Brecksville author provides insights, advice in new book

by Dan Holland

For Brecksville resident and first-time author Alan Sasala, his new book, entitled “2020 Visions: For Families, Friends, the Hopeful and the Helpful” was intended to be a self-help guide for readers to tackle any number of common problems in life.

Sasala said he was not quite sure what the book would be about until he completed writing the first few chapters.

“I started to notice things based on a lot of subject matter that I had wanted to talk about for years, so, I decided to put something together that might interest people,” he explained. “I met with my editor and illustrator – Jim Scotti and Karl Stadtler – to discuss the project, and after I put together a couple of chapters, they both said that it seemed to be a self-help book. The more I got into it, the more I slanted it that way to have that be the audience.”

Sasala, who grew up in Independence and has lived in Brecksville for 37 years, said much of the advice on self-improvement and helping others was gleaned from his years in the Boy Scouts.

“One thing you learn in scouting is to try to teach an individual the fundamentals of trying to improve oneself,” he said. “If you learn to help yourself and then help others, you’ll find that it extends to everyone. It goes self, others and then community and country. I followed that same outline in the book.”

The first chapter offers insights on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I never thought I would end up talking about COVID even as recently as two years ago, but I found that [it] changed so many things and caused so many problems,” said Sasala. “As a self-help book, I decided to do an introduction with Covid. I felt it was important to cover it, and there are still a lot of questions surrounding the pandemic that need to be answered.”

Additional chapters include topics such as: acts of kindness, selfishness and vanity, distractions to your goals, drugged society, mass media, dating, religion, family and parenting, marriage, government, education in America, American music and a new age for reasoning.

Sasala lists a number of supplements in the final chapter that may give him additional topics for a second book, including a section, entitled “The Love Train.”

“In my last chapter, I take a look at immigration. We need to give people an opportunity to get back to their home countries with a good job, and that is working for what I call ‘The Love Train,’” he explained. “It’s a train that is Canadian National Railways system that should run from Alaska to Chile and do what the Monroe Doctrine was meant to do; that is to help every nation in the Western Hemisphere be successful and self-sufficient.

“When I think of building a railroad, like we built our own railroads, that is the first point of developing [other countries] economically, and everything else dovetails from there: good jobs, railway wages and banking systems with the banks investing in good schools, healthcare and education,” he added. “Everything starts with the belief in that.”

Sasala said he hopes the book will offer help to readers of all ages facing any number of obstacles in life. “I hope [readers] understand that a lot of people have problems that interfere with either their personal life or professional life.” he said. “A lot of times, it’s a just matter of evaluating and sitting back and looking at where you’re at now and where you want to go in life.”

Sasala and his wife, Karenanne, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren.

The 248-page book, published by Columbus Publishing, had a May 29 release date. It is available on Amazon.com. ∞

Photo: Alan Sasala, pictured with his wife, Karenanne, has written a self-help guide aimed at helping readers tackle several of life’s dilemmas. Photo submitted.