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Something About Me and My Book:: I am currently Vice President for Institutional Advancement at a community college. In a past jobs I was a museum director, worked on Wall Street, ran a restaurant, and was a fund raising consultant. I am a published author of three local histories and for 19 years wrote a weekly column on regional history in the Post-Star, the daily paper of the Glens Falls/Saratoga Springs, NY region. For ten years, I also I also wrote an produced a radio program on regional history.

The Burning of The Piping Rock is my first novel. I've self-published under my own imprint, Matchless Books. The novel is based upon the as yet unsolved 1954 arson of the infamous Piping Rock Casino in Saratoga Springs, NY. The casino was owned by mafia members Lansky, Costello and Adonis as a front for a group of New York City/Long Island socialites. When US Senator Kefauver's committee set out to destroy organized crime in America in 1949-51, one of the major areas that ranked with New York City, Chicago and other crime hubs was Saratoga Springs. The Piping Rock Casino featured prominently there.

The basis I describe the novel as a history/mystery. The premise is that in 1987 a dying man tapes his confession of being blackmailed into helping an arsonist burn the casino. The tapes lie undiscovered until 2007, when the man's son finds them. The son transcribes his father's horrifying confession of a his ride with the arsonist to burn Piping Rock.

The novel's narrator, in real life, was my own father. While the arsonist Harry the Torch, existed, the personal history given about Harry the Torch in the novel is fiction. So much of what my father "narrates" in the novel is based upon real history--including the mob, the Saratoga political machine of that era, and his own history. My father put himself through Union College, graduating with academic awards. He was a PT Boat commander who served with distinction in WW II. Unfortunately, he also was involved up to his eyeballs. in the post-WW II crime scene in Saratoga Springs.

The novel is 123 pages long and has been on sale for the last month.

Website:: http://pipingrock.wordpress.com/

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At 10:01pm on June 16, 2011, Author Aleja Bennett said…: Nice to meet you here in the world of book marketing. I'm Aleja Bennett Author of Ten paper backs and eight available on the kindle. Here is my fan page, stay in touch when you can. I know we both may have hectic schedules at times but I will always follow you back. Below is my fan page hope you like it and thanks again for your support it's appreciated very much. http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlejaBennett Enjoy the book video

At 2:15pm on April 3, 2011, Adele Brinkley said…: Hi Joseph, Welcome to the Network. You will meet many interesting folks here. Enjoy this beautiful day! Adele