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Nimble, Restless Intellects
World of Worlds follows young travelers, reporters, climbers, drifters, and idealists across continents and political upheaval as adventure becomes a reckoning with danger, history, and the self. What drew you to the period between 1968 and 1981 as the backdrop for these stories?
WORLD OF WORLDS is a collection of action and adventure stories during a time of transition, upheaval, exploration, and self-discovery. These tales are the product of culture shock. Or more precisely, reverse culture shock. Whatever it was by the mid-1970s, my life on the road at an end but not quite willing to give it up, I decided to try my hand at literature by recreating in fictional form the characters, complexities, landscapes, situations, tastes, smells, psychologies, dramas, insights, pleasures, and terrors I had seen in the worlds I had traveled. The main time focus is from 1968, that hinge year, to 1974. That was the moment of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Vietnam War, when Apartheid firmly gripped South Africa and wars of national liberation swirled around it, and African dictatorships sprouted like poisonous weeds, and political killing became the norm.
Many of the characters are young, restless, and morally tested. What interested you about writing people at that stage of life?
Only young people should contemplate making the journeys described in the stories. The characters – overwhelmingly young – are Americans, mostly, but there also are Australians, Brits, and Africans. An alienated, energetic, and rebellious bunch, they have been on the move for months on end. They often are challenged by the situations they encounter. That is due partly to their limited experience and judgment. Also, they are alone in foreign spaces, where everything is new and strange. To overcome their problems and to succeed, they need courage, quick thinking, energy, curiosity, and empathy in much higher doses than if they had simply stayed at home. The characters create their own predicaments and manage their own escapes. Or sometimes not.
The stories balance adventure with reflection and consequence. How did you approach that balance?
The characters in WORLD OF WORLDS have nimble, restless intellects. They think a lot. But they face fearful stress often of their own making: an engagement going up in smoke; an illusory friendship unmasked; ideals nearly betrayed; a journalist chasing a perilous story; a conniving financial fugitive near broke in central Africa; an Englishman begging in India; a hitchhiker surrounded by violent hatred in South Africa; an overworked reporter about to burn his bridges; a mountain climber escaping from himself; two travelers in a leaky canoe on the Congo River. Consequence and responsibility come from personal choice; they can be frighteningly unpredictable.
What do you hope readers take away from the collection’s encounters with political unrest, culture shock, and personal ambition?
It’s usually a good idea to be aware of what the locals are thinking when one is abroad. It can save you a lot of trouble. The triad of political unrest, culture shock, and personal ambition were constants among travelers in underdeveloped parts of the world in the 1960s and 1970s, though. They were particularly prominent in Africa amid the instability and aftershocks that followed the end of colonialism. Is that moment behind us? The characters make unlikely role models. As one reviewer of WORLD OF WORLDS remarked, “What lingers most powerfully is the remarkable fortitude of these central characters. Seen from a contemporary perspective, they feel almost otherworldly—resilient figures thrust into remote corners of the globe, often facing misfortune or profound uncertainty. One cannot help but wonder if, placed in similar predicaments today, would modern travelers possess the same grit and resourcefulness?”
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
The characters, Americans mostly-tough, rebellious youth, far from home, on bad roads, usually broke-test cultural and racial limits in strange, alluring, but pitiless surroundings, exposed to relentless existential and physical pressures that threaten their moral underpinnings and their very survival.
WORLD OF WORLDS readers prize Vietnam-era historical fiction, post-colonial Africa travel stories, character-driven 1970s political thrillers, coming-of-age adventure. They want moral seriousness alongside the action. Anyone who has traveled the world’s back roads-foreigners abroad, children of expats, tourists, students of post-independence Africa, Africans, Europeans, Americans, Australians-will recognize the authenticity immediately.
The author is an accomplished novelist, journalist, and diplomat. But above all, he was there.
If Only
If Only, by Manmohan Sadana, is a wide-ranging collection of stories, poems, dramatic scenes, and reflective pieces that move through love, faith, memory, grief, service, and human dignity. The book feels like a gathering place for many Indian voices and landscapes: Punjab’s mustard fields, Delhi homes and streets, Madurai’s temple life, Kolkata’s Durga Puja, Partition memories, Sikh traditions, Buddhist reflection, and everyday people trying to live with kindness. It’s built less around one plot and more around a shared emotional current, where each piece asks the reader to look a little more closely at compassion.
One of the strongest threads in the book is its attention to people who are often made to feel invisible. “Born under the same Silence” opens with Zainab and Meher, two hijra characters who meet in a world that wounds them but also slowly makes room for hope. When Meher tells a tea vendor, “The way is wide enough for all of us,” the line becomes more than a reply. It captures the book’s larger belief that dignity doesn’t need permission. That same spirit carries into stories about disability, speech, blindness, old age, poverty, and loneliness, where the characters aren’t treated as symbols so much as people who want to be seen clearly.
Sadana’s writing is deeply drawn to tenderness in ordinary life. In “Every Day I Meet You for the First Time,” love becomes an act of daily renewal as Aarav keeps meeting Maya after she forgets him each morning. In “Loving Son,” a beagle named Prince becomes the most devoted child in a house marked by absence. In “The Stuttering Heart,” patience becomes romance. These pieces work because they understand love as attention, repetition, and care. One line from the book puts this beautifully: “Hope is not tied to breath.” That idea keeps returning, whether the story is about soldiers, parents, lovers, teachers, servants, or strangers.
The collection also has a strong spiritual pulse. Sadana writes about Bulleh Shah, Sikh symbols, Buddha, Vishnu’s avatars, the months of the year, and the moral imagination behind Indian traditions. These sections don’t just explain belief systems; they place them beside lived experience. The book’s spirituality is practical and human, rooted in service, humility, forgiveness, and respect. Even when the writing becomes poetic or devotional, it keeps circling back to how people treat one another. In that sense, faith here isn’t distant or abstract. It’s found in a shared roof, a returned wallet, a held hand, a patient listener, or a person who refuses to abandon someone in pain.
What makes If Only memorable is its emotional range. It can move from a battlefield trench to a wedding night, from a five-hundred-rupee note’s journey to a Partition survivor’s household, from mythic reflection to a simple conversation between two people learning trust. The book is sincere, expansive, and openly compassionate. It invites readers to slow down and notice the quiet forms of courage that often go unnamed. More than anything, If Only is a book about human connection: how it survives loss, how it grows through patience, and how it becomes a kind of prayer when people choose kindness first.
Pages: 210 | ASIN : B0GTJS4LVN
A Mix of Emotions
Is There Not a Cause? is a raw and unapologetic collection of poetry, songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life that explore faith, pain, and personal development in a way that leaves the reader feeling raw and alive. What inspired you to write this particular collection of poems?
This collection was initially published in 2021. This re-release has over twenty-five new poems. My inspiration to write this collection came from time and experiences, loss, growth, pain, love, social climate around the world, faith, and more.
How do you approach writing about deeply personal or emotional topics?
I approach it the same way I do most of my pieces. I also do spoken word, so the majority of my poems are written from the perspective of me speaking to an audience or myself. For whatever reason, that makes it easy for me to share and or express deeply personal or emotional topics.
How did you go about organizing the poems in the book? Was there a specific flow or structure you were aiming for?
The beauty of the book is that there is no form or structure. The poems/stories/songs flow almost at its own pace, creating a mix of emotions, thoughts, concerns, and anthems.
How has this poetry book changed you as a writer, or what did you learn about yourself through writing it?
I learned how to truly lock in. This past year was a challenge in many ways. All in all, it made me a better writer, speaker, and performer. Writing this book was a great challenge in not depending so much on rhyming and rhythm. Allowing me to put greater effort into storytelling and free verse.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
Published in numerous magazines and online, esteemed poet and wordsmith Nathaniel Terrell re-releases his first collection of unapologetically raw and honest reflections. If you are someone who prefers to experience life and savor its moments – sacred, painful, and true – you will find favorites in this collection that you will return to. The works will touch your soul in the way poetry should.
IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? by Nathaniel Terrell is a collection best taken one page at a time and is a collection worth savoring and rereading. Each poem is replete with the wisdom and enlightenment gained from someone who experiences life and savor its moments. His words are sacred, painful, and true, and his works will touch your emotions and will find their way into your soul, just as good poetry should.
This re-release is a powerful debut collection containing songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life, with some new poems highlighting growth and maturity. Written from the perspective of a passionate, creative black man working hard to share his voice with the world, each poem paints a vivid picture of the soul of an artist. It grapples with topics such as life and death, racism, faith, anger, social injustice, division in the nation, and getting up after failure. These poems are meant to encourage and to provoke and desire, and will take you on a journey that starts fast and hard and dives deeply into the human condition.
Contemporary culture seeks to define us and forge our identities. Things are never that black and white. The real human condition is a personal journey through pain and ignorance as we seek hope, inspiration, and enlightenment. Each poem conveys important messages about the capacity to pry open our hearts and be connected with our true nature. His warm, inspirational words will encourage and provoke you to take a journey that will start fast and dive deeper. It’s an invitation to mindful presence where the words and artistic expressions compel you to find peace with yourself and the world.
For more on Nathaniel Terrell’s works, visit him on social media at natej.story or at http://www.natejstory.com.
Flirting With Extinction: Collected Essays & Stories
Joanna Kadish’s Flirting With Extinction is a raw and unapologetic mosaic of personal essays and stories that chart a life punctuated by grief, recklessness, resilience, and searching. The book dives headfirst into heavy themes: addiction, motherhood, loss, and the fragile line between survival and surrender. With prose that veers between unfiltered vulnerability and sharp humor, Kadish offers an intimate chronicle of a woman navigating trauma through love, memory, danger, and—sometimes—wild horses.
What struck me most was Kadish’s unflinching voice. She doesn’t tidy up her pain, doesn’t soften her edges. In the preface, she talks about clawing her way back from a state of “perpetual sadness” after losing her sons to the opioid crisis—a tragedy that ripples through many of the essays with a haunting steadiness. In “Anatomy of a Firefighter,” she captures childhood pyromania and sibling chaos in the heat-scorched deserts east of Los Angeles. It’s darkly funny, but the undercurrent of danger—both literal and emotional—never lets you forget the stakes.
Kadish’s writing is pure guts and gravel in “Calamity Jane,” where she recounts a horrifying attempt to break a rodeo bronc as a young girl. The imagery is searing: the smashed teeth, the blood, the betrayal of the body. But what lingers most is her twisted pride in lasting the “full eight seconds” before being flung like a ragdoll. There’s something electric in the way she writes pain. It’s not masochism; it’s a yearning to feel, to prove, to matter. This isn’t just about animals—it’s about people, about relationships, about the wild things in ourselves that won’t be tamed no matter how gently we try.
What I liked most about the chapter Zero Evidence was how it peeled back the layers of human fragility in the face of relentless judgment. Kadish walks the tightrope between raw confession and sharp critique, especially when she recounts the moments after her son’s overdose and the unbearable silence that followed. The way she describes the hospital room, the indifferent fluorescent lights, and the cold detachment of the medical staff—it all made my chest tighten. But it’s the emotional isolation that hit hardest. She’s grieving, furious, helpless, and still somehow worried about how others might view her as a mother. Her honesty cuts deep.
This is not a gentle collection. It won’t hold your hand or let you off the hook. But Flirting With Extinction will speak to anyone who’s lived through pain and come out the other side with scars and stories. It’s for people who can’t stop looking backward even while forging ahead. I’d especially recommend it to those who’ve wrestled with addiction in their families, lovers of memoir that bleeds fiction, and women who’ve ever been called “too much” for wanting to ride the bronc instead of just watching.
Pages: 300 | ASIN : B0DJHCQ5LT
Spoiler (The Healer Chronicles Book 3)
Fresh off a chaotic battle, Colonel Walker and his band of superhuman kids, created through government-sanctioned experiments, realize that the world is in more danger than they thought. There’s a breach in the barrier separating earth from the dimension housing demons, and dark entities are slowly seeping into our world. Even worse, Ms. G, a strange but powerful woman, is bent on opening the gates between both worlds to let demons into ours. Once again, Alex the healer, Colonel Walker, and the group, with help from the Pentagon, the Vatican, and others, must stop Ms. G before she causes untold darkness to overrun the world and end the human race.
Spoiler, by Michael J. Bowler, is the third book in a gripping series that is brimming with adventure and imaginative science fiction elements. It’s a compelling coming of age story of camaraderie, exploring what is means to be human, and the evils that are lurking on the fringes of the world as we know it.
The book sounds a tad spooky, right? It is, but only when it has to be, otherwise it has an adventurous spirit overall. The author finds a great balance between the dark themes and the refreshing fantasy ones. Frankly, reading Spoiler took me back to the description of Netflix’s Stranger Things which once caught my eye: “hair-raising and heartwarming.”
There are no flowery words or complex descriptions. The writing is simple and evocative as Bowler relies on the strength of his plot and characters to keep you spellbound. It’s been a while since I read a book that had me wondering, “how have I read 100 pages already?” Spoiler reels you in with the promise of chaos, drama, and twists and delivers massively.
The author has a fantastic ability to create gripping tension. He expertly teases several possibilities and leaves a few crumbs of evidence here and there, just enough to heighten your suspicion without giving too much away too soon. I think the book moves along at a good pace. Bowler nicely builds up to the inevitable chaos and uses that buildup to connect readers with the characters before everything devolves into chaos.
Spoiler is a real page-turner and an occasional tear-jerker. If you’re looking for an exciting young adult urban fantasy story with imaginative paranormal elements then you’ll heartily enjoy The Healer Chronicles series.
Pages: 377 | ASIN: B0B2V5J6C4
I’ve Always Felt Empathetic Toward Others
Shifter has the two main characters grappling with some big moral decisions. What was the inspiration for putting them into this position?
I like stories where characters, especially teenagers, have to grapple with more than just who to ask to prom because it’s when we’re faced with serious issues of right vs wrong that we show what we’re made of and who we are inside, and most of us will face tough choices throughout our lives. As a reader, I can ask myself the same questions I pose to my characters and consider which way I might go. My hope is that other readers will do the same. I’ve also thought about the ramifications of having such a power that I could decide who lives and who dies. As pointed out in the book, would it have been moral to kill Hitler before he got very far in his bid to take over the world? Even now, with what we know of history, some people would still argue no and others would say yes.
Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your characters of Alex and Andy?
I’ve always felt very empathetic toward the pain of others, even as a child and a teen, and wanted to “cure” those people of what ailed them, so I created this character of Alex to do that for me. I just don’t like seeing people unhappy or suffering, which is one reason I could never have become a doctor. Alex’s skills with his wheelchair and his innate tenacity were based on a boy I taught in high school. Despite his wheelchair, that boy could do whatever he put his mind to, sometimes with help from his friends, but mostly by himself. For Andy, I used much of the pain I absorbed from incarcerated kids I worked with who told me horrific stories of being locked in closets for years on end or about how some despicable adult slaughtered their pets in front of them. I sought to depict how hard it might be for such a child to accept love and friendship once released from such an evil upbringing, and I hope Andy comes across as believable in the minds of the readers.
What do you think were some of the defining moments in the development of Alex and Andy’s relationship?
Neither knew of the other’s existence until shortly before they met at the conclusion of Spinner (The Healer Chronicles 1), so I tried to imagine what it would feel like to meet a twin brother I never knew I had. Given the respective backgrounds of the two boys, I felt they could relate as outcasts and that might be the beginning of a friendship and even familial ties. The small moments they shared—when Andy would learn something new from Alex, or when they were washing dishes or working out in the fitness center—these moments helped cement their relationship. Learning how to combine their power and work together defined the growing connection between them, not just because their minds were linked, but because they needed to trust each other, and that must’ve been hard.
Will the next book conclude the story of Alex and Andy or is there more to tell? When will the next book be available?
The next book will conclude this particular storyline, but I have opened enough doors to tell other tales involving these characters and hope to return to them in the future. Spoiler (The Healer Chronicles 3) releases on July 12, 2022.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Alex’s wheelchair has never stopped him from doing what he wants, but his supernatural power to heal every human ailment known to science has put him in the crosshairs of a dangerous doomsday cult that will stop at nothing to capture him and his long-lost twin, Andy, who can shift illness from one person to another. When the boys combine their “gifts,” they unleash the power to control life and death.
Now Alex, Andy, and the others have been kidnapped by the U.S. military. On a creepy Air Force base in the remote Nevada desert, they must decide who to trust and who to fear while uncovering secrets this base wants to hide from the world. Who is the young boy with unusual abilities who’s treated like a soldier? What is hidden in an ultra-secret hangar that no one can access? And what unnatural experiments are conducted in that closed-off laboratory?
As Alex unravels these mysteries, he strives to bond with his twin, but Andy is distant and detached, trusting no one. He’s also more attracted to the dangerous power they wield than Alex would like. When misplaced faith in science ignites a hidden lust for supremacy, rescue can only come from the most unlikely source, and Alex must confront a terrible truth.
The Healer Chronicles continue…
Shifter
Twin brothers with the power of life and death – will they choose the path of good or evil? In Shifter, the second book in the Healer Chronicles, Michael J Bowler brings us back to the world of Alex and Andy and all the characters revolving around them. Having survived the events in the first thrilling book, the brothers begin to get to know each other and test the limits of what they can do together. But with secret organizations and military operations vying for control of their power, they have to make difficult choices that could save people… or leave them dead. The story takes twists and turns that make you question everything and everyone, from well-guarded fortresses and secret military labs in the desert.
Early on, we’re taken back to Andy’s horrific childhood, which explains his character to the reader and his brother Alex. The reader also gets some recaps and explanations of events in the first book, allowing those that have not read the first novel to understand this one. The author expertly balances dialogue, description, and action, creating incredible tension. A few scenes in the military lab had me literally at the edge of my seat! The author also created a rich and relatable world by adding small details between big moments.
There were plenty of everyday things that we take for granted highlighted in these extreme circumstances. For example, Alex’s experiences with his disability, not being able to reach a shirt in a closet that wasn’t made for someone in a wheelchair. Alex’s human existence gave us a closer connection to a character with incredible power. I loved so many of the characters in the novel. They were unusual heroes, abandoned or scorned by society because of who they are, mistakes from their past, or circumstances beyond their control.
There were also plenty of more important questions of ethics and morality in the choices the main characters have to make, as exemplified in the passage below: “And you would be, Alex. You two could save more lives than anyone in history.” “By killing,” Alex said, his voice barely a whisper. “How is that good?” “Because some people need to be killed so others may live.” Without giving too much away, you can see the dilemma Alex faces when he learns about how some powerful forces would want him to use his power.
However, conflict in the book doesn’t touch only upon questions of morality but also on adolescent insecurities and friendship. Many characters grapple with complex feelings of jealousy or fear of a new person joining the group and taking your place, wanting to prove their strength.
Shifter (The Healer Chronicles Book 2) is a suspenseful young adult thriller. With strong and memorable characters, non-stop action, and high tension, readers will not want to put the book down and anxiously await the conclusion of this exciting trilogy.
Pages: 372 | ASIN : B09R2K41L7
Elysium Protocol
Elysium Protocol by C.A. MacLean is the third book in the Architects of the Illusion science fiction series. Following a species-diverse team known as the “Fireseeds,” Elysium Protocol picks up the shattered pieces left over from the devastating war in book two, The Great Scourge. In a time of interstellar conflict, multiple factions, some seen, some working from the shadows, are vying for power, control, and sometimes, just plain survival. Set in a distant future, the last remnants of humanity are part of an intergalactic organization known as “The Convergence,” an alliance consisting of “quintillions” of citizens.
The Fireseeds are pitted against a vast alien force known as the “hiven,” an insect-like species bent on zealous destruction and domination. Several science fiction tropes appear here, but they are executed skillfully; which ensures longtime fans of science fiction will find something familiar yet still intriguing. There are multiple alien races present: humanoid bird-persons (Arkerians), crystal people (Altaran), bug people (hiven), and more. The story is rife with many planet names and systems, such as Everan, Serrona, Vraunlith-3, etc. I feel this might make it difficult to follow at times but adds to the depth of a world that seems full of possbilites and begs to be explored further. I would have loved to have seen a map of systems in the book to look back on because this story reaches epic fantasy levels where readers will be completely immersed in a large world.
This is a robust novel, almost as long as the two previous entries combined. There is a lot of action going on with all of the characters and races. Readers have to be fully engaged in this story to keep up with who is who and what species is what; reminding me of the breadth of George R.R. Martin novels. However, the author effectively handles the task of keeping things straight, with the central characters being well developed with strong individual personalities. The Arkerian Engami sisters, Eva and Ashy, the tragic Altaran, Caleb Braze, the modest human, Daniel Byre, and many more fill this impressive work with relatable characters and a compelling story. Despite some massive decisions, the memorable characters and gripping action bring a universe of primordial planets, advanced spacecraft, and futuristic cities to life.
Architects Of The Illusion, Part III: Elysium Protocol is an action-filled science fiction space opera with memorable characters and planets. Readers will be able to escape into the world that has been created and feel like they are in the action.
Pages: 777 | ASIN : B09NPPJL1Q
