Blog Archives
Literary Titan Gold Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Finding Manhood in Scotland by Victor Atyas
Viper Island by Cameron K. Moore
The Ballad of Midnight and McRae by Jess Lederman
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
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
Mythical Creatures: The Worldbuilding Guide to Korean Fantasy by Huck Kahng
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
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
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Tell Your Story
Such a Pretty Picture is a devastating and intimate memoir that tells your story of a childhood marked by trauma, silence, and survival. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Like many memoir writers, I started the book with the intention of turning my personal trauma into art, but over time my intention has evolved. I want to use this book to create awareness about the issue of childhood sexual abuse and to give hope to other survivors. I believe that by telling my story I am sending a message to other survivors–letting them know it is okay for them to tell their stories too.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
That childhood sexual abuse can occur in any family, no matter how “pretty” things look from the outside.
That love can exist even in the wake of the most profound betrayal.
That childhood sexual abuse or any abuse can have deleterious effects long after the abuse has stopped but that with therapy and support it is possible to heal; find the north star that resides in each of us.
What was the most challenging part of writing your memoir and what was the most rewarding?
My relationship with mother was complicated one of the most challenging parts of writing the book was allowing myself to write honestly about her abuse and her complicity. That secret was almost harder to reveal than the incest.
The most rewarding has come more recently, as part of my publicity I have shared the ARC on Net Galley, Goodreads as well as with Rape Treatment Providers, the comment I hear most often is that memoir will give hope to other survivors. I can’t wait to get the first email or direct message from someone who the book helped.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
That even in childhood marked by trauma, growth, healing, and forgiveness are possible.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
Andrea is four and a half the first time her father, David, gives her a bath. Although she is young, she knows there is something strange about the way he is touching her. When her mother, Marlene, walks in to check on them, she howls and crumples to the floor—and when she opens her eyes, she is blind. Marlene’s hysterical blindness lasts for weeks, but her willful blindness lasts decades. The abuse continues, and Andrea spends a childhood living with a secret she can’t tell and a shame she is too afraid to name.
Despite it, she survives. She builds a life and tells herself she is fine. But at age thirty-three, an unwanted grope on a New York City subway triggers her past. Suddenly unable to remember how to forget, Andrea is forced to confront her past—and finally begin to heal.
This brave debut offers honest insight into a survivor’s journey. Readers will feel Andrea’s pain, her fear, and her shame—yet they will also feel her hope. And like Andrea, they will come to understand an important truth: though healing is complicated, it is possible to find joy and even grace in the wake of the most profound betrayals.
I Didn’t See It Coming
In I Didn’t See It Coming, Mary Lou Falcone shares her life journey. This memoir narrates how she navigated love, loss, and Lewy Body Dementia (LBD). From caring for her speech-impaired father at 10 to becoming the main support for her husband Nicky Zann, who had LBD, Mary Lou’s story is filled with not only highs and lows but also hope and laughter. The book offers practical insights into dealing with LBD, and it includes thoughts from friends and family. It’s a stirring story of how Mary Lou faced tough times and found strength amid life’s challenges.
This page-turner unveils pivotal moments in the life of the author. What Falcone has so adeptly achieved with this book is subtlety transitioning the story from a captivating coming-of-age story to an insightful guide on how to care for a loved one with Lewy Body Dementia. This is dexterously done to blend with the exploration of her romantic life over the years. Yet, the alternation between perspectives from the author and other individuals with their own accounts never felt out of place.
No truer statement than this captured in the book describes I Didn’t See It Coming better than “The pendulum swings; it just doesn’t make any local stops.” Mary Lou Falcone’s life has been one of pendulum swings. Motion is dampened every now and then by good fortune, luck, laughter, love, and difficult times. Yet, an unmistakable take-home from all of them is Falcone’s great strength of character.
Falcone’s ability to couple storytelling with insightful observations makes this book not only a literary gem but also a mirror reflecting the complexities of debilitating diseases such as dementia. The art illustrations by Nicky Zann, Falcone’s now-late husband, add a visual layer to the entire journey. I Didn’t See It Coming by Mary Lou Falcone is a poignant exploration of what patience and love can achieve in a world of pendulums that don’t stop swinging.
Pages: 304 | ISBN : 978-1734526899
Tough Fatherly Love
Dead Men Walking: A Stairway to Life is a raw and deeply personal appeal to Black men and their communities to rise from spiritual death into a life of purpose and redemption through Christ. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book was important to write because I am tired of seeing young black men dying needlessly on the streets via homicides. This is impacting the very essence of the black family. Black Fatherlessness pandemic is real and we as a race are better than this. It’s us killing us. It is unacceptable that it’s ingrained in our culture that Black murder is normal I am on a mission to save black men and to turn this thing around. Turning them to Jesus Christ.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Jesus Christ is a chain breaker and he will change your life. He is the answer.
The book is also is an encouragement to women using the example of Priscilla as a strong woman of God modeling faith and character and training children using God given wisdom.
The importance of having a father in children’s lives versus those who don’t.
What is one piece of advice someone gave you that changed your life?
My father gave me some tough fatherly love. When I graduated from high school, my father sat me down and said, “So, what are you going to do with yourself? I said, “I want to work in the steel mill like you.”
His response was, “I figured you wanted to be like me, but I want you better than me. Because you want to be like me, I want you out of my house now, or I arrange for you to go to college.”
I chose college. I attended Marian College a Catholic college and graduated with my BA degree. I got hired in State government and held several executive positions. My highest accomplishment was as executive director of the Medicaid Waiver program for the state of Indiana. In that position, I received a National award from the health care financing administration under President Clinton administration for my management overseeing thousands of patients receiving needed home care services. My father’s tough love caused this to happen. He wanted better for me.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from Dead Men Walking: A Stairway to Life?
One thing I hope readers take away from Dead Men Walking a Stairway to Life is that Jesus provides us with a whole new way of life. He can make your life better. He is ever present.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
There is an old saying, “Enough is enough, and too much is too much.” The book was written by a Black man for a Black man. You no longer have to remain on the road of death. For a dead man fears nothing, not even death itself.
Doing without an awareness of God’s judgment and no sense of urgency to get your life right. A prayerlessness life with no worship, no fellowship, and no appetite for those things of God. A loveless life.
Love is expressed by one’s actions. The actions of a dead man is not love. God is love, and he desires your love and commitment to him. The book reveals the importance of placing God at the center of your life. God can take you from being beneath and cause you to be above. You will move from being the tail and becoming the head.
Throughout the book, Philippians 4:13 reveals, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Everything God has called me to, he gives me the strength to accomplish, no matter how difficult it is. Author Elder Walter Thomas has made it through many things in life by remembering this verse and trusting it to be true.
Changing your life not only makes you a better man but also a better husband, a better father, which results in a better family, making a better community. Families, pastors, teachers, politicians, governmental officials advocacy groups, mentors, lay individuals, and others will be able to exercise the usage of Dead Men Walking a Stairway to Life to turn this thing around.
Telling Her Remarkable Story
Across Africa Alone tells the thrilling true story of Dr. Louise D’Oliveira’s solo journey across the continent of Africa in the late 1950s and early ‘60s and her missionary work to spread literacy to the people in African nations. What inspired you to tell her story?
How fortunate I was at a young age to know Dr. Frank Laubach, apostle to the illiterates, as an extended member of our family! He made a profound impression on me to what, over time, grew to working for him, teaching my first illiterate, and meeting Louise D’Oliveira. She gave me the journal she had kept on her trip and told me to do whatever I wanted to do with it. When Louise passed away, I decided to wait no longer in telling her remarkable story, with the gifted assistance of Heather Kemp who lives in South Africa and has traveled around the continent. Her vivid descriptions of the same places that Louise visited beautifully enhanced Across Africa Alone.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The statistics for illiteracy not only in Africa in the 1960s but also today and here in the United States are alarming. More than 54 percent of Americans are functionally or totally illiterate, unable to perform the normal activities that require reading and writing skills. Louise’s experiences in Africa made me curious about how widespread illiteracy is, what it takes to contribute to such a significant change, and what one person can do to lift people out of darkness. Her dedication inspired me. Her devotion to her mission moved me.
Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?
Across Africa Alone shed light on illiteracy in a continent to which I had not traveled. My early exposure to the plight of illiterates made me determined to reveal the hardships of those who are in darkness and the concerted effort and dedication it takes to change their lives. I would say, however, that literacy statistics here in the United States are alarming. Internationally, the US ranks 125th for literacy. Think about that. Is the man having lunch in a café pretending to read the menu and then ordering what he saw someone else eating? How does an illiterate manage in today’s society? Out of necessity, illiterates are clever in disguising their plight.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Across Africa Alone?
My hope is that each reader of Across Africa Alone would take up the cause of teaching an illiterate. That need not be far away as in Louise’s case; opportunities abound here at home. It takes patience. It takes dedication, but it is rewarding to student and teacher alike. Teaching my student was an uplifting experience, especially on days when he would dash into my office, clutching a scrap of paper he had found on the sidewalk. “I can read it!” he said with the broadest smile on his face. There is little more rewarding than opening the eyes of the illiterate.
Author Links: Website | Amazon
In those days, indigenous people usually did not bother a single white woman traveling alone, assuming she was a teacher, a nurse, or a missionary, but Louise did encounter considerable danger, from herds of elephants to hostile mobs in the throes of political turmoil as they fought for independence.
Louise did not let danger, three cases of malaria, or exhaustion from driving thousands of miles alone deter her from her calling. She met with local leaders, literacy organizations, and missionaries to help them expand existing programs or to launch new ones. Later, Louise helped to found Operation Upgrade of South Africa that in its day taught hundreds of thousands of South Africans to read.
Her story must not be relegated to the past, for to this day, illiteracy rates are off the charts in some African nations and in many countries around the world. Even in the United States itself, as of 2022, 21 percent of adults were illiterate and only 54 percent could read above the sixth-grade level.
The Joys and Troubles of a Missionary Life
This book is a detailed and deeply personal account of Jowett Murray’s life as a missionary in early 20th-century China, written by his son, David J. Murray. Spanning nearly four decades, the narrative traces Jowett’s journey from his Oxford days to his complex, sometimes conflicted, tenure with the London Missionary Society (LMS) in Tientsin and beyond. With rich use of primary sources, including letters, reports, and institutional records, the book explores not just the man but the cultural, political, and theological tides he swam through. From his educational mission at the Tientsin Anglo Chinese College to his theological work and relationships with local Chinese intellectuals, the story is part biography, part history, and part heartfelt meditation on legacy.
What struck me most was the sheer honesty of the writing. David Murray didn’t sugarcoat his father’s struggles—physical illnesses, internal conflicts with LMS authorities, and the broader colonial tensions that hovered over missionary work. You really feel the weight Jowett carried—not just books and sermons, but moral questions and cultural clashes. Murray’s writing is layered but sharp. You can tell this was a labor of love and also a work of rigorous scholarship. I appreciated how the book never lets you sit comfortably. Just when you start to admire Jowett’s resolve, you’re reminded of the imperialist structures he was tangled in, even while resisting them. That kind of complexity is rare and refreshing.
But the book doesn’t just stay in the realm of politics or theology. There are tender, often funny, sometimes painful moments. A failed sermon here, a sickbed reflection there, an awkward conversation in Mandarin. These are the parts that stayed with me. They’re not grand or historical, but they make Jowett feel real. And David’s personal reflections—especially his shifting understanding of his father—gave the book a soul. There’s grief in these pages, but also reconciliation. You get the sense that the writing process was cathartic, maybe even redemptive. That intimacy, though sometimes quietly delivered, packs an emotional punch.
I would recommend The Joys and Troubles of a Missionary Life to anyone interested in missionary history, Sino-Western relations, or just a good, thoughtful biography. But more than that, this is for readers who like stories that don’t offer easy answers. It’s for those willing to sit with contradictions, to hear a voice from the past filtered through the eyes of a son still trying to make sense of it all. There’s joy here. And trouble. But mostly, there’s truth.
Pages: 214 | ASIN : B0F9VG9ZYY
LITERARY TITAN 