Blog Archives
The Soul Is Beautiful
Jon and Anna tells a love story between two people who fall in love and communicate over the computer. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Yes, it is a love story, a beautiful story. I was inspired by the divine, I felt at some point in my life I want to write a book to tell a love story. To whom the computer is strictly necessary for the survival of each of us, Jon and Anna who, thanks to a computer are not lost in the world.
Jon and Anna are interesting characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Characters were created by the inner beauty of the two characters both beautiful and in love, and circumstances separate them the next day. I say, the soul is beautiful and it shines through in the beauty of your gestures and feelings and facial features and Jon and Anna have an inner beauty.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Yes. It is fascinating development I certainly thought there really happened facts to write in my book like the tsunami in Indonesia and the gulf war ended in 2005 and the wall fall in New York .Jon is a protagonist in real events a very valuable and honorable help, Jon it’s a marines, and he knows how to save himself and get out of it. And also It is very important Anna and understand how to teach her so fascinated by him and, the message of Jon that when he manages to go back to the computer and writes to Anna and she asks him how he is the war he replies: ”no I can’t tell you anything the war is horrible. Anna in the meantime was in New York with a fallen wall, the city in total panic, victim of another circumstance that she doesn’t tell Jon right away… yes and the love is keep going unconditionally. Jon and Anna is a project for an Hollywood movie.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Yes. After all I will think about yes I have an idea on my mind to write a true story really happened.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
They are two real people. They meet in New York on New Years Day the next day. And then they have to leave the hotel where they met for work, but they are in love with each other. She is a businesswomanbeautiful and sexyand was modeling in Manhattan at that time and was an entrepreneur. He is a businessmana great man with beautiful blue eyes and so sexy too. He is the best investor in the world. And he is a marine. He had an education in the Marine Corps.
They only have a laptop to communicate and a great pain.
The novel is all a dialogue on computer between the two protagonists. Anna is an Italian, and he is an American. Finally, she manages to reach her boyfriend, Jon. She believes he is her present and future. He calls her my wife. He loves her. He wants her to communicate around the world. They do not see each other often, until they meet again at Jons house on the island of Boracay.
A Massive Alien Invasion
Falcon’s Ghost finds Earth once again under alien attack, but this time they’re being attacked by their own planet. What were some new ideas you wanted to explore in this book that was different from book one?
My main objective in this book was to up the stakes for Joe Falcon. He has already saved Earth and Mars from a massive alien invasion, so this time I needed to come up with another threat, but something no writer had ever done before. I’m pretty sure nobody has come up with the kind of alien invasion I have used in this story. I also wanted to continue Joe’s personal story, but decades in the future, so I needed to come up with a way to do/explain that. The idea of cloning has always fascinated me, and it was easy to use this concept in this story. I also wanted to move the story on with some new characters, but also keep some of the old. So Joe and Io remain, Terry returns, but a different personality, and Joe’s newest daughter, Raisa, is introduced.
Joe Falcon continues to be an interesting character. What were some challenges that were important to building his character in this story?
Continuing Joe’s personal development in this book was difficult, and I needed to take a different tack. In the first book it was about him coming to terms with himself, growing old etc. In this book he has to come to terms with something different, the way he feels personally about those he believed to be the aliens, and whom he blames for much of the sorrow he had experienced since the end of book one and the start of this book. He also learns everything he thought was true is false, and the new reality is something he finds hard to accept. Also hard for him to accept is the revelation about his new ‘brother’, Leo, and his true identity.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?
I’m not sure I would say ‘the most fun’, considering the gravitas of the situation, but the chapters directly related to the ‘problems’ experienced on Earth and Mars were certainly the most satisfying to complete. As for fun, there is a short scene in which a ‘folk’ tale about the tiny moon Dysnomia (the moon of Eris, a planetoid in the Kuiper Belt), is related to Joe by his daughter. I had a lot of fun writing that. And by the way, it’s a true story.
What can readers expect in book three of the The Falcon Books series?
Book three will be set in the future again, so again Joe will be in a world more advanced than the last. Once again, humanity will be inder threat, and again, the threat will be bigger and more devastating. Again it will be up to Joe, and his team of Io, Terry, Raisa, and his new brother Leo, to spearhead humanity’s efforts to survive. This book is still under development, so no spoilers at this stage.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
Six decades after the departure of the gigantic, alien star-ship dubbed the ‘Minaret’, Joe Falcon thinks it is finally over, and he can settle down to a better, quieter life.
He is wrong.
At the outermost edge of the Solar System lurks an alien intelligence the like of which humanity has never before encountered, with an agenda of its own.
As the leading authority of the Minaret, it falls to Joe to find a solution and travel billions of kilometers to confront Mankind’s greatest ever threat. But how do you deal with a mind so alien, so advanced, and so filled with hatred, that nothing will sway it from its destructive course.
Joe must find a way. If humanity is to survive, he has no choice.
If you enjoyed the multi-award-winning Falcon’s Call, you will love this long awaited sequel. Grab a copy of Falcon’s Ghost now, and join Joe Falcon on this amazing voyage to the farthest reaches of our Solar System.
An Ancient Matriarchal Society
Dancing the Labyrinth follows a young woman from an abusive background who discovers the veiled history of the Minoans. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The kernel of this idea came from a concern: How, as a mother, can I raise my son to be a decent human being? The unspoken part of this question is – ‘in a patriarchal society.’ Australia has escalating numbers of domestic violence, and because I am contributing to raising the next generation, I feel I have some accountability. As a theatre writer I was surprised the idea came as a novel, so I thought, having planned to live in Crete for a year, I would write it there. At that time I had no idea about the Minoans. So you can imagine my delight to find myself walking the paths of an ancient Matriarchal society. The more I researched, the more the story blossomed. I could never have written it anywhere else. Crete is a very strong land, and is very inspiring. It is full of stories.
Cressida is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
To be honest, it was always Cressida’s voice I followed. I have tamed her down a bit – initially she swore like a trooper. In writing, I believe there are aspects of oneself that seep through and I drew on my love of Greek mythology and some of the experiences I had in Crete – like getting sick and being told that “Kriti has me” – which it does. I also drew on my experience of running circus workshops for young women who were survivors. I used their experiences as appropriate. For example, traits such as anxiety, lack of self-worth and distrust. In terms of character development, I am aware of the stages of the ‘hero’s journey,’ and this worked beautifully for Cressida’s growth and development. I also included concepts from psychologists Carl Jung and Erich Newman.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
All my creative work tends to explore transitions. I am really interested in those undefined areas between boundaries where something is transitioning from one thing to another. In Dancing the Labyrinth one theme was the movement from matriarchy to patriarchy. The Minoans didn’t have any weapons for war and yet were the most advanced civilization in the Bronze Age. Patriarchy from the north brought violence with it. I also explored transitions in consciousness, where our mind shifted in ways of thinking: from the mystical to magical, introducing rational thinking, and because it was a different way of thinking we were unable to contain both. Vrados exemplifies this shift. This research drew on a great book called The History and Origins of Consciousness.
What can readers expect in the next book in the The Women Unveiled series?
I have just finished the first draft and started my editing process. It is called ‘the Bringer of Happiness.’ My pitch to date is: Imagine if Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a daughter who could time travel. This could be her story.’ I would be very happy with your feedback on this 😊
Sara floats into other people’s bodies. Through her we witness early Christianity – leading up to the Cathar’s massacre at Montsegur. It refers to Greek mythology, especially Persphone and Ariadne, and references the connections between the Eleusinian Mysteries and that of the Mysteries purportedly taught by Mary Magdalene in the South of France – Languedoc region.
My third book in the series will return to Cressida, and follow Ashtar as she leaves the community and establishes Delphi.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Dancing the Labyrinth moves between contemporary and ancient Crete in this tale of a young woman from an abusive background who discovers the veiled history of Europe’s most advanced civilization of the Bronze Age – the Minoans.
PERFECT FOR FANS OF MADELINE MILLER’S CIRCE, PAT BARKER’S THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS AND KATHLEEN MCGOWAN’S THE EXPECTED ONE
Karen Martin’s spellbinding debut brings women’s history to the fore – relevant in the landscape of the #MeToo movement and #EnoughisEnough
An “Unseen” Enemy
Unseen: Evil Lurks Among Us follows a rookie homicide detective as he investigates a string of murders in Washington, DC and uncovers a vigilante killer and a terrorist conspiracy. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I spent most of my career as a special agent hunting terrorists around the world. I wanted to create a thriller that dealt with real threats, so I wrote about infiltration and subversion by radical Islamists. The plot of Unseen is fictional, but the tactics terrorists employed in my novel are actually happening in the United States today. They truly are an “unseen” enemy fighting what they call Civilization Jihad.
My wife, Cynthia Farahat, is one of the world’s leading experts on radical Islam. She has a nonfiction book coming out about the Muslim Brotherhood, and it will create a huge stir. I relied heavily on her scholarship when I wrote Unseen. In my novel, I discuss the Muslim Brotherhood’s role as the wellspring of modern Islamic terrorism. Most people don’t know that organization is behind almost every Islamic terror group from al-Qaeda to Hamas. I highly recommend people order Cynthia’s brilliant book, The Secret Apparatus, which will launch in March 2022.
Malachi Wolf is an intriguing and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Thank you for that compliment. I try to make my characters complex, because people are complicated, and two-dimensional fictional characters don’t hold my attention as a reader or as a writer.
Malachi was earning his doctorate in economics when terrorists killed his father in the Boston Marathon bombing, and that changed the trajectory of Malachi’s life. He joined the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, in an attempt to stop evil from ruining other people’s lives. He’s brilliant, and he uses tools from behavioral economics to help him solve crimes, but he is riddled with self-doubt. Does he have what it takes to be a homicide detective or is he just an academic playing cop?
Malachi’s wife left him when he became a police officer, and he deals with missing his children and a severe health issue that limits the time he can be a cop—a ticking clock on his career. He catches his first homicide, and one death turns into a string of murders. Malachi races to stop a killer and expose a terrorist conspiracy before time runs out.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Unseen explores two major themes. The first them is radical Islamic infiltration of the media, academia, entertainment industry, and government. This has been happening for decades in the West, and members of terrorist groups have lobbied congress and advised presidents. It’s a very real threat. The second theme is vigilantism. Is it ever justified? What if the rule of law no longer exists? If infiltration undermines the criminal justice system, can extralegal means be used to fight evil? It’s a fascinating moral and ethical question.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My agent has submitted two books to publishers. The first, Blood and Powder, is a nonfiction account of my journey from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 to fighting terrorism around the world. Battling bureaucrats and terrorists, a special agent pushes DEA into war and makes the first narco-terrorism arrest—forever changing how terrorists are prosecuted. It’s Blackhawk Down meets The Good Soldiers.
The second book out on submission is Shaking, a small-town murder mystery. Struggling with bipolar disorder, Emily Miller lands her dream job as a reporter and returns to her New England hometown, but when her brother becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder, she must identify the killer to save her family, her job, and her life. It’s Sharp Objects meets The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.
I’m currently editing The Forever Game, a techno-thriller that deals with murder, conspiracy, and life-extending technology. I hope to have it finished in a few months. Thanks for your interest in my writing.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Amazon | BookBub
After his father’s murder, Malachi abandoned his economics doctorate to become a police officer and protect the innocent. Now, he must solve his first homicide to prove himself worthy of the badge. Austin grew up in a strict religious home, with an abusive father who taught him to solve problems with violence, so when an Islamist infiltrator murders Austin’s girlfriend, he seeks revenge the only way he knows how. The body count grows as Malachi hunts the brutal assassin and unearths a sinister scheme that threatens the country. The former academic seeking justice and a vigilante set on revenge travel on a collision course-two men fighting evil by different means. Can Malachi stop the murders and expose the plot before the streets run with blood?
The Mind Games
Experiment A: Elimination is the exciting prequel to your Experiment X series. What inspired you to write a prequel to your dystopian trilogy?
Jack was a favorite character among many and it felt right to tell his story. I did think I was done with the series and ready to move onto another one, but I kept thinking about Jack’s past and how he became who he is—how they all became who they are.
What were some ideas that you were excited to explore in this prequel?
The mind games that Thaddeus plays with the Subjects was interesting to explore. The push and pull relationship he has with them, comforting them despite the fact that he’s the one torturing them, keeping them in this constant state of mental and emotional confusion. That’s not really explored in the trilogy.
And, Jack learning to become a leader and finding the voice that he possess in the trilogy.
How much has your fans, or the feedback from your trilogy, informed this novels development?
The fans reactions to the trilogy and Jack’s character (several people have claimed Jack as their book boyfriend, lol) influenced and informed the novels development quite a lot. There are a few things within Experiment A: Elimination that should pull on the heartstrings pretty heavily if one has read the entire trilogy already.
Do you have plans to write more stories within this world or are you working on a different story?
Yes! I have a book two for the prequel I am currently working on and I’m hoping to get it out by 2022! After that, I’ll be working on a dystopian fantasy that deals with a newly immortal hitman, his best friend—the devil’s daughter, and Lucifer himself. I’m pretty excited about it!
Author Links: Twitter | Facebook | GoodReads | Instagram | Website
Conversations of a new form of eliminations begin circulating throughout the cells in hushed, terrified whispers. The rumors are confirmed when Doctor James Thaddeus begins picking off the Subjects himself, seemingly at random. Those that survive the execution rounds are forced to kill each other in bloody battles.
Jack Cortex and his friends know one thing for certain: they have to survive.
By any means necessary.
The Broken Justice System
Villains For Justice tells the story of what happens when citizens take justice into their own hands. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
As a growing child of harsh inflicted abuse, I have always wished for a hero to come to my rescue to change and fix the broken justice system. Unfortunately, due to child protective services failure to aid me and my siblings, we kept on suffering constant daily abuse from our father. Child protective services has failed one too many times by not improving in their methods for the better, and that is the reason why many children have died while in their own watch. There are actually thousands of children nationwide who are subjects of child abuse cases. Based on these facts, I was inspired to write about fictional villains who aid the innocent young victims, finding some kind of solace. This book was also created to bring to light matters such as these by advocacy. This particular book is slightly different than other books because it positions the protagonists as villain’s who fight for better improving methods for both children and women and against a rash of injustices that need to be addressed by the proper channels.
Your characters were all creative and intriguing. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
All my characters were created with a specific purpose. My first character Nina Dansk was created to bring out the failures of the child protective system, therefore later taking actions against them in order to be heard. Nina had suffered the loss of her whole family including her beloved dog mainly due to her abusive step mother and her sister rapist. Nina’s father couldn’t handle the stress and pain of his daughter’s rape and death and passed away shortly thereafter. This drove a teen Nina to became distant and frigid with her step mother who she view as the cause of her families lost and pain. Nina avenged her families death with no regrets nor remorse. Once Nina got her psychologist degree she worked for a child protective agency and she began changing the way she saw the laws when it came to how children were being handled. Against all the odds against her, Nina continued with her quest to achieve justice and making an example out of her brutal attack on child abusers, pedophiles and rapist. The following character, Jerico Raven, he was taken about to a loss upon the death of child Blair, once he began his investigation into her death he discovers hidden secrets and agendas that lead back to law enforcement involvement. It was with the help of both his good friends Lieutenant Danny Rojas and Shadow Claw that Jerico was able to get his life back in track eventually but not before suffering a great deal. Character Cora Rollins was the worse and most difficult villain to bring down. Experiencing two prior rapes plus her own uncle’s rape as a child, Cora grew to dislike all men. Cora went more against pedophiles and rapist demanding changes or else. Cora had won the New York public over as she was cleaning house unlike the proper authorities were. In real life, some villain’s are like superhero’s because they fight for a good cause but their causes sometimes don’t align with the norms of life and that is what had caused so much division and perplexity with these characters development. This book is the first novel that begins with an effort to try and achieve rightful justice when the law isn’t upheld properly, and we’ve seen this happen time after time.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Well there are a few but the most important one to me really is the advocating the characters bring up about these issues regarding child abuse, pedophiles and rapes. Sometimes we often wonder why people go as far as to take the law into their own hands, well this fictional book provides the answers to that question. There are thousands who have suffered like me as my siblings out there who don’t know or realize that there exist and there is help out there. The main point of the book is not to keep silent, but to make a stand, and let yourself be heard. And even if that means that one has to go all the way to the supreme court to he heard and try to make some kind of improvement fair change. It is only through advocacy that one can be heard, noticed and succeed in accomplishing it’s goal.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
It is a book under the name “The Return Of The NY Villains For Justice” which is the second novel following this one. The book brings in and features a new villain who joins the team in his cause for justice against his own race. The book will also reveal shocking and unexpected discoveries about the villains themselves. Even though the book continues to highlight the story of each villain and their different struggles for rightful social justice, the book will also highlight the importance of not taking matters into ones own hands but instead go through the proper legal justice ways required by the law. Book has been out as of August 10, 2021.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Really Happened To Me
The Saga of the Phoenix is a riveting adventure story with a unique blend of genres. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
A few years ago, after spending most of my life abroad, I decided it was time to moor permanently ashore and retire to the countryside. Now, at my tender age of 76, it occurred to me to write. Not because I am an old man who is bored, on the contrary, living in a large old country house, I would find pastimes as a bricoleur at will.
One day, arranging old books on new shelves, I came across a radio engineering manual (not only was it obsolete but I think incomprehensible to anyone who deals with electronics today, unless they are also interested in archeology) that was served, in the mists of time, to take the state exam at the Ministry of Telecommunications in Rome and to obtain the patent of radio officer for merchant ships. Leafing through it with a bit of nostalgia, I confess, I began to think that this figure has not only disappeared for many years but, nowadays, few people know what it was doing on board a ship.
At that moment I said to myself that it would be nice to tell about it, not only because that role was part of my life for years, but also because, in those years, no ship in the world would have been authorized to sail without a radio officer on board. I therefore decided to describe and tell circumstances and events that occurred at sea and on shore, seen through the eyes of the protagonist, a young radio officer.
Halfway through writing the novel, I wondered if I wasn’t boring the prospective reader with adventures that, while interesting at first, became repetitive. Each storm is more or less similar to the others. All evenings spent ashore in an exotic port are alike. Human relationships on board are always the same, governed by an essential hierarchy. So I decided to insert a bit of mystery into the story, referring to my interest in the history of the universe and in astrophysics, which have always fascinated me as a curious self-taught person.
The characters in your story are intriguing and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
In the first chapters the story is practically autobiographical. Giorgio’s experiences really happened to me. What happens next is a possible future that I would like to have experienced alongside characters who act for the good of humanity in an authoritative, if sometimes authoritarian, way. Encounters with alien beings have always fascinated me and I tried to imagine them as if the Terrestrians were always intent on bringing peace to other worlds but giving priority to their civilization for survival even if at times they may seem ruthless. In the novel there are several protagonists as Giorgio’s life ended, I like the idea that his mission is continued by his descendants who will follow in his footsteps and who will have as their goal, the mission of the Phoenix in the universe.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
In the first volume, the Terrestrians seem to be the most evolved in the universe and are confronted with less evolved civilizations. Even more in the second volume, they will be practically the dominant species in the known universe, until something unexpected happens. In many science fiction novels, aliens invade the Earth, they are hostile, they try to destroy the human species. The conflict usually takes place between the evil and stronger aliens against the good and weak Terrestrians, who only at the end with some stratagem they manage to win. (as it happens in Independence Day movie, Netflix’ series Falling Skies and many other novels.) In my saga the opposite happens: the good and strong Terrestrians want to force the weaker and not always bad aliens to conform to their view of the universe. Eventually the question will arise as to whether it is right to impose peace by force even if it is for the benefit of all others. No one should be able to claim to possess absolute truth, but perhaps someone does.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am writing the second volume where the Terrestrians will face a ruthless and cruel civilization and will have to force it into a peaceful coexistence with all other species. The dominance of the Earth in the universe will, however, be questioned by the incorporeal entities who had initially given birth to the Phoenix, on Earth and other worlds and who will ultimately prove to be the very foundation of the universe.
Most likely, the second volume will be published by December 2021.
Author Links: Website | Facebook
With A Little Mystery
War of the Cha’cict follows a corporal who is infected with an alien virus and must race against the clock, and the enemy, to complete an important mission and be cryogenically frozen. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I am a fan of space opera/adventure stories. To me, the rich environments provide a great way to speculate on human reactions when confronted with issues beyond the normal. I have always been fascinated by aliens and future technologies and used these to challenge my main character. The War of the Cha’cict was the vehicle for my attempt to to take a “regular” human being and confront him with a multitude of issues happening close together. Poor Jared was confronted with life-affecting, often complex situations which tested his emotions, morality and decision-making. An undeclared war with an alien race seemed a good launching point to explore topics of space warfare, Artificial Intelligence, alien cultures, with a little mystery, and some romance thrown in.
Jared is an interesting and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind his character’s development?
Personal growth – What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. A willingness to make decisions for the greater good over personal gain. In addition, Self examination and the ability to change opinions when presented with new facts.
This was an action packed story. What scene did you have the most fun writing?
Jared’s escape from from the doomed scout-ship and his awakening on the asteroid.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on the second book of this two-book series. I hope to have it completed by the end of November of this year.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Unfortunately, an enemy war vessel was chasing his barely space-worthy ship, and his time was running out. As if things couldn’t get any worse, a chance encounter with a colossal asteroid’s energy field looks to have severely damaged his ship. He wondered which would get him first, the Cha’cict warship or the unusual energy field. In either case, at least he wouldn’t endure the prolonged, painful symptoms as he succumbed to the alien virus. However, unknown to him, this was not an end but instead an unexpected beginning.
LITERARY TITAN 