TAMPA, FL (Dec. 4, 2018) – Step into the world of 86-year-old Sammy Levine — and buckle up for a wild journey through the gritty and dangerous streets of New Orleans and into Sammy’s complex past. Making a daring break from his nursing home, he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to make amends for lingering guilt, and soon takes readers along for the ride in an entertaining and engaging new mystery to hit the market, Sammy: The Novel.
What may come as an additional surprise twist is the identity of the book’s author in this unique, coming-of-age road trip – one that features a feisty, often salty and insensitive senior citizen who still has some coming of age to experience in his twilight years.
He is Joel Momberg — a familiar figure around the Tampa Bay area. During his 30 years in executive leadership positions, Momberg raised vital funds as well as the profile of St. Petersburg’s Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of University of South Florida Foundation in Tampa, where he led its recently completed billion-dollar USF Unstoppable Campaign. In addition, Momberg is one of the original founders of Taste of Pinellas and the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon, as well as a writer and producer of Regional Emmy-winning children’s music and a first mystery novel, Home Movies.
Sammy is not your everyday octogenarian by any stretch of the imagination, but Momberg invites us to stretch our own imaginations with a character based on his late father, Sammy, and a high-octane fictionalized adventure his dad might have had. We meet Sammy as a resident of Star of David nursing home, unhappy with his daily existence and dreaming of taking one last trip with his wife Esther, whose ashes he keeps in an urn on the third shelf of his room.
Sammy’s escapades involve an unusual cast of characters – a smart, streetwise stripper with a soft heart beneath her hardened demeanor; Sammy’s musician son who longs to rekindle the magic of his old recording and touring act while keeping tabs on his wayward dad and helping his career-minded daughter; an array of despicable street thugs; and one very special urn.
Sammy: The Novel is also the tale of a father and son who long-ago drifted apart and took one another for granted as they grew older and faced their own mortality. Yet they gradually come to bridge that widening gap as the secrets of Sammy’s hidden past and new life come into sharp focus. And the high-octane action careens into a surprise revelation that makes this story about an old man on a mission to make things right more than you’d ever imagine.
The novel is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2zIT4Ad.
About Joel Momberg
When Joel Momberg isn’t pounding out a mean New Orleans-flavored boogie-woogie on the nearest piano, he’s setting the tone as Chief Executive Officer for the University of South Florida Foundation. But Momberg’s hands have done far more than shape the historic direction of the recently completed billion-dollar USF Unstoppable Campaign, or raising money and raising the profile of All Children’s Hospital into a community treasure during his 30 years in executive leadership positions – helping create iconic events such as the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon, the Taste of Pinellas and Regional Emmy-winning children’s music.
They have been busy working the keyboard of his trusty laptop to produce his second novel, Sammy, a lively and unique mystery set in his native New Orleans. It follows his 2013 debut novel, Home Movies, a whodunit that unfolds on the familiar territory of St. Pete Beach. Momberg resides in St. Petersburg with wife Debbie, and has three children – Nicole, Alissa, and Josh – and three grandchildren (two more are on the way!) Both books draw from Momberg’s rich life experience with engaging plot lines and characters from his fertile imagination.
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Book Information— Sammy: The Novel”
By Joel Momberg
Hardcover: 198 pages, 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
Published by: Born Young Publishers (November 12, 2018)
www.iwasbornveryyoung.com
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0578407884
ISBN-13: 978-0578407883
For review copies & interview requests contact: Betty Carlin, betty.carlin@outlook.com, 813-727-8782