Blue is the new Pink

What did you do last month (October)? Did you participate in a walk/run to raise funds to fight breast cancer? Buy products adorned with pink ribbons that promised donations to the cause? Perhaps (like us) you remembered a family member or friend who lost her life to breast cancer, or maybe you are battling it yourself.

What are you doing this month (November)? While we were participating in a very good cause last month, almost 2,500 men died as a result of prostate cancer, and about 19,400 were newly diagnosed. Unfortunately, many of us don't talk about prostate cancer. It reminds me of the era as I was growing up -- not only was breast cancer never mentioned, it was also mostly taboo to even use the word "breast." We're still in that sort of "unmentionable" status when it comes to prostate cancer and the all-too-frequent side-effects of some of its treatments (incontinence and E.D. - erectile dysfunction). We might joke about these matters, but for the most part we don't really talk about them.

Charlie (a 5-year survivor of prostate cancer) and Diane are proud to be participating once again in Movember, a global fundraising campaign during November of each year to "change the face of men's health." The Movember Foundation supports organizations such as LIVESTRONG Foundation and the Prostate Cancer Foundation in working toward awareness and understanding of the health risks men face, providing treatment and care needed, and accelerate discoveries that lead to interception of lethal disease.

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Join the Wingers in battling prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health issues for men during November/Movember. Throughout the month, we will donate:

$5 per paperback sold through The Winger Bookstore

and

50¢ per e-book sold through Amazon.com

to Movember for sales of the following titles:

Two Shadows - the inspirational story of one man's triumph over adversity (memoir by Charlie Winger)
Faces (novel by Diane Winger)
Duplicity (novel by Diane Winger)
Rockfall (novel by Diane Winger)

We also welcome donations directly to Movember Foundation. Here's a link to our team's fundraising page:  http://mosista.co/WingerBooks

Thanks for your support!

P.S. As a reward for reading all the way to the end, be sure to use this special link for extra low prices on these 4 books:  http://wingerbookstore.com/Movember2014
Of course, our pledge to donate to Movember still applies!

Adventurous Colorado Author Supports At-Risk Youth

Diane Winger donates to Big City Mountaineers

Diane Winger, author of three novels set in Colorado and featuring outdoor adventures such as rock climbing, hiking, and backcountry skiing, is donating part of the proceeds of book sales during the month of June, 2014 to Big City Mountaineers.

Big City Mountaineers takes under-served urban youth into the wilderness to learn skills that improve their lives through increased likelihood of staying in school and reduced violence and drug use. Their curriculum improves integrity, self-esteem, responsibility, decision-making abilities and communication skills in close to 1,000 youth annually.

Winger’s novels, Faces, Duplicity, and Rockfall, are all inspired by her own love of outdoor recreational activities and her 25 years of experience in hiking, climbing, and cross-country skiing. She is also the co-author, with her husband Charlie Winger, of several guidebooks.

Winger has pledged to donate $5 for each paperback copy of her novels sold during June and 50¢ for each Kindle copy. Her books are available in both formats through Amazon.com, and in paperback from her company’s online bookstore, WingerBookstore.com. She will autograph books purchased directly from her website.

“Outdoor activities have played a central part in my life and my experiences have helped me grow and succeed in other aspects of both my personal and professional life. I hope my books inspire others to get outside and experience the natural world around us,” Winger explained. “I commend Big City Mountaineers for their work in transforming how young people relate to others and how they feel about themselves.”

Q & A: Face Blindness -- is it real or did you make that up?

In the novel Faces, the main character -- Jessica -- suffers a concussion following a rappelling accident and realizes she can no longer recognize most people. The condition is called prosopagnosia (pro - soap - ag - NO - shia) or face blindness. Since this is a work of fiction, readers have asked if I invented the condition.


Q: Is prosopagnosia something you made up?

A: In a word: No. It's very real, and I have a mild to moderate form of the condition. I believe I've had it all my life (developmental prosopagnosia), unlike the character Jessica who acquires the condition following a brain injury. Scientists currently believe that approximately 2 to 2.5% of the population shares this condition.


Q: Have you always known you were face blind?

A: No. I didn't realize that I might be perceiving things differently from others until I was in my mid-30s. I was working as a financial planner, which entailed multiple face-to-face meetings with my clients. Long story short -- I had written the wrong client name -- Perkins -- in my appointment calendar, and was in a panic about which client was really going to show up one morning for that meeting. I knew it was highly unlikely that I would recognize my client when they arrived, and realized it would be quite embarrassing and unprofessional to have to ask them for their name. So, I explained my dilemma to my office mates, and asked if one of them could greet the client, ask for their name, and come back to my office to tell me who was out in the lobby.

The funny part about the story is that "Perkins" didn't refer to my client by that name, but to a special breakfast meeting we were having at the nearby Perkins restaurant. However, the incident started a conversation among my co-workers. None of them thought they'd have any difficultly whatsoever recognizing a random client who showed up at our office for a meeting. I found that astonishing. On numerous occasions, I would meet for an hour or more with a new client, focusing carefully on not only what they said but also looking for signs of stress or enthusiasm in their face and body language. We would schedule a followup meeting a week later. My client would walk into my office, and I'd stare at their face in bewilderment. It was very common for me to feel I had never seen this person's face before in my life. I'd recognize their voice and mannerisms, I'd remember lots of details about our conversation without referring to my notes -- but their face was totally new to me.

I didn't know there was a name for what I experienced until just a few years ago. I googled "difficulty recognizing faces" and began reading about prosopagnosia, took some online tests, and realized I had found others who shared my experiences exactly. It was a great relief.


Q: How can I learn more about prosopagnosia?

A: Here are just a few resources on the web:
http://faceblind.org
http://prosopagnosiaresearch.org
http://www.cogsci.mq.edu.au/research/projects/prosopagnosia/
http://prosopagnosic.blogspot.com/
http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prosopagnosia/148254705227784

Do you love books with ALTITUDE? Great news: we're doing a Giveaway!

Summer is winding down and we're getting ready to give away some great prizes.

Enter for a chance -- or multiple chances -- to win one of the following great outdoor adventure publications:

a) A free copy of the paperback Because It's There - a photographic journey

b) A free copy of the AUDIO version of Two Shadows - the inspirational story of one man's triumph over adversity

c) A free copy of the Kindle version of Faces (a novel)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Q & A: How unusual was that climbing accident?

All of our books so far have dealt with outdoor recreation such as climbing in one way or another, and our primary audience has been hikers / climbers / outdoorsy people. With Diane's novel, Faces, as well as Charlie's memoir, Two Shadows, a number of non-climbers are now reading our books. And they have questions. We'll tackle one of them here.

Q: In Faces, Jessica rappels off the end of the rope and falls. Is that a pretty unusual type of accident?

A: Unfortunately, no. In fact, it seems to be a particularly common accident related to climbing. And it's usually a preventable accident.

As a person rappels (or abseils) down a rope, the rope passes through a device attached to their harness in a way that provides friction. With a typical rappel device, if the rope below the climber is pulled downward, that slows the rate of descent (more friction is applied to the system). Note Diane's left hand position. To speed up, the climber might raise the rope away from her hip, which releases a little of the friction in the system.

But if a climber doesn't notice that she is nearing the end of the rope, it might pass through her "brake hand" (Diane's left hand in this case) before she has time to react. Once that happens, most of the friction in the system is released, and the rope will rush through the belay device before it's possible to react. 

In the novel, Jessica was only about 10 feet off the ground, and was fortunate to not suffer even more serious injuries from the fall. Sadly, in real life a number of climbers who have rappelled off the end of their rope were not so lucky. The results can certainly prove fatal.

However, if knots are tied to the ends of the rope, even if the person fails to notice that they're running out of rope, they are quite unlikely to fall when they hit those knots. They have some other problems to deal with, since they may be dangling far above any ledge or the ground, but that's another story!

There are also some other safety precautions to avoid this common accident, but we don't want to turn this into a rappelling manual.

By the way, in the novel, the rope was set up improperly, with one end falling far below the other, making it visually confusing to Jessica to see that there was a problem. This type of accident can also happen if the rope is just plain too short for the cliff. Someone didn't do their homework (two ropes can be tied together for longer rappels). 

Be careful out there and check those knots!

Curious about the storyline of Faces? Here's a sample from the early chapters of the book.

What do Brad Pitt and Oliver Sacks have in common?

Prosopagnosia. They are "face blind" -- they find it very difficult to recognize faces.

Actor Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Fight Club," and numerous other movie roles) recently disclosed that he has this fairly uncommon condition. He shares this trait with neurologist and author Oliver Sacks (Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat). Prosopagnosia is also the central theme of a new novel by Diane Winger called -- appropriately -- Faces.

Although scientists believed for some time that face blindness was extremely rare and only caused by brain trauma, it is now thought that 2 - 3% of the population have this disorder with an impaired ability to recognize faces, and that it can be a developmental problem. The disorder does not impact other types of visual or intellectual functions. In Winger's novel, the protagonist acquires prosopagnosia following a rock climbing accident. In real life, Winger labels herself as "mildly to moderately" face blind, and believes her condition is congenital, not due to any trauma.

"My primary goal with this book is to provide the reader with an interesting, intriguing, and entertaining story, but I also hope to raise awareness and understanding of prosopagnosia with Faces," Winger explains.

Winger is the co-author, along with her husband Charlie, of several guidebooks related to outdoor recreation. While she has been writing nonfiction for many years, this is her first published work of fiction. Faces is available in paperback and for e-readers from Amazon.com and other book outlets.

On Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1484862279/
Order directly from the Author:  http://WingerBookstore.com/Faces