AND HERE’S OUR BIG ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE YEAR…

And here’s her new book, aka her project:

Death Rides the Sky: The Story of the 1925 Tri-State Tornado

Cover coming shortly; we can’t get it to load right.

Actually, it’s an old book. She wrote this book between 1999 and 2000. And it’s been sitting on the shelf ever since, because of having lost the original publisher shortly after it was done, and then of course being stricken with MS, precluding self-publishing.

But now, thanks to Michael Kleen at Black Oak Media, this long-awaited book is a reality. And folks, this book is KILLER. I’m here to tell you. I was the first one to read it for corrections and content, and when she tasked me with doing this, I thought “**Yawn**  A dry old history book. This is going to zonk me out nightly.” But it did NOT. This is one of the most dramatic, action-packed, emotion-filled books I have EVER read. And I read a LOT. What makes this book so poignant is that the 44 people Ang interviewed who survived the March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado were quite aged at the time she interviewed them…the average age as 83….which means that when this tornado struck, they were but 8 years old. Now imagine taking a group of people who lived through a singular event when they were in the third grade, but being told in the voices of people who’d lived a lifetime with this horror behind them, always haunting them.

You can see why this is a remarkable and unique book.

A lot of people are wondering why Ang opted to be published in her maiden name. When you read the Foreword of the book, you’ll understand, but in short, it’s really because it’s in honor of her family, the Masons of Wayne and Edwards counties, and her grandpa Ross Mason, to whom she was very close, and who was the first person to ever tell her of the storm, and the personal experience he had with it. Plus, when she wrote the book, she was in the process of getting her name changed back from her married name at the time to her maiden name…and just a few months before it was to be published the first time (which was to have been late 2000, almost exactly 11 years ago), she had secured a legal name change, even before we got married. The plan back then was to publish as Mason, as it has been done now.

What we want you to do now is direct yourselves to the book’s Facebook page, where she and Michael have set up some great stuff including a trivia contest, wherein you can win a free book; there have been four trivia questions asked so far, and when the books come in this week, they’ll be contesting to see who gets the first  one. Please “Like” this page and please invite all your friends to “Like” it too.

Also, she has scheduled FOUR book signings for this weekend, and we’d like to invite you to please stop by any one of these, get a book if you’re so inclined (it’s what we in the literary field call a TOME, at 350 pages, with several dozen photos, some never before published—and there’s a story behind that, too—but a helluva deal at $19.95, so bring your twenties), have a cookie (Jade has been working at designing tornado sugar cookies…see Ang’s Facebook page) and obtain a piece of southern Illinois, and indeed Midwestern, history, because this is THE definitive book about the Tri-State Tornado and you won’t be disappointed. The signings are:

Book Emporeum in Harrisburg, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, December 16

Harrisburg Public Library, 3 to 6 p.m., Friday, December 16

Albion Public Library, 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, December 17

Carmi Public Library, 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, December 17

We’re working on getting in at Elizabethtown, DeSoto and perhaps West Frankfort BEFORE Christmas, so there is yet an opportunity to pick up this book as a last-minute Christmas gift, which would be awesome for the readers, historians, or disaster or weather fans on your gift list. Then the wide release is January 1, 2012; but until then, you can pre-order at Amazon, or download at Kindle and Nook at the same link.

The book is finally here….help Ang make it a success….because this is the history of your elders, and your ancestors, and it will always be Illinois history….let’s let everyone know that it’s here.

Shot of Griffin, Ind., after the March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado, showing Red Cross tents set up

Shot of wreckage in DeSoto, Ill., in the days following the 1925 Tri-State Tornado