PUBLIC TELEVISION PRESENTS AN ALL NEW SEASON OF PRIMAL GRILL ® WITH STEVEN RAICHLEN

It's new. It's hot. It's Primal Grill^® with Steven Raichlen.

He’s the man who gave barbecue a college education. His books, THE BARBECUE! BIBLE, and HOW TO GRILL (Workman Publishing) are award-winning international best-sellers, with more than a million copies in print in 15 languages. His popular TV shows, BARBECUE UNIVERSITY^® and the French language LE MAITRE DU GRILL, have revolutionized the art of the grill in North America and beyond.

And now Steven Raichlen brings you his biggest, baddest, most comprehensive grilling show yet, with easy-to-follow instructions, close-up step-by-step technique sequences and mouth-watering, in-your-face food shots: Primal Grill^® with Steven Raichlen.

Shot on location at the historic Esplendor Resort at Rio Rico, just south of Tucson, Arizona, Primal Grill features Steven’s trademark teaching style and insights into barbecue culture and history. This year's shows are themed place and occasion, such as “In the Wild,” in which Steven shows viewers how to grill game and other wild foods, and “From the Farm,” which focuses on the best way to grill the fruits and vegetables. Occasion-oriented shows, such as “At the Game,” focus on grilling for sports fans, and “In a Hurry,” for people with more taste than time.

After the sizzling launch of the first Primal Grill (which aired in 95 percent of the PBS markets), the new Primal Grill features all new recipes ranging from chocolate chipotle baby back ribs (Raichlen’s riff on Mexican mole) to a spectacular lomo al trapo, Colombia's singular beef tenderloin wrapped in salt and cloth and grilled right in the embers. Another first this year, Raichlen demonstrates how to spit-roast a whole hog in the style of the Greek Islands.

“When it comes to flavor, nothing can beat meat grilled and served on the bone,” Raichlen explains in “On The Bone,” a show featuring plate-burying, Catalan-style wood-grilled veal chops; Korean butterflied beef short ribs grilled over charcoal; and an olive and rosemary-studded, smoke-roasted Provencale leg of lamb. “If you’ve ever grilled a veal chop or smoked a rack of ribs, you know that meat on the bone has the best flavor,” says Raichlen. “It also takes us back to the time before knives and forks when people had the primal pleasure of eating with their hands and fingers. So connect with your inner caveman.”

Primal Grill^® also features Steven's legendary fireside "chats" about his personal grilling experiences and philosophy, but this year, the chats will focus on his travels around the world's barbecue trail.

Award-winning, best-selling author, founder of the celebrated Barbecue University grilling school at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Steven Raichlen is known as the man who reinvented American barbecue. A former Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow, Raichlen has a degree in French literature.

Visit Primal Grill with Steven Raichlen's website for a sneak preview of episodes to come.

Episodes:

In the Wild

By the Sea

On the Range

From the Farm

On the Vine

Around the Fire

On the Rotisserie

In a Pickle

Up in Smoke

On the Wing

On the Bone

At the Game

In a Hurry

If you are an editor or journalist wishing to cover what is quickly emerging as the hottest cooking show of 2009, please contact me, Susan Schwartzman at 914-776-1380 or sjschwa@aol.com

UPDATE: The Tricking of Freya

Bestselling author Christina Sunley gave a reading from her acclaimed novel, The Tricking of Freya, to a sold-out crowd at Seattle's famous Nordic Heritage Museum.

A powerful debut novel that explores kinship, loss and redemption, The Tricking of Freya deftly weaves together Iceland's distinctive history, ancient mythology, reverence for language, and passion for genealogy.

Many of those in attendance at the reading learned of Christina's debut novel through a review in The Seattle Times Book Review, which we placed and which is an example of what a grass-roots publicity campaign targeted to appropriate audiences can do to spread the word about a book.

Christina is elated and so are we.

And don't forget to take a look at Christina's lovely website, www.christinasunley.com, to learn more about the book and its fascinating author.

If you are a media professional wishing to interview Christina Sunley or review her book, please feel free to contact me, Susan Schwartzman, at sjschwa@aol.com or call me at 1-877-833-4276.

The Tricking of Freya Receives Rave Reviews

The Tricking of Freya, a haunting debut novel by Christina Sunley, has just received rave reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle and The Seattle Times.

The Seattle Times Book Editor, Mary Ann Gwinn, calls The Tricking of Freya "an impressive debut novel" in the tradition of novelists like Jhumpa Lahiri and Junot Diaz that "works on several levels: as a drama of family dynamics; as an immigrant story; and as a showcase for the author's broad and deep knowledge of Iceland" and that offers "an armchair tour of a country of unparalleled beauty and strangeness."

San Francisco Chronicle Book Reviewer Joan Frank writes:

"Some novels, in addition to all else they accomplish, simply make great company" Christina Sunley's first novel is one, packed with delectable relationships and family secrets. It is a travelogue and cultural guide to what strikes most of us as an obscure and mysterious place: Iceland."

Booklist hailed The Tricking of Freya as an "astonishingly accomplished debut." Publishers Weekly praised it as a "grand...lush experience," and More Magazine called it an "instant classic" and "luminous first novel."

The Tricking of Freya is published by St. Martin's Press and is available in bookstores as well as online at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

To interview Christina Sunley or review her novel, please contact Susan Schwartzman Public Relations.

President Obama and the War on Terrorism

Terry Turchie and Kathleen Puckett, former FBI agents and co-authors of HOMELAND INSECURITY: How Washington Politicians Have Made America Less Safe (History Publishing), were guests on KGO's Ronn Owens Show, one of the top talk shows in the San Francisco area on Tuesday, January 6th.

Terry and Kathleen gave their assessment of the latest developments in the war on terror and President-elect Obama's decisions to date regarding national security issues, including the announcement of former Clinton administration bigwig Leon Pancetta's nomination as head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

How safe is America today? What does the future hold for our national security? What has the incoming President already done to keep America safe? What will he have to do when he assumes office this month?

To find the answers, listen to the podcast of Ronn Owen's probing interview with Terry and Kathleen by clicking here.

Rave Review for Nick Stone's King of Swords

The King of Swords by bestselling thriller writer Nick Stone received a rave review in the Chicago Sun Times last Sunday, January 4, 2009.

"...Stone is so gifted at creating intriguing character and suspense that it's impossible to put down," wrote book critic David J. Montgomery.

To read the review in its entirety, click here.

How Safe Is The Food We Eat?

Dr. Lisa Weasel’s FOOD FRAY: Inside the Controversy over Genetically Modified Food (AMACOM; December 2008; $23.00 Hardcover) is a controversial and fascinating look at the global food fight that is changing the way we think about what we eat.

Just how safe are genetically modified foods? More than ten years ago, the first genetically modified foods took their place on the shelves of American supermarkets. But while American consumers remained blissfully unconcerned with the new products that suddenly filled their kitchens, Europeans were much more wary of these “Frankenfoods.” Even when famine struck Africa in 2002, several nations refused shipments of genetically modified foods, fueling a controversy that put the issue on the world’s political agenda for good.

Some of the issues Dr. Weasel explores in FOOD FRAY include:

How politics instead of ethics and science have driven the controversy over genetically modified foods.

How the general public is too often being duped and manipulated by propaganda about such foods.

How a huge campaign by big business to stop labeling foods may ensure that consumers can’t see what is really in the foods they are eating.

Lying beneath the surface of the story of genetically modified food is a deeper and more persistent narrative of how science, ethics, and politics intersect, not just in the US and Europe but in the legions of developing nations where some of the strongest debates surrounding GM food are currently taking place.

For a growing segment of the Americans, issues of where their food comes from, who controls the food supply, and what choices they make at the supermarket loom larger than ever. Consumers have recently staged mass protests against genetically modified foods that are not thus labeled, suggesting that there is strong opposition to such foods. Paradoxically, at the same time, genetically modified food is touted as the way to solve the world’s hunger problem and feed the world’s ever expanding populous poor.

FOOD FRAY separates truth from propaganda, science from science fiction. Dr. Weasel lays bare the reality behind genetically modified food.

WHAT MUST PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA DO TO KEEP AMERICA SAFE?

Now that we have just witnessed a historical Presidential election, one question still lingers:

Are we safer today than we were before 9/11?

In their new book, HOMELAND INSECURITY: HOW WASHINGTON POLITICIANS HAVE MADE AMERICA LESS SAFE, two top former FBI agents, Terry D. Turchie and Kathleen Puckett, explain the threats to our national security and to our civil liberties, and why the United States faces an uncertain future as a result of the very steps Republican and Democratic politicians have taken in responding to the 9/11 attacks and in politicizing the "war on terror." The result, the authors contend, is that the risk of international and domestic terrorism directed against the United States and her citizens has not lessened but instead increased.

Even worse, the next successful attack on America will move the country further from the rule of law and trigger a government response that will endanger civil liberties, handing the terrorists a major victory in their quest to instill fear and change in the way we live our lives.

President-elect Obama can change the course, but only if he acts decisively to reverse the tide of bad decisions made hitherto and does what it takes to make America safe again. Turchie and Puckett outline how the next president can defeat terrorism while still preserving and protecting the greatness of American law and liberty. Among the many topics they discuss include:

• What Obama must do to reverse the war on terror
  
  
• How the political agendas of both parties are primarily responsible for virtually inviting the 9/11 terrorist attacks, not the failure of American law-enforcement or intelligence agencies.
  
  
• How the incoming President can make certain that America's Number One national security issue must be the elimination of the al-Qaeda terror network.
  
  
• How Obama can build a more trusting relationship with the new government of Pakistan.
  
  
• Why the next administration must be aware that building new alliances throughout the world to fight terror may ignite the old sparks of the Cold War with former adversaries.
  
  
• Why it is urgent that we find a way to repair and rebuild the relationship between American and Russia if we are to find alternatives to a confrontation with Iran, the world's premiere sponsor of terrorism.

Publisher's Weekly says Homeland Insecurity offers "fascinating insights...full of intriguing sidelights from inside the bureau." As we begin a new chapter in American history, HOMELAND INSECURITY challenges us to rethink our understanding of national security and our civil liberties.

Terry Turchie and Kathleen Puckett, PhD, are acknowledged experts in the field of terrorism and counterterrorism. Turchie was the driving force behind the capture of the two most elusive and solitary domestic terrorists in US history, including domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. He is a former Deputy Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Division of the FBI. As an author and a principal of TK Associates, LLC, he speaks to hundreds of corporate and law-enforcement groups regarding how to solve complex terrorism cases.

Dr. Kathleen Puckett spent 23 years as a FBI Special Agent, where she was primarily involved in the investigation and analysis of cases involving foreign counterintelligence as well as domestic and international terrorism. Together with Turchie, she was instrumental in the apprehension of Eric Rudolph. She provides behavioral threat assessment consultation to international corporations and governmental security agencies, and is a law enforcement consultant to the Program of Psychiatry and the Law at the University of California at San Francisco. She is a frequent presenter at law-enforcement and mental-health community forums on the psychology of terrorism.

You can learn more about Terry Turchie and Kathleen Puckett at their website, www.tkassociatesllc.com. Or read their recent article in the The Huffington Post.

HOMELAND INSECURITY is published by History Publishing Co, LLC.

Fox Morning Show features Angela Medearis' THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN

The nationally syndicated Fox Morning Show with Mike and Juliet recently featured Angela Shelf Medearis, known to the viewers of her acclaimed PBS Cooking Show as "The Kitchen Diva," demonstrating recipes from her new book THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN (Lake Isle Press; September 25, 2008; hardcover). While she was there Angela also taped a Thanksgiving cooking segment viewers won't want to miss (stay tuned for the date).

THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN is filled with authentic and historic recipes from the American South, West Africa, the West Indies, and Central America, recipes that are a unique blend of African, Latino, West Indian, European, and American foods. In fact, African slave chefs created one of the first "fusion" cuisines in America.

THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN is a splendid testament to the immense contributions African-Americans have made to American cuisine. Angela gives readers an opportunity to explore the multifaceted culinary history within the African-American community and showcases recipes that are at the heart and soul of African-American cuisine.

Visit Angela's website at www.divapro.com to learn more about one of the stars of American culinary art.