift, which gained him his fourth international award.

For more information on Publishing Gurus please visit:www.publishinggurus.com

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MaryAnn  De  Salva,  author of  Percy’s  Special Gift, visited  San  Diego recently.  Besides  spending  time   with family  members  here, visiting Disneyland, and  enjoying  Southern California’s normally  moderate summer temperatures, Mary Ann made  sure  to  meet  with  Publishing Gurus’ Editor-in-Chief  and  Director of  Marketing.

We  had a delightful  lunch together at one of San Diego’s  many excellent  Mexican restaurants.  Nancy and  I were excited to hear about  MaryAnn’s plans for a sequel to Percy’s Special Gift.

“I have four chapters already completed,” said the  energetic  author. “This time, Percy and his friends will be taking a long and very adventurous trip.”

MaryAnn assured us that she’ll be writing several more volumes in the story of Percy, the little pelican whose special gift enables him to help and protect the ones he loves. Meanwhile, it was a real pleasure to be able to share a congenial meal with one of Publishing Gurus’ authors.  Business matters like marketing and planning new work always go better when good food is involved in the process.

If you are an author who has published a book with Publishing Gurus, and you happen to find yourself planning a trip to Southern California – don’t forget, the USA Office would love to meet you, welcome you – and take you to lunch!