An enjoyable historical fiction novel. I was transported to Paris in the mid 1850s with the Carbonari (an Italian radical group to which Lord Byron belonged) plotting against the French Emperor, Napoleon III, in an effort to get him to back them in their attempts to...
Today I'm joined by Wilnona Marie and Brandy Miller. Wilnona is an Advocate Awarded poet known for her quick wit, ability to laugh at herself, and being a pop poet. She has contributed writings to eleven books or what she calls" literary life guides w/ pop poetry":...
Velvet Was the Night is more noir than thriller; it seems like an updated Raymond Chandler-esque book. The tone is persistently dark, even bleak, but the reader gets the sense that the point-of-view characters will come through. It is set during the 1970s, a decade in...
This week I have the privilege of speaking with Victoria Belue about her journey as an author. She is the author of the Tarot Legacies series and has been reading tarot cards and interpreting dreams for thirty years. Before embarking on her writing journey, she was an...
On today's blog, I interview Casey Dembowski, author of When We're Thirty. The first story she remembers writing was in the second grade, though it wasn't until she was twelve that she started carrying a battered composition notebook around everywhere. Since then,...
The Vigilante Game by Meghan Scott Molin is the third and final book in her Golden Arrow series. It is a humorous contemporary mystery/romantic comedy with diverse characters: a geeky female main character (Michael-Grace), her straight-laced cop boyfriend (Matteo),...
SS: Today I have the pleasure of chatting with a dynamic duo of authors, Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry. They met as co-workers in New York City in 2012, discovering a shared passion for writing and true crime. After Steph relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina in...
SS: Today, Makenna Lee joins me to talk about her writing. Makenna is an award-winning romance author who lives in the Texas Hill Country with her real-life hero and their two children. Her oldest son has Down syndrome and taught her to appreciate the little things....
Erika Montgomery, in her debut novel A Summer to Remember, does a superlative job binding multiple points of view and dual timelines, the present and the 1980s. Frankie and her mother, Maeve, run a Hollywood memorabilia shop. Maeve never told Frankie much about...
In Kathleen Basi's new book, A Song for the Road, Miriam Tedesco’s husband and teenage children were killed by a drunk driver who crossed the median. A year later, she’s still in a tailspin, dealing with regrets and loss of faith. The arrival of a bouquet of...
Rising and Other Stories by Gayle Massey is a collection of thirteen short stories to be savored. They deal with loss in one form or another, from the death of a parent to the loss of innocence. The first, “Glass”, deals with a girl’s first experience with racism. The...
Today I welcome award-winning mystery and children’s book author, Saralyn Richard, a writer who teaches on the side. Before fulfilling her lifelong dream as an author, Saralyn worked in urban high schools as a teacher, administrator, and school improvement consultant....
Gwen Spencer, a scrappy young woman from the coal belt of the States, fights for a different life. As an orphan, she’s sent to live with an aunt who resents the expense of keeping the child. But Gwen, who’s scrubbed floors and picked up odd bits of coal, manages to...
Tracy Stopler, besides being an author, is a registered dietitian with a Master of Science in Nutrition from New York University and the nutrition director at NUTRITION E.T.C. in Plainview, New York. Tracy has been an adjunct nutrition professor at Adelphi University...
The Witch's Heart is a marvelous retelling of Norse myths centered around Angrboda, a giantess, Loki's first wife, and the mother of multiple monsters. Should sit beside Madeline Miller's Circe and The Song of Achilles for majestic retellings of mythology from the...
Mary Camarillo is the award-winning author of the debut novel The Lockhart Women published by She Writes Press in June of 2021. She and I first met virtually while taking online classes from Stanford University's creative writing program. Mary joins me today to chat...
This is a YA fantasy story loosely based on Norse Mythology. The story combines fantasy with a young adult love story in the classic hero’s quest. The protagonist is Hirka, a fifteen-year-old girl who is different from everyone else she knows. She was born without a...
The Bachelor Bargain marks the beginning of a new series of romances by Maddison Michaels. This is the 1890s version of a romantic suspense, set in England where the social mores of the mid-Victorian era were conflicting with the burgeoning of women’s rights and labor...
Today I have the pleasure and honor of chatting with Mary Kellikoa. She is the author of the Shamus finalist and Lefty, Agatha and Anthony award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series and the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Portland homicide detective...
It was interesting reading Whiskey When We’re Dry in relatively close proximity to Outlawed by Anna North. Outlawed is an amazing speculative Western that really shakes up the Western genre by tackling the patriarchy, gender roles/identity, race, religion, fertility,...
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