Blog Archives
Inspired By A Trip
The Agape Journey follows an journalist on a globe trotting race to find the a powerful historical artifact. What excited you about this story and motivated you to continue writing?
All of my female protagonists are strong women that are challenged to pursue various paths in their lives that ultimately establishes their credibility. Imani Lewis has always been surrounded by impressive role models. Both her mother and grandmother gave her the inner confidence. Nevertheless it is her father’s letters, perhaps ironically and unexpectedly that guides Imani to accepting her calling in life. As I was creating the Imani character I was able to include many of my own personal experiences as well as others who have learned how to move beyond their own limitations.
Imani is a unique character that felt authentic. What were some character traits of hers that you most relate to?
Imani is determined to face any obstacle that she meets as long as it does not require her to become emotionally involved. Her relationship with Phoenix is her Achilles Heel, and she realizes this while at Santander. I believe many strong women have this same apprehension and must learn how to move forward.
I enjoyed the history and culture in this story. What research did you undertake for this novel to get it right?
I have been very fortunate to travel the world using personal experiences in many of my novels. Thesituation that Imani has at the Cairo Marriot was inspired by a trip that my daughter Alexandra and I took in 1994, where we stayed in that hotel for one week.
Many of the spiritual lessons alluded to in the novel were learned during Bible lessons and sermons by the two pastors that I dedicated tis book to.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
There are two projects on my schedule. The first is an adaptation of my novel, High Tea with Ophelia, to a play script. I have always thought this novel would make an entertaining play and several theatre actors agree. My next novel is, The Saint Augustine Sisterhood. It will be a story of five ladies from very diverse backgrounds containing DNA from powerful historical women. Together these ladies dedicate themselves to making significant cultural improvements in the ancient city of Saint Augustine. There will be supernatural events blended with new medical research to offer readers some fascinating answers to immortality. This novel is scheduled to be released late 2022.
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From Cairo, to Machu Picchu, to a small city in the Midwest the race to find the Agape continues.
Along The Messy Paths Of Our Lives
The Whisper of Dragons follows a Story Whisperer that must solve the mystery behind the chaos engulfing the planet before a deeper threat leads to the death of humankind. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I first pictured the story world of The Whisper of Dragons when I was walking through a state park, looking at tree roots poking out of the ground. I’d been listening to a podcast reviewing a book about the complex communication and social networks of trees and the messages that flow between them under the earth. I began to think about how everything communicates with everything else. And that was the beginning of the magic system of the novel, the idea of magic manipulating the stories between everything. As a writer I value language, and believe that the stories we tell affect reality. So it was an easy step to think about stories as the connection between matter and a force that could be manipulated to influence matter.
The other major influence on my novel was the common experience of living with the existential threats to our world today. We face so many problems that it’s pretty disheartening at times. So like anyone else, I look for solutions. Since I’m not a scientist, technology maverick, politician or spiritual leader, I’m stuck trying to build solutions with my writing. It helps me process all of the uncertainty we live with. In this book I got to combine many of my interests including language, a fascination with human nature and its shortcomings, and a curiosity about what constitutes life. Plus, I’ve adored fantasy and science fiction all of my life and have so much fun building worlds out of my interests.
What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I relate to my protagonist Kavi’s need to find a purpose in her life and untangle her identity. My day job is as a psychotherapist, so I love questions about how people develop their identities. Since it’s a common for most of us mere mortals to walk around feeling disconnected and different from other people (I don’t mean to be negative, I just listen to so many folks who feel this way), I wanted my character to be experiencing her personal version of the largescale external threat of the novel, humanity’s disconnection with itself and how that threatens everyone’s survival. And wanted her to figure out her way through to accepting herself and to finding a way to humanity to become more connected.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
As I have already mentioned, some major themes include connection versus disconnection, and how love, forgiveness and compassion help address the contrast between the two. I also wanted to address the idea of magic and science as a blend. Not because I believe we’ll be able to harness magic in our real world to help solve our complex problems, but because any of our solutions will mean thinking out of the box and redefining what we often assume are singular solutions that look at something only from one lens. And finally, I wanted to think about how we make assumptions in our personal relationships, and how even when they have been injured or fragmented along the messy paths of our lives, there is a chance to heal and to develop more understanding. I wanted to explore this idea not only in the main love relationship of this novel, but also in the protagonist’s relationships with her foster sister and her long time mentor.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My current project is a book tentatively named Dreams Walk the Earth. It is another contemporary fantasy set on modern day earth. The premise is that the collective dreams of humanity have been harvested to bring the magical creatures from human imagination to life. Dragons, faeries, witches, shapeshifters, unicorns, and vampires. They have hidden from humanity because of the danger to themselves with exposure, having only come out to the world when they helped heal society in the aftermath of World War II. They withdrew again after that grand effort, but with environmental threats and political unrest, the protagonist Aislinn, who embodies a mixture of all of their magic, must convince them to help heal the world and save humanity. Only they discover that another magical race has been created from the dregs of human nightmares and is a threat to everything. I am hoping that this novel will be available by next Christmas. In the meantime, I have another complete manuscript that needs revision and then I will push forward o publish called The Demon’s Whip. It’s a dark high fantasy, very different from what I’ve written in the past. I worked on the project years ago but was distracted from the finish line. But I’ve gotten some good feedback on it and want to get it out there.
I’ve previously published a contemporary fantasy trilogy called The Eden’s Court Saga, also available on Amazon. The first book of the series is Ruling Eden, so check it out. There are some similarities of that story world to my current project, Dreams Walk the Earth, although they are not at all meant to be set in the same universe.
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Stories are the bonds of connection between all matter, and their breakdown is causing earthquakes and social unrest to tear apart 21st century Earth. Kavi, a Story Whisperer, must solve the mystery of this chaos before a deeper threat leads to the death of humankind.
Kavi has a secret. A dragon chose her as its heir when she was a child because she possessed strong magic to bend the Stories of matter. Kavi’s dragon wants her to inherit its mantle, transform, and join the ranks of the Guardians who protect the world.
But if the dragon’s powerful Story magic cannot save her people, how will she?
And will she have to give up her humanity to do so?
The Story’s Search For Truth
The Penitent: Part III continues to follow Pall Warren on his quest where he must fight off malign forces to maintain humanity. Were you able to bring the trilogy to a close or do you feel you have more stories to tell in this world?
Yes, I believe that I was able to bring the trilogy to a close. However, like a Matryoshka or Russian doll [a doll within a doll within a doll], the story continues. I hope to create a trilogy of trilogies for The Immortality Wars series. Each trilogy represents a specific reality. The first trilogy, the Penitent, has a medieval setting. The characters, and reader, despite hints given throughout this trilogy to the contrary, believe they are in a time period similar to the Middle Ages.
The second trilogy, the Pilgrim, is currently being written. It occurs in another time period, which is actually the “present” within the time frame of the series. The manuscript was started in early July of 2021. I am excited about the story line and how it is unfolding. Pall has a long journey ahead of him…
What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?
I created this story as a thought experiment. I wondered what humanity would be like 500 years from now. We have the capacity to do incredible deeds for evil and for good. War and peace tug unceasingly at one another. Add in the trajectory of our scientific development and our insatiable desire to acquire power, I wanted to explore where this thirst for control would lead us. What will happen to faith? Will democracy still be a vital source for liberty and freedom? What will we be able to do? Will Earth be left behind in poor condition as the galaxy is explored? What happens between humans and AI?
Also, I thought it would be interesting if I could combine the voices of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lew Wallace, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Lee Child together and see if I could create a unique, epic story with a 21st-century sensibility.
Can faith, reason, and, above all, love survive against a sustained onslaught of evil?
What was your favorite character to write for and why?
That is a tough question for me to answer because I so much enjoyed writing about many of the characters, protagonists and antagonists, alike. Pall Warren, John Savage, Matthew Greatworth, and Evangel (protagonists) are variations on a theme of human goodness, strength, fragility, faith, and loss in the face of suffering. Kosem Mungadai, Ünger, and Commander Gregor Mordant (antagonists) represent our desire for power, as well as our ability to exploit our circumstances and those around us as tools for satisfying our desire for control. Writing about these characters was a blast because they helped fulfill the story’s search for truth.
With this trilogy over, what is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am hoping to complete the first rough draft of book four by next May or June (2022). Perhaps it will be ready for release later on in the fall of that year. I will continue writing books five and six as well.
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Everything Is One Great Butterfly Effect
Devil’s Ledger follows a fierce and confident spy set on a mission to expose the corruption behind the world’s oldest bank in Italy. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The prologue of Devil’s Ledger gives a quick background of the real-life tragic death of the Russian attorney, Sergei Magnitsky, who fought to defend Russian-based American investment fund manager, Bill Browder. Magnitsky subsequently died in a Russian prison, leading to the U.S. passing the anti-corruption Magnitsky Act, named after him.
The opening chapters of Devil’s Ledger pick up where the lives of Louise Moscow and other recurring series characters left off in the 2nd book of the series, PINOT NOIR. Every fascinating and powerful character in the Louise Moscow novels are inspired by actual situations and people I have met.
Louise Moscow is an intriguing and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind her character’s development?
This is a very pointed question. Louise Moscow embodies ethical integrity and honesty, in the face of venality, greed, and corruption. She’s not judgmental. Rather, unethical character flaws fascinate her. She tries desperately to understand what drives others to lie, cheat and steal for something as meaningless as money. The other major motivation behind Louise’s actions is her fascination with making connections. She sees everything in life as a clue, something tied to something else and worth a closer look. Everything is one great butterfly effect.
I enjoyed the mystery at the heart of this story. Did you plan it or did it develop organically while writing?
Another great question! Before sitting down to write Devil’s Ledger, I had already decided to base it on the major Banker’s Grave story, the events surrounding the Magnitsky Act. However, my research soon led me to the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and I knew I had found my yellow brick road for the story!
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have decided to write an offshoot of Louise Moscow, in retirement, solving a murder for a friend, kind of a J.B. Fletcher / Murder She Wrote, or Agatha Christie novel. Fingers crossed it will be available for purchase October 2022!
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Evil is brewing in the heart of Italy…and the Devil is in the details.Ten years after cracking her last banker’s grave murder case, the CIA has recruited Louise Moscow into their financial crimes division.
Louise is ready to shed her cover as a Burgundy lavender farmer…and return to the spy game. All roads lead to Siena on her top-secret mission: to expose the devastating corruption behind the collapse of the world’s oldest bank.
Her investigation becomes a race to discover an ancient and mysterious treasure, while fighting a new enemy…The Master of the Russian Dark Arts.
It’s not long before Louise finds herself in the cross hairs of powerful enemies. Risking her life to shine a light on financial and political wrongdoing, can Louise expose the rot that has taken hold of Siena?
Or has she finally met her match?
Filled with suspense and international espionage, spirited female sleuth, Louise Moscow’s next adventure is where James Bond meets Temperance Brennan.
Love Not Lust
Braiding Roses is a romance between two doctors in the Australian outback. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I wanted to show two people who were so perfect for one another that they just had to end up together, even though they’re kind of a mismatch of city vs country. And I wanted to build it very slowly!
Along the way I aimed for it to be stimulating for the reader’s brain in other ways, not least by presenting some very detailed medical information in simple terms. And as a backdrop I chose an amazing location, which is a real place in Western Australia, and actually has lavender farms, wild dolphins, and a massive tree to climb. Surely one of the most romantic places on the planet!
What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?
Love not lust. What I was aiming for was to show that true love is a connection between two brains, each with their own personalities and feelings, falling in love just from talking, and not so much about the body.
What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?
In writing Braiding Roses I drew from so many different life experiences, for all the varied perspectives on the different types of love. Sometimes I don’t even know where things came from! When you’re stuck for ideas and desperately trying to get that word count higher, you’ll grab onto anything that floats into your mind.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
When I finished Braiding Roses, I discovered that rather than being joyous, I was actually feeling a little sad to leave that beautiful place. I miss my mornings with Mandy. So I’d like to go back there to visit again, but I’m not sure how to do that, or with what pair of lovebirds. I’ve also found a couple of other beautiful locations that I might write about instead. So I’m still in the “fiddling” stage and have nothing immediate to announce.
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Between the love of her life urging her to return to Perth and a prickly, dismissive, and rude boss practically tossing her to the curb on day one, Mandy faces the coming year with thorns bared, determined to come out with her head held high. While she hones her doctoring skills in order to prove herself to the highly capable Gareth after their less-than-ideal first encounter, she might learn a little something about herself, too.
A World That May Never Accept Him
Muddied Waters tells the story of pirates looking for that last big score. When things don’t go as planed it becomes a race for their lives. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The first chapter of Muddied Waters is essentially a dramatization of an actual event involving the pirate crews of Olivier Levasseur and John Taylor, who stumbled upon the damaged treasure galleon of the Portuguese Bishop of Goa. The ship, Nossa Senhora do Cabo, had been the victim of a storm near the island of Reunion the previous night. The pirates raided the hapless viceroy’s ship and made off with the bishop’s wealth, leaving him to return to Lisbon penniless. According to historical records, the story ends here- the pirates were never heard from again. I found this to be the perfect catalyst to a fictional yarn, one where I could create an accurate depiction of what life on the high seas could have been like during the 18th century. Jackson Teague is my version of Taylor, a newly appointed captain eager to prove his leadership after a successful mutiny against his previous captain. Much of my backstories are inspired by other actual events during these times.
What was your favorite scene in this story?
In “A Lion Among Hyenas”, I give the reader a rich backstory of Awiti, one of Teague’s crew. I found this character to be infinitely compelling, given the fact he is an albino mute, and felt he deserved the most attention as a character unable to tell the others about his own life and motivations. For much of the book, no one else but the reader knows who he truly is or where he came from. To me, he is the most fascinating player in Muddied Waters, and I very much enjoyed contrasting him against his lessers- a true warrior who had fallen in with a group of misfits for the sake of his own survival in a world that may never accept him as he is.
Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
I’ve read many, many books about piracy and the thing that impresses me the most is how well they adhered to the principles of democracy. While mutinies aboard any other vessel can be viewed as insubordination against an established authority, the situation aboard a pirate vessel seems much more honest. The power was always held by the majority, and not by the one they elected to speak for them. Leadership was a privilege earned from the backing of your peers, one that could be taken from you the moment you failed to satisfy the reason they put you at the helm in the first place. I think that’s an amazing tidbit.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I initially dove into writing only standalone novels. Series’ have never appealed to me and my opinion had always been that the best books were the ones expressed the author’s philosophy and world-view within the context of an interesting story. I wrote Muddied Waters so that I could ruminate on the nuances of these rebels of the Golden Age. Problem was I had come up with an amazing female character I just could not effectively fit into the plot and I had to leave her on the cutting room floor in favour of pacing and continuity. This bugged me a lot, until I realized a way I could continue Teague’s story while not retreading the same themes in the first novel. So, I came up with an unplanned sequel centred around colonialism and slavery in the New World that allowed me to tell her story as well. Muddied Waters: Coda is in its final stages of editing and will be released in early 2022. I hope you enjoy it!
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There Will Be Another Pandemic
COVID-19 AFRICA, HAITI, AND THE U. S. VIRGIN ISLANDS helps separate the truth from myth and misinformation that has been rampant since the onset. What were your goals in writing this book?
The goal of writing this book was to start a conversation about the negative impact the denials and distortion of the COVID-19 deadly virus had on populations and countries at large. The COVID-19 outbreak will not be stopped for one fraction of a second by delusional denials, distortion, or ruse; instead, it will only be defeated by strictly unbiased measures that prevent its spread while at the same time allowing people to live productive lives.
China and some other more developed countries have been able to slow the spread of COVID-19 by acting objectively and enforcing proven effective measures such as lockdowns of homes and enforced closures of city and regional borders (known as cordon sanitaire). These measures, although stringent, are highly effective.
What are some takeaway you hope readers leave with after finishing this book?
The hard-core reality is that even if COVID-19 eventually goes dormant or the world’s populations reach protective herd immunity levels, there will be another pandemic, another epidemic that will rage out-of-control crosses borders, is spread by travelers, and becomes a pandemic. Epidemics and pandemics are part of our world. Travel and the transport and domestication of animals keep disease and vermin spreading throughout the world.
This means:
First, the only pragmatic solutions are to learn from past incidents, cull best practices from other countries, adopt them, and share knowledge, techniques, methodologies, and strategies.
Second, increase and guarantee funding (with accountability measures and enforcement processes) for PPE and medical equipment must be available.
Third, establish accountability measures to make sure data is gathered, reported, and corroborated honestly both within the country and with other nations.
Also, Africa, Haiti, and USVI must put aside false pride in reporting data that makes them look good. Such reporting is to the detriment of their people, as inaccurate reporting stymies any aid for which they may qualify from international sources.
Last but not least, if governments in African nations, Haiti, and the USVI will use the suggestions made herein along with others that are equally viable, the problems with delusional myths and denial of disease existence and transmission will be controlled and have less of an effect on population compliance with public health prevention measures.
They will be better prepared to respond to and survive the next pandemic; such as the omicron virus.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The books I am writing now are the responses to the urgent need to provide a comprehensive overview of cancer and contagious diseases impact within the African population.
The two books offer an analysis of the diseases, specifically cancer diseases in African countries, with the awareness that even though there may have many correlates, there are also discrepancies in the prevailing cancer disease conditions.
Africa is home to 54 recognized sovereign states and countries, 9 territories, and 2 de facto independent states with the second largest population in the world with 1.29 billion (after Asia), scattered over the vast Africa land, and presently, 60% more Africans die from cancer diseases than succumb to malaria, and the number of cancer deaths is widening at an awful pace.
The information laid down on those forthcoming books will be a step toward self-awareness and will also present a foundation for informed improvement in the current health sector systems along with an approach by which African countries may learn from more in reciprocal action to the need for proper knowledge of disease and improvement prevention process.
It’s hoped that these approaches will give the reader an attitude towards cancer and infectious diseases that will be relevant whatever the nature of an agent and the type of contagious disease could occur.
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As Alien As Possible
Three Immortals follows war hero to the fringe of the galaxy where he discovers an ancient alien civilizations and their legendary powers. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I am a computer scientist, so one of the civilizations discovered by the protagonist had to be an AI/machine dominated one. Working in bioinformatics for many years, I developed a deep fascination with biology. We can only speculate what extraterrestrial life will look like. I like aliens in fiction who are truly alien, as alien as possible while remaining relatable as characters in a story. Introducing non-carbon based aliens with a different evolutionary backstory and having them “adopt” a human to live among them was a lot of fun to write about.
Your characters are intriguing and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
“I did not like […] having existence happening to me, instead of shaping it!” says the hero in the story. All main characters act and change the course of galactic history for good or bad. I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of passionate people who plow ahead despite adversity. None of them is all good or all evil. The hero has massive flaws, the antagonist has a relatable backstory and even the traitors’ perspectives offer some redeeming qualities.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The story presents itself in a way I like to read space opera and military science fiction and it will check all boxes of expectations if you prefer these genres. Underlying the story thread is questioning the saying “what does not kill you makes you stronger” and the book asks if this is true or not. The (human) galactic government, for example, has idolized this notion in their creed “strength through adversity” and makes war and suffering a desirable natural state for the life of trillions. The machine civilization pushes this one step further through their ability to perceive many realities in the multiverse, and always pursue the most difficult one. The hero, learning this ability, will have to choose if he prefers an easy life or not. The ending invites the reader to decide what they would have chosen for themselves.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Three Immortals brings its main story to a conclusion – but it leaves the arcs of many interesting characters open for continuation. 2400 Earth years of galactic history are woven in when the story requires, but there are many things left to explore with the reader – including the true nature of the Dark Ones, who nearly destroyed the galaxy. The next book is part 2 of a trilogy set in this universe. We will see familiar characters return, but also new threats and antagonists emerge. The scope will be larger, and the interstellar conflicts of Three Immortals are going to expand beyond the galaxy.
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Why was their existence purged from the historic records by the immortal elite?
LITERARY TITAN 