WORDS OVERCOME ADVERSITY PRESS RELEASE FOR "A RADIO STORY" BY DAVID YONKI. Words Overcome Adversity It was a beautiful sunny late summer day in September of 1999 when David Yonki’s life would change forever. His vehicle, hit from behind by a motorist, caused Yonki to suffer a back injury that required him to take years of therapy. As a result of the incident, Yonki walks with the assistance of a cane. The prognosis for a full recovery is very limited. At the time of the accident, Yonki was employed as a successful radio sales representative, had started a part time job at the Call Center on South Main Street in Wilkes Barre and went to the Thomas Saxton Pavilion every morning for a two hour workout before his day began. From the beginning, David was concerned that he wasn’t bouncing back from the injury. As time went on, David noticed that the effects of his accident were taking a toll on him physically. He left his broadcast sales career because of the constant pain and worked full time at the Call Center after having been promoted as a Trainer at the facility. The new position gave David the opportunity to not only learn the nuances of computer skills he was missing but also a way to teach new employees about the fast paced information age. In early 2002, he and 12 other managers were laid off by the Call Center’s new ownership, Customer Satisfaction First. That company would later bankrupt the facility and skip town without paying any of its remaining employees. Within a week of his leaving the Wilkes Barre Call Center, David began work at Travelocity.Com where he has been employed ever since his downsizing. As time went on, the pain from the accident began to increase. Seeking opinions from numerous doctors, the diagnosis finally arrived at was Inoperable Discogenic Disease of the Lumbar spine with Multiple Herniated Discs. A regimen of physical therapy as well as a series of prescriptions to pain killers and spinal injections were ordered for treatment. Choosing to go easy on the prescription meds, Yonki chose to deal with the pain head on. That decision had consequences. With no prescription meds, there would be more pain. Usually that pain came in the night time hours after a full day of work or activity. “The only way to describe it is as if you had a charley horse that went from your neck all the way down to your feet, almost a constant spasm” related Yonki. Unable to sleep, Yonki woke up in the middle of the night and began writing short stories on his home computer. Within a few months, he noticed he had 32 word documents saved on his computer. All the stories were related to his days in broadcasting. Inspired, he turned those word documents into a novel. That book, “A Radio Story”, sub titled “We Wish You Well In Your Future Endeavors” follows the trials and tribulations of a radio sales rep that faces moral choices every day of his life and fails at them miserably. “The characters in the book are composites of people I have met along the way in my broadcasting career, the story is just something that developed in my head over time. I took the short stories I wrote and then built an outline around them” said Yonki. Any author will tell you the easy part is writing the book. The hard part is refining it. “Well” as he refers to this project has been through 7 re-writes, has been copied more times than a Fendi purse knockoff, survived the crash of his hard drive which eliminated all of the documents, the regeneration of those lost articles as well as thousands of opinions on how to write the book from his old Radio and TV buddies. After two years, the novel has just been published and is now available in local book stores. It can also be bought by contacting Alubirp Publications or the author at Alubirp54@aol.com. Plans for a national internet campaign are also in the works. David has also completed a mystery novel set at the Call Center in Wilkes Barre as well as a “Rules of Life” book which are currently being shopped around. Another project, dubbed “Christmas Cards” centers around the lives of two major entertainment figures who are forced to return to the hometown they both left to take care of their aged mothers. “A Radio Story” is available at Tudor Books stores in Kingston and Clarks Summit, Barnes & Noble in Wilkes Barre, the KRZ 98.5 website on the Shadoe Steele page, and at ALUBIRP54@AOL.COM. Writing a book has not only given David a second career but has also aided him in his recovery from his accident. It has shown him that anything is possible and that any adversity could be overcome. In this case, words overcame the adversity.