Blog Archives
The Pilgrimage of Death
Vandella follows a young girl with cancer who exchanges her soul for her grandmother’s and takes a supernatural journey through the world of the undead. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Actually, the main inspiration for the story was a near-death experience of my grandfather. In his “dream” he traveled to the hereafter and experienced the Pilgrimage of Death I describe in the book, but a woman halted his journey alleging “his time was not due yet” but she warned him, it will, in fourteen days. And when the term fulfilled, my grandfather died. If interested, you can read the whole story in my author blog: https://yourlastdesire.com/vandella-what-the-novel-is-about/
Maia has many ups and downs in life before embarking on this adventure into the world of the undead. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
In the world of the undead, I wanted Maia to face an exponential version of her fears in real life, as a metaphor of how our subconscious perceive them. Maia’s story is not a tale of an extraordinary protagonist doing incredible things, but rather about a commoner pushing herself to overcome the extraordinary obstacles in her way. I wanted the “escapist” nature of the fantasy in Vandella to be used as a journey of introspection for Maia to find herself at the end.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Self-sacrifice as the purest form of love. Learning to find happiness despite problems, not because their absence. And the beauty found in the evanescence of life, were the main themes driving the story of the novel.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Currently I’m working in Vandella’s sequel titled “Resilience” which will hit shelves in 2023.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
¿Cuánto estás dispuesta a sacrificar por aquellos que amas?
Dejada en orfandad en medio de circunstancias misteriosas y criada por su abuela, Maia cree que ha dejado su trágico pasado atrás. Ahora, siendo una joven soñadora de diecisiete años, Maia anhela encontrar el amor verdadero con su amor platónico de la preparatoria cuando recibe la espantosa noticia de que su Cáncer, que había estado en remisión durante mucho tiempo, ha regresado, no solo para fastidiar sus planes románticos, sino para arruinar toda su vida.
Una noche, durante su estancia en el hospital, Maia recibe la visita de un peculiar joven que le confiesa que está a punto de reclamar el alma de su amada abuela. Pero Maia le ofrece su alma a cambio y se une al atractivo heraldo de la muerte en una odisea hacia el más allá. El vertiginoso viaje lleva a Maia y su cautivador acompañante de un elaborado baile a un viaje en una locomotora de vapor que surca los cielos, a una casa de campo embrujada, al fondo de un lago y otros lugares mágicos. Ambos se enfrentan a obstáculos fuera de este mundo mientras Maia intenta salvar a su único pariente y determinar si hay alguna esperanza para su alma atormentada.
What Makes a Hero
Hero Haters follows a man who has his dream job recognizing civilian heroes until he becomes the suspect in their disappearances. He must now risk himself to solve the mystery of what is happening. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I’m intrigued by what makes a hero. There are soldiers and first responders, of course, but I mean everyday heroes. Someone who, without a second thought, risks their lives to rescue a stranger. There are a surprising number of such people, folks who didn’t know how they would respond in such energies until they come upon a fire, a robbery, a drowning. They act putting their lives at risk, the very definition of selfless courage. But for the purposes of my novel, I asked: What if not everyone loves a hero? Worse, what if they hate heroes?
Jake battles his past demons in this novel and has to face his fears to save those he admires, creating dramatic internal conflict. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
By most definitions, Jake would have the right to define himself as a hero, having rescued a boy from a housefire, badly burning his hands. But he’s haunted by the boy’s mother who he failed to save. Still the idea of courage intrigues him when he’s recruited to be an investigator for the prestigious Sedgewick Sacrifice Medallion. Quite simply, he’d rather find heroes, than be one, until circumstances force him to act.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Love, courage selflessness. And this unanswerable question. Everyone is a hero in their imagination, but how would I react in the moment?
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Give me a break! I’ve just got Hero Haters out the door. Actually, I’m several chapters into my next Jake Ockham/Erik Demidov adventure. I prefer not to talk about a work in progress during this delicate embryonic stage. I haven’t even shared the idea with my wife, and she’s always my first reader. So, I offer my most Canadian of responses: sorry.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
It’s So Cute
What A Muck follows a young child who encounters several mishaps while trying to be helpful and learns a valuable lesson in the process. What was the inspiration for your story?
Actually, this book is based on 2 true events. The roll away car happened over 35 years ago and my father really did run like lightning. Everyone was fine in that story too. The other incident happen pretty much how it reads in the book, just the timing and setting are different. Every time my grandson hears this part of the book he says, “Do you remember when that happened to us Nana?” It’s so cute. I was inspired to retell the story to help children learn car safety in an entertaining way.
The art in this book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Katrina Sachs?
Thank you! Katrina and I had a lot of back and forth. My book took many revisions to finish. Even my character name changed from Max to Drew, because it was easier to find words to rhyme with Drew, and it’s gender neutral. Since I wanted Drew to be gender neutral I asked Katrina to make the character that way too. We also decided to bring the car and truck to ‘life’ to add some humour to the serious storyline. Beyond that, I let Katrina have freedom to create. She has a fine eye for detail and perfectly captures the essence of a story. My daughter is patient and great to work with.
What educational aspects were important for you to include in this children’s book?
This was my first attempt to write in rhythm and rhyme. It was important for me to see this through, because when a book is entertaining and easy to read it helps build confidence and develop a love for books. I think the message in this book is as much for children as it is for care givers. Vehicles are not a toy and children need to know that it’s important to ask questions when unsure how something works. Adults need to take precautions to keep everyone safe.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
My next book is called, No More Stuff. In this book, hopefully children will think about their personal space and see how they can help reduce their foot print in the world when it comes to celebration time. There’s a catchy verse that goes to the tune of, How much wood can a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood. I think children will have fun repeating it. The main character will take us on their journey to learn a new way of thinking, and in the end take the lead to help their family reduce their foot print too. I plan to publish No More Stuff in April 2023.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
In this children’s picture book, young Drew has good intentions of helping. The day begins with thoughts of having fun, but quickly things are turned upside down. Drew has been watching Papa and Mom, and now a CLICK and a CLUNK have them all in a muck.
Can watching big people help fix a problem too? Can Drew know what to do in time to save Papa’s truck?
Find out in this fun to read a rhyming story. Filled with wonderful and expressive illustrations featuring a comical car and truck. If they could talk, Drew’s day may have turned out much differently.
Learn from Drew what not to do before it happens to you!
Attentive Children
This book showcases the obvious, that children watch our every move. Children learn to speak from listening – every right and wrong word we say. They learn about the world around them through instruction and from watching you.
Drew observes Mom and knows what one button inside her car can do. Maybe? The first attempt to be helpful begins the day’s troublesome journey. We learn lessons through trial and error, but Drew hopes your child will learn from the mistakes made in What a Muck.
One reader wrote: “This book is great for sparking a conversation even when we have good intentions, things can go the wrong way. It touches on how we can all make mistakes in life, which is ok because it allows us to learn and grow. “What a Muck” is a sweet rhyming colourful picture book that takes you on a day in life of a young boy named Drew who has a series of unfortunate events happen when all he wants to do is be a good helper.”
Rhyming
A good book doesn’t have to rhyme, but a good rhyming book serves an important purpose. Rhyme helps aid in a child’s language and reading development. It teaches verbal and memory skills. When a child hears pitch and rhythm, they are developing listening and attention skills. When a book is easy and fun, a child builds confidence in the ability to recite it. This leads to more reading. When reading is fun to hear or listen to, your child develops important academic skills, all the while being entertained.
Gender Identity
Drew is gender neutral. The author intentionally does not refer to Drew as he or she so the reader can relate to the character as they like.
About the Author
Linda Sachs writes books children and caregivers can relate to and will want to read often. She understands the importance of reading to children and developing books that children can read themselves. Some times it just takes one good book to spark the love for reading, and your child is off to a world of imagination and growth.
Linda thanks a school librarian and her intuitiveness to know how to spark the love of reading. She has been writing for many years, and recently entered the publishing world with her debut children’s picture book No More Pets. You can follow Linda on social media, her website, https://lindasachs.com and join her VIP newsletter. She would love to hear from you.
She lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and dreams of writing more fun books for children.
Hidden Secrets and Spiritual Beliefs
When Secrets Come to Light follows a retired NYC detective as he renews friendships with old teammates and secrets from their past start to surface along with murder. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
It is strange how I was inspired to write this story. Covid-19 was a difficult time for me. A number of close friends died of the virus, and I didn’t have the desire to write. The idea for the book actually started after I read a cartoon in our local newspaper about the death of Wild Bill Hickock who was shot in the back of his head while playing poker. I recalled the card games we used to play as teenagers. Then, I remembered the beginning of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness where a group of men from various backgrounds are waiting on a boat for the tide to change, and Marlow tells the story of Kurtz. So, I decided to put a lawyer, a salesman. a bank president, an astrophysicist, a garage mechanic and a retired detective together and let the story develop. All the men shared a childhood together, but each had gone his own way in life. Each faced his own problems and dealt with them in their own way. The detective and the garage mechanic had been best friends as teenagers. I wanted to create tension among the men, and hidden secrets and spiritual beliefs gave me that opportunity.
Did you create an outline for the characters in the story before you started writing or did the characters personalities grow organically as you were writing?
I wanted to explore friendships, different beliefs, age, loss, and their effect on people.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
When Secrets Come to Light was the first book I have written from the first-person point of view. I am playing with the idea of continuing with first-person narrative in my next book which is gradually beginning to come together. Hopefully, it will be available by next spring. Tentatively, it will be about the retired detective trying to help his paperboy come to grips with the death of his brother. One of the themes will be that no good deal goes unpunished.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
Meeting the five remaining players of his eighth-grade basketball team (a prominent banker, a well-known lawyer, a pharmaceutical salesman, an astrophysicist, and a black garage mechanic) at the wake of another friend, Cavanaugh finds himself drawn into controversy and uncertainty, defending one of his former best friends who claims to have had spiritual visions that seem to give him the ability to know secrets and to heal. As the men rotate monthly card games, and the story moves through the boroughs of New York City, animosity builds, careers are threatened, and warnings expressed until the garage mechanic is brutally beaten and then killed. Cavanaugh fights his own demons and sets out to find the killer of his childhood friend.
Trying to Capture the Moment
Sway is a collection of poetry that embraces the reader in nature and encourages them to be one with the Living World. What was the inspiration for this collection of poetry?
The drive behind my nature poetry comes from my lifelong fascination with nature. It is me sitting outside trying to capture the moment. Everything my senses take in and expressing it to paper. The simple pondering of the infinite unknown: What would it be to fly on the wind through the trees? To catch a bright maple leaf or have legs covered in thick yellow pollen? What does nature show, ask of us? and committing this to verse.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
When I am writing I do not do so with theme in hand as a conscious thought. Themes erupt organically as I am writing in the exact day, time, season in my back yard. The intense seasons in the Northeastern United States naturally draw on change, transitions, beginnings and endings, so these themes are present in my poetry. The reflection of fall, introspection of winter, awakening of spring, glory of summer. In a way, nature chooses my themes.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your poetry collection?
I would like people to see the pure beauty of our living environment, to smell the sweet fallen leaf decay and soil laden spring rain. There is a healing energy to nature, a pausing to notice the interconnections of life. It is an energy, as I say in “Cells,” a “Slow down take it in energy/ Invades every cell in I/ Listen, feel, succumb.” I wish for readers to notice nature, find her hope, peace and ultimate joy.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
What am I working on next? I am always writing. I try to write every day. My poetry encompasses everything about my life, shaped by the beautiful hills and valleys where I live. I imagine more poetry dealing with nature could be in store. As I compile and work on the poems I have written and will write, a new theme will emerge and urge me to a new book. As of now I am focused on Sway as it has just released.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
This book of poetry invites you to pause, kneel down in a meadow and experience the flora and fauna of Pennsylvania. To live among the rolling hills and valleys, as nature’s changing rhythms keep the time.
In Sway by Tricia Johnson, we imagine ourselves in the wilds of Nature with our heads resting on the back of our arms, eyes wide, observing the Living World.
Subversive Hero
The Ballad of Clay Moore follows two people who investigate the mysterious appearance of a military grade plane near their land and find that certain people are ready to kill to keep it a secret. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Every story needs a driving force, and I wanted to establish that early. In Chapter One, Clay is walking his dog on a quiet night when a mysterious plane lands nearby. His tranquil world is shattered, and Clay spends the rest of the book running and fighting and trying to get back to that peaceful scene.
Clayton Moore is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I really enjoyed creating Clay Moore. This good-ol’-boy in over his head. I started playing around with his voice one day and kept throwing trouble at him to see how he’d respond.
Clay was a unique challenge for me because he comes from a world I’m not familiar with. I grew up in Ohio. I wrote this book in Malaysia. I’ve never been a rancher or a Texan or any of that, so it really took me outside my comfort zone. Along the way, Clay became this kind of subversive hero. He defies a lot of the typical action tropes, and I think that makes him really human.
Also his voice is just fire. I can’t wait to see who plays him in the movie 🙂
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
One of the main themes of this story is power. Who has it? What does it look like? What do they do with it? Clay and his friends go up against some nasty folks with outsized means. It seems like they’re overmatched, but through the course of the story they discover their own power to fight back in surprising and entertaining ways.
When and where will your book be available?
The Ballad of Clay Moore is live now on Amazon.com. It is available in ebook and paperback: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFXCYHM3
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
It started like any other night: walking his dog along the creek, having a smoke beneath the stars. Things were peaceful and Clay Moore was happy. Then this plane came down and ruined everything.
Now Clay’s on the run from a madman that wants him dead. He’s got a secret in his pocket and an army on his tail. What’s a good ol’ boy to do?
With his wife and bloodhound by his side, Clay must survive a white-knuckle gauntlet from the wilds of Wyoming to the peak of human power. The Ballad of Clay Moore is an action-packed page-turner about a cowboy caught up in a dangerous game.
Empower Young Children
Sharing is the New Cool follows a little boy who loves to share and shows readers that a little bit of kindness can go a long way. What was the inspiration for the setup to your children’s book?
I was inspired to write this story by my two wonderful boys, whom I’ve always taught to lead with kindness. I love that they have compassion and consideration for others. Their actions are infectious and I hope writing a book that would empower young children with a simple message of sharing will inspire their hearts and minds.
The art in this book is very cute. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Abira Das?
Abira Das, is my illustrator and friend, that makes the process so much easier. From the moment she sent her first idea of my vision I knew this would be a good start to a great working relationship. Abira and I communicate regularly, comparing thoughts and exchanging ideas.
I start by submitting my storyboard. Then she begins her sketching process. We collaborate and then the magic begins creating diverse characters that every child can relate to.
What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?
I had the most fun writing the scene where Morgan’s mom and dad pick him up after his first day of school. I wrote this scene from my own personal experience with my son, Morgan. I can still hear his teacher’s voice enthusiastically praising Morgan’s kindness towards others and how much he loved to share.
There is also a scene at the end of the story where Morgan realizes how much the old man appreciates his kindness. That scene is special to me, because I believe it’s important to teach children that SHARING IS COOL!
Do you have more books planned featuring Morgan?
You may see Morgan featured from time to time, however, my plan is to introduce new, fun and exciting characters throughout my Cool series.
I will be releasing my new book Honesty Is The New Cool by the end of 2022.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook
Interesting Facets of Politics
The Ranting of an Uneducated Reactionary provides a thought-provoking analysis of a variety of topical and philosophical issues facing citizens today. Why was this an important book for you to write?
That it’s the personality and demeanor of a politician and not his or her actual policies that makes life better for Americans.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about U.S. politics today?
That today’s liberalism is just quasi-socialism and that the term “right-wing” means LESS government command and control of the people — NOT more.
What were some key ideas that were important for you to share in your book?
That I presented the reader with intelligent and interesting facets of politics and ideology that no other writer has ever done.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
LITERARY TITAN 