Samuel Greengard's, AARP Crash Course in Finding the Work You Love: The Essential Guide to Reinventing the Rest of Your Life (Sterling, 2008) is now available. It offers a practical framework for navigating a mid-life career change and finding work that offers greater meaning and fulfillment.

Feral House published Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture, the fourth book by Damon Brown. The pop cultural look at American sex and technology has gotten praise from Playboy, CNN and Wired.

In October, Lauraine Snelling presented her newest contemporary novel, One Perfect Day (Faith Words), in which one woman's miracle is another's heartbreak, and has returned to Blessing, ND in Rebecca's Reward (Baker Publishing Group/Bethany House), the fourth book in the Daughters of Blessings series.

Florence Isaacs now writes an online column on condolences for www.legacy.com as author of "My Deepest Sympathies: Meaningful Sentiments for Condolence Notes and Conversations, plus a Guide to Eulogies." She has also been quoted recently in The San Antonio Express News, the Orange County Register, Real Simple and Modern Bride.

Matt Birkbeck's latest book, Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob, was published in September by Amistad/Harper Collins. It tells the true story of the seven year investigation to restore the legacy of Sammy Davis, Jr. and resolve his debts, which reached $15 million upon his death in 1990.

Sherry Amatenstein, LMSW, a journalist and adjunct writing professor at New York University and New School, is writing her third book, The Portable Marriage Counselor, for Adams Media. Now a Licensed Masters Social Worker, she specializes in helping artists uncover the roots of their struggle with motivation, self-doubt and self-sabotage.

Emmanuelle Alspaugh has joined Judith Ehrlich Literary Management as an agent.

Psychology Today magazine invited Susan Newman, Ph.D., author of Parenting an Only Child, to blog about raising and being an only child and related parenting issues. Posts under the blog heading "Singletons" are relevant to parents with two or more offspring as well.

Rita Milios' two books due out this fall from Quality of Life Publishing, a hospice-related publisher, include It Was Just Awful, a children's book for ages 6-12 that helps kids heal from traumatic grief. The It Was Just Awful Companion Caregiver/Counselor Workbook offers additional information, exercises, counseling tips and discussion points, correlated page by page with topics from the children's book.

Michael Karl Witzel's new book, Barbecue Road Trip: Recipes, Restaurants, & Pitmasters from America's Great Barbecue Regions, was published in September by Voyageur Press. Witzel takes readers on an eye-opening (and mouth-watering) tour of the histories, techniques, culture, competitions, traditional side dishes, and classic hot spots associated with barbecue's four major regionally based styles.

In addition to book and magazine work, Bob Andelman also hosts the "Mr. Media Interviews" podcast, heard on www.blogtalkradio.com/mrmedia. Recent author guests included Joe Pistone (Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business); Rep. Dennis Kucinich (The Courage to Survive) and Chip Rowe ("The Playboy Advisor").

Jenny B. Davis has left the cold behind, recently relocating from Chicago to Fort Worth, Tex., where she'll juggle freelancing about food and fashion topics with duties as the new editor of Texas Meetings & Events magazine, a style columnist for Dallas Child and Fort Worth Child magazines and a fulltime gig as a senior reporter for Texas Lawyer newspaper. Her latest kids' book is The U.S. Lawyer-Presidents Coloring & Activity Book.

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has been named public affairs director, 2008-2009, at KUCI-FM, where she's hosted "Writers on Writing" for 10 years.