Spirit Unbroken: The Two Sides of Love received Honorable Mention in the Memoir/Autobiography category at the 2008 DIY Award Festival. Rick and Alice have expressed gratitude and humility in their continued opportunities to tell Alice's story.

For a more detailed update on this award as well as the author’s December Operation Paperback book "give away" for soldiers at Christmas, please visit the blog at www.inkwaterpress.com.

Driven by her life-long dream to find her maternal family in Japan, as a young girl Amy faces the darklings of her demeaning childhood, and as an adult, fights for her life back through self-discovery…and with her newfound heritage.

Imagine if you will --- a beautiful 28 year old lady in Japan; in the middle of the last century and from an affluent family. A Buddhist teacher and yet a spirited woman, who yearns to see the world…and then one day her dream comes true! She is wooed by a US military man during the Korean Conflict and in a matter of time, is married. She has her first child in Japan and then two years later, finds herself heading for America --- the streets paved in gold, pregnant with her second child --- Alice.

Entering through the port of Seattle, she crosses her new country; ten-fold bigger than her native Japan, landing forebodingly in the backwaters and fields of the rural Midwest. There she will not be able to raise her head above the cornfields and cast eyes on Japan again until close to her death, 30 years later. The torch in her quest to rekindle her heritage is passed to her daughter, who fought through an almost prison-like childhood to come out on the other side of the Pacific; her maternal family at last in hand, a half of century later.

Sincerely written, this book is a master of artistry in the telling and passes the ultimate test --- and that is, that this book will continue to be a worthwhile read, long after you’ve put it away on the shelf.