Author Archives: Literary_Titan
It’s Not Hard To Be Kind
Marco the Magnificent and the Biddy Buddies follows a determined young sleuth and four sharp-eyed neighborhood grandmas who join forces to investigate strange happenings in their town. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Marco appears in books 2, 3, and 4, so he has already helped in earlier investigations and has even been made a member of the Eagle River detectives. He’s an interesting kid and I thought he deserved his own book.
How do the Biddy Buddies’ experiences and perspectives complement the skills of the younger detectives?
They bring resources to the investigation that the kids don’t have. Mainly a deep knowledge of the history of the town and who has the influence to move things forward. They know the Mayor, even watched him grow up. They remember stories that their parents told them. This gives the kids leads to work on.
What do you hope young readers learn from Marco’s determination, curiosity, and willingness to help others?
That they, too, bring value to a community. It’s not hard to be kind, or to listen to an older person tell stories. Live joyfully. What is a town without it’s children?
What is in store next for the Eagle River Detectives series, and are there new adventures you’d especially like to explore?
With the town itself being one of the main characters in the books, there is a lot of material to work with here. I have a hunch where the next book would go. We’ll see.
Author Website
Mystery & Adventure Friendship & Fun. This book has a FREE downloadable Abandoned Mine escape game with purchase.
Missing pets, a suspicious accident and a weird art show grab the attention of ten-year-old Marco Herrera, a new member of the Eagle River Detectives. Time to call on his block lieutenants, a group of nosey neighborhood grandmas he recruited over the past year. With their help Marco is the first to know when anything new or exciting happens in the little town of Eagle River, Nebraska.
Enter the Biddy Buddies. Four of Marco’s best lieutenants band together to form an undercover spy network that teams up smoothly with the Eagle River Detectives.
Join Marco, the Biddy Buddies and the rest of the kid detectives in an exciting romp where young and old band together to keep the town safe and secure for both man and dog!
It Just Keeps Building
One Taste of Euphoria follows a kingdom threatened by a criminal guild, a young woman unraveling the mysteries of her powers, and characters whose quests for justice, love, and happiness carry dangerous consequences. What inspired the idea behind this book?
This is the third installment in The Legends of Baelon series, so the inspiration for it really came from the storyline preceding it. The series builds on itself, with each book leaving the reader with a sense of satisfaction, but also a clear message that the story is not finished.
How has Sibil Dunn’s evolution as the Wisperal allowed you to explore the tension between extraordinary power and emotional vulnerability?
Sibil’s evolution presented an interesting challenge because she’s exploring that tension herself, and the reader gets to go along for the ride. She’s young and emotional, but also strong-willed and capable, so she wrestles with being both at the same time. Complicating matters is her uncertainty surrounding the origin of her powers. Are they inherited from her mother? Do they stem from the mysterious plant, Euphoria? Or are they just a part of her natural maturation? Regardless, it’s fun to write about a character who has so many strengths, and yet is so emotionally vulnerable–you don’t often get to see that in real life.
In Carson’s pursuit of the Takers’ Guild, how did you approach the moral complexities of distinguishing justice from personal revenge?
For a number of the protagonists (Rolft Aerns, Sibil and Tristan share the same dilemma) the pursuit of personal revenge is a strong motivator. But Marshal Carson tends to be more reasoned than most. His primary allegiance is to the crown and King Axil, and he uses that allegiance to help filter out his personal agendas.
As the third installment in the Legends of Baelon series, how does One Taste of Euphoria deepen the consequences of earlier choices while introducing new conflicts?
Most of the characters in this story, protagonists and antagonists alike, have numerous opportunities to cut bait and “let well enough alone”. The fact that they continue to fish–whether that be due to greed or vengeance–almost always leads them into deeper waters. The more they invest in a particular pursuit, the harder it is to give the chase up and take their losses. Reynard’s pursuit of the gold is a classic example. Once it leads to the death of friends, he finds even greater reason to pursue it, because he can’t live with the thought they died for nothing.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
With the Takers Guild largely destroyed, the realm of Aranox seeks to recover from a turbulent and painful period. But the guild’s remaining member, Ruler Three, proves to be more than just elusive. The League of Assassins chooses sides, and the kingdom faces its toughest challenge yet.
Marshal Carson meets his match. Trouble courts Rolft once again. The past returns to haunt both Sibil and King Axil.
The flames of true love flicker in a dying light, and the fate of all Baelon rests on the shoulders of a weary few.
The Legends of Baelon series is best enjoyed in order:
Book 1: Six Moons, Seven Gods
Book 2: Two Crowns, Three Blades
Book 3: One Taste of Euphoria
That’s Your Space
A Thousand Touches follows an Iranian American teenager who is the star of his school’s soccer team as he prepares for his senior year while navigating a demanding father and cultural expectations. How did the idea of following an Iranian American teenager through his senior year in small-town Kentucky first develop?
They say “write what you know,” and well, that’s what I did. The novel is set in my hometown, and as an Iranian American, I thought it was best to tell my story from there. More importantly, I wanted the complex, layered narrative to be accessible to a lot of different readers, so adding the sports element (I did play high school soccer, though not anywhere as good as Cyrus) will help, because so much of small-town America revolves around the high school sports season. Coincidentally, Bardstown High’s current soccer team is making its deepest run in history, reaching the final four. (Check back in after Wednesday to see where they are).
Then, of course, you can’t talk about Bardstown without talking about bourbon.
That said, this was the outcome of an exercise my writing coach pushed on me. I was originally working on another manuscript set in 2017, in the weeks after Trump was inaugurated, with Cyrus returning to Bardstown after living and working in DC for the previous decade. My coach suggested there should be a backstory, something of a reflection. And that turned into the novel I’m publishing with Atmosphere Press.
So, I guess this is me saying there’s a part 2.
What aspects of Cyrus’s experiences do you believe will resonate most strongly with readers navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood?
Obviously, the most powerful parts are the relationships with Isabella and his father. Isabella’s relationship is finite, but it still deeply impacted him. And a lot of us remember our first love, our first real love, losing it maybe before we’re ready for it to end, and that sort of defines everything from there on out.
With his dad, especially for folks like me with a parent or father who is an immigrant who keeps things closed off, finding ways to both accept where you are while yearning for more is a common theme I’ve both heard and read about from others like me. I know it’ll land with hyphenated folks and likely others too.
What parallels do you see between the challenges Cyrus faces on the soccer field and the decisions he must make in his personal life?
I think I kept the soccer field as a refuge for a reason. That was the spot where he had control. He could escape and be himself. The kids I used to coach will likely remember that that was one of the things I always told them. Once you step on the pitch, that’s your space to be who you want to be. But I also wanted it to be a place where Cyrus would learn to let go. There are a few scenes where he does that, and as he does, things start to clear up a little.
What do you hope distinguishes A Thousand Touches from other coming-of-age novels exploring family relationships, sports, and first love?
The obvious thing for me is just how many layers there are. I mean, who’s written about the Iranian American experience in rural Kentucky using bourbon and soccer as a backdrop? The tagline Friday Night Lights meets The Kit Runner, set in Kentucky’s bourbon country, threads that needle for a reason.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Substack
In Bardstown, Kentucky, the Bourbon Capital of the World, Cyrus Soltani is used to standing out. He’s the star of his high school soccer team, chasing a state championship in his senior year. He’s also the son of an Iranian immigrant father who expects more than victories on the field and of a town that never quite lets him forget he doesn’t fully belong.
As the season intensifies, so do the pressures at home and in the stands. Then Isabella arrives-an Italian exchange student who sees Cyrus clearly and challenges him in ways no one else does. What begins as a bright, consuming first love quickly becomes entangled in everything Cyrus is trying to outrun.
In the end, growing up isn’t just about leaving-it’s about deciding what you carry with you.
Families Are Complicated
What She Stole follows a seventeen-year-old who is caught shoplifting, causing her to spend hours alone in a mall security room where she relives painful childhood memories, forcing her to confront a troubled family history. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
This is a case of “write what you know,” and so this part is autobiographical. I really did try to shoplift a sequined purse from the mall when I was seventeen! However, I don’t recall anything else about the ordeal, and so the ensuing scenes are imagined. While a lot of Eloise’s voice and character came from my own childhood, there is also a lot that is fictional to make up her troubled world. My goal was to make a troubled teen lovable, even though her actions and things that happen to her are often unlikeable and wild.
How did you develop Eloise’s distinctive personality, particularly her sharp humor, sensitivity, and impulsive behavior, and what role do her observations of the world around her play in revealing emotions she struggles to express directly?
Eloise is based on every teenager I knew in high school, and she’s also a little bit like me. My brain is always running, and so in this way I put my own associations into Eloise’s characteristics. As a character study, I wanted the style of the novel to show the reader a “narrative of revelation,” as defined in Tracy Kidder’s Good Prose:
“The most important conflict often happens within a character, or within the narrator. The story begins with an inscrutable character and ends with a person the author and reader understand better than before, a series of events that yields, however quietly, a dramatic truth. One might call this kind of story a narrative of revelation (Kidder, 15).”
In this way, I thought revealing Eloise’s emotional arc through her own observations about the world would best reveal her quiet truth.
How does the novel examine the ways childhood experiences can shape someone’s understanding of love and personal worth?
In this novel, Eloise comes to the realization that her experiences in childhood set her up with a dysfunctional view of love and warped sense of trust. From early on, she was neglected and abused, which taught her that love hurts, and that she can’t count on anyone. But she also realizes that she can love herself, and give herself what she needs to survive, and to thrive. She starts off with low self-esteem, but she grows into her own sense of self by the end of the novel.
How do you hope Eloise’s experiences contribute to conversations about emotional needs, family dysfunction, and the lasting effects of childhood experiences?
This is a great question. Families are complicated, and everyone will come away from reading about Eloise’s family with a different perspective. Did Eloise behave badly because she was abused at home? Or was she disciplined and punished at home because she behaved badly? As the American Psychological Association points out: “We know that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as various forms of abuse and neglect, increase the risk of misconduct.” So we can see that Eloise is acting out in accordance to her adverse childhood experiences. I hope that readers of “What She Stole” gain more empathy for children and teens and perhaps judge them less harshly when they show problematic behavior. And I also hope readers see that healing is possible, as Eloise heals through her later-in-life experiences with massage, gentle-touch chiropractic, and therapy.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
Seventeen-year-old Eloise Goldstein gets picked up for shoplifting at the local suburban mall and spends hours waiting for her narcissistic mother to pick her up. As the security guard locks her in a holding room, she sits with nothing to do but “think about her actions.” Alone, repressed memories emerge, bringing her childhood–growing up with a schizophrenic father and depressed mother–into new light.
From the author of the award-winning poetry chapbook “Birth of a Daughter” comes a lyrical coming-of-age novel about a young woman who struggles to feel loved and find her voice among a chaotic and abusive household. “What She Stole” explores how one woman, shaped by the dichotomies of memory and trauma, uses writing, mothering, and bodywork to heal.
A New Generation
Afrilition presents a vision of African development grounded in the continent’s historical identity and its capacity to shape its own future. What does the term Afrilition mean to you, and how does it capture your vision for Africa’s place in the world?
Afrilition means Africa in ebullition which brings clarity to the Pan African confidence to move beyond a reactive unity towards a holding space for our complexity and diversity that can offer the world an alternative humanity expressed so we can disagree in agreeable ways towards creativity and abundance. It means Pan-African excellence intentionally, contextually beyond reaction. It means a new generation that has a mental model beyond colonial systems and embracing their mistakes with our wisdom.
What challenges must African institutions address to build economic systems that are both competitive and responsive to the needs of their communities?
We must recognize that the wisdom of a successful economic system for our Pan African world must serve what is valuable to the deeper needs of most of our people. Being brave not to be blinded by the extractive, material scarcity obsession of current adopted system towards recognising wealth is varied and complex expression of our collective wellbeing. So we must define indices of value grounded in interdependence and shaped by our colllective effectiveness.
How does your vision of African prosperity differ from development models that emphasize economic growth and material wealth as the primary measures of success?
My Pan African vision is not prescriptive but indicative of how inclusive future generation are of our collective humanity, complexity and allow fuller participation in building the space for better expression of the broad spectrum of our humanity
How can leaders translate values such as compassion, dignity, and mutual responsibility into practical institutional and economic decisions?
By creating spaces for our people to critically and creatively engage with their many perspectives so that they grow into choosing or challenging the infinite possibilities of being African.
Author Links: Facebook | Website
These are not about competition or comparison with other geographic spaces, people, or systems but the realisation of promises delayed by distractions and dislocation.
Afrilition is the intentional destination of an African world that moves beyond reaction and is purposeful in cooperation for the greater good.
An African world where material acquisition is not the definition of success but where humanity and humility elevate those who give.
A world where the future lives because the majority of global youth wholeheartedly identify with it, where service is more valued than competition. A world where abundance is defined by what you give and the community you build.
Afrilition is the possibility of an African world that scans the globe not just in kinship and culture but also in values that are not reduced to extraction and dehumanising the other.
From Africa to the Caribbean, South America, North America, and even Europe, it is an expression of the tomorrow of everyone who identifies their humanity in their Africanness.
A possibility for all those who are not blinded by infrastructure, industrialisation, or military hegemony to love, interdependence, and community.
Afrilition is the promise of a great people spread across the world, who are not defined by their trauma but elevated to be a light for posterity and purposefulness.
The choices that were meant to destroy, extract, and humiliate continue to be the hallmark of adaptability and resilience, the very essence of human evolution.
Afrilition is Africa’s world in its essence and the realisation of its unique place in the world.
Afrilition is the love of self, unbridled, is purpose unbowed, is vision uncompromised and prosperity released for posterity.
Afrilition is the promise of our ancestors and the realisation of the commitment and sacrifices of those of us present now for the future.
Trucks Keep Things Going
Buddy & His Big Truck follows Buddy as he introduces young readers to the everyday adventures and responsibilities of a truck driver. What was the inspiration for your story?
My inspiration is my husband, who is a truck driver.
How does Buddy’s journey help children understand the relationship between transportation and the everyday items their families use?
Everything the kids use, whether pens, paper, things they eat, everything in the bedroom, is all hauled on a truck.
What inspired you to include the personal and family-related aspects of a truck driver’s life alongside the practical responsibilities of the job?
I was inspired by my husband and my father being truck drivers; my grandkids and many other friends and family are all, or have been, drivers.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
My next book is based on special gifts that not only kids have, but everyone does, including those with disabilities.
Author Links: Facebook | Website
Ride along with Buddy on his next delivery.
The Otherworldly
Area 52 follows twelve-year-old Sally as she investigates the mysterious disappearance of legendary creatures, encountering eccentric aliens, secret institutions, and dangerous mysteries while learning to trust her abilities. What inspired the setup of your story?
I have always been fascinated by mythology, aliens, UFO’s and the otherworldly. I wanted to explore the idea that, just like any other animal group, the creatures of myth would, if real, be studied and protected like any other endangered species. Once I had established that relationship with humans, it stood to reason that there would be those looking to exploit those creatures. So it is at this intersection of preservation versus exploitation that the story finds its setup.
Sally’s intelligence often clashes with her fear of inadequacy. What inspired you to explore perfectionism through a young heroine navigating extraordinary responsibilities?
We put a lot of pressure on our younger generation. As a parent, I always try to guide my daughter as best I can through adolescence, but anyone who has a child in middle school and above will attest to the fact that the pressures of academia, study, excellence, and future career decisions are very real. You have to get good grades to get into a top school. You have to go to a good school to get the best education, and with the best education (in theory) you provide a platform to make a career in your preferred field. This is societal pressure. However, the individual puts pressure on themselves to live up to those expectations, whether societal or familial. There are young people who are smart, capable, and conscientious, yet they may lack the social skills or self-confidence which are intangibles that can’t be prescribed purely in a classroom. Sally has the smarts and the ambition; she is socially mobile and agreeable, but she is aiming for the very top, and that comes with standards that she isn’t confident she can meet. I felt that writing Sally this way would be an effective link between the fantastical in the story and the reality of the reader. I wanted a three-dimensional protagonist who young readers could relate to, a mirror to the obstacles they face in their own lives in pursuit of their dreams.
Doctor Whatsit serves as both Sally’s inspiration and a source of pressure. How did you approach balancing admiration, affection, and expectation in their relationship?
Doctor Whatsit is an amalgamation of several people in my life. I had teachers who were hard but fair. Their expectations of me were sky-high, but they understood that it took time, experience, and gumption to meet them. Doctor Whatsit is the personification of ‘tough love’ in my eyes. Her ambitions for Sally are almost as large as Sally’s herself. There is an inverse trajectory for their lives. Sally wants to be like her aunt, and her aunt yearns for a more normal life. We meet Doctor Whatsit at a period where her commitment to her career is wavering, and yet her niece is pushing hard to emulate her, so there is an internal conflict between personal choices and the stewardship she believes she owes her niece. The love and affection is real, Sally is the closest thing the Doctor has to a daughter and so there is always the conflict of protection versus proaction. How do you encourage someone in a pursuit once you know the consequences?
Your mythical creatures and aliens have distinct personalities, social customs, and everyday frustrations. How did you develop their individual identities beyond their fantastical abilities?
That’s a good question. I begin with creating the physical characteristics or abilities and work backward. The Thistlians protrude spikes from their bodies. Why? It is a defense mechanism. Why? If you keep asking yourself these questions as an author, you will find your imagination will take you to some interesting places. In The SiP Saga Chronicles, which are the companion short stories to the main Saga, I go into more detail about the alien races. A case in point in ‘The Royal Wedding,’ we learn about life on the Hollar homeworld, the origins of Hello and Hiya, the two tiny red aliens with impossibly loud voices, and that the volume of your voice points to your social status in society on Haull. The louder the voice, the higher the status. This lends itself to social commentary and creates an interesting dynamic between characters in different social strata. The SiP Saga Chronicles is available for newsletter subscribers and will be coming to all podcast platforms in audio form in January 2027.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
Sally Parker’s brain works differently from other twelve-year-old girls. Sally wants to meet the monsters under the bed, not flee from them. Why? Because it runs in the family.
Sally’s aunt, Doctor Jemima Whatsit, is a member of the Faculty of Weird—the world’s greatest institute for the study of mystical creatures, legends, ghosts, aliens, and everything…weird.
Determined to emulate her aunt, Sally applies for admission to the mysterious faculty. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realize her dream. Only her application is rejected.
Now the world’s monsters are disappearing, abducted by a shadowy organization for reasons unknown. Doctor Whatsit is on the trail of the kidnappers, and Sally is offered the perfect chance to prove that she deserves a place at her aunt’s side.
A mysterious clue leads Sally and the Doctor to Nevada and an alien research facility. A place so secret that even the secrets have secrets. Out of her depth and trapped underground, Sally must solve the mystery of the missing creatures—and fast—before the human race discovers why some secrets must never be shared.
Spiritual Questions and Quantum Mechanics
Lexie Diamond and the World’s Greatest Virtual Romance follows a fourteen-year-old girl who runs an otherworldly portal for Lost Souls and takes on an unauthorized solo mission, leading her to the perfect boyfriend and danger. What inspired the idea of a teenager operating a portal where Lost Souls arrive with unfinished business?
When the idea came to me, I was standing in the middle of three different areas of interest: I was seeking answers to spiritual questions that often drifted into quantum mechanics. My beloved grandmother died and I missed her terribly. And lastly, I was thrilled by the future possibilities of technology. My stories usually begin with the question in my mind, what if? From the cauldron of those distinct areas—spirit/science, heart and tech—my imagination cooked up the first book in the series, The Virtual Life of Lexie Diamond. In that novel, Lexie is longing for her dead mother, and because Lexie is a computer nerd/genius, I thought what if she found her mom through a portal like a hole in the quantum field? Does love live on past death? Can technology prolong or aid our connection to our loved ones?
How did you develop Lexie’s distinctive way of understanding people through computers, algorithms, and programming?
I became obsessed with the graphic poetry of Eric Raymond’s Hacker’s Dictionary. The language was fun and different, and it helped me ‘show’ Lexie’s discomfort with people and so-called reality without having to explain it. She’s an introvert who anthropomorphizes her computer Ajna-Mac, treating it as her guru. To move beyond her limitations and develop friendships or date people, she must expand her mindset.
What led you to incorporate the Enneagram into a supernatural young adult adventure, and why did you want an ancient system of personality understanding to exist alongside Lexie’s very modern technological worldview?
I’ve been a student of the Enneagram for over two decades. When my literary editor, Judith Searle, introduced me to it, the information transformed my understanding of my personality. How I wish I possessed this knowledge before I came into adulthood. I have since used it as a writing tool, to cast films, to run a business, even to parent. As you suggest, the ancient roots of the Enneagram provide an interesting contrast to Lexie’s fantastical sci-fi world. When I worked out the plot for Lexie Diamond and the World’s Greatest Virtual Romance, I was excited to share the Enneagram with YA readers.
What does Lexie’s experience teach her about the difference between popularity, belonging, romance, and authentic connection?
Let’s face it, Lexie is desperate for love and attention. She wants to belong to someone or something. Like most young people, she does not yet fully believe in herself and is vulnerable to attention. When she falls in love with Romeo (who wouldn’t?) and her wildest dreams come true, she forgets who she is and all that she believes in. Only when her world comes crashing down, and she exerts her true power, does she learn that words, no matter how sweet, mean nothing unless combined with sincere action. It’s a tough universal lesson that we all must learn.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Author Website | Virtual Believers Website
