If I Knew Then What I Know Now: The Clarity that Comes With Cancer and Age

If I Knew Then What I Know Now: The Clarity that Comes With Cancer and Age

Carol Ann Cole

Nonfiction: Autobiography, Cancer, Medicine
$19.95
192 pages
6" x 9" paperback
ISBN: 978-1-897426-12-8

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Carol Ann Cole writes of her incredible journey, the path she has walked from ages 16 to 60. She writes of the clarity that comes with age and, in her case, a recurrence of breast cancer 16 years after her initial diagnosis. In 1992, Carol Ann and her mother both battled cancer at the same time. In 2008, Carol Ann continued to learn from her mother as she faced this killer disease without her mother by her side.

In intimate and sometimes heartbreaking detail, Carol Ann provides insight into a woman's emotions and fears following a routine mammogram and ultimately a clean bill of health. Not taking herself too seriously, she shares the lighter side of her breast cancer recurrence and finds a way to lift your heart as you read her story. You will never view a mammography machine or an operating room the same way again.

The author speaks of her Comfort Heart Initiative fundraiser that is alive and well many years after being launched in 1998. There are more than 228,000 Comfort Hearts in the hands of people in Canada and around the world, and some of their stories are collected here. Carol Ann also includes stories from others who have opened their hearts to share their challenges of retirement, cancer and mental illness. The author writes of her own battle with depression and how she reached out for help.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now includes Carol Ann's passion for family, honesty, helping others, the bond of friendship, battling and beating cancer one more time and much more. If you are looking for that special book that will give you hope and courage, this is the book for you.


Carol Ann Cole is an author (Lessons Learned Upside the Head: From Boardroom to Bedroom - Career to Cancer and Beyond), a professional speaker and the founder of the Comfort Heart Initiative. She is a member of the Order of Canada and has received numerous additional awards including the Golden Jubilee Medal, the elite Maclean's Honour Roll and the Terry Fox Citation of Honour, to name a few. Carol Ann's website is www.carolanncole.com.

Age of Heroes: A Boy, a Prince and the 1797 Wreck of La Tribune

Age of Heroes: A Boy, a Prince and the 1797 Wreck of La Tribune

John Dickie

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History, Sailing Ships, War
$19.95
192 pages
6" x 9" paperback
ISBN: 978-1-897426-11-1

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Age of Heroes documents one of Nova Scotia's greatest sea tales. It comes from the golden age of fighting sail, the so-called "age of heroes," which has long drawn audiences to books like Master and Commander and the Horatio Hornblower genre of nautical fiction.

France's La Tribune frigate fell to Britain's HMS Unicorn after a moonlit sea battle fought off Ireland's coast. The humbled warship was added to the Royal Navy lists when admirals like John Jervis and Horatio Nelson were defending England's shores from invasion and her sea lanes from attack by revolutionary France. Tribune was ushered into British service during the turmoil of the Spithead and Nore mutinies, her crew a collection of young English, Irish and Scots eager to fight for King and Country, as well as for their own glory.

Unfortunately, HMS Tribune was mistakenly run aground by her sailing master while entering Halifax harbour on November 23, 1797. During the attempt to escape from her rocky prison, Tribune was caught in a horrendous storm and ultimately sank at night with the loss of more than 240 souls. Only a 13-year-old orphan fisher boy from nearby Herring Cove dared to row his tiny skiff into the jaws of the tempest to save British sailors stranded on the wreck. Impressed by his selfless act, Prince Edward, the future father of Queen Victoria who was residing in Halifax at the time, rewarded the young boy for his brave deed. In this true tale of valour, the legend of the hero fisher boy lives on more than two centuries after his part in one of Canada's most compelling sea stories.


John Dickie holds MSc and MBA degrees in geology and international business development. Exploration work led him from the mountains of the Yukon and Alaska, through the deserts of Mexico and jungles of Vanuatu, to offshore Nova Scotia. A senior management role continues to take him to such places as Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, France, Scotland, Mexico, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, though his love for the North Atlantic and his passion for underwater exploration keeps him in his native Nova Scotia. John resides in Halifax with his two young children.

Skipper: The Sea Yarns of Captain Matthew Mitchell

Skipper: The Sea Yarns of Captain Matthew Mitchell

Frances Jewel Dickson

Nonfiction: The Sea, Oral History
$15.95
112 pages
6" x 9" paperback
ISBN: 978-1-897426-10-4

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Skipper Matthew Mitchell was born on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland in 1917. Now a lively 92-year-old, he looks back on his lifelong relationship with the sea, from wooden dories to steel trawlers, to shore captain at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The author has gathered his many stories into this exuberant volume.

Captain Mitchell's keen memory spares no details of his exceptional life and his recollections vibrate with his colourful native Newfoundland vernacular. We follow him from a boy of 12 watching his native village of Port au Bras devastated by the earthquake and tidal waves of 1929 to learning the secrets of salt fishing and preserving from his father and uncles. Later he is recruited on numerous schooners beginning at the age of 14, eventually taking command of fishing trawlers based in historic Lunenburg. He began his life at sea fishing in two-man dories, braving the rigours of the North Atlantic. Nova Scotia-based schooners took him to Lunenburg during the Great Depression, where he lived in boarding houses until he married and started a family in his adopted town. He fished through World War II, facing new dangers with submarines lurking off the East Coast. He would take command of his first fishing trawler when the captain of the Cape North retired.

When the sea agreed to let him go after 45 years, he was hired as shore captain at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, where he would remain for another 30 years. As shore skipper he entertained thousands of visitors from all over the world with stories of the bygone days of sailing fishing vessels, when he and thousands of other fishermen risked their lives repeatedly to earn a modest living. Captain Matthew Mitchell's captivating memoirs stand as a monument to the era of wooden ships and iron men.


Frances Jewel Dickson, a native of Quebec, has lived on Nova Scotia's South Shore since 1987. She has held management positions in human resources administration, written personnel policy for the Speaker of the House of Commons and led audit teams in evaluating the performance of government departments across Canada. Her first book, The DEW Line Years: Voices from the Coldest Cold War, was published in 2007 by Pottersfield Press.

Death Ship of Halifax Harbour

Death Ship of Halifax Harbour

Steven Edwin Laffoley

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History, Medicine $19.95
192 pages
6" x 9" paperback
ISBN: 978-1-897426-09-8.

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"On an uncomfortably muggy morning in early autumn, I found myself standing at the far end of a wide, battered wharf in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia, looking for a man in knee-high, white rubber boots answering to the name of Captain Red Beard.

"I'd come in search of a death ship, or at least the historical whispers of a death ship - an elegant old steamer that limped into Halifax harbour during the early hours of April 9, 1866, with more than a thousand Irish and German emigrants squeezed into its cramped, creaking holds. And I'd come in search of what travelled with them and, in fact, inside many of them: Asiatic cholera. And, finally, I'd come in search of the intertwining tales of those lives inexorably changed by history's worst cholera epidemic, which killed tens of thousands from Mecca to Manhattan to McNab's Island in the mouth of Halifax harbour."

So begins another strange and surprising adventure of writer Steven Laffoley as he explores historic McNab's Island in search of Halifax during its time of cholera.

As he investigates the rich history of the island and searches for clues to the many dark cholera-ship tales, Steven confronts the nature of fear and the fear of nature, including fetid marshes, abandoned buildings, a berry-mad bear, a love-starved beaver, a gaggle of naked maidens, and two drunken revolutionaries just looking for some fun. Death Ship of Halifax Harbour is a fascinating and engaging tale of fate, fear and hope.


Steven Laffoley has been a curriculum writer, a university professor, a school principal, and a dues-paying member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. A freelance writer, columnist and broadcaster, he is the author of Mr. Bush, Angus and Me and the award-nominated Hunting Halifax: In Search of History, Mystery and Murder, in which he investigates a 150-year-old murder. He lives with his wife and daughter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Canadian Angels By Your Side

Canadian Angels By Your Side

Karen Forrest

Nonfiction: Angels, Spirituality
$15.95
112 pages
ISBN: 978-1-897426-08-1
6" x 9" Paperback

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Do you believe in angels? Canadian Angels By Your Side is a collection of heartwarming angel stories from people across Canada. These are personal stories about events ranging from everyday encounters to profound moments of healing. These Canadian angel encounters will make you laugh, make you cry, but above all inspire you. Did you ever wonder how to personally make contact with your angels? Following each story is relevant, angelic information to assist you in connecting with your angels.

Read about loving angel messages, heartfelt prayers and meaningful angel tips. Learn how you can summon angels in your daily life and how to ask for and recognize their divine guidance. The book is written in a conversational, down-to-earth way by Karen Forrest, author and internationally recognized Angel Therapy Practitioner. Through her practice, Karen progressed from just simply believing in angels to experiencing angels in her daily life. Learn how to invoke Archangel Raphael, how angels visually appear to you and how to send angels to other people. Read comforting messages from your angels reassuring you your deceased loved ones are at peace. Learn how to free yourself of your fearful thoughts and enjoy safe travel.

Focusing on inspiration and faith, Canadian Angels By Your Side encourages you to make contact with the angelic/divine realms to lovingly guide and heal you in all aspects of your life. Transcending various religious and spiritual beliefs, the book focuses on personal connections to angels and God. Read the stories, follow the offered insights and begin leading a life of peace, love and purpose.


Karen Forrest, BN, CD, Angel Therapy Practitioner (certified by Doreen Virtue), is the author of Angels of the Maritimes By Your Side. She is a motivational speaker and radio co-host and has received extensive spiritual training. A retired mental health nursing officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, Karen works from a diverse background. With a vision of assisting people to personally connect with their angels and God in honouring their life purpose, Karen offers private angel/medium readings and workshops through her practice, Words of Wisdom Counselling. She counsels and heals with a heart of compassion. Karen's website is www.karenforrest.com.