Welcome to Galactic Axia
Jim Laughter
Jim would love to hear from you. To email him, please click on his picture. If it doesn't fall off the page, it will get to him.
If you are a teacher and would like to schedule Jim to visit your class or assembly, please email him and we'll try to work it out.
Click on this picture to visit Jim's personal website ... www.jimlaughter.com
The Love Of My Life for 40 years
Wilma Laughter
Jim stays busy doing book signings and personal appearances. You may see where he'll be by visiting our Book Signing Events page, or by visiting his site at booktours.com. He'd love to meet you, and sign a book for you.
If you've been following this site, you know that for several months of 2009, Jim got involved in a project that different from the Galactic Axia series with Victor. Although this series is still our first priority, Jim wrote a new book covering the 1972 kidnapping of 7-year-old Steven Stayner in Merced, California.
The new book, From Victim To Hero -- The Untold Story of Steven Stayner, covers the life of Steven Stayner, but instead of focusing on the molestation that he suffered at the hands of pedophile Kenneth Parnell, this book focuses on Steven's heroic effort to save another kidnap victim, 5-year-old Timmy White from the same fate he suffered for seven years. After Steven's escape from Parnell, he went on to speak at elementary schools and other venues about the dangers of children speaking to strangers and getting into their cars. He was truly a hero, and lived a heroic life until his untimely death in 1989.
This book went into production in mid-September 2009. and released on April 20, 2010. It is available in bookstores and all online bookseller sites. The fastest was to receive either your paperback or eBook copy is to click on this cover. Please enjoy the prologue from this new book at the bottom of this page.
Released
April 20, 2010
click on this cover to order
Also available in Kindle
Steven Stayner and Timmy White after the rescue, March 2, 1980.
The following link is for a UTube video clip about Steven Stayner. Please overlook several spelling errors (Pernell instead of Parnell), and one or two pieces of information is wrong. I did not create this clip or write the text, but overall it's pretty good. Jim.
UTube clip about Steven Stayner
Update:
From Victim to Hero has received endorsements from several national and international child safety advocacy groups, including SafetyKids.org and the Surviving Parents Coalition. We've also received an endorsement from Paula Slater, the internationally famed sculptor creating the statue for the Steven Stayner and the Missing Children's Memorial being unveiled in Merced, California in June or July 2010.
Endorsements...............
From Victim to Hero compellingly shares the selfless heroic nightmare of Steven Stayner; educating parents on issues they must know and be aware of. Steven’s story inspires and exemplifies the goodness and strength within the human spirit. The trauma experienced by the family is shared, giving insight of the impact on the marriage, children, and friends. Whether in abuse or abduction, From Victim to Hero portrays the grooming, lying and strategies used by predators to convince and coerce their victims into compliance. This book reiterates the three principles victims must realize – 1. Nobody has the right to hurt you. 2. It’s not your fault. 3. You don’t have the right to hurt others. Buy this book. Share it with your children. Keep them safe.
Ed Smart (father of kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart)
President, Surviving Parents Coalition
As the director of an agency that addresses abduction, abuse, and violence against children, I had the pleasure to work with Steven on a television show. He had a tremendous impact on my work to protect children. He implored me to share his story at my seminars and to encourage parents to stress to their children that they will be loved unconditionally. It doesn’t matter what has happened, what the child has done, or what someone else has done to the child; the love and acceptance will still be there. He felt this is critical to a child’s hope and behavior in a situation of abuse. Steven was a young man of great courage and compassion---courage to help Timmy return home and compassion to help other children and parents know how to be personally safe. I have shared his request for over twenty years and hundreds of thousands have been affected by his life; a life that was cut short, but yet continues to impact others. In this book, From Victim to Hero, Jim Laughter expresses Steven’s heart. and brings to light the extraordinary spirit of a young man that endangered himself because he believed it was the right thing to do.
Diane L Brown, Founder/Director
Safety Kids, Inc.
www.safetykids.org
PROLOGUE
Let’s be very clear about one thing right from the onset of this book. Steven Stayner was a victim! Steven was a 7-year-old boy that was abducted by a monster, Kenneth Parnell, on Monday, December 4, 1972. Parnell tortured, abused, sodomized, and raped little Steven over a 7-year period of time. Steven suffered every form of hell a human being could possibly endure while all the time being told this was a common event in the life of a child. Then, after seven years of captivity at the hands of this demon-possessed pedophile, Steven emerged a hero by sacrificing his own safety to rescue another kidnapped 5-year-old boy, Timmy White, from the same fate he had suffered.
Other books have been written about Steven Stayner, and a television mini-series told his story a few years ago. Both of these media explored this tragic event and exposed the dark side of Steven’s abuse and torture. They followed him through the dozen times he was moved around California when Parnell felt threatened by an authoritative presence. But in the end, these other media painted a picture of Steven as damaged goods when he was finally reunited with his family on March 1, 1980.
From Victim to Hero will paint a different portrait of Steven Stayner. No, the teenager that escaped from that mountain cabin just outside of Manchester, California wasn’t the same innocent 7-year-old little boy stolen so many years before. But neither was Steven the damaged goods tagged to him in the later years of his life. Somewhere buried in this tortured child was a heroic spark that made him say deep within himself, "I can’t let this happen to another little boy." A magnificent spark that lay dormant through years of captivity, deprivation, and abuse rose above the manipulative mind control of a man with no moral compass – a pedophile that if not for Steven Stayner would have continued to kidnap, rape, and torment innocent children. Timmy White would have surely been Parnell’s victim if not for Steven Stayner. But who would have been his next victim? Your child or grandchild? Mine?
Heroes aren’t born – they happen. Heroes emerge from situations. A combat soldier doesn’t go into battle with the intention of saving his friends from a fortified enemy. He doesn’t plan to risk his own life in an attempt to save fellow soldiers trapped in a crossfire of enemy bullets. No, heroes are not born. They rise from the shadows and background, and they risk everything in a single moment of selflessness for the benefit of others.
Steven Stayner never won the Medal of Honor for his act of heroism. Instead, he lived as normal a life as he could under the difficult circumstances he found himself faced with. Timmy White escaped a life of rape, torture, and abuse, but only because another little boy decided in a moment of extreme situation to risk everything in an act of unsurpassed heroism.
Did Steven Stayner know on March 1, 1980 that if Kenneth Parnell were to discover their escape and track them down that he would severely punish or possibly even kill them? You better believe he knew it. But that’s where heroes come from – from that one moment of decision that forces them against all reason to step out into danger and perform a single deed that defines their true character.
So, with all of this said, it is our intention to tell the positive story of Steven Stayner. We know we must go back through the tragic events of his captivity to lay the groundwork for the story. But instead of painting a picture of damaged goods like other books and media have done, we want to show you the spirit and life of a boy that fell victim to a monster and emerged a dragon-slayer.
Yes, Steven Stayner was a victim. Never doubt that. Steven fell into the clutches of a man who manipulated his innocense for his own hell-driven perversions. But in the end when character and spirit mattered the most, a hero sprang forth. At a time when another innocent life hung in the balance, a teenage combatant faced the enemy with only one thing on his mind – that evil could not be allowed to win.
