Blog Archives
When It’s Something You Love
The Little Regenerative Farmer follows a girl who visits a farm and decides to start her own backyard farm and the challenges she faces. What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Farming is EXTREMELY hard for so many reasons. We wanted a story that is full of adversity but shows kids not to give up when it’s something you love. We hope these themes will translate to farmers who read this book to keep going even when it gets tough. The world needs more regenerative farmers and we can’t lose the ones we have.
The art in this book is fantastic. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Yana Gorbatiyk?
Yana Gorbatiyk is naturally creative and brilliant. I gave her the story and a few small directions and she executed the whole thing with minimal input. Out of 30+ pages I think we only revised 2. We had a really great connection and our collective vision came out wonderfully.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
We are working on the sequel to The Little Regenerative Farmer that we hope will be available in Nov 2022. Lina and her family move and she gets to meet a whole different world of agriculture that we can’t wait to share!
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
The Eyes Of My Imagination
Life Lottery: Pandemic Life Stories is a compelling collection of short stories that take place during the pandemic. What was the inspiration for the setup to your stories?
“Life Lottery” is not the first book inspired by the pandemic years, and it will certainly not be the last. Someone even said to me, “What came to you to write about this too?! Aren’t we fed up with the pandemic already?” Truth is, I didn’t try to capitalize on a possible opportune moment. Judging by the above reaction, I would say that, on the contrary, for some people, now is not the right time. It is true also that the pandemic gave me time and opportunity for more or less inner reflections. But it’s just the setting, the background. The book is about people; different, real or fantastic, as I saw them with the eyes of my imagination. Some stories are indeed inspired by real people I read or heard about in the news during these years. Some are just expressions of various states of my mind.
I enjoyed the varied and interesting characters in your collection. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I always try to bring to light characters that feel real. That’s why I employ a more direct writing, with less poetry or metaphors, to express their struggle through the happenings in a certain period of time in their lives.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this collection?
Mental health, in the first place. Because in the modern days is an important part of our life. In the pandemic time, even more so. Secondly, is the constant pursuit of happiness, whether the characters are from a humble background like Sveta or from the royals like Mylana.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book (written in English) is a crime and mystery novel named „Two dangerous people”. I think it will be done by the end of this year. But this year I will publish a two part Young Adult Sci-Fi saga called „Arcon Evolution,” first the Romanian versions, and hopefully will have them translated to English as well in the near future.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook
A beggar only asks for benzodiazepines to make it through the day. A biker is unhappy with life in his polluted city. A sweet girl navigates a mean father and the possibility of his redemption after his near-death experience. A woman is beset with vivid dreams from anxiety medication. Pranksters feel the rebound of going one joke too far. A doctor needs to decide who lives and who dies at the height of the pandemic. A real prince charming meets a real princess from an alternate reality. A naïve girl has her heart broken by a false prince charming. Two beautiful women, disbelieving the reality of the pandemic, become ugly furies. A lonely druid jumps through time to help save humanity in the aftermath of a pandemic. A man is vaccinated three times and even wants to take a fourth dose because he thought he could hear and see better and his knees didn’t hurt anymore. A creature of the sea saves a young woman from human traffickers.
Enjoy this collection of life stories amid the pandemic.
Our Own Healing Journey
The Intuitive Detective inspires readers to listen to their inner compass and attune to their intuition, allowing themselves to be the detective in their own healing journey. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The answers we seek are always within us. However, there will be times we either seek those answers externally and/ or avoid and deflect the answers we receive within ourselves out of fear. I felt it was important to write this book to show how both of those avenues affected and shaped my life. Giving not only context to how we can listen and attune to our intuition but also how it can assist our own healing journey. It was important to show how choosing love over fear can be nourishing, nurturing, and empowering to our soul.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who struggles with listening to their intuition?
My advice is to always go back to the foundations. To first acknowledge what you are feeling in your body. Are you stressed, anxious, frustrated etc. Once you acknowledge how you are feeling, you can regulate your nervous system. This can be by breathing, using EFT, shaking, movement and other regulation tools to allow you to feel a sense of safety and connection back to your body. And finally, connect back to your heart intelligence, place your hands on your heart and breathe in the light from your heart to fill your whole body. This will allow you to attune to your intuition.
What is the biggest challenge you faced in your life and what did you learn from it?
The biggest challenge I faced within my life was believing within myself that I am enough, and to love myself just as I am. Facing this challenge allowed me to know I did not need to seek validation from others and be perfect to be loved. That, I did not need to lower my boundaries and people please to be loved. It allowed me to release the expectations I place on myself and love me for all of me.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
I hope readers bring awareness to their intuition. To see where abouts in their life their intuition may have been trying to communicate with them so they can be aware, listen, strengthen, and follow their intuitive guidance in the future.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram | Website
Even when you know following it will result in your life-changing forever. Or do you later wish you had followed your intuition after realizing you have been avoiding and ignoring it out of fear? No one knows this better than Stacey Webb
A police officer for fifteen years, thirteen as a detective, and with a passion to assist people experiencing trauma, Stacey Webb shows how she has been guided by her intuition in her personal and professional life. Not only to do her job investigating serious crime but to create and hold space for people at a time where they are most vulnerable.
Stacey Webb shares snippets of her youth, early career, and present-day experiences to bring awareness to the intuitive guidance she receives. Showing how facing her fears brings forth her own self-acceptance and reveals the layers within her own healing journey.
Stacey Webb inspires us to listen to our inner compass and attune to our intuition, allowing ourselves to be the detective in our own healing journey.
Find A Better Way To Live
A Kinder City follows two people who question the way their world is set up, making the rich richer and destroying the environment around them, how can they change things for the benefit of all? What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My stories all come from the conflicts that people experience between the assumptions of the world in which they live and their own beliefs and desires. In this case, Sarah and David question a world that is based on greed and self-interest, a little bit like ours. They find a better way to live through respect or each other and the world around them.
I hope you enjoy it!
David is a young man with strong ideals that come crashing down when he meets Sarah. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
David’s a serious young man, committed to upholding the one law of Market World. He falls headlong in love with the spirited and inquiring Sarah and his adventures force him to call everything he believed into question. By the end of the story he is wiser, happier and still in love with Sarah.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Environmental catastrophe as the outcome of uncontrolled market individualism and, above all, compassion.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
“Aspasia’s Bard”. A new direction for me. It tells the story of Aspasia, girlfriend of the foremost statesman in Ancient Athenian democracy, Pericles, from the viewpoint of one of her slaves. Insights into the ancient world and the wars and struggles of the Greeks to develop a new kind of society, and a love story.
Out in 2023.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
Sarah, spirited and caring, is on her first trip outside her village. But the city is dominated by the grim law of the market – the only relations permitted are between buyer and seller. Her gift of a wagonload of food to those who need it is a crime. David, a serious-minded police cadet who naively trusts in the law, arrests her and finds himself falling in love.
Franklin, the richest man in Market World, puts a price on everything. His giant factories spew forth road beasts – the huge machines that devastate the lands beyond the City in pursuit of yet more wealth.
How can David prove his love to Sarah? And how can they save her village and build a kinder city?
A gripping and thought-provoking eco-sci-fi novel, set in a world a little bit like ours.
Getting My Characters Into A Tight Spot
Overturned follows a NY City detective through his two-decade-long career and the questionable decisions he had to make resulting in an investigation of police misconduct. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I wanted to write about miscarriages of justice. Back in 2016, the New York Times and Village Voice published a story about a Brooklyn homicide detective, now retired, who had done a bunch of dodgy, unconstitutional things to secure murder convictions back in the 1990s. Five or six of these people had been exonerated by DNA evidence after serving long sentences. The detective bribed witnesses into saying they saw something when they didn’t; he coerced confessions, manipulated line-ups. Basically the stuff Vito does in Overturned. However, in real life, nothing happened to this guy beyond some accusatory newspaper articles. But for the sake of storytelling, I needed the stakes to be higher for my cop characters. A few articles in the Times isn’t really an existential threat to their lives or livelihoods. It took me a little while to work out what that could be, and I felt that a wrongfully convicted defendant coming back for revenge was a tired trope and not very realistic. Then I was rewatching The West Wing, and it got to that arc where Toby is investigated by a federal grand jury for sharing classified information. Aha! I thought; a federal grand jury was the perfect vehicle for getting my characters into a tight spot.
Boswell starts off believing he is doing the right thing in life, that the police are always right, he slowly learns that is not always the case but is too deep into everything. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Alex first came to life in my first novel, In the Canyons of Shadows and Light. Although he has his issues, he’s a mensch. A genuinely nice guy and a cop who cares about the people he is policing. There are a lot of people in police departments like this — despite the systemic racism and all the issues with police departments. It’s an exploration of how Good People Do Bad Things.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Institutional complacency and corruption. The psychological effects of dealing with brutality and inhumanity every day. The toxic masculinity embedded in certain subcultures. But also the life and vibrancy of New York City and resiliency.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am changing focus completely and working on a novel about wild horses in Scotland, and it will be available sometime next year.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook
Two decades later, Alex must face his past when courts overturn the wrongful convictions of people he’d arrested, and a federal grand jury opens an investigation into police misconduct and abuses of power.
A soaring epic of life and death, power, injustice, and at its heart, humanity, unfolding on the New York City streets.
Shedding Light on the Darkness
Finding Happiness In The Dark explains how the search for happiness is flawed and how happiness is unique to everyone and is ever-changing. Why was this an important book for you to write?
In the past I really struggled with depression, hindsight gave me the opportunity to realise how subtle thoughts and feelings can easily develop into a totally debilitating critical thoughts, unpleasant feelings, emotions and unhelpful behaviours. As a result, what I was actually resisting and fighting against were my own feelings, I ended up being depressed because I was depressed. As I eventually learned, the feelings themselves aren’t actually the problem, they are simply trying to guide and protect me to help me survive. We will always experience all types of feelings both pleasant and unpleasant, without them we simply wouldn’t survive.
As a society we have developed a need to be happy and focus on positives, to the point that all unpleasant feelings are rejected and avoided. The fact is, if we feel bad then we feel bad and pretending we don’t isn’t going to resolve anything. Unpleasant unresolved feelings aren’t going anywhere, instead they become an underlying filter to how we perceive our thoughts, feelings, emotions, behaviours, our environment and others. As a result, we keep our minds occupied and distracted as we strive towards goals, activities and products that bring us moments of joy. These moments don’t last long though, and the unpleasant feelings come to the surface again and again. Because of this, “I will be happy if …” becomes a common phrase and belief, the work is not to search for the happiness, instead to allow ourselves to get comfortable exploring the darkness so that happiness reveals itself naturally.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about happiness?
Unless it is a significant moment of being submerged in pure joy then it doesn’t really count.
I am happy about thousands of things right now, I’m happy I’m sitting on a comfortable chair instead of a cactus, I’m happy I’ve got the opportunity to discuss my book with you instead of giving up after a case of writers block, and the list goes on.
When we disregard all of the little moments of happiness, at what stage do we draw the line and say “OK, I’m happy now!”
What is one piece of advice that you would give to someone who says they are ‘searching for happiness’?
Stop searching! When you accept all feelings, happiness will appear naturally.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
The darkness is not that dark when it’s accepted. When you allow yourself to accept all feelings you will see that happiness is all around us.
Author Links: Website | GoodReads | Facebook
“I WILL BE HAPPY IF…”?
Did you ever achieve that? And if so, what happened next? Are you living happily ever after, or did you set new goals and update your “I will be happy if…” statement?
In this book, I address the fact that the search for happiness is flawed! Happiness is unique to each individual, it is ever-changing and conditional.
By searching for happiness, I am actually just reminding myself that I am not happy now! After all, why would I search for happiness if I am already happy?
I can tell myself that I am fine, but that doesn’t change how I actually feel, and how I actually feel directly impacts how I perceive the world around me, which affects how I think and behave.
So why do I endure this darkness while I try and persuade myself and others that everything is OK?
Finding Happiness In The Dark directly links our thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours with the same core instincts and drives as every living thing on this planet.
With this insight, you can see how unhelpful thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours develop as we try to navigate through life’s challenges both internally and externally.
By considering the knowledge, skills and possible supports highlighted in this book, you will see that you no longer need to avoid, suppress or endure any part of your true self.
All aspects of your natural self are valuable, and by learning to realise your full potential, you can utilise all of the resources that are at your disposal, and become better able to face any challenge and life experience that comes your way.
Let Finding Happiness In The Dark help you emerge from the darkness,
so happiness has nowhere to hide!
What are you waiting for?
Your Own Bravery And Skill
Knights of the Air: Rage follows two RFC pilots struggling to survive the dangerous skies during WWI. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The genesis of the story was to take the main storylines from the legends of King Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere and explore how such a story might unfold in a more modern setting. I chose WW1 flying for two reasons. First, I have always been fascinated by it and already knew a lot about it. Second, it was probably the most recent time that still allowed man to man combat and some chivalry. Many of the pilots saw themselves in such terms. Cecil Lewis, WW1 ace and author of Sagittarius Rising, wrote “The light fast single-seater scout was my ambition. To be alone, to have your life in your own hands, to use your own skill, single-handed, against the enemy. It was like the lists of the Middle Ages, the only sphere in modern warfare where a man saw his adversary and faced him in mortal combat, the only sphere where there was still chivalry and honour. If you won, it was your own bravery and skill; if you lost, it was because you had met a better man.” Arthur Gould Lee, another ace in WW1, wrote that the pilots considered themselves “airborne warriors who engaged in single combat, like the nights of mediaeval chivalry, but wielding a winged machine gun in place of Lance and sword.”
Lance and Arthur are intriguing and well developed characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted a number of development arcs for Lance.
In the legends, I always liked Lancelot the most. An idealist who was perpetually falling short of his own ideals, but never became bitter. An outstanding fighter who tried to use his prowess for good. A loyal friend and subject who somehow ended up cuckolding his monarch and friend. A chivalrous romantic whose every relationship ended with disaster. A soldier who held the elite Knights of the Round table together, until his illicit love affair with Guinevere rotted the kingdom from within. So much contradiction in one person.
And then there is the eternal triangle between the three of them, which is never satisfactorily explored in the legends. How does a fundamentally decent man end up betraying his greatest friend?
So I wanted to explore a number of character arcs across the whole series.
First, I had to create circumstances that showed how a normal youngster could be shocked into a world where revenge became his driving force. Then his evolution from a lone killer to a leader who main motivation was winning while looking after his men.
Second, I wanted a love arc where Lance grew from relations driven primarily by sex; then one driving infatuation, before settling for warmth, but then finding much more.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I wanted to show many facets of war; the way it can bring out the best in some men as well as the worst; the enduring friendships of comrades who face death together; the nobility of fighting for righteous beliefs. But at the same time, I did not want to glorify war. I wanted to paint a picture of men at war and allow the reader to admire the best of them while at the same time showing the terrible pain and destructiveness inherent in every war.
Although I gave Lance a personal experience of brutality, I also wanted to show by the end of the series that both sides, German and British, contained good men and right bastards. That is why I brought in German characters with their own POV, so Lance’s enemies were not as impersonal as they would otherwise be. By the end of the series, Lance ends up realizing he has more in common with young fliers from Germany than he does with many men of his own nation. Although Book 1 shows him hating Germans, that evolves over the series.
Last but not least, I wanted to introduce readers to the incredible men who fought in the air, and their planes, their stresses and strains. I did my best to make the history accurate and to give a feel for what it was really like to be a pilot in WW1.
What can readers expect in Book 2 of your Knight of the Air series?
Book 2: Fire shows Lance’s struggles as he adapts to leadership, forging a squadron with teamwork that can take on and beat Richthofen’s Circus. Events challenge his relationships with his lover, Megan, his father and Arthur. And all the while he is fighting his fear of fire and mental breakdown.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
WINNER 2022 MAINSTREAM MEDIA FOR MILITARY FICTION.
To survive, Lance Fitch makes the enemy vermin, his friends expendable, and his chivalry more threadbare than a beggar’s cloak.
As the conflagration of World War 1 spreads around the world, it subsumes Lance. As part of his revenge quest, he joins the British Royal Flying Corps. Arthur Wolsey, his commanding officer, begs him to join 100 Wing — elite pilots tasked with wresting control of the air from Manfred Richthofen’s “Flying Circus.” The Germans are cutting such a bloody swathe across the skies that the average survival time of an RFC pilot in the air is a mere seventeen hours. Lance and Arthur struggle to stay alive, never mind preserving their Wing and their friendship. The latter is further stressed by Arthur’s alluring half-sister, Megan. Lance learns fast, but when Richthofen is the teacher, those lessons are bloody…
In Knights of the Air, Book 1: Rage! by Iain Stewart, we experience the terror of mortal combat in the heavens, while flying flimsy, flammable planes without parachutes. Impeccable history from the dawn of military aviation is woven with characters and themes drawn from the Arthurian myths as two enduring legends intertwine, King Arthur meets the Red Baron.
”Knights of the Air” is Book One of what promises to be a highly enjoyable series and this reviewer, for one, is looking forward to the sequel.” HISTORICAL FICTION COMPANY AWARD, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
“If Rage! is any indicator for the rest of the Knights of the Air series, military history buffs better be making some room on their bookshelves now.” INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW
“A rousing yarn that deftly delivers both a wartime adventure and a character study.” KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Author Iain Stewart knows how to throw readers into a scene and keep them enthralled until the end…a rousing and suspenseful military adventure novel that is filled with gritty air combat that sticks close to the WW1 facts but never forgets to entertain the reader.” LITERARY TITAN REVIEW
“Knights of The Air, Book 1: Rage! blends a military story with aviation history to create a thriller story replete with nonstop action.” D. DONOVAN, SENIOR REVIEWER, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“RAGE! is a gripping action story of courage and heroism in the dangerous life of a World War I fighter pilot…Stewart weaves drama, integrity, and conflicting emotions through a captivating story of human spirit.” KRISTINA STANLEY, Best-selling and award-winning author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series
The Story Just Flowed From There
The Fisherman’s Wife follows a woman married to an abusive husband that saves a drowning pirate, they then set off on an adventure to gain their freedom from oppressors and find treasure. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The story just came to me. I had a vision of a woman wanting to escape her life, and then I set it in a place near to where I grew up, the story just flowed from there when I discovered Bigsbury-on-Sea has a pirate history.
What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?
I picture my characters in my mind and the interactions just flow.
What research did you do for this novel to get the history part of the novel right?
Tons of research. I spent several months researching pirates and also the area of Bigbury-on-Sea. I needed to look up many things to ensure I was historically factual, from buildings to clothes to customs, everything. It was a lot of hard work.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have several books on the go. I think the most likely to be complete first will be: Whispers of Love, which is a contemporary love story. Emily takes a job in the country to be a companion to an old lady called Camilla. Camilla’s two sons both end up falling in love with Emily, but Emily is caught up in the family’s past and trying to find out why there is no love between them all. I would like to hope that it will be released before Christmas this year.
Author Links: Twitter | Website
1727. A wife with an oppressive husband. A pirate trapped by circumstance. Together they must face their fears and make a break for freedom.
When Connie’s parents died, rather than become homeless she accepted a proposal from a fisherman known for his temper. After seven years of marriage and still childless, she is labeled cursed. Her drunken husband brutally punishes her for her failings and Connie retreats into a world of her own.
Seeking his fortune, Eddie finds himself becoming an unwilling pirate. With no way out of Captain Hawkins’ clutches, he concentrates on amassing funds to one day buy his freedom. A harsh life takes its toll on a gentle spirit, and he begins to lose himself in the bloodthirsty life of a pirate.
A violent tempest throws hope into both their lives when Eddie is shipwrecked in the fishing bay of Bigbury-on-Sea and ends up on Connie’s beach. Will the two of them take their chance at happiness, and if they do, can they outrun the men who want them dead?
A thrilling historical romance novel, The Fisherman’s Wifeis a gripping atmospheric love story!
The Fisherman’s Wife: is a captivating historical romance novel that will also give readers pirate treasure hunting and a thrilling escape adventure. Literary Titan
LITERARY TITAN 