Monday, September 17, 2012

Please, welcome my special guest, author and champion of peace, J. Frederick Arment...



I am so pleased to welcome, J. Frederick Arment, to my blog.  Fred is a talented author whom I greatly admire. You will appreciate 'why' when you read more about his writing and his efforts to promote peace.  


J. Frederick Arment lives with his family and friends in Yellow Springs, Ohio. After an early career as a teacher, Arment founded a successful writing and marketing firm and began lecturing at Wilberforce College and Wright State University. His novels include the philosophical orphan's tale, "Backbeat: A Novel of Physics," and a political thriller, "The Synthesis" (Look for it in January!). His nonfiction work, "The Elements of Peace: How Nonviolence Works," is included in the McFarland Academic Publishers' catalog of peace and conflict resolution selections.

In his not-for-profit work, Arment works in Ohio and around the world with organizations that foster a positive approach to community revitalization. He is one of the founders and served as the first director of the Dayton International Peace Museum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to nonviolent alternatives to community and worldwide conflict. He now serves as the founding executive director of International Cities of Peace, a member association of cities of peace dedicated to encouraging safety, prosperity, and quality of life as consensus values for families, neighborhoods, and nations.

Arment has also served as a first reader for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and on the steering committee for the Salem Avenue Peace Corridor vitalization initiative. He is an adviser for the Unitarian Fellowship of World Peace and their art gallery, the Missing Peace Art Space, which will be hosting the AthensArt International Art Festival, 2014. Recently, Arment was tapped to provide strategic positioning consultation for the Honolulu-based international Center for Global Nonkilling.

Arment was a board member of the Antioch Writers' Workshop and associated with several publishing companies specializing in fiction, including FictionNet and Blue Hot Books. After earning a bachelor of science degree in history education at Wright State University, Arment received a master's in humanities with a focus on the eighteenth-century American and French Enlightenment period. His post-graduate study and publications have focused on the integrated disciplines of philosophy, peace, physics, and community redevelopment.



This guide to nonviolent conflict resolution presents thirty methods of maintaining or achieving peace, each with an in-depth case study. Methods covered, and their real-world applications, include the art of diplomacy (the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords), fair trade (the 1997 fair trade certification agreement), civil disobedience (the civil rights movement in the United States), humanitarianism (the rescue of the Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust), the rule of law (the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia), and peace education (the Nobel Peace Prize), among many others. It concludes with a summary of the methods and the virtues of peace.


A very human tale of love, betrayal, and quantum uncertainty, "Backbeat: A Novel of Physics" is a traditional orphan's tale told in the language of energy. Thanks to Einstein and his colleagues, this innovative novel has the advantage of a world teeming with virtual particles and collapsing probability waves in which orphans can reconcile their past and change the future. Juxtaposing the anarchic lives of New York runaways with the stoic world of physicists, "Backbeat" tells the story of Romey Argasti, a New York runaway who inherits a $2 billion estate, with one stipulation. He must find a lost piece of music written by his mother, a cellist who died soon after his birth. This heartfelt and compelling story is enough to attract any reader, but Arment puts significance into this inspirational novel with a philosophic undercurrent that is both deep and accessible. Skillfully threaded through the mystery and adventure facing the young protagonist are five epiphanies, or intuitive insights, gained from viewing the human condition in the clear light of physics: possibility, connectivity, uncertainty, probability, and spontaneity. Yet for all its attention to science, "Backbeat" is a traditional, character-driven novel with a surprising climax and fulfilling end. With the 100th anniversary of Einstein's theories upon us (in 2005), this innovative novel can shed light on how the new laws and speculations of physics can affect our motivations, actions, and fates. Don't miss this breakthrough work of fiction!


Please, leave a comment for J. Frederick Arment. Every comment is read and appreciated. Don't forget to subscribe either by RSS feed or by email. Hope to see you again soon!

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