Depths of Introspection
Honor: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Anthology gathers twenty-two independent authors together in one project. What was the most rewarding part of building a collaborative collection like this?
It was really rewarding seeing how twenty-two different authors interpreted the theme of honor in such wildly different ways across sci-fi and fantasy stories, with their own styles and voices. Not to mention, the authors have our own group where we’ve been able to connect and grow together over time, bouncing ideas and strategies off of each other. It really grew into something quite sweet.
The editor’s note describes honor as “a multifaceted and beautiful enigma.” What aspects of honor interested you most while assembling the collection?
I was most interested in the gray areas of honor—where personal obligation clashes with societal expectation. It’s where the best conflict comes from. And I was most curious about how the other authors would formulate their narratives.
The range of settings is enormous, from grounded fantasy landscapes to distant planets and political sci-fi. How did you balance tonal variety while keeping the anthology emotionally cohesive?
Even if the setting is a distant planet, the core emotion—the struggle with honor—is universal, which ties everything together. I think with the theme being so interesting, it required depths of introspection by each of the authors that made all of us dive into the emotional side.
The anthology also features original art throughout. How did the visual element shape the reading experience, and how did you work with the artists to capture the tone of individual stories?
We really did work with some great artists for this anthology. I gave the artists specific emotional beats or imagery from specific stories to capture, rather than just a scene description. I thought it made the visual elements feel integrated, not just decorative.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
ALL FOR HONOR!
Honor is an exciting new anthology from Golden Griffin Press, featuring twenty-two SF&F authors. Each of them is a rising star in independent publishing in their own right, but we brought them all together to create this beautiful anthology.
Clocking in at nearly 200,000 words, Honor is packed to the brim with 22 new SF&F stories for readers to enjoy and maybe even discover a new favorite author–or twenty-two!
Not to mention we hired some amazing artists to fill this anthology with awe-inspiring sci-fi and fantasy art!
The Ultimate Soul’s Purpose
Hydrangeas From Dad follows you through the devastating loss of your father and the mysterious hydrangea text he sent from beyond, opening into a courageous memoir of grief, soul, family, and spiritual healing. Why was this an important book for you to write?
First of all, I admired my dad for the man he became in the last 25 years of his life. Once he retired and no longer had to fully provide for 5 kids, a wife, and his mother, he became a real father to me. And I was gradually able to let him in after spending my childhood feeling detached from him. During retirement, Dad visited me several times a year, called frequently, and moved to FL, and was closer, so I could visit him. We finally had a relationship.
Secondly, I thought the way he lived his life was authentic, courageous, and full of gusto, and he encouraged me to live the same way. I told him when he was dying that I would write a book about him and his life, and I was committed to that promise.
And, the third reason was that his message to me from the afterlife was so powerful and life-changing that I knew I needed to share the story with others. My desire was to help others who had also lost a loved one, maybe a parent, to know with certainty that our soul relationships continue after the body is gone. I found that awareness to be so comforting during the early months and ongoing years of grieving that Dad was no longer physically with us. I trusted that others could find comfort in this story, too. And his message to me ignited the fire of complete authenticity in me to live my life fully and honestly! I wanted to share that message too, knowing that physical life as we experience it is short, but HOW we live prepares us for the possibility of a glorious afterlife.
What was the first thing you felt when you saw the text from your father’s phone with the photo of blue hydrangeas?
I was honestly shocked! I think my heart stopped beating, and I lost my breath for a moment. But my mind couldn’t process this, and I tried desperately to find another explanation other than this was Dad reaching out to me right after a man on television talked about how important it was to call your parents while they were still alive. I was trying to digest all of that. It was more of an emotional experience than it was anything cognitive. It was tumultuous! My gut was in knots. I stared at the screen in disbelief. And after a few moments, I convinced myself that my sister had planted a flower bush in Dad’s yard and used his phone to send me a picture of it. I needed to believe in that to get through the night and let my gut and heart settle down.
How did writing about your father’s final days change your relationship to those memories?
I commented to my siblings that they lived through my dad’s dying and moved on; and, I lived it off and on for 10 years, the length of time it took me to finish the manuscript. Writing about those 5 days of my dad’s dying kept me anchored in the experience of dying. It also helped me appreciate living even more because I now knew what it was like to have a loved one leave this physical world and their physical body. I became more intimately attached to death and dying and re-writing the definitions of this for myself. And, through this awareness, I knew that preparing oneself for the afterlife by HOW we lived in THIS life was the ultimate soul’s purpose.
Were there parts of your spiritual journey that you felt afraid or hesitant to share so openly?
After serious reflection on this question, I would have to say the part of my spiritual journey that I had hesitation or fear to share openly was about my venture into the world of shamanism. Not because of my own trepidation, but because I feared being judged harshly and my book being discredited because of that.
I live in the Bible Belt of the US. People are predominantly Christian, and fundamentally so. I consider myself a Christian, but open to receiving influence from many other religions as a spiritual seeker. Shamanism would be seen as a pagan practice by many. But I had to push through this fear of rejection and dismissal because my spiritual journey, prompted by my Dad’s text message from the afterlife, was and still is about being my TRUE self!
Now, I welcome questions from anyone. I love the opportunity to better explain how studying shamanism and the powerful rituals as they were taught by Don Oscar Miro Quesada, taught me how to fully and completely love! My heart was blocked by layers of anger, disappointment, and despair for most of my life. The practice of Anyi, “sacred reciprocity,” and the initiations and blessings received from don Oscar and the Universal Shamanism community removed the barriers I didn’t even know I had. Somehow, I was set
free, became lighter, more positive, and loving; and this has been a treasured gift.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Mary Ellen McDonald | Mary Ellen Connett McDonald | Connett Therapy and Coaching | EquiHeart | Website | Fierce Feminine Fire | EquiHeart Guided Horsemanship | Amazon
If you are:
– Wrestling with the mysteries of life and death
– Questioning why we love, even when loss seems inevitable
– Anticipating or grieving the passing of a parent or other cherished soul
– Feeling lost, displaced, or hollow after such a profound absence
– Living in the shadows instead of embracing your deepest truths and longings
Then this book is here for you-a companion for your soul’s journey to:
– Ease the sorrow of losing those you love, and bring gentle healing to your heart
– Affirm the eternal nature of your soul and the souls of those who have passed
– Understand that death cannot sever the bonds of love you share
– Live fully in alignment with your soul’s deepest purpose
– Cultivate spiritual practices that nurture and sustain your soul
– Move toward the highest state of fulfillment-union with God, Source, or Great Spirit
May this journey light your path, opening your heart to healing, connection, and the limitless presence of your soul in every moment of your life.
Bait – A Harper Jones Novel
Bait, by Jeffrey Butler, is a crime thriller with strong espionage and action-thriller elements, centered on Detective Harper Jones as a local car bombing in Wolf Hollow pulls him back into the violent shadow of his past. What begins as a police investigation soon opens into something larger, more personal, and far more dangerous, involving old missions, buried guilt, international crime, and people Harper thought he had lost forever.
I liked how the book starts fast and keeps widening its scope. At first, I thought I was settling into a coastal detective story, with local politics, old grudges, and Harper’s sharp, often sarcastic voice guiding the way. Then the novel shifts gears. The stakes stretch from Wolf Hollow to Washington and then overseas, and the story becomes less about solving one crime and more about confronting the kind of past that refuses to stay buried. It gives the thriller a sense of forward motion, but also an emotional undertow.
Butler’s writing is direct, energetic, and plot-driven. The action scenes have a hard, tactical feel, and Harper’s narration gives the book its personality. He can be funny, wounded, reckless, and stubborn, sometimes all in the same scene. The story leans into big reveals, violent confrontations, and high-stakes twists. I appreciated that the book doesn’t treat Harper as untouchable. His choices cost him. His past matters. The title, Bait, is fitting because nearly everyone in the story is being used to draw someone else into danger.
What stayed with me most was the tension between duty and personal loyalty. Harper isn’t just chasing villains. He’s trying to make sense of guilt, love, fatherhood, and the damage left behind by secret wars. That gives the book more weight than a standard action thriller. I would recommend Bait to readers who enjoy fast-paced crime thrillers with military and spy-fiction edges, especially fans of damaged protagonists, layered conspiracies, and stories where the personal stakes hit as hard as the explosions.
Pages: 519 | ISBN : 979-8995267300
What If We Took This Off Planet?
Venera LTD. follows a nuclear researcher as he transforms catastrophe into a space-and-energy empire, only to discover that changing the world may require moral debts no visionary can fully repay. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The original idea for this actually came from a previous manuscript I developed, but never fully got into print. I dissected the ideas that worked and built around those. The big inspiration came from prospect idea, that some sites known for nuclear storage or development could leak, and the question became, what can we do to prevent this? A novel idea I wanted to explore was what if we took this off planet? And where would we put it? Ultimately, Venus was the chosen location. Venus, unlike the Moon and Mars, most likely will never be colonized due to the harsh environment on the planet, but its location relative to Earth makes it a closer and more frequent target than Mars. The next question was, how do we get the waste there? My initial thought was that this would be either a government or business entity, and with the rise of private space logistics companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, I opted for a business entity in the end. Lastly, how would we fuel these ships? Given that crude oil is derived from algae, and one of the main by-products of algae is oxygen, this seemed like a very eco-friendly option to obtain a practically limitless supply of fuel for these ships.
Hendrick Campbell is neither a traditional hero nor villain. How did you approach writing a character whose ambition is both admirable and morally dangerous?
I wanted Hendrick to start as a normal individual. Flawed, imperfect, but well-meaning and wanting what’s best for his family. The way he goes from the start of the book to the end of the book is incremental, based on the circumstances he is faced with. It’s not one single event or action that makes him who he is in the end, but the culmination of these choices and consequences that ultimately cement his character, and therefore his legacy at the conclusion of the book. Essentially, I wanted his trajectory at the beginning to be ambiguous, and at the end, a tragic figure, misguided by what he interpreted as what was for the best, whether that be for his family, his company, or for himself.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The central theme of the book is ambition. One of the inspirations for the novel was Macbeth, and how ambition ultimately changed the protagonist over time. I set my novel over a much longer course of time, to make changes in the main character more subtle and nuanced, to show that the changes in an individual are more benign in the beginning, gradually changing the individual’s goals and objectives to more ambitious achievements, which can further alienate an individual from where they started to where they are now.
Another major theme in the novel was ulterior motives. A lot of the actions and ventures of the people and companies are not done for one singular reason, but for multiple reasons. Over time, the rationale for these ventures can be pulled and influenced for one reason and away from another. The weighting of these reasons changes over time, and therefore changes what the companies and individuals focus on.
What do you hope readers take away from the novel’s darker view of innovation, especially the idea that progress can come with hidden human costs?
What I want the reader to take away is that anyone can be changed by opportunity, but that opportunity will come with some kind of cost. That the more subtle and benign reasons and issues can build over time and change anyone. Without proper introspection, the moral and ethical basis on which people define themselves can gradually erode, and in the end, harm the people they strive to enrich.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
ULTIMATE LAW OF SUCCESS: Provide Solutions, Solve People’s Problems, Meet Others’ Needs, Get Paid for Your Products and Services, and Attain Wealth
Ultimate Law of Success, by Peter James Kpolovie, is an expansive self-improvement and wealth-building book built around one insistent premise: lasting success comes from solving other people’s problems through useful products, services, inventions, and disciplined action. Across chapters on time, breakthroughs, skill acquisition, business websites, memory, enthusiasm, and going the extra mile, Kpolovie returns again and again to the same moral and economic equation: serve real needs, create value, and wealth will follow. He illustrates this through figures such as Willem Kolff, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Stanley Mason, and everyday inventions like toothpaste tubes, razors, microwave ovens, and disposable diapers, using them as proof that human progress is often born from someone refusing to accept a persistent inconvenience as permanent.
The book is most compelling when it treats success not as personal accumulation, but as usefulness made visible. There’s a humane spark inside the argument, even when the language is intensely commercial. Kpolovie’s repeated insistence that egocentrism repels wealth and that time should be guarded for service gives the book a straightforward quality. I respected the moral pressure behind the author’s ideas. The book made me reconsider productivity less as busyness and more as contribution. The example of Kolff’s dialysis machine stayed with me because it gives the book’s philosophy a heartbeat: invention isn’t merely profitable, it can stand between suffering and survival.
The book’s confidence is energizing. The writing is passionate, repetitive, and forceful. Kpolovie favors declaration, and the book revisits principles to ensure they stick. The author writes with the certainty of someone preaching from long conviction rather than casually offering advice. I appreciated the breadth of examples, from Apple’s products to print-on-demand publishing and Stanley Mason’s small, practical inventions, because they grounded the grand ideas in recognizable things people actually use.
I came away seeing Ultimate Law of Success as a fervent, ambitious, and earnest manifesto about service, invention, and wealth creation. It has a clear purpose: to make something useful, help people meaningfully, and refuse to live passively. I’d recommend it to entrepreneurs, aspiring inventors, coaches, students of personal development, and readers who respond well to motivational writing with a strong moral charge and a practical business emphasis. For someone looking for a warm but uncompromising push toward disciplined value creation, this book offers a vigorous and memorable call to become useful in the world.
Pages: 396 : ASIN : B0G2JXDWBH
Memory Becomes Another Character
Eye of the Storm follows 70yr-old Lazaro as he revisits the 1963 hurricane that shattered his Hialeah childhood, uncovering buried family trauma, spiritual hauntings, and the painful path toward forgiveness. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration came from a story related to me by my best friend when I was 14. He told me that from the ages of 7 to 11, he had been sexually abused by his older brother. His family practiced Santeria. The story stuck with me and in 1990 I wrote a one-act play entitled “Eye of the Storm” about a child who is abused for the New York Shakespeare Festival (New York Public Theater). The play became the basis for the novel although I expanded the story considerably in the book by using the second part of the novel to explore how sexual abuse affects relationships and adult decisions.
How did you approach writing memory as something almost supernatural?
My Cuban heritage and the prevalence of Santeria and my fascination with magic realism (as depicted in the novels of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez) helped shape my approach. Growing up in the Cuban community, there was always a sense that the spiritual world and the everyday world coexisted side by side. I wanted “Eye of the Storm” to reflect the idea that the past is never entirely dead and that memory itself can haunt, guide, protect, or even fool us. The hurricane in the novel became a metaphor for that reality. For my principal character Lazaro Lopez, memory becomes another character—persisitent and impossible to escape.
How did your Cuban background and understanding of the culture affect and shape the world of Hialeah in the novel?
My Cuban-American background gave “Eye of the Storm” its very heartbeat. The world of Hialeah feels lived in because I carry its memories, humor and contradictions within me. I lived it. I tried to portray the Cuban-Americans of Hialeah as deeply human–flawed, loving, wounded, but always resilient–like the people I grew up around in my neighborhood.
How did you decide how much of the spiritual world to put on the page?
I was very careful not to allow the mystical world–the Santeria, dreams, omens, La Guajira and unseeen forces to overwhelm the story. I wanted these elements to reflect the reality of many Cuban and Cuban families, where spirituality and everyday existence live side by side. There is nothing strange about the sacrifices and rituals that are performed. They’re part of life—not an abberation.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Blending psychological realism with elements of Santeria mysticism, “Eye of the Storm” has already drawn critical praise for its literary scope and emotional power.
So You Want To Be A Crime Scene Investigator
So You Want To Be A Crime Scene Investigator, by Linda Soules, is a fascinating and kid-friendly guide for young readers who are curious about forensic science and what crime scene investigators actually do. Instead of giving kids the flashy TV version of CSI work, this book explains the real job in a clear and honest way. Readers learn about photographing crime scenes, collecting fingerprints and samples, documenting evidence, protecting the chain of custody, and making sure everything is handled carefully enough to hold up in court.
What makes this kids’ book especially interesting is how well it connects science to real life. DNA analysis, fingerprint examination, trace evidence, bloodstain patterns, and lab work are all explained in a way that feels easy to understand without being boring or watered down. The book also shows that crime scene investigation is not just about finding clues. It takes patience, focus, teamwork, critical thinking, and the ability to stay calm when the pressure is high.
The detailed illustrations and fun facts add a lot to the reading experience. They make the information more engaging and give young readers something to look at and really imagine the job. I also liked that the book talks about different kinds of forensic work, the history of forensic science, and even the emotional side of the job. The book states, “Crime scenes are places where something bad has happened…” That honesty helps kids get a fuller picture of the career, including both the exciting parts and the serious responsibilities.
This is a great choice for children who are interested in science or future careers in crime scene investigation. It’s organized, informative, encouraging, and has extra resources that help kids keep learning after they finish the book. So You Want To Be A Crime Scene Investigator is not only useful for young readers but also enjoyable for adults who like learning about forensic science in a simple and engaging way.
Pages: 38 | ISBN : 978-1972766293
No Free Will, No Choice
Judas, Otherwise follows a deeply human Judas Iscariot as Roman violence, family loyalty, spiritual longing, and political unrest shape him into a man whose misdirected love leads him toward history’s most infamous betrayal. What drew you to reimagining Judas as a man wrestling with fear, love, and choice?
Ever since I was a child, I have struggled with the idea that Judas was chosen by Jesus to follow Him, favored among the disciples, and tasked with a responsibility to deliver Jesus as was needed for Him to complete his path and provide salvation to all… and in all of this, Judas was the only one who had no free will, no choice, and then gets vilified for eternity. The Bible tells the necessary tale, but we have no idea who Judas was, or how he became the man who could fulfill what was needed.
The novel asks whether Judas was truly free to choose differently. How did you approach that question without making the story feel irreverent or overly revisionist?
This was of the utmost importance to me. I had no desire to challenge God, Jesus, or the Bible. I didn’t want to challenge anyone’s faith or beliefs. My goal was to give backstory, to explain that Judas was a man, was chosen by Jesus, and completed a task nobody else could be counted on to do. I wasn’t apologizing for Judas, or making him seem like a hero. I just felt that Judas deserved to be understood and then let people decide for themselves if his legacy was fair.
The conversations between Judas, Shimon, Ezran, Matthew, Peter, and Jesus carry much of the book’s moral tension. How did you develop such distinct voices for each of them?
I did my research through the Bible and available texts and tried to keep the spirit of each man, and Mary of Bethany alive and distinct. It was important to me that the interactions between them all had weight and merit and not just added fluff. It was especially important where Jesus was concerned because adding dialogue to Jesus had to be consistent and fair to his spirit as much as it can be known. I didn’t want to attempt to change anyone or give them characteristics that didn’t appear anywhere else. I didn’t want cartoons of those sacred to the story.
What do you hope readers take away from Judas’s tragedy, especially in the way the novel frames his downfall as misdirected love rather than simple evil?
I would like for people to have an open mind about Judas. He was human like the rest of us and given the most hateful task in history, even though it had to be done for Jesus to be able to offer the world salvation through His blood and sacrifice. Jesus died for everyone, and I find it hard to believe that He didn’t immediately forgive Judas – and perhaps no forgiveness was needed since Judas did what had to be done. I guess someday we may all know the truth, but since Jesus tasked everyone with being forgiving it would seem that Judas was just as deserving or at least worth a deeper thought.
Author Links: Website | Amazon
Everyone knows what he did.
But what if no one has truly understood why?
Judas, Otherwise reimagines the most infamous betrayal in history through the eyes of the disciple who committed it.
Set in first-century Judea under Roman occupation and rising unrest, this haunting historical novel follows Judas as he is drawn into a storm of loyalty, fear, ambition, love, guilt, and faith. As the world around Jesus grows more volatile, Judas is forced toward choices that will wound not only the people he loves, but the course of history itself.
This is not the story of a monster.
It is the story of a man.
A man who longed to matter.
A man who believed he understood what had to be done.
A man caught between devotion and ruin, between free will and destiny, between the kingdom he hoped for and the tragedy he helped unleash.
Emotionally rich, morally searching, and deeply human, Judas, Otherwise explores betrayal, sorrow, consequence, and the terrible cost of trying to force God’s hand.
