Come with award-winning newspaper reporter, author and ham radio operator Joel Thurtell as he spins the tale of how mice invented radio to save themselves and their friends the moles, voles, shrews, groundhogs, badgers and yes, even a blue racer, from death by development. Humans are plowing up meadows and bulldozing trees so they can build houses, shopping centers, gas stations and all kinds of human constructions that displace wildlife. Enter Hannibal, the wise old field mouse who engineers a system to warn the animals of dangerous human activity. Hannibal's disciple, Arthur Mouse, is Hannibal's loyal foot soldier. At great danger from hawks, snakes, owls and a cat, Arthur steals books and materials from a ham radio operator so the mice can learn how to build their early warning radios. MOUSE CODE is aimed at entertaining both through its unique, exciting story and by offering young people Morse Code as a "secret" language for talking among themselves.. Says veteran ham operator George Petrides Sr., "One test of a story I have always liked is to read it out loud. MOUSE CODE scores a 10 in that category." Petrides read MOUSE CODE to his 10-year-old grand-daughter, Kaelyn, and reported that she "was instantly captivated by the characters, the plow, the letters V and B, the pompous words, the plight of the mice and (was) able to follow the plot with no difficulty. She could define all of the more difficult words in her own words so she learned vocabulary too. We're already having fun communicating in simple Mouse Code." Joel Thurtell received his first FCC ham radio license in June, 1959. His amateur radio call sign, KN8PSV, became K8PSV when he went from Novice to General class ham license in 1960. He now holds the Advanced class ham license. He also was licensed by the government of Togo as 5V7JT and operated in that West African country in 1990. Thurtell is a member of the American Radio Relay League and has written several articles about vintage radio for ARRL's journal, QST as well as Electric Radio and CQ. A newspaper reporter for more than thirty years at the Detroit Free Press and the South Bend Tribune, Thurtell has written often about ham radio. There is a ham radio category on his blog, joelontheroad.com, named "best example of an independent blogger raising hell" by MetroTimes, Detroit's alternative newspaper. He was named 2011 Journalist of the Year by journalism faculty at Wayne State University. He is the author of UP THE ROUGE PADDLING DETROIT'S HIDDEN RIVER, published in 2009 by Wayne State University Press. Hardalee Press produced an audio version of UP THE ROUGE Other books by Thurtell from Hardalee Press are, PLUG NICKEL, a collection of essays about restoring wooden sailboats; SEYDOU'S CHRISTMAS TREE, the story of how a Muslim youth taught him and his wife important lessons about Christmas when they were Peace Corps volunteers in Togo; SHOESTRING REPORTER, a how-to book for aspiring journalists with the subtitle, HOW I GOT TO BE A BIG CITY REPORTER WITHOUT GOING TO J SCHOOL AND HOW YOU CAN DO IT TOO ; and his debut novel, CROSS PURPOSES, OR, IF NEWSPAPERS HAD COVERED THE CRUCIFIXION. MOUSE CODE Hardalee Press ($) ISBN: 978-0-9759969-4-2 LC: 2009906763

CROSS PURPOSES, OR, IF NEWSPAPERS HAD COVERED THE CRUCIFIXION, is a hilarious, biting satire on the news industry.Who would have thought of transporting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ into the present and assigning American newspapers to cover the story?Award-winning newspaper reporter Joel Thurtell has achieved a literary tour de force with his portrayal of this journalistic challenge in his debut novel, CROSS PURPOSES, in which the first Good Friday takes place in the present. CROSS PURPOSES is about a fictional Detroit daily that fumbles coverage of the Greatest Story. The antics of Detroit Filibuster reporters, editors and photographers are similar enough to actual newspaper behavior and mindsets to explain why the newspaper industry is in chaos."It's not all the fault of the Internet," says author Thurtell. "Stupidity and lack of common sense are huge."Writes veteran Los Angeles Times sports columnist Mike Downey: "A Detroit newspaper covers the crucifixion Stop the presses Now there's a story you don't see in the media every day "Before his death, Detroit Free Press managing editor and publisher Neal Shine read CROSS PURPOSES and told Thurtell: "Really enjoyed it. All you need is an imprimatur from the Church of Rome."CROSS PURPOSES, subtitled, IF NEWSPAPERS HAD COVERED THE CRUCIFIXION, begins with tongue in cheek, but quickly grows deadly as the stakes increase before the eyes of news gatherers blinded by prejudice, greed and ambition. Filibuster religion writer Daley Strumm encounters Filibuster-created obstacles as he tries to report the story.Thurtell was a newspaper reporter for more than thirty years at the Detroit Free Press and South Bend Tribune. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in school and well construction in Togo, West Africa. His blog, joelontheroad.com, was named "best example of an independent blogger raising hell" by MetroTimes, Detroit's alternative newspaper.CROSS PURPOSESRelease date: April 22, 2011 Hardalee Press ($25)ISBN: 978-0-9759969-6-6LC: 2010913331For review copies and orders, contact: Adam Fonde, Promotion Director1759 Hillhurst AvenueSuite 4Los Angeles, CA [email protected] interviews, contact: Joel [email protected]

"Seydou's Christmas Tree" is the true story of how a Muslim youth in Togo, West Africa, taught his two American Peace Corps volunteer friends the true meaning of Christmas by leading them through what they thought was a barren wasteland, then showing them a field that opened their minds to what it means to find a Christmss tree in the sub-Sahara.

We need Journalists who are independent thinkers.Could this be you?In SHOESTRING REPORTER, Joel Thurtell shows how you can get professional writing experience without paying for an expensive college Journalism degree.SHOESTRING REPORTER explains how any intelligent, literate person, with hard work, can be a practicing Journalist. Thurtell has taught Journalism. He was a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years. Yet he has never taken a class in Journalism.He's written for The New York Times, The Progressive, Planning Magazine, National Fisherman, The Detroit News, Indianapolis Star, Grand Rapids Press, South Bend Tribune and for 23 years, he was a staff writer with the Detroit Free Press.Never took a Journalism class.Want to be a Journalist?Forget J school.Do it yourself -- with SHOESTRING REPORTER

Plug Nickel is a collection of columns written by author Joel Thurtell about the trials and tribulations of restoring a wooden Lightning sailboat. The "boat" was actually a mold used to make fiberglass boats in the 1960s through 1980s, but it just happened that the mold was the last wooden Lightning sailboat made by boat builder Nickels & Holman. hence the name. It was a male mold, and male molds are nicknamed "plugs." Hence the name, "Plug Nickel." The columns were originally published in the Lightning "Flashes," a publication of the International Lightning Class Association. The essays deal with the how-to of restoring wooden boats, the psychology and philosophy of collecting and fixing antique and the problem of time spent away from family because of an obsession. The book emphasizes trying to restore a boat economically, or "on a shoestring.' It's important to note that the author, Joel Thurtell, was a newspaper reporter and not a trained woodworker. Much of his how-to information is spiced with his own take on how to make things work on a sailboat when the fixer is a layman with no special boatbuilding training.