Top Selling Authors: Get To Know Them Better

Featured Interview With Kim Carter Mystery Novelist

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised outside Atlanta, Georgia, and lived on the outskirts of town in Newnan for many years. When my husband passed a few years ago, I decided to move to Biloxi, Mississippi closer to many of my supportive friends. I have raised four beautiful grown children and enjoy time with my grandbabies. I enjoy walks on the beach with my dog Wally.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
There isn’t a time that I can remember that I didn’t love books.
My mother read to me incessantly as a child and I still have all the ‘well-worn’ childhood books to this day. I read them to my children as well as their favorites.

I didn’t start writing until 1999 when an illness left me homebound for a few years. So, I began to write different plots and stories, before I knew it my first mystery, not knowing I was good at it, and started writing my first book.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite genre is mystery/suspense which is also what I write.
I have so many favorites but to name a few….Sue Grafton, Iris Johansen, Karin Slaughter, and Mary Higgins Clark. My husband Jules was my #1 person who inspired me. Today my best friend, Lisa Mobley Putnam, Kelly Keylon my publisher, and of course my dear friend and expert marketer, Cat Lyon are my greatest supporters and inspiration. My sister, Pam, is my biggest fan and encourager!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My newest novel, “The Root of All Evil” book three is part of the “A Clara and Iris Mystery Series” of novels and was released in February 2024. Book two is titled “Murder Among the Tombstones” and book one introduces the characters of Clara and Iris in “Sweet Dreams, Baby Belle.”
A little backstory of how Clara and Iris came to be while how other characters begin and my investment of the real “baby belle”…

‘Sweet Dreams Baby Belle’, was inspired by a child’s tombstone in a Biloxi Cemetery. It was broken and only had the name Baby Belle on it. There wasn’t a date of birth or death. My friend and I were so moved by it that we researched her for over two years and were eventually able to repair her broken monument while maintaining the integrity of the original base made by her family in the late 1800s.

Although the novel is completely fictional, ‘Baby Belle’ was the pure inspiration behind it. The book begins with Lizzie, who is a waitress in Atlanta but marries a cardiac surgeon who sweeps her off her feet and gives her a life of luxury.
However, Lizzie soon learns all that glitters is not gold when she discovers her husband’s drug development company is a Ponzi scheme. She realizes her life could be in danger if she doesn’t somehow escape the gated mansion on the hill. Her only hope is to go to Biloxi, Mississippi, and seek refuge with her sister, Maggie.
Maggie and her husband Leland quickly find a safe harbor for Lizzie in a house on the bayou. However, the house at the end of the street might not be the quiet retreat Lizzie was hoping for.

The confines of her hideaway soon get to Lizzie so she begins sneaking out in the middle of the night to walk in the historical cemetery next door. One night a damaged, carved lamb on top of the tombstone of a small child catches her eye, and the story of the baby/child captures her heart. But when Lizzie Chatsworth thinks her world can’t get any more complicated, she finds herself in the middle of a mystery from the 1800s pulling her in and demanding she seek justice.
As her husband’s empire begins to crumble, he’s more determined than ever to find Lizzie and kill her. But, will the mystery of Baby Belle’s death end Lizzie’s life first?

Books two and three share these two old retired private investigators opening their own PI business together and take readers off on both a gripping and some humorous mystery situations…

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Featured Interview With Dr Toula Gordillo

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am a practicing clinical and Jungian psychologist who specialises in helping people to ‘tap into’ their unconscious through stories and images. It is part of a teaching and counselling method I have developed over the past fourteen years called Story Image Therapy (SIT) and it’s practical application: SIT Shadow Work™. Every day, I do regular teaching and counselling in schools, medical centres, private organisations, businesses etc. What I love the most, though, is helping people to REALLY know and understand themselves better on an unconscious level. Uncovering the cause and effects of deep seated issues, understanding the responses in our daily life that we were not consciously aware of… for me, it’s like panning for gold. When you find a ‘nugget’ of truth or explanation, it really does feel like you’ve struck gold. It’s the most rewarding thing you can do, and I believe, the most important.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I know I’ve always been a writer because I have a diary that I started writing in when I was just nine years old… and I never really stopped. I’ve also always had a fascination with storytelling, I think, due to my father’s narratives as a child. He would tell me a story (about life, work or some other lesson) and then we’d discuss it. These vivid stories always contained a moral or message that I could relate to. He’d also read me stories as a child too, or we’d listen to audiobooks containing stories like The Hobbit. This was during a time when audiobooks weren’t really popular – certainly not like they are today. I loved the stories and particularly the bonding that happened between us due to the stories and accompanying images. It really is the best way to learn about life, ourselves, and the other person.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
JRR Tolkein of course was one of my early favourites, Enid Blyton too, as well as more contemporary works. What I really love reading though is ancient quotes, like from the Stoic and Taoist philosophers as well as Dr Carl Jung’s quotes, and then thinking about how they can be applied to every day life. It’s deep, but old metaphors can easily be remembered, yet their effects can last a lifetime.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Rise of Jung in Me resulted from journalling during my own Story Image Therapy healing journey. Ironically, I’d been creating SIT as a form of therapy, and using it to heal others’ deep-seated issues for years, but I’d never really thought about using it on myself. That is, until my unconscious adolescent feelings of powerless, rejection and abandonment (we call them complexes in a person’s shadow in Jungian psychology) became triggered – first in my job at age 38, and then ten years later in my private life. I couldn’t ignore these old familiar feelings any more, and found I HAD to work on them. Healing my own adolescent shadow, (that’s issues in my unconscious that I’d suppressed since my teen years) and the subsequent creation of SIT Shadow Work™ to help others heal their inner ‘wounded adolescent’, regardless of age, is what the book is about. I also include six case studies of how I’ve used a combination of ancient and modern Science, Spirit and Story to help six amazing young people whose lives were transformed through SIT Shadow Work™.

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Featured Interview With Gigi Kaur

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born and raised in the UK. I’m an anonymous author.

I’m a pharmacist, all I’ve known most of my adult life is how to be a pharmacist. When I decided that I wanted to write, and I wanted to write about things inspire by true events I knew that I couldn’t do it under my professional name. I am still a Pharmacist I still have my registration, I still practise and it is my primary profession and source of income. But writing is a passion, and life is too short not to embrace your passions. So I knew that I needed to write under a pseudonym- allowing me to remain an upstanding pillar of the community while moonlighting a steamy romance novelist. But its not solely my profession that lead me to writing anonymously, I am Indian. Being Indian and being open about sex is just not the done thing. Sex is still very much taboo within the culture which is surprising since the karma sutra very much highlights the importance of sexual desires and that scripture was created in India. But generally my family and wider community would not be very accepting to my style of writing. That and the fact that its inspired by true events!

I do have pets, I have 3 puppies- my little fur babies keep me very busy!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I actually really enjoyed creative writing at school… but I didn’t get top marks for my writing so I assumed I wasn’t very good at it. I tired to write a book just after university, I think I started the first few chapters but I just didn’t have the focus. It’s only now that I found the focus and the confidence to write my story- and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have a very wide range of interest when it comes to books. But I would say I drew my inspiration for Jaia Lust from Eat, Pray, Love and 50 shades of Grey- not inspiration necessarily for the plot or the characters but for writing the book in general. There are so many books I’ve read, Harry Potter amongst many others in my childhood, books by Slyvia Day, Memoirs of a Geisha, Girl with a dragon tatoo series, Charles dickens, many many books. Usually when I go on holiday I take at least 4 or 5 books with me, at university I used to take text books but now thankfully it’s predominantly fiction.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Initially I was in two minds about even writing this book. I had heard about a lot of unrest within the Sikh community about interacial marriages and quite a lot of the explicit scenes are between Jaia (the main character) who is Sikh and her romance interests who range from white, black, and Hispanic. My worry was that the story itself would cause a lot of unrest but compounding that my pseudonym makes it very clear that I am in fact Sikh. But thankfully so far no concerns have been raised. The book takes a very modern view on romance its empowering with a strong female lead who is flawed and completely relatable. I wanted to create a character who was strong, smart, adventurous and sensual. I wanted a romance novel where happiness and fulfilment wasn’t hinged on a romantic relationship, with some self discovery and profound advice thrown in for good measure! It’s a feel good book with travel, passion and an element of real life.

As a pharmacist I know how important it is to talk about sex and sexual health feely and openly. So whilst I worry about the negative response this book might get I am hopeful that there will be some positivity in there too.

Jaia Lust:

Jaia has just finished university, ended her long-term relationship and has left her home town to start the first job of her career. The first job that actually means something, and will define her professional life.

All she has to do is focus; pass her pre-registration year, pass her exams and become the pharmacist she’s always wanted. How hard can it be? What could possibly go wrong? Will she be pulled astray? Dive deep into Jaia Lust, and discover the truth for yourself.

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Featured Interview With Sheri T. Joseph

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My family lived in a small beach town in New York until I was 10, with lots of messing around with boats with my brother and sisters. Then my Dad, a judge, realized his John Muir dream and moved us to Marin County in California, for wild sailing on the bay and endless hiking. I inherited his restless traveler genes, and backpacked and traveled around much of the world. A love of language and writing led me to some stressful years as a trial attorney before becoming Executive Director of a nonprofit that supports creation of affordable housing for families, veterans, and refugees. I married a Texan (gig ’em), and we raised three kids here in Marin. We also have a very hungry one-eyed yellow Lab named Bailey.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was lucky to grow up in a house crammed with books, where the favorite expression was “You could look it up!” I was reading what in hindsight were overly-adult books at a very young age, and in third grade won a writing contest with a poem about a flea and a fly getting drunk in a saloon. Seriously.
Jury trial work was a blessing and a curse for writing — you learn to craft persuasive and compelling stories, but the law still demands very linear thinking. I went back and took a series of writing courses from fantastic professors, moving from poetry to novels, and found my own creative voice.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love the authors who don’t give a damn about genre, have big imaginations, take risks, and explore complex ideas as well as feelings. They perform that magical shift from heartbreak to humor in a flash. Most importantly, they create characters you care about deeply. A short list of those who have inspired me over the years includes Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, Mark Helprin, David Eggers, Emily St. John Mandel, Simon Rich, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Patrick O’Brien’s historical fiction series is a master class in everything and stole several years of my life. And I’m in awe of Jennifer Egan — the last scene in The Candy House, seamlessly moving a family through time, just pierced my heart.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
To me, Edge of the Known World is a multi-faceted love story — the wild passions of first romantic love, the love between brothers, between father and daughter, and the tangled love of families. That story is wrapped in a speculative fiction thriller set in a near future when genetic screening tests, like 23andMe or Ancestry.com, make it impossible to hide a secret identity.
The idea came from a mention in a lecture about how Hitler had tried to develop a blood test to detect Jewish and Gypsy children who looked Aryan enough to be hiding in the open with German or Polish families. Such a test was not possible back then, but made me wonder how that would translate with modern science and tech—not just for any of the “inferior” ethnic groups during WWII, but in other historical events around the world, where people who did not stand out by physical appearance, and were perhaps even themselves unaware of their background, would have faced deadly consequences. What if in the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu militias had a screening test to detect Tutsis? Dalits who blended with the upper castes in India? Serbs and Bosnians, Chinese in wartime Japan, too many slices of American history, and countless others.
The problem, of course, is that technology has evolved, but people have not. Recent news was a hack into 23AndMe that stole information on accounts with Ashkenazi and Chinese ancestry to sell on the dark web: https://www.wired.com/story/23andme-credential-stuffing-data-stolen/
In my novel, Alexandra Tashen is a brilliant student, adoring daughter, merry wit, and exuberant prankster. She is also hiding in the open.
After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, Alex learns the truth: She is a refusé from a brutal regime, smuggled into the Allied Nations as an infant. Everyone from her birthplace carries a harmless but detectable bit of viral DNA from a regional vaccine. If detected by the rapid genetic testing now standard at security ID screens, Alex will be returned to the Federation and a likely death. Her adoptive father developed a gene therapy to mask her g-marker, but it is not fully effective. Every g-screen presents a nerve-racking one-in-ten chance of getting caught.
When her father goes missing, Alex abandons her cloistered academic life in San Francisco for a globe-trotting Commission in a desperate race to warn him of a trap. As Alex dodges g-screens on her precarious and often-hilarious adventure, a love triangle develops between her and two men: Eric Burton, a commanding and disgraced intelligence officer, and his sworn brother, Strav Beki, a charismatic and dangerously unhinged diplomat. Betrayals mount and secrets unravel, building to the most confounding choices that people can face—choices between love, family loyalty, and moral obligation.

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Featured Interview With Joel Shoemaker

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Joel Shoemaker has been a librarian for a decade and a magician for three! He lives in central Illinois with his husband, a frog, a colony of cherry shrimp, and his dog, Maximus. He consumes an inordinate amount of cheese.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I actually didn’t grow up a reader. I fell in love with it after being assigned the book FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk in college. I instantly read everything he’d ever written and other authors he would recommend. While I don’t write like him, I found his style fascinating. It wasn’t until I became a librarian that I started writing and that was chiefly because I noticed a lack of affirming-faith based work for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially fiction work and especially for younger readers. I wanted to create that for people like me, if at all possible.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My writing teacher is Chelsea Cain, a good friend of the aforementioned Chuck Palahniuk. I lucked into that space and, because of that, their work as minimalist thriller writers has greatly influenced my work, albeit not at all…thrilling, shall we say?

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is SILAS ON SUNDAYS, an affirming-faith picture book that follows a gender nonconforming child to church. It uses they/them pronouns and subtly teaches/reinforces the days of the week while showing that a gender nonconforming child can thrive at home AND in a church community.

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Featured Interview With Laura Fienor

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am an Australian author travelling the globe to inspire motivated citizens to employ a wide range of new and inventive strategies to create a better world. My new book, Cutting-Edge Ideas, is part of a grassroots revolutionary movement.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Over the course of my life, I have taken a multidisciplinary approach to the books that I have read and written – this includes both fiction and non-fiction genres (from Futures Studies, Education, and Law to Psychology, Philosophy, and Mystical texts!).

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My latest book, Cutting-Edge Ideas: Empowering Agents of Positive World Change, has been inspired by theories and ideas from many fields of inquiry. Writers like David Suzuki (Time to Change and The Sacred Balance); Tyson Yunkaporta (Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World); Richard Slaughter (Futures-Based Education); Daphne Rose Kingma (The Future of Love); James Van Praagh (Wisdom From Your Spirit Guides); and Carl Jung (on topics like Synchronicities) have all been key influences.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
CUTTING-EDGE IDEAS: EMPOWERING AGENTS OF POSITIVE WORLD CHANGE explores:
– Futures-Based Education System Transformation;
– Strategies for Revitalising Ideologies and Practices That Promote Sustainability, Equity, and Peace; plus
– Multidisciplinary Concepts and Practical Activities Enabling Individuals to Create Preferable Realities.
ENTANGLEMENT – INTERCONNECTEDNESS – UNITY – ONENESS – INFINITY!

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Featured Interview With Amin Masih

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Amin Masih. I’m a fiction writer from Durgapur, West Bengal, India where I was born and brought up. I still live in my hometown and work as an accounts executive. I’m not a professional writer but want to be soon. I’ve written dozens of short stories and three poetry collections so far. I don’t have any pets but I love pets.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve been fond of reading books since childhood. When I was in seventh grade, I became interested in writing. At that age, I wrote a short novel, which was never published. By the way, it was limited to a few pages. I published my first book as an ebook on Amazon in 2018, four years after finishing college. Since then, I have written dozens of short stories.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are Ved Prakash Sharma and Surender Mohan Pathak. These authors and their books inspired me to write my own books. My favorite genres are adventure, thriller, suspense and horror.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is “The India Files” which is a poetry collection written on India and its people. Here India and its people refers to the history of India and the current social and political issues and challenges that India has faced, and is currently facing.

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Featured Interview With Barbara Mostella

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Ashville, Alabama, and I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University (AAMU). I’m a retired Program Manager from the Department of Defense and I live in Georgia with my husband. We have no pets.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My passion for books ignited doing elementary school, and I found immense joy in frequenting the library and reading newspapers. I started my writing journey in 2019 after completing a training course on writing and publishing books.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
The late Stuart Woods, a renowned best-selling author and my biggest author fan was the source of my inspiration for writing. His books would capture your attention in the first chapter of his books and hold you until the last chapter. I’ve tried to replicate his writing in my own way. My favorite genre to read is fiction.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
On February 21, 2024, I published ‘Why Now’, the third and last book in my series ‘Who would have thought’. The last book took about 6 months to write. Each book in the series can be read independently. ‘Why Now’ is a gripping tale of resilience, self-discovery, and the relentless pursuit of the truth about the main character Alphonso. The suspenseful narrative and unexpected twists will keep readers on the edge of their seats, making it a compelling exploration of the main character memory, identity, and the consequences of a past deliberately erased.

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Featured Interview With Nassima Drihmi

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Nassima Drihmi. Moroccan author and writer. Born in Souk El Arbaa Du Gharb in Morocco and raised in Khenifra.
I am currently living in Souk El Arbaa Du Gharb near my grandmother Kassmia Aroui. I love pets. I have a beautiful cat named Katy.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve started reading books at a very young age. I remember my mother used to buy me different books in Arabic and French. I really enjoyed reading more day by day.
Later, I’ve started writing some texts and short stories in French at my teen days. Then English.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like romance books and also the stories about life and morals. I read many books of different authors like Victor Hugo, Henry Renard etc…
To write you need an imagination, and you have to set yourself free!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
I wrote a children story called “WE ALL NEED A FRIEND” for children all over the world. It is a story about the value and importance of friendship in life and what makes a friend specal.
We all need someone we trust and care about. A friend who can share our fears and dreams.

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Featured Interview With Ahuva Batya Scharff

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am the daughter of Jewish pork producers (Truth!) and spent the first 11 years of my life on a hog ranch outside of Fresno, California. We also had raisins, but that’s perhaps not as interesting as Jews raising pigs.

When my parents divorced, I moved to Oregon with my mother and brother to live on a hobby farm in the Willamette Valley. Though I lived in Los Angeles for 15 years after university, I prefer rural areas with lots of trees and make my home in NW Washington, near Bellingham, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I live in what is essentially a writer’s retreat filled with folk and tribal art from my travels, with two cats and a miniature schnauzer. My animals all have Hebrew names and love to sleep in the bed while I’m writing.

By training, I am a mental health researcher with a doctorate in the transdisciplinary field of transformative studies. Transformative studies looks at how change occurs–in humans, systems, organizations, etc. Our research is generally focused on solving a problem rather than “advancing the knowledge base” of a field. I don’t look at a problem through the lens of psychology or anthropology to advance our understanding of psychology or anthropology. Instead I use information from many fields to find solutions to sometimes very complex issues. In my case, I look at how we can improve wellbeing and resilience in humans around the world.

To that end, I am the founder of and principal investigator for the Institute for Complementary and Indigenous Mental Health Research. I am an explorer who travels to some of the most remote communities in the world to learn how non-Western, indigenous, and often marginalized groups address mental health concerns. It has been a fascinating area of inquiry that has given me the opportunity to learn from wonderful people in every part of the world. These encounters not only inform my writing, but have given me opportunities to learn new ways of connecting with the world around me and appreciating human resilience and courage.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I was a little girl growing up on the farm, I dreamed of being a writer and an anthropologist. I longed to travel to far off lands to meet the people who lived there, and write about my adventures. And that’s what I do. While I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, my “work” is to learn about complementary and indigenous mental health practices to improve overall wellbeing among people worldwide. I’m particularly interested in the relationship between trauma and climate change.

That’s where my novel, “The Path to God’s Promise” was born. How might people deal with potential hardships related to climate change, and are we willing to make changes–including radical changes–to prevent the worst outcomes? Fiction gives me room to explore those themes and ideas in a way that nonfiction doesn’t.

Funny story. When I was in kindergarten in the late 1970s, we were taken to the school library weekly for a reading circle. Kindergarteners were not allowed to check out books. It was assumed that we couldn’t read. I didn’t understand that we were only at the library to hear stories, not get books. I had been to the public library and thought that libraries were a place where you chose books you wanted to read. What I failed to grasp was the concept of the library card, that one had to have permission to take books, to check them out. I thought that if you were taken to the library, you had permission to take a book. I was five; what did I know? I was caught “stealing” a library book. In point of fact, I was returning a book I had borrowed. The principal wanted to expel me. Can you imagine expelling a kindergarten student for stealing a library book? My mom was called. I should probably mention that she spent more than 30 years as an elementary school teacher. Long story short, I was not expelled and the following day, there was a small reading group set up for the handful of kindergarten students who were already readers.

My first published work was in the fourth grade. I was taken on a school trip to the zoo and asked to write a poem about any animal that caught my fancy. I wrote a poem about a pygmy hippo. The poem was deemed so good that it, and a drawing of a hippo, were put into the school’s newsletter. My first brush with literary fame!

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Margaret Atwood. Barbara Kingsolver. Neil Gaiman. Stephen King. Octavia Butler. Alexander McCall Smith. Jorge Luis Borges.

I like fantasy, often choosing stories that are about our contemporary world with a little magical overlay. Or books with ghosts. Or jinn. Or witches. Seanan McGuire does an excellent job of mixing the contemporary with the completely fantastic in the Wayward Children series.

I love stories centered on people from other cultures. I love folklore and learning about people who have vastly different lives and worldviews. How do the characters see the world? What are their motivations? Do they inspire me to action? Plus incorporate an angel or mad scientist if it works with the context. That’s what I like about Borges, a South American take on fantasy.

I like stories about wonderful characters. While not fantasy, I’m crazy about Alexander McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe and Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. They’re brilliant people who I would love to meet in “real” life. I am not alone in wanting to have tea and fat cakes in Gaborone with Mma Ramotswe. While I might not want to meet her in my home or my dreams, Butler’s Shori Matthews is an interesting take on the vampire (and prejudice). I want to read characters who become alive through the telling of their story.

I love Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, especially “Oryx and Crake.” I love the way Atwood draws on science, history, and the genuinely possible to create her dystopian worlds. My outlook is more hopeful than Atwood’s, but I aspire to her masterful world creation.

I don’t generally like when authors read their own works, with the notable exception of Neil Gaiman. “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is an even more intriguing story when read by Gaiman. The oddity of his voice is the perfect match for the strangeness of his tales. Too, Gaiman’s ability to add magic to anything is exceptional. I am simply crazy about “The Graveyard Book.”

I also like that many of these authors talk about the process of writing. I know he isn’t the originator of the idea, but I consistently remind myself of King’s, “Kill your darlings…” as I edit. I read “It” on a canoe trip down a river in Oregon with a group of Girl Scouts and was pretty sure that a clown was going to come out from under the canoes and kill us all. “The Stand” is one of my favorites among King’s works. I also really enjoyed “Needful Things.”

Tell us a little about your latest book?
If God asked you to be a prophet, would you do it? Before you say yes, consider that doing so likely means giving up your goals for yourself and almost certain ridicule in your community. I mean really, if someone got on TV and said they were speaking on God’s behalf, wouldn’t most people laugh?

Yet that’s exactly what God asks of Elinor Simentov in “The Path to God’s Promise.” God’s request is loaded for Elinor. Prophecy is not accepted in contemporary Jewish practice. And Elinor isn’t “special.” She’s a recovered alcoholic and a trauma survivor who has no exemplars to recommend her for the job, except that she talks with God, and despite how she sees herself, God believes she’s exactly the right person to share His message.

Originally, I was going to write a nonfiction book about climate change, but with all the anti-intellectual pushback against climate scientists as propagating “fake news,” I decided instead to write fiction. Writing a fictional story allowed me to look at climate change from a different angle than nonfiction. I got to jump into the “what ifs” by taking Elinor through past historical and mythological (depending on your religious views) events, and potential futures, so that we could learn together what might happen if we indulge the best and the worst in us.

In Elinor, we have an unlikely hero. But then, aren’t we all unlikely heroes? The story doesn’t work if Elinor is exceptional. If she is, then there’s little hope for humankind. If we’re going to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, we’ll have to take collective action, not wait for the best and brightest to “save” us. Elinor has to look at herself–her feelings of low self-worth and the negative stories she tells herself that limit what she can accomplish. As much as the book is a climate change warning, it’s also about the deeply personal struggles we have to see the best in ourselves. If we’re going to change anything, climate/politics/community, we have to stop hoping solutions will come from outside. Elinor shows a path for us to become more empowered versions of ourselves.

It took me a decade to write the book. I dove deep into the history in and of the Torah, Jewish mysticism, and the roles of prophets and angels in Jewish stories. I studied Talmud and Jewish folktales. I also researched climate change projections and recent examples of extreme storms, fires, and other natural disasters in various parts of the world. Whether she was in the distant past or here and now, I wanted the world in which Elinor lives to become real.

Books take on a life of their own after they are published. Sometimes new themes develop that I didn’t initially see as the author. What surprised me is how much of the waves of antisemitism that are part of the book have played out since the novel was published a few months ago. “The Path to God’s Promise” came out only days after the October 7 massacre in Israel. It has been disheartening to see this particular potential future come to pass.

While it may be difficult to be a Jewish author at a time when antisemitism is at an unfortunate high, I have genuinely enjoyed the feedback I’ve gotten from readers, including and especially those who are not Jewish. What I call “service oriented” Christians and Catholics have rallied behind the story. By service oriented, I mean people who see their expression of faith to be through acts of service. At a book signing, one Christian reader shared that she fell in love with Elinor precisely because she was so broken. She appreciated the ways in which Elinor fights through her deficits in a commitment to her relationship with God. It’s a spiritual story I’m told inspires those of us who might need a boost. As an author, such feedback is heartening.

Because the book has moved so many Christian and “spiritual but not religious” readers, I feel I must underscore what prophecy is in a Jewish context. Prophecy is a warning, not a reading of a predestined future. It’s a parent saying to a teen, “put on your sunscreen so you don’t get burned.” We don’t force them to act, but do warn of potential consequences. The best prophets are those who are heeded and horrific outcomes averted. I hope that Elinor does not become a fortuneteller. I hope that like Job, she is able to be one of the voices to whom people listen and motivate all of us to create change.

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Featured Interview With Darcy Flynn

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Joy Dent and I write clean and wholesome romance novels as Darcy Flynn. I’m originally from New Orleans, LA, and spent my childhood, ridding streetcars, celebrating Mardi Gras and cheerleading for the University of New Orleans. I studied music and theatre in college and after I got married, my husband and I moved to Nashville, TN. I’m a former fashion model and Mrs. Tennessee and I now live on a horse farm just down the road in Franklin. And even though I’ve spent years surrounded by a menagerie of living creatures, I’m partial to my barn cats and my beautiful English Setters.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Georgette Heyer was my favorite author. At fifteen, her novel, Sylvester, was the first romance I’d ever read and from that moment on I was hooked. Since then, I’ve read every one of her books and have a collection of her hardbacks in my office. Her books were so much run, romps really, and I adored her characters so much. Even though I don’t write historical fiction, her writing has influenced the fun that’s a hallmark of my stories. I tell people there’s an F word associated with my books and it’s FUN!
I started writing romantic fiction during my son’s freshman year in college. Up until that time, under my real name, Joy Dent, I’d written several non-fiction magazine articles, authored The Home School Planner, and contributed both the art and text for the four charts on The Plants of the Bible in Thomas Nelson’s, The Woman’s Study Bible.
I’d always wanted to try my hand at romantic fiction. To ease the pain of the “empty nest,” I started de-cluttering and in the process, found a box of old Harlequin novels. I decided to re-read some of them and after each one, I’d think, I could write one of these. I made notes as I read through several of my old favorites just to teach myself the pattern or the formula for that type of romance.
I’ve always heard, write what you know, so I decided to write a novel surrounding a lighthouse in a small fishing village in Maryland.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I really enjoy Colleen Goble’s books, and Mary Higgins Clark is still a favorite. I also enjoy reading Julia Quinn and Debbie Macomber. My favorite genre to read is romance. It can be mystery, historical, or contemporary. All of these authors inspire me in one way or another. I love ‘fun’ elements, clean and wholesome, lots of sexual tension is a must, and you can take me back in time or to the future… just give it to me with a generous helping of romance.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Absolutely, I’d love to tell you about my young adult, time travel adventure, Flight Time. My heroine, sixteen-year-old Rylee Dean has grown up hearing stories about her grandfather Jaxon C. Scott. She has inherited her grandfather’s love of flying, but on her first solo flight, a strange incident throws Rylee into the past, bringing her face to face with her long-lost grandfather. Only he is a young man working as a test pilot for the US Air Force. Rylee knows she is the one who can save her grandfather’s life. But changing the past means the future will disappear, making Rylee’s existence vanish as well.
Flight Time is the story of my heart, as my own uncle disappeared in flight leaving behind his pregnant wife at the time. He was twenty-two-years-old and he, nor his plane, were ever found. As a child I heard many wonderful

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Featured Interview With Peggi Davis

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hello! I am Peggi Davis, 77 years old, a widow, and living my best life this very minute. I was raised in New York City by an eccentric British father and sometime-model mother, in an untethered, unusual home filled with fashion, formality, and a few friendly ghosts. After graduating from Texas A&M University, I entered the wacky world of retail advertising as a fashion art director and creative director. This painfully shy and quiet young girl was introduced to a world she never knew existed. There, I developed a cadre of creative colleagues with whom I shared decades of outrageous experiences and escapades. I have lived and worked all across the country, from New York to San Francisco for Macy’s and Saks Department Stores, but have retired in Birmingham, Alabama, which I love. There is just something about Southern hospitality that soothes my soul. Cool restaurants, warm biscuits, gentle people. It’s my little piece of paradise.

For years, my colleagues said I should write a book about my childhood and adult experiences. During the pandemic, I began posting stories about my family on Facebook. Before long I began receiving messages from people all over the country asking for more. I later enrolled in a writing class and was encouraged to create a blog. My first book “Funny Face: a Memoir” consists of hilarious and horrifying stories from that blog. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life as those stories flowed from my fingertips and seemed to literally write themselves. I had found my voice. “Funny Face” was recognized as Reader’s Favorite International Bronze Award winner and the Non-Fiction Book Award Silver winner.

The chapter that resonated most with the readers was an essay on aging, something we face with little information and no guidance. No one prepares you for feeling one way on the inside and looking another way on the outside. I began wondering What if we could change that narrative? How would the ability to look and feel young again present itself and how? I challenged myself to write about the possibilities, and “Rewind Ranch” was born.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
After retirement in 2014, I opened The Schoolhouse Art Studio and began teaching collage, jewelry making, and painting. However, the pandemic forced its closing, and I turned my focus from art to writing during my masked hibernation at home.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Growing up I was a voracious reader. I still am. It is impossible to state my favorite authors as I have so very many. I will say I am inspired by Anne Lamott, Augusten Burroughs, Jeanette Walls, and Joan Didion. What they have in common is their transparency, honesty, and courage. I am the most unlikely author. Sometimes I look at my printed books in total disbelief. My writing has given me a sense of accomplishment and pride. I know I won’t be accepting the Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, but to see my books on a shelf next to Joan Didion makes me feel like I have left a mark on our crazy world. It’s like saying, I am here.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Rewind Ranch,” emerged as an award-winning thriller about four sassy seniors who miss the allure of their youth and embark on a vacation of a lifetime to the Hana Hawaiian paradise Rewind Ranch. The resort promises unlimited cosmetic enhancements, romantic evenings with available suitors, and luxury they could never imagine. Their journey becomes one of hair-raising secrets and situations as they realize something sinister lurks. On their roller-coaster ride of life-threatening suspense and unwavering camaraderie, they ultimately learn that beauty is more than skin-deep and that friendship is the ultimate savior. A recent review stated “Adventure unfolds in this book and takes you on an amazing ride you won’t forget! Love, love, love the characters, the slow reveal of their island paradise, and a few surprises along the way! As fabulous as the cover design is… it does not come close to what’s in store for you inside! And, oh the ending … you’ll never see it coming!”

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Featured Interview With J.M. Kirkley

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a Texas transplant, originally from Southern California. I still miss the San Gorgonio Mountains covered in snow and the cresting surf at Newport Beach, but my home is among the Pineywoods of East Texas. Here, I live with my spouse of 50+ years, where we raised our son and daughter.

I’m a late bloomer: I graduated college at 40, plowed through my master’s degree in counseling, and published my debut novel in my sixties. Proof that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams.

My life centers around my faith, our kids and grandkids, and listening to the stories of my clients, who inspire me.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with books began as a young adult when I became an avid reader. First the enduring classics reeled me in, then the process of writing began to intrigue me. How authors craft an entire story.

I began putting pen to paper as our kids left home and the house became Too Quiet. Writing answered the question, what now?

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Choosing favorite authors is like an ice cream lover picking a favorite flavor of ice cream. It depends on my mood. Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte rate the top of my classics list.

My favorite genre is historical Christian fiction with at least a romance thread woven throughout. Favorite authors in that category include Roseanna M. White, Lisa Wingate, Tamera Alexander, Laura Frantz, Sarah E Ladd, and Michelle Griep.

All these authors inspire me in my writing.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
A Writing Upon the Sand is a page-turning tale, seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Emily Cleburne, who returns to the place that spawned her nightmares. The scene of the deadliest natural disaster in US history, the 1900 Great Storm of Galveston. It’s taken her a quarter of a century to face her fears and her deepest secret. At last, she allows the memories of that year to flow. Despite surviving the worst of times, she experiences love with a happily ever after ending.

The book took me more than 20 years to research and write, as it weaves in events leading up to and after the 1900 Great Storm. I wove in historical people, like Clara Barton and R.C. Buckner, who aided in the relief effort.

“Draped in southern charm, cloaked in mystery and belted in real tragic history, J.M. Kirkley’s, A Writing Upon the Sand is a prize Christian Historical Romance debut.” Iris Fuller for Artisan Book Reviews

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Featured Interview With John Pendleton

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
John Pendleton is the pen name of John Cowpe, a former newspaper editor who had a 39-year career in journalism and public relations.
Born in the English holiday resort of Skegness in Lincolnshire, John edited a series of local newspapers, most recently for Johnston Press.
His fourth novel, “The Men in the Marsh”, begins with the dramatic events of October 12, 1984, when an IRA bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and members of her Cabinet. A young entrepreneur leaves the Grand Hotel minutes before the bomb goes off but the event returns to haunt him many years later.
John’s previous books are three novels “Hector’s Revenge”,“Ill Winds” and “All For Blood”, and “Skegness Past”, a mainly photographic record of his home town.
John, who still lives n Skegness, is married to Wendy and has two grown-up children, Colin and Trudi, and four grandchildren. His interests include politics, reading, angling, tennis and going to the gym.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was fascinated by books as soon as I learnt to read. The first book which really got me hooked was an “As told to the children” version of Homer’s “The Iliad”. From the age of about seven or eight I started to write stories, mainly my own versions of Greek myths and some tales about a fictional criminal called Harry Droner.,

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite authors are Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, D. H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and Kate Atkinson. As you can see from that list, my preferred genre is literary classics. I am inspired by the insight into human nature and the humour in the writings of Dickens, Trollope, Austen and Waugh, by the passion and innermost yearnings portrayed by Lawrence and Hardy, and by the clever plots of Kate Atkinson.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
On October 12, 1984, an IRA bomb explodes at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in a bid to assassinate UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Graham Robinson, an ambitious young entrepreneur, who is attending the Conservative Party Conference, leaves the hotel minutes before the explosion.
The Men in the Marsh traces Robinson’s life, loves and politics, leading up to dramatic events which have haunting echoes of his 1984 experience.
Much of the novel is set in the fictional east coast holiday resort of Sanderholme. It has strong elements of mystery, crime, romance and humour, a mixture which typifies John Pendleton’s work.
Published by Blossom Spring Publishing, “Hector’s Revenge” is available from Amazon as a paperback and as an e-book on Kindle.

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Featured Interview With Elizabeth Harlan

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Growing up in Manhattan in an apartment with limited space, my siblings and I weren’t permitted by our parents to have a dog or cat, but we had just about everything else that was small enough to keep in cages and tanks: canaries and parakeets, turtles and tropical fish, hamsters, snakes, guinea pigs, and even an occasional loaner bunny rabbit from school. But what I wanted most of all was to have a horse, for which I worked up a rendering of one of our bathrooms repurposed as a stall. My drawing was posted on the refrigerator, but a pet horse never happened in my childhood. Reading the entire Black Stallion series by Walter Farley and riding at summer camp was the closest I got. When it came to raising my own family, we chose to live on a farm. In addition to dogs and cats, my kids grew up with a horse, a pony, goats, a sheep, and two llamas.
In my novel, Carly, also a New York City kid without pets, is delighted when she’s invited to handle shar-pei pups at a boarding school in the Pennsylvania countryside. When Headmaster McAdams cautions her “to be careful not to get peed on,” Carly loosens up in her interview, figuring that, “anyone who could talk about puppies peeing on you couldn’t be too judgmental about anything she could say.”
Even though I’m a native born New Yorker and was raised and schooled in the city, my heart has always been in the country. I now split my time between my cottage on the Peconic Bay on Long Island’s East End and my home on a bridgeless, barrier island off Florida’s Gulf coast. I travel too much to keep pets, but my children and grandchildren bring Parker, their adorable Beaglier — a combination beagle and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel — when they visit.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can’t remember not being fascinated by reading and writing. My mom was very strict about lights out at bedtime, so as a very young girl, I kept a notebook and flashlight under my pillow to record ideas for stories in the middle of the night.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like lots of different genres, but especially fiction. As a child, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Secret Garden and A Little Princess were among my favorite books. When I was a girl growing up, Young Adult fiction wasn’t a separate category, but that became what I loved most, including Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and every single volume of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, which figures in my novel as Carly’s obsession, as well. As an adult, I’ve been entranced by Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear, of which I’ve read and reread all six volumes several times. Clearly, a strong thread of interest in the lives of girls growing up and overcoming adversity weaves its way through my passion for reading and writing. My teenage character Carly connects the dots as she wends her way through seemingly insurmountable obstacles to writing a beautiful essay about Thomas Hardy’s Tess, one of literature’s most beloved young heroines.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Becoming Carly Klein has been in gestation for many years. It began as a series of linked short stories that I submitted as my thesis for the Columbia Writing Program Master’s in Fiction. My next project, which grew out of my background in French and France — I went to a French high school in New York, studied French literature in college and graduate school, and lived in Paris for ten years — was a biography of George Sand, a French 19th century woman writer. It wasn’t until the Covid pandemic when I was sequestered on my remote barrier island in Florida that I pulled my Columbia thesis out of a drawer and began to reconfigure it as a novel. And while it seems on the surface that my biography of George Sand and my novel Becoming Carly Klein tell two altogether different stories cast in two altogether different literary genres, they share the common premise of a young, highly individualistic and rebellious girl straining against misguided mothering, struggling with identity, and prevailing against daunting challenges as she grows up to discover who she was meant to be.

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Featured Interview With Yurie Kiri

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Yurie Kiri, born in a trailer in rural America, studied Mathematics and languages and speaks Japanese, English, French and has also studied Chinese, Arabic and Spanish as well as a smattering of other languages such as Korean and Russian along with binary, octal and hexadecimal machine language because if you really want to get to know someone you need to speak their language no matter if they’re machine or human. Yurie lived and worked in Asia for decades before coming back to America where Yurie went on an extensive backroad journey across the US and Canada from the rough Mexican border towns to the icy cold town of Yellowknife in Canada’s NWT where you need to cross a frozen lake to get into town in the winter. Yurie also sailed (single-handed) from Mexico to the Canadian border, retracing a well-traveled road journey by sea in a small, live aboard sailboat. Yurie has been traveling and gathering story ideas from Asia for the Game Series which covers Japan and other Asian countries and North America for the Murder and Mystery Series which covers the American Southwest.

Yurie Kiri is a shy, secretive person who used to live on a boat, sailing between various ports in the Pacific Ocean. Yurie lived on the boat until some crazy mega-yacht got loose and went on a full throttle rampage through the marina squashing everything it hit. Alas, sailing was one of Yurie’s passions, now writing and photography are the main passions in Yurie Kiri’s life along with cats of course like the enhanced, intelligent cats featured in New York Stories…

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When did you start writing?

In my childhood. I wish I still had the evidence of that but alas, couldn’t keep every scrap…

What was it like to write your first book?

My first book or rather the first book I planned to publish; Tokyo Games was written as a kind of revenge story about the people who unjustly kicked me out of a good job. So instead of moping around feeling sorry for myself I used my new, free time to construct a good story about their destruction. I changed everyone’s name as well as some of the circumstances but that book (like all of my books) are full of real people, people I know and new people I’ve met. The only thing I’d do differently would be to not use a “professional” editor who changed my style a bit and then I’d publish it instantly on Amazon instead of waiting around for all those agents and their rejection letters..

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read most everything: history, science, business, travel and fiction… I wanted to write about venture business and Asia as a straight up non-fiction, this is how it is book, so I arranged to study and interview some very rich and successful venture capitalists… however the information I gleaned from those studies turned me in another direction and went into parts of my novels, “Moonlight Beach”, “Tokyo Games” and “Osaka Games” all of which feature VCs from California. Names etc. have been changed to protect everyone including me and one subject actually tried to buy “the story” after I let him read it however I didn’t want to sell regardless of his “Hollywood connections” because I’d rather be free (and relatively poor) to do what I want which allows everyone to read those stories instead of keeping them locked away.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
I will soon be releasing Advance Review copies (ARCs) of the latest book in the Moonlight Series called “Moonlight Skull” which won the 2024 Beach Book Festival’s award for Unpublished Fiction…. excerpts are shown below:

“Hey!” Gigi said. “What are you doing?” The sight of the big man carrying a bloody skull freaked her out. She wanted to run, but the horny Archeologist guy was still on top, pressing into her and he kept pumping like he was some kind of sex robot drilling for oil. It now felt like she’d made a big mistake letting the men pick her up at the truck stop.

“Relax,” Bob said. “Señor Ocotillo just wants to watch…” He held the skull carefully and let it watch. “He hasn’t had any in a long while since as you can see…. He’s been dead for some time…”
“You guys are too weird,” Gigi said. “This will cost you extra…”.
“Right,” Bob said with a laugh. “I’ll pay you even more to ignore me…” He held the skull and watched quietly for a while as the moonlight played on the canyon wall. He could almost imagine a ghostly moonlight skull image on the wall.

Margarita stared at the huge apparition that approached her. It was like some kind of evil nightmare had materialized right out of a bad dream. He was even more evil and more dangerous than before. He was someone who was supposed to be dead because she’d watched him die. She started to scream as he got closer.

If you want to get an ARC please let me know…

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Featured Interview With Sarah Alserhaid

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Sarah, I was born in Saudi Arabia to a multi-cultural household. I grew up as both Saudi and American, yet sometimes it felt as though I didn’t fit in to either group. I currently live in Cleveland, Ohio as a scientist studying the molecular triggers of preterm labor.
I don’t have any pets at the moment but throughout my life have had multiple cats, turtles, guinea pigs, hermit crabs, fish, a lamb, various birds, and at one point my brother had a bearded lizard that rode with us in the hot sun everyday to school.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Telling stories is one thing I have been told I did from before I had memory of it. I would tell my father stories of a little bunny before bedtime to avoid going to sleep. Like most youngsters, I loved being read to.
Although I attended school in Saudi Arabia which was in Arabic, I was homeschooled for my early elementary years and had many writing projects that I took in for show and tell.
By fourth grade, I would translate stories from either language making small bound books for the stories I wrote.
Once I made the connection that anything could be made into a story, even an argumentative assay, academic composition became much easier.
Having a neurodivergent mind, the art of telling a story was what thrilled me. It was difficult to stay still for long durations of time for anything that did not paint a picture. Writing came much easier to me than reading at first, I actively worked on reading to help improve my skills and learn more about descriptive writing.
The first time I thought about the possibility of writing a book was as an undergrad. My sister and I worked on a story about three siblings who breakthrough their mother’s well-established reputation to uncover secrets from before they were born and ultimately save one of the siblings who gets kidnapped. While this story was more fiction that science, it was fun working on all the little details bringing the characters to life.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
It’s hard to choose a single author when there are so many compelling and creative writers. I enjoyed works of art from Alice Hoffman, Adrienne Young, Alix Arrow, Agatha Christie, Holly Black, and Lisa Scottoline. Recently, I like mystery, thriller and low fantasy books, but will take on any good book.
For my stories, I like thinking of matters from a different angle or different perspective. I especially like pushing myself to think of matter from a position I never would have thought of, then try to live through that lens. I often come up with short stories when I think in this perspective and have begun the fun journey of sharing my short stories with others.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Etched in Stone is a book about two sisters who uncover the truth behind their family’s secretive past and discover their powerful heritage. In the process, they come across new enemies that challenge them in ways they hadn’t been challenged before. In the process of standing up for what hey believe in, they must confront the insecurities of their relationship and learn the lesson that everything comes with price. This book brings magic to a normal and busy life for the protagonists showing a little whimsical fun added to an otherwise stressful life.

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