Boston writer Robin Stratton pens a story of questioning, living, dying, and even 9/11 in this look back on the life of someone who lived and breathed that most visual medium: radio.

Mansfield, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/19/2011 -- Blue Mustang Press ( http://www.BlueMustangPress.com ) is pleased to announce Robin Stratton's much anticipated new novel, "On Air" ($14.95 178 pp), is now widely available. During the 1980s protagonist Eric Storm was Boston's hottest radio personality. But it's 2001 and Eric is a full-grown beagle heavier, divorced, and out of work. Complicating matters is Eric's mother. She's getting older and a sudden turn of bad health frightens the unprepared and out of work DJ. Eric's whole world is turned on end when Ma's diary reveals a shocking truth about a life Eric thought he had all the answers for.

Stratton's story deftly resonates with those approaching 50 years of age and who may suddenly find themselves re-examining their lives, their worth and the role friends and family play when faced when life throws them curveball after curveball. Woven into this poignant and touchingly humorous story is the city of Boston and how its community dealt with the questions and doubts raised by 9-11. Stratton skillfully challenges each of us to ask ourselves, "What really matters...and what are we doing about it?"

Robin Stratton is a writing coach in the Boston area, director of the The Newton Writers and Poets Center, editor of "Boston Literary Magazine", and author of "Dealing With Men, Interference from an Unwitting Species & Other Poems", and "The Revision Process - A Guide for Those Weeks, Months or Years Between Your First Draft and Your Last". Her fiction has appeared in "Word Riot", "Poor Richard's Almanac(k)", "Antithesis Common", "Chick Flicks", "63 Channels", "Blink-Ink", "Pig in a Poke", "Shoots and Vines" and many others.

ISBN: 978-1-935199-11-3
178 Pages -- $14.95 - Trade Paperback
Blue Mustang Press - http://www.bluemustangpress.com

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Maryland resident Timothy R. Snyder has penned Trembling in the Balance: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal During the Civil War and brings to light the perilous "life" of the canal during the upheaval of the American Civil War for which it marked the border between North and South.

Mansfield, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/14/2011 -- Blue Mustang Press ( http://www.BlueMustangPress.com ) is proud to publish Timothy R. Snyder's new book Trembling in the Balance: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal During the Civil War. Snyder's lavishly illustrated book tells the story of a canal company's struggle to operate a significant business enterprise in one of the nation's major theaters of war: the actual border between the Union and the Confederacy.

Since the C&O Canal company was located on Maryland's southern border with Virginia, it experienced much of the war firsthand. Due to the proximity of the canal to so many conflicts, large and small, the book includes a great deal of military history in great detail. The canal played a role in major battles, like Antietam and Gettysburg, and in smaller conflicts, such as Ball's Bluff and Stonewall Jackson's raids on Dam Number 5 (the dam was owned by the canal company).

Snyder's work is a fascinating account of this transportation artery during a time of great military upheaval. Research for the book was conducted using primary sources, including the diaries and letters of soldiers, politicians and local residents; canal company records; and period newspapers.

For Snyder, born and raised in Williamsport, Maryland-the traditional mid-point of the Canal-this book is the culmination of over ten years of research and writing that began as the author's M.A. thesis. Snyder notes that while there have been books and articles written on the railroads during the Civil War, until now very little has been written about the role played by canals. The Canal helped sustain the Union war effort, much like its old rival, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, although its contributions have largely been overlooked by historians until now.

Ted Alexander, Chief Historian at Antietam National Battlefield, has said of Trembling in the Balance: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal During the Civil War, "The C&O Canal was a major artery for shipping coal to the east during the Civil War era. This made it a target of every major Confederate incursion north of the Potomac and of numerous smaller guerilla raids. Tim Snyder's Trembling in the Balance: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal during the Civil War is the definitive work on the subject by its leading authority. This book should be required reading for all students of the Civil War in the Eastern Theater."

The book is available through retail book outlets, NPS bookstores along the Canal, and through the publisher's website at: http://www.BlueMustangPress.com.

ISBN: 978-1935199120
364 pages
Retail Price: $22.95
Available to the trade from major book distributors

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