Blog Archives
Defy Stereotypes
Dementia Man is your memoir, sharing your story of cognitive decline, receiving the diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s, and your blunt observations on a broken medical system and call for change. Why was it important for you to share your story?
I wanted to share an authentic voice—I do have Alzheimer’s—that can help others imagine living a meaningful life with this disease. Some voices and organizations promote suicide. Many individuals lose heart and fold into themselves. I want to be a model of what might be possible, defy stereotypes, and encourage us all to strive to help find a cure to this disease. Maybe, just maybe, there is something about any one of us with a diagnosis that might help find the cure just a little sooner!
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
First, if there is anyone in your family history who has had Alzheimer’s, you should find out whether you carry a genetic marker called ApoE4. It increases your risk, and finding out early allows you to pursue medications and lifestyle changes that can help.
Second, be careful. Frauds and scams abound around this disease. There is no cure. Hard stop. Many excellent U.S. government and state government resources are available on safe, effective approaches to slowing decline and getting help.
Third, I provide a list of a growing number of patient-led organizations that offer support, community, and guidance to help you and your family navigate this stage of life with dignity, purpose—and yes, even some joy.
What was the most challenging part of writing your memoir, and what was the most rewarding?
So many challenges… it’s hard to pick. Yes, the challenge of memory impairment and writing means I need some help, and I use a writing coach. It is frustrating. There is also the emotional impact of imagining the late stages. The most rewarding thing is the impact it has had on others and on myself. The responses shared with me by readers are humbling—not about my writing, but about insights gained and the hope instilled as they, or a family member, move forward.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Dementia Man: An Existential Journey: Choosing Life and Finding Meaning with Alzheimer’s?
The one thing is that it is possible to engage with purpose, love, and joy in life with this disease. You are NOT alone; there is a world out there of help and support. You can become the best version of yourself with Alzheimer’s that the world has ever seen. I have tried to include many resources—things I didn’t even know existed—that are available almost everywhere. Just one small example: I didn’t know that 211 existed, a phone number people can call to locate essential community services.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
After decades as a tireless advocate for justice and social change, Samuel A. Simon faces the most personal fight of his life: the slow, undeniable progression of cognitive decline. When the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease comes, he refuses to fade quietly.
Based on his award-winning play Dementia Man, this deeply personal memoir invites readers into Simon’s “existential journey”—a story told with candor, courage, and an unflinching look at a broken medical system. As he revisits pivotal moments from his past and navigates the daily challenges of neurocognitive disease, Simon offers an intimate portrait of a man determined to shape his own future, even as the disease seeks to define it.
Both moving and urgently important, Dementia Man is changing the conversation about Alzheimer’s in America. It’s a story of hope and defiance that challenges us all to imagine a future of dignity, connection, and purpose for the millions living with cognitive decline.
Vulnerability Is Strength
The Work In Between is a memoir sharing your experiences of losing over 100 pounds, surviving cancer multiple times, and going through a period of self-reinvention. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I kept getting asked where my book was. People assumed I had written one given my experiences. After a lot of self-reflection, therapy, and conversations, I felt I was ready to tackle a book. To be honest, I wasn’t convinced I had that interesting of a story. I wasn’t sure anyone would care. However, some conversations made it clear that it might be helpful to others, if only to show you can go through some pretty tough stuff and still be a compassionate, successful, and joyful person. So, I wrote it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
It’s the only way I know how to be. I’m not very good at sugar coating things or only telling one side of the story (i.e., where I only look good). The hardest part was writing about when my brother Eric died. I cried when I was writing about losing all of my family, but Eric’s death was particularly difficult. Still is. I laughed a lot, too, though. I ended up remembering things I had forgotten. Good memories. Happy memories.
How has writing your memoir impacted or changed your life?
I’m happy that it’s resonated with so many people. Writing the book has made me realize I have a lot more work to do. I wrote a chapter in The Backyard Peace Project anthology and got a fantastic response to my chapter about loving ourselves harder when we stumble and fall. I think it’s a really important message to get out there, especially with all of the negativity and skewed reality from social media.
I’ve learned through my book that vulnerability is strength. Most people are tired of branded packages of unrealistic life. I think they are hungry for real, honest conversations about hard things. That’s how we grow. I was once told that I talk about things people usually keep in the shadows. That’s true. I do that because if I try to carry it all alone, it makes me sick: physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally unhealthy. We aren’t supposed to walk around with shame and guilt. Talking about it is healing, and it helps others process their experiences. Everyone has experienced hard things; sharing them helps us heal and grow.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
That they are worthy just as they are and worthy of love and a good life. It doesn’t matter what the scale says, what other people tell you, or where you started in life. If you want to improve your physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health, great. Do that. However, you are worthy of love and an amazing life no matter what.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Witty, frank, and richly thoughtful, The Work In Between is peppered with wisdom from the author’s expertise in the field of Health Communication. Holmes brings an astute eye to the relationship between outward appearances and medical experiences as she draws from her doctoral education and years of service as a hospital executive. And yet, the complex web of stories that characterize The Work In Between extend far beyond Holmes’s own experiences. As this memoir makes clear, we carry family trauma in our bones. Until we do the inside work of facing our demons and declaring our worthiness, we cannot live the full, happy lives we were meant to live.
Stateless in Paradise: A Stranded Soul’s Fight for Freedom
Stateless in Paradise tells the true story of Mikael Okuns, whose ordinary holiday trip turns into a year and a half of involuntary exile in American Samoa. The book moves from his childhood in Soviet Azerbaijan through his awakening identity, his escape from collapsing political structures, and his eventual entanglement in the American immigration system. It settles into a gripping account of what it means to have no legal country at all, no embassy to rely on, and no way home. The memoir blends family history, personal struggle, and a long fight for recognition. It becomes a record of survival and resilience inside a system that rarely sees the individual behind the paperwork.
When I first started reading, I expected a straightforward immigration story. Instead, I found something raw and relatable. Okuns writes with a kind of steady honesty that caught me off guard. He describes Soviet childhood scenes in warm detail, like the tiny library in the woods where he borrowed books or the crowded apartment where seven people shared two bedrooms. He also shares unsettling moments, like the political pressure he faced after writing to Margaret Thatcher as a schoolboy or the tightening fear that grew as war pushed his family from their home. His voice feels calm on the page, yet the emotion underneath builds quietly. I felt myself leaning in as he described life in exile in American Samoa, clinging to McDonald’s Wi-Fi to contact anyone who might help. The writing is simple and clear, and that simplicity gives his pain and confusion even more weight.
Okuns refuses to flatten his life into a neat arc. He shows messy parts of himself. He talks about desire, fear, and identity with a sort of brave directness. He brings forward the parts of coming-of-age that many memoirs rush past, and he does it without apology. I appreciated that vulnerability. It gave the whole book a pulse. Some chapters feel almost like small confession rooms. Others feel like travel logs written by someone who never meant to travel this far. And there were stretches where I sat with a tight feeling in my chest, especially when he describes what it is like to be truly stateless, to watch the world decide whether you belong anywhere at all. It is rare to read a memoir that mixes political reality with such personal tenderness, but this one does it.
Stateless in Paradise would be a strong fit for readers who want more than a travel story or a political drama, because it offers a deeply personal look at what it means to lose your place in the world and fight to find it again. It is especially good for people who enjoy memoirs rooted in resilience, LGBTQ+ identity, immigration challenges, and the complicated mix of family, culture, and selfhood. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to understand statelessness on a human level rather than a legal one, since Okuns brings that reality to life with clarity and heart.
Pages: 470 | ASIN : B0FDYGFHS7
Bridges and Connections
In The Book of Oded, Chapter 2, you share with readers your most personal moments from love and loss to spiritual acceptance. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Why was this an important book to write, or why did I need to share my story? Well, when I first started writing this story, I didn’t actually feel a need to share it. I was working as an animator in a big Hollywood studio, and I felt like something was missing. After a few weekly meetings with a life coach, who was also my friend, I realized that what was missing from my life was ‘creativity.’ Being creative. I was working 12-hour days with a 2-hour commute each day, so when I’d get home, I was already too tired to do anything. My coach suggested writing. I had written a little when I was younger, but nothing serious, and so when I sat down to write, I still really didn’t know what to write about. I had a notebook and a pen, and I sat by my desk and stared at the blank page. A few moments passed, and suddenly, I picked up the pen and started writing. I wrote one sentence and stopped. I had no idea where that came from, but I knew EXACTLY what I was writing about. In the next few months, as I was writing the story, I was sure I was writing it for myself and myself only. I didn’t even share it with my husband of, then, 20 years.
Cut to about 4 years later. At the request of my acting teacher, I brought my unfinished story to class, and I was ready to read about 5 minutes of it and discuss the topic of one-actor-shows.
I was convinced that what I wrote wouldn’t resonate with anyone in class. Not just because there were very few openly gay students there, but also because, as my thoughts were telling me, “Who’s gonna want to hear about your troubles and issues? They probably have some of their own…” But I did it anyway. I stepped up to the stage, sat down, and started reading. I read and read until I finished all that I had written so far. I looked up. The class was still, and someone shouted: “And then? What happened next?” Apparently, I was reading for about 20 minutes, and I had everyone closely following me, and they, obviously, were finding my writing interesting.
This was my first discovery that what I wrote, as a personal and unique story, was indeed touching and resonating with others.
Cut again to about 2 years later. My husband and I produced my one-man-show with the story that, by then, was finished and polished into performable material. The show ran in a small theater in Hollywood for 9 weeks, had great reviews, and above all, showed me, again and again, how universal and relatable it was, even with a diverse and eclectic audience.
I understood that my story, more than changing me, has the power to help and improve the lives of others. I also realized that I cannot keep performing it because, emotionally, it was too hard. Time passed, and about 10 years after the show was over, the idea of making a book out of it came up. Somewhat ironic, since the name of the show is “The Book of Oded”…
So why did I need to share my story? Because I know that learning about what others have been through, what they were thinking, and how they got over the challenges in their lives, helps them with their own difficult life situations. As the viewers or readers resonate with the story, bridges and connections are being created, communities become more powerful, and the feeling that we are all closer, more than we think, becomes stronger.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you share your story. What was the most difficult part for you to write?
The difficult part of writing the book, since I was writing about real-life experiences and challenges that I went through, was reliving some of these events. Some that I, unknowingly, hid deep inside, trying not to have to deal with again. As I was writing and remembering or sometimes realizing new facts about what and why I acted the way I did, it was challenging to face that. At the same time, I found it cathartic, and I felt relieved that I could come to terms with those emotions.
What advice would you give someone who is considering writing their own memoir?
When I was writing what eventually became my book, I was not aiming to write a book, or a memoir, or anything specific. I was just following an inner urge to write. To spill onto the page a story that wanted to be revealed. I listened to that urge, and I answered it. Since then, I do my best to write in the same way. I don’t want to push anything, to force anything. I write with a flow that comes naturally. Recently, I started writing fiction, and I am not saying, “I’m writing a book.” I’m just writing. I’m giving myself the space and the ease of not knowing until I know. That is my advice. Write with ease. Enjoy the process.
Be kind to yourself.
What is one thing you hope your readers take away from The Book of Oded, Chapter 2?
I hope something they read in my book touches their heart. What I mean by that is simple: something that makes them feel. It can be anger, sorrow, hope, any kind of feeling. I believe that our feelings are like a compass, helping us navigate through life. If anything makes us feel, and we pay attention to it, we get to take some steps on our life path and get more clarity about our life goals and life purpose.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
This real-life memoir follows Oded Kassirer’s journey through love in its many forms—love that comforts, love that tests us, and love that stays even when people are gone. With honesty and openness, Oded shares moments from his own life, weaving together memory, relationships, and the everyday search for meaning.
Each part begins with an image, creating a rhythm of words and photos that invite the reader to pause, reflect, and connect. The book moves gently between joy and loss, humor and sorrow, offering a window into how love shapes us over time.
The Book of Oded, Chapter 2 is both deeply personal and universal—a reminder that behind every story of one life, there is also the story of love itself.
Literary Titan Book Award: Nonfiction
The Literary Titan Book Award recognizes outstanding nonfiction books that demonstrate exceptional quality in writing, research, and presentation. This award is dedicated to authors who excel in creating informative, enlightening, and engaging works that offer valuable insights. Recipients of this award are commended for their ability to transform complex topics into accessible and compelling narratives that captivate readers and enhance our understanding.
Award Recipients
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Awards
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Losing Mom by Peggy Ottman
This Is For MY Glory: A Story of Fatherlessness, Failure, Grace, and Redemption
Toil and Trouble by Brian Starr
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Letters From the Sand
Letters From the Sand, by Scott G. A. Metcalf, feels less like a traditional memoir and more like sitting across from someone who’s quietly telling you what deployment was really like, no bravado, no Hollywood gloss, just honest moments layered with dust, heat, and reflection. From the opening pages, the writing pulls you straight onto the tarmac, letting you feel the weight of the environment and the emotional whiplash of leaving home behind. Metcalf’s descriptive style is immersive without being overdone, making it easy to visualize each scene and feel grounded in the reality of military life.
What really stands out is how much attention the book gives to the small, everyday details like mess hall food, cramped tents, patrol routines, and the quiet rituals soldiers use to stay sane. These moments give the story its heart. Instead of focusing solely on danger or action, Metcalf spends time on camaraderie, boredom, humor, and exhaustion, which makes the experience feel incredibly authentic. You get the sense that these “in-between” moments are just as important as the missions themselves.
The tone throughout the book is thoughtful and grounded, with an undercurrent of respect for both fellow soldiers and the families back home. There’s a strong sense that this story isn’t just about one person’s deployment, but about shared sacrifice and the invisible support systems that make service possible. The chapters on holidays and daily routines are especially poignant, reminding you how strange and heavy time can feel when you’re far from home and living in a completely different world.
Letters From the Sand is an engaging, quietly powerful read that doesn’t try to impress; it just tells the truth. It’s the kind of book that stays with you not because of dramatic twists, but because of its honesty and humanity. Whether you have a military background or not, it offers a meaningful glimpse into a life most people never experience, told in a way that feels personal, respectful, and real.
Pages: 201 | ASIN : B0G2335VNQ
Letters From the Sand
Reading Letters from the Sand, by Scott G.A. Metcalf, felt like sitting down with someone just back from deployment and asking, “So what was it really like?” It is a military memoir that follows one soldier from the shock of stepping off the C-130 into the brutal desert heat, through the daily grind of patrols, life in canvas tents and crowded barracks, cultural encounters with Iraqi civilians, holidays spent far from home, and finally the uneasy process of coming back. The book moves in clear stages, from arrival and adjustment to stress and resilience, and then into reflection and return, so by the end I felt like I had walked the full arc of a tour alongside the narrator.
What stood out to me first was the writing. It is vivid. The heat, the dust in your teeth, the smell of jet fuel and sweat and canvas, the cramped bunks and noisy mess hall, all of it is described in careful detail that pulls you into the space rather than just telling you what happened. The style leans toward long, rolling sentences that mirror the drag of long days on base and on the road, then suddenly there is a short, sharp line that hits like a snapped command. The first-person voice helps a lot. It feels controlled and thoughtful, not like a raw journal dump, which gives the whole memoir a steady, grounded feel.
I also appreciated the way the author handles choices and ideas rather than just scenes. There is a lot here about routine and discipline, but underneath that is a constant question about what all of this is doing to the people involved. The book lingers on small human moments in the barracks, late-night conversations, card games, letters home, the way guys arrange their bunks with photos and little bits of home to hang on to who they are. It also pays attention to the civilians around them, the awkwardness of brief meetings in villages, and the mix of suspicion, fear, and curiosity on both sides. The memoir never turns into a big political argument, which I actually liked. Instead, it lets you sit with the tension between duty and doubt, pride and fatigue, connection and distance. By the time you get to the later reflections, the early scenes of arrival and “mission talk” feel heavier, because you have watched what that environment does to people over months, not days.
Letters from the Sand is a good fit for readers who like reflective, character-focused military memoirs rather than pure action stories. If you are a veteran or close to someone who has served, a lot of this will ring painfully true and might give you language for things that are hard to explain. If you have never been near this world but want to understand what “deployment” really feels like on a day-to-day, human level, this book is a patient, honest guide.
Pages: 201 | ASIN : B0G2335VNQ
LITERARY TITAN 