New from Pratt Davis: Walking on Holy Ground, Essays on Being Present to the Mystery of Life that Surround Us.
Part Opening page featuring a photo by Pratt Davis.
Walking on Holy Ground is a collection of individual essays, “that invite readers to look at the ordinary surroundings of their lives through a contemplative lens. The essays ask us to a slow read, not a quick read, where we can sit with, think about, and chew on the thoughts shared in them. Each essay gives us a glimpse of the Mystery that surrounds us and the Meaning that runs like a thread through our lives. We are asked to stop, look closely, and appreciate the world around us. We are encouraged to see below the surface of our lives and experience the Mystery and Meaning for ourselves.”
We added images by the author, stock photography and one of our own photos (page 5, New River) and provided cover and interior page design for the project.
Imaging Specialists has always helped with graphics for the series, but this year, we’ve been editing the episodes, as well. We’ve also added photography to help illustrate the stories and we created new title and credit sequences with the help of local broadcast personality, Sonia Joines.
AHGS revived the popular series in 2017 after receiving a grant from the Alleghany Community Fund, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation. Alleghany Community Television has partnered with the Society to photograph and broadcast the series and the Alleghany County Library has hosted two live tapings of interview sessions.
ACTV also hosts the programs at ACTV.ME, a web site that provides live streams of the episodes, anytime, worldwide. To date, the six finished shows from the 2017 season have been accessed 1303 times and have been viewed a total of 115 hours, online.
A group from the Annual Hillbilly Show is interviewed in the Duncan Meeting Room at the Alleghany Public Library.
Shows, this year, have featured Hugh Hash; Lucy Roe and Doris Stoker; Amos Wagoner, Jr. and Mayor John Miller; Sue White, Cordia Truitt and Billie Caudill; and two episodes with Una Lindh. We are currently editing an interview of a group of Blue Ridge Opprtunity Commission “Hillbilly Show” performers that includes Helen Crouse, Agnes Joines, Gary Joines, Jean Osborne, Gary and Bobbie Parlier, and 2017 Possum Queen, Nancy Hall.
Interviews can be taped almost anywhere in the County and subjects can choose their interviewer. For more information about Alleghany Memories, please contact Lucy Roe of the Historical Society at 336-372-4942.
ISI is proud to have helped with layout and prep for the new book, Grandpa! Grandpa! What Will I See? by William P. Bahlke, illustrated by Lothar Speer.
The somewhat autobiographical book features a fantastical conversation between a little girl and her Grandpa. He tells about events that he’s witnessed in his life and they speculate about what she might see in her own lifetime.
Bill and Meda Bahlke live in Laurel Springs, North Carolina, part of the year and in Key West the rest of the time.
The book is beautifully illustrated from the imagination of Lothar Speer, a friend of the Bahlkes who divides his time between Key West and Chicago.
Originals and our pages (!) are currently on display in the XOJ Gallery at The Studios of Key West at 533 Eaton Street in Key West, Florida. For more information, call: 305-296-0458 or email: info@tskw.org
A hippo playing hide-and-seek…
The books are available in softcover, hardcover and Kindle edition, now, just in time for Christmas at Amazon.
Little Kimber Rose hugs the Easter Bunny who might someday crash her Birthday Party.
We’ve been busy getting ready for the Western Piedmont Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s visit in September.
With apologies to Bugs and the gang, ISI created poster art that might look, to some, a little… um… “looney.” Look for table tents and flyers in the coming weeks for this important fund-raiser to benefit the Alleghany Educational Foundation.
Saturday, November 5th, the North Carolina Society of Historians held its annual awards banquet in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Imaging Specialists, Inc. was well represented this year- 5 books published by ISI won awards.
We won a Historical Book Award for Brinegar Cabin, An Historic Resource a reprint of Barry Buxton’s Historic Resource Study produced for the National Park Service.
Connie Miller’s Winds of Harmony and Healing, My Journey Home by Meachele Mothership Montgomery also received a Book Awards, as did the reprints of the 1947 and 1949 Sparta High School Yearbooks, we produced for Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society.
Imaging Speicalists was recognized with a Publisher’s Award this year, as well. Only two were awarded out of 14 eligible entries.
We received two Multimedia Awards: one for the 2016 Edition of Emma Jean’s Blue Ridge Almanac and another for the photographic exhibit, Alleghany Images, that we produced for the Alleghany Historical Museum in the fall of 2015.
The newsletter for the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society also won its eighth consecutive award from the NC Society of Historians. Imaging Specialists publishes the AHGS quarterly newsletter.
New from Pratt Davis: Walking on Holy Ground, Essays on Being Present to the Mystery of Life that Surround Us. 
